Barenaked Lads Save Christmas

Barenaked Lads in the Great Outdoors, Bailiwick’s remake of its long-running Naked Boys Singing!, gave us the light, harmless fun of Eninger’s tee-hee sketches and Mahler’s snappy tunes. So director Zak has understandably brought both back on board for this holiday-themed reprise. But revisiting the butt-naked ones is like hooking up again with that one-night stand, the one who gave you an okay-enough shag. Why kid yourself it was anything worth repeating? Alas, you realize your folly too late, for here’s the groaner opener, the smiley lady emcee asking us what was the worst Christmas gift we ever received.

In one sketch, a naked TV chef’s appliances are other naked guys; the food processor slings his penis from side to side, then up and down. In another, a son comes out to his family as a barenaked lad, then goes off in search of his own kind. Laughing yet? And the would-be waggish sits oddly alongside cheap sentiment, as with an embarrassingly formal (and poorly choreographed) dance duet performed while the others sing “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Mahler has a decent ditty in which a broken-up (and fully dressed) straight couple sings about missing one another at Christmas, but there’s neither rhyme nor reason to its inclusion. Finally, it’s tough to take seriously the “message” about a commercialized Christmas when this knockoff of a knockoff so cynically attempts to cash in on holiday-season audiences. It’s cold outside; give these poor lads their clothes.—Novid Parsi