rokcomx
Tho 35 years old, Groove Tube looks a lot like actual TV today! Specialty niche networks (nude sports), a TV show about stoner drug dealers called the Dealers (ala Weeds, and even predating 1978's Cheech & Chong Up In Smoke), weird beer commercials (Butz Beer, no less bizarre than Bud Bowls), dirty-minded kid's clown Koko (shades of Pee Wee Herman), even Chevy Chase doing slapstick humor (a violent barbershop vocal duo) a year before his 1975 debut on Saturday Night Live. And thanks to the infamous opening sequence that earned Groove Tube an initial X-rating, I still can't hear Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up" without thinking of naked dancing hitchhiking hippies ---- For similar sketch-style movies, see TunnelVision, Kentucky Fried Movie, Amazon Women on the Mood, Monty Python's Beyond the Fringe, Dynamite Chicken, and the Firesign Theatre's Everything You Know is Wrong.
Lee Eisenberg
"The Groove Tube" was one of only two Ken Shapiro movies, the other one being the equally zany "Modern Problems". This one is just a full-scale parody of TV. Aside from Shapiro - who apparently didn't do anything after "Modern Problems" - the movie also stars Chevy Chase and Henry Winkler's cousin Richard Belzer. The three cast members (plus some other people in smaller roles) appear in various skits. One of the funniest ones features Chase in a Geritol-spoofing commercial, in which he's describing the medicine as his wife strips, and it ends with her humping him. There's also a pornographic news program, an irritating cooking show, and the epic tale of some drug dealers.Anyway, the whole thing's just a real hoot. In my opinion, the three best TV-spoofing movies are this one, plus "Tunnelvision" and "Kentucky Fried Movie" (although I might also include "The Truman Show"). Really funny.I wonder what ever did become of Ken Shapiro.
tigerman-3
One of the funniest comedies I have ever seen and the funniest scenes are the first so you'll be laughing right of the bat! No matter what your taste there is something here to make you laugh.Find out how early man discovered fire and music. Learn how to bake festive cakes. A clown that cuts the crap. A couple of dealers that have major issues. Learn a lesson in hitch hiking. Recycling like you've not thought of before.This movie is innovative, slick and rememberable. Can't wait to watch it again :)This is a must see!
jety2k
When you view this movie you should keep in mind that it was written and filmed in the early 1970s. Pretty dated but real damn funny for it's time.For those of you that are in your early twenties, it should give some of you an idea of what your parents thought was funny and in your face back then.Most people didn't have cable TV and those that did didn't have 100 stations to choose from and it was 7 years before Mtv was invented. Most of us were relegated to watching 3 channels if you watched TV at all.This is also why anyone over 40 will tell you the first 5 years of SNL are better than all of the others combined.The best segments are the Cooking Show, Brown 25 and KOKO the Clown.In any case you may find humor in some of the segments or not. It is still worth watching from a nostalgic or historical perspective.
AD
