Februrary 10, 2013



The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
Starring nobody










Comments:   The Kentucky Fried Movie is one of those movies that I go way back with.  In fact, a lot of people go way back with it.  Find pretty much anyone who grew up in the 80's, and who watched a lot of comedy movies, and just mention the name The Kentucky Fried Movie to them and see how they react.  Chances are, they will know exactly what you are talking about.  They will remember that it was the hard R-rated (in fact practically X-rated) equivalent of Saturday Night Live.  This is the movie that was so dirty, and was so raunchy, that it was banned from the house of practically every single kid I knew when I was growing up.  

If you were a kid in the 80's, this is the type of movie where you could only wistfully look at the VHS cassette in the video store.  Because that was it, that was as close as you were ever going to come to seeing it.  Until you were allowed to see R rated movies (and again, this film is filthy even by R rated movie standards), you were probably just better off asking your parents if you could start smoking crack.  Seriously, when I was 12 years old, I had a better chance of having a crack habit approved than of my mom allowing me to watch The Kentucky Fried Movie.

This is one of those movies where, at the time, its reputation was just legendary.  

And not always in a good way.








Don't ask this man to show you his nuts






What is the Kentucky Fried Movie about?  Well like I said above, it is basically an R rated version of Saturday Night Live.  Or, an X rated version of Saturday Night Live.  Depending on your standards.  It is just a bunch of completely hilarious, completely tasteless comedy sketches all in a row.  None of them have anything to do with one another.  There is no semblance of a plot, or of a plot structure.  There are no stars.  There is no storyline.  It is more or less what you would call an anthology movie.  Take 20 comedy sketches.  Play them back to back to back.  Include lots of boobs and lots of references to sex.  

Oh, and also go completely over the top with it and make it as tasteless as possible.  Make it so if your grandmother ever saw this movie, she would immediately have a heart attack.

Voila, and there you have it.  The very notorious Kentucky Fried Movie.

It is absolutely, without question, one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.







Henry Gibson explains the three early warning signs of death, our nation's #1 killer






Remember back when I said that The History of the World Part 1 was one of the three movies that I required all of my friends to know when I was in college?  Well say hello the second movie on that list.  The Kentucky Fried Movie was the second movie that I required all my friends to know (or at least be familiar with) if we were going to hang out with each other.  And this was honestly the most important one of my three.  Because the Kentucky Fried Movie is one of the biggest litmus test movies out there.  Simply put, if you find this movie funny, if you watch segments like "Danger Seekers" and "Sex Record" and "Eyewitness News", and you laugh so hard that you wet your pants, well then we will probably get along.  In fact not probably, we will DEFINITELY get along.  This was the movie I would always use to see how easy it was to offend people.













One of my favorite things to do when I was in college was make a new friend and then introduce them to the Kentucky Fried Movie.  Because I wanted to see how they would react.  This was the test.  Could they handle segments like "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble?"  Were they comfortable with characters like Big Jim Slade, and Rex Kramer (Danger Seeker), and Enormous Genitals?   What did they think of lost drunken men who don't know where they are, and no longer care?  These were important questions to me when I was 18.  Because if this movie offended them, well then I would probably offend them.  And I had to know this early on so that we wouldn't invest any wasted time in hanging out with one another.









Zinc oxide will fuck you up, brah






There isn't much more I can say about the Kentucky Fried Movie at this point other than, if you have seen it, obviously you know what I am talking about.  Like I said, this movie is notorious for a reason.  This was the creme de la creme of comedies your parents didn't want you watching when you were a kid.  I didn't even see the full unedited version until I was about 17.  Prior to that, all I ever saw was the edited version that they would show on USA Up All Night.  And even the edited TV version was practically X rated.















The Kentucky Fried Movie came out in 1977, and unfortunately a lot of the sketches in the movie are kind of topical for that era.  There are a lot of jokes that are specific to movies that were popular at that time, or commercials that were on TV at that time.  So as much as I hate to say it, a lot of this movie nowadays is kind of dated.  I hate to use that word, "dated", but this is one of those rare movies where it really does apply.  Unfortunately unless you were alive in the 70's you won't get some of the references to TV shows and commercials of the mid 70's.  I hate to say that is true, but it probably is.  And making fun of the JFK assassination was probably way more tasteless in the 70's than it would be today.

This is the main reason why I think the Kentucky Fried Movie kind of fell off people's radar once we got to the 90's.  It was a big deal for a while, and like I said, pretty much any kid in the 80's would have at least known about it.  But once we got to the 90's and a new generation of movie fans came of age and took over, it never really had much an audience anymore.  And that is why I wanted to include it on my 200 Underloved Movies Countdown.














Okay, before I want to sign off, I want to tell you why you should watch The Kentucky Fried Movie.  I want to explain why you should watch it at least once.

Even though this movie is dated as hell, even though 50% of the sketches don't really work as well as they did 30 years ago, there are ten good reasons why this is still one of the funniest movies that has ever been made.  And here we go, in David Letterman Top Ten Format.

The Top Ten Reasons Why You Need To See The Kentucky Fried Movie At Least Once.







She bangs, she bangs





10.  Catholic High School Girls In Trouble (above)

This is by far the most notorious sketch in the KFM, and for good reason.  Um, you will know why when you see it.  Suffice to say that movies were a LOT more liberal in the nudity department in the 70's than they are now.  This movie would pretty much be X rated nowadays just for this sketch alone.  You won't believe your eyes when you see what mainstream movies were allowed to get away with back in the 70's.  And you thought Superbad was racy.











9.  Danger Seekers

Without question, I think Danger Seekers is the funniest sketch in the movie.  I can't tell you how many people I have shown this movie to over the years, and with almost 100% certainty I can tell you that Danger Seekers is the sketch that they almost always remember.  This is the one that makes your jaw drop right to the floor.  By the way, if you would like a little life tip, do NOT watch this sketch at work with the volume turned up.  I cannot stress that enough.  Watch this one on the down low.  Just watch it once and, uh, you will see why.











8.  The Household Odors Sketch (above)

This is a sketch that still makes me laugh, nearly 25 years after I first saw it.  My friend Brian and I used to quote this one endlessly back when we were in high school.  












7.  Big Jim Slade (above)

Big Jim makes a cameo in the sketch called Sex Record, and later there is a callback to him in a different part of the movie.  He kind of became a weird little cult comedy figure after the movie came out.  Do a search for Big Jim Slade on the internet, you will be surprised how many people out there still remember him.







Midgets.  Pies.  Beyond perversion.





6.  Movie Reviews From People Who Saw The KFM When It First Came Out

Here are some actual quotes from reviews of the Kentucky Fried Movie on the internet.  This is the kind of movie you are dealing with here.  Again, these are actual quotes.

* "Our school showed it at a 1978 back to school night before any of the teachers had pre-screened it.  The principal had to issue an apology to the parents the next day."

* "Simply put, the funniest movie I have ever seen. I actually ripped my pants laughing at this movie when I saw it in a theater in 1977."

* "This was a movie that played at a lot of drive-ins at the late 70's.  I would like to say that I actually saw it at a drive-in, but this wasn't really the type of movie you would go to a drive-in to watch.  This is the type of movie you would go to the drive-in if you wanted a blowjob."












5.  This Movie Is The Precursor to Airplane

Yes, The Kentucky Fried Movie is the movie that the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams made prior to Airplane.  This was their writing debut.  And it is pretty obvious that the two movies were made by the same people if you watch them back to back.  In fact a lot of the same jokes pop up in both movies (characters named Rex Kramer, relentless puns and sight gags, jokes about Detroit, etc).  

There is one sketch in The Kentucky Fried Movie ("Courtroom") that is practically a trial run for Airplane.  It is the exact same style of comedy with the exact same kind of wordplay jokes.  In fact the beloved Johnny from Airplane (Stephen Stucker) even pops up in The Kentucky Fried Movie as the Courtroom reporter.

The Kentucky Fried Movie is nowhere near as successful as Airplane was as a comedy movie, but if you like Airplane you should at the very least check out the Courtroom sketch in the KFM.  Like I said before, it is practically a trial run for what the ZAZ guys did three years later in Airplane.







Wally (Tony Dow) and the Beaver (Jerry Zucker) in the Courtroom sketch





4.  "If you're a Gemini, you can expect the unexpected."

One of my favorite little running jokes in the movie.  You'll know it when you see it.







I'm not wearing any pants.  Film at eleven.





3.  The pissed off newscaster (above)

Speaking of Letterman Top Ten Lists, rumor has it that David Letterman auditioned for this role but he didn't get the part.  Oh well.  I would be proud if David Letterman had been the one pissing in my popcorn.





   





2.  Eyewitness News (above)

Even though Danger Seekers is, in my opinion, the funniest sketch in the movie, the very last sketch in the movie (Eyewitness News) is my favorite.  THIS is the sketch you need to watch if you only watch one part of The Kentucky Fried Movie.  Without question the closest thing to porn I ever saw when I was a 14 year old.  And believe me, it was even that way on the edited TV version.  If you can get through Eyewitness News and not laugh (while simultaneously also not being shocked), well brother you are a stronger man than I am.  To me this sketch is the piece de resistance.  It is arguably the funniest thing that the famous Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams team ever came up with.








A man of extraordinary magnitude





1.  A Fistful of Yen

Ah yes, and now we come to the centerpiece.  A Fistful of Yen is the heart of the Kentucky Fried Movie.













What is A Fistful of Yen?  Well it is a 25 minute mini-movie that makes up the middle of The Kentucky Fried Movie.  Basically it is the exact same thing as the movie Airplane, only instead of making fun of airline disaster movies, this time it is making fun of kung fu movies.  More specifically, it is a dead on parody of the 1973 Bruce Lee classic, Enter the Dragon.







Right down to the opening scene that claims to be in Hong Kong






A Fistful of Yen is what most people think of when they think of The Kentucky Fried Movie.   And that makes sense, since it makes up nearly half of the movie.














What is funny about A Fistful of Yen is that I didn't even know what movie it was a parody of for the longest time.  I mean, I saw the Kentucky Fried Movie dozens of times before I ever saw Enter the Dragon.  So I just assumed A Fistful of Yen was just some random parody of every generic kung fu movie out there.  I just figured it was kind of a parody of the genre.







Complete with a character named Hung Well





I saw A Fistful of Yen dozens of times when I was a teenager.  And I laughed my ass off every time.  And I quoted it for years.  It really is a well done little parody.   I especially liked how the main character (Loo) talked like a combination of Bruce Lee and Elmer Fudd.  







Loo knows this is not a chawade






Well it wasn't until I saw Enter the Dragon for the first time that I realized WHY that was so funny.

Have you ever seen a Bruce Lee movie?  Have you ever seen Enter the Dragon?  Well Bruce Lee talked EXACTLY LIKE THAT.  He had the wimpiest little voice.  And he had this weird little way of talking baby talk when he wasn't trying to.  I saw Enter the Dragon for the first time and I just about nearly died I was laughing so hard.  I had no idea that A Fistful of Yen was such a dead on parody until I saw the original.








Toy robot!





I could sit here and write about 50 pages about why I love A Fistful of Yen so much, and how it such an awesome parody of Enter the Dragon.  I could sit here and opine about my love for the scene involving Hung Well, Long Wang, and Enormous Genitals (which has always been a favorite).  I could sit here and point out the underrated scene where Dr. Klahn is summoning his guards to attack Loo, only instead of yelling out their names he randomly yells out the names of Chinese food.  

Unfortunately I can't do that because this review is already long enough as it is.

If you want to experience the genius of A Fistful of Yen, you will just have to watch it for yourself.

Only, do yourself a favor.  Watch Enter the Dragon first.  You will get a lot more out of it.







Kwong, Dr. Klahn's chauffeur.  Who is tough and ruthless rough and toothless.






In the end, the Kentucky Fried Movie is still one of the funniest movies that has ever been made.

Is it dated?  Of course.  Parts of the movie are barely funny at all unless you grew up in the 70's.  Some of the sketches (like Willer Beer) are way too dependent on what was on TV and what was in the news at the time.  But the stuff that is still funny is still REALLY funny, and will always be funny.  It is a shame that this movie kind of dropped off the face of the Earth at some point in the mid 90's.

Again, though, I have to throw in a warning when I recommend this movie.  This is NOT a kid's movie.  I wouldn't even say this is a movie for every adult.  This is a movie that is edgy, that is offensive, and that makes no apologies for what it is trying to do.  If you are only used to the little pussy comedy that is allowed in the 21st century, well, you are probably going to be a little shocked.  There is a reason that The Kentucky Fried Movie was so notorious in the 80's.  And it's not like it has gotten any less edgy over time.  This is still not a movie you would want to watch with your grandmother.







