Advertising / Wacky Zany Video

It's pretty much like this.

"Oh, yeah, y'all; this is the Kool-Aid Man! Come a little closer; we're about to embark on a fun tip. Just you, me and the TV - a'ight?"

— Not The Kool-Aid Man

From the early 1980s until 2008, Kool-Aid ran a promotional deal with now-defunct toy outlet Kay-Bee Toys known as the Kool Aid Points program. Kids who drank Kool Aid could cut out the point coupons on the back of each product and send them in to trade for merchandise like toys. This 30-minute video was one such possibility.

The video lives up to its name; imagine a bunch of Kool-Aid ads placed with public domain footage in a blender set on the highest setting. They include:

• An advertisement for Harry's Hedgehog Hideaway.
• Two big red buttons on a street corner, one of which will blow up a building.
• A short animation based on "The Banana Boat Song" (DAY-O)
• "Going Mental", the first of two 'interactive' games
• A three-parter sketch where a man tries - and fails - to get a newspaper
• The story of "Wilmer", the airplane-hijacking monkey
• Another ad, this time for the fictional "Wacky Wild Workout" video
• "Thirst Patrol"
• "Dog News Tonight", including the second game "Stump the Dog"
• And, lastly, a short Pixilation film about a motorcycle gang and moped club (Formerly known as "Vicious Cycles")

The video can now be found below at the links below. You can also find out more about the video and the Kool-Aid Points program here.

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

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Tropes include:

• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Wilmer the Monkey supposedly has an advanced understanding of aircraft, so he knows what hijinks he can get away with without intentionally endangering the human pilot
  • All of the dogs in "Dog News Tonight" are shown to be superior to humans; for example, footage of a hangglider with a dog riding on his back is interpreted as a dog hanggliding to save a falling human.
• Anthropomorphic Objects: Numerous in the Kool-Aid commercial material, but the Dom De Luise short focuses on one, a newspaper dispenser.
• Badass Biker: A whole gang of them.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: "Press Button to..."
  • "Cross Street"
  • "Blow Up Building"
• The Cameo: A Bill the Cat doll makes a couple of appearances in the Kay-Bee Toy Stores ad in the end.
  • Amongst all of the public domain footage, clips from Superman Theatrical Cartoons, Waikiki Wabbit, Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur, and even Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels can be seen.
• Don't Try This at Home: displayed during the intro to "Going Mental", as the announcer discusses lip syncing.
  • The first one, "Going Mental", takes place on a grid, where - by following the announcer's instructions - you'll always land on a spot marked "Kool-Aid". You will end up there no matter where you start.
  • The second one, "Stump the Dog", is a number puzzle where - again, by following instructions - the solution will always be two.
• Gratuitous Rap
• Our Hedgehogs are Different: ...seriously, what is that thing?
• Hurricane of Puns: "Dog News Tonight" is just filled with these, and the locations of Mrs. X and Mr. Z in Thirst Patrol are "Skeleton, KY" and "Either, OR".
• Informed Ability: Wilmer's expertise in modern aircraft and the dogs' abilities in "Dog News Tonight"
• Lampshade Hanging: "Thirst Patrol" pokes fun at Kool-Aid Man's willingness to destroy property long before Dane Cook ever did.
  Mr. Z: Oh, sure, everybody was happy to see him - everybody had a nice refreshing glass of Purplesaurus Rex flavored Kool-Aid - but...have you seen my wall? Who's gonna clean that up?!
  • "Boys and girls, I come from the planet 'Lip Sync.'
  • The human announcer for "Stump The Dog" is labeled as, "Also from Planet Lip Sync"
• Lip Lock: Anyone from the planet Lip Sync, but most apparent in the segment "Going Mental;" since the footage from the original clip (the trailer for It Came from Outer Space) is so short, they repeat the footage multiple times; so much of the dialogue needs to have the same inflections and patterns to match the speaker's hand gestures and lips.
  Original: I'm sure you'd all like to know something about the new entertainment miracle: 3rd dimension. What it is; what is does. Well, the best way I can describe it to you is to tell you that ...it makes the screen absolutely real and alive: people; objects; landscapes take on a depth and a dimension such as they have in real life.
  First dub: I'm sure you'd all like to know something about the new entertainment miracle: lip misreading. How it works; does it hurt? Well, the best way I can describe it to you is to tell you that ...we make our lips absolutely weird and contrived: adverbs; pronouns; adjectives. So you believe that you can read our lips, even though we are saying something else.
  Second dub: I'm sure you're all saying to yourselves, "That's no entertainment miracle; just a coincidence. What a fake. You're a sham." Well, the best way I can prove it to you is to tell you to ...rewind the tape back and start somewhere else: Pizza; burger; dancing. You can begin just about anywhere; I know just where you'll end up.
• Medium Blending: A rather unorthodox example in the last sketch; it's in live-action, but done in a stop-motion style (the actors are filmed one frame at a time to simulate the illusion of movement).
  • A straighter example comes from the Harry's Hedgehog Hideaway ad; the clip is taken from a silent film, and there's a sequence where bullets from a gun are drawn directly onto the celluloid.
• Mouth Flaps: Especially prominent whenever Kool-Aid Man is rapping.
• Parody Commercial: Both "Harry's Hedgehog Hideaway" and "Wacky Wild Workout"
• Product Placement: For Kool-Aid, it takes up most of the video. For Kay-Bee Toy Stores, however, they're reduced to having their name in the beginning and an ad after the video is done.
• The Quiet One: Most of the newspaper sketch is done with no talking, but Dom and a woman get a few lines in at the end. Everyone else is voiceless.
  Dom: [Being arrested by police for beating on the newspaper dispenser] No, no; you don't understand! It's out of order!
  Woman: You're out of order, you maniac! Take him away!
• Random Events Plot: Using the word 'plot' may be a bit of a stretch, however...
• Renaissance Man: The Kool-Aid Man. Lampshaded during "Thirst Patrol"
  Narrator: Once he appears, Kool-Aid Man has been known to demonstrate his unexpectedly efficient abilities on skateboards, horses, toboggans and go-karts much to the chagrin of nearby adult authority figures.
• Soul Brotha: The guy on the bongos during the Banana Boat song.
• Stop Motion: In an unusual example, the last sketch uses Pixillation - the stop-motion animation of live actors - to simulate riding invisible motorcycles and mopeds.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Trains collide and cars crash during the rap, and one sketch focuses on the actual destruction of an entire building.
• Super Window Jump: Happens to the singer of the Banana Boat Song after being locked out of the studio.
• Theme Tune Rap
• The Voiceless: The building demolition and biker gang sketches are done entirely voiceless, and most of the people in the newspaper sketch (with the exception of Dom and the old lady) are voiceless as well.

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