Line #80 Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S11E08TheLovesofHercules


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mst_herc.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"A Greco-Romantic comedy!"]]
3
4	->'''Kinga Forrester:''' Your experiment is a pecs-and-princesses epic starring Jayne Mansfield, Jayne Mansfield's husband, and the rest of Jayne Mansfield.\
5	'''TV's Son of TV's Frank:''' It stinks like feta cheese!
6
7	Film Featured: ''Film/TheLovesOfHercules''
8
9	!!The Segments:
10	[[AC:Prologue]]
11	* Jonah and the bots are binge-watching ''Series/{{Wings}}.'' Crow gets a bit confused and wonders when Music/PaulMcCartney comes in.
12
13	[[AC:Segment 1]]
14	* Invention Exchange time. The bots invent the Fried Turkey Dunk Tank, which combines a carnival dunk tank with a turkey fryer. Kinga invents the Mexican Jumping Bean-Bag Chair, but Max ruins the prototype when he tries to disinfect it.
15
16	[[AC:Segment 2]]
17	* Inspired by the movie's Trial By Axe Throwing, the bots tie Jonah to a wall and throw things at him to determine his guilt for various minor annoyances.
18
19	[[AC:Segment 3]]
20	* Tom Servo and Crow argue over who the real monsters are: the hydras, or the adventurers who kill them?
21
22	[[AC:Segment 4]]
23	* Jonah and the bots pretend to be Deianera's serving girls...and then Jonah's new robot buddy M. Waverly arrives, dressed as a Greek soldier. The other bots do ''not'' appreciate Jonah's attempt to add a new face to the cast.
24
25	[[AC:Segment 5]]
26	* An impromptu angelic choir breaks out.
27
28	----
29	!!Tropes featured in the [=MST3K=] presentation of ''Film/TheLovesOfHercules'':
30
31	* AdaptationalWimp: There's quite a few riffs about how this Hercules mostly just seems like a reasonably buff guy rather than an inhumanly strong demigod. Making it weirder is that Mr. Universe winner Creator/MickeyHargitay is likely one of the most genuinely strong people to play the role.
32	* AngstWhatAngst: [[invoked]] They note that Herc is awfully quick to pursue new romance, considering it's only been a few days since his wife ''died.''
33	-->'''Servo:''' ''(as Herc, singing joyfully)'' I miss my dead wife!
34	* BaitAndSwitch:
35	-->'''Jonah:''' See that pink smoke? Nowadays, all this would just be done in CGI, which I feel is cold and sterile.\
36	'''Crow:''' Yeah, you don't get the warmth of these shots of incompetent people trying their very hardest.\
37	'''Jonah:''' Right.
38	* CallBack:
39	** [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S05E01WarriorOfTheLostWorld "Any fruit to declare?"]]
40	** [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E20SpaceMutiny "Calgon, take me away!"]]
41	** The riffers may have caught onto Kinga's stealing her Invention Exchange ideas from their riffs, but she's not done stealing just yet -- the Mexican Jumping Bean Bag Chair was an idea from [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S02E05RocketAttackUSA a second season episode]].
42	* [[invoked]]CelebrityResemblance: Several for Mickey Hargitay's decent resemblance to [[Music/PearlJam Eddie Vedder]].
43	* CherubicChoir: Jonah and the bots sing a triumphant but wordless theme over the last scene. Then it persists into the last host segment, and the Mads join in from Moon 13, becoming increasingly cacophonic as it goes on, until it ends with Max shrieking atonally as he hits the button. [[TheCastShowOff Kinga's got some pipes, though.]] %%InUniverse
44	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When Queen Deianira strips behind a shoulder-high curtain, Crow and Tom Servo both find ways to peek around the curtain. Afterwards, without a trace of irony, Crow complains that the view was terrible, because, "She wasn't even wearing underwear."
45	* ContinuityNod:
46	** In the first host segment, Jonah eats RAM Chips brand potato chips, a nod to the ''very'' early seasons, when Joel would feed the bots literal RAM chips as their reward for sharing one good thing and one bad thing about the movie they just watched.
