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Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S12 E01: Mac and Me

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"Ugh. We're just like that poor 'and' being crushed by both Mac and Me. That's us. We're that 'and'."

Film watched: Mac and Me (1988)

The first episode of the season that sees the series turn 30 years oldnote , subtitled The Gauntlet, also retools the show's standard format by removing one host segment and the Moon 13 bumpers introduced in the previous season.

The Segments:

Prologue
  • Jonah survived the Cliffhanger of Season 11 and is back on the SOL ready to tell the Bots all about his amazing adventure! They're more interested in playing with Cambot's new upgrades.

Segment 1

  • The Mads aren't interested in Jonah's adventure either — Kinga drops the bombshell that, to further innovate the show for the streaming age, the SOL crew will be watching six movies in a row: "The Gauntlet". Yes, Kinga has moved on from her abortive marriage to him (though she knows he's still into her). Synthia is a spokesclone for the Mads' new intelligence-boosting drug Algernon, which has horrible side effects but because they're read really fast in the ad, the Mads can't be sued. Crow and Tom become delightful SPEZ dispensers as Spam meets PEZ!

Segment 2

  • Jonah needs to ask about the temperature of Moon 13 and turns to whistling like the aliens in the movie do, but he and Crow are amateurs compared to Synthia and Max. Leave it to Tom to top them all.

Segment 3

  • Tom Servo's having his birthday party at McDonah's whether he likes it or not. Crow's in a bear suit and Jonah McDonah's a... merry... clown mascot, and the all-seeing Grimace (Gypsy) warns that Happiness Is Mandatory. Meanwhile, the Mads take a cue from the experiment's legendary Product Placement — say hello to Burger Kinga and Office Max!

Segment 4

  • Jonah and the Bots must spend their five minute break drilling new sprocket holes for this season's experiments while the Mads continue to ponder how they can make the magic of Product Placement work for them.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Mac and Me provides examples of:

  • Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The joke about Eric's mom apparently running all the way to the scene of the climax (in heels!) covers for an edit to the sequence. She actually arrives by helicopter with the authorities; it can be heard in the background in subsequent shots.
  • Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?:
    Crow: I can't help feeling like I've seen all this before. Single mom, suburban kid, big brother, little girl.
    Jonah: Yeah, that's E.T.
    Crow: No, that's not it. You know, they find an alien. He loves junk food.
    Jonah: Yeah, no, it's from E.T.
    Crow: No, but the alien is separated from its family and just wants to call home.
    Jonah: You're thinking of E.T.!
    Crow: No, but then the alien helps the kid fly—
    Jonah: E.T.
    Crow: Let me finish! During a summer camp boxing match.
    Jonah: Oh, Meatballs II.
    Crow: Now that's it!
  • Archive Binge: invoked Kinga introduces this season's gimmick: she's forcing Jonah and the bots to watch six awful movies back-to-back, all to encourage audiences to watch these six episodes back-to-back.
    Max: Forget binge-watching this show, we're gonna binge-make it!
    Kinga: Hope none of you at home have to work, sleep, or feed anything in the next eight hours.
  • Bait-and-Switch Comment:
    • When Eric is first lifted out of the van, revealing he's a wheelchair user, the gang notes it's quite a reveal...that he's from Chicago (he's also wearing a Cubs jersey).note 
    • During the Power Wheels chase scene: "Wow, this is like a Pixar film... in that it exists, and has a title."
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In-universe, this is Jonah's reaction to the dance in the McDonald's parking lot.
    Jonah: ...Wait, wh — did someone just change the channel? Is this the same movie?
  • Black Comedy: Notably heavy in the riffing from Eric's death through his revival (a slow-paced sequence that's even longer in the original), culminating in Eric telling his mom that "I saw Dad in Heaven; he said you pushed him off a cliff."
  • Call-Back:
    • The "Chief?" "McCloud" running gag from Pod People gets a nod late in the film, highly appropriate since Mac and Me was also referenced in that episode.
    • Tom pulls out Mike's old Catchphrase "Would you take those off?" when Eric pulls the sheet off Mac's head.
  • Came Back Wrong: The riffers, speaking for the aliens, suggest that this could be the case with the revived Eric — specifically, his body could be possessed by a ghost, perhaps that of Vlad the Impaler.
  • Cliffhanger Copout: Played for Laughs. Jonah's supposed death at the end of season 11 is just brushed under the rug, and Jonah's attempt to tell his harrowing tale are ignored by both the bots and the mads. He's alive, that's all you need to know.
  • Continuity Nod: Jonah is holding the helmet from his spacesuit when he first appears, answering the question of who the person seen moonwalking in it last season was. How he got it on while inside Reptilicus Metallicus and escaped remains untold (as much as Jonah wants to tell it).
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Anyone who's insufficiently happy at McDonah's gets thrown into... the ball pit!
  • Cuteness Proximity: In the final segment that sees Jonah, Tom and Crow forced to work down in Moon 13, Max can't help but get distracted by the Bots because they're too cute in person.
  • Depth Deception: When the NASA probe arrives at the alien planet, Crow initially thinks it's a tiny probe about to land on the alien's head.
  • Everyone Is Single: A family photo is the only reference made to Eric and Michael's father, with nothing to explain whether his absence is due to death or divorce. Debbie and Courtney's father isn't mentioned at all; when their mother appears to drive the kids to the birthday party, this leads to a riff that the neighborhood has no married couples in it at all.
  • Exposed Extraterrestrials: There are plenty of jokes about the fact that Mac and his family don't wear clothes. When they are wearing clothes in the last scene, Jonah and the bots comment that they're more conspicuous now.
    Jonah: (as the alien) Wait a minute, we've been naked this whole time? Now we know shame. Gotta go.
  • Expy: The crew points out how the African-American cop who comes to pull the kids out of the convenience store at the climax looks a lot like Detective Nordberg from The Naked Gun. (And is about as competent, too.)
  • "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Compressed. The Mads' life-improving drug with horrific side effects is named after the Trope Namer, and makes Synthia into enough of a genius that she realizes she should stop taking itinvoked. She levels off at somewhere around at least average intelligence, instead of the malfunctioning robot/zombie clone of Season 11.
  • Forced Transformation:
    [Eric sees his remote-control car running on its own.]
    Eric: Michael?
    Jonah: Yes, Eric, it's me, Michael! A witch turned me into a remote-control car, and I'm gonna need you to collect three magic keys to turn me back!
  • Foreshadowing: Kinga and Max claim that they're dumbing things down this season, but the shorter season's compacted episode-to-episode serialization actually ends up being much more cohesive than The Return's.note 
