I have to thank Ben Jackson for adding this folder from my suggestion. I noticed that a lot of the nitpickers are young enough that they don't recognize some of the references made by Joel, Mike and the 'bots. Here's the place to post what you know about some of the more obscure references in MST, or to post questions about some joke that you just didn't get.

Please remember that just because it's obvious to you does make it obvious to all. No dissing please.

I'll start off with one--
"Johnny Thunders?" (shouted out during a scene in "The Giant Gila Monster"): Johnny Thunders was the guitarist for the New York Dolls, an early 1970's proto-punk band and acknowledged influence on the Sex Pistols. Johnny o.d'ed in 1981.

"Hey, look, it's Abel Gance's 'Napoleon'" (Tom Servo says this about a TV show being shown on three screens in "Alien from LA)--Abel Gance was a French filmaker of the silent and sound eras. His masterpiece was "Napoleon" (1927), a 4 hour epic about the French general. Parts of the film were shown in "tryptich" format; that is, three side-by-side screens showing film from three different projectors. "Napoleon" was restored and re-released in 1981, with a score by Carmine Coppola (Francis Ford's father). You should really see it.

"He's more of an Art-Less Dodger." From Quest of the Delta Knights
(this may be obscure, or not, depending on if you were in Hell during your time in High School)
From Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist" A charecter named the Artful Dodger. (btw he was neither)

I am an "old" MSTie and being a trivia and movie buff since I was a young lad, I get more than my share of references during the show. I've watched everything from great silent movies by Eisenstein to terrible Ted Mikels films like "Astro Zombies," read Shakespeare and Milton and Tolkien too. However, there is one MST3K reference that has been coming up for years that I still am unable to pin down. Does anyone know where "It is balloon!!!" comes from? They even did this one again in Season 10 during The Soultaker. I wouldn't be surprised if it's from something I have seen or read and I've just forgotten it, but I'd really like to get ahold of this one finally. Thanks.

I have heard people on another board saying that this phrase is from "F-Troop," but I really couldn't say, almost never having seen it.

Bob--could you give me an example of the reference in context to an MST show? I don't remember hearing it before.

In "This Island Earth", at the end, the alien's ship is plummeting toward the ocean, and Mike and Co. wave their arms in the air and yell "Woo..hoo! Woooo.....hoooo!!!" (That's supposed to mean that the second "woohoo" is stretched out more than the first.) It would be easy to see this as a generic reaction to any kind of vertical freefall, like something you'd yell on a roller coaster, but I think it's actually an Obscure Reference to Stanley Kubrick's _Dr. Strangelove_. At the end, the bomber pilot (a Texan) goes into the bomb bay to unjam the doors and ends up sitting on a nuclear bomb when they drop it. So he rides it all the way down, waving his hat in the air and yelling "Woo...hoo! Woooo.....hoooo!!!" before getting vaporized by the nuclear explosion.

The feference " it is baloon" uttered whenever we see a baloon object if from "F Troop" In this second season episode Harvey Korman plays a prussian officer bringing a balloon out west to use against the Indians. When sgt. O'rourke and Corp. Agarn try to warn the Hekawis about the balloon they refuse to believe a man can fly. Of course Agarn gets launched in the baloon. "what is that ? says Crazy Cat. Wild Eagle- (Frank DeKova) "it is ballooooon!. " "But you said there are no such things as balloon." "Then it must be evil spirit." The Hekawi's shoot arrow into balloon. Agarn crashes. Note when the line is used on MST3k. they mimic wild eagle.

This one comes from 'Pod People': During the sequence in which Trumpy tours the little kid's zoo, Crow does this absolutely hilarious riff in a mock-Masterpiece Theatre accent -- "Oh, kitty...kitty is like a potato...hmmmm...little potatoes (mice)...ah, little winged potatoes (birds)...." It's one of the funniest scenes in the Rhino video collection, but I have no idea what I'm laughing at. Where the heck does this come from? (I'm guessing Monty Python, maybe?)

kerriem: I don't know if that is a reference to anything. It could be, but I think they're just being goofy. It's still hilarious, though. :-)

(Belated) thanks for the update. I guess i underestimated how truly clever the MST3K crew could be.

An erudite reference I've always liked: during the opening credits of "The Screaming Skull" there's a shot of a bubbling pond, prompting Servo to sing "Brekke-koax-koax-koax..." This is the song of the chorus of frogs in Aristophanes' The Frogs.

