I have a post I’m working on about something very specific from It’s a Wonderful Life. Today, I was Googling some images for it and suddenly, this idea hit me. And I’m just gonna do it.
For the month of December, I’m going to be posting random images that come up when I Google It’s a Wonderful Life. Why? I don’t know, really, but as I clicked through them, I was struck by the sheer variety of images that came up under the heading It’s a Wonderful Life. Obviously, a lot of them are related to the movie, but so many of them are just from …. life. Regular ol’ life. Random, weird, wonderful life.
Here’s the first image from my grand holiday experiment, Googling “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
The Sock Monkey Nativity:
I want one. So SO much. I mean, we only recently discussed my penchant for the sock monkey. But a baby Jesus sock monkey?
O Holy Night, people!!
Oh, no, no, NO. I have SERIOUS sock monkey trauma, Tracey! When I was a kid the family dentist was this boisterous retired army sergeant who seemed to take great pleasure in yanking out all the baby teeth in my crowded little mouth. She had a sock monkey dressed as a dentist sitting on the shelf right over the secretary’s desk and I always associate sock monkeys with those horrible visits. When one showed up a few years ago in a Pentium III commercial involving toys I nearly had a fit.
I know it was for the best–she couldn’t stop raving about how great my smile was when I got my braces off, and when she retired her niece took over the practice and she is the kindest and gentlest dentist you’d ever want to have. But, please, somebody, help me forgive the darn sock monkey.
That said, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was one of the first movies I ever bought. 🙂
The only thing I have from my Grandma Helen since her passing is a sock monkey and memories. Gotta love the sock monkey…
The sock monkey wise man with the purple cape is absolutely killing me.
I heart the sock monkey. We have a Santa Sock Monkey that sits on our hearth at Christmas.
I have sock monkey issues as well. I don’t have such a great story to associate with it like Kate does, but the sock monkey has always bothered me for some reason.
That said, this is hilarious.
You have a kindred spirit in Sock Monkey adoration –
http://mentalmultivitamin.blogspot.com/2006/05/field-trip.html
http://mentalmultivitamin.blogspot.com/2006/05/well-read-stuffed-simians.html
Just so you know you are not alone.
I never knew that sock monkeys could strike such a nerve.
Also … what is that brownish thing … the second critter from the left? Do I see a sock monkey camel or a sock monkey lamb??
A sock monkey donkey?
Uhm – he actually looks like a sock monkey octopus to me, but that can’t be right.
Sock monkey octopus!! Okay! So maybe it’s like a seafaring nativity. Or a swashbuckling nativity.
“For unto us is born … The Dread Pirate Jesus!”
Did you see Love Actually, tracey? There’s the funny scene when the little kid tells his mother (emma thompson) that he’s doing a nativity play at school. She says, “Who are you going to be?” He says, “the lobster.”
Lisa can correct me on the details – she knows that movie by heart!! – but it’s something like that – it’s hysterical. You can see Emma Thompson’s face kind of stop and go, “Uhm … there was a lobster in Bethlehem? All righty then, I will not question it …”
Oh, yeah! Hahaha! I remember that — kinda vaguely, but I do. Where is Lisa to tell us ALL?
I love whatever Emma does. She can do no wrong. Ever. I even loved her in “Carrington” sporting that awful Dutch Boy hairdo and pining away for that living sock monkey, Lytton Strachey.
My, what a … hairy fellow.
(And, thank you for those links! I love her!)
hahahaha the living sock monkey!!!
I’ve met a coupla those in my day, I’ll tell ya.
Oh, Lord.
Remember when I mentioned the guy who wrote me the, uhm, “I WANNA DIE RIGHT NOW” song? Yeah. HE was a living sock monkey. A huge, doughy living sock monkey who wanted to DIE because I was opposed to his overall sock monkeyness.
The song didn’t help either.
The words “doughy” and “living sock monkey” are terrifying when they are placed in the SAME SENTENCE.
Like: nooooooooo!!!
I’m here!
I love that scene! And she is the FIRST lobster! “There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?” “Duh.”
And then at the end (when most of the characters are at the school play) you see a normal nativity scene, and then ALL THESE SEA CREATURES (including the octopus who’s Hugh Grant’s love interest’s brother), but no explanation. It’s hysterical.
And I am so sad that I only looked that up on IMDB to confirm my memory. . .and I was right.
Lisa – hahahaha That’s right … More than one lobster? What???
Hilarious. And the octopus sitting in the car is, frankly, my favorite little scene – although it’s hard to choose. It’s just so absurd.
Lisa’s memory rocks. The brown sock octodonkey fooled me into thinking they had given up and added a beanie baby pony instead. Do I need a bigger monitor?
And red–why is the purple-clad sock monkey wise man reminding me of Klinger from MASH? Is it the panache?
I am so gonna stop calling certain people “tools” and start calling them “living sock monkeys.” Maybe this is a turning point in my sock monkey trauma healing. Not exactly the “Christmas miracle” I had hoped for, but I’ll take it.
Klinger from MASH! bwahahahahahahaha i can so see that now!
Yes, Klinger brought the frankincense.
I love the sock monkey nativity … hysterical!
I just received the movie It’s a Wonderful Life from Netflix. 30-some-odd years on this planet and I’ve never seen it all in one sitting!
I’m gone for a few hours and all hell breaks loose! Hahaha!
Lisa — I knew you’d come through on that!! The FIRST lobster. I love that.
Kate — Klinger?? I am dying! Now he looks like nothing else to me. Now that I look again, Joseph looks kinda shifty, like Mafia Joseph and Mary, well, poor thing, look at her. She just gave birth to the savior of the world and he’s a sock monkey. She’s looks a little deflated and crestfallen to say the least:
“Hm. Gabriel didn’t mention any monkeys. Or octopi. Or that Klinger would show up. You’d think he’d be a little better informed.”
Jeannine — Oh, I think you’ll really love it!
The baby Jesus looks like he has a very painful crick in his neck. It hurts me to look at him.
You just know that Wise Sock Mockey Klinger got that frankincense by bartering a half-gallon of grapefruit juice, fifteen cots, and a copy of the film “The Moon is Blue,” and was rewarded with a three-day pass in Tokyo.
And that he’s really dressed up as Mary Magdalen under the cape.
red — maybe during birth, baby Jesus was being choked by his sock monkey tail. I can’t look at Mary monkey anymore. It’s like her epidural wore off too soon or something. And her legs came off during delivery. Or baby Jesus had a deformed sock monkey twin.
And, look, Erika Badu showed up, too!
The more I look at it, the more overcome I am.
And will someone PLEASE tell me how Mary Monkey, whose legs fell off during delivery and Joseph Monkey, who is clearly an amputee are gonna flee into Egypt NOW??
O Holy Night is quickly becoming O Disabled Night.
I could be wrong, but the brown thing? That’s standing in for the donkey, I guess? I think it’s one of those old Easter rabbits.
If you look closely, you can see its eye, on the left, and its pink nose. The ears must be pulled back. But long bunny ears = donkey ears, I can see it. In a Sock Monkey Nativity World kind of way.
The nostrils on the Mary monkey? That’s just so wrong.
NO! WAIT! Sock monkey on the left is a Shepherd! The rabbit could be a sheep. Joseph obviously has both his legs – see?
Sock Monkeys are the Clowns of the stuffed animal world.
The tallest wiseman looks like Ethel Merman on a bender.
hahahahaha
Or – the 4 figures lined up to the right could be a drunken cast party photo for the Golden Girls.
My son calls them “Butt Monkeys.” I don’t think that Jesus would appreciate that though.