So what we have here is a collection of videos produced between 1987 and 1990 as a means to practice video editing.
Now, as a further indication of what we’re watching here, we get a set of bumps–text screens–to describe Matt’s feelings about the movies. And his descriptions sum it up: “In retrospect there was WAY too much Godzilla footage. And not one single shot of Phoebe Cates taking off her bikini top from ‘Fast Times At Ridgemont High’.”
Oh, and where to begin?
We’ve got stuff here like a promotion for “Shaka Zilla”, in which Godzilla is interspersed with footage from “Shaka Zulu.” Bits of “The Smurfs,” “The Rifleman,” “Psycho”, and literally dozens of other bits and pieces are mixed in almost at random for little or no apparent reasons. Eighties ephemera, voting results, promotions for the television station itself, apparently an old UHF station in Richmond, Virginia fly wild with little or no overarching theme.
That having been said, Matt Pak is a comedic genius. He’s taking all the right bits and pieces and stringing them together in laugh-out-loud wholes that will leave you in stitches.
I can’t help but wonder how long Matt managed to keep his job.
Some of this stuff is probably a slap to somebody’s face, like “Tonight on the 35 Asian-American Culture Showcase: ‘Kung Fu Animal House’.”
Now, I can’t help but think that some suit at 35 thought this was a brilliant idea to display their sense of multiculturalism and cultural sensitivity. And I also can’t help but think that a smartass like Matt seems to be in his work could help but mock the concept up one side and down the other by taking bits of an old dubbed kung fu movie, adding the dialogue from “Animal House” in there just to really rip on it.
He did a music video for Weird Al Yankovic’s “Dare to Be Stupid.”
He did a parody of “He-Man” called “Gay-Bob.”
He did a spot called “F**k TV–Listen To Radio!”
Look, I could go on and on about this. I could describe every short for you in detail. But I tell you…you HAVE TO SEE THIS. If it’s possible for you to find it, get it! See it by whatever means necessary. This is too good, too much fun, too many laughs to pass up!
Plus, we get some bonus footage–leftover stuff he never used, outtakes from the “Ho Shopping Network”, a featurette called “Win A Date With Laura Swisher”, and some other, even more random stuff.
“Matt Pak Videos” is brilliant, sidesplitting, incohesive comedy guaranteed to be a quick, and cheap, laugh.
