Brandon writes:
Sure, they may be a low form of comedy, but many of them were clever on the show. Here’s my favorite word pun joke they did on MST3K was from 518- The Atomic Brain, when towards the end of the movie, the scientist looks through a circular-shaped window, and Crow remarks, “In a cameo appearance.”
Patricia also wrote to suggest a thread like this, citing…
Catalina Caper’s “Uh…tanks!” and “He’s in-de-pendant” from Time of the Apes
I’ve noticed a couple in the last few eps I’ve watched for the episode guide updates. In “Kitten with a Whip,” the camera is panning around David’s living room and Tom says he thinks he sees a salad bar. The camera pans over some lattice work and Mike says “…and there’s the LATTICE for the salad bar.”
And in last week’s episode, “Racket Girls,” there’s “Peaches is getting clingy!”
What are your favorites?
Hey Mike, I always thought Raul Julia was Puerto Rican.
I didn’t know he was…CUBAN!
Btw, don’t try puns on Mike’s brother. He hates puns!
Monster-A-Go-Go: “Well, there’s a man out standing in his field!”, amongst others.
I have a feeling I’m going to be liking every single entry in this one.
Danger, Death Ray!
Mike.
“Lattice in!”
One of the few times the other viewers laugh at a pun.
This is Rifftrax, but I liked how, during the House on Haunted Hill Live Show, Mike and Bill get increasingly annoyed with Kevin’s lame puns and replace him mid-show with Paul F. Tompkins. Tompkins then gets off to a bad start by referring to the leprechaun guy as the Souse on Haunted Hill.
#1: yep, I was gonna suggest Tom’s quip from Time Chasers: “That moss has taken a lichen to that tree!”
*SMACK*
“I was shaving and got a Nick.”
*SMACK*
There are a TON that I love, but I’ll just mention Human Duplicators “It’s the android sisters!”. And my personal favorite, in High School Big Shot after the kid overhears his boss mention a drug shipment, Mike: “Uh, heroin I come!”
Crow: “He’s boxed in!”
Mike:”Yeah, well, I’m card bored!”
I’ve previously mentioned my affinity for “We had peace” “And carrots” from “Colossus and the Headhunters”. And I just watched “Night of the Blood Beast” the other day, and “Ladder that evening” still kills me
Also count me in as a fan of “boxed in”/”card-bored” from “Future War”. I use that a lot whenever I have to unload boxes at work.
In “Mad Monster”, during a host segment, Joel switches Crow and Tom’s heads; he refers to the result as his “Servo-Crow-ation”. (“You turned us into mutants for a pun!” -Tom Servo)
Then there’s Kenny in Gamera:
Kenny: “Tibby. Tibby”
Crow: “Tibby or not Tibby.”
Speaking of Hamlet…Just saw the PBS special on Shakespeare plays
amalyzing Hamlet. Inexplicably, Mad Max’s German Public Television
epic wasn’t featured. Go figure. I mean, they could have made a
fortune on contributions by offering Hamlet action figures as
Thank You gifts.
Is it THE UNEARTHLY where they have Lobo saying, “tisket, tasket, green and yellow casket! PUN!!!”? Cracks me up every time.
Just watched “Leech Woman” yesterday, and I’ve always loved when the expedition is walking through the jungle set, and Mike says something like “I wonder if thats a congo…leum floor”.
And then in “It Lives By Night”, I think its when creepy sheriff is looking for Johnny in the caves, Mike says something like: “You know, his father was a master at hunting bats. I guess that makes him a bat-masters-son”.
Wow.
From “Fugitive Alien”
In response to a fawning crewmember’s query about Captain Joe’s newly-rebuilt spaceship: “What are the specs on this job, sir?”, Joel (as Capt. Joe) hurriedly replies: “Oh, those are bugs–they’ll wash off.”
“Well, Kevin here’s Irish, but I’m Danish.”
…
…
Episode 111 (Moon Zero Two) – Joel: Nice Bar. Crummy atmosphere though.
Episode 910 (Final Sacrifice) – Troy: The Map *is* real.
