MST3K - Favorite Moments - The Deadly Mantis

In episode 804 we jump right back into giant-creature-wrecks-havoc-on-stuff-territory courtesy of producer William Alland, who gave us such classics as This Island Earth, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequel Revenge of the Creature (featuring a very young Clint Eastwood in a very small role as a hapless lab assistant, looking for his missing rodent), Tarantula, The Mole People, Space Children ect. ect.
This time mans attempt to build a "better, snowless arctic" results in the thawing of a giant preying mantis, which naturally takes out its frustration of being woken a century too early on its immediate surroundings. This includes balsawood houses and the local Inuit population.
Realising it might be time to find a mate -- and that the arctic is not the most optimal habitat for a giant, flying bug -- it starts its search for warmer climate and suicidal mating rituals, which naturally brings it to New York - after a quick flyby of Washington DC and what seems to be a failed attempt at mating with the Washington Monument.
Luckily, the US Army has a secret weapon to combat this menace to balsawood, Inuits and public transportation -- RADAR!
Just exactly how efficient this actually is, can be questioned by the sheer number of times this GIANT PREYING MANTIS manages to give them the slip.
However, they finally manage to kill off the poor thing in the Manhattan Tunnel. (Are giant creatures just naturally drawn to New York?)
Though there aren't many things worth noting in this movie (except maybe for the bug's dislike of public transportation, Col. Parkman's odd jaw movements and the ability for something to be or not be jake..?) it should be mentioned that the director, Nathan Juran, won an Oscar for art direction in How Green was my Valley in '41 (considering this is from '57, and he also directed Attack of the 50 foot Woman, one might say that things took a turn somewhere).
Oh yeah, and if the professor seems familiar, it may be because he's William DeWolf Hopper Jr., who played Paul Drake in the Perry Mason series.
Anyway, look out for a bony professor, a sale on bowl haircuts, the presenting of tongue, the deployment of a box of men, sold out Greenland, Wilson Picket, Ventriloquist Island, the outlawing of iceballs, a random bone display, a cat, deployment of giant facial tissue, the hosing down of Pavarotti's sheets, a shockingly overdressed woman, a simple three-step evolution, Conan, ball spot vision, a female woman, Deathlehem, Sky King, the meeting of a colonel's privates, a bug hunt, the fruit loop brigade, a director with a cartography-fetish, the laziest and most unimaginative parents ever, co-dependent air force planes, deep-sea mosques, and a man with a mantis in his pantis.
Enjoy! (And remember: Keep pumping!)

[@MongoSays]

"We should get going"....."but I`ve got a mantis in my pantis"......greatest line ever!!

[@markdaniels7174]

I agree! Best line in this ep, and maybe all time in MST3K.

[@paulv7554]

Best line of all MST3K

[@babbetteduboise4284]

In the 70's I worked in the air defence command. The radio transmissions in this movie was actually accurate. "Give me pigieons to home plate" from the pilot means "Give me bearing to my main base" and he would be talking to a SAGE site. It's no no longer used.

[@MrValiant61]

Bad sci-fi films from the 50`s were a gold-mine for this show.

[@alltaken678]

"For every action, there's a Jackson." lol

[@AnnetteLG]

"That's your thumb, you dork!" "I peed your pants. I'm not sure how." "Yellow snow, sir. Can I eat it?"

[@monkeymouse]

"He traded in his Chevy for a kayak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak" (We oughta know by now!)

[@Nick-who-loves-cilantro]

I nearly died at "Who are you men and where's my soup?"

[@control_the_pet_population]

Martha died ya know... Everything with that old scientist man is pure gold.

[@monkeymouse]

"For every action--" "There is a Jackson!" Funny!

[@Anynom]

"Apparantly, the director was a former catographer." I've seen tons of stock footage but never seen a movie with so much stock maps.

[@williamcrowe2576]

And from that day forward, Mike Nelson was declared "Destroyer of Worlds".

[@tomservo56954]

"Don't ask, don't tell, bur have a DARN good time!"

[@nataliewaters7415]

"But I got a mantis in my pantis."

[@maryadkins2599]

That is the funniest line. thanks for mentioning it!

[@robin2012ism]

Mary Adkins agree.

[@McSuperfly101]

Still one of my all time favourite MST3K quotes.

[@ScreaminEmu]

It’s been 20 years since I heard that line and I almost threw up laughing

[@ackbarfan5556]

"Frosty the snowman was a victim of a pistol whipping."

[@J3MOdh3NOWX3S]

Ive never see a blip like tthis It's there then it's gone. "I think that's the definition of a blip."

[@ZachsMind]

4:20 "Man, I am so baked right now. You oughta hear this Rush tape."

[@IrishQT07]

One of my favorite episodes of all time. "That's me, right there. Me!" :)

[@80MWH]

Could always be worse. You could be subjected to daily whispers of: "I gotta Mantis in my Pantis."

