What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon

What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon (1983) 1/2 (out of 4) Good Lord, what an incredibly stupid idea this was. In the pre-MST3K days, sometimes older films would be redubbed as "comedies" and that's what this thing in. The cult classic The Hideous Sun Demon was redubbed by several comedians and this is the final project. The dubbing was done to add a bunch of sex jokes and that sort of stuff but this piece of crap isn't nearly as funny as the original film. There's no point in talking about the other film because its just in the background here. The dubbed comedy lines fall flat for the most part. Jay Leno (yep, that Leno) does the main voice but you can tell he was a long way from where he is now. Not even interesting as a curiosity thing.

Just a quick note to say this is horribly underrated on the IMDb User Ratings. I'm sorry, but not only is this funnier than Kung Pow, it's funnier than What's Up Tiger Lily. There, I said it and I'm glad. I collect comedy dub jobs and so far this is my all time favorite. The writing is outstanding, the voices nicely match the characters, and the dubbing is tight. So many of these dub jobs go horribly wrong in a muck of sloppy dubbing and a numbing stream of toilet/sex/fart/gay 'jokes... lather rinse repeat. See 'Night of the Day of the Dawn of the...', or "Don't Ask Don't Tell" for examples of the genre gone wrong. This one shows how it should be done. (I will say that Oscar Meyer joke is a real groaner, but that's the only one.) Yeah, there's loads of sex jokes but guess what; they're actually *funny*, what with being built around actual good jokes. As opposed to the "any dirty remark is funny" school of comedy dubbing. I just love this one, I wish there were more like it.

My pops took me to this one when it was showing at our local Fine Arts theater (not that it's fine art, but definitely small theater material). The basic idea is a voice over of a B movie with comedic intentions. It's been a long time since I saw it, but I recall a send-up of 50's Sci-Fi which was far more humorous than anything Jay Leno has been involved with since. One particularly inappropriate gag with a spliced-in sex toy stands out as a high point. 7 out of 10, and I'd love the chance to see it again.

I grew up in Kansas City and saw this movie at the same theatre as the person who previously commented on the film. It's one of the funniest movies ever, and deserves a higher cult status. I really wish it was available on video because everyone needs to see this movie!