(And now you, like Gilbert and Sullivan's Major-General Stanley, know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes! ;-) )

This one's from 'Sidehackers': Whenever the good guy has to fend off the bad girl, or the bad guys, or whatever, Crow blurts out "Oh, you magnificent bastard, I've read your book!!"
I've since heard the same reference from Phil Hartman in a NewsRadio episode of about the same vintage - leading me to surmise that this was a popular quip back then - but what the heck does it all mean? (It seems kinda long and tortured, for a popular quip!)

kerriem, it's from "Patton". Patton (George C. Scott) is referring to Rommel.

Note: I used this line on the boards as a sort of semi-compliment. Don't use it. The guy took it as an insult.

Check. And thanks for the info...although it will take me awhile to reconcile the concept of Phil Hartman quoting George C. Scott to Dave Foley. :)

Hey, here's one:

I seem to remember Tom Servo quoting a line from Soundgarden's "Outshined" upon seeing a so-called caveman who looked more like Chris Cornell than a neanderthal. Or was he simply commenting on Cornell's appearance? So many years ago...

Here's one. What references are most commonly heard from episode to episode? That is, what riffs are heard again...and again...and again?

Usually, any scene with a man trying to force himself on a woman will be accompanied by a "Senator Packwood" joke.

Any scene with a man on his knees (who looks burnt or black) will be accompanied by "Mammy!", a reference to Al Jolson.

Anything else?

Mike, check out the 'Frequent Flying References' board a little further down the Sink for a thread on this topic. (My personal favorite - mentioned therein - is Crow's chirping '...you're soaking in it!' whenever there's a domestic scene, as in 'The Home Economics Story.')

A couple of my favorite obscure riffs comes from 'Gunslinger':

Upon seeing a title card reading 'Tuesday, May 25': "Tuesday the rabbi got robbed" - a takeoff on the titles of Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small mystery series.

After Cain Merrill explains he's come 'lately, from around Tombstone', Servo pipes up 'And before that, Medford, Wisconsin' - from a small comic exchange in the movie Double Indemnity:

Jackson: Sir, I'm a Medford man - Medford, Wisconsin. Up in Medford we take our time making up our minds!

Keyes: Well, we're not in Medford, we're in a hurry.

Having just seen "Hellcats" for the first time in many years, I noticed that they made a reference to Calgon. Since this was about 8 years before "Space Mutiny" was riffed, I assume that they were not talking about John Phillip Law's goofy mutineer, Commander Calgon. In what other, presumably more well known movie was there a character named Calgon?

It's bath salts. "Calgon, take me away!!!!"

Okay, thanks! No wonder they used that exact riff in SM.

Mike's very first MST3K riff - from 'The Brain That Wouldn't Die' credits - is one that I've never been able to figure out. The 'Also Starring' list comes up, and he intones something like 'These people will be facing issues that are keynes issues'.

It's frustrating, because the 'bots react like he's said something really clever, but all I'm hearing is gibberish. Help!

It's a pun. Keynes as opposed to Key.

John Maynard Keynes is (was?) one of the leading economist of our times. He tends to advocate government intervention in the economy.

*looks embarrassed* I thought he said "teens" issues.

This is what happens when they don't include closed captioning on the DVDs.

I don't know.... I never saw the ep, I was going by what kerriem said.

...And kerriem was going by what she thought Mike said.
Sorry, guys, I guess I shouldn't have been so specific. The 'keynes' thing was as close as I could get to a coherent word.

I think it's "teens," which really isn't that funny, but the whole point of that episode is that Mike is being introduced. Just like his "Invention Exchange," like all of Mike's inventions, is really dumb, yet the Bots praise it intensively.

I've been on a little MST3K marathon, and I wrote down some of the references I didn't understand. Anybody want to chime in and see how silly I am?

In "Cave Dwellers," during the cave dwellers scene, the riff about the big Coppola dude is "I want a Barney Clark bar." Anybody? And during the scene when Thong gets the fish, the riff is "Kirk [Goudy?] here! Join me, Phil Harris, and Thong as we go down the Colorado River" or something like that. I assume those guys are like outdoorsmen from TV or something, but are they? Finally, two more--I don't get the reference to Tommy Smothers when Thong charges into the secret passage (something about Smothers causing a panic in an Italian vineyard), and who is Lucas Tanner, referenced at the end during the Great One's speech about law?

In "Pod People," at the end as Trumpy and Tommy make a run for it, there's a mumbled riff in a Cockney accent about "Moby Dick." Does anyone understand what they're saying?

Lucas Tanner was an oh-so-caring teacher played by David Hartman.

There is a candy bar called the Clark Bar & Barney Clark was the first man to have an artificial heart.

Phil Harris was a bandleader, he was a supporting player on the Jack Benny radio show & star of The Phil Harris Show. He was also the voice of Baloo the Bear in The Jungle Book.

One or both of the Smothers Brothers owns a vineyard & sells wine.

Nit. Barney Clark was the SECOND man to have an artificial heart. He did, however, live the longest.

MikeC - Gawd strike a light, guv'nor, there's somefing wrong wiv your Britneys (Cockney rhyming slang: Britney Spears = ears), cos that ain't a Cockney accent!

I'm not sure what it is but it doesn't sound like Cockney to this born-and-bred saarf Londoner. Before I went and checked my video I would have assumed that 'Moby Dick' was rhyming slang for 'sick' but it doesn't seem to fit the scene, so I've no idea what it really means.

Sorry, Scott, but you need to go back to the reference books. Barney Clark was indeed the first man to receive an artificial heart.

P.S. to MikeC: Kurt Gowdy is a sportscaster and outdoor-fishing-show-host type who was well-known in the late '70's-early 80's. Typing his name into Google will give you some current pictures.

Ooops - make that Curt Gowdy, and try typing that into Google instead. Apparently, the man's even more of a legend than I thought.

Thanks to all--I knew who Phil Harris was, but I didn't know any relationship to Kurt Gowdy, unless it was just silliness.

Callie, it sounds like a horrible attempt to do a cockney accent, in my opinion.

From a recent viewing of Eegah! (and I think it appears in other eps too), Crow's line: "Is that a real poncho, or a Sears poncho?"

?? It sounds like an ad tagline, but for what? Do Sears ponchos have some special quality I'm missing?

What does all that stuff about 'cracking a window' mean? Is it something to do with animals?

Kinggodzillak, could you give a bit more info about how the line was used. I think the context here is important to answering your question.

I think it just refers to the sensible practice of leaving your car's windows open a crack so your dog doesn't suffocate or bake.

I think you're probably right Jake. That's what I had in mind, I just wanted to be sure of what King was getting at.

Where I come from it refers to opening a window a crack, to let fresh air in, an offensive odor out, or just to cool the place down.

Not necesarily an obscure reference, but the one that first caught my ear & made me pay closer attention was during some sea monster attack when one of them said, "No, Kukla, no!" A reference to the old puppet show Kukla, Fran & Ollie. Cracked me up.

Sears Poncho, I believe, is something to do with Frank Zappa.

I usually watch MST3K with younger people, and have you ever had the situation in which people that obviously and shouldn't get a joke (someting way before their time, like the Arthur Godfrey joke in Angels Revenge) laugh uproariously anyway? Does MST3K just create a mood of laughter without thought at times?

Let's see, here's some of my favorite obscure references, both from The Atomic Brain

"Where is Richard Widmark when we NEED him?", from "Kiss of Death," in which Widmark shoves an old woman down the stairs

"This is no good, we're on top of the monument!", from "North by Northwest," and Tom does a good impression of the theme

Yes, MikeC, yes it does.

I believe the program Curt Gowdy hosted was The American Sportsman, which I think they showed on ABC on weekend afternoons after bowling. Each show, he would go out and do some outdoor activity like rafting, hunting, or fishing, with some non-A-list celebrity, like Phil Harris.

Can somebody explain the joke in Overdrawn at the Memory Bank--we see an overhead shot of Nirvana Village and Crow sings something like "Come, as you are, to my mall, to my atrium, yeah, yeah!"

Prolly a song riff off of Nirvana's "Come As You Are."

Okay, I thought it was a Nirvana reference, but the mall/atrium thing threw me for a second and I wasn't sure if it was an ad reference.

Nah, just pointing out how this low-budget movie seems to use modern malls/office buildings as "futuristic" structures. I especially liked Tom's riff when chaos breaks out in Nirvana Village: "Embassy Suites is having a free brunch!!"