If you want to see the blasphemous song Willie Nelson sings on Colbert Christmas special, while playing one of the Wiseman, (offering not frankincense and Myrrh, but marijuana to the baby Jesus) clik on this link, scroll to the right--more info below the link-

http://current.com/items/89570991/a_colbert_christmas_willie_nelson_sing...

Hyper-real talking head Stephen Colbert fights back Sunday against the power-mad hordes who have declared war on Christmas. His secret weapon: a deliriously strange holiday special.

How strange? Toby Keith sings about Santa dropping nukes from his sleigh on heretics who don't believe in Jesus or Santa, who the country crooner explains are actually the same person.

Colbert and Keith are joined by The Daily Show's old-school faux newsman, Jon Stewart, and musical heavyweights like Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, John Legend and Feist. Willie Nelson, dressed as one of the Wiseman, offers a gift of marijuana to the baby Jesus.

With their help, Colbert dissects the religious roast beast that is Christmas using satire, drugs, violence and hilarious duets as a scalpel.

The premise is short and silly: Colbert prepares to leave his snow-covered mountain cabin to film a star-studded holiday special in his New York studio, but is menaced by a bloodthirsty bear.

As he remains terrorized inside, his special guests show up one by one to teach him about Christmas, murder, Hanukkah, marijuana, angels and the dirty double entendre known as "nutmeg."

Like everything the postmodern comedian creates, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All is a total riot. It's also a revenue gainer, with a $20 DVD of the show going on sale Nov. 25, just in time for the Christmas tree.

The DVD extras are slim, but clever. One is simply video of a Yule log, for those without a fireplace, that comes complete with burning books. There is also a 25-day video advent calendar, with Colbert offering jokes behind each door. Throw in a few alternate endings and Colbert's nearly straight performance of bonus song "Cold, Cold Christmas," and you have a couple reasons to actually buy a DVD these days.

The DVD also offers two ways to watch the Christmas special -- with or without the live audience. I suggest going with the live audience: For one, it gives you an idea how it responded to the performance, and secondly, it makes it much easier to watch Keith.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

The controversial country star is the first guest to show up at Colbert's cabin. Armed with an automatic rifle, Keith is hunting deer and heretics. The mild response from the audience is the first indication that the singer's presence is somewhat unsettling, and the second is provided by his song, which would probably make Jesus pale:

There's a war on Christmas / It's under attack / But this year America is taking it back / Separate church and state / That's what some lawyer said / I say it's time we separated him from his head / You can call me a Christian / But that isn't true / Hey have I got a present for you.

Keith's present is, of course, a nuke, a gun or some other violent implement. And while the accompanying video is a showcase of found footage and lifted scenes from war epics like Apocalypse Now, it's a relief once Keith leaves and gives way to Willie Nelson, who plays a fourth Wise Man bringing the gift of weed to baby Jesus' bedside. As Keith's polar opposite, Nelson sings about love, comity and how pot can bring both to fruition.

"Stephen, right now I'm so high, you're hallucinating," Nelson cracks, before launching into the special's greatest tune, a double-exposure duet with Colbert.

Nelson brings the show to life, and John Legend and Feist keep the holiday balls rolling. Legend plays a sheriff in love with nutmeg, a sexual double entendre he explores at length in a song that plays note for note like Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On."

Feist appears as a call-center angel who promises to answer Colbert's prayers for deliverance -- after she's done with the millions of other whiners.

Elvis Costello appears two times by phone, eventually showing up at the cabin, dressed as the menacing bear, to perform "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" with all the guest stars. It's a crafty wrap that ends with Colbert and the bear making out beneath the mistletoe.

It would have been a conventional ending had it stopped there, but that holiday spirit is upended by more violence, bringing the show to a destabilizing close. Maybe that's why Colbert felt compelled to provide alternate endings on the DVD -- or it could just be the nature of comedy in the 21st century.

Keith's violence, Nelson's peace, Legend's sex and Feist's overstressed divinity cover all the bases of the religious holiday that Colbert -- as a still-practicing, Sunday-school-teaching Roman Catholic -- knows all too well. Leaving on the high note of goodwill that is the hallmark of Costello and Nick Lowe's classic song would have added meaning to the special's madness.

But Colbert has never played it straight, and is too clever and well-read in his Bible to buy that love-is-all nonsense. The world is a dirty, dangerous and violent place, especially in the Bible. Christmas and peace are fantasies, like Jesus himself, some would argue.

Colbert's domain is the bizarro world that we know as our own. Gutting a bear you just made out with beneath the mistletoe in the spirit of peace, love and understanding isn't hypocrisy. It's reality.

Wired: Hilarious duets, Nelson's immortal ode to pot, Colbert making out with a bear ... in fact, anything with Colbert in it.

Tired: Toby Keith. So tired. So very, very, very tired.