Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S09 E12: The Screaming Skull

Films watched: Robot Rumpus (short) and The Screaming Skull

In Robot Rumpus, Gumby and his pony pal Pokey use a bunch of robots to do the yard work so they can relax, but things quickly go out of control when the robots malfunction.

Notable for being the last MST3K that ever aired on cable TV, when its rerun contract with the Sci Fi Channel expired at the end of January 2004. Also notable for being the only episode in the original run to riff an animated feature.

The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here.

The Segments:

• Servo reveals that he's metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly, largely by sticking his head on a butterfly body. Though Mike shoots down his rather explicit descriptions of the transformation and the fact that he only blends in with himself leaves him highly susceptible to predators, he offers Servo some nectar to show that he's okay with this development. That is, until he's grossed out by Servo's new proboscis, which doubles as a party favor.

Segment 1

• Mike finds that Servo looks to be back to normal thanks to some unfortunate accidents and depressive binge-eating, though his proboscis is still intact. Down in Castle Forrester, Pearl, Bobo, and Brain Guy are wearing penguin costumes as Pearl herself frantically reminds Mike and the 'Bots that they were supposedly meant to meet for a 10:00 appointment in such costumes, urging them to put them on. After a scathing dressing-down to Mike for forgetting this "appointment", the crew put on the few non-penguin animal costumes that they have lying around. Only after they do so is when Pearl reveals the whole thing was a prank. A very stupid, poorly-thought out, and utterly futile prank. She's so enraged with being humiliated that she sends both The Screaming Skull and a Gumby short out of sheer vindictiveness.

Segment 2

• Traumatized by Gumby mutilating helpless robots in today's short, Crow and Servo show Mike that they've built their own clay world, where miniatures of themselves are oppressed by a pair of fur-covered clay mounds named "Bolus" and "Horseflop". When they make Mine reenact the short with them from their own point of view, the 'Bots ultimately break down in heaving sobs. Mike makes a note for Pearl to go easy on the Gumby shorts from now on, and to send the 'Bots Dizzy Grizzlies, which they claim is needed to cheer them up.

Segment 3

• Inspired by the guarantee for free coffins for those who die of fright at the very start of the movie, Servo, with Crow's help, crank calls American International for such a coffin. The representative who ends up on the line takes his claim seriously, and Servo ends up being persuaded into ordering the coffin. He tries to save face by claiming that Crow's the one who died, then saying that Crow's alive so he can cancel the order, but the woman on the phone notes that the coffin has already been shipped out, meaning that he'll have to recieve it, return it, and pay shipping again.

Segment 4

• With Servo's help, Crow disguises his head as the film's screaming skull to scare Mike. One half-hearted scream is all it takes to send Mike into a hysterical screaming fit, during which he beats Crow relentlessly with his chip bag, a baseball bat, and a golf club. Servo manages to step in and reveal the prank to Mike, but a demonstration of Crow's scream gets him scared again, and Servo gets caught in the crossfire this time.

Segment 5

• A deliveryman comes to the SOL to deliver Servo's unwanted coffin. Mike signs for it as Servo proceeds to gripe about the whole situation, as he maxed out Mike's credit card to pay for shipping. In the castle, Bobo, in a gorilla suit, calls Mike and the Bots to replay Pearl's disastrous prank with gorilla suits. He receives only their long, cold stares of utter disapproval, and Pearl has him shrunken by Brain Guy for his trouble.

The MST3K presentation of Robot Rumpus has examples of:

