Gong Show Movie, Best Bits Pt.1

[ADAMSIXTIES]

If I had to host this show I'd be a hitman for the CIA too ;-p

[ADAMSIXTIES]

When I first heard the song Vatican Rag I thought Tom Lehrer was singing "check your fly", not "genuflect". That was probably the worst act ever though.

[cduffynyc]

Man, that skit was awesome, did you hear the crowd laughing for real? Not a chance they were gonging that act. LOL What a great show, watched it before going to work at night, then we'd all meet at work and laugh about the show. Classic....can never be duplicated, different world now.

[gilgamess]

The fellow at 5:26 is miming to a sped up "Malambo no. 1" by Yma Sumac. This is not his only TV appearance. He also shows up on "Cos", the short-lived show of Bill Cosby from 1976. I guess this happened, because The Gong Show and Cos shared a producer, Chris Bearde. I think that a couple of acts from TGS made it on the show.

[gilgamess]

The Vatican Four were in a short film, miming to the same song. At the time of this Gong Show, I was so thrilled to hear a Tom Lehrer song on the air, as I was too young to have seen him on "That Was the Week That Was".

[FritzOmnibus]

What is that song at 4:42 ??? The puppet on the guy's butt. I MUST know!!!

[takeosdaddy]

@FritzOmnibus to me it sounds like a song called I got cha by Joe Tex, but the words are changed

[FritzOmnibus]

@takeosdaddy hmm, I see where you get that idea but I don't think that's it. Unless, it was inspired by a kernel of the Tex vers. The thing that bothers me is that I know I've heard that song (the gong show one)! Thanks though.

[justaman6972]

@takeosdaddy you're right its a Joe Tex song,which strangely is about rape,but is it still rape if you yell surprise first?

[nahpoli]

This is just a better version of "americas got talent" I miss the 70's TV shows!

[justsailingalong]

I remember seeing the girls with popsicles as a little girl and I couldn't figure out what was going on

[Gamedayz1]

I could always count on the Gong Show to bring my spirits up. Thanks Stingray for your post.

[lcozzarelli]

@ 0:15 that's Tom Lehrer, the guy who used to create all of those clever songs that taught us kids of the 1970's spelling and grammar on 'The Electric Company'! Talented guy...anyone remember the "Sn- song", the "-ly song" or the "Silent E" song?

[BlogBitch]

This was before all you stupid American fuckwits allowed Rupert Murdoch and Fox to take over your media.

[vigo894]

@BlogBitch= Don't blame us for that. He's from your country Koala boy.

[BlogBitch]

@vigo894 ..LOl..Blog 'Bitch' so that would be Koala GIRL... but then, like I said you AMERICAN fuckwits bought into his bullshit. He has not been an Australian citizen since 1985....when he became an American Citizen......so blame your selves.

[vigo894]

@BlogBitch= Sorry, the moustache threw me off.

[BlogBitch]

@vigo894  it is brilliant tho..eh?..:)

[Divvadoll]

This was the craziest but most creative insanity ever on television. Chuckie you rock!

[lancewillard]

Cocaine is a beeyotch.

[DA90027]

This gets funnier the more you watch it

[TapasBarAmsterdam]

This show is like a lepers island for unfunny, ugly, untalented people.....

Amazing!

[fhb3isback]

This needs to be on DVD. NOW.

[MrKirkenstein]

TomFoolery....anyone ?

[InsertName125]

I miss the 70s.

[erikdraven1731]

4:04... now we know another use for the Wheel of Fortune "Whoo".

[patvd95]

I have to do the Vatican Rag at the next KOC Talent Show - except the priest will be Knute Rockne

[tpodgwaite]

Good stuff! Remember this?

[beansmom9122]

It is a well known fact that durning this time, Chuck Barris was a paid assasaian. of course this info came out many years after the fact..he may have look the part of a whimp...but he would kill you if the price was right...

[mikelipp]

The Gong Show was chucks day job. His real job was that of a professional killer. Thats right, just like Charles Bronson in the "mechanic" only he worked for the government.

[TimelordR]

The Vatican 4? I doubt they let an act like that on America's Got Talent!

