Short: (1946) A look at the Clyde Beatty circus, featuring legendary clown Emmett Kelly.
Movie: (1959) Nordic fantasy tale, based loosely on the Kalevala, about a wicked witch’s schemes to get, and later regain, a magic mill.
First shown: 1/16/93
Opening: J&tB try to pose for a family photo
Invention exchange: J&tB have invented Snack-tion; The Mads show off their “unhappy meals”
Host segment 1: The bots have some ideas for clown acts but Joel is no help
Host segment 2: So, what’s a sampo?
Host segment 3: Gypsy’s presents her one-woman show: “Gypsy Rose…Me!”
End: The bots are imprisoned wind, Joel reads a letter, Frank is also wind and still mad
Stinger: “What’s going to happen to us now?!”
(232 votes, average: 4.53 out of 5)
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• I just love this episode. Fun, goofy, watchable movie, great riffing, great host segments, one of this series’ crowning achievements and the beginning of what became known as the “Russo-Finnish trilogy,” a memorable trio of terrific episodes.
• This episode was included in Shout’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: The 25th Anniversary Edition” aka Vol. XXVIII.”
• As you might have guessed, this episode had a big effect on me. For a long time it was my all-time favorite. Up until this point, on the Prodigy MST3K boards I had just been “Chris in Phila.” The night this was shown (or maybe the next day, I forget), I officially announced that I was taking the handle Sampo, and I’ve had it ever since.
• How do robots spit? I know, I know…
• The unhappy meals are truly an evil invention. I love Dr. F’s Charles Nelson Reilly laugh as he describes them.
• The announcer says “pamalino horses.” The hell?
• The circus in the short is never named, but it’s the Clyde Beatty Circus.
• The acrobat is both Dag Hammarskjöld and Albert Speer. Both references are pretty out of the blue…
• In the short, during the part toward the end when the lady is dancing with the elephants, you can easily see that one of the elephants has rolled in some poop. Gross.
• This movie (originally titled “Sampo” but cheesily renamed to trick American audiences into think it was sci-fi) was based on the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland. (As an aside, J.R.R. Tolkien was heavily influenced by the Kalevala, and his “Silmarillion” was originally begun as an attempt to create a sort of British Kalevala.)
• Increasingly obscure reference: “Hey, it’s Skylab!”
• The “Scandinavian sketch” is obviously drawn from their personal experiences. What I find amusing is how much those Minnesota accents sound like the accents of folks in the Northeastern corner of Pennsylvania, where I now live. There’s probably a linguistic explanation.
• As I noted in 1993 when I introduced this episode on national TV during Turkey Day, the movie DOES explain what a sampo is. J&tB are just in mid-riff when the explanation comes. I wonder if they did that on purpose, just so they can do the “what’s a sampo?” sketch?
• Local riff: “Mini golf at Crosslake.” It’s still around.
• I was very amused by Servo’s grumbling about “Half & Half.” This sounds like a disgruntled husband speaking from a real-life experience.
• Another obscure reference: Crow’s silly voiced: “I thought it was a costume ball!” is a reference to a movie called “Start the Revolution Without Me.”
• In the ’94 Turkey Day, in his introduction, Adam West mistakenly says that this is episode number 424.
• Callback: “I sing whenever I sing…” (Giant Gila Monster)
• Naughty riff: “HE’s got delusions of grandeur.
• There are not one but two Ross Perot references in this episode. I guess it counts as “then-topical” but I would hope most people would remember who he is.
• Of course, one highlight is the classic “failure” song. Joel even gets up to dance!
• Jim gives a real tour de force in “Gypsy Rose ME!”
• Tom gently joshes fellow Minnesota entertainer Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion” during the long, tedious harp attack.
• Cast and crew wrapup: Russian director Alexsandr Ptushko also directed “The Magic Voyage of Sinbad” (originally “Sadko”) and “The Sword and the Dragon” (originally “Ilya Muromets”).
Georgiy Millyar was in “Jack Frost,” Mark Troyanovski was in “Magic Voyage of Sinbad,” the narrator, Marvin Miller, was also the narrator of “King Dinosaur” and “Phantom Planet” and Valentin Bryleyev was also in “Jack Frost.
