The Michael Knowles Show - Daily Wire Backstage： The 2020 Season Finale

00:00:00.000 Did you know that over 85% of grass-fed beef sold in U.S. grocery stores is imported?

00:00:05.240 That's why I buy all my meat from GoodRanchers.com instead.

00:00:08.900 Good Ranchers products are 100% born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms.

00:00:14.600 Plus, there's no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, and no seed oils.

00:00:18.820 Just one simple ingredient.

00:00:20.360 That's meat.

00:00:21.280 Best of all, Good Ranchers delivers straight to your door for added convenience.

00:00:24.760 So lock in a secure supply of American meat today.

00:00:26.980 Subscribe now at GoodRanchers.com and get free meat for life and $40 off with code DAILYWIRE.

00:00:32.380 That's $40 off and free meat for life with code DAILYWIRE.

00:00:35.700 Good Ranchers, American meat delivered.

00:00:37.880 Hey, Michael Knowles here.

00:00:39.180 The latest episode of Daily Wire Backstage, the 2020 season finale, is available now.

00:00:43.980 Tis the season to come together, sip some whiskey, and argue about what's the greatest Christmas song of all time.

00:00:50.720 Join me, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and the God King, Jeremy Boring,

00:00:54.080 as we give a fitting end to this wild 2020.

00:00:58.740 Take a listen.

00:00:59.940 Hey, everyone.

00:01:00.760 Candace Owens here.

00:01:01.700 And today, I will be reading to you all from Luke, chapter 2, beginning at verse 8.

00:01:07.580 And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

00:01:18.360 And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

00:01:27.020 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

00:01:33.940 And this will be a sign for you.

00:01:36.020 You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

00:01:40.440 And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

00:01:48.440 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

00:01:54.520 Praise God, praise the Lord, and Merry Christmas from all of us at The Daily Wire.

00:01:58.320 Hey, Merry Christmas, you guys.

00:02:22.160 Merry Christmas, you guys.

00:02:52.160 Pretty good, still warm, don't be too jealous.

00:02:54.660 But also, I thought I was the hostess with the mostest, so when did I get demoted?

00:02:58.420 But I will be here taking all of the member questions, as always.

00:03:02.100 And only our backstage or Daily Wire members get to ask the questions.

00:03:07.060 So be sure to go to the show page at the top of dailywire.com.

00:03:11.000 Once you click on backstage, then you can go down to the chat box and ask the questions.

00:03:14.720 And my lovely producer, Savannah, and I will be pulling those questions throughout the show.

00:03:18.660 Also, we have a lot of awesome content that the guys have been talking about for a while now.

00:03:23.600 One of the contents that's now available for you to not only listen to but watch is Apollo 11, what we saw.

00:03:30.420 Everyone should be sure to check it out.

00:03:31.700 And it's now exclusively available at Daily Wire on Apple and Spotify.

00:03:35.860 You can also watch it via the Daily Wire Apple TV or Roku app, which is pretty cool.

00:03:41.420 So now you can get Daily Wire content on Apple TV or Roku.

00:03:44.780 The series is just one of the new content pieces that, of course, is available here at the Daily Wire that's coming down the pipeline,

00:03:51.720 including the lovely Candace Owens, who we just saw, the Prager U Library in its entirety,

00:03:56.340 and a new entertainment channel, along with a lot of investigative journalists.

00:04:00.500 If you are like me and you are last-minute Christmas shopping, do not be afraid.

00:04:05.900 For Lowe, he is with you always.

00:04:07.540 But also because we have a special Daily Wire discount for you, 20% off.

00:04:12.100 So head on over to dailywire.com because then you can become an all-access number and get those not one but two tumblers.

00:04:18.880 And just print out a certificate, send the email to a friend, and be like, look at how much I love you.

00:04:22.780 Or give it to the liberal in their life and collect the leftist tears at their annoyance.

00:04:26.800 So head on over to dailywire.com for those two leftist tears tumblers and become a Daily Wire insider for that 20% off.

00:04:34.480 Use the code WATCH, that's W-A-T-C-H, at dailywire.com.

00:04:39.880 Was Alicia ever the hostess with the mostest?

00:04:43.080 I don't know.

00:04:44.140 Did we actually hold, like, a competition?

00:04:46.300 Well, I just mean, I would have thrown my name in the hopper if I'd known that there was a competition, at least.

00:04:52.280 Alicia, thank you.

00:04:53.220 We're going to be checking in with Alicia throughout the night to bring us your questions.

00:04:57.600 We want to hear from you here at what is the last backstage of 2020.

00:05:02.580 We're going to be talking mostly about Christmas, mostly about the season,

00:05:07.280 mostly reflecting on the year that has just gone by and mostly looking forward to the new year.

00:05:12.320 Not talking so much politics.

00:05:13.920 The reason is, like, Christmas is in just a couple of days.

00:05:16.660 You can't just talk about politics.

00:05:18.680 You guys talk about politics all day long.

00:05:21.320 But there is the marriage of Christmas and politics, I do think, is fair ground for a conversation tonight.

00:05:28.040 Christmas, one of my things that I always love to talk about with Christmas is that, you know,

00:05:31.980 like, people always say, oh, there's a war on Christmas.

00:05:34.300 These radical leftists and their war on Christmas.

00:05:36.940 And then you sort of look at the history of America, and America has always been in a war over Christmas.

00:05:41.360 It was founded on a war on Christmas.

00:05:43.020 It was founded on a war over Christmas.

00:05:44.180 So I think that it's perfectly appropriate for us to deal with, you know, politics of the 16th century or 17th century.

00:05:51.660 Before we do that, I do want to talk about the most recent political Christmas event that's taken place,

00:05:58.540 and that is that apparently Santa has gone completely woke.

00:06:01.820 Yes.

00:06:02.000 I know you all talked about this on your shows, but Santa, in the day and age in which we live,

00:06:07.160 will no longer get you your Red Ryder BB gun.

00:06:10.660 And we have, do we have the clip of, of woke Santa?

00:06:18.140 No, I, no, no guns.

00:06:20.200 Nerf guns.

00:06:21.240 No, not even a Nerf gun.

00:06:24.500 No, if you, you, if your dad wants to get it for you, that's fine, but I can't bring it to you.

00:06:29.300 Well, what else would you like?

00:06:31.180 Lots of other toys.

00:06:32.400 There's Legos.

00:06:33.680 There's bicycles.

00:06:35.140 There's cars and trucks.

00:06:37.520 What do you think?

00:06:38.320 What do you think?

00:06:46.240 It's okay.

00:06:47.180 You're dead.

00:06:47.860 You're dead.

00:06:50.520 That kid is within his rights to beat the living hell out of Santa.

00:06:53.240 Is he not?

00:06:54.180 I mean, Santa, Santa can't tell you no unless you have been naughty.

00:06:59.360 That's the whole point, right?

00:07:00.020 In fairness, don't you think that that kid will shoot his eye out?

00:07:03.420 In his defense, in Santa's defense, that kid's going to shoot his eye out.

00:07:06.460 Andrew, what do you think?

00:07:07.260 I got a promotion.

00:07:09.700 I'm Andrew Clavin.

00:07:11.080 Wait a minute.

00:07:12.020 Where did you grow a beard?

00:07:14.040 Although, how am I the most festively dressed person around here?

00:07:18.120 Because Andrew Clavin loves Santa.

00:07:19.780 Because he loves Christmas.

00:07:20.440 He does love Christmas more than anybody I've ever met.

00:07:22.980 And so do I.

00:07:23.560 So do I.

00:07:23.900 The one thing about that clip, though, that gets me is all the parents just sitting around,

00:07:29.180 not saying anything, not speaking up for this kid.

00:07:32.520 I mean, you only have so many opportunities in life where you can actually yell at Santa

00:07:36.240 and be in the right.

00:07:37.140 Yeah.

00:07:37.740 And here's an opportunity to.

00:07:39.380 But they all they all just sit around and let this kid be picked on by Santa Claus.

00:07:43.740 Yeah.

00:07:43.900 I think the one place where the left sometimes wins in these moments is because people have

00:07:48.060 like an inherent decency in them.

00:07:49.660 And you don't know that you're about to get that you're about to step into a situation

00:07:54.600 like this.

00:07:54.960 You're not prepared.

00:07:55.920 And then it starts to happen.

00:07:57.100 You actually don't know what the appropriate response is.

00:08:00.220 And I don't mean to tie this to a broader political point, but this is a broader political

00:08:03.320 point that I've been thinking about, especially considering that we're about to enter the

00:08:06.440 culture wars.

00:08:07.480 Yeah.

00:08:07.660 And I think that so much of what we've been living through is this three step process that

00:08:11.500 folks on the left have have been able to effectuate in virtually every institution

00:08:15.460 of our society up to and including religious institutions and and cultural institutions.

00:08:20.220 And that is they pick on the fact that conservatives tend to be nice people who want to be inoffensive

00:08:24.140 and then they identify being inoffensive with shutting up about your values.

00:08:28.840 If you don't want to offend anybody, then never talk about your values ever.

00:08:31.380 Matt gets this all the time.

00:08:32.300 Right.

00:08:32.460 Why are you even talking about this issue?

00:08:34.100 Sure.

00:08:34.240 We made this the top trending topic on Twitter.

00:08:36.000 But Matt, how dare you sound off on it?

00:08:37.720 Because now you're not a nice person.

00:08:38.960 Now, we all know you're not a nice person, but that has nothing to do with you sounding off

00:08:42.080 on the values issue.

00:08:42.980 So they start off with step number one is you guys are really we know that you're nice.

00:08:46.960 And so we're going to take advantage of your niceness to tell you to shut up.

00:08:50.140 Then you're supposed to shut up.

00:08:51.980 You're never supposed to comment on it at all.

00:08:53.640 The only way to be safe is for you to just be quiet.

00:08:55.520 And then finally, silence is violence.

00:08:57.320 So if you actually stay silent, that is not enough.

00:08:59.440 You actually have to start echoing the message.

00:09:01.300 They take advantage of the fact that we're that we're sort of nice people by by nature and

00:09:05.760 that we will kind of let these things go.

00:09:07.500 Yeah.

00:09:07.660 And it is a case for never letting this sort of stuff go and just telling Santa to head in.

00:09:11.380 I mean, I do it every year, basically, but I mean, not for nachos like.

00:09:15.160 Well, I don't know if you guys saw my favorite response to this.

00:09:18.540 There were many good ones.

00:09:19.400 Each of the three of you had a good response.

00:09:21.700 But our friend Stephen Crowder, purveyor of fine ashtrays, I think had the absolute

00:09:27.440 best response, which is he had the little boy onto his show and gave him a second chance

00:09:32.780 to interact with Santa Claus.

00:09:33.820 I think I hate I hate to promote Stephen Crowder, but I thought we would enjoy this clip

00:09:38.520 together.

00:09:41.980 Oh, there's little Michael.

00:09:46.120 Little Michael, do you know who this is making a call just for you?

00:09:52.720 Who is that?

00:09:53.900 Santa.

00:09:54.800 This is Santa.

00:09:56.080 That's right.

00:09:56.860 And I understand that you're a fan of me, Santa, and you had a little bit of a run-in

00:10:02.220 with one of those helpers at the mall who hadn't been vetted properly yesterday.

00:10:07.080 Is that right?

00:10:08.480 What do you call him?

00:10:12.240 Bad Santa.

00:10:13.920 That's right.

00:10:15.120 Bad Santa, who didn't pass the chemical test beforehand, but we've taken care of that.

00:10:21.800 Honestly, some of Crowder's best work ever.

00:10:27.580 I want to talk about our friends before we keep going over at Ring.

00:10:30.860 Ring keeps you safe.

00:10:32.860 And we've all recently made major moves.

00:10:35.580 Each of the four of us has made a major move in our lives.

00:10:38.640 Matt, not a month ago, was a resident of the state of Pennsylvania.

00:10:43.500 The three of us in L.A. now making moves to Nashville and to South Florida.

00:10:49.260 Ring is what makes it possible.

00:10:50.860 Not just because it makes it possible to keep this house that you're in safe.

00:10:53.880 What I've discovered with Ring lately is that I'm trying to sell my house back in L.A.

00:10:57.900 And I like to be able to check in on the sort of, you know, sulfur raining down on L.A.

00:11:03.220 All the brimstone.

00:11:05.340 That's where you sell.

00:11:06.200 You can do it like from afar.

00:11:07.040 That's right.

00:11:07.300 I can pull up my phone and look at my Ring doorbell camera and just see the chaos in the streets.

00:11:12.320 And I have the security of knowing that, well, soon I will have sold that house.

00:11:15.720 I have the security of knowing that it has not yet burned to the ground.

00:11:18.300 That's because of our friends over at Ring.

00:11:20.400 It is doorbell season, the busiest time of the year for your front door.

00:11:23.640 And that's definitely true, well, at all of our homes as well.

00:11:27.560 You can keep an eye out on all of the hustle and bustle no matter where you are right from your phone.

00:11:32.000 If someone stops by or something's going on, Ring lets you know and you can see and speak to whoever is there from anywhere.

00:11:38.340 This holiday season, it's not just the best time to get Ring.

00:11:41.460 It's the derndest time to get Ring.

00:11:43.800 That's not in the teleprompter.

00:11:44.880 I just made that up.

00:11:45.840 But the best time to give Ring as a gift is really what we're talking about today.

00:11:50.160 Ring makes the perfect holiday gift.

00:11:51.820 So this holiday season, give someone the gift of peace of mind.

00:11:55.140 Ring has security products for every corner of your home, inside and out.

00:11:58.820 Best of all, you can see it all in the Ring app.

00:12:01.600 Ring is everywhere.

00:12:02.320 You need to keep an eye on your home this holiday season and throughout the year.

00:12:06.580 See and speak to whoever is at your door from anywhere with video doorbells.

00:12:10.180 Keep an eye on every corner of your house with easy-to-install indoor and outdoor cams

00:12:14.300 and help protect the whole home with the Ring alarm.

00:12:17.060 A powerful, affordable, whole-home security system you can easily install yourself.

00:12:21.800 So easy that Michael Knowles was able to do it.

00:12:24.060 Ben.

00:12:24.520 So, here's the deal.

00:12:25.980 Especially if you have kids.

00:12:26.980 Like, when you first get your Ring, you think that it's for the front door.

00:12:29.800 Then you realize that, especially if you have more children than you do parents,

00:12:33.420 that this is basically your eye in the sky on your kids.

00:12:36.280 So I have three under seven, and one of them is now crawling,

00:12:38.500 which means she'll eat anything there is to eat off the floor, like anything.

00:12:41.520 Ring keeps her safe because I can see what she's about to do

00:12:44.040 and race into the other room and pick her up before she eats that thing.

00:12:47.260 You can do the same with Ring.

00:12:49.160 For a limited time, go to ring.com slash backstage for special holiday offers.

00:12:52.920 That is ring.com slash backstage to save your children.

00:12:56.920 And also keep yourself safe and all that sort of stuff.

00:12:58.780 So check them out, ring.com slash backstage.

00:13:01.460 So we talked about how there's a perpetual war on Christmas in this country.

00:13:05.420 There's nothing more American than the war on Christmas.

00:13:08.620 Christmas was illegal in some of the early colonies.

00:13:12.480 In the Mayflower, Plymouth.

00:13:14.280 It was completely illegal.

00:13:15.760 And the reason is because the early founders of the country were decidedly Protestant.

00:13:21.380 And I know we always like to talk about putting Christ back in Christmas.

00:13:24.520 You'll hear a bunch of our evangelical fans say,

00:13:27.560 oh, we've got to put Christ back in Christmas.

00:13:29.740 And no one ever thinks, should we put mass back in Christmas?

00:13:32.900 But, of course, Christmas is fundamentally a Catholic holiday before becoming an American holiday.

00:13:39.460 And so Christmas didn't come in vogue in America.

00:13:42.300 For almost a century after the founding, you had really the sort of religious Protestant version of Christmas start to take hold in the South.

00:13:52.560 We talked about this last year, but famously Lincoln had a picture made of himself with Santa as an act of propaganda during the Civil War.

00:14:01.960 Because he was taking something beloved in the South and making it quintessentially American,

00:14:08.220 not allowing them to have it because they used Santa as a way of differentiating Southerners from Northerners.

00:14:16.080 And this brings us to the second complaint that you often hear from religious Americans,

00:14:20.060 which is they're trying to make Christmas a secular holiday.

00:14:24.360 The truth is Christmas in America was always a secular holiday, right?

00:14:29.940 Essentially, war propaganda.

00:14:32.340 And then in the 1880s and through the early part of the 1900s,

00:14:37.420 it was really Coca-Cola and Montgomery Ward who just essentially, and greeting cards,

00:14:43.720 essentially invented modern Christmas.

00:14:46.720 The earliest Christmas celebrations in America was 1621.

00:14:50.580 It was right after the Mayflower landed.

00:14:52.760 And William Bradford, the governor, writes about this with absolute contempt on Plymouth Plantation.

00:14:58.360 And he says, you know, all the good Puritans go out and work the fields that day and everything.

00:15:02.660 But these sort of Anglican, just degenerate, debauched people,

00:15:07.500 they decided they want to stay home from the fields and celebrate Christmas.

00:15:10.580 So Bradford reluctantly agrees to do it, and he hopes that they get corrected later on.

00:15:14.160 And he comes back.