  • Freak Out: Jonah has a brief one played for laughs. During the climax of the movie he predicts that Eric will, once he gets between the aliens and police, save the day by Shaming the Mob. Instead, the cop pursuing Eric trips and his gun fires, the father alien shoots his gun in response, and a shootout ensues with Eric trapped in the middle, driving his trapped brother and friends berserk — as well as Jonah. When police bullets hit gas pumps, the aliens are seemingly consumed in a huge fireball with Eric right in front of the blastnote . Jonah is so horrified that he briefly gets up and rants that this wasn't supposed to happen, noting that E.T. didn't pull anything like this. He calms down, but not before crying "Get him a Coke! Get him a Coke!" as the others get Eric's about-to-suffer-a-Disney Death body to safety.
  • Fridge Logic: In-universe example, Synthia's use of the Algernon brain-enhancing drug has made her smart enough to understand that this drug will probably kill her and she should stop using it.
  • Gaslighting: When Servo wonders why so many children at the birthday party are ignoring a clown who's doing magic tricks, Jonah and Crow wonder what the heck Servo is talking about. They don't see any clown...
  • Genius Serum: The Mads invent smart drug Algernon, which briefly turns Synthia into enough of a genius that she realizes that if she keeps taking it, it will eventually kill her. She levels out at somewhere around average intelligence — still an improvement for Moon 13's resident clone.
  • Happiness Is Mandatory: In the "McDonah's" sketch, Gypsy as the Grimace demands that everyone is having fun.
    Gypsy: Is everyone having fun? THE GRIMACE WANTS TO HEAR FUN!
  • Hero of Another Story: As the bumbling government agents rush to the courthouse where the naturalization ceremony is taking place at the end, the riffing suggests that their adventures pursuing Mac were just one part of a really wild bachelor party weekend, that one of them is the groom, and that they're now rushing to make it to the wedding on time.
  • Hollywood Law: Jonah calls out the film's ending where the aliens become American citizens, saying that there is no way they pass the oral examination as they communicate by whistling and thus they wouldn't be taking the oath of citizenship.
  • I Have to Wash My Hair:
    Jonah: So if I give you guys my manuscript, would you give me notes?
    Servo: Oof...
    Crow: Send it to my agent.
    Servo: I gotta wash my hair.
  • Immediate Self-Contradiction: Servo finds it hard to make a riff during the scene where Eric revives Mac's family, and Jonah says that sincere empathy is a sign of maturity. Then Crow cracks another joke ("That chick's like 'Uh, which butt do I put this straw in?'") and all of them, including Jonah, laugh.
    Jonah: You're the king, Crow!
  • Lame Pun Reaction:
    • Max shows off his new sponsorship by introducing himself as "Office Max". He pauses for a reaction, and gets nothing but silence.
    • When Tom cracks the "Hands Across Him-Eric-A" joke, Jonah yanks his dome off and tosses it away as punishment. Tom remains domeless for the rest of the experiment.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: In Jonah's interpretation, the other aliens were trying to figure out the best way to make first contact when the father alien got impatient and just started chucking rocks at the probe.
  • Milestone Celebration: invoked The first episode with the "Celebrating our Thirtieth Year" caption after the intro.
  • My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Jonah's attempts to whistle a question to Max in Moon 13 comes with a lot of mistranslations, to the point where Crow has to pull out an English-to-Alien Whistling Phrasebook (sponsored by Coca-Cola) to get it straight.
  • Non-Ironic Clown: Jonah works as one for McDonah's, though he clearly doesn't like his work. At this fast food place, it's not the clown that's scary — that would be the Grimace. Within the film itself, The Cameo by Ronald McDonald is also treated in terms of this trope; instead of joking about Ronald being creepy, it's pointed out that nobody in the huge crowd of kids is really paying attention to him!
  • Noodle Incident: How Jonah escaped his apparent death at the end of the last season. He's happy to tell, but nobody else really cares, except maybe Gypsy.
  • Off-the-Shelf FX:
    Servo: Pillowcase over a water cooler?
    Jonah: Check!
    Servo: Foil-wrapped kleenex box sitting on a humidifier?
    Jonah: Check!
    Crow: Boys, we've got a satellite!
  • Off with His Head!: Just like in Starcrash, Jonah yanks off Tom's head, this time for his pun of "Hands Across Him-Eric-A".
  • On the Next: The episode ends with Kinga and Max teasing the next film: Atlantic Rim, a Mockbuster of Pacific Rim. This continues through each episode in the season.
  • Product Placement: The extensive and often plot-crucial product placement in this film — the result of the producer coming from the world of advertising, and a key reason for its infamy — is mocked constantly in the riffing. The Mads, for their part, are inspired to find ways to incorporate it into their work.
  • Pun: A few, but there is a standout worth noting: Tom goes without a dome for the remainder of the film after he describes Eric's resurrection as "Hands Across Him-Eric-A" and Jonah pulls it off and tosses it away as punishment.
  • Rack Focus:
    Tom: Raaaaaack focus. [during a not-so-subtle use of this]
  • Running Gag:
    • "Pretty niiiiiice!" Eric and his mom use it to describe a lot of cars on the road, and by the end of the riffing, it's Eric's response to being brought back from the dead!
