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Pencil 2.O Wikia

"Merry Christmas to you, happy new year all year through, happy holiday to you!"

If it was socially acceptable for two American Jews from the last century to sing a Christmas song about Jesus, then I have no problem with one Canadian Jew in this century singing a Christmas song about rock 'n' roll. Or his appearing in a bunch of artwork from Twitter that depicts him as a Christian.[1] Also, Bell might be a Syrian Muslim; I might have to check that one again... but that's a point for another blog post.

Anyway, has anyone else been aware of how much more content Jacknjellify have been putting on YouTube? It's crazy; it's as though every other week, there's something that's related to BFB, but isn't an episode of it. One of their latest videos has already got a million views because it's a BFB crossover with Among Us, that oh-so-popular game.

I know I rant and rave a bit about how young-people-centric their channel has become, but they're just going with the times. I'm truthfully rather okay with it, and I know that their 2012 selves would be proud.

Anyway, again, this new post is a music video. Yay for sounds carefully arranged to evoke emotions in these unprecedented times! Since Christmas is coming up in one week, Jacknjellify continue their one-year-old tradition of holiday song specials with this one: "Jingle Bell Rock". Of course, that second word in the title is also the name of a BFB character, and what better way to honour her than by singing a song with her name on it?

I'm sure that's exactly what Bobby Helms was thinking when he first recorded the song in 1957: they're going to make an object show and name a character from my song! But let's actually start the post lest it should get too long for the 155 seconds for which the video plays.

The video[]

I don't know how to properly review a video like this, since it's a music video made mostly of artwork by people on Twitter, and since this page isn't called "Special post: Artwork from ‘Jingle BELL Rock’”, I'm not going to be reviewing any of the artwork individually. But let me just say that people draw BFB characters really well. Those Twitter artists know their stuff! And I think I've seen, like, a quarter of them on DeviantArt, just so you know, but still good.

The song's pretty good too, if the first few seconds are any indicator, even if it sounds like it's a part of the genre they call "trap". Such is the musical landscape in the late 2010s–early 2020s.

Obviously, there will be singing here too, and if Four and X are the main performers like last year, then I'd better brace myself for—HOLY SHIT!

Six seconds into the video and Pen is singing. Like actually singing. Twenty-nine syllables. I counted them. More than there are days until the end of the year. More than there were characters in BFDI and BFDIA. More than there are films of The Land Before Time. Our collective subconscious prayers have been answered!

The greatest part about this whole thing is that he sings well![2] I mean, back when the wiki was really something, I'd have him and the school-aged characters on Pencil 2.O be part-time members of a travelling Gilbert and Sullivan opera company. Of course, that's still canon for this show, but it's absolutely awesome (as in awe-inspiring) that Jnj are working more closely to make this a reality. If he sings "Spurn not the nobly born" from Iolanthe next, I won't know what to do.

Unlike most tenor boys, he doesn't have a solo for the rest of the video, which I was still interested in based on the already strange aesthetics. I mean, the singer, which changes to Four and from Four to Cloudy, Bell and a newcomer called Seven[3], appears in a very small, inconspicuous circle at the bottom of the screen, and Cloudy has a fucking human mouth! It's one of those moments that you might not notice the first time you watch it, but when you see it, you'll see it. It would be funny if not disturbing if all of BFB were animated that way. His singing voice is just as scary-sounding, truth be told, but I felt the same way about nearly everyone else in the video.

I wouldn't listen to this at three in the morning. Not even on Christmas Day.

Not-so-random quote: "To go, glide it in a one-whore sleigh." Who knew Seven was so lascivious? Then again, [whispers] there were seven sins.

Final thoughts[]

That was a surprising watch! I felt like I was in some different universe while listening to this. Maybe it's because I don't really watch the other non-BFB-episode videos by Jnj,[4] but I'll admit to having laughed out loud to every single second.

That's all for "now", whenever that is.

Ha—

Wait, it's too early!

Notes[]

  1. Just once I'd like to see him and Eraser in kippot lighting the chanukkiyah.
  2. As BFDI, BFDIA and BFB fans, we know that Michael's a good singer. There's no one quite like him as a voice actor for Puffball.
  3. Although appearing in a video from the past, one of those "Thank you for (I'm guessing) 7 subscribers!" milestone tributes.
  4. (INB4 "[I] really should")
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