Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Here's Your Christmas Album
Cover image credit:

Source

Here's Your Christmas Album

Bill Engvall

Warner Bros. Records · Album · 2005 · 40 min

A studio album of novelty country songs and holiday comedy tracks.

Bill Engvall applies his suburban dad exasperation to the holidays in an audio release built around musical comedy and seasonal gripes. Rather than a standard stand-up set, the project leans heavily into novelty country songs and spoken-word rants, skewering the forced cheer of December. The tracklist covers a mix of chaotic family dynamics and legal trouble at the North Pole, highlighted by “Rudolph Got a DUI,” “I’m Getting Sued by Santa Claus,” and two separate versions of “Fruitcake Makes Me Puke”. He also updates his signature bit for the season with “Here’s Your Sign Christmas”.

Originally released in 1999 as a follow-up to his hit record Dorkfish, the 40-minute studio album was reissued in 2005. Produced in Nashville with a full roster of session musicians and backing vocalists, the project functions strictly as a country comedy record rather than a live theater recording. Reviewing the release for AllMusic, Chuck Donkers pointed out Engvall’s ability to turn accepted customs inside out and expose the irritating side of the holidays.

The set list

5 bits

  1. I'm Getting Sued by Santa Claus

    Novelty joke song revolving around legal trouble with Santa Claus

  2. Rudolph Got a DUI

    Comedic country song depicting Santa's reindeer getting arrested for driving under the influence

  3. A Gift that She Doesn't Want

    Mostly spoken comedic routine addressing poorly chosen holiday presents

  4. Here's Your Sign Christmas

    Holiday-themed spoken redux of Engvall's signature anti-stupidity catchphrase routine

  5. The Christmas Sign

    Pro-Bible, sincere holiday track reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas

How it plays

Tone
A mix of sarcastic holiday irritation, sappy sentimentality, and novelty country satire
On stage
Sarcastic narrator delivering anti-stupid-people humor punctuated by self-chuckles
About
Christmas, holiday traditions, gift giving, stupidity

What the critics said

Met with divided to negative reviews; AllMusic noted Engvall's talent for exposing the darker, irritating underside of holiday traditions, while Country Standard Time and The A.V. Club criticized the album's contrived lyrics, sterile singing, and generic country backing, with The A.V. Club calling it the nadir of his career.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, musicbrainz.org, link.livebrary.com, countrystandardtime.com, avclub.com, allmusic.com.

Details

Released
Taped
Thelma's East
Runtime
40 min
Where
Warner Bros. Records (album)
Honors
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums - No. 44U.S. Billboard Top Holiday Albums - No. 33
Topics
Before
Here's Your Sign Live (2004)
After
15° Off Cool (2007)

More from Bill Engvall

If you liked this