There’s a long history of pop culture pranking…going back to the 1940s and Candid Camera, and it has existed or continues to exist through the likes of Pranked, Eric Andre, Impractical Jokers, and of course, a litany of TikTokers including Nelkboys, Mizzy and many others.
And Windy City Heat puts pranking front and centre, but as a full-length feature.
The 2003 Comedy Central production takes the idea of The Truman Show – an unwitting hero and everyone else either a confederate or accomplice – but makes it mockumentary-style instead.
Everyman Perry Caravello is a Chicagoan wannabe movie star who works at a print shop, and resembles the illegitimate son of Steven Wright and Sylvester Stallone. Caravello has a weirdly cherubic face and his shock of Andre the Giant hair, and is a strangely compelling, if ornery, petty character.
And he’s cast in a fake movie, one that’s legit enough to fool Caravello, who’s appeared as an extra in several productions.
The viewer then gets to witness the Dunning Kruger effect in action, as the inept Caravello, who fancies himself a method actor, is put through the paces as if he were a legitimate player: cast in the lead role of a sports PI by the name of Stone Fury.
And the producers – who include Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla – provide dressing rooms, a trailer, craft services, sycophantic set PA, a phony film agent.
In fact, like a real movie, they cater – no pun intended – to Perry’s every need, in a recurring gag, repeatedly bringing the actor food at inappropriate times.
The “director” is Bobcat Goldthwait, who uses a megaphone in casual conversation and who instructs Caravello to “dial back the Scott Baio and dial up the De Nero.”
Windy City Heat pushes Caravello to his limits – a satirical pulling back of the curtain to reveal the extent to which people are obsessed about breaking into the film business.
The producers push the envelope, knowing full well that not only is Caravello a dupe – he’s also a dope. His colleagues on set run the gamut of notable people/events through history: there are producers named John Quincy Adams and Nagasaki Hiroshima, and even a casting agent named Roman Polanski (played by Dane Cook).
And none of these famous name checks, ring a bell.
Caravello is a classic LOLCOW. He was, and continues to remain, oblivious, running a Twitch channel in which people just pay to watch his everyday life, a modern day geek shows, with viewers charging the equivalent of two bits a gander, or superchats, to gawk at the spectacle of an overbearing weirdo in a crappy apartment yelling at the internet.
Windy City Heat certainly has its detractors – those who say Caravello is in on it.
Kimmel claims the contrary, but also sank a bunch of money into this production, which was a complete flop and therefore has a vested interest in its resurgence.
That said, witnessing Caravello’s behaviour now, it’s definitely not outside the realm of possibility he’s a star-chaser.
See for yourself.
*** (out of 5)
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