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This article is about the 1984 VHS release. You may be looking for a similarly named tour, live album, or soundtrack album. |
Mole Show/Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats? is the first home video release by The Residents, issued on VHS in NTSC format in the US via Ralph Records on October 2nd 1984, and by Doublevision in PAL format in the UK and Europe in 1985.
The video contains two short features: Mole Show, featuring footage of two performances from the group's then-recent Mole Show tour, and Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?, a compilation of footage from the group's abandoned feature film project Vileness Fats.
Two related albums were released alongside this video; the newly recorded soundtrack for Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? in 1984, and PAL TV LP in 1985.
History[]
In 1982, The Residents became interested in the then-developing VHS home video format, and so the next year they decided to film three performances from their 1983 Mole Show tour for potential release - the first performance, a performance in Spain, and the final performance. These three videos were all compiled into a 27 minute long short feature entitled Mole Show.
The Residents then had the idea to edit some of the footage from their abandoned feature film project Vileness Fats (shot between 1974 and 1976), ultimately creating a 33 minute long "concentrate" version from the 14 hours of film and video footage kept in the group's archives.
This heavily shortened version of the Vileness Fats narrative, entitled Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?, also featured a newly-created, mostly-instrumental soundtrack which replaced the original audio, which the group felt was of too low a quality to be suitable for release.
These two short features were then combined to produce an hour long VHS, which was released by Ralph Records in NTSC format in the US in 1984. The video was then released in PAL format in the UK and Europe in 1985 by Doublevision.
Two related album releases followed the release of the video; the soundtrack to Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? in 1984, and the PAL TV LP in 1985, including selections from both features.
A newly restored version of Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats? premiered on October 27th 2024 at OFFLINE Cinema in Glasgow, Scotland. The screening also included an additional hour of raw footage from Vileness Fats, newly restored by video archivist Peter Conheim for the Cinema Preservation Alliance, with never before heard audio captured by the cameras on the set of the film.
Mole Show[]
- Voices of The Air
- The Ultimate Disaster
- The Sky Falls
- Back To Normality?
- First Warning
- Won't You Keep Us Working?
- Another Land
- Rumors
- Arrival
- Deployment
- Saturation
- Final Confrontation
- Driving The Moles Away
- Don't Tread On Me
- The Short War
- Resolution?
- Smack Your Lips (Clap Your Teeth)
- The New Machine
- Idea
- Construction
- Failure
- Reconstruction
- Success
- Migration
- Happy Home
Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? synopsis[]
Mole Show/Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? VHS back cover
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The midget residents of a village called Vileness Flats are under constant assault by Atomic Shopping Carts. The villagers enlist the aid of conjoined twin tag-team wrestlers, Arf and Omega Berry. Arf and Omega fight off the Atomic Shopping Carts by invoking the immortal Indian priestess Weescoosa.
A banquet is held in their honor, where the Mayor of Vileness Flats personally thanks them. Steve, the village's religious leader, delivers a lengthy, boring speech. Arf and Omega heckle and throw their food at Steve, and he walks away, dejected.
Steve has his own problems; no-one but his mother knows that he has a secret hidden personality, that of Lonesome Jack, leader of a gang of midgets named The Bell Boys who live on the other side of the bridge. To complicate matters further, both Steve and Lonesome Jack are in love with Weescoosa, who has spent eternity searching for her one true love. Whenever it seems that she has found him, he dies tragically.
With the Atomic Shopping Carts out of the way, the Bell Boys begin raids on Vileness Flats: they will be able to cross the bridge disguised as meat, in order to steal the real meat from the village. The villagers ask Arf and Omega to deal with the Bell Boys, and they agree.
Before they do anything, however, the twins head off to a local nightclub, Uncle Willy's, to relax. They see a performance of "Eloise" by N. Senada and The Residents and meet beautiful singer Peggy Honeydew, who performs "Lord It's Lonely", and later flirts with both twins, causing them to become jealous of each other.
Arf and Omega become engaged in a knife fight, with Omega eventually killing Arf. The nightclub's owner Uncle Willy delivers the closing moral of the story as Omega pathetically drags his dead twin from the dance floor. Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? ends at this point, as the intended finale to the film was never completed by the group before the project was abandoned.
The Residents' Scene Descriptions[]
Siamese twin tag team wrestlers, Arf and Omega Berry (Palmer Eiland and George Ewart), are first seen in a motel room. Omega is asleep as Arf watches a news bulletin about a fight between a band of renegade Bellboys and a group of virtually defenceless townspeople. Hoping to turn the battle from a minor bloodbath to a major massacre, the Berry Boys recite a magic chant, designed to summon an enchanted Indian priestess, Weescoosa (Sally Lewis), who spends eternity rescuing short people from life threatening situations. Curiously, since the combatants on BOTH sides of the battle are one-armed midgets, the resulting scenario is uniquely no-win AND no-lose. The scene ends with Arf and Omega chanting: "Kick a cat, kick a cat, kick a cat today, fish are dumb, pluck an eye from one."
[After their defeat at the hands of Weescoosa,] hiding out in their cave on the edge of the desert, the Bellboys are seen constructing atomic shopping carts in preparation for their next attack on the town. As their confidence begins to wane, Lonesome Jack (Jay Clem) reminds them of the magic powers of Evergreen, the essence of purity and truth. With their beliefs validated once again, the Bellboys are re-inspired.
[Meanwhile, in the home of a local teenager who has befriended her], Weescoosa (Sally Lewis) seems to take the casual brushoff [of Steve, the re-incarnation of her lover] much more seriously than the situation warrants, causing confusion in her friend; regardless, little Ninnie (Danny Williams) knowingly suggests that nothing gets a man's attention better than a nice new dress. After initially resisting the idea, Weescoosa weakens after seeing the striking sequin covered dress drug out of her new friend's closet.
In flashback, Weescoosa tells Ninnie about previous affairs with Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln, [previous incarnations of Steve,] casually remarking that the statuesque Lincoln was actually quite short but appeared taller due to the Indian priestess's magic spell. Ninnie, of course, has no idea what her friend is talking about.
As the [next] scene opens, an older woman (Marge Howard) is stuffing a seemingly endless stream of dirty white clothes into a washing machine. As she works, the woman is speaking to someone, apparently her son, off camera. The voice is recognizable as that of Steve, but as they talk, his personality seems to change, becoming increasingly confident and assertive. Finally at the end of the scene, the other person is revealed to be Lonesome Jack, the other side of Steve's split personality. Having completed the transformation, he kisses his mother goodbye and leaves.
Despondent and depressed, the defeated Bellboys have virtually given up hope when Lonesome Jack suddenly appears in the cave singing the inspirational Evergreen theme song. Joining in with their inspirational leader, the rebels' lift their voices in song - elevating their hopes once again.
[Later on,] Steve is seen leaving his mother's house in the sparkling white garments of a respected religious leader.
[Later still,] Arf and Omega are being honored at a banquet for having saved the town. The twins are welcomed by the good natured mayor who then introduces the pompous religious leader, Steve. As Steve delivers his standard pretentious and self serving speech, Arf and Omega begin to mock the town's leader, then pummel the midget with giant pieces of broccoli. The previously condescending Steve, now covered with broccoli sauce stains, loses his composure and quickly leaves; the humiliating attack by Arf and Omega has triggered his transformation back to Lonesome Jack. Shortly after, Weenie, disguised as a waiter, shows Arf and Omega the matchbook given to him by Lonesome Jack. The matches are from Willie's Hot Spot, the local night club; claiming an aversion to broccoli, the only item on the menu, the twins hurriedly excuse themselves and leave.
[Then,] In a brief musical number, the Mysterious N. Senada is seen performing "Eloise" in the night club.
[Meanwhile,] Lonesome Jack has just revealed his Master Plan [and] the Bellboys are happily working away on their meat costumes. Lonesome Jack tells Weenie that he has to go out to the desert to meditate.
[Eventually,] With their meat costumes now complete, The Bellboys are ready to carry out their latest assault on the unsuspecting townspeople. Weenie sends Mel to find Lonesome Jack in the desert.
As Arf and Omega enter Willie's Hot Spot, Peggy Honeydew (Margaret Swaton), Lonesome Jack's girlfriend, is singing. Easily impressed by feminine pulchritude, the twins are ecstatic as they are led to a table by the stage.
Lonesome Jack and Weescoosa [are seen in the desert in a] love scene. Initially, the Indian priestess still attempts to resist, but the outcome is unavoidable, and gradually she succumbs.
Peggy Honeydew joins Arf and Omega at their table. With little effort, the beautiful singer soon has the bickering brothers at each other's throat. Lonesome Jack's Master Plan is apparently working.
Oblivious to everything else, Lonesome Jack and Weescoosa are consumed with the passionate throes of true love.
