History YMMV / TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial

** Some aspects of Boba in the animated segment and even the concept of Life Day was made either referenced or made canon in Disney+ Show Series/TheMandalorian much to the bemusement of most fans.

* CommonKnowledge: Although almost universally considered such, this was ''not'' a ChristmasSpecial and is not, and has never been called the ''Star Wars Christmas Special''. It actually first (and last) aired the week before American Thanksgiving; more than six weeks before Christmas.

** Ackmena, even moreso since Creator/BeaArthur's death. WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic seems to consider her the only remotely enjoyable thing in the entire film, as do WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob and [[WebVideo/CinematicExcrement The Smeghead]]. The webcomic ''WebComic/BlueMilkSpecial'' liked her so much they "recast" Ackmena as Halla in their ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'' arc just so they could keep using her. And it doesn't just apply to fans - people who work on the ''Star Wars'' franchise loved her so much that they added her to the Expanded Universe, [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ackmena wherein she's stated to have gone on to join a group dedicated to freeing Tatooine slaves]]. She even made the transition to existing in the new canon after appearing in the ''Complete Locations'' reference book, and appears as a supporting character in the short story anthology ''Literature/FromACertainPointOfView''.

** One of the few things that isn't hilarious ''[[SoBadItsGood anyway]]'' - Itchy's "Holographic ''Wow''" features a "[[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} proton pack]]". Yep, you might say "[[ADateWithRosiePalms bustin' makes him feel good]]."

** Han's infamous stretched face in the animated segment became even funnier when, in the Sequel Trilogy, [[spoiler:his son was played by the long-faced Creator/AdamDriver]].

* MisBlamed: Some fans blame Lucas for the quality of this, but in reality he had very little involvement due to working on ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' at the time. Whether he still deserves some of the blame, however, is hotly debated. According to writer Bruce Vilanch, the idea of the special focusing on Chewie's family, and ''not'' including subtitles, was all on Lucas. Lucas had one of his trusted former USC classmates, David Acomba, installed as director to make sure that the special would be at least somewhat faithful to the original film. Unfortunately, Acomba didn't really have much experience with multicam video production, and quit after disagreements with the producers. They replaced him with Steve Binder, whose specialty was light entertainment (his big career highlights were the 1968 ''Music/ElvisNBCTVSpecial'' special and, later, ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse''). Binder says Lucas never really communicated with him about the show. On the other hand, writer Pat Proft says Lucas signed off on ''everything'', which is believable due to Lucas being a ControlFreak. But evidence suggests that the utter failure of this special was a big reason ''why'' Lucas became a control freak.

* MisBlamed: Some fans blame Lucas for the quality of this, but in reality he had very little involvement due to working on ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' at the time. How much of the blame he deserves, however, is still debated. According to writer Bruce Vilanch, the idea of the special focusing on Chewie's family, and ''not'' including subtitles, was all on Lucas. Lucas had one of his trusted former USC classmates, David Acomba, installed as director to make sure that the special would be at least somewhat faithful to the original film. Unfortunately, Acomba didn't really have much experience with multicam video production, and quit after disagreements with the producers. They replaced him with Steve Binder, whose specialty was light entertainment (his big career highlights were the 1968 ''Music/ElvisNBCTVSpecial'' special and ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse''). Binder says Lucas never really communicated with him about the show. On the other hand, writer Pat Proft says Lucas signed off on ''everything'', which is believable due to Lucas being a ControlFreak. But evidence suggests that the utter failure of this special was a big reason ''why'' Lucas became a control freak.

* MisBlamed: Some fans blame Lucas for the quality of this, but in reality he had very little involvement due to working on ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' at the time. Lucas had one of his trusted former USC classmates installed as director to make sure that the special would be at least somewhat faithful to the original film. Unfortunately, said director quit after disagreements with the producers and Creator/{{CBS}} replaced him with the guy that would go on to produce ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse''. The results speak for themselves.
** According to writer Bruce Vilanch, the idea of the special focusing on Chewie's family, and ''not'' including subtitles, was all on Lucas.
** According to Pat Proft, Lucas signed off on ''everything'', which is believable due to Lucas being a ControlFreak. However, most ''Star Wars'' fans have trouble believing in this, as the utter failure of this special is one of the main factors into ''why'' Lucas became a control freak, and some have suspected that Proft is merely attempting to shift the blame.

* EarWorm:
** "Stir-whip, stir-whip, whip-whip-stir!"
** "It's not the end, friend, if you're a friend, friend, then you'll come back to me soon..."

