202. The Sidehackers

It’s a terrible movie, but the riffs are excellent. The scene with the raspy voice mumble-grumbling had me laughing so hard my side cramped. Also Michael Pataki’s performance as an absolute psycho is laudable. He plays that role so well it’s alarming.

“It’s a lock. I want you to wear it.” “In your septum.”

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I’m just glad they managed to edit out that one scene.

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Does anyone have a list of how many other episodes ended up benefiting from “Chili peppers burn my gut!!” ? :hot_pepper: :hot_pepper: :hot_pepper:

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I’ll never understand how sidehacking didn’t overtake baseball as our national pastime.

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Sidehacking does still exist. Mythbusters did an episode where they were testing whether a hooked fish could swim so fast that the friction on the reel could combust. Nothing was working, so they got the fastest aquatic-themed motorcycle racer they could find, Sharkus Maximus.

It’s just now called sidecar racing. But the same principle applies: Having an intelligent counterbalance allows the motorcycle to drive faster without flipping over, and it’s an additional test of skill.

The rigs look much sleeker now, but it does still involve hanging your butt over the pavement at 200mph.

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I’m pretty sure I’ve only watched this once. Even knowing about the sudden change in tone (and the reason for it), it was a bit jarring and left me felling it was a bit of a nasty film. I’m sure I’ll get around to watching it again, either as a vault pick or in a rewatch. We’ll see if knowing what to expect makes it better a second time.

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Really, all the biker films meld together in my mind. It doesn’t help that Ross Hagen is in two of them and he can’t act, so it’s just the same character in both.

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I’ve never been able to get through the whole thing…the movie is too icky.

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What I find fascinating about The Sidehackers is that for most of Season 2, almost all of Season 3 and parts of Season 4 feature at least one reference to Experiment 202. Appears this was the movie that had the most lingering impact on the MST crew before Manos.

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I must admit, I love the season two biker movies! That being said, this is probably my least favorite of the bunch. In order; Wild Rebels. The Hellcats. The Sidehackers. But, I love all of them!

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“He hit Big Jake.”

It’s one of the strongest episodes of the Comedy Central years, though the movie itself is one of the most reprehensible. I’m sorry, Sidehackers, out of all the people who die by the end of the movie, the murdering rapist is NOT one of them?!?

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To be fair, there were a lot of murdering rapists in the movie, and they did kill most of them.

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“For those of you playing along at home, Rita’s dead.”

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I agree. I enjoyed the first “half” much more than the second.

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Definitely my experience.

That first half is a hoot with all the goofy goings-on and silly, stupid characters. And we get Cambot’s only riff (so far) of the series!

But… there’s a point where that turn comes in, and when that turn comes in… oof. It becomes a harsher, more jarring movie where the riffs have to work harder to overcome that cinematic darkness.

I won’t NOT watch it, but if we’re talking the Season 2 biker trilogy, I’d go with Wild Rebels and The Hellcats sooner.

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We even got one as late as Seven 7!

There’s a scene in The Incredible Melting Man where Melto is traipsing through a field, and the guys start singing “Only Love Pads the Film” before Melto takes a tumble.

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I don’t know if this is complete, but I think we get “chili peppers burn my gut” references in:

Rocket Attack U.S.A.
Ring of Terror
Lost Continent
The Hellcats
Daddy-O
It Conquered the World
Teenage Caveman
Starcrash

EDIT: @linkdupont found them in Season 3’s Fugitive Alien and War of the Colossal Beast as well!

If that’s anywhere near accurate, I’m surprised that we didn’t get MORE “chili peppers” riffs.

There were quite a few “He hit Big Jake!” riffs over the years, too.

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According to the fandom wiki, there’s also War of the Colossal Beast and Fugitive Alien.

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Oh, good call, I missed that! Thanks for catching those!

fistbump

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“That was number _____!” showed up in at least one subsequent episode as well.

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