00:15:15.380 And do you know that the kids were sitting outside playing games in the street?

00:15:21.380 They had toys, and they were, you know, enjoying themselves.

00:15:24.000 It reminds you of Mencken's line that Puritanism is the haunting fear that somewhere someone is happy.

00:15:29.020 And so he comes, I kid you not, Bradford, he writes about this.

00:15:31.640 He didn't miss it.

00:15:32.520 Bradford finds the kids playing games, and he steals all their toys.

00:15:36.440 He goes around, he takes every one of their toys.

00:15:39.120 A man after my own heart.

00:15:39.940 That's right.

00:15:40.420 No, he was.

00:15:40.780 I'm that kind of guy.

00:15:42.140 He sends them home.

00:15:43.160 He says, if you want to sit on Christmas Day in quiet, solemn contemplation, you may.

00:15:48.880 Otherwise, get back to work.

00:15:49.820 It was a rowdy holiday, generally speaking.

00:15:52.520 The people who celebrated Christmas at that time generally were treated as a day of festivity and drunkenness.

00:15:58.680 And the Puritans just absolutely despised it.

00:16:01.140 So you have a decidedly Catholic holiday that was rejected by a decidedly Protestant and Puritanical Protestant early settling.

00:16:10.500 Then you had a very commercial, secular holiday that formed up because the Coca-Cola company decided we could all use some Santa Claus in our lives.

00:16:19.820 And then you had the sort of co-opting of that then to become a sort of decidedly American amalgamation of Protestant religiosity and secularism already married to a holiday that was fundamentally about the union of Catholic religiosity married to pagan ceremony.

00:16:42.720 And you really have, this is why I actually.

00:16:45.000 And all the good songs are written by the Jews.

00:16:46.260 And all the great songs are written by the Jews.

00:16:48.680 All the songs are written by the Jews.

00:16:49.820 I actually think that Christmas as we understand it is the most definitively American holiday.

00:16:56.640 You know, in a way we're touching maybe Catholic traditions from Europe or Anglican traditions from the UK.

00:17:05.480 But really, American Christmas is American Christmas.

00:17:08.200 And this is why I, Ben and I have had this conversation many times over the years, but I actually think that all the versions of American Christmas are good.

00:17:15.920 It's good that Catholics have mass on Christmas.

00:17:18.680 It's good that Protestants celebrate the birth of Christ.

00:17:20.980 It's even good that people who aren't religious in America have Santa Claus.

00:17:25.960 It's good that they have greeting cards.

00:17:28.200 It's good that they have.

00:17:29.460 Chinese food.

00:17:30.040 Chinese food.

00:17:30.500 Oh, no, that's it.

00:17:31.020 No, it is.

00:17:32.080 It is this wonderful time of the year when we, the most wonderful time of the year, some might say.

00:17:37.360 It's this wonderful time of the year when we come together in sort of celebration of these things that we do all have in common.

00:17:43.120 And I, this is why I always say, I actually think that the Jews should, American Jews should celebrate Christmas, not perhaps the religious aspects of it, but the uniquely American aspects.

00:17:53.640 Well, I think that most Jews enjoy this time of year for sure.

00:17:56.340 Yeah.

00:17:56.560 And it's not just because of the Hanukkah.

00:17:57.840 I mean, it's, it's, it's very nice when they're all the lights out and, and I enjoy other people.

00:18:01.140 Honestly, I think Jews have a lot to be grateful for, for being in the United States, the most tolerant country in the history of the world toward Jews.

00:18:06.540 And I think a lot of that is tied into the uniquely American brand of Christianity.

00:18:09.700 So you tie that together and Jews ought to celebrate the fact that Americans are celebrating Christmas.

00:18:14.800 And I think that that is, that is a good thing.

00:18:16.680 That's not, but it's, it's not really good though, that the, the actual story of Christmas, the nativity story has receded entirely into the background.

00:18:22.720 And I mean, you talk to the average Christian, they don't even know the, the, the notion they have of the nativity story is sort of an amalgamation of, of, of, well, they don't even know which stories in the gospel, which, which gospel books actually have the nativity story.

00:18:35.760 But the story they have is one that's not even in the Bible itself.

00:18:39.040 And they probably couldn't tell you which one between Matthew and Luke tells which part of the story.

00:18:43.040 And, uh, you know, that's, that's the part of it that I see is not good at all.

00:18:47.360 The fact that it sort of goes like this, right?

00:18:48.700 There's an illegal immigrant Palestinian and a single knocked up mother.

00:18:54.020 Right.

00:18:54.380 And then there are a bunch of intolerant bigots who show up.

00:18:56.320 Correct.

00:18:57.020 Correct.

00:18:57.340 I think that's the story.

00:18:58.300 Correct.

00:18:58.560 Am I getting that's what I saw on Twitter?

00:18:59.940 I did see that on Instagram.

00:19:01.240 You know, it, there is, there's so much about Christmas.

00:19:04.800 Like I actually went down one of these rabbit holes a couple of weeks ago because there are

00:19:08.860 so many layers to it, as you describe, even, I always thought my whole life that they picked

00:19:13.780 the date because of, uh, pagan holidays.

00:19:16.740 Yeah.

00:19:17.240 And it actually seems more recent scholarship says it probably wasn't that there were some

00:19:21.600 pagan holidays a little earlier, but, and the, you know, also in December.

00:19:24.940 But, uh, it, the, the reason that, that the church fathers say that they picked the date is

00:19:29.940 actually because they believed that a divine life had to be a perfect length and they dated

00:19:35.700 the, the death of Christ to March 25th and the creation of the world to March 25th.

00:19:41.360 And in the East, they said, uh, April 6th.

00:19:43.240 And so exactly nine months later has to be the, the birth of Christ.

00:19:47.500 All of these, so it's basically supposed to tie in exactly the creation, which actually

00:19:51.680 does get to some of the kind of pagan ideas, which is this idea of there's death and then

00:19:55.160 there's rebirth and all of this.

00:19:56.340 And this ties into the kind of secular celebration.

00:19:59.780 Then you get the Christmas trees and you get all of this.

00:20:01.500 It is so rich and the left doesn't want us to acknowledge it at all.

00:20:05.880 We're not allowed to say Merry Christmas.

00:20:07.380 It's, it is, it is the most unifying holiday ever in the history of the world.

00:20:10.840 This is ultimately my point that American Christmas is the most unifying holiday and the left being

00:20:16.600 against it isn't exactly being against Christ, which of course the left is against religion.

00:20:22.160 But I actually think they're more against the idea of unity among Americans, which is ultimately

00:20:27.280 what Christmas has come to, to be in some, you're right.

00:20:30.800 Christians don't, uh, maybe know which gospel, if any, gave them their view of Christmas.

00:20:35.760 Uh, ultimately the American Christmas is, is both that has a little something in it for

00:20:41.600 everyone except the people stealing the toys, which in this case is not the Puritans anymore.

00:20:46.980 It's the Puritanical left who just doesn't want any of us to grab hold of any of it and have this

00:20:52.220 time where we come together in a kind of spirit of, of goodwill.

00:20:55.740 You know, this, this very problem has actually led me to think, I always thought American

00:21:00.380 conservatives were the kind of inheritors of the founding of the country, you know,

00:21:04.180 in the Mayflower in 1776.

00:21:05.760 I'm starting to think maybe it's the progressive left that are the inheritors of this Puritanical

00:21:12.740 censorious sort of, uh, obviously they've transformed it dramatically over time, but they're the,

00:21:18.680 they're now the ones stealing the toys just like governor Bradford did back in the 1620s.

00:21:22.440 Yeah.

00:21:22.680 That's where America's Puritanical streak went.

00:21:24.560 I think that's exactly right.

00:21:26.660 Yeah.

00:21:26.800 Uh, I want to talk about this movie, uh, Killing Santa Claus.

00:21:31.680 Have you guys seen this Killing Santa?

00:21:33.000 I saw the preview.

00:21:33.680 This terrific Mel Gibson film, uh, there, there is a little bit of a, of a daily wire

00:21:39.360 component.

00:21:40.800 Uh, I don't want to give too much away, but someone currently sitting on this set may or

00:21:47.300 may not be one of the stars of the film.

00:21:49.120 We're going to talk about that, but first we're going to talk about our friends over at

00:21:52.180 Policy Genius.

00:21:53.060 If you like Santa are being hunted, uh, and you are trying to determine how to provide for

00:21:58.300 your children after you are dispatched with haste, uh, by an angry kid who got a lump of

00:22:04.300 coal, you need life insurance.

00:22:06.420 We all need life insurance because there are people counting on us.

00:22:09.540 Uh, but if you want to get life insurance and you don't want to deal with the hassle

00:22:12.420 or expense, you need to try Policy Genius.

00:22:14.780 Policy Genius combines cutting edge insurance marketplace with, uh, help from licensed experts

00:22:19.320 to save you time and money.

00:22:20.780 Right now you can save 50% or more by using Policy Genius to compare life insurance.

00:22:25.340 I did it.

00:22:26.380 I actually walked you guys through it.

00:22:28.080 Uh, my quest to get the insurance, the trouble that I had because the lockdowns began and it

00:22:32.880 was difficult to get, uh, the health examination.

00:22:35.560 People at Policy Genius worked with us.

00:22:37.100 They took care of it.

00:22:37.800 They actually sent someone to my home to make sure that I was able to get that done.

00:22:41.820 I didn't have to do nothing and I got the absolute best, uh, rate possible.

00:22:46.440 I actually had a control, right?

00:22:47.660 I, I applied for health, for life insurance over here to see if Policy Genius was actually

00:22:52.040 as good as they say.

00:22:53.360 They absolutely blew the prices of the competitor away by giving me access to so many different

00:22:57.980 bids from different insurance, uh, companies in their marketplace.

00:23:01.420 When you're shopping for a policy that could last for more than a decade, the kinds of savings

00:23:05.360 that Policy Genius, uh, gives you really start to add up.

00:23:08.360 Here's how it works.

00:23:08.920 First, you go to policygenius.com.

00:23:10.980 In minutes, you can work out how much coverage you need and compare quotes from insurers to

00:23:14.760 find your best price.

00:23:16.160 Policy Genius will compare policies starting at as little as $1 a day.

00:23:20.020 You might even be eligible to skip the in-person medical examination and if not, they will

00:23:24.060 go out of their way to make sure that you're able to get it even in times such as these.

00:23:28.080 Once you apply, the Policy Genius team will handle all the paperwork and the red tape and

00:23:32.320 the best part is they work for you, not the insurance company.

00:23:35.520 So if you hit any speed bumps during the process, they take care of it and they take care

00:23:39.520 of everything.

00:23:40.340 That was the best part for me of using Policy Genius.

00:23:42.880 That kind of service has earned them a five-star rating across over 1,600 reviews on Trust

00:23:48.220 Pilot and Google.

00:23:50.160 You need life insurance and you need Policy Genius.

00:23:52.660 Benjamin.

00:23:53.220 Let me explain.

00:23:54.320 Are you a responsible human being?

00:23:55.760 If you're a responsible human being, you want to make sure that your dependents are taken

00:23:58.200 care of in case, God forbid, you happen to be Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is your vice

00:24:02.120 president.

00:24:02.440 That's why you would be Policy Genius.

00:24:05.020 But even if you're not Joe Biden, you still need Policy Genius to make sure that your dependents

00:24:09.100 are taken care of.

00:24:10.440 PolicyGenius.com.

00:24:11.480 Head on over.

00:24:11.860 You could save 50% or more by comparing quotes.

00:24:14.040 Start the new year with one less thing to worry about.

00:24:15.920 Policy Genius.

00:24:16.500 When it comes to insurance, it is nice and very important to get it right.

00:24:19.620 So, our friend Mel Gibson, who of course made the greatest Christian film of all time, Brave

00:24:26.400 Heart, and then he also made that movie about Jesus, The Passion of the Christ.

00:24:30.500 Mel Gibson, kind of a controversial figure, and not only controversial in the sort of broader

00:24:37.460 cultural war, but specifically controversial, his relationship with Jewish Americans.

00:24:43.080 Yes.

00:24:43.740 He's said a few things that he probably shouldn't have said while in a state that he probably

00:24:47.500 shouldn't have been in.

00:24:48.300 By the way, I desperately want him to make the Hanukkah movie.

00:24:51.360 Mel Gibson's Hanukkah movie, I would go raise the money for it right now, today.

00:24:56.100 It would be unbelievably good.

00:24:57.100 So, I knew that Ben Shapiro believes that Mel Gibson is uniquely qualified to make a

00:25:02.320 film about the Maccabees, and that's why I wasn't surprised to see Ben doing his part

00:25:07.280 to rehabilitate the image of Mel Gibson in the Jewish community by starring in Mel Gibson's

00:25:12.880 new film, Killing Santa.

00:25:14.680 Let's see the clip.

00:25:18.300 I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

00:25:21.360 I've lost my influence.

00:25:23.560 Maybe it's time I retired the coat.

00:25:27.400 You still have it.

00:25:29.640 Some kids with a deer rifle put two holes in the sleigh, one in me.

00:25:33.560 All I have is a loathing for a world that's forgotten.

00:25:41.820 The United States military would like to procure your services.

00:25:45.100 This is a one-time deal, gentlemen.

00:25:48.600 How are you, Mike?

00:25:50.140 Nicole and the kids are well, I hope.

00:25:53.920 Who are you?

00:25:54.540 You just rushed a big time!

00:26:08.140 Help me!

00:26:11.720 Oh, no!

00:26:15.380 I'm lucky to kill Santa Claus.

00:26:20.940 Really?

00:26:21.340 I know he let you down, too.

00:26:25.560 I want the big man's head.

00:26:27.220 Severed heads rot, they mold.

00:26:28.840 They don't want his beard.

00:26:29.800 I'm not shaving off a dead man's beard.

00:26:32.260 Oh, come while you're sleeping.

00:26:34.700 The fat man's got his eye on you, kid.

00:26:37.680 He's not that nice.

00:26:39.400 He's not that nice to the people around him.

00:26:41.660 He's kind of just a little bit of a devil.

00:26:43.900 Ben Shapiro, the entire internet is aflame over your performance in The Fat Man.

00:26:52.040 You called Santa Claus a devil.

00:26:53.440 You asked for his head.

00:26:54.720 How is this helping rehabilitate Mel Gibson or Santa Claus himself with the Jewish people?

00:27:00.120 I know.

00:27:00.360 Well, I mean, I've had a good tour of duty here.

00:27:02.380 So as you know, I was also the star of Knives Out this year.

00:27:05.580 So I've really had a big year.

00:27:06.940 I feel like I have some awards coming to me as a transgender little person.

00:27:09.980 Yes, Hollywood was good to you.

00:27:11.320 So I feel like I've checked most of the boxes here.

00:27:13.800 But yeah, there's always, they keep getting the hair wrong.

00:27:16.120 It's a little bit more up.

00:27:17.100 They got a lot of the across hair.

00:27:18.300 They've got like the hair from like 15 years ago.

00:27:20.100 That's right.

00:27:20.800 You're like Nick Searcy this year.

00:27:22.420 You are in two major emotions.

00:27:24.620 Yeah, seriously.

00:27:25.400 That's unbelievable.

00:27:26.420 How much, did you actually track all the Twitter controversy about this being you?

00:27:30.400 No, I did not.

00:27:30.800 Or is this your first time hearing about it?

00:27:32.180 This is my first time hearing about it.

00:27:33.020 Oh yeah, it was actually a tempest in a teapot.

00:27:36.320 I think we would all agree.

00:27:37.160 But it was a bit of a hubbub.

00:27:40.200 I mean, this is when I converted to Judaism, right?

00:27:42.480 It wasn't always this way, guys.

00:27:44.060 This is the origin story we're getting.

00:27:45.680 Yeah, Ben Shapiro, part one.

00:27:47.580 They obviously had you in mind.

00:27:50.180 Just like the authors of the other movies.

00:27:51.840 Well, there's no question that they had you in mind in the other film.

00:27:55.180 Yeah.

00:27:56.200 Yeah, maybe.

00:27:57.040 I don't know.

00:27:57.360 I watched it and I thought, that doesn't look like me.

00:27:59.380 But then again, I think Denzel Washington looks like me.

00:28:01.560 So I don't see color.

00:28:04.020 It's just something I don't do.

00:28:05.000 You don't see color.

00:28:05.480 They didn't capture your chiseled physique or your extraordinary height.

00:28:09.520 That's exactly right.

00:28:10.120 I mean, at no point was there a gun show, for example.

00:28:13.640 And that's something we do at All Access like all the time.

00:28:16.700 What is this character's name?

00:28:18.080 Did I see it's like Billy or something?

00:28:20.760 The character?

00:28:21.300 I think so.

00:28:22.020 It is Billy.

00:28:22.900 Yeah.

00:28:23.300 Bill instead of Ben.

00:28:25.020 That's like...

00:28:25.860 It's a little suspicious.

00:28:27.360 Dude, I want to be in some movies.

00:28:28.360 No one ever puts me in the movies.

00:28:30.060 That's not true.

00:28:30.720 You literally starred in a feature film that came out this year.

00:28:33.340 It wasn't that big, though, you know?

00:28:34.540 It wasn't like that.

00:28:35.260 It was going to be seen by a lot of people.

00:28:36.800 The literal star of a feature film that came out only three months ago.

00:28:42.020 Yeah, but I didn't post about that and stuff.

