Hot Hot Hot

I've been weeding out our VHS collection - once hundreds of tapes, now down to a dozen or so rare or sentimental items. One that we never thought we'd be able to replace is Firesign Theater's Hot Shorts (1985). Turns out it's streaming free with an Amazon Prime subscription!

The basic premise is similar to What's Up. Tiger Lily. The Firesign boys took several old Republic serials and replaced the dialog. Take for example, the first one: The Mountie Catch Herpes. The original is a Mountie serial, The Dangers of the Canadian Mounted. The Firesign version is set in "Alcana: A thin town on the dotted line between Mexico and Israel." The plot involves getting a working girl out of the woods (where she might get ticks) and into a whorehouse. 

Another sci-fi serial becomes the tale of Martians trying to get Nixon's sperm into the nation's artificial insemination stream. In another, a Nazi jungle concentration camp becomes a Beverly Hills fat farm. And so on.

The jokes are funny and raunchy, but the best part is how well the premise fits the film. In the Butt Busters short, the French Resistance becomes the Non-Smoking Underground. Since the Nazis are always smoking and blowing smoke in their captives' faces, it works perfectly. (If you see any of the Smoke Stoppers smoking, it's always emphasized that it's a dooby, not a cigarette.)

Now, maybe this is a little immature, and some of the references are dated (The richest man in the world, E. Hunter Bunk, for ex). But we're pretty immature, and pretty dated as well. We were pretty happy with the chance to re-watch it.

There's even a Crash Corrigan Undersea Kingdom short - Mystery Science Theater does another episode of the same series. Their technique is different: They keep the dialog but add quips. But the feel is pretty similar. We watched that episode right after to check.