"Is that what happens when a guy spits out the side of his mouth?"
Dr. Forrester: Your movie this week, Joel, is not a science fiction film, but it's perfect for our experiments. It's just BAD. Tell 'em, Frank.
Frank: That's right. It's a diabolical cinematic... it's just bad.
Forrester: Yes, remember that bad thing we saw? This is even worse than that.
Frank: That's right, it's bad.
Forrester: But it's our kind of bad. It's a good bad. It's good for us. Bad for you, Joel!
Frank: That's right. It's a diabolical cinematic... it's just bad.
Forrester: Yes, remember that bad thing we saw? This is even worse than that.
Frank: That's right, it's bad.
Forrester: But it's our kind of bad. It's a good bad. It's good for us. Bad for you, Joel!
Film watched: The Sidehackers
The film is particularly notorious for containing a brutally graphic depiction of a rape/murder — a little tidbit Best Brains were unaware of and unprepared for when they elected to feature the movie. So horrified were they, in fact, that they altered the process for screening films; from this point forward, all potential movies would be screened in their entirety before being chosen for inclusion on the show.
The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here
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The Segments:
Prologue- Joel bathes the 'Bots and tries to tuck them into bed, but they refuse to go quietly.
Segment 1/Invention Exchange
- Joel has invented Gretchen the Slinky by exposing the popular toy to radiation and ultraviolet light, while Dr. Forrester, ripping off another one of Joel's ideas, produces the Slinky Tube, which lets him be in two places simultaneously.
Segment 2
- The SOL crew sing a rockin' tribute to the sport of sidehacking, with footage from the film played on a convienient chroma-screen.
Segment 3
- As Joel stresses, in order to produce recognizable commentary and play-by-play analysis for a sporting activity, it must have a working and understood terminology behind it. To demonstrate, he and the 'Bots provide such commentary over sidehacking footage from the film.
Segment 4
- Joel, Tom, and Crow discuss Rommel's character arc throughout the film, the former even providing Rommel hats for everyone. J.C. and Cooch from the planet Fivethehardway then visit the SOL, refusing to bring the crew back to Earth because of their resemblance to Rommel.
Segment 5
- To break the robots out of their funk after their second Downer Ending movie in a row, Joel sings the original ditty "Only Love Pads the Film" with them.
The MST3K treatment of The Sidehackers provides examples of:
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: After the sports commentary sketch, the film resumes with Rommel waking up from a beating and wincing at something off camera before it suddenly jumps to him storming out of the shed. Soon after, he arrives at a friend's house, only to abruptly get up and leave as soon as he is taken in. Best Brains had to cut out footage explaining these moments — in the former, he just saw Rita's corpse and mourns for her, while in the latter, he saw the friend's children playfully roughhousing and had to get away because it triggered memories of J.C. raping Rita. During the movie's subsequent Lost Love Montage, Crow has to tell the audience about Rita's death for the sake of context.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Let's be honest; there was no other way to explain the unavoidable detail of Rita's removal from the plot than having someone (in this case, Crow) outright admitting to the audience what got cut.
- Call-Back: Several in future experiments, such as:
- "That's a #5!"
- "He hit Big Jake!"
- "Chili Peppers burn my gut!", a callback that's used A LOT.
- Crow notes this is the second movie they’ve seen in a row where the protagonist gets killed.
- Darker and Edgier: Downplayed, but possibly due to the controversy surrounding the movie, the IFC airings played this episode with a TV-MA rating, while many of the other episodes in the series reran with TV-PG or TV-14 ratings on the channel.
- Dude, Not Funny!:
- Joel and the Bots don't take too kindly to J.C. going after Nero when he tries to calm him down during the dinner scene, especially since, prior to the latter half of the line being muted for TV, J.C. had called Nero -- who is black -- a very offensive term.Joel: Oh, real- (along with Crow and Tom) shut up!
- When J.C. begins to harass Paisley, Joel and the bots boo and jeer. Then he punches her in the gut, and Joel stands to his feet, throws his hands in the air in disgust and yells, "Oh, that's it! That's it!"
- Joel and the Bots don't take too kindly to J.C. going after Nero when he tries to calm him down during the dinner scene, especially since, prior to the latter half of the line being muted for TV, J.C. had called Nero -- who is black -- a very offensive term.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Goofy "hip" motor-sport flick about side-hacking becomes a disturbing, gritty rape/murder/revenge flick with a Downer Ending. This is the reason for Best Brains picking the thing and regretting it later. This is lampshaded by the Bots in a last segment.Tom: 'Joel, why was the movie so bad?
Crow: Yeah. It was cool in the beginning with the side-hacking... then it went right down the drain and they had to pad out the rest of the film with all that killing.
(Joel intros his new song "Only Love Pads The Film") - Killed Offscreen: Even with the infamous scene cut, it's not that hard to piece together what happened; before the commercial break, J.C. barges in on Rommel and Rita to tell him his time is up, and when the film resumes, Rita is nowhere to be seen and Rommel has been beaten within an inch of his life. For those who haven't seen the uncut version, the specifics of what went down, as well as what has the normally-mellow Joel and the Bots more genuinely angry than they've been up to that point, is left to the viewer's imagination.
- Never Heard That One Before: Joel and the 'bots see the "prison joke" story's punchline coming a mile away.
- Orphaned Punchline: Segment 4 uses a musical sting from the movie to underscore all the sad descents into remembering Rita. Unfortunately, they were forced to cut most of the times it appears due to the violence involved.
- Padding: Only love pads it.
- Running Gag: Calling Rommel a Magnificent Bastard, often adding, "I read your book!"
- Trilogy: The first of three episodes that center around motorcycle racers or gangs, the other two being Wild Rebels and The Hellcats. Strangely, all episodes played during season 2.
- Wham Episode: From a production perspective: it was this film that made Best Brains realize they need to screen the films they select for the show in their entirety from then on.
- Wham Line / What Happened to the Mouse?: Crow gives an offhand comment to explain Rita's absence; this is because the scene in which she was raped and killed had to be cut for obvious reasons.Crow: For those of you playing along at home, Rita is dead.
- With Lyrics: "Nothing lasts forever / only love / pads the film."
