Normally, the host segments are fairly self-contained. However, there are times where a sketch would take two or more host segments. So the question is: what is your favorite multi-segment sketch? Though it’s likely due to it being in the first MST3K episode I ever saw, mine would be the Cheating Saga from “The Wild, Wild World of Batwoman.” But I also have some fondness for the “Mirror Mirror” parody in “Last of the Wild Horses” and Mike’s trial for his planet-killing spree in “Agent for H.A.R.M.”
A timely suggestion, considering that “Last of the Wild Horses” is going to be in the next set from Shout!
Me, I’m going to go with the “Timmy the alien” story line from “Fire Maidens of Outer Space” (which should also be on a future set, Shout people!)
What’s your pick?
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While all the ones you mentioned are great, for me, the best one has to be Joel leaving/Mike joining storyline from Mitchell. It was a great riff on 2001, and allowed Gypsy to show herself to be the glue joining everyone together. Just a great, great story.
Mike’s trial is definitely my favorite, followed closely by the Alien parody in I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
My two favorites are the time travel storyline in Time Chases and the Mads producing Earth vs. Soup in The Incredible Melting Man.
Since I haven’t seen every episode yet I’m going to go with first place honors to:
“Castle of Fu Manchu” where Joel and the bots slowly break down under the weight of the crushing boredom.
Second place honors go to……… And yeah, I’m actually going here…….
KTMA’s “Million Eyes of Su-Muru” for Joel making his way back into the Satellite and putting the bots on trial for not rescuing him when he got blown out the pod bay.
Third place goes to the ‘War of the Mads’ from “Teenage Caveman” where Forrester and Frank do a running battle (complete, at one point, with Star Trek “Amok Time” music).
Hands down, for me the storyline involving Joel leaving and Mike arriving in #512–Mitchell is the best.
Honorable mention: the Star Trek “Mirror Mirror” parody in #611–Last of the Wild Horses.
Been Ridin’ on that Cosmic Freight Train . .
I love the whole wormhole bit from Prince of Space. The time out of kilter sketch was perfectly executed, the Mike-as-a-robot thing was hysterical, and the sylvan glen was a nice change of pace.
I have never seen Last of the Wild Horses – I may have to order the latest set.
I have to go with 512- Mitchell host segments, Joel leaving yelling a Wizard of Oz line, just so great.
When I first met my wife, I had seen and enjoyed a few episodes of MST, but she was a full-fledeged Mistie. And when she learned I was a Deadhead, she couldn’t wait until we could get our hands on a copy of The Dead Talk Back, not for the movie but for the bits mocking Jerry Garcia and the Dead.
A few years later, we finally glommed onto a copy and I never laughed so hard in my life. I thought I was going to choke. Crow’s guitar solo still has that effect on me.
Lot of other greats already mentioned here — the “Mirror Mirror” take-off during Wild Horses; the Trial of Michael Nelson; Joel’s escape; the wormhole.
Though many of the bits were throwaways (or at least felt that way), the gang could put together a really good set of sketches when they wanted to.
I have to go with the Planet of the Apes theme for a few episodes in season eight. Enjoyed all the POTA parodies and Dr Peanut.
This is actually pretty tough.
I’m going to have to declare a tie between Joel’s departure/Mike’s arrival in “Mitchell” and Mirror Mirror in “Last of the Wild Horses”. With the wormhole from “Prince of Space” a close second.
I’d say the Soultaker line with Joel and TV’s Frank
appearing is a top one, but the time traveling Crows
to the Cheese Coop ties it, especially since there’s
apparently still a Crow wandering around the midwest
(didn’t he date a relative of Mike’s there?). :)
All excellent choices so far. But I’ll go with Frank being fired by Dr. F in Village of the Giants. I love him standing in the supply closet or whatever it was, eating a burrito & talking about being at a crossroads in his life. Plus, there’s the song “Let Me Be Frank About Frank”; it just doesn’t get any better!
I like the Frank turns into mad bomber storyline from ‘The Sinister Urge’.
Dr Forrester: “Frank! If you don’t untie me, I’ll kill you!”
