You truly know Christmas is near when the nativity spoofs come rolling in.

John Goodman, last night’s “Saturday Night Live” host, was joined by famous Hollywood tough-guys Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone, in a Soprano-esque version of the three wise men going to visit baby Jesus. The skit was appropriately entitled the “Three Wise Guys.”

The comedy bit was chock-full of baby Jesus references that cleverly skated the line of humor and religious controversy, with lines like “This kid is going to be big,” De Niro says, as he rides on a stuffed camel along with the others. “Yeah, you know what? I hear his father is in construction,” replies Stallone in his best Jersey accent. It was pretty funny stuff.

And why do these wise guys refer to themselves as the three kings?

I’m the “King of sanitation in Bayonne, New Jersey” says Stallone. And Goodman reveals he’s the “Furniture king of Massapequa.” But De Niro’s reply is arguably the best and received the biggest applause from the audience. “I do a little of this, a little of that, don’t worry about it,” he says.

But not everybody found the skit so funny, namely one Italian American who seems to live in New Jersey or close by.

“Why would two Italian Americans do something as stupid as this?” wrote Kathi Papaleo in a YouTube comment. “Tired of the stereotyping of Italian Americans from New York and New Jersey.” But for the most part the skit was well-received with almost 9,000 YouTube views in less than 24-hours.

It appears Stallone and De Niro paid a visit to SNL to promote their new film “Grudge Match,” opening on Christmas Day, also starring comedian Kevin Hart, veteran actor Alan Arkin and Kim Basinger, who seems to be in fewer and fewer movies these days.

And to complete the mob-guy shtick, the three wise guys revealed the gifts they plan to bring baby Jesus when they arrive.

De Niro plans to offer frankincense, which he hilariously thinks is hair gel and Stallone plans to give a meatball-parm and a Yankees onesie to baby Jesus. And what’s Goodman bringing? An envelope full of cash, because every good mob skit needs one of those, right?

Image via YouTube