“ | Accessory-After-The-Fact Theater presents... | ” |
- Tom Servo |
The Short[]
Synopsis[]
Jessie loves her husband Phil, who is in love with another woman - who is engaged to another man - so Jessie decides to host an engagement party which becomes painfully awkward.
Information[]
The Movie[]
- Main article: The Beatniks (film)
Synopsis[]
A young petty criminal with a talent for singing gets discovered by a talent agent. His criminal friends jeopardize his new career prospects.
The Episode[]
Host Segments[]
Prologue: Joel cruelly dominates the Bots in a painful game of rock-paper-scissors until Gypsy crushes Joel in revenge.
Segment One (Invention Exchange): Everyone recovers from their injuries received in the prologue. The Mads have developed Good Luck Troll Costumes, based on the plastic troll dolls that were popular in the 1990's, complete with exposed plastic butts. Joel demonstrates his literal take on Pocket Pool, though he denies Tom Servo the use of the bridge.
Segment Two: According to Joel and the Bots, the people in this movie aren't really beatniks. To help the folks at home, they list ways to tell if you aren't a beatnik.
Segment Three: The Bots hold a slumber party, and discuss dreamy Tony Travis from the movie. It turns out he and Joel went to high school together. Joel places a phone call to Tony, which is less than inspiring. The 'Bots then shift their affections to Mooney.
Segment Four: Servo stars in a dramatization of the life of a 1950’s rock star inspired by the movie, from anonymity to overnight stardom to pathetic has-been.
Segment Five: Crow goes on a rampage like Mooney and menaces Gypsy. Joel reads a letter, and he and Tom debate if "dickweed" is a swear word. The Mads find their costumes less than ideal for pushing the button.
Stinger: Mooney spasms and throws his gun.
MST3K Cast[]
Regular 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
- Mary Jo Pehl - Magic Voice
Guest Cast
- Michael J. Nelson - Voice of Tony Travis
Trivia[]
- This episode debuted as the first episode of Turkey Day '92.
- Mary Jo Pehl provides the voice of Magic Voice for the first time, a role she would remain in for the rest of the Comedy Central years.
- According to The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide Mooney's line "I KILLED THAT FAT BARKEEP!" is one of Best Brains' all-time favorite lines.
- The comic Tom is reading in the fourth segment is Superman Vol 2. #53 which has a cover date of March 1991 (meaning it was most likely in stores in December of 1990 or January of 1991).
Callbacks[]
- "Rock candy baby you’re mine, yeah!" (Daddy-O)
Obscure References[]
- "Hey, Baldilocks, quit talkin' and start chalkin'."
"Quit talking and start chalking" is a quote from pool-themed pinball machine Eight Ball Deluxe. It would be referenced again during the pool hall scene in Episode 904.
- "I think you need to work on your English, Willie Mosconi."
Willie Mosconi was a professional billiards player. He won the World Straight Pool Championship 15 times in a row from 1941 to 1957. "English" refers to hitting a cue ball in a way to give it side spin.
- "I have seen the best guys of my emanation deployed by badness."
Frank is misquoting the Allen Ginsberg poem "Howl".
- "Sentiment?" "Yes, it settles at the bottom of the cake."
Tom is mistaking the word "sentiment" for "sediment", which is a term for material such as sand or silt that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. It is often used as a general term for particulate matter that settles at the bottom of a liquid.
- "Phil never eats my plastic cake at home..."
In a commercial for Yuban coffee from the 1970s, a wife notices that her husband is enjoying a second cup of coffee during an evening out, and wonders why he never has a second cup at home (the implication being that the coffee she makes at home is not good as the Yuban coffee that her husband is currently enjoying). This commercial was famously parodied in the movie Airplane!.
- "Clamp... Sponge... Suture..."
These are tools that a doctor might request while performing surgery.
- "I hate those B-Bs... Nonpareils... Whatever you call 'em..."
Nonpareils are a decorative confectionery of tiny balls made with sugar and starch. "B-Bs" could refer to a type of dragée, another confection that is often in the form of small metallic silver balls.
- "The Boatniks! Okay!"
The Boatniks is a 1970 Disney comedy film starring Robert Morse, Stefanie Powers, Don Ameche, and Phil Silvers.
- "...Mrs. Harvey." "She's a big rabbit!"
A reference to the 1944 stage play Harvey, (which was subsequently made into a feature film starring Jimmy Stewart) in which the main character is a man whose imaginary friend is a six-foot-tall rabbit named Harvey.
- "Thanks for the laughs, sorry I'm gonna miss out on the Russian Roulette."
Russian Roulette is a "game" played with a revolver that has a bullet in only one of the chambers. "Players" take turns spinning the chamber then holding the gun to their head and pulling the trigger, risking killing themselves. In the 1978 film The Deer Hunter, American POWs were forced to play the game while their Vietnamese captors bet on the outcome.
- "E-O eleven..."
From the theme song to the original version of Ocean's 11.
- "Let's do some crimes!"
A quote from the 1984 movie Repo Man.
- "They robbed Paul Wellstone!"
Paul Wellstone was a Senator from Minnesota, serving from 1991 until his death in a plane crash in 2002.
- "Travis Bickle?!" "Sometimes I wish a rain would come and wash away all the scum of the city."
Travis Bickle was the title character in the 1976 film Taxi Driver (which is also the source of the "rain" line).
- "Havin' a ball/With a crazy chick..." "Who? Francis Farmer?"
Actress Frances Farmer struggled with mental illness throughout her life, and was allegedly lobotomized during one of her institutionalizations.
- "Get in touch with Morrissey..." "... And tell him to stop crying."
A reference to singer Morrissey, known for his depressing songs.
- "Hey, I was watching She's the Sheriff!"
She's the Sheriff is a TV sitcom starring Suzanne Somers that aired in first-run syndication from 1987 to 1989.
- "I was thinkin' we could go down there, grab us some quick loot, go down to Mexico and be banditos!" "Yeah and we can then ride Yoshi to the Mushroom Kingdom."
A riff playing off of Mooney's complete detachment from reality. In video games, Yoshi is the friendly green dinosaur-ish creature which the Super Mario Brothers would occasionally ride. When this episode aired, Yoshi had recently made his debut in Super Mario World (which takes place in Dinosaur Land rather than the Mushroom Kingdom).
- "Hey, I found a wheat penny!"
The US 1 cent coin had an image of stalks of wheat on its reverse side from 1909 until 1958 (so it wouldn't have been remarkable to find a wheat penny at the time the movie was made).
- "Bernardo, no!"
Bernardo was the hot-headed brother of Maria who tried to kill her lover Tony in the musical West Side Story.
Video Releases[]
- Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in March 2010 as part of Volume XVII, a 4-disc set along with The Crawling Eye, The Final Sacrifice, and Blood Waters of Dr. Z. The set has been out of print since 2017. The episode was subsequently reissued in September 2018 as part of The Lost and Found Collection.
- The DVD in both sets includes the DragonCon '09 panel The Main Event: Crow vs. Crow, MST Hour wraps, and a theatrical trailer.
preceded by: Season 3 | MST3K Season 4 | followed by: Season 5 | ||||||
1992 - 1993 | ||||||||
401 | Space Travelers | 1992-06-06 | 409 | Indestructible Man | 1992-08-15 | 417 | Crash of Moons | 1992-11-28 |
402 | The Giant Gila Monster | 1992-06-13 | 410 | Hercules Against the Moon Men | 1992-08-22 | 418 | Attack of the the Eye Creatures | 1992-12-05 |
403 | City Limits | 1992-06-20 | 411 | The Magic Sword | 1992-08-29 | 419 | The Rebel Set | 1992-12-12 |
404 | Teenagers from Outer Space | 1992-06-27 | 412 | Hercules and the Captive Women | 1992-09-12 | 420 | The Human Duplicators | 1992-12-26 |
405 | Being from Another Planet | 1992-07-04 | 413 | Manhunt in Space | 1992-09-19 | 421 | Monster A-Go Go | 1993-01-09 |
406 | Attack of the Giant Leeches | 1992-07-18 | 414 | Tormented | 1992-09-26 | 422 | The Day the Earth Froze | 1993-01-16 |
407 | The Killer Shrews | 1992-07-25 | 415 | The Beatniks | 1992-11-25 | 423 | Bride of the Monster | 1993-01-23 |
408 | Hercules Unchained | 1992-08-01 | 416 | Fire Maidens of Outer Space | 1992-11-26 | 424 | Manos: The Hands of Fate | 1993-01-30 |