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Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S10 E02: Girl in Gold Boots

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They're going to sock it to us.

Film watched: Girl in Gold Boots

The episode is notable both for being Mike Nelson's favorite episode of the series and also for introducing a storyline in Season 10 that featured Pearl becoming a fully accredited mad scientist. This storyline was dropped within a few episodes as the show was cancelled.

The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here.

The Segments

Prologue
  • Crow shows off his WWBSMDnote  bracelet. Servo gives him a hypothetical situation and asks what Crow would do. Crow's solution? Write a folk song! Pearl does the throw to commercial.

Segment 1

  • More fun with WWJD-like bracelets. Down in Castle Forrester, Pearl is acting madder than usual. Turns out she has to get board-certified with the Institute of Mad Scientists in order to take over the world legally.

Segment 2

  • Crow forces Mike to pour beer over his most prized possession: a personalized heirloom beer stein. Then Mike says that Crow is also most dear to him, so Crow demands the beer be poured over him as well.

Segment 3

  • Crow does a go-go dance while Servo watches. Mike is disgusted at Crow taking off the gold bikini, despite the fact that Crow normally wears nothing at all.

Segment 4

  • Mike sings a sad song, parodying a song from the film. Crow tries to attract Mike's attention to a fire that just broke out.

Segment 5

  • Mike and the Bots dress as Armenian mobsters. The inspector originally tells Pearl that she failed, but he quickly changes his mind when he sees Brain Guy go-go dancing.


The Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Girl in Gold Boots contains examples of:

  • Adaptation Induced Plothole:
    • The MST3K version cuts out an important scene in which the dealer Buz visits is revealed to have Harry Blatts in his trunk using ridiculously outdated "listening equipment", hence explaining why he knows where to look for Buz later in the film during the next drug buy.
    • While not MST3K's fault, the infamous scene of Buz "teleporting" to Michele and Critter's table doesn't happen in the movie's uncut version, where he simply walks over and sits down in the middle of Critter's story.note  The Brains, apparently, used a pre-edited video print which inexplicably added this gaffe.
  • All Men Are Perverts: Crow and Servo are ecstatic over Michele and Joan being in their underwear in their dressing room. They're supremely disappointed when the girls get dressed.
    Crow: *sadly* "Aw... Goodbye, underwear."
  • Bad Boss: Not unusual for Pearl, but she really has to kick it up a notch as part of her evaluation.
  • Bait-and-Switch: After an extended Christmas song, the characters arrive at the club:
    Crow: Merry Christmas, everyone! Let's go to the Haunted House!
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Invoked: "So long, non-acquaintance who inexplicably gave us rides in his dune buggy!"
  • Bowdlerization: TV airings of the episode "deleted" a shot of Michele toking up a joint by reusing slowed-down footage from earlier in the scene, although Mike and the Bots riff right along to the original footage. The DVD print leaves the scene intact.
  • Bookends: Mike points out how the end credits scene and music is the same as the opening.
    Mike: (singing) Remember the beginning; this is just like the be-ginning, it's just like the beginning, yeah.
  • Brain Bleach: Mike is inexplicably horrified by Crow stripping out of a gold bikini, which is odd since Crow is always nude. Crow points this out to him.
  • Briar Patching: Mike when he's "forced", by Crow, to pour beer on his most prized possessions: a family heirloom beer stein, and Crow.
    Mike: (flatly) No, no, no.... okay!
  • Brick Joke: In the first scene, Tom jokes that Michelle steals a toothpick from the diner to sell for travel money. Many scenes later:
    Gas station attendant: Will this be cash or charge?
    Mike: Ah, will you accept a toothpick?
  • Dark Secret: Parodied when Critter confesses that he's a draft dodger to Michele.
    Critter: You think I'm just a college dropout from the Peace Corps. Well, I'm a lot bigger than that.
    Mike!Critter: I'm Adolf Hitler.
  • Driven to Suicide: Assisting Pearl in getting accredited in evil, Mike sobs and prepares to hang himself.
  • Everyone Has Standards: The riffers are disgusted when Leo slaps Joan.
  • Fan Disservice: Brain Guy in tiny, silver shorts, "Can I pony!?"
  • Fanservice:
    • The film opens with the titular Girl in Gold Boots with other go-go dancers.
      Mike: Oh, I'm projecting my dreams again.
    • Joanie and Michele in their underwear. When Joanie moves to adjust Michele's panties and the scene cuts to Buz, Servo cries out, "Hey, hey, hey... oh, bad cut!"
  • Fetish Retardant:
    Crow: When sexy becomes annoying!
  • Filler: When the trio stops to ride dune buggies:
    Mike: Apparently, the story is none of our business.
  • Growing the Beard: invoked Whatever fans opinions were of Observer, he went from liked or tolerated to beloved with three words: "Can I pony?!".
  • Ice-Cream Koan: The lyric "Everything I touch turns to gold."
    Crow: (petulantly) What happens when you touch gold?
  • Informed Ability: Lots of riffs about Michele's dancing and Critter's music. It's nicely capped off with Mike asking which is worse at their art form. The 'bots are stumped.
  • Inherently Funny Words: "Critter" and "Buz".
    Crow: I'm having Critter's varmint!
  • Insult Backfire: Crow mocks a scene in the movie in which Buz pours beer on a thug's motorcycle, by "forcing" Mike to pour beer on his most cherished possession: a vintage beer stein. Then Mike points out that Crow is dear to him, so he forces Mike to pour beer on Crow's own head.
  • Invisible Backup Band: At the end of the movie, Critter is playing guitar while Michele bobs around dancing. But there's a second instrument somewhere...
    Servo: (as Critter) Honey! Way to play the harmonica with your ass!
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Servo asks Mike how long he's been saving up a Sight Gag where he stands up, pulls out a pool cue, and pretends to cue up a shot on the onscreen table. Mike says eight years, which just so happens to be how long Mike Nelson the writer/actor had been with the show, but longer than Mike the character has been on the Satellite as host (unless you count the 500 years spent as pure energy at the edge of the cosmos).
  • Lyrical Dissonance: When the trio arrives in L.A., Servo sings a cheerful Christmas song with dark lyrics to the tune of the festive background music:
    Servo: Oh, Charles Manson walks the streets
    The Zodiac Killer's at large!
    Charles Bukowski is pukin' out the window
    And Santa Claus is on his wayyy — hey!
  • Metaphorgotten: Invoked several times in response to Critter's flowery analogies:
    Critter: (to Michele) The pigs of this world aren't gonna let you sit on the fence...
    Mike!Critter: They want corn husks.
  • Musicalis Interruptus: Subverted in "Oh, I Am Sad"; Mike leaps up and runs off when Crow proposes making nachos, but his song continues on without him.
  • Neutral Female: Parodied in Segment 2, when Servo plays Michele and can only say "Oh!" over and over.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Downplayed: The rain effect that was occurring during Mike's sad song caused a fire in the Satellite, something Crow tries and fails to get Mike to recognize. However, it's eventually put out anyway.
  • Offscreen Teleportation:
    Servo: (observing Schrodinger's lowlife) Anybody notice that I'm here now?
  • Overly Long Gag: Crow's bracelet gag in the first segment.
  • Pants-Positive Safety: When Buz briefly unzips his jacket to reveal a pistol he'd shoved down the front of his pants.
    Mike: What the — a gun! So that was the loud report and the burning sensation in my groin!
  • A Real Man Is a Killer: Spoofed. After Critter — a draft dodger who hates the idea of killing — beats the hell out of a bunch of gangsters (including Buz) and gets married to Michele, he also changes his mind about being shipped off to Vietnam:
    Servo: Ahhhh, so he learned he enjoys violence and he's ready to kill like a man oughtta!
  • Running Gag:
    • Buz — First he's an icky elf. Later, after a throwaway comment by Blatts, it changes to, "He's only a child.invoked"
    • The dancers' inability to dance.
      Mike: What do you have to do not to get hired as a dancer here?
      Servo: Do the agitator cycle!
      Mike: Aaaaaand convulse!
    • Jokes about Leo's drug-dealing operation being run with a typical corporate structure:
      Leo: "Since when do you start telling me what to hear?"
      Servo!Buz: "At the company retreat, you shaid you'd be more open to new ideash!"
  • Shout-Out: During the scene when Critter's unloading his motorcycle from a truck in front of "Eat".
    Servo: (with hillbilly accent) Sorry we shot you back there, Mr. Hopper.
  • Song Parody: Crow parodies the song over the end credits:
    Crow: (singing) Keep your silver bra filled with breast!
  • Split Screen: In the film, Critter sings a mournful song of love to (freakishly large) dream images of Michelle that keep fading in and out.
    Crow: (as Michelle) I can't go out with you because I'm considerably bigger than you.
  • Special Effects Failure: Invoked several times:
    • Michelle and Critter are chatting in a roadside coffee shop when suddenly the film jumps with an editing cut and Buz appears drinking a beer next to them, though this splice only appears in the print used for the show.
      Crow: (as Buz) C'mon, I just teleported! It's impressive!
    • Another jump cut happens moments later:
      "There goes-"
      Mike: You can say that a-
    • Mike's "I Am Sad" song ends with him running out of shot for nachos as his pre-recorded voice goes on singing as a parody of Critter's badly lip-synced love ballad in the film.
  • Take That!:
    Leo: Michele, you may be the luckiest girl in Hollywood.
    Crow: No, that'd be Lea Thompson.
    Servo: I'll say!
  • That Makes Me Feel Angry: Mike's song in Host Segment #4 is titled "I Am Sad."
    Mike: Your limbs are slender, your eyes are blue
    Your hair is blonde, your lips, the way they're red
    Your skin, your fingers, your ears, your nose
    Your touch, your feet... I am sad
  • Too Kinky to Torture: Bobo is rather nonchalant about getting shock therapy and even encourages it.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: It's decided by the crew that no one really cared that Buz learned how to teleport.
  • Vandalism Backfire: One of the host segments features Crow (riffing on a scene in the movie) forcing Mike to pour beer over his most precious possessions. These turn out to be his prized beer-stein and Crow himself - all the while Servo is dressed like Michele and saying in a girlish voice, "Oh!"
    Crow: (dripping with beer) That didn't really pan out the way I expected.
    Servo: (male voice) Oh.
  • Weird Trade Union: Pearl spends the episode trying to convince a representative from the Mad Scientist's guild that she should be accredited as one of them. She fails miserably until Observer starts shakin' his groove thing in go-go boots.
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: They speculate that Michelle's dad has reformed and become the successful owner of a chain of "Eat"s.
  • Who's on First?: A minute-long gag about Pearl wanting to give Observer a hump (to resemble a hunchback like Igor.) Observer thinks she's offering something entirely different.
  • With Lyrics:
    • Servo imposes his own dark lyrics about The '60s over the song "Cowboy Santa" as the kids drive through downtown L.A. at Christmastime.
    • Later:
      Critter: But you must come down, put your feet on the ground, by and by.
      Servo: You're living a lie.
      Critter: You gotta come down.
      Servo: You dance like a clown.
      Critter: By and by.
      Servo: I hope that you die!



Alternative Title(s): Mystery Science Theater 3000 S 10 E 02 The Girl In Gold Boots

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