[@bobtheduck]

13:26 was my very first exposure to MST3k. Then I rented the movie, and then my friend got a bunch of episodes on old VHS tapes that kept breaking and it was the start of something amazing. Actually, said friend and I bonded over MST3k and I was a man at his wedding (not best man, just, you know, one of the other ones)

[@hmdwgf]

bobtheduck Groomsman

[@SNESdrunk]

It's a magma flow of savings at MENARDS!

[@jenaesmith3259]

😅😅😅😅

[@BryonYoungblood]

@@jenaesmith3259 "Don't soak your map in NITROGLYCERIN!!" - A classic riff of Mike's from the explosion bit

[@Damar158]

"Inuit Baywatch." "If everyone had a kayak, across the Bering Strait!"

[@jasonw131]

"We really need you to stop talking funny and kill that big bug. Over."

[@rebeccah.4983]

"Yellow snow sir -- can I eat it?" "It's kind of bad timing, they were about to toss Grandma onto the tundra." "Don't ask, don't tell, but have a darn good time!" "Scream like hell and die."

[@filidorable]

There are more great lines in this episode than any other I think. Hail Ming!

[@SodapopKevin]

Check out werewolf, space mutiny and final sacrifice. Those are my favorites.

[@BammerD]

"Hey Mike! Hey Mike! Get a load of this!" "There's a radar screen here!" - Crow

[@FrenchPaul1988]

I loved Werewolf and The final Sacrifice, so I'll support the recommendations.

[@SodapopKevin]

The 2 Master Ninjas are really good to.

[@BryonYoungblood]

SodapopKevin Space Mutiny was my first full episode of MST3K while my first exposure of it was the movie itself. I can recommend those episodes as well as stuff like Project Moonbase, Future War, the Mole People, Godzilla vs. Megalon, and the Gamera movie they did as some other recommendations

[@PrinsaVossum]

"O little town of Death-lehem."

[@weavernutz22]

“Coffee, Colonel?” “Head injury, Corporal?”

[@tristantobey7998]

MST3K, best show ever

[@MythicSuns]

"I peed your pants, I'm not sure how" MST3K, the only show with even less logic than spongebob...though unlike spongebob they kind of acknowledge it in the opening credits

[@CraftySouthpaw]

11:57 - "Meanwhile, the city hoses down Pavarotti's sheets." LMAO!

[@draconiclady0610]

It's Paul Drake!...It's a wonder that he has any time at all to dedicate to science with all the cases Perry Mason sends him on.

[@jeremytung1632]

I have my own running gag I like to do with this movie, whenever the scientists are gathered and are very poorly trying to figure out what’s going on I like to punctuate each meeting with “one thing is certain it cannot be a giant deadly mantis”.

[@Cmach91]

"Tsk-Tsk-Tsk, It's a peeping mantis!"

[@racheledwards2352]

THIS IS CONAN Mike,"And you are?"

[@NP-ux9xg]

"Go take the picture....really, woman."

[@MURPHYCHACHO]

HE'S FLIPPIN' US OFF!

[@currycockblock]

"Get back in your little boat grandpa." Lol

[@bram9519]

"Filmed in bald-spot vision."

[@johnnyd6135]

"this guy's insurance only covers damage by giant arachnids" lol

[@classic1333]

would've loved it if he clipped in the part where the guys is like "I've got Conan on the hotline colonel" and then Servo does a funny voice of "Dis is Gonan" Still, 15 minutes of good laughs :) The Deadly Mantis is definitely in my top 10 of favorite epsiodes of the show

[@MutantLitherKhan]

"Airborne with four chickens heading 0-3-5." Haha, what the Hell? Crow's reaction is priceless. 11:08

[@loganfravel204]

"He's flipping us off!"lol 14:16

[@control_the_pet_population]

Welcome to Ventriloquist Island! had forgot about that one...dead

[@potaterjim]

"These sheets were trying to use our drinking fountain!" HOLY SHIT

[@jackobora3193]

"I've got a mantis in my pantis."

[@MrEriklenn]

O little town of DEATHlehem!

[@filidorable]

Who are you men and where's my soup?

[@laurallewien2165]

I'll take a bowl 🥣 of chicken noodle 🍜 ! 👌

[@ScreaminEmu]

“These sheets were trying to use our drinking fountain, sir!” is a fucking hilarious line that would NEVER fly in 2020.

[@sixgunshauna3486]

Equal rights for pigs!

[@Poxell91]

............OHHHHHHHHHHHH! Yeah no way would it. 😂😂

[@shadetreader]

Why, because the GOP is taking us back to the 1950s?

[@user-jy9so6kt2f]

"Everything was jake". Everything was fine, excellent.

[@MinscFromBaldursGate92]

So this is where the giant mantis from War of The Monsters comes from.

[@Calriec]

"This is Beagle 1-7." "Arf, arf."

[@Anynom]

"Don't ask, don't tell but have a darn good time." "Little town of DEATH-lahem!" "Sky King!" "The final desperate hours of the Dole campaign."

[@jsgold2000]

"Filmed in bald spot vision"......

[@MegaTaylor12345]

In there last desperate moments they taped salad bowls to the roof of the plane

[@davidreedy7886]

Enjoyed this mostly bad sci fi from the fifties. MST3K does great.

