Sometimes it’s all in the timing. Example: In STARFIGHTERS when Bob Dornan is in the bar with his buddy acting all cool and calm after his flight he pauses and looks down at the same time that there is a missing frame in the film (because missing frames are a kind of ruling aesthetic in crappy movies like this), which elicits a resounding BELCH from one of our riffers. Sure, it’s a juvenile gag, but the timing is PERFECT; you would swear that that was what happened in the movie. :-)
So what are your favourite perfectly timed moments–those little (riff) moments when everything comes together?
What he said.
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Mitchell: “You’re lying through your teeth.”
Kid: “You’re lying through your teeth!”
Mitchell: “Buzz off, huh?!”
Kid: “Buzz off!”
Mitchell: “BUZZ OFF, KID!!!”
Servo: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.”
Speaking of missing frames making a scene, how about
the icky elf guy teleporting into the diner in Girl in Gold Boots
and subsequent riffing?
It was really impressive…what with him being just a child.
in that Warwolf movie, one of the scenes where the lead actor’s back is toward the camera and he grabs hold of the headboard of the bed and his head goes up, looking toward the ceiling as if in pain due to morphing…there is, of course, no dialogue. But at that moment, Trace (Crow) sings, “Does…your…chewing gum lose it’s flavor, on the bedpost overnight?”
That came from nowhere, was perfect for the spot and I still laugh to this day just thinking about it (it’s a really old song).
The kamikaze moth from ‘Eegah’.
“You can’t get him out of your mind.” ‘Bonk’.
During one of the beach scenes in Wild Wild World of Batwoman, the batgirls are dancing (and kissing, and dancing, and…). When their leader finally gathers them together and they leave, there’s a surfer in the background, who falls off his board. Mike’s riff (“Hey, baby, over…auuughhh!”) makes that fall golden.
And of course, the riff I missed at first when I saw The Touch of Satan, when our “hero” Jody walks out of “ELLEN’S CAFE” and Crow quips, “What was Anne Heche doing in there?”
Tom Servo’s riff towards the end of Warrior Of The Lost World was perfection as the camera passes the stadium full of extras. I will never forget “Patrick Swayze as Gandhi.”
Additional perfection… Werewolf.
“Not now, Yuri. I’ve got a man hurt.” Repeated shot. Crow: “Me too!”
Wow, there are so many! One of my favorites is in “The Magic Voyage of Sunbad”, near the end in the Indian King’s palace, there is a half a second shot of an hour glass running out, and one of the guys makes a fart noise. I’m on the floor every time with that one. :)
TISCWSTABMUZ is FULL of perfectly times moments like that as well. The movie’s poor editing gives them a lot of half a second to one second shots to work with, and they cram the most hilarious stuff into those scenes. It’s hard to pick favorites, but the freaked out fever dream sequence (yes, I’m aware that could be referring to the whole movie) has a LOT, including the two shots of that horrifying clown nodding, during which Mike crams in the lines “yes, I approve!” and “oh, very good sir…”. But my favorite is Ortega: “See, ya gotta tell her every day that you love her…”. It’s one of those jokes that I laugh at just thinking about it! :)
Last one: “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank”, when the bungled and boggled Fingle Dopple Daisy gets tipsy. The quick shot of the monkey with her hands on her forehead, and Crow says “I dunno, it’s just… I just… I… I dunno…”. Perfectly timed with the shot, and that’s TOTALLY what it looks like!
Great topic!
Just about any of the freak outs is based on great timing. Joel had 15-20 seconds to wig out on the “Torgo stands up” scene, but he holds it as long as he can for great effect.
Side note, on the riffs of the “werewolf” pronunciations: wouldn’t Warwolf, the story of an elite pack of military grade werewolves assembled to destroy a secret lunar weapons platform built by Moon terrorists, be a great, riff ready movie?
Still love the scene in Project Moonbase where the guys try to “help” Dr Bellows:
General: Now that we have a space station…
Brains: …or Frisbee…
General: …it is at last possible to send a ship…
Brains: …or batteries…
General: …all the way around the moon…
Brains: …or playground ball…
General: On this trip, Dr Werhner will photograph the back face…
Brains: …or double!
General: The ship will then return to the space station.
Brains: …or frisbee.
(Polly Prattles begins prattling)
Brains: …or Large Barge…
Then there’s the early “fill-in” moments from the “Progress Island” short in Beast of Yucca Flats
Narrator: Bilingual schools!
Mike: Bisexual students!
Narrator: Modern hospitals!
Servo: …are not here…
Narrator: Luxury hotels!
Crow: …are desperately needed.
Narrator: Progress can be seen everywhere…
Mike: …in places other than this.
For a moment, I thought it was actually in the film – it fit so well. I love it when the movie itself is practically a straight man to the riffs.
There are so many but my mind is going blank and I can only think of a couple of perfectly timed riffs. In Prince of Space when the scientists are on the spaceship and the camera pans over to Dr. Macken and shows him up real close and he has a look on his face like he’s trying to look tough and Mike says, “I’m gonna mess you up”. That looks exactly like what that guy is thinking.
