Santa Claus Conquers The Martians Gets The Cinematic Titanic Treatment

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As you might know, the original cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) has gotten back together in the form of Cinematic Titanic.  You can see an exclusive Toasted Rav interview with the show’s star and creator Joel Hodgson (pictured) if you click here.

For those unaware, MST3K created what is now referred to as “movie riffing”.  It’s the act of watching a movie while simultaneously making fun of it.  Sure, we’ve been doing that for years.  But they found a way to get paid to do it; therefore, they’re better at it than we are. 

Cinematic Titanic will be appearing live at The Family Arena this Saturday.  And the one question that has been keeping area geeks awake at night since the show was announced (and I count myself among them) is: What movie will they be riffing?  Well, we finally have an answer.  Joel Hodgson finally revealed the title in a blog post this morning.  And the winner is…

Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.  Yes, the classic film that introduced the world to the multi-talented Pia Zadora.  MST3K aficionados may recall that this movie has already been riffed upon.  Well fear not.  Here’s what Joel had to say:

This edition has completely different riffs from our MST3K version and also features several bonus minutes of the original movie that weren’t featured in the MST version. We thought it would be a cool experiment to see what revisiting a movie after all these years would produce. Not to brag, but it’s likely to be the riff-jam of the year!

So there you have it.  Joel Hodgson has personally declared it the “riff-jam of the year”.  (You can read the whole announcement here.)  Trust me, the geek-o-sphere has reached DEFCON 4 levels of jealously over the fact that St. Louis gets to experience Cinematic Titanic’s first ever re-riffing of an MST3K movie.  It’s truly a ballsy move.  Other MST3K alums have engaged in post-MST3K riffing.  But none have ever had the intestinal fortitude to revisit past glory quite so directly. 

Since the Cinematic Titanic version of Santa Claus Conquers The Martians hasn’t been released on DVD yet, click the Video tab to see a free sample of their most recent release: Legacy Of Blood.

Also, they just announced Dave (Gruber) Allen as “Todd Carlin -Warm-up Artist” will be opening the show.  Gruber's credits include guest appearances on "Mr. Show with Bob and David," "Freaks and Geeks," "NewsRadio," "Tenacious D," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Real Time with Bill Maher," "Frasier," "King of the Hill" and "The Gilmore Girls."  He is probably best known from his Comedy Central shows “Higgins Boys and Gruber” and most recently “The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show” on which he played The Naked Trucker. 

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