What about a thread discussing people’s favorite obscure jokes?
Ooh! Good one! This isn’t normally the way MST3K does things, but in this case I think it’s appropriate: Please explain the riff so everybody gets it. (As usual, if you use more than one link, it may take a bit for your post to appear.)
Also, maybe you could include a word or two about what this riff means to you (since I find that a MSTie’s favorite obscure riff usually speaks to who that person is).
It’s hard to pick an all-time favorite, but one I dearly love is from episode 508- Operation Double 007:
[In the voice of KITT from “Knight Rider”] “Michael, I want all the episodes of ‘Captain Nice’ burned.”
Captain Nice was an INCREDIBLY forgettable 1967 one-season loser starring William Daniels, the voice of KITT. Similar to the “Addams Family”/”The Munsters” competition, it had a competing show (another one-season loser) called “Mr. Terrific“…but I digress.
I think I love this riff because I was 10 years old when these shows came out and it seemed like TV was talking right to me, and I never forgot that feeling.
What’s your pick?
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My pick is from Danger Death Ray: The camera zooms in on the Michael Caine/Andre the Giant thug’s face and Servo says “Obey!” in reference to Shepard Fairey’s viral art.
Way back when the show was still on the air there a scene of a jet pilot with a lightning bolt on his helmet. Mike said “Dan Fouts – jet pilot”. Dan Fouts was a great 1980’s quarterback for the San Diego Chargers football team who had lightning bolts on their helmets too. This is the earliest riff that has always stuck with me. I say it everytime I see Dan Fouts announcing a football game.
Actually mine is from op double o 7 as well.
“Norman the calla lilies are raining lead!!”
On Golden Pond reference made with Katharine Hepburn’s unmistakable voice. When crow said that as money penny showered the bad guys with bullets from her Machine gun I lost it. I cried I laughed so hard. That was such a good episode.
Not really sure of its obscurity but the riff’s brilliance is worth it, given the underground, cave-like scenario from “Mole People” — Bill Corbett as Alfred, the Butler during the priestly ceremony: “No one has to tell Mr. Wayne about our little soiree”.
Since I live in the Twin Cities I enjoy a LOT of the obscure Minnesota riffs.
In Laserblast when Billy and his girlfriend are having a thankfully edited intimate moment, Crow makes a comment about them going at it on Country Road C. To explain: Suburban Ramsey County (St. Paul’s county) has East-West county roads that are by Letter. There’s not much that rural on County Road C these days, but it’s still funny. I lived a few blocks off C for awhile.
And I wish I could remember where it came from, but they do make a joke about Superboy being the crummiest syndicated show on TV. It probably wasn’t that obscure 20 years ago, but it was quickly forgotten. I remember seeing a few episodes, and I’d have to agree.
Hmm….
I loved how Servo (I believe) points out when Torgo from Manos walks like Joe Cocker, a reference to him swaying alot when he sings. XD
“Remember, we’re parked in the Denubrian Slime Devil lot” from MST3K: The Movie. The Denebian Slime Devil was a creature from Star Trek, but that’s not why I love this reference. In researching where the joke came from, it’s suggested that it comes from the way theme parks name their lots, but there was a mall in the Twin Cities area, around well before the Mall of America, that did the same thing…naming their parking lots after animals. I remember parking in Camel Lot all the time. I just don’t remember which mall it was. That joke always reminds me of my visits to Minneapolis though.
The Southdale Mall in Edina, Minnesota named their parking lots via animals, and it’s possibly one of the first to do so. It became something of a trend, at least here in the Midwest. I believe the now-defunct Apache Plaza had the same setup early on.
I guess mine would be from Fugitive Alien, when Tom says “and because it is his heart” — a reference to Stephen Crane’s poem “In the Desert.”
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter – bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
#9>> I always thought “Because it is bitter/And because it is my heart” was more specifically a reference to Joyce Carol Oates’ critically-acclaimed novel named after the Crane quote — her book was published a few months before that episode was shot.
BONUS GEEK POINTS: Stephen Crane and Joyce Carol Oates were both alums of Syracuse University.
From Hercules vs. (or against) the Moon Men. At one point these stone creatures come out of the walls and I think it’s Crow shouts; “The Inhumanoids!”. The Inhumanoids is one of my favorite 80s cartoon and isn’t that well known compared to other shows of the time. The show was made by the team of Hasbro/Sunbow/Marvel that did Transformers, G.I. Joe and Jem and the Holograms. The Inhumanoids are these large evil creatures that break free and try to take over the world. But, the rock creatures in the movie are actually like the good guys called the Granites. I’m guessing that The Brains thought all the non-humans are Inhumanoids.
