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MST3K 317 - The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent

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“ Light the shoebox and throw it in the toilet! ”
- Joel


The Short

The Home Economics Story

Synopsis

317s

Kay wants to go to Iowa State College and major in home economics. She and her friends have a great time in school and learn about the diverse careers that a degree in Home Economics can lead to.

Information

The Movie

Synopsis

Sageofthe

The Great Sea Serpent attacks the Viking Women

A group of Viking women have been alone for three years, since their men disappeared on a sea journey. The women set out to locate the men, only to face many perils.

Abby Dalton is Desir, de facto leader of the Viking women. Vedric is her betrothed, missing for three years. Susan Cabot (who went on to play the lead in The Wasp Woman), is Enger. She "hates Desir and wants her man". Jonathan Haze is Ottar (who the SOL Crew refer to as "Todd"), the only remaining male.

In the first scene, the women throw spears into a tree to vote on whether to make the journey to find their men. They assemble a ship and set off, to the accompaniment of a score by Albert Glasser. Ottar reveals himself once underway. Enger immediately sabotages the sail in an effort to injure Desir. Not long after, in quick succession, the group encounters a shark, a sea serpent, a killer storm, a vortex, and their ship is struck and set afire by lightning. They jump out of the sinking boat and are washed up on the beach at the feet of the Grimwald Warriors.

Richard Devon (Satan from The Undead) is Stark, the sarcastic, linguistically-talented, urbane Grimwald leader. Jay Sayer is Prince Senja, son of Stark.

There's a boar hunt (wherein Desir saves Senja's life), a party with an arm wrestling contest between Senja (in a tiara) and Desir which turns into a fight scene. The women travel to a cave to meet the captive male Vikings, including Vedric.

Meanwhile, Engar cozies up to Stark, getting special privileges. She visits Vedric in the cave and offers to free him if he will run away with her. Senja is struck by lightning and is killed. 

Will the Vikings get away? Will the nasty Grimwalds get what they deserve?

Notes

  • Cliff Gorman, who would later play Emory in The Boys in the Band, auditioned for the role of Senja, bringing the same interpretation to that character that he will bring to Emory, but Corman rejected him as "way too butch", and instead selected Jay Sayer. Sayer's rather eccentric performance may be partially explained by the fact that the character is supposed to be about fifteen years old.
  • Susan Cabot recalled an incident that happened during the scene where the Viking women first set out in the boat to look for their men. She said that there were 11 women in the "Viking ship", which was being towed out to sea by a boat that was out of camera range. When the scene was over and the towing boat was supposed to stop, they discovered that the man piloting the tow boat had fallen asleep, and no matter how loudly they yelled at him to wake up, the sounds of the ocean drowned them out. The bottom of the "Viking ship" began to fill up with water, and out of the 11 women on the sip, only Cabot and Abby Dalton could swim. They finally caught the attention of two passing surfers, who took a couple of the girls and headed to shore, but by the time the rest of the girls and the boat reached land, which was the base of a cliff jutting out into the ocean, the tide was beginning to rise and the sand at the base of the cliff was quickly being covered over by water. The girls had to climb up the face of this cliff, with the water slowly rising after them, until they got to the top of it. There they ran into some film-crew members who had been searching for them, and they took the girls back to the set on buses.

The Episode

Host Segments

Waffles!

Joel loves waffles

Prologue: Joel really likes waffles, and he tries to convince the Bots of all his wonderful recipes.

Segment One (Invention Exchange): The Mads Meat Re-Animator brings a dead chicken back to life. Joel makes an iron that turns waffles into pancakes.

Segment Two: Joel re-programs the Bots into his waffle obsession. Then says "Oh Dear God! What HAVE I DONE!"

Waffles!'

Waffles!

Segment Three: Just one word: "Waffles."

Segment Four: Willy the Waffle presents the ideas of a waffle-free world after Servo eats one too many.

