Way back when I used to frequent the bottom 100 on IMDb and Wikipedia's "Worst Films of All Time" article. When it comes to the worst movie of all time I've always been curious to how one such film could accomplish it, but since this was earlier on I couldn't find footage or reviews though that has since changed. I finally got to see what The Maize was like, I not only saw the 2010 Alice in Wonderland commercial but I did a deep dive of it, but there was one film I've always been curious about. The Underground Comedy Movie.
The film had been floating on Wikipedia's article for quite some time and I knew very little about it. Earliest I saw there wasn't even a picture of a poster, but one had since been put on it along with some additional details, or I had actually bothered to read it in full. For a long time I only had the article to go off of and some random clips that weren't even necessarily part of the movie. And now that I'm here, there's an opportunity for me to seize, but in due time.
Of all people to thank for this movie, remember ShamWow, more specifically the ShamWow guy Vince Offer? Yep. By day he's a salesman but by night he's an edgelord comedian, but why speculate when details show that he is indeed off his nut, and no I'm not going to like those nuts. I feel like Vince is on a mission to become as hated as possible, but let's forget about how comedians are just using comedy as an excuse to act a fool, the year is 1999, no true standard was set, let's get right into... some behind the scenes crap.
History
At the very least Vince was no stranger to the genre. In the past Vince was the host of a public access comedy show, one that would serve as the basis for the movie and whose skits would appear in it. And hell, given his presence as a salesman that's acting right there. I'm just saying, Vince is at least more qualified than directors who came into it from a wildly different field, saying that in a vacuum.
While the film was incredibly low profile it managed to get some relatively big names, including Michael Clarke Duncan, Slash, Gena Lee Nolan and Joey Buttafuoco, I mean big if you happened to watch David Letterman at the time. The details are a little much, but best I can sum up is that he got famous for getting with a minor, a minor that shot his wife. Look up the Long Island Lolita because that's a story I'm not gonna tell.
So you're probably wondering how Vince was able to book relatively known names. On one hand most of these actors are either known for their seedy or edgy pursuits, or their spotlight had faded and they're looking for work anywhere they can get. It's a big reason why you see big name voice actors in low quality projects, their paycheck is abysmal. But back to the other hand, Vince at the time was a scientologist and used that connection to try and book actors, but that's just a theory, I'm just basing it off of how the animator behind Rapsittie Street Kids got the cast he did due to being a scientologist that attended the same church as Nancy Cartwright.
Of course the most controversial thing about this film did not center on its content but rather legal issues. A funny one dealt with Vince attempting to sue the Farrelly brothers over them allegedly copying a scene Vince did in this movie for There's Something About Mary, it went absolutely nowhere and I guess Vince was just looking for as much quick cash as he can. I only say funny because the Farrellys would go on to direct a similar movie in 2013, Movie 43, another one of the worst movies of all time. It's all just a bunch of bologna.
Another suit dealt with Vince suing an actor, Anna Nicole Smith, that had agreed to appear but backed out seemingly at the last minute. I wouldn't say she had a fruitful career in the film industry, and I mean Duncan had roles since this one, also there's the matter of how many people even saw the movie but we'll get to that. Also, Smith had passed on in 2007. Rest in peace.
Among other actors that appeared in this include Bobby Lee, aka that guy from Mad TV aka that guy who groped another one on a podcast hosted by Logan Paul, can't believe that's all connected. The rest of the cast consists of those who would go on to play bit roles in various shows, most of which I'm unfamiliar with but good they're still getting work. As far as writing go while Vince was at the helm, he had received assistance from a man named Dante. I had assumed it was a pseudonym, but it turns out that's the stage name of a comedian. It's interesting how those credited here with a single name either had long careers or information is readily available.
I can't even call this a career killer, given that very few people even saw this movie. The Underground Comedy Movie netted a $500,000 budget, but it only made back $856. Doing a little math, and I do mean a little, movie tickets back then cost around five dollars, oh what a time, so dividing the gross against the ticket prices, it seems only a few hundred people went to see it.
But let's be fair, given the nature of this movie and that Vince had to do a bulk of the promoting and backing himself this movie was doomed to bomb. The movie was said to have premiered in only one theater, and trailers only played during overnight hours on Comedy Central and MTV. Adding onto that I can infer that the film got an NC-17 rating, no persons under 17 admitted, and that a wide release was out of the question. A rule of thumb when it comes to NC-17 movies, if it's a comedy, it's essentially porn.
So what distributor took the piss and released it? A company called Phaedra Cinema, one that specialized in independent film distribution. Another film they released was South of Heaven, West of Hell, a film spearheaded by country singer Dwight Yokham, interesting fact.
As far as reviews go, the movie received a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. The only positive reviews or indications I could find come from Film Threat, to the point a snippet from their review turned up on the poster, which makes perfect sense given how much of a goon the owner is. Chris Gore is the kind of guy that laughs at dick jokes unironically.
Due to the nature of this movie, clips of it are hard to find. Home media releases were slim to none due to Vince's financial issues. However in recent years Vince himself was gracious enough to post a trailer for the film on his YouTube channel, giving people an idea on what the film was like, and I can sum it up like this.
The trailer gives away the full intent. There's no statement to be made, no deeper meaning, it's just there to offend people. Typically if someone declares something to offend, it's not going to and the actions are desperate at best. But maybe I'm exaggerating, I'm offended by it. The basic nature of the jokes so far is incredibly offensive, I came to be offended goddamnit.
But that's just going by the trailer. Since then the entire film had been put on YouTube, given that it's not on streaming and who in their right mind would enforce the copyright? Phaedra's out of business, the only other company with any information behind it is Square One Entertainment, which based on where the site had redirected (least for a time) is definitely a Vince venture, why else would it go on to be involved in the sequel I won't mention yet? Vince owned not one but two production companies involved with this, the other being BOP Productions, short for Best Offer Productions. Just felt like sharing that, breaking down the illusion more than one person wanted to put money into this.
So with that said, I know the movie's bad and that it's gonna nothing but dull edges. The question is how bad is it and will I manage to get through all 92 minutes of it? I'm gonna share the details as I see them, well, save for the more graphic ones, if you know you know. All I can be grateful for is that this was years before the first Trump era and thus I don't have to worry about, once more if you know you know.
Let's begin
Three seconds in and I'm presented with the first red flag. The movie stressing that it's a satire. Maybe back then I would've fallen for it, but at least these days people have used satire as a defense to say whatever dumb shit they wanted. They know its bad and they scramble for whatever they could use to get away with it. You could argue the satire applies to the film making fun of certain things or spinning on established properties, but that's shallow at best, and I doubt this film is trying to prove or expose anything, body parts don't count. I'm so confounded I can't tell if the narrator is Chinese or a guy trying to do racist humor.
The movie flashes a "Warning, guaranteed to offend" disclaimer afterwords. Guy, I came to this movie because I wanted to be offended not gaslit. Seems even they knew the warning's full of shit since they play audio of people leaving the theater. Just saying, not even South Park went this route, they let their offensiveness speak for itself and had enough faith in the audience to get offended. Only way I'm leaving the theater is if I get a refund.
Our first scene proper has a guy wandering into a rat infested cave. Ha get it, he's underground. I'm gonna assume it's Vince, he has that unmistakable face. There is a little stalling at first, but to some credit it was building up to something, a reference to a notable moment with Marylin Monroe, can you guess which one? Basically turning on a fan beneath a subway grate and you know, you know. But we're back to the negatives as Vince just jacks off, and I do mean just. He apparently liked this scene so much he would revisit it in the future, and I don't just mean in his off time, and I don't mean with the camera footage he takes there after. All I get from this is that Vince is more horny than Bob Forward; here's a hint, think about She-Hulk in 1996.