• Blooper: In Universe, Mike calls out the tip of Gumby's head being on the wrong side (viewer's left instead of right) at the Clokey Production vanity card.
• Brain Bleach: The ending of the short causes Servo and Crow to go into Heroic BSoD.
  Servo: AHHH! They hung his head! Oh...
  Crow: Now I'm ready for years of powerful Adlerian therapy, Mike.
  Servo: They hung his head. Aaugh, this is worse than Se7en!
• The Chew Toy:
  Mike: (as Gumby) Hey, you can throw things through Dad! I'm gonna get an anvil.
• Comfort Food: Crow asks Mike to get them Dizzy Grizzlies ^note  For those that weren't around in the mid-90's, those were bear-shaped graham cracker cookies, that were coated with chocolate on one side. to get them through the trauma of the robot slaughter from the Gumby short.
• Creator Breakdown: In-Universe. After seeing the short, Crow and Servo spend a host segment doing a skit about poor innocent robots being victimized by obnoxious clay creatures. They can't even finish it because they're so distraught.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Mike implies that Gumba has "threatened to make [Gumby] into a bowl" for all the damage the robots have done.
  • Again at the end when Mike riffs that Gumby's parents have put him to hard labor without food or water for seven days running.
• Dodgy Toupee: The guys briefly debate whether the black object on Gumbo's head is a matador's hat or one of these.
• Fantastic Racism: What does Mike think one of the robots is painting on Gumby's house?
  Mike: "Clay Figures Go Home!"
  • Implied toward the end of the short, when Gumby's parents can be seen looking angry.
    Mike: Davey and Goliath are moving in next door. There goes the neighborhood.
• Large Ham: Ruth Eggleston, the woman (yes, adult woman, not child)^note The wife of Al Eggleston, The Gumby Show's first artist, as well as art director. who voiced Gumby has a delivery that is somewhat stilted, high-pitched, and shouty^note "LOOK OUT THE WINDOW, MO-THER!". Servo and Crow cringe at this.
  Crow: "One of my classmates died in the kiln today, mo-ther!"
• Naked People Are Funny: It was never an issue in any of the Gumby series, but MST3K brings it up.
  Narrator: But on this day, something unexpected happened.
  Mike: Gumby was nude.
  • And later when they first see Gumbo:
    Servo: So he just goes to work starkers?
• Oh, the Humanity!: "Oh, in the name of all that is clay!"
• Running Gag: Pokey taking a dump.
  Mike: (as Pokey) My tail's lifting!
• Share the Male Pain: When Gumbo lands crotch-first on a roof's tip, Mike and the bots groan in sympathy.
  Mike: (as Gumbo) Thank goodness for the internal genitalia.
• Shout-Out:
  • Riffs mention both Wallace & Gromit and Davey and Goliath as Gumby's neighbors.
  • After Gumbo has a wrench thrown through his body and it heals itself, the crew gasp loudly, then Servo says "I'm liquid metal!"
  • When Gumbo says to Gumby in a James Earl Jones-like voice, "There's only one way to stop that robot now," Servo follows with, "On CNN."

The MST3K presentation of The Screaming Skull has examples of:

• Author Appeal: The Forced Perspective gag with Bobo, according to Best Brains, was an Homage to all the B-Movies they watched that employed the cheap effect.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: invoked Mike sees Mickey the groundskeeper as a dangerous serial killer masquerading as a simpleton. Servo throws it back in his face.
  Crow: C'mon, Mike, how is he any different than you?
• Comical Overreacting: Mike screaming at the sight of Crow as a skull for minutes on end in Segment 4.
• Continuity Nod: While neither Mike nor the bots make a riff directly comparing Mickey to Torgo, Servo does make the same goat bleats during Mickey's introduction that were a Running Gag throughout Manos.
• Cool Car: "Yes, shocking horror arrives in style in your 1953 Mercedes!"
• Crusty Caretaker: Discussed.
  Mike: You know, have people wised up to hiring people like this?
  Crow: Oh c'mon Mike, how is he any different from you?
• Epic Fail: Pearl's penguin costume prank, as described in Overly Preprepared Gag, required so much setup for such a minor payoff, that it makes her (and Bobo and Brain Guy) look dumber than the intended victims. Pearl desperately tries to save face, but Bobo and Brain Guy are resigned to it.
  Brain Guy: (sobbing) We're so stupid!
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: While Pearl explains the setup for her penguin costume prank, Bobo and Brain Guy stand just behind her, their faces falling as they realize how dumb the prank was. Pearl gets all the way through the explanation before realization hits her.
  Pearl: It was so simple!
  [beat]
  Brain Guy: Actually, it was a titch pathetic of us, I'm afraid.
• Faking the Dead: In order to try to scam his way to a free coffin, Servo calls up the film's distributors and claims that he his friend died while watching it. He panics and tries to back out, but ends up having to pay shipping both ways on his coffin (on Mike's credit card).
• Forced Perspective: A gratuitous shot of Bobo being held in Brain Guy's fist, as punishment for dressing up like an ape.
• Funny Background Event: The reactions of Pearl's minions as she goes on and on about all the steps involved in the penguin costume prank, and it sets in just how stupid the whole thing was.
• Gaslighting: In Universe, along with the film. Pearl's penguin prank is an attempt to trick Mike and the 'Bots into believing that they forgot an appointment to wear costumes right now!, driving them into a humiliating panic.
• Golf Clubbing: Crow pretends to be a screaming skull and Mike panics and attacks him with a golf club.
• Gone Horribly Right: During a host segment, Crow has set himself up like a screaming skull in order to scare Mike. One little "Raarh" sends Mike into screaming hysterics. Worse, Mike (still gibbering in panic) gets a hold of a bat and then a golf club...
  • Then they calm him down by convincing him it's just Crow pulling a prank. Only for Crow to perform another little "scream", sending Mike into screaming hysterics again and swinging the golf club, taking the top of Servo's head in his panicked attack.
• Group Costume Fail: Pearl Forrester attempts to invoke this trope. She, along with Observer and Bobo, dress up in penguin costumes, then call Mike and the 'bots to desperately ask why they don't also have penguin costumes on—gaslighting them into thinking they'd forgotten a prior agreement to dress up as penguins together for some reason. Mike and the 'bots fall for it, and scramble to put on the only animal costumes they have on hand (a dog, a sheep, and a deer). Pearl laughs at them all for being so gullible, then makes herself look even lamer than them when she boasts about how "easy" it was to set up this prank.
• Hearing Voices: Referenced and parodied.
  (Faint ambient siren noises are heard in the distance as Rev. Snow stares, distraught)
  Crow: Meanwhile, inside the Reverend's head, a fire raged on.
• Henpecked Husband: The crew portrays Eric as this to a certain extent, even from his first wife beyond the grave:
  Crow (as Marion, as Eric is looking upon her tombstone): Oh, and I suppose you screwed up the murder of your second wife, too! Why can't you kill properly, like the other husbands?!
• Hypocritical Humor: After the Mads' failed prank with the penguin costumes, Tom and Crow make fun of the ridiculous outfits, completely ignoring their own goofy animal costumes.
  Servo: [wearing silly reindeer antlers] Hehehe, boy, do they look stupid.
  Crow: [dressed as a sheep] Yeah, at least we maintained our dignity.
• Informed Attribute: Many jokes are made from almost the beginning about how creepy Mickey is, but he doesn't really do anything that threatening or even disgusting in the film. He's seen skulking around, but since he's the gardener and actually lives on the grounds, that's not very unusual at all.
• Jump Cut: There's a very noticeable skip in the film stock, causing Servo to dub Jenni's voice: "The film broke and it was horrible!" as she fearfully runs into Eric's arms.
• Kubrick Stare: Mike and the Bots react to Bobo's failed prank with a held up-from-under Death Glare.
• Make-Out Point: Partway through the movie, Tom realizes that, at that point, people would be starting to neck instead of being frightened and invites Mike to have a go. Mike is disgusted instead and tries to shoo him away.
