Short: (1954) A look at the 40th annual carnival of the Toronto Skating Club.
Movie: (1965) Authorities launch a search for an irradiated astronaut they believe has returned to Earth as a giant mutant.
First shown: 1/9/93
Opening: The bots have opened a micro-cheesery.
Invention exchange: After making a wager on an action figure invention exchange, the Mads present Johnny Longtorso, and the bots present three non-violent action figures
Host segment 1: Gypsy “doesn’t get” Crow (or is it Tom?)
Host segment 2: Joel and Servo play keep-away from Crow
Host segment 3: Examining “The Pina Colada Song”
End: Joel knights Happy King Servo and Sir Giggles von Laffsalot Crow
Stinger: Monster on the go-go
(266 votes, average: 4.54 out of 5)
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• This is a deservedly famous episode featuring a deservedly infamous short and movie. There’s plenty for them to work with here and they knock it out of the park. The riffing is top-notch, the segments are all terrific, just a really strong episode — if you can take the movie.
• This episode was included in Rhino’s “The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 8.”
• References.
• Note that the title card only has a hyphen between “A” and the first “Go.” There is no hyphen between the first “Go” and the second “Go.”
• How could such a horrible movie have happened? “You know, four movies went into the making of this film,” Joel says at one point. He’s not far off. Bill Rebane made some of the movie, but ran out of money before it was completed. Meanwhile Herschell Gordon Lewis was looking for a co-feature with his recently completed movie “Moonshine Mountain,” and he needed it quickly. So he bought Rebane’s unfinished film, added some new scenes, and presto … a movie with no continuity and no sense.
• They mention the wonderful movie “Local Hero.” How come you never see that playing on any of the movie channels? It IS streaming, though. If you haven’t seen it, do.
• A hook falls off the peg board with a loud clang during the Mads’ invention exchange. They keep going. And there’s also a lovely crunch as Dr. F. steps toward the camera, right onto the blister packs on the floor.
• You can see Frank ALMOST crack up while singing the Johnny Longtorso theme song, as he actually does on the poopie reel.
• Frank does a nice little bit with the pitchpipe: he blows into several random pipes, making the whole thing pointless.
• Trace is hilarious as he introduces the movie, giving us Dr. F at perhaps his most maniacal. It’s an all-time favorite Trace moment for me.
• Terrific riffing in the short, and Joel doesn’t even try to keep them from getting too dark. The highlight is the great “pink girls” song.
• What does “with a filbert nut” mean? Joel sounds a little like Red Skelton when he says it. Is it a reference to him?
• Segment 1 is rightly famous. If you wanted to introduce the personalities of all three robots to newbie, this would do it very well in just a few minutes.
• Does ANYbody know what that song Crow is singing (“hum-did-a-hee-hee…”) is from? It’s one of the unsolved mysteries of this show. (Several different commenters are certain they know, but each thinks it comes from a different place.)
• Joel opens a can of “pop” (or as normal people call it, soda) in the theater! What a rebel!
• The workings of Tom’s hoverskirt are never explained in detail, but in segment two we see a new use demonstrated: sports!
• Is that a velcro ball Joel throws to Tom when they return to the theater? Still, it’s a pretty good toss.
• Then-topical riff: The now-forgotten Matthias Rust.
• J&tB do a little of the Richard Kiel voice they did a LOT in the last episode.
• When the movie ends up in what looks very much like Chicago’s Lower Wacker Drive, they begin to rattle off some great Chicago references, including McCormick Place and the Arie Crown Theater.
• Both a callback and a call-forward in closing segment: Joel crowns Tom a “happy king,” recalling the “Mr. B. Natural” short and Crow is holding the stick with the tiny Crow on it, which we will see again in jestering segment next season.
• Cast and crew roundup: Tom is right, nobody involved with this movie went on to do anything else. The exception is Bill Rebane who later gave us “Giant Spider Invasion.” But I have to assume the writers were just guessing.
• Creditswatch: Host segments directed by Joel Hodgson.
