"Wendell Yeo, the cleanest man in Boston."
"What, he sold door to door?"
"The Sinister Urge is a silly urge."
"The Sinister Urge is a stupid urge."
Film watched: The Sinister Urge, with short Keeping Clean and Neat
Just like last season's Body Care and Grooming, Keeping Clean and Neat is an educational outing meant to teach students about how to practice good hygeine and overall cleanliness in their rooms. The key difference is that the short focuses on kids in grade school rather than college students.
The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here
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The Segments:
Prologue- The Satellite of Love crew throws a shower for Gypsy. Everyone gifts her pinking shears, since they're exactly what a young robot wants.
Segment 1
- Dr. Forrester calls the SOL with a cause for concern. Frank has been watching a lot of action movies lately, and Dr. F is worried about what they might be doing to his easily-influenced mind. The concern grows when Forrester finds ticket stubs for Speed, Blown Away, and In the Line of Fire in Frank's pants pocket, as well as a bunch of dynamite in his closet. The SOL crew is somewhat convinced when Frank leaves a threat to blow up Deep 13 in his own shower gift to Gypsy.
Segment 2
- Just as Mike and the 'Bots leave the theater, an explosion rocks the Satellite of Love! The crew find the bridge covered in smoke from a bomb that was sent up the Umbilicus, having evidently exploded mid-transfer. On the SOL's gratuitous new payphone, a more-villainous-than-usual Frank calls and boasts that he's tied up Dr. Forrester and is going to blow him and all of Deep 13 sky-high, like in the movies. As they slowly realize that they're not getting off the SOL without him, Mike and the 'Bots vow to save Dr. Forrester and Deep 13.
Segment 3
- As the crisis in Deep 13 escalates, Mike and the 'Bots, taking the role of TV cops/detectives, try to find any information about Frank they can use to stop him. Crow suggests calling up his informant, Huggy Bear. Not the Huggy Bear, though; just a Huggy Bear.
Segment 4
- A choice remark from Gypsy inspires Mike to hit on an idea. He calls Dr. Forrester to suggest using potato cakes, something Frank just can't resist, to lure him away from the detonator. Fortunately, Frank's ability to tie up his hostages leaves a lot to be desired.
Segment 5
- Swayed by the scent of Dr. Forrester's potato cakes, Frank drops his guard to go eat them, allowing Dr. F to unplug the detonator. With everything back to normal, Mike does some letter-reading and Dr. F deep-fries Frank as punishment for his attempted mutiny.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Keeping Clean and Neat contains examples of:
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Mockingly evoked during the short.Crow: Remember, people like you better if you're pretty.
- "Psycho" Strings: Servo mimics them when the short gets to teaching how to shower properly.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Sinister Urge contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: Even though he sends Gypsy a letter threatening to blow up Deep 13, TV's Frank still has the courtesy to attach a set of pinking shears for her as well.
- Ambiguous Situation: When Dr. Forrester ends his phone call with Mike by screaming for help, we cut to the Satellite of Love as he does so. Interestingly, Crow's mouth drops open as this happens; either this was a coincidence, with Crow gasping in surprise, or Trace was doing the scream during that scene, and unknowingly operated Crow during it.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Frank's Evil Plan ends up being foiled by his love of potato cakes tempting him away from the dynamite long enough for Dr. Forrester to defuse the bomb.
- Brain Bleach: The scene in which porn director Johnny Ride gives mannish porn mogul Gloria Henderson a long kiss.Servo: Please, Mike, cover my eyes.Crow: That's it. I'm gonna be a monk.[Crow and Servo make gagging noises as they kiss]
- Brawnhilda: Crow dubs Mary "Big Ethel".
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Broken Aesop: Porn is worse than kidnapping or drugs, but also very lucrative. "I'm learning a lot about porn!" - Call-Back:
- TV's Frank to Forrester when boasting about his plan: "HAHAHAHAHAHA -- You're stuck here!"
- When Dirk calls Johnny "daddy-o", Tom briefly whispers "Contino?" in recognition.
- Cardboard Prison: Apparently, Dr. Forrester's bonds don't prevent him from leaving Deep 13 - he isn't actually tied to anything, so he can just get up and walk away. Why he doesn't remove the ropes and bombs from himself after leaving to get takeout isn't mentioned.
- Deep-Fried Whatever: How Dr. Forrester punishes Frank for nearly blowing up Deep 13.
- Enemy Mine: Mike and the 'Bots are perfectly fine with Frank blowing up Deep 13 until they realize that no Deep 13 means not ever coming back to Earth.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Mike and the bots cheer every appearance of Officer Kline.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Gypsy, playing The '40s office secretary to the boys' detectives in Segment 4, says the Mad Bomber case is "no piece of cake", which inspires Mike to come up with the solution: potato cakes.
- Evil Is Hammy: Frank pulls out all the stops and hits absolutely every villain cliche along the way as a Mad Bomber out to blow Deep 13 to kingdom come.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Porn pusher Gloria Henderson has a shrill tobacco snarl and a clipped delivery that the crew goes to town with, imitating yapping dogs, calling her "the scary aunt", and saying "you could shave with her voice."
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:Crow: Well, if Frank goes through with his plan, that means no more mad scientists!Tom: Which means no more evil experiments!Mike: Which means no more Deep 13!Crow: Which means no way can we ever, ever get down to Earth!Tom: Which eventually means no more Satellite of Love!Mike: Which means no more... [it finally hits them and they faint]Crow: [in a tone that just screams I Can't Believe I'm Saying This] ...We've got to help Dr. Forrester save Deep 13!
- Felony Misdemeanor:Crow: If they're arresting these guys, imagine the arrests they could make at the beach!
- Friendly Enemy: Even before the Enemy Mine situation develops with Frank threatening to bomb Deep 13, Mike and the 'Bots and Dr. Forrester are on strangely chummy terms — Mike calls Forrester "Clay" and Forrester calls up the Satellite to see if they've seen Frank.
- Faint in Shock: Mike, Tom, and Crow, do this when they finally realize that Frank bombing Deep 13 means no way of getting back down to Earth.
- Genius Bonus: Invoked.
- Mike's riff, "Smut! I'll show ya smut!" is one of the most obscure MST3K riffs. (It was a line uttered by Hawkeye in an episode of M*A*S*H that was partly drowned out by other bickering characters.)
- The follow-up to Tom's "Bob Dylan saves the day!" riff when Dirk (allegedly) skulks outside of the pizza shop scene:
- Groin Attack: Thanks to the angle from which things are viewed, Dirk getting shot looks like this. Also an Unusual Euphemism and a Title Drop:Tom: Ow! Right in the sinister urge!
- Hostage Situation: TV's Frank sets this up after being inspired by movies like In the Line of Fire, Blown Away and Speed.
- He ends up invoking tired tropes from the genre, including "Not So Different" Remark and Worthy Opponent.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Dr. Forrester after combing through Frank's room:Dr. Forrester: Not that I was snooping... but if I didn't snoop, I wouldn't know what was going on in Frank's life!
- Lame Pun Reaction: A cop says he's beat; Mike cracks "Oh, he's a beat cop!" Tom groans and Crow chuckles. Mike comments, "Well, he liked it."
- Lampshade Hanging: "Since when did we get a payphone?!"
- Let's Get Dangerous!: "Let's kick it into KLINE OVERDRIVE!" Invoked by Crow when Kline fights Dirk during a sting operation. Unfortunately, Johnny intervenes.
- Only it wasn't actually Kline. It was an unnamed undercover officer played by a different actor.
- Mad Bomber: Frank is going to, in his words, "blow the living bejeezus out of Deep 13", channeling similarly dramatic villains like Dennis Hopper in Speed or Tommy Lee Jones in Blown Away.
- Mood Whiplash: Just as Mike and the bots are about to exit the theater for the first time, the ship is abruptly rocked by an explosion that catches them off guard. No sooner do they enter the bridge, they see it's filled with smoke, and it soon becomes apparent that TV's Frank was being serious about bombing Deep 13...
- Mythology Gag: Mike laughs at a car grill, commenting, "Jet Jaguar!" Crow laughs for a moment, "Hey, it is!", then quizzically asks, "How would you know?!" Joel was on the Satellite of Love for Godzilla vs. Megalon, not Mike.
- Noodle Incident: When pretending to be cops investigating Frank, Crow and Tom get into an argument about Tom stopping a bus full of Cub Scouts:Tom: I stopped that bus and I saved them kids!Crow: All except one.Tom: (gasp)Crow: The one you let drive.Tom: He showed me his license!Crow: He was seven!
- Padding: It is an Ed Wood film, after all.[Mike and the Bots are watching prolonged footage of the outside of a police station]Crow: Ah. Ed Wood agonized over this scene.Mike: And now we are.[the scene continues for several more seconds]Crow: This is why Ed Wood gets final cut!
- Parental Substitute: In yet another switch in the weird, ever-shifting dynamic between Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank, this episode starts with the doctor fretting over Frank like a worried mom (before Frank turns into a gloating action movie villain and ties Forrester to a chair).
- Parallel Porn Title: Inevitable considering the subject matter. Examples include Forrest Hump and A Few Nude Men.
- Poke the Poodle: "Big Ethel" is coerced into doing porn, but...Crow: So they put her in more clothes than she's ever had on in her life!
Crow: The Queen Mother could heat up a room more! - Police Are Useless:Servo: Sir, shouldn't we get back to the office and speculate?
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: The bots don't get Mike's Doctor Who Shout-Out.
- Running Gag: Everybody gives Gypsy pinking shears for her generic, all-purpose shower, which is just so darling and lovely.Gypsy: Better get pinking!
- Sanity Slippage: Of course, nobody is really surprised by Frank suddenly deciding to blow up Deep 13 after watching one too many Mad Bomber movies.
- Shout-Out:
- At one point, Mike and the Bots do a parody of "The Minister's Cat."
- As the girl in the opening scene runs into a phone booth:
Mike: Quickly! Into the TARDIS! - Skewed Priorities: Downplayed: Even though Mike and the bots are fully aware of the necessity of stopping TV's Frank from blowing up Deep 13, they still continue the experiment as normal; them stopping Frank is merely relegated to the remaining host segments.
- Take That!:Gloria: In church?! Don't tell me that they're peddling those pictures in church!Mike: [as Gloria] That market is saturated.
- Too Dumb to Live: When Tom starts to call in Crow's efficiency of being a police detective, he in turn brings up how he got relegated to a desk job over "that speeding bus full of Cub scouts".Tom Servo: I stopped that bus, and I saved them kids!Crow: All except one! The one you let drive!Tom Servo: He showed me his license!Crow: HE WAS SEVEN!
- Worth It: Mike and the 'bots state watching Gloria getting caught in an obvious lie and her reaction to seeing Dirk was worth the pain of watching the movie.
- Servo also does a sarcastic version with his boisterous laughter at Lt. Carson's prank on Randy in an earlier scene.