Frank: “No Dr F. It is you who will kill me. HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
1: Mike on trial is HILARIOUS!! Among the other great bits, you got a gorilla doing Matlock. That is entertainment!
2: The Prince of Space wormhole is the only bearable thing to watch in that whole episode.
3: Mike and the guys dealing with being alone in Teenage Werewolf is funny.
runners up: Spare Crow in Time Chasers, Alien Pods in Spider Invasion, Timmy in Fire Madiens of Outer Space, Pearl’s pledge drive in Overdrawn at Memory Bank, and MANY MORE!!
A Worm what?
A WORMHOLE!
A What hole?
WORMHOLE! WORMHOLE!
My favorite, TV’s Frank’s mad bomber act from The Sinister Urge, has already been named. So instead I’ll nominate the host segments of Red Zone Cuba in which some unseen Mafia goons beat the crap out of Dr. Forrester twice because they think he’s TV’s Frank. A highlight: Jimmy Carter and Mother Teresa both wanting Dr. Forrester dead.
Pearl returning the kids to their home planet. The voices of the parents were genius.
I haven’t thought much about it, but as much as it was a bit of a dissapointment seeing Joel say his goodbye’s in “Mitchell”, probably Gypsy planning to get him off the ship just because it was so funny seeing her freak out so much. xD But still, real shame to see him go at the end. :/
Mike turning into a Werecrow and Servo announcing he keeps “Essence of Mike” on-hand just in case gets me every time.
And the Steffi storyline in The Touch of Satan is great too. “I don’t need to ‘take’ my fruit snack…”
Man, this is a tough one. Joel’s escape in Mitchell was the first thing that came to mind but reading the other responses makes me want to change my mind. Seeing the Mads in the theater was great ( even though I’ve never seen the Star Trek episode it parodied) and Let me Frank about Frank is awesome as are the Mada fighting (Beetle Baileys got a red butt) but I’ll settle on Timmy which also ends in an Alien parody. Tough one.
I misquoted that Beetle Bailey line. Sorry, just waking up.
Since Werewolf is my favorite episode, I’ll have to go with the Were-Crow.
Although Mike’s trial is my favorite, I also want to give a shout out to the Observers’ tests skits. There are a lot of great lines (“I just test well” “that Roger Penrose”) and Servo stealing from the Observers is hilarious.
Monoceros @17:
And I love how they tie it into the short. “But ohhhhhh… that posture!!!”
Timmy from Firemaidens is a good one, plus the whole episode and film are hilarious.
Close second, the Cheating sketches where Crow copies Gypsy’s paper, some really funny lines in that one. Mirror, Mirror Trek from Last of the Wild Horses is also terrific.
Someone mentioned Mitchell and Joel leaving the ship. Can’t get behind that at all. Though the sketches were funny and clever I’m still not over Joel leaving the show he created. Funny as it still was it was never quite the same after that. Not a good thing and in the end not funny, floating or otherwise.
I’m sure there are a ton of them but the one that is coming to mind is from “Time Chasers” (pretty sure it was Time Chasers) where we get to see 80’s Mike working at the cheese factory and Crow trying to help him change the terrible course of his life.
The waffle segments from VIKING WOMEN VS. THE SEA SERPENT take the cake for weirdness.
Mike-wise, I love the time travel storyline from TIME CHASERS and the wormhole segment from PRINCE OF SPACE, and that these spilled over into the movie segments.
I’ve always thought the Brains were at their best when they did the multi-segment story lines. I can’t think of a single one I didn’t like. Which one’s the best? Hmm…. wait, why am I suddenly craving waffles??
I love the waffle segments–deliciously silly and yet completely in character. I wish they had done more multi-part segments.
A lot of people have mentioned Joel’s departure, which was a very well-thought-out sequence, but I’m actually more partial to the end of Season 7, when Mike and the Bots get cut loose and reach the edge of the universe. I’m a big Stanley Kubrick fan, so I loved the 2001 parody (Dr F becoming the Star Child–and a nice tie-in with the Gypsy/HAL lip-reading bit during 512), but I also found the moment when everyone becomes “pure energy” kind of…dare I say it…moving? It seemed like a perfect way of finishing the series. Course, they had to spoil the effect at the start Season 8, although it was a small price to pay for three more years of MST.
