Line #109 Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S11E13TheChristmasThatAlmostWasnt


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mst_christmas.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"Either the title card is in Italian, or we're getting nachos."]]
3
4	->'''Kinga Forrester:''' Now, we've got a real holiday experiment for you: a Christmas movie with all the fun of hiring a lawyer to deal with your landlord.
5
6	Film featured: ''Film/TheChristmasThatAlmostWasnt''
7
8	!!The Segments:
9	[[AC:Prologue]]
10	* Jonah tries to sing a traditional Christmas carol with the bots--but picks the one song that ''nobody'' knows the words to, "Good King Wenceslas".
11
12	[[AC:Segment 1]]
13	* Kinga is still making plans for her wedding to Jonah. And then it's Invention Exchange time. Jonah and the bots invent The Re-Gifter: a pair of nesting boxes meant to be given away immediately after you receive them. Kinga invents Humbug FM, a radio that filters out the sappy seasonal music and leaves nothing but screaming, cacophonous noise.
14
15	[[AC:Segment 2]]
16	* Jonah and the bots review some classic toys from Santa's workshop: the wooden soldier, the wooden rocking horse, and the jack-in-the-box. They conclude that you're better off being on the Naughty list.
17
18	[[AC:Segment 3]]
19	* Tom Servo and Crow are creeped out by the toys from the movie. Jonah suggests they come up alternative backstories to make the toys less scary.
20
21	[[AC:Segment 4]]
22	* Santa drops by the SOL... and Mr. Whipple is with him. Santa is stressed from holiday preparations, managing his elf workforce, and dealing with Mr. Whipple's nonsense. ''Oy vey''...
23
24	[[AC:Segment 5]]
25	* Recreating the slideshow scene from the movie, Gypsy gives Christmas sweaters to Jonah, Tom Servo, and Crow. Kinga and Max exchange gifts as well.
26
27	----
28	!! Tropes used in the [=MST3K=] presentation of ''Film/TheChristmasThatAlmostWasnt'' include:
29	* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: A minor example that goes completely without comment: the original film had a scene of Santa, Mrs. Claus, and Sam cleaning and decorating Mr. Prune's house. The MST presentation cuts that scene, so his house goes from filthy to festive between scenes with barely any explanation.
30	* TheAlcoholic: "Santa, I'm not mad, I'm just your AA sponsor!"
31	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In-Universe, the guys interpret Whipple as either a {{Manchild}} or a guy with an infantilism fetish.
32	* ArchiveBinge: [[invoked]] Kinga lampshades that Creator/{{Netflix}} programs are made for binge-watching, and that [[OutOfHolidayEpisode hardly anyone will actually watch this episode near Christmas]].
33	* AvengersAssemble: "Santa Team, assemble!"
34	* BlasphemousBoast: Kinga intends to preempt ''Christmas'' with her wedding plans.
35	-->'''Kinga Forrester:''' Beside, my marrying Jonah is way more important than observing ''the Son of Man who came to seek and save that which is lost.'' Puh!
36	* CelebrityResemblance: [[invoked]] Aside from the handful of jokes about Alberto Rabagliati's strong resemblance to Topol, Gypsy mentions that Paul Tripp is ''a lot'' like Creator/DannyKaye, in both appearance and mannerisms.
37	* ChristmasCarolers: Jonah invites the bots to sing carols with him, but chooses to sing ''Good King Wenceslas,'' "the one Christmas song no one knows the lyrics to."
38	-->'''Jonah:''' Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen
39	-->'''Servo:''' [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein And the... Christmas guys... did shout...]]
40	-->'''Crow:''' [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein ...at the... Justin Bieber.]]
41	* ChristmasEpisode: Of course. It's Christmas on the Satellite of Love, and Kinga sends up a seasonally appropriate film.
42	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Jonah gives everyone the wrong Christmas sweater, even though they have the initials of the intended recipient sewn onto them.
43	* ContinuityNod:
44	** The Skeleton Crew plays an instrumental version of "[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S03E21SantaClausConquersTheMartians Let's Have a Patrick Swayze Christmas"]].
45	** And Santa has a pressurized sled capable of space travel. So Joel was right: Tom Servo didn't need to fear for Santa and the reindeer's safety in the vacuum of space.
46	** The initialed sweaters that end up being given to the wrong people is a call back to the "Joike" sweater from ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S05E21SantaClaus Santa Claus]]''.
47	** [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S07E06Laserblast Can't we get]] [[Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome beyond Thunderdome]]?