• Fave riff from the short: “Vomit sprays out in a beautiful Technicolor dream.” Honorable mention: “Now a clown will deliver her eulogy.”
• Fave riff from the movie: Narrator: “There is one terrifying word in the world of nuclear physics.” Tom: “Oops.” Honorable mention: “He made her bark!”
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My two favorite parts of this astonishingly inept (even for Bill Rebane and HGL) film (and please forgive the somewhat vague language, as it has been months since I last saw the ep):
1. The lady scientist and the non-lady scientist are sitting, back to back, and the male scientist keeps looking over his shoulder with the nastiest expression on his face. J&tBs decide that she is filling up the room with foul flatulence, and hilarity ensues.
2. The creepy, utterly bizarre “guy helps the stranded motorist lady, and she reciprocates with tongue kissing” scene. It’s just two steps shy of Penthouse Forum, and REALLY lets you in on the filmmakers’ inner lives, such as they were.
There’s a little known robot malfunction in this episode. After the characters investigate the burnt grass, you can hear a clatter. That’s one of Crow’s arms falling off, and you can see Joel quietly talking to Trace under Kevin’s line “Robert Goulet and Martin Milner. They’re cops!”. LAter, when Crow gets up to leave the theater, you can see the arm is missing.
Yeah, in the Carolinas, all soda is definitely not “Coke”. Especially considering Pepsi was created in North Carolina.
HGL
HPL
Isn’t it ironic that H.G. Lewis and H.P. Lovecraft — two horror figures who could hardly be more dissimilar — have almost the same initials? Or is that something else I’m confusing with irony?
Great riffing, great short, great host segments, great inventions. Unfortunately combined with an unwatchable movie.
I’ve tried 3 times this past week to watch this movie, and I never make it more than half way through. The beginning set up is fun and I enjoy it, but after that it’s too boring to watch. Not that I won’t try again. :laugh:
I truly think this is the worst movie they ever did. It makes Manos seem like a delightful desert romp through Hell. Or at least coherent.
And people think “Castle of Fu Manchu” is bad?!
Yeah, I made a mistake back when I was trying to get into the show as this was one of the episodes available for free on Hulu. It was like ‘hey, free samples!’ and everyone always said you could jump in anywhere so THIS was one of the films I tried to jump in on.
Like Gypsy… I didn’t “get” it.
Seriously, would NOT suggest this one if you’re trying to get someone hooked on the show.
Watching it again now I do “get it” the riffing is much better now that I’m used to the rhythms and cadences and the relationships between all the actors involved.
But MAN this movie is horrible. Terrible sound, terrible print, terrible story and most of all so obviously, obviously filmed on the cheap it’s painful.
You could really see the range again though as the guys go for a wide mix of the “highbrow” and “lowbrow” references on this one.
In the History Channel show “How the states got their shapes” they give an explanation on the uses of “pop”,”soda” and “coke” in the different regions of the United States. Very informative and interesting.
And for those who care, being a Michigander I say pop. Always have, always will.
For me, the best riff in this movie that ALWAYS makes me laugh out loud is in the scene where they are telling the astronauts wife that her husband is dead and the lady asks the wife if she wants her to stay the night. Joel responds in his always amusing “woman” voice, “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” don’t know why buy that always cracks me up.
All the other classic lines have pretty much been referenced already. But definitely one of my favorite episodes!
Hit shot dawns are always funbyp even in mixed company!
Hua hua!
Hit shot dawns are always funbyp should read “Gut shot fawns are always funny”
I blame my Blackberry Smart-Type for not reading my mind efficiently.
My bad! I’ll drink a “soda” as pennance.
Great episode. Clowns are creepy and skating clowns are creepier. Great riffing for sure!
The first time I saw this, I scored a Very High on the Schumacher-Esterhausen Cinematic Pain Differential. Oh, the agony! The ending that is no ending!! The concrete column that is of more interest than the main characters!!! AAH!!!!
The plodding black and whiteness nearly overcame me.