Mike: Map Israel? I believe Israel has been fairly well mapped already.
Episode 109 (Commando Cody Episode 7) – Garage Fight!
Crow: Hey, that guy wrenched his back!
Tom: Really socketed that guy.
Crow: He’s hammered!
Tom: Ooh, he bench pressed him!
Crow: Oh look, he’s getting’ tired.
Tom: What a retread.
Also, I’m not sure if the “Who’s On First” gag qualifies as a pun or is a brand of humor of its own, but the “Noh Theater” bit from 819 (Neptune Men) is *outstanding*!
From 320 “The Unearthly”,
(at the sound of a dog barking while a car is pulling up) Crow: “Hey, your car’s barking! Better change your bark plug!” Joel actually liked that one too, it looks like he gives Crow a high five after that one.
Later in that same episode,
(dog barking again) Crow: “Oh, that must be Ellen Barkin!”
Servo from Colossus and the Headhunters: “Hey relax, you’re two tents!”
And let’s not forget the punchline to the Bergman sketch in The Sword and the Dragon, “When you’re out of slits, you’re out of pier…”
I was going to mention the Bergman sketch, too.
^
Well, I don’t know if it’s a “favorite” but it is a pun: in Earth vs. the Spider Joel mentions “Carol’s Dad’s Caverns”.
Funny, I hear them all the time, but I can’t seem to remember too many.
From ‘Jack Frost’
Father Mushroom: “Then so be it.”
Tom: “So-vi-et? Mike, get that? Its a commie movie!”
Not exactly in an episode in the traditional sense, but one of my favorite puns is during the invention exchange of I Accuse My Parents when the Mads invent a stripper-in-a-cake mix, Tom says “Oh I get it, it’s beef cake!”
“Time Chasers”: “Mrs. Heinz, how are you doing?” Servo: “How’s you ketchup empire?”
Night of the Blood Beast – “Dick Courier. When dick absolutely positively has to be there over night.”
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank:
Here’s looking at U Thant!
Here’s looking at ubiquitous!
Here’s looking at Ulysses….
One from “the Unearthly.” Where Lobo is outside and there is a dog barking, and Crow says, “That must Be Ellen Barkin.”
And “Hercules Against the Moon Men.” Tom says to a credit name: Gentlomo please don’t make this picture!”
My favorite, and one of my favorite lines in general, is from 804 (The Deadly Mantis):
“But there’s a mantis in my pantis.”
It’s completely nonsensical and Crow’s delivery sells it perfectly.
Stefanie (#7) reminded me of an old favourite from Human Duplicators–when Crow says, “Hunan Duplicators.”
#19: I know EXACTLY what you mean about not being able to remember them. And I also love “Carol’s Dad’s Caverns,” by the way. (Well, you didn’t note it as a favourite, but I’m glad you reminded me of it.)
This is very strange, but I was thinking of suggesting this very topic just last week. Because, of course, I heard a pun on the show that I can no longer remember.
My personal favorite has always been from The Sword and the Dragon: “It’s a Tugar pile-up!”
From “Human Duplicators”…
CROW: It’s twin Susie Wongs!
SERVO: Well, two Wongs don’t make a wight!
Ooh, I remembered! From Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster: “It’s the Mothra Graham Dance Troupe.”
From one of the “Fugitive Aliens” episodes. It’s not so much the pun as the delivery.
—–
Controller: “Yurulin?”
Crow: “Yep. We’re number one.”
- Cesar Romero dancing with a hot date at the beginning of “Lost Continent”:
“Oh yeah…Give to Cesar what is Cesar’s!”
- Jam Handy short
Servo: “Jam Handy reminds you to keep your preserves in a convenient location.”
Does “Tit’s all over for you Ator! I know we’ve been the breast of friends!” count? I know Crow stutter-corrects but I mean y’know…
From “The Giant Spider Invasion”
Mike: You know, I just don’t look at that table that often, you know, just occasionally, really it’s kind of a periodic table.
Definitely a favorite!
Does ‘Today is dedicated to Uranus!’ count?
There’s a couple of rapid fire puns in “The Leech Woman”. When the leech woman walks into Neil the lawyer’s office, Neil says “June”, and Tom says “you’re bustin’ out all over”. Later in the same scene, when the leech woman tells Neil that her niece has gone off to brood, Tom says “So she’s hatching eggs?”.
From “Santa Claus” – that deer’s a little cranky!
From WILD REBELS.
“Hey Banjo d-tune your G String baby.” Sorry if this is already on here, I didn’t have time to read any of the others ’cause I just got in from shoveling snow for 3 1/2 hours with my wife. We live in Ma. and I gotta say everything hurts even my hair.
From Puma Man:
“Kneel.”
“The name’s Tony.”
Servo in Angels Revenge:
“They’re revoking his MEMBERship!”
Tormented (after Vi falls off the lighthouse’s broken guardrail)
Joel: That’s what she gets for railing against him.
Giant Leeches
Woman: He held up a gas station…
Servo: But he wasn’t strong enough and it fell on him.
Painted Hills
Servo: When did they build a corral?
Crow: They used Corel Draw.
@32
Actually, the “Jam Handy reminds you to keep your preserves in a convenient place” line is delivered by Crow, not Servo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJD0GTwLkVM
Another Gamera:
As a series of railroad cars laden with gasoline are rolled towards
Gamera, one of them approaches Gamera while Crow says:
“That’s the tanks I get!” Meanwhile Joel tears off one of Crow’s
arms. And you thought Eddie Nelson hated puns. (But Crow does have
a spare arm).
“Uranus is big and gassy, isn’t it?”
Hey El Sampo, I have a suggestion for next weekend’s discussion: with Valentine’s Day coming up, I’m reminded of one of my favorite invention exchanges – from 501 Warrior Of The Lost World – Bittersweet Hearts. How about some alternate inscriptions? I happen to have a few ready like GREAT PERSONALITY and LET’S GO DUTCH.
not sure if this actually counts as a pun but i never fail to laugh at the exchange from ‘werewolf’ when paul tells natalie he’s a writer:
‘oh, what’s the subject matter?’
‘yeah, you’re right, subject doesn’t matter at all.’
Gunslinger
Cane: He killed my four brothers…
Crow: and my forefathers.
War of the Colossal Beast:
“Glenn” at last recognizes his sister and reaches to her, calling “Joyce!”
Servo: “So Glenn is pro-Joyce.”
Also: “Glenn” holds a bus full of school children.
Tom: “Hey, hold the bus!”
Both make me laugh and groan. That is the best pun reaction there is!
ALA Black Oak Arkansas,
“Jim Handy to the Ressscuuueee!!!”
“MY Jim Handy!”
Not my favorite, but because I just saw him in the Yahoo! News Scroll, Kevin Brophy’s credit in “The Being From Another Planet”, Tom says: “Kevin Brophy…that’s when your brother wins a trophy!”
Just watching Radar Secret Service, and a shot of cars pops up, followed by:
Mike: Hey, Freddy Fender!
Crow: “Auto” Preminger!
Tom: James Car-ville!
Mike: Harrison Ford!
Boggy Creek 2
“Yes, these river bottoms…”
#48
It’s great to see the group BLACK OAK ARKANSAS’S Jim Handy riff was picked up by people. When I heard it I wondered how many people knew about that group, over the years they seemed to have slipped through the cracks. And I remember telling someone that David Lee Roth’s whole look seemed to be a copy of the
B.O.A. lead singer Jim Dandy. All I got was ” Who’s BLACK OAK ARKANSAS??? ” But now thanks to the internet and YOU TUBE people can see footage of the band
at The California Jam doing the song Jim Dandy to the Rescue.
There are so many worth mentioning but here are just a few from Jack Frost since I just watched it.
When the witch’s cat is in front of a web, ‘how do you like my website?’
After Ivan’s transformation into a werebear: Am I unBEARable?
I don’t know if this is technically a pun, but a line in Devilfish has to be mentioned: “We’re having tentacle difficulties”.