• Creditwatch: Host segments directed by Trace Beaulieu. “Gypsy Rose Me” was written and arranged by Mike, with lyrics by Mary Jo.
• Fave riff from the short: “You know, don’t laugh, but, in a way, this is this town’s Passion Play.” Honorable mention: “A rogue elephant snaps its tether and kills a coolie.”
• Fave riff from the movie: “Great wedding. You get half a buzz on and you’re sent home with a torch.” Honorable mention: “I’m relative humidity. It’s not so much the heat as it is me.”
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“There’s somethin’ ya don’t see every day, Chauncey.”
“What’s that, Edgar?”
“KISS goin’ bass fishin’.”
Definitely one of my top 5 all-time favorite episodes!
I can’t belive it took 53 comments before someone quoted the “doing it clown-style” line. One of my all-time favorite riffs, along with Trace (as Bullwinkle)’s “I seem to be on FIRE!” Great, great episode.
Unfortunately not everyone appreciated MST3K’s treatment of the film. Do a web search on the movie title and look for the Kiddie Matinee site’s review of the film. Near the end, they take some very nasty pot shots at Best Brains for daring to make fun of this movie. It’s a shame you can’t leave comments on their site.
I have been a fan of MST3K since it first aired and this one is my FAVORITE episode! 2nd favorite is Jack Frost. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen The Day the Earth Froze. It’s one of the classics that I have to watch a couple times every year…ranking it right up there with Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Young Frankenstein. It never gets old and I’m still finding things to laugh at. I’m so glad to see I’m not the only one! I used to quote it in highschool back in 1997 and no one new what I was talking about. Oh…to have that show on the air again…no one can ever duplicate it. AND I MISS TURKEY DAY MARATHONS!!!!!
“Watch out where those huskies go and don’t you eat that yellow snow!”
Family Portrait:
I think this is the first time we see Crow with his hair slicked back.
I love the backdrop. It is the exact same scene as the wall behind them. Great idea. I envy the fan who ended up with that during the prop auction.
You know it’s not just the superb movie and short riffing and outstanding host segments that makes the season four stretch drive the greatest stretch in the show’s history. Here again we have for the third straight week a top five all time invention exchange in my opinion.
First I love how it opens up with Frank giving the bum’s rush to the delivery guy saying “sorry about the tip, I left the money in my other pocket.” Classic.
Joel’s invention is great. I love the Pixie Staff (who doesn’t love pure and unadulterated sugar?) and ninja throwing cookies are fun too.
But it’s been said before and I’ll say it again: this is evil. It starts off with Dr. Forrester financing it with Frank’s 401k. Then we see the cold partially eaten hamburger. I also like the used Q-tip.
The circus wrap up host segment is fun. Note the gap going on as Joel “types.” I also like Crow’s idea “This routine starts out normal, you and me beating the crap out of each other.” But this sketch contains an all time favorite catchphrase: Joel “Um, fellas can I remind you are going to be clowns in a circus? There’s going to be kids watching.” Tom “Can I just remind you to bite me?”
It’s kind of funny how this episode has inspired renaming. Our beloved website master took his name from Sampo. Meanwhile, I renamed a favorite meal of mine Sampo based on a couple of my favorite riffs mentioned below.
Favorite Riffs:
Boy is chugging a Coke and all chant “chug it, chug it.”
Girl on trapeze: Tom “Yes our Betty swings both ways.”
Clowns do their shtick: Crow “And Madonna thinks she’s innovative.”
Crow “1, 2, 3, Hey I can’t fall asleep counting these guys.” Tom “They’re goats.”
Joel “Is it Sampo yet?”
Guy straddling a lot: Crow “He’s got delusions of grandeur.”
Joel “Kids come running for the rich taste of Sampo.”
Crow “Are you with the bride or the failure.”
Crow “Twas a Rock and Roll Creation” (Another Spinal Tap riff)
This episode has a couple of the moments when I, first coming to MST3K, knew this was The Show for me. One of them was the reference to Skylab. I was a child in the late 70s, at the right time for the talk of Skylab Falling to make a deep impression on me. I’ve been a space fan and space history buff for a long, long while, but Skylab has a special part in that for me.
