Movie: (1960) Maciste leads his people from their destroyed island to a land of warring tribes.
First shown: 8/20/94
Opening: Tom does Crow’s taxes
Intro: Dr. F. invents Nummy Muffin Coocol Butter, the world’s most adorable pet, and sends it to M&tB, much to Frank’s dismay
Host segment 1: A heartbroken Frank sings: “Nummy Muffin Coocol Butter”
Host segment 2: On the SOL, Nummy’s fur is everywhere
Host segment 3: Nummy is sick, Frank is sick, so Mike sends Nummy back to Deep 13
End: Crow wonders: “What does it feel like to get you head chopped off?”, Mike reads letters, while the Mads have been caught by their own creation
Stinger: Exhorting guy gets shot by arrow
(146 votes, average: 3.88 out of 5)
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• The last time around I was sort of luke-warm on the riffing of this one but, I don’t know, I guess I was in the right frame of mind or something, but I was laughing my ass off this time. Of course the headline of the episode is Nummy Muffin Coocol Butter and I’m more luke-warm about those host segments, though Frank’s song is terrific. When this first aired, the segments caused an immediate sensation among fans. I also remember some people didn’t quite get the ending, something Kevin addresses forcefully in the ACEG.
• References
• This episode is not yet on commercial DVD.
• Having heard of the fans’ growing irritation with CC spokesguy Penn Gillette, they use him in a gag. Folks loved that.
• What’s with our hero’s name? Well, what M&tB are hearing as “my cheesesteak” is actually Maciste. Italians know him well. A strongman character with that name goes back all the way to the 1914 Italian movie “Cabiria.” The character was resurrected when the sword-and-sandal epic Italian movies suddenly became very popular in the late 1950s. Because American audiences were unfamiliar with Maciste, the title character’s name was usually changed to Atlas, Colossus, Goliath, Hercules or Samson (for example, the character Hercules, in the movie in episode 410- HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN, was actually Maciste). What’s odd in COLOSSUS AND THE HEADHUNTERS is that the dubbed English dialog still calls the hero Maciste even though the title says otherwise; nobody (other than M&tB) calls him Colossus.
• Non-Spaghetti-ball bumpers: film canister, bulletin board, beaker, book.
• Callbacks: “Watch out for snakes!” (Eegah!)
• Annoying commercial: Commercial for the now-largely forgotten “Moxy Pirate Show.”
• Interesting commercial: The first “Go to where the cheese is made” contest commercial as the first convention approached.
• I think that’s Kevin as the voice of NMCB in segment 3.
• Mildly dirty riff: “Meanwhile, Sonny’s upstairs with the maid of honor…”
• I’d forgotten the queen’s assistant and her wacky dance just before the third segment. What a great movie moment.
• Once again, no cast and crew roundup. This production is too far removed from any of the other Herc titles we’ve done.
• CreditsWatch: Tim Scott ends his five-episode run on the writing staff. David Sussman ends his 17-episode run on the writing staff (he was also a contributing writer for an ep in season four). Host segments directed by Kevin Murphy. The credit “Video Provided by: Fournelle Video Production Services, St. Paul, MN” is replaced by “Video by Jeff Stonehouse.” This continues for the rest of the season. Stoney also gets a lighting credit for the first time, along with Ken Fournelle and Brad Keely. This is the first time Stoney appears in the credits and marks the beginning of his rise to power at BBI. Jann L. Johnson is back sharing Post Production Coordination duties with Ellen McDonough Thomas. And this is the first time “Info Club Coordinator Julie Walker” appears in the credits (she wouldn’t be “Poobah” until later in the season.)
• Fave riff: “This is history’s first really awkward moment.” Honorable mention: “Uh, what’s following them?”
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I recall that this episode includes Crow’s comment, as the survivors’ raft beaches, “Medical waste! They must’ve landed in Trenton.” Sorry, Crow (or BBI), Trenton isn’t located on the Jersey shore.
