Christmas! Ah! It's here!
[Excited Grunting noises]
I love it! I love it! I love it! I hope you're loving it too!
Man! Just, uh, just wanna give you guys a great big seasons greetings
Happy Holidays, and of course, Merry, Merry Christmas!
So excited, always loved this day, and I have a certain something to share with you,
a little Christmas message that means a lot to me, hopefully it means a lot to you
As some of you may or may not know, I lost my mother this year
and it was totally out of the blue, it was peacefully, in her sleep, it just came out of nowhere
it took us all by surprise, and I wanna share a little something with you
that I think you'll, uh... I take to heart at least,
something that she always used to tell me because she loved my stuff, she loved what I did,
but this was a proud Catholic woman
and she would always say, "I love your stuff, but why do you have to use such bad language?
Why do you have to do that?" and years and years, she would always say this,
and she'd say, "Oh I raised him on Walt Disney! I raised him in the church! I raised him-!"
And she'd always say: "Why do you have to use the F-word?
Why do you use all those four letter words?", and what I'd usually bring up, is I'd say
"Well, how about that scene in Blues Brothers where the nun is slapping them for swearing?",
and she goes, "Okay, that's the one time it's funny!",
and I say, "Well how about that time in Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman was OD'ing
and there was swearing up a storm?" and she's like, "Okay that's two times it's funny!"
I'm like "Well, if there can be two times, there can be other times!"
and then she'd go back to her, "No! It's not funny! It's offensive," and blah, blah, blah.
So something I would do is, 'cause this is something I didn't see coming when I was doing this,
is that people would start sending me emails saying that I helped them through stuff,
just by having something certain in their lives, something funny,
something positive that they can constantly go to every week, it's like that little bit of stability
in an unstable world that... y'know, or unstable environments that people can be in
so I would take those every year, and I would put them in a little collection called "They All Like the F Word"
and these are the emails that people sent over the course of a year and I would put them together,
I'd print them out and I would give them to my mother.
As you can see, this would be the sixth edition, this would've been the sixth year I would have given it to her.
And all the names, by the way, are blotted out, don't worry. I mean, nobody's identity is given away,
but the stories are still there word for word.
And I guess the big thing about it is that, you know, she would see this and she would appreciate it.
I mean, this is one of those people you saw in that "Worst Christmas Special Ever" video, at the end.
She loved to help people, she was a big helper and she loved spreading the idea of just...
"making people feel better makes you feel better" kind of thing,
and you sorta take...
You need a thing yourself, but you sorta take yourself out of the equation sometimes too,
and what really surprised both of us when this whole thing started and just kept going and going and going,
the whole Nostalgia Critic thing,
is that this was not the original intention, it was definitely to spread laughs and have fun and everything,
but we weren't thinking like, "Oh wow, helping people!"
because there's stuff where people talk about, you know,
"I was suicidal, I lost somebody recently, I was in war, and just watching your stuff can really help."
and, I guess what I'm trying to get across with this, is that it works both ways.
In terms of the whole giving and receiving thing.
And around the holidays, everyone always says "Oh, it's not about the receiving, it's about the giving!",
and that's true.
But, it is also learning how to receive that love too. It's about giving love, but it is also about receiving love,
and not all of us are great at that.
Sometimes when we're given a compliment we say, "Oh! Oh, no, it's not! It's, nah, nah," we immediately deny it
like we're uncomfortable accepting something nice.
And I think Christmas is definitely a time not just giving something nice, but accepting something nice.
That you can be accepting not only of others, but you can be accepting of yourself.
And I think this kind of stuff and these kind of stories kind of show that there are people
that are having a hard time accepting themselves,
and that... I kinda feel like when they're going through that,
they do look for something, no matter how strange or weird or whatever,
that can help them out, and a lot of people in here say, "Oh! You really helped me! You've changed my life!"
or something like that, and I'm I wanna say to all of you, you have changed MY life.
And that's what I mean when I say it works both ways,
because so many of these celebrities always say "Oh, we'd be nowhere without you!",
and you think "Well, they have to say that."
Well, 1) You're right.
2) They don't always,
because, you know there are some celebrities and people who go through stuff where they can't see it
or they can't feel it, and that is a shame,
but there's definitely a large amount that do realize how important you are
and how important the people that watch, and share and talk about such positive things
how important they really are.
So when people like us say, "it really is all from you guys, and it's so wonderful, and you really are the world"
I can definitely say, I really mean it. I know a lot of other people who mean it as well.
So, you know, you can look at this stuff, and you can be like, "Oh you've really helped me through so much stuff."
"You've changed my life." You really have changed my life. You have made so much of my happiness possible.
And, you know, if just making these silly videos can make you happy as well, it really is the least I can do
Because you guys really do help share so much of that love and so much of what Christmas is,
just not around Christmas, but year-round.
And it really, really means the world.
I know that's what my mother always tried to get done, tried to spread that love
and, you know, the idea of sharing and being kind and just how powerful it is to help others
and how much it comes back and it really does reward you,
so... it's...
but it's all in different ways.
It is in such different ways, and I think that is one of the reasons I made this,
it's because she thought, "Well, that F-word can't... [trails off]"
You know? That nobody can like that. Nobody can get into it.
But people have different languages, they have different cultures.
And every time I would make this for her, she would see that,
she would read these stories, a lot of times she would read one before going to bed.
She would read an email, and uh...
I really wanted to say that you guys helped with that, you guys constantly help people like me and my mom
see various ways to help, and different cultures, different languages, just all sorts of variety
and that is so phenomenal and I am just so thankful to have you guys in my life.
And it just means the world to me, and this would've been year six.
And it drives me NUTS that I can't give this to her, but as you can see I had it made anyway,
and who knows? Maybe she is seeing it. You know we don't know what happens after this world.
But... you know.
It's one of those things where I made it anyway, not just for her, but for you guys
because it really, really...
I really mean it when I say you mean the world. You have changed my life, you mean so much,
I know I'm on repeat right now, but I love saying it, I love saying how much you guys have affected my life, so...
thank you all so much, and just remember that things you never would've thought of
like, you know, just going around cursing and talking about movies could help people through stuff, y'know?
But I mean, look, this is the sixth edition of this,
and... it's... Those good...
Those good ideas and that bit of kindness that works in ways you're not even aware of so do It anyway,
do it even if you think it's not working, because the majority of time it is, you're just not aware of it,
and find different ways to do it! Find ways that maybe nobody has thought about!
There's so much kindness and so much positivity that can be shared and there's so many various ways to do it.
So everybody have a Phenomenal Christmas!
Keep it in your heart today, keep it in your heart tomorrow, keep it in your heart the whole year-round.
As much as you can! You're still human like me, you're gonna make mistakes and we're all gonna have goofups,
but just try your best, man, because you know that effort goes a long way and that trying goes so far.
So, thank you all so much and have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas!
Take care.