[briteness]

Mockery of Catholics. Its as American as apple pie and Jim Crow.

[UncleMilo]

@briteness Yeah... the Catholics have it SO tough.

[IluvEdKemper]

3:54 "I'm in the Mood for Love" XD

[NickMueh]

chuckie in the background durring amazing graze, hahahha

[rucb1alum]

@Pete0969wi

Have you read his book? The Clooney movie is clearly fictional but the book has enough sexual memoir in it that it is easy to believe that Barris actually pulled the trigger for the CIA. He was in really great physical shape for a full time TV producer.

[shiddy67]

VATICAN RAG!!!!!!!!

[radams36]

@shiddy67

I just found out, literally minutes ago, this was NOT original - The Vatican Rag was written and originally performed by that genius of American comedy : Tom Lehrer!

[landrykkb]

One thing's for sure,you needed thick skin to even be on this show and run the risk of getting gonged!

[Blaqjaqshellaq]

Wasn't there a bit in the movie version where Jaye P. Morgan flashed her breasts? (The movie had lots of stuff that was too offensive to show on the TV version.)

[cduffynyc]

Yes, that's right, and how ironic that on this wacky, over the top show - the producers felt she went too far and fired her after doing that. Nuts! Show went down hill from there. I remember they used to have a porn star, Carol Cummings, do the opening introduction for a while.

[erikinhawaii]

Is that Phil Hartman singing as the Father ???

[shiddy67]

@erikinhawaii

That is a good question.

[mrxranch]

we wld have a gong show if you stopped watching crap like idol..you made your choice..i made mine ... don't watch TV at all :)

[pete0969wi]

Well, did he or didn't he work for the gov???? He liked a lot of attention and might have cooked this up to spring back hi popularity... Any opinions??

[JimyJak]

completely awesome!! LMAO! Thanks for posting it man! That show was the best...

[bravesfan95]

Actually from the movie of the Gong Show

[TerryCraig23]

5:28 - WTFF

[akropiss]

2:57 stuff like that only makes me wonder if chuck was actually tortured in an east berlin detention centre

[Hitachi007]

XD this show is hilarious! Why can't TV be like this anymore???

[missnewbienoob]

I'd rather watch this than American Idol ANY day.

[fenderuss]

Very...very few television shows cause me to laugh out loud....

...this...is one of the good ones.

[pazzensutra]

@slideon--EXCEPT the Jerry Springer show. At least on this show people were deliberately making fools of themselves for humor's sake.

[jmisiur]

i used to love watchin this show.

[slideon]

no show ever has been this retarded

[MsNegative24]

that is so true!!! :)

[Ladiestreat]

Chuck was coked out of his gourd.

[billygrimmuwo]

They should bring back the gong show

[stellahella]

Comedy Central did bring it back in 2008 with Dave Attell as the host, but it didn't stay on very long.

[AccordionManiac]

"Is my fly open?" "No it isn't..." "Well it should be, coz I'm peeing"

[BigEagles33]

3:49 HAHAHA!

[sacredo07]

I would love to see backstage and behind the scenes footage if it exsists.

[pathdaly]

If I recall correctly there are some in the movie, but it's a long time since I've seen it.

[zrocks2001]

the 70s had the best characters you actually had to be interesting to get on tv even for a few seconds

long live the gong show

[honeegrrl]

I love the unknown comic.

[bigkellyr]

I think the "Priest" was a professional who used to sing humerous songs back in the 60's and 70's but I can't think of his name. I think he had a song called "poisoning pigeons in the park."

[bigkellyr]

The first Priest with the Vatican four, I meant.

[odinvonzero]

Tom Lehrer!

[TwoTrueFreaks]

That priest in the first skit is the late Phil Hartman from SNL and the Simpsons

[bigkellyr]

No it is Tom Lehrer. He has a website. He had some mild success with some very funny songs in the 1960's and 1970's and I guess he is a professor of Mathematics.

[columbusmozart]

Retired from Harvard a few years. Still lives in Cambridge, though.

[SuperGogetem]

Tom Lehrer.

[columbusmozart]

You are thinking of Tom Lehrer, but that wasn't him on the stage...the "priest" was simply lip-syncing to the "The Was The Week That Was" album.

