Talk:Cambot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Cambot speaks?

Having watched all 195 extant episodes of MST3K many times each, I can't recall offhand any time that Cambot ever spoke. Unless someone can cite a specific instance, I plan to remove the claim that Kevin Murphy did his voice. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 07:50, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

I've removed the assertion about Kevin Murphy's voicing of Cambot from this article and from Mystery Science Theater 3000. If anyone disagrees with this, please cite your source for this information. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 07:07, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Copied from Talk:Mystery Science Theater 3000:

Well, Cambot does speak in the intro to various seasons, when he says "you're on!" Who voices him then? -- Antaeus Feldspar 17:18, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
According to The Satellite News' page on MST3K lyrics, the following phrases are said during Cambot's appearance in the Robot Roll Call:
  • shows K00-K23: none (verified for #K11)
  • shows 101-512: "pan left" (verified for #312)
  • shows 513-1013: "show yourself" (verified "yourself" for #614; first word not very distinct)
Not only is it not clear (to me, at least) which real person is speaking these words, but one cannot assume that either phrase is supposed to be Cambot's voice. Unlike many of Gypsy, Servo, and Crow's roll-call one-liners, these are imperative statements, which are more likely being said to Cambot. In any case, I am aware of no documentation that suggests that Cambot is saying these lines, and without that, we cannot say that Cambot has been voiced by anyone. Does anyone have any such documentation, or other examples within the show of Cambot possibly speaking? ~ Jeff Q (talk) 11:17, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
Actually this list is incorrect beyond season 7, which the phrase becomes "You're on!" as stated earlier.
In a side note, it was always my understanding that the person speaking these lines were Joel and Mike. Moreover since Joel's voice is also heard for Gypsy, Tom Servo, and Crow during the first 5 seasons where as the characters themselves voice their intro line (save for Cambot who has no voice) in Mike's seasons.
--150.226.95.18 (talk) 22:28, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

I've just reverted another unsourced claim about Cambot speaking, per my argument above. We need verifiable sources, not fan speculation, for such claims. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 10:48, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Brechtian interaction

The article currently contains the following line:

From time to time, the characters on the show would interact with Cambot in a Brechtian fashion.

Unfortunately, the link to Bertolt Brecht does not provide a direct explanation of this statement. Its "Theory of theatre" section talks about the Verfremdungseffekt ("defamiliarization effect"), which apparently discourages audiences from becoming too involved with the fictional world, but not knowing Brecht's works, I don't see a clear connection. It would help to have a specific example and/or a clearer explanation of what is meant by this. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 11:27, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Final episode

Isn't it Cambot who's recording Mike and the bots in the apartment, like usual?Thanos6 05:53, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

That's a very good question! It's a shame that the show doesn't quite answer it. Or perhaps it does: "Just repeat to yourself, 'It's just a show'…". I'm afraid we can only speculate, since the theme song itself points out the limitations of real-world logic in fathoming these matters. If only Mike had said something about (or to!) Cambot… ~ Jeff Q (talk) 06:52, 8 November 2005 (UTC)