• Metamorphosis: In the first host segment, Tom Servo has become a beautiful butterfly! By the second segment, he's back to normal.
  Servo: I'm still a beautiful butterfly, Mike. I've just had a few unfortunate happenstances, such as my wings being torn off in an industrial accident. Well that depressed me, so I ate a lot of Mallomars and gained all the weight back, but I was soon feeling better and went back to work. But alas, someone turned on the Extruder while I was cleaning it, and my bottom two pairs of delicate butterfly legs were ripped from me. Again depressed, I hit the Pecan Sandies - hard - and gained my remaining weight back in my remaining arms. My arms, by now in a metabolic frenzy, started to leech fat from my antennae, which made them so thin as to be invisible. But I am still a beautiful butterfly, Mike, and butterflies are free to fly... fly away... high away... bye-bye...
  • Almost normal.
    Servo: (brightly) But I still have my proboscis!
• Nightmare Retardant: Invoked:
  Crow: Remember, folks, if you die of boredom you do not get a free coffin. Sorry.
• Noodle Incident: This little gem.
  Servo: That reminds me, Mike: we're out of embalming fluid.
• Obligatory Joke: Lampshaded when the titular skull rises from a misty pond:
  Mike: You guys might be tempted to make a "Smoke on the Water" reference here, but I urge you to refrain.
  Crow: Okay.
• Offer Void in Nebraska: Crow's response to the disclaimer at the film's start. "Offer void in Utah, Florida, and Arizona. Taxes and acquisition fee not included. Must take delivery of dealer's stock."
• Overly Long Gag: Mocking the movie's premise (that a skull is, by itself, inherently terrifying), Mike goes on freaking out at the sight of a screaming skull ("Raaarh.") well past the point where it's obviously Crow. He starts out slapping Crow with a bag of chips, runs away and returns with a bat, leaves again and comes back with a whole bag of golf clubs, spends several moments selecting the right club to use to bash Crow, and then a few more nodding as Servo compliments his driver. At no point during all this does he stop screaming.
  • And then once Tom and Crow finally manage to calm him down, one more little scream ("Raarrh.") sets him off all over again.
• Overly Preprepared Gag: Pearl's plan to embarrass Mike and the Bots is really a badly-thought-out and lame plan on Pearl's part.
  Pearl: All we had to do was call fifty-three costume shops to find one that had three penguin costumes, reserve them eight months in advance with a huge cash deposit, then pay a balance of eight hundred and ninety-nine dollars per costume to rent them for an hour, then put them on, then wait until you guys woke up and finished breakfast, then call you and make believe that we had set up an appointment for you all to wear penguin costumes, and then... you fell for it! It was so simple!
• Padding: Invoked. Many jokes are made of the film's attempt to draw out the suspense way too much.
  Tom: It's like they had two servings of tension that they're trying to stretch out for seven people.
  Crow: (as Jenni hems and haws over investigating the strange knocking) Can we help you, movie lady?! Do you need a push or something?!
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Crow's "skull" in Segment 4 is just his detached head with the eyes taken out, painted white with cartoon teeth drawn on.
• Pun:
  • As Mickey is in the greenhouse with an armload of flowerpots:
    Mike: He's growing pot!
  • Also as Mickey picks up a lily pad:
    Mike: Nice pad he's got there.
  • And when Eric tosses a (wooden) stool:
    Crow: Wow, did you see that!? He just scooped up his stool and threw it at her. That was a hard stool. He should have at least used some stool softener—
    Mike: Okay, okay!
  • Later:
    Mike: Now that's a real dead head.
    Servo: Oh, Mike...
    Mike: Well, it is.
• Punctuation Changes the Meaning: After several jokes about how Jenni does more screaming than the actual skull, Mike speculates that maybe the movie was supposed to be titled Screaming; Skull.
• Running Gag:
  • Referring back to the movie's promise of free burial services if you die of fright while watching it.
  • Mickey having a victim or victims in his shed.
• Screaming Woman:
  • When Eric hears Jenni's screams.
    Crow: Oh great, she's playing her Yoko Ono albums.
    Mike: I think the title was supposed to be Screaming; Skull.
• Shout-Out:
  • The skull's knocking is compared to Gandalf and Martin Luther.
  • As the camera pans over some lilypads, Tom Servo quips, "Brekkakikix co-ax co-ax."
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • At the title card:
    Crow: Yep, when you think shocking horror, you think German oompah band music!
  • "And as always, scary tuba music."
  • During what's supposed to be a scary climax, Mike describes a piece of the score, played on a xylophone, as "Bugs Bunny sneaking up music."
• Viewers Are Geniuses: During one of the interminable sequences of doors being knocked on and not answered, Mike quips about Martin Luther hammering each of his theses to the door individually. There were 95 of them, which would certainly have padded out the filminvoked.