1304 - Munchie
Premiere Date: Friday, May 27, 2022, 5:00 PM PST
Host: Jonah Heston
Special Guests: Dr. St. Phibes and Mega-Synthia join in the fun. Livestream guests: Jonah Ray, Hampton Yount, Deanna Rooney, Matt Oswalt, and Rebecca Hanson
Writers: Jonah Ray, Ross Bryant, Matthew Conant, Felicia Day, Ryon Day, Rebecca Hanson, Molly Lewis, Opus Moreschi, Matt Oswalt, Hampton Yount, Dana Querciloi
For all the crying about how bad this movie was, and Jonah's boiling hatred for it... Munchie didn't live down to my lowered expectations. It's dark but not Coleman Francis levels of dark n terrible, more Santa Conquers the Martians stupid and Gamera(s) dark. So no, I wasn't feeling their pain, and the flick was well suited for riffing, inspiring quips about munch-wipes, and schoolkid's reports on workplace ethics. There's also a full monty Shakespeare anecdote, some Flanders speak for a Flanders look-a-like... heck, my list of favorite riffs is loaded with goodies.
But if the flick was causing you harm? They've got you covered, by throwing in reference laced insults (Tom's "gone in 60 seconds" quip) and unleashing their trauma on the title creature.
While not the home run Atlantis was, it's stronger than Robot Wars, and the Crow's, man they are killing it, first Kelsey with the tennis ball short, now Hampton, who delivers the episode's funniest, and cleverest lines.
On the downside, the host segments are not a barrel of laughs, and were all over the place; primarily used to salt the season with plot threads... like, M Waverly and Growler hired as Boneheads, Em and Jonah hatching their scheme and exposing the Mads major weakness, and Pearl throwing in a cryptic comment. The coming payoffs may very well be grand, but the set-up, not so much. Saying that - it was nice to see Dr. St. Phibes again.
Livestream notes: Emily and her bots open the show with a bit about pesky critters, and close it with Crow's corpse (the more amusing of the two, it's funny how Emily has bonded with the duo instantly, while Servo's still getting there). There are new commercials (Synthia mimicking Pearl is always a hoot), and a Q&A that sees Matt McGinnis and Hampton at home, with Jonah, Matt Oswalt, Deanna, and Rebecca gathered together at the studio(?) You get stories of dark birthday parties and Hampton's dislike of Dom Deluise. They also elaborate on their Munchie pain (though, like Joel, I don't get the bellyaching)
Favorite Riffs: "Munchie, a quirky Sundance movie about Munchausen syndrome" - Jonah | "And the winner is" - "La La Land, oh, not again!" - award presenter/GPC | "Boy, there's never a radioactive spider to bite you when you really need it" - Crow | "A crucifix, the ultimate Easter egg" - Crow | "Self wedgie-ing pants, for the nerd on the go" - Crow | "Mama Mia, the pizza she a glow like a the virgin Mary" - Crow as chef | "... hammer, nails, I come prepared" - "Pontious Pilate sends his regards" - Munchie/Jonah | "This is like a Kidz Bop version of Eastern Promises" - Crow | "It's comforting to see Munchie in a body bag" - Jonah | "Hey was that us?" - Crow, after a kid in movie riffs on a talent show
Favorite Host Segment: The Phibes segment? Deanna Rooney is likable in the role, and the bit ties in with the movie. It was also neat seeing the 3 Pearls together, though honestly, the only real laughter I got out of these was from the second livestream skit on the simulator.
Special Event: A Tribute to Hobgoblins + Short: Court Case
Premiere Date: Friday, May 13, 2022, 5:00 PM PST
Special Guests: Rebecca Hanson, Bill Corbett, Mary Jo Pehl, and Hobgoblins creature designer Ken Hall
"I'm Pearl Forrester and I'm going to ruin your evening", funny... instead she sends Emily and her bots a pretty good short, that's not too short and allows the riffers time to properly engage the thing. It's titled Court Case, and there's little information on it - made in the 70s ('78 according to TMDB), with a run time of 12 min. It's an assembly line film, produced by Penn to show how tennis balls are made. The riffing? Once they build up a head of steam it's a goodie - the Irish in me loved Kelsey's accent, and her "Tell uncle Pauly I got the money, yeaowl!" as a ball gets squeezed was a hoot (heck, Kelsey's Crow voices several winners, from Muppet eyes to rubber cement lung and mechanical hands). Emily scores with her maxi pad observation, and in a cute ode to Father Joel, she tries to shield her bots from a risqué moment. Weeks back Em hosted the best experiment, and now the best short... to date (we'll see how that plays out).
After the short we hook up with our Mad hosts (where Synthia is scratching fleas) before we're sent over to Jonah... wait, Jonah again, I was hoping for Emily since she did the short, but maybe Jonah is going to do all of these events? Ah well, we get skits about Club Scum and such, they're okay, but it's the Mads bookends that brought the most smiles to my face (Rebecca trying to mirror MJs movements, lol)
For the aftershow, Joel calls out sick (get well soon), which is unfortunate as it would have been great to see him connect and ask questions of personable Kenneth J. Hall, who created the creatures in the movie (he explains that there wasn't the money to do a lot of work on the puppets, nor did he do the puppeteering, so that what we saw was a lot of "doll waving", which earns a laugh). He also speaks to his other projects, while Mary Jo and Bill share tales of MST, and the people they riffed on - and in conversations about re-riffs, Rebecca speaks to Eegah! and lets slip that they'll be redoing a classic short this season. This was a much more laid-back Q&A than what we saw the previous night. Calm and reminiscent and equally as enjoyable.
And so, closes the grand opening, now it's time to rest, before returning on May 27th for a brand-new experiment.
Rebecca's hilarious, and I like the changing text under the names. Jonah talking Ozu on Gamera, and the leprechaun blip during King Dinosaur were both a kick.
