It’s amazing to think of now, but the incredibly hokey “Mental Hygiene” films of the fifties were still being screened in America’s schools well into the late seventies. Made to inoculate the youth of America against such scourges as sex outside of wedlock, drugs, poor grooming habits and international communism, the various revolutions of the 1960’s rendered the movies instantly laughable and dated beyond belief. In a world that had gone from Pat Boone to Led Zeppelin, “Hey, Judy, wanna go to the jazz party?” would no longer fly.
As these films screened in health class, it wasn’t unusual to hear giggling from the back of the room as the class wisenheimers made obscene jokes about what the films really should be saying. Which is pretty much the idea behind “Losing Your Cherry: A Young Man’s Guide to Sexual Awakening.”
Post-graduate wisenheimers Jay Barba and Brian Farrelly of the cable access television show and website, Liebography, have got ahold of an actual mental hygiene film — produced by the Hostess baked goods company, no less — and laid waste to it. Intended to promote proper male dating behavior, Barba and Farrelly have re-edited the film and severely altered its soundtrack.
Thus maltreated and retitled, “Losing Your Cherry” no longer encourages wholesome dating habits, but instead becomes a primer in the fine art of achieving “nature’s Bar Mitzvah” by any means necessary. In a way, the tampering was hardly required. The original film was narrated by an animated talking fruit pie (anticipating the “American Pie” pastries/teen sex connection by nearly five decades) and featured the adventures of a young man named “Woody”!
Nevertheless, Barba and Farrelly have done yeoman work in the cause of 9th grade level humor. They are to be congratulated and then quickly sent to the principal’s office.
