1311-The Mask

Film Year:  1961

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Julian Roffman

Starring:  Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins, Bill Walker

MST Season:  13

Host:  Jonah

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

Psychiatrist Dr. Allan Barnes receives news that one of his patients has committed suicide, who had been claiming to be having nightmares about death, blaming these nightmares on a mysterious tribal mask.  Dr. Barnes then finds that his patient has sent him a package containing the mask.  Barnes finds himself drawn to this mask and eventually puts it on...

Oh wait, wrong movie.

So, it turns out that this mask brings the evil in one's soul to the surface and Barnes begins seeing psychedelic imagery of death whenever he wears the mask.  Eventually he finds he is unable to stop putting on the mask, becoming addicted to it like a drug.  But the more he wears it, the more he begins to crave taking another person's life.  Eventually he is all...

According to the notes on the Kino 3D Blu-ray of this movie, The Mask is said to be the first horror movie filmed in Canada (I have no clue if this is true or not).  Wikipedia notes it as one of Canada's biggest marketing pushes in the US at the time, leaning heavily on the film's 3D novelty.  The entire film wasn't in 3D, mind you, but rather all of the scenes in which Dr. Barnes puts on the titular mask and sees a bunch of images of people with melted faces and skulls in sequences that are like Mario Bava meets Carnival of Souls.  People were signaled to "PUT THE MASK ON" by hearing that repeated line of dialogue in the film and were supposed to put these cute things on their faces:

These sequences are the movie's highlights, as they are pretty effectively spooky and will effectively burn their psychedelic imagery into a viewer's brain.  There are three sequences in total and each is as memorable as the last.  If the rest of the movie were as memorable, this movie would have it made.

I'd hesitate to call The Mask a bad movie, because when it's hitting, the movie is on fire.  The issue that becomes problematic with it is its stilted script.  Barnes is a dull character to center the film around, and while the addictive nature of the film is interesting, the corruption of his soul isn't.  He turns from okay guy to psychopath fairly quickly in the narrative which causes the movie to peak early with few places to go.  It tries to create some tension between him and his fiancé, and there is an interesting note in the climax where he tries to put the mask on her face and it doesn't work on her, implying he's either insane or she has no evil in her soul.

Other tension is at work with Barnes relationship with supporting characters, including a secretary who is attracted to him and a detective who is investigating his patient's death.  The former has a pretty poor story arc in the film, as she's almost a non-entity in it then suddenly is in love with him as if the audience should have known all along.  He then nearly chokes her to death and she still decides to be alone with him in that aftermath, where he again tries to kill her and she's like "WHAT?"  As for the latter, I get why his character is necessary in the narrative, but his motivation is often all over the map.  Most of the time he's butting in for practically no reason at all and the movie writes it off as "a hunch."  He's a very assumptive detective that seems to care little for evidence.

The Mask is half of a great movie and half a dull one.  If it worked on its own humanity element, then maybe the element of man's "evil nature" would be more powerful.  Instead, it just feels a bit like an engine that can't stop sputtering that roars to life in five-minute intervals.  It's a cool movie nonetheless, it just doesn't hit the high it aims for.

The Episode

To hell with Avatar:  The Way of Whatever, this is the 3D event of the year!

The Mask was selected to be the first Mystery Science Theater 3000 Halloween Special, which might be stretching it a bit as we've done horror movies like this in the past, but they're correct in saying we've never had an episode that is strictly Halloween centric.  We've had several Christmas specials and we've had a Thanksgiving special, but nothing directly Halloween themed.  It's also the first MST episode released in 3D*, with a movie that was made with 3D sequences to suit the format.  It's not MST's first 3D movie though, as both Robot Monster and Revenge of the Creature were originally released in the format.  Also, the next movie featured, The Bubble, was released in 3D as well.

*Of note, the episode isn't entirely in 3D.  The Mask was originally released as a partially 3D movie and the episode reflects that, presenting only those sequences in 3D and the rest in plain ol' 2D.  The host segments of the episode are also mostly 2D, but they give us a treat by presenting the entire closing segment in 3D, including a fun 3D door sequence out of the theater.

