It feels like a million years since John Krasinski last graced YouTube with an episode of Some Good News, the adorably janky posi-vibes-only fake news show he created in the first wave of the pandemic. (It was May, by the way. May.) And we thought we’d seen the last of Krasinski behind the SGN home-office desk when he wrapped it up after eight installments earlier this year (and controversially sold the show to CBS).
But given that the pandemic is raging well into its tenth and most deadly month, with the nation’s elected representatives having spent all year deliberating whether or not to help its desperate citizens out with a non-insulting amount of cash relief (spoiler: they picked “not”), Krasinski threw some tinsel up in his study again for a surprise holiday special.
After including some of his traditional good news, from a beautiful makeshift wedding in a cancer ward to a $10,000 pay-it-forward spree at a Minnesota Dairy Queen, Krasinski jumped onto Zoom with Jay Abel, a widowed father of two who put his beloved comics memorabilia up on eBay in order to buy his kids some of the things on their Christmas list.
Krasinski initially tried to buy Abel’s stuff himself but this precious nerd dad, hilariously, was suspicious of the newly created account snapping up all his items, and blocked the sales. Instead, he called up Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — from whom Abel had requested a humble retweet to signal-boost his eBay sales — to surprise Abel with, well, some good news. Not only would “Santa” take care of his kids’ wish lists, but “Dwanta” invited Abel to visit the set of his DC Universe movie Black Adam when it’s safe to do so.
“You are what the holidays are all about,” Johnson told a beaming Abel. “You embody the spirit. And I feel very confident I can speak for my friend John here in that, you know, the true measure of a man and true measure of a human being truly is always what’s in their heart. Always what’s deep down in their heart, and their mana.”
It’s heartwarming stuff, to be sure. But it’s criminal and shameful that so many parents are struggling to make this Christmas in particular a special time for their kids — that so many are unable to afford rent or grocery bills, let alone an Xbox, unless they’re the lucky recipient of celebrity largesse. We’re glad to see Krasinski’s not-Captain-America beam back on our screens, but it’s a Band-Aid on the bullet wound that is America’s total failure of its citizens all year long.