optiMSTieI could live to be a thousand, and I would never get tired of the comedic chemistry of Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff as Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank.
Those Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis voices, OH MY GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWD.
[as the silly agent identifies himself]
Goofy guy: "Fingers O'Toole."
Tom Servo: "F.B.I., Pratfall Division."
Bless this ridiculous show forever.
That brings Catalina Caper to an incoherent and waterlogged end!
Up next in the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon is a personal favorite of mine, The Horror of Party Beach!
And now that I think about it, those are two films that really needed a crossover installment: The Horror of Party Beach Versus the Fools of Catalina Caper...
How could you NOT love Servo as a Gyuto monk achieving transcendence?
(Or at least using his speakers to pull a fast one on Mike?)
Mike celebrates Flavia's assessment of him: "She thinks I'm average-looking! :D "
I feel seen here.
REAL TALK: Mike and the 'Bots bust on this soundtrack a lot, but honestly?
I'm loving the music of the Del-Aires here. I'm a sucker for that surf rock sound, so...
[shrugs]
Also, it bears noting that I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this episode, The Horror of Party Beach.
At the end of Season 8, Space Mutiny, Time Chasers, and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank haul in a bunch of praise, and deservedly so (Space Mutiny is my fourth favorite episode behind The Final Sacrifice, Mitchell, and Jack Frost), but The Horror of Party Beach deserves to have its praises sung among those more celebrated episodes.
Crow using a goofy voice on the stupid monster design: "Is there anyone who enjoys pickles as much as I do? D'oh-oh!"
FIRST ROUND K.O.
Crow on the song Wigglin' Wobblin': "I think what they're really trying to say here is 'whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.' "
Servo: "But you're missing the underlying message, which is 'wiggle wiggle wobble wobble!' "
Love these goobers forever.
[as bikers attempt to use their leader as a human battering ram in a fight]
Crow: "Hey, I don't think this is a good idea, guys. Let's think about this, no, d-don't don't- OWWW MY NECK IS BROKEN"
freaking LOVE this :D
[fully intends to laugh forever at this]
This moment NEVER fails to make me laugh like a damn fool.
[as hero looks disgustedly at the ocean]
Mike: "I sure hope that's a Clark bar."
me: [chokes on drink]
This TV news guy yells about "HUMAN BEANS", and that's somehow funnier than ANY riff these guys could come up with.
I hope you had "FLAT TIRE" on your Doomed Characters in a Horror Movie Bingo Card.
The Del-Aires, singing: "You're not a summer love..."
Crow, singing: "You are a summer sausage..."
Mike as the heavily-dubbed Elaine: "I'd say something, but the guy who dubs me is on break."
All terrific, this damn episode.
[as drunks get kicked out of a club]
Servo: "I just thought 'all-nude' was a dress code!"
Also, what's going on with that sign, "Albert Vitti Permittee"?
If you're going to play a drinking game with this episode, don't use the word "sodium" as part of the game.
Livers were not made to take that kind of abuse.
I could see myself getting a lot of mileage out of this "be right back" image.
[watches as the film transitions hard from day to night between shots]
HOT DAMN, but the sun sinks like a stone near Party Beach...
There's a great end credit gag that draws attention to how the Sodium song contained only word: "sodium."
"Lyric by Bill Corbett"
Freaking LOVE that. :D
The saga of the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon continues with the Season 13 premiere and the dawn of the Gizmoplex era: Santo in the Treasure of Dracula!
Pearl Forrester inviting her granddaughter to a showing of the first-ever MST3K experiment at the Gizmoplex is MY HEART.
Girl: "Good night, Uncle."
Jonah: "FIRST, WE WRESTLE!"
Tom Servo: "BODYSLAM!"
Crow: "Good night, random child."
Jonah: "And dream of earless silver-faced demons."
It's not so much that the show's still got it; it's that the show never lost it. Funny as hell, even after all these years.
Jonah's L7 riff!
This show's reference pool never ceases to amaze me...
Crow: "First rule of real estate: echolocation, echolocation, echolocation!"
Just the greatest, folks.
Crow with a Mister T reference in 2022 Anno Domini.
And it's *brilliant.*
That's so wrong that it loops right back around to *so* right.
This host segment where Crow and Servo cut kind and complimentary wrestling promos on each other is an instant classic, a good-hearted gem of a sketch. Deliriously cheerful and goofy, as MST3K *should* be.
Crow: "I bet he smells like grass after the rain!"
Servo: "I ADMIRE YOU AND THE VALUES YOU STAND FOR, BROTHER!"
Mean Jonah: "This is too much! Save it for the ring, fellas!"
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS :D
THAT STRONG BAD REFERENCE
Jonah: "I told you, Santo, you can't run back the odometer by driving backwards!"
That's the key to the show: silly jokes that absolutely take the dignity away from whatever the current scene is doing while making it more infinitely watchable. And this season does that beautifully.
The Turkey Day celebration of all things MST3K continues with Beyond Atlantis, the episode that introduces us to the riffing strengths of Emily Marsh as Emily Connor, Kelsey Ann Brady as Crow, Conor McGiffin as Servo, and Yvonne Freese as GPC 2.0!