I think it’s from “Prince of Space”- the riff- “it’s a Japanese Sylvia Plath”
I guess it’s not all that obscure, but one riff that really spoke to me was in Devil Fish. A group of Italians are milling around pretending to be Floridian rednecks and I think it was Tom who says “We don’t that Neil Young around anyhow.” A reference, of course, to the song “Sweet Home Alabama”. Being from the same neck of the Northern Florida woods as Lynyrd Skynyrd, I burst out in a fit of laughter.
D’oh! The riff was “We don’t NEED that Neil Young around, anyhow.” I really must have more coffee before I post!
As a Minnesota Vikings fan, I got a chance to enjoy the “Les Stekel opens training camp” joke in Red Zone Cuba. Les Stekel took over for Bud Grant, the legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach, and coached the team to their worst record (one can argue that the most recent with Brad Childress are the worst). Les came from a military background and his tactics, including Basic Training-like training camps, caused players to pretty much give up on him in his one and only season.
One of my favorite obscure references was just that the Mole People interns in Deep 13 were referred to as “Jerry and Sylvia” after Gerry and Sylvia Anderson of Supermarionation fame. Not sure how many fans got that one without a little research, but I got it right away. I loved Thunderbirds and Fireball XL-5 when I was a small child so it was one of those jokes that felt aimed right at me the first time I heard it. The show got “in my head” pretty quickly with stuff like that!
In Track of the Moon Beast I love when during a close-up of the moon, Crow says “Hi, I’m here for the Misbegotten.” (a reference to the Eugene O’neill play)-Love theater references!
God, I’m seriously going to have think about this one for awhile, there’ve been some really obscure ones I’ve been impressed with over the years on MST episodes…. BUT! a recent one that cracked me the hell up from Rifftrax was Kevin during High School Musical asking if there was any chance Zac Efron was going to pull a GG Allin on opening night. Two worlds that I never expected to collide collided that day.
OH! The Zappa jokes were always nice, too-“Hey, it’s Jimmy Carl Black!!”
What a great topic, Jeffrey — well done!
In one of the Sci-Fi Channel shows — somebody help me remember which one — there’s a quick shot of a frog and Servo says, speaking for the frog, “Brakakakax koax koax.” The first time I heard that, I nearly fell out of my chair. That’s the “croaking chorus” from THE FROGS, a very silly play written 2400 years ago by the Greek poet Aristophanes, and the kind of thing that’s usually only known by theatre professors like me. Instead of falling down, I cried out words to the effect of :”God, I love this show!”
For bonus obscurity, “I know the croaking chorus from THE FROGS of Aristophanes” is one of the pieces of irrelevant knowledge Major-General Stanley claims in his best-known song in the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE. I’m guessing that’s why Kevin knows it and this reference was his contribution… what do you think?
In the 1950s prologue to ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE — the very first MST3K episode I ever saw — a little boy watches the baseball game as Mike intones, “A young Joe Pepitone ponders his fate.” Pepitone was a 1960s Yankees outfielder who later got involved heavily in drugs. (And in his X-rated memoir “Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud,” he talked about how his friends in the Mafia once casually offered to rub out Moose Skowron, who had taken Pepitone’s place in the lineup.)
ep 820, “Space Mutiny.” During the segment where Crow and Servo are “trashing” the escape pods, Mike yells “What the Hell, Michigan is going on?!” Hell is a small town in southern Livingston County, Michigan (population at last count, 266). It is actually (so I have heard, I have never been there even though I don’t live that far away from it) quite a lovely little town.
Another good obscure reference, during one episode “Spinner and Paddlefoot” are mentioned by I believe, Tom Servo. That refers to the ever-so cheap and cheesy Clutch Cargo cartoon with “syncro-vox” technology. No one probably remembered that cartoon from its first run, not even the writers at MST3K, but The Higgins Boys And Gruber were using the cartoon on their show in the early days of the Comedy Channel/Comedy Central and so it permeated its way into MST3K as well. Another funny old kids show used on Higgins Boys and Gruber that also got referenced on MST3K was the Supermarionation show, Supercar. That’s one Gerry Anderson show I didn’t see as a kid, but thanks to HB&G I was exposed to it and ended up buying it on DVD later it was so amusing.
#19-that was from The Screaming Skull, I liked that one, too.
Okay, not really obscure, I guess, but it is to some.
