You have to be smart to make a great dumb comedy, and no legitimate list of superior stupidity would be complete without 1989's "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure." The movie did more than any other to make the word "dude" a permanent part of the lexicon, and saddled its young co-star, Keanu Reeves, with an airhead persona he was unable to shake until he was chosen to save the world in "The Matrix."

"Bill & Ted" sent failing suburban California high-schoolers and air-guitarists Bill (Reeves) and Ted (Alex Winter) on a hilarious traipse through time and history under the tutorship of the mysterious Rufus (George Carlin). It has long been available on DVD, but is now the centerpiece of the three-disc set, "Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Collection" (MGM). The set includes 1991's "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey," which sends the pair on a more metaphysical quest to track down the evil robots who killed them and assumed their identities.

The sequel is about half as funny as the original, but fans who don't own the first film should be swayed by the bonus disc, which reunites the duo with screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon to talk over old times. It includes a "Most Triumphant" making-of retrospective, along with loads of other ridiculous stuff, including a dummy's guide to the "nine historical dudes and one girl dressed as a dude" the pair met on the road to enlightenment. Steve Vai pops in a how-to-play-air guitar instructional video, and the compilers have also thoughtfully included a Bill & Ted glossary for those non-conversant in '80s slang.

TRAVELING FREAK SHOW

Filmed under the title "Hideous Mutant Freekz," it grew out of a skit on an MTV show Winter created with Tom Stern. Winter plays a spoiled former child star who is kidnapped by the owner of a traveling freak show (Randy Quaid) and fused with his girlfriend (Megan Ward) to make a pair of Siamese twins.

The cast includes Mr. T as the troupe's bearded lady, Bobcat Goldthwait as a half-human sock puppet, Brooke Shields as a newscaster who runs afoul of Quaid and pays the price, and an uncredited Reeves as the resident dog-faced boy.

The two-disc set's most interesting bonus is a "rehearsal version" of the film, which has the cast running through the script sans the elaborate makeup, and two very funny short films by Winter and Stern, whose subsequent credits include directing "The Jimmy Kimmel Show."

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