"He's like an elder statesman of comedy at this point"
July 4, 2020 4:32 PM   Subscribe

Jay and Josh from Red Letter Media talk about UHF, the only feature film vehicle for Weird Al Yankovic.
posted by Pendragon (36 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Isn't UHF the 5G range now?
posted by eustatic at 4:41 PM on July 4, 2020 [8 favorites]


A few years ago my wife got me tickets to a viewing of UHF with live commentary provided by Weird Al and Emo Phillips, with Tig Notaro hosting. Some sort of comedy festival in DC. It was pure gold.

Originally, Malcolm Gladwell was supposed to share the stage with Weird Al, but I think he got sick. I've always wondered what on earth he was doing on that bill. I'll probably never know.
posted by sugar and confetti at 4:46 PM on July 4, 2020 [25 favorites]


That sounds amazing, sugar and confetti.
posted by AdamCSnider at 5:08 PM on July 4, 2020


Looks like an attendee has put it on YouTube.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:19 PM on July 4, 2020 [12 favorites]


I love Red Letter Media.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:26 PM on July 4, 2020 [8 favorites]


I was never a Weird Al fan, but I remember seeing a lobby display for this movie just before it came out and was shocked to see that David Bowie was in the cast. I was a huge Bowie fan so I made my best friend see it with me on the day it came out. I think the opening credits gave it away that it was someone named David Bowe in the movie, not David Bowie.... My disappointment about that definitely colored my enjoyment of the movie and I've never watched it again. Maybe it's worth a second chance.
posted by majorsteel at 5:47 PM on July 4, 2020 [3 favorites]


99% of the video media I consume now is via RLM and Jenny Nicholson
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:48 PM on July 4, 2020 [2 favorites]


David Bowe is a perfectly fine character actor with a decent career. Don't hold the fact that his name is one letter different than David Bowie, but Mr. Bowie should understand the confusion since he had to change his name from David Jones because it was too close to Davy Jones of the Monkeys.
posted by jmauro at 6:00 PM on July 4, 2020 [16 favorites]


If you haven't seen it, UHF is entirely entertaining. Some of the jokes might be a bit dated today but it's from forever ago, and it was utterly hilarious. I saw it in the theater because I was a rabid Yankovic fan even back in the day.

I don't know where it's available, but if you haven't seen it, or if you haven't seen it in a while, it's well worth a rewatch.

Also, Spatula City!
posted by hippybear at 6:08 PM on July 4, 2020 [11 favorites]


Mr. Bowie should understand the confusion since he had to change his name from David Jones because it was too close to Davy Jones of the Monkeys.

WHAT
posted by mhoye at 6:17 PM on July 4, 2020 [6 favorites]


(We still, at my job, colloquially refer to the deluge of information you need to figure out how to navigate in your first few months here as "the firehose".)
posted by mhoye at 6:19 PM on July 4, 2020 [9 favorites]


WHAT

S'truth! His son Duncan Jones (bearing Bowie's real life surname) directed Moon, amongst other movies.
posted by hippybear at 6:21 PM on July 4, 2020 [8 favorites]


The network storage device we stream media from at home is called Firehose.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:28 PM on July 4, 2020 [4 favorites]


Filmed in my hometown! For the soundstage they used a shopping mall that had gone belly-up as a result of the Oil Bust. Some of my high school classmates were extras or worked on the crew.
posted by dw at 6:29 PM on July 4, 2020 [5 favorites]


Also note that there was a particular genre of 80s theme music that Fun Zone from the UHF soundtrack somehow distilled down to its most perfect essence.

Thank you, I will not be taking any further questions at this time.
posted by mhoye at 7:28 PM on July 4, 2020 [2 favorites]


Also the Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota is definitely real and the "Bernie" referenced in that song is probably not Bernie Sanders but I periodically like to think it might have been, and this paragraph:
"The museum is usually open every day in the summer, but the mayor said that even when it isn't, visitors can just ask around town -- someone can usually be found who has the key. "We enjoy showing them Francis's prize possession, his masterpiece," said the mayor. "We're fans just like they are."
... is amazing.
posted by mhoye at 7:32 PM on July 4, 2020 [1 favorite]


I used to get UHF mixed up with Tapeheads, but UHF has spatulas.
posted by ovvl at 7:46 PM on July 4, 2020 [5 favorites]


When Philo conducts his 'experiment' he mutters "yeah."

Cinema's purest portrayal of an engineer.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 8:01 PM on July 4, 2020 [10 favorites]


I love the RLM folks and Weird Al, what a treat this was.
posted by hjo3 at 8:17 PM on July 4, 2020


This is the second re:View link we've done lately, we're not going to start doing what we did with The Toast again, are we?
posted by Chrysostom at 8:31 PM on July 4, 2020


Are there major objections to going back over old media here at MetaFilter? People like to reflect and share, in my experience.
posted by hippybear at 8:32 PM on July 4, 2020 [5 favorites]


No. But I think repeatedly linking to the same site is maybe not ideal? RLM has been doing re:View for years, and will no doubt continue to do so - are we going to link every new episode?
posted by Chrysostom at 8:39 PM on July 4, 2020


I just have to chime in that this movie was impossible to find used on VHS. It was the holy grail of several of my friends and they looked everywhere. I don't think the VHS got a very wide release. You could rent it, of course... but it's from an era where the actual movie on VHS wasn't cheap.
posted by Catblack at 9:53 PM on July 4, 2020


I used to get UHF mixed up with Tapeheads, but UHF has spatulas.

...whereas "Tapeheads" has Don Cornelius, Roscoe's Chicken 'n' Waffles, and, perhaps most importantly, The Swanky Modes.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 12:10 AM on July 5, 2020 [1 favorite]


are we going to link every new episode?

I'm not planning to do that, but they just happened to Re:View two of my favourite movies back to back so here we are.
posted by Pendragon at 1:21 AM on July 5, 2020 [3 favorites]


YOU FOUND THE MARBLE IN THE OATMEAL
posted by secret about box at 3:24 AM on July 5, 2020


are we going to link every new episode?

This is the definition of a silly slippery slope fallacy.

I use this site and the generally reasonable, thoughtful people on it as literally what the name implies. I wouldn't monitor every publication of Red Letter Media but I can trust people who do might then filter that content one more time to surface things that are especially interesting or valuable.

This is a feature, not a bug.

Also: spatula city SPATULA CITY!
posted by abulafa at 5:39 AM on July 5, 2020 [6 favorites]


“Don’t you know the Dewey Decimal System?”
posted by bstreep at 10:59 AM on July 5, 2020


MY MOP!!
*lightsaber SFX*
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:23 AM on July 5, 2020


supplies!
posted by DreamerFi at 1:46 PM on July 5, 2020


My friend and I were really excited about the movie, and caught an early showing. It turned out that the two of us were the only people in the theater. We could laugh and talk and have fun as much as we wanted. It was a really good time.
posted by Quonab at 4:23 PM on July 5, 2020 [3 favorites]


are we going to link every new episode?

We’ve got it all on UHF.
posted by mhoye at 8:41 PM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]


(we've got it all)
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:52 PM on July 5, 2020


Such a strange movie and it seems to mostly hold up.

As an aside, if you have a chance to see Emo Phillips perform stand up (you know, eventually), do yourself the favor. I've seen him twice in the past few years and he is by far, the greatest joke writer.
posted by Twicketface at 6:16 AM on July 6, 2020


"Die, heretic!"
posted by Chrysostom at 6:19 PM on July 6, 2020 [2 favorites]


I think the opening credits gave it away that it was someone named David Bowe in the movie, not David Bowie.... My disappointment about that definitely colored my enjoyment of the movie and I've never watched it again.

"I'm John Depp, and you're watching Celebrity Zillions."
posted by FatherDagon at 9:42 AM on July 7, 2020


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