MST3K (701)

701 - Night of the Blood Beast (w/ Once Upon a Honeymoon) - My working theory: the bad experience BBI had making their movie improved season 7. The riffing in this episode, the first after they finished their Hollywood torture, was crackin'. It might be my imagination, but I think I detected a little more cynicism in the jokes in this episode. They also brought back a favorite riffing technique: the misheard name. Somehow, they got the impression that every male in the movie was named "Steve" and they ran with it. Classic. Whatever the change was, there was a noticeable improvement in the funny since the last episodes of season 6. It felt really good to belt out some solid out-loud laughs at riffs again.

Even the host segments felt rejuvenated. I'm not sold on the Pearl-Dr. F dynamic, but the SOL segments were enjoyable. The first segment actually helped explain the short to me. I had no idea what the point of Once Upon a Honeymoon was. Were they selling something? Teaching a lesson? What the hell? Gypsy's helpful song about telephones revealed all: it was something to do with phones. I still don't really know what about them, but I'm less clueless thanks to the SOL crew. I also enjoyed the "Crow is Pregnant" segment quite a bit. It was nice to have two segments playing off what was seen in the short/movie. Servo: "Crow, they kinda look like peel-and-eat shrimp." Crow: "Thank you."

Note: the non-Turkey Day version of this episode is definitely the "real" one. The host segments in 701T have nothing to do with the movie at all. They're really just extensions of the Turkey Day bumpers from earlier in the marathon. If you watched 701T as a stand-alone episode, you would be essentially missing the early "host segments" that aired before the start of the show; it really wasn't written to air outside of the marathon.

"You know I had an angel rotting in my chimney once. Sad." (8/10)

film d. Bernard L. Kowalski (1958)
short d. Gower Champion (1956)
mst d. Trace Beaulieu (3 Feb 1996)