* BileFascination: ''Infamously so'', thanks in no small part to its underground status and the hatred it has received from [[CreatorBacklash George Lucas]] himself and everyone involved. Those who've seen it no doubt consider it a miracle that the franchise survived this trainwreck.
* BizarroEpisode: The special is this in the larger context of the ''Star Wars'' canon. Also to George Lucas and other cast members, who do their best to pretend it never happened. On the bright side, it's not canon anymore since Disney's ruling on the Expanded Universe, but it's still this in the context of the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' continuity.

** The animated segment served as the introduction of Boba Fett, the biggest ensemble darkhorse of ''Franchise/StarWars'' in general. So much, in fact, that despite Lucasfilm wanting to forget about the special, the cartoon found its way onto one of the Blu-Ray bonus discs as an EasterEgg.
** Ackmena the bartender, even more so since Creator/BeaArthur's death. WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic seems to consider her the only remotely enjoyable thing in the entire film, as do WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob and [[WebVideo/CinematicExcrement The Smeghead]]. The webcomic ''WebComic/BlueMilkSpecial'' liked her so much they 'recast' Ackmena as Halla in their ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'' arc just so they could keep using her. And it doesn't just apply to fans; people who work on the ''Star Wars'' franchise loved her so much that they added her to the expanded universe, [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ackmena wherein she's stated to have gone on to join a group dedicated to freeing Tatooine slaves]]. Her character even made the transition to existing in the new canon after appearing in the ''Complete Locations'' reference book, and appears as a supporting character in the short story anthology ''Literature/FromACertainPointOfView''.

* FanonDiscontinuity: If there's one thing all fans and creators of ''Star Wars'' can agree on, it's that this thing ''never fucking happened''. Of all the things that Lucas himself declared [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canon]], well before The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm, ''Holiday Special'' was the only one that didn't contradict the Original Trilogy.[[note]]Technically, it was listed as "Secondary canon"; despite the name, this was the fourth level of canonicity, as low as you could go without being outright non-canon. "Secondary canon" is to be "used or ignored as suits the author". Basically the ''Holiday Special'' was adopted as canon by way of BroadStrokes, where Luke, Han, and Leia all came to visit Chewie's family on Life Day, but they most certainly ''did not take part in a crappy variety show as they did so!''[[/note]] It was also very deliberately excluded from the Disney canon despite George Lucas directing part of it.

** One of the few things that isn't hilarious ''[[SoBadItsGood anyway]]'' – Itchy's "Holographic ''Wow''" features a "[[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} proton pack]]". Yep, you might say "[[ADateWithRosiePalms bustin' makes him feel good]]."
** Han's infamous stretched face in the animated segment became even funnier when, in the sequel trilogy, [[spoiler:his son was played by the long-faced Creator/AdamDriver.]]
** Ackmena's refusals toward Krelman's advances and the film shot of him offering the flowers to her can be a bit funnier now that in canon, she's been stated to have a wife, precluding her from being interested in him both by relationship status, and likely [[AdaptationalSexuality her orientation]], too. We never see how she reacts to this last attempt at wooing her, but it can now be assumed it didn't go well for Krelman.
** Ackmena's random song is something you would expect from a Disney film -- and now Disney owns ''Star Wars''.
** ''Film/{{Solo}}'''s second trailer featured a shot of Chewie giving a HeadbuttOfLove to a (presumably) female Wookiee just like he does to Malla at the end of the special, cue jokesters around the entire internet questioning whether this means that Malla (and presumably, the rest of his family) are now canon.
* JustHereForGodzilla: People who watch the special un-ironically watch it either for the animated sequence or for Ackmena.
* MemeticMolester: Itchy has been reinterpreted as a particularly disturbing DirtyOldMan thanks to that odd soft-core porn video he watches.

** The whole special is memetic in how awful it is. George Lucas's seething hatred of it is also rather memetic.
* MisBlamed: Some fans blame Creator/GeorgeLucas for the quality of this, but in reality he had very little involvement due to filming ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' at the time. In fact, Lucas had one of his trusted former USC classmates installed as the initial director in order to make sure that the special would be at least somewhat faithful to the original film. Unfortunately, Lucas' favored director quit after disagreements with the producers and Creator/{{CBS}} replaced him with the guy that would go on to produce ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse''. The results speak for themselves. According to writer Bruce Vilanch, however, the idea of the special focusing on Chewie's family, and ''not'' including subtitles, was all on Lucas. According to Pat Proft, Lucas signed off on ''everything'', which is believable due to Lucas being a ControlFreak. However, most ''Star Wars'' fans have trouble believing in this, as the utter failure of this special is one of the main factors into why Lucas became a Control Freak, and some have suspected that Proft is merely attempting to shift the blame.
* {{Narm}}: The whole thing, but special mention must be given to the actor cameos and the attempt at "warmhearted" holiday cheer at the end: Han, Luke, C-3P0 and Chewie are supposed to be moved by Leia's song of hope, but look stoned/bored out of their minds. Considering that Carrie Fisher was whacked off her skull on drugs while making this special, they probably ''were''.
* NarmCharm: While Ackmena's song number is indeed moving, it comes across as a Disneyesque song number that feels out of place in the Star Wars universe, but that can be said about the Holiday Special as a whole.