Again, Danger Seekers





In the end, if you are a fan of comedy movies at all, you need to watch The Kentucky Fried Movie for eight sketches.  These are the eight:  United Appeal for the Dead, Catholic High School Girls in Trouble, Sex Record, Eyewitness News, Courtroom, Zinc Oxide and You, Household Odors, and A Fistful of Yen.  Just watch it for those eight, and then you will have seen all the highlights.  The rest of the sketches are all various degrees of funny, based on your tastes and when you grew up, but if you just watch it for the big eight you will have experienced the Kentucky Fried Movie.

And always remember.  The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln!









* My favorite IMDB user reviews about The Kentucky Fried Movie:


Good GOD! - 31 January 2002
This is one of the most insane movies ever made. Watching it twenty-five years later, I'm still amazed that any studio actually gave the go-ahead to this shameless eruption of outrageous bad taste, politically incorrect madness and outright lunacy. It's the kind of film everyone would like to make if they had the money and the resources, and then proudly show off to their friends over beer and Pringles whilst beaming "Ain't I a genius?"! Honestly, it's that good.

The Zucker brothers were obviously highly influenced by the Monty Python way of thinking (though without the benefit of an Oxbridge education), and it shows in segments like 'AM Today', 'Death Appeal', the interview where the microphone grabs all the attention, 'Danger Seekers' (not for the easily offended, but it cracks me up every time), the courtroom sketch and the central 'A Fistful Of Yen' spoof, which rips into every chop-socky film ever made, and even finds room to spoof the Wizard Of Oz...like I said, Good GOD! Another unforgettable sketch is the soft-porn parody 'Catholic High School Girls In Trouble', if only for that jaw-dropping scene with Uschi Digart (credited here as Ursula Digard) in the shower, and the corny-but-hysterical "Marilyn Chambers recreating her classic role / roll" quickie.



Saturday Night Live on acid - 15 March 1999
There's something to be said for any movie that actually has a character named "Enormous Genitals". This is the first movie by the Zucker Brothers, the same geniuses that brought us Airplane, Top Secret and the Naked Gun movies. Haven't seen this yet? Pull up a nice comfy chair and get ready for 90 of the most hilarious minutes of film you can find. Cleopatra Schwartz is a riot, A Fistful Of Yen is the best spoof of Enter The Dragon or any Kung Fu film ever. The mock commercials are funny too. Anybody with Attention Deficit Disorder like me, this is the movie for you. It never stops moving, not for a minute. Henry Gibson's bit roll in this will have you laughing for days. But it's Samuel L. Bronkowitz's presentation of Catholic High School Girls In Trouble that will sit in you the longest. Best line: "Show me your/you're nuts! They certainly have.



The dumbest funniest movie of all time - 4 March 2010
Kentucky Fried Movie will always remind me of my youth for I was fortunate enough to have seen it when it came out at the tender age of 11. I somehow talked my Dad into believing this was just some silly comedy (this was very pre-internet and the paper just said it was funny) so he took my older sister (13) and I to a matinée. Little did my father realize how crude this was until it was too late, he and my sister were mortified but I realize now he was laughing his butt off and that was the reason we stayed.

Teens today will not get most of the dated jokes in this classic comedy but they should still appreciate some of the great one liners and terrific dialog. "A fist full of yen" is a retarded masterpiece along with "CHSGIT" and the fantastic "Christ did a cow sh@t in here?" line. And who can ever forget BIG JIM SLADE! Yes it is very juvenile, very dated and some of the jokes fall flat but if you can't find something in here to die laughing about then you don't have a pulse. Now, take him to Detroit!



A tasteless comedy of extraordinary magnitude!! - 18 December 2006
"Kentucky Fried Movie" is tasteless, unsophisticated, and decidedly sophomoric... and one of the most hilarious films ever made! A string of politically incorrect segments made by the creators of "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun", "KFM" is an "R"-rated romp that today, nearly 30 years after its release, would be too shocking to even warrant the dreaded "NC-17" rating. Forget those unfunny amateurs Broken Lizard or the overrated Farrelly Brothers. We're talking naked breasts, oral sex, racial slurs, violence... and yet each segment leaves you delirious from not only laughter but disbelief at the fact that the Zuckers actually go away with all this. I've discovered that it really takes a certain kind of innocence to make a movie like "KFM", a naive belief that people will simply laugh at the crude spectacle of it all. Segments include a wholesome couple listening to a 1950s style "how-to" record on foreplay (wait till you see what the record comes equipped with), a thrill seeker whose trademark stunt is going to a crowd of black men and yelling out the N-word (how bold is this scene? No one has dared imitate it since), and a political debate between two analysts that ends with one of them cheerfully telling the other to "blow it out your a**" and giving them the finger. The highlight is the mini-movie within the movie, "A Fistful of Yen". A parody of all the Bruce Lee films, its hero, Loo, fights the evil Klahn, a one-armed criminal mastermind with a fondness for the phrase "extraordinary magnitude". It also pokes fun at the endless fights from the Lee films, as well as the characters' fractured English (little trivia, the actors really were Asian and spoke poor English in real life, so it wasn't intentional on their parts) The twist ending of "Yen" is one of the goofiest things you ever saw in your life. Despite the often offensive humor of "KFM", it's not a mean film by any means. No one is really safe from the wacky chaos it inflicts, and it's just hilarious. In our time of hand-wringing political correctness, "KFM" offers a cathartic experience of laughing out loud at our fears, prejudices, and, yes, stupidity. This is indeed a finger-lickin' good comedy.



You have our gratitude. - 12 May 2006
This movie was like the Holy Grail of DVDs for me; I couldn't find it for the longest time. Finally I just picked it up off Ebay (which I should have done from the start, of course) and watched it for the first time in years last night.

In terms of laughs per minute, this one is a strong contender for funniest movie of all time. Written by Zucker Abraham and Zucker, directed by John Landis, and produced by Samuel L Bronkowitz (just kidding), "The Kentucky Fried Movie" is really nothing more than a collection of skits, barely connected by the convention that they're all things you might see on TV (or at the movies). But, oh, the skits. Let's just say that no single episode of "Saturday Night Live" was ever this funny.

Best of the bunch is the movie's centerpiece, "A Fistful of Yen", a dead-on parody of kung fu action movies a la "Enter The Dragon". In this bit, the longest in the film, a Bruce Lee type named Loo has to infiltrate a mountain fortress run by the villainous Dr. Klahn, who is building an army of extraordinary magnitude. The martial arts scenes are hilarious; it may be the most staged-looking fighting of all time. Beginning with Loo training other fighters ("What was that? This is not a chawade. We need total concen-TWAY-tion," he yells at one student) and ending with Loo finally going home (in a completely out-of-left-field ending having nothing to do with the previous action but seeming somehow fitting anyway), the slapstick jokes come fast and furious, even parodying "The Dating Game" at one point. This is a direct precursor to ZAZ's later movies like "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun".

Then there's the incredible "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble", which aims to parody 70s porno flicks ("More shocking than 'Behind the Green Door'... Never before has the beauty of the sexual act been so crassly exploited!" the announcer screams.) To get an idea of the kind of humor seen here, picture a hot chick approaching a loser and saying in a breathy voice "Show me your nuts!" and the guy proceeding to start acting like a total loon. In "United Appeal for the Dead" Henry Gibson speaks at great length about death, the number one killer in the United States, and what his group can do to help a loved one who has died lead a normal life. "That's Armageddon" features George Lazenby and parodies every Irwin Allen disaster flick made. A young man and woman discover the pleasures of sex through an instructional record in "Sex Record", and "Courtroom" is a hilarious parody of courtroom melodramas featuring Wally (the real Tony Dow) and the Beav (Jerry Zucker mugging it up in place of Jerry Mathers) as observers. The movie begins and ends with two news-themed skits, "AM Today" and the racy "Eyewitness News", in which the newscasters watch a couple with the TV on having sex. And there's much more.