So, let's unpack this 3D gimmick.  Is it worth the effort?  Well, it could have been worse.  Here's the deal, 3D can easily be a hit and miss experience (often due to how much effort is put into it, as post-Avatar 3D post-conversions in 2010 proved).  Anaglyph 3D, like this episode was released as, is easy to get angry at, because even if it's good it will kill your retinas.  This makes the selection of The Mask for this episode seem pretty smart, because it allows you a break from the 3D to let your eyes rest.  As for the 3D quality, some shots are better than others.  The 3D is at its best when there are large sets to show off, giving scale for the format.  If it's just a face onscreen, it looks flat.  Things jutting out at the screen do successfully pop out, so that's a success.  I was the most impressed with the 3D during the final host segment, which is much smoother than the 3D in the movie and is very consistent looking.  It kind of made me think not filming the entire episode for 3D is a missed opportunity.  But hey, let's be optimistic and say one day maybe they'll make another 3D episode.

The episode is also available in a 2D option.  So, if you just don't care, you can just skip all of this and are pissed at me for not talking about the episode itself.

The Mask is a pretty solid episode, though I'm going to have pause about it because of another technical detail about it:  The sound mix.  Overall, I found the mixing of the season to be excellent.  Several of the films shown have benefited from the series tinkering with the volume; Demon Squad had a barely intelligible mix that made the film hard to listen to that was raised up for the MST episode, while Batwoman had an aggressively bad dub that was softened in its episode.  There has also been some mostly good (but still noticeable) work on dubbing Kelsey Ann Brady as Crow into episodes in post.  The Mask is probably the first bungle, as the volume on the film is so low that following the episode becomes a chore.  I definitely needed a second viewing on this film to work an opinion on the riffing.

*Note:  The aftershow livestream notes that I wasn't the only person complaining about this.  Matt McGinnis and Joel Hodgson say they're going to tinker with the sound mix and put up a better version of the episode by the time the downloadable version is released next week.  Stay tuned, I might update this review when that happens.

But while that threatens to make The Mask feel worse than it is, the comedy does bring joy, especially if you're in a Halloween mood.  There are a lot of references to horror movies littered about, including Halloween III ("Seven more days till Halloween, Silver Shamrock!") and Return of the Living Dead ("If you want to party, it's party time!").  Working in this movie's favor is that there are long stretches of pantomime and sequences without dialogue, which means there is a lot of room for jokes.  Creativity is abundant during the mask scenes, which are so unique in MST3K history that it genuinely feels like uncharted territory.  Underneath that, the episode can fall a bit mixed.  Riffs tended to be a bit goofy and playful, but sometimes the joke feels a bit unearned.  Crow wording out the title "The Mask" to the tune of the Pink Panther theme is cute, but it doesn't really hit.  The detective character has a lot of references to Frasier thrown in his direction and I don't really understand why (do they think he looks like Kelsey Grammer?  Because he really doesn't).  The zingers of the episode aren't really of the "Throw your head back and laugh" variety, as I find myself thinking back to cute little punchlines like the lady lead opening the door for the homicide detective and Tom Servo asking for her "Wait, was I murdered?"  I had a good time watching this episode, but the biggest laugh I had came early on, as a woman is killed in the opening scene, causing Servo to comment "Avenge me, True Crime podcast."

But hey, at least they kept restrained on the Jim Carrey movie references.  And they kept the Son of the Mask references to a respectable zero.

The episode also keeps the horror movie vibes in the host segments, including a rather fun song called Monster RSVP, where Jonah and the Bots have sent out Halloween Party invitations to various movie monsters and read out all of their reasons for not attending.  The final 3D segment is a lot of fun, as Jonah tries to pay off the 3D gimmick of the episode but finds his plans usurped by the giant mask head from the movie, who uses 3D better than he does.  Jonah and the Bots also show off their Halloween costumes, as Jonah is dressed as Tom Adkins, Servo as Pinhead, Crow as Crow, and Max as "Mad Max Headroom," and Rebecca Hanson has a fun role as the movie's landlady in the same segment.  The Invention Exchange sees Jonah showing off roundtable of Halloween masks while Kinga and Max have specialized Ouija boards.

I liked The Mask but didn't love it.  The 3D gimmick was a fun little experiment, though I'm not certain it amounted to anything worth hyping up the way they did.  I might just stick to 2D viewings for this one and keep the Kingavision glasses as a memorabilia item.  I had a good time watching it and that's exactly what I hope for, and I for one welcome black and white films back to the series with open arms.

