Review: Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video

Mondo Video is far from the most refined or successful expression of Michael O’Donoghue’s darkly antic vision.

Mr. Mike's Mondo Video
Photo: New Line Cinema

An icon of American comedy’s countercultural fling of the 1970s, Michael O’Donoghue wielded a satirical stiletto in the heyday of the National Lampoon magazine (where his pieces included “Children’s Letters to Hitler” and “The Vietnamese Baby Book”) before becoming head writer for the first three seasons of Saturday Night Live. When he appeared on camera it was in trademark dark glasses and the guise of suave, bearded bon vivant Mr. Mike, until each bit invariably climaxed in death, mayhem, or O’Donoghue shrieking and whirling around the soundstage (doing an impression of celebrities having their eyes pierced with steel needles). Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video is a hodgepodge of bizarre sketches and short films, most original and some found, that was intended as an NBC special/pilot for a monthly show until the network blanched at its proud decadence, resulting in a brief run in theaters and a reputation as an uncompromised failure.

Parodying the mostly-forgotten 1962 globetrotting shockumentary Mondo Cane, Mr. Mike and his team of “top Italian journalists” present a series of outré cults and oddities: a swimming school for cats, where the kitties are seen hitting the pool in slow-mo and paddling in mortal fear; the military breakthrough of the distaff soldier’s LaserBra 2000; Dan Aykroyd’s revelation of his status as a web-toed mutant; a Parisian restaurant that specializes in serving American customers “glazed rabbit pellets” and setting their tables afire; and an equatorial “cargo cult” that reveres discarded American fads, adorning their island with Silly String, lava lamps, and Peter Max paintings. With the possible exception of a musty skit where Aykroyd presides over a bewigged congregation that worships tight-lipped Hawaii Five-O TV cop Jack Lord, the weak bits are abandoned before they become oppressive; some of the few straightforward laughs are hit-and-runs, from showbiz glamour gals explaining their trendy attraction to losers (Debbie Harry drops in to coo, “It’s cute when guys miss the toilet”), or a teaser for “Christmas on other planets” (a reptilian alien sits at a table smashing light bulbs with a hammer). But aside from cameos by SNL stars (and clips of musical freaks Klaus Nomi, Root Boy Slim, and a legalistically muted Sid Vicious), O’Donoghue’s agenda stays mostly on the hesitant side of laughter. His Rod Serling-meets-Timothy Leary narration and presence—morose in a bar full of blowup dolls or supplying the scream of a harpooned stock-footage whale—has the effect of disdaining potential yuks for a jaundiced indulgence in all-American grotesquerie. (Its low-budget look and limited locations, mostly midtown Manhattan and South Miami, give Mondo Video the thrifty, unpredictable aura of a hip public-access show.)

Mondo Video is far from the most refined or successful expression of O’Donoghue’s darkly antic vision—limited to his performed work, the best material from the National Lampoon Radio Hour would likely take that honor—but its spray of seething, occasionally fetishistic buckshot is unmistakably in its master’s voice. That the mass of contemporary late-night comedy watchers, weaned on catchphrases and political impersonations in place of stylish transgression, would be bored or angered by Mr. Mike’s indifference to laugh-machine rhythms is obvious. The time for the Dadaist post-hippie vaudeville of Mondo Video is, like its creator, long gone, but remains as curiously hypnotic as a poolful of wet cats.

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 Cast: Michael O'Donoghue, Dan Aykroyd, Klaus Nomi, Bill Murray, Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band, Gilda Radner  Director: Michael O'Donoghue  Screenwriter: Mitchell Glazer, Michael O'Donoghue, Emily Prager, Dirk Wittenborn  Distributor: New Line Cinema  Running Time: 70 min  Rating: NR  Year: 1979  Buy: Video

Bill Weber

Bill Weber worked as a proofreader, copy editor, and production editor in the advertising and medical communications fields for over 30 years. His writing also appeared in Stylus Magazine.

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