Doesn't anyone care that the movie is mis-titled, or at very best represents a Hollywood so out of touch with youth culture that it thought throwing a trendy term out was enough to satisfy the more conservative movie-going public that these young people were ruffians? It is a good thing that Hollywood stopped pandering to, and misrepresenting, cultural trends soon after this film, and we never had this problem again...

Best "push the button Frank"?

Moony: brother of the Joker.
HEE HEE HEE HA HA HA HA HA!

The guy who sings is like a '50s Chris Pine

Look at Eddy and tell me he isn't Charles Grodin!

This episode has some truly great riffs, but.. Why did Joel and the bots have to keep ragging on the girls' looks? Really off-putting.

If u have 2 say u're a Beatnik, u're proooobably NOT a Beatnik....

I liked Big Eddie. He had a very real life decision between loyalty to his friends and seeking success doing what he loved. Also when Moony called him out he didn't back down or even hesitate. Very Gangsta!

Good to see so many fans here...be you beatnik or square!

This is one of the movies they ever riffed that despite revolving around a cast of characters that easily would make a list of the ten episodes with the most annoying main characters, the genius of MST3k was their ability to find nascent entertainment in whatever they chose.

I never knew there was a movie that wanted to be both Daddy-O and Wild Rebels, but here it is.

I'll give Peter Breck ("Mooney") this much: he tries hard. He's as far from being a Master Of Not Acting™ as you can get in one of these crummy films. Too bad his character A) has no comprehensible motivation and B) no palpable aura of menace, intrigue, or magnetism whatsoever. Plus, his voice, build, stance, and pixie-like leaping would make him more credible as an embittered ex-dancer with a bum knee than a hulking street tough. We were at least halfway into the film before Eddy knocked him down. But anyone could have done it at any time. Including Iris, the fat barkeep, or some random seven-year-old on a Big Wheel™. It's my constant bewilderment at all this that keeps me watching, I guess. I want it to make sense, but it never does.

It's likely that silver dragees are what Dr. Unappealing (as inner-monologued by Joel) is referring to here when he mentions "BBs." Apparently, they've caused some dispute regarding their safety as "food." Maybe that was part of a later GH subplot. Personally, I'm hoping that Young Dr. Dickweed here was the one who got the fatal overdose.

Tom's reading Tiger Bot hahahaha of course Robots need heartthrobs just like anyone else ;)

Tony Travis fans: catch your hero in a nonsinging role on Perry Mason: The Case of the Waylaid Wolf, posted on YouTube. He's murdered, just like the fat barkeep.

The youths of today drive me frantic,
Be they j.d. or hippie or beatnik.
They have no moral core!
They keep robbing my store
And playing their horrible music.

I just realized that I own exactly two polo shirts. Quickly, pass me my bongos and pour me another cup of stale coffee before I slip any farther from beatnikness!

Another station on my tour of unfinished eps. This movie never really grips, though Moonie's spaz attack (completely justified and plausible, by the way) does provide a moment of two of mirth.

Skits are terrific. I never warmed to the Gonohhreal Hospital spots.

Can't watch it. Youtube says "This video is not available in your country". :(

I think my very favorite part of this one is when they cut to the stock footage of an audience during Eddie's performance, and they're clearly dancing to *waaay* better music.

I feel sorry for poor dumb iris :(

21:02 Oh, Joel, you got the moves, baby!

39:08 "Come on, let's shake this town up tonight!" As only a bunch of 40-year-old beatniks can do!

52:00 "I'm hit, I'm hit! The bullet traveled from my ankle up to my shoulder, I don't know how it works, it just did!" Jeez, the guy is BALDING. Why would they cast an older, balding man as a teenager?? I realize they didn't really understand anything about teens in those days, but come on.

...dickweed.

I find it hard to say "shut up" without adding "Iris." Oddly enough, people rarely notice that I called them Iris.

To quote Jerry Seinfeld- "I can't watch a man sing a song. It's embarrassing"

Hahaha I had a good luck troll in the 90's

Given how obviously unstable Moony is, I can't figure out why anyone would want to hang out with him, EVER, let alone have him be a vitally important part of the group.

