Literary Riffs

Which riffs that reference literary works are your favorite?

A personal fav of mine is Tom’s quip from JACK FROST when myriad roosters cry-

“Peter must be going around denying EVERYONE this morning!” :laughing:

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Wouldn’t this include like, all of “Hamlet”?

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Servo and Poe

“The bells bells bells bells bells bells the tintinnabulation of the bells!” (I Was a Teenage Werewolf, when school bells ring)

“I want some Amontillado” (Projected Man, as thieves hammer away at a wall)

And one that referenced the writers…

“Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman have it out!” - Mike (Racket Girls)

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The riffs in the Hamlet episode specifically addressing it as a dramatic work.

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Sinbad :

“What fresh hell is THIS?!” – Dorothy Parker, IIRC

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Trying to think of others… I know they did several on Lovecraft and Bukowski.

Hmm, what were some of my favorite books? Most of the Lolita’s were movie, rather than novel based. Were there any for Dostoyevsky, Austen, Chandler?

Oh, Shirley Jackson… I think they did a Lottery riff during Rocketship X-M, when the astronauts were having rocks thrown at them.

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It’s Rifftrax, but naturally Night Of The Lepus mentions the lead characters from Watership Down, along with about 50 Tolkein references. :carrot:

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The Touch of Satan: “Hang on. I’m getting a call from Margot Adler.” I had to play it back to make sure I heard it right the first time I saw the episode. It was a really unexpected riff.

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The numerous Jenny Fields references when a woman is tending to a sick or helpless man.

In the same vein, when a silent woman appears in Fire Maidens of Outer Space and they say “Maybe she’s an Ellen Jamesian”.

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“Are we Bound for Glory now, Mr. Big Stupid?”

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One thing to keep in mind is that MST3K was bandying about Tolkien references well before Peter Jackson even storyboarded those Lord of the Rings movies in 1997. (Credit to Kevin Murphy for the bulk of those, I think.)

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Mike is fond of Tolkien as well.

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Good call, that!

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I absolutely lost it the first time I watched Deathstalker and Mike said ”the fog cruises in on little cat feet.”

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If there’s a literary riff that makes me scream-laugh, it’s Crow throwing a nod to Chaucer with “Mike, is this The Miller’s Tale?” from Boggy Creek II: And The Legend Continues.

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Henry Miller gets a shout out in an early part of The Rebel Set. And I think Ralph Ellison is mentioned, too. But I can’t remember exactly when and where.

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My favorite is in The Undead when the prostitute is wandering around the shrink’s office and “she” says in a thick New Joisey accent:

“Don’t you have any Proust?”

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I want to say there’s a Holden Caulfield riff somewhere that jumps out at me…

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Thank you! That is one of my favorite riffs!

In Hamlet, there are a number of references to other works. As they’re heading toward one of Hamlet’s soliloquies, they do a few like…

“Now is the winter of our discon- … oh, wait, wrong play.”

During Santa Claus, when the little kids are writing their letters, they put in a bunch of references.

“I was born in the house my father built.”
“Call me, Ishmael.”
“The minute Yosarian…”

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Hearing you mention that, I believe there absolutely is one. Can’t seem to remember where that showed up. Maybe mixed in among the Charles Whitman references or one of those “dangerous loner” type riffs…not sure.

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