Doctor Who Parodies: The Twelve Doctors of Christmas
By Leah Tedesco
Many fans have created Doctor Who parodies of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’
More from Winter is Coming
- For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
- Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
- Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
- Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
- Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”
According to commonly accepted tradition, today is the fourth day of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Commemorating this is the popular traditional Christmas carol, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas,’ which was first published in 1780 in England. The version as we know it today (more or less) was arranged by composer Frederic Austin in 1909.
There have been virtually countless versions of the song performed and recorded over the centuries, many of them parodies. I can think of a few renditions that were popular when I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s.
One is by John Denver and the Muppets from the 1979 television special John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.
Another is by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas playing the recurring characters Bob and Doug McKenzie from the Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV. It appears on the 1981 album The Great White North. The lyrics were changed to reflect the culture of the country’s rustic life. Check it out, eh:
Lastly, there is ‘The Twelve Pains of Christmas’ by Bob Rivers and his Comedy Corp, appearing on the 1988 album Twisted Christmas. From the title, one gets a vague sense of what the lyrics are.
Being around for as long as it has, Doctor Who lends itself well to parodying ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’ Two years ago, we posted an article doing just that. It is especially easy to create such parodies now, considering that there are twelve Doctors (not counting Meta-Crisis, the War Doctor, etc.). With this in mind, the fan-created web series Doctor Puppet recently made one of their own — a music video titled ‘The 12 Doctors of Christmas.’
Naturally, however, this is not the first time that someone has had this idea.
In 2013, The Huffington Post shared ‘The 12 Doctor Whos Of Christmas.’
Also that year, Literary Ethnography posted ‘Twelve days of Christmas (Doctor Who Edition).’
In 2014, Lifeseal Knight produced ’12 Doctors of Christmas.’ The War Doctor was even included near the end.
The same year, Petra Elliott of Splendid Chaps Productions made ’12 Doctors of Christmas: Parody Who style.’
Additionally, Order Gallifrey did ’12 Doctors of Christmas.’
Someone even put together a montage of footage from Doctor Who to go along with ‘The Twelve Pains of Christmas.’
There are probably more out there, but we think that we have more than made our point.
Tangentially related to this trend, the BBC got into the spirit this year, releasing Twelve Doctors of Christmas, an illustrated anthology of Christmas adventures. From this, Frances Barber read ‘The Gift’ on Doctor Who: The Fan Show.
(Article continues below the next post link.)
Next: Why Were Some Fans Not Impressed by ‘Mysterio’?