My fave riff from This Island Earth is when Russell Johnson joins Ruth and Cal and as he’s walking up to them he says “Dr. Adams” and then Mike says, “What’s this and the rest crap?” Awesome!!
I went from casual fan to full-on devotee when I finally caught on why they kept quacking every time the door to Kitty’s apartment opened in I Accuse My Parents. It’s subtle, but brilliant, and always well-timed.
And of course, in The Truck Farmer short, Tom nails the delivery of the follow-up to “In Texas there is an even bigger problem”: “Texans!”. It’s a funny enough joke on its own, but the timing and delivery slays me every time.
The Sidehackers had one near the beginning, where the camera effects were set to drugged mode, and Crow goes “Hey, I’m tripping!” Then Rommel falls over, and Crow says “No, I’m REALLY tripping!”
There are a great many, but the first one that comes to mind is a moment from Werewolf (some of the comments on that episode noted it as well). Toward the end of the movie, Yuri sees Paul turning into a werewolf in the bar, and then tracks him to his house. Yuri is standing outside waiting for Paul, staring blankly up at the house, when Paul suddenly crashes through the upstairs window and lands on a car. The movie cuts back to the same footage of Yuri, looking up with the same blank stare, and Mike simply says … “Huh”. If you aren’t paying attention during that split second, you’d probably miss it, but the visual combined with Mike’s delivery is priceless.
Another great moment is the “Grandpa Mooing” scene from “Gamera vs. Gaos”. We hear a sound of a cow mooing over a static shot of some buildings, and then the movie cuts to Grandpa just as he’s closing his mouth, which makes it look as if he was mooing. That impression could have been avoided by removing just a few frames of Grandpa. J&TB have a lot more fun with it in the KTMA episode, as I recall, but both versions make note of it.
Speaking of KTMA, one of my favorite moments from that season is in “Cosmic Princess”. Martin Landau is captured and placed in a cell with orange walls and orange furniture, and by coincidence, he also happens to be wearing an orange jumpsuit. Joel says “I hope he likes orange …” in his sleepy-voiced way. The first time I saw it, it had me giggling for several minutes straight.
“Jelly doughnut got away from you… huh.”
I have to go with the “3M” voiceovers from Mitchell. Servo comes in at just the right time, with just the right pacing and tone, to make you almost believe you really are watching a corporate indoctrination film.
I was just watching The Starfighters, weird.
Another good one, though, is from The Movie, when Cal and Joe are going over the parts for the Interociter. Cal says “486 parts” just before Joe puts a foot down. At just the right point, Crow makes a crunching sound and quips “485, sir.”
I had to watch that a few times before I was sure that the crunch wasn’t in the movie…
Anyway, I think my favorite is when they say “Aaaaaand, ACTION!” whenever a new scene starts and the character just sits there for a moment before doing anything.
Many good ones mentioned. One that always cracks me up is in “Secret Agent Super Dragon.” Towards the end of the movie, a bunch of the bad guys are around a table looking at something to do with their evil plan and the leader says, “The little town of…” and Joel & the ‘bots shout in unison “Bethlehem!” It was so unexpected, but it just flowed.
Another one is in “Catalina Caper” with the four bikini-ed girls standing together on a boat, and one the ‘bots notes that “They’re standing four abreast.” Yeah, I have a lowbrow sense of humor.
From Mr. B Natural …
Mr. B: You’ve got to inspect your horn, boy.
Crow: … and wash it every day.
Tom: Ugh!!
Tom’s cry of disgust never ever ever fails to make me actually laugh out loud. Oh and I do laugh out loud on occasion, much to the dissatisfaction of others.
Near the end of ‘Day The Earth Froze’.
Ilmarinen: “I will take all of you to Pohjola. And each of you must hold…”
Tom Servo: “A herring!”
From “Touch of Satan” (I paraphrase)
Jody: “There is no Devil”
Mike: “I learned that in Community College”
ROFL
In the “Century 21 Calling” short, the spokeswoman is saying something like, “Have you ever been invited to a friend’s house…”
Tom mutters, “No.”
“…but worried that if you did, you would miss an important call?”
Tom mutters, “No,” and Mike laughs.
For some reason it makes me see Tom as a bitter, unpopular crank, and I love Mike’s amusement, and I laugh every time.
“Mom, I found a really big feather!” from Agent for H.A.R.M
One of my favorites is when in the short, Appreciating Our Parents:
The narrator says something to the effect that Tommy helps his parents by fixing broken toys.
So when the narrator quips, “When a piece of train track broke, Tommy fixed it himself”
and Servo, in perfect timing, continues, “killing 400 commuters.”
It sounds like the narrator a bit, so it’s pretty hilarious.
Narrated pieces are good grounds for these kind of riffs.
One of my faves is from Cave Dwellers, when boring old guy is stuffing a scroll into a tube while Tom Servo makes a “shhhhhhhthunk” noise. It’s a state park joke, in that, that is really what we oughta be hearing right then, but the delivery timing is perfect.
Oh, and can’t remember specific episodes, but any time the film breaks or speeds up unnaturally, and the Brains fill the space with garbled dialogue,
I always liked the riff in “Manos” during one of the scenes where the couple is kissing in the car at the side of the road. In the background, you can see a car whizzing by and one of the riffers (I think it’s Servo) says, “Honk, honk, way to go Steeeeevvve…” trailing off to sound like the doppler effect. The timing on that is perfect and always makes me laugh.
Zombie Nightmare: A frightened Tia Carrere calls Bob and “I just heard it on the radio. What are we going to do?”
Tom: U-2 tickets are on sale
How about Indestructable Man, where the hard boiled detective asks, “Who in their right mind would think a man came back from the dead?”
Joel: Only millions of Christians
Mike as the creepy surgeon in The Brain that Wouldn’t Die – as the doctor gestures to the nurse, Mike says “Hey. C’mere. Wanna see something?” It’s seamless; Mike even sounds like he’s wearing a surgical mask.
Final Sacrifice – TROY: “Was he the one that-”
PIPPER: “Killed your father?”
TOM: “Sounds fun, but I’m busy!”
Also, this exchange: TROY: You knew my father?
TOM: Know him? Why, he was delicious!
Girl in Gold Boots is mentioned above, but another bad-edit great moment yeilds:
Buzz: There goes a-
Mike: You can say that ag-
Perfect.
I was just watching “The Brute Man”, and cracked up over the scene when the mayor and his assistant walk into the police captain’s office and Tom yells “AAHHH, midgets”. I was still laughing 5 minutes later.
There’s a moment towards the beginning of Hobgoblins where the old janitor answers the phone. The camera cuts to a quick shot of the younger janitor who has his mouth hanging open. Crow does a quick “uuuuuuuuh” timed to perfection with the open mouth. Cracks me up every time.
Back to Warwilf: Tom. Every time they show the skull. If you don’t know what I’m saying, you haven’t watched it enough.
And one more (this from my wife):
In The Chicken of Tomorrow, there’s a series of jump cuts between chickens in the “big house”. At each cut, Tom names the chicken:
Joey “The Cockscomb” Tortelli
Ricky “The Bantam” Chavatello
Jimmy “Crazy Cock” Cuccini
Gets us every time!
MONSTER A GO-GO –
Crow: (jump cut from a plane side rendezvous to a meeting room) Hotdog burp!
I love dyspeptic humor.
So, no one’s yet mentioned the girl Shemp-snoring in the background while our heroes have their scientific conversation in The Undead? :)
@4 – So many moments in Eegah:
– (Guys whining as Arch Jr., as he swigs his canteen)
“I feel like I’m getting close to bllbbblmmff!”
– (fires shot in the air)
(“Err, errrrr…” plane-crash sounds)
– (Lizard Interruptus)
“What? Can I HELP you??”
– “Would the gentleman by the pool please stop singing? Oh, and watch out for snakes.”
Home Economics Story, the cheerleaders jumping about and pointing downwards, leading the Brains to start cheering “Look look, look at my crotch!” several times, culminating in a drawn out “Loooooook at my crotch!” Me and my friends couldn’t stop laughing for minutes.
Great topic. The first thing that comes to mind is the part in Daddy-O in the diner where the camera shot switches to some guy sitting at a table with his head down and his eyes closed. Joel says, “Pssst, wake up,” and right on cue the character looks up and opens their eyes as if he had heard Joel and was reacting. Perfect timing.
A recent example is in Soultaker when Rob Lowe’s character is getting frustrated with his girlfriends inability to understand his explanation of their predicament and a riffer says, “look, you wrote this crap”, right at the moment when his facial expression suggests that is what he is thinking. This is also a good example of a riffer saying what the audience is thinking right as they are thinking it. At least it was in my case
After the “Progress Island USA” narrator talks about how rum is “vital to Puerto Rico’s economy…” Crow adds, “…so drink rum CONSTANTLY” and I have to pause every time because I’m laughing so hard. It’s so perfectly timed, and pretty much what the narrator was implying anyways.
My favorite bit of timing is in The Crawling Hand, when the woman falls down on the beach….”Hi, I’m Tom Servo!”…..followed by her screaming.
The one that springs to mind for me is Crow’s “FAMILIES LOVE IT!” in Girl in Gold Boots when the movie abruptly cuts to an irrelevant shot of a diverse audience reacting to go-go dancers.
The “I’m Batman” in Time Chasers is perfectly timed.
I’ve always loved the moment at the beginning of Teenagers from Outer Space when Derek is telling his captain that , at one point in their planet’s history, there was love. The captain makes a incredulous, ridiculing face, just when Joel riffs, “oh, bite me, there was not!” Perfect timing.
Time Chasers is positively laden with exquisitely timed throwaway gags. Rockin’!
Pod People:
“Hey, there’s a sale on flannel!”
(characters jump up and run off from the breakfast table)
And in Godzilla vs. Megalon, when Megalon escapes Godzilla by popping up behind him, Godzilla turns, and from his expression and lumbering over, Servo times a perfect “Oh, I am going to kick your lil’….C’mere!!“
The stained back brace scene from THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION and the shaving scene from EEGHA.
The Dead Talk Back
movie: I’m not a medium
riff: I’m a petite.