The Charlotte Hornets scheduled a Christmas-themed on-court skit for a break in the second quarter of their home loss Monday to the depleted 76ers. The setup involved Hugo, the mascot of the Hornets, learning what a couple of participating children most want for Christmas, and then delivering the goods. The payoff, as far as I can tell, was supposed to come with the final wish: A kid tells Hugo, sadly, that his father is moving the family to Philadelphia, and Hugo saves the day by producing a new father, clad in a Hornets jersey, to keep the family in Charlotte. You're rolling your eyes now, but someone at the Hallmark Channel is rubbing their hands together greedily while their assistant speed-dials Luke Macfarlane. To set up this joke, the skit had to first demonstrate that Hugo had Santa-like powers. The second and penultimate child to interact with Hugo, a 13-year-old named Jack, asked for and received a Playstation 5. In the same way that the children in the punchline did not get to keep the actor in the Hornets jersey, Jack was never intended to keep the Playstation 5; the expensive hardware was meant to establish Hugo's generosity, in order to set up the gag about how a Hornets-loving dad, to replace your regular, crappy one, would a great and wonderful gift. The Hornets were giving the gift of entertainment, to the audience, with a skit! They were not giving a PS5 to a child. Alexei Phillips, Jack's uncle, told Queen City News that after the skit the Hornets took back the PS5, and instead gave his nephew a Hornets jersey.

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