The Compleat Al

February 13, 2011 Matt Desiderio Comic Book Movies, Conventions 1

Today I bought a Laserdisc player off my coworker Javier. When he told me about this I jumped at the chance to buy it. I’ve had a copy of The Compleat Al, the rare “Weird Al” Yankovic mockumentary, on Laserdisc for years. I got it at Love Saves The Day (R.I.P) because it was signed, never imagining I would ever get a chance to watch it in this format. So I plug in the Laserdisc player, turn it on, pop in my copy of The Compleat Al and let her rip.

Now realize that this is not the first time I’m seeing this, I am a card carrying member of the Al Army. In fact, I love this film and put it on all the time. I’ve had a bootleg of it on VHS that I bought from a dealer at one of Mike Carbonaro’s conventions back in the day, at the church on the Upper West Side. While watching this time I noticed scenes in it that are not on my bootleg, like an insane rendition of the song “State Of Shock” by a guy who looks like a disgruntled office worker, and a guy pitching Al edible underwear with his likeness on it. Now I’m not sure if these scenes were in the official VHS release of it, but why would someone go out of the way to cut them out of a bootleg version? Can anyone out there confirm this for me? And while you’re at it, can someone please tell me why this isn’t on DVD already?

While researching this, I came across an illustrated book version of the film called The Authorized Al. If anyone out there has an extra copy of this just sitting around collecting dust, please feel free to send it to me at the following address.

Attn: Matt D @ Forbidden Planet
840 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
United States

Hey and if you have any cool horror Laserdiscs taking up space, i might just be interested. Leave a comment.

About Matt Desiderio 269 Articles

Matt D has been a manager, buyer and event coordinator at Forbidden Planet since 2005 or maybe it was 2006. Who can remember? We didn't even have computers back then. A native New Yorker from the borough of Queens, raised on Sunday Funnies, Monster Movies and Rock N' Roll. What better place to end up than Forbidden Planet where he can use his position to influence the city's pop culture. A responsibility he takes seriously more now than ever due to New York's consistent change for the worse. The last thing NYC needs is another cafe or bank so thank whatever it is you believe in that Forbidden Planet is here to stay. Beyond the walls of FP, Matt is a publicly recognized expert in cult and horror cinema with a focus on VHS. He is the founder of Horror Boobs a collective that books screenings and distributes weirdo films, the producer of the documentary Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS collector, the publisher of the Blood Video zine, and is regrettably responsible for resurrecting the career of schizophrenic Shot-on Video director Carl J Sukenick. E-mail him at Mattdfpnyc@gmail.com Follow him on various social media at @horrorboobs

michael J says:

January 6, 2012 at 7:02 pm

The Reason why your bootleg VHS of the compleat al had scenes cut out is because it was probably a copy of its original broadcast on showtime. That version of it was cut down to around an hour.