PARODY VIDEO: When famous cartoonists get hold of a camera

Ever wonder what nationally syndicated cartoonists do when not playing golf, cruising the Mediterranean or hitting drives off of a yacht while sipping extra-dry martinis and cruising oh-so-casually toward the Aegean?

Some of them, it turns out, channel their spare creativity into shooting swell parody films on the cheap.

As Comic Riffs noted from Jersey City a coupla weeks ago, one of the comedic highlights of the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Awards was the opening video: a parody of "The Godfather."

Yes, yes, nearly four decades after Coppola first spun Puzo into cinematic gold, you can't drop a reference to Fredo without hitting a "Godfather" parody. But how many of them feature Jeff Keane -- aka the immortal Jeffy from "Family Circus" -- as Vito Corleone? Or Jerry Scott -- the collaborative mind behind "Zits" and "Baby Blues" -- as a consigliere? From cartoonland, this is the ultimate "syndicate" -- and "Family Circus" is one of the five families.

About an hour after the video played the room at the Reubens, the video's mastermind -- Reubens show host Tom Gammill ("The Doozies") -- promised he'd send us a link. What can we say -- it was an offer we couldn't refuse.

So here at last, it's one wonderfully campy "Godfather," chock full of cartoon-industry jokes and co-starring "Pearls Before Swine's" Stephan Pastis (bemoaning R.C. Harvey's "criticism"); "Lio's" Mark Tatulli (crooning to his karaoke-heart's content); "Tank McNamara's" Bill Hinds (wishing for "a masculine winner"); cartoonist Sean Parkes (as Sonny/James Caan); and Gammill (as the "bed-bloodied" film director).

Here's the ultimate Reubens sandwich of cartoon campiness -- there's no holding the ham.

WHEN CARTOONISTS TAKE ON "THE GODFATHER"