912 – The Screaming Skull with
short: Robot Rumpus (Gumby)
éééé
Things I liked in the movie:
Skulls playfully rolling around the yard.
Internal genitalia.
Slapping the retarded gardener.
Impressions
This is a good combination. The movie is fun and the short is wonderful. I’ve always been a Gumby fan, so the short was fun even before the riffing. But the riffs were hilarious and the Gumby-related host segments were some of the funniest ever. The movie is a very boring, flat, black and white flick that was supposedly so terrifying, you win a free coffin if you die while watching it! The retarded gardener steals the show without ever saying a complete sentence. There is something about this movie that has just the right blend of goofy visual scenes with large spaces in the dialogue that allow riffs to fit in.
Synopsis
Short:
Gumby and Pokey get some robots to do their chores. The robots go berserk and paint Mrs. Gumby’s face, dig a trench in the yard, mow a hole through the house. Dad drives the fire truck home and kills the robots. In the end, a trophy head of a robot is mounted on the garage door. Ha ha! This causes Tom and Crow to become very upset, as you might imagine.
Movie:
A man brings his new bride home from the insane asylum. He shows her around his big empty house and then promptly leaves her alone. The house was inherited from his last wife who died under suspicious circumstances. He keeps leaving her at home alone late using the excuse that he has some business to take care of. A skull rolls around and peacocks crow. In response to this apparently tomfoolery, the man slaps his retarded gardener around. Finally, because the new wife refuses to die from fright, he chokes her, revealing his plan to kill her for her money. She screams and screams and their nosy neighbors show up. Everything turns out ok. Shocking horror averted!
Host Segments
Opening: Tom has become a beautiful butterfly. He’s proud of his proboscis.
Intro: Tom's still a butterfly, but you can't really tell. He explains how a series of accidents and illness has caused him to lose his butterfly features, but he is still a butterfly and rhymes about it. Pearl, Brain Guy and Bobo pull an elaborate prank on Mike and the Bots by dressing up in penguin suits and then explaining how “easy” this prank was. It only took lots of time, money, and energy and it sort of mildly confused them.
Segment 1: After the short, Tom and Crow set up a mini Gumby set. They have red and green lumps of clay and some tiny robots. They angrily tell Mike to “work the lumps” and they’ll do the voices. They eventually break down into bitter sobbing and yelling.
Segment 2: Mike and the bots discuss what they will do with their coffin if they die of fright. Tom calls to say he, er, his friend died and they want their coffin. The operator gets nosy and Crow tells Tom to hang up.
Host segment 3: Crow, disguised as a screaming skull, freaks Mike out
End: The coffin arrives from Coffins Etc. Bobo tries to pull another prank on him.
Stinger: Hubby flings his stool.
Funny Riffs
Short:
At the beginning, they are painting the title Robot Rumpus on the garage door one letter at a time.
Servo: Robot RUMP? Oh, I thought we were going to see Robot Rump.
Mike about Gumbo: He is very highly crotched.
Gumbo drives the fire truck home to attend to the robots.
Mike as Gumbo: I’ll just take the company car.
Gumbo is launched high into the air, and lands crotch-first on the peaked roof.
Mike as Gumbo: Thank goodness for the internal genitalia.
Movie
A short narrated clip introduces the movie and makes a big deal about shocking horror.
Some German music plays—totally inappropos to the movie.
Crow: Yep, when you think “shocking horror” you think “German oompah band music.”
The camera pans across an idyllic scene complete with flowers and birds chirping.
Crow: Yawn. Yeah, shocking horror.
A Mercedes drives up.
Mike: Shocking horror arrives in style in its ‘53 Mercedes!
Mike: The movie that dares to graphically depict sometimes seeing peacocks and sometimes not seeing peacocks!
Mike: This movie should really be called Screaming, semicolon, Skull.
The leading lady just sits on the bed for a while.
Crow: Can we help you movie lady? Do you need a push or something?
Mike, as lead woman undresses: Well, better start making that smut film.
After the lead actor yells at, slaps, and knocks down the retarded gardener
Crow as gardener: Should I consider this my review?