History Recap / MysteryScienceTheater3000S07E04TheIncredibleMeltingMan

** "Hal Needham once said, "[[Film/{{Q}} Give me a firebird and a dilapidated building, and I'll give you drama.]]"

-->'''Servo:''' ''[[Film/DasBoot Das Blecch]]''![[note]]Could double as a reference to MadMagazine.[[/note]]

* TechnologyMarchesOn: [[invoked]] At one point, Crow yells, "''There's'' your Windows 95!" at a character who resembles Bill Gates.
* WithLyrics: The very mundane, boring name of "Ted Nelson" starts to become an InherentlyFunnyWord as it's repeatedly sung over the movie's score.

* TakeThat: The segments involving Crow's film are a not-so-subtle jab at the ExecutiveMeddling that Gramercy Pictures inflicted on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie'', and the Deep Hurting that Best Brains endured in the process. Mary Jo Pehl later called these host segments "therapeutic".

**

* HeyItsThatGuy: Invoked by Mike when he sees Creator/JonathanDemme is one of the cast members, but adds bitterly, "Ah, who cares?"

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: When Melty finally melts into a big pile of goo, Mike quips, "Sometimes it's best to just let the Ebola virus run its course." Not so funny in recent years when the Ebola virus became a big scare for a while. [[invoked]]

* ValuesDissonance: Servo reacts to Ted giving his ''pregnant'' wife barbiturates to get her to sleep.
-->'''Servo:''' Ah, yes. Now her baby is enjoying the experience of ''goofballs''.

* AnAesop: During the credits the gang goes over what they learned, such as: Don't shout 'I'm Doctor Ted Nelson' to security guards. Or that cats can get their own milk out of the fridge.

* ContinuityNod: Crow's script "Earth vs. Soup" gets made!
** As a trailer! [[YankTheDogsChain Poor Crow]].
*** During the "script confab", Pearl accidentally takes the script to ''Peter Graves at the University of Minnesota'' script from ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S05E17BeginningOfTheEnd Beginning of the End]]''.

* {{Leitmotif}}: The crew gives Ted a theme when he's tracking down Melty by the river.
** More accurately, Mike and the Bots (mostly Crow) repeatedly sing "Ted Nelson" to the tune of the background music in one scene.

** SmallNameBigEgo: He's also quite incompetent as a director. He doesn't know the proper sequence of shooting, and ruins a scene because he didn't get off camera.
** HypercompetentSidekick: Servo, aka "Judy", practically directs the film him (her?) self.

* RunningGag: Reusing Ted's cry of "[[{{Angrish}} Hotchka]]!".

* TakeThat: The segments involving Crow's film is a not so subtle jab at Gramercy Picture's meddling of the [=MST3K=] film.
** Specifically, Forrester's increasingly large doses of water are a nod to the Gramercy executives' alleged tendency to carry little paper cups around with them ''everywhere.''

* CreatorPreferredAdaptation: [[invoked]] The director/writer of the film, William Sachs, LOVED the MST3K parody of it. The reason being, when he wrote the film, he wrote it as a parody of the sci-fi/horror genre. But sadly ExecutiveMeddling happened, and the producers told him to "remove the funny stuff", resulting in a really disjointed film. MST3K in effect restored the "parody" elements of the film and made it funny the way the director originally intended.

* TakeThat: The segments involving Crow's film is a not so subtle jab at Gramercy Picture's meddling of the MST3K film.

!!The {{MST3K}} treatment provides the following tropes

* CallBack: "[[MonsterAGoGo Dr. Ted Nelson was found alive and of normal size. There was no Melting Man.]]"

-->'''Servo:''' ''[[Recap/StarTrekS1E24ThisSideOfParadise I'm not going back, Jim!]]

-->'''Servo:''' ''[[DasBoot Das Blecch]]''![[note]]Could double as a reference to MadMagazine.[[/note]]

-->'''Crow:''' ''(amused)'' So, how many monster films end with a janitor scooping up s monster and putting it in a garbage can?

-->'''Crow:''' ''(amused)'' How many monster films end with a janitor scooping up the monster and throwing him away?

* RiddleOfTheAges: