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Weekend Discussion Thread: Worst Comic Relief in a MSTed MovieAlert reader Doug asks:
I’m going to go with our favorite little monkey boy, Sid Melton, in “Lost Continent” and “Radar Secret Service.” Who do you think is the worst? 126 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Worst Comic Relief in a MSTed Movie”Commenting at Satellite News
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Not much more to add, really…Droppo (or is it Dropo?) is bad, but Watney must forever take this prize. He’s not just stupid and annoying, he’s a noisome lech, a treacherous and disloyal friend, and just to top everything off he supplies the lame twist ending that wraps the whole plot up in fifteen seconds without the slightest shred of plausibility.
But I’m going to name another example that I found totally offensive for a somewhat different reason: when I saw Hercules Unchained for the first time (not as an MST3K show actually) I was pissed that they’d turned Odysseus, who is supposed to be wily and super-cool, into a dumb comic relief sidekick for Hercules. You see flashes of his cleverness but not enough to offset what a dope they made him overall.
I totally forgot the Club Scum MC. While I think he is some what amusing (especially compared to everyone else in the movie) his making out with Trixie (Pixie?) and her sound effect laden beating of him are horrible.
“I’m comiiiiiing!”
‘Nuff said.
Obscure one. Lt. Lewis’ partner in The Dead Talk Back. Thug cop who runs like a geek, tries at sarcasm, but really isn’t funny. Or he was trying to be as serious at the Lieutenent, but fails. A real crappy sidekick.
And how about the Walter Mathhau wannabee police
coroner in Zombie Nightmare? Especially when
he’s engaging in “droll observations” with the
junior high police detective.
How about the ending of Village of the Giants where Beau Bridges and Co. are shuffling outta town and the group of little people walk up and ask which way to Hainesville?
You see, it’s funny ’cause they’re short and they’re looking for the Village of the Giants, so it’s ironic.
Plus one of them has a deep voice.
So that’s some real offensive comic relief right there.
97
Watch-out-for-Snakes says:
October 4, 2010 at 3:07 am
“My initial thoughts on this topic went right to Droppo and ol’ Watney. Those two seem to be the overwhelming favorites.
But I got to say, for totally annoying and “what where they thinking”-edness, you can’t get any better (?) than Richard Kind’s performance as Wamthool, evil David Warner’s magi in Quest of the Delta Knights.
Thankfully it is a brief scene, but Kind just hams it up with a performance more in place on an episode of Mad About You than in a movie that takes place in the Middle Ages.
He really throws the tone of the movie completely out of whack, and by the time we get to the guy who screams, “I’m coming!” there is no chance of recovery for any serious action or drama in this picture.
Who decided Richard Kind should play his role like that? Who decided he should play that role, period? Whomever it was, bad choice…..
Worst. Comic Relief. Ever.”
I agree, but the movie already had pee being thrown and that queen’s servant with the creaky knees.
Watney’s definitely up there, but the fratboy from Ring of Terror claims the prize for me (“Ah! Belle Napoli! Now whadaya wanna, paisano!”). The way he plays up his lines you can see how hilarious he thinks himself, and the harder they try, the dumber they look, and the more painful it is. There was a reason J&tB shouted “KILL HIM!” almost every time he opened his mouth.
Though, between the two of them, Watney definitely wins in the ‘biggest plot hole’ category. Fratboy is just another forty-five-year-old college student, but it’s great in Outlaw when the King’s murdered and Watney jumps to the Queen’s defense with: “But Lara was with me the whole time!” Oh yeah, the queen was with her lover while her husband was being murdered; that alibi’s airtight.
I don’t know if this counts, but there’s the interloping spirit with the offensively stereotypical “Chinese” voice during the seance scene in The Wild World of Batwoman.
i have to point out that both Droppo and Pitch were in children’s movies, so while Droppo is a complete wretch he does have the argument of “hey, it was a 70’s kid film, waddyawant?” for me Watney is the first choice. a very close, extremely close second is 3/4 of the crew for ‘the Starfighters.’ the fact that most of them were NOT actors really added a thick layer of lead to all those supposed jokes that they were carpet bombing us with.
Since I just watched this, I thought that Merlin’s wife in Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders was supposed to be some sort of comic relief. I mean she threatened Merlin with sex.
The horny old couple in Incredible Melting Man were supposed to be funny, but their scenes fell with a thud.
