#k06

General notes

          Still Christmas on the S.O.L., and Trace is still on vacation, so Crow’s still a Christmas tree. Servo’s actually in the theater this week, though, and it makes a huge difference in the riffing quality and the overall feel of the episode. Also notable- this is the first episode where they mention the Mads. Even though they’ve had them in the theme song intro for the past few episodes, this is the first time they specifically refer to them as characters, and show a picture of them (although it’s just a still from the into).

          And another big thing- Servo’s new voice. It’s still Josh, of course, but they finally make the change to the voice we think of when we think of Josh’s Servo. The Kermit-like one ended up being too hard to riff with. Not only was it painful (at least I imagine it was- can’t remember if Josh ever actually said that), it was just too hard to get jokes across. Also, along with his new voice, is the addition to his name. This is the first time he or anyone else calls him(self) Tom Servo instead of just Servo. So with those exciting things to look forward to, let’s jump in.

Thoughts on the movie

          I decided when doing the last one that I’m too lazy to do these now, so I’ll do them when I get to Season 3. Although, you know, it would probably be better to do them now, when they didn’t cut the movies for time like they did in the later versions. But the laziness has kicked in again, so I’ll just stick with my decision.

Movie intro/Invention Exchange

The way that Joel’s hair flips sideways when he jumps into frame is hilarious and adorable. His hair is extra floofy here, too.

He seems much more awake this week than in previous episodes.

I wonder what kind of scary guys with low IQs were calling in, and what they were saying. On second thought, maybe I don’t want to know.

Heh, Cambot nods when Joel gives him the specs for the screen.

I know this is weird, but there’s something really attractive about the way Joel presses the button to play the calls…

Pointless nitpicking: They missed a word when they transcribed that call.

Gypsy’s scream when they show the picture of the Mads amuses me.

It’s pretty cute that Gypsy recites what Joel taught her about making lemonade c:

It looks like Joel’s reading off of a piece of paper when he introduces the movie. I guess the Mads used to just fax them up the movie info or something, and didn’t start calling them until later.

Movie pt. 1

It looks like Josh is having a hard time getting Servo to stay up. Looks like the puppet keeps falling over.

Also, Servo sits in Crow’s seat. Rude!

The riff about ocean being the source of all Sandy Frank films gets used almost verbatim in one of the later Season 3 riffs. Just goes to show that there were good things cooking at KTMA.

At 11:30, another song. Joel likes to break into song a lot- it’s something I’ve noticed in interviews, too.    

At 12:03, Joel calls a commercial, but it doesn’t actually play one. Heh. And Servo (Josh)’s a smart aleck about it.

Personal opinion here, but their teasing/misreading of the Japanese names in the credits is maybe a little bit too strong.

At 18:16, Joel and Servo start talking about giant turnips. Is that a Mario 2 reference?

When they leave the theater, you can see Joel take a big step over Josh on the floor.

Host Segment 1

Joel changes Servo’s voice, as mentioned in the General Notes. Servo doesn’t seem too keen on the idea at first, but he ends up being very happy with the results.

Servo’s not too keen on the puberty metaphor, either.

Joel says that he’s changing Servo’s voice because he’s getting tired of it. Does that mean that’s what happened with the other couple of voices we heard in previous episodes, too?

Joel making fairly major outward identity decisions for the bots happened pretty often in KTMA. It seems like over time, as the bots began to grow into their own people (okay, so they’re robots, but these robots definitely count as people) he stopped doing that.

And that also includes things like programming them to talk about how great he is, even as a joke, which it mostly seems to be. Servo clearly dislikes it, though Joel doesn’t acknowledge it here. Took him a while to get to that point, I guess.

Manual? Did Joel program a bunch of different voice options into Servo and write them all down in a notebook so he didn’t have to remember them? What else is in that manual? I wonder if that’s the same “E-Z Bot Repair” book that’s Mike’s flipping through desperately in the Season 5-6 intro. Probably not, but I kind of like the idea of Joel making actual manuals for his bots, though I don’t know why he would think he’d ever need them. Besides for keeping track of all Servo’s voices, I guess.