Emily: "Wow, you simulator bots have already absorbed the behavior of Jonah's bots within seconds."
Servo: "And your point?"
Emily: "That's not gonna be problematic."
Crow: "I'll tell you what's problematic! Your soul's gonna get CRUSHED within seconds!"
THESE ESTABLISHING MOMENTS, Y'ALL :D
Servo: "Can't we get BEYOND Atlantis?"
Heh... ever since Laserblast, you knew that was comin'!
Most important thing I wanna emphasize here was how impressed I was w/ the new crew right from Day one.
Emily brought an earnest, endearing energy to the enterprise, and as the new host, she came PREPARED for this assignment and *then* some MAD extra credit.
Kelsey's Crow has this tornado volcano monsoon of trickster god energy, and I love that for the character.
And Conor's Servo is sly, smooth, self-assured, self-inflated, and wonderfully heady.
Can't tell you how hard I laughed at this on premiere night.
This cemented Conor's Servo as one of the greats!
So, the captions are accidentally cut short, getting rid of the end of a line of dialogue.
The actual riff is "Hey, he didn't drink his pearl!"
The captions say something else, and honestly, this only increases the hilarity in a weird roundabout kinda way...
Two great Servo moments:
1) For the picture below: "Meanwhile on Gary Busey Island..."
2) As Manuel gets beaten: "YOU LEAVE THAT SWEET MAN ALONE, YOU ***JACKALS!!!***"
There are two distinctive eras of your life:
Before hearing Sid Haig say "Some mothercrabber set a trap!", and after hearing Sid Haig say "Some mothercrabber set a trap!"
A meeting of the hosts!
As a fan of the show, I have to say that I love it that we have Team Jonah *and* Team Emily representing MST3K. It's an incredible time to be a MSTie with these two riffing groups delivering the goods with consistent success!
[as characters go mackin' underneath a net in the water]
Servo: "And that's how I ---net--- your mother!"
That's so terrible that it boomerangs right back around to being the best riff of the episode.
MOTHERCRABBIN' EDDIE CON :D
Crab free since '73!
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
Servo, somberly: "These Dippin' Dots will see you through safely to the other side."
Could I love this show more?
THIS is how you freeze-frame the end of a movie.
[nervous laughing and weeping]
Beyond Atlantis comes to an end, and so does my MST3K marathon viewing for the night.
I'll be back on tomorrow to pick up the remainder of the marathon, starting with Warrior of the Lost World.
Til next time, have a fantastico one, and all the best!
Time to pick up where I left up with the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon, starting with Warrior of the Lost World as the first of the final four episodes!
Not gonna lie, I got fooled with Synthia's intro in the style of Synthia's Selects.
And Kinga thinking she's having a stroke after being decent to other people... looooooooooool
... oh, i dunno 😕
[machine-gun toting bad guys enforce a blockade]
"DO YOU HAVE ANY FRUIT TO DECLARE?!"
:D
I love these goobers.
The most judgmental AI *ever.*
[Persis Khambatta enters the scene]
Paper Chase Guy: "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"
Servo: [hisses at the Paper Chase Guy]
Crow: "Now I hate him even more."
And the guys have it absolutely right about the sentient wisealeck motorcycle:
On one hand, you feel bad about Servo.
On the other... [laughs forever]
Paper Chase Guy: "This is turning out to be more than I bargained for, lady."
Joel: "Oh, what HAVE you liked on this trip?!"
I love and appreciate how petty and small the riffers make the Paper Chase Guy look throughout this whole thing.
This host segment where Joel stuffs his face with objects and imitates the Paper Chase Guy in mumbly fashion as his mom drives him through the Apocalypse is BRUTAL.
Hilariously brutal.
I don't even care that they didn't bother to write an ending to this sketch.
[laughs forever]
Riff of the episode, right here.
Kid: "Mom, buy me The Road Warrior!"
Mom: "But you have The Road Warrior at home!"
The Road Warrior at home? [gestures to a copy of Warrior of the Lost World]
/Megaweapon has entered the chat
tone groan@optiMSTie Beyond Atlantis is one of the pearls (sorry) of this season. Right up there with the two that followed it for my favorite so far.
@tonegroan MAKE NO APOLOGIES, I DIG IT :D
But seriously, what a streak of impressive episodes.
Munchie was a blast, and Doctor Mordrid was off the damn CHARTS.
Daniel Emerson@optiMSTie @tonegroan
All right-thinking folk are fans of Jeffrey Combs. so having him play a knock-off 'Dr Strange' was just perfect.
All right-thinking folk are fans of Jeffrey Combs. so having him play a knock-off 'Dr Strange' was just perfect.
@DoktorFuttocks @tonegroan Indeed.
It's unreal that we managed to get Jeffrey Combs AND Barbara Crampton into the MST3Kverse (albeit in different films).
talon2claw@optiMSTie The Mother Crabber song is my favorite, beating Every Country Has a Monster by a hair.
@talon2claw That's MASSIVE praise!
I love the hell out of Mother Crabber for its use of samples, plus some fairly nifty rhymes that are more in sync with an old school rap.
Both the Jonah and Emily eras began with a terrific rap number. Maybe this is a new trend of sorts?