In Eric Bickernicks' world, parking meters spew tickets spontaneously, pay phones seize cars for unpaid toll calls and eggs beg for mercy as they sizzle in a hot frying pan.

Bickernicks, 29, is the creative force behind much of the bizarre and irreverent local programming aired on Dedham cable's community access channel. And his comedy videos are beginning to attract national attention. Several of Bickernicks' comedy videos have been aired on a nationally syndicated television show, and one animated short - "The Man Who Smellt a Little Too Much Like Urine" - merited a mention in Rolling Stone's "What's Hot" issue. MTV has asked him to submit video clips.

Bickernicks hopes the rush of attention will produce the so-far elusive big break that will allow him to leave his full-time job filming Dedham selectmen's meetings. "I'm dying to go to California at this point," Bickernicks said. "I'm gearing myself up to distribute and produce a real film, to go out to L.A. and try to get work."

Bickernicks studied film production at Framingham State College but he says the equipment was ancient and he lost interest. He dropped out of school and worked at a variety of odd jobs, from movie theater usher to parts assembler in a manufacturing plant. Even as he assembled motion detectors, Bickernicks found himself daydreaming about filmmaking. In 1984, he abandoned his last dead-end job and volunteered to film local access programs for Cablevision of Norwood. He worked as a short-order cook at Friendly's during the day, to support himself. "I had to wake up at 6 every morning, and I'm a night person," Bickernicks said. "But I was determined to get a job in cable television, so I forced myself to wake up."

But even as he flipped eggs and bacon on the griddle, Bickernicks was scripting videos. "I was carrying eggs and one fell," Bickernicks said. "In the back of my head, I heard a little scream." That inspired one of Bickernicks' first videos, "Scrambled Eggs." Eggs wearing human faces gurgle in protest - "Hey, wait! I can't swim!" - as Bickernicks immerses them in boiling water. Others utter muffled screams as he cracks them into a hot frying pan. "This never happens to vegetables," one egg remarks.

In four years at Norwood cable Bickernicks produced an array of wacky programs along with his other duties as a paid producer of local access programming. "Of all the people I've met in local programming, he has been the most creative," said Jay Somers, director of government and regulatory affairs for Cablevision of Norwood. "I'm talking about originality. A lot of people do sort of me-too stuff. But he doesn't."

While at Norwood, Bickernicks won a local ACE award in 1986 for a collection of comedy video shorts "Mismatched Socks," that included "Scrambled Eggs." He was nominated again in 1988 for another comedy production, "Beside the Mark," and for "Your Mother's on the Roof!," a live show featuring local bands and hosted by WBCN disc jockey Charles Laquidara. The ACE Awards are the cable television equivalent of the Emmys.

Bickernicks quit cable television in 1988 to work as a freelancer for a film company. But after working four months working as a grip, he concluded that running for coffee wasn't the way to break into filmmaking. "If you want to become a general you don't start as a private," Bickernicks said. "I had to do my own things, promote myself as a director. I have to direct. You'll never do that lugging lights."

Bickernicks got a job at Continental Cable in Dedham and for the past two years has produced community affairs programs such as "Livewire," a call-in talk show. But when he's done with the traditional cable fare, he and associate Mark Gallagher produce the off-beat comedy programming that is Bickernicks' trademark.

John Horrigan hosts "Klown Hare," a live talk show with a cult like following among Dedham teens. Against a backdrop that shifts every 15 seconds, ala MTV, Horrigan lampoons his callers and launches into wacky improvisations and impersonations. Horrigan opens one program with a somber warning, in a voice that sounds as though he's taken a long drag on a helium balloon. "The following program is of an unsafe nature," Horrigan says, his face deadpan, his voice munchkin. "If you are viewing this show with a child who's under 21, let the child stay and you leave." Call it Max Headroom on helium. "You come flipping down the channels and you see this bizarre thing," Bickernicks said. "You have to stop and watch."

Sometimes the community doesn't like what it sees. Take She "Lady Z Show," a live talk show that spoofs renowned sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. "The show went one and a half hours live and we did not have one call saying, 'You people are doing nasty things ' Gallagher said. "But one (person) called the selectmen, complaining."

In his free time, Bickernicks has been editing a sci-fi, cult-type, film,"The Can." It chronicles the adventures of a Coca Cola can and how it ruins the lives of two red-neck fishermen whose goal in life is to drive the countryside in their beatup pickup, searching for the ultimate trout. A band of punk rockers in Saran Wrap make a cameo appearance as aliens who haunt one fisherman's nightmares. "It's really weird. It's designed to freak you out," Bickernicks said. Bickernicks said he and the director are angling for a Boston screening for the film sometime in the next month.

Meanwhile, Bickernicks has signed a deal with America's Funniest People, a nationally syndicated program, to air three of his comedy video shorts. It would be second national program to feature his videos. MTV called last month, asking him to send video clips to be aired part of a segment on local-access television. Bickernicks hopes the new exposure will translate into filmmaking opportunities. "Now, it's just wait and see what, happens," Bickernicks said.