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I’m sure over the next few months I will periodically post other Saturday Night Live (SNL) funny video clips, you’ll have to keep an eye out for them

Merry Christmas to all. To help you get in the Holiday Cheer I figured I would share with you a list on how to say Merry Christmas in several different languages. This list includes over 100 ways to say Merry Christmas or Happy New Years (or both).

Happy New Years in different languages

Some of these also teach you how to say Happy New Years in different languages. Enjoy, and may your Holiday Season bring you cheer and help you bring in the New Year filled with prosperity and joy.

If you make it all the way through these translations I have a video posted of Christina Aguilera with The Christmas Song music video. Its a very enjoyable rendition of the popular Christmas song; Merry Christmas to you.I figured this was fitting since in the song it says Merry Christmas has been sung many times and in many ways; “Merry Christmas to you“.

Merry Christmas to you and your families in Many different languages

Kenosha police share their comical version of ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’

By MARK HORNICKEL

The Kenosha Police Department has a Christmas gift for residents — and they’re not talking about parking tickets.

To boost morale within the department, police officers have produced an entertaining and comical video, featuring their rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The video was initially given as a DVD to all 215 employees of the department. But last week it went public on YouTube and the Police Department’s Web site.

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About 20 members of the Police Department were involved in the making of the video, which was directed by Crime Prevention Officer Jeff Wamboldt and edited by Safety Officer Dennis Walsh. Work on the video began in September with filming throughout the month of October; the video was finished before Thanksgiving.

Members of the department hope it helps people laugh amid the stressful holiday season.

“I hope it’s a humorous, uplifting program,” Wamboldt said. “Our job is very serious, we joke around. It’s a way to add humor to an otherwise very serious job or career.”

The video, which has all the makings of a viral hit, had been viewed nearly 3,000 times by Wednesday afternoon.

It features an array of patrol officers, detectives and administrators singing about unwanted and sometimes annoying gifts from the chief. The officers are shown washing cars and cleaning guns, as well as eating jelly donuts and taking coffee breaks.

The video gains laughs as the officers grow more disgruntled with their assigned tasks. Officers are tossing file folders and yawning through night assignments. In one scene, an officer tosses a radar gun from the window of her squad car. (Off-camera, Wamboldt was lying on the ground to catch it.)

The idea was born in September as Walsh was writing a public service announcement about holiday travel and trying to come up with creative ways to put out a holiday message. Walsh, who writes jingles as a hobby, wanted to do something that would involve a large number of officers.

“It just popped in my head — the 12 days,” Walsh said. “I just started humming, ‘On the first day of Christmas, my chief gave to me …’ and I went ‘That works!’ Then I thought, ‘What would the chief give to everyone? It has to be something that would be funny. So let’s have the chief give things that we wouldn’t like.”

Walsh’s brainstorming gained momentum, and he and Wamboldt began writing their version of the song, composing about 20 different drafts before it was finished.

Their next challenge was convincing officers within the Police Department to participate. Some declined, saying they were too nervous about singing. Walsh said some who declined ended up wishing they had participated after seeing the finished product.

Patrol officer Kim Barfoth sings about the eighth day of Christmas — eight days of radar. She also is credited with coming up with the verse for the 11th day — lousy lectures.

“When (Walsh) first asked me I told him I don’t sing and he said ‘That’s even better yet!’ ” Barfoth said. “He can pretty much talk anyone into doing anything.”

Officer Adrian Primmer, who appears in the first day of Christmas with new recruit Brian Koss, said he was nervous about the video initially. But he added that the humor and camaraderie it promoted within the department made the experience worthwhile.

“I got to work with a new recruit that I hadn’t met before,” Primmer said. “… A lot of people are laughing with us. This is humor that we can give to everybody that they can see. It’s fun.”

The officers said each scene took about 20 to 30 minutes to shoot. All of the filming was done while officers were off-duty or on breaks.

Walsh and Wamboldt said the most difficult scene to film was the first day, which features Police Chief John Morrissey with Primmer and Koss.

“Adrian had a long part and then he had to actually act for it because he had to be disgusted that he’s getting this rookie to train when he’s used to being alone,” Wamboldt said. “Then the rookie comes in. He put his arm around him and he’s rubbing his head. There’s quite a bit to that first one.”

Cheech & Chong are a comedy duo consisting of Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong, who found a wide audience in the 1970s and 1980s for their stand-up routines, which were based upon the era’s hippie, free love, and especially drug culture movements.

The duo released many successful comedy albums, and starred in a series of low-budget commercials, becoming a successful comedy team. Some of their best-known comedy routines and songs include “Earache My Eye,” “Basketball Jones,” “Santa Claus and his Old Lady”, and “Sister Mary Elephant.” Perhaps their all-time most famous line is “Dave’s not here,” from their self-titled debut album.

