's video "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," we are told that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was born in Minnesota in 1988, next to a picture of Joel, Tom, and Crow ('cause there's a theater in the video, get it?). [Picture of reference]This page is divided into two sections, and each section is divided into five subsections. The first main section consists of the direct references to MST3K -- i.e., the references that mention the show itself. Inside this section, the references are divided into five categories: movies, DVD commentaries, television, stuff you read, and a miscellaneous "other" section.
The second section consists of occurrences that may or may not refer to MST3K. Either the occurrence is an indirect reference to something seen (and made popular) on MST3K, or it might just be a coincidence. Again, this section is divided into movies, DVD commentaries, television, things that you read, and other occurrences.
A quick note about silhouettes: Seeing just the silhouettes of people as they watch a movie is a decades-old tradition, dating back to at least the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. So for a silhouette to qualify as an MST3K reference, there has to be some additional intention demonstrated, such as the characters making fun of what they're seeing, being seated on the far right of the screen, featuring one human flanked by two non-humans, etc.
This list has had many contributions from many people. The contributor of a reference is noted in parentheses after the reference. If there's no acknowledgement, then I reported it. If you know of an MST3K reference that's not included here, please e-mail me. On to the list!
[Updated April 26, 2007: A reference in a Weezer album. It's in "other" because I'm not creating another category.]
Backfire!
The movie "Backfire," which is a movie about a man who joins an all-female fire department (and a dreadful parody of Backdraft) features a scene that parodies the famous MST silloutte, with two oddly shapped robots and a person. (Jixby Phillips)
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
There is a big poster with the MST3K planet logo on the wall of the virgin's apartment bedroom. (Raphael J.)
Trekkies
There is a 6 foot tall MST3K logo in the background. (wwayeaye@aol.com)
Troops
There is this pirate tape floating around the country called "Troops". It's a parody of Cops in Star Wars fashion. In the first scene, the Troops (stormtroopers) are out talking to some Jawas about stolen droids. Well, one of the Jawas is very clearly holding Servo! When questioned, he says it's his cousin, but then runs away and gets killed. The Troops then say that it belonged to some kid and he was coming to get it. (Antra@webtv.net)
Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
In the DVD release of this episode, David Hasselhoff and Glen Larsen were talking about the show and they were in a segment where they were discussing a few bloopers that made it to the episode (around the floating gunshot wound segment near the end when Michael is gearing up to crash the plane), and David Hasselhoff rambled out with: "I feel like we're on that show with the little...what's that show on TV where they have the little...they're watching a movie and they got little um, aliens & the science guy watching them, they've got these black heads..." Glen finally comes out with: "Yeah, Mystery Science Theater 3000." (Tim Jones)
Muppets from Space
On the commentary of "Muppets From Space," on the bottom of the screen are silhouettes: The director and Kermit. Soon Kermit leaves to go get popcorn, and Gonzo and Rizzo enter. They sit on either side of the human, and go on to joke about their own movie. (Kelly Slane)
Ocean's Eleven
On the commentary track for the Ocean's Eleven DVD, Matt Damon suggests that "we do this commentary like Mystery Science Theater." (Frank Chilese)
The Simpsons
In the season three box set, on the commentary for "Saturdays of Thunder," executive producer Mike Reiss mentions that he was thrilled to see MST3K reference the line, "Mendoza!!!" One of the showrunners of "The Simpsons" saying that it shows that they really made it. It's all about whose opinions you respect.
Animaniacs
In the episode "Potty Emergency," during the cheesy movie at the beginning, when the actress opens the window of the space station, "MST-3K" is printed above the pane. You can also make an argument for the shot of the Warner siblings watching the movie, their heads in the lower-right corner of the screen.