Someone may have said it already, but I hate the main character from SQUIRM from beginning of picture to end. Not funny, ever.
Off topic, but I couldn’t resist:
When watching Christine O’Donnell, especially on old
Bill Maher tapes, do you think of A Touch of Satan?
And perhaps imagine people singing a song in the
public domain? :evil:
I agree about Jim Stafford being a really bad comic element. He didn’t come off as funny, just as a completely over the top slur on rednecks.
Another vote for Watney. There’s something uniquely repugnant about comic relief built primarily on misogyny (Cf. Tom Arnold in “True Lies” — bleccchhhh!!)
So many to choose how about Timmotheus from Hercules And The Island Of Captive Women But lets talk about Watney just think how bad he has to be that he can over shadow A PLATINUM MIDGET…..CABBOTT!!!
My bottom five (please keep in mind that I have blocked “Catalina Caper” from my mind & have never seen “Outlaw”):
5. TIE: Daphne and Kyle from “Hobgoblins” – She’s a nympho in spandex, he’s a virgin in little red shorts. Let the wackiness (and offensiveness) commence!
4. Droppo from “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” – Don’t insult kids’ intelligence and assume this brain-damaged bumbler was ever entertaining to them, except for the scene where it looks like the bad guy was going to kill him.
3. Sam the Keeper from “Werewolf” – Looks like my cool aging hippie math teacher from middle school but acts like a more senile version of my father at his most hateful.
2. TIE: The nameless ‘Chinese’ ghost and Dr. Neon & Heathcliff from “Batwoman” – The former is just plain offensive & on screen for waaaaaay too long, while the latter have the same problem as Droppo (assuming that idiocy for its own sake is inherently hilarious).
1. So, so many in “Angels Revenge” – Who to hate more? The anonymous guys on the beach (“Ugh – I hope those are stunt tongues”)? Jim Bacchus as a militia leader? Pat Buttram as a used car salesman? Not only are their parts nonsensical & painfully unfunny, but if you’re like me & follow character actors/VAs, it’s also incredibly sad.
I can’t bring myself to cast a ballot, for doing so would be implicitly admitting that there’s such thing as a good comic relief character, and I refuse to cop to that. It’s okay for characters to say and do funny things, but the only type of movie that can benefit from a solely comedic character is a COMEDY; outside of that genre, it’s a cross-competition tie for worst.
If you question this, think back to the worst thing you recall about some otherwise watchable movies: Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars, Ruby Rhod in The Fifth Element, Joe Pesci in each Lethal Weapon after the first (and Chris Rock in part 4), and absolutely everyone who isn’t Preston and Epps in the Transformers movies. In each of these, the story and action ground to a halt whenever these characters appeared to do their irritating schtick. Who thought we needed “relief” from the action in these movies? Christ, the action was literally all Transformers had going for it to start with! Why screw that up?
@119 – what about R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi? Maybe you can quibble about Star Wars, since the story is told from the droids point of view in that movie, but in the others the droids are an example of great comic relief.
The two droids aren’t exactly dedicated comic relief, as both serve purposes other than simply “being funny.” Heck, even the Ewoks nutted up and kicked some Imperial ass. Jar-Jar, on the other hand, could have been cut completely out of the series and the plot would stay the same. So yeah, if I thought the two droids were examples I’d have mentioned them too.
Super Eddie ‘Bill Gates’ Deezen from Laserblast.
What exactly did C3PO do in Empire strikes back? Nothing! He said funny things to irritate Han, got blown apart so he could ride on Chewies back and be even funnier (and provide exposition here and there). If C3PO isn’t the perfect example of a comic relief character then there is no such thing.
He was never in a MSTed movie but no one has ruined more movies than Rob Schneider.
*sigh* Look, I’m not interested in arguing over this, so yes: You’re absolutely right and everything I said was stupid and wrong. Pass go, collect $200, and put some hotels on Boardwalk. Point being, I hate comic relief characters and there’s no waiting epiphany anyone’s going to spring that will make me start loving them.
It’s hard to argue with the likes of Droppo, Watney, and Monkeyboy, but I have to give a shout out to “the comic relief lady” in Overdrawn At the Memory Bank. Servo’s pouty “Mike, the comic relief lady is making me very tense” is just such a perfect summary of what’s wrong with her whole role.
Meanwhile, the best comic relief in any MST3K episode is obviously Toblerone from Escape 2000