This work of political satire was produced in 1998 as a fictitious network news broadcast on November 19, 2000. At the time of production, Jesse Ventura had just been elected governor of Minnesota, and Bill Clinton was mired in Lewinski-gate. The video imagines what it would be like if the World Wrestling Federation used the Reform Party to take over the US Government, and if Susan McDougal had the opportunity to depose Kenneth Starr.

This video screened to a seated audience only once. Those who have seen it say that they will never be the same again. It contains footage so extreme and disturbing that you will never get it out of your mind. There is nowhere on all of the Internet that it could possibly be hosted.

Warning - may contain spoilers

When I produced "Pard' Me" I brought it to the MIX Festival Gong Show just for fun, and because it was the only way I could screen at the festival without going through the full submission process. I got third place. The video that got first place was called "JonBenét Ramsey Goes to Nazi Germany." It was just some stupid chin-puppet piece with no real substance or wit. But JonBenét Ramsey was in the news at the time. I figured the video placed so well because it was topical.

The next year I set out to produce a video specifically for the Gong Show, and this time I wanted to win. My plan was to make something topical in hopes of recreating the success that the JonBenét Ramsey spoof did the year before. I also want it to be so jarringly attention-getting that it would leave the audience abjectly stunned. I figured that would have to be a winning combination.

I thought about what was currently in the news. Professional Wrestler Jesse Ventura had just been elected governor of Minnesota. I figured I would work off of that, as if another wrestler were running for President. Also in the news at the time was the Bill Clinton impeachment that came after the conclusion of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's multi-year witch hunt. I figured that would also be a popular topic. I decided to craft the piece as a hypothetical news broadcast from 2 years into the future, which would have been the year 2000.

Next I had to come up with the content. I switched on professional wrestling one night to record some footage. By a striking coincidence the second I got the VCR rolling they ran their own spoof that Hulk Hogan was running for President. It couldn't have been more perfect. It was just exactly what I needed.

Regarding the Kenneth Starr bit, I decided that I would portray it as him being under investigation himself for misconduct during his investigation of President Clinton. Specifically, it would be a recap of videotaped testimony from his deposition. The footage I used was something I had recently purchased off the world wide web. The internet was still new back then, and I had been using it to indulge some of my more exotic curiosities. In particular, I had been delving into the leather, bondage, and s&m scene. The tape that I ordered was of extreme male genital torture. When the VHS tape arrived and I set out to watch it, I wound up getting more than I bargained for. It was a lot more extreme than I expected, and frankly I found it very disturbing. However I figured it would be just right for this piece. The joke was that Kenneth Starr's genitals were getting tortured as an analog for a viciously aggressive deposition. It would be so jarringly attention-getting that there was no way it wouldn't get me first place. The problem was I had to go through every minute of this unpleasant and unsettling footage, watching it closely and carefully to select the clips that I wanted to use. It was not fun. It frankly turned my stomach. But the final product was quite incredible.

From there all I had to do was to script up the roles of the news anchor and the two correspondents who were reporting the respective pieces. I threw on some costumes and shot the footage. The hardest part of that, frankly, was doing the picture-in-picture effect for the news anchor who had the introductory slates over his shoulder. I had a friend of mine down at the Public Access studio put that together. The scenes for the correspondents were shot on the Cornell campus, which provided the perfect backdrops, particularly for the political convention. From that point all I had to do was edit it together and I was done.

I brought the tape to the MIX Gong Show. My heart was pounding when my video began. It started pretty tamely, but by the time it got to the male genital torture the whole theater positively erupted. It was exactly the reaction I was hoping for. Unfortunately that didn't translate into success with the judges. I got third place again. But this video wins the prize for being the most unforgettable. I don't gauge success based on whether people like my work as much as whether they remember it. This piece is literally unforgettable. People who have seen it continue to chide me over it decades later.