Mike O'Donoghue's parody of "Mondo Cane" showcases curious performers, strange musicians, celebrity mutations and unusual short films, including Thomas Alva Edison's "Elephant Electrocution". In the tradition of films like Groove Tube (1974), The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), and Saturday Night Live.
Michael O'Donoghue Dan Aykroyd Rhonda Coullet Paul Shaffer Bill Murray Jane Curtin Carrie Fisher Teri Garr Joan Hackett Debbie Harry Sarah Holcomb Margot Kidder Laraine Newman Gilda Radner Sid Vicious Root Boy Slim Edie Baskin Susan Forristal Wendie Malick Brian McConnachie Patty Oja Emily Prager Mitch Glazer Marii Mak
Mr Mikes Mondo Video
USAR
USA
kinda dorky subgeniusy vibe with that 70s harvard/snl wasp racism that still makes it less racist than every other mondo movie---decent goofball jokes/satire x stopmotion/art shit plus dan ackroyds FEET (no wonder this mf believes in ufo-ghosts) had me trippin - how did they not use that in the coneheads???
Michael O'Donoghue was a founder of National Lampoon magazine and the original head writer for Saturday Night Live. He was known for his aggressive and dangerous style of humor, as well his aggressive and dangerous personality.
Written, directed, and featuring O'Donoghue, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video was originally produced to run in place of Saturday Night Live during one of its breaks, but NBC deemed it too risqué. The film eventually found its way to be released theatrically and on home video, presumably playing to very confused audiences.
Structured as a spoof of Mondo films, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video seems to be a comedy, but it's not really. It's a darkly humorous and antagonistic art project from O'Donoghue that features some…
This isn't a perfect film. It isn't even a great film. I think that's especially true seeing it for the first time in 2013, over three decades after it was first released. Imagine someone watching Jon Hamm and Adam Scott's The Greatest Event in Television History in forty years. To use an SNL-related example, imagine someone in 2047 watching Taran Killam recreate a Robyn music video. In the best of all possible worlds (not the one where I roam the post-apocalyptic streets trading sexual favors for gasoline) that person would own all of Taran's movies on that-thing-that-comes-after-Blu-ray. They'd love the lack of production quality, the smile on his face, and the hilarity of it all but they'd still be one…
A shotgun blast of sketch ideas with the oft-unpleasant Michael O'Donoghue at the trigger, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video goes from playfully obtuse to downright mean-spirited almost in the same breath. Asides and abrupt trains of thought crack up more than the distended dream sequences or extended gags. Cat swim-training devolves into cat hang-gliding lessons (spoiler alert: it doesn't end well); indigenous tribes relish in the First World's abandoned fads; beautiful women list their favorite qualities of creepy men; and most obscene of all, there's Dan Aykroyd's webbed toes.
For a 70 minute would-be special that spooked NBC brass into shelving it, this stands as a snapshot of the often gonzo sensibility of the early days of SNL -- the absurd grotesquery to Tom Schiller's muted romanticism.
"Amsterdam. Or as the Dutch call it: city of cats and canals. A dangerous combination - and yet, miraculously, there hasn't been a cat drowning in over three hundred years. Impossible, you say? Let's stop in at Europe's oldest cat swimming school to talk to instructor Hans Hooten."
Alt title: Cut for Time
You hear about artists for whom nothing is sacred. Well, writer/performer Michael O'Donoghue - who friends affectionately dubbed "The Prince of Darkness" - embodied that ethos to a tee. How best to describe Mr. Mike's Mondo Video? Imagine a mad genius throwing a Molotov cocktail into a bunch of TV sets all programmed to random Public Access channels, blowing them up, then cobbling together the oddest bits…
This is a wild assortment of odds and ends, little clips and videos in a comedic fashion. On the level with Kentucky Fried Movie and Groove Tube.
Mike O’Donoghue takes us into a bizarre and at times psychedelic experience in parody of the exploitive pseudo-style Mondo Cane, which in Italiano roughly translates to “Doggish World” — most likely intended for drug-induced consumers. It has an uncanny resemblance to the pacing of films like Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) and Porky’s (1981) that would soon come along — this film can only be assumed as one of the prototypes leading a soon to be inspired genre.
We're provided with idiosyncratic sketch-like serials that run throughout the course of the film. Everything from swim coaches tossing cats into pools to teach them how to swim (the first of which was O’Donoghues), a silent performance by Syd Vicious, to even being presented with…
This is the kind of subversive content I've been seeking. Even today I bet NBC would be piss-scared to air parts of this. Babies.
TEN THINGS NEEDED TO MAKE YOUR JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNQUESTIONABLY OUTRE WORLD OF MR. MIKE'S MONDO VIDEO SOMETHING OF A SUCCESS:
1. Friends to watch it with, preferably those who smell mighty kind.
2. A predisposition towards surrealistic comedy sketches, so fans of Tim & Eric and/or Adult Swim in general should find purchase here. As would SNL nerds. Maybe even Mr. Show acolytes.
3. At least a peripheral knowledge of the film Mondo Cane (so you know what Michael O'Donoghue is satirizing).
4. To be equally informed about past pop culture icons such as Jack Lord, Rod Serling, and Sid Vicious. Too bad you can't hear a thing Sid Vicious sings.
5. A perspective that this is what OG SNL…
