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Christmas in Leutonia
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.
The setup
Watch on YouTube
Watch onYouTube
The premise
Here’s the bit.
On their polka stage, the Happy Wanderers, Yosh and Stan Schmenge, play a few bars and then introduce a film of a typical Leutonian Christmas Day with their family. Narrating the home-movie footage with deadpan pride, the brothers explain each custom: Yosh arrives at Stan's house and takes off his shoes because he is the visitor, then hides the traditional egg for the children before it becomes part of a cabbage-wrapped Christmas breakfast. The family admires Stan's flashy artificial tree, solemnly places a hat on top for reasons nobody remembers, and sends the women and children out of the room so the men can swap socks. Everyone then walks up the street to Yosh's house for presents, a mix-up over who opens which gift, and a Christmas budgie hung where mistletoe would be. The day ends with a giant cabbage roll and coffee before the brothers wish viewers a merry Christmas and add a greeting in Leutonian.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 2
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
You know, the artificial tree originally came from Leutonia, where trees are now extinct.
On Christmas Day, the men exchange socks to commemorate the sharing of worldly possessions.
Cabbage rolls and coffee can't be beat on Christmas.
Behind the scenes
The people who made it.
John Blanchard
Director
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
This segment aired in SCTV Network's December 17, 1982 Christmas episode, whose writing staff received a 1983 Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program.
Script
Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.
- 00:02
Yosh Schmenge
Hello, I'm your Schmengi.
- 00:04
Stan Schmenge
And I'm Stan Schmengi.
- 00:06
Yosh Schmenge
And we're the Happy Wanderers.
- 00:24
Yosh Schmenge
Well, once again, the Christmas season is upon us. And what a glorious time of year it is.
- 00:30
Stan Schmenge
Christmas is the time when the families get together to sing the Christmas songs and have some punch.
- 00:38
Yosh Schmenge
Or pep kick, as we call it in Lithuanian.
- 00:41
Yosh Schmenge
Letonian Christmases are just as much fun, if not to some extent different. That's why tonight, Stan and I are going to show you the customs and traditions of a typical Letonian Christmas.
- 00:55
Stan Schmenge
Christmas Day with the Schmenge family.
- 01:00
Stan Schmenge
The Christmas morning starts off with a visit from my brother, Josh, who comes to my house in the morning. He takes off these shoes, and why?
- 01:11
Yosh Schmenge
Why? Because I'm the visitor.
- 01:14
Stan Schmenge
He's the visitor. The children get very excited when Uncle Yash comes over because...
- 01:24
Yosh Schmenge
I got the egg!
- 01:25
Stan Schmenge
Oh, where's the egg, Uncle Yash, the children are saying? It's tradition in Lutonia for the Christmas visitor to bring an egg and hide it from the children to make it fun for them.
- 01:37
Yosh Schmenge
Oh, they do have fun looking for the egg.
- 01:39
Stan Schmenge
Oh, look, they sure do. And of course the egg symbolizes the Christmas breakfast.
- 01:44
Yosh Schmenge
where the egg is cooked and wrapped in cabbage leaves. We call them chlupniks, and they're so good, I can't tell you.
- 01:54
Yosh Schmenge
And the shell I take home and dispose of there.
- 01:59
Stan Schmenge
And there we are, Yash and myself eating the chlupniks.
- 02:04
Yosh Schmenge
Oh, they're good.
- 02:05
Stan Schmenge
Oh, delicious.
- 02:06
Yosh Schmenge
Mmm, can't be beat.
- 02:09
Stan Schmenge
Then there is the traditional looking at the tree.
- 02:12
Yosh Schmenge
Stan always has the best tree, real flashy.
- 02:15
Stan Schmenge
Well... You know, the artificial tree originally came from Mutonia, where trees are now extinct.
- 02:21
Yosh Schmenge
That's right, and now the whole world uses them.
- 02:25
Stan Schmenge
They sure do.
- 02:26
Yosh Schmenge
Boy, that's a real flashy tree you got there, Stan.
- 02:28
Stan Schmenge
Thank you.
- 02:29
Stan Schmenge
And then, of course, they're putting the hat on the tree ceremony. And the children get a big kick out of that.
- 02:35
Yosh Schmenge
Oh, the children have so much fun at Christmas.
- 02:38
Stan Schmenge
Putting the hat on the tree is a custom that goes back for generations in Lutonian families. We did it when we were kids, Josh, and we never found out why.
- 02:50
Yosh Schmenge
Nobody seems to know why, but we do it and it's fun. Especially for the children.
- 02:55
Stan Schmenge
Who now must leave the room along with the women. For the traditional exchanging of the socks. On Christmas Day, the men exchange socks to commemorate the sharing of worldly possessions.
- 03:11
Yosh Schmenge
And sometimes we forget to give them back.
- 03:14
Stan Schmenge
When we have too much peptic, we forget.
- 03:18
Stan Schmenge
And it's the traditional Schmingy walk where we leave Stan's house and walk to Yash's house who lives just up this street.
- 03:29
Yosh Schmenge
It's a lovely house.
- 03:31
Stan Schmenge
A lovely street.
- 03:36
Stan Schmenge
and there I am removing the shoes because I'm the visitor this time
- 03:41
Yosh Schmenge
that's right
- 03:41
Stan Schmenge
then it's time for the presents this is always fun and you got to be careful to make sure that you get the the right one! Look at you, opening the wrong one!
- 03:55
Yosh Schmenge
I got a doll!
- 03:58
Stan Schmenge
Boy, that's fun! And look at the fun we have! Right the mistletoe, the Christmas budgie is hung in the doorway, and watch what happens!
- 04:07
Stan Schmenge
Oh no, I got caught under the budgie!
- 04:10
Yosh Schmenge
And you know what that means!
- 04:12
Stan Schmenge
It's Melchik, named after the Lutonian legend Liny Melchik, the keeper of the Bajis. And then it's time for the Christmas dinner, where we all feast on the fine food that the women cook.
- 04:28
Yosh Schmenge
And there it is. Look at that cabbage roll.
- 04:30
Stan Schmenge
Oh, that must be 15 pounds.
- 04:33
Yosh Schmenge
The bigger the better on Christmas.
- 04:36
Stan Schmenge
Oh boy, I love the cabbage roll.
- 04:38
Yosh Schmenge
Oh, so good.
- 04:39
Stan Schmenge
Oh, delicious.
- 04:39
Yosh Schmenge
And of course, everyone gets some coffee. Cabbage rolls and coffee can't be beat on Christmas.
- 04:54
Yosh Schmenge
And so that's how Stan and I spent Christmas Day in the Letonian tradition.
- 04:59
Stan Schmenge
Well, I hope you enjoyed it. And I also hope that your Christmas Day brings you as much happiness with your family as we have with the Schmengis.
- 05:09
Yosh Schmenge
So until next time, I'm your Schmengi.
- 05:12
Stan Schmenge
And I'm Stan Schmengi.
- 05:14
Merry Christmas.
- 05:16
Yosh Schmenge
And for you Lutonians.
- 05:19
Yosh Schmenge
Christmas, your emotion will.
- 05:23
Stan Schmenge
Christmas, your emotion will.
- 05:26
Yosh Schmenge
Christmas, free your neat bad net.
- 05:30
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
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