Video taking off 38x its usual first day

Charles Barkley joins Johnny Depp's "humbug" chorus

Paramount's Ebenezer promo recruits Angel Reese, Richard Sherman and Draymond Green to share Scrooge's favorite complaint.

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Paramount Pictures Story of November 12, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 522,289 views a day, 38 times a normal first day on this channel (13,666).

There's a little humbug in all of us. #EbenezerMovie only in theatres this Friday.

Charles Barkley has a request that has nothing to do with Christmas cheer: "Just tell me what we're doing. Don't be giving me no synopsis." By that point, he and his fellow sports personalities have already given Ebenezer Scrooge plenty of company.

Paramount Pictures' new Short is a promotional spot for Ebenezer, cutting between Johnny Depp's Scrooge and a lineup including Barkley, Angel Reese, Richard Sherman, Cam Skattebo and Draymond Green. Their shared assignment is simple: deliver "Humbug!" with conviction.

The clip drew roughly 300,000 views in ten hours, an unusually fast start compared with the studio's typical Shorts. It follows a separate Draymond Green-themed Ebenezer Short that has also drawn a large audience.

The joke works through repetition and interruption. A character begins a Christmas greeting; Depp's Scrooge snaps, "Don't you dare." The athletes supply their own complaints, while Barkley's aside briefly turns the polished movie campaign into something closer to a recording-session outtake.

Directed by Ti West from a screenplay by Nathaniel Halpern, Ebenezer follows Scrooge through encounters with his past, present and future. Where Paramount's earlier featurette explored Depp's reading of the character, this spot gives the athletes a single word to play with. Barkley still finds room to object to the instructions.

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