48	** When Santa greets a kid named Charlie, Crow goes for the classic riff [[Film/ThePopeOfGreenwichVillage "They took my thumbs!"]]
49	* CreatorCameo: Creator/JoelHodgson (as Santa Claus) and Elliott Kalan (as Sam Whipple) drop by the SOL for one host segment.
50	* DopeSlap: Jonah's response to Crow for the aforementioned "Beyond Thunderdome" crack.
51	* EasilyImpressed:
52	-->'''Sam Whipple:''' So either you pay the rent, or out you go?\
53	'''Tom Servo:''' Say, you ''are'' a lawyer, aren't you!
54	* EncouragedRegifting: The whole point of Jonah's invention, the Re-Gifter--a pair of nested gift boxes that you're ''meant'' to swap and immediately gift to someone else.
55	* EnfantTerrible: They turn a little girl into this, insisting that the only thing she wants for Christmas is a rifle.
56	* EpiphanyTherapy: "So, a toy erases decades of toxic hate and villainy."
57	* EveryoneIsChristianAtChristmas: {{Inverted}}. Santa, of all people, is actually Jewish, but he makes a tidy profit off both Christmas ''and'' Hanukkah.
58	* EvilLawyerJoke: "A lawyer who forgets to send out bills? [[ArbitrarySkepticism This movie just became unrealistic]]."
59	* FauxAffablyEvil: Regarding Mr. Prune: "His rudeness is so polite."
60	* FollowTheLeader: [[invoked]] "It's the failed response to the Beanie Babies fad: Screamie Babies!"
61	* FreudianExcuse:
62	-->'''Phineas T. Prune:''' A sailboat...\
63	'''Crow:''' Just like the one that murdered my parents!
64	* HellIsThatNoise: The radio station Kinga presents for the invention exchange.
65	* HomemadeSweaterFromHell: Crow, Tom Servo, and Jonah all get ugly homemade sweaters from Gypsy. They seem thrilled by them. Amusingly, the sweaters all have initials on them, and they put on the wrong ones.
66	* IndianBurialGround: "This store was built on a stuffed animal burial ground."
67	* InsaneTrollLogic:
68	-->'''Crow:''' ''(as Phineas T. Prune)'' So if I prove my middle name isn't Tightwad, Santa will pay his rent? I'm starting to understand this whole "broke lawyer" thing.
69	* ItWillNeverCatchOn:
70	-->'''Rich mother:''' But just you wait until I tell him about this! A real, honest-to-goodness Santa Claus, and in a department store!\
71	'''Jonah:''' What's next? Cherry phosphates? Women driving cars? ''A Catholic in the White House?''[[note]]Catholic John F. Kennedy had been elected president five years before the film's release.[[/note]]
72	* KangarooCourt: When Santa's elves organize themselves as a judge and jury for Prune:
73	-->'''Tom Servo:''' Man, North Korea has more fair courts than this.
74	* TheKenBurnsEffect: The movie uses panned-and-zoomed still shots for the montage of Santa delivering presents. The final host segment parodies this, using the same technique for Jonah, the bots, and the Mads exchanging gifts.
75	* LaserGuidedKarma:
76	-->'''Tom Servo:''' That's clearly a man who was turned into a stuffed monkey by a witch's curse.\
77	'''Jonah:''' Oh, but it's not scary, because he deserved it.
78	* LittlestCancerPatient:
79	-->'''Charlie:''' No, something's wrong. I can feel it in my bones.\
80	'''Crow:''' Doctor says they're going to have to REMOVE my bones. ''[[IncurableCoughOfDeath (He lets out a pathetic little cough)]]''
81	* ManChild: The adult Mr. Whipple gets a little ''too'' into chumming with Santa and playing with toys, so the SOL crew make a running gag of him having an infantilism fetish. Taken to its fullest extreme in the fourth host segment, in which Whipple literally has the mind of a child as he tags along with his legal guardian Santa and causes problems for him.
82	* MyNewGiftIsLame:
83	** "Children love Home Depot receipts!"
84	** At the end, Max gives Kinga a portrait of her that he painted himself. She immediately throws it in the trash. Kinga's gift for Max is a first aid kit which he adores.
85	* NightmareFuel: [[invoked]]
86	** According to Jonah and the bots, ''all'' the toys in Prim's Department Store range from unsettling to outright terrifying. They spend a whole host segment making up less-scary backstories for the toys, and even that backfires at the end:
87	--->'''Crow:''' And even though that looks like a bear who killed another bear, then wore his victim's skin as a suit, it... uh...\
88	'''Jonah:''' Ohhhh no, ''that's exactly what it is!''
89	** And the unconvincing effects of Santa's reindeer flying just provokes screams of incoherent terror.
90	* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: "Balloon or personal space! Can't have both."
91	* OutOfHolidayEpisode: [[invoked]] Like the rest of season 11, this Christmas episode was released on April 14, 2017 (Good Friday, ironically enough). Kinga {{lampshade\|Hanging}}s this, noting that Creator/{{Netflix}} shows are made for [[ArchiveBinge binge-watching]], so hardly anyone will actually watch this episode near Christmas time.
92	* ParodyOfEvolution: "Look, the elves are posing for an Evolution of Man poster."
93	* PricelessMingVase: As the elves are tossing packages around: "Faberge eggs! <breaking sounds> iPads! <crashing sounds>"
94	** ThatPoorCat: "Box of kittens!" <meowing sounds>
95	* RootingForTheEmpire: [[invoked]] After a random boy kicks Mr. Prune's shin (while the boy's father just stands by), the bots suddenly side with Prune's crusade against all children everywhere.
96	* RunningGag:
97	** ''Everything'' at the North Pole is made of snow.
98	** Mr. Whipple is a [[ManChild "widdle baby"]].
99	* SensoryAbuse: Kinga and Max's invention exchange is Humbug FM, a radio that plays nothing but noise and ear-splitting cacophony--intended as an antidote to irritating Christmas music.
100	* ShoddyKnockoffProduct:
101	-->'''Jonah:''' Clearly, that's a display of knock-off Creator/{{Disney}} merchandise.\
102	'''Tom Servo:''' On the right, we see Film/{{Trumbo}}, the drowsy, [[UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist blacklisted]] WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}.\
103	'''Crow:''' And next to him is Scottish millionaire fowl, [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scudge]] [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987 McDunk]].
104	* ShoutOut:
105	** Some of the first riffs are that the theme song sounds like [[Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof "If I Were a Rich Man"]] ''and'' the actor playing Santa looks like Topol, with the bonus irony that the show is about a devout Jewish community.
106	** Crow compares the art style of the opening credits to ''{{Webcomic/Hark A Vagrant}}'', [[https://twitter.com/beatonna/status/853699756849328128 which artist Kate Beaton excitedly pointed out on Twitter]].
107	** Jonah makes two references to Ride/ItsASmallWorld.
108	** [[Series/TheWire "Omar comin'!"]] as Charlie walks down the street whistling and holding a tree slung over his shoulder like Omar's shotgun.
109	** [[VideoGame/TheOregonTrail "I lost two oxen trying to ford the river."]] when Mr. Prune first walks into Santa's home.
110	** The robots mutter [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit "Shave and a Haircut"]] when Prune raps his cane on the Clauses dinner table, and even remark he must be hunting for Toons.
111	** One of the riffs is the [[Film/Dune1984 Mentat Mantra.]]
112	** The Crew question why Prune lives in the line for [[Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror Disney's Tower Of Terror]].
113	** A Portrait resembles Alexander {{Theatre/Hamilton}} to the Crew, with them having Prune ask if Santa could hook him up with some tickets.
114	** When Prune's butler (who bears a curious resemblance to [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Riff-Raff]]) first opens the door, Jonah and the 'bots all yell "Say hello, Riff!", a common ''Rocky Horror'' AudienceParticipation call-out.
115	* SlouchOfVillainy: "He's a man-spreader. Typical."
116	* SomethingElseAlsoRises: Mr. Prune sits in a decidedly creepy way when visiting Santa's cottage, leaning way back in his chair with his knees far apart and his cane resting between his legs.
117	-->'''Servo:''' He's a manspreader. TYP-ical.\
118	'''Jonah:''' Paging [[UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud Dr. Freud]]...
119	* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Jonah and the bots mention a few times that Sam Whipple could easily raise the money for Santa's rent if he just ''billed his clients who owed him money.''
120	* SuckinessIsPainful: [[invoked]] The [[SpecialEffectsFailure incredibly fake-looking footage]] of Santa's sleigh in flight seems to cause physical (and psychological) harm to Jonah and the bots.
121	* TakeThat:
122	-->'''Max:''' It's a 300 decibel mix of howler monkeys, sirens, and vuvuzelas! Annoying? Sure! But it's still better than hearing "[[Music/PaulMcCartney Wonderful Christmas Time]]" again.
123
124	----
125	->[[TheStinger "Hohohoha! Hey, Sam! This is fun! Hohohohohoho..."]]

Context Recap / MysteryScienceTheater3000S11E13TheChristmasThatAlmostWasnt