Festival of Shorts + Let's Keep Food Safe to Eat & Mr. B Natural
Premiere Date: Friday, January 6, 2023, 5:00 PM PST
The 11th tribute of the season sees our host, Hampton's, Crow T. Robot (temporarily from France?) dressed to the nines as he presents a collection of classics, as well as a recent one. They are, A Case of Spring Fever, Circus on Ice, Snow Thrills, The Selling Wizard, and Pipeline to the Clouds.
The festival also features appearances from Tom and Jonah in a series of sketches that are, mm, alright, but not really laugh out loud funny. Among the group - Heston & Tom help come up with a name for the show, Servo all in gold, plays Crow, and Jonah as a talk show guest...
Crow and Tom introduce the new shorts during the livestream, Pearl for the standalone release - but who would ever complain about seeing more Emily, not me. Ems group take on a piece about keeping food safe (and really, even before the fuzzy mold is introduced it looked pretty gnarly). There's a lot of like here... Emily's line about pyramid schemes was a clever switcheroo on the narrator's question about Steve's dirty hands, as was the one about Cathy's missing fingers. Another laugh came from Kelsey's, "Now turn off the light switch and grab the door handle." 😄
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Servo as Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger?
After this and a Madvertisement, Crow and Jonah return with an extra special announcement, footage was found from the time Max and Kinga were trapped in the theater at the end of season 12, where they were forced to watch Mr. B Natural. And It's fun to hear this duo do some riffing. Patton's comment on the name Patton, comparing Mr. B to Elf on the Shelf and the Gadget quip gave me big laughs. While "Check out that housecoat, what a babe!", and "What's NWA mean?" were a couple of knockouts from Felicia.
Though there are some noticeable dead zones, and I wouldn't rank it ahead of the original, there's still gold left to be mined from this short, and it's fun to compare all 4 versions - the 2 from MST3K, Rifftrax and the Mads (for example, near the end when Mr. B gives the OK sign, Kinga echoes Joel's "It stinks", on Rifftrax the line was, "Adequate!")
Oh, and was it just me, or did Max sometimes sound like Gene from Bob's Burger's?
Special Event: Overdrawn at the Memory Bank Riff-A-Long + Short: Better Breakfasts USA!
Premiere Date: Friday, January 20, 2023, 5:00 PM PST
Better Breakfasts USA is proof that there's still value in showing a crappy print, as it gives the crew a chance to react and respond to blips and artifacts... such as the incursion of mini tornados found in this week's piece, which is about a classroom fieldtrip to a studio, where children learn about the grains found in breakfast food. In it, our Riffers act as educational helpmates, pointing out which grains are the most feared, and how cereals come flaked, puffed, mutilated... etc, etc. Emily points out the Kellogg's Maxi Wheats, while Tom assures us that Branson, MO is a tropical area (the proof is in the rice). All this and more, in one of the most hysterical bits of schooling you'll ever hope to receive, and one of the toppermost shorts offered up this season.
After that stellar start, Rebecca, Baron, Hampton, Jonah join forces for the live cast watch along, which was rather subdued and not as diverting as past watch parties, like Hobgoblins (shown during the pledge drive). Of the four, Jonah's shouty, Hampton suffers through technical issues, though he does earn a laugh with the line, "Hold thy horses and cool thy jets". Rebecca's "Middle Fingal" quip was silly but funny. Baron, looking and sounding under the weather, is a champ, not only because it's a kick watching him break up over the riffs and sketches, but also for utterances of admiration (complimenting one bit for its "lyrical dexterity") and his amusing riff additions ("Less is More-occo", and "Brendan Fraser gives his all in this" (a nod to his role in The Whale).
There are a handful of new host segments and I like how they -at times- relate to the episode as something they lived through and riffed on, as in the introductory piece where Pearl and Synthia talk PBS, which leads to Crow discussing his immortal catch phrase, "You know you want me baby!" It lends the livestream a tribute like feel.
Later - Team Emily can't figure out what's beeping (Servo's line. "When have you ever known me to be a beeper..." is so clever, clever). After that there's talk about doppeling into an animal of choice (Hampton's dolphin stuff gives up the giggles) / Jonah and Emily have a serious discussion with the kids (Bots) about screen time / And a "You know you want me, baby!" tote bag is shown, as Pearl is called out for delays in sending out the swag, even Dr. Kabahl is impatiently waiting (course, this a biting meta-joke).
There's a Q&A at the end, where doppeling, catch phrases, and living in a cinemas are among the subjects.
January's lineup for Tech Run Amok Month