00:28:44.280 No, but I'm talking about it right now so that all of our Daily Wire fans...

00:28:47.260 Were you really in a film this year?

00:28:48.460 I was in a movie that came out this year.

00:28:51.000 And I was so afraid...

00:28:52.000 I didn't miss this.

00:28:52.940 Oh, yeah.

00:28:53.440 It came out this year.

00:28:54.420 And I love the movie.

00:28:56.160 I'm very afraid that it's going to get us all canceled.

00:28:58.860 But then I think, you know, of all of the things that I've tried to do at the Daily Wire to get us all canceled...

00:29:05.160 Like, that movie.

00:29:05.820 That's like...

00:29:06.380 What's the movie called?

00:29:07.500 It's called Hollyweird.

00:29:08.680 It's on...

00:29:09.080 Yeah, it's like out on the streams.

00:29:10.500 You know, you can go get it.

00:29:11.620 This is not a joke.

00:29:12.300 You're actually in a movie.

00:29:13.040 There is a movie.

00:29:13.580 Yeah, it's not a movie.

00:29:14.280 It's not like Ben.

00:29:15.080 Ben doesn't even need to show up to be in his movies.

00:29:17.000 Right.

00:29:17.220 They just make characters for Ben.

00:29:19.500 But that's...

00:29:20.860 Now, if it does blow back, is this my final...

00:29:24.160 Can I fire him?

00:29:25.540 Please, please let me.

00:29:26.640 It'd be rough to fire him over a film that he shot before we hired him, but I'm open to it.

00:29:30.440 Okay.

00:29:30.900 It is...

00:29:31.220 There is actually a kind of wild tie-in.

00:29:32.980 I finished shooting the movie on Election Day 2016.

00:29:36.260 That's right.

00:29:36.520 How long these things take to come out?

00:29:37.660 You left.

00:29:38.800 Yes.

00:29:39.240 After the final shot of the film, you drove straight to the studio and appeared on our...

00:29:43.500 And I actually got in the car.

00:29:45.300 You brought us with you into your world of fantasy.

00:29:47.260 And for the past few years, we've just been living in this alternative reality.

00:29:51.280 Yeah, this is...

00:29:51.620 This is the movie.

00:29:52.320 It's just that we're all living in Knowles' funeral room.

00:29:54.440 Well, I left the set and I actually...

00:29:56.900 You know, you remember all the polls.

00:29:58.360 It was 99%.

00:29:59.240 Hillary's going to win.

00:30:00.180 So I prepared all my commentary on why Hillary was going to win.

00:30:02.640 I called Jeremy.

00:30:03.420 I said, all right, I'm in the car.

00:30:04.200 I'm heading to Daily Wire.

00:30:05.700 So, you know, what is it?

00:30:06.840 Hillary's up 3 million points now.

00:30:08.300 Okay, we'll get ready to go.

00:30:09.380 He said, actually, buddy, it's kind of close.

00:30:11.780 You know, and I thought, wow, this is even stranger than this film set that I was just on 20 minutes ago.

00:30:17.660 It also tells people a thing about making movies that he shot the film in 2016 and it actually dropped this year.

00:30:23.740 And that's not a particularly long time.

00:30:27.220 No, no, that happens.

00:30:28.120 Yeah.

00:30:28.400 It does.

00:30:28.660 So I want to check in with Alicia Krause and get questions from our DailyWire.com members, especially questions if they happen to be about the season.

00:30:36.640 Alicia.

00:30:37.540 We have plenty of questions about the season, but this is a good point to remind people that if they want to ask questions, then they should head over to DailyWire.com slash subscribe and use that code WATCH, W-A-T-C-H, for all of you out there who are homeschooled like me, to get that 20% off and get not one but two leftist tears tumblers.

00:30:55.860 I think it's a great Christmas gift.

00:30:57.440 I love last-minute shopping, so go ahead.

00:30:59.480 Join me in that last-minute shopping and get a DailyWire membership for someone in your life that you love or a liberal who you want to annoy.

00:31:05.540 The first question goes to the God King himself, Jeremy Boring.

00:31:08.580 Best Christmas movie ever?

00:31:11.220 Oh, best Christmas movie ever.

00:31:13.100 There's only one answer to this question.

00:31:14.000 There's only one.

00:31:14.480 For me, it's A Wonderful Life.

00:31:16.380 Of course.

00:31:17.060 Yeah, jingle all the way.

00:31:18.020 Absolutely the best Christmas film ever.

00:31:20.100 One of the few films that my father and I would make a point to try to watch together every year.

00:31:26.660 It's funny, when I married my wife, she hated the film.

00:31:29.880 Yeah.

00:31:30.380 But I think now her heart has grown three sizes and we enjoy the film together.

00:31:36.040 I think that it is an absolute masterpiece.

00:31:40.340 Of course, it was not actually well-received when the film was first released.

00:31:44.760 It found its way, the hard way, and I think that that's actually appropriate given the subject matter of the film.

00:31:51.520 It's very dark.

00:31:52.080 I mean, Lionel Barrymore does not get punished in the film.

00:31:54.560 Right?

00:31:54.840 He gets away with it.

00:31:55.500 He steals the money and he gets away with it.

00:31:56.640 Steals the money and gets away with it.

00:31:57.600 Can I just make an argument for a Christmas story as the best Christmas movie?

00:32:00.520 I'd like to hear this.

00:32:01.580 I think it just captures the nostalgia of childhood.

00:32:05.080 It's a movie that, first of all, I watched it with my kids for the first time.

00:32:10.120 You know, kids four and seven.

00:32:12.560 Twins are seven.

00:32:13.560 And none of them had seen it.

00:32:15.140 We all enjoyed it.

00:32:16.260 So, you know, I think a Christmas movie has to be a movie that the whole family can enjoy.

00:32:20.760 If I put It's a Wonderful Life on for my four-year-old, it's going to go over his head or he'll be traumatized by the man trying to throw himself off the bridge.

00:32:26.300 But it captures, for kids, you know, you watch it and you relate to it because it's, you're seeing it through the eyes of the child.

00:32:33.840 And as an adult, you watch it and you relate to the narrator.

00:32:37.520 And you're remembering back to when you were a kid.

00:32:40.260 So it captures both experiences of Christmas.

00:32:44.260 I have one more thing to say about It's a Wonderful Life.

00:32:46.180 I love that movie.

00:32:46.760 It's really like a top ten movie for me easily.

00:32:49.100 But there's a solid case to be made that Bedford Falls is better off if George throws himself off the bridge.

00:32:56.060 And here is the case.

00:32:57.800 The case is that George Bailey causes the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States.

00:33:01.820 The case is that he is giving loans without any sort of collateral to people who absolutely 100% cannot pay back those loans.

00:33:09.440 And because of that, he sends his own bank into crisis.

00:33:12.260 And even if Uncle Drunk has not lost the money, people stop paying back their loans.

00:33:17.520 There is a massive crisis.

00:33:18.580 They have to re-seize all the property.

00:33:19.880 And Lionel Barrymore ends up running the town anyway, except legally speaking.

00:33:23.220 It is interesting that you might—

00:33:24.180 It's an FDR—the truth is the movie was created as almost an ode to FDR in certain ways.

00:33:27.540 Yeah.

00:33:28.020 It's funny to say that Mr. Potter might be the good guy of that film because I reread A Christmas Carol this year.

00:33:36.000 And I read the speech in which Ebenezer Scrooge explains to Bob Cratchit why it's inappropriate that he be paid not to work on Christmas Day.

00:33:45.980 And I actually couldn't find any fault with the argument.

00:33:50.920 Keep in mind, he does give him the day off.

00:33:55.100 And he does agree to pay him for it.

00:33:56.600 Yeah, yeah.

00:33:56.980 So he actually doesn't—he doesn't withhold Christmas from Bob Cratchit.

00:34:01.160 He just—before he gives him the day off and pays him for it, he explains why it's patently unfair.

00:34:06.660 Yeah.

00:34:06.980 That he would be expected to do so.

00:34:08.560 And also, like, the thing is, people get the Grinch totally wrong, you know?

00:34:11.700 Like, the Grinch, you know, he wanted those presents.

00:34:14.120 Yeah.

00:34:14.440 I haven't seen it in a while.

00:34:15.640 And he's got some weirdos down there singing and annoyingly trying to sleep, yeah.

00:34:19.760 The Grinch is essentially a conservative wanting people to get off his yard.

00:34:22.760 Yeah.

00:34:23.140 That's all it is.

00:34:24.660 Michael, do you want to tell us why I meet myself and Irene?

00:34:26.700 No, it is.

00:34:27.900 And people don't get this, this subtle, esoteric text.

00:34:30.920 The one I will make a case for as, if not the best Christmas movie, the last great Christmas

00:34:36.200 movie is Home Alone.

00:34:37.980 One, because it's got Joe Pesci in it.

00:34:39.840 So that's something—it's a wonderful life.

00:34:41.200 And two, because Home Alone 2 has Donald Trump in it.

00:34:42.840 And because that's—oh my gosh.

00:34:45.240 I'm sorry, I need to change.

00:34:46.340 Home Alone 2.

00:34:47.000 I need to change my mind.

00:34:48.080 Home Alone 2.

00:34:48.940 I re-watched Home Alone last year on a flight back for Christmas.

00:34:52.640 Movie totally holds up.

00:34:54.120 It's a—that is a terrific movie.

00:34:55.960 Very—it actually has a heart to it.

00:34:58.240 Yeah.

00:34:58.560 You know, it's like—it's both very funny, has a heart.

00:35:01.000 And for a 10-year-old kid or however old Macaulay Culkin was, great performer.

00:35:04.760 Can I point out one problem with that movie?

00:35:06.480 Is young—my kids watched that movie for the first time a couple years ago.

00:35:09.680 Yeah.

00:35:10.360 And it's very influential to kids.

00:35:12.260 Yes.

00:35:12.480 And they get the idea of setting—so my son saw that movie when he was maybe six years

00:35:17.180 old.

00:35:17.560 Yeah.

00:35:18.240 And I don't know how he got his hand on it, but he somehow got his hands on a nail.

00:35:22.660 And he put it, like, pointy end up in the middle of the floor.

00:35:26.660 Oh, no.

00:35:27.760 To set a booby trap for the burglars.

00:35:29.440 I almost stepped on it.

00:35:31.440 And he explained to me he was setting a booby trap for the burglars.

00:35:33.500 And I told him, you can't do that.

00:35:35.000 And so he took the nail, and he brought it out to the garage.

00:35:37.600 And I went out to the garage, and he had just placed it again in the garage, pointy end

00:35:40.440 up.

00:35:41.260 So that's—you know, it's—

00:35:42.640 That's true.

00:35:43.080 It has an influence on kids.

00:35:44.780 You do kind of forget, when you rewatch that movie, he already got them.

00:35:49.080 Like, early on in his booby traps, he sort of got them.

00:35:51.340 So eventually, he just becomes like the Marquis de Sade, you know?

00:35:54.180 He just wants to torture these guys.

00:35:56.180 Also, he has the worst parents in human history.

00:35:57.960 Yeah, well, true.

00:35:58.280 Can we agree on this?

00:35:58.940 I mean, they literally just forget him in the house for, what, like a week?

00:36:01.460 Yeah.

00:36:01.660 They just, like, leave him there.

00:36:02.580 And he's partying it up.

00:36:03.700 And at no point does somebody say, like, can I just—like, no one in the entire town

00:36:06.280 has a phone?

00:36:06.920 Yeah.

00:36:07.380 Like, you just call the neighbor and be like, can you go over and check on him?

00:36:09.640 No, you know what?

00:36:10.100 He's fine.

00:36:10.400 He's probably fine.

00:36:11.140 He's like seven.

00:36:11.780 He can take care of himself.

00:36:12.740 He'll be fine.

00:36:13.280 Have you guys seen the classic Monty Python and the Flying Circus sketch called Classic

00:36:17.440 Jape?

00:36:18.980 Where they, in this very prim and proper British way, explain broad physical slapstick comedy

00:36:27.040 called Classic Jape?

00:36:28.420 And essentially, I think someone watched that sketch and then wrote Home Alone.

00:36:32.340 Because it is like stepping on nails, getting hit by a two-by-four, you know, and very prim-proper.

00:36:38.260 I'll make one more case for a good Christmas movie, Meet Me in St. Louis, which is actually

00:36:42.380 a great musical.

00:36:43.500 That's where Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas comes from that movie.

00:36:47.200 It's actually a very good movie.

00:36:48.400 And there's a little girl in it named Margaret O'Brien who actually won an Oscar for her performance.

00:36:52.020 She's like seven.

00:36:52.840 And she really is very good.

00:36:53.800 Judy Garland is at the height of her powers.

00:36:55.600 Probably the most talented person, by the way, who ever worked in Hollywood is Judy Garland.

00:36:58.420 She's up there.

00:36:58.960 And it's a really good movie.

00:37:00.740 It holds up really well.

00:37:01.940 Excellent.

00:37:02.400 Alicia?

00:37:03.660 Well, I think we might already have Matt's answer to this, considering he doesn't like

00:37:07.260 Nails or Home Alone.

00:37:08.760 But Matt, since you tend to hate everything, what's your least favorite Christmas movie?

00:37:14.400 Least favorite Christmas movie?

00:37:15.680 I should have a ready answer for that, I guess.

00:37:18.340 That's one area where I'm kind of a softie on Christmas movies.

00:37:21.080 I tend to actually like all of them.

00:37:23.060 I can't think of a Christmas movie I've seen that I actually hate.

00:37:25.600 Somehow.

00:37:26.060 I haven't managed to hate a Christmas movie.

00:37:28.580 I have one.

00:37:29.680 Yeah.

00:37:30.160 The new Peanuts Christmas special.

00:37:33.860 I didn't even know they made a new one.

00:37:34.880 So, like three years ago, after playing the Peanuts Christmas special for 50 years or something,

00:37:43.420 the network decided that they could, well, they didn't actually announce their decision,

00:37:48.120 but they decided it's very clear that they didn't want to play Linus reading the Gospel

00:37:52.700 of Luke on television every year.

00:37:55.120 And so they created a brand new Peanuts Christmas special, even better than the old Christmas special.

00:38:01.320 And the first year they played both of them.

00:38:03.560 And then the next year, I think they only played the new one because they're just rewriting history.

00:38:07.780 And they took the Gospel out?

00:38:09.100 Well, it's just a completely different story.

00:38:11.300 Yeah.

00:38:11.460 You know, it has nothing, it's not, it's not like a remake of the original.

00:38:14.640 It's just a different, here's the Peanuts kids having a whole other Christmas adventure

00:38:19.180 that isn't in any way about the Gospel.

00:38:20.480 I would say, so that one's already my least favorite, even though I haven't seen it.

00:38:24.120 But actually, I just, I remembered A Christmas Vacation.

00:38:27.700 It's a classic by a lot of people's standards.

00:38:30.320 I never saw it.

00:38:31.500 I watched it with my wife last week for the first time.

00:38:35.680 And I made it 30 minutes and fell asleep.

00:38:37.820 It just, it didn't, it didn't capture my, my interest.

00:38:41.000 Matt.

00:38:41.640 And yeah, I just, I, you know, I, I think you, here's what, here's, I think if you grew

00:38:45.360 up watching it, then you like it because you grew up watching it.

00:38:48.080 But that's probably fair.

00:38:48.920 I think an adult who sat down and out to watch it.

00:38:50.660 But I also love it because of the hit song, Christmas Vacation.

00:38:53.440 Fa la la la la in a ho ho ho, jingle jangle jingle as we go.

00:38:57.800 I think I fell asleep for that.

00:38:58.720 I was asleep by that time.

00:39:00.800 Does the Rudolph special count as a Christmas movie?

00:39:04.400 Sure.

00:39:04.560 It's only like 30 minutes long, right?

00:39:05.920 I mean, it's not.

00:39:06.880 Well, it's.

00:39:07.720 I guess it counts.

00:39:08.440 Yeah.

00:39:08.760 There's a lot, a lot there.

00:39:09.860 By the way.

00:39:10.460 That's your least favorite?

00:39:11.320 No, no, I love it.

00:39:11.940 Oh, I was going to say that.

00:39:12.420 I just, I would have added that to the other list because, you know, the woke people started

00:39:16.560 to like it last year.

00:39:17.700 Yeah.

00:39:17.840 Did you read the articles?

00:39:18.880 Because apparently the dentist is gay.

00:39:21.380 I thought they were saying Rudolph was gay.

00:39:22.780 And the whole thing was about how Rudolph is.

00:39:23.900 Oh, yeah.

00:39:24.280 And then the other one.

00:39:24.840 The other reindeer.

00:39:25.340 And that's why he's special.

00:39:26.320 Yeah.

00:39:26.780 But the dentist is definitely.

00:39:27.860 I don't think Rudolph's gay because he's a reindeer.

00:39:29.320 But I do think, I do think the dentist is.

00:39:30.720 By the way, there's a hole in the Rudolph story, which I was made aware of on that great

00:39:34.100 source known as Twitter, which is that reindeer are colorblind.

00:39:36.040 So the red light actually wouldn't be all that helpful is what I was informed of.

00:39:39.580 No, that's not true.

00:39:40.740 I think it's fair to say that in a foggy Christmas gale.

00:39:45.100 Yeah.

00:39:45.340 Any color light coming from the nose of a reindeer would be helpful.

