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Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas

When we talk about streaming culture, we’re usually enthusing about what’s new, but one of the best things about streaming is how it’s made old and obscure cult hits available to a new generation. Presenting Cult Corner: your weekly look into hidden gems and long-lost curiosities that you can find on streaming.

For the month of December, we’ll be focusing on obscure and offbeat holiday programming.

Let me be clear: Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is a very odd Christmas special. It might take place during Christmas, but besides that, it doesn’t really have the holiday flare we’re used to seeing in Holiday specials. I mean, it’s about impoverished anthropomorphic otters. There’s a jug-band. Rodents play banjos. The songs are about “grandma’s bathing suit” and washbins and long-lost brothers. It’s weird.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas was made in 1977 by The Jim Henson Company and debuted on HBO on December 17, 1978. It’s based on a children’s book by Russell Hoban and Lillian Hoban, which in turn is a cute, but twisted take on O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi. The story follows young Emmet Otter and his widowed Ma in the days leading up to Christmas. The two try to support themselves with odd jobs. Ma is a laundress and Emmet uses his dad’s tools to pick up handiwork gigs. This would be great, but their neighbors are constantly cheating them out of their cash.

As Christmas approaches, both Emmet and Ma get the idea to enter a talent competition in the hopes of winning prize money so they can finally buy real gifts for each other. There’s a catch, though. Ma needs money for a new dress so she can be presentable and Emmet would have to put a hole in Ma’s washtub in order to round out his jug band. So what do they do? Well, Ma hocks Emmet’s tools and Emmet ruins his mother’s washtub. This means, obviously, that they can no longer support themselves. They lose to a professional band called “The Nightmare.” On the way home, both Ma and Emmet are warmed by the knowledge that they wanted to treat each other to nice gifts and Ma gets the idea to combine their two songs. Doc Bullfrog overhears and invites them to work as performers. So, it all works out!

Still this special is rather depressing to me because of how the shadow of Pa Otter hangs over Ma and Emmet’s lives. I say that not just because it’s horrible to see children grow up without their fathers, but Pa Otter was not exactly morally upright. He was a failed snake oil salesman who left them with absolutely nothing. It might seem nice and sentimental that Ma and Emmet hock each other’s livelihoods in order to enter the talent contest, but it’s also really stupid of them. And they do it using the logic that it’s what Pa would have done. Pardon me, but Pa Otter was clearly a piece of shit.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas has the bittersweet spirit that marks a lot of Jim Henson’s non-“Muppet” work. Like last week’s The Christmas Toy, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is a beautifully crafted special. It marked the first time that The Jim Henson Company had toyed with complicated platformed sets. The music is delightful and it ends with a message of love and hope. Still, it doesn’t shy away from the wacky or the somber. That’s probably why while it has a ton of ardent fans, it’s never become a mainstream holiday mainstay.

Right now, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is facing off against How The Grinch Stole Christmas in Decider’s Ultimate Holiday Showdown, and it’s not doing all that well. If you want to stump for Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, vote for it by clicking here!

[Watch Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas on YouTube]

Previously On Cult Corner:

Cult Corner: The Christmas Toy Gave Us A Darker Toy Story Before Pixar Was Even A Thing

Cult Corner: How To Live Stream Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day For Free!

Cult Corner: In Defense of Hercules & Xena

Cult Corner: Toast Back To The Future Day With The Documentary Back In Time