Mr Mike's Mondo Video

We're waiting, m so fathom alone. I feel like you and I have an unspoken kinship to one Michael o'donni you primarily because of the kinds of things that we find funny if that makes it end, and the way we approach humor. Right, Yeah, Michael O'donahue represents a level of gallows humor or black humor that I think you and I share, and a willingness to rebel against societal norm with you know, uh yeah, yeah yea for her and a plum yes, a certain sophistication for the barbarous acts being perpetrated. He is a sophisticate, one might say, yeah, he's he's he's the snarl behind the grin Michael o'donna here. Yeah, And you know what, I obviously I'm a fan of SNL like you are.

But you know, I you know, age difference. I saw the nineties SNL, so that's what I grew up with, you know, Adam sand learned stuff. And by that point Michael o'donna hue was no longer with the show, and he passes away what nine before, yeah, so you know, before before the age of me watching SNL live. So he'll grew up with Michael o'donna Hugh and his comedy stylings. I certainly did.

We've talked in other episodes. I've been a fan of Saturday and Live as soon as I was able to watch television. I've been watching Saturday and Live sneaking viewings late Saturday nights as a young child. But as a young young child was allowed, you know, summertime to be up with all of the rest of the older cousins in the neighborhood and would watch it. So yeah, you know, I don't think I was became aware of Michael o'donni here until I was a teenager, and that's when I really dove in hard.

And that's when I was really doing a lot of reading about Saturday Night Live, old articles and magazines and there's a there's a really good book, the Doug Hale Jeff Weingrad book about Saturday and Night Live. And that's where I was fully introduced to him, and I didn't really really get into him ntil I got to college, and that's when I was able to act. Says The University of Southern California stacks their library and all the back issues of National Lampoon and I basically read all of the seventies of back issues of National Lampoon. So that's where I that's where I really fell in love with Michael o'donnih because I think a lot of what he was doing on television post SNL, even during it, but particularly near the end, he was pushing a little too hard and it was a little too clumsy.

I don't think he's necessarily made for television, Michael o'donni here. But on that note, everybody, on this episode of the Culture Cast, we're talking about mister Mike's Mondo video. I am still your host, Chris Dashu, much of the chagrin of many, And if you don't know this lovely gentleman's voice, the fuck are you even doing here? All right? He's the one of the host of Noise Junkies.

He hosts Midnight Viewing, a podcast that I enjoy being on because it's a lot of fun. Your friend and mine fought alone book him then, oh murder, God, damn, Hey, everybody, Dan Hey, you know what? Hey, that's what it points them out. Dan Ackroyd shows his toes in this movie does he does the best part of the movie and Kate goes, is that dan akword's feet, And I go, yeah, it is. He had what is syndactylism, sact That's what it's.

That's the officially, he doesn't call it that in the in the segment that he appears in it where he's demonstrating his webbed toes, he has two dan just just the two main toes beside the big toe. They are fused together up to a certain point, like the the the actual the piggy portion of the of the toes are free, but the rest of them are not free. They are they are fused together. The reason I know so much about syndactylism and was so blown away by seeing this segment for the first time is that I have the exact same condition. Well, I mean, I knew that, but I don't know if the audience there so it's say your weird weird kinship with dan Ackroid.

Oh my god, man, I thought, I literally thought I was a freak of nature. I thought I was part creature from the Black Lagoon. And well, I mean, well it does not to say you're not. I finally understood why I was so adept at swimming. Uh No, but you know I was.

I was probably nineteen when I saw mister Mike's Moundo video for the first time and that this that segment, like it blew my mind. I grabbed a hold of anyone I could, could could and said, like that that's I have that, that's my too, you know, so uh yeah and yeah, a definite like he was already my favorite cast member Saturday Live. He was my favorite working comedian and at that time, so yeah, it was very very heartening to learn he is a fellow genetic mutant. Celebrity Mutations bud By dan Ak right if you can't tell. In this episode of the Culture Cast, we are continuing You've Never Seen September, otherwise known as Sketch Comedy September this year with a look at Michael o'donna use mister Mike's Mondo Video yet another sketch comedy film or Mike Mundo video.

Mister Mike's Mundo Video the television show that can't be shown on television coming soon to your local theater. Though on Wikipedia this is not classified as a sketch comedy movie, which I find a tad strange because there is nothing about it that would lead me to believe it's not this is not like he is a hot dog of sand, which is like, this is a sketch comedy film. Yeah, it's obviously sketch comedy film. I mean maybe you're objecting to the idea that it is a film. Well, they still have film.

It's a comedy collection of short vignettes. While we call those things films. But I mean it's you know, it wasn't a film necessarily, but it was you know, blown up to thirty five and shown none. It was projected in theaters. You could pay to see this movie.

So it is a theatrically released feature. Yeah. So yeah, we're gonna be talking about mister Mike's Mondo videos. So it came out in September twenty feet of nineteen seventy nine. It is written by Michael o'donahue, Mitch Glazer, Dirk Wittenborne, and Emily Prager, but it is directed by Michael o'donahue.

I would even go as far as say it's narrated by Michael o'donahue. Almost throughout he shows up a lot to let you know that at some point mister Mike's Mondo video will be starting, which is one of the great gags in the entire thing. Absolutely, just like the you know, the glee that this man had every time he shot one of those, and then when he was editing it together, he's just like, yep, just fucking keep putting him in there, guarts, keep doing it. So yeah, it's a collection of vignettes. So like the last couple episodes we've done, not necessarily a through line here, not necessarily a plot or a narrative as it were, but a collection of vignettes that makes itself into a sketch comedy film.

So, Father Malone, as I always do, break it down for me, tell me a little bit about mister Mike's Mondo video and your history with the Bill. I already rambled on a little bit there at the top. Uh yeah. I became a fan of O'Donohue, you know, when I was a teenager, basically, and not only like having read that book about Saturn Alive, and but before I even got to USC, I was able to read what he had written. I was a huge fan of the movie Scrooged the Bill Murray's version of a Christmas Carol, and that was written by Michael o'donni, one of the one of the few post SNL things that was a big success, so that I think, so that was eighty eight.

I was fourteen at the time, so that that I think that's when I definitely became more more interested in him. But it wouldn't be another four years until I could get my hands on mister Mike's Mondo video. It was one of these things I had read about. I think I had seen clips of it on television somewhere, but I hadn't sat down to watch the whole thing, because you know, even as late as nineteen ninety, wasn't that easy to find these things. If your local video store didn't stock mister Mike's Mondo Video, you were out of luck.

And it wasn't showing up on NBC, certainly as a rerun. No. I mean, hey, you know, for those of you that aren't listening that want to track this down, just go into the comments, or I go into the podcast description. Because it's on YouTube, folks, it's like an Indian cinema film. You can just go watch it for free.

Something very democratizing about that, I feel, you know, certainly how I watched it this morning. Although you could you could go buy it on Amazon Prime for two dollars, but or you can buy the shout Factory version. Oh, that the shout Factory version exists. Yes, yeah, there is a shout Factory version of this. Ooh, I don't want to own it, but you know good, I'm glad it's out there that if you're a big fan.