We then get our intro, a motorcycle ride set to Soul Doubt by NOFX, one of two highlighted musical performers throughout this movie. Nothing says punk like playing on a shitty movie helmed by a TV salesman, I mean I get punk is intent on rebelling against the common norms of society, at bit like how this film rebels against the common norms of comedy so... the inclusion makes too much sense. Anyhow it's here we get the cast crawl and girls paid to think Vince and his biker buddies are worth saying hi to. I'd be saying this no matter my views. Then comes Joey Buttafuco's credit, and I could swear I hear a mid to late-90s David Letterman coming.
Seeing Slash's credit, I'm beginning to think that as crazy as Axl Rose was he had standards. I'd say this movie was the straw that broke Guns n' Roses' back but that was years before.
Suddenly motorcycles become bicycles, I just gotta ask what the joke is here? I'd get it if we've seen them from the waste up and once we move down we see they weren't riding motorcycles, am I supposed to be offended by the sudden change of vehicles?
The framework behind this movie is that Vince watches television and finds a number of "offensive" programs to watch, intercut with random footage. I'm gonna assume the rocket taking off and the elephant's trunk is intended to be a dick joke. The first skit is the poster shot, er, what is in the poster occurs in the movie. I must admit it's quite offensive, the narrator claims I'll never see it, when it's right there plain as day. And what's there are celebrities taking a shit.
I would talk about how dumb toilet humor is, but Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle would take this concept and do it a hell of a lot better. A problem with jokes like these is that the writers expect people to laugh at the absurdity alone, much like how Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer expected people to laugh at point blank pop culture references. There has to be more to a joke than just what's on the surface, it's a big reason why toilet humor is dying, if it hasn't taken its last shit yet. Only decent thing is that Vince didn't have the girls spread eagle for him, at least not on camera.
For the next batch of commercials Vince has a case of butterfingers where he accidentally switches off the next sketch before returning to it again. Guess he couldn't find anything interesting about dinosaurs killing each other. They do a joke where it looks like one of the main characters in the sketch enters a bank, but it turns out it's a sperm bank. Honestly the most shocking thing they could've done was have him go into an actual money bank, something mundane to throw off those expecting edginess at every minute.
They do call attention to this though, he thought he was walking into a money bank... then they ruin it by having him settle for sperm, which I'm gonna assume he means from the woman, straight from the woman at the counter because that's the calibre of humor we're dealing with here. Alright what else we got, a guy who couldn't ejaculate but is turned on by this joker looking ass, though his schtick isn't comedy it's poetry. Only plus I can say for this is that things didn't escalate, because I would've seen it coming, heh get it, come. The people don't care, then it goes to a high speed foot chase, set to the first instance I hear Guttermouth, them and NOFX being credited by name at least as far as the Wikipedia entry.
And it just goes on and on, until the pursuing cop gets shot and dies in a 30% convincing way. Then the Rhymer finds some crooks getting patted down and he kills two out of three. And yes, one gets shot in the dick, bet you saw that coming. But just a reminder, we're dealing with a Joker parody, so you know what that means?
Batman, or in this case, the one who goes up to bat. I should be relieved that this is the most sensible choice Vince could make, but I'm just asking how is this guaranteed to offend anyone? If you really wanna piss people off, just portray Superman in any light other than his usual one, it'd be hilarious, or at least more hilarious than right now
Batman confronts a woman after the Rhymer threw a briefcase into her shopping cart, and she turns out to be a homophobe. She gets her ass handed to her, but given the rest of the skits after this Vince has plenty of opportunities to kill that level of good faith. But first, heh, wouldn't it be funny if Batman let the Rhymer get away and assumed the woman was the crook the entire time? No? Well no shit that's what happened.
The Rhymer would go on to cause mayhem, punching people he sees. As this is a reference to the Adam West Batman series you get to see those comic book blurbs appear every time someone gets it, well in theory as they only appear every other hit. But to be fair even the original series was inconsistent with that. Batman would be directed to the Rhymer, making sure to knock out people again while turning holding his bat outwards, because that's basic level comedy, comedy that transcends time and space because suddenly it's tomorrow.
Anyway, Rhymer gets that old woman in Batman's radar and he knocks her head clean off her body, clean as in there's no blood and it still remains alive, well, long enough to get mauled by dogs, and thus it's a to be continued, in theory.
Next we get a Baywatch parody, and I'm already expecting disappointment. Baywatch has plenty of material to parody, and I can already tell he's gonna fuck it up somehow. Guess he wanted to skip the 'boring part' so we get some extreme sport montages before returning to our regularly scheduled airquoted comedy, complete with a casualty, a young boy casualty. Think this'll be about incompetent lifeguards? Pssh, no, of course it's about tits. I'm not gonna act like Baywatch isn't guilty of scant cladding, but that's the most obvious route you can go in a parody.
The way this is edited I swear Vince is fighting against two personalities, one wants to switch away, hence going back to the extreme sports before getting back to Boob Watch. If you're looking for boobs, either the copy I'm watching edited them out or Vince wanted to give people blueballs, or maybe he's offending those who wanted something more sexual. Only offensive thing here is a man who looks like he's waiting for his cue to act like he's getting eaten by a shark. Looks like the David Hasselhoff stand-in is too busy looking at the girls to give a shit. Best I could guess is that it saying how lifeguards are incompetent and easily distracted, but that's just being overly generous. I just wanna reiterate that I wanna see where people are going when it comes to their movies, that way I could say I get it, I just don't like it.
Before I move on, allow me to suggest another Baywatch parody, Son of the Beach, if you can find it, and I only bring it up because it was executive produced by Howard Stern of all people.
Next sketch, Virgin Hunter. It's building up to be a slasher, but the seconds are rendered painful by one's heavy breathing. Take some Allegra dude. Anyway, it doesn't turn out to be a horror movie, more of a horror show as a guy named Bill just prattles on trying to flirt, either farting or blowing raspberries as a naked guy begins wandering around. Only scary thing is Bill being from Anaheim, where evil was born, and by evil I mean Ronald Reagan.
For once I'm stumped, is the joke that this started as a horror parody, but soon after we're left in near constant suspense? Is it a commentary on how people from Orange County are backwards? Maybe that's offensive, only because I know Orange County knows better, because they did not vote for Donald Trump once.
My reward for not turning off the movie after that... that, is going back to Batman. Oh look Rhymer's visiting a young unassuming girl, where the fuck is that gonna go? But first, the laziest Shining reference I've ever seen, and I hate that movie. The old lady's alive and I'm not gonna question it, who do you think I am, circa 2010s FilmBrain? Also Batman's here and as befuddled as ever. A swordfight breaks out between him and the old lady, cane against a dildo. Can't believe I can make a connection to Ben and Arthur that also had a dildo in it, thank you Kyle Norty.
So as it would turn out, Batman was ignoring Rhymer for a reason. They're related. I haven't been this shocked at a sudden twist since I learned of a society that forbade people with black hair. Also apparently Rhymer got disfigured and kid him managed to take enough time for a dramatic reveal. Why did they play baseball indoors near a fireplace? What, and ruin the plot?
After Batman is challenged to strike a home run by Rhymer, he beefs it by knocking it into his mouth, and when distracted the old woman knocks him out, and that's the end of this vignette. I mean, there was a payoff, I got to understand why things happened this way. So far if I had to pick one segment that didn't drive me up a wall this one was okay.
Anyway, one top up sex scene and wacky Hitler cameo later, Michael Clarke Duncan as a gay virgin getting pressured by a sex pest. But at least in this case no means no as Michael manages to shut his ass up, and I don't mean with the eleventh finger. Sometimes you gotta savor moments that you think would go a certain way but don't.
Next stop is a parody of Randy Newman's I Love L.A., complete with some hints of transphobia, proof that Vince can't sing and beef with Baywatch and David Hasselhoff that could've led to a much better Baywatch parody if he gave a shit, that's as much as I'm gonna say on that. I don't like LA as much as the next guy but... you know what fuck it, goes to show how much hate lies in Vince's soul.
Karate, orgies, Long Island scum and a lame ass movie parody complete with more horribly out of date trans jokes. I'm offended by how bland and unfunny these jokes are, people just look at the surface more than anything and everything else is so void of substance that I can't help but over-fixate on these things. Who wants to hear a mockery of Marlon Brando's voice, for the millionth time?
At this rate I'm just waiting until something is worth bringing up, this movie is boring as hell, and when a movie is boring the worst aspects stick out like a sore thumb, like Vince wanting to replace meat in spaghetti with fetuses. It seems like the Godmother has some restraint, until she agrees to a fetal substitute. I'm gonna assume this is parodying scenes from the Godfather movies, because I have no idea what the hell is going on, but Vince thinks we do since he's just dragging this shit out. But I'm just gonna pretend this was set up for a joke where he changes the channel out of boredom.
One flash at the beach later we're back with Michael, I was wondering when any good faith I had the first time I saw him was gonna have its neck snapped. Luckily it doesn't culminate in the you know you know, but something tells me he's saving it, like Michael's saving himself.
Back to the Godmother and the conversation's still going. I mean in theory this can be funny, it didn't make me laugh but I can see how it can be considered humorous. But this would be ruined by the lack of a proper buildup. If the Godmother sat silent and just exploded due to how long this went on there'd be a payoff at least. Hell, the guy with the rifle either offing himself or them would at least be in line with this film's style. Hell shoot me, this movie is that fucking boring right now.
There's an offer he can't refuse reference, and Vince name-drops himself. Wonder what a Vince offer would be in this case, and if it's anything like the cure for insomnia I've been dealing with beforehand. I didn't mention it beforehand but the Godmother here is Jewish, because the next scene has a plate of ham in a Jewish man's bed, and that's it.
Godzilla reference, not that I wanna watch any Godzilla movie, I'd throw shade but once is enough. Then some freehand camera footage of a man touching himself, then our next segment. The Adventures of Dickman. Times like these I'm glad I don't always include pictures in these blogs. What do you get when you cross a man driving a truck full of toxic waste, an elephant and a meteor? You tell me. By this point Vince graduated to making fun of lesbians with a hint of a pro-life message, oh no, the only way to salvation is in the hands of a complete and utter creep.
To sum it up, this is essentially a pornographic Superman parody, but it's more like an 80-20 split. If nothing else this just reaffirms my asexuality. Nobody's turning me on here, boredom notwithstanding. It ends on a "we'll be right back" note, and at this rate I'm gonna stop bringing up the in-between stuff, unless of course there's anything worth bringing up.
Another thing I'll never see, oh wait nevermind there it is. Basically setting up a wholesome premise of a hot woman dating a poor man, but don't worry I'm sure he's gonna hit us with something painfully unfunny soon, and that pain comes after the segment.
Next up, Vince doing ebonics and dressing in a negative stereotypical black fashion. In general you know you're unfunny or out of date as hell if you even entertain the idea of it. On the segment, Vince shoots a Klansman, may the Klan burn in flames I just wish a better human being pulled that trigger in this scene. I don't know what's worse, this or when Sarah Silverman did legit blackface years ago, yes it was portrayed as wrong in that episode but still, better ways to go about confronting racism and discrimination, let's put it like that.
Anyway next we get footage of the OJ Simpson trial, keep it in mind. But first, Slash makes an appearance, hammered and all, guess he was having some serious regrets he needed to wash away. He's hosting a beauty pageant for unsightly women who otherwise represent another stab at LA. The rest is just nothing happening as everyone awkwardly tries to move things along, and anything that does happen feels like more of the same. I'm gonna take a nap, I'll let you know if anything interesting happens.
Okay, about an eternity later, next sketch is a therapy section, one I felt like singling out because it would be kept in mind by Vince, and I may be seeing it again given how haphazard the seconds are becoming, it just set in. Back to the Michael segment, or at least one area that was randomly cut to in the second, it turns out this is an entirely different one. Flirty Harry, and already there's a strong showing for homophobia and transphobia. I say this not in an "I'm offended" way but more like "This was a sign of the times and this is just predictable and boring."
