Night Patrol
Political Correctness and the need to maintain it would become one of the most stifling elements of our entertainment culture when it was formally introduced as a ânew way of doing thingsâ by Bill and Hillary Clinton in the early 1990s. Not allowing and / or censoring anything that might âoffendâ somebody (save for pornography which has recently experienced an upsurge in depraved subject matter at heights unseen since The 1970s) resulted in a LOT of once edgy humor being stilted or just straight up neutered which really in its own right helped deprive both freedom of speech and the ability to have a free yet objective mind when viewing possibly offensive material (keeping in mind that one does not need to actually agree with any content that they happen to be watching). Prior to the rise of The Clintons, provocative or possibly offensive forms of entertainment in both TV shows and legitimate movies rarely made such material the focus of their subject matter, but yet at least the door was always open for writers and directors to go all the way with making their content into a complete celebration of showing just how low that they can go. The most famous (or at least the most relevant) example of a film that went all the way from beginning to end with nonstop, lowbrow humor was this 1984 release (ostensibly a ripoff / spinoff of Police Academy even though a closer look reveals very little connection between the two in terms of their stories) directed by one Jackie Kong, an Asian American female director who at the time was married to the filmâs producer (the semi legendary Bill Osco) and who apparently set out on purpose to make a movie that would be no holds barred in its pursuit of glorifying the boundaries of bad taste and coming up with something that not only would never get made today, but if one tried to make it today then they would probably be prevented at gunpoint from doing so. It also appears as if the film was the result of TWO separate projects, one which had already begun filming before running out of money / story ideas and the other being the over the top cop comedy that it purports itself to be. At the heart of both stories is Murray Langston along with his much more popular alter ego, The Unknown Comic, a standup comedian wearing a paper bag over his head who would jump around on stage and tell really bad, tasteless jokes. The Unknown Comic had become famous while appearing on Chuck Barrisâ Gong Show in the 1970s, usually appearing between the actual novelty acts and making a complete fool of himself comedy wise until his old friend The Giant Hook would appear and forcefully pull him off the stage. This film would utilize a couple of other Gong Show alumni and even have the showâs theme song playing during a diner scene although Barris himself had no direct involvement with the production. The other interesting angle here was the fact that the film seemed to be capitalizing on the then burgeoning (and legendary) LA stand up comedy scene of the early 1980s (which in itself was said to be made up of fearless, anything goes styles of humor), featuring several cameos and supporting roles for many of the known comedians in the field including Andrew Dice Clay, said by many to be the main provocateur of the movement to create political correctness as a way of life. But first and foremost, itâs all about Murray Langston as Melvin White, a bumbling loser of a police officer (and possibly a virgin) who within the first 5 minutes of the film suffers a possible record number of indignities inflicted upon him including but not limited to 1) pulling over a reckless driver in a straitjacket who makes gay overtures to him all while not noticing an obscene amount of guns and ammo AND a dead body in the guyâs trunk, 2) failing to notice both an obese manâs heart attack along with two black guys stealing the obese manâs wallet (although when they drop the stolen wallet he is nice enough to pick it up and hand it back to the thieves in question), 3) stepping in some dogshit and then having said dog come over and piss on his legs, 4) giving CPR and then mouth to mouth to what appears to be an unconscious homeless guy only for the homeless guy to turn it into a romantic kiss, 5) biting into an apple from a sidewalk grocer which happens to have a worm crawling in it, 6) losing his gun and having it found and returned to him by a small child, 7) being brutally assaulted by another small child who doesnât want to cross the street, 8) encountering a group of people holding âcockfightsâ in an alley only to find two guys fighting each other with theirâŚcocks (one of the filmâs most infamous bits) and finally 9) an embarrassing encounter at a sperm bank. The degrading humor as presented early on is almost so overwhelming that the viewer runs the risk of outright turning the movie off and as the movie goes on, it becomes clear that a heavy amount of dubbing and ADR work was used to literally change the intention of scenes as originally shot and sometimes make it even funnier (or more tasteless) as with Billy Barty as The Police Captain, a legendary midget actor who (probably unknown to him) would have excessive farting noises inserted onto the soundtrack every time he appears onscreen. Thereâs also Pat Paulsen (the most famous Presidential Candidate to never win) as Melvinâs new partner and Linda Blair as the sweet girl cop dispatcher with a crush on Melvin. But it is when The Unknown Comic (who is obviously Melvin / Langston) enters the picture and starts becoming the hottest stand up superstar in LA complete with fast talking manager (Jaye P. Morgan) and gold digging girlfriend (Lori Sutton) that things get VERY interesting. The gist is that The Unknown Comic storyline is running concurrent to the one featuring Melvin (who we know to be The Comic in his true identity) working as a cop. So The Cop and The Comic storylines carry on unrelated for almost half the movie (with Jack Riley as his psychiatrist and Morgan herself casually approaching Melvin while heâs on duty only to reveal that she has figured out who he is being the connecting factors here) until the two storylines suddenly start to blur between these two separate characters who are really the same person, an effect enhanced by the fact that Langston is NEVER shown changing identities either into The Comic or into himself as Melvin the bumbling jackass cop, which starts to turn the film into a literal, surreal comedic existential masterpiece, one made only more complicated when ANOTHER character wearing a paper bag over his head (The Bagman) starts robbing various businesses and telling bad jokes to add insult to injury for his various victims, with the most likely and obvious suspect being The Comicâs stand up comedy rival (Dice Clay) who is so desperate to get noticed that he has also resorted to wearing a paper bag over his head (while still wearing his leather jacket)! As the storyline actually transforms into something compelling before our very eyes, the onslaught of sick, twisted, offensive and sometimes even borderline racist humor continues including a âfull moon coming out at nightâ (somebody sticking their bare ass out a window), a mad gunman (Bill âCoach Lubbockâ Kirchenbauer) shooting up the streets and talking in Japanese (with subtitles) even though he is obviously Caucasian, an arrested peeping tom (Sydney âCheswickâ Lassick in another cameo) being put in a cell with some âniceâ criminals (a pedophile, a flasher and a porno filmmaker) who all violently turn on Melvin the arresting officer when he feels comfortable enough around them to admit to committing an act of bestiality in his youth, the unforgettable diner scene with a disgusting slob for a waiter and the most shocking bit of all featuring a cameoing Pat Morita (in the role of âRape Victimâ) being dubbed in with a little girlâs voice when describing just how exactly he was âviolatedâ. Through it all, the comedic rock is probably Paulsen as Melvinâs partner, obviously playing it as being half in and half out of the story in terms of his interest while his cop character is portrayed as a freewheeling hedonist who drinks on duty (while driving) and has a large bevy of girlfriends (whom he runs into frequently) all while cynically telling Melvin to make sure to only get married to an ugly girl because who gives a shit if she leaves you? In the end, a compelling clash between duel personas that also happens to be the most politically incorrect comedy EVER madeâŚ
10/10