The Los Angeles County wildfires last January was one of the most devasting catastrophes to hit California, and according to David Goldblum’s documentary short on the burning of the Big Rock community within Malibu it would have been completely preventable if local authorities possessed brains and competence.
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BOOTLEG FILES 920: “Abbott and Costello Meet the Exorcist” (2025 AI-fueled comedy short short).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Unauthorized use of trademarked material.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Maybe someday as part of a collection of AI viral videos.
The latest trend in viral videos involves comedy shorts where prominent cultural and political figures are animated via artificial intelligence to appear in unlikely situations. Among the most recent examples of this trend that I’ve seen include Ronald Reagan dancing in a hotel lobby, Mister Rogers as a belligerent WWE combatant, and Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X dining together on a ribs dinner.
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Show Biz Bugs (1957)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are performers in a vaudeville revue, but Daffy is furious that Bugs has top billing and a star’s dressing room plus the audience’s frenzied adulation while he faces the indignity of being assigned the men’s bathroom as his dressing room and an audience that greets his performing with either stony silence or a tomato thrown at his face. Unable to upstage and sabotage Bugs, Daffy pulls out all stops to perform a wildly dangerous act where he consumes multiple explosive ingredients and blows himself up. The audience loves the act and wants more, but alas it is too late – Daffy’s soul is Heaven bound when he ruefully confides to Bugs that he can only do that explosive act once.
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This silent two-reel comedy from Hal Roach’s fun factory is better known for the talent involved in its production than its contents: character actor James Finlayson has a rare starring role, vaudeville funnyman Ted Healy made his film debut, and Stan Laurel was behind the camera as the director.
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Bugsy and Mugsy (1957)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis
Music by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn
Bugs Bunny is forced to relocate from his hole-in-the-ground residence after it gets flooded during a rainstorm. He takes shelter in a condemned tenement, only to discover the building is the hideout of the bank robbers Rocky and Mugsy. The gangsters are unaware of Bugs’ presence, and the mischievous rabbit uses trickery to convince Rocky that Mugsy is trying to kill him and claim the stolen loot for himself.
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Last Friday’s feature article “Are These the 10 Worst Musical Numbers of All Time?” generated a great deal of reader response on social media, with multiple people offering suggestions for wonderfully awful musical sequences that deserved to be recognized. Well, in the tradition of movie sequels, here is our follow-up edition with 10 more of the worst musical numbers ever put on film.
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We’ve recently offered several articles celebrating some of the most wonderful musical numbers that might be unfamiliar to most movie lovers. Today, we go to the opposite end of the spectrum with 10 musical numbers that could easily turn movie lovers into movie haters. We apologize in advance for any offense created.
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