As a sample of Jeff and JJ’s sleuthing, Max led off the night with “Carpet Monkey,” a series of mock commercials for a carpet store that are hilarious. They must be on the web somewhere. The first film in competition, “Distress of the Princess” by Garret Weaver, a high school “Star Wars” spoof that featured teens battling with light sabers, began with goofy charm but sputtered. It earned a cheer at the end. Next up Trevor Davies’ experimental film “Blank” garnered both jeers and cheers.

“Town Is Hell,” by A.L. Bear, told the rambling story of two orphan siblings who wander out of the desert into town (that would be Tucson) and pawn their dead parents’ wedding rings for food. The crowd hollered for the gong, and the roar built and built, but still Max waved his mallet ambiguously. At last, Max caved to the clamor and GONG, off it went.

Max threw in one of his picks next, “Piano Lesson,” a tender hearted story about a boy and his elderly female piano teacher, a teacher whose flatulence stops the music. It was funny, and one of two picks that came from the scadshorts.com Web site. After that Brian Promanaker’s “No Naked Clowns, Guaranteed” about a controlling girlfriend fell to the gong. Derek Seiple’s comedy short “Gum Mugging” about a guy who gets his gum stolen on the elevator, twice, charmed the crowd. It showed sly comic timing with a sweet, dry sense of humor. Well done. Grant Hunker screened a re-cut, “Question Mark,” a snappy trailer version of his previous “gun hands” film that won laughs.

Max followed that with another pick from scadshorts.com (the Savannah College of Art and Design), and this one about the chubby love god Cupid, titled “Skewered Citizens Amuse Demigod,” was the funniest film of the night and incredibly well executed. I don’t want to tell you more. I want you to watch it on the web, right now, at scadshorts.com.

On the heels of Cupid we saw “Karate” by the inimitable Brett Brimmer. In this outing, Brimmer composed a ditty about a small dragon in a cupboard that won some hearts and minds, and contained no karate as far as I can recall. Sterner gave his commentary using the art of ventriloquism and a “bad clown doll” which spooked many of us. I keep seeing that damn doll out of the corner of my eye. Tim Lavoie, Avi Kazen, Jay Thomas and John Tullar brought us “The Terrorist Training Tape,” a send-up of Al-Queda style terrorist videos. It was truly strange, funny at times, bewildering at others, unmistakably twisted.

Jason Burke and his “brother” introduced the next film. The two teens stood up in boy-band attire and introduced themselves as brothers from the mock boy band “The Fourmal.” They went through a whole off-the-cuff (but scripted) chat about the band and the video. And then the video rolled, and we watched Burke and his bro give the exact same introduction we’d all just heard. And the catcalls started up. But then, but then… the music video started. The Fourmal sang their new single “Girl Hold On Girl” and it was done in perfect imitation 1980s style, and the song was catchy! A full-on spoof, yet with genuine pop charm all the same. The crowd hollered in appreciation.

Max brought us all back down to earth after that with an Asian reality video that I still don’t want to think about. If you really want to know, ask somebody who was there. It was so wrong.

Then Ryan Osterloh sustained the pain with his “Happy Times” entry that used shock tactics to frighten, then went for comedic violence. Michael O’Day brought “Patches NY Episode 8: The Government,” another story featuring his Patches character. Two boys wander a dark house with candles, and wander, and then get gonged. And to round out the night, Philip Lybrand (yes, he wrote last month’s “In Film We Trust” review) delivered the “John Williams Sing-Along,” a happy movie-music romp with impressive sing-a-long titles. You may know Williams’ music from such mega-hits as “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jaws,” “E.T.,” “Superman,” and yes, “The Sugarland Express.” We all knew the music; we all sang along to the words Lybrand had devised for the tunes. It was like we were all one big happy dysfunctional family. But the music ended, the crowd applauded, and it was time to vote for the evening’s grand prize.

The clap-o-meter cranked way up for “Girl Hold On Girl” and “John Williams Sing-Along” but I guess the boy band was just a bit catchier, because The Fourmal took home the prize money. Congrats to all four Burke brothers. High praise to all the filmmakers for their courage and tenacity. Check out Lybrand’s new Web site tucsonfilmmaker.com where he strives to link to all the Loft Contest videos on the web and build a better Tucson film scene. And don’t miss next month which is the FFS Year End Showdown – the winner from each of the past 12 months competes for the grand prize! Plus, there will be new films that show up for April’s monthly prize. See you there.