Sunday, December 21, 2025

Flopcast 711: Everybody Knows a Turkey

It's our annual holiday spectacular! And once again we're talking about old Christmas cartoons, because that's all we care about. But this time, we're looking at a couple of cartoons we've never discussed on the show before, and they're both based on classic comic strips. (They're also both on YouTube, if you want to play along.) From 1979, A Family Circus Christmas features a ghost Santa, a candy cane farm in the clouds, a busty mom, and plenty of crazy jazz flute. And from 1982, Ziggy's Gift features the scrawny tree from Charlie Brown Christmas, the Irish cop from Frosty the Snowman, a creepy gray guy, and a million screaming turkeys. Both are magnificent. Also: A glitter bomb Christmas card from Panda! A Manos: The Hands of Fate Christmas card from Jacob! A lost Ziggy pencil sharpener! A lost TV show described as "Mission Impossible meets The Love Boat"! And the Mighty Morphin Figgy Pudding Pages! So please throw up the sash, turn with a jerk, and enjoy.

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Show Notes

How It Ends is one of the Mayor's favorite audio dramas, now in its fourth season. Friend of the Flopcast Jacob Haller works on it!

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The Family Circus started in 1960 and is now drawn by Jeff Keane, who took over from his Dad Bil. Check out the special (with the surprisingly shapely Mom) on YouTube!

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Coincidentally, Ziggy also lives on thanks to the son of the original artist. Ziggy's Gift is bizarre and rather delightful. This version from the original broadcast includes some fun commercials!

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All we know about Masquerade, we learned from IMDB. Once our holiday viewing is done, maybe we'll check out the pilot!