Then there’s the Bullwinkle references. How the boat resembles Bullwinkle is great, but then to top it with the Chauncy-and-Edgar sequence (“there’s something you don’t see every day, Chauncy” “What’s that, Edgar?” “KISS going bass fishing”) is not just a great joke, but it’s a great joke which so perfectly captures the spirit of the Bullwinkle Show that it should have been made by the originals.
It’s very rare to impersonate something so well it feels like the original; I think the best other example might be that early M*A*S*H episode where Hawkeye and Trapper John and Radar do a little movie in the Marx Brothers style. All the jokes are original-to-M*A*S*H but they feel like they’re ripped from the real Marx Brothers.
Anyway, I guess that’s another question: did the Brains ever make a Chauncy-and-Edgar joke, or for that matter a KISS joke, that wasn’t uproarious? No, I say, and if you think you have a contrary example I’ll listen and then announce that you’re wrong. To do a Chauncy-and-Edgar and KISS joke together is to reach a summit of can’t-not-be-fantastic.
@#16: The correct term is tetralogy, not quadrology.
@#20: Similarly, you wouldn’t believe the number of stories in Le Mort d’Arthur which involve a noob arriving at Camelot desiring to become a knight and Kay sends him to the kitchen to slave away until he’s tasked to escort some bitchshrew woman who it turns out just needs the noob to relieve her of her virginity. Or something like that.
The Day the Earth Froze (also called Sampo) is a Russo-Finnish collaboration released in 1959. Around this time American-International went on a European shopping spree buying (in some cases via Roger Corman) well made, completed movies very cheaply. They then brought them back to the U.S., chopped them up, dubbed them, sometimes adding scenes with American actors (I’m looking at you Basil Rathbone) and distributing them here. This is what I call the “Godzilla with Raymond Burr” approach to movie making. While the end result is disappointing, it was profitable at the time.
Favorite lines (Here Comes the Circus):
Here comes the Devil.
It’s Thomas Edison with his electric child.
Now make way for the Ku Klux Klowns.
Store this image away for a later nightmare
Oh, no, they’re doing it clown style, no.
Yes, children’s windows of perception are opened for only a second, only to take in the horror that is the circus.
It’s a full contact “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”. Don’t talk about our clown, Martha.
A rogue elephant snaps its tether and kills a cooley.
Favorite lines (The Day the Earth Froze):
“…save the village from the most horrible, cruel misfortune it would ever know.” The Reagan/Bush administration.
The Adventures of Fjord Fairlane.
My other log’s a redwood. She’s got a gun.
Please remain seated until the cape has come to a complete stop, thank you.
The Stay Puft marshmellow man in chains.
Put your teeth in, I can’t understand you.
Hey, you wrecked our boat you freaked out maniac. [and a nod to the Boys from Brazil]
[The iron boat is launched] When log flume rides go horribly wrong. You may get burnt on this ride.
Oooh, that was the Chili Rellano wind.
[The witch steals the sun] It looks like she’s dragging a muffler.
You’re in the house, take your bike helmet off.
Final Thought: This is not one of my favorites from season 4. I give this one 2 out of 5.
Another great bit… the classic “praying to the tree, County Road B, the sun” sequence. It may seem to come out of nowhere (and honestly, it does, since we haven’t seen Lemmankinnan’s mother before) but this is a motif that actually appears in a LOT of folk-tales, but it’s never any less ridiculous. And Joel and the Bots really rip into the absurdity.. “Birch, birch, birch…” “I’ll put the word out on the street.. oh, I am the street.” “Oh, bloated carp floating in the water…” It’s a sequence I always look forward to.
Another fun episode as we wind down this season. this will be on a MST Volume soon
its a good thing movies are fictitious otherwise we would really wonder what a Sampo is …
Oh well
Joels Hair, growing out
Joels Knees
Crows Voice
Sampo Sampo Sampo , whos got the Sampo ?
Who needs the Therapy
Me
I’ve watched this one several times but it just doesn’t stick with me. I remember some parts of the short and the only host segment I remember is Gypsy Rose Me and I thought it was cute. I know this one is a big fan favorite but it has yet to grow on me.