After MST3K did “The Deadly Mantis” I came across some people (too young to remember) confused by the line “I think it was a bad idea for the Army to recruit Keith Moon.” That line cracked me up so bad, I laughed for a week, every time I thought of it.
I had to explain to them that Keith Moon was the famous/infamous drummer for The Who, known for trashing up hotels rooms.
So, what’s obscure to one person, may not be to someone else. ;)
Don’t know how obscure these would be considered, especially to this group, but I always liked the Firesign Theatre references, like in Manos: “If you lived here, you’d be home by now”, and of course, the common “he’s no fun, he fell right over!”
I’m pretty young, so a lot of the references still go over my head, but one really got me. I’m something of a literature buff, and I forgot what episode it was in (I have a hunch it was “Teenagers from Outer Space” but I’m not sure), but they once said something like: “George Bernard Shaw is under the table and he’s writing Candide”. George Bernard Shaw, of course being the playwright who wrote Pygmalion, the source for “My Fair Lady” and Candide being Voltaire’s short romantic adventure satire.
I also love Monty Python, and I was tempted to mention one of those references but they were all pretty generic of the most famous sketches and movies, so I don’t have a very good one for it.
In Jack Frost they make an amusing cinematic reference to character actress Thelma Ritter, and can’t remember the episode but they reference an extremely obscure 1960 cartoon, Tooter the Turtle with the phrase “Drizzle Drazzle Drone – time for this one to come home.” Anyone else remember this?
@25: I’m with you completely. There were a lot of Firesign Theatre references in the early seasons. I think my favorite has to be from “Cave Dwellers.” One of the characters is reading a scroll…or something…and Servo says, “Let’s see, Quid Malmberg in Plano.” This phrase was used on FT’s “I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus” album when a character has a kind of “Eureka!” moment, although I don’t think it means anything literally.
I know that both Kevin and Joel were/are big FT fans. Kevin listed them as major influences in “The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide” and Joel recently did a really cool interview in the FT fan magazine, “Chromium Switch.” (www.chromiumswitch.org, if I recall correctly) For those who aren’t familiar, Firesign Theatre is easily the most surrealistic humor you’ll ever hear. Something of an acquired taste, but they tend to produce pretty rabid fans (like myself, obviously) and you can definitely see the influence on our beloved MST3K.
I think it was in The Crawling Hand that they mentioned the International Geophysical Year, but only by acronym. It was something like “I heard you went home with Yuri Gagarin after the IGY party”. Actually it was sputnik, not Yuri, that was associated with IGY, but whatever, you don’t get many geophysics/space history jokes.
Not so much a movie riff per se, but on one episode Joel refers to the Mads as Difford and Tillbrook and I thought “whoa, someone’s a Squeeze fan!”
I remember the the 7th season episode “Escape 2000″ when one of the heroes just starts shooting all the silver suited bad guys without bothering to reload and Crow says ” He must be in God-mode because he has unlimited ammo.” I rewound that scene twenty times because it was the most out of the blue funniest thing I ever heard. The line,of course,references the video game Doom which all the Best Brains were crazy about.
As a political and sports junkies, I’m going to go into my wheelhouse.
“The Peggy Noonan Gang” from Violent Years always cracks me up. Noonan worked for Ronald Reagan and served as George H.W. Bush’s speech writer in 1988. She currently has a column in The Wall Street Journal.
“Feel some malaise, sucker,” from Warrior of the Lost World. The line was uttered by Persis Khimbatta’s father, who looked like President Carter (malaise was a key word in Carter’s speeches.)
“John Sununu goes for a haircut” when the jet takes off in “This Island Earth” (MST3k movie.) Sununu was former Secretary of State and was asked to step down when it was found he used a jet to go to a barber to get a $125 haircut.
The “Chuck Wepner Vision” from Future War was very funny. Wepner, aka “The Bayonne Bleeder,” was the inspiration for the movie Rocky. Wepner was a boxer who would bleed profusely during fights (catch some footage or photos of the Sonny Liston fight.)
In the same movie, there is a reference to Randy Johnson, the future Hall-of-Fame pitcher who had a textbook mullet until a few years ago.
The ton of “Packers” resets from Giant Spider Invasion.
Tom Boerwinkle is referenced in the Skydivers when a large, blone woman is dancing. Boerwinkle was basketball player for the Chicago Bulls in the early 1970’s (who, if female, actually would bear resemblance.)
Two others not sports or politics related
“Fruit Brute” is referenced at the end of Werewolf. Fruit Brute was the short lasting werewolf from the “Frankenberry Count Chocula” line of cereals.
