1307 - Gamera vs. Jiger
Premiere Date: Friday, July 22, 2022, 5:00 PM PST
Host: Jonah Heston
Special Guests: Dr. Donna St. Phibes, The Brain
Writers: Jonah Ray, Kennedy Allen, Ross Bryant, Matt Conent, Michael Druker, Rebecca Hanson, Lesley Kinzel, Molly Lewis, Hampton Yount
Last month was the much-anticipated return of Joel, now, the much-anticipated return of Gamera, which sadly, was a bit of a letdown... the work on Jiger is low key, with riffing that gave me smiles rather than guffaws - clever in spots (the Zaireeka joke) but not really Ha-Ha funny. Saying that, I'd like to focus on the good and the beautiful - the stuff that delighted.
The show opens nicely, by affording us an opportunity to hear the new generation of riffer tackle Gamera's greatest hits - also, the comments during the x-ray scene offers up a slice of silly fun (which leads to a silly host seg where Dr. St. Phibes returns with x-rays of her own). And Crow's personality shines, even in the simplest of lines (“I think the murderer did it” and "I'm gold, case closed" / he also makes Gamera saying “Wheeee” a belly buster, and I loved his Herzog)
The straw that stirs this comedy drink however is the child called Susan. She's sort of a kin to the original mad Kenny, though it's not obsession that drives her, but bloodlust - Heston and the bots having her revel in havoc was side splitting ("More carnage and destruction daddy!" - Crow / "The blood fills me with delight!" - Servo). Combined with her difficult to place accent and sometimes garbled line delivery, and Susan becomes the peak of absurdity and laughter in this experiment (there's a sketch dedicated to her - "Roaming national accents for children" which is Pygmalion with Tom as Henry Higgins).
Susan says "glorious" for one of the episode's biggest laughs
Movie-wise, there's a lot of familiar faces in the cast, Shô Natsuki from Zigra (who is on the receiving end of another Col. Sanders joke, lol), Kon Omura, Cornjob from Guiron, and Franz (not Hans) Gruber and Chico Lourant of War of the Insects fame (covered by CT), to name a few. I was disappointed they didn't do better by Cornjob, though I did chuckle when they had him speak German (it's the 'stache). Alternaversal was not allowed to edit this very repetitive flick, so they fill in the dull spots with an unfunny padded-out song (tsk), a teasing jab (Jonah's comment about how cool the fights will be once they’re edited down for the movie), or by just coming right out with it (♫ Gamera's the movie with no end in sight ♫). Yeah, that repetition was wearying and the writers struggled mightily with it.
Host Segments were movie related, I mentioned a few above, we also get a rousing Irish tune dedicated to Jiger, this was the best of the bunch, though I dislike the editing, the zooms and such. The movie is set during the 1970 Expo, so there’s an Expo Expo sketch (GPCs corporate contribution, “the pavilion of endangered animals we endangered” was my favorite here). For the Mads, a road trip for Pearl and Kinga is set in motion (Methinks Pearl is up to something evil - love how she calls Kinga her bittersweet heart, the name of Joel's experiment in show #501).
Livestream Q&A features the writers of the episode, Kennedy Allen, Ross Bryant, Lezley Kinzel, and Jonah Ray, who discuss how they got involved with the show, and how difficult it was to riff certain scenes, they also do the usual fan question thing and talk about the writing process.
Favorite Riffs: “If anybody asks, you ate some Tide Pods and I had to take you to the hospital, and that’s where I’ve been” - Jonah | “Lovely day for some light colonialism” - Jonah | “Shut your mid-western plaid wearing mouth!” - Servo | “Someone ate their Grape Nuts” - Servo | "Geeze Gamera eat some fiber" - Jonah | “I’m new at this, how do I let you know if I’m a Triceratops or a Tricerabottoms?” - Crow | “I regret installing a handle in my head” - Crow as Jiger | “I’m coming Elizabeth!” - Jonah | "Look at me I got second place!" - Jonah | "Ah, he's trying to wash our windows" - Servo as mini monster spits stuff at sub | "Your move Charles Darwin" - Crow
Favorite Host Segment: Jiger's wake
Amazing Colossal Grade: 2.5 - The lesser of the Gamera experiments (yup, I'll take Barugon over this) though Susan gives it a lift on occasion.
Oh, and this was my backer credit episode, which was a thrill
Special Event: A Tribute to Gamera vs. Guiron + Short: Sleep for Health
Premiere Date: Friday, July 8, 2022, 5:00 PM PST
The Livestream opens with Joel explaining that this month's short was part of the original Kickstarter, where backers pledged for the honor of taking a riff seminar and doing some writing of their own - due to rights issues it took years before those efforts were allowed to be heard. An overtired Pearl then introduces the piece, appropriately titled "Sleep for Health", and as with the other season 13 shorts, it's okay - Joel gets a laugh with his magic eye riff, and Crow mispronounces a credit. The scene where the kid counts his sins (rather than sheep) to help him fall asleep, was a kick, as was Crow's line about waking up unnaturally - unfortunately, there are dead spots (the boy's dream flight) and flat quips that bring it down. A few nights ago, I watched the classic, Appreciating Your Parents, which was a scream... they've yet to reach that level of funny with these.
After a joke about the film's star (in text), Pearl and Synthia return, to turn the screen over to Heston and his bots, who do a bit about translating Kaiju lingo - "Grow up Crow!" is the line of merit here. Other cute originals peppered through the show include Jonah's group playing at being their evil versions (like "Mirror Mirror" universe) / Emily and the bots preparing a Kaiju disaster kit, Ems list is practical, but Tom and Crow want to dress like kids and sing songs (this is my favorite of the group) / Lastly Jonah and all, including Dr. Kabahl, discuss how to get in shape for the perfect turtle physique.
As for the main experiment, "Hello! Thank you!" - this version made its debut on September 7, 1991 - a memorable date in MSTory as it's an all-time classic, the best of MSTs Gamera series IMHO. This being a tribute, I wish there'd been more of a celebratory feel to the show. Manos and Hobgoblins achieved that with guests who worked on those movies. Here, it might have been nice to talk about what makes this a standout episode with fans who were there when it first aired, offer up some MST/Gams trivia, and have a special guest, like, well, Mike. How neat (and full of turtle meat) it would have been to have Mike involved, sharing memories about his spot as Michael Feinstein, and Jack Perkins (as MST Hour host of this ep). Perhaps that ship has sailed, but Mike has talked MST as a guest of the Mads, so maybe not an impossibility? In lieu of that, we get a screening of "So Happy Together: A Look Back at MST3K and Gamera" a documentary featurette that was included in the 2011 Gamera DVD set. Joel, Trace, Frank, J. Elvis, and Jim (but not Mike?) discuss the pictures, and that's cool, that fits the theme, and we had the Kaiju skits... still, it fell a bit short of special for me.
Note: the JACKBOX SHOWDOWN that was announced on the ticket art, was rescheduled for July 27th.
The Livestream opens with Joel explaining that this month's short was part of the original Kickstarter, where backers pledged for the honor of taking a riff seminar and doing some writing of their own - due to rights issues it took years before those efforts were allowed to be heard. An overtired Pearl then introduces the piece, appropriately titled "Sleep for Health", and as with the other season 13 shorts, it's okay - Joel gets a laugh with his magic eye riff, and Crow mispronounces a credit. The scene where the kid counts his sins (rather than sheep) to help him fall asleep, was a kick, as was Crow's line about waking up unnaturally - unfortunately, there are dead spots (the boy's dream flight) and flat quips that bring it down. A few nights ago, I watched the classic, Appreciating Your Parents, which was a scream... they've yet to reach that level of funny with these.
After a joke about the film's star (in text), Pearl and Synthia return, to turn the screen over to Heston and his bots, who do a bit about translating Kaiju lingo - "Grow up Crow!" is the line of merit here. Other cute originals peppered through the show include Jonah's group playing at being their evil versions (like "Mirror Mirror" universe) / Emily and the bots preparing a Kaiju disaster kit, Ems list is practical, but Tom and Crow want to dress like kids and sing songs (this is my favorite of the group) / Lastly Jonah and all, including Dr. Kabahl, discuss how to get in shape for the perfect turtle physique.
Note: the JACKBOX SHOWDOWN that was announced on the ticket art, was rescheduled for July 27th.
The showdown pit 3 Crows (Bill, Kelsey, and Hampton) against 3 Servos (Baron, Conor and Tim Ryder) - the games they played included Talking points (where they improvise a presentation, assisted by a partner who feeds them photos), there was this T-shirt and slogans thing, and Champ'd Up, where they designed some mega monsters who square off against one another. Though there are dead spots, while they draw and whatnot, and the 2-hour run time was tiring, I got laughs a plenty. It's a kick watching these folks be creative and funny.
As for the winner? I was all about team Crow, but alas it was not to be.
July's lineup for Mega Monster Month
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