"If we had to do that at Rifftrax it would truly drive me insane."

November 3, 2016 9:48 PM

A couple of days ago Kevin Murphy of Rifftrax & MST3K screened some 16mm shorts online. No riffs, just films. One of them that he cut off halfway in was called "The Baggs." It's about two living sacks of garbage and the beard guy who tries to catch them.
Oh look, it's on YouTube (12m). To explain more would be to deny you the wonder of discovery.

Here's Kevin Murphy's Periscope channel.

OCLC WorldCat gamely describes The Baggs as:
"A non-narrative fantasy about two sacks of junk which come alive and escape from their collector is used to express the concepts of love, understanding, and humor. For elementary grades."

Thanks to hobgadling, valkane, oneswellfoop, ilana, Lardfork and the Snake of Argument for making it through this thing. hobgadling and valkane survived it twice. That's the kind of stuff we're made of at MST3K Club.

posted by JHarris (18 comments total)

And it was valkane who found the WorldCat entry.
posted by JHarris at 9:50 PM on November 3, 2016

me_irl
posted by teraflop at 10:25 PM on November 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

And we know this actor, too but I can't come up with it (the cop in the middle of the street who stops and looks around at the bagg-generated mayhem). Help?
posted by stevil at 10:36 PM on November 3, 2016

The actor looks like Neal McDonough, but he was 7 years old in 1973, when the video was made.

(So clearly, either we're being misled about when the video was made, or Neal McDonough is 20 years older than he claims.)
posted by mistersix at 11:05 PM on November 3, 2016

the beard guy who tries to catch them

Surely he is Baggly Adams.

The actor looks like Neal McDonough

I am also pretty sure I have seen that dude in various 70s crap.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:18 PM on November 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think the cop in the intersection is Geoffrey Lewis.
posted by Mr.Krotpong at 11:22 PM on November 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

the beard guy who tries to catch them

Surely he is Baggly Adams.


I immediately thought of a cleaner, without-the-rubber-band-around-his-head version of Crenshaw.
posted by bonje at 11:26 PM on November 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

So this is what the co-creator is currently working on. I think I prefer the sentient bags of trash.
posted by Shepherd at 2:47 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think the cop in the intersection is Geoffrey Lewis.

Yep, that's definitely him. For me, his most memorable role was Clint Eastwood's friend in Every Which Way But Loose.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:19 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

And his daughter is Juliette Lewis.
posted by valkane at 4:46 AM on November 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Shepherd, I did some looking into Tom Solari (one of two producers) before posting this and found out that these days he seems to be into Scientology and also proving why redistributing income is morally wrong. So, yeah.
posted by JHarris at 8:24 AM on November 4, 2016

I find it oddly interesting.
posted by deezil at 9:34 AM on November 4, 2016

It is, weirdly. But it's also about two tubeworm-like creatures having California adventures eating garbage and running from a trash collector, to the accompaniment of what one of our viewers called "Nintendo music."

It's sooo cheaply made, but weird things just happen and no one questions them, so while inexplicable it's also oddly, bizarrely interesting. There should be a word for that kind of thing, because it might be my favorite genre.

It's like... these are films where things happen that don't happen in reality. It may look like our world at first but don't be fooled. People here act in non-real ways. Things act in non-real ways. Basic assumptions of logic and causality do not apply. An animate sack-of-trash goes up a pole, can teleport around, attracts a legion of kid followers like the Pied Piper, sets off in a rowboat across the ocean. Why the hell not?
posted by JHarris at 10:33 AM on November 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Watched at 2x it was a perfectly okay six-minute live-action cartoon. It wasn't a great one - I would've far rather spent those six minutes watching Rabbit of Seville again, for instance - but it was charming and goofy and short.

I don't think I want to see the normal speed version.
posted by egypturnash at 11:23 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I recognized the name Tom Solari from somewhere but didn't know where. Then I saw his only on-camera credits were 'performer' or 'various characters' on early '70s variety shows... in fact I may have seen him do a solo Bagg Guy on The Sonny & Cher Show... or that may be a false memory brought on by PTSD.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:07 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think the guy credited for the music, Paul Beaver, was also responsible for the Moog synthesizer in The Monkees' 1967 number, Star Collector, and was later allegedly criticized for playing it "like it was a flute or something."{{Citation needed}}
posted by christopherious at 6:37 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

BTW, we're trying to use stuff like this as prerolls for MST Club more often. foop suggested that we should even do something in the club room for Election Night. Maybe a palette-cleanser showing of Pod People, a less hazardous Trumpy than the one that bedevils our nation?
posted by JHarris at 7:25 PM on November 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Heh, in the same year the same film editor also edited Not So Easy - A Motorcycle Safety Film, featuring Peter Fonda, Evel Knievel and others. Sorry for the massive tangent there.
posted by christopherious at 8:28 PM on November 4, 2016 [2 favorites]