Well, my old comment on this one was made before I changed my handle to the current one. Nothing new to say, though “My other log’s a redwood!” should definitely be listed as one of the naughtier riffs.
Smoothie–you have a dirty mind. :-) It’s a completely innocent riff on those bumper stickers on crappy cars that say “My other car is a Porsche” or whatever. If you are riding an every-day log but want to impress, it would have a bumper sticker that says “My other car is a redwood” — a much more impressive kind of tree.
Wow, the clown is just….freaky.
This episode is easily one of the weakest episodes they ever produced. I’d give it half a star, at best. All of the host segments are weak, the movie is bland, and the short is one of the dullest they riffed. It’s obvious they were running out of steam by the end of this season and practically phoned it in for this one. The series wouldn’t start firing on all cylinders again until episode 502 “Hercules.”
Last week’s discussion thread was “Graduate-Level” episodes, and this abysmal snooze-fest is easily a top five candidate!
Heh, I was on the Prodigy BBs starting back in early 1995. I spent most of my time on the KITH BB, but was also on the one for MST3K. took a few weeks for me to discover Usenet. My life would be very different today if I hadn’t, since I met my husband on ratmm.
Fantastic episode. Definitely Top 5, maybe Top 3. Gypsy Rose Me is completely meh, but the rest is just perfect. I like when Joel admonishes the bots for being too dark. In reality, it allows the writers to get away with going even farther on the dark side than they would normally.
Too many great lines, so I’ll just list some…
Here comes the Devil!
Is there another wise man we can talk to?
Oh me? I’m just the laundry
I just pray their ain’t no portages (that’s funny now that I know what a portage is :laugh: )
Can someone put me out, I seem to be on fire
Don’t know what I’d do without my right hand troll
Will someone please turn the Wagner off?
Oh great, we can plant more snakes now
I guess they shouldn’t have registered in Hell
And I really like the actress playing Louhi. Great facial expressions.
Prodigy, heh. Didn’t they set their sights on the under-16 crowd in some way? Lots of NES offerings or some such? Hafta investigate further, while looking up some CompuServe screenshots…
#57 – that’s Sir Basil Rathbone, right! British but born in South Africa – and I read how he never renounced his British citizenship, unlike most of his peers. Good on you, old screw.
I remember gasping for air during Tom’s take on Garrison Keillor. Also snickering at poor Sally Struthers before her being mocked on MST3K. Poor woman, looked like she was going through take 59 in those ads.
Another late season 4 classic, I love the bots’ dark ideas for their circus and the entire episode is 5 stars all the way, a great introductory episode and easy to watch. This late season 4 stretch was truly the high point of the show, although there are several season 5 episodes that are among my all time favorites as well. Amazingly next week’s episode is even better IMHO. There are so many great catchphrases I still use today with MST friends of mine:
“Maybe we got to work more butt in the act”
“Could someone please put me out? I seem to be on fire.”
“I’m the stench of bitter failure”
“you turn it into a dark carnival of the soul”
Other favorite lines:
“I can’t fall asleep counting these guys.” “They’re goats.”
“Our Betty swings both ways.”
Very dated riffs:
“The Adventures of Fjord Fairlane”
“It’s a Mapplethorpe photo”
Both of those subjects (the Ford Fairlane movie and Robert Mapplethorpe’s bondage photos) were somewhat controversial in the early ’90s as I recall.
Can anyone tell what is said after Joel’s riff “party in Susan’s dressing room?” It sounds almost like he is making a comment to someone half covering his mike and I can’t tell what he is saying.
Very enjoyable ep! Watchable movie, funny host segments (except Gypsy Rose Me, but that’s maybe because I don’t get it) and even a fun invention exchange!
So, what would you do if you had an endless supply of gold, flour, and salt?
Five stars.
#8 – Actually, ‘Aniki’ in Japanese means older brother. It’s also used by ‘gangs’ to refer to their leader. That’s the most common usage in anime/manga, so I understand the confusion.
Best episode ever. Joel admonishing the robots not to be so dark is fine with me. Repeat to yourself it’s just a show….. The short was hysterical. Doing it clown style and Gary Crosby’s relationship with his father Bing played out. Clowns are scary. Even Emmett Kelly as Weary Willie
To all the people who say this is “best episode ever!” my question is: really? This episode is, as Sampo often says of Mike’s episodes, good but not great.
