If the Muppet version or the one that bagged Kate Winslet an Irish Christmas number one have reached saturation point in your holiday viewing, well a declassified NSA version of A Christmas Carol might be just what you need this festive season.
The Autumn/Winter 1987-1988 issue of the American security agency’s Cryptological Quarterly, an internal publication for spies and code-breakers, brought a festively red tinge to the Dickens’ classic - with all of the roles played by Communist icons.
A Communist Carol was declassified in 2010, and offers a take on how seriously the NSA was taking communism towards the end of the Cold War. Uncle Scrooge is played by Karl Marx, Stalin and Lenin inhabit the roles of the Ghosts of Communism Past, while Gorbachev plays the Ghost of Communism Future.
The play’s author remains redacted, but you can read the entire six-page skit here. May the godless communist state bless us, every one!
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[H/T: Matt Novak on Paleofuture]
