Excellence Level: Monkey shenanigans of the highest order, and I don't care
Movie Pain: Low - Confusing but cheesy fun.
Riffing: Good spirited fun
Skits: Chuckle-Fest at best
First off... Pepe, the ape with the face like an owl? She freaked me out, man! (Thank you for letting me get that off my chest). Anyway, this Japanese production tells the story of 2 kids and a girl who are accidentally frozen, then awaken in the future where apes rule supreme. They are befriended by Godo, hounded by Geybar, and followed by a Flying Saucer for no apparent reason.
This horrible flick gets some steady silly riffing - they're not all that deep but the humor has a nice light breezy vibe to it. Johnny's "I Don't Care" line is the font of many laughs and any opportunity to make a "flinging crap" joke is taken with impunity. Crow even lets fly with a few more "Jamie Gumb" lines (Trace does that voice so well).
The host segments were not a great success for the most part, the Scopes trial with Judge Wapner was pretty dumb. But the "Sandy Frank" song is hysterical, enhanced by Joel's spastic dance & Servo's ape mask; and the Mads experiment brings us the "Miracle Grow" baby (the younger version was a Mallon, the older was performed by technical supervisor Timothy Scott).
Host Segments
Intro: A game of Tee-ball using Servo's head. Invention: Joel presents the Cellulite Phone. Frank develops the Miracle Growth Baby Formula. Segment 1: A short film, "Why Johnny Doesn't Care". Segment 2: Judge Wapner & the Scopes trial. Segment 3: Ape fashions. End: The Sandy Frank song. And on Deep 13, nobody wants to change the baby. Stinger: Johnny sez, "I don't care"
MST Hour Segments
Part 1: Jack plays with a monkey hand puppet as he makes his introductions, and in the 2nd segment confesses his love of monkeys and takes a pratfall while playing with his puppet. Part 2: Our host dons a monkey mask then gives his recap, and in the closing segment he strokes a puppet while offering up some trivia on Sandy Frank. During the credits, we watch as he hops around like an ape.
Notable Riffs
* "Don't disturb their work" - "And don't dub with your mouth full!" - Dad/Crow
* "(ground trembles) "Oh, what was in that oatmeal?" - Servo
* "Oh no, it hit the plot contrivance switch" - Servo
* "But I kid the potatoes..." - Joel as Godo
* "Do not be afraid, I do not hurt innocent people. I have assistants for that." - Servo
* "I don't care! Maybe a little" - Joel as Johnny
* "Yeah we turned him into a Hummel. Check him out." - Joel as Uncle Charlie
* "Hey, let's find the refrigerator and freeze ourselves back!" - Crow as Catherine
* "Nice G-Gun" - Joel as Catherine as she checks out Godo
* "Yes he's an officer..." - "and a gentle-monkey" - Pepe/Servo
* "Off to meet my doom, Mom! See you after school!" - Joel as Johnny
* "Uh, I'd wash that hand if I were you. That's my throwing hand." - Joel
* "Steven Segal in... Shoot the Monkey" - Servo
* "What happened to my Uncle? - "What happened to your pants!?" - Johnny/Joel
* "We came here in a very strange way" - "By refrigerator" - Catherine/Servo
* "It's a lil ol' Devo hat! Those spud boys are everywhere" - Servo
* "It's Caddyshack. No wait, that's Pepe" - Servo
* "They are cute, but they... smell." - Joel as Johnny
* "Sandy Frank, Sandy Frank, He's the source of all our pain..." - All (singing)
Riff Explained
"You know what he's afraid of? He's afraid he's going to run into David Hedison going the other way" - Servo
Spoken as Pepe crawls through a vent. Refers to the TV show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". Hedison played the commander, and he was always crawling through the subs abnormally large air ducts to save someone, or make an escape. (Monsters and such were always getting into the ship via the ducts as well).
"It keeps the hot side hot and the cold side cold" - Servo
This comes from a 1985 McDonald's commercial for their "McDLT", a burger packed in Styrofoam compartments, which kept the hot (burger) separate from the cold (Lettuce, etc). It featured Jason Alexander, with hair, before his role as George on "Seinfeld".
* The actor who played Geybar, Hatakeyama Baku, was the "Yellow Ranger" in the Japanese series Gorangers. Baku died sometime in 1986 from causes I've been unable to track down. He would have been in his early 40's though.
* A riff referring to a Cheese Phone is heard. Weeks later in episode 313 (Earth Vs. the Spider) the Cheese Phone will make its debut as part of the Mads invention.
Available on DVD: Volume 22
