Count Floyd - Running Gags

Running Gags

The main running gag of the sketch was that the station would usually provide truly awful films for the show that were not in the least bit scary, including such genres as biopics with very scant relation to horror (Madame Blitzman), softcore pornography with a horror theme (Dr. Tongue's 3D House of Stewardesses) and Swedish independent (Whispers of the Wolf), forcing Floyd to struggle to hype them to his mostly juvenile audience. (“Vow, kids...vasn’t it SCARY vhen the vaitress put ketchup on those french fries?”). His frustration with the poor quality of the films would sometimes cause Floyd to break character and explain to the kids that he usually had little say in which movies he could show, as the station's cheap manager would buy blocks of films in which one or two good movies were "packaged" with several clunkers. His frustration was also shown in an episode in which he mistakenly re-emerged from his coffin before the end of the show (thinking the camera was off) muttering, "Damn, who the hell schedules these things?" On one occasion he finally had a scary movie to review (Blood-Sucking Monkeys From West Mifflin, Pennsylvania) but did not have the actual movie to show, so he improvised his impressions of the movie on his own.

Count Floyd often tried to make a quick buck during the movie by selling gimmicky products which would purportedly make the film seem more scary. Prices of these products would vary wildly, as though the figures were merely popping into his head as he promoted them. ("Just send me........ six dollars...")

3D glasses were a staple of these presentations, backed up by a large library of cheesy 3D horror films, including Tip O'Neill's 3D House of Representatives ("house" in many of these titles suggesting the classic 3D film House of Wax). The 3D effect of the films was merely a sad attempt to create a realistic effect, as it usually consisted of the actors getting extremely close to the camera (equipped with a fisheye lens to grossly exaggerate perspective) and lunging the object of 3D emphasis (including pancake syrup or the President's pen), or their own faces, back and forth at the lens.