Animorphs
One of the Animorphs was being cornered by a bunch of bullies because he told them about aliens taking people over. Their leader's response? "I think someone's been watching too much Mystery Science Theater." (Amber Stubbs)
Beastie Boys
On The Beastie Boys Anthology DVD set, on The Beastie Boys Commentary Track, during the music video for "Grattitude", one of the rappers, King Adrock is riffing on the video. Suddenly, he stops and saids "This reminds me a lot of that Mystery Science Theater show." The Beastie Boys actually riff their own videos quite a bit on the DVD. It's hilarious.(Steven Emanuel)
Beat the Geeks
One of the contestants on "Beat the Geeks" was a MSTie. (Alexandra)
Bill Nye the Science Guy
On the show about invertebrates, the silhouette is there, but invertebrates replace our robot pals. There's a lobster in Servo's seat, a very worried-looking human in Mike's seat, and a giant squid in Crow's seat. They appear three times. [Pictures of reference]
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart introduces a segment called "Daily Show Science 2000". After the intro graphics are done playing, he says, "Hey, didn't that used to be a show on this network?" (Z-MSTie)
Futurama
On the episode "Raging Bender," the gang goes out to see a movie. During the opening newsreel, Leela, Fry, and Bender are silhouetted on the left side of the screen in a very familiar manner. After Fry makes a lame riff at the film, the camera pans over to Crow and Tom on the right side of the screen. Crow tells Fry not to talk during the movie. [Pictures of reference]
Good Eats
In the episode of Food TV's "Good Eats" called "Romancing the Bird" (Thanksgiving episode), Alton Brown talks to food scientist about how brining a turkey works. To demonstrate this, they go to Mystery Food Science Theater. If that's not a reference then I don't know what is. (Ross Belsome)
Home Movies
On this Cartoon Network series, in the episode "Identifying a Body," Brendon and Coach McGuirk go to a movie. The characters have a conversation in silhouette form in front of the movie, seated on the far right side of the screen, MST3K-style.
Jeopardy!
In the 1996-1997 season (before they changed the set), there was a question in the TV Robots category that was a Daily Double. The question went something like "The show these two robots are seen in," and then a still picture of Crow and Servo were shown. The contestant got it wrong, however.
In the episode that aired on March 27, 2007, in the "Robots & Androids" category, the $2,000 clue read, "This series featured 2 robots & one human making sarcastic comments while watching B movies". One of the contestants responded correctly, earning every penny of that money.
*NSYNC
At one point during HBO's broadcast of a live *N SYNC concert, *N SYNC went backstage, where waiting for them was a somewhat familiar looking row of theater seats. The band members sat down to watch a video announcing the winners of a "Dance Onstage with *N SYNC" contest, and who should pop up in an empty seat but Tom Servo! (as reported on Satellite News)
Pop-Up Video
During 's video "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," we are told that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was born in Minnesota in 1988, next to a picture of Joel, Tom, and Crow ('cause there's a theater in the video, get it?). [Picture of reference]
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
On an episode of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," Salem the cat tries to convince Sabrina that appliances have come to life. Sabrina tells him, "No more sardines and Mystery Science Theater before bed!" (Ardnax123@aol.com)
In the episode "Geek Like Me," where Sabrina makes everbody a geek to teach snobby Libby a lesson, Harvey, Sabrina's boyfriend, remarks after being turned into a nerd, "I suddenly have this urge to watch every single episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000." (Kathi Heckenlively)
I checked the ep guide for the Sabrina Animated Series
(spawned off the sitcom) [epguides.com/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries], and one of the eps was
"Witchery Science Theatre". Make of that as you will. (Varakorn Ungvichian)
[Varakorn describes the episode]
The Simpsons
In the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie," near the end of the episode, future Homer and Bart enter a theater to watch the movie. As they sit, we see their silhouettes settling in the lower right corner of the screen. Usually I'm skeptical of whether a movie theater silhouette is an MST3K reference (see the introduction), but since executive producer Mike Reiss says it's an MST3K reference in the commentary on the fourth season DVD, I'll go ahead and include this one.
In the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", part one, when there are oil fumes in Moe's bar, on the TV in the upper-left hand corner, you will see the MST3K silhouette. [Picture of reference]
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
In the very first episode, "Spanish Translation," there is a completely non-sequitur segment where Moltar, Zorak, and Space Ghost are watching a bad movie in MST3K silhouette style. Says Zorak: "This actually isn't too bad."
In a later episode, Space Ghost interviewed Joel Hodgson. They try to riff on a movie clip, with not very successful results.
