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Weekend Discussion Thread: Catch Phrase-itis

Okay we may have done something like this before but…

This week we had one of those weird days: first there was several inches of ice and snow, then WARM weather kicked in for a day or so, and the result was FOG. So at my office, I stood by the window looking at the fog, and, to nobody in particular — and KNOWING nobody within earshot would get the reference — I said: “I say it’s foggy!”

So have you ever blurted out a catchphrase knowing full well nobody who heard it would get it?

Please keep those thread ideas coming!

70 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Catch Phrase-itis”

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  1. Lawgiver says:

    The Original EricJ: That phrase at least has some significance to fans who watched the episode, in that the joke was over how bizarre the bad technical overdubbing came off, just like every other bit of low-rent technical in Arch Hall’s hopeful but very amateur movie.
    It’s easier to explain why that one’s funny to a MSTie fan, than to explain why “Pret-ty niiice!” is rollicking hilarity just because Jonah&tB beat it into the ground Mike-style, thinking the actor said it sorta funny.

    I don’t think you understand that different people have different opinions of what they find funny. Some people love, say, “Watch out for snakes”, while others don’t get why it’s so funny. People are different, and I have never understood the need that some people have for everyone else to think just like them.

    I’m guessing you haven’t watched all of Joel’s episodes if you think that only the Mike-era and Jonah-era episodes “beat it into the ground”. You should watch them all, some of them are pretty funny.

       9 likes

  2. Ro-man, aka one of several possible Steves says:

    Speaking of catch-phrases:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GTFzHofLkY

    I’m sure Mr. J finds this one hilarious. ;)

    … now where can I get one of those t-shirts?

       3 likes

  3. bartcow says:

    The Original EricJ: That phrase at least has some significance to fans who watched the episode, in that the joke was over how bizarre the bad technical overdubbing came off, just like every other bit of low-rent technical in Arch Hall’s hopeful but very amateur movie.
    It’s easier to explain why that one’s funny to a MSTie fan, than to explain why “Pret-ty niiice!” is rollicking hilarity just because Jonah&tB beat it into the ground Mike-style, thinking the actor said it sorta funny.
    And would Pod People’s “It stinks!” or “Trumpy, you can do magic!” have ever caught on without their corresponding host segments?

    “Steak-milk” was more the “Widdle-baby” example of S11-12 trying to force a gag, by piling on more and more riffs about that gag, whether it “took” with the audience or not.Similar to the tavern scene at the end of S12’s Ator, where it takes the patience of Job not to shout back “Use ‘Kellogg’s Corn Pops’ in a riff ONE MORE TIME, and I will shoot you in the face.”

    “I like it very much”, “NO!”, “you’re stuck here!”, “I’m a Grimolt Warrior!”, “Time for go to bed”, “TORCH-A!”, “I killed that fat barkeep”, “durn smoochers”, “there was no monster”, “Sampo”, “the Master would not approve”…now if I could just find some Joel-era catchphrases from actual movie dialogue that were beaten into the ground…oh wait.

    Sorry, I’ve been trying really hard to just focus my attention on the good and the beautiful, but this was too easy.

       16 likes

  4. mando3b says:

    Whenever I see someone in public who looks vaguely like someone famous, I will declare the famous person’s name with a note of surprise and wonder, a la Crow seeing The Master in Manos at just the right angle and shouting, “Bill Buckner!” (This is a riff type I associate precisely with Trace/Crow: some of the others do it from time to time, but mostly it’s him.) Understand, I haven’t had the nerve to declare any name out loud in public–obsessed I may be, but even I know what riffs are likely to fall flat.
    Thank you, Bartcow, for your long partial list of Joel-era catch phrases! I tried that myself once in a similar thread, seemingly to little effect, but maybe it’ll work for you. Catch phrases have been an integral part of MST3K from the beginning–many classic, some driven into the ground, some never getting off the ground, some a matter of debate. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise!

       6 likes

  5. Joseph Klemm says:

    When playing a board game with my family a few years ago, one of the types of cards that was used was labelled “What Am I?”. Thus, whenever it was my turn and I had a card that said “What Am I?”, I would yell it a la the riff from “At Your Fingertips: Grass”.

    Also, during the holiday season, whenever I hear “Here Comes Santa Claus”, I tend to get the urge to yell out “TUSK!”.

       3 likes

  6. TorgosPizzaNJ says:

    Whenever there’s a fat, doughy guy on TV in closeup: “Jimmy Osmond…all grown up” (from ‘Mitchell”)

       1 likes

  7. Sitting Duck says:

    bartcow: “I like it very much”, “NO!”, “you’re stuck here!”, “I’m a Grimolt Warrior!”, “Time for go to bed”, “TORCH-A!”, “I killed that fat barkeep”, “durn smoochers”, “there was no monster”, “Sampo”, “the Master would not approve”…now if I could just find some Joel-era catchphrases from actual movie dialogue that were beaten into the ground…oh wait.

    Let’s not forget, “He tampered in God’s domain,” and the ever-popular, “Hi-keeba!”

       8 likes

  8. Chazzzbot says:

    I say “Hi-Keeba” when I quickly pass out a stack of papers in my classroom. I keep hoping that one of my students will get it. Unfortunately, not yet!

    Also, “You do it, I’m bitter” falls flat in my house. My wife thinks I’m serious EVERY TIME. Jokes are funniest when you have to explain them. Ha ha!

       6 likes

  9. mando3b says:

    Chazzzbot:
    I say “Hi-Keeba” when I quickly pass out a stack of papers in my classroom. I keep hoping that one of my students will get it. Unfortunately, not yet!

    Also, “You do it, I’m bitter” falls flat in my house. My wife thinks I’m serious EVERY TIME. Jokes are funniest when you have to explain them. Ha ha!

    I love it. That captures this whole issue in a nutshell, doesn’t it? I’ve found that, most of the time, the explanations just make things worse. As a linguist, I see a future scholarly paper in all this: how catchphrases enter the idiolects of most MSTies, how long MSTies consciously regulate their use, and at what point they start to use them automatically, without thinking, just like regular ol’ verbs and adjectives.

       4 likes

  10. mando3b says:

    Sitting Duck: Let’s not forget, “He tampered in God’s domain,” and the ever-popular, “Hi-keeba!”

    “It’s the wango-zetango!”, “I’m huge!”, “Jim Henson’s ____ babies”, “He’s dead, Jim”.

       5 likes

  11. yelling_into_the_void says:

    From Hired “If I knew how to read I’d know what the problem was.”

       1 likes

  12. Sitting Duck says:

    mando3b: I love it. That captures this whole issue in a nutshell, doesn’t it? I’ve found that, most of the time, the explanations just make things worse.

    You could always follow up with, “I thought it would be funny. Now I’m just ashamed.”

       3 likes

  13. michaelkz says:

    “Elgin’s my black friend,” whenever I hear Elgin, IL mentioned.

       1 likes

  14. Chazzzbot: Also, “You do it, I’m bitter” falls flat in my house. My wife thinks I’m serious EVERY TIME. Jokes are funniest when you have to explain them. Ha ha!

    And yet, I still often flash back to that third-grade joke about “What did one taste bud on the tongue say to the other?”

    bartcow: “I’m a Grimolt Warrior!”

    And “Yew and your daughter are dewwwmed”, which, like “I’m a Grimolt warrior!”, was never actually SAID in the movie.

    (Going through my pile of unwatched Shout disks, I’d dug down to VWvtSS, where Jay Sayer actually says “A girl rescue a Grimolt warrior?…(whine)But I’m a PRI-iiince!!”)

    Of course, in both cases, the altered versions became a Catchphrase from callbacks in other episodes, which is a different category from the Mike-style high-school-hallway episode-long parroting of “I’m comiiiing!“, “That squishy feeling”, or “That certain Boing”.

       0 likes

  15. bartcow says:

    The Original EricJ: And yet, I still often flash back to that third-grade joke about “What did one taste bud on the tongue say to the other?”

    And “Yew and your daughter are dewwwmed”, which, like “I’m a Grimolt warrior!”, was never actually SAID in the movie.

    (Going through my pile of unwatched Shout disks, I’d dug down to VWvtSS, where Jay Sayer actually says “A girl rescue a Grimolt warrior?…(whine)But I’m a PRI-iiince!!”)

    Of course, in both cases, the altered versions became a Catchphrase from callbacks in other episodes, which is a different category from the Mike-style high-school-hallway episode-long parroting of “I’m comiiiing!“, “That squishy feeling”, or “That certain Boing”.

    Oh, you’re just so adorable. Now, go outside and play, honey, the grownups are talking.

       9 likes

  16. Lawgiver says:

    The Original EricJ:

    Of course, in both cases, the altered versions became a Catchphrase from callbacks in other episodes, which is a different category from the Mike-style high-school-hallway episode-long parroting of “I’m comiiiing!“, “That squishy feeling”, or “That certain Boing”.

    Yeah, Mike is awesome!

       12 likes

  17. Ro-man, aka one of several possible Steves says:

    One from Season 11 that has caught on with me is from Reptilicus: “The door is ajar. The temperature is ___. The time is ___”, and repeat with mounting urgency/hysteria.
    Invariably when I hear “the temperature is …” I can’t resist getting swept into that.

       4 likes

  18. Johnny's nonchalance says:

    Crow’s exuberant “Kitty!” is a go-to in a house with four cats.

       9 likes

  19. Mr. Krasker says:

    Not a catchphrase, but I usually pronounce it “tenperature,” with more or less emphasis on the ‘n’ depending on who’s around.

    “You are the one in my dreams of blood,” and “Killing doesn’t help any more!” are two that I try not to use around those who don’t get it.

       1 likes

  20. Johnny's nonchalance says:

    Gotta add this one, which is probably my most used of all to the point that I forget where it actually comes from.

    In the Ring of Terror episode there’s a host segment where they are doing an autopsy on the vacuum cleaner (Mr. Hoover). There’s a moment where Crow is trying to move the hand of the clock forward to show lapse of time and says “oopsie”

    I say that quite often if I see a snafu or blunder in reel or real life. Oopsie. It’s sort of nonchalant, but perfectly encapsulates the oh crap-ness of the moment.

       0 likes

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