As the tension between Arf and Omega escalates, they continue to antagonize each other. Pleased to be the center of attention between two big, strong men, Peggy convinces them to have a contest to determine which one can hold his breath the longest. Encouraged by the smug Peggy Honeydew, Arf and Omega continue to provoke each other. As the tension in the night club continues to grow, it soon becomes obvious that the brother's confrontation will not result in a happy conclusion. As the scene ends, Willie, the owner of the night club (Hardy Fox), presents the twins with a pair of knives - with blindfolds in place, the brothers prepare for a duel to the death. [A] brief incantation [occurs], overseen by a mysterious cape dancer (Homer Flynn) symbolizing nothing less than death itself.
Weenie, disguised as a frankfurter, hurries into the mother's house, breathlessly informing the older woman that her son has gone to the Window of Never. Without hesitation, and with a mother's love burning in her heart, Lonesome Jack's mother quickly dons her asbestos suit and hurries off to save her son.
[Steve and Weescoosa] are [meanwhile] abruptly interrupted by Mel. Without hesitation, the stoic Bellboy informs his leader that preparations for the Master Plan are now complete, and the rest of the rebels are waiting on word from him. Completely conflicted between true love and duty, the overwrought rebel leader is suddenly helpless, and incapable of making a decision. Turning, as if to run away, he bumps Weescoosa, who then falls, hitting her head and knocking herself unconscious. Mumbling that he has no choice but to seek advice from the mysterious Window of Never, Lonesome Jack suddenly disappears. Confused, Mel returns to the cave to inform Weenie.
Arf and Omega begin to battle it out on the floor of the night club. Fueled by a fury that only exists in siblings doggedly confronting each other, day after edgy day, the fight escalates with a fever pitch, finally concluding as Arf slips, giving Omega the opening he needs to stab his brother in the heart. This shocking moment of sudden death is then immediately followed by a voice, declaring that Steve, the leader of the town, is at the Window of Never; startled by this unexpected announcement, the crowd vanishes, leaving Omega standing in the center of the dance floor with his dead brother. With the night club suddenly silent, the anguished twin slowly drags his brother's body towards the door, leaving no one in the room except a ventriloquist and his dummy, dancing together on stage. As Arf and Omega pathetically exit the room, the ventriloquist and dummy deliver the story's moral, in the form of an absurd poem, with Willie, the night club's owner, slithering up to utter the final punch line.
Liner notes[]
Mole Show
The Residents toured a large portion of the world from the fall of 1982 to the summer of 1983. The Residents' Mole Show contains excerpts of shows in Madrid, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, plus computer animation and graphics. It is 27 minutes long.
Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?
From 1972-1976, during the height (or depth) of their "theory of obscurity" period, The Residents worked on a video movie called Vileness Fats; it was never completed. Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? is an edited version of several scenes from the movie plus a new soundtrack. It is 33 minutes long.
Credits[]
Mole Show[]
- Written, directed, with music by: The Residents
- Produced by: The Cryptic Corp
- Computer graphics and animation by: Pore No Graphics and Leigh Barbier
- Edited by: Lou Quillen
- Sound recording by: VPRO Radio, Hilversum, The Netherlands
- Audio consultant: Phillip Perkins
- Choreography by: Kathleen French
- Dancers: Kathleen French, Carol Werner LeMaitre, Deborah LVC Benskin, Sarah McLennan Walker and Chris Van Ralte
- Sets and props by: Pore No Graphics
- Lighting: Phillip Perkins and Dan Gillian
Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?[]
- Written, produced, directed and original soundtrack by: The Residents
- Starrring: Jay Clem, George Ewart, Marge Howard, Sally Lewis, Hugo Olson, Margarat Smik and Danny Williams
- With: Alberto, Dan, Bill Dewalt, Irene Dogmatic, Diane and Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, Ken and Sally, Tony Logan and Dennis Sealy
- Narrated by: Laurence Campling
- Produced by: The Cryptic Corporation
- Edited by: Nik Fault
- Computer graphics by: Poor No Graphics and Leigh Barbier
- Audio consultant: Phillip Perkins
- Lighting: Graeme Whifler
- Sets: The Residents
- Costumes: The Residents and Diane Flynn
- Editing: John Kennedy
- Napoleon scene set and direction: Graeme Whifler
See also[]
- Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? (album)
- The Mole Show
- PAL TV LP
- Vileness Fats
- Video Voodoo Volume I
- Icky Flix (DVD)
External links and references[]
- Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? at The Residents Historical
- Mole Show/Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? on Discogs
- Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? at IMDb
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The Mole Show (1982-1983) Set list |
