Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph reprised their fan-favorite Bronx Beat sketch last night with a cheers to Christmas, regardless of all of the bad news in the world. “You think you got Santa coming down the chimney,” says Jodi. “And it’s ISIS.”

But even ISIS should enjoy the holiday season, according to Betty, who advises to “take a nap, go for a walk, do something nice. Go see Star Wars!”

The hook of this sketch has always been Poehler and Rudolph’s pitch-perfect “anxious Bronx mother” characters, with the voices and the faces and the lists. That is, until Betty’s cousin Karen shows up after taking the New Jersey Turnpike up from Philly. Tina Fey, a Philadelphia native herself, nails the strange Eastern Pennsylvania accent. But really, this sketch looks more like an excuse for three close friends to make each other laugh. Thankfully, they let the audience come on for the ride.

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Austin Walters died from an overdose in 2021 after taking a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, his father said. A new law named after Austin and aimed at preventing deaths from fentanyl has resulted in its first convictions in Georgia, prosecutors said. (Family photo)

Credit: Family photo