Line #153 WebVideo/AVHSChristmasCarol


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vhschristmas.jpg]]
2
3	->'' 'Cause it's the story of \
4	The meanest man there ever was \
5	The rudest dude you ever knew \
6	The crabbiest \
7	Scumbaggiest \
8	The grouchiest \
9	The frowniest \
10	The angriest hater \
11	The crankiest neighbor \
12	The greediest geezer \
13	The cruelest creature \
14	No one meaner than Ebenezer Scrooge!''
15
16	''A VHS Christmas Carol'' is a short (45-minute) WebVideo project created by Creator/TeamStarkid for the 2020 holiday season during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, as an experiment to see if they could do a fully produced musical project via GreenScreen.
17
18	It's a SurrealMusicVideo [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations adaptation]] of the classic Creator/CharlesDickens novella ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' as a ConceptAlbum from TheEighties, with the actors (almost none of whom are physically in the same space) superimposed on various digital backgrounds in order to tell the story.
19
20	It's also a bit of a ReunionShow for Creator/TeamStarkid, bringing back a bunch of actors from Starkid's "first generation" who appeared in ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'' (along with a few others), who hadn't appeared in a Starkid show since the beginning of the Franchise/{{Hatchetfield}} series when Starkid moved to LA in 2018.
21
22	''A VHS Christmas Carol'' was broadcast for four livestreamed performances on the weekend of Dec. 11-13, 2020. The recorded digital ticket remained available [[https://www.teamstarkid.com/a-vhs-christmas-carol here]] until Jan. 1, 2021, with the soundtrack album available for purchase indefinitely.
23
24	The cast list is as follows:
25
26	* Clark Baxtresser as the Narrator
27	* Creator/DylanSaunders as Ebenezer Scrooge
28	* Creator/JoeyRichter as Bob Cratchit
29	* Creator/CoreyDorris as Fred
30	* Creator/MeredithStepien as Jacob Marley
31	* Creator/JaimeLynBeatty as the Ghost of Christmas Past
32	* James Tolbert as the Ghost of Christmas Present
33	* Jamie Burns as the Ghost of Christmas Future
34	* Creator/BrianRosenthal as Young Scrooge
35	* A.J. Holmes as Fezziwig
36	* Britney Coleman as Belle
37	* Creator/LaurenLopez as Emily Cratchit
38	* Creator/BrianHolden as Tiny Tim
39	* Ali Gordon as Turkey Boy
40
41	''VHS Christmas Carol: Live!'', an immersive live concert staging of the musical with added and lightly-revised material, played The Bourbon Room in Los Angeles, CA, from December 9-11, 2021, which was available for live, livestream, and digital viewing for a limited time. Janaya Mahealani Jones replaced Britney Coleman as Belle and Lauren Lopez took over two of Ali Gordon's ensemble parts, with Ali making a ConsoleCameo as Turkey Boy via prerecorded video. Curt Mega and Kim Whalen served as understudies.
42
43	This version was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieC-QuFKFVc posted to Youtube]] on November 25, 2022, to promote the Starkid Holiday Jangle Ball Tour, which would also feature the concert rendition.
44
45	''VHS Christmas Carols'', a new, expanded version of the musical, ran at The Apollo Theatre Chicago from November 17-19, 2023, with digital tickets available until December 31, 2023. Aside from the adaptation of ''A Christmas Carol'', it also includes adaptations of ''Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi'' and ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl''. Some roles were recast in this version of the show, most notably A.J. Holmes replaced Dylan Saunders as Scrooge and Brian Holden played Fred instead of Corey Dorris.
46
47	----
48	!!This work provides examples of:
49
50	* TheEighties: The whole thing is a tribute to '80s SynthPop, EightiesHair and '80s fashion, especially to the cheesy '80s fad of GreenScreen {{Music Video}}s against blatantly fake backgrounds.
