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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 10, 2006 1:33:47 GMT -5
I guess I have too innocent of a brain; it never even occurred to me that feeding carpet to Gretchen the Slinky _could_ be seen as dirty (until you mentioned it). I just figured...it's a "creature" that's known for going around on the floor, so naturally it would like floorish things. (shrug) I thought it was more just weird for its own sake mixed with perhaps a bit of childish whimsy, myself. I suppose the whimsical explanation is kind of likely. Certainly more like Joel's character. The dirty mind is my wife rubbing off on me. She's a middle school teacher and tends to take on some of their traits when she's away from them and free to let her guard down. In other words she can be very silly and is the quickest to interpret something as dirty.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 16, 2006 16:55:28 GMT -5
It's been another week, but this time I've got two episodes to review! Unfortunately, I'm not real happy with 'em. Rocketship X-M and The Sidehackers were great and had me feeling good about season two. But, Jungle Goddess and Catalina Caper really deflated my excitement. 203 - Jungle Goddess This one's not so bad, but I'd call it mediochre. The movie is a real bore and has little to make it interesting in a good-bad sense. It's pretty much just boring and Joel and the Bots don't quite make up for it. The host segments improve things 'cause they're good. The inventions are particularly fun. I love the way the mads invention segment opens: the body of Dr. F. lazily feeling at Frank's face then meandering off (hey, that reminds me of a Strong Bad E-mail cartoon I just watched . . . homestarrunner.com/sbemail148.html) Plus, the Forresterphone is the first appearance of that white box with the slanted mirror in it which I've always loved for being hokey yet clever. The segment with the variety of "scopes" is another good one, my favorite scopes being the nope and pope scopes. Here's something I'll post in Esoteric: In the Phantom Creeps short Tom imitates someone at the sight of the character Mallory (Bela's character's former assistant). He says several lines, the first of which is, "Now, what goes on in here?" Anyone know who he's imitating? A puzzling moment: Also in the short, Bela is demonstrating his wicked spider gadget when this line/riff happens: Bela: You shall soon learn . . . Tom?: The power of the dark one! I know they're referencing Robot Holocaust, but what's puzzling is that the voice doing the riff sounds exactly like Josh! I can't really tell which character is supposed to be saying the riff, nor can I recognize Kevin, Joel, or Trace in the voice. I just hear Josh. Crazy, eh? So, this ep is historically important for originating the lines, "How fortunate! That simplifies everything!" (Phantom Creeps) and "What I wouldn't give for a hamburger and some french-fried potatoes!" (Jungle Goddess), which the guys would use in whole or in part in many episodes following this one. It's got the historical element, some rather good host segments, and there are some decent riffs, but overall this episode is average or just below average in my eyes. Oh yeah, I like all the moments when the "native" guy goes ballistic and the J&tBs say things like "Oh, wrong scene, sorry . . ." and "No! Not this scene!" and "Yes, now!" I also love the shots of the snake in the tree. Joel: Hi, I'm Satan! Enjoy the film! 204 - Catalina Caper I remember not liking this ep the last time I watched it. But since then I've wondered whether I hadn't given it a chance because I despised the movie so much or if it really was just lacking in fun and funniness. I gave the episode a chance again and didn't get as annoyed by the movie this time, but it turns out that Joel and the Bots are just not very funny in this one. The laughs are just extremely rare and I found this one a chore to sit through. Tommy Kirk's character is supposed to be an Arizonan, though there's no good reason for that. They make some extremely flat jokes about cactus and heat, but again, that's not a good reason. I do have a favorite riff, though. It's when the kids are playing volleyball and the camera pans over to Tommy Kirk who is kneeling in the sand: Joel (pouty): Aw, gee, and I forgot my shins . . . The invention exchange does something to redeem this episode, not enough really, but I love the tank tops. This segment also features Frank's first "Guh-yuk-guh-YEE!" Which I've always loved. In the Bots prayers segment, Joel makes them pray for a blessing for Tweeky. Who is Tweeky? Or is it Twiggy? Twinkie? I still hate this movie. It's several things that make it so annoying as to be almost unbearable. First, there's all the filler: the lame music (yes, even Little Richard's song) and all the stupid dancing. Then there's the color quality. I don't know what it is about some of these color films from the sixties. They look over-colorful or something, yet they look all soft, like there's vaseline on the camera lens. There's something about the faces too. They look like faces in colorized films, only more detailed. I dunno. I hate it. Then there's Duval, the yacht man/mastermind of the theft. I can't stand that guy. From the way his voice sounds, to the way his mouth moves, that guy is terrible to experience. And finally, there's the fact that he gets away with it all. The guy doesn't have to go to jail because he's a dad to a blonde beach bum? Screw you, movie! Let's hope the season takes an upswing after this! Rocket Attack U.S.A. is next, but first I have to wash just about every dish in the house. I'm serious!
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Post by mstgator on Jun 16, 2006 21:44:25 GMT -5
In the Bots prayers segment, Joel makes them pray for a blessing for Tweeky. Who is Tweeky? Or is it Twiggy? Twinkie? It's actually Twiki, the allegedly "cute"/"funny" robot in the 1979-81 Buck Rogers TV series.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 17, 2006 3:13:00 GMT -5
Awesome! Thank you.
That reminds me of a picture that's hanging around at the store where I work. Oh, wait, it's from Battlestar Galactica. Oops. Anyway, it's funny 'cause there's two guys striking poses with blaster guns and each of them has on his thigh, hanging from his belt, a pair of calculators, one right next to the other. Yep, they look pretty darn hi-tech and futuristic with their dual Sanyos ready to go.
Wow, that had nothing to do with anything.
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Post by jjb3k on Jun 18, 2006 2:23:38 GMT -5
Twiki is also the source of the "beedee-beedee-beedee" riffs that'll show up in a couple of subsequent episodes. Just so you're aware.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 18, 2006 20:04:31 GMT -5
Hey, groovy. Thanks!
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 22, 2006 13:11:52 GMT -5
I am rockin' to JSBX's "Now I Got Worry" on LP! And I'll probably put Nirvana's "Nevermind" on the phonograph next! Don't mean to be smug, but I just picked up some awesome records at work and I'm darn excited about 'em. Jamie, who is extremely cool and works at the store, traded in about half of his LP collection. I also got four Run-D.M.C. LPs, Violent Femmes "Hallowed Ground", and more! 205 - Rocket Attack U.S.A. + The Phantom Creeps chapter 2 Well, it doesn't continue on the downward path that Jungle Goddess and Catalina Caper started, but it didn't knock my socks off either. This one's actually at about the caliber of Jungle Goddess, but a little better. The movie (RAUSA) is worse, but the riffing does okay at covering for it. I dislike Tom's "haircut". I think it was in the history at mst3kinfo.com that I read that it was supposed to be an experiment in decreasing the amount of screen Tom's head took up. But, come on, that's silly. I mean, I believe that that's what they were trying to do, but it's silly that they were doing it. The narrow version of the executive snack machine doesn't take up much less space, but even more to the point, the bubble top version doesn't take up much in the first place! I mean, the biggest head on screen is Joel's, but there's not much you can do about that. Next is Crow, of course, but what are you gonna do, remove his beak? Steal one of Tom's mouths and transplant that? I'm glad they realized that Tom looked dumb and that they didn't even need to worry about how much screen the shadowramma took up (well, it seems that that's what they must've realized). I still dislike having to tolerate the pencil-neck, House Party Tom for a couple shows. The first stinger! Yay! I love stingers! Which reminds me: did y'all stay in the theater all the way 'til the stinger at the end of X3? We did. I was so proud of Tay, my wife, when were talking about the movie and she called that bit at the end of the credits "the stinger". I thought, "She called it that 'cause of MST3K and my MiSTiedom! Mmm, love is nice. *drool*" Anyway, the movie segments were better than the short. Man, the short was really heavy on references. Which means it was almost devoid of funny for me. Speaking of references, I just posted my question about the "My boss!" riffs in esoteric. This short is also the source of the line + reference combo "the driver is either gone or he's hiding" + Crow's "Welcome to Death Valley Days". The "McCarthy Years" segment was well done. I liked the look back at all the famous puppets from history. Also makes me remember Sifl and Olly. Fondly. I think I have a thing for puppets and puppet shows. I gotta find back my sock puppet from when I used to do "college Sunday school" puppet shows . . . Shoot, I can't think of his name. Chester? No. Seymour? Maybe. I'll post a pic if I can find him back. I always wanted to have a sock puppet troupe called Limited to Sock on Hand. Missed riff! In the credits sequence these words appear on screen: Barry Mahon presents The EXPLOIT FILMS production of . . . Me: It's a Cold Warsploitation flick! One more thing. I love when planes crash in these old serials and movies from before special effects were good. They really make me laugh. In this Phantom Creeps short it's just an airplane model plopped onto a little set with fake trees. It's just great that it bounces and does nothing like disintegrate or catch fire like a real plane would. I know Women of The Prehistoric Planet has some dumb model landing footage and I think one of the Commando Cody shorts did too.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 22, 2006 16:46:21 GMT -5
So . . . I've watched 36 eps so far. And I've been touting a total of two-hundred "episodes" to be watched. Well, I'm bumping that up to two-hundred and one!
