So I was recently watching “Jack Frost” and it hit me that there are a lot of biblical references in that episode. Such as “Wow, Peter must be out denying everybody today” [when we hear a rooster crow] or “the three horses of the apocalypse, the fourth had after school activities.” Having been raised in the Christian tradition I really find these jokes rather hilarious. So, your fav biblical riff?
I’m going to expand this to include religious references as well. For example, I always enjoy [shot of clouds] “This is God! Pick up the pace!”
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There were a few in The Sidehackers.
always love the part in christmas essays when gypsy opens her mouth and revealed the nativity.
Horrors of Spider Island: “Gary, thy Lord commandeth! Tug your pants down a titch, and put on a shirt!”
Hugh Beaumont as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!
Derek and the burning Bush in “Teenagers from Outer Space”.
Joel in God’s voice: “Moses! Moses!”
Well in Hercules and the Captive Women Queen Antinea tells Herc that
today is dedicated to (the god) Uranus. And of course Crow reveals
many fascinating tidbits on the demigod Hercules rocky relationship
with his son (still can’t believe he dated a stripper).
When the cop in Indestructible Man wonders who could believe that a man could come back from the dead and Joel replies “Millions of Christians”. Makes you wonder if the screenwriter was paying attention to what he was writing.
I think it’s “Outlaw of Gor” where a massive crowd is shouting and all three start riffing “Barrabas! Give us Barrabas!” I’m not Christian so I had to look up what they meant, but having done so, that’s a fantastic joke.
The confessional scene in Final Justice, which is kicked off by “God is dead. We’re closed.”
Four references off the top of my head:
From Giant Spider Invasion: “Moses, move the bike!” when the bush is burning after a motorcycle crash
Crow says: “God’s enjoying the show” in Devil Doll when the spotlight’s on Vorelli
“Moses!…Oh sorry, wrong guy” when the lightning bursts around Joe, the drunk dad in Space Children
Puma Man: The flying space ball-thingy from the “gods” : Crow asks “anything about truth and beauty?”
Mike: “No”
Crow: “should we love each other?”
Mike: “Naw, don’t worry about it.”
The all time classic one is in Episode 301, “The Cave Dwellers.” When Ator says, “A man’s destiny is predetermined.” Joel replies with “Oh, he’s a Calvinist.”
As a Lutheran pastor, I fell out of my chair on that one.
I also loved the reference to Davey and Goliath in the “Charlie McCarthy” era sketch in “Rocket Attack, USA.” “Davey, being a good Lutheran boy…”
Oh, there are so many!
Servo: “Kenny Rogers IS Moses!”
–The Painted Hills
Nun: “God always answers prayers.”
Crow: “…but only from Catholics!”
–Future War
Crow: “Hey, look, GOD has a spring!”
–A Case of Spring Fever
Sam the Keeper: “God, save me!”
Mike: “Hello, this is God. I’ve reviewed it with the committee and no, we will not save you.”
–Werewolf
From I Accuse My Parents: “I don’t understand this Holy Spirit. Is it a bird?” Refers to the Gospel accounts of when Jesus is baptized and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove.
What is a Christmas?
“It’s a Christian Holiday ruined by commercialism?”
That line had the whole family laughing and applauding when we watched this the first time.
From “Laserblast,” as Billy starts blowing up desert shrubs: “Yes, Yahweh in a can. When you want to summon Yahweh…”
Merlin.
Jesus.
Santa Claus.
Always love when God speaks along with the crashing thunder in ‘Track of the Moonbeast’: ‘Stop talking Johnny Longbone!’ ‘No, not HIS place… fornicators!”
And from ‘Space Mutiny’: ‘Sting, Debbie Reynolds and God.’
God in Attack of the the Eye Creatures: “I can’t believe I made those two guys.”
And I think the reference to the Apostle Paul travelling to Greece in Servo’s tribute to the Fifties (Riding with Death) is one of the most clever things EVER.
This is one of those threads where the more you think about it, the better it gets. Thanks for that!
Also, I know this was likely unintentional, but thank you for posting this on Yom Kippur. You’re helping me not think about fasting.
From Giant Spider Invasion. Zoom in on revival Preacher: “Then, add the ribs…”
More hell fire and brimstone preachers should give out recipes!
Mike to Pitch: “Oh, get thee behind me!”
The crotchety old shopkeeper in Brute Man, looking at the newspaper: “God is dead? GOOD!”
Also, I can’t remember which episode this riff is from, and it’s driving me nuts: “We’d pray, but we haven’t thought of any gods yet.”
“Help me, oh Saint Larry Csonka!”
@ Hollyhox
That riff is from “Cave Dwellers”.
From ‘The Day The Earth Froze’, after the hero’s mom pray to a tree, the road, and the sun.
Tom: “Ever thought about praying to Me? God? The Big ‘G’ Meister?”
@9
That’s the first one that came to mind for me too. “God Is Dead, we’re closed.” from FINAL JUSTICE
Having been raised in the Mormon tradition, I got a kick out of the couple of Mormon references I noticed: “Time to curl up with the Book of Mormon” from Final Sacrifice, and the professor who looked like Brigham Young on Track of the Moon Beast.
We’ve got on of my favorite characters/philosophers, Lt. Makonnen from “Phantom Planet, reciting the Lord’s Prayer as he drifts away into space.