00:39:50.940 Plus also the light.

00:39:51.600 Like the fact that it's red light.

00:39:53.060 And does Santa not have a flashlight, though, that he can?

00:39:55.780 He's magical.

00:39:56.680 He's flying through the air.

00:39:57.380 And he needs like a reindeer with a nose that lights up.

00:39:59.420 He doesn't have wings.

00:40:00.400 You know, he's not like.

00:40:01.480 And also, the light is not for the other reindeer, right?

00:40:04.100 The light is for Santa, who's commanding the fleet.

00:40:08.660 Won't you guide my sleigh, not guide the other reindeer?

00:40:11.340 That's exactly right.

00:40:12.500 Unbelievable.

00:40:13.020 I'm glad we could settle this.

00:40:14.200 Absolutely.

00:40:14.560 Alicia, we're going to be back with you directly so that we can answer a few more wonderful

00:40:18.840 Christmas questions.

00:40:19.940 First, we're going to talk about.

00:40:20.940 You know, real.

00:40:23.800 First, we're going to talk about our friends over at Bravo Company Manufacturing.

00:40:27.660 When the framers wrote the Constitution, the very first thing that they did was make sacred

00:40:31.320 the rights of, well, all of us to free speech, to share our ideas without limitation

00:40:36.480 by the government.

00:40:37.720 The second thing they did was to secure the right of individuals to protect that speech

00:40:41.540 and their lives with force if needed.

00:40:43.520 Owning a rifle is a heavy responsibility.

00:40:46.260 Building a rifle is no less a responsibility.

00:40:48.960 Bravo Company Manufacturing, BCM as we call them for short, builds a professional-grade

00:40:53.340 product which is built to combat standards.

00:40:56.300 That's because BCM believes that the same level of protection should be provided to every

00:41:00.040 American, regardless of whether or not they're a private citizen or a professional.

00:41:03.220 The people at BCM assume that when a rifle leaves their shop, it will be used in a life

00:41:07.620 or death situation by a responsible citizen, law enforcement officer, or a soldier overseas.

00:41:12.280 With that in mind, every component of a BCM rifle is hand-assembled and tested by Americans.

00:41:18.700 The people at BCM feel it's their moral duty as Americans to provide tools that will not

00:41:23.540 fail the end user when it's not just a paper target, but someone coming to do you harm.

00:41:28.500 BCM also knows that making a reliable, life-saving tool is only half the story.

00:41:33.440 They know you have to learn how to use the thing, so the company also works with leading

00:41:36.620 instructors of marksmanship from top levels of America's special operations forces, from

00:41:41.220 Marine Corps force reconnaissance to U.S. Army special operation forces, connecting them

00:41:46.420 with other Americans to help them learn.

00:41:48.360 These top instructors teach the skills necessary to defend yourself, your family, or to defend

00:41:53.480 your neighbor.

00:41:54.600 The best part about BCM is that they will not deny you your rifle if you ask Santa Claus

00:42:00.520 for it.

00:42:01.440 Listen, kids, maybe Santa's elves don't make us find a rifle, as our friends over at Bravo

00:42:06.940 Company Manufacturing, but Santa knows where to find them, and the place to find them is

00:42:11.220 at bravocompanymfg.com.

00:42:13.740 That's bravocompanymfg.com.

00:42:16.560 Benjamin.

00:42:16.980 Also, small children don't order rifles.

00:42:18.840 Your parents were adults.

00:42:19.800 They're the ones who probably just wanted to clear that.

00:42:21.680 No, that's fair.

00:42:22.160 But in the meantime, parents, what you should do to defend your children is have a Bravo

00:42:27.240 Company Manufacturing Rifle.

00:42:29.100 All you have to do is head over to bravocompanymfg.com.

00:42:31.960 You can discover more about their products, special offers, upcoming news.

00:42:34.620 That is bravocompanymfg.com.

00:42:36.900 If you need more convincing, find out even more about BCM and the awesome people who make

00:42:39.640 their products at youtube.com slash bravocompanyusa.

00:42:43.540 Quick note, by the way, on the movie thing.

00:42:46.040 How did we go through that entire conversation and not say Die Hard?

00:42:48.960 Die Hard is 100% a Christmas movie.

00:42:50.640 Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

00:42:52.620 It is 100% a Christmas movie.

00:42:54.760 Absolutely a Christmas movie.

00:42:55.520 Of course it's a Christmas movie.

00:42:56.220 It is.

00:42:56.400 It's written into the script.

00:42:57.200 It happens on Christmas.

00:42:58.280 Yeah.

00:42:59.460 They literally write into the script a bunch of, I have a machine gun now, ho ho.

00:43:05.220 I mean, these are all Christmas jokes.

00:43:07.040 Now, I did see an excellent commentary that suggested actually that Die Hard is a Hanukkah

00:43:10.620 movie.

00:43:12.600 That a small group of a single man, actually, a mercenary, a small group fights off a vast

00:43:22.320 and more superiorly armed foe, right?

00:43:26.100 Using just the resources.

00:43:27.520 Who's almost certainly German.

00:43:29.640 Yeah.

00:43:30.160 Yeah, right.

00:43:30.720 That's correct.

00:43:31.540 Yeah.

00:43:31.660 Right?

00:43:31.880 That's exactly.

00:43:32.520 I mean, he actually says that he shops at the same place that Arafat gets his suits.

00:43:37.240 He does.

00:43:37.520 That is one of the lines in the film.

00:43:38.680 That's right.

00:43:39.100 Okay, so you've got an anti-Semite who's taking over this big building over there, and then

00:43:42.900 you have one man who's fighting them off with vastly underwhelming arms, correct?

00:43:48.560 And then there's a bunch of kindling in the building at the end.

00:43:50.740 Mm-hmm.

00:43:51.220 Mm-hmm.

00:43:51.540 Clearly a Hanukkah movie.

00:43:52.720 Wow.

00:43:52.820 Clearly a Hanukkah movie.

00:43:54.160 While we're on the topic of Hanukkah, you know, I don't want to get too political,

00:43:59.440 but I think it's safe to say that someone who at least believes that they're about to

00:44:02.620 be the vice president of the United States explained to the good people of America the true

00:44:08.640 meaning of Hanukkah in this delightful video clip.

00:44:12.820 Hey, everybody.

00:44:13.600 We're here to talk about one of our favorite holidays in our big modern family.

00:44:18.580 Hanukkah.

00:44:19.540 And why do you love Hanukkah?

00:44:21.060 I love Hanukkah because it really is about the light.

00:44:27.680 Oh, God.

00:44:28.100 And bringing light where there has been darkness.

00:44:30.260 Is that her husband?

00:44:30.780 It is.

00:44:31.700 And there is so much work to be done in the world to bring light.

00:44:37.920 And it is a celebration of always tikkun alam.

00:44:42.740 No!

00:44:43.240 Which is about fighting for justice.

00:44:46.360 Incorrect.

00:44:47.380 And fighting for the dignity of all people.

00:44:49.680 No!

00:44:49.860 And it's about rededication.

00:44:51.840 To what?

00:44:52.340 And it's about joy.

00:44:53.180 And it's about joy.

00:44:54.020 And it's about spreading joy around the world.

00:44:56.380 Oh, sweet baby.

00:44:57.060 Oh, I can't say that.

00:44:57.600 And sharing it with your family and your friends and your neighbors and your community.

00:45:00.120 That's important right now.

00:45:01.620 So that's what we are doing is to wish everyone a happy Hanukkah.

00:45:05.680 Happy Hanukkah.

00:45:07.320 And to your family from ours, we wish you all the best.

00:45:12.120 Should we light the candle?

00:45:13.280 Yeah.

00:45:13.640 Yeah, let's do it.

00:45:14.460 Let's light a candle, guys.

00:45:15.320 Let's do it.

00:45:15.920 It's like a candle.

00:45:17.100 Oh, my gosh.

00:45:18.020 Will they successfully complete this task?

00:45:20.460 They did it.

00:45:21.340 Oh, my gosh.

00:45:22.000 Look at that.

00:45:22.480 They lit the shamash, and then they lit the previously lit candle, as you can already

00:45:26.260 see there.

00:45:26.820 Wow.

00:45:27.620 Well, they had to have a dress rehearsal.

00:45:29.040 That was magical right there.

00:45:30.840 That is the worst Hanukkah video I have ever seen in all my life.

00:45:32.960 Does that not hold up?

00:45:34.020 Is that not what Hanukkah is?

00:45:34.540 No, every element of that is incorrect.

00:45:36.120 Every single element of it is wrong.

00:45:37.460 Walk us through it, Ben.

00:45:38.120 Okay, so the story of Hanukkah is extremely bloody, which is why it is awesome.

00:45:42.200 So the story is about...

00:45:43.160 That's why Santa wears red.

00:45:46.160 Yeah.

00:45:47.260 No.

00:45:49.580 It is about the Seleucid Empire, which are the Greeks, okay?

00:45:52.000 They take over the Holy Land, and essentially, they install a high priest in the temple who

00:45:57.920 then proceeds to violate all of the temple precepts.

00:46:00.720 They ban all Jewish practice throughout Israel, and the Maccabees rise up, and they throw the

00:46:05.340 Greeks out, and then they rekindle the light in the temple.

00:46:07.840 The light of the menorah, actually, historically speaking, that's only discussed in the Talmud,

00:46:13.260 which is like a solid 400 years after Hanukkah.

00:46:17.640 Hanukkah originally was instituted as a military victory.

00:46:19.720 It would be sort of like if Jews today had a holiday for the 1967 Six-Day War, which,

00:46:24.240 by the way, I think they sort of should.

00:46:25.580 In any case, the basic idea was they had thrown the Greeks out of the Holy Land.

00:46:30.420 They then proceeded to set up the Maccabean Empire, which lasts for a couple of hundred

00:46:33.640 years.

00:46:34.620 And it is a bloody, bloody war that did not just concern Jew and Greek, but also Hellenized

00:46:39.560 Jews who had gone along with the Greeks on the path of secularization.

00:46:42.660 So basically, it's fighting against all of the secularization that a lot of people on

00:46:47.080 the left stand for, the forced secularization from the top down, anti-religion from the top

00:46:50.900 down.

00:46:51.500 And when she talks about rededication, you mean like to the temple where they had actual

00:46:55.180 sacrifices to God?

00:46:56.520 Like that kind of rededication?

00:46:57.660 Because I'm not so sure that she's super hot on all of that.

00:47:00.460 What it is not about is Lady MacLightlight and Joye McJoyjoy.

00:47:04.300 And whenever a Jew says Tikkun Olam, you know automatically they don't know anything about what they

00:47:08.880 are talking about.

00:47:09.620 Okay, Tikkun Olam is code for, I love the Democratic Party platform and I'm going to pretend that

00:47:13.920 it's actually in the Bible.

00:47:14.920 That's what Tikkun Olam is code for.

00:47:16.480 Tikkun Olam, for people who don't know, it goes back to a sort of Kabbalistic idea.

00:47:19.980 It's spoken a couple of times in Jewish texts as a phrase, but it's not a core part of Jewish

00:47:24.700 philosophy until you get to late 19th, early 20th century.

00:47:28.380 Tikkun Olam is based on the idea that when God created the universe in a Kabbalistic way,

00:47:31.720 he shattered the vessel.

00:47:33.060 Okay, and that it is our job to, by performing the mitzvot, by performing the acts that he prescribes

00:47:37.960 for us to do, we are rectifying the breaches that were created in God's creation when he

00:47:41.840 created the universe because he had to provide room for human freedom.

00:47:43.760 He had to provide room for us to make bad decisions and to sin.

00:47:46.640 And so every time we don't sin and we forego that, we are making the world a better place.

00:47:49.420 The way that the left has interpreted Tikkun Olam is to complete the world, which means

00:47:53.540 to them environmentalism.

00:47:55.360 It means to them social justice.

00:47:56.800 Christians have this very similar concept called restoration theology.

00:48:00.020 Or the Pelagian heresy.

00:48:01.380 That's right.

00:48:01.720 Essentially, that we have to make the world a better place for God.

00:48:05.880 God will be happy and he'll love us and he'll come back to us once we've restored sort of

00:48:09.720 an Edenic.

00:48:10.540 Exactly.

00:48:11.200 So this whole Tikkun Olam stuff, what that is, is code for Michael Lerner, who's a wild

00:48:15.620 leftist, had a magazine called Tikkun, which is just a journal of radicalism.

00:48:19.760 And this has become kind of the rote phraseology that you use when you don't actually know anything

00:48:24.040 about Judaism and you go to shul like once a year for half a day on Yom Kippur, break for

00:48:27.880 lunch.

00:48:28.180 Like, that's pretty much what it is.

00:48:30.200 And so, like, that is extraordinarily galling and insulting.

00:48:34.320 And the fact that there are a lot of Jews who don't take Judaism super seriously who

00:48:37.240 find that inspiring.

00:48:38.260 If that inspires you, by all means, if Lady MacLighton, Joy McJoy, Joy, and Kamala Harris

00:48:42.540 telling you about Chanuka inspires you, then really, like...

00:48:45.040 So Kamala Harris is doing to Judaism what Biden does to Catholicism every time he speaks

00:48:49.540 about it, pretty much.

00:48:50.260 Yeah, that's exactly right.

00:48:51.640 Yeah.

00:48:52.080 Except that we don't have the power to deny Kamala Harris communion.

00:48:55.020 That's true.

00:48:55.740 That's right.

00:48:56.260 Catholics have it, but they don't use it.

00:48:57.900 They use it, like, once every 20 years.

00:48:59.700 You're saying, you know, it's a big event.

00:49:00.820 Yeah, we celebrate it.

00:49:01.760 Did you, by the way, did you see that article?

00:49:03.020 I mean, okay, look at political for one second.

00:49:04.660 Did you see that article?

00:49:05.220 I'm sure you did, both of you.

00:49:06.440 That article in the Washington Post about how Biden was going to redefine Catholicism.

00:49:09.580 There's this whole op-ed about how Biden was going to be the new Catholic leader.

00:49:14.220 It was going to be like the Pope and Biden, and they were going to lead Catholicism into

00:49:17.800 a new future, which is exciting.

00:49:19.220 So explain to me how that's going to work, Matt Walsh.

00:49:22.000 Well, the new future looks exactly like what we've been living in for the last 60 years.

00:49:25.520 That's the interesting thing when they talk about Catholicism, just like the Pope is supposed

00:49:29.780 to create this new, but it's exactly what we, it's exactly the situation we've been living

00:49:34.500 in for 60 years.

00:49:35.320 It's this watered down, neutered, exactly what you're talking about with Judaism, taking

00:49:39.520 all, everything that's substantive and real and all the pain and suffering and realness

00:49:44.780 out of it and creating it and turning into this sort of, this thing that can be easily

00:49:51.100 washed down and can be summarized in talking points.

00:49:54.840 Yeah, I think the line from, I think it was Niebuhr, I'm just going to say it was Niebuhr,

00:49:58.300 but I don't remember who it was, says it's a God without wrath leading a people without

00:50:02.300 sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.

00:50:06.720 That's exactly what I was trying to say.

00:50:08.240 That's what I was going for.

00:50:10.280 I was getting there.

00:50:11.100 Let's thank Niebuhr or whoever said it.

00:50:13.240 Yeah, what's his name?

00:50:14.360 So I want to talk about our holiday traditions that we've each had in our childhoods and up

00:50:21.140 until today, you know, three of us are parents, one of us about to be very soon.

00:50:26.020 Good luck to that kid.

00:50:27.020 Oh my God.

00:50:29.260 Proof, as Ben sometimes says, proof that there is a God and he hates us.

00:50:33.600 Michael Knowles will soon be a father.

00:50:35.560 But, you know, what did Christmas, and let's actually speak somewhat specifically about

00:50:42.120 Christmas because Ben, I actually think you have an interesting answer about this as well,

00:50:46.020 but what did Christmas mean to each of the four of us?

00:50:49.620 It was the central holiday.

00:50:51.800 You know, in Christianity, Easter is actually the central holiday as a matter of theology,

00:50:55.200 but for little kids, Christmas is, and especially for Italian little kids, Christmas Eve especially,

00:51:00.680 you know, you have 7,000 dishes, family all comes together.

00:51:04.580 It was the, truly, it was the center of my entire year.

00:51:09.980 It was like, without exception, like the greatest memories for almost all of my childhood.

00:51:18.280 And I think it's because, I think it's a regional thing, actually.

00:51:22.300 I think in New York, people care about it more when the snow is coming down.

00:51:25.480 It's one of the reasons I'm glad to be in Tennessee now is it does get a little chillier.

00:51:28.720 It snows here like twice a year or something.

00:51:31.040 And so all of that matters, you know.

00:51:33.780 I think in different regions of the world, it's a little bit different.

00:51:37.760 And we didn't even do midnight mass, by the way.

00:51:39.720 We did a little bit more of the kind of, we'd go to mass maybe at Christmas Day,

00:51:42.760 but we'd do more of the secular thing.

00:51:45.200 I mean, there was, it is, it's all about Christ, you know, obviously, and all about mass, hopefully.

00:51:52.060 But it, it just reverberates such that I think in the, in the modern American culture, that is the holiday, you know.

00:52:00.000 Or, or there just aren't, isn't much of a holiday for kids.

00:52:03.120 Yeah, Matt.

00:52:04.500 Yeah, I would, I would be in line with that.

