Alert reader Ken writes:
Has there been anything done with movie-related host segments? For example, I have come to love the host segment at the end of episode 610- THE VIOLENT YEARS in which Crow holds up Mike. It has such a wonderfully bizarre feel to it (it beautifully captures the inert quality of the movie), and Crow looks hilarious with the bandanna wrapped around his face.
Gotta go with the Town Council meeting called to deal with the Sinbad problem in episode 505- MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD. Just gaspingly funny.
What’s your pick?
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Gotta go with Crow dancing in his gold boots.
Crow rushing the Halloween season in Track of the Moon Beast
Remaking the opening credit scene in Cave Dwellers.
Usually I skip the host segments but one that comes to mind is from ‘Pod People’ where Joel says “Trumpy, you can do magic things.” and the entire SOL goes crazy with Tom flying around screaming. That wacky music being played while Cambot goes in and out with the camera makes it pretty funny.
Best laugh to host segment length ratio: Joel says- “Waffles”
Other that comes to mind- “When I held your brain in my arms” homage to Ink Spots gets me every time.
Hmm, there are so many good ones. And Sampo, your pick also made me roll uncontrollably with laughter first time I saw it once they launched all those horrendous alternate names for Sinbad. I literally couldn’t get my breath at the time. But there are others I like even better for repeat viewing value, so here’s my short list of favorites:
1) Funny Or Not Funny Floating? from Rocketship X-M. Still one of their best-written most consistently funny sketches ever.
2) Reporters Of Rocketship X-M. The crazy nicknames for all those peripheral reporter characters always makes me laugh.
3) Tibby,Oh Tibby. from Gamera. All I can say is, wow!
4) Idiot Control Now Recording Session. from Pod People. Also wow!
5) Monster Play Set. from Gamera Vs. Barugon. It took several viewings to catch everything Servo is saying during this sketch, but it’s worth the effort. Amazingly clever and funny.
You know, picking a single favorite for this topic is just too hard because the writing on the show was just that good. Even stopping at five was quite difficult there are so many sketches on the show that still make me laugh years later after dozens of viewings. Now I’m really starting to miss the show just talking about it.
“I know.” ::cue music::
Four little words: Why don’t they look?
Refueling sequence from Starfighter is number 1.
@#5- Host segments RELATED to the movie.
I think the ultimate is in “Gunslinger” when Tom Servo bilocates to prove his point about how the guy got around the building so fast in the movie. Joel’s reaction was perfect and the segment was actually fairly mind-blowing.
The Canada song. Just love it starts with Tom defending the country that produced the movie that hurt them so much and ends with Tom boiling with so much hate that Mike has to step in.
I really like the marrage of Tom and Crow from Racket Girls inspired from the far superior short Are You Ready for Marrage.
The “My White Goddess” segment from Jungle Goddess. Joel is brilliant, and the whole thing is much funnier than most sitcoms.
It stinks!
#2: That was my first pick, too. “I’LL NEVER RUSH THE HALLOWEEN SEASON AGAIN! JUST FORGIVE ME!!”
Hint:
Zeeeeeeeroooooo’s…… zeeeeeeeroooooo’s……
In other words…. “Hired! The Musical” from 423 – Bride of the Monster, inspired from the Hired short. :D
“Are you happy in your work?”
First choice for me is the “Servo on Cinema” segment from Giant Gila Monster. That was what made me a MSTie. Up till then I had only been enjoying the show until Tom’s presentation on the firmness Ray Kellogg’s Leg Up Position style of directing. I think it was the arrows in every direction pointing at the actors upraised knees with the drum solo playing behind it that got me. It was just so ridiculously funny that I was hooked for life.
There are so many… one of my faves: Crow thinks he’s a Belarian.
Mike and the Screaming Crow from “The Screaming Skull.” Especially the part where Mike carefully considers the right club for the job.
As referred to above: so many host segments, so little time.
Warrior of the Lost World. Joel and Crow especially stand out!
My wife’s picks for best host segment related to the movie are:
– Toobular Boobular Joy
– My Wild Irish Ireland
I also loves those sketches, they are fantastically funny. They are solid proof that when at its best, the show could still be the funniest thing on TV even after the creator and star had left the show.
906 Century 21 Calling…Mike as the blue sweatered dork. I know the topic is move related host segments and not shorts, but I find this one is definitely worth mentioning. :-)
The Cheating Saga. Cheating is bad. Richard Basehart is good.
Still my favorite, after all these years: SPACOM!
Second prize: the Joel-as-evil-overlord business from OPERATION DOUBLE 007. “I know!”
I love “Toobular Boobular Joy,” and overall I tend to think that songs are funnier, but instead of a song, I’m going with a real sketch: “The Shoe-Polishing Human” from “Blood Waters of Dr. Z,” one of my favorite episodes, despite the fact that I’ve never been able to come close to following the movie.
Close runner-up: “Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy,” my original pick for best but it doesn’t really have much to do with the movie, other than using the footage.
Sorry, but there are so many good choices that I had to pick one more: Crow’s take on Dr. Z’s “Weed of Deceit” speech from Blood Waters of Dr Z. “Skulking biped!….heh heh heh.” Truly one of the best host segments from the Sci-Fi years.
Too many to choose from. Off the top of my head, a few favorites:
1. Captain Joe the action figure, the boozing, brawling, bloated hero of Bacchus 3. “You’ll be in a constant state of excitement while he’s in a state of denial!” “Existential void where prohibited!” I love also the casual way that Joel tosses all the props away or shoves them to the ground.
