“ | (singing to "Blow the Man Down")
Slow the plot down, laddy, slow the plot down |
” |
- Joel, Crow, Servo |
The Movie[]
- Main article: Mighty Jack (film)
Synopsis[]
A high-tech crime-fighting team called Mighty Jack is deployed to stop the machinations of the international criminal organization known as "Q".
The Episode[]
Host Segments[]
Prologue: The Satellite of Love is in ruins, and Joel Robinson is dead!... or at least they pretend so.
Segment One (Invention Exchange): The Mads create Formal Flippers for those formal spying occasions. Joel demonstrates his Ear-Shaped Earmuffs, so users don't have odd-looking balls of fuzz on the sides of their head.
Segment Two: The Bots create a commercial for their new brand of dog food, Mighty Jack! The spokescreature is extremely creepy.
Segment Three: The Bots imprison Joel in the blinding light compartment from the movie. Joel foils their plans by closing his eyes.
Segment Four: Joel shows the Bots how cheap underwater filming is done by way of an aquarium. He then gets carried away. The Bots are disturbed.
Segment Five: The SOL crew sings the old plot chantey "Slow the Plot Down" and get Mighty Jack confused with other famous films. In Deep 13, Frank is a pirate who quotes Herman Melville.
Stinger: Fritz died as he lived . . . ‘loving’ his work
MST3K cast[]
- Joel Hodgson - Joel Robinson
- Trace Beaulieu - Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester
- Kevin Murphy - Tom Servo
- Frank Conniff - TV's Frank
- Jim Mallon - Gypsy
Trivia[]
- Joel appears in the green jumpsuit during the opening segment, where it gets trashed. By the start of the Invention Exchange, though, he's cleaned up and changed into the dark red jumpsuit.
- This is the first episode since her introduction where Magic Voice fails to announce the approach of Commercial Sign during the prologue.
- During the bit with the underwater filming sketch of Host Segment Four, Joel mentions "Spielberg is doing movies based on cartoon characters". This prompts Servo to joke "What's he going to do next,Casper the Friendly Ghost?". (Spielberg's production company, Amblin Entertainment, would release Casper in 1995.
- Joel also mentions wanting a Josie and the Pussycats movie, which was released in 2001.
Callbacks[]
- "Puma?" (Ring of Terror)
- "That’s pretty good!" (The Side Hackers)
- "Glenn Corbett! (Stranded in Space)
- "Hi-keeba!" (Women of the Prehistoric Planet)
- "You’re stuck here!" and "He tried to kill me…" (Fugitive Alien)
- "It’s Gamera!"
- Progress on the Earth vs. Soup plot (Earth vs the Spider)
- "Sandy Frank..." (Time of the Apes)
Goofs[]
- Joel put Crow's human ear shaped muffs on backward.
Obscure References[]
- "Something is very wrong on Saturn 3!"
- A reference to the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3.
- "I am a lineman for the starfleet..."
- Joel is singing a pastiche of the first line of the song "Wichita Lineman", substituting the word "starfleet" for "county".
- "This is no place for a convertible!"
- Crow is quoting Phil Silvers in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
- "Button, button, I've got the button!"
- "Button, button, who's got the button?" is a children's game wherein players must guess who has received the button from the leader.
- "Bootsy's 20-Meter Band?" "Rubber."
- Bootsy's Rubber Band was a funk band led by bassist Bootsy Collins.
- "...as if it were triggered by remote control." "The crappy game show?!"
- Remote Control is a comedic game show that ran on MTV from 1987 to 1990.
- "Superslow...moving caaar..."
- A parody of the Supercar theme song.
- "You ain't woman enough to take my Mighty Jack!"
- A parody of the Loretta Lynn song "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man".
- "Oh, that's just the set of Orca."
- "It's Toy Donahue!"
- A punning reference to actor Troy Donahue.
- "There goes the Ken and Barbie dream home!"
- Barbie and Ken are a popular line of dolls produced by Mattel, for which there are a wide range of accessories.
- "Oh man, they're swimmin' right through Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral!"
- The Crystal Cathedral is a "megachurch" in Garden Grove, California founded by televangelist Robert Schuller.
- "The politics of feeling good."
- A quote from the 1980s pop song "The Politics of Dancing" by Re-Flex.
- "You mean Roberto?" "Durán?"
- Roberto Durán is a retired Panamanian boxer.
- "Oswald..."
- Upon seeing a man pointing a gun from a window, Crow whispers this in reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, who allegedly shot JFK from a similar position.
- "Hey, that's a baby formula factory!"
- During the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein claimed that one of the suspected munitions plants bombed was actually a "baby milk factory."
- "I lied."
- Joel is imitating Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando.
- "Pete DuPont?"
- Pete DuPont was the governor of Delaware from 1977 to 1985.
- "...I'm doing a rewrite on Next of Kin II!"
- A reference to Next of Kin, a 1989 movie starring Patrick Swayze. There was no sequel.
- "It's like What's Up, Doc? all of a sudden."
- What's Up, Doc? is a 1972 screwball comedy film starring Barbra Streisand.
- "I was born in a house my father built."
- The first sentence of Richard Nixon's autobiography, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
- "They hate these cans!"
- Crow is paraphrasing Steve Martin in The Jerk, from a scene in which Martin's character mistakes some nearby cans as being the target of an unseen sniper (rather than himself).
- "It's the Yancy Street Gang!"
- The Yancy Street Gang is a gang that antagonizes The Thing in Fantastic Four comics.
- "Go down to Ben Franklin and pick up another one, would ya?"
- A reference to the Ben Franklin chain of five-and-ten stores.
- "My name is Bobby Zimmerman."
- A reference to Bob Dylan (a native of Minnesota), whose given name is Robert Allen Zimmerman.
- "Oh there's Jesse "the body" Vogel."
- A reference to Jesse Ventura, a former pro wrestler who later became the 38th Governor of Minnesota
Video Releases[]
- Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in December 2011 as part of Volume XXII, a 4-disc set along with Time of the Apes, The Violent Years, and The Brute Man.
- The DVD includes an introduction by August Ragone and The DVD Menus of MST3K.
preceded by: Season 2 | MST3K Season 3 | followed by: Season 4 | ||||||
1991 - 1992 | ||||||||
301 | Cave Dwellers | 1991-06-01 | 309 | The Amazing Colossal Man | 1991-08-03 | 317 | The Saga of the Viking Women... | 1991-10-26 |
302 | Gamera | 1991-06-08 | 310 | Fugitive Alien | 1991-08-17 | 318 | Star Force: Fugitive Alien II | 1991-11-16 |
303 | Pod People | 1991-06-15 | 311 | It Conquered the World | 1991-08-24 | 319 | War of the Colossal Beast | 1991-11-30 |
304 | Gamera vs Barugon | 1991-06-22 | 312 | Gamera vs Guiron | 1991-09-07 | 320 | The Unearthly | 1991-12-14 |
305 | Stranded in Space | 1991-06-29 | 313 | Earth vs the Spider | 1991-09-14 | 321 | Santa Claus Conquers the Martians | 1991-12-21 |
306 | Time of the Apes | 1991-07-13 | 314 | Mighty Jack | 1991-09-21 | 322 | Master Ninja I | 1992-01-11 |
307 | Daddy-O | 1991-07-20 | 315 | Teenage Cave Man | 1991-11-09 | 323 | The Castle of Fu Manchu | 1992-01-18 |
308 | Gamera vs Gaos | 1991-07-27 | 316 | Gamera vs Zigra | 1991-10-19 | 324 | Master Ninja II | 1992-01-25 |