I remember in the early 90’s websites of soundbites were all the rage, and I bookmarked the “Sounds of Sampo” page, with a list of all the movie riffs with the word “Sampo.” For years, one of my main alert sounds was “WHERE is the many-colored DOME of the Sampo? –Maam, the dome is an option you did not order.” Yet I never saw the whole episode until 2011. I loved the ‘logging’ sequence, as well as the ‘failure’ dance in the village, both classic.
I’ve gotta agree with the minority here. I never really liked the Russo-Finnish episodes that much. If any, I’d take Sinbad, I guess. This was one of the first episodes I ever recorded, yet it
is one of my least-watched Joel ones. And I only watched the Sword and the Dragon ONCE, which is an all-time low since I’ve probably seen most 20-25 times each. They’re just so goofy in and of themselves that it gets irritating after a while.
Still, the short is a classic.
Not quite as great as the voyage of sinbad but still a grade A episode. Has anyone ever counted how many times the cast and the movie say the word “SAMPO”?
This is one of, if not my absolute, favorite episode. That may be because it was the first one that I saw, and I was hooked from then on. There were just enough riffs that I got that seemed obscure, and enough riffs that were just funny in their own right, that it was the perfect combination of obscurity and humor. There were references to Spinal Tap, Patton, classic rock bands, and Lawrence Welk in the span of about a minute or two. I knew this was a show for me.
While this episode had a large number of what are often referred to as “State Park” jokes, being from Wisconsin made them all the more hilarious and it really made an impression on me. How many people from outside this area are going to get the “Swedish Dells” joke, not to mention the follow up “Ride the dooks” that comes right after? The opening is classic “Yooper” speak, which is obviously spoken in many parts of the Midwest, and elsewhere as indicated above, and it really makes you feel like this is “your” show since the dialect is somewhat localized. Do people in Arizona or southern California even get why that is so funny? Yes, people really do talk like that on a daily basis and I have met many throughout the years. It helps that my father and brother are both named Earl…
The school closing announcements during the blizzard are classic and bring back memories of listening to the radio every snowy morning as a kid in the hopes that you would hear, “Green Bay, public and parochial.” (My wife once said that was her favorite part of the show as when we were both teachers years ago we would wait with the same trepidation as when we were kids.)
My children often wonder why whenever I see a dead fish I will say, “Oh dead bloated carp lying in the shallows…” My oldest at least now has some small understanding as she is beginning to appreciate the show and I have shared this with her. So many of this episode’s riffs have become catch phrases for me.
There may be other episodes that are stronger in certain areas, but this one may be the most consistent episode in my opinion. 5 out of 5, no question.
Fave riffs
“Oh no! They’re going to do it clown style”
“Ezekiel, the Amish clown…no buttons”
“Oh, cripes, I remember THAT day”
“It was just so ding dang cold”
When bird lands an her hand – “Hmm, dinner”
“Let us be gay for he is a dickweed”
“Did you ever think about praying to me, God, the big G Meister?”
call back to Hercules movies – “Bad news, they wanna water ski”
“With these teeth I do bite thee”
“Let’s break into our Grand Funk medly”
Too many more to list.
My favorite, definitely naughty riff, when Lemminkainen walks away with the witch:
Crow: “Don’t wait up, Eric, if you know what I mean.”
Joel: “Say, that IS cold.”
Always loved such riffs, subtle, yet very adult.
In addition to my comments from a few years ago above under the name “Bob” pertaining to the Kalevala, I’d like to add how much I do enjoy this episode for both the movie and the short. And when I was a kid long ago I saw the Clyde Beatty Circus. At that time it was interesting because they still performed under tents while Ringling Bros. was already in arenas at that time. However, the hey-day of the Clyde Beatty Circus was clearly long before I was born even then and at the age of about 12 it already seemed kind of “broken down” to me. They still had a side-show with “freaks” and that whole affair in particular was extremely shameful and pathetic.