In “Werewolf” (Wahr-wilf), when Natalie says, “Paul?” and Mike or one of the ‘bots chimes in with “Loved your letter to the Phillipians!” Or maybe it was Ephesians or Galatians. You know what I mean.
Great WDT!
Oops, didn’t edit my comment in time. Another one that always cracks me up is in “The Violent Years” with the shot out Paula’s hospital/jail cell window, which is of course just a really bad set painting of a bunch of clouds. “It’s a room in Heaven!”
a part of me wonder how religious they were in real life (besides what we already have read or what they had said).
The first one that popped into my head was the riff from MERLIN’S SHOP OF MAGICAL WONDERS. An elderly medium lady demands, “Who’s the wise guy?” There’s a crash of thunder and one of the bots intones, “I AM WHOM AM THE WISE GUY!”
From the Screaming Skull: “Martin Luther is nailing each theses individually!”
Code Name Diamond Head has a slew a the start when Lovejoy is posing as a priest. Forgive me Father for I have murdered.
i believe The Rebel Set had some references to hymns when edward platt was running in the railyard dress as a priest.
The first one I thought of was the “Peter must be walking around denying everybody this morning” riff from Jack Frost. Classic. :chicken2:
In The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, Mike makes a reference to Scientology with the comment about “obtaining a state of Clear.” (means to obtain a state of mental clarity)
From Giant Spider Invasion, guy grabs a hammer and a chisel: “Glad he’s not a mohel.” (Mohel is a Jewish person trained to do a bris)
From War of the Colossal Beast, “Quiet, I’m seeing Bernadette!” (reference to Bernadette Soubirous, who had visions of the Virgin Mary and was later named a Catholic saint)
*
Here’s a discussion-appropriate YouTube supercut I found, heavy on the Sci-Fi years, collecting a bunch of Catholic/Lutheran/other religion references: http://youtu.be/6zmun7RG3o4
“Father MANNIX!”
From Rifftrax: much of the Star Wars Holiday Special is top-drawer material (seriously, if you’ve never seen this thing you owe it to yourself). There’s more than a few religious jokes in this one as well.
Top example: a commercial for a 70s TV version of the Bible. At the end, Kevin quips “Up next week, the Tibetan Book of the Dead.”
Touch of Satan: “*honk* Get off the road, man-goat!”
Future War: “They must have a loser bishop to get a basilica like this…”
Manos: “Oh, no, not liturgical dance!”
Merlin’s Shop, when David cries out for help from God: “Sorry, Unitarian, according to you I’m in the trees and in the butterflies…”
I think they used “Barabbas! Give us Barabbas!” a few times, which always tickled me, since as Catholics and recovering Catholics will know, on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, you do audience-participation readings of two of the Passion narratives, written out like scripts in the missal, in which the congregation plays the angry crowd and shouts things like that line and “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
“Where does Coily fit into God’s plan?”
I was raised Catholic, and the riffs on the fake, Frank-Sinatra-hat-wearing priest in “San Francisco International” alway get me. “She gets too hungry for transubstantiate…”
“That’s why Deuteronomy is so long”
#23
The “we haven’t thought of any Gods is from Cave Dwellers.
@32: Mike has self-identified as a Christian several times, the other guys are certainly well-versed in biblical knowledge, but strike me as more secular.
My favorite riff, though, was when the motorcycle exploded in Giant Spider Invasion, enveloping a nearby bush in flames: “MOSES, MOVE THE BIKE!”
@32, I think I’ve read something about Paul Chaplin being raised Catholic (something about Saint Blaise, which appears as a riff in Soultaker), and with some of the writers being from Minnesota and thereabouts, I suspect the Lutheran vibe was strong. Which reminds me of another riff….
In Zombie Nightmare, during one of the voodoo ceremonies, someone says, “She must be Missouri Synod; they’re really hardcore.” This obscure one really cracked me up because if you’re a liberal Lutheran like me, yes, the Missouri Synod offshoot **is** pretty strict and exclusive. And by exclusive I mean they exclude a lot of people, literally (hope that doesn’t offend anyone).
non mst3k but on the lines of what we are talking about:
always thought in War of the Worlds, when the Pastor Collins walks towards the Martians and says the Lord’s Prayer was a good part of the movie (not what happen to him but i think, its a movie but, he knew where he was going if anything bad happen to him).
As a product of Catholic education, I’m guessing at least one of the writers attended Catholic school. Some of the riffs on Girlstown are too spot on for someone who hadn’t been there.
MSTid (#45)
Yeah, Missouri Synod (LCMS for those in the know) is pretty hardcore. I’m disappointed that they didn’t refer to Wisconsin Synod in that riff, those guys are so hardcore that they excluded Missouri Synod from their fellowship. (I’m disappointed because I’m a Wisconsin Synod pastor.) 8-)
@28- Glad I read through these before I post something ’cause I would have written something nearly identical to what you did! Scary stuff!
Another that cracks me up is “Saint Merlin, not approved by the Catholic church” from Merlin’s Chop.
One that I liked was in “Operation Double 007”. When Connery, posing as a blind man, is caught, Servo quips, “Yeah, one minute I’m on the road to Damascus, then, boom!”