Having read Irregular Webcomic I welcome puns no matter how good or bad.
I’m awfully partial to “Where Beagles Dare” from The Painted Hills, but that’s mostly because it reminds me of my own beloved dog.
Nobody has mentioned Tom’s poorly received Catfish Hunter line from Blood Waters of Dr Z.
M&tB re-riffing The Crawling Eye at the end of Danger: Diabolik (in a prophetic scene of RiffTrax’s future
):
“Forrest Tucker, he’s the guy who puts the trees to bed.”
“I’ll see you on the Dark Side of Raul!” – Overdrawn (Plus: “I thought Raul Julia was Puerto Rican – I didn’t know he was Cuban!”
“Oh, so she’s a Ouija broad!” Thing That Wouldn’t Die
“HARM stands for Hot and Ready, Man!”
Warren @53: You reminded me of another great one in “Devil Fish”, when Tom says “That’s so big, it’s an eleventacle!” Cracks me up everytime. And until reading this discussion thread, I didn’t realize just how many puns they had done.
“They’re not dead, just metaphysically challenged”.-The Magic Sword
“I’m tired of the whole sworded affair”.-Ditto
“Everyone evacuate. We already have sir!”-numerous episodes
@ #33: That’s more of a Freudian slip.
Commando Cody Part 6:
Tom: “It’s kinda hypnotic, isn’t it?”
Crow: “Hip? NOT! Ick!”
Robot Monster:
Lame Scientist Guy: “You’re so bossy you oughta be milked before you come home every night!”
Tom: “That’s utterly ridiculous.”
Crow: “Cow can you say that?”
Tom: “Are we gonna milk this line for all it’s worth?”
“Aaaaaand sooo youuuu seeee… wheeeen yoouuuur ouuut oof sliits… yoouuuur ouuut oof piieeer…”
All the bread puns from “Out of This World” and all the eye puns from “Attack of The The Eye Creatures”.
A couple that came to mind, first from THE CRAWLING HAND, as the swedish girl is disrobing behind a rock at the beach.
Crow: “Hey, why is she wearing a codpiece?”
Tom: “Oh, just for the halibut.”
Crow: “Stop it, you’re giving me a haddock!”
Tom: “You’re a pain in the bass!”
Crow: “You’ve got no sole!”
Later, when Paul returns to the beach to collect the hand,
Tom: “Gotta hand it to him.”
Crow: “Really went out on a limb with that one.”
Joel: “Good thing he brought that freezer wrap along.”
Tom: “I don’t think that’s freezer wrap, I think it’s a hand bag!”
Finally, from the “Appreciating Our Parents” short in THE UNEARTHLY:
Narrator: “There was the bed to be made…”
Joel: “And the maid to be bedded.”
“How much Keefe is in this movie, anyway?”
“Miles O’Keefe.”
The brains even groan as they say it…
How about a “Tributary to the Amazon River” from REVENGE OF THE CREATURE.
“How much Keefe is in this movie, anyway?”
“Miles O’Keefe.”
The Phantom Creeps: “What kind of director? Oh, the Goodkind.”
Callypygeus: “Are you enjoying the wine? It’s from Gaul, you know. You might say it’s made from conquered grapes!”
Observer: “Whew. Open a window.”
Terror from the Year 5000
Guy: See for yourself. They’re radiation burns.
Mike: That proves he threw a radiator at me.
Hamlet (during the duel scene)
Crow: So when do they start selling stolen merchandise?
Mike: That’s a different kind of fencing!
Fugitive Alien
Ken: (sees spaceship) Nobody around, but how do I get aboard?
Servo: Go to the lumber yard.
@44 I second that idea!
#48
Before they really hit it big, Black Oak Arkansas was doing a gig in my home town, Long Beach Mississippi, in a place called the Lobe Theatre. The theatre was owned by one of my friends family. They were known as “The Black Rainbow” back then.
Captn Ross, you’re right, Jim Handy was the prototype for David Lee Roth. I saw Black Oak in Mobile in 73′, with a triple-bill with Faces (yes, with ROD STEWART as lead singer) and Brownsville Station (Smokin’ In The Boys Room). Jim Handy and Black Oak put on an awesome show, ending with two guitars being smashed together.
Riding w/ Death:
Via Abby – She’s half in the bag.
WEREWOLF
Tom: I don’t know. You had him last.
Crow: You can’t say that. You’re gonna get in trouble. That’s a really stupid joke and I’m gonna tell Mike.
From The Human Duplicators: “It’s the Hunan Duplicators!”
From the Rocky Jones pictures (at least once, though I seem to remember twice)
Rocky: Professor Newton?
Servo: How are the fig cookies coming?
I think this was in the Aztec Mummy movie, after the bad guy gets thrown into the fireplace or something.
Crow: Well, immolation is the sincerest form of flattery!
And speaking of the Aztec Mummy, we must give Joel the punishment he deserves for this one. The villain is named Dr Krupp, after all.
Crow: [The robot] has a coffee maker for a head!
Joel: Krupp’s coffee maker?
Crow: Oh no!
Joel: Sorry.
RE: #76
Oh, I remember now. Later, Rocky is giving orders, I don’t recall what all of them were, but Joel does have a second to slip in, “Professor, you make cookies.”
After the guy riding in the back of the shuttle loses his head in a UFO related accident in Hangar 18, Crow says “He’s an astro-not”.
You guys have taken my favorites from MST episodes, so I’ll share my favorites from the spin-off projects.
From CT: In The Doomsday Machine, the characters are being briefed by a slide show that starts with a picture of a switch, and Josh says, “Oh, there’s a switch!”
And from the Rifftrax of 300: Bill, “THIS! IS! SPART OF A BALANCED BREAKFAST!”
I’m glad to see many people on this forum have learned
the vital Importance of Being Earnest.
“I’ve really got to hand it to you.”
—Tom Servo (last host segment of Secret Agent Super Dragon)
I’m known locally as “the lightning punster” I am fast at constructing a pun at a moment’s notice and doing it for just about anything and I do it frequently. I can’t choose! But my favorite reaction to a pun in the show is from Time Chasers.
Eddie: “Hey, what’d I say about puns??”
Tom: “To to jam them up my…”
Eddie “That’s right!”
Darnit – people already mentioned ‘Carol’s Dad’s Caverns’! I wanted to get that one!
RE: #65
Finally, from the “Appreciating Our Parents” short in THE UNEARTHLY:
Narrator: “There was the bed to be made…”
Joel: “And the maid to be bedded.”
I didn’t remember that one, but Ouch, Joel! Didn’t Fred Allen say that those who make puns should be drawn and quoted?
I’m sure I’m overthinking this, but isn’t “bed to be made, maid to be bedded” more of a spoonerism, as opposed to a straight-up pun?
(and of course, we could degrade the conversation further by mentioning malapropisms, like when my iPad autocorrect tries to turn “overthinking” into “overt honking.”)
Hamlet
Claudius: Forgive me my foul murder.
Crow: It’s just that turkey was mouthing off to me and…
Lost Continent
Sergeant: Is your head clear?
Joel: No, it’s opaque.
-
-
-
You know, I find this entire thread to be rather PUNishing.
-
Okay, I give up. How is “when you’re out of slits, you’re out of pier” a pun, or play on words of any kind? Be gentle, we don’t have Sven & Ole jokes in NY.
Re: #89
It’s from an old Schlitz Beer commercial: “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.” Still a lousy pun, though – the Brains ought to be ashamed of themselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL7Uvk-RAkI
The song has GOT to be on YouTube somewhere.
The Home Economics Story
“Five pound potty?!? She must have had a big breakfast!”
ewww.
Prince of Space –
“Captain Manicotta!”-
I understand you’re stuffed with cheese!
and
“Professor Tannin!”-
Get out of my wine!
Thanks, Kali. Boy, that is one very Midwestern joke.
A little off topic but now I can’t stop thinking about it: From Stan Freberg’s Lone Ranger parody – the Lone Psychiatrist.
Announcer: The Lone Psychiatrist and his faithful companion press forward into the gathering twilight.
Lone Psychiatrist: Hurry, Pronto! Press forward into the gathering twilight! We have to get to the Wonderland Ranch to help Grandpa Schneider!
Pronto: What we do there?
Lone Psychiatrist: A little psychoanalysis in Wonderland!
Pronto: Ugh, lousy pun!
Of course, to really run it into the ground, his faithful companion should have been named Kimo Therapy. Hi Yo Silver!
I can’t believe I’ve seen Overdrawn at the Memory Bank brought up so many times without a mention of Crow’s “It’s a Raoulbik’s cube!”. Shameful!
I’ve always loved the way Joel delivered puns, even if doing so did make him a hypocrite. He was so innocent about it. It was more like he was just making an observation, totally unaware that it was a pun. And that’s just how he delivers the line after Santa’s elves get freeze-rayed by Martians:
“Oh, he stopped him short.”
@ #86: No, that is a pun. A Spoonerism is where you citch your swonsonants or swotch your viwels.
Oh no! Glen passed a truck on the highway!
No. He passed a truck on the highway! Wulp!
Final Sacrifice: When coming across a graveyard Mike offered “People are dying to get in there”. He was stopped with a stern “NO!” from Servo for going for maybe the most obvious pun ever.
Those cemetery jokes are so old they should be on display at the Natural History Museum, next to My dog has no nose… “Y’know how many people are buried in there? All of ‘em! My dad, folks.” I first heard that one from my great-uncle.
Robot Holocaust
Andrew Howarth. Fine Howarth you?
Servo and Crow
DePaula good school. Great basketball team
Servo
Jennifer DeLora. She’s a DeLorean.
Crow
Future War
He’s boxed in. Well, I’m card-bored.
Mike and Crow
Just call me Bruce Box-liker.
Crow
Laserblast –
“Nurse, see if Dr. Mellon is at home”
Servo – “Rap him for a hollow sound”
Wonama DUMB do dooo di do do, wonama dumb doo do di doo doo
Jungle Goddess
I will never forget it as long as I live, and the email I got from Kevin Murphy who did the wonama dumb song in a reply back to me
I misspoke in my previous post. “Bed to be made, maid to be bedded,” is a malaprop rather than a pun. Another example would be, “Time wounds all heels.”
RE: #103.
Malaprops tend to be unintentional. The “bed to be made” line is a play on words. Kind of like the old Kennedy-Lincoln “coincidence” that the day before Lincoln was assassinated, he was in Monroe, Maryland, and the day before Kennedy was assassinated, he was in Marilyn Monroe.
And don’t say anything – it’s still wrong. There is no town called Monroe, Maryland, and Ms. Monroe left us almost a year before Kennedy was assassinated.
And it’s still a bad joke…
I’ve always loved the barrage of puns Crow lets loose during Guiron’s battle with Space Gyaos in “Gamera vs. Guiron.”
“He’s got a leg up on him now. He’s going out on a limb. He’s winging it!”
“DO SOMETHING, JOEL.”
“Quit while you’re ahead… I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
@ #104: Whatever it is, it’s definitely not a Spoonerism.
To itsspideyman:
The lead singer for Black Oak Arkansas’s stage name was Jim Dandy not Handy. His real name was Jim Mangrum.
One final pun before this topic falls into obscurity. In Angels Revenge, when the teacher character is getting dunked by the drug lord, Crow (at least I think it was him) says, “It’s a wet teacher contest.”
Brian that Wouldn’t Die——–
when the main guy (did he have a name? I keep wanting to call him Cal) brings the figure model home:
“This is my headquarters”
When the assistant gets his arm torn off (I still cringe a little when he bangs and rubs his bloody stump against the wall). There are some one arm jokes, but I don’t know if they really qualify:
“I guess you’d call that a Farewell to Arms”
“Ironically, he collapses into an armchair”
one of the giant monster movies had a giant crablike creature, who impaled a couple of villagers on his claw. as he waved them around Crow says “Kabob! and Ka-Steve!” cracks me up every time.