Keith #75> I am a lifelong WI resident (about 20 minutes from the Green Bay area). But as for your question if someone outside WI would know what it means to ride the ducks I’d have to say yes. I’ve never actually riden the ducks in the Dells myself. But I have had a duck ride… At Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta GA. So the ducks aren’t only in WI.
So, does anyone know what Emmett Kelly’s bit was that just watching him eat was enough of a thrill for the short’s audience?
Not my favorite episode, but it has great moments. The Bullwinkle “I seem to be on fire!” line is fall-over-laughing funny.
And the Pamalino horses clearly came from a string of pollopanies.
“I just love this episode. Fun, goofy, watchable movie, great riffing, great host segments, one of this series’ crowning achievements and the beginning of what became known as the “Russo-Finnish trilogy,” a memorable trio of terrific episodes.”
Sampo: Want to explain what you think is “one of the series’ crowning achievements”? Or do you just meant the episode overall?
#79
Emmett Kelly was still pretty famous when I was a kid in the ’60s (which was when most of the Brains were kids.) He had a “sad clown” act – he might have been the first. His most popular bit was to try to sweep up a spotlight that got smaller and smaller. I don’t think watching him eat was actually supposed to be a thrill.
#47
“Wouldn’t those clown antics have been considered obscene in the 50s?”
People didn’t have filthy minds in the ’50s – at least not out loud. The ones who did were oddballs, like the guy who tried to shut down Batman and Robin.
The pendulum has swung way too far the other way now, where the first assumption people make is that everything is sexual.
Somewhere inbetween would be just right.
Classic episode. One of my all time favorites that I’ve watched more times than any other one.
One thing about the Sampo, if it could make gold does it matter if it makes salt and flour?
Skiptastic–just the episode overall.
@ #78
You can also “Ride the Ducks” down in Branson, MO. Not the same “Ducks” as I’m given to understand but pretty much the same idea. Despite going to Barnson many times (God help me) I have never ridden the ducks.
As for the episode…
I agree with many that this one is pretty good all around. I actually kind of like the movie but I have a soft spot for ancient cultural myths and legends. At least you can’t say the movie is boring — it is constantly throwing crazy stuff at you left, right and center.
The result is also that the guys never lack for material to riff so you don’t get one of those episodes where it feels like they’re really struggling to come up with something.
So: Fun, colorful, wild movie + solid riffing = Fun all around.
And re: Joel admonishing the bots not to get too dark — I actually like that as part of the comedy because of course this acts to actually encourage the bots to go darker. It also gives them a chance to basically call hypocrite on Joel later when he goes kind of dark.
Dan in WI,
Thanks for the info on the Georgian Ducks. I never knew that there were Ducks in other parts of the country although it does make sense. Why not use some old WWII military equipment for sightseeing tours in Georgia? Or Nebraska, or Virginia, or anywhere? I just always associated the Dells with the slogan “Ride the Ducks!” because when I was kid you couldn’t go 100 feet in that part of the state without seeing a sign prompting you to “Ride the Ducks!” I haven’t been to the Dells area in quite some time, but that slogan is burned into my brain. And yes, I have ridden the ducks, or a duck anyway.
By the way where are you located? Kaukauna? Suamico? Denmark? Black Creek? Always nice to hear from a MSTie in the area.
“This is the most emotion ever expressed in Sweden, you realize that?” – Joel
I love this episode. Just reading the lines that people have written as their favorites have me laughing remembering this one. I liked all the host segments, even Gypsy Rose, Me! – “Gypsy Rose ME! Gypsy Rose not you – or you…” Gypsy CAN be annoying at times, but I liked this one, and how Joel is so entranced by the whole thing.
The short. Ugh. I HATE circuses. I want to bash people’s heads in for the way animals are treated; and clowns – not funny. EVER. The only thing I appreciate in circuses are the acrobats and such. And even though that is impressive, I still wouldn’t patronize one.
“Yes, children of all ages are confronted by forces they can’t begin to understand.”
I tried to add a smiley face and suddenly I couldn’t arrow up or down. I hit the edit button and wrote in all this other stuff and saved the comment, but I don’t know where it was saved TO. It didn’t go on my original comment. *shrug*
Anyway, it may end up on here somewhere, someday. I’ll try to remember what I wrote.
