“Hey fancy pants. I’ve been naughty.”

Justin’s rating: LAST WEEK on the Venture Bros… didn’t matter, because this is a one-off special.

Justin’s review: It’s actually been a long while since I last ventured into, erm, The Venture Bros. — that wacky amalgamation of Johnny Quest, the Superfriends, the Fantastic Four, ’70s comics, and mad science parodies made for Grown-Ups Only. But I never did actually see the Christmas Special from the first year, so I am righting a great wrong today by reviewing it.

While it’s only 11-and-a-half minutes long, the special manages to pack in a whole lot of Christmas story parodies into one crazy night. While the Venture family is hosting a Christmas Eve party with all of their friends, their arch-nemesis the Monarch is planning to blow them sky-high via a nativity rigged with C4 explosive.

But a big monkey wrench is tossed into that plan when the two oblivious Venture boys accidentally summon a rampaging Krampus from Doctor Orpheus’ spellbook.

Hilarious chaos ensues, with tiny children screaming from on top Krampus’ back as he whips the naughty Dr. Venture and is in turn whooped by Venture’s bodyguard Brock. But hey, it may just be a wacky dream in the end (as these things often are).

With such a short runtime, the only shot that A Very Venture Christmas has at being memorable is to cram as many references and jokes in as possible. Good news! It does that in spades! I had forgotten how genuinely funny this off-kilter, slightly blue show is, and it was a nice present to revisit the gang this holiday season.

Didja notice?

• And now we return you to A Christmas Carol… and The Grinch… and Charlie Brown Christmas… and Rudolph… and It’s A Wonderful Life
• HELPER as Tiny Tim
• Wish book… 1976
• “Get out of there,, Tiny Joseph, your work is done!”
• “What does that even mean? Camels poo toys?”
• Santa was killed by a jet in 1963
• The Pope cast Krampus into purgatory during Vatican II