Referenced By / Mystery Science Theater 3000

References made to the comedic science fiction series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988-1999).

Comic Books

• Empowered has Dr. Big McLargeHuge.
• In one My Little Pony Micro Series issue, a dress is based on elements of Crow, Tom, and the Satellite of Love, with one character commenting on "what a great riff" and another saying "It sticks!". In one My Little Pony: Friends Forever issue, pony versions of Dr. Forrestor, TV's Frank, and Pearl Forrestor are used.
• One issue of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) had some robots that looked quite a bit like Crow, Tom and Cambot.

• Superboy (1994): When trying on different potential housings for Emil Hamilton's modified X-Ray helmet/visor Superboy says of one he doesn't care for "Didn't I see this on Mystery Science Theater?"
• Issue 9 of Transformers: Generation 2 have Tom and Crow be among the many victims the Autobot/Decepticon alliance sees on J'asik.

Fan Fic

• The very concept of an MST is basically imitating the show's style and applying to different things. Many MSTs are Fan Fiction using the series' characters, hence why the trope is placed in this folder.
• Boldores And Boomsticks: A Pokémon World version of the series is shown while Yang channel surfs. Crow is a golden Porygon and Tom is a Rotom possessing a gumball machine.
• The authors of Calvin & Hobbes: The Series love the series, and it shows:
  • A marathon framing device has Andy and Sherman reenacting the Thunderdome sketch with Socrates.
  • Jack T. Robot's name is likely a reference to Crow.
  • One episode has Dr. Brainstorm calling Jack "TV's Jack", presumably a reference to TV's Frank (and a reversal of sorts, since Brainstorm's first name is Frank).
  • Calvin attempts to bug Susie in "A Club's Blow" by singing a mash-up of the theme songs to SpongeBob SquarePants, this show, and Garfield and Friends.
  • When several loud buzzers go off in "Electronic Invasion", Calvin shouts "WE'VE GOT MOVIE SIGN!", upon which Hobbes tells him "Wrong show."
  • From "Dark Laughter Part 1":
    Andy: And people wonder why our landfills are full.
    Socrates: Really? Then it's my duty as a citizen of This Island Earth to make up for that! To the midway!
• In Chapter 34 of Nobody Dies, Rei shows that a window can be opened with the proper password: "HIEEEE-KEEEEEEBA!"

Films

• A poster for The Movie can be spotted in Carter's dorm room in Happy Death Day.

Literature

• The plot of chapter seven of Pondovadia is about the main trio stuck watching a bad teen movie as a science experiment. The scientist character, Felicity Klingas, is loosely named after Felicia Day and her character Kinga Forrester. She mentions other clients named Joel, Mike, and Jonah.

Music

• In the lyric video for Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda", we see her silhouette joining those Mike and the bots.
• The punk band Riverdales named every song on their final two albums after movies covered on the show, even naming one of the albums Invasion USA.

Newspaper Comics

• Sally Forth (Howard): One Sunday strip discusses the show with the final panel showing the silhouettes of the bots. See here◊

Roleplay

• Dino Attack RPG:
  • Andrew, Laxus, Pterisa, and Dr. Cyborg riff movies together with agent Joike.
  • Two other Dino Attack agents are named Gypsy and Observer.
  • One of the comments in the com chatter references the recurring joke "Deep Hurting".
  • In regards to Dino Attack agent Rowsdower, Joike comments that he has a stupid name, referencing MST3K's riff of The Final Sacrifice.
• Survival of the Fittest has Keiji Tanaka saying "Oh, poopie!"

Theater

• A Very Potter Musical paraphrases a line from The Movie: "I'm gonna curl up in my sock drawer and sleep for days."