51	* EightiesHair: A lot of glorious examples throughout, most notably Belle's huge mane of Jheri curls, and Christmas Present and Fred both rocking classic hi-top fades, along with Creator/JoeyRichter actually growing out his signature shoulder-length locks and PornStache for this show.
52	* AdaptedOut: Tons of things, obviously, since this is only a 45-minute show, but notably this is one of the adaptations that just deletes Ignorance and Want from the Christmas Present sequence.
53	** The original novella gave the Cratchit family six children; as is common with adaptations, this version removes the two unnamed younger kids and makes Tiny Tim the youngest.
54	** Belle's husband and children aren't shown in this version and her future is unknown; the real Scrooge instead has his HeelRealization in the middle of the scene, turning "That Scrooge" into a double-CounterpointDuet between himself and Christmas Past along with Young Scrooge and Belle.
55	** Fred's wife (who's usually [[NamedByTheAdaptation named Clara in the play adaptations]]) is mentioned when Fred extends his invitation to Scrooge in "Bah Humbug", but doesn't actually appear at the party in the Christmas Present sequence (presumably the party guest played by Jamie Burns isn't her, since she's paired up with the one played by Brian Holden).
56	* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Potentially all the characters, considering how attractive Starkid's loyal fandom finds their members, but most notable is Scrooge himself (with Creator/DylanSaunders much younger than Scrooge's canonical age), Jacob Marley (who goes from an old man to a young androgynous rock star played by Creator/MeredithStepien, with his "chains" becoming silver jewelry draped around his neck), and the Ghost of Christmas Future (the most dramatic change, going from a formless sinister figure in a black hood to a beautiful woman in an EtherealWhiteDress). The fact that Christmas Past is also changed into a beautiful woman is less notable, since this is a traditional change [[LostInImitation many adaptations have made before]].
57	* AdaptationalJerkass: A few of the characters get hit with this PlayedForLaughs, like Tiny Tim's brother Peter openly making fun of him for his disease, or Mrs. Cratchit going ahead and giving voice to her wish that Scrooge would die (which she clearly thinks but keeps to herself in the original).
58	** Even Scrooge himself has his rudeness and cruelty slightly played up in "Bah Humbug", for the sake of the song -- the original Scrooge didn't go so far as to threaten to ''kill himself'' as preferable to having dinner with Fred and his wife (this adapts the moment where Dickens [[NarrativeProfanityFilter implies]] that Scrooge says he'll see Fred in hell first, a line few adaptations ever have him actually say), and however grudgingly he did so, he gave Bob Cratchit the day off for Christmas without actually having to be asked.
59	** As is common in adaptations, this version of the Ghost of Christmases Yet to Come, rather than seeming to relent at the end of the sequence, actively drags Scrooge into his open grave before TheReveal where he wakes up alive on Christmas morning.
60	* AdaptationalUgliness: Not so much ugly as [[CreepyChild creepy]], but Tiny Tim, normally played by a cute little boy, is played here by the clearly-adult Brian Holden in a red wig, who exaggerates Tim's LittlestCancerPatient qualities for laughs.
61	* AllKnowingSingingNarrator: Played by Clark Baxtresser, who's also sitting at a keyboard playing the accompaniment to the show.
62	** The whole ensemble, as is traditional, becomes this in the ending of the show in the final bars of "Christmas Day" (including Creator/DylanSaunders himself breaking character and directly addressing the audience about Scrooge's story in the third person). One of the SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments of this play is this section starting with Creator/MeredithStepien singing as Jacob Marley, as though Marley is watching Scrooge's redemption from the afterlife having found his own redemption by helping him.
63	** The live concert version turns the whole ensemble into this throughout the show, with many lines originally performed by Baxtresser distributed amongst them. See GreekChorus below.
64	* AllMusicalsAreAdaptations: An 80's themed adaptation of the Creator/CharlesDickens novella ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''.
65	* AmbiguousGender: This version of Jacob Marley is, of course, still consistently referred to as a man, but is played by a non-binary actor and seems designed to evoke an androgynous '80s pop star like Music/AnnieLennox.
