Here are my top 10, mostly based on how funny the bit was. You are welcome to use whatever criterion you like.
• 201- ROCKETSHIP X-M: the BGC-19, if only for the sheer work that went into building it.
• 307- DADDY-O: Alien teething nook. Why doesn’t somebody make them? This picture went around on the net recently, but this is not a pacifier, it’s just a plushy somebody put on the kid’s face. I bet the real thing would sell.
• 309- THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN: A plant that reviews music, aka “Robert Plant,” as he was later known. Kevin channels every pompous NPR announcer he’s ever heard.
• 317- VIKING WOMEN VS. THE SEA SERPENT: Meat re-animator. One weird mamajama.
• 318- STAR FORCE-FUGITIVE ALIEN II: the big head. Big as all outdoors.
• 320- THE UNEARTHLY: Hard pills to swallow. Probably my all-time favorite, because Dr. F seems to enjoy it so much.
• 402- THE GIANT GILA MONSTER: Renaissance festival punching bags. Bite me, Frodo.
• 505- MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD: Chin-der wear. At last those obscene chin butts can be covered.
• 518- THE ATOMIC BRAIN: The Mads, Crow and Tom Servo. A memorable moment of self-parody.
• 519- OUTLAW: Fabio kit. Probably the funniest invention of the short Mike invention era.
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Rocketship X-M: objects that are funny or not funny floating. makes one look at the world in a new way.
Phantom Creeps: TV’s Frank, trapped in a giant Operation game. very funny. Joel makes digestion FUN with his pin-ball x-ray machine.
Daddy-O: Joel’s deodorant mobile, to hang over baby’s crib. helps cover smells of baby’s poopies, nimbus, and checher. these devices should be mandatory in all public transportation vehicles, especially in the summer months.
City Limits: my favorite Mike Nelson impersonation of all… he portrays Morrisey, stored in the Mad’s pop star tupperware container. he is so brilliant here, convincingly shedding his solid blonde Midwestern wholesomeness and becoming a pale, painfully introspective, frail British crooner who inhabits the shadows. his makeup, his hair- all great. ‘did I tell you that I cried?’ I love the sound of his muffled melancholic wailing behind the lid.
Attack of the Giant Leeches: Kevin Murphy as Patches the Leech. some of the best out-takes on one of the Poopie! reels, as Frank succumbs to laughter while being drained of life. Kevin looks so great in his costume- I love how his teeth seem to glow in the dark inside his black garbage bag leech costume.
Eegah!: I love the Porkarina. ‘Holiday for Pigs.’ brilliant! and of course poor Frank loses his blood- ‘I’m late for my- ice dancing- lesson…’ he murmurs. his near-comatose stumbling on and off camera behind Dr. Forrester, his skates draped over his shoulders, always kills me.
Alien From L.A.: oh god- the Vend-A-Gut. will managed care someday get this bad? poor Frank and his fistfulls of change. the Fridge Udders give the naughty Bots the opportunity to say ‘teats!’ over and over again. it IS a funny sort of word, really.
Invasion USA: Mike’s attempt at robot building again goes horribly awry. ‘Destroy- de-stroy- de-stroy…’ Dr. Forrester echoes Dr. Harry Harlow’s wire monkey mother experiment. this is black humor for certain, and a great comment on the dark side of science.
oops! funny or not funny floating is not an invention exchange. apologies. I offer the Cummer Bubble Bund in its place- funny in both episodes, [Robot Monster and Gamera Vs. Barugon] but funniest in the Poopie! out-take as Frank breaks up Dr. Forrester with his bubble-thrusting.
Re: the wire mothers, does anyone know if Crow’s in the final episode was the same one from Invasion USA, or a rebuilt prop?
My favorite was the 3 Stooges gun. TV’s Frank’s apathetic lackadaisical impression of Curly is my favorite Frank moment. Joel’s response, the crow-kebab, was creepily delightful and a great use of the catchphrase “bite me[it’s fun]”
re: Joel the prop comic
One great prop from his act that I’m surprised he never used on MST3K was the “Pocket Mohawk.” It was a bald cap with a slit down the middle that he pulled his hair through.
He did a great act on “Late Night with David Letterman” that was punctuated by items that would suddenly turn into weapons. “By day, it’s a normal tuna casserole. But at night, it becomes… [gun stock and barrel pop out] Agent J.” It was a couple years after I started watching MST3K that I found out that was the same person.
(Last I looked, there was a similar act, from an HBO special, on YouTube.)
I think maybe they should have saved chinderwear for that lame hero on Time Chasers!!!!!!! :oops:
Oh, how could I forget, The Rat Pack Chess set.
The Face-Hugger Teething Nook
The one where Joel invents the Beanie-Copter and the Robots are very disappointed that Joel doesn’t fly right through the roof and the Mad scientist can’t stop giggling about the William Conrad Fridge Alert system.
I have a suggestion for next week, how about best viewer mail.
Re: Diamond Joe
I always loved the Pocket Mohawk. Joel stand up act was really funny.
the one i always loved was the squeaky-toy guitars the mads made, can’t remember the episode. not sure why but i thought that was hilarious. i think it’s the glee they present the squeezing with. funny stuff.
renaissance fest punching bags is a fave too along with the hard pills to swallow.
i used to love joel doing standup. along with pee wee herman, always one of my faves on the old late night, back when it was funny.
How about a discussion thread of favorite and most hilarious ways that Forrester mistreated Frank and vice versa?
re: Johnny Longtorso and the toy industry
Actually, now that I think about it, the toy industry was doing the “sell by pieces” before they satirized it. Just look at Voltron, or any of those Transformers where you had to buy five to make an even bigger robot. Yes, each individual component was a useable toy in itself, that wasn’t why you wanted them.
