Short: (1954) A look at the 40th annual carnival of the Toronto Skating Club.
Movie: (1965) Authorities launch a search for an irradiated astronaut they believe has returned to Earth as a giant mutant.
First shown: 1/9/93
Opening: The bots have opened a micro-cheesery.
Invention exchange: After making a wager on an action figure invention exchange, the Mads present Johnny Longtorso, and the bots present three non-violent action figures
Host segment 1: Gypsy “doesn’t get” Crow (or is it Tom?)
Host segment 2: Joel and Servo play keep-away from Crow
Host segment 3: Examining “The Pina Colada Song”
End: Joel knights Happy King Servo and Sir Giggles von Laffsalot Crow
Stinger: Monster on the go-go
(266 votes, average: 4.54 out of 5)
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• This is a deservedly famous episode featuring a deservedly infamous short and movie. There’s plenty for them to work with here and they knock it out of the park. The riffing is top-notch, the segments are all terrific, just a really strong episode — if you can take the movie.
• This episode was included in Rhino’s “The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 8.”
• References.
• Note that the title card only has a hyphen between “A” and the first “Go.” There is no hyphen between the first “Go” and the second “Go.”
• How could such a horrible movie have happened? “You know, four movies went into the making of this film,” Joel says at one point. He’s not far off. Bill Rebane made some of the movie, but ran out of money before it was completed. Meanwhile Herschell Gordon Lewis was looking for a co-feature with his recently completed movie “Moonshine Mountain,” and he needed it quickly. So he bought Rebane’s unfinished film, added some new scenes, and presto … a movie with no continuity and no sense.
• They mention the wonderful movie “Local Hero.” How come you never see that playing on any of the movie channels? It IS streaming, though. If you haven’t seen it, do.
• A hook falls off the peg board with a loud clang during the Mads’ invention exchange. They keep going. And there’s also a lovely crunch as Dr. F. steps toward the camera, right onto the blister packs on the floor.
• You can see Frank ALMOST crack up while singing the Johnny Longtorso theme song, as he actually does on the poopie reel.
• Frank does a nice little bit with the pitchpipe: he blows into several random pipes, making the whole thing pointless.
• Trace is hilarious as he introduces the movie, giving us Dr. F at perhaps his most maniacal. It’s an all-time favorite Trace moment for me.
• Terrific riffing in the short, and Joel doesn’t even try to keep them from getting too dark. The highlight is the great “pink girls” song.
• What does “with a filbert nut” mean? Joel sounds a little like Red Skelton when he says it. Is it a reference to him?
• Segment 1 is rightly famous. If you wanted to introduce the personalities of all three robots to newbie, this would do it very well in just a few minutes.
• Does ANYbody know what that song Crow is singing (“hum-did-a-hee-hee…”) is from? It’s one of the unsolved mysteries of this show. (Several different commenters are certain they know, but each thinks it comes from a different place.)
• Joel opens a can of “pop” (or as normal people call it, soda) in the theater! What a rebel!
• The workings of Tom’s hoverskirt are never explained in detail, but in segment two we see a new use demonstrated: sports!
• Is that a velcro ball Joel throws to Tom when they return to the theater? Still, it’s a pretty good toss.
• Then-topical riff: The now-forgotten Matthias Rust.
• J&tB do a little of the Richard Kiel voice they did a LOT in the last episode.
• When the movie ends up in what looks very much like Chicago’s Lower Wacker Drive, they begin to rattle off some great Chicago references, including McCormick Place and the Arie Crown Theater.
• Both a callback and a call-forward in closing segment: Joel crowns Tom a “happy king,” recalling the “Mr. B. Natural” short and Crow is holding the stick with the tiny Crow on it, which we will see again in jestering segment next season.
• Cast and crew roundup: Tom is right, nobody involved with this movie went on to do anything else. The exception is Bill Rebane who later gave us “Giant Spider Invasion.” But I have to assume the writers were just guessing.
• Creditswatch: Host segments directed by Joel Hodgson.
• Fave riff from the short: “Vomit sprays out in a beautiful Technicolor dream.” Honorable mention: “Now a clown will deliver her eulogy.”
• Fave riff from the movie: Narrator: “There is one terrifying word in the world of nuclear physics.” Tom: “Oops.” Honorable mention: “He made her bark!”
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Apologies, first, to the rest of the group for being off-topic (well, Shakespeare has the honour of being MSTied, right?).
Sitting Duck:
Be careful about calling the anti-Stratfordians “overeducated intellectuals”–the vast majority of them are amateur scholars, and a surprising number of them come from the theatre community. The academic world has largely rejected the claims of the Oxfordians and the Baconians, mostly because the arguments against “the Stratford man” reveal a great ignorance of Elizabethan and Jacobean literary and theatrical culture. For example, you can’t make any guesses about “clues” or “codes” in the words themselves, since some of the plays (including “Macbeth”) were written collaboratively or altered by other writers, at least one (“King Lear”) was heavily revised and now exists in two distinct versions, and variations in spelling can be found even within the same book (the printers, not the author, decided what the spelling would be. They also misread words or left out lines). The only text for the Sonnets is a fairly bad pirated edition that garbles lines. More important, the whole idea that the plays have to be autobiographical completely misunderstands the way 16th and 17th century writers thought–autobiography and the culture of self-examination don’t even start until the 18th century. There’s an excellent new book by James Shapiro, “Contested Will,” that traces the history of the Bacon and Oxford authorship theories, and concludes with Shapiro’s own reasons why he believes Shakspeare from Stratford is Shakespeare the playwright. I highly recommend it if you’re interested in the “authorship question.”
OK–now back to cheesy movies. The worst we can find.
Oh, that’s so cute! Thinking Virginia is in the south.
I went to Virginia one time. Well, near Norfolk, but I think that counts. Went into a restaurant and ordered sweet tea. The waiter looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out my ears.
If they don’t serve sweet tea, they aren’t in the south.
Although, historically, Virginia is considered the south, what with Richmond being the capital of the Confederacy and everything, but the reality of it is, it’s not.
When someone drives down I-95 and crossed into Virginia, they think they’re in the south. Then, they get into North Carolina. They can tell they’re in the south. Then, when they get to South Carolina, there’s no doubt they are in the south. Then they cross into Georgia and realize what the south truly is. But, if they keep driving and cross the St. Mary’s River into Florida, they’re suddenly back up north again. True story.
What can be said about a barely-audible, no-budget B&W movie so craptacular, so badly-made (the too-small-for-a-vetriloquist-dummy space capsule :rotfl: ) and so in contempt of its own audience that its non-ending ending is still shocking (to me at least) many times after originally seeing “MST3K” make hay of it? I can only imagine what it was like for MiSTieS that saw this experiment for the first time back in ’93, but even recently on DVD my jaw just drops when voice-over guy (friend with benefits of Magic Voice? :pain: ) casually lets us know ‘there was no __.’ My… God, what a steaming pile of crap flick! And yet Joel and his fellow Brains rise up to the challenge of actually scoring laughs (big one’s at that) from literally nothing, to the point that casual observations (‘hey, a new angle!,’ ‘General!’) detonate with laughs that a normal movie (i.e. one where someone actually bothered bringing an audio recording device or looking into the camera viewfinder) wouldn’t get. If “Manos” didn’t exist this would be Season 4’s ‘threshold of pain’ memorable masterpiece. Throw in a classic invention exchange (‘Joooohny Longtorso, Joooohy Longtorso’) and the demented ‘Circus on Ice’ short that’s like a baseball-throwing machine for Joel and the bots to hit homer after homer of dark humor (‘skating over her own intestines’).
Only the average-to-uhh? host segments drag this one down (Sir Giggles von Laffsalot Crow… really?), but not enough to make “Monster A-Go-Go” less than a FOUR-AND-A-HALF STAR (out of five) episode. Favorite riff: ‘They’re talking to Charlie Brown’s mother.’ :X-P:
For what it’s worth, I’ve seen “Local Heroes” on Comedy Central several times in the last few years as an early morning “who cares what we have on” movie.
I know people claim that this episode is unwatchable. I have to disagree–the riffing is just so good that it keeps your attention, and at least in the first 2/3rds, there’s enough weirdness in the awfulness to keep you satisfied. When it gets to the end, it might be a good idea to have your finger on the fast forward button though.