66	** The Narrator, [[TruerToTheText following the description in the original book]], describes the Ghost of Christmas Past as a strangely inhuman genderless being, only for it to actually appear as the extremely feminine Creator/JaimeLynBeatty dressed as an '80s fitness instructor.
67	** This is also played with with the Ghost of Christmas Future, which looks like an elegant woman in a white dress but which Scrooge addresses as "Sir" (although he then apologizes profusely for saying so, although it's not clear if he's apologizing for calling it male or calling it human).
68	* AnachronismStew: The aesthetic of the show is a BroadStrokes mish-mash of TheEighties in America (blurring into the late '70s and early '90s at times), while also throwing in random elements that still evoke the 1840s London setting of the original book (especially Ali Gordon's inexplicably Cockney characters). Notably, Scrooge still locks up the office using an old-fashioned copper key, and -- in a surprising bit of effort at authenticity -- the cash he gives the Turkey Boy in the ending is UK currency and not American. (Presumably Creator/DylanSaunders had some at hand in his house.)
69	* AscendedExtra: Bob Cratchit's wife [[NamedByTheAdaptation Emily]] is considerably more important in this show than she typically is, thanks to the decision to make the Christmas Present sequence at the Cratchit house a love duet between the two of them.
70	* AscendedMeme: After the visual album was released in 2020, Lauren Lopez expressed her dismay on her [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CJbwY5tnmo2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link instagram]] that the character she had filmed for Christmas Electricity, the Goth Party Girl, didn't make the final cut. When the show was adapted for a live performance in 2021, the [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CJgfQbchXp0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link now beloved]] Goth Party Girl made her first official appearance as a narrator.
71	* AspectRatio: This show remains true to the '80s theme even in this respect, with the whole thing filmed in an old-fashioned 4:3 ratio that would fit on an old square-shaped CRT.
72	* AwardBaitSong: "Priceless" was intentionally designed to be one of these.
73	* BlackComedy: In-universe; one of Tiny Tim's BrattyHalfPint siblings declares he's thankful not to have Tiny Tim's disease, earning a sharp reprimand from his mom. (TruthInTelevision for young children, and the same kid isn't laughing at all when we come back in the future to find out Tiny Tim has passed.)
74	* BookEnds: The ending song, "Christmas Day", is a TriumphantReprise of the opening TheVillainSucksSong "Bah Humbug".
75	* CallBack: Along with the full reprises of "Christmas Electricity" and "Priceless", we also get a brief CallBack to "Bah Humbug" and "That Scrooge" in "Christmas Electricity" itself, with a much more lighthearted context (Fred does an impression of his uncle with "Bah humbug!", causing the party guests to all respond "That's Scrooge!")
76	* CatchPhrase: As is traditional for an adaptation, Scrooge's "Bah, humbug!" is {{flanderiz\|ation}}ed into being the chorus of a whole song.
77	* ChristmasSpecial: A tribute to the cheesy Christmas specials broadcast on TV back in the 1980s -- a local production of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', of course, being one of the most popular ways to do this by far. Is the first time Creator/TeamStarkid has done one of these more-or-less PlayedStraight (as opposed to satires of the concept like ''[[Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical A Very Potter Christmas]]'' or, in a very dark example, the plot of ''Theatre/BlackFriday'').
78	** Various Creator/TeamStarkid members have made comments implying that Starkid plans to make this show an annual tradition, much like many community theaters having a new production of a stage adaptation of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' every holiday season, probably cycling in new cast members to play the various characters each year.
79	** This would come true when they restaged the show live in 2021, offering livestream and digital tickets, and released this version to Youtube in November 2022. In December 2022, the cast would restage it again as part of The Starkid Holiday Jangle Ball Tour.
80	* CoconutSuperpowers: It's pretty amusing when the video has Christmas Present and Scrooge "flying over the city" by just having them standing upright and turning them sideways. It's similar to how "Christmas Day" has Scrooge be "lying in bed" by just standing in front of the GreenScreen with a blanket around him and the background changing to a bed and pillow.