Another fave line from the short: “Store this image away for another nightmare.”
And Crow’s and Tom’s famous Sigfried (Zigfried?) and Roy impressions: “Where is Sigfried?” “Hello, Roy!”
The movie:
“Hey, check it out – it’s Sting and David Lee Roth, and Peter Noon and Sammy Hagar and David Carradine, and —Santa?” – Joel
(When the deer is looking at Lemmankinan) “Damn, crazy SWEDE!” – Joel
“She’s got an amazingly dull life, doesn’t she?” – Servo
“Boy, kidnapping was real easy back then.” – Servo
“Stay out of my sister.” – Joel
Joel: “Oh, now what did they chop the sail out of?”
Servo: “Well, they chopped the wood real thin.”
“NooOObody asked for a goose, you take that RIGHT away!” – Crow
“Ladies and Gentleman – the magic of Ulysses S. Grant!” – Crow
“Well, she’s really broken through the glass ceiling, huh?” – Servo
Joel: “Looks like Caligula in here.”
Crow: “How would you KNOW that?”
“The soup has an escort?” – Joel
“Why did thee even HAVE the mist if it bugs thee so much?” – Crow
“Ladies and Gentleman – the Swedish Moses of Soul!” – Servo
“Dear, All-Mighty Refrigerator Door – oh…” – Joel
“Oh, Great North Deciduous Forest- eh, nevermind.” – Joel
“Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.” – Crow
“Something’s coming in on the UrineScope, sir.” – Joel
“I’m so glad it’s a dry celebration. It’s so much more fun than the KEGGER would’ve been.” – Crow
“The day the Earth became unseasonably cool.” – Servo
And finally:
“If you see any of these people, please, for their own sakes, turn them in.” – Crow
Oh, yeah:
Joel: “A rogue elephant snaps his tether and kills a coolie.”
Servo: “NOW who’s getting dark?”
BTW: They have Duck tours in Boston. (I’m assuming it’s the same thing the rest of you are talking about: vehicles that can go on land, and then in the water?)
#17
“The repetitive epic is the most elegant form of Cardassian literature…When it comes to art, you’re obviously a prisoner of Federation dogma and…”
Oh, wait, sorry, wrong universe.
One of my all time fave shorts, like the movie…but still think the riffing in Jack Frost is better.
Some fave moments
“Here comes the devil”
“yes, the man who mistook his wife for a hat”
“yes our Betty swings both ways”
“Let’s go surfin’now, even Sven’s learning how”
“what is this Stalag 17, the musical?”
“hey look its Sting and David Lee Roth…etc”
Love the entire failure song. Especially when Joel gets up to dance.
And the Bullwinkle bit
I’ll stop there
I wince inwardly a little whenever someone mentions the “Russo-Finnish troika” or similar, because this is the only movie of the bunch that had anything to do with Finland. I should really just relax, of course.
Tom gently joshes Garrison Keillor? Are you sure you don’t mean he gently kevins him?
In “Gypsy Rose ME!”, I just enjoy Jim Mallon’s hilariously poor singing. Similar in “Hired! The Musical” when Gypsy busts out with “ZEEEEEE-ROES!”
#83 – Well, shyeah, it IS pretty important that it makes salt. At the time of the composition of the Kalevala (and, really, pretty much up until the last hundred years or so) salt was very difficult to obtain, plus it’s essential to life function, ergo those beefy Finns would have been mighty happy to have a bottomless salt shaker at hand.
People used to do some pretty disgusting things to get salt in their diet. Prime example – look up how the Romans made garum (shudder).
“Sure, we ALL do!”
Ahh, that Sally Struthers commercial.
So many young ones have no clue what that is, and sadly, many old ones have no memory of that commercial which ran constantly.
Great ep.
Well worth digging my old P* handle up for. Ah, the great day of liberation from TV M-Z or whatever it was when we got our own board. Or trying to download a uuencoded version of the Torgo Screen Saver. Good times.
Clown’s Scare
Earth’s Freeze
#97:
Coincidence? Read The Book.
“The Stay Puft Marsh Mellow Man in chains? Kinky”
Great episode, Great movie, Great short, Great Cthulhu.
Keith #86> Just off the I43 Maribel exit.