In this week’s episode guide entry, I noted that a few minutes of theater riffing from that episode was included on the “best-of” tape Best Brains used to sell the show to The Comedy Channel. And I wondered: was this three minutes or so really among the funniest moments from the KTMA era?
So, here’s the challenge for this weekend’s discussion: Let’s pretend that there is a chance that all 10 national seasons of MST3K could come back to TV. But there’s one problem: The network executive who is going to make the decision has been living in a cave somewhere. He or she has never heard of MST3K, never seen it.
And, let’s pretend that you, MSTie that you are, are being asked to help put together a “best-of” compilation that will convince him or her of what a great show it is. You have to select two three- to five-minute theater segments — one featuring Joel and one featuring Mike — that you think will show the executive what a funny show this is.
For the Joel segment, I’m going to go with the section toward the beginning of The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, right after Sinbad arrives home (“and nobody seems to care!”)
For the Mike segment, I would pick almost any moment from “Incredibly Strange Creatures…” but especially any of the musical numbers.
What would you pick?
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For the Mike segment, I would choose from “Angel’s Revenge” the “Shine Your Love” song part.
For the Joel segment, I would choose from “Mr. B Natural”… well, any stretch of that is funny!
And if I could include host segments it would be the “Hired” musical for Joel & Mike’s would be “Mike Nelson– Lord of the Dance”.
There are a lot of things to choose from, of course.
Joel- Daddy-O’s ‘Hike Up Your Pants!’ number. The music is fun and lively, lyrics were terrific and J&TB looked like they had a great time doing this number.
Mike-Noh theater routine. Well written, paced and performed perfectly.
Interesting, my first reaction was also Magic Voyage of Sinbad, but since Sampo has already said that in the original topic, I’ll go to a backup Joel riffing segment from Rocketship X-M. The segment where the inventor of the rocket is explaining it to the press with a chalkboard behind him is golden MST3K with lots of really funny riffs during that scene and following as the rocket is prepared for launch. For Mike, there are some great riffing segments in Outlaw, both as the “heroes” are about to get transported to Gor and the early scenes introducing the head villains. Close runners-up, just about any riffing segment from Cave Dwellers for Joel and Space Mutiny for Mike.
For the Joel segment:
“The Failure Song” from #422 – The Day The Earth Froze
For the Mike segment:
The segment in the “Cheating” short from #515 when the clock chimes in the dark and Mike intones: “EBENEZER SCROOOOOOGE!”
Wow! This is a good one. It requires some thought. Let’s see…
I’d start off by saying that for this hypothetically benighted exec to get the full flavor of the show, the pitch tape would have to have a mix of movie riffing scenes (maybe 5 or 6), a couple of shorts riffing scenes and a couple of host segments. Here are my suggestions, in no particular order:
Movie riffing scenes:
1. Any scene with Jimmy Wilson and Al Frazier in “I Accused My Parents”
2. The scene where the Really Dull Old Guy does exposition and back story in an interminable flashback for his daughter, the Hot Medieval Chick in “Cave Dwellers”
3. The chase scene where the Big Lummox Actor pursues Edward “Chief” Platt in “The Rebel Set”
4. The scene where Glen tells his fiancee that he doesn’t want to grow any more in “The Amazing Colossal Man”
5. The scene where Santa plays the organ while stereotypical children from many lands work long hours for little or no pay in “Santa Claus”
6. The awkwardly homoerotic scenes between Sex Poodle and Big Stupid in “The Girl in Lovers’ Lane”
Shorts riffing scenes:
7. The scenes where the odd-faced guardian angel defends Joe Doakes in the heavenly court dedicated exclusively to traffic violations in New Jersey (that must be a huge courthouse!) in “X Marks the Spot”
8. The scenes with Rev. Earl Warren, the Deacon of Death in “The Days of Our Years”
Host segments:
9. The Doughy Guys song from “Teenage Crimewave”
10. The Auntie McFrank’s Tangleberry Inn / so-you-want-to-pet-the-llama scene from “The Amazing Transparent Man”
Oops, too much – I misread the instructions… :oops:
The goofy segment where Joel says “Trumpy can do magic things” and all hell breaks loose. It’s so wacky you just laugh about it.
And the beginning of Teenagers from Outer Space. The first 4 minutes with the title sequence rolling and the aliens (teenagers)coming out of the flying saucer, the riffs are fast and very funny. Especially when Joel and the bots say in unison, “Hello Derek” when Derek reports in.
Hmm…. for a Joel host segment, I would pick Joel’s Hike Up Your Pants snog.