Their early success culminated with the release of their first feature-length movie, Up in Smoke, in 1978. Relatively successful, it became something of a cult classic and was successful enough to warrant a sequel, Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie, in 1980, and Nice Dreams in 1981. They also appeared in smaller supporting roles in Graham Chapman’s Yellowbeard and Martin Scorsese’s After Hours.

In 1985 the duo released their album Get Out of My Room, which included the novelty hit song, “Born in East L.A.” (based on Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”). This song would later serve as the basis for the 1987 film of the same name, in which Cheech Marin played the starring role. Immediately following the release of the album, Cheech Marin separated himself from the pair’s drug-inspired act by working on a solo career.

After their contentious parting in the 1980s, the duo had a less-than-stellar friendship. Chong recalled going to Cheech’s birthday party in 1994 and seeing Cheech “on the couch with his arm around his wife like we had just met. It wasn’t comfortable.”

They somewhat reunited in 2000 to voice characters in the animated television series South Park for the episode “Cherokee Hair Tampons”; though their voices were recorded separately.

The duo had plans to reunite for another film when Tommy Chong’s California-based company, Chong’s Glass, was raided by federal officials on February 25, 2003, as part of a federal crackdown on “drug-related paraphernalia.” Tommy Chong pleaded guilty to charges of distributing drug paraphernalia in May and on September 11, 2003, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison, fined US$20,000, and forced to forfeit US$120,000 in assets. He served the time between October 8, 2003 and July 7, 2004.

With Chong released, the duo planned to resume production on their latest opus. A variety of titles were rumored, including Grumpy Old Stoners. Cheech and Chong announced on September 8, 2005 that the reunion film had been canceled. In a 2007 interview, Chong hinted that the reunion may be back on.

On June 3, 2008, Tommy Chong announced that, starting in September 2008, he will be reuniting with Cheech Marin for a comedy tour. Shelby Chong, Tommy’s wife, will be opening.

On July 3, 2008, Tommy Chong (on a live webcam chat) reconfirmed that he and Cheech will be doing another film, based on their reuniting and live bits from the aforementioned comedy tour.

On July 30, 2008, the team reunited to publicly announce their fall comedy tour, titled “Cheech and Chong Light Up America/Canada”. This announcement was made at a press conference at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, CA. Ottawa was the first city worldwide on September 5, 2008. And on September 19, 2008, they appeared on The Bob and Tom Show.

On November 5, 2008, Cheech and Chong reunited for a timely message in a video on Funny Or Die to encourage people to get out and vote on Wednesday, November 5th, the day after the election. The video is titled “Cheech and Chong Get Out the Vote!”

On November 30, 2008, Cheech & Chong were honored during a roast special on TBS hosted by Brad Garrett which included other guests, among them Chong’s wife. The event was filmed at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas during The Comedy Festival.

On March 7, 2009, Cheech & Chong appeared on Spike Feresten’s talk show and they said that there is a new movie in the making.

On March 14, 2009, Cheech and Chong recorded 2 shows at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, TX for a dvd release of the their Cheech and Chong Light Up America tour.

On April 17, 2009, while on the Sydney leg of their “Cheech and Chong Light Up Australia” Tour, they had to delay the start of their show as it became the target of a drug operation by the New South Wales Police. About 25 police and four drug dogs were involved, searching around 50 people, with six people caught in possession of small amounts of cannabis.

On October 24, 2009, Cheech & Chong hosted the main stage at the Smoke Out festival in San Bernardino, CA.

To Buy the album visit http://www.sncmusic.com/christmascheers

Band Info

In the fall of 2008, ATCO/Atlantic Records unveiled a rather unlikely major label release. It was an album of Christmas music recorded by Straight No Chaser, a ten-member a cappella group that hadn’t sung together since their college days a decade earlier. The result was a most improbable success story and a true musical phenomenon.

Fueled by Straight No Chaser’s appearances on the Today show, ABC World News Tonight, and CNN Headline News, among others, “HOLIDAY SPIRITS” spent 14 days in the #1 slot on Amazon, and 5 days in the top spot overall on iTunes. The group’s now famous version of “The 12 Days Of Christmas” peaked in the top 10 on the Christmas radio chart and reached the top 15 at Hot AC. On their first-ever headline tour in December 2008, Straight No Chaser sold out shows across the country.

“Back in college, we started this group just for fun — no one ever thought of it as a possible career path,” says Randy Stine. “It was hard to comprehend that ten years after our last performance, we were back together recording for a major label, with an album that reached number one on iTunes, heading out on an international tour. Along with all the fun is a lot of work, but it’s a complete labor of love, and one that we never dreamed possible.”

In the year since the release of “HOLIDAY SPIRITS,” the lives of Straight No Chaser’s members have been transformed. In the wake of the album’s success, the members of the group who had been holding down full-time jobs were able to leave their day gigs to pursue SNC full-time. “Whereas before we were essentially juggling two careers, now we get to put all of our heart and energy into Straight No Chaser,” says Dan Ponce.

For the 2010 holiday season, Atlantic’s original plan had been to re-issue “HOLIDAY SPIRITS” with a couple of new bonus tracks. But when Atlantic Chairman/CEO Craig Kallman heard the new songs, “he liked the direction we were going with those so much,” explains Dan, “that he said, ‘Let’s go ahead and do a whole new album.’”

The result is “CHRISTMAS CHEERS,” a fresh collection starring Straight No Chaser’s trademark vocal sound and unique musical approach. Comparing the new album with “HOLIDAY SPIRITS,” Dan notes: “The last album was a little more traditional, a little more what you might expect from an a cappella Christmas album. With the new album, we took a few more risks, and there’s definitely a comedic element that weaves through the album. We wanted to capture that aspect of our stage performance in our recordings.”

Recorded in the group’s home base of Bloomington, Indiana, “CHRISTMAS CHEERS” ranges from the hilarious “Christmas Can-Can” (with lyrics by the group’s Walter Chase) — a song which Dan says, “makes fun of ourselves and the commercialization of Christmas” — to a beautifully soulful take on “O Holy Night.” The 15-track collection also includes such holiday classics as “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Jingle Bells,” and many more. The SNC original, “Who Spiked The Egg Nog?,” was written by member Ryan Ahlwardt and Straight No Chaser’s musical director, Deke Sharon, whom Dan describes as “a brilliant writer, arranger, and producer.”

With the new album in the can, Straight No Chaser is heading out on the road for a full 56-city cross-country tour, by far their biggest trek to date. In addition, the group has already been hard at work on a new pop album for 2010. Their goal remains the same as it was back in their college days. As Randy says, “We want the audience to not miss the instruments, be surprised by what we’re doing, and in the end, appreciate the songs in a whole new way.”

* * * * * *

Here’s how “The 12 Days of Christmas,” the Internet, and one serendipitous YouTube viewing changed the course of ten unsuspecting lives.

In the fall of 1996, Indiana University student Dan Ponce hand-picked ten friends to create the campus’s first a cappella group. Ponce chose the members not only for their outstanding voices, but for their personalities. Purposefully avoiding the stereotype of the traditional college a cappella group, they treated themselves more like a local band that just happened to use their voices as their instruments.

The formula worked: it wasn’t long before they were headlining concerts, and within two years, they were touring nationally. In 1999, with college graduation looming, the members of Straight No Chaser chose their replacements — putting a plan in place to ensure that the new tradition they had created would continue on with successive generations of IU undergrads. Then, in April 2006, Indiana University decided to host a reunion concert for the original members. In honor of the event, posted clips from one of their 1998 concerts on YouTube to share with the other founding members. Suddenly, concert footage that was nearly a decade old was available to be seen by millions of people worldwide… and see it they did, in mind-blowing numbers. With no promotion, Straight No Chaser’s version of “The 12 Days Of Christmas” (interpolating Toto’s “Africa”) received more than seven million views in December of 2007 alone, becoming the hottest viral video of the season.

In a turn of events that the spiritually inclined might describe as a “higher power” moment, Atlantic Chairman/CEO Craig Kallman happened to be among those millions of viewers. “It was completely random and totally unexpected,” says Kallman. “I was surfing YouTube to check out what was new, when I saw this brilliant, fresh, and totally compelling performance. And then I saw how many hits they were getting, and I had something of an epiphany. So I emailed Randy right away.” Randy, not surprisingly, thought it was some kind of prank. “The head of Atlantic Records emailing me at 8 a.m. New Year’s Day and saying he was interested in our group? I thought, ‘yeah, right.’” Fortunately, Randy decided to check it out anyway, and he and Dan soon found themselves having dinner with Craig in L.A. Within a few days, the entire group flew to Atlantic’s offices in New York, and a deal was in the works.

In the years since they graduated from college, the original members of Straight No Chaser had embarked on a variety of life paths — some pursuing professional careers in music and theatre, some going into other fields entirely. But suddenly presented with the unforeseen opportunity to come back together, make their major label debut, and take their music to a new level, they all agreed to seize the head-spinning moment.

The birth of Straight No Chaser’s second life is a story of talent, drive, and some very good luck indeed. It’s cause for celebration… but please don’t strike up the band.

The source of this content: http://www.sncmusic.com