00:52:06.960 That's why I was talking about Christmas story, because I think that that captures what it, what it felt like as a kid growing up, you know, in relatively modern America.

00:52:15.200 It is, it's the, it's the, it's the main event of, of childhood.

00:52:19.220 Now, for me, you know, I was, it was interesting for me, because I grew up in a heavily Jewish, sort of a wealthy Jewish area.

00:52:25.060 So I remember being very jealous of the Jewish kids, because they would get, they would get eight, they would get, they would get really nice gifts every day for over a week.

00:52:34.880 I had to celebrate that this year with my kids.

00:52:36.760 I have a four-year-old.

00:52:37.400 So after day four, he was like, I don't like some of these, and I liked others.

00:52:39.760 Like, you know what, you're getting them all tonight, and be quiet.

00:52:42.500 Yeah, that was, I always felt that that was, and, you know, Christians, we used to do 12 days of Christmas, and so I always felt that that, I would have liked that.

00:52:48.840 But we had, I had six, five brothers and sisters, six, six kids in the family.

00:52:52.920 So we got a couple of gifts, but, you know, we didn't go overboard in the materialism aspect of it, but it was, it was just a great, it was the, the thing you look forward to all year.

00:53:02.760 We tried to do that 12 days of Christmas thing.

00:53:05.860 I never once got 11 pipers piping.

00:53:08.020 No, no, and you wait every year.

00:53:10.200 You say, I hope this is the year for the pipers.

00:53:11.500 You get the Lord's leaping, though.

00:53:12.900 Well, naturally.

00:53:14.780 We're not savages.

00:53:17.240 Ben, what was Christmas, what was the season for you?

00:53:19.580 Well, I mean, so, a few things.

00:53:21.400 One, I think that it's, yeah, Chinese food.

00:53:23.820 There are a few things that I think are worthwhile noting here.

00:53:26.560 One is that when I was growing up, I went to public school, and I was in public school, it was not verboten to do Christmas things at public school.

00:53:32.300 And I think that's very important.

00:53:33.400 I mean, the fact is that we used to be a country where there were a couple of things that were intertwined, and when you remove one, you're not going to get the other.

00:53:39.220 And that is, you would have Ten Commandments posted in the classroom, and you would also have people doing, like, Christmas stuff at Christmas.

00:53:45.160 And you remove one, and you're going to end up removing the other, because when you remove the religious basis for the Ten Commandments, whichever religion you're practicing, you're going to end up removing the Ten Commandments from the classroom also.

00:53:54.580 So, I mean, when I was growing up, my sister, who's now married to a rabbi who is one of the more prominent people in the Orthodox Union, in the Orthodox community, she played an elf in the Christmas play.

00:54:04.760 I was singing Christmas songs on stage in public school.

00:54:07.760 So, my family, as a joke on Christmas, would go to Jewish houses and carol, because we can all sing, so we would do, like, four-part harmony to Silent Night.

00:54:14.840 There's a sort of famous apocryphal story.

00:54:16.380 I think it might be a real story, actually, but I don't know which two rabbis it was, where there were two rabbis in the United States who were very, who were Orthodox and, you know, very prominent, and they'd both gone to public school.

00:54:25.160 They ended up in the back of a taxi cab together, and one said to the other, yeah, you know, I went to public school.

00:54:28.720 And the other said, I did, too, and said, I don't believe you.

00:54:30.560 Prove it.

00:54:30.900 And so they're in the back of the cab singing Silent Night to each other, and that's how they know that they went to public school.

00:54:34.960 I think that something has been lost in the country when that's not the case, and I don't feel insulted at all.

00:54:40.600 I feel very, again, I feel, as a Jew, unbelievably grateful to a country that because it is, not in spite of its Christianity, because it is Christian, has become so unbelievably welcoming to people like me, to Jews.

00:54:52.260 I think that, as you're seeing on the modern left, which is increasingly secular and increasingly anti-Semitic at the same time, I think that there is a tie between those two things.

00:55:00.640 So I will also say that one of the best Hanukkah gifts that I got was tied into a Christmas story.

00:55:06.240 My parents on a Hanukkah, this is probably when I was like 18, as a joke, for Hanukkah, they gave me the pink bunny suit from a Christmas story, and then they'd hidden the sword, Aragorn's sword, from Lord of the Rings behind the piano.

00:55:20.580 So that after I put on the bunny suit, then they let me have Aragorn's sword, so I still have somewhere in my house Elendril, the sword of the West.

00:55:29.440 The sword of the West.

00:55:30.160 Indeed.

00:55:30.620 And the bunny suit.

00:55:31.440 And the bunny suit, which has made a reappearance.

00:55:33.760 Yeah, a few Christmases ago, we did make a Daily Wire video featuring the bunny suit.

00:55:38.680 So much like you guys, Christmas for me was the holiday of the year.

00:55:45.960 My parents would go all out with gift giving.

00:55:49.040 We weren't a wealthy family, but they would really spend at Christmas probably more than they should have.

00:55:57.240 It became a little bit of a problem for me as I got a little bit older, because actually, I don't know why, but I don't like to receive gifts, and I particularly don't like to receive gifts.

00:56:06.300 Cheap gifts that aren't very expensive.

00:56:07.560 Yeah, I know, I know.

00:56:08.420 Gifts from other people that you open in front of other people?

00:56:11.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:56:12.300 It's not a moral issue.

00:56:13.760 It's actually a...

00:56:14.540 It's awkward, because most people don't like it.

00:56:16.240 Yeah.

00:56:17.860 But we made a big to-do about Christmas, a big family dinner every year.

00:56:22.420 We'd eat enchiladas or something different than Thanksgiving food, which I never actually liked, but I always loved whatever got made at Christmas.

00:56:32.320 And watch It's a Wonderful Life with my dad.

00:56:35.560 You know, it's just a...

00:56:36.920 I think, as I've been saying all night, I think it's a quintessential American holiday.

00:56:40.580 I had an argument with our friend Strangeland Elf on the Twitters, because she grew up overseas.

00:56:45.860 Yeah.

00:56:46.920 In Mongolia primarily, and I think maybe Thailand.

00:56:50.420 And as a result, she has some opinions that are maybe common among people who grew up overseas.

00:56:57.740 For example, she loves soccer, and she doesn't like Santa Claus.

00:57:02.600 You know, she grew up very religious, but overseas.

00:57:04.860 She didn't experience American Christmas.

00:57:06.600 She experienced Christmas, an important holiday in her life, but she didn't experience American Christmas.

00:57:10.480 And she was in countries where, listen, I don't have any problem if they want to play soccer in Mongolia.

00:57:15.380 It's wealthy Western nations playing soccer that I hate.

00:57:20.480 And she was kind of going on on the Twitters about how bad Santa Claus is, and you shouldn't teach your kids about Santa Claus.

00:57:25.880 And she was just getting racial like crazy.

00:57:28.340 People were so ticked off at her.

00:57:30.200 That is the least popular opinion you can have.

00:57:33.320 And this is what I told her.

00:57:34.720 I said, you're missing the Americanness of Santa Claus.

00:57:40.640 The American, you're missing the importance of American Christmas to Americans.

00:57:45.980 You're making maybe a theological point about Santa and Christ, or you're making, but what you're missing is what Christmas story captures so perfectly.

00:57:54.400 What Ben's describing, even from his childhood as a young Jewish American, that there is this American holiday that we all celebrate, that we have a nostalgia for, that is formative.

00:58:04.940 In its way, it's formative for millions and millions of Americans.

00:58:08.040 You've reminded me, just one note on Santa Claus, because some people think he's a totally sort of fictional character.

00:58:14.480 And that's not true.

00:58:15.740 It's kind of an amalgam of different characters, but it goes back to St. Nicholas, who was a real person.

00:58:20.600 And, you know, we got this jolly old St. Nicholas, I think, he gives gifts to kids.

00:58:26.160 St. Nicholas was extraordinarily tough and somewhat aggressive sometimes.

00:58:31.200 Very famously, at the Council of Nicaea, he was debating the arch heretic Arius, who had this view that Christ was not divine.

00:58:39.960 And Santa, St. Nicholas, got so infuriated that he walked up and just punched Arius right in the face, because fists don't care about your feelings, you know.

00:58:48.840 And he would just go in there and just wreck him.

00:58:50.660 So when you think about this soft, jolly, secular St. Nick.

00:58:54.460 Can I just say, in defense of that view, because anytime someone has a curmudgeonly view, I'm always...

00:58:59.740 You're always for it.

00:59:00.760 Yeah, even if I don't agree, I respect that she voiced that.

00:59:03.940 You know what's actually, before you say this, I actually told her on Twitter when she was saying this.

00:59:08.200 I said, this is your most Matt Walsh opinion.

00:59:10.280 It is.

00:59:10.580 It's more Matt Walsh than the actual Matt Walsh opinion, because we do Santa Claus with our kids.

00:59:15.440 But I think that there is an interesting thing that we kind of just gloss over, which is that you are lying to...

00:59:23.380 Hopefully there are no kids watching right now, but you are lying to your children.

00:59:26.400 You are actually lying to them about something.

00:59:29.340 And when they're young, you know...

00:59:32.400 What are you lying about?

00:59:35.180 You're telling them about Santa.

00:59:37.460 Let me just...

00:59:38.380 What I would say is when a child is, say, four years old, very young, he has no way to differentiate between fact and fiction.

00:59:47.640 If you tell him Spider-Man isn't real, he doesn't know what that means, because he sees Spider-Man on TV.

00:59:53.960 No, he's right there.

00:59:54.820 Right.

00:59:54.980 But as a child gets a little bit older and they start to understand the difference between what is real and what isn't, you have to go...

01:00:02.440 You have to actually try to deceive them to make them believe certain things.

01:00:05.980 True.

01:00:06.640 And so there is an actual ethical quandary there.

01:00:10.680 I mean, we do it with our kids.

01:00:11.700 We're just lying to them, to their face.

01:00:13.520 I just wonder, if we're being completely honest with ourselves, how much of what we say to our children is true?

01:00:21.920 Like, why are we stagling out Santa Claus?

01:00:24.580 Yeah.

01:00:24.920 I will admit that one of the not-as-pleasant Christmas memories of my childhood was a little Christian girl from across the street coming over to our house right around Christmas time.

01:00:33.140 And her explaining to me Santa Claus and me being five and being like, well, I have some news.

01:00:41.020 And her parents did call up my parents rather upset about all of this.

01:00:45.000 And it's like, well, my parents are like, well, is it true or is it not true?

01:00:48.500 And the thing is, parents...

01:00:49.640 What can you do?

01:00:50.040 You can't unring that bell at that point.

01:00:51.360 They tell a lot of lies to their kids.

01:00:52.500 They'll say, you know, yeah, there's Santa Claus or, yeah, I'll be right back.

01:00:55.180 I'm getting a pack of cigarettes.

01:00:56.280 Like, they'll say a lot of things.

01:00:57.940 Some of them are true.

01:00:59.000 What I would say, I think if your kid goes up to you and looks you in the eye and asks you the question, is this true?

01:01:05.180 I think at that point, you got to...

01:01:07.180 Because you don't want to look them in the eye and just directly lie to them.

01:01:09.380 Because then eventually you got to come back a year later and say, you know what?

01:01:12.080 I actually was lying to you about that.

01:01:13.620 No, I think if they look you in the eye and they say, is this true?

01:01:16.080 You should tell them that it isn't and never give them another gift.

01:01:18.420 Yeah.

01:01:19.220 Thanks for ruining the magic of this season.

01:01:20.680 Do you want to know the answer?

01:01:21.840 Do you want to know the answer?

01:01:23.580 Not all questions have good answers.

01:01:25.360 It's the monkey's pocket.

01:01:26.680 Yeah.

01:01:26.860 I do think, this is an embarrassing story, but when I was, you know, when I, I don't know, six, seven, I figured it out.

01:01:34.800 You know, the jig was up.

01:01:35.620 There's no Santa Claus.

01:01:37.000 Do you remember figuring it out and being like really upset about it?

01:01:39.580 No, I wasn't upset about it.

01:01:41.040 But I was just like, you know, obviously this isn't real and my parents are doing this.

01:01:46.320 And I still went along and I liked it and everything.

01:01:48.500 But this is the honest to goodness truth.

01:01:49.820 Then around nine or ten, I actually got confused.

01:01:54.460 Much, so most kids, I feel like I was on the early side of figuring out that Santa isn't real.

01:01:58.560 Yeah.

01:01:58.880 But then I was, I had a resurgence of thoughts about Santa way after everyone had given up on Santa.

01:02:04.800 And it's because we were listening to KLLL, the local country radio station there out of Lubbock, Texas.

01:02:10.340 Sometimes on Christmas Eve, we were driving around Ransom Canyon looking at all the beautiful Christmas lights.

01:02:16.200 And I, I heard the disc jockey say, you know, we're, we're, we have an update here from NORAD.

01:02:23.560 And this Air Force official came on the radio and said, you know, we've been tracking Santa over the North Pole by radar.

01:02:33.620 He's about, you know, he's about to enter airspace of Newfoundland and all this kind of stuff.

01:02:37.900 And I actually, I'm nine or ten, I don't know.

01:02:39.680 And I thought, wait a minute.

01:02:42.080 Wait, what?

01:02:42.940 The American military would not lie.

01:02:45.180 No.

01:02:45.780 There's no way.

01:02:46.640 No, never.

01:02:47.580 Yeah.

01:02:47.860 There's no way that an actual officer in the Air Force would just be saying something to fool kids.

01:02:53.700 Maybe I've been wrong.

01:02:54.600 It wasn't.

01:02:54.980 Honestly, maybe I've been wrong about this whole thing.

01:02:56.820 And it was only at the moment you learned about the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.

01:02:59.380 Yeah.

01:03:00.660 Did you see, Fauci just did this.

01:03:02.960 Yes.

01:03:03.120 Fauci went on CNN and he said, listen, I know kids are worried that Santa can't come

01:03:07.200 because of travel bans and all that.

01:03:08.620 But I went up personally and I vaccinated Santa.

01:03:11.120 So Santa has the vaccine.

01:03:12.320 And I thought, wait a second, buddy.

01:03:14.460 Two days ago, you went on TV and said, even after you get the vaccine, you're still not

01:03:19.700 allowed to travel.

01:03:20.480 So Fauci maintaining the sort of consistency he's had from the very beginning of this virus

01:03:25.180 goes on and Santa plays by a different rule.

01:03:28.240 He's magical and he's 800 years old and he's overweight.

01:03:31.820 There's no world he doesn't have diabetes.

01:03:33.840 Yes.

01:03:34.400 There's no world he doesn't have diabetes.

01:03:35.900 I mean, he drinks Coke.

01:03:36.640 Like for a hundred years, 100 years straight.

01:03:39.540 You both said that you weren't upset when you learned at Santa Claus because I was devastated.

01:03:44.880 Were you really?

01:03:46.220 Yeah.

01:03:46.540 Well, you thought that there was this magical man coming into your home to bring you gifts

01:03:50.240 flying with reindeer.

01:03:51.320 And then you realize that all that's a lie.

01:03:54.320 Your whole, all this magic in your life is just gone.

01:03:56.980 Are we just sociopaths or something?

01:03:59.160 When I found out.

01:04:00.540 This is why I am a sociopath.

01:04:01.680 This is how I became who I am now.

01:04:03.500 It was in that moment.

01:04:04.580 All his joy left him and never came back.

01:04:07.160 The only thing I love about this is that now you and Strangeland Elf have fully bonded

01:04:11.120 as haters of Santa Claus who, I guess, not only believe, but have indeed experienced having

01:04:17.180 a childhood shattered by the lives of your parents.

01:04:20.160 I guess, you know.

01:04:21.460 It also does.

01:04:21.960 Maybe your dad just didn't raise you right.

01:04:23.260 My dad raised me never to trust anything.

01:04:24.900 It does go to how many things, if you think about them, become slightly creepy.

01:04:29.500 Like a man creeping into your house through the chimney at night to drop things off like

01:04:33.120 in your house.

01:04:33.960 And he has elves, at least the way I was taught it, that the elves are spying on you throughout

01:04:38.120 the year.

01:04:38.980 Oh.

01:04:39.700 I don't know.

01:04:39.960 Did you guys have that?

01:04:40.940 In mine, it was like a sweatshop.

01:04:43.060 They were just sort of locked into the North Pole.

01:04:44.900 Well, because how does Santa know?

01:04:46.820 Well, he sees you when you're sleeping and he knows when you're awake.

01:04:49.800 I always thought it was the elves that are spying.

01:04:51.820 Well, I mean, the breaking news, Joe Biden is about to introduce Santa as ambassador to

01:04:57.680 China.

01:04:58.320 That's true.

01:04:59.760 His sweatshop policy.

01:05:02.280 And the spying.

01:05:03.020 And the spying.

01:05:03.600 Actually, all of them.

01:05:04.500 Yeah.

01:05:04.840 The best thing about Santa Claus is that he has a luscious beard.

01:05:08.720 And a man is judged not only by his character, but by his whiskers.

01:05:12.980 Sorry, Ben.

01:05:13.360 Absolutely.

01:05:13.920 Yeah.

01:05:14.040 This is why you need beard supply.

01:05:16.420 Not only does it take guts to wear a beard, it takes guts to grow a beard.

01:05:21.100 But a beard is the mark of a man.

01:05:23.740 And I do not say that lightly, Michael.

01:05:25.620 Your cigars live in the finest humidors.

01:05:29.060 Your prized spirits in your choice decanters.

01:05:32.380 Quality must be cared for with quality.

01:05:35.400 So why should your beard take a hit?

01:05:37.720 Guys, your facial hair is deserving of the kind of time and attention that you give to all

01:05:42.800 your other crap.

01:05:43.520 Quality must be cared for.

01:05:46.360 Quantity, quality.

01:05:48.240 There's a typo in the teleprompter, and I don't actually know what I was saying.

01:05:51.560 Your beard is important.

01:05:53.360 And that's why beard supply should be your only supply of beard care products.

01:05:57.880 You aren't going to get that good groomed look if you don't groom and you won't have a beard

01:06:03.700 without boasting about if you don't make the best in the business a part of your daily routine.

01:06:09.720 Sure, there are a lot of beard products out there, but are they 100% all natural, made in

01:06:15.480 the USA with soap, balms, oils, and accessory to boot, based out of my proud homeland of Texas?

01:06:22.100 No!

01:06:23.100 Take my favorite product, for example, the old-fashioned beard oil, aged over two years.

01:06:29.780 That is quality, and that is how you will grow the finest beard on the block, or at the daily

01:06:37.620 wire, the finest beard on earth.

01:06:42.200 So, as a merry little Christmas present from Beard Supply, you can get 25% off of your

01:06:47.060 order with code DW25.

01:06:49.660 Go to BeardSupply.com and use the promo code DW25.

01:06:53.180 That's DW25 for 25% off all the oils, all the soaps, all the balms, all the grooming supplies

01:06:58.540 at BeardSupply.com.

01:07:00.540 Code DW25.

01:07:02.720 What are you waiting for?

01:07:03.720 Me to figure out how to read a teleprompter?

01:07:05.240 You're going to be waiting a long time.

01:07:06.560 Don't do that.

01:07:07.740 Go to BeardSupply.com.

01:07:10.280 DW25.

01:07:10.760 Be the number one beard on the block, wherever you are.

01:07:15.640 You can have a beard, like jolly old St. Nick.

01:07:19.220 Elisha, bail me out of this ad read, please.

01:07:23.240 I mean, y'all should have just let me do it, because we all know my husband has the best

01:07:26.180 beard on the face of the planet, so.

01:07:28.040 He has a strong beard.

01:07:28.800 It's a strong beard.

01:07:29.580 I'll grant him.

01:07:29.940 He's a lumberjack.

01:07:31.180 Yeah.

01:07:32.680 Or as Ben once called him, a lumbersexual.

01:07:35.440 Yeah, I think I have that audio clip from the good old days.

01:07:37.920 And I got to tell other people about another great deal.

01:07:41.160 Don't forget to head over to DailyWire.com slash subscribe right now.

01:07:45.140 Use code WATCH for 20% off a membership.

01:07:48.620 You can be a part of the all-access chats like we're having right after tonight's Christmas

01:07:52.420 edition of Backstage.

01:07:53.820 So to come on over there to talk to me and all the guys from Ben, God King, Matt Walsh,

01:08:00.280 Michael Knowles, and myself, will be answering your behind-the-scenes questions.

01:08:03.500 But you only get that if you're an all-access member.

01:08:06.160 So head over to DailyWire.com slash subscribe.

01:08:09.660 Use that code WATCH for 20% off right now.

01:08:12.600 In addition to that, I wanted to toss it to, I think this question is for Ben.

01:08:17.360 Someone, I think I already know the answer to this based on some earlier chatter that

01:08:20.720 y'all had.

01:08:21.460 But somebody wants to know, in the Christmas spirit, are you willing to acknowledge that

01:08:26.640 Dr. Michael Knowles is indeed a doctor and forgive him and never fire him?

01:08:32.020 I am a doctor.

01:08:32.740 I teach things.

01:08:33.720 I teach things every day.

01:08:34.860 No.

01:08:35.400 I'm not a doctor.

01:08:36.180 What?

01:08:36.620 And I mean, I don't mean to be too harsh here in the Christmas season.

01:08:40.100 What does your wife have a doctorate in?

01:08:41.800 She has a PhD, which Joe Biden does not.

01:08:44.380 Joe Biden has like a...

01:08:45.360 An EDD.

01:08:46.260 An EDD.

01:08:46.580 Which I didn't even know that was a degree.

01:08:47.660 It sounds like an ad for Roman.

01:08:49.440 A PhD...

01:08:49.660 But a PhD, right?

01:08:54.060 This is for people who research and teach.

01:08:58.320 It comes from the Latin verb dotere.

01:09:01.020 In what field was it?

01:09:02.420 In psychology.

01:09:03.400 In psychology.

01:09:04.160 So you teach...

01:09:04.680 Is she a clinical psychologist?

01:09:06.460 No, no, no.

01:09:06.960 A researcher.

01:09:07.740 Oh, she's a research psychologist.

01:09:08.560 A scholar.

01:09:08.980 Okay.

01:09:09.180 So if she were a clinical psychologist, I'd be okay with calling her.

01:09:10.940 No, no.

01:09:11.360 But then I wouldn't...

01:09:11.940 She's a research psychologist.

01:09:12.320 If she were a clinical psychologist, she wouldn't be a doctor because she wouldn't teach.

01:09:15.780 She'd just be...

01:09:16.540 She'd like treat you.

01:09:17.340 So you're on the side that Joe Biden...

01:09:18.980 Is a doctor.

01:09:19.340 ...because she's a teacher.

01:09:19.740 She is a doctor.

01:09:19.960 Well, no.

01:09:20.280 This is where it gets tricky because Joe Biden is obviously not...

01:09:23.060 So that's the hard part.

01:09:25.220 But so here's actually why.

01:09:26.780 The EDDD, the Roman degree, is...

01:09:29.380 It's an occupational degree.

01:09:31.240 It's just basically a way for school administrators to make more money.

01:09:34.480 And obviously physicians.

01:09:36.040 I don't mean in any way to demean physicians.

01:09:38.160 But, you know, they're practicing a job.

01:09:40.380 It's a trade, right?

01:09:41.100 It's a craft.

01:09:42.300 But only someone who teaches...

01:09:43.900 Forget psychology for a second.

01:09:45.180 Someone who teaches, like, gender theory.

01:09:47.400 Somebody who teaches the most...

01:09:49.740 Foucault.

01:09:50.620 The most out there...

01:09:52.240 They are more a doctor than any physician.

01:09:55.880 You're the worst person I've ever heard of.

01:09:57.180 That's my argument.

01:09:57.560 And one of the dumbest.

01:09:58.680 So let me...

01:09:59.820 We all have the same test here.

01:10:01.820 If somebody says on a plane...

01:10:03.740 If somebody says on a plane, is there a doctor?

01:10:05.840 And you're a professor of gender studies and you raise your hand, you should immediately

01:10:09.000 be punched in the face.

01:10:10.120 Yeah.

01:10:10.320 Okay?

01:10:10.540 Because if...

01:10:11.620 Because that...

01:10:12.580 And then an actual doctor will come help you after you've been punched in the face.

01:10:14.980 Because a professor of gender studies should be punched in the face.

01:10:17.080 Well, that is true.

01:10:18.560 You know, if you asked on a plane, is there a doctor here?

01:10:21.420 And a, you know, a PhD raised their hand.

01:10:23.540 That would be very helpful.

01:10:24.480 Because they could teach you the etymology of the word doctor.

01:10:27.080 Which would be very helpful in all of these situations.

01:10:29.560 Here's your problem.

01:10:30.320 And it actually goes to everything we've talked about tonight.

01:10:33.200 And how much I hate you.

01:10:34.320 And how much Ben hates you.

01:10:35.840 What you are saying is correct.

01:10:37.640 Mm-hmm.

01:10:38.500 But not in America.

01:10:39.740 No, that...

01:10:40.280 This is...

01:10:41.440 No, it's also not correct anywhere else.

01:10:42.860 It's just bullcrap.

01:10:43.540 I'm sorry.

01:10:44.000 Like, it's just...

01:10:44.440 It's just a bunch of nonsense.

01:10:45.700 In Europe, they do this.

01:10:46.800 In Europe...

01:10:47.180 Here's about the Europeans.

01:10:48.380 The Europeans.

01:10:49.380 Ooh, the Europeans say a thing.

01:10:50.760 Ooh.

01:10:51.440 No, the Europeans also don't shave their armpits.

01:10:53.200 There are lots of things Europeans do.

01:10:54.740 Okay, let's get over this.

01:10:56.180 And by the way, this point is true, unfortunately.

01:10:58.720 They lose world wars and they...

01:11:00.240 And then they call the Americans.

01:11:02.040 And it is true.

01:11:02.700 It's a practical matter.

01:11:04.100 I hate to say this.

01:11:05.360 But in America...

01:11:06.160 You know, when I was in college, I had one professor who demanded to be...

01:11:08.860 Except for Pavel's home country.

01:11:09.920 I see you shaking your head there.

01:11:10.780 They shaved their armpits in Pavel's home country.

01:11:12.340 Oh, in Poland?

01:11:13.380 They save the West all the time.

01:11:15.260 I had one professor in college who demanded to be called doctor.

01:11:18.840 He was the least impressive professor.

01:11:21.380 He was the most pretentious.

01:11:22.440 He was the least...

01:11:22.720 Of course.

01:11:23.180 First of all, real doctors do not insist on being called doctors.

01:11:25.760 Right.

01:11:26.080 That's right.

01:11:26.300 So, where I live, okay, not to, like, put a stigma on the Jews, but I live near a lot

01:11:30.280 of Jews because I'm an Orthodox Jew.

01:11:32.200 And, like, literally half the people in the community are actual medical doctors.

01:11:35.780 Yeah.

01:11:36.020 Okay, and...

01:11:36.700 There's that old Jewish joke about there's the Jewish mother who has two sons and one

01:11:41.460 of them goes on to be president of the United States.

01:11:43.800 And she's visiting her...

01:11:45.640 He's the first Jewish president of the United States.

01:11:47.300 She's visiting him in the White House.

01:11:49.380 She's staying in the Lincoln bedroom.

01:11:50.880 And as she walks out, a member of the press says, you know, Mrs. Shapiro, what is it like

01:11:56.900 having a son who is the president of the United States?

01:12:00.420 And she says, well, my other son is a doctor.

01:12:03.340 So, lots of doctors there.

01:12:05.080 And to a person, I mean, this came up, obviously, after synagogue one day because we discuss

01:12:09.520 only the holiest of things.

01:12:11.120 And every one of them was like, if somebody came up to me and just called me Mr. Goldstein,

01:12:17.420 I would not be insulted in any way because actual medical doctors don't care.

01:12:20.580 They know what they do for a living.

01:12:21.920 They don't need the constant pat on the back of being called doctor.

01:12:24.780 In fact, only the douchiest people need this generally.

01:12:27.260 Like, if you're a doctor of musicology and then you're like, somebody calls you Mr.

01:12:30.420 and they're like, no, it's doctor.

01:12:31.800 My wife is an actual medical doctor who's actually, like, searched inside corpses for

01:12:35.860 body parts and stuff to learn, like, where everything is and everything.

01:12:38.800 So, she's actually healed people.

01:12:40.260 She's actually been in dangerous situations with people who are in danger of themselves.

01:12:44.200 And if somebody calls her...

01:12:45.260 I asked her about this, and this is why my wife is the best.

01:12:47.600 I mean, so I asked her about this.

01:12:48.880 And first of all, she was appalled at the idea that a dissertation on community college is a doctorate.

01:12:57.640 But beyond that, she also, she said, if somebody did not call me doctor, I would be completely fine with that

01:13:04.440 because on my list of things that make me an important human being, doctor is like number six.

01:13:08.300 Yeah.

01:13:08.440 Right, it goes like, I'm a wife, I'm a mother, I'm a Jew, I'm an American.

01:13:14.580 And maybe once you get to, like, number five, then it's like, I'm a doctor.

01:13:17.260 Like, her identity is not wrapped up in that.

01:13:18.800 If your identity is so wrapped up in your educational degree, then you're just a douchebag by definition.

01:13:22.280 Did you guys read the National Review article where the guy...

01:13:25.680 Oh, my gosh.

01:13:26.760 Oh, my gosh.

01:13:27.620 Who read it?

01:13:28.440 Kyle Smith.

01:13:28.900 Kyle Smith, that's right.

01:13:29.740 1,000 props to Kyle Smith.

01:13:30.900 It was magnificent.

01:13:31.660 Who just face plants the dissertation.

01:13:33.400 It is well worth the read.

01:13:35.000 It is.

01:13:35.380 And as an intellectual snob, I will say that I am also just insulted by the quality of the dissertation.

01:13:40.500 Like, and you know what?

01:13:41.660 Fine.

01:13:41.980 You don't like that?

01:13:42.640 Thuff.

01:13:43.200 I don't care.

01:13:43.720 Yeah.

01:13:44.180 Elisha.

01:13:46.320 Matt Walsh.

01:13:47.180 Is there a war on Christmas?

01:13:49.800 Well, we debated this one.

01:13:51.180 Matt's leading the freaking war on Christmas here.

01:13:53.360 He's come out in the last 20 minutes against Santa Claus, against...

01:13:58.920 Christmas vacation.

01:13:59.660 Christmas vacation.

01:14:00.740 It's unbelievable.

01:14:01.520 I think there's a war on Christianity, but there's not...

01:14:05.120 I'm not offended when someone says happy holidays to me.

01:14:08.120 I don't see that as a problem.

01:14:10.820 I understand why companies do it.

01:14:12.240 I understand why someone, a cashier or whatever at Starbucks is going to say happy holidays

01:14:17.180 because they don't know if you celebrate Christmas.

01:14:18.360 What about Holiday Tree?

01:14:20.500 You see this...

01:14:21.120 I saw it at Whole Foods.

01:14:22.000 Holiday Tree is...

01:14:22.780 It's just a tree.

01:14:23.860 It's not...

01:14:24.420 There's no spiritual significance of the tree you have in your house.

01:14:27.420 But there's a cultural significance.

01:14:28.700 It's not a Hanukkah tree.

01:14:30.060 It's not a Kwanzaa tree.

01:14:30.880 By the way, if you have a Hanukkah tree, you're doing Hanukkah wrong.

01:14:32.400 You're doing...

01:14:32.820 You mess something up.

01:14:33.780 You've got to trade it for...

01:14:34.980 Look, if it doesn't bother me, I feel like...

01:14:37.640 I can find a reason to be bothered by anything.

01:14:39.320 I'm so surprised.

01:14:40.640 I know.

01:14:40.920 It just does.

01:14:41.580 Because I understand.

01:14:42.320 And also, Holiday, Holy Day, it's kind of...

01:14:45.400 You're not really getting around it anyway.

01:14:47.340 There's so much etymology on the show today.

01:14:50.020 A lot of etymology.

01:14:50.620 You know how to get the clicks.

01:14:51.420 They accuse us of clickbait.

01:14:53.420 It reminds me of the whole kneeling for the anthem thing.

01:14:58.280 And that never bothered me that much because kneeling is itself a sign of reverence.

01:15:02.620 You're, in fact, showing more reverence to the flag accidentally.

01:15:05.060 You don't mean to.

01:15:05.820 But you accidentally showed more reverence to the flag, perhaps, than you even probably should.

01:15:09.860 That is a glass-half-full way to read Colin Kaepernick, which I'll take.

01:15:12.860 I feel like we've lost Matt Walsh.

01:15:14.660 I know.

01:15:14.940 I feel like he has actually embodied Andrew Klayman somehow.

01:15:18.320 It's the jacket.

01:15:18.860 Yeah, that's right.

01:15:19.580 It's the red jacket.

01:15:20.640 It is.

01:15:21.160 It's way too festive.

01:15:22.280 Alicia.

01:15:23.600 All right.

01:15:24.000 This next question is for Michael.

01:15:25.540 If the 12 days of Christmas starts on December 13th, then wouldn't that place it in the middle of Advent?

01:15:32.240 Yeah, it doesn't, though.

01:15:33.260 It starts on Christmas.

01:15:35.560 Okay.

01:15:36.300 All right.

01:15:36.660 Next question is...

01:15:37.800 We can clear that up.

01:15:39.760 Sounds like a Catholic question.

01:15:41.200 I don't get these things.

01:15:42.020 I think it does.

01:15:42.760 Maybe I'm wrong.

01:15:43.300 They can tell me in the comments if I'm wrong.

01:15:44.560 Yeah, it's the 12 days.

01:15:45.360 It's Christmas and the 11 days of Advent.

01:15:47.500 Yeah, okay.

01:15:48.120 We are in Advent right now, and I know that's important to you as well.

01:15:51.040 Yeah, Advent is good because this is the other thing.

01:15:53.120 You know, sometimes people, they start celebrating and smiling.

01:15:55.760 I'm kind of like William Bradford now, and they're having too much fun.

01:15:58.780 No.

01:15:59.560 Solemn.

01:16:00.120 Yeah.

01:16:01.260 Expectant.

01:16:02.140 No smiles yet.

01:16:03.560 You've got to wait until Christmas, then you get 12 days.

01:16:05.100 And this is the time to play the best song, I think, the best holiday song, which is Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel.

01:16:10.540 Yes.

01:16:11.120 Which is not a Christmas song.

