The advent of videotape, then laserdisc and DVD, has given fans of pop culture an unprecedented access to films and television shows that they love. You can buy a DVD of your favorite film--or tape your favorite TV show every week--and store these gems in your archives for all eternity.

Home video has also led to plenty of weird crap making its way to the public, and that's what the Mondo Video series is all about. When the mood strikes us, we'll take a moment to stumble off the beaten path of pop culture and explore a video oddity--something that perhaps has crossed our desk thanks to some misguided PR firm, or that we stumbled upon in the clearance rack at Best Buy. It's our chance to sample the truly bizzare in the comfort of our living room and pass the wildness on to you.

So without further adieu, let's get a little weird...

Just Kidding!

Alcohol, a credit card and a telephone are always a dangerous combination. That's how I ended up with my full set of Just Kidding! videos.

Most of us have seen this infomercial. It's a half-hour "best-of" featuring some choice bits from the tapes themselves, which contain hours upon hours of wacky practical jokes played upon unsuspecting Europeans. They show about ten minutes of actual content in the infomercial, and the rest of the time is taken up by commercials for the tapes themselves. (This is the original Just Kidding! set, by the way, not the current "Censored in America" line they're promoting. The original set is edgy, weird and shocking but sadly contains no nudity.)

Every time this infomercial would appear, I'd leave it on and my roommates and I would laugh our asses off, especially at one routine involving a wormy guy with a pipe bellowing smoke on innocent bystanders at bus stops. After stumbling upon the infomercial for the tenth time--and near the end of a fun evening of barhopping--I whipped out my Visa, dialed the number and ordered the videos, before I had a second to think about it.

Four weeks later, a box arrived on my doorstep containing not one, not two, but SIX Just Kidding! videotapes. I had opted to buy the FULL set over the phone, and not just the two-tape set they were shilling on the telly, which ended up cosing me upwards of seventy bucks. Thus I was holding in my greedy hands something like twelve hours of European practical jokes.

A daunting prospect, to be sure, but also a thrilling one. I haven't made it through all six tapes yet, and maybe I never will. But what I have seen has made me laugh until I cry at the sheer stunning cruelty and absurdity of the comedy. Those French folks are ruthless when it comes to practical jokes, and that ruthlessness pays off big-time in the entertainment department.

What is the cruelest joke played by the Just Kidding! team? Maybe it's the maggots in the microwave trick. They station a camera inside a microwave in a convenience store that has an open back to it. Folks approach the microwave and slip in their burrito, Hot Pocket, what have you. While the door is closed, a Just Kidding! operative replaces the customer's item with a bowl that is OVERFLOWING with maggots. One of the nastiest sights you'll ever see--trust me on that. Then the customer opens the microwave, and instead of their hot tasty lunch, there's a bowl of maggots.

Or maybe it's the sexually dysfunctional driving instructor. Foxy young French ladies go into a car with a seemingly mild-mannered driving instructor for a driving test. Only he's not really mild-mannered or even a driving instructor; he immediately begins to sexually assault the women, kissing them and trying to climb on top of them. While a lame laugh track chortles on in oblivion, you see images of near-rape inflicted on these poor women, and it's so vicious that you don't know whether to laugh or scream.

That's the biggest appeal the Just Kidding! tapes have going for them, especially for the American viewers they're targeting with their infomercials. The French achieve a level of ruthlessness in their practical jokery that American television producers couldn't hope to imitate. In the States, we get Dick Clark and Ed McMahon chortling while Brian Austin Green is tricked into believing that his mom isn't going to remember his birthday. In France, they deliver loud farters, squirting sneezers, fans that blow up women's skirts and heaping bowls of maggots.

When the jokes aren't cruel and fascinating, they're hilarious for their creativity, or their bold absurdity. How else to describe the gag that involves Vegas comic Rip Taylor, clad in a sleeping cap and nightgown, lurking inside a freezer case at a grocery store and startling the pants off anyone who tries to open the case and obtain an item from it? It's terrifically weird and funny. The same goes for the guy who walks by and steals parking meters, or the woman who walks up to customers at an ice cream store, grabs a stranger's cone and just starts licking it without a word of explanation.

This is wild, crazy, vicious stuff. It's also really funny, and it's easily the best seventy bucks I've ever spent on an infomercial while slightly intoxicated. If you're in the mood for some insane comedy, you could do worse than the Just Kidding! videos. And if you're ever in France, don't EVER use a microwave in a convenience store. Trust me on that.