“ | You know you're boring when you're boring a Van Patten. | ” |
- Joel |
The Movie[]
- Main article: Master Ninja II (film)
Synopsis[]
Apprentice ninja Max Keller and his instructor John Peter McAllister help a small-town union organizer, then thwart terrorists at a high-society garden party.
The Episode[]
Host Segments[]
The SOL crew show off van ideas
Prologue: Joel and the Bots improvise using suggestions from Gypsy (at Cream of Wheat, doing Peter Gabriel and Anger walks in).
Segment One (Invention Exchange): The Mads present their Conveyor-belt Buffet, where the food moves too fast for the patron (Frank) to eat it. The similarity to a famous episode of I Love Lucy is noted. Joel and the Bots demonstrate Gerbilsphere 2, a supposedly self-sustaining gerbil habitat which is revealed to have some flaws.
Segment Two: The Bots show off their ideas for custom vans.
Segment Three: Crow as General Timothy Van Patton.
Crow as General Timothy Van Patton.
Segment Four: Tom explains how different detectives (and other crime-fighting type characters) should have pets that are suited to them.
Segment Five: The SOL crew plays with a Lee Van Cleef foam core dress up doll and reads a letter from a film student. TV's Frank pleads with the viewers to petition ABC for the return of The Second Hundred Years.
Stinger: Lee Van Cleef looks smug with a hamster.
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
- Alexandra Carr - Magic Voice
Notes[]
- Best Brains had reportedly considered doing a third Master Ninja "film" as the Season 6 finale but used Samson vs. The Vampire Women instead as a gesture to departing cast member Frank Conniff.
- This episode was ranked #97 among backers of the Bring Back MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 campaign in the Top 100 Poll.
- The listing for this episode in an episode guide sent out to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Information Club erroneously referred to movie as Death of a Ninja II.
Callbacks[]
- "Charles Moffet: feared not. Puma!" (Ring of Terror)
- "Ator! No!" (Cave Dwellers)
- "Ya got me!" (Catalina Caper)
- "McCloud" (Pod People)
- "Kicks..." (Wild Rebels)
- "Hi-keeba" (Women of the Prehistoric Planet)
Obscure References[]
- "There's no Kosugi like Sho Kosugi, there's no Kosugi I know."
Parody of "There's No Business Like Show Business" by Irving Berlin.
- "Do not take the green acid!"
A misquote ("Do not take the brown acid") of an announcement made at the Woodstock music festival.
- "Hey look on the wall, it's Milton Berle's netted slingshot briefs."
A reference to the notorious rumor that popular television comedian Milton Berle was exceptionally well-endowed in terms of his masculine equipment.
- "You're very nosy, kitty kat. You know what we do to nosy people?"
A reference to a famous scene in the movie Chinatown, in which Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson) gets his nose sliced open with a switchblade by a thug played by director Roman Polanski.
- "Why me? Why me all the time?"
Quoted from Harvey Lembeck's character Eric Von Zipper from the American-International Beach Party movie series.
- "I'm the guy with the snake on my face!"
Quoted from Harry, a character played by John Candy on SCTV.
- "What's this?! The end of Master Ninja?! Tune in tomorrow: same ninja time! Same ninja station!" "Is it curtains for Van Patten?"
Mimicking William Dozier's narration for the Batman TV series.
- "The Stephen King book club."
The Stephen King Library was a mail-order book club that sent its members works by the popular horror author. It was advertised on television during the early 1990s. At least one commercial depicted the books rising out of the ground in a graveyard.
- "Xanadu, stately home of Charles Foster Kane! Cost: no one can say."
Reference to Citizen Kane.
- "She threw on a dashiki and blew my ninja mind."
Tom is saying a variation on a line from the trailer from the 1970s blaxploitation film Ghetto Freaks. The original line refers to an incident in which "...a freaked-out white chick in a dashiki blew his mind" (see also Episode #802).
- "MEEENDOOOOZAAAAAA!!!!"
A quote from the Simpsons episode "Saturdays of Thunder" which contains an action movie parody in which an Arnold Schwartzenegger-type yells the name of his enemy in frustration.
- "Third Base!"
Reference to Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" routine.
- "Hey, A Shot in the Dark."
A Shot in the Dark is a 1964 British-American comedy film directed by Blake Edwards. It is the second installment in The Pink Panther film series, with Peter Sellers as Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
- "Before you put your coats on the top peg."
A quote from the "Sex Education" scene in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
- "You're in it now, up to your neck!"
Spoken by Gregory Peck in The Guns of Navarone.
- "Michael, I need to be on the set of St. Elsewhere by 11."
Actor William Daniels, who provided the voice of the talking car called KITT on the TV adventure series Knight Rider, also played Dr. Mark Craig on St. Elsewhere.
- "No tears and no hearts breaking, no remorse."
A quote from the chorus of the Steely Dan song "Haitian Divorce".
- "He's a man with a plan, he's a ninja!..."
Tom sings an extended riff on the song "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow".
Video Releases[]

Autographed DVD cover
- Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in March 2011 as part of Volume XX, a 4-disc set along with Project Moon Base, Master Ninja I, and The Magic Voyage of Sinbad.
- The DVD includes the Tom Servo vs. Tom Servo Panel at DragonCon 2010.
- Available for rent or purchase on Amazon's streaming service.
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 |