If you rewatched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation anytime recently, and thought “You know — these people would probably be arrested in real life,” there is at least some evidence you were probably right. In Shepherdsville, Kentucky, this year, one local resident put up an elaborate Christmas Vacation-themed outdoor display, and it resulted in a 911 call, accusing a mannequin dressed as Cousin Eddie of “exposing himself.” Luckily for Joni Keeney, whose decorations they were, the police responding had a sense of humor — if not a sense for family connection, referring to the character as “Uncle Eddie” when calling back to dispatch.
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The 911 caller has not been identified, presumably to protect them from being mercilessly roasted on the internet. She mistakenly reported that the mannequin was holding a garden hose between its legs.
The hose (and the green stuff coming out) is a nod to a scene in the movie in which Eddie empties his RV’s septic tank.
You can see a local news report, and hear the 911 call, below.
“We have a male standing outside. He is naked. He has a robe covering part of his body. He is exposing himself, and he has a hose between his legs,” dispatch told the officers (via WDRB). Upon arriving, the officers responded, “Umm … it’s gonna be ‘Uncle Eddie.’”
“Everybody has a ‘Cousin Eddie’ in their family, everybody,” Keeney said. “I just want people to have a good Christmas and get a laugh.”
Keeney said that funny enough, her family doesn’t drink, and she borrowed the beer can used in the display from a neighbor (presumably not the same one). She said that the police immediately saw the humor in the situation, and even took photos of the holiday display while they were there.
The Vacation franchise started in 1983. The first film was written by John Hughes and directed by Harold Ramis, based on Vacation ’58, a short story Hughes wrote in the National Lampoon magazine. There have been six total installments in the franchise, with the latest being a 2015 quasi-reboot starring Ed Helms as Rusty Griswold, Clark and Ellen’s son. One made-for-TV Christmas Vacation 2, which centered on Randy Quaid’s oddball Cousin Eddie character.
Of the six films, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has an odd distinction: it’s the only one that does not actually center on the main character leaving home to go on vacation. In Christmas Vacation, the family comes to Clark and Ellen, and the film takes place in their home. Rather than being a road-trip comedy, the movie is transformed into a Christmas situational comedy, centering on Clark’s desire to deliver the grandest, most perfect “traditional Christmas” he possibly can.
