a whole twenty five dollars a week!! wow! think of all the penny whistles and moon pies he could get with those kinda wages. you've really hit the big time now jimmy! before you know it, you'll be able to actually *buy* a pair of shoes instead of just selling them, won't that be swell?!

Trivia: "Truck farming" has nothing to do with trucks, which is why you see so few in the short. They actually comment on this: "Has anyone seen a truck yet?"
"Truck" is an outdated word for vegetables. They were usually sent by railroad car, as seen here, rather than by truck.

I have the DVD of Reefer Madness, with MST's Mike Nelson doing commentary (I'd love to upload it here if I can rip it properly.) This movie feels so much like that one in so many ways. Even down to the ultra cautionary outro. "This story could be your son, or your daughter, or YOURS!"

So, he gets a light sentence because he accuses his neglectful parents... and then he's sentenced to being under their care until he's 21?

Hey, how did this one come out? I was at Jack Taylor’s place down at the beach for the weekend.

Whoever made this film really just wanted to push the parents can do no wrong point of view. It was the 50's, for the first time kids had their own subcultures, and were doing very different things then their parents. Hahaha.

This is a fun episode, except for one thing. Every time I watch this, I get that stupid song stuck in my head: "Are you happy... in your work?"

This movie reminds me of the Rob Zombie "Halloween" remake where Michael Myers being a psychotic murderer is laid at the feet of "His mom was a stripper, his dad yelled at him, and his sister smacked him around sometimes". Um, no.

what's so funny to me after watching all these movies like the violent years, the beatniks, this movie and many more is that "white crime" movies were an entire genre in the 50's. Movies where middle class white people are/become "thugs". I forget the name but one of the movies they riff has a gang of all white women. That was just too much for me. It's like "look at how immoral our society has become! Blacks and Hispanics aren't the only criminals!"

So, in this movie, the boy gets away with everything because he has bad parents but in The Violent Years, the girl dies after giving birth in prison even though she had bad parents too. Hmm, interesting double standard,

Wait a minute... Kitty said that she never knew her mother, and a few minutes later, she said that her folks split up a few years earlier. Um...

400th laugh!

@6:53 - Mennonite women join in the fun!

@5:17 - You can see this alternate scene in the director's cut of North by Northwest.

@2:59 - A scorched earth example.

@1:32 - Ya just gotta love those migrant labor camps! Housing beats Trump Tower by at least a mile.

@0:30 - Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main?

My personal favorite episode!

on about jimmy's mother ''she must take a lot of interest in her home''
well yeah, she has to, its where she stashes all her booze

CHARGE!!! That gets me every time.

I got 10 to 1 odds that Adonis At The Movies' show sucks hard.

"There's 'stupid'...REALLY BIG!"

Never fails to slay me.

And then the kindly diner guy pulls off his hat to reveal his third eye and that he's part of the Martian invasion force.

"the kind of kid every girl dreams about"
oh, hell, no!

With that black bow Gypsy looks like Rose Marie.

How old is Jimmy supposed to be?

Joel: "Everybody lies in this movie!"
Before Gregory House became a thing too.

I played bass for Rotary Ho back in college!

I don't know how many times I've watched this one now.

(Spoiler alert) So the judge agrees that Jimmy's parents are the reason he's so screwed up and ended up killing someone, so he remands Jimmy into the care of -- his parents! There, ladies and gentlemen, is the U.S. justice system.

I actually kind of enjoyed the movie itself, it reminded me a lot of Knock On Any Door. Admittedly, I stopped listening to the riffs halfway through in order to try and hear the film XD The riffing I did hear was good though!

Y'know, Jimbo really is kind of a Mary Sue.

Now I really want a hamburger.

27:34 I. DECLARE. DIVORCE!

I HATE Jimmy. Lying stupid piece of sh*t, spoiled rich thieving pussies like him deserve to die in jail. He starts out rich and then gets handed opportunities over and over throughout the movie for no reason, he steals from his job to pay for gifts to his mob hooker girlfriend, joins the mob then wusses out, plays dumb threatens to narc and runs away, tries to rob a diner. gets offered a chance for redemption but then tries to kidnap and accidentally kills the mob boss, and his excuse in COURT is that his parents didn't love him enough!!! The only reason he got off is that his father was RICH and friends with the judge and mayor. I can't wait till the apocalypse so we can drag them from their ivory towers and tear them to fat bloody pieces.

...you'll get beat up 'cause you're a freak.

🎶"Whyyyyyy did you leeeaaave meeeee" 🎶
"Because you tooooooold him to"

The preponderance of flesh pink crayons.

That ending.
Sorry. Put money in my g-string, and I do my job. That's how it works. Now watch me work. XD

This is the rare MST for me where the host segments outshine the movie. The musical number, the drawings of everyone's ideal families, and especially the analysis of Jimmy are some of the best stuff Joel & the bots have ever done. I would love to find a YouTube video of just those bits. [Not that I didn't like the movie's riffing, I did. But the skits really hit their marks.]

This episode is typical of so much winning material that came out of Season 5. It's just great all the way through.

Also, the opening invention would seem to indicate that the Mads have a walk-in oven. Why does that not surprise me...? :D

"No, no! You're ruining it for me! I want you to put on some shoes!"
"Your mother's in detox! Come quickly!"

The African field pickers look a bit nervous to be on camera.

I can't get over how much Jimmy looks like a gentile Zeppo Marx.

For me, anyway. My first MST3K, and still one of my favorites, definitely my favorite Joel episode. Great movie that defies most genre norms makes for great everything.

By the way, was I the only one who expected Mike to be the one in that cake?

quack...quack quack quack

The juvenile delinquent problem started with the invention of the teenager and child worker laws. Kids used to working hard on farms and factories then drinking and playing like adults were all of sudden told to be children again. Then forty years later, the parents started being blamed. Keeping a body that is an adult but emotionally immature and dependent is a losing proposition.

I accuse people's hair all...the...time....

Laugh all you want about DDT, you young whippersnaps---YOU'RE all eating "RoundUp-Ready" GMO seed. Enjoy, won't you?

About this time movies were extremely judge friendly. Judges were always portrayed as dignified, wise, and compassionate (if warranted). Andy Hardy's father was a prime example of the type. I wonder if that was part of the Hays Code that judges could never appeared as egotistical, corrupt, and/or biased.

I laughed when joel said , and he wont see a penny of it . Farmers are way too underpaid .
Truck farming is a billion dollar industry .

I nearly cried watching Joel comfort Tom. It really shows just how much he loves them... only to abandon them a few episodes later.

I really don't get why this one is rated so highly. MST3K is about cheesy films like "Space Mutiny" and "Warrior of the Lost World", but this one was just old, dull and dry. Some of the riffs were funny, but I found this film a bore, and actually depressing more than cheesy, even with Joel and the bots gags. Why did this one even get riffed in the first place? Whatever, I just watched it for a sense of completion but I'm moving on...

This movie should be called 'Everybody Accuses Somebody'!

The father is the real villain of this one, damn.

This movie syncs up really well with Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." Well, in the sense of the plot.

"...the hell?! Tom Servo, you're naked!!"

Truck farm short failed to meet expectations. Not one riff about growing a crop of trucks? (And, yes, there was a truck. It's what they loaded the carrots onto.) Was nice to see them comment on the exploitation of the workers and the "kind" way the film described the ever so helpful neighbors from Mexico coming by to pitch in for a while. But I waited through that whole opening "frontier" scene for any kind of mention of the natives. Ah well. Still some good riffs here. What a bizarre film. Who, exactly, was the target audience? Middle school kids, I guess? With all these "educational" shorts floating around, I wonder how much they actually had classes...

Maybe the kid should've done an essay on "Truck Farming" it would have been less embarrassing. ^_^

The only time where family life is not a short.

This is a message from the other kids in the essay contest!

Liar, liar, liar!

Haha 300th like :D one of my favorite MST3K episodes

Man, it must've been tough to be a young white male back in the '40s-'50s. I feel for ya, Jimmy. [eye roll]

Remember Me? I'm Your Boyfriend: How Not To Write Dialogue

Think I could publish this guide for aspiring fiction writers?

Tom:"I want to run and jump and skin my knees!"
Crow:"You don't have any legs."
Tom:"I want to catch frogs down at the ole' swimmin' hole!"
Crow:"Your arms don't work."
Tom:"I want to experience the world of emotions and feelings!"
Crow:"You'll get beat up 'cause you're a freak!"

One of the best exchanges EVER!

Anne Blythe on the tank. Do you think they meant Ann Blythe, the movie star who played vengeful Veda in Mildred Pierce?

Love this episode a lot. Just saw it again for the 15th time in my life w hubby and son. Got one question though, love the duck sounds but what is that representing. None of us got it. So please explain :) thanks!

For an award-winning essay writer, Jimmy's lack of punctuation in his running away note is atrocious.

"You'll have to go to church with me every Sunday"

"FOR -- GET IT"

I realized while watching the Truck Farmer that the narrator sounds almost exactly like file narrator from the Mass Effect series.

I swear this movie more than any other MST3K is just one lonnnng ass short .Maybe about consequences of having drunk parents/and or lying about your drunk parents? Its dripping with "What do you, the viewers at home think?" cheese.

So the Judge puts him right back with his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Kardashian? Uncle Burger would have adopted him, but nooo!!! By the end of the flick, he's +/-90 days from interpreting Beatles songs with Charlie at Spahn ranch!

The guys missed a good riff "ill pay you 25$ a week with an hour lunch" ....a week.

Truck Farmer was cool! I grew up near that decade. We ate pesticides all the time, still living, strong as a horse.

I had the pleasure of watching this episode alongside Joel and Trace (and hundreds of other MSTies) at Minneapolis' Parkway Theatre on Nov. 3, 2012. Then my fiancee and I got to meet Joel! What a memorable night! Was anybody else from this site there?

NOBODY EXPECTS TO SEE A CHARLIE!!!!!

After Crow says, 'Hey look, he lives at Monticello!' I think Servo says, 'Doesn't everybody?' but his voice seems muffled out. Any reason that might be true? I don't get the joke anyway. (37:18

sooooo Jimmy is just in denial about his home life?

I just happened to randomly catch this on Netlfix. This is one of the best episodes ever! Consistently funny and the segments are great.

I wonder what Cambot's drawing looked like...

Best skit ever when Gypsy covers "Are You Happy"- the puppeteering is so spot on. This whole episode is underrated!

Is it just me, or does the sax player behind her at around 49:00 look suspiciously like Torgo?

1:05 "Ring Jobs"...Another Zappa reference ?

Truck Farmers is my all time favorite short! I was in tears on the floor unable to breath i was laughing so hard the first time i saw it!

Joel says this is one of his favorite episodes and it's easy to see why.
speakercreatures(.)com(/)an-interview-with-joel-hodgson-creator-of-mst3k

My all-time favorite episode is now at 99 laughs. Surely this must change. Triple digits???

Joel makes a small goof in one of the riffs. He claims, that Sam Newfield directed "Jungle Goddess", which is not true. However, Newfield did direct "Mad Monster" and "The Lost Continent". I guess what confused Joel was the fact, that Sam's brother, Sigmund Neufeld, was the producer of "Jungle Goddess".

"I can see them but they can't see me"....This is one of the best, one of our favorites. "Now lieutenant take the gun and shoot the corporal...." So many lies for Jimmy to tell, but it's all his parent's fault. Great episodes, don't miss it!

I know one pissed off court stenographer.

I feel like this guy was the inspiration for Frank Whaley’s character in Career Opportunities.

... My dad is Gigantor...

Hail Truck Farmer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rP7umMjjxE

This episode is SEVERELY underrated.

This movie was actually watchable, and the riffing made it that much better!

Quickest title drop ever?

Was this supposed to be a Kitty Reid vehicle?

"They laughed when I accused my parents and I killllled them
Let's see if they'll be laughing noooowww!"