I just ordered my German DVD of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie and I'm adding that to my in-order watching spree! I'm excited about it because I will not only have the movie on DVD, but I also speak a little German. Well, I got a degree in German, but have hardly used it since I graduated (December '04). I'll try to brush up on my German-language movie-watching ability by viewing Der Schuh des Manitu (The Shoe of Manitou- a German comedy), Lola Rennt (Lola Runs- Run Lola Run in its original German), Ein Königreich für ein Lama (A Kingdom for a Llama- The Emperor's New Groove in German), and Der Ritter der Kokosnuss (The Knights of the Coconut- The Holy Grail in German, which I just ordered along with MST3K:TM). So, this will be more than just the novelty of sitting in front of one of my favorite movies as I hear everything in a language I don't understand. I'll actually be able to review the episode in comparison to its original counterpart and it should be fun! It's something for me to look forward to, for sure. I can't wait to see how "I'm experiencing a sensation altogether new to me! And frankly, I like it!" translates/transforms.
As a tangent, it really bugs me that a German audio track on a North American DVD is practically unheard of. I've only found them on US releases of German movies. I realize that there is little marketability in the US for non-English language tracks other than Spanish and French, but it still bums me out. American movies are quite popular in Germany, so German audio tracks are made for many many movies, but those tracks don't appear on domestic DVDs. I think it'd be great if there were a trend for DVD producers to include as many language tracks as are available for the given film. It'd be great to at least see tracks for the "big four" non-English, European languages (French, Spanish, German, and Italian) and the major Asian languages. Aside from appealing to multilingual Americans, imagine the educational potential for schools. How cool would high school German class be if you could watch Ghost World and Napoleon Dynamite? I mean, you could, but only at a forbidding cost to your teacher.
That's life, I guess!
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 22, 2006 17:16:51 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I forgot to say how fun German translations of Movie titles can be! While some are left in their original English, there were some cool sounding ones in the theaters when I was last in Germany (2000): Star Wars: Angriff der Klonkrieger (Attack of the Clones) and James Bond 007: Stirb an einem anderen Tag (Die Another Day). I remember trailers and TV commercials for the James Bond flick. They were funny because Stirb an einem anderen Tag is really hard to spit out quickly and it sounded like a mouthful for even the person in the ads. That's just a lot of syllables to say at the pace of an action movie trailer. For the German market, they just kept the original name for MST3K:TM instead of translating it. I'm glad they did, 'cause they'd have either translated it literally or totally renamed it. If they'd translated it literally, it might have come out like this: Geheimnis-Wissenschaft Theater 3000: Der Film (that's how AltaVista's Babel Fish babelfish.altavista.com/ translated it). Which is, translated back into English, Secret Science Theater 3000: The Movie. And to rename it, who knows what could have happened; all I can think up is "Viel Glück Mike!" or "Mike und die Roboter" which mean "Good Luck Mike!" and "Mike and The Robots" respectively. Funny stuff, hmm? Okay, I'll go wash dishes now.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 24, 2006 15:24:32 GMT -5
Alright, finally another decent episode from season 2. I was getting afraid that season 2 had more bombs than I remembered. I know I have some great ones to look forward to, though.
I like the movie segments in this one. They really keep the jokes coming despite the movie being dumb and mostly lacking in major events. The plot is quite thin, but the guys just go at it with a lot of energy and it makes for a fun episode. I particularly like all the geriatric jokes. They're most concentrated in the first half hour of the episode which is good 'cause if they'd kept it up at that rate it could've gotten old quickly for me.
The short wasn't as good as the movie segments. Many have said that the guys ran out of energy to riff on the Creep series, making the same jokes and exhausting their Bela impressions. I feel more like the series just wasn't as good for riffing on in the first place. The Commando Cody series was much better for riffing on. In Cody there were moonmen, thugs, nipple-nipple-tweek-tweeks and flying and stuff. In Phantom there was pretty much just a lot of driving around and hard to hear dialogue. I'm glad they pretty much said goodbye to serials at this point and switched to educational/promotional shorts. I know they did some General Hospital and Undersea Kingdom later on, but they mostly stuck to eds and promos and that's good. I kinda liked the Codys, but the serials were definitely not where it was at.
This is the one with the short after the movie. It's weird like that. I mean it really feels funny watching the short after enduring the movie. When I watch the shorts, whether I'm enjoying the short or not, I always watch with an anticipation of the movie to come. The short is just a stop along the way to the actual feature. With the short at the end, it feels like being kept after class. It especially feels that way because the short isn't very good.
