Initially planned as a TV special to air when \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d was on hiatus but rejected by NBC for being too risque and vulgar, \u201cMr. Mike\u2019s Mondo Video\u201d created a minor brouhaha in 1979 when it was theatrically released. Viewed today, however, there is absolutely nothing edgy or provocative to be found in Michael O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s spoof of the classic shockumentary \u201cMondo Cane.\u201d In fact, the film is downright tame and dull by contemporary standards.
\n<\/p>\n
But perhaps \u201cMr. Mike\u2019s Mondo Video\u201d was always a case of the old carny ruse of selling the sizzle and not the steak. The film\u2019s opening scrawl offers a tempting warning that seems too good to be true: \u201cThe film you are about to see is shocking and repugnant beyond belief. It contains scenes of disturbing sexual practices and mindless violence. If older people with a heart condition are watching, or people under psychiatric care, make them sit close so they won\u2019t miss anything. Do not let children of an impressionable age to leave the room. If they are sleeping, wake them up and slap them. Give them hot coffee.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alas, what emerges is a mild skein of misfired skits hosted by O\u2019Donoghue doing a creepy riff on Rod Serling\u2019s TV persona. Some skits drag on too long with no real payoff, such as early segments about swimming lessons for cats or a \u201cHawaii Five-O\u201d-inspired Church of Jack Lord presided over by Dan Aykroyd as a bewigged evangelist. Aykroyd also appears as himself in a weird segment where he shows off his genuine webbed toes and declares, \u201cI am proud to say that I am an actual genetic mutant.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are blink-and-you-miss-them cameos by several prominent stars like Margot Kidder, Teri Garr and Debbie Harry plus then-SNL cast members, most notably Bill Murray as a homeless man offering sluggish answers to reporter questions; one genuinely funny moment has Joan Hackett appearing as a framed photo and a voice squeaking through a telephone receiver. There are also oddballs including Jo Jo the Human Hot Plate (he holds spaghetti in his hands while standing minus much of his clothing) and a segment debating the death penalty for elephants that includes the 1904 Edison film \u201cElectrocuting the Elephant.\u201d Another old film, the 1929 nudie cutie \u201cUncle Si and the Sirens,\u201d is also included. Footage of Sid Vicious performing \u201cMy Way\u201d is seen minus the soundtrack \u2013 a screen scrawl explains the film\u2019s inability to secure the rights to the Paul Anka-penned song. <\/p>\n
Some skits feel like second-rate Benny Hill humor, such as the military breakthrough of the LaserBra 2000 weapon, while others feel like third-rate Monty Python ripoffs, particularly a Parisian restaurant where the waiter insults American customers while serving \u201cglazed rabbit pellets\u201d and setting their tables on fire. Considering O’Donoghue’s background as a National Lampoon editor and “Saturday Night Live” head writer, the wobbly nature of the writing is baffling.<\/p>\n
Back in the day, critics panned \u201cMr. Mike\u2019s Mondo Video\u201d and it wound up being moved into the midnight movie circuit after failing to find audiences in daytime screenings. Today, it plays like an odd relic from an era of prehistoric outrageousness. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Initially planned as a TV special to air when \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d was on hiatus but rejected by NBC for being too risque and vulgar, \u201cMr. Mike\u2019s Mondo Video\u201d created a minor brouhaha in 1979 when it was theatrically released. Viewed today, however, there is absolutely nothing edgy or provocative to be found in Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":47023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1369],"tags":[136,219,3649,2836],"class_list":["post-47022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retro-cinema","tag-bill-murray","tag-comedy","tag-michael-odonoghue","tag-saturday-night-live"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47022"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47026,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47022\/revisions\/47026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}