But the SECOND time, after I’d undergone more training, my score dropped dramatically and this episode became an all-time favorite. :)
This is one of my all-time favourite episodes. The riffing in the short is some of the best they ever did, and the film gets my vote for the absolute, all-time worst they ever covered (no other film has a “brrp-brrp” telephone sound, now does it?). As others have said, rather than being dragged down by this cinematic black hole, J & TB rose to the occasion. In some ways, I like this better than “Manos” as an episode, but I can understand why people find the movie itself so repellantly unwatchable that they can’t see the sheer triumph of the riffing. I’ve also used it as an introduction-to-MST episode, and found that it worked well.
I have never heard soft drinks called anything but “pop” in Canada. (Except, perhaps, “soft drinks” by people who also need to distinguish “push-button” phones). If you ask for a Coke in a place that doesn’t serve Coke, you’ll invariably hear, “Is Pepsi OK?” (Except in Quebec, where Pepsi is stereotypically the default setting. And I say this as someone with Quebecois relatives). There was even a book on technology and culture published in Canada in 1998 called, you guessed it, “Chips and Pop.” Clever title–not sure how good the book is.
Did we ever get an explanation for why this episode and a couple others featured host segments that had nothing to do with the movie? Was it because the movie itself had so little going on they couldn’t come up with any related sketches?
Johnny Longtorso was a callback to a season 1 episode wasn’t it? I can’t remember which one.
The “hum-did-a-hee-hee, hoo-a-hoo-a” is based on incidental music from “Gilligan’s Island.”
Randy
Where I grew up in Ohio it was called soda-pop, both words not one or the other. Soda’s had ice cream and chocolate syrup.
As for the episode, I always thought the worse the movie the better the episode because there was so much for them to make fun of. Since Monster-A-Go-Go barely qualifies as a movie there was a lot to work with.
5 stars from Droppo.
An off the charts bad film.
A hilarious short.
Top notch riffing.
Great inventions.
Strong host segments.
In short, a classic.
wait, wasn’t there a nautical themed movie (possibly submarine related) set during the time of WW2 or Korean war where that was the music they played?
I recall hearing that in a tense moment in the movie or in the introduction of the characters or something.
I will always love that fake phone noise. this movie is one of the all time worst. Its always fun in a weird way, but I always found it entertaining. the segments were ok, since there wasnt anything going on in the movie, the segments matched them up with nothing segments.
Did anyone notice Crows voice changed a little bit here, it had been morphing but the voice wasnt as sharp as it was earlier in the season. His voice kept changing ( especially around season 6) I guess it was Trace’s voice getting older, and crow got older too…old crow
Joels Hair (growing out)
Joels Knees
Crows voice
Traces Voice
Did you make that phone noise
Therapy a Go-Go time :D
This thread’s gonna take a while to get through :)
Probably one of my top ten fave episodes. The whole thing is great, the riffing, the host segment, just everything. And I gotta say Bill Rebane movies did get better at least.
Not my fave short, but do enjoy it.
Some fave moments:
The Hawaii 5-O music
“Doug was pear shaped, very short and stood the entire way”
“I often panic while making sandwiches” I quote this one all the time
“They decided to go to Shakeys”
“There’s a man outstanding in his field”
“Dawn on the serengeti”
“Speaking of tedium….”
“Later over lunch with Wally Shawn”
“Man, if you can’t outact a post…”
And the phone ring, a classic…
Now, I’m gonna start reading the thread
It’s “pop” here in the Pacific Northwest, too. Are you denizens of the Atlantic seaboard still standing “on line,” too? :silly: Loved that this regionalism made it into the ACEG.
We won.
You lose.
Joel’s “pop” is clearly a beer. When he explains that “it’s medicine” it’s because this movie has finally driven Joel to drink.
#120… Which would also explain why he doesn’t share any ;)
The horrifying skate about the hunted fawn and the comments about skating over its intestines is the highlight of the short.
I love the clatter that passes for a score in the feature. The BEEEEE-OOOOOO and the various other strange noises are just inexplicable soundtrack choices.
@Jay #100
Great ideas! Including the DVD availability/location would be both convenient and informative. Sampo could include links to Amazon or Shout Factory orders, and also to the iTunes store to buy or rent individual episodes, and even Hulu episodes when available!
in fact here we go with today’s entry:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/112301/mystery-science-theater-3000-monster-a-go-go
Promo for this episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38NNIo2l004&feature=plcp&context=C4dbb250VDvjVQa1PpcFOH1vWpqOkUkl9R2b9Z-ZUPKJmj82dxp6c=
I’m comment 124! Wow, people have a lot to say about the episode with no monster and a cheese factory!
Hershell Gordon Lewis is responsible for this flick. For more great info on when he invented gore films (which not only showed us the monster, they showed us more than we wanted to see), check out this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN4t5cgt_HU&list=PLC0D2DF69F8D19812&feature=plcp
Gotta ditto Sampo here. The two highlights I wanted to mention were Servo’s “Now when you see pink you’re gonna think ‘we’re doomed'” song, which my dog has had the misfortune of hearing me sing many a time, and Trace’s absolutelly brilliant bit of delighted insanity when Frank announces the short. That is one of my favorite little moments of anything ever. So many of the tiny little moments from the series that make me laugh like an idiot for hours on end were Trace’s fault. As for the movie I put this one as worse than Manos. Manos had that sleezy greesy factor working against it, but it is still much more intersting than this turd. At least Manos had a real ending too. This one battles with Castle of Fu Manchu for worst movie they did, at least until Rifftrax and CT came along. However while I thought Fu Manchu was a weak episode, this one is brilliant. And it also makes a great sleep aid for us chronic insomniacs. I rarely make it past the short nowadays. If I do I don’t make it past the scene with the kid whose dad is dead again. And someday I hope to be able to use the phrase “Nobody gets me, I’m the wind baby.” Just waiting for an opportunity.
I see this one as not only a great episode, but also a personaly challenge. It is a movie that must be endured, but if you survive you can take anything. At least anything of that era of film. I still can’t take the vast majority of what present day Hollywood squeezes out though.
5 Stars, easily
Johnny Longtorso! Johnny Longtorso!
The man who comes in pieces!
Rrr tchi!
Great episode.
Don’t have much to add with this one; definitely a “classic” even through it’s a wretched print of a wretched film…
I’ll throw in a vote for “Pop” here in Western NY, which is so close to Canada it isn’t funny!
Pop vs. Soda vs. Coke: An online survey map of the USA
H.G. Lewis was behind this? I first heard of him through gore rapper Necro who I used to listen to. I don’t suggest anyone check out Lewis’s other films.
Ugh, famous episode, yes. “Really strong” seems like a stretch. I have watched this one a number of times and it is painful each and every time. I don’t know what it is about, even the riffing doesn’t save it for me, as much as I want it to. The short is fantastic though, gotta say.
and the iTunes link for your shopping convenience:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/mystery-science-theater-3000/id370163066
great episode, with the voice ringing and unproportioned space pod (“pear shaped” astronaut?). the “…hoo-a, hoo-a” part of crow’s hum sounds like the incidental music from beast of yucca flats
Oddly enough, though I was born in staunch “pop” territory and grew up in “Coke” country, I now say “soda.” Go figure.
Another great Season 4 episode, a classic in my book. The opening, the Invention Exchange (“Johnny Longtorso! He’s long.”), the Circus short, the Host Segments, it’s all aces. And the movie, man, wow, what an awful awful film, but man, Joel and the Bots really have at it, they come out swinging and don’t let up. Their pain is my pain, I find solace in watching the movie with them, suffering and laughing. Laughing and suffering.
HG Lewis has done some films that are WAAAAAAY better than this (Bill Rebane for that matter too) but that’s all really relative to how stank awful Monster A Go-Go really is. I mean, 2000 Maniacs and Wizard of Gore are bad, but they are charmingly so.
One of my favorite things in this one, is Host Segment #1, the “I Don’t Get You” sketch. To me, this is perfect MST, and I have to say, Crow’s statement of ” I just am. I just hang out,” really just about sums up my personal philosophy on existence.
–
RIFFS AND THINGS:
–
from short, Circus on Ice:
Servo: “Two bad things that go worse together.”
Crow: “The soldiers destroy the delicate balance of nature.”
Joel: “Women are pulled apart like fresh bread.”
Joel: “She’s got a saggy diaper that leaks.”
–
from the film, Monster A Go-Go:
Crow: “It’s Billy Pilgrim.” (Later, Servo makes another Pilgrim reference. Vonnegut on the brain!)
All 3: “Hi Steve!”
Joel: “Ray look, it’s filled with Schlitz cans!” (“it” being the helicopter)
Joel: “Oh, quit playing with his face, Aaron.”
Joel: “They shaved his mustache, THOSE ANIMALS!”
Crow: “Oh they decided to go to Shakey’s..”
Servo: “A solemn Jack Kerouac pulls on a J in the middle of the room.”
Crow: “Whoa. That guy’s got a weird shape.”
movie: (mumbles somethings incoherently)
Joel: “These pants?”
movie: “Is there another way in?”
Joel: “Into your pants!?!!”
–
For the record, grew up in Southern Illinois and it was called either ‘Coke’ or ‘soda,’ never ‘pop,’ at least in my household. Now, I call it soda, sometimes for fun I call it ‘Coke-sodie.’
And also, for the record, Monster A Go-Go is one of the worst films…ever. I mean, you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about…
….this however is a classic MST episode. 5/5, even with no monster and less go-go.
This movie reminds me of a blackout. No matter how many times I see it I can hardly remember anything about it other than a lot of dark gray nothing.
This is one of my favorite episodes! And I love watching Frank fighting desperately not to start laughing as they finish the song. :)
HA ! For years after this one, a friend of mine and I would encounter each other and one of us would just softly say..
“hum-da-dee-hee-hee…”
…To which the other would softly respond;
“Hua-Hua”
…And if this transpired in public and someone noticed, I would look them right in the confused face and say;
“Nobody gets me! I`m The Wind, Baby !”
Then my friend and I would laugh maniacally together.
…Ah…Good Times….
#124 – HGL might have invented cheap, terrible AMERICAN-MADE gore films, but he certainly didn’t invent them, period. For an earlier (and much better) gore film, watch Jigoku (Hell), from Japan, which Criterion released not too long ago. You get to see a torso sawed in half. Among other things.
In New York we say soda.
I am a Michigan man, born and raised, and yet I will sometimes say “pop” and other times “soda.” If I say “soda” it’s usually because the drink is fruit-flavoured.
my favorite MST3K episode ever; it’s so deliciously painful. I’ve noticed I tend to like the more boring, dragged-out movies (Radar Secret Service, Rocket Attack USA, etc), and they really rise to the occasion here. living in the city, I love, love, love all the Chicago references, even more than Beginning of the End. the host segments, the invention exchange (I <3 Servo forever for making Action Oxford), the diabolical short, the post-movie wrap-up…it's got it all. this is one of the episodes I put on when I'm working late into the night and know my journey will be long and hard; it's the perfect soundtrack of suffering.
This is one of my all-time favorites. Yes, the movie is punishingly bad, but this is a glistening example of how the Brains could make something out of nothing. The riffing is screamingly funny throughout (“Boy, it’s white out, it must be the whitest day yet”; “What is this, Chinese music torture?”; “I figured it out, he’s got his script taped to the floor!”), and all the host segments are brilliant. And of course, the short is one of their best (“Women are pulled apart like fresh bread!”).
These movies where absolutely nothing happens seem to bring out the best in the Brains. With junk like Monster A Go-Go or The Starfighters or The Beast of Yucca Flats, they don’t have to worry about following the plot or keeping track of the characters – they can just hurl riff after riff at the screen without stopping. It gets a good rhythm going and it stimulates their creativity and observational skills, and it makes for some classic episodes. :)
ThorneSherman says:
‘Scientist: “I don’t have a precision mind like you Doctor Brent”
Crow: I’m only a scientist” ‘
Few things ever made me laugh as much as that one. But one of the others was from this episode when they tell the girl her husband(?) is missing, her girlfriend says, “Would you like me to stay with you tonight,” and Joel does his insinuating “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Genius.