81	* ColorblindCasting: Scrooge is played by Creator/DylanSaunders and Creator/BrianRosenthal, who are both white, as is Ali Gordon, who plays his sister Fan, while his nephew Fred is played by Corey Dorris, who is black. (Doesn't present as much of a challenge to suspension of disbelief as other examples, of course, since we never see Fred's father.)
82	* CoolShades: The Ghost of Christmas Present has some that glow a neon electric blue.
83	* CreditsGag: Ali Gordon is credited as "Turkey Boy"; she also plays Scrooge's sister Fan, but the Turkey Boy is a funnier role to list as her primary one.
84	** The credits end with the whole cast waving goodbye to the audience with the GreenScreen removed and showing them in Zoom windows from their homes... with Creator/JoeyRichter and Creator/LaurenLopez [[NakedNutter inexplicably nude]] from the [[ShouldersUpNudity shoulders up]].
85	* CreepyHighPitchedVoice: Jaime Lyn Beatty's breathy, childlike voice as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Also arguably Jamie Burns as Christmas Future, though that's a more standard OneWomanWail.
86	* CrossCastRole: It isn't actually cross-cast, since they're non-binary, but Creator/MeredithStepien normally presents on the femme side onstage and for the first time plays a male role as Jacob Marley. (This is their first Starkid role since they came out.)
87	** Ali Gordon as the "Turkey Boy" is a PlayedStraight example. She also wears a conspicuous fake beard to play the second Charity Collector.
88	* DarkReprise: "Priceless" gets a brief one in the middle of "The Final Ghost", when the Ghost takes Scrooge back to the Cratchit house to reveal Tiny Tim has passed.
89	* ADayInTheLimelight: The "Past" and "Present" sequences of the story pick out two specific scenes from those parts of the book to turn into separate songs highlighting specific characters -- "That Scrooge", the scene where Belle breaks up with Young Scrooge, and "Priceless", the Cratchit family dinner as a duet between Bob and Emily. (As a result of this, there's a minor AdaptationDeviation where Christmas Present shows Scrooge his nephew Fred's Christmas party ''before'' the Cratchit family dinner and not afterwards.)
90	* DeliberateVHSQuality: Naturally.
91	* DiscoDan: Fezziwig is a stereotypical disco dancer in a garish leisure suit, with TheSeventies representing "The Past" and TheEighties "The Present". Of course, Scrooge working at Fezziwig is supposed to be ''multiple'' decades in the past, but the whole show runs on AmbiguousTimePeriod.
92	* DistantDuet: "That Scrooge" starts out as a call-and-response duet between Belle and Young Scrooge, only for present-day Scrooge to start singing Belle's part with Christmas Past taking up the response lines when he has his HeelRealization, and ending with Belle and Old Scrooge singing directly opposite each other -- Belle and Old Scrooge's desire to save the relationship have finally aligned, but they are, tragically, separated by decades of time.
93	* DullSurprise: Creator/BrianRosenthal's vocals as Young Scrooge in "That Scrooge", in keeping with Belle's accusation that he doesn't actually care about holding onto her enough to put up a fight when she leaves, he's just too in denial about having fallen out of love with her to make the first move to leave himself.
94	** The present-day Scrooge does a fair amount of this too, clearly very shocked and upset by what the Ghosts are showing him but not wanting to admit it.
95	* ElectricBlackGuy: Christmas Present is one (and, by extension, Fred, who's the main person he charges up with "Christmas Electricity" in his song), although it's the metaphorical/spiritual kind of electricity.
