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Context Recap / MysteryScienceTheater3000S04E07TheKillerShrews

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1[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/407s.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:320:"Smothered in gravy, Texas-style!"]]
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4[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mst3k_killer_shrews.jpg]]
5[[caption-width-right:320:Starring Joan Collins and Jackie Collins!]]
6
7->'''Dr. Forrester:''' Your movie for today's experiment makes even me sick, and I liked ''Morgan Stewart's Coming Home''. It's called ''Killer Shrews'', and it stars James Best from ''Dukes of Hazzard'' fame, so Frank here is real excited.\
8'''TV's Frank:''' Hey, it was my favorite show, what can I say?
9
10Films watched: ''Junior Rodeo Daredevils'' and ''Film/TheKillerShrews''
11
12''Junior Rodeo Daredevils'' focuses on a pair of young boys who are caught trying to pull a prank on "Old-timer" Billy Slater's horse. To straighten them out, the old cowpoke talks them into putting on a small-time rodeo, with plenty of disabling physical injuries to go around.
13
14This episode was released on DVD along with another "lost" short as an extra: ''Film/AssignmentVenezuela'', the story of an American oil company employee trying to adjust to being sent to work in Venezuela while trying to make everything sound good to his wife and kids back in the States.
15
16The episode is available in the Gizmoplex [[https://www.gizmoplex.com/mst3k/season:4/videos/mst3k-078-thekillershrews here]], and on Creator/ShoutFactory [[https://www.shoutfactorytv.com/mystery-science-theater-3000/mst3k-the-killer-shrews/53cd481f69702d27d3332a00 here]].
17
18!!The Segments:
19[[AC:Prologue]]
20* It's present time on the Satellite of Love! Gypsy gets a ''Little Mermaid'' bathtime set and Servo a spiffy new race car. Crow gets a pair of sensible brown dress slacks, which leaves him disappointed.
21
22[[AC:Segment 1/Invention Exchange]]
23* Instead of an invention, Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank melodramatically intend to destroy the world by launching a nuclear warhead into the Earth's core. Joel presents his line of Edgar Winter Babies, which, combined with his common sense, gets the Mads to abandon their plan.
24
25[[AC:Segment 2]]
26* Joel decides to do an impression of Creator/WillRogers as he wrangles a horned Crow, but vapor-locks and goes into a random tangent of celebrity impersonations. The 'Bots are confused and ashamed of him.
27
28[[AC:Segment 3]]
29* Crow and Servo show off their new Killer Shrews board game, where none of the pieces move and every card has them choose from "Have Drink" or "Contemplate Shrew". Breaking down, Crow and Servo admit it's a stupid thing they made, but Joel's proud of them for trying regardless.
30
31[[AC:Segment 4]]
32* The 'Bots have Joel mix up their new hyper-sweet Killer Shrew drink. One sip is all it takes for Joel to go into shock, but Frank goes off on a wild sugar-bender.
33
34[[AC:Segment 5]]
35* Joel reads a fan letter as the 'Bots, dressed as "killer shrews", attack and poison him. Frank has too much Killer Shrew drink and is nursing a bad bellyache, so Dr. Forrester gives him just the thing for it - an ipecac.
36
37!!The ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' presentation of ''Junior Rodeo Daredevils'' has examples of:
38* DudeNotFunny: Crow suggests that the junior rodeo is just a brief interlude before everyone in town goes back to "crawling inside a whiskey bottle"; Joel angrily shushes him.
39* RunningGag: Whenever the crowd applauds at the titular rodeo:
40-->'''Joel''': And the crowd goes wild!\
41'''Crow and Servo''' [[FlatJoy (unenthusiastically): Yay.]]
42* ShoutOut:
43** The above joke references one of the running gags from the ''Tom Slick'' segments of the ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' show.
44** When some horses rear up, Joel asks [[Film/YoungFrankenstein "Did someone say 'Frau Blucher'?"]]
45* SpinOffBabies: During the short, the crew mentions "Jim Henson's [[Film/TheMisfits Misfit]] Babies" and "Jim Henson's Film/TheLastPictureShow Babies".
