Sept 8-14 Sketchy Comedy Week: “…plotless satires, many of which were only excuses for drug humor or gratuitous nudity sprinkled with the cheapest of gags. The typical form was a channel-changing structure, which would go from one sketch to the next under the premise that this was just another night at home watching the old boob tube. The medium is the message, baby!”

Where else could Weird Al go after several albums and music videos? To the far end of the TV dial lies this film, in which he plays George Newman, who takes over Channel 62. When he’s mistreated by the boss of Channel 8, R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), he decides to lead his station — which is mostly reruns that everyone has already seen — to success.

Soon, the janitor (Michael Richards) is hosting Stanley Spadowski’s Clubhouse, and the ratings are great. Except that George’s gambling uncle (Stanley Brock) and the owner of the station, well, he owes money to his bookie, and they’re about to lose the station. Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Anthony Geary (as an alien!), Billy Barty, John Paragon, Belinda Bauer, Dr. Demento, Emo Philips and many more appear.

But these are just simple descriptions of this movie. The joy is in watching it, a movie that has TV shows in it like Wheel of Fish and Raul’s Wild Kingdom. That has Weird Al become Rambo. Spatula City — “I liked the spatulas so much, I bought the company.” — and a car salesman who says, “I’ll club a seal to make a better deal.” You can see the station’s line-up in one scene. They are — including the ones I already mentioned — Beastiality Today, Beat the Loan Shark, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bowling for Burgers, Buddha Knows Best, Dog Racing from Rio de Janeiro, Druids on Parade, Eye On Toxic Waste, Fun with Dirt, Leave it to Bigfoot, Mr. Ed, My Three Mutants, Name that Stain, News, That’s Disgusting, The Flying Pope, The Lice is Right, The Young and the Dyslexic, Town Talk, Traffic Court, Secrets of the Universe, Underwater Bingo for Teens, Strip Solitaire, Volcano Worshippers Hour, Wide World of Tractor Pulls, Wonderful World of Phlegm and You Bet Your Pink Slip.

Anyways, you either get it or you don’t. I do, I hope you do, let’s talk about it in the comments. Ghandi II? Conan the Librarian?