96	* {{Expy}}: The characters are more Expies of '80s archetypes than specific celebrities, though there's a few you can nail down -- Jacob Marley feels like an homage to Music/AnnieLennox, Christmas Past is Creator/JaneFonda in her aerobics-instructor phase (as well as a reference to Music/OliviaNewtonJohn in the video for "Physical", which was itself a reference to Fonda), and Christmas Future seems like an homage to [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Princess Di]]. Scrooge himself is wearing an outfit inspired by Creator/MichaelDouglas as Gordon Gekko in ''Film/WallStreet''.
97	** [[WordOfSaintPaul Britney Coleman]] has also confirmed her performance as Belle was intended as a tribute to Music/WhitneyHouston.
98	** Christmas Present is mildly a reference to Music/{{Wham}}, including having a FunTShirt with a version of [[https://static.billboard.com/files/media/WHAM-George-Michael-Andrew-Ridgely-billboard-1548-1024x677.jpg his own name]] on it. He's also been identified by fans as a reference to Powerline from ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'', who was himself a reference to Music/BobbyBrown.
99	* EtherealWhiteDress: This version of the Ghost of Christmas Future.
100	* FantasticDrug: In true '80s style, Christmas Present refers to "Christmas Electricity" as though it were one of these ("what I'm dealin'").
101	* FantasticRacism: Marley tells Scrooge that ghosts find being compared to "[[AcidRefluxNightmare indigestion]]" very offensive.
102	* FramingDevice: The video shows us the show as an old VHS tape being inserted into a VCR connected to an old TV. In a bit of ArtisticLicense, the screen continues to show the "A VHS Christmas Carol" logo before and after the tape is actually played.
103	* FunTShirt: This version of the Ghost of Christmas Present wears a T-shirt saying "XMAS NOW".
104	** The Looter played by A.J. Holmes in the Christmas Future sequence is wearing a "Detonator" T-shirt, implying he's an '80s or '90s [[HeavyMetal metalhead]].
105	* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: Scrooge does this a ''lot'' when saying his CatchPhrase in the namesake song, "Bah Humbug".
106	* TheGlassesComeOff: The Ghost of Christmas Present takes off his CoolShades when he brings Scrooge to Bob Cratchit's house, in order to look him in the eye and tell him he doesn't know how long Tiny Tim has to live.
107	* {{Goth}}: The Ghost of Jacob Marley is a gothed-up version of Annie Lennox, with extremely dramatic dark eyeliner and lipstick.
108	* GreenScreen: The whole show is done this way, thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic; the only two actors who were physically in the same place when filming their scenes were Creator/JoeyRichter and Creator/LaurenLopez, for their duet "Priceless" (and, for a brief appearance in "The Final Ghost", Creator/BrianHolden and Creator/MeredithStepien as the Debtors).
109	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Both Creator/JaimeLynBeatty and Jamie Burns wear blonde wigs to play the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future, respectively, invoking the idea of them being angelic messengers (and also to look more like Creator/JaneFonda and [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Princess Diana]]).
110	* HeartbeatSoundtrack: "The Final Ghost" makes use of this.
111	* HomemadeSweaterFromHell: Clark Baxtresser as the Narrator wears a classically garish "Christmas sweater".
112	* AnIcePerson: Played with -- Scrooge doesn't ''literally'' have ice powers, but when he's yelling at Bob in their freezing cold office, we see a blast of misty freezing cold wind coming from his mouth blowing on Bob's trembling body -- which suddenly vanishes when the redeemed Scrooge is revealed in the ending.
113	* IdiosyncraticWipe: The scene transitions with the Narrator intrude on the picture with telltale white screen artifacts indicating a VHS tape being badly edited.
114	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: This show interprets Tiny Tim's disability as involving one of these, including having him ominously cough as the final sound we hear on "Priceless". (Note that canon only tells us that Tim is underdeveloped and weak, walking with leg braces and a crutch, but not that he has any respiratory problems -- but {{Fanon}} has frequently given him tuberculosis in adaptations, since it's the traditional VictorianNovelDisease.)
115	** Giving Tim a cough also puts some obvious present-day RealitySubtext into the scene, since after all the whole reason this show was made was the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.
