Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S04 E07: The Killer Shrews

"Smothered in gravy, Texas-style!"

Starring Joan Collins and Jackie Collins!

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.
TV's Frank: Hey, it was my favorite show, what can I say?

Films watched: Junior Rodeo Daredevils and The Killer Shrews

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.

This episode was released on DVD along with another "lost" short as an extra: Assignment: Venezuela, 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.

The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here, and on Shout! Factory here.

The Segments:

Prologue

• 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.

Segment 1/Invention Exchange

• 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.

Segment 2

• Joel decides to do an impression of Will Rogers 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.

Segment 3

• 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.

Segment 4

• 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.

Segment 5

• 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.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Junior Rodeo Daredevils has examples of:

• Dude, Not Funny!: 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.
• Running Gag: Whenever the crowd applauds at the titular rodeo:
  Joel: And the crowd goes wild!
  Crow and Servo (unenthusiastically): Yay.
• Shout-Out:
  • The above joke references one of the running gags from the Tom Slick segments of the George of the Jungle show.
  • When some horses rear up, Joel asks "Did someone say 'Frau Blucher'?"
• Spin-Off Babies: During the short, the crew mentions "Jim Henson's Misfit Babies" and "Jim Henson's The Last Picture Show Babies".

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The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Killer Shrews has examples of:

• The Alcoholic: The entire film's cast gets 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.
• Armor-Piercing Question: 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.
• Gone Horribly Right: 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.).
• Mondegreen Gag: Trying to decipher the Cragis' heavy accents.
  • Thorn Sherman = Stone Shrimp
  • Radford Banes = Rapid Bathroom
  • "The shrew got into the barn." = "The Shmoos got into the bah."
• Noodle Implements: 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.
• Nutritional Nightmare: "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", 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.
• Prop Recycling: Thus begins the epic journey of Crow's sensible brown pants. invoked
• Running Gag: Rook plays Dixieland Jazz.
  • invokedThe Mondegreen Gag due to the accents and muffled dialog. Also see The Unintelligible.
  • Lots of jokes about the fact that the supposed giant shrews are obviously dogs.
• Shout-Out:
  • Joel's attempt to impersonate cowboy humorist Will Rogers after watching the short ends up devolving into random quotations from Mark Twain, Casey Stengel, Alexander Woolcott, McGruff the Crime Dog, Nikita Khruschev, Garrett Morris, Dion ("Anyone here seen my good friend John?"), Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign, and Dr. Seuss.
  • "Ren! Steempy! Nooo!"
• Slurpasaur: The crew frequently lampshade this about the shrews (dogs with weird stuff on them).
• Spelling Song: Joel and the Bots' jingle for the Killer Shrews board game.
  Killer Shrew! Killer Shrew!
  K-I-double L-E-R-Shrew!
  He's scary and tough
  If that ain't enough
  He's augmented with bath mats and stuff!
• Spin-Off Babies: Parodied with Joel's Invention Exchange - Jim Henson's Edgar Winter Babies! It's enough to convince the Mads not to cleave the Earth in two.
• Take That!
  Tom Servo: [After reading the title card] Starring Joan Collins and Jackie Collins!
• The Unintelligible: The head scientist and his daughter have very thick accents, which Joel and the bots mock to no end.
  Dr. Marlowe: Radford?
  Joel: Rapid? Rapture?
  Dr. Marlowe: Radford, could you please step over here? I'd like you to meet someone.
  Joel: Rapid Bathroom?
  Tom: Yes; this is our resident novelist, Rapid Bathroom.
• Unsound Effect: Tom's "Bristle, bristle", while dressed as a cactus.
• With Lyrics: "You're gonna die from shrew bites, you're gonna die from shrew bites..."

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"Burn 'em out, those things got loose!" "Any unusual experiment can produce unusual results."

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