--- title: Lewis Black: Dreaming of a Black Christmas | TIME description: The caustic comedian takes on yuletide traditions in a new book 'I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas,' with memories both sour and sweet canonical: https://time.com/video/PPFwUTKf/ og:title: Lewis Black: Dreaming of a Black Christmas og:description: The caustic comedian takes on yuletide traditions in a new book 'I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas,' with memories both sour and sweet og:url: https://time.com/video/PPFwUTKf/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PPFwUTKf/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lewis Black: Dreaming of a Black Christmas twitter:description: The caustic comedian takes on yuletide traditions in a new book 'I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas,' with memories both sour and sweet twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PPFwUTKf/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Lewis Black: Dreaming of a Black Christmas > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Lewis Black: Dreaming of a Black Christmas [Watch (HLS stream): Lewis Black: Dreaming of a Black Christmas](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PPFwUTKf.m3u8) (4:00)  _Published 2010-12-20. The caustic comedian takes on yuletide traditions in a new book 'I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas,' with memories both sour and sweet_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:08 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Dreaming in a Pandemic](/video/cErvBFna/) ### Dreaming in a Pandemic [Word of the Day: CAUSTIC](/video/6npbzP0j/) ### Word of the Day: CAUSTIC [African Flight: When The Dream Turns Sour](/video/Ab03ruEo/) ### African Flight: When The Dream Turns Sour --- ## Transcript >> I'm Tim Morrison for TIME and we're here with veteran comedian, Lewis Black. The new book is called " I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas ." It's out now. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> So, the book has a picture on the cover of you smoking a cigar-- >> Uh- huh. >> and lighting a Christmas tree on fire with the menorah. >> Yes. >> But if you actually read it, there are parts of Christmas that you actually like. >> Yeah. I think that Christmas has a lot going for it and the heart of it is really great, but they've run a month. This merchandising things to the streets, you know, is happening. Apparently, you know, the economy is inexorably tied to Santa's ass. Somehow this happened. I don't know why we just don't run it all year- round, then, you know, seriously, people seem to really like it, they seem to be a little perkier, they're happier, you know. >> You talked a lot in your book about how, you know, you're a single Jewish guy. In Christmas, you spend your time celebrating with families, you know, with people who have like these large Christmas celebrations. >> Yes. >> You would wanna run the other direction from that? >> No, because they both have this really nice-- One friend of mine has a really great lunch and really good wine and then my other friend has really great dinner and really great wine, but I'm on the road so much that it really is as much an opportunity for me to see friends and family. There's any good time I have during the year, and I get to eat from noon until midnight. >> What-- You said in your book that it's important for politicians to lead by example. I mean, can you do that even in today's political climate? I mean-- >> I mean, I don't know if they can, but they better start it. I don't care if they can or can't, just do it. You know, you watched John Boehner weeping which is more than I can bear. I was, " Oh, boy, that was awful ." >> At some point, don't you kind of have to look at these people and laugh? Or they just-- >> Well, I don't know how you-- I mean, if you don't live, by the end of the day, you screwed, you know, which is the secret to The Daily Show. I mean, it's like, by that time, everybody goes, " Oh, boy, it's a brilliant show" and I've always kind of said, " Well, it's-- really, what's brilliant is when we come on because, by then, you've watched the new cycle three times and we put it on again ." You go, " Oh, I get ." >> Do people now come up to you and try to get you angry? >> They'll yell stuff from the audience occasionally that they know will go to me and do something. And sometimes, I bite, and sometimes, I don't. >> It does seem like it takes a certain amount of crazy bravery to make Lewis Black angry. >> Yeah. It's a little dumb. >> Getting back to the book for a second, you talked in it and you spoke about earlier that the merchandising and the commercialization and all this stuff. You have a Christmas book. Are you sort of feeding into it? Or-- >> Oh, exactly. I'm feeding into it and I'm getting on-- you know, I think, " Why shouldn't a Jew be able to ride the surfboard ?" The big financial [ unk ] >> And you talked about one of the sort of tradition for Christmas that you have which is you wake up Christmas morning and you start writing checks. >> Yeah. I write checks to a variety of causes that I believe in and think that-- and also, so that I'm hoping that it's videotaped by God for my, you know, when we do the final, you know, tribunal and that's the way I can participate and because that's what it's about. >> Well, that was my question. I mean, it sort of that's the true meaning of Christmas-- >> Yeah. >> you know, we've used all the capital letters. >> It is. That's really it. That's the-- you know, you hopefully give. >> All right, well, Lewis Black, happy holidays. >> Happy holidays. >> Merry Christmas. >> Merry, Merry Christmas. And remember, you can say Merry Christmas and if somebody feels excluded there ,-- ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Lewis Black: Dreaming of a Black Christmas","description":"The caustic comedian takes on yuletide traditions in a new book 'I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas,' with memories both sour and sweet","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PPFwUTKf/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-12-20T20:26:38.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PPFwUTKf.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/PPFwUTKf/","duration":"PT4M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/PPFwUTKf/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```