Trivia / The Kentucky Fried Movie

• There is a scene in the A Fistful of Yen segment where a character taps out to a jujigatamae, also known in professional wrestling as a crucifix armbar or a cross-armbreaker. Tapping out to signal a submission would not be seen by American audiences until the rise in 1993 of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and was later brought into pro wrestling by Taz.^note Although the signal has always been used in collegiate wrestling and the Olympics, so it wasn't entirely unheard of in the 1970's.
• California Doubling: Hand-in-hand with No Budget, the whole film was shot in Southern California. Some of the exterior shots of Dr. Klahn's compound were done in a tea garden at a Japanese restaurant in Hollywood.
• Executive Meddling: A more humorous example, but ZAZ wanted to name the movie either “Closed for Repairs’’, or “Free Popcorn” knowing it would’ve looked funny on theater marquee‘s in the 70's. Obviously theaters weren’t as happy about that notion.
• Follow the Leader: ZAZ readily admit that both their live Kentucky Fried Theater show (which mixed film and video with live improv) and this film were inspired by Ken Shapiro's Channel One live multimedia comedy shows and the 1974 film anthology of their sketches, The Groove Tube, which was a big underground hit at the time.
• Life Imitates Art: Using oil from fast food restaurants to fuel cars!? Ha ha! ha... wait, what? They do that now?
• No Budget: So much so that many of the sets had to be built outdoors because the filmmakers couldn't afford lighting! The credits also wrongfully claim that the performers are listed in order of appearance because they didn't have enough money to change them after making some last-minute edits.
• Recycled Script: Nearly all of the segments were from their Kentucky Fried Theatre skits.
• Referenced by...: In one of his Al TV specials, "Weird Al" Yankovic recreated the gag of Judy Morton haphazardly tossing the gerbil over her shoulder once she's finished showing it to the camera by doing the same thing to Harvey the Wonder Hamster after singing his theme song.
• Role Reprise: Tony Dow as Wally Cleaver in "Courtroom". It marked the first time Dow played the character since the original run of Leave It to Beaver ended.
• Throw It In!: The gong beater breaking in a take, sending the head off to the camera, swearing when a flag is broken.
  • Bong Soo Han muttering "shit" under his breath while in stage combat with Evan Kim.
• What Could Have Been: DVD commentary mentions there once being discussion of a full-length Cleopatra Schwartz spin-off movie.