"That's a viable career option."
"Like sands through the hourglass..."
Films watched: What About Juvenile Delinquency? (short) and The Atomic Brain
In What About Juvenile Delinquency?, a gang of punks assault an innocent driver and swipe his mechanical pencil. Another member of the gang, Jamie, learns that the driver his so-called friends roughed up happens to be his father. Incensed, he quits the gang and vows to report their activities to the city council.
The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here
, and on Shout! Factory here.
The Segments:
Prologue
- Mike watches Tom and Crow run through the final dress rehearsal of their piece, Love Letters.
Segment 1/Invention Exchange
- Instead of an invention, Tom and Crow dress up as Frank and Dr. Forrester, mocking and insulting them in the process. Frank and Dr. F naturally respond in kind.
Segment 2
- Tom attaches a weather station kit to himself to become Weather Servo 9. His new accesories unfortunately don't do him any good against the coldness of space and a sudden meteor shower.
Segment 3
- Mike shows Tom and Crow how a chin puppet works, but they don’t find it funny until he turns right-side up.
Segment 4
- Magic Voice finds herself alone on the bridge. She soon meets the voiceover from the film, but is quickly repulsed.
Segment 5
- While Mike reads letters, Crow re-enacts Hank Kimball’s role from The Fugitive. In Deep 13, Dr. Forrester introduces “Dr.” Frank to Dr. Fist, who knocks him out.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of What About Juvenile Delinquency? contains examples of:
- Cycle of Revenge: After Jamie's friends beat up his dad, Crow suggests that the old man's golf buddies are plotting to beat up Jamie.
- Lucky Charms Title: At the end, a question mark floats towards the audience.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Lampshaded; rather than featuring any rock & roll (or other music that actual 50's teen delinquents might enjoy), the first half of the short is full of Dixieland jazz.Crow: (as Jamie's mom dusts) What, does she live at Shakey's?
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Atomic Brain contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Dr. Forrester addresses Mike as "Nilsson" during the invention exchange.
- Bare-Handed Puppetry: Mike makes a chin puppet, which Crow and Tom simply find baffling instead of funny. Then he gets up and they find the upside down chin face hilarious.
- Call-Back: Dr. Forrester's literal hand-puppet Fisty returns to give Frank another painful visit as Dr. Fist.
- Casting Gag: The "invention exchange" is simply the Bots and the Mads doing mocking impressions of each other. Crow does Dr. F and vice versa, meaning you're actually seeing Trace Beaulieu playing each of his characters imitating the other one. Both done poorly.
- Continuity Nod:Mike: Trumpy, you can do magic! (Odd, considering Mike wasn't there for that episode.)Crow: I'm looking for the Manos set.
- Curse Cut Short:Crow: I'm Dr. Clayton Forrester, and I've got my head stuck waaaay up—Mike/Tom: WE'VE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!!
- A Day in the Limelight: Magic Voice gets the third host segment to herself, where she gets hit on by the sleazy voice-over guy from the movie.
- Dead Man Writing: Mike's reaction to March's companion reading a letter.Mike: By the time I read this, you'll be dead.
- Department of Redundancy Department: One of the reactions to one of the naked, dead girls.Mike: Hey, there's a naked lady in there and she's nude! With no clothes on!
- Fake Nationality: The ludicrous "foreign" accents of the women.Mike: You're all from Nebraska! Cut it out!
- I Have Many Names: Every time Mrs. March shouts out Bea's name, Mike and the Bots tend to fill in different phrases/names at the end.
- Lame Comeback: Dr. F and Frank's imitations of Crow and Servo, respectively.
- Little Known Facts: One of the viewer letters answered at the end of the episodes comes from a 13 year old boy that wishes to know what the “K” stands for in “MST3K”. Tom fields it by stating it stands for “Karl”, the man who invented lightning.
- Low-Speed Chase: Invoked when old Mrs. March sets out after the girls:Servo: Oh, this is going to be some chase scene.
- ...Or So I Heard:Mike: It's The Facts of Life Go to Europe! ...Not that I've seen it...
- Overly Long Gag:Mike: Your mission, Mr. Phelps, should you decide to accept it, is to pick up these three foreign women at the L.A. International Airport. Should you or any of your I.M. Force…Tom: Yeah, yeah, it goes on like that. We know.Mike: Sorry.
- Running Gag: Two notable ones: The various additions to Bea's name, and "Selznick International Pictures" when Mrs. March's house shows up.
- Singing like Stephen Stills whenever dog-man Hans shows up. "So we chaaaaaaange partners!" "Jump the one you're with!"
- Mrs. March is a real ripper in her wheelchair when she isn't crashing it.
- Self-Deprecation: The "invention exchange" where the 'bots pretend to be the Mads and the Mads pretend to be the 'bots. Mike cracks up; Dr. F. is furious. Frank cluelessly admits it's a pretty accurate take.Crow: (low, dopey voice, wearing a streaked mustache and green labcoat) I'm Dr. Forrester, the one with the weak chin. I'm going to hit TV's Frank because of my deep resentment at my own limitations.
Servo: (wearing a pretty good miniature Frank suit and spit-curl) I'm TV's Frank and I'm going to take it because I have no self-confidence. Ow, ow, ow! - Shave And A Haircut: When Mrs. March knocks on the door to find out if the two remaining girls are in their room, Mike shouts out "'Shave And A Haircut'! What do we do?"
- Shout-Out: "Romper, stomper, bomper boo..."
- Space Is Cold: The first thing Tom does when he goes up outside the Satellite as "Weather-Servo 9" is complain about how cold it is. Repeatedly. Thankfully, he's warmed up by the passing meteor shower.
- Stylistic Suck: The bots' Mad costumes aren't bad and their commentary is dead on, but Frank, as usual, doesn't seem to have got the memo that he's supposed to be making fun of Servo ("I'm a cute little guy!"), and Forrester doesn't seem to actually know anything about Crow (which is the joke, of course, since they're both played by the same actor). The bug eyes and funnel-mouth are pretty funny, though.Dr. Forrester: (high-pitched squeaky voice) Ha, what a stupid color gold is!
- They Killed Kenny Again: TV's Frank slowly suffocates after getting his head stuck in the fish bowl he uses for his Servo costume.
- With Lyrics: Tom adds lyrics to the Mickey Mousing background music.Tom: (singing) She's old, she creaks, and pops...
- And the other theme:Tom: There's a girl — on the roof — and she thinks — she's a cat...
Mike: Yes she thinks — she's a cat — but she's not — but she's not...
Tom: There's a girl — on the roof — and she thinks — she's a cat...
Mike: But she ain't no cat, but she ain't no cat...
- And the other theme:
