Geek and Nerd In-Jokes: Star Wars Holiday Special

Everybody loves inside jokes, and you have inevitably found yourself on the outside a time or two. The more obscure the reference, the more fulfilling it is when someone else “gets it”.

I thought it would be fun to review some of my favorites, so you can feel cool when you catch them in some of my other blog posts. I’ll try to keep them mostly geek/nerd/tech related, but no promises…

Star Wars Holiday Special

The Star Wars Holiday Special is a horribly awesome holiday variety show that takes place (mostly) in the Star Wars universe.

I won’t give you a synopsis of the show, you can read that elsewhere. I highly recommend that you do, and see if you can get your hands on a copy to watch. It is most entertaining.

What You Need to Know

• Only aired for one day, and George Lucas reportedly doesn’t like it and would prefer to destroy all copies. He has never agreed to release it or air it ever since.
• Was originally aired in November of 1978, over 1 year after Episode IV was released, and 2 years before Episode V.
• Had a typical variety show format. Short clips and songs that are held together with an underlying story.
• Focused around Chewbacca’s family, but nearly all of the principal characters from the Star Wars film made appearances.
• Contained the first appearance of Boba Fett, and he was animated!
• “Awesome” performance of Light the Sky on Fire by Jefferson Starship
• Carrie Fischer Sings
• Bea Arthur Sings
• Was Riffed

How to Recognize Allusions

• Discussions about truly horrible films that everybody knows about and nobody has seen. Before you ask, yes, I have seen it. I even got my wife to watch it with me!
• References to Life Day
• Images of Star Wars characters with any form of Christmas decoration (like in the video for White and Nerdy)
• Depending on who is in the room, just the phrase “Holiday Special” or “That Holiday Special”.