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?
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Servo getting a trucker body in Riding With Death.
“You have no butt!”
A couple do spring to mind:
Wild World of Batwoman – All the host segments about Crow cheating are fantastic, but particularly when he tries to overhear their discussion as a disguised waiter from the movie. “Would you like some soup?” Hilarious!
The Beast of Yucca Flats – The Film Anti-Preservation Society
Red Zone Cuba – Industrial Arts & Crafts
That’s it for now.
@ #98 “I don’t think anyone mentioned Tibby yet”
Try my post at #6.
@ #69: “Creepy Girl”
I tried to control myself from making a list that was 20 or more items long, but that’s also one of my favorites. Whether Tom’s singing to turtles or beautiful women, it’s so funny you could plotz. The lyrics are hilarious and Kevin Murphy’s musical delivery is fantastic. “That fishy story you tell, always makes me sleepy, but that’s just what I get for dating a girl who’s creepy…” “I’ll give you scrolls and fish and tinker toys and wine…” Funny every time no matter how many times I see it.
Don’t recall which episode it was, but I think my all-time favorite host seg is when the bots are performing Kabuki theater and Mike comes along and tells them he prefers Noh theater. Of course, they don’t understand. The ending is perfect.
It seems the consensus is that sketches where scenes from the movie are reenacted are the most possible and the most mentioned ones are from Pod People. I think it’s the key appeal of that episode.
My favorites right off the top of my head would be –
The Touch of Satan – Mike as Walnut Rancher, Servo’s Killer Gramma, Crow selling soul to Stan
Girl In Gold Boots – Crow pissed off at Mike pours beer on his most beloved objects.
Track of the Moon Beast – Crow had the mask so he took photos of Mike’s huge reaction and explained continually.
The Space Children – Jackie Coogan’s fashions, Mike as kid in the short.
The Screaming Skull – Servo’s free coffin, Crow as Skull and Mike beats him senseless.
Final Justice – Guy gets shot & slides down wall twice, Goosio, Crow’s Malta lecture.
Prince of Space – Krankor by Bill
Invasion of Neptue Men – Krankor’s return, Crow’s suggestion box, Noh Theater.
Film Crew’s Killers from Space – Mike’s Robechet technique with Bill finally punching Mike.
Film Crew’s Wild Women of Wongo
– DANCE!
The Amazing Colossal Man – Joel is a 50 foot freak, Mike as Glen Manning pt 1
War of the Colossal Beast – Mike as Glen Manning pt 2
Jungle Goddess – ‘My white goddess’ tv show at the end
Riding With Death – Songs from the 70’s
Time Chasers – Whole back in time thing with Eddie and 2 Crows.
Merlin – Ernest Borgnine’s line of whimsical children’s books.
Squirm/Coily – Mike Sprite, Mike’s Socks Sprite, Mike frying worms
Horrors of Spider Island – plane crash murmuring, Mike caught in giant spider web from blindly pogo sticking across the bridge.
The Mole People – Mike going down down down.
Blood Waters of Dr Z – Saddlesoap!
Final Sacrifice – Canada song
Space Mutiny – Servo’s Railing system
The Projected man – Crow kills Mike with Touch of death.
Terror from the Year 5000 – Crow goes back in time to party with Mike’s dad and Ginger “snap”.
Devilfish – Attacks from “dumb” dolphins and electricians.
The Pod People – It Stinks!
Manos the Hands of Fate – Torgo’s Pizza.
Human Duplicators – Mike as Hugh Beaumont again.
——————
I know there’s a lot more, but thats just off the top of my head.
I love it when Joel dresses up as the Master from Manos. Cracks me up every time. “COME TO ME FOR I AM THE MAGNET AND YOU ARE STEEL!” :laugh:
Joel singing the “Hike Up Your Pants Song” during Daddy-O was pretty priceless.
Does Crow’s “Peter Graves at the University of Minnesota” script count? If so, that one should be added to the list.
“If I convinced just one person that Peter Graves went to the University of Minnesota, then I’ve done my job.” Followed by Movie sign, and Crow’s last words “Barney! Paris!”
Never mind – kindly ignore post #104. I failed to grasp the entire premise. Carry on. I will wait patiently until the Weekend Discussion catches up with me.
“I bit into a cold tater tot once.”
The ‘scary’ food discussion from Bride of the Monster.
Joel-“Crow, What do you think of Adolph Hitler?”
Crow-“Well, I hate him, naturally.”
Joel-“Ok, well what do you think of the band Styx?”
Crow-“Well, they had a couple good songs, but….I see what you mean!”
The ‘evil works better when it’s subtle’ skit from Eegah. (I think)
Why doesn’t Johnny care?
The only problem I have with threads like this is that every comment makes me want to watch that episode.
I can’t watch every episode every weekend! Well, I could, but THERE AREN’T ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY!
Hmmm… My video player WILL do 2x with audio… the episodes average 1.5 hours, thats 3/4 hour per, there are 48 hours in the weekend… Nope. Still only 64 episodes.
That’s it. We need longer weekends.
