Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Miss Nymphet’s Zap-In is basically a skin flick spoof of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Since it’s a comedy directed by a guy who is best known for being “The Godfather of Gore”, it should come as no surprise that it’s painfully unfunny. The film is mostly comprised of bad skits that play out like filmed versions of comics you’d see in men’s magazines like Playboy. Occasionally, our hostess Miss Nymphet (Bambi Allen, who was also in Lewis’ Linda and Abilene) will appear to tell an equally bad joke and/or whip her tits out.
Lewis has made some bad movies in his time, and to be frank, this is among his worst. While his best films (Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs, and She-Devils on Wheels) have a tinge of tongue in cheek humor, he really isn’t a comedy director. In Miss Nymphet’s Zap-In, the timing on nearly all the jokes is off, and the material itself is lousy and obvious. Whenever there is a stray decent joke, it’s usually ruined by the wooden performers whose forte is definitely not comedy.
Some of the characters reoccur in multiple sketches, such as a doctor, a Russian ambassador, a sexy cannibal, and so on. They weren’t exactly hilarious the first time around and their frequent appearances wear thin after a while. The longest segment is a spoof of old stag reel loops that goes on way past its expiration date. Also, the interstitials of characters waltzing around in circles and periodically yelling, “ZAP!” gets irritating almost immediately.
The nudity is plentiful though. Women are seen topless in nearly every scene (there’s also topless go-go dancing), but even these vignettes suffer from crude staging and cheap sets. Since none of this comes close to being arousing (or funny), I can pretty much guarantee you’ll be zapped out long before the movie is over.
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