I’m just gonna say, Joel is very swoon-worthy in this segment. With the glances at the camera and the smiling and the being adorable. Not even fair.

Also the tongue touching as he turns the pages of his manual. Does that cross the line into a little too weird? Probably. *noticeably does not apologize*

Servo gets WAY excited about his new big radio voice, which is cute. Joel’s not too sure about it, though. He seems surprised to hear it, so maybe he didn’t program it in like all the others. Maybe it just kind of came to be by itself inside the program (don’t ask me how computers/robotics actually work- other science facts) , meaning that it really belongs to Servo. He does say that it’s the one he’s “always dreamed of”. 

Other voice related thing that doesn’t really belong here but I’m putting it here anyway- when Crow’s voice changes in the Sci-Fi era, Joel says he must have changed his bowling pin (See: Soultaker). So it seems that Crow’s voice is dependent on mouth hardware, whereas Servo’s seems to be more like a dial. At least, it seems that when his voice changes, it’s more like an adjustment to the parts that he already has, rather than a full-on part replacement. And that concludes this edition of “Thinking Way Too Much about Silly Things That Don’t Need to Be Thought About”. (Oh, who am I kidding? That should be the title of this entire blog.)

Servo calls Joel “Hodgy” again c:

Joel’s threat about changing Servo’s voice isn’t really all that threatening. Also, his smile while Servo takes them to commercial is adorable.

Ah, there it is, the first “Tom Servo.” Apparently, the thinking behind it was that the new voice is kind of radio announcer voice, so Tom Servo is like his DJ name. *shrug* I guess it just stuck. It does roll off the tongue nicely.

Movie pt. 2

Joel looks like he almost trips over Josh on the way in this time.

Servo’s still testing out his new voice as he comes into the theater and gets shushed by Joel. Which, when you think about it, is odd, because talking during the movie obviously isn’t something that bothers him…

At 30:57, they start talking about Gamera’s big teeth- how he didn’t have them in the last movie. Servo surmises that he had baby teeth in the last one, but he’s a man now, and uses to opportunity to bring up how manly he himself is. And then Joel shushes him again! I guess he’s really not warming up to the new voice that much yet.

And the award for worst attempt so far to pronounce Gaos goes to…*drum roll*… Joel, when he calls Gaos “Go-az” at 34:12.

34:41 Another Joel laugh. I know it’s a little excessive to note all of them, but they’re just so rare (and adorable) that I feel the need to mark them. They are a lot more frequent in KTMA than in CC, since he’s getting caught off-guard by the jokes, so I might stop after a while. We’ll see.

At 36:52, Servo brings up the voice again. He just can’t get over it! This time Joel says he’s glad that Servo likes it, so maybe he’s coming around to the idea. Also, Servo’s first mention of “babes”. After this, he doesn’t really ever stop mentioning them.

By this point, Josh has interrupted Joel like three different times. Eager 17-year-old rudeness, I suppose.

Tom (hey, I can call him that now) “takes them to commercial” again at 37:42, but I can’t tell if they actually went to commercial or not. The movie cuts to a different part, so there might have been one there, and the uploader of the video cut it out. It’s hard to tell without the commercial bumpers they had in the show proper.

At 40: 43, when the zoologist in the movie is talking about how Gaos may have been trapped in suspended animation, Servo mentions that Crow is, too. Also, apparently Crow has “demonstrated [his] viciousness” (which I could see happening c: ) Joel makes Servo apologize, though. Hah.

I like the running gag about the mooing grandpa.

At 47:06, Tom starts up a string of terrible cow and dairy puns that makes Joel laugh.

Movie question: Okay, I’m sorry, but how could NOBODY but the 8-year-old notice that Gaos only comes out at night? How long has this been going on? Why are children in these movies more competent than the entire government?

Joel has to tell Servo he can go when they leave the theater. Hm.

Host Segment 2

Apparently Joel modeled Gypsy’s voice after Kim Carnes…or at least attempted to.

Gypsy seems a lot better at talking than she has before. I don’t think it lasts past this host segment.

Joel’s little turn and smile when he presses the button is really dumb and way too cute.

I like how the caller’s clearly talking to his family/friends while on the phone. And I agree! Unfreeze Crow!