[lcozzarelli]

@bigkellyr it's Tom Lehrer :)

[tnkkyle]

I loved a lot of the off the wall acts on the gong show.Some of them were pretty good.Things you wouldn't see any where else.That's what i liked about the show.

[Dimigrey]

Chuck was so Cocked up during tapings of this show  Man that guy was high high high!

[TBomb068]

I loved this show!!

[tfaironpirate]

I've now officially seen exactly 6 minutes and 5 seconds of this show, and I'm already in love.

[Hitachi007]

@tfaironpirate Same here :D I want to see more of it!!!

[MacoutesGabber]

@tfaironpirate Technically these "bits" are from the movie, not the show.

[whammy850]

Yes, because respect of others' beliefs is defined by telling them in the rudest way possible that what they believe is a lie.

And they call Christians closed-minded...

[temp445]

Folks, what is important here is that we respect all people that believe in imaginary friends, unicorns, santa clause etc..... Come on, give the delusional fools a little respect here.

[JohnnyKutz]

I don't like that bit about "genuflect", but otherwise the Gong Show made me laugh to tears in the 1970s. If I could get them all on DVD, I would. (sans anything sacriligious)

[Satori1800]

thanks for great video:)

[mysweetpekingese]

This was a great show lol! love the Nun act. Where's Gene Gene???

[venicejefe]

Nah, Fred Willard was on FERNWOOD TONIGHT with Martin Mull. It was hysterical in it's own right, with very political humor. It was on before or after the Gong Show. They were a tough act to follow for awhile.

[CowboysCarryGuns]

Is any one else scared for they re life while watching this? its just me...?

[harry4health]

Is this really from the movie, not the TV program?

[Bralor360]

5:07 is that Fred Willard? if so then that'll be the first and last time I'll ever will see his white ass.*shudders*

[WanagiAkicita]

That's not Fred. Fred Willard was on a show called WKRP In Cincinnati at this time, and he looked exactly like he does now, only with darker thicker hair and fewer sags and wrinkles.

[9pod9]

Nope! Fred Willard wasn't on WKRP in Cincinnati. You're confusing him with Frank Bonner, the guy who played Herb Tarlek. There's definitely a resemblance, but it's not the same guy. In the late 1970s, Fred Willard was on a show called Real People, and the casts of Real People and WKRP in Cincinnati faced off against each other on Family Feud. How quaint.

[WanagiAkicita]

Now that you mention it, you're right. I was mixing that kinda look alike guy with Fred Willard who was on America Tonight with Martin Mull. And yeah, Real People with that Fran Tarkinton and Mary Lou Crosby or whatever her name was and Brian Allen who's a producer now. Either way, he's definately not that mooning guy in this video.

[TheJohnnyCotts]

Fran Tarkenton and Cathy Lee Crosby were on That's Incredible with John Davidson, not Real People. Real People was Sarah Purcell, Skip Stephenson, Byron Allen and Fred Willard.

[thugie1]

That was a surprise to see Tom Lehrer(the first act). His best comedy record imo was "An Evening With Tom Lehrer" from 1959.

[megan0529]

i like the last part with the cazoo XD roflmao

[zolana11]

omg the guy singing amazing grace HAHAHAH that was cold  lololol

[drcrn]

It's tooooo funny!

[biglongcadillac]

incredible! he manages to offend just about every sensibility imaginable in less than 10 mins! great stuff, thanks for the best bits

[trev17ian]

You mean, the popsicle girls, right?

And by the way, Australia had a version of this

[BeantownJim]

40 years later im still laughing my ass off to tears lol

[MayonnaiseRon]

Ahhhh!!! the lollipop girls...I was a teenager when I saw them for the first time...I went to bed early that night!!!!!!

[BassBuffett]

@MayonnaiseRon

The popsickle girls are a hotter act than the contrived web porn crap

that passes.

think they won?

[gargoyle2bad4u]

@MayonnaiseRon Isn't the girl on the left Debralee Scott?

[landrykkb]

@gargoyle2bad4u I could have sworn the same thing too that it was Debralee Scott.

[primitivelink]

OH you got a clip of the Lollipop Girls act!

oh wow!

[rneu1978]

Is there a tv station that shows this, the reruns?? man!  there should be...OMG!!

[stingray2001]

Some times The Game Show network will re-run them.

[kingers36]

why was he all beat up?

[stingray2001]

In The movie, he gets into a fight in a parking garage.

[dncott]

It would be hard to recreate with other people now. Chuck Barris was a big part of the appeal. Great show!

[bearguySF]

Not now= because everyone is a a critic. The best part of this video is when Chuck fakes a religious healing! Now, some stupid Catholic groups would protest, so the big corporations that run network TV are afraid.

[landrykkb]

@bearguySF Exactly why The Gong Show was so ahead of its time!

[thecybermom]

There was, is, and always will be only ONE GONG SHOW...The Gong Show was the happiest part of my childhood.

[cholulasaucehot]

i ask you why not a new gong show now ?

[stingray2001]

They tried with that stupid show "America's Got Talent". You just can't duplicate the Gong Show.

Auditions for American Idol is as about as close they'll ever come.

Only one Chuckie!

[imprettystoned]

@stingray2001 They can't duplicate the gong show but they could take all those morons who try out for American Idol and use them. The only way I see it not working is you would have a whole lot of people doing "shock" type acts...and your right. There is only one Chuckie.

[jjann09]

VATICAN RAG.....LOL

This ought to be part of required therapy for depression....HILARIOUS!!!

[superchristian102]

The people on his show were so funny...so was he

[twister18]

the bait brothers were awesome.would love to see the clip of that dance shake the ground or whatever the song was.

[rrunner81sg]

Search YouTube for "1977 Gong Show All Star Special Part 7". The Bait Brothers are singing "Shake the Ground"!

[honeegrrl]

The Gong Show was a stress reliever. I loved this show.

[wwih]

anyone remember the bait brothers on this show?

[md4bush]

They were shown during a scene in Melvin and Howard.

[DB3D]

That's strange, looked to see if I could find information on who played as The Vatican 4 ... Played Themselves. But Phil Hartman played .... Man at Airport with Gun.

[stingray2001]

Yes,it was Phil Hartman.

[ghostrider137]

It was not Phil HArtman, it was Tom Lehrer.

[stingray2001]

Phil Hartman was in the film, in a airport scene. He had nothing to do with part on the movie.

[reginalyn]

That singing priest at the beginning is a riot. He sounds very close to Phil Hartmann. Loved the Unknown Comic and Chuckie baby had the best hats!

[ticklemeozmo]

The "singing priest" is Tom Lehrer

[MattHawes]

Is that actually Tom Lehrer, or is that a guy lip-synching to the Lehrer song?

-- Matt

[reginalyn]

This show was just so spontaneous and crazy and funny. Chuck Barris was a genius.

[wtravlr1]

Tom Lehrer is how he spells his name.

Albums: The Remains of Tom Lehrer, Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer

many of the songs of Tom were for a TV show called TW3 (That was the Week that Was) a show around 1963-5.

It was some of what Saturday Night Live was based on./

[wtravlr1]

a side note many of Tom's songs were really very odd. He did one where the whole song is the periodic table, complete.

[futuristfood]

tom leher? wow...

[Flickerfly]

The guy in the viking helmet and groucho glasses with the dancing snake and the wah-wah song....that's probably the best thing I've ever witnessed in my entire life. And I've sen some great stuff.....

[Nysee3]

His name was Michael Sherman. I can't figure out how I know this 30 years after the fact.

[gilgamess]

The song is actually a sped-up version of an Yma Sumac song. It's from the album "Mambo!"

[bentrobert]

Someone got the black gir...someone git this box off my head!!!!!

[improvmaniac]

OMG I miss this show.

[rbj527]

Great video. Thanks.

[DA90027]

I love Chuckie even though he smoked crack before each episode!

[stingray2001]

that's what Chuck thought.

[wildwombat]

Tony Randall ?

[CaptKilljoy76]

Tom Leher FTW

[ozzyscruggs1]

Behold, the Popsicle Twins.

[ScreaminBear]

Awesome! Thanks for posting!