We are ecstatic that Tim and Eric will be performing (they really do an awesome show -- great job, guys), along with Bob Odenkirk and Michael Showalter. A comedy-packed night, for sure. Zach Rogue of Rogue Wave is also performing.

And here's our giveaway: The fifth commenter on this post will be the lucky winner of two tickets to Sunday's show. Please tell us who you're most excited to see and why. You must be 21 to enter. If you are the fifth commenter, please check your email. You will be notified by the end of the day tomorrow, if not by 5 p.m. today.

SF Sketchfest's "Fresh Faces of Comedy" | Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 8 p.m. (doors at 7 p.m.) | Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street @ Mint, SF | 21+ | $25, buy tickets

Image credit: Sonic Living

So, Beantown sorta flips out a few months back (not that we blame them!) at little lite-brite signs depicting Aqua Teen Hunger Force characters flipping the general populace off. City grinds to a halt -- TBS, on behalf of "Adult Swim" -- pays a nice lump of dough -- $2 million.

In San Francisco, the signs were posted too, evidently, but we didn't really seem to notice or care. Regardless, we get a consolation prize of $85,000.

The lesson? Become more paranoid about urban-based marketing, then get all soap-boxy and preachy in the aftermath*, and maybe we too can squeeze more cash from pot head-oriented broadcasting affiliates. Are you listening, Heather Fong? Gavin Newsom?

*

Darlene Love performing the best Christmas song ever, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on Letterman tonight? Check.

Twenty-four hours of on TBS starting on Christmas Eve? Check.

It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve, (albeit on NBC and butchered by an hour's worth of commercial interruptions)? Check.

And, once again, the most important yuletide TV offering, the return of the "Holiday Log" on Action 36 (cable channel 6). Get out those stockings and hang them above the "fireplace" this Christmas Eve (it's airing from 10 p.m to midnight) and wake up to a warm TV log Christmas morning (from 9 a.m to noon). And if you'd like to learn more about this weirdest of televised traditions, watch "The WPIX Yule Log: A Log's Life" on cable channel 33 at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night.

We're suckers for holiday traditions. Even (especially?) the horribly tacky TV ones.

There's no question that getting fired, canned, axed, rif'ed, or booted SUCKS. We were back at one of our favorite SF theaters, the Roxie, for the SF debut of Annabelle Gurwitch's at Docfest on Friday night. It turns out that there were so many eager sympathizers, a second show had to be added. We stood in line near Gurwitch, and Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary, who has a cameo in the film and whom one of our friends kindly pointed out to us, while we waited somewhat anxiously for San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi to wrap up the Q&A in his recent documentary, The Slanted Screen (it seemed like it took forever).

Fired! was inspired by Gurwitch’s (who you may remember her from Seinfeld and/or TBS’s Dinner and a Movie) experience getting laid off from a Woody Allen play. The first half of the film was the most entertaining, watching plucky, sarcastic Gurwitch interview other Hollywood celebs about their experiences getting canned. Anyone who’s had a job in retail or the food service industry can clearly relate. We also loved Gurwitch’s numerous reminders that Woody canned her because she was “retarded.” (We still find it amusing even after learning at the post-film Q&A that Gurwitch’s firing scene was staged and that she was really canned by a friend of hers and member of Woody’s staff).

The second half of the film, in which Gurwitch immerses herself among blue collar auto workers in Michigan, didn’t quite work for us. It was like Gurwitch changed focus midstream, and the obvious disconnect between a celeb fired from a play and the folks in Michigan whose livelihoods depend on their jobs in the auto industry, was never quite bridged by Gurwitch’s humor or her more serious attempts to make a point regarding the current threats faced by the American workforce.

SFist Wendy, contributing.

OK. We promise never to attempt lame rhyming ever again. But we DID want to let you know that there's a "Creature Comforts" marathon on BBC America tonight, starting at 7:30 p.m. with the premiere of "Merry Christmas Everybody!" If you've ever seen Nick Park's Oscar-winning short "Creature Comforts," then you know what the show is like. And if you haven't, go watch it RIGHT NOW!

Also tonight, Darlene Love will be making her annual "Late Show With David Letterman" appearance to sing his--and our--favorite Christmas song, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.)"

Speaking of Christmas songs, KQED will be airing local boy Chris Isaak's Christmas special at the crack of midnight on Christmas Eve. Or, if you've got digital cable, you can catch it numerous times on KQED Encore, channel 189.

As for the rest of the holiday weekend, you can probably manage to watch all of A Christmas Story during its marathon 24-hour run on TBS by just flipping to it for 10 minutes at a time throughout the weekend, (or, if you've never actually seen it, we highly recommend sitting down and watching it all the way through. It really is that good.) On Saturday at 8 p.m. NBC will re-run It's a Wonderful Life, another Christmas movie that lives up to all of the hype. And if you've never seen it before, because you happen to be blind, you can listen to former President George Bush give a descriptive narration of the film through the process of "Descriptive TheatreVision." (We kid you not.)

But we think the single most important television programming this weekend can be found on "Action 36" (cable channel 6) from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, and from 9 a.m. to noon on the 25th. We are speaking, of course, of "The Holiday Log." Commercial-free video of a burning fireplace, complete with cheesy Christmas songs! You can hang your stockings under the TV with care, and if you sit REALLY close, we think it might even warm you up a little...

Happy Generic Winter Holiday, everybody!