Christmas In Space! 2017
December 14, 2017 5:03 PM - Subscribe

MST Club presents your fourth-annual "No Stress" Yuletide Special and Weirdness Marathon: Christmas in Space! Every Christmas for going on four years on now, those of us in MST Club have held what I call a "no-stress" marathon. A *real* marathon is an arduous ordeal, a harsh test of endurance. *Our* marathon, we don't care when you join us or when you leave. It's Christmas! For the two days in question, December 24 and 25, we'll be showing Christmas specials (both weird and good), MST Episodes, Rifftrax and other yuletide oddities, with some other things mixed in for leavening, in the MST Club cytube room. Watch with us and joke along in the chatroom, or leave us on in the background. Our aim is to be the amiable background radiation to your holiday season. This is the planning thread.

Tom Servo's essay from MST3K 321 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians:
TOM SERVO: It's quiet in the cold of our own little orbit, starless and bible black. And as I look down on the big blue beam we would call home I think it so near, yet... oh, I wish on that star and I hope that in a little snow-covered house with a warm hearth and a loving family, maybe some kid is looking up tonight and wishing upon us. Oh, and how I hope sweet Santa will fly by tonight because if he does I'm gonna reach right out and hug that big guy. Oh, for the sound of hooves against the steel hull of the ship. Oh, to see the rosy face of Santa in the portal offering me a Coke and a smile...
...of course, his cheeks would be rosy because there's a vacuum out there, I mean Santa's heart would explode! But he wouldn't feel it because the capillaries in his brain would pop like little firecrackers (Joel begins to try to calm him down) due to the blood boiling away in his face like pudding in a copper... oh the humanity! And his jolly old belly would start bubbling like a roasted marshmallow, eyes bulging and popping out...
And the reindeer. OH THE REINDEER! Keep floating like holiday floats and in turn exploding in a hail of blood and entrails! Prancer: BOOM! Dancer: BOOM!
JOEL: HEY! Tom take it easy, Santa's gonna be okay, buddy.
TOM: You sure?
JOEL: Yeah, give him a little credit, okay?
posted by JHarris to Mystery Science Theater Club (9 comments total)
 
We're taking donations to build up our Rifftrax library for the Christmas marathon. Here's a list of videos that I'm considering:
CHRISTMAS LONG
* Christmas Circus with Whizzo the Clown
https://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax-christmas-circus
$9.99
* I Believe in Santa Claus
https://www.rifftrax.com/i-believe-in-santa-claus
$9.99
* RiffTrax Live: Santa Claus
https://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax-live-santa-claus
$12.95
* RiffTrax: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
https://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax-live-santa-claus-conquers-the-martians
$12.95
* Christmas with Rifftrax featuring Magic Christmas Tree
https://www.rifftrax.com/christmas-with-rifftrax-featuring-magic-christmas-tree
$9.99

CHRISTMAS SHORTS
* Spunky the Snowman
https://www.rifftrax.com/spunky-the-snowman
$1.19
* Santa Claus' Workshop
https://www.rifftrax.com/santa-claus-workshop
$1.19
* Gifts from the Air
https://www.rifftrax.com/gifts-from-the-air
$1.19
* Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
https://www.rifftrax.com/nestor-the-long-eared-christmas-donkey
$2.99
* At Your Fingertips: Sugar and Spice
https://www.rifftrax.com/at-your-fingertips-sugar-and-spice-live-edition
$1.19
* Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
https://www.rifftrax.com/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer
$0.99
* Bridget and Mary Jo Christmas Special 2
https://www.rifftrax.com/the-second-annual-bridget-and-mary-jo-christmas-special
$3.50

NON-CHRISTMAS - We usually put in a small number of non-Christmas things towards the end.
* Fun in Balloonland
https://www.rifftrax.com/balloonland
$9.99
* The Night that Dracula Saved the World
https://www.rifftrax.com/the-night-that-dracula-saved-the-world
$3.50
* The Wizard of Oz
$3.99 (audio-only--I will have to mix)

Note, Rifftrax publishes new Christmas stuff every year, usually just a few days before the 25th, so around the 22nd there should be a few more possibilities.
posted by JHarris at 6:10 PM on December 14, 2017


I know you don't want it, but the Star Wars Holiday Special is on YouTube in a good quality, no 1978 commercials version. Probably not for long since Disney now owns everything Star Wars. Of course RiffTrax has had its way with it, and there's an unauthorized upload of that on YT.

