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Line 10: Like Weird Al's music, the film focuses its comedy on oddball humor and [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche\|satire, parody, and pastiche]] of pop culture. Released in 1989, at the height of Weird Al's popularity, the film was expected to be a summer blockbuster, but barely broke even at the box office (opening against the 1989 ''[[Batman (film)\|Batman]]'' movie, after all) and instead became a [[Cult Classic]]. Then again, maybe a feature making fun of independent local TV does fit best [[Vindicated by Cable\|on the small screen]]? ---- {{tropelist}} Line 83: ...With just a hint of cheese!" }} * [[I'm Your Worst Nightmare]]: George says this during his Rambo-parodying fantasy. * [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Sort of. During the dreaded phone call between Uncle Harvey and Mr. Big, Mr. Big detaches his hand, replaces it with a meat cleaver appendage and violently chops a big loaf of lunchmeat (since it's Weird Al, probably ~~balogna~~bologna), signifying he means business. Harvey staggers in the pool (where he's lounging when the call takes place) and says, "I'm dead meat!". * [[Indy Escape]]: Parodied in a dream sequence with a dauntless boulder. Averted since the dream was interrupted, killing the character in said dream. * [[I Need a Freaking Drink]]: Invoked by George, but Bob calls him on it, saying he doesn't drink; George says he's been meaning to start. Line 119: * [[Prop Recycling]]: The producers struck a deal with KOED to build a news set in their studio. The Tulsa network used the set for their own broadcasts for a couple years afterward. * [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!]]: "A U! H! F! Station!" * [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie]]: Gandhi II and a few others. There are also many joke listings on U-62's schedule board for implausible and ridiculous programmes that don't exist, not even as trailers. * [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie]] * [[Red Right Hand]]: Although he's technically not the main ~~villan~~villain, Mr. Big is a spooky unseen ~~loanshark~~loan shark/crime boss with a detachable meat-cleaver hand. Also, [[Evil Sounds Deep]] applies to him as well. * [[Sassy Secretary]]: Pamela Finklestein. * [[Scary Librarian]]: ''CONAN: THE LIBRARIAN'' Line 129: * [[Severely Specialized Store]]: Spatula City. * [[Shouting Shooter]]: In the ''[[Rambo]]'' parody. * [[Show Within a Show]]: The entire picture is basically a series of short comedy sketches; the fictional TV station is merely a framing device to pass this all off as one feature-length film. [[Word of God\|Al]]: "I was known for doing parodies, so we wanted to do a movie that was lousy with parodies — TV commercial parodies, movie trailer parodies, and obviously TV show parodies — and we hung them on a plot line that seemed like the thing to go well with that basic concept. Namely, that I would be the general manager for a small UHF [https://film.avclub.com/we-got-it-all-on-uhf-an-oral-history-of-weird-al-yan-1798278657 TV station]..." * [[Smug Snake]]: RJ Fletcher. * [[Struggling Broadcaster]]: Independent U-62's attempts to fill the entire schedule with [[No Budget]] original local programming. Most big-city independents would struggle but manage to fill most of their schedule with old movies, local/regional live sports coverage, "classic television" reruns or syndicated fare. U-62 doesn't even have the means to do that, so the operation basically runs ad-lib and hyperlocal. * [[Styrofoam Rocks]]: Parodied. In the opening sequence, a rock bounces right off George Newman's head mid-fantasy and does nothing to him. * [[Technology Marches On]]: The UHF band in general. In 1989? "It was a total anachronism even when it came out — it was on the tail end of UHF even being a thing. But as a kid, that was where you went to see all the weird programming. You know, you had your UHF dial, and you flipped it around, and there was everything from PBS stations to Spanish-speaking stations to low-budget public stations, to just out-and-out weirdness." * [[Technology Marches On]]: The UHF band in general. There's a long history which (at least in the US) goes back to [[The Fifties]] - although the history in other countries (like the UK) will differ: The launch of [[FOX]] TV as a fourth US commercial network in 1986 was the [[Trope Breaker]]. Twelve VHF TV channels (which had been enough for three stations in each major market) were no longer adequate. TV sets have improved. And then there's the digital HDTV transition. Many longtime [[NBC]] and [[CBS]] affiliates chose UHF for their HDTV, as the once-valuable low-VHF channels are too plagued with impulse noise to be useful. VHF 2-6 became largely an over-the-air wasteland, to the point that the government paid [[PBS\|WGBH-TV]] about $160 million to move off a now-valuable UHF channel and go to VHF 5. US TV was originally VHF only; the loss of Channel 1 to land-mobile in 1948 (and of everything above channel 13 to military use) left only a dozen channels, causing interference between the hundred pioneering stations then on-air. The Federal Communications Commission stopped licencing new stations until an additional seventy channels (UHF 14-83) could be opened on an experimental basis in 1952; they didn't require TV makers include tuners for these frequencies until 1964, and eighty of the initial 100 UHF stations were out of business in their first year. By [[The Sixties]], UHF was seeing some use for educational TV (NET, and its successor [[PBS]]) or specialised uses such as Spanish-language broadcasting. Top-of-the-line rooftop antennas were routinely rated "100 miles VHF, 60 miles UHF" and, the further up the dial, the worse things became. With so few available VHF channels, there was only room for three mainstream commercial networks ([[CBS]], [[NBC]], [[ABC]]). Fourth-ranked [[DuMont]] was bankrupt by 1956. The "U-62" frequency? Gone. UHF 52-69 were auctioned to mobile phone operators for billions in 2009-11. [[American Television Stations]] were moved down to DT51 or lower, only to be further repacked to DT36 or lower by 2021. Stations historically on this channel (such as CBS owned-and-operated WWJ-TV 62 Detroit) may still display '62' or '62.1' in their branding, but physically they're on some other, lower channel. Cable TV (and, later, satellite TV) served as an "equaliser" to some degree, allowing [[FOX]] to launch as a fourth network in 1986, taking many of the former UHF independents as affiliates. TV receivers were also improving; instead of two mechanical dials (set one to 'U' for UHF, clunk through up to seventy empty channels on the other to find the individual UHF station) one remotely-controlled electronic tuner could cover all channels. In 1989? "Weird Al" already knew the trope was becoming dated in the cable TV era, and wanted "The Vidiot" as a title, but fell victim to [[Executive Meddling]]. The need for more than three major stations in each market meant that the system had to expand onto UHF. By 1994, CBS had lost the NFL deal to FOX, which took advantage to poach existing affiliate stations. A dozen stations owned by "New World Communications" in multiple markets dumped CBS for FOX. In the worst example, this forced CBS to buy a "U-62" station in Detroit outright for $24 million in sheer desperation. The final straw which made "UHF as low-budget independent" a [[Discredited Trope]] was the digital television transition. Over-the-air TV had been losing valuable UHF spectrum to mobile telephone companies for years; UHF 14-83 becomes UHF 14-69 becomes UHF 14-51 becomes UHF 14-36 (by 2021). Existing UHF stations were forced to move to lower channels as governments realised they can sell this spectrum to mobile telephone companies for billions of dollars. Stations were forced to convert to DTV by 2009, so that more TV could be squeezed into less space using digital compression. The new system has "forward error correction", a system which transmits a few spare bits so that the receiver can recover from the white noise that made analogue stations "snowy". Great for UHF, but the system performs poorly in the presence of "impulse noise" from motors and appliances which briefly, repeatedly wipe out the entire channel – with the once-valuable low-VHF channels hit worst. Suddenly, broadcasters who'd been on VHF for more than half a century (mostly [[CBS]] and [[NBC]] affiliates, as the strongest networks of the 1950s) were abandoning these channels, leaving VHF 2-6 a wasteland to stay on UHF digitally. The worst spot on the dial is no longer "U-62" (which doesn't exist, as of 2009-2011), it's "digital VHF 2". While VHF 7-13 are still in use digitally, in some markets the feds have ''paid'' broadcasters to move to now-unwanted low-VHF frequencies so UHF spectrum can be sold to mobile operators. [[And Now You Know]]. * [[Temporary Substitute]]: Anthony Geary wasn't originally planned to play Philo; one of Al's favorite comics, [[Joel Hodgson]], was. But he couldn't accept the role. Before you go "aw, man!" keep in mind that Joel had turned it down due to being burned out in Los Angeles and returning to Minneapolis, where he ended up starting [[Mystery Science Theater 3000\|his own little show]] on its own UHF station KTMA. * [[They Just Didn't Care]]: Parodied with ''[[Gandhi]] II'', which deliberately misses the entire point of the original movie (and, for that matter, [[Critical Research Failure\|Mahatma Gandhi's way of life]]). {{quote\|"No more Mr. Passive Resistance... he's out to kick some butt!"}} Aside from the obvious, he's also depicted ordering a steak.<ref>[[Sacred Cow]] warning: Hinduism considers practice of the consumption of beef taboo.</ref> It's Weird Al. [[They Just Didn't Care]], orbecause they were deliberately [[Comically Missing the Point]]? * [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: As the trailers embedded in the film are jokes (where the corresponding feature presentations don't actually exist), the joke by necessity must be self-contained within the fake trailer. * [[Trailers Always Spoil]] * [[What Could Have Been]]: [[Sylvester Stallone]] was going to cameo as the helicopter ride ticketer during the ''Rambo'' parody scene, but had to cancel due to schedule issues. ~~And as~~As mentioned above, Al originally wanted Joel Hodgson to play Philo. After Hodgson turned down the role of Philo, Al asked Crispin Glover if he wanted the role, and Crispin said he would only be in the movie if he could play Crazy Ernie. Al turned him down. ** David Spade was one of the people who auditioned for the role of Bob. Line 155: {{reflist}} [[Category:Short Titles]]▼ [[Category:Films of the 1980s]] [[Category:~~UHF~~{{PAGENAME}}]] [[Category:Film]] ▲[[Category:~~Short~~Cult ~~Titles~~Classic]]