Is Chevy Chase King of the Comedy Cash Grab?
Jimmy Fallon has been on a heater lately, using The Tonight Show as a medicine wagon from which to sell his children’s books, haunted house tours and Christmas albums. But just when you thought a cash-grab comedian couldn’t get any more shameless, along comes Chevy Chase to say, “Hold my holiday beer.”
There’s Chase on Instagram, fast asleep in his chair, waking only long enough to bust open the cumbersomely named “35th Anniversary Christmas Vacation Legacy Box LIMITED EDITION.” Having already sold different versions of this product to us in four different decades, the money-hungry comic is back at it in his Official Chevy Chase Shop, offering a boxed set (ONLY 300 AVAILABLE!) that includes:
- 7 trading cards
- A custom anniversary poster signed by Chase
- Two limited-edition ornaments
- A deck of cards
- A bag of popcorn
- One additional insert card
The “additional insert card” is the purported prize here. It could be a piece of cardboard signed by Juliette Lewis, Randy Quaid (!), Beverly D’Angelo, Brian Doyle Murray, Miriam Flynn or Chase. Or it could be a Chase “relic” — the comic has been cutting his old SNL costumes into tiny scraps and selling them off for $500 a pop. Even Fallon hasn’t ripped up his Barry Gibb Talk Show disco shirts (yet).
Missing from the holiday package? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (only $14.99 on DVD at Amazon), an item one might expect to find in a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation Legacy Box. Here’s guessing Chase doesn’t want to split the spoils with Warner Bros., or the estate of writer John Hughes, the guy who invented Clark Griswold. Much easier to sell Lisa’s Goody’s gourmet popcorn (double-possessive theirs, not mine) and mark up the wholesale.
Speaking of price, the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation box that doesn’t include National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation can be yours for only 300 bucks. If Chase’s website is to be believed, there are only 138 left, so act fast! And if you don’t have $300 burning a hole in your pocket, Chase will part with a Griswold-themed tin of popcorn (Lisa’s Goody’s, no doubt) for only 100 smackers. Holiday shirts are available as well, featuring un-trademarkable slogans like “Do You Want to Hold My Balls?”
You might want to wear those items when you attend Friday night’s “An Evening with Chevy Chase After National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation” in Reading, Pennsylvania. Nearly $80 orchestra seats are still available.
It’s an evening that promises plenty of jingle-jingle-jingle — a merry sound emanating from either Santa’s sleigh or your money in Chevy’s pocket.