3 stars from me. Subject movie is OK, riffing is fare & the subtle charms of the Nummy Muffin story continue to elude me.
The Mad Button : maybe I just haven’t noticed before but this is the first time I recall them explicitly referencing the red console light that flashes when the Mads are calling. When Mike is playing with NMCB, he calls it the Mad Button.
Favorite riffs :
The great deals on Burning Yurts at the Totem City Fire Sale.
It’s Terry Anderson ! ( In the dungeon, upon seeing the skeleton at the grate – for you kids, Terry Anderson was the longest held of the Beirut Hostages ( 1985 – 1991 ))
Give the dancer a long scarf and take her for a drive is a reference to the death of dancer Isadora Duncan who snuffed it when she was out driving with a long flowing scarf which got caught in the wheels of the car… didn’t end well.
The more I think about it, the movie itself actually has kind of a sophisticated plot. That doesn’t make it good… but there is an almost interesting story in there, struggling to escape :)
Do you mean Penn Jillette? I don’t know who Penn Gillette is.
This too was one of the first episodes I’d ever seen and it remains a favorite. “Another Italian government collapses”, “Ow, ow, owie, ow, owie ow ow”, “The Ringo Starr tribe”, “Land! Land! It would be really great if we found some land!” and so get the riffing off to a great start, and it doesn’t let up with splendid moments like “Levers were like computers back then, people were afraid of them” and “It’s your own … Catholic mass?” and spotting the combination of Spock-and-McCoy.
I don’t know if it’s the enthusiasm I had for discovering the show in the first place but somehow this and `Hercules’ remain the definitive chunky-Italian-guys-playing-around experiments for me. Among other things I remain fairly clear on just what the heck the plot was; some of the weirder Hercules experiments I can’t quite follow.
Something about the Tom Doing Crow’s Taxes sketch works so perfectly, just well-paced and tightly written and featuring Tom’s humming The Beatles to himself. The follow-up after the break revealing Tom’s clever accounting methods makes a perfect coda.
And Nummy Muffin Coocoo Butter, with the conclusion and the valentine-heart dissolve to credits is a sweet variant.
I remmember first seeing this one and thought it was really funny. I agree that is a feeling of another one of these type of movies. It is just an okay episode. My favorite riff was after the cut of one the heads off and crow says their headhunters and their squeamish.
Click my name for my FULL review!!!!
Sampo – I didn’t get the NMCB ending either. Is there a story there?
Medium #2 – Amen! NMCB escapes me as well. Usually when none of the host segs concern the movie, they concern the short. Was this the first episode that they didn’t feature either? I enjoyed the subject movie a bit more. After the rash of drama films before this episode, I was ready for a good ol’ strongman movie!
I love the “Tom does Crow’s taxes” segment.
Re Giz #6: Yeah Sampo, IS there something to “get” about the ending of the Nummy story ? Seems pretty straightforward, what’s not to get ?
Erklaren Sie bitte.
One I have yet to see and, given how long it took me to catch up on The Day the Earth Froze (commented on that just yesterday), I likely won’t get to it for a while. :lol:
I didnt like this episode, this movie is hard to sit through for one thing and the Nummi Muffin segments I could have done without. Just wasn’t into it. An episode I never watch. Watch it wind up on an upcoming Shout release
I’m fairly biased towards Sword & Sorcery and Sword & Sandal film in general, but Colossus and the Headhunters doesn’t quite do it for me. Oily, bulging men, yes. Captive, nubile young women, good. Action? Not so much. Maciste is one of the most passive action heroes I’ve ever seen.
Favorite riff: “They’ve washed up in a Klingon language camp.”
The first Season Six misstep IMO, but it’s not too big a misstep because it’s still MST3k. I’m not too big a Swords & Sandals fan in general. Some great stuff though. “History’s first awkward moment”, the guys falling through holes at the beginning, the stunt guy fighting with no one in particular during a battle, the head of Paul McCartney, Trace’s delivery of the line “A STEEL PINATA!? That could take days!”…
i accidentally taped over this episode before i could watch it… i had a bad habit of watching the opening and stopping it… it was back in college and i’d watch the opening before morning classes. so i got another episode taped right after the opening segment.
dude, crow… you should have filed quarterly like i suggested you do in the first place!
I don’t get Nummy Muffin CooCool Butter either. It’s not even a cute puppet. Heck, the tiny T-rex that Frank made during his DNA experiment was cuter than Nummy. I also don’t care for host segment stories that run the length of the show.
I watched this again the other day in preparation for today. My favorite riffs:
“Luckily, this is before DEATH was invented.”
“Oh, struck out with Queen Easy, huh?”
“Well, I admit now, we shouldn’t have stopped for coffee.”
(following the seemingly interminable dance) “And now, the traditional viewing of ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’!”
What’s to “get” about NMCB? Dr. F invents him to make people helplessly placid, and ultimately ends up ensnared in his own trap. Simplicity itself. If there’s anything that needs explaining, it’s how Mike gives NMCB back to Frank so easily. Given that NMCB is designed to make everyone love it, shouldn’t it at least be a difficult/painful/brave decision? (Plus, seeing Mike distraught is always funny, so they kind of missed an opportunity here.)
Sadly, Macista is no Miles O’Keefe.
Thrilling Wonder Stories: Yes, it seems simple to me, too, and it seemed simple to me at the time. But I was rather amazed to see people posting that they didn’t understand the ending. And when people said “they were ensnared by their own evil invention, get it?” these people were replying “No, I don’t think THAT’S it.” I think they were looking for something deeper and I don’t think it was there.
A middle of the road episode. Probably the weakest in the Hercules/Colossus/Sinbad genre. I did find it funny that the guys kept calling Maciste Colossus when no one in the movie did. I think the idea behind the main joke in the Nummy Muffin Coocol Butter bits is simply the guys thought saying NMCB over and over was funny. They then wrote skits around it. I may be wrong. Peace.
One thing I forgot to mention: Frank’s great performance of a very funny song.
“The loss of that pet has left a really big void/My subsequent behavior would even startle Freud…”
Great stuff.
Sampo #17 – So if there’s nothing deeper there than simply watching grown men drool over NMCB, then why not donate just a few host segments to it, and do some movie-bashing in the others?! Mike, sit at your piano and write a song called “Colossus/Machiste/Hercules” right now!
Sorry, I’m done now. :oops:
This is one of those episodes where the Brains had a funny idea (Nummy Muffin Cocoa Butter) and just ran with it. They’d been doing this for six years already so they probably thought they could get away with something weird (which they do).
This is one of the few episodes i’ve yet to see. I tried downloading the DAP DVD but it had a highly annoying, ear piercing electric sound that i just couldn’t deal with. Did anyone else have that same problem? :???:
Anyway, it seems i haven’t missed a classic but the opening segment with Nummy Muffin Coocol Butter seemed amusing.
I believe the arguement about “not getting the ending” was addressed by Kevin the ACEG where he notes that many fans felt Dr. F should have destroyed Nummy like he destroyed so many other things/people. But of course in the storyline even Dr. F isn’t capable of resisting Nummy’s charm.
On a different note, anyone else noticed that the Froggy Andrea The Giant/ Michael Cain guy from Danger! Death Ray is one of the Headhunters?
Favorite Riffs:
“I’m gone for one hour.”
” You want join the Greeks, Tell us why.”
“Oh, He’s made a little nest for himself.”
“Nurse, bring me a brail Payboy.”
“I see a turkey.”
” Boy, you stuck out with Queen Easy. No one’s ever done that before”
“Well, look whose final out of bed.”
“Welcome to Trojan Burger.”
Why were fans irritated with Penn Jillette at the time?
Wow, I’m surprised so few people seemed to click with this one. It’s one of my favorites. The host segments are great (especially the taxes one) and the movie riffing is spot-on.
Yeah, the movie is pretty formulaic and familiar, but I think it’s the formulaic ones that allow me to sit back and enjoy the riffing the best.
My favorite riff comes when they’re first escaping the sinking island and, seeing the cloud of smoke float up from the ocean, Tom remarks “Well, looks like the fish got a new pope.”
Professor #29. My DAP of C&tH is fine.
For me, the last scene of NMCB does nothing more than point out, yet again, that Frank’n’Forester are the third femmiest pair of evil scientists of all time ( not that there’s anything wrong with that :)
Yes there is that other stuff going on as well, but if someone doesn’t ‘get’ that… they probably shouldn’t be watching MST3K without a chaperone.
This episode grows on me more and more every time I watch it. Upon every repeat viewing, some new riff jumps out at me and makes me laugh (“It would be really great if we found some land!”, “For the first time, people don’t know where to look”, “A steel pinata? That could take hours!”, “Luckily, this was before death had been invented”, etc.).
For some inexplicable reason, my favorite moment is towards the end, when Maciste is in a fistfight with some headhunter guy, and he socks him in the jaw and the guy’s bone necklace flies apart, and Servo says “Whoa, his teeth flew out! D’you see that?” I think it’s because it’s not only a well-timed observational riff, but because it really does look like the guy’s teeth got knocked out. That’s well-layered yet simple humor!
Ok INAMIAP (#28), I’ll bite. Forrester and Frank are the thrid femmiest. I’m guessing the crew from Rocky Horror tops the list, but who’s second?
Hee hee sorry underwoc. It’s an old trick… instead of calling someone the biggest d*** on the planet or the ugliest woman ever… you say something like that guy is the 4th stupidest man in North America. You know it’s not true of course.. but emotionally people think to themselves WOW THERE’S A LIST ! IT MUST BE TRUE.
But the RHPS crew certainly fits. I was gonna put Crick & Watson but I like them too much ;)
A good episode for me. Movie’s sword and sandal and I enjoy those. Host segments I thought were nice. I think it was a different way for them to go and it worked well.
Oh, and Captain Cab (#25), Penn Jillette’s promos cut into the credits, even when there was something other than the end theme playing.
Nummy Muffin Coocool Butter. Never to be seen again. Couldn’t have been THAT irresistable. What’d they do? Eat him? Sounds delicious.
#15 – I think the spell of Nummy was broken for Mike when it was clear that Gypsy was allergic to him. Not too painful to part with him. Old friends come first.
This episode is tolerable, but not fantastic. The only part where I really laughed a lot had nothing to do with the riffing. It was that weird ass chicken dance that girl did. That was OUT THERE, man. :shock:
Most of the lines I liked best were already metioned.
I also liked: “Man, Hasselhoff can’t suck it in like THIS clown.” – Mike (However you spell Hasselhoff).
“Their island just turned into stock footage of WWII.” – Servo
And when we get an eyeful of beefcake, I mean Cheesesteak, Crow says, “Well, the camera man is indulging himself.”
When Maciste/Colossus is leading his peeps through the water, Crow says, “Sir – sir, there’s a road to our right. A perfectly good road.”
Crow: (About the ‘plot’) “This is getting con-FU-sing!”
And when the bad guy, forget his name already, traps Colossus/Maciste behind those bars that come down and C/M manages to lift them and get out, the guy starts running and Crow says, (as what’s his name, his voice getting fainter) “I’m still running (makes the sound of feet) “I’m very far away…”
Speaking of the sound of feet, those guys’ leather sandals really made a racket on those stone steps. I think the foley guy over-did it a little. :roll:
This is a “C+” ep for me.
Pretty cool ep…4 stars, not quite perfect, but very good. It was Crow, I think, that said something to the effect of, ‘Isn’t it cute how they’re making a stab at a plot?’ Crow also had my favorite riff: When some men are seen on the raft from behind, Crow blurts out, ‘Whoa! Butts ahoy!’
I remember the original airing of this episode very clearly, Frank’s song was extremely funny to me at the time … not as much now, but in comparison to what was on TV at the tme it was Pure Genius! (I had read the same article they mentioned about the positive effects of pets on old people before the episode was shown.)
The cheezy piano opening with Frank sitting in the dark, looking wistfully out the window is perfect.
All of the Hercules-type movies kinda run together for me, but they are funny anyhow. I’d give it 3 stars out of 5.
Blind prisoner: “Nurse, bring me a braille playboy”
Villan in cheap & poorly fitting cape walking away: “Hey, bring that shower curtain back!”
I’m with jjb3k on this episode–it gets better with repeat viewings. I think the entire NMCB plot line is pegged on Frank’s song –ultimately worth it IMO.
Some very good Riffs in here:
(looking at Aros)Spock, Bones, Elton John?
(As the bizarre chicken dance just goes on and on)Looks like the director has himself a girlfriend!
During the end mass battle: Aww, he doesn’t have anyone to fight.
I think Tom sums this movie up best though: You know if you took out the walking there really wouldn’t be any movie.
Watching season six to this point brought out an interesting contrast in the types of bad movies–Something like “The Dead Talk Back” was effectively an indie film…no budget, bad actors, poor script = bad film. On the other hand Colossus here was comparatively large scale, probably from a decent sized production company in Italy and probably got a decent release in Europe and all in all = bad film. Movies can be bad for so many reasons. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I enjoy MST so much: good exposure to a wide variety of cinematic misadventure.
I don’t understand the word “Coocol”. I don’t trust it. So I’ve always called that thing Nummy Muffin Cocoa Butter, which is how I heard it the first time, anyway. Besides Cocoa Butter sounds nice, don’t you think?
I can see how this could be regarded as a middling episode, but I have a soft spot for all the sword-and-sandal films they did. There’s something inherently endearingly goofy about the genre in general, which makes for some fun viewing.
Apart from Nummie Muffin this was not a very memorable episode for me. Not that I fault the Brains – perish the thought! – but sometimes they got movies that seemed to tax their riffing abilities, as though the usual snap to their pace seemed slightly off. That’s the way this one seems as it never lifts off for me compared to the great job they do with those Hercules movies.
Love the NMCB ballad by TV’s Frank. The puppet itself is kind of odd, though. The other host segment where its fur is all over everybody is pretty funny, too.
The movie itself just sort of lays there for me. Not a favorite episode. The only zinger I really remember laughing out loud at was the What a Fool Believes/Michael McDonald gag near the beginning where Servo is singing it and the guy in reference gets buried under the falling rubble. That is hilarious to me for some reason. “What a fool belieeee*muffled*” lol :smile:
OneNuttytanuki #24 – Ohhhh yeaaaaahhh!! Is that really the dude, or are you just saying it looks like him. I definitely agree that it does. Good eye! :shock:
One of my favorite “average” episodes. The review’s pretty spot on, but I still watch it regularly. It’s no Moon Men, but I find it more watchable than the other Herc movies IMO.
Several years ago I found a tape with an episode of Reel Wild Cinema, a short-lived USA series with Sandra Bernhard hosting clips of B-movies and interviewing assorted B-movie legends. Anyways, the episode I have is focused on Swords & Sandals and includes clips from two other Machiste movies. One seemed to be a sequal to “Collosus”, as it had the same girl (and recycled the footage of the island’s destruction), but the one that made me do a double-take was The Witch’s Curse, where Maciste has to help save his girl from an evil witch and superstitious villagers. It takes place in the 17th-century, but Machiste’s there in all his beefcake glory Just reading the Wiki entry, this happened quite a bit as the producers didn’t limit him to the vague Greco-Roman timeline Hercules etc used.
GizmonicTemp, It really is Nello Pazzafini in both roles. I just check IMBD .Plus, he’s in Puma Man and the Star Wars ripoff, Star Odyessy.
The first thing that struck me as odd about this movie is the destruction of the island. Should’nt there have been at least a mild tsunami?
As far as season six goes, this Ep, like 601, was good the first few years I had them in my library, then became tiring.
Still good riffs though:
(Paul McCartney’s head on a pole) “it’s not like I’m being defiled or anything”
“I feel like Spartan tonight, like Spartan tonight!”
“It’s Rowan Atkinson! Oh Damn, Damn!”
plus all the other one’s in the dungeon scenes
“Be careful, Maciste.”
Mike: “I am not your cheesesteak!”
I concur with Kevin Murphy’s statement in the ACEG that the Mads’ plot to develop the world’s cutest pet sucked them right into their own evil plan.
Some good riffs:
During one of the fight scenes, “The Lions and the Jaycees reserved the same picnic area!”
Two guys rolling around fighting each other, “They’re bumping uglies!”
and “This tribe lives in a gravel pit outside Spooner.”
This one was one of my least favorite episodes.
I hated the whole Nummy Muffin thing and the movie was my least favorite type of movie, and it wasn’t even riffed all that good.
I could handle watching it better if the host segments about nummy muffin were cut.
I think this was a down period, as I didn’t care all that much for the previous episode 604 Zombie Nightmare either.
It picks up on the next one though, The Creeping Terror.
This one’s never been a favorite, but it’s a lot of fun. The riffing (I disagree) fits well, and is sharp.
I think its the whole Herc/Herc wannabe on a raft/boat beginning that makes me feel like I’m watching a retread, so I tend to tune out. If I do I miss out on some fun. “Pierced his varnish!”, “there’s a butterfly!” and “they’re fighting with a salad set!” always bring me back to attention.
One thing I wonder about. In this episode, Maciste says “Take my hand!” In past episodes, that reflexively resulted in the riff, “I’m a stranger in paradise!!” (So much so that I heard someone saying it in my head as soon as the cue is said onscreen.)
Not here, though. Is it the first time, or just the first time I’ve noticed?
Well, I hate to be a party pooper, but I love this ep.
I’m not a big fan of sword and sandals but this the definitve best of the bunch for me. The riffs are superb throughout, esp. during the fight scenes and the underground stuff. Can’t remember the exact riff but when Not-Amazing Colussus Man is opening the door with the, um, huge knob they make one of my favs (you would think I would remember this having just watched this ep last week but….well, having riff amnesia does have its benefits).
So I see this one as underrated for sure. Oh, well…
As for Nummymuffin…I have no issues…she’s so luvey fluffy pinky poo! Her little nuzz muffin, dose itty bitty button lovely eye whys, dat waggy purty tonguey flap flap and fuzzy wuzzy all over the Satellite! Oh, it fills me with mummer summer bunny munchkins and honey bears. I’m in a kitty corner just thinking about Cocool Butter. I want one. I mean, what’s not to like?
(anyone think it was Mike’s idea? Remember those books of cute things he released?)
A-
“Can’t remember the exact riff but when Not-Amazing Colussus Man is opening the door with the, um, huge knob they make one of my favs (you would think I would remember this having just watched this ep last week but….well, having riff amnesia does have its benefits).”
“Um, Colossus, that’s not a lock, it’s just part of the door.”
I only gave this one three stars. In my opinion, its just a lower-grade Hercules movie. The riffing is solid but not gaspingly funny, and while the opening segment with Tom as Crow’s accountant is humorous, the whole NummyMuffinCoocolButter story arc just doesn’t do anything for me. Other story arcs within a single episode have worked (Timmy’s visit during “Fire Maidens of Outer Space”, Frank’s firing on “Village of the Giants”, Nuveena’s appearance during “12 to the Moon”) but this plan falls flat. Definitely among Season 6’s less memorable for me.
I didn’t realize the significance of it during my initial viewing in ’94, but that remark made at Penn Jillette’s expense by Dr. F crystalized how fans felt about him.
The best moment was during that bizarre chicken dance by what has to be the director’s gf. Very hilarious!