But as Flirty Harry delivers the expected twist on that one Clint Eastwood line, we go back to the therapy one. Right now I wanna take a moment to point out that the guy playing the therapist here also appeared in the Godmother. Just wanted to share that. I can only assume he's just picturing the depraved tale the lady's telling him, for now.
Back to Flirty Harry, dead baby joke, gay jokes long buried, bullet up the ass, then it looks like that's over with. By the way, I'm nearing the hour mark, just a minute and 44 seconds left if credits are included. I made it this far, so I'd be a fool to just drop out now. And remember how I said the therapy section was just him picturing what the lady's telling him? That's it, that's the entire segment, until I eat my words for the hundredth time. American Dad did something similar to this ages ago, but they did it better, for one thing it's a hell of a lot shorter and more spontaneous.
Okay I wasn't gonna bring it up, but there's a recurring segment about the guy I said was feeling himself. Unless this is building to something I'm gonna assume Vince is using this as dirt on somebody.
Oh god another Virgin Hunter segment, more of the same so I'm just gonna focus on how I'm a little over an hour in now. A little over half an hour to go, and bar any returning segments only two remain. Next is The Porno Review. Guess. Sleazy guys reviewing sleazy material. Could've worked as an after hours show on the Playboy channel, preferably with anyone but Vince because with his sense of humor he'd make Hugh Hefner wretch.
So, reviewing porno, edgy comedy, and the first one on the chopping block features Asians, what do you think is gonna happen? This is where Bobby Lee comes in, and he's the kind of person with no shame so don't hold this over his head, he may go for round 2. And... it's a porn review alright, complete with a quality measurement. For now here's a funny little tidbit. One of the actors in this, Joe Shapiro, has a Wikipedia article that redirects to a tell-all book critical of the Trump administration.
Going into the next porno, that segment I singled out, turns out it was building to something, we were watching parts of the flick or just seeing the players occur throughout the clip breaks. If I had quit the movie sooner I would've never known that, nor would I have seen a mailman with the worst case of acne I've ever seen. Anyhow, this is a necrophilia-centered porn, and even when things show they're mundane by comparison to everything else. This gets messy, not because of any fluids flying around but because it looks like they threw in the trailer before the porno, the haphazard editing strikes again.
The film's runtime is 88 minutes, that's an hour and 28 minutes. The upload I'm watching is an hour and 32 minutes. My point is that the uploader did not have to cut any of the footage, I'm seeing it as it's supposed to be, and again it's a mess. I feel nothing, they're just dragging this out as if Vince wants an air of discomfort to hang over our heads, but it doesn't. All I get is seeing a scarab beetle crawl out of a corpse's mouth, and then it just sorta ends.
Most I can say is the banter's the most passable thing here, if only because Vince has seen more than a few pornos his life and has that one best friend who just parrots along. Next is a Swan Lake parody. Guys in tutus, Vince must've been on the floor laughing when he thought of that. Nothing else of worth bringing up aside from them beating off into a lake, gotta get that title relevance down. Don't worry it's fake, because there's no way in hell anyone can produce cum like that, they can't even cum to the action in this film. Anyway I'm calling bullshit on the rating they gave it, compared to the other ones this was the most boring, even worse that the guy got off to his own sister.
Alright, nearing the last segment listed on the movie's Wikipedia page. This one centers on a jury process, and amazingly they call back to that OJ Simpson clip. Joke here is six white jurors and six black jurors. The black jurors declare Simpson guilty, the white ones say not guilty and an argument breaks out, then the white jurors change their vote. Regardless of the context, evidence points to him as being the culprit. Of all the skits this is among one of the more restrained ones, and fortunately one of the quicker ones.
But with that said there's still fourteen minutes left. After cutting back to scenes from skits we've already scene, we get one more Michael scene and one more confrontation. Michael submits but fortunately it's not on darker terms. He just settles since the guy is half Puerto Rican and then like everything else it just sorta ends. Maybe if this was a post credit scene it would've been funny, I dunno.
Twelve minutes left, we get a fourth wall break where one guy pitches an idea for a conclusion, then he calls over his wife, a literal pig, over. Vince would try to figure out how to end this movie, settling on featuring someone famous toward it, then after the meet-up there's a montage of surfing, both literal surfing and Vince moto-surfing.
Getting closer to the finish Vince does a dedication to fans of the public access show that served as the basis for this movie, clips of it appearing throughout and the end footage being based on what appeared on said show by the way. Then it returns to the guy in the underground, the fan still on and shock of all shocks the Marylin stand-in got off to the wind, and... delivers. Vince tells a so-so pun, snatches a rat and leaves the cave, and that's it. It's finally over, except it isn't. Mid-credit scenes up the ass, and I have to deal with more of Bobby Lee, well, Bobby Lee as played by co-writer Dante. Best guess this is the most Dante contributed to the film overall.
But we end off with one last scene. An outtake where a coast guard scolds Vince and the actors for filming without a permit. Guess Vince wanted to put in every last piece of footage in this, waste not want not. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I liked the credit cookies in The Master of Disguise better, for one thing they weren't as repetitive. Cut out the Bobby Lee bullshit and leave that outtake though. There is an acknowledgement to the Farrelly brothers and Vince's failed lawsuit. Vince claims they had a promotional copy of his film, but unless the Farrellys lived in Vince's neck of the woods this lawsuit was never gonna get far.
And that's it, it's over.
Thoughts
To put it simply, I didn't feel turned on, I didn't feel like laughing, I just felt bored. So very bored. I've been curious about this movie for a very long time, reviews I've found never showed any footage (but I can't blame them), and if the opportunity came I'd check the movie out to see what gives. I have a high tolerance for bad movies, hell some movies deemed the worst I actually kinda enjoyed. But this movie, holy shit.
Any time I was offended I was being ironic. Sure I singled out moments that can be considered grossly out of date, but that's because I had to. I don't approve of anything here, at most I just found sketches that turned out to be not as bad as others and at least most of the random scenes were building up to something.
The big issue here is that the movie did not deliver on its guarantee to offend. Nothing here is offensive, at most edgelordy and cringe, and at the same time it's not offensively terrible but that just makes it worse. Anything that happened here I'm bound to have seen or at least heard about somewhere else, this is a by-the-numbers edgy 90s production that goes to show how drained the well is on this side of comedy.
First and foremost it's a comedy, and they fumbled hard. It's not just being unfunny, it's that random things are thrown about on the expectancy that the idea is funny in and of itself. It isn't. But if I had to throw a bone to Vince he at least didn't rely solely on pop culture references, there was a semblance of an original idea within these hokey parodies, more than I could say for the average Seltzerberg movie.
And to think all of this was based on a public access show few people even heard about. Maybe if it was an overnight show that aired on Comedy Central people would've give a shit. He had to pay out of pocket for the most part to get this made, get the actors involved and even get a screening deal of any kind, and yet I can't respect that grind because the end product is enough to turn people away. Maybe at best those who went to see it were young boys who snuck in to see it, gotta assume.
I've been alluding to this, but Vince would not just settle for one movie. After carrying on as a salesman he would eventually decide to produce a sequel to this movie, well sorta. It originally began as a remake of the original film, bringing back various segments from this film along with bigger dregs of society, InAPPropriate Comedy, a film that may potentially be worse than this one, showing that Vince's comedy had yet to evolve.
Funny detail on that film, it came out the same year as Movie 43, directed by the Farrellys, and in many respects it was considered worse than Movie 43. First they made something equally as reviled as The Underground Comedy Movie, but then Vince tops them in crap factor, real circle of life shit right there.
And yeah, this movie deserves the rep it got, as a mind numbingly boring experience that doesn't even accomplish what it set out to do. Not the worst movie I've seen but it's definitely up there.
