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"Your experiment today is called Pod People. It has nothing to do with pods, it has nothing to do with people. It has everything to do with hurting."
- Dr. Forrester introduces the experiment


The Movie[]

Main article: Pod People (film)

An alien slaughters the poachers and campers it encounters in the woods, while a boy befriends its offspring.

The Episode[]

Host Segments[]

Deepmadonna

"He's pretty good!"
"Good? He's the best!"

Prologue: Crow does a segment from his one-man show "Robot on the Run", and Tom does the intro to his own show.

Invention Exchange: Joel demonstrates a new guitar chord that blows up in his face, while the Mads wail along with their royalty-free Public Domain Karaoke Machine.

PodpeopleHost

"Joel prepares to demonstrate the Monster Chord"

Segment Two: Joel and the Bots sing their own version of the song from the movie, "Idiot Control Now". While the Mads like it, Joel declares that "It stinks!"

Segment Three: Joel teaches Crow about creating new age music, leading to a new segment, "Music from Some Guys in Space"

JoelItStinks

"It stinks!"

Segment Four: Trumpy's magic causes mayhem on the SOL, confusing the Mads and thrilling Joel.

Segment Five: As Joel and the bots pack up, they conclude the show with the sincere song "A Clown in the Sky", but the Mads don't like it.

Stinger: "It stinks!"

Obscure References[]

