Fans of The Venture Bros. everywhere adore two ostensibly peripheral characters, henchmen 21 and 24, who toil for the evil mastermind known as .... the Monarch! Voiced by the show’s creators, Eric “Doc” Hammer and Jackson Publick (Christopher McCulloch), respectively, the pathetic duo of intermittently loyal “muscle” functions as a bizarre Greek chorus on the events of the Venture universe even as their very presence points up the inherent absurdity of Bond-esque masterminds who seemingly have little trouble assembling armies of goons with no mention of pay, working hours, overtime, parental leave, etc. (For reference, 21 is the chubby one who has a crush on Dr. Girlfriend; 24 is the taller one who for no known reason sounds like Ray Romano.)
 

 
Several years ago, Hammer and Publick undertook a cover of that most annoying of Christmas ditties, Paul McCartney’s kudzu-like 1979 effort “Wonderful Christmastime.” Right now on my Facebook feed, I’m following a heated discussion as to whether “Wonderful Christmastime” is the worst song of all time or merely the worst Christmas song of all time; as of now, it appears to be a tossup. Two years ago Dan Harmon and Jeff Davis spent several minutes excoriating the tune on an episode of Harmontown (jump to minute 47 for that bit).

Whatever your take on the song, which reportedly earns McCartney $400,000 annually, Publick and Hammer treat the Xmas numb-er with all the, er, respect that it deserves, which makes for one highly amusing Yuletide video.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
A young Dr. Venture crashes ‘Late Night with David Letterman,’ 1983

 
In 1983 James Urbaniak was 19 years old and attending community college and living in Marlboro, New Jersey, in Monmouth County. Like a lot of smart younger males at that time, he absolutely worshiped David Letterman, whose Late Night talk show had debuted the previous year. In February of that year he secured a ticket to attend a taping of the show; he was really excited about it.

During the monologue Letterman attempted to tell a joke he had tried and failed to tell in the previous night’s monologue, and ended up flubbing it a second time. When Letterman commented that he had screwed it up two nights in a row, the future Dr. Venture cried out, “Can I try it?”—and Letterman, making a snap decision he’d be far less likely to make on his CBS show, The Late Show, agreed. “Jim” Urbaniak bounded down from the audience, and the rest is history—really, really inconsequential history.

Here’s a cute animated video from Vulture/UCB Comedy in which Urbaniak tells the story:
 

 
I fully endorse all of Urbaniak’s musings about the chintziness of the Late Night aesthetic and the much less unbuttoned comedy found on Letterman’s CBS show. According to Splitsider, the guests that night were “Andy Kaufman and wrestler Freddie Blassie; Alba Ballard and her costumed birds; and Marv Albert and his sports bloopers.” That might be a little bit of an in-joke; that’s pretty much a concocted ideal memory of what every show was like.

As it happens, I also attended a taping of Late Night with David Letterman, and I was also 19 when I did so. The year was 1989, and the guests were Bob Hope, Melanie Mayron and Robyn Hitchcock. I restrained myself from attempting to hijack monologue duties, however.

This is probably as good a place as any to inform you about his new podcast Getting On with James Urbaniak.

Here’s the actual clip of Urbaniak telling the monologue joke on Late Night in 1983:
 

 
Via Splitsider

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
David Letterman checking out Cher’s bum (1987)