At a Cinematic Titanic show I asked Trace about the “hum dee deet deet deet, hua hua” ditty Crow did. He vaguely remembered Paul Chaplin coming up with that. So no closer to a true origin I guess.
Monster A Go-Go passes the Bechdel Test. Ruth asks Laura if she wants coffee, who declines.
Though I was actually kind of hoping it would fail, so that I could write, “There was no conversing between two women.”
You could tell that Trace and Frank were this close to breaking out into giggles and blow yet another take.
The faun dying was ripe for a Torvil and Dean riff.
As for the movie, I’ve got nothing. It’s just a big void of nothing which defies comprehension of any sort. Even the Brains appeared to struggle, as most of the host segments had nothing to do with the movie.
Favorite riffs
Based on the actual case files of the Toronto Skating Club.
Shut up and watch the deer get slaughtered. It’s fun.
Well here’s the witch’s brew… I mean, coffee.
This coffee’s warmer than Frank is.
Hey Timmy, my dad’s dead again! Can I come over for dinner?
Yeah, kids are always mutilating people.
Any moment now, unspeakable horror. Stay with me.
There, your announcer feels vindicated. This is extremely horrible.
It might have been nice to show that scene with the monster, but use your imagination. It was true horror!
Hi, I’m from the boys’ camp across the lake. Our backup generator exploded.
Dear Easy Rider Magazine, I never believed your stories were true.
“The long wait began.”
And you’re going to see every minute of it.
We’ve decided we needed the help of a housewife and a balding guy.
This was a test. Had this been an actual movie, you would have been entertained.
Wow. Just wow. I am at a loss of words just trying to think about the movie. Therefore, I shall talk about everything but the movie.
* Apparently, BBI started off 1993 with a bang (technically not, this episode is dated 12/04/1992, 423 was the first 1993 episode). Looking back, 1993 was a memorable year for MST3K in more ways than one (if you get my drift). BTW, Joel has a white T-shirt under his jumpsuit this week.
* Dr. F starts to make good on his promise from ‘The Rebel Set’ (“I’ll get you for this, Joel!”), and boy, he does not disappoint. You get this utter wastage of celluloid, the first of the R-F trilogy, an Ed Wood film and ‘The Fertilizer Salesman Film’ (with shorts preceding all of them) in four back-to-back episodes. Ouch.
* I really like the host segments, but my hatred of this “movie” sullies them a little.
* I’ll agree with Sampo about the riffing, but my mind does not take slow-paced movies very well. This movie is a 60-70 minute hullabaloo about nothing. The end result adds up to one of the most painful Joel episodes for me, even with everything else helping to absorb the pain. Then again, I heard alarm bells ringing in my head when I read that there was a good reason all of the host segments had nothing to do with the movie, and I still went through with it willingly. (It looks like BBI’s logic on this decision was “Since the movie was about nothing, we’ll make the host segements about nothing as well.”)
* The IE is great, especially with one of the most biased judges ever, the sleek and sexy butt portions, and some “I’d actually buy this” stuff coming from the bots’ end. (I’d really like to buy a Woodscrew Tapeworm doll, but alas.)
* Comparing the movie to the short is like comparing vi to Notepad++. (Consider this my entry for the ‘Most Ridiculous Metaphor’ contest.) The short is a classic (then again, around 80% of them are, right?), containing a WB film (you know, I’d would have loved to see them doing ‘See Ya Later Gladiator’, a cartoon that disgraces the name of ‘Looney Tunes’. How would you guys feel about a ‘Cartoons you’d like to see riffed’ weekend discussion?). I especially love the scene with the fawn (“Mommy, I don’t wanna watch this anymore!”).
* I went off-track there, but overall this is a great episode, except for the movie, which brings deep hurting to my noggin which is trying to make some sort of horribly deformed sense about the whole thing.
I finally watched Local Hero last summer about half because I am a fan of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and he’s in it, and half because looking through his CV and seeing that title made me remember it had been mentioned in this episode, and I wondered if it was good as implied in the invention exchange. It really is a rather fun film.
That’s called a marotte or jester’s bauble, BTW. One of my favorite props on the show.
@155 I was just about to second that. Trace also said that on Facebook when asked.