2. HIRED!!
3. Trooper Tom Servo’s inquiry into Why Don’t They Look, featuring deadly salami sandwiches and drier lint and ending with one of Servo’s trademark meltdowns. “Why do I even bother with the brainless gibbons in this stinking hole of a town?!”
4. The Mikey glasses from Teen-Age Strangler. Mike Nelson’s delivery and facial expressions are pitch perfect (Crow isn’t nearly as good.)
5. FAPS.
I love Hired. and Refueling sequence from Starfighter. The diorama from Robot Rumbus From the Gumby short is funny also.
I don’t remember which Hercules movie it’s from, but I love the “Pants” song. Especially the end that pays homage to the Cowardly Lion’s song in The Wizard of Oz.
Here are a couple that stood out for me.
I second Gunslinger with Servo Bilocating. Also have to love the Mighty Jack segment when Servo and Crow try to torture Joel with really bright lights and he foils their evil plans by keeping his eyes closed.
This is an easy one! My favorite is from I Accuse My Parents when Joel and the bots recreate the night club scene with Gypsy singing about being happy in your work. The bots are waiters busily going back and forth and Joel plays multiple patrons who are enjoying the show. I bust out laughing every time it gets to the part with Joel wearing a blonde wig that’s all crooked and mussed and he has a little moustache drawn on. It’s so silly and I love it!
Gruesome experiments on common earthworms produces a tasty new snack food!
I love Crow’s “Screaming Skull” and his evil Dr. Z voiceover.
Also visits from Mikey the Mike-sprite from Squirm and Goosieo from Final Justice.
Joel & the Bots recreating the Cave Dwellers opening credits.
Joel & the Bots analyzing Jimmy from I Accuse My Parents.
The Bots turn Mike into the Devil Doll.
Mike as a walnut farmer from Touch of Satan.
Sometimes the segments are related to the movie, sometimes they aren’t. We’re going to focus on the latter this time around.
Actually, Sampo, you’re going to focus on the FORMER this time (the latter would be those segments that aren’t).
I’m partial to the movie-inspired songs during host segments.
My favorites from the CC era: The “Gypsy Moon” duel, and the United Servo Academy Men’s Chorus.
Favorites from the SciFi (Syphi) era: Servo’s songs about the 70s and 50s, and Mike crooning in the rain as the SOL catches fire
The “family dinner” segment after the “Date With Your Family” short. I still occasionally use the line, “Ah, such are the vicissitudes of sport!”
1) “Idiot Control Now” from “Pod People”… gotta be the most hilarious one.
2) As mentioned before, Crow rushing the Halloween season from “Track of the Moon Beast”. Brilliant deconstruction of a lame, lame movie scene. “I mean, we HAD the mask…”
3) “Ha ha ha ha, you’re stuck here!!!” from “Fugitive Alien”. “Jeez, Joel, don’t vapor lock…”
4) “You are magic, aren’t you Trumpy?” from “Pod People” again.
5) “Every year of my life I grow more and more convinced…” from “Phantom Planet.”
Another: Mike and the bots become cooing, confused women after crashing the SOL.
For me, without question, it’s Joel’s progressively over-the-top performance of “Hike Up Your Pants” in one of the “Daddy-o” host segments. Sung to the tune of the same embarrassing and forgettable treacle warbled by the film’s “star”, Dick Contino, a few moments earlier, Joel’s rendition not only sends up the tune itself but also the propensity of the film’s male characters to wear their pants just below their nipples. I have always loved Joel’s increasingly manic delivery of the song and consider it to be his finest moment on the show.
Crow as Jack Elam makes me laugh out loud every time.
Wow… way too many to choose from, but…..
I still love the segment from Master Ninja where the bots come up with their own super cool custom van designs. And of course, one that’s already been mentioned a couple times, the night club recreation in I Accuse My Parents. And I love the segments in Amazing Colossal Man and War of the Colossal Beast when Mike plays Glen. And….. and …… and … aaarrrggghhhh!
Wow. Such a difficult question to narrow down. But the first two that popped in my head were “Mikey The Mike Sprite” from the short A CASE OF SPRING FEVER. I could watch that everyday and still laugh as hard as the first time I watched it. Second, (and I can’t believe it hasn’t been said already) is “Where, Oh Werewolf?” from WEREWOLF. They don’t get much better than that!
“We’re a danger to ourselves and others” from Giant Leaches.
Sorry, can’t talk now! Mike’s tripping!
Don’t Make me choose. Probably goes to “Do you become a languid, sex starved, mirmering woman when your in a plane crash?”
I also have to go with “HIred!” Pretty brilliant.
So many good ones have been mentioned:
*”It stinks!” from Pod People. I just love this one. Frank as the guy with the “I’m A Virgin” shirt is the best part.
*”Are You Happy in Your Work” from I Accuse My Parents. I really like this one and I appreciate the complexity of it.
*”I Know” from Operation Double 007. “Joel, you’re ruining it for me!” “I know!”
*Gas station hold up from The Violent Years. I forgot all about this one until I read the comments and I looked it up on Youtube. It goes on a little long (that’s the point), but kudos to Mike for not cracking up. I would have.
One that hasn’t been mentioned is the Sandy Frank Song from Time of the Apes. Spielberg won’t return his calls.
It’s the little things, for me. When they do the wasteland sketch in Robot Holocaust, with Joel as the animal boy Geekor, all dressed in roadkill. I love it when Crow says, “Can we stop by a Wendy’s? Geekor wants a frosty” and all Joel can do is sign air quotes. Just so odd.
Easy! Mike showing off his killer stereo system for the bots with the music from The Creeping Terror. Get into the sweet spot! It probably would not have been nearly as funny but for the sheer length of time that Mike just stands there getting into the tune…