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Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S06 E10: The Violent Years

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"Young man's fancy crinkle cut potatoes!"

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The Bobby Knight story!

"Of course, the scene for which this film is remembered became famous (around here anyway) is when Paula and her girl gang accost a young couple. The woman they tie up; the slim-hipped young man they lead into the shrubbery after making suggestive comments. The last thing we see is Paula slowly removing- nevermind. ADVICE TO BOYS AND YOUNG MEN: Do not think about this scene. Put it out of your mind. Work at your studies. Concentrate on your prayer life, and don't let your mind wander. Regardless of what you think maybe happens after the Fade Out, it's not real. It doesn't exist in this world. Never has, never will. And it certainly won't happen to you."
—Paul Chaplin in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide

Film watched: The Violent Years along with the short Young Man's Fancy.

Young Man's Fancy, a short sponsored by the Edison Electric Institute, follows a typical day in the life of the Adams family, who have many a positive thing to say about the electric appliances around their house. Daughter Judy becomes smitten with her brother Bob's new friend Alexander Phipps, and though she's warned that Alex "has no time for girls", she plans to use the appliances to cook a dinner scrumptious enough to win Alex's heart.

The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here.

The Segments:

Prologue

  • Tom shows off his new ventriloquist dummy-styled head to Mike, Crow, and Gypsy, to their shared horror.

Segment 1

  • After forcibly removing Tom’s new head, the Mads present their own theme song, “Livin’ in Deep 13”. They then ask Mike and the 'Bots for theme songs of their own. Tom’s is dramatic and self-centered, Crow’s shows great unpreparedness, and Mike’s is actually pretty catchy, even if it's redundant.

Segment 2

  • The Mads, still on their musical kick, attempt to promote their new radio station, FRANK. The SOL gang isn't that eager to turn their cranks to FRANK.

Segment 3

  • Tom, in a red wig, re-enacts the singing/hysterical crying scene from A Star Is Born.

Segment 4

  • Mike plays Keanu Reeves for Crow’s one-man-show based on My Own Private Idaho. In this case, the titular "Idaho" is an Idaho potato, which Mike finds immensely stupid.

Segment 5

  • Mike and Crow re-enact the gas station robbery from the film. Very, very slowly. While they do that, Tom and Gypsy read a letter. The Mads are still trying to sell FRANK as a radio station, but Dr. Forrester gives up and leaves in a huff.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Young Man's Fancy contains these tropes:

  • Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head:
    Judy: I think you're... a stinker.
    Crow: (as Bob in monotone) No. Don't.
  • Call-Back: "He'll never touch you, Terry. You're dirt."
  • Full-Name Basis
    Alexander Phipps: The name is Alex.
    Tom Servo: ...zander Phipps.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Crow at the end posits the Aesop of the short was to engage in mushroom growing.
  • Ho Yay: The crew's In-Universe theory explaining why brother Bob is so insistent on Judy not dating Alex:
    Servo: (as Bob, as they go take a shower) Woo-hoo! I'll soap you first!
    (later)
    Servo: (as Alex, checking his neck) You can hardly see where you bit me!
  • Likes Older Women: The crew portray Alex as flirting with Judy's mother.
    Crow: (as Judy's mother) Please, Alex, I'm vulnerable.
  • Loveable Sex Maniac: Judy.
    Servo: (as Judy) Tee hee, I'm horny!
  • Never Heard That One Before
    Alexander: Hey, what's a four-letter word for "nuisance"?
    Crow: Standard sitcom joke landing on runway 7.
    (Mike pretends to wave around marshalling wands, while Servo makes airplane landing noises)
    Bob: Oh, that's easy: J-U-D-Y.
    (The gang approves of a successful landing.)
  • Running Gag:
    • "Squishy" is so overtly sexually charged a term that the crew keep referring to it during the entire experiment.
    • Alexander as a Sex God who wants to sleep with Bob, Mom and Judy.
  • Shout-Out: "Judy: Beyond Thundersquishy."
  • Their First Time: "Tonight's the night, Mom!"
  • This Is No Time for Knitting: Parodied:
    Judy: Food? Is that all you can think of at a time like this?
    Crow: (as Bob) You mean lunchtime?
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Judy's plan to get Alex's attention by pretending to be helpless in the kitchen gets lampshaded in the riffing.
    Judy: (exaggeratedly stirs an empty mixing bowl and sighs) Oooh, dear!
    Crow: Has anyone noticed that the daughter is PSYCHOTIC?
    (Judy unplugs the mixer and covers the socket with a towel)
    Mike: This is like Three Days of the Condor, I trust no one in this short!
    (Judy goes over to the kitchen door)
    Servo: (Ahem) OH, DEAR!!!
    Judy: (Louder) Oh, me...
    Servo: Did I call that?

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Violent Years contains these tropes:

  • Black Comedy Rape: The MST3K crew taking on the male rape scene, and the aftermath. Quite a few of the jokes were about the rapists getting pregnant, which the movie ended up really using.
    Tom Servo: My rape victim refuses to come to Lamaze classes!
  • Briar Patching: Related to Black Comedy Rape, jokes along the lines of "If all four of you get involved, I understand. It could get rough, and that's fine." "I beg of you, don't lightly kiss my belly and don't nibble on my nipple buds, and don't drag your shiny hair across my body because I HATE that!"
  • Bragging Theme Tune: Tom's theme song is just over-the-top adjectives and his name.
  • Brick Joke:
    Forrester: Brooks & Dunn!
    (Hexfield Viewscreen closes.)
    Mike: Uhhh...
    (Hexfield Viewscreen opens.)
    Forrester: (insistently) Brooks & Dunn?!
    TV's Frank: (piping in) Wynonna!
    (Hexfield Viewscreen closes.)
  • Call-Back: Two to the short.
    • First:
      Crow: Now here's a girl who takes squishiness and does something about it!
    • Then, after all the other girls are dead and Paula has been busted:
      Crow: And all this started because of their electric kitchen?
  • Confess to a Lesser Crime: Invoked by Servo when comparing the rap sheet the girls would get for vandalizing the school vs. first-degree murder.
  • Continuity Nod:
  • Credits Gag: Radio FRANK fails and Frank dejectedly reads off all the various artists (and others) the station would have featured over the ending credits.
  • Don't Explain the Joke:
    • Forrester and Frank are both completely and utterly giddy at the idea of a radio station being named after a person, taking great pains to explain how awesome a pun it is to the SOL crew.
      Frank: Don't you see how great it is?! My name is Frank — the radio station's name is Frank! It's totally uncharacteristic to name a radio station Frank!
    • A couple times Mike starts to explain the "mud butler" joke, but gives up midway through.
  • Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: The MST3K crew enforces it, even as the movie itself averts it.
  • Downer Ending: Lampshaded.
    Crow: The feel-good movie of 1956!
    Servo: Audiences left with a song in their hearts and a smile on their face!
  • Ear Worm: Frank immediately starts singing Crow's catchy little Theme Tune for Mike.
    Crow: Mike, m-m-muh-Mike, m-m-muh-Mike Mike Mike Mike...
  • Ending Fatigue: In-universe, the guys start to audibly groan whenever the judge, with his puritan moralizing and drawn-out pauses, begins yet another lecture. Eventually, Servo screams at him to shut up.
  • Henway: Servo bemusedly asks Mike how long the Thirty Years' War was.
  • Homoerotic Subtext: The lyrics to "Livin' in Deep 13" once again cast Dr. Forrester and Frank's work relationship in an ambiguously romantic light:
    Dr. F: I was alone with a world to tame
    I was evil but feelin' blue [...]
    Frank: Workin' the fryer, I was never a crier
    I had a void in the shape of you
  • It's All About Me: Tom's theme song, as he brags he's "bigger than life, bigger than you..."
  • Long List: The many voices of Radio FRANK.
  • Lyric Swap: Servo's theme song is "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana.
    Servo: Won-der-ful Tom
    Won-der-ful Tom
    Magnificat Tom Servo!
  • Mood Whiplash: After the horror show of Tom's head being ripped off, the Mads sing an upbeat Deep 13 Theme Tune.
  • Mundane Made Awesome:
    • Frank, the radio station. Turn your crank to FRANK!
      Frank: MORE REBA!
    • But Mike and the 'Bots can't get into it.
      Servo: ...Am I out of Reba? Do I need more Reba?
      Crow: Or any Wynonna...?
  • Nightmare Fuel: Invoked, as the Mike, Crow and Gypsy react badly to Servo's new head. Crow is reduced to a shambling heap of sobbing while Gypsy says in disgust, "I feel ill!" as she flees.
  • Off with His Head!: Tom Servo replaces his head with a very disturbing ventriloquist dummy's head. Mike chases him around over the commercial break, then pins him down and pries his whole head off. Also qualifies as an Eye Scream, as Mike gouges his thumbs into Tom's eye sockets when ripping the head off. See the whole horrorshow here. Played for Laughs, of course.
  • Overly Long Gag:
    • The final post-movie host segment has Crow and Mike re-enacting the awkward hold-up scene from early in the film: Crow sticks a gun on Mike and the two just stare at each other in silence. It goes on for about a minute, until Crow finally chops Mike on the back with his gun.
    • Frank reads out dozens of names over the ending credits, which start out as the various country singers to be featured on Radio FRANK but then lapses into random famous people, like Dag Hammarskjöld and actor Crispin Glover.
  • Rooting for the Empire: Invoked after the Double Standard Rape: Female on Male scene:
    Servo: WHAT A GREAT MOVIE!
    Crow: WE GOTTA GET GYPSY!
    Servo: SHE'S GOTTA SEE THIS!
  • Shout-Out:
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Tom says he's had his personal theme song ready to go "since infancy!"
    Servo: (singing) Bigger than life! (to Crow) Bigger than YOU!
    Crow: Hey!
  • Take That!: Servo trying to sing and collapsing into wracking sobs is a reference to the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born ("Esther... Hoffman... Howard...") In the theater, Servo remarks, "Good news, Streisand killed."
    • During the judge's speech sentencing Paula:
      Crow: Yet still funnier than Night Court.
  • Theme Tune: Everyone has to come up with one. The Mads sing a perky sitcom opening duet, Tom channels Carl Orff, and Crow throws something together for himself ("La la la la laa... Crow.") but somehow has something ready to go immediately when Mike says he doesn't have one.
  • This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Uncanny Valley: Everyone is horrified by Servo's new head, a tiny red-cheeked rubber ventriloquist dummy. Gypsy feels ill and exits stage right. Crow shrieks and gibbers. Mike nods along at first, only to yell "Get him!" and pounce.


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