  • "Mayo..." "Don't you do it! Don't you do it! I got nowhere else to go!"
From the movie An Officer and a Gentleman. Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) says "Don't you do it! I got nowhere else to go!" to Emil Foley (Louis Gossett, Jr.), who is trying to get Mayo to give him his DOR (dropped on request).
  • "Pod People got no reason to live."
A reference to the satirical 1977 Randy Newman song "Short People" which contends (ironically) that "short people got no reason to live."
  • "Pod People, isn't that Nia Peeples brother?"
Nia Peeples is a singer and actress.
  • "Whoa, it's the Iron Maiden dude! Check him out!"
A reference to Eddie the Head, the ghoulish character depicted on the covers of multiple albums by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden.
  • "Chief!?" "McCloud!?"
This comes from the 1970s mystery TV show McCloud starring Dennis Weaver as a cowboy-hat-wearing detective. It was part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie shows that were referenced several times in seasons 2 and 3.
  • "Now, to find a herd of cattle to drain dry."
Likely alluding to the phenomenon of cattle mutilations, which some people believe are caused by aliens.
  • "She's in shatters" "This town's in tatters."
Reference to the Rolling Stones song "Shattered".
  • "Tonight, on Music from the Hearts of Space..."
Music from the Hearts of Space is a syndicated radio show that focuses on New Age music.
  • "And remember: No wire hangers!"
One of its most famous scenes in the movie Mommie Dearest involves Joan Crawford (played by Faye Dunaway) having a screaming fit upon finding wire clothes hangers (of which she disapproves) in her children's closet.
  • "Football practice!"
"Football practice!" comes from the horror movie Shocker.
  • "These are cola nuts. These are uncola nuts."
A reference to a long-running 7-Up advertising campaign starring actor Geoffrey Holder explaining the difference between kola nuts and "uncola nuts"—lemons and limes. This was in the late 1970s, when the catch phrase for the lemon-lime soft drink was "the UNcola".
  • "Daktari..."
Daktari was a 1960s TV series about a veterinarian working in Africa.
  • "Emergency 911."
Spoken in a William Shatner-like cadence, referring to the TV series Rescue 911 which Shatner hosted.
  • "They're gonna die in that Samurai jeep anyway."
The Suzuki Samurai was a compact SUV that drastically declined in popularity after a Consumer Reports article suggested that it was dangerously prone to rollovers.
  • "Carbon scoring all over my droid."
Alluding to a line said by Luke Skywalker that mentions "carbon scoring" as he cleans his droid R2-D2 in the film Star Wars: A New Hope.
  • "John Bohnam: Moby Dick!"
Moby Dick in this case refers to the Led Zeppelin instrumental which primarily consists of a solo by the band's drummer John Bohnam.
  • "It's a Peter Gabriel video!" "Yeah, somebody hit that kid on the head with a SLEDGEHAMMER!"
"Sledgehammer" is a Peter Gabriel song best remembered for its music video, which featured stop motion animation made by Nick Park who would later go on to create the popular Wallace and Gromit series.
  • "Get me, I'm Lionel Richie!"
A reference to the song "Dancing on the Ceiling" (Trumpy is supposed to be standing on the ceiling when this line is spoken).
  • "He's got Bette Davis eyes."
"Bette Davis Eyes" is a song made popular by singer Kim Carnes.
  • "Can she carry moonbeams home in a jar?"
A line from the song "Swinging on a Star", written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke, which won a Best Song Oscar when it was used in the film Going My Way. It has been consistently popular and was later adapted as the theme song for the 1980s TV sitcom Out of This World.
  • "This kid sounds like Georgette..."
Georgette was a character on the popular television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show, portrayed by Georgia Engel. Sweet but slightly dim-witted, Georgette had a distinctive "baby-doll" voice.
  • "Potatoes", etc.
An imitation of John Hurt's voice as Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man.
  • "I like you, Tommy. I'll kill you last".
A reference to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando, when he, in the role of John Matrix, tells Sully, the weaselly former Special Forces soldier, "You're a funny guy, Sully. I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last". Later he tells Sully, "I lied," just before killing him.
  • "He seeks him here. He seeks him there. He seeks that rascal everywhere."
A paraphrasing of a bit of doggerel by Sir Percy Blakeney, the title character from the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel.
  • "Something there is that doesn't love a crummy monster film... That's from "Mending Monster Film"."
A parody of a line from the Robert Frost poem "Mending Wall".
  • "It's been seven—oh."
This is the first line of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U".
  • "I know what you're thinking Tommy. Did Mom fire 6 shots or only 5?"
A paraphrasing of Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry.
  • "Boldly backing away from where no man has gone before."
Paraphrase of Star Trek intro, "To boldly go where no man has gone before". Just after this, they start humming the ST:TOS theme, then switch to the Steve Miller Band's "Swingtown" (which has the same first 2 notes, see below).
  • "Come on and dance..."
A line from the song "Swingtown" by the Steve Miller Band.
  • "I'm Curly Neal..."
Curly Neal was a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. Fancy dribbling was his trademark.
  • "That guy's gonna get his Presidential Physical Fitness Award."
The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports is a federal program started by President Lyndon Johnson to promote activity in school children.
  • "She's Zestfully dead!"
A long-lived slogan for Zest body wash informed consumers that "You're not fully clean until you're Zestfully clean!"
  • "Faster, Trumpy! Kill! Kill!"
A riff of the 1966 American exploitation film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
  • "So people are being methodically killed off by the Banana Splits."
The Banana Splits was a children's variety show running from 1968-1970. The Banana Splits themselves were a group of anthropomorphic animals that vaguely resemble Trumpy and his mother.
  • "Oh, it's Laura Palmer."
A reference to the cult-favorite TV series Twin Peaks, which initially focused on the murder of a teenage girl named Laura Palmer.
  • "Trumpy...Trumpezoid...The Trumpmonster."
An imitation of Richard Laymer, a character played by Rob Schneider on Saturday Night Live, who was only able to relate to his coworkers by addressing them with banal nicknames.
  • (Tommy!) "Can you hear me?"
A line from The Who rock opera Tommy.
  • "Isn't this Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army?" "In cars..."
A reference to the song "Cars" by Gary Numan (who was indeed a member of the new wave group Tubeway Army, but he recorded this song as a solo artist).
  • "Hey, we're the cast from Straw Dogs."
A reference to Sam Peckinpah's highly controversial 1971 film Straw Dogs, in which a couple living in a rural cottage are tormented by a gang of locals (most notorious for an extremely graphic rape scene).
  • "Isn't that Martin Sheen's son?"
Joel is comparing the name in the credits Emilio Ruiz to Emilio Estevez, the son of actor Martin Sheen. His familial ties to both Martin and his uncle Joe Estevez would be scrutinized in the future experiments Werewolf and Soultaker.
  • "Oh, he's trying to hatch the egg. What is he, Horton?"
A reference to the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hatches The Egg.

Behind the Scenes[]

MST3K Cast[]

Regular Cast

Guest Cast

  • Faye Burkholder - Studio Assistant

MST3K Crew[]

Production[]

Goofs[]

  • When Joel says, "Trumpy, you can do STUPID things!" in the theater, he’s referencing a line by Tommy, who says, "You can do magic things!" However, Joel does that riff about ten minutes before Tommy says the original line.

Callbacks[]

Running Jokes[]

  • Tom acting like a DJ for a New Age Music radio station in response to the movie's heavily synthesized soundtrack.
  • Joel and the Bots calling out random names until Crow ends it all by shouting "McCLOUD!!".
  • Joel and the bots shouting "HUZZAH!!" upon seeing the bearded "Renaissance Festival" poacher.
  • Crow making Trumpy talk like John Hurt's portrayal of "The Elephant Man."
  • Joel and the Bots referring to the abrupt and confusing scene transitions in the film as "Movie A, Movie B etc."
  • Tom portraying Uncle Bill as a heavy drinker due to the well-stocked liquor cabinet he has.
  • Joel and the Bots making the friendship between Tommy and Trumpy seem more evil and twisted.

Video Releases[]

Podpeoplevhs

MST3K VHS Cover

Gallery[]

References[]


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