| abstract
| - Leatherface (played by Gunnar Hansen ) was the mentally-impaired cannibal villain from the 1974 horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and it's many sequels. He wore masks made from the skin from human faces, (hence the name) and was loosely based on Ed Gein
* "The Joe Don Baker Museum." A reference to Joe Don Baker, who had starred in the episode Mitchell in the 5th season of the series, and whose film Final Justice would be used in the 10th season.
* "Pull up, Laika! Pull up!" A reference to Laika, the dog sent into space by the Soviets in 1957.
* "I love tick-infested hounds / slaughterin' a deer / and beer." Mike is parodying a song sung by Willie Tyler , a ventriloquist and comedian popular in the 1970s. During his act, he and his dummy, Lester, sang this song with the line "I love little baby ducks / old pick up trucks / slow moving trains / and rain." Crow refers to Willie Tyler and Lester in episode 816, Prince of Space, upon seeing Mike as a small, robot puppet.
* "Laserium, with music by Pink Floyd." A reference to the laser light show, Laserium, founded by filmmaker Ivan Dryer in the 1970s.
* "Hooterville was decimated by Scud missiles that day." Hooterville was the fictional town in which the TV shows Green Acres and Petticoat Junction were set. Scud missiles were a type of ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union, most famous for being used by the Iraqi army during the Persian Gulf War.
* "Well Section 8 owns the house." Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 is a government housing program that provides rental assistance to low income individuals and families. It was first established in 1974 by the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974.
* "He's entering through the kitchen at the Copa." A reference to a renowned long tracking shot in the movie Goodfellas, in which Henry Hill, on a date with his future wife Karen, bypasses the line waiting to get into the Copacabana nightclub by going in through the kitchen.
* "Greg Norman at the Masters." Golfer Greg Norman lost several leads in the final holes of The Masters tournament with bad shots at inopportune times.
* "Honey, let's play William Burroughs and Joan." The legendary beat novelist William Burroughs shot his wife Joan to death trying to shoot a glass off her head in what he called their "William Tell act."
* "Got milk?" Got Milk? is an American advertising campaign encouraging people to consume milk.
* "Cow tipping gone horribly wrong." Cow tipping is purportedly the practice of sneaking up on a sleeping or otherwise unsuspecting cow and tipping her over. It's often seen as a stereotype of bored rural people seeking entertainment.
* "Mork of Ork was taken to St. Mary's hospital and pronounced dead." In the series Mork and Mindy, the alien Mork (played by the late Robin Williams ) came to Earth from the planet Ork in a spaceship that looked like an egg.
* "Walking Tall 3: The High Cholesterol Years" Walking Tall was a 1973 film starring Joe Don Baker of Mitchell and Final Justice fame as Buford Pusser. It was followed in 1975 by Walking Tall Part 2, which starred Bo Svenson as Pusser.
* "Aryan...Nation...rules." Aryan Nations is an American-based neo-Nazi group.
* "Free Mumia!" "Free Bobby Seale!" Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist and the former Information Minister of the Black Panthers during the period when the mayor of Philadelphia was Frank Rizzo (who was widely considered to be an unapologetic racist). Abu-Jamal has been in prison since the early 1980s for the alleged murder of a Philadelphia police officer, though it is argued that he never received a fair trial. He continues to be the subject of an activist movement to seek his freedom, or a re-trial. Bobby Seale, the Black Panthers' co-founder, was tried and acquitted on charges of murdering a fellow Panther in 1970.
* "SUUUUURGE!" The advertising slogan for Surge, a heavily caffeinated citrus flavored soft drink marketed by the Coca-Cola Company during the late 1990s which made a return in fall of 2015 at convenience stores in the eastern and midwestern United States.
* "They’re toughening GED standards! No fair! -- Boo!" GED stands for General Educational Development, the standardized test for people who never graduated from high school; passing the GED is equivalent to earning a high school diploma. In 1997 tougher standards went into effect: whereas before a student needed at least a score of 40 on each of the five sections or an average of 45 across all five tests, now they needed both a minimum score of 40 and an average score of 45.
* "Fur is murder!" "Fur is murder" is a popular slogan among anti-fur animal-rights activists, who denounce the use of animals for making fur coats as cruel and unnecessary, given the ready availability of non-animal-based outerwear.