I would have to go with LASERBLAST and DIABOLIK, cause both are the last episodes (the first for Comedy Central, the later for the series) as the crew get off the ship in one way or another. (spoiler alert)
I don’t know if this counts, but Frank’s departure in Samson Vs. the Vampire Women. It was emotional and funny.
I have several I can’t choose just one and they’ve all been mentioned before.
The Last of the Wild Horses with the Mirror, Mirror parody.
Time Chasers with the time travel bit. I wonder why Eddie has never been mentioned before or since… I miss Eddie.
Agent for H.A.R.M with Mike on trial. Crow’s video deposition makes me laugh so hard I can’t breathe every single time.
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank with the Pearl! Pearl! Pearl! Pearl! Pearl! pledge drive. It was done so perfectly.
Forgot an honorable mention because it isn’t technically with the topic: Torgo’s Pizza delivery in Manos and him forgetting the soda and it taking him eight episodes until Operation Double 007 to return with it.
Was it RED ZONE CUBA where Mike decided he was Carol Channing?
Not sure if that counts, though, so might as well toss in the ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ parody as well. “They’re throw pillows…”
I loved the Holo-Clowns. They crossed over from “Being From Another Planet” to “Attack Of The Giant Leeches”
“Hey little girl, how about a Salted Nut-roll?”
I LOVE when Frank gets fired (Village of the Giants). I mean, it results in a visit from Torgo AND a great song (penned by Bridget, no less), so there’s plenty to enjoy. “Say, this burrito is good.”
And just so you know, I’ve just read #13’s entry (hello, Dark Grandma of Death!), so I realize that I’m covering the same ground; then again, we’re supposed to SHARE in the enjoyment, right?
@36 There’s a Star Trek Voyager episode with an evil murderous virtual reality clown that may have been inspired by that!
The dark specter Timmy saga always cracks me up. I don’t think I noticed him lurking in the theater way before he attacks Tom until the second or third viewing. Joel’s suggestion that a dark specter of himself might exist was also creepy.
@Gorn Captain, I guess the missed the opportunity to have a black Joel attacking the satellite. That would’ve been awesome.
*they missed
All of the ones mentioned were great! I can tell you this though- occasionally they’ll do something like this and it will just fall flat. Then the host segments can be annoying. Case in point- the “Instant Monkeys Online” series of sketches from “Overdrawn At The Memory Bank”.
Another favorite was Crow going back in time and changing Mike’s past… and accidentally killing him.
“I made a meatloaf!”
One of my favorite ongoing host segments is in The Deadly Mantis where they blow up earth and escape! Especially for the country music radio segment! “Just a-hangin’ around / with a rodeo clown / in the back of my GMC…”
I honestly can’t pick a favorite as I love every one of them. But I don’t think anyone has mentioned the Church of the Bomb segments which was a parody of (I think) the second Planet of the Apes movie. The singing was impressive and hilarious.
Just looked it up in the Episode Guide and realized it apparently wasn’t a multi-segment skit. Never mind. Loved it anyway!
Code Name: Diamond Head, where Crow and Servo find out what it would like if Mike were… the lead singer of The Crash Test Dummies, Robert De Niro in “This Boy’s Life,” and Jeff “The Frugal Gourmet” Smith. http://youtu.be/q_BWcebPJbs
Has anybody mentioned the epic: “Earth vs. Soup”?
That topic spanned years and a change in hosts.
If AGENT FOR HARM ever gets a proper DVD release, I hope Shout! will include the uncensored Crow deposition as a (WELL HIDDEN) easter egg. That was a good one – it felt like the writers took that dumb Sci-Fi “all the episodes have to link together!” thing and turned it around to work to their advantage.
For those who haven’t seen Crow’s deposition when Mike goes
on trial as “MIke Nelson, Destroyer of (3) Worlds!” here’s
one, but it is somewhat censored. I understand the censors
had to take a lonnnnng holiday after finishing.
http://youtu.be/u5ZCZOW8eT0
I love the Mads “Star Trek” fighting scenes…
FRANK: “I’m going to KILL you!”
DR. F: “Well, you’re going to have to kill me first!”