[@filidorable]

I'm Cherokee Jack.

[@filidorable]

Get back in yer litl' boat, grandpa!

[@sirtalkalotdoolittle]

Some of the jokes are just little snapshots of history: "The last moments of the Dole campaign..." and "Somehow, this gets Serbia into the war."

[@donaldpetkus1637]

‘It was the Comanches, Sir.’

[@loganfravel204]

"He's flipping us off!"lol

[@MegaTaylor12345]

He's with a woman Crow: With breasts and everything lol

[@Thornbloom]

It's weird as hell to hear my hometown mentioned in a B-movie.

[@tdickensheets]

Tom: We need big swatter! Over!

[@MrAnthimos112]

Some times it is the simplest throw away lines that crack me up. Hail Ming is classic. And in "werewolf" when out of nowhere they just show a ceiling fan and somebdoy says "The movies biggest fan" lol. In "Hercules" when for some strange reason the camera is pointed up to the sky and you can only see like the tops of the characters heads as they speak and Joel says "Great Shot".

[@danmckenzie1818]

My absolute favorite line from any of them was "Prince of Space." Aliens land in empty field and start searching for something and one of them says "I don't understand it, we were supposed to meet the heavens gate people right here!"

[@ubery]

“Uh, Mantis isn’t here, he just left, thanks!”

[@degrelleholt6314]

"But, Ned, what about my pictures?""Oh! There'll be pictures alright."

[@t1p9d]

"It's not from an animal..." I guess this scientist subscribes to the unpopular theory that insects are from the plant kingdom.

[@foxymetroid]

Don't be daft. Insects are clearly protozoan.

[@kylestubbs8867]

You’re both wrong. They’re invasive species.

[@joshuablack8221]

08:23 “Well, where’s the woman?” 👀😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

[@davisphillips993]

“If everybody had a kayak…’Cross the Bering Strait….” 🎵

[@garypotter5569]

THE best smokey marionette monster movie ever!!

[@godbluffvdgg]

Inuit Bay Watch...:) And Thanks to the Ground Observers... Mike; KEEP WATCHING THE GROUND! :D...

[@Patrick_Cooper]

2020, and still love me some MST3K gold...

[@hebneh]

I've always wondered why and how the mantis ended up in the Holland Tunnel.

[@boru25]

10:15 But I got a mantis in my pantos! I've waited 27 years to hear that line again. Thanks for including that clip:)

[@auritone]

Could hardly be left out. :)

[@Damar158]

Mr. Mantis goes to WashingDEATH!

[@jamesschuur2801]

Final desperate hours of the Dole campaign? That looked more like the high water mark!

[@obsidian179]

“Don’t you play games with me, Ned Jackson.” “Not even our Strip Risk?”

[@ginidontthinkso4282]

They always seem to have a blast with William Alland films. which are fun films

[@jigbuilda]

Has to be up there as one of the best ever MST3K lines!

[@billding7073]

A mantis in his pantis.

[@jackthompson3453]

"Who's going to drive me home?"

[@MegaTaylor12345]

Jack Thompson please don't say elimination

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

I made a cat skeleton just like that but I used Elmer's Glue and the cat came back alive in the hot sun - the new biology teacher told me to come to school in the summer to get the cat. haha

[@4EyedAnimation]

A boxing nun puppet...maybe the best MST3K line ever.

[@MarineReaper]

Because of volcano activity a creature named Santa Claus, crawled out of the ice xP

[@evolvedturtleproductions7600]

To be honest, the effects aren't half-bad for the time. The sound it makes though...

[@Jangobadass]

Thanks man. One my top 10 Eps here. Really appreciate this :)

[@29AndreG]

"We have received top clearance to play on him."

[@fpg213263fu]

8:26 I think this guy is familiar with dishonorable discharge

[@scottybeegood]

Bus drivers in love.

[@kylestubbs8867]

“What flesh-eating insect of normal size has such a hook?” “The worm?”

[@nwvfd22]

I made the mistake of showing a few co workers this video, now daily I hear " Get back in your little boat." and "The little town of Death-lehem."

[@hanz101]

oh god this rivals the final sacrifice.

[@BryonYoungblood]

Mike: Don’t soak your nap in NITROGLYCERIN!!

[@sertorrhenclegane]

And Craig Stevens was the star of Peter Gunn. You forgot to mention that.

[@GillianMStarlight]

I swear I saw that bit of stock footage at 2:09 in a Science Channel show, probably What On Earth or Strange Evidence.

[@16rumpole]

pauk drake on a mission

[@RaoulDuke77]

one of my favorite episodes, a perfect example of a generic, terrible 50's monster B-movie

[@1987phillybilly]

Never, EVER say 'But I got a Mantis in my Pantis' on a date!!!!!!!

[@straxusloyer7671]

The corn palace is built

[@Azmina_the_warlock]

These are hot phones. Uhh huh 😏

[@ladysnake8449]

14 dishonorable discharge wackos didn't have a mantis in their pantis.

[@janetremsing6988]

😂”Lick me!” 😂👍‼️