Month: December 2024

Here it is: The full, final list of the Top Ten Tom the Dancing Bugs of 2024. The top ten were determined by a rigorous, scientific, proprietary process, developed in my secret arctic fortress, that cannot be revealed lest it fall into the wrong hands. 

But then the Top Three slots were put to a VOTE of the Inner Hive, an elite squad of the top minds on the globe, to determine their final order.

And so, here are the Top Ten Tom the Dancing Bugs of 2024:

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HONORABLE MENTION:

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, 2025, from the week of December 16, 2024,

which is included because the list was determined before the full impact of this comic’s popularity and impact had manifested, and had the comic not been released at the very end of the year, it could have landed in the Top Ten.

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THE NUMBER TEN TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024

SUPER-FUN-PAK COMIX: MICKEY MOUSE, from the week of January 1.

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THE NUMBER NINE TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024.

NEW YORK TIMES NEWSROOM, from the week of March 11.

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THE NUMBER EIGHT TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024.

CHAGRIN FALLS: “AMERICAN SHRUG”, from the week of July 8.

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THE NUMBER SEVEN TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024.

A TRIBUTE TO THE AMERICAN STORY: “LIBERALS ARE ALWAYS RIGHT,” from the week of February 12.

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THE NUMBER SIX TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: TRUMP 47 VERSION, from the week of October 21.

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THE NUMBER FIVE TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024.

Q-NUTS: “IT’S ELECTION DAY, CHARLIE BROWN“, from the week of October 14.

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THE NUMBER FOUR TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024.

THE HAITIANS – WELCOME TO SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, USA, from the week of September 16.

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And as determined by Tom the Dancing Bug’s proud and mighty Inner Hive, here are the Top Three Tom the Dancing Bugs of 2024

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THE NUMBER THREE TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024

A BUSY, BUSY DAY AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, from the week of July 15.

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THE NUMBER TWO TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024

HOW IT STARTED / HOW IT’S GOING, from the week of September 23.

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AND THE NUMBER ONE TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024

NEWS OF THE TIMES: CEO MANHUNT, from the week of December 9.

Thanks for reading, and let’s hope against all odds that we can make 2025 a good one. I’ll be drawing, and I hope you’ll join me on my journey — I’ll need all the friends I can get.

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• Give a Gift Membership to the Inner Hive to a liked or loved one, HERE.
• Buy the 2024 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual pdf, containing every 2024 comic, HERE.
• Buy the latest book, “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!,” or other books from The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program, HERE.
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This year marks only the fifth time since 1900 that the first night of Hannukah falls on Christmas. So this is the rare year that the hilarious the Saturday Night Live classic stop-motion animation short, “Christmastime for the Jews” doesn’t apply.

It was written/produced by legendary comedy writer Robert Smigel, evoking the look of a Rankin/Bass Christmas special, and sounding like a Phil Spector Christmas song. Here is Smigel on Bluesky, writing under his alter ego Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

This year Hanukkah begins tomorrow, on Christmas Day! But, rest assured, tonight your Jewish friends will run amok on Christmas Eve. Get ready, grateful squirrels!Here's #ChristmastimeForTheJews as it originally aired on @nbcsnl with a special live appearance by @darlenelovesings

— Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (@triumphicdhq.bsky.social) 2024-12-24T17:32:15.284Z

In a great oral history of “Christmastime for the Jews” by Jason Tabrys, published on Uproxx, is the story of how Smigel got Darlene Love, who sang “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)” on the 1963 album “A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector,” to sing the parody song.

Smigel: I love the A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector album so much. I saw Darlene Love sing at The Bottom Line, this club down by NYU in Manhattan. I think this was the early ’80s. Every year, Paul Shaffer, I think, would set it up. They would do that album, which is just all Wall Of Sound versions of Christmas classics as well as the song “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home),” which was written for that album and which Darlene Love did on the Letterman show for 25 years. …

Darlene Love (singer): First they can’t find me and then they start calling singers to find me. This happened because one of my background singers, Elaine Caswell, works with Saturday Night Live most of the time and they happened to ask her if she might get in touch with me. She called me and asked me if she could give them my number.

Smigel: I was obviously excited to work with Darlene Love. You can tell by the end credits — the font is enormous. Her credit is gigantic. I remember Lorne Michaels making fun of me for that. I just wanted people to know we really got Darlene Love to sing it.

A couple of notes: First, I love the story about the recording of “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home), my own favorite Christmas song. It’s said that producer Phil Spector (murderer, noted) was so thrilled with lines pianist Leon Russell was playing toward the end of the song (I was told it’s the part that starts at 2:08), he leaped out of the control room and handed Russell $100 on the spot.

And second, appearing on the same December 17, 2005 SNL show as “Christmastime for the Jews” was another comedy classsic for the ages: “Lazy Sunday,” by Lonely Island. I remember when I first watched this on my DVR, I didn’t even laugh; my jaw just dropped and when it was over, I immediately rewound so I could re-watch it, for the first time of many that day.