The Tick – “The Tick Loves Santa!”
Original airdate 11/25/95
This is the animated Tick series, by the way. Not the short-lived live action version. And looking at that airdate, I just realized The Tick was doing superhero parody about a decade before superheroes had enough cultural cachet to warrant it. Truly, the Tick is a man ahead of his time.
This episode opens with a bank robber on the run from the police. A stolen Santa Claus outfit doesn’t help him elude pursuit, largely because he’s actually carrying a sack of money with a big dollar sign on it. (Man, I love The Tick.)
The Tick and Arthur join the pursuit, but Tick naturally believes that it must be a misunderstanding, given that Santa would never break the law. After a chase, the crooked Kringle runs into a neon sign and gets electrocuted. Logically, and I’m trusting Ben Edlund with the science on this, said electrocution gives him the power to create evil Santa duplicates. Christening himself “Multiple Santa”, he sets out on a reign of yuletide terror.