Wow I can’t believe I left out:
Track of the moon Beast – California Lady vh1-like documentary.
Soultaker – TV’s Frank is back as a Soultaker!
Final Sacrifice – Mike is a Grizzled Prospecter.
Tormented – Joel Robinson killed us!
High School Bigshot/Out of This World (short) – Specialty breads!
Future War – Servo’s kick-boxing legs, Mike has a big chin
(“Don’t you even care how insensitive that is to the thousands of people who have big prosthetic foam chins?!”)
RaptorX8 said, “Cannot believe no one has mentioned ‘Creepy Girl’ from Catalina Caper. It was so moving.
And I second ‘Where, Oh Werewolf’ from Werewolf.”
I completely agree with these two. Creepy, yet musical.
Canucklehead #109: I really wanted to put that one in there, but like you I wasn’t sure if it qualified, since it’s not about the movie but about an actor. Anyway, it just won’t end, and I just can’t stop laughing. Love it.
If we are allowed to consider a short as a movie, then one of my favorites is “The Mike Sprite”. Gets me laughing hard all the time.
Two must be mentioned “id have one giant pinky and drag it behind me” & “You can pet the lama but dont give Mikey no matches” Personally, i like lo mein in bed.
Great stuff so far, everybody. It’s hard to beat “Idiot Control Now” or another one of my faves, the “trying to get your post-apocalyptic drivers permit” sketch from Warrior of the Lost World, but in an effort to post something different. . . .
. . .Not sure if this falls under the guidelines of this discussion, but Joel does start the conversation with a mention of the slick service station in the movie, so I am making the exception. In #506 EEGAH!, Host Segment #1, Joel is stitching Crow up a shirt (or, I guess he’s just using him as a mannequin?) and Servo has a pin-cushion head and they discuss the subtle forms of hell, culminating in the classic exchange,
Joel: “Then there’s the times the country rallies together to beat back hell, like the time when we as a nation said “no” to Yahoo Serious.”
Crow: “I remember that. All of us, together, drawn inexplicably to the slobbering mouth of hell, and then suddenly, somehow, by some unseen force, rescued in the nick of time, like Moses and the Israelites.”
Servo: “Now who in creation is powerful enough to do that?”
Crow: “Gee, Davey, do you think it was, God?”
Joel(smiling): “We’ll be right back.”
For my money, that’s one of the best Segments they ever did, full of wry wit and the normalcy of the setting, with Joel fixing a shirt along with the Bots help, just sells it. I don’t know why it appeals to me so much, but it’s one of my favorite things ever (doesn’t hurt it’s from one of my favorite episodes ever!).
!
I really love the Warrior of the Lost World sketch where Joel is playing the Warrior as if he failed his driving test, and Crow is playing his mom who has to drive him around. I love Dr. F and Frank on their hobby hogs at the beginning of Wild Rebels, and the side hacking play by play sketch from Side Hackers too. Joel freaking out when describing the 60’s to the bots during Catalina Caper is another favorite, and Bill as the Phantom of Krankor is also great.
But overall I think my favorite of all has to be the “Hike Up Your Pants” song from Daddy-O.
I just noticed Critter’s post at #112. Good job, chap!
The Hamburger Sandwich and a French Fried Potato Garnish tank thing from “I Accuse My Parents”
Here’s my top 5:
1) ‘The Cheating skits’- one of the best multi-part skits I’ve seen, and it’s just a great way to counter the inane Batwoman movie that’s going on. Plus, I just love the heated venom that boils up inside Tom when he finds Crow has cheated, threatening stoning and immolation.
2) ‘Santa Claus Conquers the Martians skits’- notably the Patrick Swayze Christmas portion, but I also did like the Christmas Essays, in which Gypsy’s wordless statement really becomes a Charlie Brown-like ‘true meaning of Christmas’ moment.
3) ‘Tormented skits’- from the dropping of popular singers to the disembodied head skits.
4) ‘Time Chasing skits’- The whole alteration of Mike’s future.
5) ‘Catalina Caper skits’- From Joel’s 60’s recollections to the Creepy Girl and even trying to make sense of the plot.
Cronkite @121-Wow Man! We must be twin sons of different mothers. Far out!
I’m going with the redo of Happy in your work from I accuse my parents. If movie-related includes a sketch where they talk about the movie, then the sketch showing the inner mind of the main character in I accuse my parents.
“Turns out he’s also kind of stupid”
#106 touched on it: FASHION MEANS COOGAN!! from Space Children. The bit was funny enough with Crow, but seeing Servo holding the sandwich in his hand, flopping around while he gets physically ill from the stills that Crow drew of Jackie makes it all that much more hilarious.
Canucklehead #102: Red Zone Cuba – Industrial Arts & Crafts
IIRC that host segment was in Sky Divers. But then they’re both Coleman Francis movies, and their soul-crushing nature can make them difficult to tell apart.
The first two that come to mind:
1. From Pod People: The recreation of the “You can do magic things” scene. Pure genius.
2. From Squirm: Mikey, the Mike Sprite. A brilliant spoof of the “A Case of Spring Fever” short (as well as a look at what would REALLY happen if an “It’s a Wonderful Life” scenario took place).
