Gloryosky, this is a weird film. We've got creepy kid Buzz desiring to fit in with the hep cats in his junior high school. His moping about conjures up the androgynous Mr. B Natural, channeling Peter Pan both in outfit design and by having a woman portray a man a la Mary Martin. Mr. B turns Buzz on to playing a musical instrument as a way out of his social rut, chirping and squealing her dialogue like a tour guide on a massive dose of uppers. And all this is meant to sell Conn musical instruments. Yep, this is another one of those films where the commercial premise comes slathered with a sticky layer of "story", and we take a quick detour through the process of creating a musical instrument the Conn way. So Buzz gets his trumpet, blows through the 10,000 hours it's supposed to take to get good at something (no pun intended), and starts laying down honey- sweet tones while still in jr. high.The real issue I have with "Mr. B Natural" is that it completely undercuts its own premise. Buzz doesn't have a problem that can be solved by a musical instrument. The hip kids are perfectly willing to have Buzz along with them the way he is. The tipping point of the film is when Jeanie, the one Mr. B identifies as the cutest girl in school, personally invites Buzz to come dancing with her and her friends. She even presses the issue a little when he demurs. The fact that Buzz not only turns down her invitation but also waves off his mother to go be alone in his room tells me his real problem is cataclysmic social withdrawal. We're lucky he's only visited by a musical pixie and not by a shadowy figure that tells him to murder his parents and then move on to his classmates.Anyway, I'm like Homer Simpson in that when I don't like a movie, I make up my own. My cut of "Mr. B Natural" goes like this:Jeanie, the cutest girl in school, invites Buzz to come to her house and dance with her friends. He accepts, turns on the ol' John Travolta, she invites him back next weekend, and so on, until he's part of the gang. Buzz and Jeanie cut a rug at all the school dances over the years and even go to the senior prom together. They get married after graduation and Buzz starts a prosperous construction company. 25 years later, he gets the contract to demolish their old middle school and build a new one. The night before the project is set to start, he and Jeanie take a last walk through the old halls, stopping at the bank of lockers where it all began. Jeanie says, "Do you ever wish you'd taken up a musical instrument when you were a kid?" Replies Buzz, "I never really thought about it. I had plenty going on back then." They kiss. The end.This short was extremely low-hanging fruit for MST3k. It's one of their classic outings.

This is a horrid 1950's marketing short for an instrument company, and to my knowledge cannot be found on its own on video today. But the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version can be found, so that's what I'm commenting on.IMHO, this is the funniest short ever covered by MST3k (Circus on Ice would be second). First, it's a Joel episode, and I always found those best. Second, this short is so psychotic that it provides almost limitless riffing possibilities. I wonder how many other jokes they came up with that just had to be thrown out because they couldn't fit them in. Let's hope Joel gives Mr. B another good going over with his new show, Cinematic Titanic. He did it for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.I was fortunate in that I recorded all the MST3k episodes shown on Comedy Central. I've been converting the tapes over to DVD and came across this episode today while doing so. I'd seen it many times in the 1990's, but found it has lost none of its impact. Drop dead funny!I've got too many favorite lines to list them all, so I'll just keep it short and leave you with this-Mr. B Natural: You've got to inspect your horn, boy.... Crow: ....And wash it every day.

In one of the many so-called educational films from the '50s, a jolly, spandex-clad woman calling herself Mr. B ("Mr. B"...hmmm, is she a lesbian?) shows a tensed-up schoolboy the wonders of musical instruments and reminds him to BE NATURAL (har har). "Mr. B Natural" is exactly the sort of movie that would make anyone hate music. Maybe that's why people seem to have been getting stupider for years: this sort of junk was used as education! If that sort of woman popped up in my room, I'd ask her whether she's on speed.Fortunately, all is not lost: "MST3K" showed this movie. As Crow put it: "Oscar Wilde wished he was this gay." Too bad that they didn't make any "I Dream of Jeannie" jokes; not only is there a character named Jeannie, but Mr. B appears and disappears (and makes things appear and disappear) like Barbara Eden's famous character.So, the movie itself is 0/10, but the "MST3K" version is 9/10 (a Jeannie joke would have pushed it into 10/10).

I have griped up a storm about my elementary/junior high/high school days, talking about mental trauma inflicted upon me. For those who say, "Aw, it could NOT have been THAT bad," I suggest a viewing of this very waste of celluloid. Music is a wonderful thing... why use this kind of nasty, evil, perverted thing on innocent young children? MST3K helped me overcome years of horror by riffing on this thing... Unfortunately, this piece of filth was played in a music class I was forced to endure as a young 'un.Between this, and the folk "song" Tingalao, [about a walking, talking, eating with a knife and fork donkey] it is small wonder that any hope my father had for my being a brilliant concert pianist went into the toilet. I could kiss Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy for their riffs on this horror! Thanks guys for helping me get at least mental revenge on something that gave me worse nightmares than The Wolf Man!