A Stroll Down Memory Lane... [nothing to do with video games]

Kool-Aid: Wacky Zany Video

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Hey g1s! I wanted to take a break from video games (blasphemy, I know) to show you something I found in my old VHS collection that I had a lot of fond memories of. If you like retro stuff, it doesn't get anymore retro than this! It's weirder than Pee-Wee's Playhouse and Weird Al's "UHF". It's a strange piece of retro goodness that's too weird and awesome to let people forget about. Since there is almost zero information on it (even the almighty Wikipedia has failed us here), I'm displaying all my knowledge on it here on ScrewAttack. I bring to you the Wacky-Zany Video from Kool-Aid & Kay Bee Toy Stores.

What is it? It was a rare promotional VHS tape given out by Kay Bee Toy Stores in the early 90's to promote Kool-Aid and Kay Bee Toys which is now known as K B Toys.

It's called "Wacky Zany Video" in the opening intro, but the label on the cassette displays the full title of “Wacky-Zany Video from Kool-Aid & Kay Bee Toy Stores". The tape itself only had an end label facing out at you from the VCR. There was no top label and it was distributed without a dust jacket - just a straight-up VHS tape!

Besides being a plug for mostly Kool-Aid with a hint of Kay Bee Toys, the film is pretty much a 30 min. mash up of random stock footage, skits and animation.

The intro features kids searching for Kool-Aid and that's about it. The film itself is interspersed with parts of a Kool-Aid rap which features the Kool-Aid in live action and animated clips from commercials. The film is also interspersed with segments of an ongoing story of Dom DeLuise trying to get a newspaper from a possessed newspaper dispenser. This tape is so obscure that I can’t find it in Dom DeLuise’s filmography on IMDB.com or Wikipedia.org, but I plan to change that soon. Here's the only piece of information I ever found on it: http://projectabsurd.byethost6.com/koolaidvideo.htm

There's also a faux commercial for a hedgehog relocation business, a clip of a man blowing up a building by mistake with a button placed near a crossing signal, an animated short of a bongo player trying to outshine a singer in a recording studio during a taping of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", a game where you try to pick the last remaining square (which is actually pretty fun), an Aesop-Fable sort of tale about not lying to your parents that features a monkey causing a plane to crash into a house full of people, a 1 min. workout for kids that features random clips just like the Kool-Aid rap, a news station for dogs that features stories of dogs from places like “Basset-chusetts” and “Northern Collie-fornia”, a math game where a dog guesses the number that you came up with, a show called "Thirst Patrol" where the Kool-Aid Man is wanted for vandalism, bikers challenging a scooter club to a street race on invisible motorcycles and a weird Kay Bee Toys commercial after the short 3 second credits that feature creepy puppet children.

It's pretty weird and you might only be able to watch it if you're high. Actually, this can be considered as the ultimate stoner flick. However, it's got that retro vibe and I loved it as a 90’s kid because it's... well, wacky. I used to wait for that guy to blow up the building on accident. I felt like a genius after beating the 9-squared game. I was freaked out by the puppet/news anchor in the "Stump that Dog" intro and I thought the invisisble motorcycle race was awesome. Old school memories FTW!

- Chase357