One of many has to be them acting out “Are You Happy?”
in I Accuse My Parents. Hmm. Did Gypsy lose a few pounds
for that scene? :beauty:
Well, others have taken a little liberty with the parameters of the topic, so I will too:
1. Joel and the bots calling WInky (Mike Nelson) in “Crash of the Mooms” (or was it “Manhunt in Space?”).
2.Joel psychoanalyzing the bots’ idealized families in “I Accuse My Parents” (correct ep?).
3. Crow and Tom reveiewing each other in “Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders”.
4. Mike using a voodoo doll to mess with Dr. Forrester in “Zombie Nightmare” (the expression Trace develops when Mike dips the voodoo doll’s hand in the warm water cracks me up).
5. At the end of “Girl in Gold Boots”, when Pearl’s experiment is accepted by the Institute for Mad Science (conditionally!) when the reviewer is very impressed by Observer’s harnessing the madness as a go-go dancer (“can I pony?!”).
The vast majority of everything else else mentioned are also favorites of mine. Thanks for reading- see ya!
Sitting Duck #128
Whoops! My bad. So here’s how we change from post #108 to post #108.2. First, you throw out the old website…
Sorry, off on a tangent there. So it should read Skydivers. And since we brought that Francis gem up, then I would like to include the final sketch, where Tom and Crow are hanging from parachutes.
“Struggle with me, Tom!”
Funny stuff…
Adding another vote for the tour-de-force Gamera segment featuring Tom’s “Tibby” song. It’s such a perfect example of the show’s writing genius. It goes from Tom’s pathos to Crow’s hilariously callous indifference and bewilderment, and then steers straight into sheer heartbreak as Tom resumes the song’s final verse. I’m not ashamed to admit that it always brings a tear to my eye. It’s what I would call “true theatre”. Utterly brilliant…and all of it neatly packed into about two minutes.
The one’s that came to mind first are.
1. Idiot Control Now. all-time classic.
2. Reel to Real. from “Teenagers from OuterSpace” one of the many reasons it’s my favorite episode.
3. Joel as the master from Manos. Dressed in a cape with feet on it instead of hands get’s me every time.
4. Creepy girl. Kevin is a superb singer.
5. Rex Dart Eskimo Spy and the Jet Jaguar song. two for the price of one.
A bonus one I almost forgot. The Old School sketch from “Ring of Terror” Great old folks references there.
Hands down; The “Catching Trouble” host segment.
Crow as a Solarite from ‘The Phantom Planet’ is just pure gold!
In no particular order:
1) “Idiot Control Now”
2) The Sidehacking sport terminology
3) “A Patrick Swayze Christmas”
I agree with many of the ones mentioned, but would like to add the “Appreciating Gypsy” segment shown after the “Appreciating Our Parents” short.
“Who does these things when we’re too lazy, too bloated on dinners of rich food and generous portions of our own gargantuan ego? Who debugs the massive computer control center because our own feeble brains can barely add fractions? Who provides the warm, inviting water in which you could bathe your filthy oil-stained carcass?”
That’s classic.
joel as the amazing colossal man is a fave of mine eee..oooh noooo!
Because I watched it this morning, I was reminded, and would like to add, the Digger Smolken album from “The Undead”. Great stuff.
Here are a few that I like…
From Final Justice… “Look, Pearl, Mike’s tripping!”
From Godzilla vs. Megalon… “Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy”
From A Touch of Satan… Servo’s killer grandma
and from Hercules Unchained… Gypsy’s aria in the land of hedonism
I’ve got to add the host segments from Racket Girls related to the short “Are You Ready for Marriage?”…
The courtship of Crow and Servo.
After reading all these posts it’s imposible to narrow it down to a favorite or even a handful of them. It shows how good the quality of this show was all those years that there are so many good ones to choose from.
OMG…how did I forget about Hugh Beaumont as one of the Four Horsemen!!!
That was great even down to how they made it look so convincingly B&W without fancy computer imaging.
So, did NOBODY like the visit from Krankor at the end of “819- Invasion of the Neptune Men”????
A stinker of a movie and an OK episode, but this was the best part AND “sort of” a segment related to the movie.
I just did not see it mentioned here yet.
‘THE STARFIGHTERS’…
>Re-fueling / Crow Internet Customer Service Call sketch
>United Servo Academy Men`s Choir sketch.
I am laughing just thinking about `em! :rotfl:
Lots of terrific stuff here but I’ll throw in with Frank singing “If Chauffeurs Ruled The World” due to that Phantom Creeps henchman overreaching with his small amount of power in the short. Frank singing Mammy at the end gets me every time.
I’ll just choose one that I enjoy, but others might not. I really like the Hockey Hair host segment from Final Sacrifice, and the subsequent one when Mike gets Grizzled Prospector Syndrome.
The Van Patten Conspiracy from Master Ninja I. My wife loves Crow’s dancing in Girl In Gold Boots.
Anyone mention recreating the Abby scene in Riding With Death? “Give it the old college try!”