State Fair Manicure.
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Trailer.
Yes, admittedly, some of those riffs aged about as well as a gallon of milk left in a car trunk in the desert.
That being said, the rest of the episode is some really fun stuff that I’m glad to see when it makes the rounds in one of the MST3K 24/7 channels. Maybe it’s the seaside carnival atmosphere that endears this one to me.
I have to admire the chutzpah of a film that has THAT MUCH SHEER PADDING with all the musical performances. That adds to the trainwreck mystique of the episode experience, particularly with the riffs that so adeptly take down the terrible choreography (“Hair-trigger precision… they’re like the Blue Angels of dancing.” “Yeah, one wrong move and they all crash”) and questionable choice of lyrics (“The first blade lifts, the second one cuts, you get your Schick out of shape!”).
Given the end of Samson Vs. the Vampire Women, it stood to reason that we wouldn’t likely have reason to see Torgo again, but I’m glad that the Sci-Fi era had its own Torgo in Ortega, with a very game Paul Chaplin stepping into the role.
Also, in an era where Comedy Central references were being slowly phased out and pushed to the background, how cool was it that we got a “Night Train to Mundo Fine” callback as Jerry wanders around haplessly? Granted, I didn’t catch that on the first viewing… or the first several viewings, for that matter.
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TISCWSLABMUZ recently found its way into my all-time favorites list. There are a handful of riffs that leave me in stitches, and by the time I’m done laughing at one, the next one comes up.
- “This is Herbie the Misfit Elf!”
- “You know what I’m looking at? That Exit sign”
- “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Glenn Close Experience!”
- That bit at the end where Tom does the Planet of the Apes line in the Jerry Lewis voice.
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Right around that part, you gotta love the hell out of the Jim Carrey-looking bystander and Mike’s over-the-top obnoxious delivery of “ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLRIGHTY THENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN”
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Love the hell out of “WHERE’S ELISABETH SHUE!?”
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I know I’ve seen this experiment several times. Yet each time I watch it, it’s like a new film.
Probably because my brain forcibly deletes the movie within minutes of the episode finishing.
What can I say about a film that makes me long for the good taste and restraint of EEGAH, the nuanced performances of Attack of the Giant Leeches and the top notch production values of Robot Monster?
To say nothing of the enlightened, healthier view of sex and love depicted in The Brain That Wouldn’t Die?
I enjoy much of the riffing, but dear me, this is an actual anti-movie that negates itself at every turn.
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This was a good episode. The whole “Walkathon” bit at the start is a riot.
The movie itself is almost as bad as Manos; Ortega as a running gag in the Sci-Fi era episodes was clever though he was no Torgo.
And that carnival show…just WHY did that guy have a private box?
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TIL that Ray Dennis Steckler directed the music video for Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”.
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We watched this on Christmas at a friend’s place, and it was surprising that it could be a Christmas Movie given the “Little Drummer Boy” bit Crow sings.
I do feel this could be on par with The Starfighters, given it’s a lot of stuff that happens but we’re pretty much not interested at all, thouh this edges out that film because of its unconventional weirdness, while Starfighters is like a 6 hour trip through the badlands.
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6 hours of refueling wasn’t outre enough for ya’? 
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A few weeks ago, I made an impulse buy of the Ray Dennis Steckler Blu-ray boxed set: all of his legit feature films, plus several movies from the softcore years. When it arrived, I worried that I would have buyer’s remorse, but I had no reason to worry.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched Wild Guitar, which is a real pip, and tons more entertaining than I expected. And today, I watched the original, uncut, unriffed version of The Incredibly Strange Creatures.
What a treat. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that because of its short run time, MST3K had to make almost no cuts at all for its episode. There were a couple of tiny shots of implied violence that were cut, but virtually all of the movie was intact for the MST episode. So if you’ve seen the episode, you’ve pretty much seen the movie.
The visuals on the Blu-ray are a tiny bit better than the ones in MST, but not much. And the movie unfurls in all its unsettling dullness punctuated with unsettling weirdness.
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Tim. Thank You. Grade A Summary. Interesting that almost the entire film made it.