Oh, and this is hands down the worst “movie” they ever did because it’s not even a full movie, just bits and pieces of unfinished movies. While other episodes may cause me more pain, I do think this is the worst “movie.”
I do love the episode, though.
Six Mix-A-Lot, indeed.
This might be my all-time favorite episode. Carry-on.
#151 – Good points all. I do think, though, that you have to give it to Sitting Duck that Anti-Stratfordians are mainly motivated by snobbery. Mark Twain, a noted Shakespeare denier, all but oozes contempt for Shakespeare, the man, in his written defense of his crackpot position.
I would also say that there are a good number of Anti-Stratfordians who are paranoid-leaning intellectuals, seizing on an interesting (to them) molehill out of which to construct a publishing mountain.
but there was no episode 421.
I have to say that while I love the “I Don’t Get You” sketch a ton, to me the “Joel Explains the Pina Colada Song” is the platonic ideal of MST3K sketches. Every part of it is beautiful, and it really is kind of one of their bottomless comedy wells–deeply and angrily overthinking something obscure and unimportant. (Like Malta, or Love American Style.) And the line, “Since 72% of the population of North America lives in a landlocked state or province, in actuality this couple has no idea whether they like making love in the dunes on the cape!” has to be one of the most perfect comedy deliveries in the show’s entire history.
Also, Timothy was not a duck. Possibly a donkey, but not a duck.
Yeah, I tried to watch this, but there was no DVD!
Seriously though, this is another fantastic episode. I mind-bendingly bad movie (though far from the worst ever made), but constant fantastic riffing all throughout. Plus, as others have said, one of the darkest shorts they’ve ever done.
You know, this episode is actually the first time I ever heard of the Pina Colada song. 20 or so years later I can say that I have yet to actually hear the song (with the exception of a short bit of it used in a commercial or two). I’m OK with that.
I already mentioned how I found the plot to be quite comprehensible (not at all the same as finding it *good*, of course), so I won’t belabor that.
call-forward
“Colonel Steve Connors”
“Steve?!”
;-)
>>>#146: I really don’t know how Herschel Gordon Lewis thought he could get away with releasing a movie with “brrt” in place of a phone foley, with releasing a movie where all of the characters get replaced after 35 minutes, with releasing a movie where fully three-quarters of the dialogue is completely incomprehensible.
Oh, this is FAR from the worst-quality product HGL released upon the viewing public (IMHO). Directors like Roger Corman, William Castle, and Ed Wood at least genuinely loved filmmaking. To HGL, it was all about quick cash, and the world were his rubes.
As is often the case, though, context is essential. Back in HGL’s day, when drive-ins were king, low-budget directors/producers distributed their films themselves in small communities which would accept basically ANY form of entertainment. The theater owners probably cared even less about the “goodness” or “badness” of a film than the filmmakers did, they just wanted something to put on the screens. It’s as true now as it was and ever will be: Some People Will Watch Anything.
Regardez other films that might have (and may yet) fallen/fall into the hands of one Brain or another: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschell_Gordon_Lewis#Filmography
While I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest anyone actually *watch* any more of HGL’s films (this is the only one I’ve ever watched myself, but descriptions of some of his other films make them sound noticeably worse than this one), his significance to exploitation film history far outweighs the actual quality of his output — from what I gather, he was kind of a less reputable Ed Wood back in the day — so anyone interested in “bad film history” probably “should” have some working knowledge of his oeuvre. Aside from the many reviews of his films to be found across the internet, there’s this, which can easily be requested from any Interlibrary Loan service:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1871592917/sr=1-3/qid=1456442906/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1456442906&sr=1-3
Think about it, won’t you? Thank you.
Where in the movie is Crow’s song? I’d like to hear it again.
“Look, just forget the ball! Take the stroke!”
If Shout! ever works themselves up to reissuing Rhino’s Volume 8 set, this episode is ripe for a Ballyhoo documentary on just what it took to bring this “movie loaf” to the screen.
I was all ready to laugh at the Johnny Longtorso invention (Dr. F’s barely restrained glee at how much each figure brings in is the best part), but I didn’t realize how well the riffs kept the movie going. It didn’t really start to wear until the end, and even then they still finished strong.
As for the short, what else can be said but good grief, who convinced Warner Bros. to put their name on it? Imagine going to the movies and having that come on after Bugs Bunny!
