Product Details

• Actors: Michael O'Donoghue, Dan Aykroyd
• Format: NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Pacific Arts Video
• Run Time: 75 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001A9JEW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #320,463 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The original Saturday Night Live crew were known as the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players," but when it came to Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video, they weren’t ready for television at all. "Mr. Mike" is Michael O'Donoghue, SNL’s original head writer, and his twisted sensibility concocted this item, which features cast members Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, and Jane Curtin (along with the likes of Carrie Fisher, Margot Kidder, and Debbie Harry) and was intended for NBC; when the network balked at airing it, it was released theatrically. NBC’s objections are understandable--some of this stuff is pretty raunchy--but if you like your humor "vile, degrading, and repulsive," as O’Donoghue proudly describes it, you’ve come to the right place. Produced in 1979, the rag-tag 70-minute collection was apparently intended as a spoof of Mondo Cane, the 1962 Italian "shockumentary" depicting various depraved and bizarre acts, and while it isn’t consistently hilarious, to say the least, Mondo Video has something to offend pretty much everyone. It’s hard to imagine the folks at PETA, for example, being too happy about the "Cat Swimming School" segment, which consists of nothing more than terrified kitties being thrown into a pool; nor will a scene at a hoity-toity French restaurant in which the supercilious waiter offers some dumb Americans "donkey pie or brandied kittens" for dessert (apparently O’Donoghue had it in for felines). Sure, much of it is not only sophomoric and tasteless but also rather amateurish, coming off like outtakes from America’s Funniest Home Videos. But isn’t that the point? Bonus features include a couple of "Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Tales" from SNL, as well as Murray’s eulogy for O’Donoghue following the writer-producer’s death in 1994. --Sam Graham

Product Description

Mr. Mike supplies the viewer with a brand of comedy which has been accurately described as being everything from "the best comedy show of the century," to "raunchy, gross, and tasteless."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and surreal, November 27, 2008

By 

John Ferrer (Greenville, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (DVD)

Just to counteract the first customer review, let me say that I found a beat-up VHS copy of this a few years ago and became totally obsessed with it. It's wonderfully bizarre and dark, closer in spirit to the National Lampoon Radio Hour than the tame-by-comparison SNL. It's downright amazing that Shout! Factory is rescuing this from obscurity, and it will be a fantastic discovery for fans of Mike O'Donoghue and the other early SNL'ers, most of whom make brief appearances.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Day You Will All LOVE MONDO VIDEO, January 14, 2009

By 

Blackie - Knower of... well... All (the Void) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (DVD)

I saw Mondo Video 4 times during the week it ran theatrically, because I KNEW it would never be seen again. I wanted to burn it into my brain. Happily, I was wrong. One brave TV station in Pittsburgh actually ran it ONCE and I taped it. Now, SHOUT! has somehow seen fit to preserve it (or most of it) for posterity. Geez! Paul Anka is such a loser to deny permission to let them include Sid Vicious singing "MY WAY". Anyway....

Definitely not for everyone, Mondo Video is for the adventurous who love dark, dark humor and appreciate the celebration of hype - as this is what O'Donoghue is doing here. He endlessly promises the shocking, the perverted, the astounding...and just like the "Mondo" movies he's parodying, he doesn't deliver on the hype. But it's a VERY funny trip.

Much funnier than any of the alleged 'counter-culture' comics around today.

Very twisted. Very funny. A must-have. If you have the cajones for it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No middle ground, February 11, 2009

By 

Mark Schildberg "Renaissance Person" (Webster, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (DVD)

You're either going to love this video or hate it. I fall into the love-it camp because the perverse and dark nature of its humor is entirely in keeping with the decadent style of one of my favorite artists, the great Michael O'Donoghue, brilliant National Lampoon editor and writer for Saturday Night Live. Mr. Mike's world view is on ample display for 70 minutes here, and it isn't pretty. It's twisted, cynical, and frequently marries the heroic to the mundane. If that's not a style of humor you enjoy, you will find this show off-putting and it will probably test your patience. If you believe the human race's worst instincts are fair game for satire, you will revel in how hilariously foolish we can be. Consider yourself warned.