30. DEVIL’S NIGHT: Mischief, mayhem or pranks – oh my!

I refuse to play into the notion that just because something is juvenile, it’s stupid.

In this, The Jerky Boys make prank calls with hidden cameras at MTV’s intern offices, on a double-decker tour bus in Manhattan, on supermarket intercoms and from payphones. These are things that probably couldn’t happen in our world of caller ID and mobile phones, but whatever. It’s a moment in time.

Johnny Brennan and Kamal Ahmed first started making their pranks in the 1980s, often calling unsuspecting people or answering the phone in character for classified advertisements placed in local New York City newspapers. Their first actual album came out in 1993, but bootlegs had been circulating for years. I remember a cassette that I got had this and the Tube Bar all on one 90-minute blast of outlaw insanity. They were Frank Rizzo, Sol Rosenberg, Kamal, Jack Tors, Kissel, and so many more characters. The first time I heard the call “Uncle Freddie,” I may have laughed the hardest I’ve ever laughed, as it’s one of the most uncomfortable comedy acts of all time, as Kissel and his entire family keep asking about Uncle Freddie, who has maybe died, with his son Anthony getting on the phone when his father can’t speak. Brennan’s voice as Anthony is nearly unhinged, as it feels like he’s floating in space, as a woman screams in the background, and Kissel screams that someone has killed their uncle and wants to kill him as well. It’s really an excellent few minutes of madness.

Even people we’d think of as being ultra serious, like Radiohead and Slowdive, named songs for Jerky Boys references (Pablo Honey and Souvlaki, which is a Jerky Boys line the band loved: “My wife loves that Greek shit. She’ll suck your cock like souvlaki.”). Their humor permeates so many parts of the comedy (just like the Tube Bar tapes) and yet, when you ask people about it, they’ll tell you how stupid and immature it is. But does it make you laugh?

Their film, The Jerky Boys, was savaged by critics, and the duo would split up a few years later. But the material is here, especially in this video, which felt like an undiscovered country for me. So many Jerky Boys references litter my daily utterances that some people just think they’re weird things that I say, like “Real proud of ya,” “for some people,” and “I hear you Greeks like trains.”

Yes, it’s stupid. But it all makes me laugh. The world is rough, so I don’t need to be all high-falutin’ about humor these days. A video where the Jerky Boys talk in a grocery store? Put it in my eyeball like heroin. I no longer need to shoot it between my toes.

Also: This is the second Jerky Boys-related Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge entry I’ve made. I really yearn to be taken seriously as a film critic and look forward to becoming Rotten Tomatoes-certified.

You can watch this on YouTube.