⭐⭐⭐

Good

The Livestream

In one of our longest aftershows, our livestream event is a full-blown costume party with a bunch of hosts and a couple of GPCs.  Matt McGinnis is back as the Master of Ceremonies, and he is dressed as Perico, the beloved comic relief from Santo in The Treasure of Dracula.  From there he introduces Jonah Ray (who is dressed as Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters), Joel Hodgson (Jimmy Buffet Fan), Rebecca Hansen ("Subaru Forrester"), Yvonne Freese (Beaker from the Muppets), and Emily Marsh (Muriel from Courage the Cowardly Dog).  Everyone looks great, with special props to Jonah's helmet, Emily's glasses, and Yvonne for just going the full nine yards.

They get into a bit of discussion about their Halloween traditions, of which Emily and Matt relate their sad tales of when people told them they were too old to be Trick or Treating in high school (nuts to that, I say, because you're never too old for candy).  They also unveil a lot of behind the scenes photos from filming the episode, the final segment in particular, showing off Yvonne with the skull puppet and her incredible screaming take.

The bulk of this livestream is devoted to showing off the winners of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Costume Contest, as they throw up a bunch of cool photos of fans in their wild cosplay and read off which ones they've chosen as the best and which ones were voted by the fans to be the best.  There is a little disappointment in that often the crew-chosen and fan-chosen costumes would be the exact same one which robs us of diverse winners, but sometimes the costumes are just that good.  While I'm not going to read off every single winner, some of my favorites included a Steampunk Joel Robinson, a young lady's awesome Tom Servo costume, a little girl's adorable Kinga Forrester coat, and a really creative recreation of the opening title host segment in Cave Dwellers.  I definitely agree with the top prize highlight, which went to a woman named "Turbo" who turned herself into the Gizmoplex itself!  She formed the Kingadome into a skirt, while coming up with some wildly creative ways to MST up the upper half of her body, including turning her arm into a functional GPC.  Really awesome work, and a great job to everyone who put the effort into submitting into this.  All of this is much more than I could have done.  I can barely type words on a computer screen and call it a "review."

That's about all to be said about this livestream, which was girthy but because of the amount of time needed to cover each subject.  There is no Q&A or the like because they just don't have time for one.  But it's hard to complain about something so trivial when we get to see photos of MSTies celebrating the show they love.

"Balance Beam for Girls" & A Tribute to Devil Doll

The Short

The glory of gymnastics is one that has been adored by many, most of which were wee ones who watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the 90's who thought Kimberly's gymnast abilities were equal to a form of martial arts.  Here we have an old training film that shows off a gymnast working some moves on a balance beam, likely so students could study it and then try it themselves so if putty monsters attack they could kick them in the face.

I'm assuming all of this is accurate to gymnastics.  It would be pretty fucked up for this film to exist if it weren't.  The film doesn't really walk us through the steps of proper routines, opting instead just to show them performed with some slight commentary.  Balance Beam for Girls plays out like one of those "How To..." Goofy cartoons, only done with a straight face and less pratfalling.

In fact, I think there is a gymnastics Goofy cartoon.  Maybe I should watch that instead.

But before I do that, this short is given to Emily's crew, who do an adequate job.  There are a bit too many soft jabs like "Well, this is an unfortunate angle." and the like.  Y'know, commentary that points out things that might be humorous if they played it up.  Instead, we get jokes that are like "Think of how funny this would be if we made fun of it."  The pullback gags like this are a bit of a downer.  They can push a little further with lines commenting on the sexual nature of certain positions, such as the "straddle," which Emily has the narrator defend with "Stop snickering!  I didn't name these!"  It's still a bit of a pullback joke, but it works better.  They tend to get funnier when they throw in some silly pop culture references, like a gratuitous slow motion scene causing Crow to wonder if they're watching the Snyder Cut, or a rather perfect Saturday Night Live reference to "SUPERSTAR!"  Balance Beam for Girls is a bit of a rebound with jokes like that, which makes it a fun one.

Thumbs Up

👍

The Livestream (The Stinger?)

Hey, guess what?  I have a new laptop so I'm not as bitter as I was for the last two events.  However, similar to the Secret Agent Super Dragon event, I wasn't able to watch this one live, but that was because of a work scheduling issue and not internet woes.  Things wound up being so busy that I didn't get to watch the event in full until a week later, but all things considered I'm in pretty good spirits this for this one because I'm not typing this on a tiny screen with hand cramps.

