What are everyone’s favorite Star Wars references made by the Mystery Science Theater crew?
My favorites include riffs made during opening text crawl shots in the experiments that remind the riffers of the opening Star Wars text crawl shots, like the mild joke during start of The Phantom Creeps serial during Rocket Attack USA (Did George Lucas make this?), as well as the more overt jokes during the opening text crawl in Teenage Crimewave.
I was a little hesitant to do this one, because I didn’t think there were really that many. But since Paul emailed me, I’ve been noticing them in a lot of episodes. So, okay, let’s tackle it. I think I would have to pick the shot of Mama Trumpy’s cave in “Pod People,” prompting Tom to do his Yoda impression: “Luke! Finish your training, you will!”
What’s yours?
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I believe in one of the Hercules episodes they made fun of Herc and his friends and they walked through the desert by comparing them to the scene in Star Wars IV when R2D2 and C3PO were bantering at each other on Tatoonie, a desert planet. Always liked that one.
“So there’s just a sign that says Star Wars…?!” I think mike says that line (in laserblast) and I love how completely baffled he sounds…
From Sampson Vs. The Vampire Women: “Come to the dark side or I’ll take your lunch money!” The image of Darth Vader giving Luke a wedgie or maybe even a double jock lock is just too priceless.
On a loosely related note, have we done a similar discussion regarding Wizard of Oz references?
Which ep is it where Trace does a dead-on impersonation of Anthony Daniels? “You go that way R2. I’m not going that way,” (or something similar anyway… memory is fuzzy today).
Near the end of Star Force: Fugitive Alien II, there’s a fighter battle that vaguely resembles the Death Star trench battle in Star Wars. So Crow (I think) says “Where have we seen this before?” to which Joel replies, “A long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away?”
From Final Sacrifice: “Canadian villain Garth Vader.”
In “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”, there’s a close-up of a breathing apparatus during surgery, making a rather Vader-esque breathing noise, to which one of the crew comments (in a Vader voice) “Luke, join me or you will star in ‘Corvette Summer'”.
The respirator near the beginning of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die:
“*KHHHH* Luke, join me or you’ll star in Corvette Summer *KHHHH*”
EDIT: I feel a great disturbance, as though two voices cried out the same riff simultaneously, and then…
When Mike blew up Earth and Crow said “It’s as if a million monkeys cried out at once and were suddenly silenced”
“All the gummiments have colitis?”
I think they said “Star Wars Font” during the opening credits of “Warrior of the Lost World.” #10 ‘reminded’ me of that…
@ #2 – Yeah, that was funny and bizarre.
The Darth Vader-like lost city from the end of The Final Sacrifice.
In Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster where we see the Mother asking the Sooth Sayer if her Son is in the Land of the Dead. And the place looks vaguely like Tatooine.
Joel says “Luke Skywalker’s House!”
BTW, Jim Cicman, that episode you’re talking about is “Hercules vs. the Moonmen” where the guards are taking the slaves to be sacrificed to the Mountain of Death. That one canyon looks a lot like where R2D2 was captured by the Jawas.
And Crow says “Not that way R2. You’ll be breaking down in no time.” And (I think it’s) Joel makes whistling noises to imitate R2D2.
‘Quest of the Delta Knights’ i believe the comment ‘so the ewoks grew up and became these idiots?’ was made in reference to the ‘i’m commmmmminnng’ gang.
maybe it was the sudafed and nyquil. if someone remembers it better, i’d appreciate the help.
In “The Day the Earth Froze,” (one of my all-time favorite episodes–when will it come out on DVD???) when the image of Annikie is conjured up in the little fountain, and someone says “Help me, Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope!”
I think some of that “you’ll be breaking down in no time” banter was in Undersea Kingdom p.1. Plenty of good mentions already, I’ll throw in Servo’s frustrated exclamation in Hobgoblins-‘so he becomes a jedi knight-DO SOMETHING!’
I’d think there were more Star Trek then Star Wars references.
Including the disturbing Mike impression of Janeway. (That one hurt a whole lot).
Yeah, I’m thinking the R2/C3PO walking in the desert riff was from Undersea Kingdom too. Seemed oddly perfect as Crow is a skinny gold robot and Tom is a short one with a round head. Never put that together before.
Also Special Acknowledgement for Tom Servo appearing as a stolen droid in ‘TROOPS’!
I’ve always liked the scene in Attack of The Eye Creatures where Police Commissioner “Gertrude Stein” suddenly exclaims “What the-?!” and Crow says “I sense a great disturbance in the Force!” as the Commissioner leaps from his chair after the Eye Creatures’ ship explodes.
In Timechasers (I think,) Pink Boy (I think) is climbing a tree, and then Mike (I think) says (I think,) “I hope he gets ripped apart by ewoks!”
I think. ;-)
#19, hmmm. Never thought about this. Maybe the Crow-Servo designs are actually a vague Star Wars reference?
Whad’ya think, guys?
#19 and #22, it’s a lot more obvious when you consider that, in the original pilot for MST3K, Tom Servo was called Beeper. He could only make beeping noises that were unintelligible to anyone except his gold robot pal. By the time the pilot was picked up by KTMA Beeper had been changed to Servo, but the Star Wars inspiration was clear.
Hmmmm…seems like there are enough references to warrant a list on Ward E.
Hobgoblins: (paraphrasing) “So, does he become a Jedi Knight?! WHY AM I WATCHING THIS?”
in ‘Alien from LA’ kathy’s *ahem* dad fires up his flashlight and tom sounds like he’s doing a lightsaber
Man, GreenLuther and The Bolem @7 and 8! You stole mine! Then I was going to do the Star Wars sign in Laserblast, but, golly, dlo @ 2 stole that one, too! It seems that out of all the Star Wars references, there seems to be a lot of ones featuring Darth Vader.
Seems like people are having trouble just finding some so how about Aaron Spelling’s Star Destroyer/Mansion from Angel’s Revenge.
Crow did the C3PO dialogue from where they are lost in the desert. “..you’ll be breaking down in NO TIME…!” Attack of the Giant leeches… ?
Servo imitates Yoda near the beginning of “Pod People” when the foggy forest scenes are shown. I think Crow does a “Help me Obi Wan Kenobski(SP?) riff in “Jack Frost”.
I’ll go with the comment from “Brain that Wouldn’t Die”, as well. Extra points for it being one of Mike’s earliest riffs as host.
And there’s an extended reference: in “Laserblast”, when Billy goes nuts with the arm cannon and starts blasting everything, Servo riffs, “Mark Hamill in ‘Falling Down’.”
In Jack Frost, when our “hero” returns to the clearing where he first saw Nastinka. She fades into the scene and Crow riffs “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobski”. Giving the name a Russian flare was a nice touch!
A lot of what I was going to say were taken but one in ‘I Was a Teenaged Werewolf’ an ewok makes it behind enemy lines
#8
Oddly, I was just going to post that, having just watched TBTWD.
I guess a riff like that is a twofer, although I’m not sure which
is worse, joining Darth Vader and the Emperor on the Dark Side or
watching Corvette Summer.
Btw, young Doc may have been the most twisted character in Mystyland. Not just Silk Stalkings but his gross handling of the scarred girl. Makes Werner von Braun seem almost moral.
I’d have to go with Joel in Pod People “There’s carbon scoring all over my droid”.
In one of the KTMA’s,I’m not sure which one, Joel riffs “That’s a battle station”
Meh, I have never watched Star Wars, just the first half of the first one. Sorry, it didn’t spark my interest.
It’s cheating a bit (because it’s so obvious), but in Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders the little boy gets a toy AT-AT, and Servo says, “Wasn’t there a movie that featured these things?”
It was one of the later Joel episodes where they were watching a Japanese movie, and early on there’s a scene with space-fighters flying down some trench. Joel turns to the bots and says, “Still think Star Wars was totally original?”
What was that episode… ? Star Force? Mighty Jack?
@37: Blasphemer!
At the end of “Final Sacrifice” when the city of Zeox “Flew up der”, one of the buildings of the city is silhouetted and looks like Darth Vader. Servo says “Luke, it is your destiny.”
Not MST3K, but RiffTrax’s commentary on the Star Wars movies were hilarious. Very fanboyish for the original trilogy, like the Lords of the Rings movies.
My fav isn’t even from MST proper, but rather from Cinematic Titanic, “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” – in the midst of the martians signing off, Josh pipes up, “Red 5 standing by.” Cracks me up every time.
#5 Zor Prime> You got my favorite one. In this case it was all about the delivery. Only Joel’s sleepy eyed voice could reply “oh I don’t know. a long time ago in a galaxy far far away maybe” and have the impact that it did.
Love your screen name by the way. It seems like Robotech fans are a dying breed.
Sampo is right there isn’t an over abundance of Star Wars refernces given the length of the the MST run. I dare say we have 95% of them listed in the 40 odd posts we have here already. But so many of the Star Wars riffs were high quality.
#22 bobhoncho> I don’t see much Star Wars influence in the designs of Crow & Tom. But in a sense it still is kind of a homage. It was Lucasfilm that made kit bashing popular. They may have even coined the term. I’m not sure on that. Crow and Tom are certainly the product of kit bashing. I think Joel mentioned that in some interview somewhere along the line.
Master Ninja 2 – “What is he, Obi-freakin-Wan Kenobi?”
In one of the Hercules episodes (pretty sure it was Unchained) during the climactic battle as someone throws a grappling hook up at a siege tower Joel says something along the lines of, “You know this is a lot like The Empire Strikes Back except it’s not really good.”
JACK FROST- “Help me, Obi-Wanbaboski”