The Megaphone Gorilla Man

Don't let the miserable view count fool you, this could very well be the greatest comedy sketch that Ron Mexico Productions has put on in its short existence. The making of this sketch is a perfect example of the greatest thing about making amateur comedy films with your friends, and I'm sure I'll miss it if I ever do this work in a professional capacity. It was a Friday night and I realized that I haven't been as productive with comedy as I should be, so I vowed to make some sort of comedy sketch that weekend come hell or high water. I wrote up the script for this drunk at 2 a.m. on a Friday night, we filmed Saturday afternoon, and it was finished and online Sunday night. This is the type of creative process that really isn't possible in a more legitimate setting.

I wrote this as a response to a documentary I made about a man who lives in Muncie named Cocaine Wolf. He's a local mysterious legend renowned for his bizarre behavior. He may or may not be homeless, and he's known to walk around the downtown area wearing an army jacket, riding a child's bike, and rocking out a leather dog collar. I thought he was hilarious, so I grabbed a camera and made a documentary about him. Then I found out that he's a grubby pedophile who buys alcohol for little boys in exchange for blowjobs, and he has a long history of fucking any of the boys in the neighborhood he could get his hands on.

The whole story suddenly stopped being funny. I have kind of an odd sense of humor, but let me be clear on this: FUCKING LITTLE BOYS IS NOT FUNNY!!! I soon found that the wonder and amusement that he invokes in the Muncie community is a completely inappropriate reaction. So this sketch about people being inspired and touched by this clearly deranged moron who contributes nothing meaningful to the community is based on my time studying Cocaine Wolf.

Casting this thing was pretty easy. This sketch comedy group was my idea and I'm in charge of it and I would feel horrible if footage of fucking a big stuffed gorilla would ruin employment opportunities for one of my friends, so I cast myself as the Megaphone Gorilla Man. For the role of an MLB pitcher Shane was the only sensible choice because he's the only one of us who actually has the physique of an athlete and he plays pitcher for a club team. David Boyer was the most logical choice to a play a guy with cancer because...... well, just fucking look at him. The real acting prize, however, goes to Carter for this one. I still hadn't shot the scenes with the unemployed character and Carter came home from work with a grease-stained shirt and hit hat on backwards and looked completely perfect for the role. We filmed in the kitchen of our fraternity house and I gave him the gist of his lines and had him improvise them somewhat, and we ended up with the best acting job he's ever done in a sketch. I praised him for his acting so extensively that it prompted him to ask, "Jeez, do you want to blow me already?".

What else is there to say? The scene where I talk to the gorilla wasn't in the script and was improvised by me. I ordered the Ultimate Trio at Applebee's the night before and I was pretty pissed by the number of Mini Burgers they gave me (3. What the fuck?) so I think I just wanted to incorporate my anger at them into a sketch somehow. I'd also like to mention that I look really skinny in this sketch. A lifestyle of busting my ass to finish all of my senior level classes and doing nothing but write comedy and drink beer with my fraternity brothers in my spare time doesn't lend itself to much exercise and I have a rapidly expanding gut to show for it. It also doesn't help that when I don't have any homework and I can't get inspired to write comedy I spend my time bitching at Patriots fans on the GameFAQs NFL board and watching the White Sox instead of jogging. However I look really, really fucking skinny in this sketch because there's a huge gorilla head covering up my gut, and despite the stupidity of my character, I actually look kinda cute.