Plot: A
group of aliens come down to Earth and start murdering people. Except
for the one friendly alien who makes friends with a little kid. No,
it's actually nothing like E.T. Why do you ask?
Famous for:
The insane scene in the middle of the movie where Trumpy does
magic things and starts making the kid's toys move around.
The fucking hell is this?
My favorite riff:
Just go to Youtube and watch the scene where
Trumpy makes the kid's toys dance around. It starts at around
59:00 and it is one of the funniest scenes in MST3k history. Just
pick any riff from that scene and it's probably the best in the movie.
"What, did he come from Planet Goofball? Did he come
here in a little clown car?"
Comments:
Pod People is universally considered one of the funniest episodes of
Mystery Science Theater, but to be honest I've always found it a little
overrated. And the reason why is because it is actually three
separate
movies. There's the first movie, about the kid befriending Trumpy the
alien
(which is hilarious). Then there's the second movie, about a music
group
traveling around in a Winnebago. Which starts strong, but eventually
runs out of steam after a while. And then there's the third movie,
about two hunters walking around and exploring the woods. And to
be honest it's this last story that is the problem. The story of the
hunters goes on for WAY
too long, and the riffs during that section aren't very funny at all.
And this section also takes up WAY too much of
the movie. So as much as I love the kid scenes with Trumpy, the
rest of the episode just isn't strong enough to warrant a
ranking any higher than #48. There are huge chunks of
the movie with almost no laughs at all, and if you watch it again you
will
notice that.
Still, all things being equal, the highs of Pod
People are about as high as any early episode of Mystery Science
Theater ever got, and you've gotta respect that.
"If these guys get any more soul, we'll have to order out for greens."
"Ewwww, I stepped in some Trumpy Dumpy."
And of course, the ever-popular...
"It stinks!"
Other personal favorite things
about this episode: There's
an obscure throwaway joke in this episode that hardly anyone is ever going to get, but it always makes me laugh.
At one point in the movie, one of the girls picks up a
phone. And one of the Bots mimics somebody on the other end of the line saying
something in a foreign language, like "Homey Akapisa?" There's no way you would ever get that joke, unless you knew
that
there was a phone commercial out on TV at the time that featured that
exact exchange. There was a commercial for AT&T in
the early
90's that claimed that with their new long distance service,
you could now call anyone, anywhere else in the world. So they
showed
a guy on a beach in Fiji picking up a phone and saying "Homey
Akapisa?" to someone who was calling from America. That is
the EXACT type of random obscure joke that immediately made me fall in love
with Mystery Science Theater. Maybe five people on the face of the earth
were
ever going to get that joke, yet they still went for it. I
have always loved
that about them.
Also, in case you were wondering... he's a virgin
Trivia: Pod
People was actually a French-Spanish movie called Los Nuevos
Extraterrestres ("The New Extraterrestrials"). It was supposed
to
be a straight-up horror film about an evil alien on a
murderous rampage, but the producers demanded script
alterations to cash in on the recent success of the 1982 movie
"E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial." So they inserted a last-minute subplot about a
child who makes friends with a cute, lovable alien (which of course is
the subplot that everyone remembers.) The film was largely forgotten
about until
1991, when it was dug up and lampooned by Mystery Science Theater.
And then it quickly became one of the show's most popular episodes.
Pod People recently ranked fifth in the "Top 100 MST3k
Episodes of All Time" poll, as chosen by backers of the Bring Back MST3k
Kickstarter. Like I said, it
is an incredibly beloved episode, and it will always be an incredibly
beloved episode. I just happen to think it is overrated.
It's a lot of fun, but I certainly wouldn't put it anywhere near my top ten.
Tommy:
"I'll never forget you, Trumpy."
Tom Servo: "The way you callously knocked off fifteen people, I'll never
forget that. Don't ever change, Trumpy."
