MST3K (608)

608 - Code Name: Diamond Head (w/ A Day at the Fair) - And, one episode later, the writers break their own rule. Unlike the Brady Bunch ban of 607, we're tortured with six-and-a-half million mentions of the show Lovejoy whenever Ian McShane is onscreen. It's McCloud Syndrome all over again, though, in their defense, at least Lovejoy was a current show at the time.

Other than that annoyance, the riffing was decent. My favorite riff was early in the movie. Secret Agent on the phone to HQ: "Code two. Tree may be in paradise." Mike: "The hell does that mean? Over." Something about Mike's delivery got me laughing out loud.

So the girl who had her letter read in 524 gets her second letter read in this episode. No fair!

The imaginary scenario cooked up by Magic Voice and Cambot in host segment two was the funniest segment this season so far. In it, Mike dressed as a scoutmaster, berates the poor bots for not finishing their drinks and smashes the cans into their faces. "Shut your pie-hole. I know a thing or two about a thing or two." Robot abuse is always fun. Apparently, this character is from somewhere, but Mike's forceful performance makes it stand on its own.

The other two in this series of "Mike could be worse" segments didn't work at all. In one, Mike is supposed to be Brad Roberts from the one-hit-wonder band Crash Test Dummies. This reference is well out-of-date now and was apparently obscure even when the ACEG was written. In that, the author of the episode summary calls the character "a deep-voiced crash test dummy" (note the lower case). In the other, Mike appears as the Frugal Gourmet. Cutting off pieces of the robots for food ingredients was a good idea, but they should've gone farther with it.

"No one can explain why father is 85." (7/10)

film d. Jeannot Szwarc (1977)
short d. ?? (1947)
mst d. Kevin Murphy (1 Oct 1994)