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Cracked finished out 1988 with Santa, Baby New Year’s and Father Time on the cover-dated March 1989 issue.

Receiving top billing was a parody of the ensemble western Young Guns entitled Young Buns. Guns starred Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemasko, Terence Stamp, Terry O’Quinn, Brian Keith and Jack Palance.

The film received mixed reviews and is generally forgotten.

A seasonal His Jolly Jolly Jolly…is Not Just Idle Folly! rhetorical rhyme follows Santa through an updated version of a Night Before Christmas.

Vic Bianco and Wally Dickens Brogan followed the one-page wonder with an updated, television version of Scrooge called Screwge. Pop culture icons of the day dot the pages as Dickens’ Christmas Carol is trampled.

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Skipping ahead, Form and Function Scopes Out Santa!

Santa’s gear is broken down this two-page spread.

A few pages later John Severin pokes fun at the big guy in a one-page In-Santa-Ty offering up a few one panel jokes at Mr. Claus’ expense.

Cultural action hero of the 1980s, Sly Stallone, was featured in his Rambo persona in Sly Stalloon’s Greatest Xmas Hits!

No word play was off limits as readers were beat over the head with song titles like The Little Bomber Boy, Nuclear Winter Wonderland, Do You Fear What I Fear, Twas the Night Before Doomsday, Joy to the War! I Saw a Commie Kissing Santa Clause and the list goes on. All available on record, cassette, 8-Track tape or CD (Compact Disc).

Not really.

It’s a Wonderful Life is recast in It’s a Wonderful Laff.

Chevy Chase is George Barley, John Belushi is the angel Clarence, Cher is Mary and New York Mayor Ed Koch is tossed in for what writer Tony Frank thought would be a laugh. The parody plays out like the source material without the charm.

The original It’s a Wonderful Life was released in 1946 starring James Stewart and directed by Frank Capra. It was based on the short story, The Greatest Gift by Phillip Van Doren.

It’s a Wonderful Life was a box office disaster when released. The film earned eternal life when it fell into public domain and was picked up by fledging television stations during the medium’s infancy. It has since been lauded as one of the greatest films of all time.

In 1990, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress added it to its archives.