I may have bastardized it a little bit but any time someone expresses confusion in who I am as a person I still say, “Is it because I panic while making sandwiches?”.
A really fun episode I only pull out once in a while. I don’t wanna get burned out. I guess I’ve seen it about 20 times over 20 years. It is still a joy. Love the short.
4.5 stars out of 5.
“Is it that I often panic while making sandwiches?”
This and Hobgoblins are the only two movies in the canon that I believe actively hated the viewer. For sheer, woeful incompetence coupled with the worst ending to a movie in history (and yes, I’m including Shyamalan films), this one is my choice for the worst movie they ever riffed. I really don’t know how Herschel Gordon Lewis thought he could get away with releasing a movie with “brrt” in place of a phone foley, with releasing a movie where all of the characters get replaced after 35 minutes, with releasing a movie where fully three-quarters of the dialogue is completely incomprehensible. Given the raw bad of this it’s a wonder that Joel and the bots are able to make this as much fun as it is. There aren’t too many slow points in the riffing, which is far, far more than I can say for the film itself.
The host segments are a riot. Johnny Longtorso is just evil enough to actually work (and, for those who follow trends in action figures, it has for some time now). Segment 1 is a work of art and one of my favorite host segments from the Joel seasons. Segment 2 is silly and short, while segment 3 amuses me because it’s a conversation I’ve had before. Finally, the bots breaking down despite Joel’s attempts to be goofy is a hoot. All in all, an excellent episode despite abominable source material. Despite the movie being worse, I find this easier to watch than Wild World of Batwoman, Sidehackers, and Catalina Caper. There’s just enough silliness to warrant multiple viewings that the others mentioned don’t.
Somehow no one’s mentioned “One, a cat in a bag?” yet. :-) One of Tom’s attempts to make out what the badly miked actors were saying, along with “washington’s radioactive?” and other guesses.
Or was that “won a cat in a bag”? That would make marginally more sense.
The short of course is amazing, but one weird moment always gets me the most. It is right in the beginning when the ringmaster skates onto the floor and stop quickly while flinging his whip. Joel gives out an empathic “YES” sound that gets me every time. I don’t know why really; it really isn’t a joke. I think it’s just Joel’s inflection of that word that slays me.
I work at a retail store where I get to tell the fellow employees about what movies and music come out on each Tuesday. A few months ago the movie “Anonymous” came out, and it was about Edward “Action Oxford” de Vere. Only because of the Invention Exchange in this episode, I was able to tell people about the rumors of him writing Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. The look I got from a few people was awesome. They didn’t know how I knew this tidbit. So thank you MST3K!
The “Pear Shaped” riff is indeed the greatest riff in the movie, and is indeed one of the best riffs in the history of the show. So great.
There was an article in the September 2006 issue of Smithsonian on the matter of whether or not Edward de Vere was the real Shakespeare. Overall, it’s quite evenhanded. However, two points are made which I find of interest. First, there is not a scrap of actual evidence that Edward de Vere wrote the Shakespeare plays. At the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of conjecture by overeducated intellectuals who are unwilling to accept the possibility that these plays were written by what they perceive as a semiliterate hick. Second, one of the scholars in the article remarks that the material which can definitely be attributed to Edward de Vere ranges from mediocre to really bad.
One of the great episodes in my opinion. The Short is absolutley brilliant. The movie, probably the worst one they ever encountered, with the possible exception of “Creeping Terror.” Anytime you can get references to Rumplemintz and Schlitz in the same episode, comedic gold. Not much else to say that has not already been said. No monster, no Go Go, classic.
Fave riff: “This was only a test, if this had been an actual movie, you would have been entertained.”
Next week – Sampo!