116	* IrisOut: The show ends with one on Creator/DylanSaunders winking to the audience.
117	* KaraokeBondingScene: "Priceless" is played as one, with karaoke being a huge '80s fad that they just had to riff on. Bob and Emily, unlike everyone else, are singing using old-school wired handheld mics rather than wearing stage mics as headpieces or on their clothes, and their song is a classic karaoke PowerBallad (against a clichéd karaoke background of random scenes from around the city in [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black and white]]). Apparently renting a karaoke machine is one of the few indulgences Bob and Emily are able to afford.
118	* LemonyNarrator: The Narrator of this show, paying homage to Creator/CharlesDickens' narrative voice being much the same in the original book. He says things like the Ghost of Christmas Past is "nothing like what you're imagining" as a minor acknowledgement of the traditional AdaptationDeviation of making Past an attractive woman that this show also indulges in, and in the opening to "That Scrooge" he has to remind himself to shut up because "it's Belle's turn" to talk.
119	* LittlestCancerPatient: Tiny Tim is, of course, the original TropeCodifier, and this version of Tim rubs it in really hard -- the soundtrack version of "Priceless" ends with his IncurableCoughOfDeath echoing ominously, and the video ends with him plaintively telling the camera "I'm okay!" Apparently this version of him is ''so'' weak he can't even hand a spoonful of pudding to his father without dropping the spoon with an audible thud.
120	* LostInImitation: This show borrows a lot of the "canon" from the stage adaptations of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', like having Christmas Past be a woman, giving Mrs. Cratchit the first name "Emily", implying Tiny Tim has tuberculosis (on top of and exacerbated by whatever his original disability was), and including the detail that Fezziwig's Christmas party is where Scrooge and Belle met.
121	* NamedByTheAdaptation: Mrs. Cratchit didn't have a first name in the original novella; this show uses the first name "Emily" from the various stage adaptations.
122	* NerdGlasses: A big part of Scrooge's characterization is as an '80s nerd, with his big plastic-rimmed glasses cementing his image (and being the main way you can tell Young Scrooge and Old Scrooge are supposed to be the same person).
123	* NewAgeRetroHippie: Bob Cratchit's WildHair and PornStache would, in the actual '80s, mark him as an old-fashioned holdover from the TheSeventies; the implication in this show is that Bob is a former [[Music/TheGratefulDead Deadhead]] type who settled down and had a bunch of kids, and unfortunately his misspent youth meant the job with Scrooge was the best he could get.
124	* PornStache: Creator/JoeyRichter and Creator/BrianHolden both rock one of these as Bob Cratchit and the male Debtor, respectively, although obviously Brian had to shave his to play his other role of Tiny Tim.
125	* PrecisionFStrike: There's relatively little cursing in this show, except for Fred calling Scrooge's mood "shitty" and a pretty funny moment of the Turkey Boy calling the turkey Scrooge wants "fuckin' huge"...oh, and Scrooge constantly being referred to as a dick.
126	* RaceLift: Scrooge's nephew Fred and his ex Belle are both black, as is the Ghost of Christmas Present.
127	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: One big reason for the '80s theme seems to be making a virtue of necessity that this show had to be done with all the actors filming from home studios and the setting created by GreenScreen thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, which is a very {{Retraux}}-feeling way to make a MusicVideo.
128	* RepriseMedley: "Christmas Day" is a TriumphantReprise of "Bah Humbug" that includes brief reprises of "Christmas Electricity" (when he visits Fred) and "Priceless" (when he sees Bob the next day).
129	* ReunionShow: The majority of the cast of this show are members of the "first generation" of Creator/TeamStarkid who appeared in the era between ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'' and ''Theatre/AVeryPotterSeniorYear'' (from 2009-2012), several of whom haven't been seen in Starkid shows for a ''long'' time:
130	** This is the first new Starkid show A.J. Holmes, Britney Coleman and Creator/BrianRosenthal have appeared in since ''AVPSY'' in 2012, although Britney sang the RewrittenPopVersion of "A Thousand and One Nights" as the EndingTheme of ''Theatre/{{Twisted}}'' (and all three appeared at the ''Starkid Homecoming'' concert, which A.J. Holmes was the arranger and conductor for).
