Is fail still in the air? Maybe the too-big-to-fail fatcats like $C, $BAC and $WFC have found ways to wiggle out from under the big TARP, but the smaller set is still struggling. The gov’t requires quarterly payments on the 5% dividend the TARP recipients are required to pay on its ‘investment’ – and granted, 5% is a king’s ransom in times of ZIRP, but srsly, many of them are missing it:

Fifty-five financial companies failed to pay dividends in November on money they borrowed from the U.S. government, bank research firm SNL said on Wednesday.

That number swelled from 33 companies that missed an August payment on government funds, according to an SNL analysis of government data.

Now really, you have to miss it for SIX quarters before Timmay will come shake his naughty stick at you and mess with your board. Twelve companies are halfway there, having missed three payments. (One of them though, OneUnited, is somehow exempt from worrying about this, thanks to Barney Frank and Maxine Waters.)

So yeah, FDIC #bankfailfriday fans probably have more to look forward to in 2010.

Sorry, no Photoshop, but because I feel bad when I give you guys a post without a visual of some sort, here’s a Daily Show clip on the work of Congress, with some bailout content: