"Oh, they want their little gold jacket back."
The architecturally rigid space children!
Films watched: Century 21 Calling (short) and The Space Children
Century 21 Calling follows a pair of happy-go-lucky teenagers travelling to Seattle to tour the 1962 World's Fair, specifically enjoying an exhibit by Bell Telephone to demonstrate the potential applications that the telephone of the future will provide to everyday life.
The Segments:
Prologue- Servo opens a kissing booth and has plans to franchise. Mike pays $49.95 for a "dry perfunctory grandma kiss".
Segment 1
- Pearl has phones installed on the SOL as part of her plan to take over the world through efficient videoconferencing. All it does is make everybody on every line confused and hard-to-hear.
Segment 2
- Mike imitates the teenagers from the short, silently pointing and laughing at everything as cheery music plays. The 'Bots make him knock it off with a wrecking ball to knock him out.
Segment 3
- The crew builds a model rocket which blows up in Mike's face. Pearl also builds one, but with a real rocket and an entire space program to train Bobo into piloting it.
Segment 4
- Despite their protests, Mike and Servo are made to see Crow's sketches of new fashions for Jackie Coogan.
Segment 5
- The Blob From Heaven arrives on the SOL to make the crew give up their nuclear bombs; Servo confesses to keeping one in his room. Pearl's rocket blasts off into space, but Bobo had gone to get a chocolate bar and forgot to get back inside. With no pilot, the rocket flies right back down into Castle Forrester.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Century 21 Calling has examples of:
- Berserk Button: At one point, Mike gets upset about the fees for touch-tone phone service.Mike: (as guide) In the future, there'll still be a two-dollar surcharge for this feature DESPITE THE TECHNOLOGY HAVING PROLIFERATED EVERYWHERE ON THE PLANET. (disgusted sigh)
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:Servo: PUSH BUTTON PHONING!
- Shout-Out:
- Some stock music from William Loose and Emil Cadkin plays during the short. Crow observes: "Ren and Stimpy music!"
- Crow sings a line from Hole's bleak anti-materialism hit "Doll Parts" to the tune of the short's jazzy musical finish:
Crow: (singing) Somedayyy you'll ache like I ache...! - X Called; They Want Their Y Back: On seeing the short's title, Mike remarks "They want their little gold jacket back."
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Space Children has examples of:
- Actor Allusion:
- Most of their jokes about Russell Johnson's character.Crow: He's gonna use his coconut-powered spanking machine on me!Mike: A three da-y biiinge.Crow: Whoa, imagine having your butt whooped by "And the Rest!"
- Several references to Jackie Coogan's most famous role as Uncle Fester.
- Most of their jokes about Russell Johnson's character.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing:All: (as crowd) Yaaay!
Crow: Are you sure he's dead, now?
Mike: (as paramedic): Oyah.
All: Yaaay! - Ash Face: Happens to Mike as the result of a botched model rocket launch.
- Brain Bleach: Mike and Servo's reactions to seeing Crow's increasingly-skimpy outfits for Jackie Coogan.
- Call-Back: The Reel Life vs Real Life Music pops up, but this time during the Jackie Coogan Summer ensemble showcase.
- Creepy Child: "We're the Children of the Damned you've heard so much about."
- Fan Disservice: Crow works out his trauma by hosting a Jackie Coogan fashion show, displaying sketches of the man in increasingly skimpier outfits.Mike: C'mon Crow! Okay, so Coogan wore some goofy outfits in this movie, but can't we leave him with a modicum of dignity?Crow: No! No we can't, Mike. I'm hurting, I've got to lash out, and we're going to see this thing through to the end! Next card! Here's the ultradignified Coogan getting a teensie bit naughty, in this French-cut thong singlet...
- Mind Rape: In the film.Crow: This is the exact moment he became Uncle Fester.
Servo: And lo, he put his head in a vise and slept on a bed of nails. - Mondegreen Gag: Dr. Wahrman is interpreted as "Dr. Woman" and paired off against Colonel Manley.
- Mike and the bots also hear "phone the depot" as "phone the Devil".
- Because the soldiers in the movie pronounce it DEH-po, which may be common in the military (and "devil" is about the closest-sounding word), but American civilians know it as DEE-po.
- One that immediately follows but isn't picked up by the riffers is the order to "Phone Eagle Point," sounds more like "Evil Point."
- Mike and the bots also hear "phone the depot" as "phone the Devil".
- Not Helping Your Case: A drunken Joe chases after his boy, adding in "I'll break your neck!" between his repeated demands for the kid to come back. Crow points out that this is really not much of an incentive for the kid to stop running.
- Parental Neglect: Several riffs exploit this, like when the kids insist they heard something.Ann Brewster: Children, will you just stop it?!
Crow: [as Ann] Stop trying to form a bond with us! We had you! Isn't that enough? - Poor Communication Kills: Mike and the 'bots build a model rocket, but it fails to launch. When Mike goes over to check on it:Mike: Now remember, don't turn it on until I say!Servo: (offscreen) What, turn it on?Mike: No, don't turn it on!Servo: (offscreen) Okay!(boom)
- Running Gag:
- Budweiser jokes off of Bud's name.
The best part is that, according to Mighty Jack's MST3K fan site, the kid who played Bud Brewster later married into the Heineken beer fortune. - Servo mentioning that the beach must be "where the children playeee-yay-yay-yay-yay!", in reference to Cat Stevens, along with Crow telling him to knock it off in various languages.
- The crew also get a lot of mileage from The Professor behaving like a drunken jerk.
- Plus there's the fact that after Pearl's attempt at videoconferencing, all Mike and the bots' riffing has a distinct echo to it.
- Diets of hot dogs.
- Budweiser jokes off of Bud's name.
- Shout-Out: The SOL crew recites the Three Stooges phone answer gag.Crow: (singing) Hello...Mike: (singing) Hello...Tom: (singing) Hello...
- Special Guest: The Blob From Heaven shows up on the SOL to convince Mike and the 'bots to get rid of their nuclear stockpiles. Turns out Servo kept a "neutron device" under his bed as a deterrent against "Uh... Well, you guys."
- Swiss-Cheese Security:Crow: Russian agents stealthily approach the checkpoint, see the "Stop" signs, and turn away defeated.
- Take That!: When we're shown the blank, lifeless look on Joe's face when his son finds him dead in his chairnote :(monotone) "...I JUST WATCHED GILLIGAN'S ISLAND."