131	** This is the first show Creator/BrianHolden and Creator/MeredithStepien, both of whom were once "core" Starkid members, have appeared in since ''Theatre/{{Firebringer}}'' in 2016 (before Starkid left Chicago for LA). Especially notable since Brian was one of Starkid's ''founding'' members with ''WebVideo/LittleWhiteLie'' in 2007.
132	** Clark Baxtresser, who was Starkid's musical director and bandleader from 2009 (''Theatre/MeAndMyDick'') to 2016 (''Theatre/{{Firebringer}}'') but hasn't been seen since the {{Franchise/Hatchetfield}} series (which switched to having music by Creator/JeffBlim and Matt Dahan), now returns as the composer, accompanist and AllKnowingSingingNarrator of this show.
133	** A couple of one-off Starkid actors came back for this show -- this is Ali Gordon's first appearance since playing Vanessa in ''Theatre/MeAndMyDick'' in 2009, and Jamie Burns' since playing Chorn in ''Theatre/{{Firebringer}}'' in 2016.
134	** Notably, as a result of the ReunionShow aspect of this performance some recent fan-favorites were benched. None of the actors added to the Starkid roster for the Franchise/{{Hatchetfield}} series -- Jon Matteson, Robert Manion, Mariah Rose Faith, Angela Giarratana, Curt Mega and Kim Whalen -- are on the cast of this show, and neither is Franchise/{{Hatchetfield}} songwriter Creator/JeffBlim.
135	** Likewise, the Creator/LangBrothers, other than giving their blessing to produce this show under the Creator/TeamStarkid brand name and providing the initial inspiration for the concept with the success of ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'', had no direct involvement in this show's creation (which was written by Clark Baxtresser and directed by Corey Lubowich), being busy with preparation for ''Nightmare Time'' Season Two while it was being made.
136	* RockOpera: A SungThroughMusical in a rock/pop style that received a simultaneous release as a ConceptAlbum.
137	* SettingUpdate: The whole thing takes place somewhere in the United States in the 1980s. One notable TechnologyMarchesOn update to the setting is that Christmas Present's torch is replaced with his glowing blue CoolShades, and rather than sprinkling incense from it on people's food, he instead charges people up with "Christmas Electricity" (with an inspired little detail that people charged with "Christmas Electricity" are [[MagnetismManipulation "magnetized"]] to draw closer together.) Note that the Narrator openly contradicts this by saying at the beginning the story takes place in "1800-something" in London, as part of the intentional LyricalDissonance.
138	* ShoutOut: Scrooge's shaving scene during "Christmas Day" ends with him slapping both hands to his face at the sting from his aftershave, in a direct reference to ''Film/HomeAlone1''.
139	* TheSpeechless: The original Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was TheVoiceless. This being a musical, this version of Christmas Future communicates only in OneWomanWail wordless vocalizations... until the WhamLine when she reveals the name on the tombstone of the lonely grave is "Ebenezer Scrooge". ([[RealLifeWritesThePlot Which she has to, since they can't physically show it.]])
140	* SplitScreen: Obviously this technique is used throughout to put the actors into the same scene, but it's also used in the stylistic form of an '80s SurrealMusicVideo to show two mirrored images of the same actor for effect.
141	* StreetPunk: The looters at Scrooge's house after his death in the Future sequence are reimagined this way.
142	* StylisticSuck: Creator/DylanSaunders' deliberately awkward attempts to sing and dance at Fred's Christmas party during "Christmas Electricity".
143	* SurrealMusicVideo: It can't help but be this, since it doesn't try to hide at all that it's actors in different places interacting virtually against a GreenScreen backdrop, which much of the time is just an abstract surreal image rather than a photo of an actual place.
