The Firesign Theatre was an American surreal comedy troupe consisting of Peter Bergman, Philip Proctor, Phil Austin, and David Ossman.
Joel Hodgson has acknowledged The Firesign Theatre's influence on Mystery Science Theater 3000, most notably in a 2010 interview for the Firesign fanzine Chromium Switch.
| “ | Firesign Theater's direct influence on MST3K: They are legion.
Number 1: I love the names they give their characters and places and things – some are high concept like "Communist Martyr High" and "the TransBonzoMultiMegaStructure" and some seem to be cafeteria style cast off ideas that phonetically may just feel good coming out of the mouth "Happy Harry Cox", "Nino the Mind Boggler" and "Steve Shallow: Student" to name but a few. I tried to emulate that same sense/mood with the names I gave characters, places, and things in MST3K: Deep Thirteen, Gizmonic Institute (of Naive Science), Tom Servo, Gypsy, Crow T. Robot, TV's Frank, and Movie Sign. Number 2: I figured out how to do female voices from listening to Firesign Theatre. Just say “Porgy's up helping Porcelain make the bed” about twenty times and you've got it. Number 3: There is a great presumption they give the work and the audience – this is probably the most important thing to me - It all hits the ground running, and there was no "hand holding" for the listener. That's the way I wanted MST3K to be. With each Firesign Theater record the train is leaving the station and you had better be on it or you would surely miss your ride. Seriously, could a Mystery Science Theater 3000 be born into a world that first didn't have a "Mutt and Smutt's heli-dock" and a "Martian Space Party"? I strenuously doubt it. Number 4: My car is called "Wholeflaffer." |
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MST3K has made many references to The Firesign Theatre over the years.
MST3K K21 - The "Legend of Dinosaurs" (Man falls out of raft) CROW: Boy, he's no fun, he fell right over! From How Can You Be in Two Places at Once when You're Not Anywhere At All
MST3K 204 - Catalina Caper JOEL: (showing his new invention, the Tickle Bazooka) As the Firesign Theatre said, "Fighting's out of style; Fun's where the fear is!" Misquoted from I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus.
(Weird surf music plays in background) JOEL: Our name is Zippo! From Everything You Know Is Wrong (The surf music sounds sort of like the "Real Gas Music From Jupiter")
"He's no fun, he fell right over!" From How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All. The line "s/he's no fun, s/he fell right over" occurs on both sides of the record.
MST3K 301 - Cave Dwellers (Shot of a man reading from a scroll) TOM SERVO: (as man reading) Hmm, let's see... "Quid Malmborg In Plano..." First spoken in I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus (The phrase was originally etched on a cigarette lighter Phil Proctor found).
MST3K 302 - Gamera (Gamera bursts from crevice in the ground) TOM SERVO: And so, in fear and hot water, the first Slurpee is born! From I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus (The line was originally "Man is born")
(Shot of a train track) TOM SERVO: ...One shining steel rail! From How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All
MST3K 401 - Space Travelers (shot of a rocket preparing to launch) TOM SERVO: Shoes for industry! Shoes for the dead! Shoes for industry! Hi, I'm Joe Beets. Say, what chance does a... Joel joins in. From Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers
In the following host segment, Tom (pretending to be an astronaut) says "Hold, I read gypsy doctor," a line from I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus.
Later, we see one astronaut in a red spacesuit and one in a yellow spacesuit. Tom says, "Oh, I've been shooting reds and yellows all day, I'm so sleepy!" From Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers.
MST3K 405 - Being from Another Planet (Joel & the Bots are selling stuff to Frank) TOM SERVO: ...AND the snake knives, Mrs. Presky! From Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers
MST3K 408 - Hercules Unchained "He's no fun, he fell right over!" Reference to How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All. The line "s/he's no fun, s/he fell right over" occurs on both sides of the record.
MST3K 412 - Hercules and the Captive Women (Shot of a boat with sappy string music playing) TOM SERVO: Welcome, Dear Friends, to the World of Snails and Adventure, as we board the Golden Hind. From Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
MST3K 413 - Manhunt in Space (Man leaves room, salutes other man) TOM SERVO: Shoes for industry, compadre! From Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, and nearly every album henceforth
MST3K 420 - The Human Duplicators Man in movie: You're wrong, doctor! TOM SERVO: Everything you know is wrong! Title of Everything You Know is Wrong
MST3K 422 - The Day the Earth Froze Man in movie: (Mechanically) I am here with her brother! TOM SERVO: Ah, Tony. A misquote from I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus. (The correct line is "Ah, Clem."
MST3K 519 - Outlaw (Shot of a dwarf) CROW: Don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers! Title of Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
MST3K 802 - The Leech Woman (The bots are trying to coax Mike to the bridge) CROW: [We have] Arnie's whole beef halves-- Just delivered! From Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
MST3K 816 - Prince of Space A police car's loudspeaker makes repeated announcements, Servo contributes theme music. The music accompanies a bus' loudspeaker announcement at the beginning of I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus.