A Case of Spring Fever (1940) is an educational short produced by The Jam Handy Organization and famous for its lampooning on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Grouchy middle-aged man Gilbert Willoughby, in the middle of repairing his couch, wishes that he'd never see another spring again. His wish is granted by "Coily the Spring Sprite," an animated creature who removes all springs from the world, forcing Gilbert to realize how much of his day-to-day life depends on springs. Gilbert takes back his wish, and spends the rest of the short espousing his newfound appreciation for springs to his decidedly uninterested friends.
According to animation historian Jonathan A. Boschen
, Spring Fever was one in a series of shorts produced for Chevrolet by Jam Handy in the late '30s and early '40s, highlighting specific aspects of their automobile designs. This short stresses the comfort and safety afforded to Chevy drivers by their car's advanced spring system.note Unusually however, the short makes no overt reference to its sponsor and thus the advertising content is nearly invisible,note causing Spring Fever to seem like a weirdly didactic lecture about the virtues of springs. Years later, science teachers often repurposed the short to teach high school students a physics lesson in Hooke's Law.
This short is public domain and viewable at the Internet Archive.
For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, please go to the episode recap page. This was the only short from the tenth season and the final short ever done during MST3K's initial run... and let it be said that they went out on a high note. And then riffed it again as the short before RiffTrax Live: Sharknado; it was later released as a VOD on the official site.
NO TROPES!!!:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Gilbert wishes to never see another spring ever again out of spite when fixing a couch forces him to miss a golf game with his friends. Then he finds out that this means he can no longer use his watch, phone, doors, or his car, which makes him regret this.
- Cartoon Creature: Coily is an animated, anthropomorphic spring with a goblin's head.
- Catchphrase: Coily yells "NO SPRINGS!" whenever Gilbert finds another item that no longer works due to losing its springs.
- Character Filibuster: Gilbert gushing about springs.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Coily removes all springs from the world just because Gilbert verbally expressed mild frustration while trying to fix the springs in the couch.
- Driven to Madness: Gilbert giving sermons about springs seems to give this vibe.
- Easily Forgiven: Coily reversing Gilbert's wish just as quickly as he made it.
- Easy Evangelism: Conspicuously averted. Gilbert's spring-centric proselytizing does nothing more than annoy his golf buddies, who obviously couldn't give a rat's ass about the thousands and thousands of everyday uses for springs.
- Educational Short: The short illustrates the many objects that use springs and are vital to everyday life.
- Hair-Trigger Sound Effect: Every time Coily vanishes and says "No springs!", it's accompanied by a strange springy whistle.
- Idiosyncrazy: Gilbert becomes obsessed with springs after seeing the effects of his wish, and constantly preaches to his friends about their importance.
- Ironic Hell: According to Coily, only Gilbert would experience a world without springs.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: The first half pretty much consists of Gilbert seeing what the world would be like without springs.
- Obsessive Spokesperson: In the second half of the special, Gilbert becomes an evangelist for springs: when he goes golfing with his friends, he spends the entire trip monologuing about springs and their many, many uses. His friends get annoyed at him, or bored to the point of falling asleep, and he just keeps talking about springs.
- Odd Job Gods: Coily is a "spring sprite".
- Otaku: Gilbert learns to love springs so much that he will go on and ON about them, to the absolute detriment of conversation.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Strauss' "Perpetuum Mobile, Op. 257" plays as Gilbert, with childlike wonder, finally appreciates the joys that a world of springs has to offer.
- Pun-Based Title: The "Spring Fever" of the title refers to mechanical springs.
- Reality Warper: Coily has the ability to miraculously remove all springs from the world in seconds flat. He also appears able to be able to rewind time in order to restore the world to its previous state. That is, assuming the whole thing isn't an elaborate Mind Rape for Gilbert.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Coily is animated, while everything else is live-action. Like most older examples done on the cheap, the majority of Coily's shots are cel animation laid over static photographs; only two shots feature Coily and Gilbert in the frame together, and there's no physical interaction beyond Gilbert staring at the little guy.
- The Trickster: Coily, who creates a world without springs, and takes mischievous delight in seeing Gilbert unable to use normal items now that they lack this vital part. He returns things to normal once Gilbert has learned his lesson.