“and I am funky..” when the Viking Prince says “my name is Prince.”
It’s hard to guess what counts as “obscure”, but I’ll cite the reference during the “Progress Island USA” short to the Steely Dan song “The Royal Scam”. It’s not a commonly played Steely Dan song and, since it’s about Puerto Rican immigrants whose dreams of life in America work out badly for them, it’s perfectly appropriate to the material.
I also like all the 1st season references, now increasingly obscure, to Isaac Asimov’s career as the expert on everything, when he was writing popular exegeses of Shakespeare and the Bible and anything else that he could make a buck on.
Off the top of my head, and I’m not sure how obscure people really think it is, but hearing Crow go “Rrrrraceway Park!” in Prince of Space always & immeditately brings to mind the commercials I used to hear on the radio.
““Feel some malaise, sucker,” from Warrior of the Lost World. The line was uttered by Persis Khimbatta’s father, who looked like President Carter (malaise was a key word in Carter’s speeches.)”
I am compelled to point out that the now-infamous Jimmy Carter speech of Independence Day 1979, the speech that has come to be known as the “malaise speech”, does not contain even one instance of the word “malaise”.
Oh boy, there are a lot of obscure riffs I have loved. Here are a couple that just popped into my head.
In “Deathstalker”, when our young heroin is running away from a bat warrior through the forest, Mike remarks that “she runs like Natrone Means”. Natrone Means was a short, squat little running back who played for the Chargers (and the Vikings, too? I don’t quite remember), and he did have an odd (but effective) little style of running. So did the princess – Mike pegged that one pretty well!
As an amateur trumpet player, I love any reference to a trumpeter when the soundtrack is getting out of hand – “Oh no, someone is strangling Doc Severinsen/Miles Davis/Dizzy Gillespie.” I also love the references in Jack Frost and Prince of Space to Bartok’s Adagio for Strings – that is one laborious, depressing piece of music!
I don’t know if this is really obscure or not, but I like how in “The Killer Shrews” when two characters are stuck in a tree, and Crow remarks, “Meanwhile, back at the branch.” That line comes from an episode of Beany & Cecil: “The Wild Man of WIldsville.”
While yes, Beany & Cecil isn’t totally forgotten, and B&C had been referenced other times, I think that was the only time they referenced a specific episode.
Maybe the best obscure reference is the one that didn’t truly exist – the numerous riffs about “Do you think I’m Dale?” When I finally found out the true story behind Daleisms, I loved the many times they used one, and I hope to use it in a real-world situation someday.
I think it’s in GAMERA VS. GUIRON, the flying monster Guiron grasps Gamera in his talons and flies away and Servo refers to the death of Aeschylus. Aeschylus was an ancient Greek poet and playwright who reportedly died when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head.
@34
I remember that riff. I don’t know if it’s an East Coast thing or what. I thought they still play those commercials with that rather annoying Chipmunk voice.
For me, it’s Pod People when Joel makes a Bob Dylan reference when one of the poachers gets cold feet and drives off in the trunk. My mom actually explained that one to me when I first heard it.
I guess not really obscure but as a lifelong diehard Celtics fan the jokes about the lanky girl in Squirm looking like Kevin McHale made me chuckle. Otherwise don’t like that episode, too gross.
Can anyone tell me what the joke “Thank’s for the beer Gomez” from Cavedwellers is referencing, if it is referencing anything? That was the first episode I ever saw, in syndication, in the middle of the night, in an inebriated state, and that joke stood out and tore me up. Been hooked ever since.
I know that being from Wisconsin, my ears perked up everytime a Wisconsin reference came up that others would find obscure. Obviously all of the Packers stuff from Giant Spider Invasion. But also stuff like in I think Giant Gila Monster when they mention a house being in Spooner, WI.
Or in the host segments when Mike talked about the streets being in his blood and Crow points out that he grew up in Little Chute, WI: that almost made me choke when I laughed at that. Appleton would be enough of a small city reference, but a burb of Appleton? That’s entertainment!
Or in that segment, I think from Giant Gila Monster as well, where Joel says that everyone at Ashwaubenon high used to love KISS, that was a good one too. (I always remember Crow’s response to Joel and I’ve used it as many times as I’ve could in life: “You spent your warped adolesence with a bunch of geeky losers and now it’s our cross to bear?” Try using it too; it’s fun!)
More recently during the Cinematic Titanic Live Alien Factor where Trace goes into the whole local Green Bay affiliate voice and mentioned Kaukauna, that cracked me up to no end.