For Mike, I would go for the square dancing segment from Bloodlust.
Joel era… “Mitchell.” I love J&TB putting up with the pot bellied, kid bullying, porn loving Mitchell. When he puts the moves on Linda Evans, they almost throw up in the theater.
For the Mike era, I would add the goofy scene from “Jack Frost” where the witch and Ivan order a house around.
A Mike song has to be “Tubular Boobular Fun” from the “Outlaw.” I almost split my sides laughing at this.
Any moment from “Why Study Industrial Arts?” notably the “Tool operator” bit and “The piercing screams of a freshman” riffs.
For Joel, I pick the first few minutes of Bride of the Monster, which gets off to a roaring start. Or any few minutes from the short Appreciating Our Parents, although that’s best appreciated along with the host segment that immediately follows it.
For Mike, I pick the gripping schoolroom vandalism, shootout and chase scenes from The Violent Years or any few minutes from the Progress Island U.S.A. short.
Trying to avoid being too self-referential and having something accessible an executive would understand and like I would go with…
Joel era- The invention exchange from Santa Claus vs. the Martians with the Wish Squisher and more stuff from the Island of Misfit Toys “You’ll have absolutely no fun whatsoever with the EZ Bake Foundry!” or Clowns in the Sky from Pod People.
Mike era- Dr F recovering from his beating in Red Zone Cuba “Flowers from Mother Teresa! It says hope you die.” or Where, oh Werewolf from Werewolf.
What do you think, sirs?
Mea Culpa for my previous entry @2. For theater entries;
J&TB I’ll go with Catalina Caper, Little Richard’s number. the riffs were great and I love when J@TB dance in their seats.
M&TB I’ll nominate the Creeping Terror, any scene with the Terror ‘consuming’ humanoid samples.
Canada song. short sweet and gets me to laugh every timed :mrgreen:
Joel:
In-theater: Master Ninja I – the scene when Lee is in bed giving his backstory and Joel and the bots tear it to shreds: “the serenity of post-war Japan?”
Host segment: Star Force: Fugitive Alien II – The Medley
Mike:
In-theater: Santa Claus – the scene where they’re going country by country featuring Santa’s child laborers.
Host segment: Teenage Crimewave – Mystos
I think my Joel-era choice would be the race from “Side Hackers.” I think someone who hasn’t seen the show would be thinking, “How do they talk over the movie so that the audience can hear them?” and that scene, with all the engines running and commentary is a good example of how to do it. It also has the “Cambot’s scoreboard” visual gag, and even though they didn’t do that often, if I were selling it, I’d want to show off production values.
But I’d probably show that second. First I’d show them my Mike-era clip, which is a no-brainer for me: the whole “Gesture Professor” scene from “The Mole People.” I think that’s probably the funniest couple of minutes in the whole series, just constantly taking the piss out of this pompous old man and his silly theories. It also shows how they can take a gag and keep it funny while running it into the ground (down, down into the ground, down).
For the Joel era the Jon Miki Thor
hangliding sequence in Cave Dwellers,
soaring through medieval Bulgaria/
Bavaria, whatever.
From the Joel era, I’d have to go with the song “Idiot Control Now,” and the scene from Pod People that spawned it.
From the Mike era, I’m going to pick something that cracked me up recently when I re-watched it. In The Deadly Mantis, there’s a scene where someone insists that the Mantis couldn’t have flown so far in such a short time. The Professor says, “We’re dealing with an insect. The deer fly does 600 miles per hour,” to which Mike responds, “Yeah, and a rabbit can do Mach 5!” That riff gets me every time.
Mine are going to be obvious…
Joel: The Mr. B Natural short, particularly when Mr. B pops in and starts telling Buzz how wonderful music is.
Mike: “Schick out of Shape” form “Incredibly Strange Creatures” and
“I wonder what became of Abby? She’s some gal” from “Riding With Death.”
For Joel: either the entirety of “Mr. B. Natural” or the first 15 minutes of the “Manos” experiment (minus the movie itself) that include the invention exchange and “Hired! Part 2.” The “Manos” movie gets all the glory but the SOL intro, invention exchange and short before the flick are some of the finest moments in “MST3K” riffing/on-camera antics.
For Mike: five minutes of “Pumaman” (Tony’s fight in the warehouse and some ‘perpendicular flying and Casio theme in background’ scenes), five minutes of “Space Mutiny” (rail killings and the holy trinity of Sting/Debie Reynolds/God are a must), a minute of Michael ‘LORD OF THE DANCE’ Nelson and Tom Servo’s Canada song from “Final Sacrifice.”
