Mystery Science Theater 3000/Recap/S05/E10 The Painted Hills/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode

  • Crowning Moment of Funny: The montage sequence.
  • Mondegreen: While reading the credits, Joel and the Bots are surprised to learn that "Pile-on Pete" is actually "Pilot Pete".
  • Unnecessary Makeover: In the first Host Segment, Crow and Servo have a debate over whether the girl from the short is more attractive sloppy or clean, with Gypsy moderating and Joel deciding the outcome.

Crow's argument: I like her sloppy. While her well-groomed -- in other words, square -- classmates were listening to Pat Boone and Patti Page, she was at the local jazz club, groovin' to Miles, Monk and Coltrane. While her classmates were struggling to make it through an issue of Reader's Digest, she was the only woman on campus who can freely quote Henry Miller. She may be sloppy, but she fits deeply into my idea of paradise.
Servo's argument: I like her clean, 'cause it just shows that she wants to change the system from within. Sure she's a seething cauldron of passion, but she wears clean underpants, and she knows where her shirt is in the morning. Call her what you will -- a Scoop Jackson democrat or a Jacob Javits republican -- either way, she's the stuff that dreams are made of.
Joel's verdict: Both of these issues are complex, and there are no easy answers, but Crow's right.

Servo then argues against Joel's verdict, stating that the subject of cleanliness and grooming is important to him, and proposes a more effective way to resolve the issue: "A spitting contest!"
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Crow keeps referring to Shep (Lassie) as "he".
    • All of the Lassie dogs have been male, since their fur looks better on camera than female dogs of the same breed. The dog playing Lassie playing Shep in this film is actually named "Pal" (and is the original / main Lassie). Of course it's quite possible that Best Brains (or Crow's voice actor, at least) was aware of the gender discrepancy, so that Crow is saying "he" in reference to Lassie/Pal, while the others are saying "she" in reference to Shep.