This is the third time they’ve shown the footage of Crow being frozen. I have to say, Joel still freezing Crow despite his strong hesitation and even screaming is kind of disturbing. See previously stated theory about Joel’s understanding of the bots as people and how it affects his choices.

Joel does this little hip shift thing at 51:53, and I don’t know why, but I find it hilarious. *Addendum: I just watched it again, a day or so after I first wrote this comment, and actually the hip movement isn’t that pronounced. I don’t know why I even noticed it, why I thought it was funny, or what my problem is.*

Aw, Gypsy stole Crow’s tinsel garland. Apparently it looked like shiny spaghetti. According to Joel, this isn’t the first time Gypsy’s eaten something because it looked like shiny spaghetti. I’d love to hear the stories.

The “Ah!” noise that Joel makes as they’re leaving for the theater is kind of a trademark Joel noise.

Movie pt. 3

At 53:07, Joel starts to say something about Gaos, but pronounces it “Gay-oss”, and Servo (Josh) corrects him (gasp!).

Joel calls Servo “Josh” at 55:29! Guess he forgot what he was doing. I’m sure it’s harder to remember when you don’t have a script. But still!

Geez, Josh interrupts Joel like three times in a row.  I guess in-story it doesn’t make much sense that they never interrupt each other, but obviously that allowance has to be made for the riffing to work. That definitely qualifies as another science fact, and therefore requires no explanation, but it’s also possible that eventually Joel programmed them not to interrupt, at least in the theater. Clearly that function is not present during the host segments c:

Huh, at 59:42, Servo calls that the “Talk to Joel” phone number is there, after it’s been up on the screen for a little while. Josh must have just said it, and then later they decided to put the number up at that time. Did they have the time codes for when they were going to put commercials and stuff like that with them in the theater? I kind of doubt that. I don’t think they were that organized. Hm. *shrug*

Josh KEEPS interrupting Joel! Come on, man, I know you’re excited about your joke, but have a little courtesy. (Okay, I’m done being Miss Manners now.)

Host Segment 3

There’s something really sweet about how this kid invited them to his birthday party. I don’t know why, but it kind of warms my heart.

Haha, I like how Joel just stuck party hats on his arms. What the heck?

It’s also really sweet that they acknowledged the boy’s call like that by decorating the bridge. (I don’t know, I’m just a big sap, okay?) They also had a convenient built-in excuse for why they couldn’t come to the party, which is nice. That way they didn’t have to feel bad about just saying no, and it actually helped them preserve the story.

Servo’s advice for the birthday boy makes Joel laugh, although he’s still making up his mind about the new voice. I wonder if it’s the new voice itself that he doesn’t like, or just Tom’s new cockiness.

Movie pt. 4

For some reason, Joel’s delivery of “He is angered.” at 1:15:29 amuses me.

Servo’s still bringing up the voice.

At 1:18:21, Tom makes a joke, starts laughing at it himself, and when Joel doesn’t laugh, he tells him “Come on, Hodgy, laugh it up!” Joel doesn’t respond.

The way Joel sometimes cocks his head to side while he’s watching the movie is adorable. It’s actually something he does a lot in host segments, and in real life. So I guess it’s just something he does in general.

At 1:33:08, Joel comments that Gaos’s blood looks like Burple (spelling on that?). Servo asked “What’s Burple?” at about the same time I did.

Joel turns his head to the side at 1:35:19, and his hair looks really goofy in silhouette. Also, you can see his glasses, which you usually can when he turns his head.

Conclusion

Looks like Joel has some notes on the table that he’s reading off of.

Tom still loves his new voice c:

In the credits, Kevin is listed under “Puppet Operation and Voices”. Huh? What did he do?

Overall impression

          They just keep getting better. Things are still pretty rough- the riffing isn’t really that funny- but they’re moving along. (Favorite riff- Servo: Maybe he's the Green Lantern.) As I said before, having two people in the theater definitely improves the energy from last week. It seems like the energy and the funniness increase exponentially with each person added to the theater, so I’m definitely ready to get Crow/Trace back in there, especially with the overall concept solidifying.