12/11/08: Americathon (1979)We can think of at least four conservative sites that should’ve brought this one up before we did—and yet here we are, knocking it out and hoping
Americathon isn’t too obvious. Maybe those other sites are wisely keeping their distance.
Americathon isn’t strictly a conservative comedy, but there are plenty of right-wing moments. That’s true from the beginning. Our narrator is George Carlin, who’s discussing the days of dinosaurs. They’re dismissed as creatures that were all teeth and no brain. ‘Which,” he adds, “brings us to this guy…”
…as we see a picture of Jimmy Carter.
The narrator uses this as a set-up to lament a fictional massive shortage of fossil fuels. He could’ve used plenty of more realistic examples. Like we said, though, this movie isn’t going to get crazy-conservative. It’s written by guys from The Firesign Theatre. Still, we like the part where the narrator informs us that Carter ended up getting lynched because the citizenry were all tired of more mush from the wimp.
Then we’re in the future of 1998, where America is stuck in the ’70s. People bicycle everywhere while living in abandoned cars. The president is Chet Roosevelt, who’s an amiable idiot that’s deeply into EST and Scientology. (Credit goes to this film and Frank Zappa as pioneers in goofing on L. Ron Hubbard.) Chet’s played by John Ritter, in one of his few cool turns. We’d try to mention all the swell actors in the cast, but then this would end up as one of those epic entries that nobody finishes reading.
Anyway, America is in debt to an American Indian for $400 billion. The Native Americans have become fabulously wealthy in the future. Not from casinos, but roller skates. That’s still a hint at how people like to get excited about how
Americathon predicted the future. The plot includes reality shows, a fallen USSR, and the Beach Boys still being popular. The smartest call was Nike as a massive presence at the end of the decade, with everyone wearing jogging suits.
We’re not too crazy about the idea of Israel and its enemies having joined together as a new ethnic group called Hebarabs. Director Neil Israel—who’d eventually start up the
Police Academy franchise—thought it was funny, though.
A few Leftist writers discovered
Americathon back in 2000, and they goofed on Chet Roosevelt as a bumbler getting by on the family name. Conservatives can now enjoy a better laugh at the empty jogging suit poised as a New Roosevelt. Chet’s big idea to save the nation involves a massive telethon hosted by Monty Rushmore (played by the late great Harvey Korman). Rushmore’s a fading comic who’s been reduced to starring in a sitcom about a crossdresser. To his credit, Rushmore gets as motivated by patriotism as he is by pills. That’s saying a lot, since he takes a lot of pills.
That’s a clue as to why
Americathon is more for us than them. The film’s best gags involve goofing on the vapid malaise and morality of the Carter administration. Chet now
seems truly Clintonesque, too. There’s also a mad love for America running throughout the film. We saw this in theaters as a Young Republican, and it seemed kind of sweetly old-fashioned. That’s mainly why the critics hated it.
Americathon isn’t some cutting-edge weirdness. There’s no daring content or epic bad taste. You’ll probably get that in the remake, and rest assured that people will be talking about one soon enough.
Make it your own: Americathon is prohibitively expensive as a commercial VHS tape. It’s still easy to find a bootleg DVD. Sadly, the original soundtrack LP is kind of pricey. Korman has a wonderful song on there called “Gold.” You know what’s cheap, though? The
Americathon fotonovel, which covers pretty much the entire film in a
fumetti format. That’s what we had to make do with before there was home video, kids.