#19 Thomas K. Dye stole my thunder alittle bit; I would definitely say the first few minutes of the “Mr. B Natural” short are among the Joel-era’s most inspired riffs. I’d also suggest the last segment of Attack of the the Eye Creatures (“they just didn’t care!”) as a good example of the show’s excellent out-of-theater comedy.
As for the Mike era, I think when Mikey first shows up in “Teenage Strangler” is absolutely hilarious. Mike’s take on him in the later host segment would greatly accompany that running bit.
For Joel, I’d have to pick any of the songs in “Catalina Caper”, especially when they first show the way-too-happy drummer of the band. “Hey, look at me! I’m 60!”
For Mike, any time in “Santa Claus” when Pitch is on. “He enjoys pantaloons more than he should.” :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Hysterics every time.
Pretty much the entire “parade of nations” bit from Santa Claus, plus my favorite riff of all time… when Santa reads the letter asking for a little brother, and Kevin chimes in with a particularly creepy “Ho Ho Ho Ho! can do!“
For the Joel era, and note this may go over 3 minutes as it’s long, but I’d just include the entire ending to Monster A-Go Go. It firmly establishes that the movies shown on MST3K suck, and most make no sense. The ending to this film just drives that point forward, and there’s many hilarious riffs during the last few minutes of the film, and I especially get a kick out of J&TB’s reaction to the “There was no monster” twist.
For the Mike era, I went with the Hitler building segment from “Invasion of the Neptune Men”. But, during the clip, I’d also want to include Crow asking Mike if there was a Hitler building where he lived, and also asking about The Mousilinni Mall.
Great topic
For Joel I would have to chose the scene from The Human Duplicators where our hero Glen Martin has just been duplicated and Dr. Kalos sends the dupe back to work. The scene in Hugh Beaumonts office (57:30 mark) to Joels riff about Hugh having to look up the word robot (101:20 mark) always cracks me up.
For Mike I would have to go with Prince of Space’s “old factory” scene. At the point where the kids are looking through binoculars and spot Krankor and his elite forces exit the underground tank to the riff “I’m Hardrock, I’m Coco, I’m Joe” (27:55 mark) to Mike’s “alright, whatever” riff (33:30 mark) is for my money the funniest 6 minutes in the history of the show.
The Warrior of the Lost World – The epic showdown between Megaweapon and the Paper Chase guy’s annoying motorcycle.
For Joel, I would choose his most famous episode, Manos. Maybe the bit where the women are “killing” Torgo. Or perhaps Torgo’s introduction.
For Mike, I’d have to say any of the Butch Deadlift comments for the hero in Space Mutiny.
Also, inb4 griefers saying that there were no good Mike moments.
For Joel I would have to go for either the first 3 minutes of “Warrior of the Lost World” or the first 3 minutes of “The Amazing Colossal Man”.
With Mike I would show ANY 3-minute segment of the “Progress Island U.S.A.” short or ANY 3-minute segment from “Space Mutiny”. The whole episode is gold, in my opinion.
#26 DrBlood
Completely off topic but I recently had the chance to watch The Paper Chase from beginning to end and was specifically looking for “The Paper Chase Guy” and no matter how hard I looked I DID NOT see the star of Warrior of the Lost World in it or anybody remotely resembling him. Is he actually in that movie??
#29 Tickle Me Carlo Lombardi
I’m guessing he was on the TV show that was based on the movie.
There can’t really be a Joel segment in the tape, otherwise the person buying it might expect Joel to be in it, and will get disapointed when he’s not there. :cry:
I would go for the scene i hobgoblins when they sneak out of the theatre leaving a cardboard cut out of themselves. :lol:
If I could pick a Joel segment it would be the ‘Things that are funny floating’ quiz from Rocketship XM.
The section of Space Mutiny that always gets me is when Debbie Reynolds and Beef Chunksteak are beating up the two masked goons with kicks and gun blasts to one guy’s batch: “why do you hate my groin so much?”
For Joel, the host segments where they’re lying in coffins discussing death and the one where Joel explains the subtle nature of evil (too lazy to look the exact eps up).
Thanks DrBlood that’s been bugging me for a few weeks.Didn’t realize there was a TV show.
Joel era: Any 5-minute stretch from the short “Speech: Using Your Voice.” Easily one of the most savagely funny things they ever did.
Mike era: The first thing that comes to mind is the whole “TUSK!” portion from the end credits of “Werewolf.” A few of the show’s finest minutes!
“Hey, look at me! I’m 60!” (#22)
And I’m still rocking!
