Mystery Science Theater 3000/Recap/S04/E19 The Rebel Set

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Films watched: Johnny At the Fair (short) and The Rebel Set

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Rebel Set provides examples of:

  • Berserk Button: For Servo, Joel and Crow identifying the actor who plays the conductor as Merritt Stone (he's not, by the way).
  • Brick Joke: "I spent that dollar an hour ago!"
    • Also: "So, all this happened because Johnny got lost at the fair?" referring to the episode's short film.
  • Call Back: "Tommy Kirk -- assassin!"
  • Faux Horrific: After being unfazed by the likes of In Cold Blood and Helter Skelter, Servo and Crow are frightened out of their wits by Life's Little Instruction Book.
  • Logic Bomb: Servo suffers one of these when the others counteract his attempts to prove the identity of the conductor in the film (for the record, it's Gene Roth).
    • Your Head Asplode -- again.
    • It's actually a reference to how the crew noticed Merritt Stone's name in several of their films (all of which get referenced in the sketch in question) but none of them could actually spot the recurring face in all of them.
  • Shout-Out: When the struggling writer is at his typerwriter, Servo says, "Let's see here ... 'A screaming comes across the sky' ." This is the opening line of Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
  • This Is Sparta: "He's NOT! MERRITT! STONE!"
  • Train Problem: In the sketch where Joel tries to have the 'Bots write literature that would meet Merritt Stone's approval, Gypsy succeeds by reciting one of these. They also call Tucker's plan "the SAT caper" after hearing the page quote.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment of Johnny At The Fair brings us:

Narrator: [Johnny's Parents] have looked everywhere... everywhere except one place."
Crow: Their own hearts.