Assignment: Venezuela is a stand-alone short riffed to be a part of the abandoned Mystery Science Theater 3000 CD-ROM. A rough cut of the short was screened for a live audience at ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama 2: Electric Boogaloo and it was released on VHS and DVD.
The Short[]
- Main article: Assignment: Venezuela (short)
An American businessman prepares to move to Venezuela while learning about the country, its people and its culture.
Obscure References[]
- "Sound Masters, screaming mad at sound!"
- A parody of the long-time advertising slogan of Rug Doctor, "Rug Doctor is steaming mad at dirt!"
- "Music by Mel Bay!"
- Mel Bay was a musician who created and published instruction books for guitar.
- "He works for Creole Lady Marmalade."
- In the song "Lady Marmalade", popularized by Labelle, Lady Marmalade is a Creole sex worker in New Orleans approaching men with the sassy line, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?” (English: "Would you like to sleep with me tonight?") in the refrain.
- "They thought I was Meyer Lansky."
- Meyer Lanksy was an American gangster associated with Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. After Siegel was murdered, Lansky and his associates took over control of the Flamingo casino and hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
- "It's just like Levittown, honey, only better!"
- Levittown, New_York was the first post-war "planned community" to be built. The tract housing, or mass-produced suburb, set the benchmark for inexpensive, anonymous suburban housing by using similar architecture for all the houses built, creating a cookie-cutter lack of uniqueness.
- "Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right."
- A bit of advice from the movie Apocalypse Now .
- "I'm joining the Shining Path."
- Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path (Spanish: Partido Comunista del Perú – Sendero Luminoso) is a revolutionary communist party and terrorist organization in Peru formed in the 1960s with a Marxism–Leninism–Maoism doctrine. In the '80s, it became one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the Western Hemisphere, conducting indiscriminate bombing campaigns, ambushes, and selective assassinations. SL's stated goal is to destroy existing Peruvian institutions and replace them with a communist peasant revolutionary regime. In "Sobre las Dos Colinas", SL explicitly rejects and condemns the concept of human rights.
- "How-deeeee!"
- The tagline of country comedian Minnie Pearl. The reference is probably suggested by the hat that our narrator's wife is wearing; Minnie Pearl's trademark was a large, garish hat with a price tag still attached.
- "Whoo doggie, gonna chop up some on-yon, some cayenne peppa..."
- Tom is imitating Cajun chef Justin Wilson.
Behind the scenes[]
MST3K cast[]
MST3K crew[]
- Producer - Trace Beaulieu
Video Releases[]
The short was originally released commercially by Best Brains, Inc. on the VHS Assignment: Venezuela and Other Shorts. It was re-released with the other shorts from the VHS in both The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Volume 7 from Rhino Entertainment and its reissue, Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume VII from Shout! Factory.