After our brand new short, we get a special presentation of the episode Devil Doll (review here), which is a very rock-solid season eight entertainer.  I was very happy with this as the October tribute selection and was very engaged in watching it again because I laughed the whole way through.  We also get a few extra bonus sketches from the modern crews.  Emily's Bots are very in tune with what the Great Vorelli is all about, as they have a pair of segments where they tell Emily of how many things they've transferred souls into and even put Emily under a hypnotic trance.  Jonah and his Bots are more into the Halloween spirit, but Jonah ruins the mood showing up as a "bloodsucking umpire."

The aftershow, or what Tim Ryder is now name-trialing as "The Stinger," has Tim, Rebecca Hanson, Jonah Ray, and Hampton Yount participating in a few rounds of a Jackbox game called Trivia Murder Party 2, which is a trivia and minigame competition that takes about fifteen minutes a round.  While the game is kinda cute, the big issue I have is that there is very little interactivity in this stream.  There is some joking around and a couple of laughs, but a good portion of it is concentrated silence, which isn't all that entertaining to watch.  But some of their reactions are fun so I'll give it a slight pass.

Discussion topics are light, though they discuss some of their favorite Halloween movies.  Tim shares his latest tradition, which is watching the Adam Sandler vehicle Hubie Halloween on Netflix every October because he's not a horror guy (I'm wondering if we can convince him that Barbarian is a sequel to Hubie Halloween so we can get him to watch that for lulz), though he does have a slight fondness for The Blair Witch Project.  Hampton has just watched The Gate and Jonah praises Deadstream on Shudder (which I've heard good things about and may have to watch in the near future) while saying he was weirded out by Men (which...yeah, of course he was).  Jonah also talks about a few horror projects he's participated in recently, including his own feature Destroy All Neighbors.

Speaking of horror featuring MST alums, Baron Vaughn directed a segment of a movie called Scare Package a few years ago and that's totally worth watching.  Last Drive-In version if you can.

Festivities are light outside of all of this and there seems to be an acknowledgement that there isn't too much meat on the bones of tonight's stream, so they showcase the DVD bonus feature The Puppet Master, which is an interview with Devil Doll producer Richard Gordon on the making of the film.  The whole stream is an overall okay experience wrapped around a fun episode, but it didn't quite engage me like I hoped it would.

1310-The Shape of Things to Come

Film Year:  1979

Genre:  Science Fiction

Director:  George McCowan

Starring:  Jack Palance, Barry Morse, Nicholas Campbell, Anne-Marie Martin, Carol Lynley, John Ireland

MST Season:  13

Host:  Emily

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

One of the more landmark names in the history of science fiction is H.G. Wells, who of course gifted us such classics as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man.  I used to read a few of his books as a kid myself but one that I hadn't gotten around to was a book called The Shape of Things to Come, which was a story about a future that is ravaged by plagues and wars, reverting to less advanced civilization that rebuilds from the ground up with new ideals.  At least that's the gist of it that I can get from skimming the Wikipedia overview.  I don't know if that summery is entirely accurate or not.

Anyway, pop culture moves on to another landmark in science fiction, a movie called Star Wars released in 1977.  Suddenly feature films set in space are big business and many are rushed into production.  Some became classics, like Alien, while some wound up on Mystery Science Theater 3000, like Starcrash.  In the heat of this science fiction boom to capitalize on the name of a noted science fiction author probably seemed like a smart advertising plan in the moment, and H.G. Wells was probably the best name you could use.  The problem was that Wells didn't really have any space operas under his belt.  I guess you could reinvent War of the Worlds into one if you really needed to, but the George Pal adaptation was still highly regarded at this point and I imagine nobody was interested in touching it.

The Shape of Things to Come had been adapted to film before with a film called Things to Come in 1936, which apparently was fairly loose itself but more faithful than this film.  This version of The Shape of Things to Come pretty much borrows the title and maybe a few character names and nothing else, instead creating an original space adventure to capitalize off of Star Wars.  This movie shows man having been relocated to a moon colony following the ravaging of Earth from the Robot Wars (Robot Wars is a prequel in my headcanon and you can't change my mind).  They find their way of life in danger when Jack Palance suddenly appears with an army of robots and insists that he is the new emperor of the galaxy.  It's up to a scrappy group of dogooders to fend off Palance on the distant planet of Delta 3.

With little knowledge of the source material, I instead have to judge this movie based on its own merits, which are uneven.  Here's the deal, the models in this movie never don't look like models, but a lot of the designs are neat to look at and I admire the crafting of them if nothing else.  If you squint really hard, this movie almost passes off as the original Battlestar Galactica series from the 70's.  But looking at it eyes wide can show it's a much shoddier production, with lackluster costume design and some bulky and clunky not-too-intimidating robot antagonists.