#17, you got your beefy MST hunks mixed up, you’re thinking of Miles O’Keefe as Ator, Jon Mikl Thor was in Zombie Nightmare three seasons later. A harmless mistake when your mind is filled with visions of oiled up muscle men.
Now, I’ve got a problem with this topic. No love for the Mads. And they are as much a part of the series as everyone else. :lol:
For the Mads, I’d go with Frank’s ‘If Chauffeur’s Ruled the World’ and also Torgo’s Pizza.
I need to watch more Pearl episodes to name one for her. Don’t remember them as well as the others. But, come on! Love for the Mads!
For Joel, I’d go the oft-mentioned, old reliable Mr. B. Natural. In particular the scenes when Mr. B is personifying various instruments.
For Mike, the toy helicopter/submarine stuff from Death Ray.
For Mike a Peter Graves Special:
1) Crow’s play about Peter Graves’ career at the UofM
2) The ending of Clonus Horror, especially their
comments on the credits.
Oh, and a suggestion for a Weekend Discussion thread:
Figurines that probably won’t ever be featured.
(For example, how about a Torgo figure- with a detachable hand
with a red night light? Shout factory could make even more
money if they sold the hand (ala Johnny Long Torso)
seperately. ;-)
@#31
Wasn’t that floating quiz in #211 First Spaceship on Venus ? I don’t own a copy of #201, but know I have seen that segment.
Okay, let’s make it repetitive with Mr. B for the Joels… :mrgreen:
As for Mike–Well, we’re trying to sell the show, so sometimes you have to lie a little bit for sales, and make it look like M&tB actually know what the show’s about and how to riff…Which pretty much narrows it down to the seance (“Please, cut away to anything!”) or running around the lab from “Wild World of Batwoman”. Such high hopes early on. :(
This si a tough question! Right now I think Mike’s would be the “house party” scene from Hobgoblins. So, from roughly “It’s the 80s…” to when the kid in red shorts calls the operator. It may be a bit longer than five minutes, but that segment is savagely funny. (The “tool fight” would also be good.)
The runner-up would be the fighting scenes toward the end of Deathstalker. Too many golden moments to count. (“Does this feel a little uncomfortable to you?” “So we begin the beguine…” “Tron?”)
Joel’s scene would be a sample from any of the shorts he did, which were nearly always funny.
#40: I’m sorry you decided to turn this thread into a slam on Mike. A lot of us think he knew how to riff just fine.
Joel: Anything from the Junior Rodeo short.
Mike: The transformation scene in Werewolf, especially when they keep flashing to the skull and the bots do an Operatic “AAHHH!” (Alternate: The medley at Werewolf’s end credits).
For Joel, I’d pick a segment from “Hired”, probably the scene on the porch.
For Mike, anything from “Angels Revenge”.
And speaking as someone who likes all eras of the show, not just certain seasons, I’ll also defend Mike. He riffs just fine.
The “Circus on Ice” sequence featuring the two evil twin skaters. “They both come from your worst nightmare…”
Brilliant!
#29: I believe the Paper Chase guy was in the spinoff TV show. Someone correct me if I’m wrong?
#46 and #30 you are correct. Went to imdb and Robert Ginty (The Rider) was indeed in 22 episodes of The Paper Chase TV series.
Joel sellers
Riff of Are You Happy in Your Work from I Accuse my Parents, run it from the intro all through the end of the host segment. Gives a really good feel for what you’re dealing with.
Mike sellers
Any 5 minutes of Are You Ready for Marriage.
Host segments…can I string the Turkey Day host segments from 701 together? Otherwise, just Stuffing Vs. Potatoes then.
This would be a good time for a facepalm/headshake smiley. Guess rolleyes works, so… :roll: . Does every thread that involves both Joel and Mike have to bring out Jerkwad Von Flamesalot?
On topic: for Joel, it’s either the first few minutes of Mr. B Natural, or right when Trumpy starts making stuff move in stop-motion in Pod People.
For Mike, Sampo hit it on the head. The folk singer portion in particular kills me while also having easily recognizable pop culture references (“My anaconda don’t want none less you got buns hun”) and somewhat more obscure cerebral references (“Benazir Bhutto sits in on triangle”), serving as a perfect example of the range the comedy spans.
For Joel, I also go with the Circus On Ice short from Monster-A-Go-Go. Great stuff.
As for Mike, nobody has mentioned my pick, which is the scene from Time Chasers when our “hero” takes Two-Plaid and Pink Boy to the…ahem…future. The whole scene is great, capped off with my favorite riff of the whole episode, the “I’ll walk back to the past” line.