With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, we’re officially in holiday music season. If “White Christmas” and “Silent Night” aren’t your cup of eggnog, perhaps Jimmy Kimmel teaming up with The Killers to make “Joel the Lump of Coal” will tickle your eardrums.
As is to be expected for a song called “Joel, The Lump of Coal,” the new holiday ditty spends parts of its early verses lightly ribbing traditional holiday music tropes. Lowly Joel, the downtrodden lump, is promoted to a spot in Santa’s sleigh like a soot-filled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But then the video takes a surprising twist, painting Kris Kringle as a veritable Scrooge as he lambasts Joel for being a useless lump of dirt only suited for punishing naughty children.
Because of the vilification of Santa, “Joel, The Lump of Coal” likely will never become a holiday standard — which is a shame, because it’s not only heartfelt, it’s also really catchy.
In the true holiday spirit, all proceeds from downloads of Joel, The Lump of Coal” go toward the (Red) campaign, which was founded in 2006 by Bono and Bobby Shriver to fight AIDS worldwide.