Wonkette Movie Night: MST3K The Mole People
'Peanut nostrils happy clams.'
Mystery Science Theater 3000 has long been a popular stress reliever among the Wonketariat. Our very own Wonkette Movie Night has a wee bit of MST3K in its DNA. Watching movies with friends and cracking wise in the non-comments always makes for a great Saturday night. We need this silliness in our lives to help us stay sane inside insanity.
The basics of MST3K are that a human is held captive on the spaceship “Satellite Of Love” by mad scientists. The human is required to watch bad movies so “The Mads” can find a movie that will drive a person, well, mad. There have been different actors that portrayed the human, in this episode (Experiment #803) it is Michael J. Nelson as Mike. The role originated with Joel Hodgson as Joel, who left the show in the middle of season 5.
Joel built some robot friends to keep him company and together they riff on these B movies in order to stay sane. Joel/Mike, Tom Servo with his gumball machine head, and the golden Crow T. Robot rush to watch a new film when receiving the “Movie Sign” and we see them silhouetted in their front row seats of a movie theater.
From the moment the credits start the threesome are firing off hilarious one liners and silly takes. The movie tonight is The Mole People,
Oh, these are the people who make that nice Mexican sauce!
a 1956 sci-fi flick about an underground society of super white Sumerians who have enslaved mutated beings to harvest mushrooms. Not the Mole People who supposedly live in the tunnels below NYC. When the hollow earth dwellers see the light they die and when there’s too many of them they sacrifice young women to this light they call Ishtar.
There is plenty to make fun of in The Mole People, and this episode of MST3K has some of the best zingers that made the show so loved by fans. When deciding on which two MST3K episodes I wanted to use this month I went with the top two most viewed videos on their YouTube channel. The Crawling Eye was the first episode of the series and the second most popular; we will watch it on March 21.
This is a have a drink, smoke some weed and laugh with your friends kind of party. When popping your popcorn, make extra, you are going to want to throw some at the screen when Crow T. Robot says,
Gentlemen, we’ve been captured by gay wrestling cheerleaders.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 stars Bill Corbett, Jim Malone, Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Mary Jo Pehl, and Paul Chaplin. Directed by Jim Mallon.
The Mole People stars Cynthia Patrick, John Agar, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier, and Nestor Paiva. Directed by Virgil W. Vogel.
MST3K: The Mole People is available for free on YouTube.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.
The animated short is Lost Sheep by Lukas Rooney.
Our next Movie Night selection is Them! available for free on the Internet Archive. $3.99 in the usual places.
𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀:
While in high school, Joel Hodgson bought Elton John's 1973 album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The album had accompanying artwork for each song in the liner notes. The artwork for the song "I've Seen That Movie Too" showed a silhouetted couple watching a film in a dark theater. Hodgson thought a series about silhouetted people talking back to the film would make a great idea for a series.
BONUS TRIVIA:
KURT VONNEGUT, JR. WASN’T A FAN.
In 1996, Jim Mallon and writers Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy released the ultimate fan guide, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. In it, Murphy shares the story about meeting his literary hero, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and telling him about the show and its premise. Vonnegut was not impressed, telling Murphy that every artist deserves respect, even those who produce a bad movie. Still, Murphy couldn’t resist the opportunity to invite Vonnegut out to dinner, which the author politely declined, stating he had other plans. At dinner that night, Murphy and Vonnegut ended up dining at the same restaurant—except Vonnegut was alone, prompting Murphy to admit that he had been “faced ... but nicely faced.”
FRANK ZAPPA WAS A FAN.
Frank Zappa was an admitted monster movie fanatic, and wasn’t shy about his love of Mystery Science Theater 3000 during its run. A 1997 article in Total TV Online noted: “MST3K … made the late Frank Zappa an instant convert when he channel surfed into ‘this guy wearing a clown nose and a beanie copter roasting a puppet over an open fire.’ The clown was now-departed (and much beloved) Founding Father Joel Hodgson; the roasted puppet was plucky Tom Servo; and Zappa was equally bemused by the cinematic turkeys being roasted for the main course. ‘He just loved crummy old science fiction movies,’ says writer and voice of Servo Kevin Murphy, who thought ‘Frank Zappa on line one’ was a joke until he picked up the phone.” The show’s producers and Zappa had even discussed plans to collaborate on a giant spider movie; episode 523 was dedicated to Zappa following his passing.