Hugh JackmanHost
Narrator/Himself / Hugh Jackman
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Christmas in Australia
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.
The setup
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The premise
Here’s the bit.
Seated beside Christmas decorations, Hugh Jackman describes a childhood holiday ritual: an enormous kangaroo brings presents, but fathers must win them in a fight. Flashbacks show his father battling the animal while young Hugh and his sister wait nearby. After the kangaroo begins winning, the fights end in sexual assault, and Hugh grows suspicious that his father is deliberately losing. When the kangaroo is finally killed, his father mourns it, abruptly correcting his reaction when the children look on. Hugh closes his account with a cheerful holiday message.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 4
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
And isn't that what Christmas is all about?
Behind the scenes
The people who made it.
T. Sean Shannon
Writer
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
Writer T. Sean Shannon recalled that Hugh Jackman repeatedly checked that the sketch would remain in the show despite the risk of running out of time. In a 2013 CNN interview, Jackman said performing it live with Will Ferrell made it difficult to keep from laughing.
Script
Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.
- 00:00
Narrator/Himself
Christmas. It's a joyous time of the year, Christmas, when millions of people around the globe celebrate in a variety of ways. Here in America, children are visited by Santa Claus, a magical fat man from the North Pole who slides down the chimney, leaves presents under a tree. But in Australia, where I'm from, instead of Santa Claus, we were visited by the Christmas kangaroo, who brought gifts for all the boys and girls.
- 00:23
Narrator/Himself
But the Christmas kangaroo wouldn't just give you the gifts. See, we Australians are a rough and tumble bunch. this kangaroo lived by a code your father would have to fight him for the gifts sometimes sometimes the fights would turn nasty but but when your dad when your dad won you would get anything you wanted Christmas was my favorite time of the year I always look forward to the return of the Christmas kangaroo but then when I was 12 tragedy struck my dad lost the fight when
- 01:03
Narrator/Himself
when the kangaroo one was pretty much up to him what happened next more times than not that meant we didn't get presents and And, uh, and, uh, and my dad got sodomized it It was a rough time around the jackman homestead i thought things would get better next christmas but no my father ended up losing the next four years in a row it was horrible after a while i questioned if my dad was even trying to win
- 01:43
Mr. Jackman
dan Dan, looks like you win again kids go get a Scotch and Soda. I mean...
- 02:01
Narrator/Himself
I mean, sure, sure, the kangaroo gave us gifts, but I just felt dirty accepting them. It seemed like a hell of a price to pay, just so I could have a sweater fest, you know. Luckily, when I was 17, after a five-year winning streak, the kangaroo lost.
- 02:18
Mr. Jackman
Hello, freckles. You You killed killed freckles! I mean, yay, it's over.
- 02:35
Narrator/Himself
And that's how the Christmas kangaroo's reign of terror ended. Now sure, now on Christmas morning all the Australian boys and girls might not get toys, but they're spared the horror of watching a giant marsupial take their old man to brown town. And And isn't isn't that what Christmas is all about? Happy holidays, everybody!
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