(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Midnight Madness)
Doug (vo): Goddamn right I'm ending Disneycember with a movie you've never heard of. It's unlikely you've ever heard of the film Midnight Madness, and I can guarantee you, you are never gonna see it on Disney+. This is one of the most inappropriate Disney films ever made, and I kind of love the hell out of it for that. This was made when everybody was trying to do a rip-off of Animal House, and Disney was so in a slum and didn't know how to get out of it that they even tried their version of it. This is the only Disney film with the Pabst Blue Ribbon theme song, it's the only Disney film where someone just jumps into a giant vat of beer, it's the only Disney film where one of the clues to find something is look in-between the giant melons, and, yes, it's exactly what you think it is. This movie makes fun of everything, ugly people, fat people, old people, religions. It has no conscience, is phenomenally stupid, but I'll be damned if I didn't laugh my ass off at this. This has the makings of a cult classic, if it doesn't already have a cult following already.
Story[]
Doug (vo): It opens at a university, where seemingly, this random group of college boys and college girls are given these flyers to show up this one night. But it turns out this was all planned by Leon.
Guys: Leon!
Doug (vo): Who's Leon? Leon is essentially Bill. Everybody is just supposed to know who he is and know he's in his own world that we're supposed to understand, but we really don't, but we kind of do. He just kind of exists, and girls love him, and he seems to have an endless amount of money, but the landlord is trying to throw him out, but then she doesn't because everybody's getting into his schemes, and...this is just the kind of movie it is. It exists in its own reality. Anyway, he tells this group of people that there's a scavenger hunt he's inviting them to participate in. What's the prize? Absolutely nothing. He just set this up thinking these people were all gonna go for it. At first, they don't, but eventually, the more they think about it, they decide to do it. Why? They all have stupid, ridiculous reasons that don't make sense, but I'll be damned if they don't try as hard, as if there was a million dollars at the end of this. All the stereotypes are there, the nerds, the jocks, the fat people, the feminists, the romantic couple that don't think they're gonna fall in love, but, oh, just wait till the end. They even come across some random celebrities before they were celebrities. Like, this is Michael J. Fox's first movie, and is that Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens)? Yes, he's in this, too.
Review[]
Doug (vo): At first, I was really turned off at the fact that there was no prize at the end and everybody seemed to be going crazy just to do this because they can, but the more I watched it and the more I realized how this bizarre sense of humor worked, the more I kind of loved it. It's not quite doing what the usual 80s dirty college comedy does. You can tell there were notes like, "Hey, hit this cliche or this kind of joke or whatever", but everyone's just kind of doing their own thing and doing it to the maximum degree. If someone's gonna be dumb in this, they're gonna be really dumb. If someone's gonna be geeky in this, they're gonna be phenomenally geeky. It has that guy who voiced Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory...I'm in kind of a rush, so I'll just put his name here. (Eddie Deezen's name appears in a caption) There he is...and he just steals the show every time he's on screen. He is always doing that voice and doing it as loud and geeky as possible.
Wesley: And then there is the question as to whether football players belong in an academic institution in the first place, and if there are any comments from the audience, just feel free to toss them right up here. (A tomato is thrown at him)
Doug (vo): To give you an idea how the humor works, here's an example. Remember that scene I was talking about how I said there's a clue in-between the giant melons and it takes them a while to figure it out? Well, once they do, they all start throwing stuff off the table like, "Oh, waitress, something slipped", so they can get a closer look at the clue. Each one keeps throwing more and more until it results in...
(Harold sweeps a table of plates and bowls onto the floor)
Doug (vo; chuckles): It's just that kind of nonsense. I love when you can tell they're just supposed to shoehorn in these scenes that these kind of movies just have, like a quote, unquote, "romantic couple" figure out the clue from the giant melons, and when they do, they just suddenly look like they're in love.
Laura: I can't believe it! We got all of that from-hug...me.
Doug (vo; chuckles): Where did that come from? One of the boys has a computer that he just types in the clue and the computer just figures it out, he doesn't have to give it any context at all. I love this one thing where they're giving, like, these pictures and these letters, and one kid seems to figure it out, but he leaves out the ball. What's the ball have to do with it?
Harold: What about the ball? (Melio flips the ball and Harold starts fighting him) You idiot!
Doug (vo): And like I said, this movie is 100% 80s inappropriate. I love this one scene where, like, this geeky boy is gonna date this girl, and...uh-oh, she's ugly!
(Adam opens the door and an ugly girl is shown on the other side)
Adam: Yeah, you're coming with us! (He and Laura start dragging Flynch out of the room)
Flynch: W-what about my date?!
Adam: Believe me, Flynch, you'll thank us in the morning!
Laura: Yeah. (The word "Wow!" flashes for a second during this)
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): The more I watch it and question why everybody is doing everything, the funnier it gets, because I don't even think they question it, they just go 100% into it and give it their all. Nobody cares if it makes sense, they just want you to laugh, and they do everything in the silliest, most over-the-top way. And, by God, if you just give yourself to it, it's one of the funniest things you'll ever see. Every time I bring this film up to someone, they have no idea what it is or that's even a Disney flick, but, man, more and more people gotta see it. I think all there is is a DVD copy, I don't even think there's a Blu-ray copy, and I don't know if there ever will be. Again, I can see Disney really trying to keep this quiet and act like, "No, no, no, we didn't make that". Granted, even if this wasn't a Disney movie, I would find it so hilarious. Like I said, everyone's just so into it and it's so crazy, but knowing that it is is just the icing on the cake. More people need to find out about this movie, they need to know that it was made by Disney, it exists, and it is one of the stupidest, but most enjoyable comedies ever made. There really is a passion and a talent to the timing, to the delivery, to the visual jokes. Yes, it is dumb, but it is passionately dumb. If you want to see a comedy, Disney or not, where you just watch it and say, "Oh, my God, I can't believe this exists", Midnight Madness is the one to check out, man. Not enough people know about it, it needs a cult following, more folks need to be quoting the lines. Jesus Christ, let's get more people looking at this.
(Footage of various Disney movies, TV shows and video games play out)
Doug (vo): And, folks, that's about it. That's Disneycember: 2021. Like always, I thank you so much for tuning in. I guess I've been doing this for 10 years, people have been bringing up. I didn't even think about it, but, yeah, that's crazy to think. I really do have all of you to thank for that. I love doing these, I love sitting down and playing these games, watching these shows, experiencing these movies, revisiting classics, checking out new things that are both good and bad. I'm always going to be fascinated by Disney, because whether or not they're doing great things or not so great things, it's always interesting. And you all seem to find it interesting, too. So I thank you all so much again for sticking around, watching these, and sharing the fun with me. I hope you had a good time, and as always, I'll see you next year.
(The Disneycember logo is shown once more)