* "Violence erupted when Dave Dudley canceled his appearance in Gleason." Dave Dudley is a Minneapolis musician known for his trucker-themed songs featured on such albums as 'Six Days on the Road' and 'Christmas Truck Stop.'
* "I’m headed over to Taco John’s till this blows over." Taco John’s is an American chain of Mexican restaurants featuring tacos, burritos, nachos, etc.
* "Give my Hamm’s waterfall sign to my son." Hamm's Brewery was a beer brewer with headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. Its slogan was "From the land of sky-blue waters"[1], and many of its advertising signs featured a moving waterfall. The company was acquired by Heublein, Inc in 1968 who then sold it to Olympia Brewing Company. The St. Paul's area brewery was eventually closed. After a series of acquisitions and mergers the Hamm's brand is now owned by MillerCoors, who produces Hamm's Premium, Golden Draft, and Special Light
* "Dutch! Oh, Dutch." "Too many Jell-O shots." Jell-O is a sweetened gelatin (made from collagen derived from skin, boiled crushed horn, hoof and bones, connective tissues and intestines of domesticated animals) dessert made by General Foods Corporation. Jell-O shots are Jell-O made with booze instead of with water and then cut into little squares for consumption by college students (though the practice supposedly began on military bases where liquid alcohol is not allowed).
* "Um, Mr. Rebane, you really can’t see anything." "Shut up and keep filming, Mr. NYU Film Pants." New York University’s Film School has been teaching film for more than thirty years and is considered one of the country’s finest film schools.
* "My emergency shipment of Lucky Strikes." Lucky Strike cigarettes were one of the most popular brands in America during the first half of the twentieth century, and the first brand to be marketed directly to women. Thanks to an ad campaign in the 1920s that urged women worried about their weight to reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet, the number of teenage girls who smoked tripled in a decade.
* "I understand you can repair these giant spiders yourself." One reason that VW Beetles were so popular is that they were relatively easy to repair on the rare occasions when they broke down.
* "I wish John Agar were here." John Agar (1921-2002) was an actor who appeared in a stunning number of terrible B movies in the 1950s and 1960s. He has appeared in several MST3K episodes, including The Mole People, Revenge of the Creature, and Women of the Prehistoric Planet. His characters have a reputation among the BBI staff for being maddeningly verbose in a somewhat supercilious manner.
* "She’s dressed like an Elvis impersonator." Elvis Presley (1935-1977), the King of Rock and Roll, was one of the most popular musicians from the 1950s until his death in the late 1970s. He was a teen idol in the late 1950s, helped usher in the era of rock and roll, became a movie star, created an enormous and opulent home at Graceland in Memphis, developed problems with drug abuse, and finally died of a heart attack at the age of 42. Since his death, many people have earned a living by donning a sequined jumpsuit and pretending to be the King. There are more than 30 professional Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas alone.
* "If you see only ten thousand movies this year, make sure this isn’t one of them." 'If you see only one movie this year, make it this one' is a critic’s quote that has been used for many movies, to the extent that it is now considered trite.
* "Soon Hitler’s giant mechanical spiders had pushed past the Maginot Line." The Maginot Line was a giant defensive barrier between France and Germany. It was built by France in the 1930s as a way to defend against another German attack like the one in World War I. Unfortunately for France, when Nazi Germany, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, finally decided to invade in 1940, they did so by way of Belgium, where the French border was essentially undefended.
* "These spiders have lousy heaters, though." The heater in the VW Beetle (see above note) was notoriously terrible. Because the engines were air-cooled, it was difficult to channel excess engine heat into the passenger cabin.
* "Jog-walk out of danger!" Jog-walking is an exercise program in which the runner alternates jogging with walking, ultimately working up to five minutes jogging, one minute running. Marathoners sometimes use this approach because it is less likely to lead to cramps and muscle fatigue.
* "Might as well get my Pall Malls while I’m here." Pall Malls were one of the first 'premium' brands of cigarettes, debuting early in the 20th century. Between 1960 and 1966 they were the top-selling brand in the country.
* "Hey, spider, you have a ball hitch? Mine’s busted." A ball hitch is a type of hitch for automobiles that is commonly used for towing boat trailers and attaching bike racks.
* "Remember: I mate, then I kill." The female black widow spider notoriously devours the male after mating is completed, although there is some evidence to suggest that the spider’s lethal reputation has been somewhat exaggerated.
