Mr. Mike's Mondo Video

"Mr. Mike's Mondo Video" was created under the auspices of NBC-TV as a proposed network special. NBC's motivation for doing so was largely supported by O'Donoghue's strength as a writer and performer for Saturday Night Live, then one of NBC's few genuine hit shows. When NBC censors saw the finished product, they were horrified; much as they had been when Richard Pryor's earlier comedy specials were first reviewed. But unlike the situation had been with Pryor, NBC rejected "Mr. Mike", which sent O'Donoghue packing from the network, Saturday Night Live and all. 'Twas a pity; after all, his unpredictable, twisted sense of humor had helped to make SNL distinctive, and his departure was the first indicator of the gradual decline of SNL into the mediocrity it eventually became. Somehow M O'D retained the rights to the finished product, and it was released as a theatrical film in 1980; the author was one of perhaps a half dozen souls who braved it in first release at my particular theater. Few films have been such a poor draw, and it was pulled from distribution very quickly. NBC's main objection to the show was the inclusion of a clip of ex-Sex Pistol and suspected murderer Sid Vicious singing Paul Anka's song "My Way" and firing a pistol at the camera. It's arguably the weakest segment in the film, but for some reason M O'D refused to part with it. When "Mr. Mike's Mondo Video" was issued on VHS in 1985 the audiotrack to this segment was expunged from the release, as Anka's publishing company refused to grant a license for the song. Ironically, the same segment, in a somewhat different visual form, appears in Julien Temple's Sex Pistols film "The Great Rock and Roll Swindle", and no such censorship is imposed in the video release. I am commenting as I am surprised by the low viewer rating for this title on the imdb. Some of the segments here are quite honestly among the funniest, darkest, most irreverent comedy ever committed to film. Fans of offbeat humor really shouldn't miss this one; much of it is still cutting edge two decades on, and certain segments are even now enough to reduce me to helpless hysterics, tears rolling down my cheeks with laughter. Mr. Mike, your "Mondo Video" is so funny, it hurts.

I rented this last night, after having been impressed by the credentials and the fact that NBC refused to air it. Very rarely has a video failed to live up to such lofty expectations; then again, I may have expected too much.

Even though I knew from the first two sketches that this was going to be a very annoying and unfunny video, I stayed with it, expecting that, at some point or another, the show would connect--say something funny, make some sort of original statement, anything. Nothing. It aims to be shocking, but ends up extremely boring. (Throwing a cat into the pool is funny. Turning that one single act into a long, slo-mo montage of cats being throwin into the pool--well, it seemed like five minutes instead of two. And two minutes is about 100 seconds longer than this sketch had to be.)

Much of this is stream-of-consciousness in the vein of Monty Python, only without any of the wit. Most of the jokes seem to have been written by O'Donoghue at three a.m. while coked out in a room with only a typewriter. (Am I far from the truth? I'm not up on my SNL trivia.)

Watch this video as a lesson on how to take what is potentially hilarous and cut it off at the knees. It also stands out as a document that testifies to a very empty and decadent niche in our cultural history.

In short, it stinks on so many levels.

Well, I didn't laugh even once at this muddled, unfunny heap of film, which begins with a very boring, very unsmiling skit that centers around Cat Swimming instruction. It moves into other tedious skits like `The Church of the Jack Lord" (a Church of the Sub-Genius styled farce that looks great on paper) and a moment with Dan Aykroyd's deformed feet, not to mention the highly dim-witted "Laser Bra 2000" and a montage of male commentary called "Beautiful Women Love Disgusting Men," where the film unloads all of its cameos at once: Jane Curtin, Carrie Fisher, Teri Garr, Joan Hackett, Deborah "Blondie" Harry, Margot Kidder, Wendie Malick, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, and Loretta Tupper. That said, you can probably guess how misleading the box is that professes appearances from this bevy of stars! Dan Aykroyd is in some of the skits, and there's further cameos from people like Paul Shaffer and Bill Murray (who's even less funny here than in his cameo as Lefty Schwartz in `Loose Shoes'). Alas, not even the footage of Klaus Nomi, Sid Vicious, or Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band (which is way too long and utterly stupid – the Tubes they weren't!) helps this disorder. The one redeeming skit is called "Christmas on Other Planets.' "Tunnel Vision," `Amazon Women on the Moon,' `The Kentucky Fried Movie,' and even `The Boob Tube' and "Jokes My Folks Never Told Me" (groan) are much, much better than this!

Originally intended to be a one-shot summer replacement for Saturday Night Live, "Mr. Mike's Mondo Video" was never aired due to its aggressive, in-your-face humor: "Christmas on Other Planets," "The Church of the Jack Lord," "Laser Bra 2000," "Nazi Oven Mitts," and musical performances by RootBoy Slim and the Sex Change Band and by Sid Vicious. Never aired by NBC due to problems with the censors, instead it received very limited theatrical release. Beware the now-existing video version (if you can find it), as the Sid Vicious performance of "My Way" is missing audio-- instead you get a scroll over the video explaining that Paul Anka, who wrote "My Way" refused to give rights to the video. Too bad-- it was pretty damn funny.

The movie is sketch comedy at its sickest, not too different from the best of SNL or "TunnelVision": one of the funnier pieces ("Beautiful Women Love Disgusting Men") has Deborah Harry telling the audience that she thinks "it's cute when guys miss the toilet seat."

A must-see. Simply incredible.

I can see how this would be unusual (and maybe even shocking?) for 1979, but in 2023 it seems relatively tame, at least to me. I've known about this movie for over 30 years but I only just got around to seeing it today. Some of it is definitely the same kind of humor from SNL's early days. A lot of it is random. Some of it is just dumb (but still funny). And a lot of it is just weird, which isn't necessarily funny but it is fascinating to watch. I see some of the same random humor in tik-toks and YouTube videos and memes today. Whether it's asking people on the street stupid questions or showing girls in their underwear jumping over fire, everything old is new again.