01:16:12.000 It's an Advent song.

01:16:12.780 Yeah.

01:16:13.280 And I think it doesn't get better than that song.

01:16:14.860 I'm with you.

01:16:15.220 I'm totally with you.

01:16:16.280 There's a war on Advent, not on Christmas.

01:16:17.820 Good point.

01:16:19.000 Yeah, and you guys lost.

01:16:21.880 Alicia.

01:16:23.680 Jeremy, this question is for you.

01:16:25.140 So a Daily Wire member, which people, it's not too late, they can run on over to dailywire.com

01:16:29.180 slash subscribe and sign up so they can be a part of the all access that's right after

01:16:32.940 this backstage.

01:16:33.740 But some Daily Wire members want to know, how is everything going in Nashville?

01:16:38.740 And what are the major differences between Tennessee and California?

01:16:44.440 On the day that we moved here, I went to a restaurant to eat.

01:16:48.620 And I thought, it's so amazing to be eating inside after all these months in California.

01:16:56.000 Yesterday, I took some friends who were visiting from LA out to eat.

01:16:59.540 And they said, it's so amazing to be eating after the last few weeks in California.

01:17:05.360 And I think that really sums it up.

01:17:06.820 Nashville has been a terrific move.

01:17:10.600 We've all, I think, settled very well.

01:17:13.040 To my knowledge, everybody from the staff who made the move has been very happy about it.

01:17:17.220 But the city's been welcoming and accommodating.

01:17:20.360 Southern hospitality is real, y'all.

01:17:23.740 I lived in LA 20 years and two months.

01:17:26.560 I loved it.

01:17:27.200 It was my home.

01:17:28.300 I was driving around with my wife before we flew out, sort of visiting some of the places

01:17:33.380 where major events happened in our lives.

01:17:35.000 You know, here's my first apartment, your first apartment.

01:17:38.100 Here's where we went on our first date, this kind of thing.

01:17:41.380 And I said, you know, I love the city.

01:17:44.100 I mean, I chose to live here.

01:17:45.640 I'm really going to miss LA.

01:17:48.440 And my wife said, yeah, I guess if I'm being honest with myself, I've been missing LA for

01:17:55.260 the last two or three years.

01:17:56.580 Yeah.

01:17:57.060 And that really sums it up.

01:17:58.260 LA has committed an actual public act of suicide over the last 36 months.

01:18:06.160 And it's only speeding up.

01:18:08.000 I don't, we couldn't have gotten out a moment.

01:18:09.940 But we didn't get out a moment too soon.

01:18:12.540 If you see what's going on with this new district attorney out there, the re-lockdown of the

01:18:17.680 entire state.

01:18:19.840 And by the way, they have a worse spike than Arizona.

01:18:21.460 They have a worse spike than anywhere in California with the giant lockdown.

01:18:23.900 And they never stopped the lockdown there.

01:18:25.620 No, never ended.

01:18:26.240 So to be here in a place that's welcomed us and in a place that still understands freedom

01:18:33.140 has just been remarkable.

01:18:35.460 So yeah, I'm pro-Tennessee.

01:18:37.180 Never in a million years thought I would live in Tennessee.

01:18:39.140 Always thought that if I left California, I'd go back to the ancestral homeland of Texas.

01:18:43.000 The one thing that I'll say about Tennessee though, is it was Tennessee regulars fighting

01:18:49.420 with us at the Alamos.

01:18:50.240 So I think that there's a real union between Texas and Tennessee.

01:18:53.200 And I'm proud to be here.

01:18:57.500 All right.

01:18:58.160 Next question goes to Ben.

01:18:59.700 Ben, we all know your thoughts about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, but someone wants to know in

01:19:04.800 the Daily Wire all-access chat, what's the equivalent of Christmas?

01:19:09.200 Because obviously Christmas and Easter are arguably the two most important Christian holidays.

01:19:13.200 But what would be the equivalent to those in Judaism?

01:19:16.240 Hmm.

01:19:17.020 Well, not Hanukkah.

01:19:18.180 So Hanukkah is in the same time period, but it really has nothing to do at all with Christmas.

01:19:24.440 And it's not one of the more stringent Jewish holidays.

01:19:26.780 The way that you can tell an actual Jewish holiday, as in like one of the ones that is

01:19:30.880 a big one, is I won't be on the air.

01:19:32.660 If I'm on the air, it's not a major Jewish holiday.

01:19:35.620 There are a couple of like mid-majors, you know, that are like, it's sort of like, you

01:19:40.120 know, the, I don't know, the Big Ten versus the SEC.

01:19:43.600 But it's, it's like the Purim and Hanukkah are kind of the second level guys.

01:19:48.180 And then the top level are Yom Kippur is usually placed at kind of the very top.

01:19:52.220 And then it's, and then it's three holidays that are, that are similarly placed as far

01:19:56.480 as importance.

01:19:57.000 And that would be Passover, Sukkot, which is the festival of booths.

01:20:00.180 And then the, and then Shavuot, which is the, I'm trying to remember what the, Feast of

01:20:05.900 Tabernacles is what it is in English.

01:20:07.340 Those three are the big three.

01:20:08.820 Probably, if you're going to say which one is the closest to Christmas of those, you'd

01:20:13.280 probably go with Shavuot.

01:20:16.740 The reason being that that's the giving of the Torah.

01:20:18.340 So I assume that the giving of Jesus is sort of like that, if you were going to, for Christians.

01:20:21.580 So I guess that would be the answer.

01:20:23.360 But there's no gift giving on that holiday.

01:20:25.500 You just, the only custom is you stay up all night in order to study Torah over the course

01:20:29.280 of that holiday.

01:20:29.700 But that's, that's pretty much it.

01:20:31.000 So I'm Midnight Mass.

01:20:32.020 Yeah, that's, that's true.

01:20:32.960 No, there is a similarity there.

01:20:35.020 Elisha.

01:20:36.220 All right.

01:20:36.560 Next question is back to the God King.

01:20:38.500 Somebody wants to know, they're very excited for the joining of Candace Owens to the Daily

01:20:42.460 Wire family.

01:20:43.340 And when does she officially join?

01:20:45.040 And will she ever be allowed to join backstage?

01:20:47.500 Well, she joined backstage tonight, reading Luke 2.

01:20:52.120 She identified herself with the Daily Wire.

01:20:55.120 So she's already joined the Daily Wire.

01:20:56.620 I think the question that you're actually asking is when will her show begin?

01:20:59.900 And the answer to that is when her maternity leave ends.

01:21:04.200 Candace will be having a baby in the next two weeks.

01:21:07.100 We're all very excited for her.

01:21:08.820 And after that, we're going to give her a minute to bond with the baby.

01:21:11.160 We've already hired a producer for her show.

01:21:12.940 We've been scouting locations because a component of her show will be that there's a live studio

01:21:18.140 audience.

01:21:18.600 So we've been working very hard for the last month on getting the show together.

01:21:23.280 But, you know, the baby gets a vote in terms of what the exact timeline is.

01:21:27.660 I would be looking for the Candace show to start at late February, early March.

01:21:31.760 All right, Matt, somebody wants to know, are you going to miss shoveling snow?

01:21:39.040 I feel like I'm going to be positive again with this answer, but I kind of will miss it.

01:21:43.420 So off brand.

01:21:44.900 Yeah, I do kind of miss the snow already a little bit.

01:21:47.700 We lived in Pennsylvania and it wasn't like living in, you know, Vermont or something,

01:21:52.360 but we got a fair amount of snow.

01:21:53.740 So and well, I've worked from home, so I haven't had to go into an actual office in forever.

01:22:00.000 So so it didn't matter.

01:22:02.060 We homeschool so we could it could just snow and we lived out in the country and we didn't

01:22:05.520 have to go anywhere anyway.

01:22:06.640 So and we had a hill right outside our house and I would go out with the kids.

01:22:10.860 And of course, you know, you get the kids dressed up in the in all the winter gear and

01:22:14.280 it takes like 90 minutes to get them in the winter gear and you go outside and immediately

01:22:18.360 they've got their hat off in the snow and a glove comes off and they're crying because

01:22:21.920 it's cold. But I would tell them, is it joyful?

01:22:25.400 It is.

01:22:25.840 Michael, get ready.

01:22:27.080 It is. And I would tell them, OK, you can cry all you want.

01:22:30.220 I'm sledding. So I would just go and sled down the hill and they would just watch me

01:22:33.240 crying. That's really how it would go.

01:22:35.520 And this guy hates Santa Claus.

01:22:37.500 And I so I will miss that a little bit.

01:22:39.120 But I do think we get a little bit of snow here from what I've been told.

01:22:42.120 So.

01:22:43.240 Yeah, every once in a while, Michael, other than your baby, who I think is due any day now,

01:22:49.260 what is the best Christmas gift that you've ever received?

01:22:51.500 The best Christmas. Oh, my gosh. I don't know. I've gotten great Christmas gifts.

01:22:55.280 You know, the Italians, I forget someone's you said it wasn't too materialistic when you

01:22:59.920 were a kid. The Southern Jeremy, my family was more like your family.

01:23:03.720 The Southern Italians really go all out.

01:23:05.680 Yeah.

01:23:05.820 They shower you in gifts that they frankly, a lot of people shouldn't even afford, you

01:23:09.400 know, I mean, it's but that's just the way it was.

01:23:11.800 My favorite one probably I ever got is a sitar.

01:23:16.420 You know, seriously, I, you know, I don't play any any instrument well, but I play like

01:23:22.360 every stringed instrument poorly.

01:23:24.160 And I I was down at the Jersey Shore where we would go on vacation way down the Southern

01:23:28.580 Jersey Shore.

01:23:29.080 And I saw this sitar one summer and I said, I want that sitar.

01:23:32.460 I was going through like a Beatles phase.

01:23:34.120 You know, I wanted the sitar.

01:23:35.340 And I mentioned this.

01:23:37.240 No, it was pretty expensive and there's no way to get it.

01:23:39.760 And this was kind of before Internet buying all over was was very popular.

01:23:43.560 So one one time my mother sort of pretended she had to babysit or something.

01:23:48.960 She drove four hours down the Jersey Shore.

01:23:51.040 I went to see my father's dress four hours down the Jersey Shore, buys the sitar, drives

01:23:55.020 four hours back up that night.

01:23:56.260 So I wouldn't find out that she was gone that long and gives me this sitar.

01:24:00.020 And I kid you not, my grandmother puts on a sari she bought in India in the 70s, puts

01:24:05.780 a dot on her forehead.

01:24:07.100 I'm not my Sicilian grandmother.

01:24:09.540 And presents me with this sitar when I was like 14 years old.

01:24:13.160 And now your grandmother is governor of North Carolina.

01:24:16.760 Virginia, really?

01:24:17.700 Sorry.

01:24:18.340 Governor of Virginia.

01:24:18.960 Can I ask what a sitar is?

01:24:20.320 It's this giant Indian instrument that actually it's much easier to play than it looks like

01:24:24.640 because most of the strings are just drone strings.

01:24:26.620 And then it really became famous because George Harrison smoked too much pot one time and decided

01:24:30.640 to incorporate it into a bunch of Beatles songs and become friends with Robbie Shanker.

01:24:33.840 And my takeaway from the story is that there are people who love you that much.

01:24:36.300 And I don't understand.

01:24:37.060 It's shocking.

01:24:37.940 Only a handful.

01:24:38.760 I don't understand.

01:24:40.840 So, guys, we've talked about the movies we love and hate.

01:24:43.740 Now it's time to talk about our favorite and least favorite Christmas songs.

01:24:49.180 And Drew Klavan will actually be joining us for this part of the show.

01:24:54.120 So, Matt, there's a pretty troubling topic.

01:24:57.200 I think you've been covering it better than any of us on social media.

01:25:00.380 Why don't you fill us in?

01:25:01.640 I think it's important around Christmas time to focus on the negative.

01:25:04.840 So it's important to establish what are the five worst or the worst Christmas songs because

01:25:10.640 we have to endure them.

01:25:12.300 Have you ever felt your heart grow three sizes on any Christmas day?

01:25:16.180 Matt, Christmas songs are great.

01:25:18.060 What's wrong with you?

01:25:19.140 It hasn't happened yet, but mainly because of these songs.

01:25:21.440 I'm blaming these songs.

01:25:22.500 So if I were to make a list of, like, the top five worst Christmas songs, All I Want

01:25:27.620 for Christmas, Do They Know It's Christmas, and then Wonderful Christmas Time, Wonderful

01:25:33.440 Christmas Time, and Wonderful Christmas Time, round out the top three.

01:25:36.180 Check, please.

01:25:36.220 I'm out.

01:25:36.660 Check, please.

01:25:37.160 We can get it.

01:25:38.540 We can end this now.

01:25:39.700 How dare you?

01:25:41.240 Wonderful Christmas Time is so aggressively bad.

01:25:45.060 It fills me with rage when I listen to it.

01:25:47.020 It's the least creative, least innovative song I've ever heard.

01:25:50.920 It sounds like he...

01:25:52.160 I think you just don't understand what Sir Paul McCartney is trying to convey, which is

01:25:56.960 that he is simply having a wonderful Christmas time.

01:26:00.280 I will grant Matt one thing.

01:26:02.740 The lyrics are...

01:26:04.440 They're a little...

01:26:05.620 They are a little bit off.

01:26:07.060 And yet I like that song much more than his fellow ex-Beatle John Lennon's song, War

01:26:12.520 Is Over, Merry Christmas, War Is Over, with that awful screeching Yoko in the background.

01:26:17.260 However, the lyrics of War Is Over is actually quite Christmassy, right?

01:26:21.980 Like, the spiritual warfare is over.

01:26:23.900 The savior of the world is here.

01:26:25.720 I'm sure this was all going through John and Yoko's mind when they were writing it.

01:26:29.160 But the fact is, as a song itself, the McCartney song, much better.

01:26:32.700 I'd like to make an offering to the group, if I may, just because I know more about old

01:26:38.000 music than I think almost anybody.

01:26:40.460 Back in the days when they wrote good songs, they actually wrote the worst Christmas song

01:26:44.600 ever written, which is The Happy Snowman.

01:26:47.880 On a Christmas Eve, a happy snowman stood and dreamed beside a cottage door.

01:26:56.660 It's about a happy snowman who's happy because he's a member of the family.

01:27:00.820 And the kids promise him that there'll be a gift under the tree for him.

01:27:05.480 And he just feels so proud that he's a member of the family.

01:27:08.540 And then, suddenly, tragedy strikes.

01:27:12.420 And I'm not capable of relating this in my own words.

01:27:16.400 Let me just read to you the lyrics that describe the final lyrics of this song.

01:27:21.280 The cottage porch looked beautiful and bright.

01:27:24.120 The holly wreath was turned on for the night.

01:27:26.140 When all at once, it caught on fire and fell.

01:27:29.000 He couldn't knock.

01:27:30.860 He couldn't ring the bell.

01:27:32.220 He couldn't run for help.

01:27:33.380 He couldn't call.

01:27:34.420 But then he had to save the children.

01:27:36.040 After all, he knew he'd melt away.

01:27:38.260 And yet the snowman threw himself across the burning floor.

01:27:42.040 How the children miss their friends, the snowman.

01:27:44.760 But they'll always remember him for a heart that was brave and the joy that he gave and

01:27:50.020 the funny fedora he wore.

01:27:52.000 That sounds great.

01:27:53.220 What's the problem with that?

01:27:53.940 If that song doesn't move you, I don't know.

01:27:57.120 I don't know what would.

01:27:58.860 I don't own a Victrola, so I'll never be able to hear that song.

01:28:02.260 But man, that got dark fast.

01:28:04.860 It turns bad.

01:28:06.060 Very quickly, I know.

01:28:07.220 Yeah, well, I think clearly the answer is actually slightly different.

01:28:11.000 And the clear answer here is Little Drummer Boy.

01:28:13.140 Harumpa-pum-pum.

01:28:14.320 Harumpa-pum-pum.

01:28:15.720 Harumpa-pum-pum.

01:28:16.620 Just endlessly into the dark night of eternity.

01:28:20.940 It's repetitive.

01:28:22.520 It doesn't actually have a bridge.

01:28:24.200 It just repeats over and over and over until you die.

01:28:27.720 I will say, Ben, that when I was a kid, Little Drummer Boy was by far my least favorite Christmas

01:28:34.540 song.

01:28:34.960 I just absolutely despised it for many of the reasons that you just outlined.

01:28:40.500 I have to admit, though, that it's grown on me over the years because the sentiment of

01:28:43.860 it is so sweet.

01:28:44.940 I always worry at the end when the baby Jesus, he's a newborn baby, and he smiles, and it's

01:28:49.500 probably just gas.

01:28:50.840 You know, I think that kind of ruins the song a little bit.

01:28:55.940 I'll move past that blasphemy for just a second to get into what I actually want to make a

01:29:01.300 preemptive defense.

01:29:02.500 One song a lot of people criticize at Christmas.

01:29:05.000 It's a little known song.

01:29:06.080 Maybe it's known more in New York.

01:29:07.440 It's called Dominic the Donkey.

01:29:09.140 So I understand that it's not the most lyrically or musically complex song.

01:29:13.380 But I just think, in this era of heightened sort of ethnic and racial tensions, as an

01:29:18.300 Italian-American, I would just ask that you leave that song off of the list.

01:29:22.880 Matt, what were your other two songs?

