Playstar Productions? I gotta look this one up.
"Gee, it looks like an eye chart, doesn't it?"
Films watched: Ring of Terror and The Phantom Creeps (Film Serial) Chapter 3note
The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here
, and on Shout! Factory here.
The Segments:
Prologue- Tom and Crow enlist Cambot's help to trigger Movie Sign early to mess with Joel. Granted, it makes hitting the commercial sign buzzer more difficult for them.
Segment 1/Invention Exchange
- Dr. Forrester has created a life-sized version of Operation, using a "willing" Frank as his patient. Meanwhile, Joel appropriates an X-ray fluoroscope, a lump of barium, and his own internal organs to play "Pin-Bolus". Don't ask where the ball exits.
Segment 2
- Inspired by the old-looking college students, the crew pitch the "Old School for Old Students", a college where the elderly can get their degrees... ostensibly, though the offered curriculum might not lend itself to doing so.
Segment 3
- The 'Bots watch with mounting nausea as Joel performs an autopsy on a Hoover vacuum.
Segment 4
- Joel tries to motivate Tom and Crow to say some nice things about the movie for RAM chips. They have no shortage of grievances, at least. To make matters worse, the Mads reveal that they now have to sit through Chapter Three of The Phantom Creeps.
Segment 5
- Inspired by the turncoat chauffeur in the Phantom Creeps short, Frank takes a stab at singing with his original song "If Chauffeurs Ruled the World".
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment of Ring of Terror provides examples of:
- Accentuate the Negative: Joel asks Crow and Servo to say a good thing about the movie and they'll get a RAM chip. Neither can think of anything and just point out plot holes in the film. After giving a RAM chip to Gypsy, Joel does it for them: "The only good thing about the movie was that it was really short!"
- Autopsy Snack Time: Parodied. During one of the host segments, Joel munches an apple while dissecting a vacuum cleaner.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Making fun of The Comedy Channel, while reading the prologue scroll:Crow: "...by using a device that makes him invisible," a contract to appear on The Comedy Channel. Haha Ha ha. I guess I'm outta here. (Tries to leave but is stopped by Joel)
- Call-Back: "
Lewis
Charles Moffett, feared not", as heard in Master Ninja and other episodes. - Celebrity Resemblance: One of Moffett's peers is a guy who looks like Casey Kasem (he provides The Stinger). In one shot, he looks like Sammy Davis Jr..
- Faint in Shock: Gypsy does this during Joel's autopsy on a Hoover vacuum, which disgusts her, Crow, and Tom.
- Here We Go Again!: Ring of Terror opens and closes with a shot of the camera approaching a gate. Joel and the bots lament that the movie is starting over.
- Running Gag: How the students on campus look older than college-aged, which Joel and the bots take to ridiculous extremes, painting them more as senior citizens.
- Saying something about a tuffet every time Mr. Moffitt's name is said.
- Satan: Riffed twice in the film: First, Joel pretends a snake is Satan ("This is what happens when you have sex before marriage."), and at the end, that the cat is Satan ("I'm Satan. I did it, and I'm proud!").
- Shout-Out: During the autopsy scene, a close-up of a skeleton leads to this riff:
- The Show Must Go On: Frank keeps singing even after being smashed over the head with a prop car by Dr. Forrester.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Phantom Creeps (Chapter 3: The Crashing Timbers) has examples of:
- Formula-Breaking Episode: This is the only episode where the short is run after the movie, possibly so "If Chauffeurs Ruled the World" could serve as the episode's closing sketch.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Joel and the 'Bots rejoice over the shortness of the movie, but that soon goes away when the Mads surprise them with this last-minute addition.