47	*** Later, Jonah is eating Grown Man Bowl Cuts cereal straight from the box, from ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S11E02CryWilderness Cry Wilderness]].''
48	** And speaking of early seasons -- not one episode after being called out for basing her inventions on Jonah and the 'Bots' riffs, Kinga advances to stealing inventions from ''Joel'' -- the Mexican Jumping Bean Bag Chair was his planned invention for ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S02E05RocketAttackUSA Rocket Attack USA]]'' (until Gypsy ate it).
49	* CoupleBomb: [[invoked]] Jonah and the bots note the lack of on-screen chemistry between Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay, despite the fact they were both married at the time.[[note]]This was the second of four films they made together.[[/note]] In particular, the riffers find the kissing scenes awkward and unconvincing:
50	-->'''Servo:''' So, these two are married in real life, and this is how they kiss?\
51	'''Crow:''' She's laying eggs inside of him right now.
52	* CousinOliver / TheScrappy: In-universe, "M. Waverly," a new robot that interrupts a host segment to crack stale jokes. Crow and Tom Servo take an immediate dislike to him, and smash him to pieces just off-camera.
53	-->'''Servo:''' This isn't some sitcom that needs a new kid when the old kid grows up! You can't [[PersonAsVerb Raven-Symoné]] us!
54	* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: In a nod to the movie's ax-throwing trial by ordeal, the bots tie Jonah to a wall (or rather tie a wall to Jonah, since he can still walk around with it on his back) and launch various stuff at him, tailored to his crimes, from a tiny catapult, in what Tom calls "a little bit of high-concept fun we're calling ''People's Throwing Court''."
55	* DiabolusExNihilo: When Hercules' final opponent turns out to be a barely-foreshadowed Bigfoot-looking monster, rather than Licos, Jonah quips, "I must have fallen asleep in Greek mythology the day they talked about Sasquatch."
56	* EngineeredHeroics: After Herc "kills" a rampaging bull:
57	-->'''Jonah:''' ''(as Herc, to the bull)'' Good job, Elmer. She bought it. We'll split the money later.
58	* HollywoodTactics: As Hercules attacks the hydra: "Attacking from the side is too safe. I'll go to the front, where the mouths are!"
59	* IResembleThatRemark: People's Throwing Court again.
60	-->'''Servo:''' For the crime of poorly impersonating Music/TomJones, even when we beg you to stop...\
61	'''Jonah:''' Oh, come on, is it that ''[sings]'' unuuusual to want to talk like Tom Jones?\
62	'''Crow and Servo:''' Guilty!
63	* KnifeThrowingAct: Deianera's trial by ordeal consists of tying her to a wall and seeing if Hercules can cut the ropes with a set of throwing axes without hurting her. Leading the robots to call it a trial by carnie trick.
64	* LetsMeetTheMeat: Discussed briefly in the invention exchange; Jonah is worried that seeing a turkey carcass on a dunk tank platform is an unsettling degree of anthropomorphism, "like when they have a barbecue restaurant sign, and it has a happy pig on it?" Servo and Crow try to encourage Jonah by making him imagine that the turkey is insulting him. That just weirds him out further and makes him ''more'' reluctant to "kill" the turkey.
65	* LoonyLaws:
66	-->'''Crow:''' For the crime of not wanting to have cold spaghetti thrown at you...\
67	'''Jonah:''' That's a crime? That's ridiculous!\
68	''[{{Beat}}.]''\
69	'''Crow:''' ...Guilty! ''[flings cold spaghetti at Jonah]'' Sooo incredibly guilty.\
70	'''Servo:''' It's insane how guilty you are!
71	* LoudOfWar: Jonah and the Bots' angelic chorus continues after the end of the film, and the Mads and Skeleton Crew try to outdo them in the final scene.
72	* MondegreenGag: Jonah mishears "Themis" as "tennis", and guesses that the Trial of Themis must be Wimbledon.
73	* MortonsFork: People's Throwing Court:
74	-->'''Crow:''' If something hits you, you're guilty. If it doesn't hit you, you're still probably guilty.
