#37. The Amazing Colossal Man
37. The
Amazing Colossal Man (1957) - Season 3, episode 309
"Well, there's a fifty foot guy. But he has hair, it can't
be Glenn."
Plot: A
soldier is caught in an atomic blast, and because of the radiation he grows to be fifty feet
tall.
Famous for:
Being one of the absolute funniest early MST3k episodes.
Doctor: Your name is the only word he spoke.
Tom Servo: Well, that and "AHHHHHHHHH!!!"
My favorite riff: This is one of those rare episodes where I don't have a
favorite
riff. Pretty much every scene in the movie is hilarious, from
start
to finish.
"Oh, why do they keep putting these little chairs in here? They just do
it to bug me!"
Scientist: And then, his heart will literately explode.
Crow: So... uh... don't wear a white dress that day.
Comments:
I first got into Mystery Science Theater about midway through
season four. And at that time, if you had polled MST3k fans around the internet,
and
you asked them what their favorite episode was, the
overwhelming number one choice probably would have been "The Amazing Colossal
Man." Before Manos came around at the end of season four, and
changed the game, THIS was the episode that nearly everyone I knew would
talk about.
Amazing Colossal Man has never been my
favorite episode, mainly because it doesn't have that ONE great riff or
that ONE great scene that always pops into my head whenever I think about
it. But it will always show up in most people's top twenty
or
top thirty episodes, and for good reason. It's hilarious.
Because I'm more of a Mike guy than a Joel guy, it's
only
going to show up here, at number thirty-eight, on my particular countdown. But
if you asked me to name the funniest episodes of the first
three
seasons, I would definitely include it in my top three. In my
opinion, the three best episodes of the first three seasons of MST3k are The Amazing
Colossal Man, Gamera vs. Guiron, and Fugitive Alien.
"No man is a Three
Mile Island, Glen."
Other personal favorite things
about this episode:
I mean, god bless old school 1950s special effects. You gotta love the
huge hypodermic and the giant plastic fake legs that they used for
the desert scene. And also, how is it possible that no one could
spot a FIFTY FOOT GIANT wandering alone through the desert?
Is he really that hard to find? Does the desert really have that much
canopy tree cover?
Yes we love big comedy. Now stop quoting Brad Garrett, we get it.
Trivia:
Not only did MST3k riff The Amazing Colossal Man, they also
riffed the sequel to the movie (War of the
Colossal Beast) a little later during the third season.
And I have to say, that episode is equally hilarious. In fact, the
only reason I didn't include War of the Colossal Beast on my
countdown was because I was trying to include as many movies as I
could, and I was trying to stay away from the franchises (aka Gamera)
and the sequels. This "no sequel" rule also explains why I
included Fugitive Alien on my countdown, but not Fugitive Alien 2.
Oh yeah, and I
have to add this quote that I just randomly found on an old MST3k
message board:
"The
Amazing Colossal Man contains what I believe to be the meanest riff
they ever did. During the war
footage, when the plane goes down, Joel says in his Big Bopper voice,
“Hellllllooooo Baaaaabyyy!" It's
horrible but I laugh every time I see it.
”
