Before the internet, before TikTok, before adult swim… there was Amazon Women on the Moon—a deranged, scatterbrained, glorious grab bag of TV-channel-flipping lunacy wrapped in 85 minutes of barely coherent, blissfully chaotic sketch comedy. It’s not a film so much as a fever dream about watching cable TV at 3 a.m. with a concussion.
And honestly? It’s perfect.
Released in 1987, this offbeat anthology comedy is Kentucky Fried Movie’s little cousin—the one that got kicked out of Thanksgiving for impersonating a tampon commercial during dessert. Directed by five filmmakers (including Joe Danteand John Landis) who seem to have dared each other to make something weirder than the last sketch, Amazon Women on the Moon is part satire, part homage, and all glorious nonsense.
Plot? Forget It, Jake. It’s Channel 83
The loose framing device involves a guy trying to watch the titular B-movie (Amazon Women on the Moon) on a busted UHF station plagued by technical difficulties, prompting channel flips to increasingly insane programs. That “movie” within the movie is a spoof of 1950s sci-fi schlock: think cardboard sets, stiff acting, and Martian babes in sparkly bathing suits. It’s as dumb as it sounds—and it’s supposed to be.
But the fun is in the flips: infomercials, public service announcements, commercials, and weird public access segments that skewer every genre of TV trash with a gleeful middle finger and a cigarette still burning in the ashtray.
The Highlights: Comedy Gold in an Acid Bath
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“Mondo Condo”: Arsenio Hall is tortured by modern technology in a silent, slapstick nightmare that escalates from shaving mishaps to full-blown electrical homicide. It’s like Tom & Jerry but sponsored by Radio Shack.
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“Don ‘No Soul’ Simmons”: David Alan Grier plays a Black man so clean-cut, so polite, and so tragically whitewashed, he makes Carlton Banks look like Chuck D. It’s racial satire turned up to 11, featuring a Motown record label trying to market a guy who sounds like he’s auditioning for a Sears catalog voiceover.
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“Bullshit or Not?”: Henry Silva hosts a Ripley’s Believe It or Not parody asking vital questions like, “Was Jack the Ripper actually the Loch Ness Monster?” Yes. It’s that kind of movie.
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“Video Pirates”: Because why not turn VHS bootlegging into a swashbuckling adventure? Complete with eye patches and BetaMax references.
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“Son of the Invisible Man”: Ed Begley Jr. believes he’s invisible. Spoiler: He’s not. Cue 5 minutes of full-frontal delusion and zero shame.
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“Hospital”: A baby born with the head of Abe Lincoln. Read that again. It’s a PSA on the dangers of laser birth control. Somewhere, Planned Parenthood is still crying.
The Satire Is Sharp Enough to Cut Its Own Cord
Amazon Women on the Moon isn’t just dumb fun. Well—it is—but it’s also loaded with jabs at consumer culture, racial tokenism, exploitative media, gender roles, and America’s addiction to lowest-common-denominator entertainment. It’s as if the writers locked themselves in a TV studio, snorted static, and wrote down every warped idea that crawled across their brain.
And it works.
Where modern sketch comedy sometimes stumbles into smug irony, this film dives headfirst into absurdity. It’s not afraid to be really stupid. But it’s also not afraid to punch up, kick down, and throw a pie in the face of everything sacred.
The Cast: A Who’s Who of “Wait, Is That—?”
You’ve got:
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Steve Guttenberg and Rosanna Arquette doing a video date gone wrong skit that turns into a sexual horror story.
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Michelle Pfeiffer, Phil Hartman, Carrie Fisher, B.B. King, Joe Pantoliano, and Henny Youngman—yes, thatHenny Youngman—showing up like celebrity fever hallucinations.
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And let’s not forget Monique Gabrielle, who gives the world a fully nude walk of shame that somehow manages to be more poignant than anything in an Oscar drama. She reads Kierkegaard in the nude. Art!
Sure, Not All the Jokes Land… But Who Cares?
Some sketches go on too long. Some fall flat. A couple age like dairy in the sun (cough “Roast Your Loved One” cough). But even the duds feel like part of the charm. This is a movie that says: “Look, we’re gonna throw 43 jokes at your face. If 12 stick, you’re having a good night.”
It’s the cinematic equivalent of channel surfing while high and naked, wearing only tube socks and a sense of postmodern dread.
Final Verdict: Embrace the Madness
Amazon Women on the Moon is a rare beast—a movie that makes fun of everything, including itself. It’s the kind of film that feels like it was made on a dare, edited during a bender, and accidentally released to theaters. And yet, it works.
If you grew up watching midnight movies, bad commercials, and VHS oddities, this movie is your church. If you didn’t, well… buckle up and prepare to be confused in the best possible way.
Rating: 8 out of 10 Malfunctioning Rabbit Ear Antennas
It’s not a movie. It’s a manic love letter to TV’s glorious stupidity. Watch it. Quote it. Confuse your friends. And when someone asks what it’s about, just say: “Abe Lincoln’s head on a baby. Trust me.”