* "The first extremely tentative atomic test at Alamogordo." Alamogordo is a town in New Mexico. On July 16, 1945, 60 miles from the air base at Alamogordo, the first atomic bomb was exploded. The following month, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, ending World War II.
* "I am death, destroyer of lawns." J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), head of the top secret Manhattan Project, has written that when he witnessed the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo in 1945 (see previous note), a line from the sacred Hindu text Bhagavad-Gita came into his mind: I am death, destroyer of worlds.
* "The spider needs a Zantac." Zantac is an acid reducer used to relieve the symptoms of heartburn. It is available in both prescription and nonprescription forms.
* "Alan Hale digests a kielbasa." Kielbasa, also known as Polish sausage, is a type of sausage frequently flavored with garlic and smoked. It is made from either pork or a mixture of beef and pork.
* "I guess somebody tampered in God’s domain or something." A reference to Episode 423, Bride of the Monster .
* "PACKERS!! PACKERS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!" The Green Bay Packers are an NFL team based out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers won [[wikipedia:|Super Bowl XXXI]] on Jan. 26, 1997 - a mere four months prior to the initial airing of this episode. The repeated cheers for the Packers from the SOL crew also led to considerable interest in this film in online communities when the Packers went up against and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV in 2011.
* "This can't be Wisconsin! There's no billboards for Tommy Barlett's water show!" Tommy Barlett's Thrill Show is a water-skiing attraction that takes place every summer on Lake Delton in Wisconsin.
* "Realize he doesn't reduce speed when approaching Elroy, Danbury, Tomah." Those three places are small towns in Wisconsin; other towns, such as Gleason, Baraboo, and New Richmond were mentioned in the riffs.
* "Velcome to Beer Hall Putsch days!" The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt to seize power in Munich, Germany which occurred in November 1923, and led by then-Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler.
* "The mob demands Whoopee John." "Whoopee John" Wilfahrt (1894-1961) was a polka musician, born in Minnesota.
* "Does Captain Stubing know you dress like that, Vicky?" Captain Merrill Stubing was the main character on the 1970s-1980s sitcom The Love Boat, played by Gavin McLeod; his daughter, Vicki, was played by Jill Whelan.
* "Ah, greasy guys carrying unconscious girls, comfortable 2 PM beer buzz; ya homesick yet, Mike?" This refers to the fact that Michael J. Nelson is from Wisconsin.
* "Nigel Tufnel's playing a guitar solo." Nigel Tufnel is the frontman of the fictional heavy metal group Spinal Tap, as portrayed by Christopher Guest.
* "Oh, that would be my shift down at Skipper's." Skipper's is a restaurant located in Merrill, Wisconsin.
* "Are we still on for the Richard Feynman lecture?" Richard Feynman (1911-1988) was a quantum physicist, specializing in quantum electrodynamics.
* "A way out here they've got a name / Stinky, hairy white guy" This is a parody of the first line of the Jim Ed Brown & The Browns' "They Call the Wind Maria"
* " 'Oh no, a spider the size of a Buick is attacking his Buick', I distinctly heard him say." This is a reference of Woody Allen's quote in the 1977 film Annie Hall, "Honey, there's a spider in your bathroom the size of a Buick."
* "I wonder if he bequeathed his Wet Willie albums." Wet Willie is a Southern rock band who had its heyday in the mid to late-1970s; formed in 1970, the band is still active as of 2013.
* "R. Crumb is leading them." R. Crumb (born Robert Crumb in 1943) is a cartoonist famous for Fritz the Cat and the "Keep on Truckin'" posters popular during the 1970s.
* "Let's go have a nice dinner at The Gobbler." The Gobbler was a supper club located in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin; after over three decades, the complex was abandoned in 2002 when the last tenant went out of business.
* "I injected a paralyzing toxin into the sheriff / But I didn't inject a paralyzing toxin into the deputy." This is a parody of the first lines of the Bob Marley song I Shot the Sheriff, later covered by Eric Clapton.
* "Dedicated to the memory of 'Crazy Legs' Elroy Hirsch" This is an anachronism, as Hirsch, an NFL running back from the mid-1940 until the late 1950s, did not pass away until January 28, 2004. Incidentally, this occurred three days before the last episode of MST3K (already in reruns since the original run ended in 1999) aired on SciFi.
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