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YMMV / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S04 E24 Manos: The Hands of Fate

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  • Fridge Brilliance: The movie was so bad that Crow and Servo were reduced to crying wrecks. It was apparently so rough that even the Mads felt bad for sending it up to the Satellite. Considering their goal, you'd think that the Mads should have achieved victory in finding the worst movie of all time. However, their goal was to drive Joel to the Despair Event Horizon, and considering Joel refused to be bothered and had to step up more to his Team Dad role to comfort the bots, the Mads still failed in their mission.
    • Pairing this movie with Hired!: the former being made by a salesman named Warren and a character in the latter being a salesman named Warren.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Joel and the bots muse about Torgo's actor's acting career after the film and wonder if he'd be typecast as "Torgo". John Reynolds committed suicide shortly after the production was finished.
      • Made somewhat less harsh by the other cast members saying they thought Reynolds would have loved the episode.
    • At one point in the movie, the Master threatens to kill Torgo because of his failure. Joel and the bots play this as the Master firing Torgo. One says, "You can't kill me, I quit!" which, you know, the suicide thing.
    • During the closing credits, Crow wonders of John Reynolds, who played Torgo, "Do you think he's proud of this role?" The attention the episode brought to the film revealed that Reynolds was actually a very disturbed man who abused various drugs and, well, you can probably guess by now.
    • In addition to all that, early in the film, Joel comments, "Every frame of this film looks like someone's last known photograph." Given that Reynolds, you guessed it, committed suicide after filming, and other photos of him are hard to come by, one could say all frames of this film are Reynolds' last known photographs.
  • Ho Yay:
    • The bots invoke this between the policemen.
      Crow: "Think we should try some of that kissin', Bert?"
    • Also in the short preceding the film:
      Mr. Warren: The first thing Harry drilled into me—
      Crow: "—was Harry!"
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • In the movie, Torgo is replaced by Mike as caretaker. In the host segments, who plays Torgo? Mike Nelson! Also, who replaced Joel? Mike!
    • Bob Guidry has said that following the rough premiere night, Hal Warren observed, "You know, maybe if we took it back and re-dubbed the dialogue, we could market it as a comedy."
    • During one segment, where Joel and the bots are making fun of Torgo's knee disfigurement by explaining how they have various and utterly ridiculous disfigurements, Joel mentions his face is completely normal, but has no nose. Not even holes. Fast forward over a decade, and a certain Harry Potter villain can be described just like that!
    • During the end credits, Crow remarks, "Crew?! They had a crew?! I refuse to believe they had a crew!" is actually quite spot-on as, during the Season 13 Manos tribute livestream, Jackey Neyman Jones revealed that Hal Warren made up a lot of the names in the end credits to make it seem like more people worked on the film than really did.
  • Special Effect Failure: The "part 2" on the Hired! title screen is very clearly superimposed by Best Brains. It might not have been noticeable during the original broadcast, but it's very clear on the DVD/VOD release.

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