"The Kentucky Fried Movie" is not for all tastes; I've known people who have watched it and just said "This is stupid." It is, indeed, stupid, but within the confines of the genre, it's one of the best. You'll laugh at the stupid jokes and stupid puns and stupid lines and stupid stunts all the way through if you like this sort of thing. The movie is very clever in how it packs the laughs.



non-stop insanity - 6 April 1999
Having laughed out loud and throughly enjoyed both Airplane! movies, I decided to see if the comedy genius trio of Jim Abrahams, Jerry, and David Zucker had any more masterpieces. When I discovered Kentucky Fried Movie, I rented it immediately. Well, I'm gonna say that this is my all-time favorite movie and there will never be a funnier movie made. The laughs in this film are non-stop.The whole entertainment and media industry takes a huge satiric beating, including public service commercials, educational films, and everything else imaginable. The best part is the very last scene when a young couple is getting quite intimate on the couch with the news on the tv in the background. The scene actually makes you stop and think that maybe tv isn't so "mindless" after all. Oh yes, and the theme song is a classic also.....I have it ringing in my head this very minute. If you want a comedy movie with an intriguing, serious storyline to go along with it, rent one of the Airplane! movies but if you don't give crap one about a plot and just want to laugh and not think, rent Kentucky Fried Movie.



Eat lead sucker - 12 June 2012
Probably doesn't scale the heights of "Airplane!", but it's on par in my opinion with "Naked Gun" insofar as the parody stylings of the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams go, and worthy of cult status. Essentially, it's a series of vignettes without any linkage, that spoofs (among others) "Enter the Dragon", "The Wizard of Oz", "Leave it to Beaver", any courtroom movie you care to mention, and the contemporary favourite, the newly minted, controversial and ever burgeoning blue movie industry (e.g. "Behind the Green Door").

Evan C.Kim is hilarious as the Bruce Lee imitation, playing out (almost scene for scene) the Master's exploits from "Enter the Dragon", even down to the detail of his encounters with Dr Han's (here, played by Master Bong Soo Han) guards ("Let's meet the guards!"). There's great mileage in a steamy "preview" of "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble", starring fictitious "Linda Chambers" (no prizes for guessing the amalgam) daring one stud to show her his nuts, with an hilarious response. Some audiences might also recognise the amply attributed Uschi Digart in a prolonged shower scene, while Donald Sutherland, Henry Gibson and Bill Bixby bring some A-list credibility to bear in speedy cameos.

There's a couple of minor misfires, and it's certainly not suitable for kids but generally speaking, this is one of the most consistently hilarious films I've ever had the pleasure of watching - over and over again for the last twenty-something years. I never tire of seeing George Cheung (as Guard number two) announce his name - Long Wang - then explain how he would wake Dr Han if he was his alarm clock. If you don't find this film funny, no offence intended, but you may need to see somebody.





* My favorite quotes from The Kentucky Fried Movie:


Game Show Announcer: Guard number one is a senior on Klahn's mountain, and aspires to be a research chemist. Welcome, please, Hung Well! Guard number two is a real skating buff. A warm welcome for Long Wang! Traveling comes naturally to guard number three, as he's a licensed airplane pilot. Welcome, please, Enormous Genitals!


[a woman is worried about the smell of her home as guests arrive]
1st guest: Fish for dinner last night?
2nd guest: Phewww... Harvey still smoking those cigars?
3rd guest: CHRIST! Did a cow shit in here?


Husband: Well, what's our little skeptic doing today?
Housewife: She's frying the cat in pure Nesson oil.
[cat screams]


Pennington: This is Butkus, Klahn's bodyguard. He is tough and ruthless. This is Kwong, Klahn's chauffeur. He is rough and toothless.


[Master Klahn decapitates a prisoner]
Klahn: Now take him to be tortured!


Klahn: We are building a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude. We forge our tradition in the spirit of our ancestors. You have our gratitude.


A.M. Newscaster: It's 19 minutes after the hour, and now it's time for our daily feature The Astrological Hour. A quick reminder: these reports are not intended to foster belief in astrology, but merely to support people who cannot take responsibility for their own lives.


Game Show Host: If I were asleep, and you were my alarm clock, how would you wake me up?
Guard #2: I wouldn't - I'm no ding-a-ling.


Loo: What was that? This is not a chawade. We need total concentwation.


Loo: And who are they?
Dr. Klahn: Refuse, found in waterfront bars.
Loo: Shanghaied?
Dr. Klahn: Just lost drunken men who don't know where they are and no longer care.
Prisoner #1: Where are we?
Prisoner #2: I don't care!
Loo: And these?
Dr. Klahn: These are lost drunken men who don't know where they are, but do care! And these are men who know where they are and care, but don't drink.
Prisoner #3: I don't know who I am!
Prisoner #4: Yeah. and I don't drink.
Dr. Klahn: Guards!
[moves prisoners]
Dr. Klahn: Do you care?
Prisoner #5: No.
Dr. Klahn: Put this man in cell #1, and give him a drink.
Guard: What do you drink?
Prisoner #5: I don't care.


