#49. The Human Duplicators
49. The Human
Duplicators (1964) - Season 4, episode 420
"Richard Kiel's got a butt collection!"
Plot: A
big giant alien comes to Earth and starts making clones of people.
Famous for:
Joel and the Bots mercilessly making fun of Richard Kiel and his
monotone speaking voice.
"Excuse me, where is the little giants room?"
My favorite riff: This is one of my all-time favorite MST3k lines. Hugh Beaumont from Leave it to Beaver is in the movie, and
there's a scene in the middle where he is angrily yelling at somebody
over the phone. Crow, of course, busts out a great Leave it
to
Beaver reference with:
"The boys did WHAT? They duplicated LUMPY?!?"
Comments: I
have always loved Richard Kiel as an actor, ever since he played Jaws in the late 70s James Bond movies. So it
was
a treat to see him show up and have an actual speaking role in this
random old science fiction movie from 1964.
And thennnnnnnn, he
started talking. In that monotone voice of his. With no inflection whatsoever.
And then he
started tailing off every sentence, like it was always supposed to end in
an
ellipsis.
Richard Kiel: "I am Kolos..."
Crow: "And diet Kolos..."
And then Joel and the Bots started mimicking every line
that he spoke.
And
I swear, the first time I saw it, it was
one
of the funniest things I had ever seen on TV. All they do is
mock Richard Kiel and his weird way of speaking for ninety
straight minutes.
And I was like man, no
wonder Kiel didn't have a lot of speaking roles other than this one.
They just absolutely murder him for the whole episode. It was actually
one of the first really mean-spirited MST3k episodes.
But you know what? Mean can often be funny too. And I'm sorry to all Richard Kiel fans, but this episode is hilarious.
"This is Beverly Hills Cop. Only the slow, white version."
Other personal favorite things
about this episode: There's
a character in The Human Duplicators named "Professor Von Dornheimer."
And every
single god damn time his name is mentioned, Joel and the Bots start
giggling. It's a subtle joke you have to listen for in the
background, but it's awesome. They just can't get enough of him.
Also, you can never go wrong
with
all the jokes about the blind girl.
"Oh, she's blind. Well that explains the decorating."