01:29:24.860 All I Want for Christmas.

01:29:26.040 Well, yeah.

01:29:26.600 And then what was the other one?

01:29:28.680 You mean All I Want for Christmas is my two front teeth?

01:29:31.260 No, no.

01:29:32.120 No, the Mariah Carey.

01:29:33.480 Oh, the Mariah Carey.

01:29:34.140 All I Want for Christmas is you.

01:29:36.220 Did anyone ever notice that it is like the most dismissive song of the person that she wants

01:29:39.680 for Christmas of all time?

01:29:40.820 Oh, yeah.

01:29:41.680 Right?

01:29:41.880 Like, the actual lyric is, I don't want a lot for Christmas.

01:29:46.340 All I want for Christmas is you.

01:29:48.980 Right?

01:29:49.580 I mean, just crapping all over that, which she wants for Christmas.

01:29:53.320 I hadn't thought of that.

01:29:54.820 We haven't yet touched on one of the worst Christmas songs, the one about the mother

01:29:59.220 kissing Santa Claus last night.

01:30:01.480 Oh, my Lord.

01:30:01.880 This poor husband getting cuckolded by jolly old St. Nicholas.

01:30:06.040 It's awful.

01:30:06.840 This is my least favorite Christmas song.

01:30:09.100 It just infuriates me every time.

01:30:11.560 Well, I think that we're missing the most horrible of all songs, of course, which is

01:30:14.780 Baby, It's Cold Outside.

01:30:16.120 Baby, it's cold outside.

01:30:20.160 It's far too sensitive toward women, I think, is the big takeaway that I've gotten from the

01:30:24.000 culture.

01:30:24.900 Really, it's too politically correct.

01:30:26.040 Now you make a fine point.

01:30:26.700 It needs to be more politically incorrect.

01:30:28.080 It's back in the day when a little seduction went a long way.

01:30:33.720 You know, in the movie where it appears, it's sung both by a man to a woman and then reversed.

01:30:40.040 The roles are reversed and there's a woman who seduces a man.

01:30:42.940 It's one thing for Matt to be a complete Grinch.

01:30:45.500 But there are some great Christmas songs, too.

01:30:47.380 We can agree on that, yeah?

01:30:48.680 I mean, I was just trying to think what's my favorite Christmas song.

01:30:51.260 I don't know that I could pick one because there are so many genres.

01:30:53.600 The ones that come to my mind, Holly Jolly Christmas, just because you get Burl Ives.

01:30:59.200 No, I mean it.

01:31:00.120 If I can get Burl Ives, I'll have that guy sing me the alphabet.

01:31:02.960 You've got Angels We Have Heard on High.

01:31:06.120 It's a slightly different type.

01:31:08.140 It's a wonder.

01:31:08.540 I don't know any of the lyrics other than Gloria, but that's pretty good.

01:31:16.480 Sounds great.

01:31:16.980 There's only one correct answer to this question.

01:31:18.880 It's the best Christmas song, and it is Silent Night.

01:31:20.800 Silent Night, holy night.

01:31:30.260 I agree with Ben completely on this.

01:31:32.780 I think, you know, Silent Night is the best old-fashioned Christmas song,

01:31:37.000 and the best, for me, modern Christmas song,

01:31:39.600 always remembering that all songs stop being written in 1959,

01:31:43.560 is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

01:31:45.840 That's exactly right.

01:31:46.780 Exactly right.

01:31:47.820 That's exactly where I was going.

01:31:48.480 Now it's settled, right?

01:31:49.580 As your fellow octogenarian, Clavin, I will say that that is 100% correct.

01:31:55.120 I mean, I would prefer to keep this conversation negative,

01:31:57.840 but if we have to go positive, then I would say Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

01:32:01.060 I think you have to determine the best Christmas song based on what sounds the best

01:32:05.040 when sung by a choir in church on Christmas Day.

01:32:09.220 And for me, Hark the Herald.

01:32:10.860 I will say that Christmas is the only season in which I wish that I were Anglican,

01:32:16.680 and you could just go to one of those even-song services where the little bitty boys have probably been neutered,

01:32:22.080 you know, in some ancient ritual that we despise as Americans.

01:32:25.340 It's the reason that we actually left England and formed our own country was to get away from this.

01:32:29.200 But my God, it's beautiful when they sing Christmas songs.

01:32:31.860 All right, well, I mean, I think we've covered pretty much every Christmas song ever written.

01:32:42.540 That's probably not fair.

01:32:43.420 There are so many Christmas songs, and none of us have yet made fun of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer or anything.

01:32:48.040 But I think that the segment's definitely gone on long enough.

01:32:51.300 So why don't we just go around the horn one time real quick.

01:32:53.580 Best and Worst, Drew?

01:32:56.040 Best is Silent Night.

01:32:57.580 Worst, I'm sticking with The Happy Snowman with a runner-up for Mele Kalikimaka,

01:33:01.480 which was the Feliz Navidad of its day.

01:33:03.560 Oh, that's a great one.

01:33:05.540 All right, Benjamin.

01:33:06.980 All right, Best, Silent Night, Worst.

01:33:09.580 I'm going to stick with my pick.

01:33:10.600 Little Drummer Boy remains the worst.

01:33:11.940 It is so supremely irritating and also happens to be an earworm

01:33:15.720 that will drill directly into your brain for eons.

01:33:19.120 Michael.

01:33:19.900 I'm going to say Best, Angels We Have Heard on Eye,

01:33:23.580 with a very close runner-up to Wonderful Christmastime.

01:33:28.060 And the worst of all time probably has to be the one where Mommy cucks her husband with Santa Claus.

01:33:34.760 That's just, for all the reasons you explained, Jeremy, it's absolutely unacceptable.

01:33:39.080 It's very rare that I agree on any one thing with Michael, and in this case I agree with two.

01:33:43.540 So I'm just going to say ditto to that list.

01:33:45.800 Angels We Have Heard on High and The Cuckolding Song are my list as well.

01:33:49.960 And Matt, why don't you round this out,

01:33:51.320 since you're the one who brought us down this dark and miserable journey.

01:33:54.400 You can just tell us your two least favorite if it'll make you happier.

01:33:57.640 I'll reiterate Hark the Angels for best.

01:34:01.940 And worst has to, again, be Wonderful Christmastime.

01:34:04.200 It is so, it's a war on Christmas in and of itself.

01:34:07.680 It's so bad that it makes me want to renounce my faith and become Jewish almost every time I hear it.

01:34:11.740 And it doesn't get worse than that.

01:34:15.020 It has to be Wonderful Christmastime.

01:34:16.700 Why did we invite this guy?

01:34:17.820 So now is the time for our next festive partaking.

01:34:29.720 This year we've played Secret Santa, which for the kids at home who may never have heard of the Secret Santa,

01:34:34.360 because, I don't know, you've lived under a rock your entire life,

01:34:36.980 is where we don't know what we're getting,

01:34:39.260 but we're each secretly assigned another one of us to buy a gift for.

01:34:43.180 And so now we'll each get the opportunity to open said gift and find out who loves us and how much I'm going to go first.

01:34:52.580 So it's roughly the size of, I don't know, maybe like a small, very small box of cigars if someone loved me.

01:35:01.040 But it would be quite a small box of cigars.

01:35:03.480 I don't know.

01:35:05.540 Nobody likes the bow.

01:35:13.180 So, not a box of cigars.

01:35:22.940 The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

01:35:26.740 Second edition.

01:35:28.540 Revised in accordance with the official Latin text promulgated by Pope John Paul II.

01:35:35.980 That's great reading.

01:35:37.300 So no one loves me.

01:35:38.300 Yeah.

01:35:39.260 That's the answer.

01:35:40.000 No one loves me.

01:35:40.900 Good reading.

01:35:41.320 Dare I ask who thought that the Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, would be a good gift for me?

01:35:48.400 You know, shockingly, it wasn't me.

01:35:51.680 Come on.

01:35:52.000 Though I have, this is one of those, you know, you show up to a party and you don't have anything and you say, this is from us?

01:35:56.900 This is from us.

01:35:57.780 Whoever got you that?

01:36:00.080 I don't, I can't imagine it was.

01:36:02.920 Oh, but who was?

01:36:04.760 Benjamin.

01:36:05.660 Well, I mean, if you're going to play Secret Santa, you really go full Secret Santa.

01:36:08.300 And also I just figured I'd give him something that, I mean, for Jeremy, he needs a doorstop, right?

01:36:13.240 I mean, like he has a new house and everything and like.

01:36:16.640 That's fair.

01:36:17.240 I like to check in on what the papists are saying every now and then.

01:36:19.800 Thank you, Benjamin.

01:36:20.960 You're welcome.

01:36:21.440 Oh, wait.

01:36:21.860 It was very important to them that we go in a particular order.

01:36:25.080 I think it's you.

01:36:25.960 Is it me?

01:36:26.460 Okay.

01:36:27.480 Wow.

01:36:28.280 This is a large gift.

01:36:29.460 Ah, yeah.

01:36:30.040 This is, it's certainly a horse.

01:36:33.500 All right.

01:36:34.520 The catechism.

01:36:35.360 From my favorite company, Amazon.

01:36:37.500 Okay, so first of all, I'm super excited because if it's from Amazon, it's good.

01:36:40.660 And all you Amazon haters like AOC, you can stick it.

01:36:44.280 Amazon can come to my hometown anytime.

01:36:47.400 Amazon is the greatest company in all the land.

01:36:50.160 Does that narrow it down?

01:36:51.380 They're like, oh, yes, something from Amazon.

01:36:53.180 Yes.

01:36:53.680 It doesn't matter what it is.

01:36:54.660 If it comes from Lord Jeff Bezos, if he has bestowed it upon me.

01:36:58.840 It could only be anything.

01:37:00.040 Okay.

01:37:00.640 Let's see.

01:37:03.140 Guys, I don't know who did this, but this is really meaningful.

01:37:05.500 And I just want, I'm going to cry.

01:37:07.300 I think.

01:37:08.960 It is, indeed.

01:37:10.380 It is a sweatshirt.

01:37:12.580 Wow.

01:37:13.940 My fellow platinum award-winning rap artist, Cardi B.

01:37:18.480 Someone knew you.

01:37:20.340 I'm glad you like it, Ben.

01:37:21.460 Thank you so much, Matt Walsh.

01:37:23.200 And coming from you, it means so much.

01:37:24.840 Yeah, I know.

01:37:25.120 We both have, are big fans of Cardi B, so I thought.

01:37:28.020 Mutual admiration.

01:37:28.800 Apparently, there's something else in the box as well, I've been told, by the voice in

01:37:32.020 my ear.

01:37:32.680 And it is, indeed, a Cardi B CD.

01:37:34.880 You can put that in your disc, put your Sony Discman rollerblading.

01:37:39.100 Now, I've been told, I haven't heard this album.

01:37:40.400 I have been told, and it has excellent songs, like Get Up 10, Drip, Bickenhead, Bodak Yellow,

01:37:48.020 Be Careful, Best Life, I Like It, Ring featuring Kalani, Moneybag, Bartier Cardi, I assume that's

01:37:56.440 a pun on Cardi A, She Bad, Through Your Phone, and I do.

01:38:01.480 So at the end, she gets married.

01:38:02.280 It's a happy CD.

01:38:03.960 At the end, she gets married.

01:38:04.680 She Bad is the best track on the album, in my opinion, but I'd be interested to see

01:38:08.540 what you think about it.

01:38:09.280 I appreciate that.

01:38:10.000 The words of Shakespeare.

01:38:11.100 So, thank you so much.

01:38:13.140 You're welcome.

01:38:13.800 I'll wear it every and every day.

01:38:15.120 All right.

01:38:18.780 I've never had a gift I like, so.

01:38:22.320 It's going to be a first time for everything.

01:38:27.120 Did you also get something for me?

01:38:28.740 I need a knife to open this thing.

01:38:31.560 I might have a key.

01:38:32.820 How is this supposed to work, guys?

01:38:34.300 Yeah, this is a production failure.

01:38:35.540 All right.

01:38:35.880 Here we go.

01:38:36.800 But it's wrapped again, so good.

01:38:40.220 All right.

01:38:40.800 Yeah, and there's a story with this, so it's sort of like, you know, what's...

01:38:45.320 Yeah.

01:38:45.920 I love a gift.

01:38:46.200 I love the gift in the gift.

01:38:48.620 Yeah.

01:38:48.980 What if it's just endless gifts, and at the end, it's just a note that says convert?

01:38:52.180 My nightmare is opening gifts from people.

01:38:55.640 So.

01:39:00.280 Wow.

01:39:00.780 What could it possibly be?

01:39:01.860 For my shiny, bald head.

01:39:07.140 Yeah, like...

01:39:08.220 Oh, wait.

01:39:10.320 I know what happened.

01:39:11.520 No, well, no, I just, I thought, you know, knowing that you would be here, that someday

01:39:15.860 maybe you could go...

01:39:16.860 Just don't know.

01:39:17.540 You could...

01:39:18.040 Yeah.

01:39:18.560 I...

01:39:18.960 Just don't know.

01:39:19.320 Oh.

01:39:20.520 Sure.

01:39:21.020 I mean, yeah, this was meant, this was totally meant for me, right?

01:39:23.420 Yeah.

01:39:24.280 Okay.

01:39:24.820 Yeah.

01:39:25.580 Yeah.

01:39:25.900 It's not like I was forgotten in the...

01:39:27.140 This is why I hate these.

01:39:28.620 See what happened for the folks at home?

01:39:30.280 Yeah.

01:39:30.700 It's our very own Andrew Clavin was supposed to be here tonight.

01:39:33.860 That's what...

01:39:34.360 But he managed to successfully pass his genetic line...

01:39:37.900 He did.

01:39:38.260 ...down to the next generation.

01:39:40.000 And today, unto him was born a happy and healthy grandson.

01:39:44.040 And in a pinch, because he was hanging out in the coat closet, we got Matt Walsh to sit

01:39:51.240 down and do the show, and...

01:39:54.140 That's awkward.

01:39:54.860 I am going to keep this, though, anyway.

01:39:57.020 Yeah.

01:39:57.280 Hey, look, someday maybe it'll come into play.

01:40:01.080 Or you can barter with Drew.

01:40:02.160 Who knows?

01:40:02.520 He's got a good head of hair, I suppose.

01:40:03.920 He does.

01:40:04.360 He does.

01:40:04.700 For now.

01:40:05.100 For now.

01:40:05.560 Michael, you're up left.

01:40:06.500 Okay.

01:40:06.720 I guess it's no surprise who the gift is from, since we've now...

01:40:09.380 Oh, great.

01:40:09.780 Okay.

01:40:10.540 Oh, man.

01:40:11.180 What did Jeremy get me?

01:40:14.040 Well, tis the season, and ho, ho, ho, and all that.

01:40:18.440 All right.

01:40:19.100 Okay.

01:40:19.760 All right.

01:40:20.200 This is the...

01:40:21.180 Please tell me it's...

01:40:22.180 It's not.

01:40:23.520 Okay.

01:40:24.100 I kind of like where this is going.

01:40:27.060 Yeah.

01:40:29.720 It's the most wonderful time of the year.

01:40:31.500 Is this...

01:40:32.680 Oh, my gosh.

01:40:35.200 Is this a...

01:40:36.060 Is this truly the gift that I most wanted?

01:40:39.240 Is this a giant meatball?

01:40:40.920 It's a giant meatball.

01:40:41.920 Oh, my gosh.

01:40:43.220 Dude, you...

01:40:44.320 You know, it's funny.

01:40:45.000 Like, I know it's a gag and everything, but you know me so well.

01:40:48.080 This is the present that I most wanted.

01:40:50.260 This...

01:40:50.500 Wow.

01:40:51.040 Merry Christmas, buddy.

01:40:52.180 Am I the only guy who got something he actually wanted?

01:40:54.420 This is so great.

01:40:54.960 No, no, no.

01:40:55.320 I've always wanted a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

01:40:57.600 Jesus Christ.

01:40:58.520 I'm going to turn over here.

01:40:58.680 Friends, thank you for joining us for this holiday edition of Backstage.

01:41:02.680 It's been a wonderful 2020.

01:41:03.840 I actually have to say, I know 2020's been hard for a lot of people in this country.

01:41:08.240 This is a time of celebration, and we hope that you'll take the time to spend with your

01:41:12.940 family and reflect on the blessings that we still have and the things that are still

01:41:16.880 worth fighting for.

01:41:18.140 We look forward to seeing you again in 2021.

01:41:21.900 Thanks from all of us.

01:41:22.760 Is your home's title still in your name?

01:41:32.380 With one forged document, scammers can steal your home title and equity, but now you can

01:41:36.480 protect yourself.

01:41:37.520 Home Title Lock's $1,000,000 triple lock protection provides 24-7 title monitoring, urgent alerts

01:41:42.320 to changes, and if fraud happens, they'll spend up to $1,000,000 to fix it and restore

01:41:46.700 your title.

01:41:47.520 Use promo code DAILYWIRE at HOMETITLELock.com for a free title history report plus a free 14-day

01:41:52.740 trial of their million-dollar triple lock protection.

01:41:55.660 Head over to HOMETITLELock.com now with promo code DAILYWIRE to ensure your title is still

01:42:00.100 in your name.

The Michael Knowles Show - December 21, 2020

Daily Wire Backstage： The 2020 Season Finale

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript