“Living Healthy & Safely – The Safety Video” is a highly amusing parody of educational films designed to inspire good habits and citizenship. Created by the Connecticut-based comedy team of Ryan Ondriezek and Jeremy Mongillo (ages 20 and 19, respectively), the film offers three examples of the best and worst in personal behavior. The result is delightfully warped.
Ondreizek is the “good” boy, James. Bearing a permanent ear-to-ear grin and walking with erect posture and arms swinging chest level in a perpendicular holding pattern, he is the ultimate upright citizen. Mongillo is the “bad” boy, Bobby. With his slouched posture and air of chronic hostility, he is every parent’s nightmare.
In the first segment, “Hygiene,” James takes great efforts to brush his teeth “extra well” and to maintain proper grooming. As the too-impressed narrator comments upon watching James: “Everyone loves clean-shaved boys.” Bobby avoids brushing his teeth or shaving, but he sprinkles himself down with water (according to the narrator) “to keep moldy.”
The second segment, “Car Safety,” has James checking his oil (constantly cleaning the dipstick to ensure a proper reading). Bobby initially declines this task until the narrator scolds him by saying: “Why don’t you go on and check it today, Bobby?” A visibly agitated Bobby slams the car door in frustration, goes through the process, then stops and goes back into the car. Alas, Bobby should’ve checked the oil: the car goes up in flames when he turns on the ignition (an intentionally cheesy computer effect simulates the fire).
“Fire Safety” is the third segment. James, who happily cooks with extravagant pride, is responsible in the kitchen. The narrator is impressed and exclaims: “Isn’t safety delicious?” Bobby, however, uses matches and an excess of gasoline to start an outdoor grill. Can you guess where that’s going to lead?
Ondreizek and Mongillo are genuinely funny in a nihilistic, anti-establishment manner. Hopefully, they will continue to create more wild and bizarre underground comedies like this.