Hey, the robot from The Phantom Creeps is pictured on the back of a Rob Zombie album! Its image is also featured prominently on some Rob Zombie shirts and other merchandise.
Missed riff! Maybe it's too obvious, but I thought they should've sang "I stepped into a burning ring of terror!" during the title/credits sequence.
Does anyone know where "Turn Down Your Lights (Where Applicable)" comes from? It seems like something they would have put at the beginning of early television broadcasts. And, where might it not be applicable?
The beginning of this episode is of course where "Puma? Puma?" comes from. I've always felt cool 'cause that was a reference I remembered when they'd use it in subsequent episodes. Granted, it's a reference to one of their own eps, but I still like that I never forgot it.
Okay, gotta go. Out of curiosity, does anyone disagree with me and my opinions? I'm thinking of Catalina Caper specifically. But if anyone wishes to express that they feel differently from me, go ahead! I won't hate you, I promise.
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Post by Cleolanta on Jun 25, 2006 6:45:12 GMT -5
Well, I would _like_ to comment...but I just don't have anything all that terribly interesting to say. (Also, I spent this past week being on a kick of typing up a lot of my old short stories so that they'd be readable by my 'net friends for the first time...this rather wore out my hands and I am still having some trouble typing without being tired. I need, like, at least a couple whole days of not typing much.)
Let's see... Jungle Goddess: I realise it's not their sharpest riffing job ever, but I still have a soft spot for this one. Especially the end host segment with "My White Goddess". Heh. I also think it's important that more fans know the _true_ origin of the "hamburger sammich and french-frahed potaytahs!" line, and think it's good that you took special note of it--way too many people think it was FIRST said in the host segment from "I Accuse My Parents" where Crow and Tom are trying to stick up Joel for his lunch. (Or a few other places, but that's the main point of confusion I seem to hear fairly often.)
Catalina Caper: I also dislike the movie, but like the episode. I don't know about specific riffs; it just made me laugh/feel happy in general. (The one about the "lemmings marching into the sea" made me crack up more than it should, possibly because I instantly thought of the _game_ "Lemmings" and started yelling "OH, NO!" in a high pitched voice every time another "teen" hit the water...)
Rocket Attack U.S.A. is a downer of a movie, but still kind of a favourite 'cos it was (due to the magic of reruns) one of my first MST episodes, and one of the few I had on tape, at all, for years before I caught back up to the show.
Ring of Terror I...have no desire to watch again anytime soon. It was so boring, dull, stultifying, I couldn't tell what was going on in the movie and didn't CARE, and the host segments weren't all that funny either. I also rather disliked a lot of the riffs. The same "geriatric" riffs that you liked, I thought got "old" REALLY fast, very quickly crossed the boundary of good taste into just plain nasty, and were way too easy. Okay, so the actors _were_ old even by the "middle-aged teenagers" standards of '50s movies...I still don't think that doing a whole host segment making fun of old people was funny, or even called for. The riffs made me feel kind of uncomfortable and mildly ashamed of the show, seriously. I don't like it at all, in general, when they pick a _really_ obvious, easy target or subject and then HAMMER it into the ground. Okay, so they're way older than their characters are supposed to be. Okay, so Joe Don Baker is fat. Okay, so Troy/Nick is a geek. WE GET IT. We got it long ago. Can we move on to some _other_ subject of joke now, have a little variety, mix things up a little? Please? THANK you.
Also, as I've said before, I think of these guys as being _witty_, as being funnier than ordinary people, as being able to think of the cleverer jokes that we'd LIKE to be able to blurt right out at the right time, but can't. So picking on a really obvious physical trait and beating it to DEATH seems...below them, somehow. Come on, guys. I _know_ you're better than that.
...now you see why I didn't want to say anything...
...Notorious
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jun 26, 2006 2:12:45 GMT -5
...now you see why I didn't want to say anything... Ha ha! ;) But thanks, really. I like all the different perspectives that are bouncing around here. I mean, when I read jjb3k's thread I notice that I often complained about what he's celebrating and vice versa. It's similar if you compare kernunrex's blog to my thread as well. What is and isn't funny is so different for everybody. I despise "offensive" humor, yet the old jokes didn't strike me that way. Maybe that's the selfish me showing itself. Maybe I only get irked by humor that hits home. For example, Werewolf is one of my all-time fav eps, but I still cringe at the indian jokes (ex: "They're chanting about how loose their slots are.") 'cause I've grown up among natives and I've always wished we could all close the gap a little, or a lot, and those jokes are tough jabs to take. But then, I think my impression of the geriatric jabs were directed more at the filmmakers use of "old" actors than at the elderly themselves.