The movie does have some inherent cheese factor that helps keep it afloat though, so B-movie enthusiasts will find it of interest.  The music is overbearing and often silly in how large it feels in comparison to mundane things onscreen.  There is a slow motion sequence in a "gravity vortex" which is hilarious and makes the wormhole sequence from Star Trek:  The Motion Picture look like nuanced cinema.  And then there is just Jack Palance, who is Palancing it up a storm.  I haven't seen him Palance it up like this since Tim Burton's Batman.

The Shape of Things to Come is a crummy movie, but it's not a painful one.  It's enjoyable under the right circumstances and even a bit funny and entertaining.  I had fun with it, even if it does staple a dead man's name on its poster for a tasteless marketing ploy.

The Episode

As if The Million Eyes of Sumuru wasn't enough, this season needed another film that was already featured on RiffTrax and Shape of Things to Come drew the short straw.

Incidentally "loosely based on" adaptations of H.G. Wells' work are also no stranger to MST3K.  We've seen a handful in the past, namely Village of the Giants (based on Food of the Gods) and Riding with Death (based on The Invisible Man).  As a sideways relation, we also had Alien from L.A., which was "inspired by" Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, as well.  We have an honored history of bastardizations.  The Shape of Things to Come is just the latest.  And whew boy is it a doozy.

Probably my big fear of this episode going in was that the riffers were going to ride a "This is nothing like the book" joke too hard, which is funny once or twice but constantly bringing it up can derail an entire experience and make it boring.  Mystery Science Theater doesn't really have a history of that, as it's more of a pitfall that RiffTrax falls into.  I'm pleased to say The Shape of Things to Come doesn't do this, but it's not that great of a riff despite this.  The Shape of Things to Come is an easy target, almost endearingly so.  Emily even states this movie is "kind of adorable, in a factory reject Beanie Baby kind of way."  That is a bit of the tone set with this effort, which plays with it but doesn't desire to really kick it.  It's almost a coasting vibe.

It's hard to pinpoint anything that really goes wrong.  Unlike the last few episodes (Batwoman especially), it does feel like our riffers are taking advantage of the openings they're given and taking a shot.  My reaction tended to default to "Heh, that's cute" rather than a full blown laugh.  Set design being compared to Hershey's chocolate because of its texture and style is pretty clever.  I didn't really laugh, but I appreciated the gag.  I liked the running joke of the two young leads romantic tension being interpreted as full friend zone, and that had some okay material that never really induced a huge reaction.  At the same time there are moments that feel miscalculated by the tiniest fraction which ruins the joke.  There is a moment where a character admires the majesty of space and Crow does a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference with "It's only a model," which is a funny line in Python but doesn't work here because nothing being shown is an actual model.  There is also a moment where Emily and the Bots do the gag where they assume the movie is over and get up to leave, but it feels like they hit their mark too early as they stand awkwardly for about two seconds before the punchline finally hits and effectively ruining the timing.  It feels like we're a little off our game here and they're just taking a bunt with this movie.

I'm not too crazy about the Host Segments of this episode either.  I think the roast party hazing of the movie's obnoxious robot Sparks is pretty cringe in it's intentionally bad humor.  It feels like it has slight redemption when Emily takes center stage in the conclusion and gives it a more dramatic payoff than anybody was expecting, then absolutely wins the night with her final line of "Excuse me for trying to show my range!"  It's not enough to save a segment that I had already written off, but it's a hell of a note to end on.  Emily also steps up for a podcast called "The Shape of Crimes to Come," which hits more high notes than the previous segment, but is little more than a few great potshots at podcast entertainment stretched to fill time.  The most enjoyable segment for me was Emily explaining the concept of love to the Bots, of which her descriptions of what love is are both hilarious and sadly honest.  It's very much the same type of segment you would have seen during the best years of the Joel era, like the "What is hell?" segment from Eegah.  We also get an Invention Exchange featuring a drink rollercoaster and Turkey Corncob Holders.

And we get a full minute of Waverly and Growler!  Yay?  Can we get some more screen time for both them and Mega Synthia, because they're all dying from neglect.

