"Comedy Video Classics" is a tour de force of humor of the lowest brow, and I'm hear to tell you, it is funny. "Help Me Make it Through the Night" starts seriously, but soon turns into a free-for-all of outrageous sight gags and sound effects, with Ray playing about a dozen different parts. In the mildly risque "It's Me Again Margaret," Ray's an obscene phone caller who utters the immortal line "Are ya nekkiiiiiiid!" to his plus-size victim. (The video has an amusing twist ending.) "Santa Claus is Watching You," a rockin' early tune, isn't particularly funny (despite shamelessly exploiting a Little Person for cheap laughs), but it does showcase Ray's agility with witty lyrics. Ray is in very good voice on "Sittin' Up with the Dead" and has a field day making fun of a creepy Southern custom. The catchy "Surfin' U.S.S.R.," a Cold War send-up done Beach Boys style, has the video's best sight gag: Russian sailors holding up pictures of Communist leader Vladimir Lenin while Ray flashes one of John Lennon. Surely aimed at rigid Southern Baptists, "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" has Sister Bertha Better-Than-You and members of the First Self-Righteous Church getting their hilarious comeuppance one fateful Sunday. Ray's hugely popular "The Streak" makes a perfect transition to video, complete with cheesy animation, and gives Ray his best role as a Caterpillar-cap wearing redneck trying to protect his wife Ethel from the evils ("He was a-dribblin'!") of that Seventies fad. Finally, just to prove he has a serious side, Ray does his classic "Everything is Beautiful," a sentiment that's hard to argue with after you've laughed so hard.

While obviously made on the cheap, the videos are smartly directed and edited and the production values are modest but professional. More importantly, the good time being had by cast and crew comes over like a tidal wave. It bears mentioning, too, that the musicianship on all the tunes is absolutely top-notch.

I've owned this video for ten years, and everybody I've ever shared it with has near about rolled on the floor. It's
family-friendly and a sure cure for whatever ails you.