Other Holiday/Christmas Specials and Episodes on YouTube include:
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (IMO, he was the best Scrooge ever),
Ralph Bakshi's 'Christmas in Tattertown' (Bakshi's one of my animation idols and here's one reason why)
Rocky & Bullwinkle "The Fright Before Christmas" (the second half of "Topsy Turvy" serial with Boris Badenov impersonating Santa),
Muppets: "A Muppet Family Christmas - 1987", "John Denver and The Muppets - 1979" and "The Muppet Christmas Carol - 1992" (shrinkboxed in 2016 to evade Disney copyright police)
Mr. Bean,
Garfield,
He Man and She Ra,
Dean Martin (1968),
Jack Benny (1957),
Home Improvement (Season 4)
From All of Us to All of You (the Disneyland TV Christmas Show, 1958 edition)
"Winter Wipeout" (the crazy British physical game show)
"Deck The Halls with Wacky Walls" (weirdest toy merchandising tie-in ever)
and a 4-hour cartoon marathon (quality not guaranteed)

I'll check in with some festive non-holiday nonsense later...
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:31 AM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


I picked up a few Rifftrax tonight., including two feature-length. I think this will probably be enough, Rifftrax-wise, unless someone wants to pick up SCCtM or Santa Claus, since we don't want it to be too RT-heavy. There's only four "official" MST episodes that could pass as Christmassy after all, and one of those is Season 11 and thus unusable through Cytube.
posted by JHarris at 1:02 AM on December 19, 2017


Planning continues apace. I'm starting to lean towards doing MST Club Thursday after all, even though the movie is the infamous Hobgoblins. Are there any particular Christmas specials or videos any of you would like to see?
posted by JHarris at 1:50 AM on December 20, 2017


Well, here's some more Muppetational Christmas stuff:
It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie - 2002
Lady Gaga & The Muppets - Holiday Spectacular (2013) (from John Denver to Lady Gaga in 34 years)
and my all-time favorite Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas (1977) (Vimeo upload of shaky point-camera-at-TV recording) or (or in 'shrinkbox' format' with distracting home theater setting) (there are so many clips from the show out there, you might be able to piece together the whole thing, but I can't do it this year)

Of course, there are always the Rankin/Bass classics...
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
Frosty the Snowman (Jackie Vernon says "Happy Birthday!!")
sorry, no Year Without a Santa Claus in usable format (I blame Heat Miser)

then there's the Matt Groening-branded Olive the Other Reindeer
Ed Edd N Eddy's Jingle Jingle Jangle Christmas
The Pink Panther in "A Very Pink Christmas"(2011)
Rhett & Link's Mythical Christmas Special (the closest thing to a self-riffing Christmas special)
and, hey, there's "Would I Lie to You... at Christmas"

I was tempted to get into Charlie Brown - not the original Christmas special but the several sequels they made in the '80s and '90s - or the Doctor Who Christmas Specials (I'm also tempted to take a break from the marathon for this year's special because it's got the First Doctor AND the First Woman Doctor!), but I'm not that cruel - honest!

Of course The Simpsons has previewed its Christmas couch gag....

I had some things I'd torrented I was going to offer, but my external drive with all that stuff has gone belly-up and I can't revive it with my combo pacemaker/defibrillator... in fact, that device may be the cause of the external drive failure... sigh.

But if you're going to give us Hobgoblins on Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve, may I suggest a non-MST3K pre-show just to balance the awfulness with niceness... send in the Muppets!!!
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:37 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Tonight we're meeting in the room for final preparations. I'll link room mods to the materials list there.
posted by JHarris at 2:03 AM on December 23, 2017


What time?
posted by valkane at 9:12 AM on December 23, 2017


Aah, how about 8 (Eastern)?
posted by JHarris at 3:23 PM on December 23, 2017


Argh, I should have specified a time earlier. Well, I'm there now.
posted by JHarris at 4:58 PM on December 23, 2017


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