** While the premise was as silly as the rest of it, Bea Arthur's performance as the cantina owner is actually a bit moving. Sadly, it doesn't save the rest of the thing's horribleness.
** The animated segment as a whole - looking at you, '''[[EnsembleDarkhorse Boba Fett]]'''.
** The random stormtrooper who fights Han and (due to the way the scene is shot) apparently ''[[EpicFail trips over his own gun]]'',[[note]]Though it also appears he could have tripped over a few logs next to his feet after being disarmed by Han's weak karate chop.[[/note]] thus nailing a perfect RailingKill. The WilhelmScream he makes is the cherry on the parfait.
* {{Padding}}: One theory is that the special was originally to be one hour, but [[ScrewedByTheNetwork the network]] wanted to sell more advertising, so they [[ExecutiveMeddling insisted]] that it be expanded to two hours. That would explain some of the more ludicrous scenes.

* SoBadItsGood: As long as you are not George Lucas.
* {{Squick}}: Elderly Wookiee Itchy looks like he's masturbating to holographic alien porn ''in the middle of his living room'', in front of his daughter-in-law and '''[[HarmfulToMinors grandson]]'''. Worse yet, this is apparently a common enough occurrence that they don't even bother commenting on it. Even worse still... this is exactly how the writers and producer ''wanted'' it to come across. [[SarcasmMode Merry Christmas, children!]] And they would have made it more explicit if not for one of the few necessary instances of ExecutiveMeddling.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Ackmena, Creator/BeaArthur's character, is actually considered to be the most interesting character created for the special. However, she doesn't appear for very long.
* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Creator/BeaArthur, alone among all the big-name guest stars. To her credit, she's talented enough to elevate her sequence into something watchable and almost poignant. She was also no stranger to 1970s variety shows, so she knew how to adapt her DeadpanSnarker Mode to the role. Her own comment on the special years later was that she hadn't been keeping up with ''Franchise/StarWars'' and its massive cultural impact at the time, thinking of the gig as just singing a musical number to "a bunch of people with funny heads."
* UncannyValley:
** Han Solo's cartoon representation. He almost looks like Music/MickJagger. ''Melting'' Mick Jagger to be exact.
--->'''[[Podcast/{{Rifftrax}} Bill Corbett]]''': Han, all the blood drained to your chin!
--->'''WebVideo/JonTron''': As you can see, in this timeline, Han didn't make it out of the trash compactor in time.
** Creator/MarkHamill was still recovering from a car accident that required extensive facial surgery, so he ends up a rare live-action human actor example. The make-up needed to cover his scars made him look like a [[Franchise/{{Barbie}} Ken]] Doll.
** Harvey Korman crossdressing as the alien chef; his layers of makeup and ''very'' fake looking hair make him look like an EldritchAbomination.
--->'''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic:''' Who the hell designed that thing? He looks like a cross between Disney/{{Cinderella}}'s stepmother and that robot maid from ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''!
* UnfortunateCharacterDesign: The make-up on Harvey Korman as the chef makes it look like he's wearing {{blackface}}.

** In [[https://tv.avclub.com/and-introducing-chewbacca-s-family-case-file-30-t-1798235133 a column]] about the ''Special'', Creator/NathanRabin half-jokes that it was "ultimately written and directed by a sentient bag of cocaine."

* WTHCostumingDepartment: Plenty of this to go around, which is especially jarring for ''Star Wars'':
** The Wookiees congregating to celebrate Life Day all wear bright red nightgowns that make it look like they're all wearing ''Snuggies''....Or like members of a cult. Didn't stop Creator/BioWare from putting them into ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' years later.

-->'''The Nostalgia Critic:''' Who the hell designed that thing? He looks like a cross between Cinderella's Stepmother and that robot maid from the Jetsons!
** The costumes for Chewie's family on Kashyyyk; any time they smile or stare directly at the camera can be very unnerving.
** Luke Skywalker's makeup; justifiable as Mark Hamill was covering up scars from a recent car accident, less justifiable however is his blonde hair, which makes him resemble a Ken doll.