A favorite of mine would be the Steve-O-Meter.
One that I think would actually sell if somebody hasn’t already made one would be the “Alien Teething Nook”. All kinds of similar versions of this that could work aside from the ugly mouth and teeth version I’ve seen. Mouth with cigar? Bug/Alien proboscis?
And one that I know I would put to use right now is the Junk Drawer Organizer. I certainly DON’T need the Junk Drawer Starter Kit.
What made the “Drinking Jacket” invention for me was Dr. F’s name checking practically every film done to that point on down and out rummies. That, and TV’s Frank’s invitation to the audience to check him out at the local community theater afterwards.
You know, another one that always makes me chuckle is the Robotic Arm Wrestling. It’s that little “Frank!” that Servo puts in at the end of the “Dr. Clayton Forrester” cheer. I don’t suppose this got a call-back in the Rifftrax for Over The Top? (I haven’t watched it yet…)
I’m not going to make a long list, as most of my favorites have already been mentioned, but I wanted to give a late shout-out to the “No-D Glasses” from K10 – Cosmic Princess (“Look! I can only see length.”)
A few of my favorite inventions:
206 Ring of Terror: J&TB – Pin-bolus; Mads – life-sized “Operation” game
306 Time of the Apes: Mads – Miracle Growth Baby (also seen in 307)
313 Earth vs. the Spider: Mads – Cheese phone (“Coming soon: a curdless model”)
318 Star Force (Fugitive Alien 2): J&TB – The Big Head (re-used in 319 & 323). ‘Nuff said.
415 The Beatniks: J&TB – Pocket Billiards; Mads – Troll costumes
420 The Human Duplicators: J&TB – The Beany-chopper; Mads – The William Conrad Fridge Alert (they nearly die laughing over it!)
421 Monster a Go-Go: J&TB vs. the Mads in an Action Figure contest.
424 Manos, the Hands of Fate: J&TB – Car-Tuner; Mads – Chocolate bunny guillotine
503 Swamp Diamonds: J&TB – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Grill; Mads – U-View (a precursor to YouTube???)
509 The Girl in Lovers’ Lane: J&TB – Doc Martens for MAD/Cracked artist Don Martin; Mads – “Evil Event Days”
516 Alien from L.A.: M&TB – Fridge Udders; Mads – The Vend-A-Gut
518 The Atomic Brain: Crow and Servo imitate the Mads and the Mads strike back!
Postscript:
I admit listing inventions from more than ten episodes (it’s hard to get it down to just ten).
Honorable mention: the Steve-O-Meter from 408 Hercules Unchained.
Maybe it wouldn’t be a good weekend thread, but Ward E could use a list of inventions that have been subsequently realized.
If I listed my favorites, it’d just be like most of the above lists, minus the ones that haven’t been released on DVD.
Has anyone here ever tried the milk carton costume for Halloween? I made a giant posterboard milk carton headpiece in my junior year of college and wore it with a black body-suit, and reused it on and off for almost a decade after.
Despite clearly printing “HAVE YOU SEEN ME?” above my face, most people didn’t get it:
“So, like, you’re supposed to be milk?”
The ingredients list on the side included 100% of your daily recommended allowance of Ben Murphy.
And about “build-a-figure toys”, not only does every wave of Marvel Legends now do this with some large character, but Transformers did a genuine BAF gimmick 2 years ago by packaging each of their 6 Beast Wars 20th Anniversary figures with a part of Transmutate, a tragic one-episode character who was retarded and so deformed she couldn’t even transform. She gets blown to pieces at the end of the ep, so the concept was appropriate.
The closest to an actual Johnny Longtorso I’ve ever seen were the Happy Meal toys for the wretched Inspector Gadget movie. Each toy was a body part of Uncle Gadget himself, though they each were something separately, like a telescope or what-not.
Can anyone tell me what the various “Tragic Moments Figurines” were? I can’t find my tape of Being From Another Planet. Thank you.
Re the Tragic Moments Figurines, I remember “Sparky’s Last Romp,” “By the Fire’s Glow,” and “I’ll Get It.” Then there are the others they mention: “He Raises a Hand in Anger,” “World’s Deadest Grandma,” and “Dad’s Liquid Breakfast.”
I used to work not far from a store that sold the original Precious Moments figures. What I wouldn’t have given to be able to slip a few Tragic Moments into the mix!
TV’s Frank’s tread mill to use when you go to the lake.
Not really an actual invention exchange, but I do love the Shame-o-meter with its mega-lawfords.
Well, I gotta say that the Cartuner featured a good premise, but the jokes themselves were very, very lame. And the Mads invention in that one was lame too.
As for the best one, Johnny Longtorso is by far the best one that I have seen, although I haven’t seen as many as most of you. I really want to see the Tickle Bazooka and the Hard Pills to Swallow. They just sound funny.
Re #72
My fave TMF…. “Whose that with Mom?”
Re: Matt D – the Cartuner:
I think the jokes were supposed to be lame. I think that was the whole point, that cartoons just repeat themselves and are the same premise each time you see them. Even if you slice them and splice different ones together they’re still NOT FUNNY. —- SEEN IT.
Whichever experiment had, “Satan’s Jockstrap”, that was the funniest.
There are too many good ones to mention for me. But my all time FAVORITE is the “Tragic Moments” figurines. Also, since I haven’t seen it mentioned, I’ll go ahead and throw the “Big Checkbook” (from 416-Fire Maidens of Outer Space) into the mix.
Now that I think about it, the Designer Mace Mousses were great too, especially how Dr. F just plain ran with it.
Public Domain Karaoke. That might actually work in the real world.
Insta-Karma from BRIDE OF THE MONSTER seems nice. Every time you do a good thing; you can get candy or maybe even money. ^.^