A part of me thinks it's unfortunate that Emily and her crew came in as hot as they did with Beyond Atlantis.  It's almost as if they burned out after that jackpot inaugural effort because everything they've been in since has hit much softer.  With Emily's final effort with her Bots this season (but hopefully not the last overall) it hurts to call it humdrum, because I like this team so much, but it just doesn't get my juices flowing.  The group started with a bang but ended with a whisper.  I really wanted them to deliver us something special, like Jonah's crew did with Gamera vs. Jiger and Joel did with Demon Squad, but unfortunately it looks like we'll have to see if they have another season in the pipeline to see these performers deliver a truly great episode.  The Shape of Things to Come was not it, and that's all I'll say for certain as of right now.

⭐⭐

Average

The Livestream

The answer to the question that no one asked is yes, my laptop is still down and this is another entry I have to type out on my phone.  I'm so happy I had a lot of this season prepped in advance, so this was really just a few paragraphs to finish off, unlike the previous stream which I had to build from scratch.

Yes, I'm going to keep being a little bitch about this.  I'm at this point in the review and I already have hand cramps.

Anyway, tonight's stream has Matt McGinnis, Emily Marsh, Jonah Ray, and Kelsey Ann Brady, with special guest star:  tech issues!  Different tech issues that we're used to though, as this time we have a delay in the feed.  What's interesting is that the delay progresses as each member is introduced.  We start with Matt, who is slightly off-sync, then we see Kelsey is a little more off-sync, then Emily comes on completely off-sync, and Jonah's feed is an absolute travesty.  It gets a bit problematic as everyone starts talking over each other, because you can tell from their video they're having a hard time telling when they're each talking.  It's messy and glorious. 

There isn't a whole lot of time spent discussing this episode, and I can't tell if that's because they're not too enthused about it either or if they're just getting sidetracked because Jonah's end of the feed has a low flying helicopter that interrupts their train of thought from time to time.  Apparently someone is stuck on a trail near where Jonah is at, and Jonah's attempt at mood lighting with a sunset (which is admittedly very pretty) meant he's sitting outside where the action is taking place.  They discuss how incomprehensible the movie is, a little bit about Sparks, and a little bit about Jack Palance (though even more about how to pronounce his name).

Viewer questions are a nice half and half of production and fluff, and even when the questions get fluffy they tend to have substance behind it.  There is no silly "If you were Jack Palance, what kind of robot army would you build?" or whatever the fuck.  No, non-productive questions tonight are more interesting than that.  One viewer ponders that since this movie doesn't bear any resemblance to the book it's named after, is there any film that bears little material to source material that they have strong feelings about.  Kelsey is one of many Avatar:  The Last Airbender fans who hates M. Night Shyamalan, while Emily brings up the notorious Stephen King lawsuit against The Lawnmower Man and also gets very bitter about the Hobbit trilogy (though her Guillermo Del Toro slander will not stand with me).  Jonah just talks about Stephen King in general and how his short stories tend to make better movies than his full novels.

My counterpoint and addition to this conversation:  The Running Man.  Unquestionably one of the greatest movies ever made and bears no resemblance to the novel it's based on, and thank god for that.

There is also some talk about puppets and what their favorite puppets are.  Kelsey just loves Gonzo, while Jonah loves characters who are people in giant puppet suits.  Emily talks about her love of The Dark Crystal and is a little less fond of childhood mainstay Thunderbirds (I love Thunderbirds, goddammit).  My puppet contribution:  I don't know if you'd call them puppets or not, but Jim Henson's creations for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are absolutely beautiful.

Production questions are more about writing that filming.  One question asks what normally derails a writers' room, to which Jonah frankly responds "The writers!"  They turn the discussion into a lot of points about how the writing process works, how they decide to deliver jokes in the final product, and even how they figure out how much time they need to fill.  There is also a question that is very poorly worded but brings out a solid discussion of whether a celebrity is more enjoyable to make fun of than a lesser known actor, of which Jonah points out one of the best things MST3K can do is take a nameless side character and tack on a personality of their choosing on them.

Time seems to be cut short tonight because this stream is only forty minutes long.  I'm not sure if it's a mercy killing or not, because the helicopter on Jonah's end seems to be throwing them off.  Kelsey also makes a brief joking reference to being in the middle of the hurricane in Florida, which I'm not sure is true or not, but if it is stay safe, Kelsey!  It's all a bit in-and-out tonight, but to their credit nobody is half-assing it.  They might be in a rush to leave, but everyone seems happy to be here.

And speaking of leaving, my fingers are stiff and I am done.