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– Greetings, I'm John Phillips and this is Up or Down. On today's show, a principal's fight against Santa Claus, how a Star Wars T-shirt landed one student in a war with his school, plus Mountain Dew flavored chicken wings. All these stories and more will be judged with a thumbs up or thumbs down by our panel. They are stand up comic and PJTV contributor, Stephen Kruiser, the very fair-minded civil rights defense attorney, Mr. Leo Terrell, and the one and only Bill Schulz, who's joining us all the way from New York City today, in California, trying to get away from the snow. – Yes, and I brought it with me. – As you can see they have their thumbs ready, so let's get started. Our first topic involves the ultimate fat shaming. A school principal placed a ban on Santa Claus on campus. The principal from New York City also banned the Pledge of Allegiance. Meet Eujin Kim, who from this point forward will be referred to as Lil' Kim, she's the PC principal who also replaced Thanksgiving celebrations with a Harvest Festival because she wanted to rid all religious symbols and holidays from the school. The principal took things so far that not even teachers were allowed to say Merry Christmas inside the school. However, just days ago, the principal caved under pressure and decided to reverse the ban and apologize for her actions. So up or down on this principal for banning Santa Claus? Stephen Kruiser? – Send her, send her to Roca, okay? This is ridiculous, first of all, she's in charge of a school and educating young minds and she's too stupid to know that Thanksgiving isn't a religious holiday, okay? And secondly, this whole Santa Claus is a religious symbol, I have yet to see Santa Claus's appearance every year send people flooding into the streets to convert to Christianity. Stop the, it's like Susan Powder, remember her from back in the old days with the, "Stop the insanity!" That's what we need to do with this. – Leo? – I'm embarrassed, being a former school teacher, she has abused her power. She's a dictator, she's a dictator and is outrageous. In my opinion, she has the authority to make the decision but why didn't she involve the school, the teachers, the parents, and say, "You think this is a good idea?" That's why she had to reverse herself and apologize. Bad decision, way thumbs down. – You know what, since she is a dictator, I think the next time the school takes those portraits, those photographs, she should be forced to wear sunglasses and a funny hat in hers. (laughing) – Concur. – Just to meet the standards. – [Leo] I agree. – Bill? – I'm against the Thanksgiving thing, but I'm gonna give it a thumbs up. There's a reason why they call it a war on Christmas because every other holiday doesn't stand a chance in so much as like a tickle fight. It is such a behemoth, no one else can compete. My nephew was raised half Catholic and half Jewish, and guess what? Hanukkah ain't winning. (laughing) Dreidels are boring. I'm just saying maybe we level the playing field a little bit. Feel bad for his Jewish mom. – Wait, I haven't heard about Hanukkah Harry being banned. – Hanukkah Harry is a Saturday Night Live sketch brought to you by one, Jon Lovitz, and I don't even think he's Jewish! (laughing) He might be, I'm not– – Well, he's circumcised. We asked our fans on Facebook and Twitter, a school ban on Santa, Thanksgiving, and the Pledge of Allegiance, has political correctness gone too far? Paul L. said, "Schools are caving to federal ideals. "They should reflect the traditions of the local community." Shelly F. said, "I give up, let's just have schools "with no celebrations at all, not for anyone, "no birthdays, no holidays, no school spirit days. "Wouldn't want to offend bees, dragons, "bear cubs, or stars." There you go, thank you all for participating. Now on to topic number two. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has invaded theaters across the nation. One student learned the hard way that you can't wear a Star Wars T-shirt to school. Meet Texas seventh grader, Colton Southern. He wore this T-shirt to school. Administrators told him to cover up the shirt with his sweater because it shows a stormtrooper carrying a weapon, which apparently, is a violation of the school's dress code that prohibits symbols or any towards violence. Cole's dad said, "This political correctness has "run amok and his son has warn the shirt "before without incident." So thumbs up or thumbs down on the school banning Star Wars shirts? Stephen Kruiser? – Hi, we're the grown ups and we can't differentiate between reality and a movie that's set in the future. Okay, this is, the grown ups aren't being