I guess those are subtle reminders why I love that show because these people behind it lived in or were familiar with all of those places in Wisconsin and of course neighboring Minnesota. It just made it a bit more personal for me and I’m sure many others.
In an episode in season 8 or 9 there was a woman wearing a bathing suit that pretty much covered her completely and I believe it was Crow that remarked “Amish beachwear fashions from Charm, Ohio.” Living about 10 miles from Charm, I was quite surprised at the reference.
in “horror of party beach,” crow has a line in the early moments, when they show the guys on the ship getting ready to dump their barrels. the camera cuts to a shot of a crew member leaning into the frame (i believe), and crow sings, in a deep ‘manly’ type voice “sail away,” which is a reference to the beck’s beer commercials. i suppose they were popular at the time, but these days it seems like one of the most esoteric things ever.
There’s a scene from Monster A-Go-Go where a scientist is walking down a hallway, and the strange guitar music starts playing. The riff:
“He’s sneaking past Robert Fripp’s room”
As a King Crimson fan, this made me laugh :)
A couple more I just though of:
“The only bathroom in the fair is up there.” Heard during the century 21 short, when the camera focuses on the Space Needle. I’m not 100% sure about this, but I do remember a time in the mid-90s, where the Seattle Science Center was having some major sewage problems, and the only workable toilets were the ones in the Space Needle. I’m not sure if they were actually referencing that, or if it was just coincidental.
Another obscure riff would have to be “THE KINGDOME!!!!” from MST3K: The Movie, when the rubble lands on top of the bug mutant. I only think it’s obscure because Servo is actually referring to the Kingdome in Europe, NOT the Seattle Kingdome. Everytime I’ve shown MST3K: The Movie to someone, they think Servo is referencing the Seattle Kingdome getting demolished, and I inform them, “This movie was made in 1995. The Seattle kingdome didn’t come down until, years later.” The Kingdome in Europe was under heavy maintenance in the early 90s, so I’ve always believed it was a reference to that.
@45 – That’s one of my favorite riffs, too! Another King Crimson riff that I remember involved a shootout where Servo yells that the character just wants his “Larks Tongue in Aspic” tape back. (“Larks Tongues…” being an early ’70s Crimson album.) Come to think of it, there are a lot of prog rock jokes that kinda skewer the whole genre. Jokes about the “Pod People” soundtrack come to mind immediately…
Another good riff from the “Army” trainig scenes in Red Zone Cuba is “It’s the Shining Path fantasy camp!” as recuits struggle to rope climb a 8 foot wall. Shining Path being the Peruvian jungle terrorist group and the fantasy camp a reference to those baseball quaisi-training camps for middle aged guys to live out their little league fantasies of stardom.
The first one that came to mind was “Wee Willie Winkie, my favorite John Ford film.” from the Giant Gila Monster?. John Ford who directed most of John Wayne’s best movies such as The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and also directed WWW, a Shirley Temple movie from 1937.
Among the songs they gave to the characters in Teenagers from Outer Space was the theme song for the New Zoo Revue for Grandpa. NZR was a early 70s saturday morning lame ripoff of shows like H R Pufnstuf and the Bugaloos. Grandpa vaguely resembled the Hippo from the show.
Any references to Sid and Marty Kroft are good too.
FYI, Raceway Park is in New Jersey and I remember those radio commercials too. It’s still in operation and I believe they’re still using that voice clip 40 years on.
When I first watched “The Unearthly”, they riffed on a passage of incidental music featuring vibraphone: “Adolph Hitler on vibes”.
I was floored. Hardly anyone I knew had ever heard of the Bonzo Dog Band, and for these guys to throw in a reference to the Bonzos’ song “The Intro and the Outro” – well, I don’t need to tell you that this confirmed me instantly as a lifelong fan.
Honorable mentions: the Eleanor Roosevelt-like principal at Jimmy’s high school in “I Accuse My Parents” inspired the riff “Sergeant, take the gun and shoot the Corporal!” It took me several viewings to realize that this was a reference to the brainwashing nightmare scene in “The Manchurian Candidate.”
Also, Professor Bobo’s tangent of shouting “Panties, panties, panties, panties…” in a host segment in “Agent for h.a.r.m.” was a reference to a priceless scene in “Anatomy of a Murder” in which the judge (played by Joseph Welch of “At long last, Senator, have you left no sense of decency, sir” fame) discusses the uses of alternatives to the word “panties” with the prosecuting and defense attorneys in the murder trial.