Godzilla!
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| Godzilla earning his dinner a true monster's way. |
Peanut butter and chocolate. Chicken and waffles. MST3K and GODZILLA. Two great tastes that taste great together! Their meeting tantalized me upon my discovery of the show when I saw the Godzilla clip in the intro, but it was a few years before I was able to secure the episode through tape-trading. And while it doesn’t come as close to greatness as the show’s Gamera episodes would, seeing my beloved Big G riffed by Joel and the Bots was, and still is, a treat.
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| Literally just an excuse to post another picture of Godzilla. |
Taking place in the middle of the original run of Godzilla films known as the “Showa Era”, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster starts with a boat being sunk by the titular Sea Monster, Ebirah. We then follow Ryota and two of his friends as they try to locate his brother who was on said boat. They steal a sailboat, only to find the owner, Yoshimura, already aboard. But it’s okay, since he’s actually a bank robber on the run, and the boat is attacked by the Sea Monster anyway. The four wash ashore on an unnamed Pacific island which is occupied by a terrorist force known as the Red Bamboo. They’re creating nuclear weapons and use slave labor to make a yellow liquid that repels Ebirah, which grants their forces safe passage and keeps people off the island and slaves from escaping. The castaways hook up with Daiyo, an escaped slave, and learn she is from Infant Island, home of Mothra, whom the slaves are praying will awaken and rescue them. The five make a lightning rod to awaken Godzilla to fight Ebirah. Ryota escapes via balloon to Infant Island and meets up with his brother. One of their friends gets kidnapped, and he convinces the slaves to make fake liquid. Eventually, Godzilla shows up and trashes the Red Bamboo base, as they’re elbowing in on his mass destruction racket, so they turn on the island’s self-destruct function and sail off. But their phony liquid fails to repel Ebirah, who kills them. Ebirah then gets in a fight with and kills Godzilla. Just kidding! Godzilla’s a mutated indestructible force of nature that breathes radioactive fire and Ebirah is literally a giant shrimp; G whoops him handily, literally. Mothra shows up to rescue everyone in a quickly-made bassinet for humans and Godzilla swims off to safety. Safety for him. Not the rest of the world. It’s still in danger from him. So, happy ending!
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| Here is a gratuitous picture of Mothra. |
As far as Godzilla movies go, Sea Monster is somewhere in the middle in terms of quality. Ebirah isn’t a very interesting monster, and there’s none of the deeper symbolism of the earlier films, nor the punishingly cheesy elements of later ones, like in the previous episode’s Godzilla vs. Megalon. But it does move along quickly, there’s enough monster action to keep things lively, the characters aren’t annoying (the thief played by Toho regular Akira Takarada is pretty cool), and there’s some thrills as the main characters fight the Red Bamboo. Throw in Mothra as well as a giant condor which fights Godzilla for no reason, and you’ve got Saturday matinee monster movie fun. Which means there’s plenty for Joel and the Bots to riff on! Monster fights? “This is why pet owners should have their pets neutered,” says Crow, followed by plenty of “Yo Mama” jokes between Godzilla and Ebirah. And when the monsters bounce a giant boulder back and forth? Sports jokes! “Pele with the save!” cries Tom. Infant Island population dancing to Mothra? Dance audition and pep rally jokes! “We’ve got spirit yes we do!” they all cry. Mothra’s twin fairies appear? “It’s Haley Mills and Haley Mills in The Mothra Trap!” Joel jokes.
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| Godzilla boiling his own lobster. |
There’s still some of the early seasons’ silliness, like Crow repeating “A planet where apes evolved from men!” anytime characters are seen on a beach, something Joel actually puts a stop to. And there are a few basic “state park” jokes, where they just state something is like something else, as when Tom says the Red Bamboo base is like Get Smart, instead of, say, humming the theme song to it. And some of the Japanese jokes are kind of lame, like during them singing the theme to Gilligan’s Island during a storm, they sing, “If not for the courage of the fearless crew,” Tom adds, “the sushi would be lost.” But there are clever moments, like when we see a run down hut, and Joel says, to the tune of Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime, “You may find yourself one day living in a shogun shack.”