Video Games

• Borderlands has an achievements entitled "Can't We Get Beyond Thunderdome?"
• DragonFable has Rolith quoting the MST3K Mantra during the Code Monkey Challenge.
• Dropsy: One of the shows on Dropsy's television is an episode of Mystery Science Theater.
• Escape Velocity has a number of references to the series: the adjacent systems of Manos and Torgo, another cluster of systems named Gamera, Guiron and Zigra, and a system named Gymkata containing a planet named Hikeeba. The Easter Eggs in the game include a killer forklift, the Satellite of Love and an alternate Opening Scroll parodying the MST3K Theme Tune.
• Kingdom of Loathing:
  • The warwelf monster is a reference to the bizarre accents sported by the actors in Werewolf (1996), and two of its attacks reference other aspects of the movie (among them "Oh no, Paul! You is a werewolf!") The tiny plastic warwelf references this same line.
  • Also, the name of Mt. McLargeHuge.
  • The former LAAAAME Observatory had a Lovely Satellite (a reference to the Satellite of Love), as well as a paraphrase of the ending line of Red Zone Cuba: "Griffin ran all the way to Hell... with a penny and a broken cigarette."
  • The same place has a very obscure reference to the 1st Annual MST3K Summer Blockbuster Review. Quote this site:
    "They show a clip from the movie Batman & Robin, in which Mr. Freeze is trying to escape using some kind of jetpack contraption, and Batman swoops in behind him using his cape like a hang glider. Observer exclaims: 'Oh my God, they're docking!' I have no idea why I remember this so many years later."
    • The game's head writer even congratulated him for recognizing it!
  • An enemy mosquito can randomly be named Nurse Feratu.
  • The sub-molecule interocitor is a homage to This Island Earth, and the riff thereof:
    "Just make sure to only use genuine interocitor parts to repair and maintain it."
  • The Cymbal-Banging Monkey familiar can wink at you with bloodshot eyes, a reference to the demonic monkey from Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders.
• Pony Fantasy VI has Pinkie Pie going to see a movie, which was apparently very boring, but some guys in the front row made fun of it the whole time.
  • Also, you're asked whether you think Mike or Joel is funnier. Picking Joel summons some guards for you to fight.
• A rather unintentional example, but in WarioWare "Get it Together!" one of Dribble and Spitz's microgames is called Nightmare Fuel.
• The trailers for Portal 2 show a line-up of turrets, one of which proclaims "I'm different!"
• Team Fortress 2: In the replay update page, the Scout is pointing towards the screen in a similar manner to Joel/Mike's pose in most of the pictures of the shad-o-rama◊.
• One of the pizza delivery boys in The Sims is named Torgo Pendragon.
• Star Wars Rebel Assault II features theater mode, which has R2-D2, Darth Vader and C-3P0 sitting like Joel/Mike and the Bots, while the cut scenes play with a Gag Sub.
• The Sword of the Stars main map screen has a tiny chance to play the NOR-MAL VIEW line from the movie when you switch from one display mode to another.

Visual Novels

• One of the late scenes in Emi's route in Katawa Shoujo is entitled "Hooray for Socks".

Web Comics

• In the And Shine Heaven Now storyline 'Eurekon', Dr. Forrester and Frank are shown attending the titular mad scientist convention. Later in that same storyline, Pearl and the Observer are attending Doc's panel, where Pearl questions what he means by 'opening a hellmouth again' and the Observer hands her a copy of the pre-Hellsing hentai manga 'Doc's Story' to explain it.
  "Here, read this. Just not in public."
• Square Root of Minus Garfield:
  • This strip imitates the series's style, featuring the characters riffing a Garfield comic complete with a stinger.
  • Also, this otherwise unrelated strip is titled "We've Got Donut Sign".

Web Video

• According to The Annotated Series, Guile thinks Mike was funnier than Joel.
• Atop the Fourth Wall references MST multiple times, with Linkara often using quotes and clips from the show to emphasize his critiques and reactions:
  [when a character is wearing a ridiculous outfit] "There. Sure glad I don't look stupid in this."
  [whenever a timeline inconsistency creates a Plot Hole or Mind Screw] "Space is warped and time is bendable."
  [whenever the government is portrayed as evil, incompetent, and/or obstructive] "I'm the government! I'm the government! I'm the reason nothing works!"
  [in response to a confused or poorly-handled Aesop]: "We hope you've enjoyed No Moral Theatre, ladies and gentlemen!"
  [when the laws of physics are being disregarded] "Help! I'm falling at a 60 degree angle, breaking all the laws of physics!"
  • One part of the "Linkara Lost" arc begins: "If you're watching this, it means either I'm missing or I'm dead."
  • Also, in his "Brave and the Bold #54" review, Linkara has Batman reading about "new petitions against tax", a stock phrase in movie newspapers that was the subject of a Running Gag on the show.
  • The character of Pollo could even count, since he was originally built as Lewis' first attempt at a webseries, which was a fan version of MST3K itself. One of Pollo's backup bodies is a Tom Servo puppet.
  • Marville #2, which does feature a tape reading "MST3000 Manos: The Hands of Fate" in the cover, has Linkara having a Heroic BSoD while the credits song of said movie plays, and the closing lines are him showing his copy of that MST3K episode saying he needs to rewatch it after such a terrible comic.
• Zod's response to Terl's speech in To Boldly Flee: "Oh, bite me, it's fun".
• Having featured a good number of movies that should have been on MST3K, Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews has referenced the show several times, particularly when he reviews movies that have already been featured on MST3K like the Gamera movies. Brandon's also admitted to be a fan of the show.
• The Cinema Snob has also both referenced the show and reviewed past subjects, like Pod People. For instance, when discussing the sequels to The Legend of Boggy Creek, all Snob needed to indicate Boggy Creek 2: And the Legend Continues not being good was a screenshot of the MST episode.
• Homestar Runner:
  • In the 2014 Halloween toon, "I Killed Pom Pom", Marzipan is dressed as Tom Servo. She suggests she and Strong Sad watch a bad horror movie and "make snappy comments and obscure references while we watch it."
  • Tom Servo makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in "A Jorb Well Done" when Coach Z is at the movies.
  • And the 2016 Halloween toon had Homestar dressed as Mr. B Natural.
    Homestar: Knew your father, I did.
    Strong Bad: You leave my father out of this!
• Tom Scott's documentary "Youtube's Copyright System Isn't Broken. The World's Is" mentions MST3K as a jumping off point to talk about fair use and reaction channels.
• The "running theme" from Truncated Power Rangers is from the Angels Revenge episode.
• The Spoony Experiment quotes "WATCH OUT FOR SNAKES!"
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: Tristan holding up a die and saying "This is going straight up my nose" is verbatim a quip from the riff on The Horror of Party Beach.
• Episode 2 of Lloyd has an impromptu revival of the show, with one lamp suddenly becoming voiced so there are three people riffing.

Western Animation

• In the "Potty Emergency" episode of Animaniacs, the Warner siblings are watching a poorly-made black-and-white sci-fi film. At one point, when the movie cuts to an exterior shot, the letters "MST3K" are visible.
• The Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Invasion of the Secret Santas!" has Fun Haus mentioning that a Robot Santa seems scary.
• Futurama: In "Raging Bender", Bender, Fry and Leela go to a movie theater. When Fry makes jokes about the news reel they're watching the silhouettes of Crow and Servo ironically tell him to be quiet.
• One year Nickelodeon had a special marathon of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius (including the movie) where the episodes aired with the main characters, Jimmy, Carl and Sheen, appearing as silhouettes in a movie theater like the main characters of Mystery Science Theater, and provided MST style commentary on their own show.
• The Lion King 1 ½ starts with Timon and Pumbaa watching The Lion King in a theater and giving some mocking commentary before deciding to 'rewind' to their stories before the movie's events. It still returns to that Framing Device and their comments on occasion.
• Phineas and Ferb: It is shown that Dr. Doofenshmirtz likes to MST bad movies in one episode.
• A scene in The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Silent Treatment" has the girls sitting in a movie theater, positioned at the bottom right of the screen making fun of a movie as it plays.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie", Homer and Bart enter a movie theatre from the right side of the screen, making the same type of silhouettes as the characters.
  • In "Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part One)", the show is playing on Comedy Central on Moe's TV set.
  • In "Bart's New Friend", silhouettes of Mike, Crow and Servo can be seen along with Homer and Bart's while they're riding a parody of Soarin' Over California.
• Wander over Yonder: In "The Cartoon", Hater, Peepers and two random Watchdogs are sitting in a theater watching Hater's propaganda cartoon. The way their silhouettes contrast with the movie screen brings to mind MST3K.

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