Segment Five: Joel and the Bots sing the "Waffle Song"! In Deep 13, Dr. F is tired of all the waffle talk.

Morewaffles

Even more waffles!

Stinger: "But you don't understand! I'M A PRINCE!"

Other Notes

Miscellaneous

  • Segment Three is the shortest host segment ever in the show's history. It was omitted entirely for some syndicated airings.
  • Willy the Waffle is a tribute to Coily from the Case of Spring Fever short. The Brains had wanted to use Spring Fever for years, but didn't get the rights to until the show's final season. Willy pops up again in Bride of the Monster.

Callbacks

  • A lot of references to Teenage Caveman and how it and Viking Women have similar-looking locations.
  • At one point, Servo starts referring to the dark-haired woman, Enger, as "Creepy Girl", the woman he developed a crush on in Catalina Caper. Judging by his reaction, it seems he still has feelings for her.
  • Hikeeba! (Women of the Prehistoric Planet)

Obscure References

  • "Is that so wrong?!"

Joel is echoing Harvey Fierstein's plangent cry from the play Torch Song Trilogy, which was adapted into a film in 1988. The line would also be used by Jon Lovitz's parody of Fierstein in several sketches on Saturday Night Live.

  • "Our Bodies, Ourselves..."

Our Bodies, Ourselves is a book about women's health written from a feminist perspective.

  • "The Bell Jar..."

The Bell Jar is a roman a clef about mental illness written by Sylvia Plath.

  • "She consulted Robert McNamara!"

Robert McNamara was the U.S. Secretary of Defense throughout much of the Vietnam War.

  • "Then she raced down to the Jean-Luc Godard Festival at the campus theatre!"

Jean-Luc Godard is a French filmmaker who first made a name for himself during the "New Wave".

  • "The Group!"

The Group was a 1966 film about female college graduates.

  • "And they started by taking over the administration building!"

A reference to the Columbia University protests of 1968, in which student radicals occupied various campus offices.

  • "Here's a young Judy Chicago!"

Judy Chicago is a feminist conceptual artist.

  • "Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho?"

A line from the Frank Zappa song "Camarillo Brillo".

  • "Here, Carol Bly explains her principles!"

Carol Bly is a Minnesota writer known for her creative-writing workshops.

  • "...meeting with Helen Gurley Brown..."

Helen Gurley Brown was the longtime editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.

  • "Estes Kefauver!"

Estes Kefauver was a U.S. senator from Tennessee, best known for overseeing a series of hearings on organized crime.

  • "...Gwildor and Stridor took Frodo to Rivendell."

Gwildor and Stridor were characters from the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe media franchise, while Frodo was a character and Rivendell a prominent location from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series of books (and films since the release of this episode). It's possible that "Stridor" was an over-enunciated take on "Strider", another Lord of the Rings character.

  • "IT IS BALLOON!!"

A reference to an episode of F-Troop.

  • "You! What's the Fifth General Order?!"

The 5th General Order of the USMC is "Never quit my post until properly relieved."

  • "It says Piggy on the wall."

A reference to the Charles Manson Family, who wrote the word "piggy" in blood on one of the walls after they murdered some of their victims.

  • There's bars and punch in the fellowship hall...

Refers to a light meal served after a funeral. A common occurrence in the upper mid-west.

  • "The wet head is dead."

A hairspray television commercial slogan advocating the 'dry' look over a greased-back men's hairstyle.

  • "At 11:15 the old cook came on deck and said women, it's been good to know ya."

Paraphrases a line from Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." Another paraphrased version of the same line would be used when Mike and The Bots sat through Gorgo.

  • "Play Whipping Post!"

"Whipping Post" is a song by the Allman Brothers Band, most famously immortalized on their classic live album At Fillmore East.

  • "Why must they laugh at my mighty sword?"

Paraphrase of a lyric by Randy Newman from his 1974 song "A Wedding in Cherokee County": 'She will laugh at my mighty sword/Why must everybody laugh at my mighty sword?'

Home media

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