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| I hope he turned the fan on when he went in there. |
Then there’s the segment Kevin Murphy mentions in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, where Godzilla sits on a rock and they make a ton of poop jokes. Joel says, “One of you guys mind getting me a magazine? I’m gonna be here a while.” It’s childish and immature and hilarious. While there aren’t a ton of laugh-out-loud jokes throughout the entire episode, there’s little of the early seasons’ awkwardness, and their delivery is refined, rapid-fire, sharp, and snappy. And I like the main characters in this, so watching the movie with Joel and the Bots is like being on a wacky island adventure that also includes Godzilla! Talk about a good time!
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| Tom and Crow and a celebrity cameo. |
That sense of fun continues in the skits. Joel, getting a little space fever, uses found objects on the SOL to make miniature replicas of world famous monuments. Tom and Crow make fun of the twin fairies and pray to Mothra, only for him (voiced by Mike Nelson) to show up! But the true standout is the Godzilla Genealogy Bop, which recounts Godzilla’s origin, “It started with a nuclear blast and pets that were released / Oh, like baby alligators and other nasty beasts?” and chronicles Godzilla’s descendants, “There’s Kermit the Frog, Swamp Thing, Hulk….” It’s catchy, funny, and one of the show’s best songs. Of all the host segments, only the invention exchange ranks as just okay.
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| I can't help but notice Fin Fang Foom isn't on there. Maybe he's adopted. |
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster is a fine way to end Season 2. It’s not as great a serving of MST-ified kaiju as the Gamera movies will be, but for a longtime MSTie and Godzilla fan, it’s still a joyous meeting of two worlds that proved all too rare.
Episode in a Riff:
As the island explodes: “Irwin Allen slept here.” -Servo
Random Asides
-I picked this episode to coincide with the release of Godzilla vs. Kong. Why? Because this movie was originally supposed to feature King Kong and not Godzilla! It’s true! You can read about the entire unmade version here.
-As a G fan, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster is good for riffing, but there were other, better choices that would’ve made even better episodes. Godzilla’s Revenge is often considered the worst in the series, as it’s mostly a clip-movie focusing on a talking version of Godzilla’s son appearing in a little boy’s dream, but I would’ve loved to have seen Joel and the Bots deal with the psychedelic insanity of Godzilla vs. Hedorah (aka Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster).
-The scenes used in the Film Ventures International clips at the beginning are from another good contender for a riffable movie, Son of Godzilla.
-I love Joel reading the Velveteen Rabbits to the Bots. It’s such a dad thing he would do.
-“I’m thoroughly enchanted. Now get to the invention exchange!” I’m thoroughly enchanted too, Dr. F.
-I think the invention exchanges are fine, but I do really like Joel’s addendum to his self-playing guitar, that, “All I gotta do is add appropriate facial grimaces”
-I like how they don’t even have real guitar sounds, just keyboard.
-I also enjoy how, after the Mads play their squeeze toy guitars, there are dogs barking in the background.
-They take a long time getting to the theater, entirely missing the movie’s title, leading to the running gag of them wondering what the title even is. It’s more awkward than funny, and I can see why they don’t repeat the gag again.
-There’s a moment when Joel and the Bots begin singing György Ligeti’s Requiem, famously used in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and re-used for Godzilla 2014.
-I like seeing the contest entry letters in the letters at the end, especially the Bot Mobile and the cool M.C. Escher-esque drawing.
-I was a little unsure about Mike Nelson voicing Mothra, until I realized this is the same Mothra from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, which is a male, so it’s fine. Yes, of course I noticed these details.
-I also noticed the drawing of Godzooki in the Genealogy Bop’s flow chart is clearly Minya from Son of Godzilla colored green.
-Akira Takarada’s name is misspelled as “Akira Akarada” in the Film Ventures credits.
-Joel losing it in host segment 3 and asking after his copy of The Fountainhead while crying out, “Howard Roark, oh, Howard!” is one of those random moments that has stuck with me.
-Tom, as the Bots destroy Joel’s models: “This is for his own good right? Okay woo!”
-Speaking of, that whole segment of him going space crazy makes it seem that maybe, just a little, being stuck in space watching bad movies wouldn’t always be a grand ol’ time.
-I like the look Joel gives the Bots when they say they were just visited by Mothra.
-The documentary short on the making of the Shout! Documentary extras about Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and it’s founder / director Daniel Griffith is a lot of fun and a great extra.
-Since this episode will probably never be on DVD, I’m glad Shout! Included the host segments on the Vol 39 DVD set. So, as the saying goes, keep circulating the tapes. Or the MP4s.
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