* {{Squick}}: Elderly Wookiee Itchy looks like he's masturbating to holographic alien porn, which is completely wrong and disgusting no matter how far away your galaxy is. He's also watching it ''in the middle of his living room'', in front of his daughter-in-law and '''[[HarmfulToMinors grandson]]'''. Worse yet, this is apparently a common enough occurrence that they don't even bother commenting on it. Even worse still... this is exactly how the writers and producer ''wanted'' it to come across. [[SarcasmMode Merry Christmas, children!]] And they would have made it more explicit if not for one of the few necessary instances of ExecutiveMeddling.

** The Wookiees congregating to celebrate Life Day all wear bright red nightgowns that make it look like they're all wearing ''Snuggies''....Or like members of a cult.

** Ackmena the bartender, even more so since Creator/BeaArthur's death. WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic seems to consider her the only remotely enjoyable thing in the entire film, as do WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob and [[WebVideo/CinematicExcrement The Smeghead]]. The webcomic ''WebComic/BlueMilkSpecial'' liked her so much they 'recast' Ackmena as Halla in their ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'' arc just so they could keep using her. And it doesn't just apply to fans; people who work on the ''Star Wars'' franchise loved her so much that they added her to the expanded universe, [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ackmena wherein she's stated to have gone on to join a group dedicated to freeing Tatooine slaves]]. Her character even made the transition to existing in the new canon after appearing in the ''Complete Locations'' reference book.

* FanonDiscontinuity: If there's one thing all fans and creators of ''Star Wars'' can agree on, it's that this thing ''never fucking happened''. Of all the things that Lucas himself declared [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canon]], well before The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm, ''Holiday Special'' was the only one that didn't contradict the Original Trilogy[[note]]Technically it was listed as "Secondary canon", which despite the name was the fourth level of canonicity, as low as you could go without being outright non-canon. "Secondary canon" is to be "used or ignored as suits the author". Basically the ''Holiday Special'' was adopted as canon by way of BroadStrokes, where Luke, Han, and Leia all came to visit Chewie's family on Life Day, but they most certainly ''did not take part in a crappy variety show as they did so!''[[/note]]. It was also very deliberately excluded from the Disney canon despite George Lucas directing part of it.

** Ackmena's random song is something you would expect from a Disney film - and now they own them.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: Plenty of this to go around, which is especially jarring for Star Wars:
** The Wookiees congregating to celebrate Life Day all wear bright red nightgowns that make it look like they're all wearing ''Snuggies''....Or like members of a cult.
** Harvey Korman's outfit as the alien chef is quite the unholy aberration.
-->'''The Nostalgia Critic:''' Who the hell designed that thing? He looks like a cross between Cinderella's Stepmother and that robot maid from the Jetsons!
** The costumes for Chewie's family on Kashyyyk; any time they smile or stare directly at the camera can be very unnerving.
** Luke Skywalker's makeup; justifiable as Mark Hamill was covering up scars from a recent car accident, less justifiable however is his blonde hair, which makes him resemble a Ken doll.

-->'''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic:''' Who the hell designed that thing? He looks like a cross between Disney/{{Cinderella}}'s stepmother and that robot maid from ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''!

** The random stormtrooper who fights Han and (due to the way the scene is shot) apparently ''[[EpicFail trips over his own gun]]''[[note]]though it also appears he could have tripped over a few logs next to his feet after being disarmed by Han's weak karate chop[[/note]], thus nailing a perfect RailingKill. The WilhelmScream he makes is the cherry on the parfait.

--->'''JonTron''': As you can see, in this timeline, Han didn't make it out of the trash compactor in time.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: At least in Creator/CarrieFisher's case, it was. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXcb7VPw59s&t=1m14s Watch for yourself.]]

* BizarroEpisode: The special is this, mostly, in the larger context of the ''Star Wars'' canon. Also to George Lucas and other cast members, who do their best to pretend this never happened. On the bright side, though, it's not canon anymore since Disney's ruling on the Expanded Universe, but it's still this in the context of the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' continuity.

* ''Film/{{Solo}}'''s second trailer featured a shot of Chewie giving a HeadbuttOfLove to a (presumably) female Wookiee just like he does to Malla at the end of the special, cue jokesters around the entire internet questioning whether this means that Malla (and presumably, the rest of his family) are now canon.

** Ackmena's refusals toward Krelman's advances and the film shot of him offering the flowers to her can be a bit funnier now that she's been stated to have a wife, precluding her from being interested in him both by relationship status, and likely her orientation, too. We never see how she reacts to this last attempt at wooing her, but it can now be assumed it didn't go well for Krelman.

* BrokenBase: It's a ''bad'' film. No question about. The question is wether it's SoBadItsGood or DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible.