No laughs? What about the part where Bonzo (the monkey) is under the table and keeps snatching the pieces of cake from the patrons at the restaurant? Before the waiter can set down another plate, Bonzo has devoured it! Cut to a facial shot of Bonzo under the table cloth covered in cake!! Tell me, who could resist wetting their pants at such a thing? And the ensuing restaurant fight, where we have the joy of seeing Ben and Bonzo smash people at random with bottles!
Whoever thought this movie was not funny must have been watching with their eyes closed and cotton in their ears. Just the scenes of intimacy between Ben and Bonzo that bordered on homosexual (bestial?) were enough to make the film hilarious, especially when Bonzo is trying to sing Ben back to health in the hospital.
Not to mention the cruel and sadistic humor of the monkey, who is seen repeatedly hitting his "friends" Ben, the boy, and the others, and breaking out into insane laughter.
One must see the strange and twisted side of Going Bananas to see the humor. So I suggest, watch the movie again. It is a classic. If you think of the sheer cruelty of Dom Deluise taunting a monkey with a banana, only to let him have it if he says "banana!" It is hysterical! Of course poor Dom had no idea the monkey would do it, so imagine what kind of pathetic mindstate he was in! Locked in a jail in Africa, and rather than prayer, diplomacy, critical thinking, whatever...instead of trying to get himself out of this dillema...he resolves to sit back on his haunches and amuse himself by taunting a monkey with a banana. Excellent!
I give Bonzo and Going Bananas 14 MILLION stars and 763,000 THUMBS WAY UP!!! BONZO FOR PRESIDENT!!! BONZO LOVES BEN!!!
