Nearly 30 years of one of American television's most storied and beloved traditions (i.e. portraying our presidents as moronic simpletons whose inability to tie their own shoes could send the country to Defcon 3) came to a glorious fountain of awesomeness at Funnyordie.com.

The website premiered a new public service announcement on federal finance laws directed by Ron Howard in the form of a very funny "Presidential Reunion" sketch that features the likes of Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, Dana Carvey, Dan Aykroyd and even Chevy Chase reviving their classic impressions of former presidents including (respectively) George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush Sr., Jimmy Carter and (the most hilarious in my opinion) Gerald Ford who come together to help the beleaguered Barack Obama, played by Fred Armisen. Jim Carrey also stepped in the room to play Ronald Reagan probably because Randy Quaid is nuttier than a Payday bar these days.

Christmas is the easiest holiday to make fun of because it can be so hokey and jolly. It's like the office jolly holly -- someone who's always smiling, always bringing gooey sweet goodies to the office for no reason, always cackling at everyone's jokes, no matter how bad they are or what MadTV episode they were taken from.

But deep down, you know that anyone that happy has to be making up for something equivalently dark and sinister. They are hiding a dark secret, something they can't even admit to themselves. You just know that the rises in sick leave usage after she brings her secret recipe brownies aren't coincidences.

Christmas wears the same mask. All it takes is a little scratching to find something dark and funny behind its red and white veneer. SNL has had some great success taking pot shots at Christmas, even during the down times, for this very reason. It's hard not to find something funny about Christmas, but it's hard to keep finding something funny about it long after the turkey has been picked clean and the eggnog has left a thin layer of plaque on the inside of your small intestine. Here are the best of the best.

(S01E09) Okay, we're really into swinging tonight. Everybody seems to get into the action, including the kids. Frankly, the summer of '76 is making everyone in Swingtown hot and horny and just a touch too adventurous. It makes for interesting viewing, but I'm not sure how realistic all this is supposed to be. What is the difference between swinging and cheating?

Brad and Sylvia are back. It's yet another dinner party at the Deckers! The writers really have to find other ways to get these people together. Anyway, after Bruce's admission of his overt flirtation with Melinda -- a couple of kisses and a trip to her apartment -- the Millers accept an invitation to the Pendulum Club. That's an erotic cabaret according to Trina, and yes, the Deckers decide to go along at Susan's behest.

I'm too young to really remember the late Gerald Ford, though he was president when I was born. That's not really significant, I'm just grasping for any kind of connection I might have with the man. The truth is, I don't know a lot about him, other than the basic stuff: he was not elected to the presidency, but rather took over when Nixon resigned, and also pardoned the former president. But then, I've always had what I describe as a "Cliff's Notes" way of retaining history.

If you're interested in learning a little more about Ford, you should check the listings for your local PBS station, because the WGVU-produced documentary, Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History has been made available to PBS stations everywhere. The documentary was based on James Cannon's book of the same name, and chronicles the life of the late president and his political career.

When former President Gerald Ford passed away late Tuesday night, both NBC and ABC broke into regular programming to report the news. CBS, however did not; instead they decided just to put a crawl at the bottom of the screen. If you were watching CBS at the time, when a Letterman rerun was running in the east and an NCIS rerun was running in the west, you might have wondered why they didn't break in to report something that was so important.

Others were wondering, too, and David Bauder of the AP got some reaction to it. CBS really didn't give a reason other than just state that they will fly Katie Couric in from an overseas vacation to anchor funeral coverage, and that they reported the news as soon as they saw it. In the article, Bauder cites a 2004 incident where a CBS News producer was fired for breaking into CSI:NY to report the death of Yassir Arafat rather than do the agreed-to crawl. Whether or not that was a factor in this decision is unclear. But the logical reaction would be that a former President would merit a break-in, don't you think?

[via Mediabistro]