the grown ups anymore. This is the problem with the schools. This is just like, okay, this kid's going to incite violence by wearing a Star Wars thing, then like with the Santa Claus thing, I haven't seen all the Star Wars and the Star Wars specific violence being committed in the street yet. And even if, it was a stormtrooper, they can't hit anything. When was the last time a stormtrooper shot anybody? They miss everybody! – And I love the fact that you're talking about kids that are young, in particular. They say, "You can't wear that shirt because it's violent. "Now get to PE, grab a big medicine ball "and throw it as hard as you can at the most "unathletic kid, first opportunity." (laughing) Leo? – I got to back to working as a lawyer. Call me, this is a lawsuit. What in the world? Thumbs down, by the way, thumbs down. There is no basis or rationale to infer that that T-shirt represents violence, represents danger. As the Kruiser stated, it is a movie, it's fantasy, so it poor analogy to some type of gun violence. Big thumbs down, a lawsuit. – What do you think they'd do if he had a vintage Leo Terrell for Congress T-shirt? – Uh, way thumbs down. (laughing) That is violent and scary, very scary. – Bill? – Thumbs down, although, if he was wearing a Star Trek T-shirt, I say they should have kicked him out. 'Cause everyone knows Star Wars is for winners and Star Trek is for losers. And that's why we should have school uniforms, so that kids doesn't get a black eye. – What if he was wearing a Star Search shirt? – Oh, Star Search, that's just for fabulous, fabulous winners. – I'm surprised you were never on Star Search. – I had three Star Search winners open for me, though. So that's how that goes. You can just have the credits or the talent. – This brings us to today's poll. We asked our viewers if they plan on seeing the new Star Wars movie? 62% of you said, "Yes, I already have my ticket." 15% said, "No, I've never been a fan." 23% said, "Maybe, only if it gets good reviews." Thank you all for participating. Our final topic today involves a bizarre combination, chicken wings and Mountain Dew, otherwise known as heaven at Casa de Phillips. The greenish, citrus flavored soda is now being used to infuse chicken wings and buffalo wild wings. The creation is to help celebrate the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl Game between the University of Michigan and the University of Florida on New Year's Day. So if you want these wings, ask for the zesty citrus sauce, which is Mountain Dew infused lemongrass and spicy red pepper flakes. So up or down, would you try these chicken wings, Stephen Kruiser? – I am a sweet and savory segregationist and I don't think they need to be brought together. Okay, I don't know. No, my soda does not need to taste like my chicken and my chicken doesn't need to taste, people with the needing to flavor everything are starting, I do believe that that's what the people who used to be Soviet spies are doing now. They're trying to flavor us to death with things. No, I'm not a fan, I don't want my coffee flavored, I don't want no flavor. Let my soda taste like soda and my chicken taste like chicken and a little bit spicier maybe. – Leo? – Got to make it way up, I want to try it. And, look, Kruiser, you know, people eat their chicken, they drink their soda, they mix it up, so yes, I'm gonna try it. I'm looking forward to it. Big thumbs up, free market, Kruiser. – So Leo wants you to just throw all your food in a blender (speaker drowned out by laughing). – Yeah, why not? I think it's great! – Walk around with a NutriBullet like this all day long 'cause it's all gonna end up in the same place anyway. – Bill? – Well, you know, David Bowie once called himself the trisexual, in the sense that he'd try anything once. And I used to be that way with food until I got around 40 and then I look at that, just looking at that makes me want to run to the bathroom. And I'm nowhere near it. But 35-year-old Bill, this, 40-year-old Bill, no. – All right, here's a question for Leo Terrell. – Yes, sir? – [John] If these two were in Costco, and there was a little old lady who had these samples of the Mountain Dew chicken wings, would they try it? – Yes, they would look around to make sure that John's not around, they would try it. Why not? It's free. – I should say, if there was money involved, yeah, I would. All right. – All right, that's gonna do it for today's show. Go ahead and leave your comments in the comments section below and don't forget to like us on Facebook on Facebook.com/PJTV. I'm John Phillips, for Bill Schulz, Leo Terrell, and Stephen Kruiser, thanks so much for watching and have a great weekend. (whimsical music)