Star Trek
On "Star Trek: Deep Space 9," there was a listing on the promenade directory for Tom Servo's Used Robots. (Jeff Zehnder Jr.)
Vs.
On this short-lived Comedy Central game show, in the episode of high school students vs. college professors, Greg Proops asks, "Known to its fans by the abbreviation MST3K, what Sci-Fi Channel show debuted on a Minneapolis UHF station in 1988?" You guess the answer.
Win Ben Stein's Money
There were two questions about MST3K on "Win Ben Stein's Money." I don't have the exact wording on me, but according to Comedy Central's web site, the episode number was 4023.
WWF WrestleMania
At the WWF WrestleMania XII pre-game show, Free For All, on March 31, 1996, a match was shown between The Huckster (a parody of Hulk Hogan) taking on The Nacho Man (a parody of "Macho Man" Randy Savage), with Billionaire Ted (a parody of Ted Turner) as the referee. The announcers for the match, Vince McMahon, and Jerry "The King" Lawler, were shown silohuetted against the match, although there was no row of seats, it was just the two of them sitting in their announcer's table. Vince and Jerry proceeded to riff on the match, just like a MST3K episode, except, unlike Joel, Vince had the power to decide when the match began and ended, since he fast forwarded past The Huckster's entrance. The announcers never mentioned Mystery Science Theater 3000, but considering that the silhouettes were shown, and that they were riffing the match, I think it's quite obvious this was inspired by Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Steven Emanuel)
Electronic Gaming Monthly
In an envelope art section of an issue whose number I can't remember, there's a drawing of Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails in a theater, watching a 1930's cartoon Tails found of a familiar-looking hedgehog. Guess which two automotons are sitting next to them. (The West Virginian)
In the May 1998 issue (number 106), in the Sushi-X files insert, one of the things that's hot at EGM is "the MST intro on the latest PlayStation Underground disc (Vol. 2 Issue 1)."
Two months later, in Electronic Gaming Monthly's July 1998 issue (number 108), the Get Some! section ("Cool stuff you could probably live without, but shouldn't") tells us to purchase Mystery Science Theater 3000 home videos.
In issue #135 (October 2000), there's a feature called "Hsu and Chan's Fall Preview-o-Rama," starring comic characters from the magazine. On page 154, there's a familiar-looking silhouette of theater seats. Chan (in the human's seat) and Hsu (in Crow's seat) discuss movies-turned-video games. Servo tells them, "Hey! Keep it down!"
More Hsu and Chan fun, this time in issue #156 (July 2002). The brothers follow the process of having their video game, "Fighting Fighters," turned into a movie. In the final frame, the movie is playing. Near the front of the theater, Tom and Crow look at the screen. [Picture of reference]
Games
The February 2004 issue of Games magazine featured a collage of robots on its cover, where the game was to identify them all. Crow and Gypsy appeared together, and Servo appeared by himself. Also on the cover was Ro-Man from the season one show, "Robot Monster." (Tim Walsh)
MAD magazine
In the April/May 1992 issue of the Australian edition of MAD magazine (No. 311), page 25, Crow appears in a "Home Improvement" parody illustrated by Angelo Torres. [Picture of reference] (Stacy Gillett)
In the December 1995 issue, number 341, there are two MST references in the same article, namely, Appalling 13, a parody of Apollo 13. The first one's on the first page of the article, and it's a picture of the theater seats with Tom and Crow in them with Alfred E. Neuman in the human's spot. The second one is on page 7. Inside Apollo 13, Crow and Tom are floating around. Crow is drawn very nicely the second time. [Pictures of reference]
On the Fastrack
Here's a reference in the comic strip "On the Fastrack." (Linda Behrens)
The Simpsons
In The Simpsons comic book, #30, there's an article where Bart and two of his friends go to a movie theater and make fun of a bad science-fiction movie. There's even theater seats with silhouettes of the tops of their heads (because they're shorter). That's all the information I have, because I was trying to look at it as fast as I could without the 7-11 personnel accusing me of reading comics for free. (Thanks to "ShaneD" in the Steel Cage Chat for that one.)