Whoa hold on a second, So are you not a fan? I'm I'm a fan of what works, yeah, and I'm not a fan of what doesn't and what does honestly that Okay, look, let me just here's the history of the show, right, Okay, So Michael o'donnih I mentioned in a previous episode we were talking about Chevy Chase when we're discussing the Groove to Ken Shapiro's Sketch comedy film, And in that I mentioned that chevy Chase was the first head writer on Saturday Night Live. And that's not true. The first official headwriter on Saturday Night Live is was, and always will be Michael o'donni. Chevy Chase basically held an unofficial position akin to Lauren Michaels in Lauren Michaels is uh, you know, in his mind like that he didn't he wasn't officially named the head of anything, but he had Lauren's ear.

I guess is what I meant initially in saying that. But okay, so Michael o'donn who's a headwriter in the show? Right? Some of the best sketches on Saturday and in that lived history, including the last voyage of the Starship Enterprise, the sketch you know everyone does, they're William Shatner impression, but they're doing Kevin Pollocks impression of William Shannon. If you want to see a fantastic dead on impression of William Shatner, check out John Belushi's performance in the sketch where uh the NBC exacts come and cancel star Trek on the deck of the Enterprise to the crew.

It's it's hilarious. So o'donahue, you know who is impersonation of William Shatner. I realize I do. Jim Carrey's impersonation of William Shatner. They're something something on the way.

Yeah, so you're doing you're doing the Twilight Zone. Yeah, every knows. Yeah, Well, I mean yeah, you can see I can see the variation there. So does that mean then that most people who do a Chris Walking impersonation are more than likely doing a Kevin Pollock impersonation of Chris Walking because he's like the most famous one. Interestingly, also, he is the most famous one.

But I don't think he's the one who broke that particular impression. You know, everyone sort of finds that impression after one guy does it, like James Austin Johnson. I think his name is on sunderline right right now. He's the guy who finally broke the Trump impression. God is his absolutely spot on, perfectly.

He was doing it on YouTube for years. Yeah, man, And he can converse in the character. He doesn't need a script to do it, So it's really really good. Scooby his bit about Donald Trump hating Scooby doo Is is beyond inspired, beyond inspired. Yeah.

So, Kevin Pollock's impression, like I said, is the most well known, but I had seen his impression of Chris Falkin prior to Jay Moore's Oh yeah, that's right, Jay Moore's. I think I think Kevin Pollocks actually has surpassed him. Now I've told you before I saw a live read of True Romance. The Quentin Tarantino script and Kevin Pollock played the Christopher Walkin part, doing an impression Chrisph Walkin. But it was so note for note that had you closed yourrized you would have thought Chris Walkin was there.

But Moore got there first, the weird pod thing and the highs and lows a voice that I think is more walking esque, Like I have a very good friend whose voice just sounds like John Malkovich. He just sounds like like he sounds like John Malkovich, and then he just pitches his voice down and it's there. Okay, yeah, so so it's like it's just him talking a little lower. Yeah yeah, right, Look, everyone gets famous on Saturday Life. Michael O'Donohue is the first image on Saturday Alive Shop, Right, he says the first line in SNL.

Yeah, he's in the very first sketch with the Wolverine sketch with John Belushi. And he would appear sort of infrequently over the first season, mostly playing his Mister Mike character, who's this like perverted guy who's telling these little girls horrible fairy tales like for bedtime stories. He was he's always been a provocateur. He's always been the guy pushing the envelope and trying to get away with as much as he can and shock as many people as he can, and also doing it for the most part in a very aeratite manner. But everyone in that show sort of got famous, and I think he got a little bit better there, and by the end was just not having it anymore.

But Saturday Night Live needed a replacement show, so they weren't just running reruns in the space between the live ones. So they offered o'donahue a chance to do this special with I think a potential to basically continue doing these as as replacement shows. Whatever. Yeah, and so this is what he did. He went off and made mister Mike's Mondo video, which was then immediately rejected they say, by the sensors, and I mean they talk about it in the show as a matter of fact, and uh.

And what ended up happening is o'donahue and another fellow basically purchased the special bag with an eye towards putting it in cinemas. And that's why we were able to talk about this theatrical cut of mister Mike's Mondo video, which I think they added like ten minutes too or something like that. And they added a short film, a Mister Bill Short like basically a compendium of all the Mister Bill short films from Saturday Live, and tacked that on at the beginning so they could reach a ninety minute run time for this movie. That's how we got here. So what do you think about because I am I am very curious.

Okay, So, like I said, when I was younger, I was into sort of all the extreme things, right. I love that Rocky Ericson had lost his mind and was in an asylum, like I'm so cool, right, like you know, like exactly, like you know, I loved Lenny Bruce and sort of the Richard Pryor and the edge of your comedians and you know, anything sort of pushing an envelope. But I'm also attracted to you know, very smart like Andy Kaufman's kind of provocateur kind of a thing like you know, pushing buttons and his performance are. But also I was just an angry young man, so connecting to Michael o'danni he was very easy to do. He's like a perpetual angry young man.

Yes, yeah, And if you know, if you if you're a angry young fella and are of a certain bent. He speaks to you like none other, at least he did to me. But I gotta say the spell was broken by his work here when I watched it for the first time, because the opening segment is this, and and I know no one was harmed in the segment, but it's a it's a school for teaching cats to swim. Oh my god, oh my that it's where does man? You know, the terms starting out hot, they're starting out fiery in this movie.

You know what. He succeeded obviously because his intention was to enrage people like me, and it worked then. I mean, I see it now for what it actually is. But at the time I was like, fuck you, Michael O'donahue, like you've gone too far throwing cats into pool and delighting and the segment goes on way too long. Like That's why I even at the time I thought he's just delighting it.

This is reveling in the how how uncomfortable these animals are, and I just can't get behind it at all. I Mean, it turns out that all of those cats were like chat actors, like they hired. You know, those cats were well acquainted with swimming like they said, they like filmed them all day, just basically swimming from one end of the pool to the other. You know, the cats were happily doing it, but does it That was not his intent. It's not how it comes on.

And boy, I think my singular criticism against mister Mike's Mondo video is even I like a good joke that goes too long, but my friend, you can't go that long, and he does it a lot in masturbatory levels of doing it a lot. Yeah, I mean it is this sort of I want to make you uncomfortable. It's like it look he would have fit in very well over an adult swim. Yeah, I was. I was gonna say, like, there are so many people right now that I have such a love and affinity for who I wonder and I don't wonder.

I'm sure some of them are on interview saying it that if given the opportunity to talk to a Tim Hidecker or an Eric Weherheim or an Eric Andre you know, hey, you know I have to assume you've seen this. I have to assume you know Michael O'donohue's body of work, and you've seen these kinds of things because again they're doing it. They're doing a much more nuanced version of it, I think is maybe the nicest way of putting it. But all of this stuff has to come from somewhere. Not everybody landed it the first time, you know, not everybody failed the first time they made it, but somebody had to see something else and keep that ball going.

And that's the way I look at Eric Andre and Tim Hideker and Eric wearehim because I mean, ultimately they lend a lot of their credit to someone like Tom Green, and you know, and Tom Green lent his credit to someone like Andy Klough. So they we all feed off of one another, you know. And mister Mike's Mondo video is no different. It's just a link in a chain. It is not the end of the chain, that is clear, and it could have been if it had been more focused.

And yeah, focused absolutely, because what the folks you just mentioned, like Tim and Eric in these guys like they're focused on making you uncomfortable as well, but they're not just going to swing a sledgehammer to do it. Which Michael Dannie, who had no problem at all, he does not have a problem trotting out Nazism as a means of shocking you and you know his parents, you know, not his parents specifically, but like the generation previous to him, they fought that war and then turned into the most boring generation of all time in the nineteen fifties. So like, I understand his rage and I understand his willingness to shock them anyway you can. But at a certain point it just becomes self sabotap Like, O, course this was not going on, Like you can blame the sensors, like it's too edgy for network television or something, but maybe it was just too long and poorly edited, and they let the sensors tell you that it was their call.

And ultimately, I think in a lot of ways it's not very entertaining because it can't get out of its own way. And in a lot of ways, some of the people that we've talked about on this show, you and I specifically Michael o'donahue, Dan O'Bannon couldn't get out of their own way. It's like, hey, you can't get out of your way long enough to figure out a way to make some of these things work for you the way other people have. And it is what it is. Ultimately, I mean like anything else in the industry, Like there are so many different kinds of personalities that exist within the industry.

But yeah, it's it's hard to watch something like this and not go, well, this could have been better if you had just made a concerted effort to focus. Well, okay, yeah it is because when it relaxes and just tells us a sketch or some ridiculous premise and eases up on the I am going to grab you by the lapels and slam your face into the television screen and wake you up. Man, when he's not doing that, like the Jack Lord sketch. The first of all, I should point out the framework of this is based on Mondo Kane the the It was an Italian film from you know, the one of these travelogue things where they travel the globe showing you the weird uh rituals and rights of other cultures. It's always just an excuse to show snuff films and and you know, people eating weird stuff at the time, where it's stuff in boobs, you know like that.

But but I think these tribal women are engaging in what some would call a traditional dance. Yes they are tops, yeah, exactly, And so he does that a lot in the Special World, but they'll cut to, you know, random shots like this bizarre thing. You know, So it is supposed to be this travelog kind of a setup, but again it's a little too much, a little too much. I got to shock you guys. But anyway, there is so there's was a parody of like a group of religious nuts who have who have adopted Jack Lord from Hawaii five ozho as their god, and you've got Dan Ackroyd as their preacher preaching the word of Jack.

And it's all quotes from the show, and it's it's all like scenarios directly from the show. And it that to me, he's just telling a funny bit O'donahue and that one works for me. It still goes on too long. I don't like god, it goes on. I don't need to hear the whole hymn that he's written.

Maybe two lines ain't no cess like excess. Maybe that's where it feels like it's like too much of a good thing or too much of a Yeah it's a great thing, but good thing is a bad thing. And this is like this almost feels like the poster child for that like, how can you how can you justify some of these jokes going for two or three minutes longer than they needed to. It's like the concept didn't have that strong legs. No, And the ironic part of it is that if he had abandoned keeping these sketches going at nauseam and instead focused on little punchy bits, right, and just because he's got the setup to just cut away whenever he wants to, Like he just jumped to a punchline, and it can be it can just be jumped to something shocking, but like, quantity would have been quality here.

One of the best gags in this entire movie is and next how they celebrate Christmas on other planets. I love that. That weird, that that costume. That was great. I agree with it, but it's like literally two seconds.

It's literally two seconds, like and that's it, and it's hard for me to go, well, yeah, that's funny, And that's one one hundredth of the runtime of this thing when we have to sit through yeah again. I think the cats swimming thing is funny only because of where the joke ends up going, which isn't And they also have cat hang gliding, which I mean and gliding. Funny joke, but we could have gone there immediately throw one cat in, okay, two cats to prove that you're actually doing it all right, quick montage of them swimming had to hang gliding. I wonder if weird Al saw this bit, if it inspired at all the roles flying you know what I'm talking about from UHF where the guys just hucking the dogs off the top of the building.

Do not remember that part? Yeah, he's like, I'm going to teach chihuahua's how to fly, and it's he's just tossing dogs out of the town. And it's the same thing. I mean in uh Jeff, they actually show the dogs flying out the window and hitting the ground, so you know, they get more mileage out of it than this does. I think this is the right way to do it, where it just cuts away.

I mean, it's just fucking hilarious, Like I was laughing through that hole, like deleted by the network because I mean again, like that's a that's a great gag. But yeah, maybe cut back the first ten minutes of the cats swimming in a pool. Yeah, the crazy thing is the entire program. It's like an hour ten It don't feel like it, Yeah, like, why are you padding an hour ten? Like the what's I mean?

Look, this was his point of view. I can't fault him for doing what he wanted to do. He clearly had total control over this. But it is getting not getting out of your own way, because if he had just focused up a little, he could have kept jabbing week after week or month after month. Rather with this, he's got his own like showcase on network television.

They're only three at the time. If you want to get your word out there, there's only a couple of venues, and here he's got carte blanche to do this thing, and instead he's just like, well, fuck you all. That's what it feels like. It verges on cringe like genuinely cringey humor because he just takes it too far. He's like that one friend who takes a joke way too far and it's like not too far.

Isn't like he goes too far with it, but he just keeps bringing it up, keeps repeating. It's like, dude, it was funny maybe the first time, but not the fifth time. Yeah, where Yeah, I don't want to say I feel sorry for him in certain places, but I kind of feel sorry for him in a certain places, just like you're you're pushing way too hard. You're just trying too hard to shock me right now, you feel like Marilyn Manson. Yeah, and you know that is that is a thing like I feel like I have heard when I have shown it to other people, something like a Tim and Eric or an Eric Andre where it's like it kind of seems like they're trying too hard.

But like again, I feel like that sentiment may also be subjective obviously, I mean it, I don't know if it is subjective. I mean, I feel like cringe and uncomfortable miss is a universal human trait that we can all feel. But I mean, some people enjoy it more than others, I guess. But I feel like we can all have a wet all have a pretty good indicator of something being kind of cringey or forcing its point a little too much. Yeah, you know, we get it.

You're sitting in a room full of bunnies with a pistol in your hand. I mean, I like, I like, I liked. Look he's a fan of juxtaposition. Yeah, right, absolutely, I appreciate that as a man, as a juxtaposition. Man myself, I'm a fan.

I'm just saying like that sums it up though it's it works in that moment, but like, you know, as a statement, that's Michael o'donni here right there, like he's the monument of the National mpun cover, buy this magazine or will shoot this dog like right, he might wear a soup, but he's gonna wear red fucking converse or the most obnoxious possible thing with it to point out the fact that he doesn't like wearing a suit. I believe at one point he was misquoted in some magazine and called them back, and it called. The female editor left a messager saying like I'd come down there and kick you in the cunt, but I don't want to. I don't want to ruin the shine on my shoes. He was sounds like a real pip of a guy.

Yeah, I like I couldn't. Like. One day, Garrett Morris had written a sketch and gave it to o'donni here to give him notes back, and o'donni here like held it out like it stank, and he went, oh, it's real blood, Garrett, and just dropped it into a trash canon walked away like not a nice fella. Oh that's real county behavior. But at the same time, hey man, chevy Chasse, Yeah right, a lot of people were acting like cunts and had nothing to back it up.

Not the chevy Chaste didn't. I'm just saying. I mean, I think it was people were acting like cunts and did have things to back it up. And that's the problem. That's why you tolerate someone who's a cunt like this.

It's because, Okay, yeah, Christian Bale might be kind of a twat, but I mean look at the performance as you get out of him, and you can get a you can get one of those every couple, you know, decade or two, and it makes it okay, you know, get okay is subjective, but you know what I mean more acceptable because he's just a you know, he's a creative type and they're kind of bristling, right. I think with o'donna here, you wouldn't want to be good than ten created come to that, do you think so? Like at anytime, like with Christian Bale, that seemed like a situation where he had just had enough of that. You know, it seems kind of prickly though, I think in that seemed prickly, but like that also seemed like he was pushed there, whereas it seems like you could be sitting in a room with O'donnaho and he would suddenly go off about something.

Well, it sure seems like that with the content of this. Yeah, did you ever see a few tile and stupid gesture? I did not, and I was gonna ask. I'm assuming he's in that, and I also assume that he's in the Doug Kenny movie as well. Right, Well, the feudal and stupid gesture is the Doug Kenny No, I'm talking about the drunk Stone brilliant drunk Stone Dad, Yeah, or it's a funeral stupid jest?

Which one is the narrative It's drunk Stone, brilliant dead. The narrative with Will Forte is a futile and stupid Okay, So I have not seen that one, but I have seen the documentary. The documentary is fantastic. Yeah, I would recommend that out of hand over the narrative film. And I do like Will.

Yeah, I've seen some pretty rough things said about that film, but as a fan of all of those people at all, of this time, like all of these uh subversive comedians, these counterculture and college humor years. I think it's pretty great and Will Forte is really good as as Doug Kenny, you know, through the years. Yeah, that's a fantastic jump. But they also managed to cast the perfect human being to play Michael o'donni here Thomas Lennon from Reno nine one one. I can see that.

Oh my, is he good? Just you can you can see the simmering uh mania just under the the cultured veneer. Oh my god. Yeah, I reckons that movie's really funny. I like I said, it's it's not.

It's not what it could have been. It's not as maybe as witty as it could have been as a representative of Doug Kenny as a human being or rather his work. But it is a very very funny film. I think it's very informative and I laughed a lot watching it. So no, I'll have to check it out.

Like I said, I watched the documentary, you know. I mean I am a fan of I mean, I think we talked about this in the last episode. I am a fan of SNL. I think the problem with SNL me being a fan of SNL's like me being a fan of the Simpsons, Like I remember when I used to like it a lot, and now it's really hard to enjoy it because it just feels like a I wouldn't say a shell of its former self, because I think that's a little too pejorative for something like SNL and The Simpsons, things that are pretty big in terms of their comedy footprint. I think they're poor fact similes of a version of a show that I recognize as being funny like or or is recognized widely as being funny like.

And I've heard that, you know the Simpsons every now and then as one or two good episodes, and I hear the same thing about SNL. And let me counter because I'm I'm not a fair weather SNL fan. I watch every season year in year out, and wild Man Father Malone. Here it is no you know what the show it's. It's it's got an incredible mutability in its tried and true framework.

It's constantly evolving and there's constant fresh blood. And that doesn't mean that there won't be a season or two in a row where it seems to be foundering and and flailing. But first of all those can be some of the most amusing season because you get to see some really weird stuff and and what those eventually end up as, like a cast like the the Will Ferrell cast or the uh, you know, Dana Carvey cast, like the Data Carvey that that reinvention that year when it was the second year Lauren Michaels had taken back over the show after the ever saul In Domanian year. That you know that that that previous season was a shambles. So you know, it's been rising and falling in quality ever since day one.

And we've talked about this in previous episodes when we're talking about the group to go back and watch the first couple of seasons of set in our live in their entirety if you can find them, because you know, like if you go on Paramount or something to watch them, that you're getting the truncated versions, you know, because of music clearances and stuff. But sometimes you can tell it's cut for quality. I know certain sketches were in certain episodes and those are no longer there. Why because they're boring. There are sketches that's like fifteen twenty minutes, it seems where you know, it's just light, you know, humor, nothing, nothing, ha ha funny.

Well we've said it with the you know, Tales from the Crypt, Like, I don't expect that every episode is going to be good. Yeah, I mean that shows without a narrative through line, it's hard for them to consistently be good because shows with a narrative through line tend to have a thing that they're building towards, and shows that are just shows are all over the place. I mean, even a fucking sitcom, it's just all one from one episode to the next, like we're you know, everything's set back to the way it was so, which means we have a blank slate every time, which means we don't have to make progress, which means we could just be funny, and therefore it's going to be all over the I mean, it's just, you know, they're just trying to be funny.

They're really not doing anything else, just like with The Simpsons. Simpsons is not doing anything other than being funny. There's never been some grand underpinning narrative of the Simpsons. That's the success of and that's the timelessness of it. But I would say the difference between Saturday and I live, reaching a point where it's no longer good and then coming back and being good again is a possibility, whereas a narrative show, even episodic like The Simpsons, where like you said, like it is situation comedy.

Now we start back from where we were at the beginning of Homer's not still an astronaut, right, but by the time Homer became an astronaut, that was part of how like spun out and ridiculous the show had become, and that was part of the joke. And then once you get to that point, like there's a certain point where the genie is out of the bottle and it no longer matters that they don't have enough money to pay the mortgage, which was a very important part of The Simpsons. In the first first Goddamn episode, Oh because He's roasting over and open fires literally about the fact that they can't afford gifts for their children for Christmas. There are heartbreaking episodes of The Simpsons in the first couple of seasons, very human drama led episodes of The Simpsons, the Lisa's Teacher episode, Oh my God, Yeah, Jesus Christ like, and then it at a certain point it became a joke machine.

And that's fine because you know, like Cheers with Diane and Cheers with Rebecca are two different shows, Like tonally comedic, you know, it's a goof fall show. When oh, you haven't seen shares, I've never seen a singular episode. Yeah, okay, anyway, let's just say that the first season of the show and the last season the show are wildly different and not quality but just in content. It like The Simpsons, so right, a point being you can give me a hilarious, fantastic Simpsons episode now, it's still not going to have the same impact as when I was worried about them, you know, having enough money to get presents for the kids, right, and it's harder now to weazle and wheedle your way into pop culture and stick.

You know, there was a time where SNL was like it in terms of like mainstream subversive comedy, and there was a time where The Simpsons was kind of it in terms of mainstream subversive car comedy, not even cartoon comedy, just comedy. Like that is so not the case anymore. Like there it's to say that to say we're to say we're in a land of riches is to be fucking like very subtle about it. We are able to watch anything and everything that's ever been invented as up until this point essentially for the most part, and the things that we can't, you're really worried about seeing them? Are you worried about living your life not being able to see the Day of the Clown?

Cried? Well, yes, you pick the one that actually matters. But there's one of the things that don't matter, is my point, Like the one thing that does obviously, but there's so much that doesn't. And it's like, but we can see essentially all of them. Yeah, man, I don't need to see anything from dbe gillis you know, I don't need to rewatch anything from Gilligan's Island.

I'm good, right, And but but again, like we're just we have such a breadth of wit of riches at this point, it's hard to be like, oh, well, I'm gonna go watch a new episode of S And I was like, oh, I just go watch an old though, So let's go watch old episode of The Simpsons because those things still exist. And I again appreciate and understand that they are fans of it now, but you know, again, It's just sometimes you're part of the zeitgeists and other times you're still in it, but you're not the focus. S and Al was the focus of the zeitgeist for a while, and so was the Simpsons. No, but SNL can refocus and become the zeitgeist to get It did in twenty sixteen with fucking with Baldwin and Trump, Baldwin doing the Donald Trump impersonation.

It did in the nineties, it did in the eighties, it will and will continue to because you know, the format is sound and the format, you know, allows for innovation. And I don't think if this had continued, this would have the way that SNEL did, if what Mike's Mondo video, yeah, had become the thing that they were theoretically trying to turn it into. Well, I think I think the funny bits where he's doesn't have an extra grind with the world are funny, so agreed, But are they as funny as something like a Scott Free No. Does this ever, like the height that did hit, the height that this hits is what comparative or on its own and then maybe even comparative to things we've already seen. There's no real laugh out loud moments here.

I think it's the one that we've already mentioned. This is Christmas on another their planet. Yeah that's okay, Yeah, you're right that it was. That was just so odd. Yeah.

What's sad about it is like he could have just leaned into the oddity of it all. But again, like he can't. He can't just show us what Christmas is like on another planet. He has to show us Nazi oven Midst just he's just got to show the swapstick because it's gonna shock his dad. You know, it's like it feels that lame sometimes, like like fuck you mom, fuck you dad.

Yeah, I'm gonna do what I It's not just a phase. Yeah, and you know what there is. Look, there's a no ability to rebell you right, there's a no ability to pushing the boundaries. But if it's as scatter shot as it is here where it's as long as I get, as long as you're shocked, as long as I'm eliciting some horrible response from you, like that, that equals the thing. It's just do what end?

Is the question I always ask. It's tires right to what end is never answered here. It's just like like it's like that one kid in class who just makes noise, you know, you know, just like that, there are there were kids in class. There were the class clowns, and there were kids in class that fought they were the class closs and the kid that thought it was the class clown hit it every now and then. And I'm not saying Michael o'donni heus that, but Michael o'donna, you've benefited from having other people around, having other people to diffuse his ideas through.

I mean, there are plenty creators, creatives that are the same way that the moment they no longer have that thing, it's like, oh, Tarantino looking at you. I mean, it's like it's like that. It's like that question of like is it better to have someone with you that can look at what you've done and interpret it and give you notes or is it better just say you get to do whatever you want and we're just gonna let you do it. It's like, because sometimes they do both work, but it tends to be closer to the center of the two less other ends of the specter. Yeah, somebody this is sad to say, but I guess true.

Somebody like o'donne who needs somebody directly over him, pushing against him. He does like he needs to have the fight with He needs to have the fight before they film anything. The fight does not need to be the film itself, right right, Yeah, I don't. I just like I don't know what Michael o'donnah he would be would be doing now in twenty twenty three, like if he was still around, because obviously, I mean he passed away pretty early. I mean, you know, he passed away in with the Nineties again ninety four, so he's fifty four, you know, young, you know, youngish guy would have been in his you know, we were in like Chevy Chase at this point, like in his mid seventies early eighties.

I wonder what he would be doing now, if there would have been an appreciation for his kind of comedy again, or if he would have changed with the times maybe and maybe updated his ship a little bit and focused it a little bit more. I could never prognosticate where his career would have led him. Had he continued to survive, I definitely would have been interested. But I do agree that had he lived and continued to work in any capacity, or if he even if he hadn't worked again, if he had just retired and been bitter by himself somewhere where. I think by now he would have been honored and you know, cheered by the generations.

You know, like it would have been easier for them to recognize what an influence he was if you were still around. That's really weird to say, but it's the truth. It is the truth. He's not here to advocate for himself in a lot of ways. Correct, That's that's the sad part of it, I guess.

I mean, I feel this. I feel the same way about I wonder if you feel the same way about Michael o'donnahye that I do about Bill Hicks. It's like, if this guy was around right now, he like there were certain there are certain people that are working right now that would never be able to do what they're doing because he would have made it so that he was the only one doing it. And I see a lot of that in Michael o'donni words, like he would have been the guy doing the thing. He would have figured it out and he would have been the guy doing the thing.

I believe that because people like Michael o'donahue, Yes for all of his bristliness. He still could not be stopped and he's still got This made hell a fucking high water. Absolutely, and there's no question he was phenomenally talented and was a point of view that it is absolutely necessary. I think Bill Hicks is a pretty good analog to him. Actually, he's a the same level of anger, the same look of wit that the anger comes funneled through.

I think I think Bill Hicks was a little more nuanced in the delivery of that as a performer. Oh, once again, if you read o'donni stuff, it's it's more impactful, at least to me than any of his performance stuff, including any of the video stuff. Although if you want to see something really good, anytime he did his u he would O'donnahue used to do impressions like, what would the Mormon Tabernacle choir sound like if they had spikes driven directly into their eyes? I think it would sound a little something like this, And then he would scream at blood curdling screams. He was not without his his performing charms, but he how to sell an audience on an idea.

Yeah, he was, but a fierce writer, a terrible filmmaker, clearly he's got the Ken Shapiro syndrome work. He thinks he knows what he wants. And I will say that this was actually more stylish than Ken Shapiro's foray into this didn't feel so fucking paired down, not at all, or or I could go as far as to say, and I don't want to feel like we're piling on the groove tube from me on the grave. But the more I watched everything else other than the groove tube, I realized how cheap the groove tube look. Yeah, and by the way, this looks incredibly cheap.

This was shown on video, and he does this crazy thing where he uses for establishing shots be roll of film, so you're constantly getting this switching of film stocks that like, he doesn't even make a joke of it. He just expects us to believe that that shot of Holland is the same like the entrance to the YMCA that we're now seeing shot on video. It's very poor. And evidently what I hadn't considered is so this was shitty, grainy video stock that they then blew up to thirty five millimeter to project on a twenty foot screen. It must have looked like garbage in the cinema, you were stoned and drunk.

Did it really matter? Maybe not? I mean, that's the question that this is. I mean because again, like who is this for at the time, And it's just word for Michael o'donahue, that's who Other than for him, it's for people that he thought he could make glent. And I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that a lot of people at the time who were enjoying these kinds of things weren't your straight lace motherfucker's that's true.

Look, there's an entire segment of the of comedy fans out there who probably felt like Saturday Night Live was weak, you know, like, yeah, this is this is some pussy shit. Yeah, that's badass for mom pop America. But like you know, I've been listening to fucking George Carlin for the past fifteen years. Well, and that's and that's what I wonder if I if I had been around during the time of SNL, how I would have felt about it, Because I am such a huge fan of carl and pushing the comedic envelope. And while I do see that SNL was doing it like in a lot of ways.

It did feel a little pastoral and a little quaint, because again they had to be they had to be as subversive as they could without without pushing away the quaint audience. Which is the magic of SNL really is that they were able to do both things. Yeah, I mean you let's not forget that, you know, Lauren Michaels is a sentimental fella as well. Like, he wasn't there just to shock America or the TV watching public. He was there to entertain them as well.

There were musical guests on the show, you know, like and sometimes they were they were actually would never would have heard of and would never have gotten a chance to be on television. But you know, Paul Simon is there, you know, right right, So there's as much comfort from SNL as anything. Like the entire purpose of comedy is as a release valve, like and I think the show manages to represent all of the different comedic point of view. It's very silly or very pointed, very very smart, and also very very angry. He said.

He what Michael O'donney's problem is he doesn't realize he's a card in a deck. He just thinks he's a kneeler, and when you give him the position of dealer, then he thinks, oh, well, here we go. I you know, now everyone's ready for my brand of humor. And not everyone is Michael. Certainly there are enough of us out there who would like it more refined instead of as scattershot as he was doing it.

But we're out there, but it ain't everyone, and there's no reason to bite everyone. Yeah, there's no need to be an equal opportunity offender with something like this, like there, I mean there is, but there isn't. Like again, like you have swastikas, So you've effectively offended every so other than the people that you don't care if you didn't defend them them being neo nazis so like I don't know, like it is bizarre to me because again to your point, at some point you've got to ask yourself, like am I serving though? Am I a slave to the master here of like trying to be offensive? Or is this having a is there a point to be made?

And I feel like Michael o'donna, who never asked himself that question, and you see it. I agree with you. I don't think that as a crossed his fucking mind once. No, he was fighting the good fight from day one. He was railing against everything.

And and how you do that any way, you can even at your own detriment, maybe at your own detriment is even more noble. And that's and that is the question that I wonder because again, you know, you go out of your way to include musical acts in this movie, but they're they're the kind of musical act that would repulse people that watch SNL. Yeah, rude boy slip. I mean, you know, I'm a I'm a fan. He's fine, you know, maybe not completely my cup of tea, but he would never be on SNL.

Yeah. They also cut in a segment from The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, Julian Temple's film about the sex pistols. They they cut in the my Way sequence from Civicius on the poster like and Sid Vicious. This came out after his death, so it's like, you know, a little bit of a sensationalism like comes see Sid. But then this is bait and switch because you get the visual but none of the audio because in a crawl that they that they put across the screen in this audio free zone of Sid Visus just acting like a nut on stage.

They let us know that the State of paul Anka would not allow the song to be used in any capacity, except, of course, it was used in the capacity and the film that this movie was taken from. So I have to wonder was it a rights issue at all or was it just o'donni who saying fuck you once again? That was the way I read it, was a fuck you once again again because I feel like he's you know, he might not be Andy Kaufman, but he he lives the bit. He is living the bit, and I think that I think that that's the I don't know you you mentioned kind of you know, fighting the good fight from day one, like you don't. You can be fighting the good fight from day one, but you don't have to be fighting a good fight every waking moment of your life.

And that's the problem. It feels like Michael o'donahue didn't understand that you don't always have to be carrying the spear. It's it's not a requirement. You can wait back and let other people do some of the heavy lifting for you. Do you know that when Lord Michaels left the show, Gene Domanian took over as producer and that was a disastrous year.

And then Dick Eversolt took over and he brought in o'donna here to run the show. So this is this famous story of the cast all gathered together, including Catherine O'Hara who had come down from Second City Television she was going to join the cast, and o'donahue came in basically screaming about that the show needed a Viking funeral, that they were going to like go out in a blaze of glory, which probably as a new cast member, you don't want to hear about how the leader of the shows it wants to burn the whole thing to the ground. He then says like he said something to the effect, you know what the show is missing, and then spray painted the word in danger on the wall and then gave them all markers and stuff and encourage them to all, you know, mark up the place.

It's just so like, who what is this? Chill out? Bro? Yeah, man, take a fucking loot or something like for real, bro, like chilling the fuck out? Like I look, I can yell with the best of them and scream and shout, but like, dude, you don't have to be hoarse, so so Bill Hicks understood that Bill Hicks didn't scream throughout his entire act.

This is like, you can't scream through your entire act, dude, because if you scream through your entire act, there's only one act a week. You can only do it once a week. If you're screaming, bro, you can't do it. Odannah's screaming from the get go right right every never stopped himself, and if you give him a megaphone, he just screams louder. After all of these debacles, he's Lauren Michaels takes the showback over an eighty five rehires o'donna, who as a writer.

Odonna who writes a monologue for Chevy Chase that basically begins right after I stopped doing cocaine, I turned into a garden slug and for the life of me, I can't tell why. Like that was not you, obviously, but like it's just like the to the end, just fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. He was fired like a month later after that. You know everything and I read and everything I can see from what he did and what he presented himself as part of it's just dude, you're like, you're trying just it. You're trying five percent too much, right, But that five percent is a lot, that's five one per cents, and those one per cents for whatever reason with you, my friend, are a lot, Like, yeah, I don't know.

Again, Like as a creative type, I I feel a kinship obviously, as do you to someone like this, because I wonder that about myself, Like am I too much? Like again, and I don't think. I don't think I sit and fight the good fight like this every day, but I'd wonder that about myself sometimes because again, it's it's hard to get caught up and to see yourself in perspective, self awareness, where you are in the grand scheme of things. Michael O'donnahue did not see where he was. Unfortunately now, he never saw an opportunity.

He didn't want to fuck up immediately, right, self destructive. Yeah, and you know what, that bit has its place, but like it's not a bit though, man, that's his life. Yeah, but his life was the bit, right, Like I mean the guy, the guy ended up dying because he had migraines. Like that's cerebral hemorrhage. So there you go, Like if you're not living the bid, I mean, you're kind of right, and he was living the bit.

He was just like I told you that that Like, his behavior in person was the same as as it was in the comedy. It was very angry and get the fuck away from me. And you're all idiots. What do you think he was like imprivate? Do you think he was actually like that in private?

Oh? I bet when I bet when he was with close people, I bet he was very nice and sweet. Actually, yeah, say, I guarantee you, like when he was alone with like Anne beats he, I bet he was the best boyfriend ever. He was married for eleven years. Yeah, Like, I guarantee you he was fucking teddy bear if you were in the circle.

But even even that circle was not going to be immune. This is if he needed to kick somebody, you get the idea that you were getting kicked because you were there, and in a lot of ways, he wasn't going to be nice about it. Oh no, he would be. He wasn't going to grant you the He wasn't going to grate you any sort of I don't know an armison this because you're his friend. Yeah, no, which I think is the difference that sets someone like that apart from other people that aren't.

Like I would imagine as a friend of his, it would be worse because it would probably involve something intimate knowledge, some intimate knowledge of you that you had provided. Oh oh yeah, he's probably one of those types. Oh yeah, I'm gonna come and kick you in the cunt, like okay, fine, whatever, Like you're just another voice on the phone. But like, my god, imagine being friends with him and he slices you that way. My god, yeah no, that yeah, that sounds like an exhausting friendship.

And I'm an exhausting person to be around. But again, I can't imagine that he couldn't have been like battle. It's just like, dude, you don't have to you don't have to try so hard and put on the airs constantly. Even Ken Shapiro let himself have some fun in all of this, and Michael o'donni was just not interested in that. If you want to see a great interview with him, he did one in seventy seven.

You can find it on YouTube where he and John Belushi are being interviewed together. It can't the interviewer does one of these bullshit like, so tell me the any like recreational substances being used, you know, to help the creative process, and otana. He was like, well, marijuana. Yeah, we smoke a lot of marijuana, and yeah it works. This is the nineteen seventy seven on television.

Sometimes that will to self sabotage is actually pretty great, you know, like, yeah, don't don't dick around and be coy about the fact that we're all getting high and that we're not, you know, indulging in the possibility that that's fueling our creativity. That is what's happening, and we're doing good work. You're talking about us or them? I mean, I mean, you're you're totally right though. It's just it's it's this idea of I can't yeah, I just man, you we all know somebody like this that just cannot get out of their own way.

Man. And again, like, this isn't the person that's stumbling and falling in their own way. This is the person that just keeps standing in their own way, just jumping in front of themselves. And it's it's hard to see it as in a creation because yeah, it's like, man, you're getting right up to the point of this being a joke, and then it just fucking falls apart almost every time. It's almost it's more shocking when it does.

It's like he's building an elaborate door that leads to a brick wall. Ultimate fuck you yeah, and then he just runs head for He's like, oh, like, isn't this look look the molding hair. That's amazed, let me open the door, and immediately smacks his face into the wall and then keeps going for the bit, for the gag, for the bit. Man. God, So I I do come back to my question what is the highest moment?

Because we talked about the highest moment in Kentucky Fried, which I think is Scott Free. Uh, what is the what is the peak of mister Mike's Mondo video? I think it's for me, it's the Jack Lord sketch. Uh. Oh.

Actually, there's there's one other bit where he's managed to recruit basically every female came close to Saturday and Alive Studios at eight huh, where it's women describing all these horrible traits of men, like as if it's a turn on. And I think that's really really funny because I always think it's funny when like to me. It seems like that's the only way to get a guy to change and you know, behave like a decent human is is if a woman calls out that behavior. And so this was I thought, very very clever. I I like that.

I like that bit. I think I like the crowd scene take one affair amount. I feel like that is a Tim and Eric Eric Andre level of thing. Like the joke that they're going for and what it is is just the old mid of like horseshit anti climax joke. But at the end of it, when it starts fading to black, I was like, show you sons of bitches, like it's it's perfect.

It might be perfect, and it's not Michael O'Donohue at all. So yeah, isn't that isn't that a Ernie for Celius? Yeah, that's right, right, Okay, Ernie Ford for Celius who did Hardware Wars and which is oh my god, Aggie been Doggie. Oh yeah, Hardware Wars is fucking great. Have you seen his parody of Apocalypse now Porklypse now, Oh my god, seek it out immediately.

It's really funny. It's it's it's hilarious because again it succeeds in what it's going for, and it's universal and what it's going for, I feel like the joke is universal. The joke is if you haven't seen the movie, you probably haven't. He's just set up a camera and it's it's just you know, slice of life stuff people like coming and going and the car is passing, and then he's layered in as if he's directing the scene. So let's get that brown car in here.

Brock car. Okay, keep going, brock car, brock car, what are you doing? Get out of the frame. All right, let's get that couple come in from the left. So it's just commenting on the extra but it is.

It's remarkably nuanced, and I don't know how it keeps eliciting laughs. But you're right, it's the funniest thing in the entire show. And it's not Michaeloftania is That's that's up. It's funny because it's not funny at all. Yeah, there's there's nothing about it that realistically should be funny, but yet it is hilarious because yeah, like you said, it's just what it's going for is immediately received.

I will say the human hot plate thing is funny, but again it's it's like the Christmas is on other planets. It's like it's such a quick gag that you know, okay, it was two seconds, so it doesn't hit the highs of scott Free but nothing as this month, so no, and you get to see, by the way, the other thing I liked in the Jack Lord sketches that everyone has a terrible Jack Lord. Oh my god, including Paul the shiv Shaefer, who is the music accompanist playing the organ back there. I know the look. I think.

The reason that that sketch works for me, and yes it is a little long, the reason it works is obviously one mister, mister Ackroyd. Oh yeah, I mean committed this. Oh god, damn that you know. Say what you will about Dan Ackroyd, but like the man gives it as all, yeah, you know what. Every one of those pitchmen I believe could be a pitchman for that product.

And like this church, I would believe that guy is the preacher there. In fact, that preacher maybe one to attend services there. I might not understand it at first, certainly my knowledge of Hawaii five I was limited, but but I would get it eventually that No, that is the of the Michael O'Donohue extended sketches. That is the one that works the most for me. Yeah.

The other thing I like it, it's it's on him, it's yeah on display here is they keep using these little models as establishing shots, so like you know, like at one point in another sketch, they're saying like they're their fishing boats were smashed, and it's clearly just two little handmade fishing boats, like in the foreground, like on a beach. So I don't know, I like any little handmaid stuff like that. So here the Jack Lord Temple, it's just like a model of a convention center that's been thatched over like altiqafied as if it's Hawaii five over related and they felt like a siren on top. I like that sketch overall. It's the problem is that the song goes on and on and on, right, You didn't like the stop ocean dinosaurs?

Those are those are okay? Those became funnier where where he's voiceover comes on at the end, it goes, well, these dinosaurs that don't look very good. Yeah no, that's yeah man, Yeah no, I I have a soft spot in my heart for something like this that is such kind of like a weird mishmash of things at work and things that don't because you know, not everything works and not everything is going to land. So I'm a fan of these kinds of things, you know, groove Tube. Obviously I think this there's a lot in common with.

But yeah, no, this, this is singularly Michael O'donohuan when it isn't. It's kind of kind of good. It's just kind of a problem. Yeah, yeah, Look, he needed to have focused up, or he needed somebody to have focused him up. It doesn't look I don't want to harp on this too much, but like, you know, as much as he was attempting stuff with the camera and got some interesting compositions here and there, he's not a filmmaker, even if he's gonna shoot it on video.

Like a filmmaker would have said, let's get video footage of these establishing shots so everything looks of a piece, you know, No, another a filmmaker would have said this, this is too long. Can we let's try this instead? You know, but again it's sodanna here, what were you gonna do? It's what if it had been John Landis. I see, That's what I'm thinking, because that's where I was wondering if that's where you were going.

The stark difference between Groove Tube and Kentucky Fried Movie. That like putting aside the quality of the writing or performing like it's night and day the visuals, like you can watch Kentucky Fried movie even if you actually I had a friend watched it in the last week and he was like, I watched it. I've never seen it. I really enjoyed it, and I was like, that feels like at anything, a glowing testament to the timelessness of the Zuckem's brothers. Yes, exactly, but again landis is involvement here, and I don't think Landis would have ever been involved.

I imagine he and Michael o'donni he probably wouldn't have gotten together gotten fucking water baby, Yeah, no way, they would have got along two bigger personalities. Yeah, you know. Plus Landis was involved with the the the the Blues Brothers and anything like that. He went off with Belushi and them, like and there were camps in an hour us in them camps there Saturday Life. Well medium level talents went off and did their own things, some of them, you know, Michael O'Donohue feeling left out?

I get it, But bro, you just look bad in the end, not them. That's always the way it is, right, Like, you can't you can't change what you can't change, But you can't make it your life's goal to let everybody know how pissed off you are. Yeah. See, the thing is like, I don't know how much of how much his anger was a reaction to anything. I think, because anger was bubbling up from day one, you know, I came out of the Wombs season.

Shit, man, go back and look at some of the plays he wrote in the nineteen sixties. They're not exactly pleasant, right Hey again, hey, you know, a specific mindset, in a specific point of view. But yeah, boy, Michael o'donna, he's an interesting cat, for sure. Interesting cat. Love to pose with weapons.

Oh yeah. Oh hey, man, that's a Hunter s. Thompson thing. God looks you know, you can tell like he he wishes he was, you know, oh Hunter Thompson. Yeah, but I mean don't we all of course, everyone to a certain degree, But imagine being effectively an outlaw journalist, you know, writing, Yeah, you know, but a little more honest than Hunter Thompson, and that he was just like, no, I'm just I write fiction.

Oh hey, now, doctor Gonzo man, he was his own thing, as they would say, yeah, doctor Gonzo, mister Mike, yeah right right right. So on that note, Father Malone final thoughts on mister Mike's Mondo video. He liked, I like how you got it in you side, I'd be afterwards. If you're a monomaniac, you gotta see this if in the same way that I endorsed the Groove too, if you want to see a slice of a certain time and place in American culture and history and comedic landscape and get to see one of the most important voices of comedy in the twentieth century on display. You're not going to see him at his best.

The level of humor on display here is not representative of what he was capable of. But you do get to see him in action. You get to see, like I said, most of the players have centered alive. I'll show up here in one capacity or another, and it's hard to find. But if you know, it's not hard to find, so you can just watch it on YouTube like it's you know, and it's only don't rent it on YouTube.

You can actually find it for free. Yeah, don't pay for this. But uh and and I'm not even gonna I'm not even gonna recommend people commit their their time to watch it even I'm oh, this is for This is for like crazy super fans of SNL and these performers and this period in American communic history. Like, if you want that piece of the puzzle filled in for you, then then go ahead. I do not watch this if you want to laugh.

I want to know where the Bill Murray drunk character came from. Show me, I mean the Honker, Yes, yeah, well though you know, but what's funny there is like the Honker was already turned into Carl the character and Caddyshack that had been made by the time that they did this, and the Honker had already shown up on SNL a couple of times anywhere. Like there's a sketch of him and Steve Martin, if I remember correctly, just staring at the camera and yelling what is that over and over again at each other, and it's and it's him doing that doing that, you know what that is? Yeah? Oh, look, I'm with you.

This is a this is a thing that I feel like you got to be into a lot of other things to even this is as as we say on the internet, you know this, there's if there's an snl iceberg, this is probably below the surface level, if not several leagues below the surface level. Maybe not all the way at the bottom the tip of the bottom of the ice. But this is definitely a completionist. You wanted to see Bill Murray, you want to see dan Ackroyd, you want to see people doing certain things that you like, Like you said, go for it. Yeah, there there is so little here that works for me.

It is hard to kind of suggest it, and especially in light of something like fucking Kentucky Fried movie, which more or less looks like it works from front to back compared to this, My god good. I mean again, it's hard. Look, if we were talking about let's just say Mickey Rourke movies, we wouldn't be comparing and contrasting them every other week. But because these are all kind of the same in what they are, it's hard, not especially given that, like we don't have Chevy Chase here, but got dan ackro got Bill Murray. So it's still like and again it's obviously Michael o'donahue.

So it's all snl. Well, and the thing about Kentucky Fried Movie in comparison to both of these other films, Mister Mike's Mondo Video and The Groove Too, is that there seems to be a philosophy at work where they're just as interested in shocking and repulsing people as Shapiro and o'donahue, But they have the philosophy in place where it's not enough just to shock. Right, it's not a funny bad we're not doing it. Yes, if you're shocked while you're laughing, or you're shocked while others are laughing at this particular bit of humor, well then we've succeeded. But if you're just gasping, well then what is this?

Yeah, we'll watch a horror movie instead, right, No? And then so yeah, no, I'm I'm of a mindset that there are better things to watch, But I think that this still serves a purpose and has a place in the comedic history of a certain portion of what a lot of people really enjoy right now in comedy. So uh yeah, So on that note, we'll take a break and we'll play a preview for the final episode of the month. I'm so disappointed already, We're just we're already there. We were barreled right to it.

So yeah, well we'll catch you on the other side of the break. Universal, the studio that brought you such classic motion pictures as All Quiet on the Western Front, Et the Extraterrestrial, and Out of Africa, is proud to present Amazon Women featuring Steve Gutenberg, rosen Or, Kid Blu Jakobe Granma, Pretty Scary, Uf Big Bigley Junior, b D. King. Did you know that every seven minutes a black person is born in this country without soul? Tiger Gamo, Ribbon, Round Tree, Russ Meyer, Ralph Bellamy, Monique Gabrielle, I better, I know what you want, Griffin Dunn, Steve Forrest, Sibyl Danning, Oh, Steven Save Yourself, Henry Silva, Steve Allen, Kelly Preston, Carrie Fisher, and Arsenio Hall.

Amazon Women on the Moon. I've seen enough, doctor, I know you have, But have you? Amazon Women on the Whole, the new film from directors Joe Dante, car Gottlieb, Peter Horton, John Landis and Robert Weiss. It's right on the final episode of September, We're gonna be talking about I guess this is the the pinnacle of where these movies reach is more or less what it's been called Amma Zon Women on the Move, starring lots of actors recognizable ones. I'm assuming is what you.

Oh yeah, yeah, but that's the credit of the movie. Oh okay, gotcha. I ruined the joke for you. I we you know, we didn't even mention it on the on the episode for Kentucky Freight Movies, So I feel like i'll mention it here since I'm wearing a shirt and the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln was never mentioned on the last episode. Oh that's true.

That then that's a good joke. But we didn't get that jo. We didn't get that in depth into Big Jim Slade. Yeah that's fair, and so yeah, it'll be it'll be Father Malone and I and and maybe some other folks. Who knows.

There might be a special guest or two. I don't know, because literally don't know. So until then, Father Malone, what have you been up to? Been over at I've been I have a puppy that's driving me crazy at this very moment, you can hear some stuff that I do over at Weirdingway Media dot com. I uh, I'm one of the noiset junkies to music podcast Chris mentioned Midnight Viewing the Night Gallery podcast.

That's a that's a couple of months, a couple of months monthly show. I don't know what I'm saying right now. I'm tired lots of monthly shows, I think, is what you're trying to say. Oh, yeah, it's it's a it's twice a month. Yeah, you can hear hear that one twice a month.

You can hear around noise Junkies here, so I'm always in your ear. Also, I write and produce a half hour radio drama called Dark Destinations, which I'm working on a new episode right now. So I don't think you're gonna you won't hear it in the next couple of weeks, but you'll hear it by the end of the year, I think, So stay tuned for that. This is the first time hearing about it, and my reaction is excited. So yeah, as for me, Weirdingway Media dot Com is where you can find the things that I work on.

You can find so many other things like scary Stories we Tell, which I co host with a whole bunch of other folks. You can also hear Twisted and Uncorked, which is hosted by Sierra and Alicia, who are much funnier than I could ever hope to be, and Ades TV Ladies, which is hosted by Susan and Sharon, which is nominated for an award. So the fuck are you doing listening to this show? Go listen to those shows, and they're probably not even plugging this show on that show. So there you go.

I'm just go be free, open your ear holes and listen until then, father alone, thank you for programming the month. I mean, you know, I feel so thankful to be able to spend one month a year with both you and then with Mike. So it's always I don't know, it's all. Those are the months I look forward to the most. I'm sad to see that we're at the end, but I'm excited to see the kind of pinnacle of sketch comedy.

I'm looking forward to it. And that's always a pleasure to be here and program stuff, make people watch things. Uh, And as always, well, we'll catch you on the next episode. The