VHS: Absurd, Odd, and Ridiculous Relics from the Videotape Era

by Joe Pickett, Nick Prueher

The decade of 1988-1998 was the Golden Age of VHS, a time when anybody with a pulse, a camcorder, and a few bucks could market a video. Comedy writers Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher have spent the last 20 years collecting the best odd and unintentionally hilarious videotapes ever produced. Since 2004, they've resurrected them for sold-out audiences across the country as part of their touring show, the Found Footage Festival. Now, for the very first time, they've collected the greatest VHS covers into one handsome compendium -- along with their priceless snarky commentary throughout.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Film

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet and dopey. But if you ever get a chance to see the Found Footage Festival live, DO NOT MISS IT.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's not to like about books like these? It's similar to taking a Xanax and just turning pages.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

mildly funny

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The comments are just icing on the cake.

[Ramtico · Rating 5 out of 5]

9

[Deusdedit Diez De Sollano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Divertido, aunque considerando la existencia de RLM y su fascinante descenso a los videos baratos, es un tanto simplista quedarse en la portada.

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last November, I attended a show put on by the Found Footage Festival and Found Magazine in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I had been unaware of the FFF, but the videos they showed were hilarious, examples of unintentional (and intentional humor) from the golden age of VHS when anyone could publish their own whacky videos. Highlighting perfect time capsules of the excesses and oddities of late '80s, early '90s culture. I finally got around to reading their book, a compilation of the bizarre and absurd VHS covers, advertising instructional videos for painting miniatures or crafting jigs!, cat videos from before the internet, and other fun stuff. While not, of course, as utterly hilarious as the FFF video collections, VHS the book is still an entertaining look back at the video age and some good found retro fun.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love the Found Footage Festival, this one's a no-brainer - you have to get this collection of cover images. The commentary is minimal - usually just a sentance or phrase - but most of these truly speak for themselves. A few were featured on the last couple DVDs, but many will be new to you - and plus, it's great to have a book to flip through when you need a laugh and don't have time to sit down and watch a whole DVD.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny stuff. I watch videos of found footage on youtube and peek into books like this every now and then because I know...I KNOW it will be just a matter of time when some of the retarded crap I did in the 80s will appear somewhere. Closed circuit newscasts for the Navy, acting in an educational video with nothing more than pizza for payment, or the never finished movie we made running around in the woods...it's all gonna come back to haunt me someday.

[Hans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to disclose one quick item: Nick Prueher is a personal friend who I have known for over 12 years. Through Nick, I have also had the chance to share several meals, laughs, and FFFs with Joe Pickett. So, in my unbiased opinion:

This book is the most important book to be published since The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. It may literally save the world.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair number of chuckles. The problem with adding captions to this sort of material is that, if they are not uniformly hilarious they are apt to come off as rather stupid (there's not a lot of middle ground in this, I think).

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face and my stomach started to hurt. Then I gave it to my husband to read and watched him do the same.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

HA! The covers speak for themselves and you wouldn't think you'd need or read captions but they're brilliant. My GOD we wore a lot of unitards back then.

[David Kirschner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great coffee table book by the guys who do Found Footage Festival. I've been lucky enough to see it a few times. The book is pretty funny.

[Dianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this weeding the 800's for low circ. I'm totally saving this book - it is hilarious and exactly the kind of thing it's fun to stumble across in the library.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quck, funny read.