Transformers
In issue 9 of the Marvel Comic Transformers: Genreation 2, the Autobots examine a planet once inhabited by a robot race wiped out by a techno-virus. Among the dead robots are caracsses of Tom Servo and Crow! (Nixtr)
TV Guide
One of the subjects of the comic ctrip in TV Guide was new TV shows for Jerry Seinfeld after "Seinfeld" was finished. Here's a picture. (Linda Behrens)
Waiting for Bob
There's an MST3K reference in the November 9, 1999 "Waiting for Bob" comic strip. See for yourself! (Amber Stubbs)
Wired
In Wired magazine, they asked a geek from Beat the Geeks a few questions, and one of them was something like "what are the names of the robots who heckle movies on Mystery Science Theater 3000?" He got it right, as well he should. (Alexandra)
On the 3DO game system, there is a game called "Off World Interceptor" and during the non-game parts, it features 2 guys on couches silhouetted against the game's movie scenes making comments. A hint book (possibly entitled "Tips and Tricks for the 3DO"), describes the game as a cross between some other game and MST3K. (Antra@webtv.net)
Okay, okay, I'll include it -- the Homestar Runner cartoon "A Jorb Well Done" features a cameo appearance by Tom Servo's silhouette. Usually, my policy is to not include internet sightings, because it's too easy to put references to things on web sites, but I'm making an exception in this case because a) you can buy the cartoon on DVD now and b) I want to stop getting e-mails about it.
In the liner notes of Weezer's Green Album, if you look at the bottom corner of one of the pages, there's a picture of a concert and very noticeably in a "Where's Waldo?" sense is a silhouette of Servo, Crow, and Joel. (Jeffrey Smous)
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Animaniacs
In one episode, Katie Ka-boom got a phone call from a boy, and as she was trying to figure out who it was, Mike and Joel were a couple of the names listed. (Alexandra)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode 77, 'Primeval' (aka Primevil) there is a reference to Manos, the Hands of Fate, which, as we should all know, was riffed on by J&TB.
A more direct reference, however, is in the book 'Slayer: An Expanded and Updated Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer' by Keith Topping. To quote from the Reference section of the above-mentioned episode: "Manus (sic) the Hands of Fate was a B-movie by Mystery Science Theater 3000." If you can get more quotey than that, then my name's Jimmy Smith. (KServo)
Commercials
In an Ameritech commercial, a couple stops at a place called "eat". As any MST fan knows, eat is the restaurant the woman worked in "Girl in the Gold Boots". (Ben Wineke)
Dexter's Laboratory
In the episode "Old Man Dexter," one of the movie titles used for the late-night movies is an obvious hybrid of two movies MST3K has riffed on -- "Killer Leeches A Go-Go."
Sam & Max: Freelance Police
In the episode "Christmas Bloody Christmas," the evil villain's name is Herzog. (For you Sci-Fi Channel MSTies, Doug Herzog was the man responsible for MST3K's cancellation from Comedy Central.)
The Simpsons
In the episode "Homer the Moe," Lenny makes the comment, "It's like the not-too-distant future in here." (tvtome.com)
And while we're on the subject, "Treehouse of Horror VII" does not contain an MST3K reference. The episode first aired in 1996, so its reference to the movie "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" predates the movie's 1997 appearance on MST3K. (I've received this one a couple of times, so I guess it's worth clearing up.)
South Park
In the episode of South Park that features Cartman finding some magic triangle thingy, Barbra Streisand chases him around because it's actually some Rule The World device. When she gets her hands on it, she turns into Godzilla. Later, Leonard Maltin turns into Gamera, Sidney Poitier turns into Jet Jaguar, and the lead singer of the cure turns into Mothra.(Katie Marzullo)
Dave Barry
In the book "Dave Barry Does Japan," one of Dave's Japanese "translations" starts with "Ee-gah." For you who didn't see season five, Eegah! was a MSTed movie.
React
In the December 7 - 13 issue of the React newspaper supplement for teens, an article on Lego robots is entitled "Robot Roll Call." Sounds good to me.
In the game Escape from Monkey Island, early on you have to get pretzels from a drunken sailor. If you talk to him for a while, he'll say "Hikeeba". (Jeff Jackowski)