46-----
47
48!!The ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' presentation of ''Film/TheKillerShrews'' has examples of:
49* TheAlcoholic: The entire film's cast gets [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]] into this by the crew's riffing. [[note]] Though Jerry may actually be one. One of the first things of note that he does, apart from chewing out the hero, is get really drunk. [[/note]]
50* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Joel completely ruins the Mads' super-dramatic attempt to "crack this puny planet as though it were a china cup," by asking, "What do you get out of it?" Unable to answer the question, along with being presented with Jim Henson's Edgar Winter Babies, Doctor Forrester shuts the whole thing down.
51* GoneHorriblyRight: The Bots engage in some Art Therapy to deal with the boring film by creating a Killer Shrews Board Game. It backfires horribly when they and Joel try to play, and they realize that their game is even ''more'' boring than the movie it's based on (the game pieces are bolted down so they can't move around the board, the instruction cards they draw consist of either "Contemplate Shrew" or "Have Another Drink", etc.).
52* MondegreenGag: Trying to decipher [[TheUnintelligible the Cragis']] heavy accents.
53** Thorn Sherman = Stone Shrimp
54** Radford Banes = Rapid Bathroom
55** "The shrew got into the barn." = "The [[ComicStrip/LilAbner Shmoos]] got into the bah."
56* NoodleImplements: When instructing Joel on how to make a Killer Shrew brew, Crow mistakenly lists wax lips as one of the ingredients. Tom reminds him that this goes in a completely different drink known as the Vulcan Mind Probe.
57* NutritionalNightmare: "The Killer Shrew", a drink that combines about twelve different types of sugar in a blender (chocolate ice cream, Captain Crunch ''with Crunchberries'', peanut M&Ms, Mrs. Butterworths syrup, circus peanuts, Mr. Pibb, Marshmallow Peeps, Sweet Tarts, vanilla cake frosting, Good'n'Plenty, NO wax lips[[note]]They go into the "Vulcan Mind Probe"[[/note]], and garnished with a wind-up shrew). Joel has one taste, goes into diabetic shock and passes out. Frank, on the other hand, goes hyperglycemic, singing "Ladies' Night" and attempting to dance with Dr. Forrester.
58* PropRecycling: Thus begins the epic journey of Crow's sensible brown pants. [[invoked]]
59* RunningGag: Rook plays Dixieland Jazz.
60** [[invoked]]The MondegreenGag due to the accents and muffled dialog. Also see TheUnintelligible.
61** Lots of jokes about the fact that the supposed giant shrews are obviously dogs.
62* ShoutOut:
63** Joel's attempt to impersonate cowboy humorist Will Rogers after watching the short ends up devolving into random quotations from Creator/MarkTwain, Casey Stengel, Alexander Woolcott, [=McGruff=] the Crime Dog, Nikita Khruschev, Garrett Morris, Dion ("Anyone here seen my good friend John?"), UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan's 1984 campaign, and Creator/DrSeuss.
64** [[WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy "Ren! Steempy! Nooo!"]]
65* {{Slurpasaur}}: The crew frequently lampshade this about the shrews (dogs with weird stuff on them).
66* SpellingSong: Joel and the Bots' jingle for the Killer Shrews board game.
67-->''Killer Shrew! Killer Shrew!\
68K-I-double L-E-R-Shrew!\
69He's scary and tough\
70If that ain't enough\
71He's augmented with bath mats and stuff!''
72* SpinOffBabies: Parodied with Joel's Invention Exchange - Jim Henson's Edgar Winter Babies! It's enough to convince the Mads not to [[EarthShatteringKaboom cleave the Earth in two]].
73* TakeThat
74-->'''Tom Servo:''' ''[After reading the title card]'' Starring Creator/JoanCollins and Creator/JackieCollins!
75* TheUnintelligible: The head scientist and his daughter have very thick accents, which Joel and the bots mock to no end.
76--> '''Dr. Marlowe:''' Radford?
77--> '''Joel:''' Rapid? Rapture?
78--> '''Dr. Marlowe:''' Radford, could you please step over here? I'd like you to meet someone.
79--> '''Joel:''' Rapid Bathroom?
80--> '''Tom:''' Yes; this is our resident novelist, Rapid Bathroom.
81* UnsoundEffect: Tom's "Bristle, bristle", while dressed as a cactus.
82* WithLyrics: "You're gonna die from shrew bites, you're gonna die from shrew bites..."
83
84----
85->[[TheStinger "Burn 'em out, those things got loose!" "Any unusual experiment can produce unusual results."]]

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