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Post by Cleolanta on Jun 27, 2006 0:59:01 GMT -5
Well, I mean, it _was_ ridiculous even by '50s movie standards, yeah. I think mainly the reason I don't like that episode is it's just so murky, claustrophobic, hard to tell what's going on and gives you so very, very little _reason_ to even want to try and find out. And the making fun of the fat couple. And the overall muddy, smooshy sound and picture quality. Gleh.
I should clarify, by the way, that over-repetitive riffs in general irk me after a while--"offensive" or no. Of course, the threshhold at which it starts irritating me _does_ depend on the individual riff (ones I found funny to begin with will last longer) but, ya know. There's running gags, and then there's hammering something into the ground.
I mean, I do like this show (I've had people incredulously ask me "HOW can you call yourself a FAN?!" when I mention an entire category/type of joke that I don't like) but I don't think they're _perfect_. NOBODY's perfect. Everybody has their flaws, their bad days, including me--I mean, I _know_ I'm bloody annoying. Anyway, one of the show's flaws, in my opinion, is that occasionally they don't know when to drop a joke and move on to something else. So it's not just that the "old" jokes bothered me because they were kind of bad taste. It's also because they just kept at that one subject for too long. (shrug)
If I were to be offended by every ethnic/background-type slur, by the way, I'd be angry at the show a _lot_ of the time, instead of just on rare occasions. I'm a mix of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Cherokee, and Native Americans got tweaked a bit as you mentioned, and then there's all the slams they take at British people ("Moon Zero Two" and especially "The Projected Man" come to mind here), and some at the Irish in "Gorgo". Also I've lived in California, Iowa, and Utah, which are places that all get riffed at least a bit (especially the midwest in general), have relatives in the Deep South (Tennessee and Florida, mainly), and am even distantly related to one celebrity that's been made fun of a few times (Pat Boone).
So in other words, I am not really as uptight as I seem. None of THOSE riffs bother me at all, and they're all connected to me in some way. So, hey. :P
...Notorious
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jul 7, 2006 13:09:24 GMT -5
207 - The Wild Rebels
Hey, it took me a while, but I finally got all the way through this one without falling asleep! It's not the episode's fault. I'm just a guy with a short attention span who doesn't get enough sleep.
As I was saying, this is no boring epsiode, I thought it was great. Lots and lots of great riffs and good host segments too. Not all of the "Joel's new best friend, Gypsy" segments are great, but I absolutely love the moment when Joel is spacin' out over Gypsy and the boy bots are trying to get him to hit the Mads button but Joel, in a daze, whaps Tom on the head instead ('cause Tom is red, see? The top of his head is quite Mads button-like! Fun!). The cereal commercial is also classic.
I love the Hobby Hogs. Dr. Forrester: It's for kids who want to get into concert security. They definitely beat the 3-D Pizza. Later in the segment, Clay also asks Frank about the "Guh-Yuk-Guh-YEE!" and Frank says, "It's just a sound. It's nothing." And I love it. I'm thinking that they must've never gotten the "I don't fink on soul brotha" line right 'cause it's not actually in the episode. They must've given up. But there's still plenty of great lines / performance from the Mads.
Gypsy makes her first theater cameo. Oh, just read the SatNews ep guide and it says this is her second, but I don't really remember her appearance in 112. Y'know, Gypsy is pretty involved in this episode. I'm thinking that's because Jim Mallon (who is Gypsy's puppeteer) is "this week's creative pit boss". Not that Gypsy didn't need to be more involved. If I'd been a fan at the time, I'd probably have been wondering what her purpose was; here, they establish that Gypsy runs the SOL's higher functions. It's always nice to see the times when she's more than just "the SOL pilot" and the go-to bot when they need another character for a sketch.
I'd say this is a "don't miss" ep, for sure. If it weren't a Rhino released ep, I'd probably have put it in my season two top five.
This movie reminds me alot of Sidehackers. It's got the bad people who want the square guy to join up with 'em, but the square refuses and the bad people get mad. It diverges from there, but everybody dies in the end here as well. Well, not everybody. Rebels is not as abyssmal as Hackers 'cause a few people survive and hey, Rod and the lieutenant have eachother at the end, so there's your romantic upstroke. I'd say Hackers has more classic riffidge, but Rebels is an easier movie to watch and isn't as much of a downer.
My favorite riff: Joel: These guys are clearly marked POISON; do not eat them.
And no stinger! Bummer.
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Post by jjb3k on Jul 7, 2006 15:22:07 GMT -5
Actually, "I don't fink on soul brotha" is from a slightly later episode...I'll let you figure out which one it is.
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