    • Voicing Mac's family as hicks and/or stoners, or having one of them play the irritable Only Sane Man to the humans in the film.
    • ANYTHING to do with the film's infamous Product Placement, though Coke comes in for most of the ribbing.
    • In the early going, Alan Silvestri's score is poked fun at for trying way too hard for a Mockbuster of E.T.
      Crow: I wanna see the movie this composer thought he was scoring.
    • With that in mind the film being a remarkably blatant E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial knockoff is brought up often in the riffing, such as the little girl neighbor being referred to as "Drew Barry-less".
    • Eric's older brother's inability to score with women.
    • Eric has a photo of his whole family together — including a dad who doesn't otherwise appear in the film. As the film never explains why he has a Disappeared Dad, there are several riffs offering explanations, such as his dying under the same circumstances that lead to Eric's Disney Death or his wife pushing him off of a cliff. There are also a few jokes based on the idea that Mac intends to take/usurp the dad's place in the family.
    • Early on, as Mac causes mischief and property damage in Eric's house and the boy sees the aftermath of his hijinks but not the creature itself, there are several references to The Shining.
    • The title inspires a run of jokes about who Mac and Me are exactly.
    • Stock riffs: "Watch out for snakes!" as Eric sadly wheels himself into the field behind his house. (They've still got it!)
  • Saving the Orphanage: Speculating about the group of teenagers dancing around a boom box in the parking lot outside of a prepubescent girl's birthday party: "They must be throwing a breakdance benefit to stop an evil land developer from tearing down that McDonalds."
  • Shaming the Mob: Jonah expects that the climax will hinge on Eric doing this, but what actually happens induces a brief Freak Out.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Side Effects Include...: Algernon has a lot of side effects, but so long as they're read off really quickly in the advertisement no one can sue the Mads over them.
  • Softer and Slower Cover: Jonah and the Bots break out into "Holiday Road" as the kids head into the desert to track down Mac's family. Once they're found and they're all back on the road, the song is reprised in a manner befitting this trope.
  • So Last Season: Jonah brings up Kinga's attempted marriage to him, but she uses this trope to push it aside. She further claims that they're dumbing things down as pretty much nobody on the show cares about how Jonah escaped his apparent death by mecha-dragon.
  • Starfish Language: Parodied in one host segment where the characters try to send messages through whistling but keep stumbling into other meanings.
  • Stock Scream: When Crow gets sucked out of the SOL, he does an incredible recreation of the Howie Scream.
  • Stoners Are Funny: One of the Running Gag alternate interpretations of Mac's family wandering the desert is that they're laid-back stoners.
  • Take That!:
    • "You know, they got Terrence Malick to direct this shot. That's why it goes nowhere."
    • "Man, my mom's mad at me, nobody believes me, I don't have any friends. I guess I'll just have to become a Juggalo."
    • "When visiting Bakersfield, California... reconsider!"
    • "Luke, thirty years from now, overly possessive fanboys, upset with your character arc will be. Hmm, yes."
    • "So that's where La Croix comes from."
    • Easy target Spam gets off surprisingly lightly, but Pez gets dissed:
      Servo: Spam: it's canned meat that tastes faintly of ham.
      Crow: Pez: it's nature's perfect food delivery system. It tastes faintly of a sidewalk soaked in Dimetapp.
  • Tempting Fate: "I'll just unscrew this panel, secure in the knowledge there are no aliens inside of it and—Oh my god!"
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Mac rescues Eric from the lake, just as the music swells in the background, and Crow quips, "Look! The music's rejuvenating him!"
  • Undignified Death: When one of the government agents trips over a toy car while chasing Eric: "Tell my wife I died chasing a little boy in a wheelchair!"
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Tom Servo scoffs at the birthday party scene, pointing out how unrealistic that there's a clown doing magic tricks, but most of the kids aren't paying attention to him at all. Then Crow and Jonah start pretending they don't see any clown.
  • We Have Reserves: invoked When it comes time for Eric to go over the cliff, Crow shares some trivia:
    Crow: You know, they went through three Erics making this...
  • With Lyrics: Tom Servo sings along with the backing music:
    Servo: Do you hear that Spielberg music?
    There'll be whimsy, then some action!
  • X Days Since: After the probe explodes: "Alright, reset the sign to zero days without an accident, Brad."
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Jonah groans "Oh, come on!" when he comes back from his cliffhanger ending and the first thing he's greeted to is the intro tube.

Alien woman knocks over a display of Coke cans in front of the store manager.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"
Naked alien man steps out of an aisle holding a watermelon, both stare.

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