Dr. Klahn: The CIA thinks they can infiltrate the Mountain of Dr. Klahn!
CIA Agent: You can't scare me, you slant-eyed yellow bastard.
Dr. Klahn: Take him to... Detroit!
CIA Agent: No! No, not Detroit! No! No, please! Anything but that! No! No!


Klahn: [telephone rings, answering machine picks up] Herro. This is Dr. Klahn. I'm not home right now. Leave a message when you hear the beyep. You have our gratitude.
[gong sound]


Hornung: Mr. Grunwald, in addition to your occupation as a spoon, is it not true that you are a driving instructor?
Grunwald: No.
Hornung: Then it is true.
Grunwald: Yes.
Hornung: That you're not a driving instructor?
Grunwald: No.
Hornung: Your Honor, I object to this line of questioning.
Judge: Overruled.
Hornung: Very well, then; I'd like some time to go over my briefs.
Judge: Please.
Hornung: [inspects his underwear] They're fine.


Sex Record Voice: One of the most frequent problems encountered during the sexual act is that of premature ejaculation.
[the man realizes that this just happened to him]
Sex Record Voice: Should premature ejaculation occur, the Joy of Sex album comes equipped with BIG JIM SLADE.
[Big Jim Slade bursts through the door]
Sex Record Voice: Big Jim, former tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, is outfitted with various whips, chains, and a sexual appetite that will knock your socks off!
[Big Jim carries the woman away]
Sex Record Voice: Big Jim has satisfied women throughout the world, and the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln!


Loo: You can always look for happiness, but there is really no need to look past your own front door. There are plenty of things that you can do right here in your own community. You can visit a dairy and see how milk is handled and prepared for delivery. Or plan a series of window displays on home safety. Or help start a library. Or discuss with your dentist what you can do to make your teeth more attractive.






* My favorite trivia about The Kentucky Fried Movie:


* Original titles for the film included "Free Popcorn" and "Closed for Remodeling". Presumably, both of them were rejected for the confusion they would cause when printed on a theater marquee.

* Because of the low budget and poor funding, the movie was shot with a variety of different cameras at any locations that were available, using actors willing to work for near-nothing paychecks. Likewise, in order to offset the potential of the few investors pulling out due to objectionable material, the less-offensive portions were filmed first, saving the raunchy stuff for last (or just plain keeping it hidden until the last minute). The end credits (proclaiming "in order of appearance" and then beginning with cast members introduced 2/3 of the way into the movie) are actually the order in which the skits were supposed to appear; the makers ran out of money and couldn't afford to create new ones.

* David Letterman auditioned for the role of the newscaster.

* Both Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers were approached about reprising their respective roles as Wally and Beaver (from Leave It to Beaver) for the courtroom sketch. Mathers declined.

* In the "Fistful of Yen" sketch, when Loo first meets Dr. Klahn, the Chinese characters start speaking in Korean. Klahn says "Sorry to Korean fans that we're talking random things in Korean, but someone asked me to speak in Korean so I just have to."

* Time Magazine said that the directors did a masterful job of dubbing Klahn (in Fistful of Yen), even though they used his actual dialogue.

* The scene in the "Catholic High School Girls In Trouble" trailer in which the young man says "Mrs Burke! I thought you were Dale!" to the woman he's sleeping with is a reference to an old Grape Nuts commercial in which a man mistakes his girlfriend's mother for his girlfriend.

* The budget of the film was $650,000, which was low even for 1977.

* When Michael Jackson selected John Landis to direct Thriller, the only Landis works he had seen were An American Werewolf in London and Kentucky Fried Movie.







* My favorite scene in The Kentucky Fried Movie:

Oh this is like asking me which one of my children I love the most.  But in the end I will always go with Eyewitness News.  I don't see how anyone could watch that sketch (it is the last one in the movie) and not laugh.






The Kentucky Fried Movie at the IMDB

The Kentucky Fried Movie at Wikipedia












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