75	* MythologyGag: The chips Jonah's eating is "Ram Chips". Back in the first season and the KTMA era, Joel would give the bots RAM Chips for saying one good thing and one bad thing about the movie.
76	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When Kinga reveals that Max's germaphobe attitude killed their Mexican Jumping Bean Bag Chair, he realizes what he's done & cries out in despair. Kinga tells him to just throw it away.
77	* NeverMyFault: As Hercules prepares to free Deianera via KnifeThrowingAct, he declares that the gods will guide his throws.
78	-->'''Hercules:''' If they're righteous gods, I must succeed.\
79	'''Servo:''' ''(as Herc)'' So if I kill her, it's not my fault.
80	* ObviousStuntDouble: They point out Jayne Mansfield's clearly male stunt double when the queen is bucked off her horse.
81	* OwMyBodyPart: "Oh, my stomach-back!"
82	* PropRecycling: [[invoked]] Crow pretends to be a merchant selling brass wares: "We've got that one fruit bowl that's in every scene!"
83	* RunningGag:
84	** Hercules has tiny nipples.
85	** Singing Music/PearlJam songs based on Herc's CelebrityResemblance [[invoked]] to Eddie Vedder.
86	** Stock riffs:
87	*** Whenever a character in the film commands another to "Speak!", Jonah and the bots respond in unison with ''"Arf!"''
88	*** "It's like a Thomas Kinkade painting -- [[TakeThat horrible...]]"
89	* ShoutOut:
90	** "This is for [[Literature/TheHungerGames District 12]]!"
91	** "Look, it's the [[Literature/TheKingkillerChronicle Edema Ruh]]." (Then again, what do you expect when Rothfuss is in the writer's room?)
92	** When Deianira's guards refuse to obey her:
93	--->'''Crow:''' ''[as Deianira]'' [[Music/FearOfABlackPlanet 911]] ''[[Music/FearOfABlackPlanet is]]'' [[Music/FearOfABlackPlanet a joke.]] [[Music/PublicEnemy Flavor Flavius]] [[Recap/CommunityS2E06Epidemiology was right.]]
94	* SkywardScream: Max's reaction upon realizing that he killed the moth larvae and ruined Kinga's invention.
95	-->'''Max:''' Nooooo! Noooooo! What have I done?! Whyyyyyyy?
96	* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Herc lifts a huge wooden wheel over his head. Crow quips, "Uh, Herc, you know you can just roll that, right?"
97	* SpecialEffectFailure: [[invoked]]
98	** Jonah and the bots mock the Hydra model for being so stiff and immobile, specifically noting when Herc has to ''crawl underneath its claws'' before it can "attack" him.
99	** The bull that Herc fights mid-film is actually two (at least) animals, a fully black one for closeups (He's got murder in his big, dewey eyes), and a black-and-white mottled one (already-dead carcass or, hopefully, a fake carcass) which Herc "kills" and whose white areas are painted black -- not entirely convincingly, with the bots noting that "the black is rubbing off!"
100	* TerrifyingPetStoreRat: When Herc squares off against the bull, there's a close-up to show how enraged it looks... which it doesn't, instead seeming very placid and sweet.
101	-->'''Crow:''' Oh, yeah, [he's] got murder in his big, dewy eyes.
102	* VisualGag: Servo hovers over to get a good, close look at Herc's mighty chest. Herc accidentally swats him away.
103	* WithCatlikeTread: "Hey, guys, this is a sneak attack. Maybe cool it with the singing, guys."
104	* WorstAid: "Uh, maybe call a doctor. I don't think rubbing water on his forehead is going to do anything to close the gaping chest wound."
105	* WorstWhateverEver: After one of the tree-men in the Forest of Death kills Hippolyta, Crow calls it, "Worst Burning Man, ever."
106
107	----
108	-->''[[TheStinger The hydra lightly smacks Hercules with one of its heads and he falls to the ground with exaggerated spins.]]''

Context Recap / MysteryScienceTheater3000S11E08TheLovesofHercules