144	* SynthPop: The style of most of the music, although it veers into other genres at certain points, like The Ghost of Christmas Present starting "Christmas Electricity" with a verse of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop old-school hip-hop]].
145	* TakeOurWordForIt: A lot of this happens thanks to the limited cast, like the Narrator's descriptions of Fezziwig's and Fred's huge, crowded Christmas parties (which only actually have a few people onscreen). Possibly most notable with the Ghost of Christmas Past, where it's basically PlayedForLaughs that he describes her as a bizarre EldritchAbomination and she appears as a sexy aerobics instructor. His description of the other ghosts is similar -- Jacob Marley is described as a man covered with chains he drags behind him rather than an androgynous figure wearing stylish silver jewelry around his neck, Christmas Present is an "eight-foot-tall giant" but isn't any taller than Scrooge when he appears onscreen, and the Ghost of Christmas Future is never actually physically described other than saying it fills Scrooge with terror, despite that what we see is a beautiful woman in an EtherealWhiteDress.
146	** There's also stuff like Scrooge "waking up in bed" only to throw off the blanket and still be fully dressed as he just was in the past scene, and Scrooge spending a scene "shaving" only, obviously, to still have his beard when he's done.
147	* ThatManIsDead: "That Scrooge" elaborates on Belle and Ebenezer's conversation in the original book, with Belle making it clear she sees Scrooge's personality change as he got wealthier as this.
148	* TheStinger: The show makes us wait all the way through the end credits before finally giving us Tiny Tim's CatchPhrase "God bless us, every one!"
149	* TimeShiftedActor: Creator/BrianRosenthal as Young Scrooge.
150	* TruckDriversGearChange: The only direct BreakingTheFourthWall joke in this show comes in the middle of "Priceless":
151	-->'''Bob and Emily Cratchit''': We may be poor as dirt \
152	But this soil is rich \
153	Just listen to this \
154	Key change out of the bridge
155	* TruerToTheText: The story the Narrator tells follows the original Dickens novel very closely and is almost completely PlayedStraight, with the "'80s-ness" of the show entirely in the musical style and the visuals of the characters.
156	* UnexplainedAccent: In a show where almost everyone has an American accent and the show is supposed to be a SettingUpdate of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' to America in the 1980s, Ali Gordon decides to [[PlayedForLaughs play up for laughs]] her Charity Collector character in the beginning and the "Turkey Boy" character in the ending having the exact same [[FakeBrit Cockney]] accents they would in the normal setting of the play.
157	* WorkoutFanservice: This version of Christmas Past is Jaime Lyn Beatty wearing only a leotard and a headband, who spends her introduction song "I'm the Ghost" doing various exercise routines.
158	* YourSizeMayVary: People onscreen grow or shrink in size a lot, since they're being pasted in using GreenScreen from different shots. This is done intentionally during "Bah Humbug" to make Scrooge grow to gigantic size and tower over Bob Cratchit while he's telling him off. It's notable that this ''isn't'' done to make Christmas Present look any bigger even though we were just told he was "eight feet tall".
159	* {{Yuppie}}: The implicit theme of this show, with 1980s greed replacing the 1840s kind Dickens was writing about (in the tradition of ''Film/{{Scrooged}}'' with Creator/BillMurray), although unlike ''Film/{{Scrooged}}'' this show implies Scrooge is far too old to actually be a yuppie (since it's mostly TruerToTheText).
160	!! ''VHS Christmas Carol: Live!'' features the following tropes:
161	* AdaptationExpansion: The live show adds some incidental scenes between the major songs, mostly between Scrooge and whichever ghost he is with at the time.
162	* AdaptationalSexuality: The couple who expresses joy for Scrooge's future death was heterosexual in both the novel and the 2020 version, but homosexual in the 2021 live version.
163	* GreekChorus: While there is still a main narrator, the live concert version has the ensemble members chime in as co-narrators at multiple points.

Context WebVideo / AVHSChristmasCarol