I really like that the title of the short for this episode is General Hospital 2. It's like it's a sequel. General Hospital 2, this time it's general. General Hospital 2, the generaling. General Hospital 2, modern... major... general.

I only thought of the boyfriend of the girl in the blue dress with the egg sack on her head as being goofy in this movie, until I saw Danger on Tiki Island where he played the character the exact same way. Now he pisses me off as much as any of the other characters in this pos.

This is one of those episodes that is so stupid that it almost frustrates me too much to watch it. The main character and "the crazy one" are two of the most irritating characters in the entire history of the show.

The singing scene at 1:08:50 has me laughing harder than almost any other sketch ever. "Love is a THIEEEF with a thiiing and a DEAL a-la-la-la!"

I just cannot understand why people fear the scrawny idiot who calls himself "Moon". He backs people down with his steely thin-ness again and again in this crappy film. Maybe he just has a foul odor?

After watching this movie, I still don't know what a beatnik is? Hang on, well maybe I do? Is it a redneck, a yah-hoo, a good ole boy, a hick, a country bumpkin, I know, I know.....just a plain old idiot! I got it :-D .....Trivia: I believe peter Breck was also in "The Crawling Hand" another MST3K episode.....with the skipper :-)

@00:55:30 they missed a classic riff "one of us! One of us!"

Frank has the ducktail hair, I like Crow's lips and I'm a Beatnik.

The people who wrote this were so square.

"Uh, your little friend will still be in the garbage can when we're done."

"Stop him, he's got a drumset!"

"What about our continental breakfast?!"

Crow should carry a knife more. It really suits him.

Directed by Paul Frees who did the voice characters on the Rankin/bass stop-motion animated TV specials at xmas time.

When Joel stands up and does his "move"...one of most hilarious moments ever.

Is that a microphone I spy at about 1hr 48 sec, in the top center of the screen, and again at 1hr 6min??

Love wears a mask! A tight leather mask!

I like that meet George Jetson by Servo.I want that as a ringtone

The Sqaures should be the title of this movie.

I KILLED THAT FAT BARKEEP!!!!

Love Tom quoting Tom Waits at the beginning, God this show is wonderful!

I had Servo singing "Meet George Jetson!" from this as my text tone on my old phone. Sadly, it won't transfer to my new one :(

I got schooled on what a true Beatnik is in this episode - it's what the movie characters are not!

"Toasts are to be drunk at marriages and weddings." Couldn't have said it better myself. ;)

Y'know, it just dawned on me that if this movie and The Rebel Set switched titles, they'd both make a lot more sense ;)

So let's take a look at our "Beatniks":

We've got our "leader": Eddy, a galactically bland lounge singer.

His lobotomized, emotionally abused squeeze toy, Iris.

Moony, a twitchy sociopath who's the closest thing this film has to an interesting character.

And two more characters (if you can remember their names, God help you):

Eddy's identical twin who was given a leather jacket and sideburns instead of a personality or dialogue...

And a middle-aged, balding lesbian who's only there to get shot and provide a plotline for the third act.

Gypsy crushes Joel!

Gotta love how the guy gets discovered by singing somewhere between two and three notes strung together in the form of a hackneyed and meandering song. He's got all the musical talent of somebody who isn't tone deaf, and not an iota more.

I can't quite remember the first episode of MST3K I watched, because I watched them very sporadically with my step-dad back in middle school. I think it was probably one of the Gamera films, really tough to say which one.

However once hooked, I recorded this episode on VHS to watch at my dad's house (he didn't get Comedy Channel back then). So I watched and re-watched this episode so many times, because it was my only piece of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Kind of like a little security blanket of laughter and craziness to get me through until I could start buying the Rhino VHS releases.

RIP- Peter Breck

Unless I'm mistaken, this is Mary Jo Pehl's first outing as Magic Voice (previously played by Alex Carr).

I always knew my dad was a juvenile delinquent