In Chicagoland, we say “a soft drink” or, preferably, specify. e.g. “I’ll have a Green River.”
Well, that’s it from me for this episode!
Well, NO act wants to follow Bugs Bunny.
Lucky man. That tune is so inanely mellow I can’t stand it. And that was before they lyrics were anaylized for me.
Since Paul will be writing for the reboot, maybe there will be a chance for someone to interview him and ask about it.
Wonderful short – the riffs just come fast and furious. As noted in the discussion a few weeks back, some pretty dark material. I love it!
Abysmally bad film – a study in carelessness (Ladies and Gentlemen, they…. just didn’t care). Riffing was pretty good overall, I thought, but it definitely dragged in places.
The host segments here are in my mind some of the best ever.
I liked the idea of the “theme” (action figures) for the invention exchange – I wish they’d done more of that. And the line about Johnny’s “perfect ear” in the Longtorso sketch has to be a Princess Bride reference, right?
I have to agree that the Pina Colada Song bit was one of the best they’ve ever done… dissecting an inane piece of pop culture to demonstrate it’s… well… inanity, was truly inspired comic genius of the highest order.
And… maybe I missed it because it’s been a while since I watched this… but what qualifies this particular “monster” as “A-Go-Go”? ?:-) ?:-) ?:-) Inquiring minds want to know.
Missed Rhino Vol. 8, did we? Don’t worry, it’ll be back with Shout extras. Eventually.
Ice cream parlors used to serve their frilly overdescribed sundaes with a salty nut for chaser. Red or not, it’s one of Joel’s funniest deliveries. :)
Think the Anti-Stratfordians, or ASses ;), were dealt a big blow by one of their more fanatical supporters when Roland Emmerich did his Anti-Stratfordian Movie (don’t feel badly if you don’t remember it), and you could see the bloodlust-drool drip from the trailers: “Everything you ever thought was wrong!: Would you believe that Shakespeare was a fake? And he was illiterate? And he played with his toes and ate library paste?–Yeah, howdja like THEM apples, Mr. University Education, huh?”
In fact, BBC did a very good documentary series trying to analyze Shakespeare’s background from the available documents and put in the context of the Elizabethan Protestant wars (Shakespeare’s family were loyal Catholics), and turns out Will had a very good education: Before his dad had to move to Stratford, ahem, very quickly and took up gloving, the family was doing well enough to send Will to the better schools where he was complete fan of Ovid and Greek drama. (Which explains why his first two plays were plagiaristic Greek-fanboy ripoffs.)
Trevor Nunn also did a BBC essay analyzing “The Tempest” from the biographical perspective of Will writing his last play before retirement, at the same time as he was worrying over his daughter’s ill-advised marriage, and, wow…Just makes you wanna punch the goofy ID4 guy.
Kevin just went for the easy uninformed intellectual-shock reference, but then, Servo would.
The movie was so assembled from raw moviola footage (like the “bzzt!” phone, and the professor wandering around the woods), it’s one of those examples where MST3K can only take on movies too strange to exist, and just STARE in amazement, rather than bully, snigger or crab impatiently.
Even the three scenes of the troop jeep arriving may have just been three camera takes of one scene, and the running John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt joke just plays up the bizarre effect of trying to put all three shots in.
It was the sixties. EVERYTHING was a-go-go. It just wasn’t always acknowledged, that’s all.
Plus there’s the song. “{A] GO you monster GO”
Watching this again I’m amazed that the riffers did such a good job working with this. Trying to pay attention to this movie is like trying to grab a handful of air. Not only is this just discarded bits of other movies, but the most boring movies ever made. I’m not sure Beast of Yucca Flats is this lifeless. Not only do none of the scenes relate to each other they don’t even really relate to themselves. It’s like a cinematic black hole.
I used to dislike this episode, but it’s grown on me. Even though to this day, after about 10 viewings over 20 years I can only remember odd snippets of it. Mostly the stupid ending, the fake phone, and the toy novelty space capsule that a man allegedly traveled through space and survived re-entry in.
>>>That tune is so inanely mellow I can’t stand it.
The seventies didn’t deal well with things that weren’t mellow.
Have you NEVER been mellow?
We need to MELLOW you out! Paging Dr. Mustache Love!
>>>the running John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt joke
Yeah, I was wondering, did that link directly to something on the screen and I just missed it. That is VERY probable.
Apropos of nothing, here’s a song that, well, if it didn’t turn up during the Mike era, it should have:
“My name is Yon Yonson
I come from Wisconsin
I work as a lumberjack there.
The people I meet
When I walk down the street
Well, they ask me my name and I saaaaay,
My name is Yon Yonson
I come from Wisconsin
I work as a lumberjack there.
The people I meet
When I walk down the street
Well, they ask me my name and I saaaaay,
My name is Yon Yonson
I come from Wisconsin
I work as a…”
That is a tough call to make. Perhaps Coleman Francis had an uncredited hand in its production. After all, near the beginning, Ruth does offer Laura some coffee.
I’ve never been able to figure out the ending of MONSTER A GO GO. I end up getting as frustrated and huffy as Joel and the Bots.
must have ran out of film.
Anybody else has a problem with the way Dr. F pronounces it as “assessories” during the invention exchange?
Gypsy’s right. Evil, he is evil! EVIL!
EricJ says: “it’s one of those examples where MST3K can only take on movies too strange to exist, and just STARE in amazement, rather than bully, snigger or crab impatiently.”
I was at a panel on so-bad-they’re-good movies at CONvergence and someone said that you can always tell a truly great bad movie because they have at least one moment where you have to pause, rewind, and watch it again just to make sure you weren’t hallucinating. :)
absolutely now one of my all-time favorites, though it wasn’t initially way back when… i maybe only saw it once back in the day, and it never seemed to get repeated much. it really comes down the the short and the segments, of course.
just love so much that opening cheese-factory gag; the cartoony way they dressed the set and had things bobbing slowly up and down as if floating in an endless sea of perma-cheese. (apt metaphor! maybe primus stole the idea for “sailing the seas of cheese” way back around that time.) pitch-perfect comic sound fx to match too. true cowtown theater work, timing and delivery, down to the last hilarious look back-aside by crow as he exits. there’s just something hilarious to how trace pulled off that gesture; it seems to say, “this is all perfectly normal!”
the keep-away seg is a bit of fun – love especially servo’s gung-ho “alleyoop! ahh, peppah, peppah!” otherwise nothing special, but going with the theme of “avoid the movie” segments, it was kinda like, “send the kids outside to throw the ball around awhile; there’s still another hour to go.” i imagine the crew was doing something similiar at the time, just to slog through writing this one up – go outside and get some fresh air a bit.
“pina colada” bit – their “conversations overheard in the kitchen at a party near a liberal arts college” bits always nailed the tone; obvious great and maybe probably better than the “hamilton joe frank & reynolds” bit though (or was it jhf&r… can’t remember. and were their five?) – still for some reason, i’m a bit more partial to the latter version. (i dunno why specifically, other than i finally found out who did that song! i always thought it was an elvis tune.)
it is fun watching the crew do their best cut-up job on the so-called “movie” – and it is some of their best, but yeah – the flick is just so, sooooo way-out-there awful, it just doesn’t much stick with the ol’de memory banks. at least “manos” had a story, and carried it off! gotta give it that…
i think my favorite part is when the hammy narrator (that’s supposed to be hgl himself, right?) reads off so dramatically the bit, along the lines of “if only the girl had stayed at the party, and not left…” that bit just cracks me up; it’s so forced and hammy, and all because the movie was such a loser, he had to write over-dramatic narration like that… terrible! i’m always cracking up so much over that, i don’t even rememeber hearing what riffing the guys are doing over it.
so, just saying, considering “monster a-go-go” and some others, “manos” is hardly that bad. maybe just as boring; just not as bad.
My dad taught Philosophy for two years at Fullerton, and I can over analyze like no one’s business. The Pina Colada Song analysis reminds me of how I can go on and on about the subtext of The Devil went down to Georgia.
heh, sure, please, do so! for posterity’s sake; i’d be entertained. maybe i’d be the only one, but probably not, considering the “overthinker’s club” we got here. any thoughts on “yipe stripes” you could offer? heh!
A filbert nut is another name for a hazelnut. But I don`t know what that would have to do withRed Skelton.