When one sword tries to get along with an incorrigible dragon!
Film watched: The Sword and the Dragon
As you can guess, despite having quite a lot of good special effects for the late-1950s, this movie was prime riffing material for MST3K. Among other things, the riffing often centered on the fact that the movie "came from Finland," despite being a Russian-made movie. Like a previous Russian-made-otherwise film that appeared on the show, the changes were likely made to avoid mentions of Russia during the height of the Cold War... but it doesn't change how goofy the whole thing was.
The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here
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The Segments:
Prologue
- Tom dresses up as a wizard to host the Satellite of Love's first (and last) game of Dungeons & Dragons.
Segment 1
- While organizing their comic books, Dr. Forrester and Frank are visited Bridget and Mary Jo, their attractive new neighbors from Deep 12. Desperate to impress who they assume to be their future lovers, they ask Mike and the 'Bots to do something to entertain them. The SOL crew performs a topical satirical revue Crow has written titled Supercalafragalisticexpiala-wacky!!!. The government bashing musical amuses the Mads, but it sends the ladies fleeing as fast as they can.
Segment 2
- Crow and Servo present "A Joke by Ingmar Bergman", a four minute, black and white sketch with a predictable punchline.
Segment 3
- Gypsy mimics the scene where Ilya's wife makes a magic tablecloth with the help of the local forest critters. Mike, Servo, and Crow play said critters, prompting a throroughly weirded out Gypsy to bail on the sketch.
Segment 4
- Ilya Muromets contacts the SOL to reveal that he's now working at a pancake house. He is beaming with pride for his work, but he loses it when Crow suggests having ham on the side instead of bacon.
Segment 5
- Gypsy offers her review of Supercalafragalisticexpiala-wacky!!!, which commends Mike for his talent, but considers Servo as the weakest link. Thinking Bridget and Mary Jo will be back for a date, the Mads are still loafing around Deep 13, but they promptly panic when the phone rings.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Sword and the Dragon has examples of:
- Artistic License: Tom Servo's Dungeons & Dragons session is ludicrously truncated; Servo never explains the rules or character abilities to his players, and decrees the outcome of a combat encounter via Game Master Fiat rather than dice rolls. Most likely due to a combination of time compression and Rule of Funny.
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The Danza: Bridget and Mary Jo are named after their actresses, Bridget Jones and Mary Jo Phehl. - Disney Creatures of the Farce: Gypsy parodies the scene where Ilya's wife sings as forest creatures help her create a magic tablecloth, with the help of Mike & the 'Bots. Gypsy bails on the sketch early because it's too weird for her.
- Feghoot: "A Joke By Ingmar Bergman" has Servo and Crow playing two bored Scandinavians who decide to count the boards on a pier and the slits between them. Roughly four-and-a-half minutes long, slow as molasses, and all for the sake of the punchline:
- Heel–Face Turn: After Falcon learns Ilya is his dad, he immediately switches sides, without any shock, angst, or any assessment on how cool it is to be a Tugar or how crappy it is to be Russo-Finnish.Mike: The kid's loyalty turns on a dime!
- Ho Yay, Invoked:Crow: It may be the wine, Lars, but you're a pretty man...Tom: Sven, no! Don't! You mustn't!
- Hot-Blooded: One sketch parodies Ilya's hot-tempered, quick-to-insult nature in the film by showing that he throws his entire self into whatever he does, be it defending his homeland from rampaging hordes or working at a dinky pancake house. When Crow tries to request some honey-baked ham slices in place of a bacon side, Ilya pulls out his sword ready to run the little guy through until Mike gives him a quest just to placate him.Ilya: That is a SUBSTITUTION, spawn of the DEVIL!
Crow: Well, now, hey, hold on there —
Ilya: NO ONE, not even a TUGAR, shall order OFF THE MENU!
Mike: Hey, yo, Ilya! Yo, Muromets!
Ilya: What?!
Mike: Hey, c'mon, you're, you're Ilya Muromets! Defender of the realm! I mean, accept this challenge — prove to us that you could bring ham!
Ilya: Yes... yes, yes, I will gather my strength, and I shall go FORTH, and I shall go to the back and I shall request HAM! For it is HAM that I seek! HAM! HAM!
Crow: Good luck!
Ilya: [bellowing at the top of his lungs] HAAAAAAAMMMMM! - Killer Game Master: Servo, apparently.
- Large Ham: Kevin Murphy's performance as Ilya during one host sketch. Bonus points for him hamming it up about ham.
- Le Film Artistique: "A Joke by Ingmar Bergman" is shot in black and white and spends four painfully slow minutes telling a joke with an underwhelming punchline.
- Licking the Blade: In the film, when Ilya kisses the sword of "Invincor" (Svyatogor) he is given.Mike: This is the best-tasting sword ever!
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Ilya reveals himself to Falcon, who was raised by Khali.Ilya: I am your father.Crow: Great; my dad's Burl Ives.
- Million Mook March: Called out by Crow during one of the wide shots of the Tugar army on the move.Crow: Now that's what I call a horde!
- Mondegreen Gag: Servo hears and repeats Durbar's name as "Dove Bar" during the movie's 2nd act.
- Nerds Are Virgins: The opening and closing segments with Forrester and TV's Frank meeting the girls from Deep 12 revolve around this trope.
- Overly Long Gag: "A Joke By Ingmar Bergman", in which Tom Servo and Crow spend four minutes riffing on the film styles of Ingmar Bergman to tell a joke with a cheap punchline.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After witnessing Supercalafragalisticexpialia-wacky!!!, Bridget and Mary Jo are seen fleeing from Deep 13 as fast as they can.
- Shout-Out:
- Rocky and Bullwinkle references abound once they recognize Paul Frees voicing Kalin.
- The above-mentioned Feghoot, which was just an Overly Long Gag meant to give them an excuse to reference a Schlitz Beer motto.
- As the Russo-Finns, dressed in blue and white, charge over the steppes: "Fifty thousand Maria von Trapps face off against the Mongol horde!"Mike & The 'Bots: [singing over each other] The hills are alivethe hills are alivehills are aliveare alive—!
- "The whole point of having a dragon is to tell the vorld you have a dragon! Vhy did you keep it a secret?!"
- Crow also calls the three-headed dragon "Ghidorah". Made funnier by the fact that King Ghidorah was, in fact, based upon this exact dragon in appearance.
- Stealth Pun: see Large Ham above.
- Take That!: "Supercalifragilistic-expialawacky" can best be summed up by Mike's second stanza:Mike: [singing, dressed as Uncle Sam] I'm the government, I'm the government, I'm filled with bloat and perks! I'm the government, I'm the government — I'm the reason nothing works!
- The Trope Formerly Known as X: The episode came out after Prince changed his name. No prizes for guessing what was referenced in one riff.Subject: Oh radiant prince!
Servo: That's 'The Artist Formerly Known as Radiant Prince.'
