The problem is this is IO the legitemately BEST episode of X-Files in every way, but due to the comedy (which IMP is one of its strengths) makes it impossible to show this to people as their first XFiles episode.
But why show them the best episode first, anyway? Then every next episode they see will be weaker and weaker than the one that got them into the show. Besides, even without the comedy, this episode makes even less sense if you haven't seen at least half a dozen of episodes first, especially the mythology ones. My suggestion is to show them the pilot and "Squeeze" first. Possibly "Deep Throat", "Fallen Angel", "Eve" and "E.B.E." as well. If they don't like any of these episodes, especially the pilot and Squeeze, then I'm not sure they'd like this show at all. Then again, if they see these episodes first, at least they'll have better understanding of the show and they'll be able to get the satire. :)
This is probably the greatest X-files episode ever. In the early seasons of the show they tended to take many of the modern paranormal myths and put a new spin on them or just engage in satire. This episode takes it to a new level. It also uses a lot of the metaphors developed during the series. For example, smoking is like the fruit of knowledge in the garden of eden. Smokers know "the truth" about aliens. If you are new to the X-files, you should watch many episodes of the series first to really enjoy this one.
I ❤ the X-Files. This show was my 20’s. Jose Chung’s is my favorite episode by a country mile. It’s just so funny, yet quasi-compelling. So well cast and Charles Nelson Reilly is just phenomenal. So much going on in this episode. Love it. 10/10 easy call.
This episode is hilarious which makes it even better is that’s it’s from Scully POV this is probably how Scully views a lot of their earlier cases due to her skepticism
(0:16) The underside of the cherry picker shot is genius. I love such creativity. :) I still wonder if they are really that complex or if they greebled it up some, though. ;)
There is a reason why this episode is considered one of the best "Monster of the Week" episodes for X Files. And as a side note, the Diner is, or at least was, a landmark in Vancouver, BC. Now normally if I said Vancouver, British Columbia is the implied region, but with a story taking place in Klass County, Washington It puts it well within spitting distance of the OTHER Vancouver, the one that many see more as an extension of nearby Portland, Oregon. Now all this geography gets sillier to think about when you consider that a lot of those back roads that show up in the X Files would help to fill out the fictional town of Eureka, OR in the 2000s.
This has always been one of my favorite episodes of the X-Files. I liked the Easter Egg in the Diner when Mulder was talking to Schaffer. Schaffer is eating mashed potatoes and doing the Devils Tower thing with his potatoes just like Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That was a great subtle touch to that scene.
On the Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade, there's an episode in which the crew of the Excalibur find two aliens in a shuttle craft that are basically that world's equivalent of Mulder and Scully. They even had found an alien with a human mask! It was a hilarious episode. The best gag was when the "Mulder" presented the captain with a golf club saying, "We're not sure if it's a recreational device or a weapon," to which the captain replied, "That depends on how the game is going."
This most bizarre thing about this episode is that you can't even tell if that's really Mulder at the end, since what he says goes against everything Mulder stands for. Mulder has always been about telling the truth, damn the consequences and here he is at the end, arguing against the truth, just because it makes people sound crazy. Mulder has a fear of mental institutions precisely because he doesn't have the filter and doesn't want one.
Since the episode is a bit of a self critique, it doesn't surprise me that they portray Mulder as unhinged. I think that small bit of insanity is always there to go with his unwavering dedication. One reason the show worked is the grounded Scully balancing the crazy genius of Mulder. Don't forget when Mulder is talking to the lone gunmen they reply to him, "that's why we like you Mulder, your theories are crazier than ours."
11:40 Bonkers, fantastic and totally enjoyable episode. I'm still convinced that pie thing was a nod 'n a wink to Agent Coopers affinity towards cherry pie, in the (still) epic Twin Peaks. Simple as that!
(6:58) I like how he's wearing a Space: Above and Beyond t-shirt. That poor show needed all the extra publicity it could get. Come to think of it, I really need to watch it. I don't know if I've recovered from my last "shows that had promise but were cancelled" marathon, though. It was pretty brutal. Nothing ducks more than wanting to know what happens next, but knowing that is never to be. :/ Let's see if I can remember all the shows I watched... Well, there was Stargate: Universe, Earth 2, Firefly, SseaQuest DSV (I couldn't stomach the 3rd season, though), um...that might have been it. Yeah, my psyche was pretty battered after that little project. ;)
@@CybershamanX Nature loves balance - so the other side of the proverbial is Babylon 5 - it's so good certain dimwits are working on completely destroying it, sorry, I mean the 'reboot' (sigh) - the original remains the best drama/sci-fi/series ever. In Valens Name!
Glad you cleared that up. With internet culture these days, I almost assumed it was the newly-discovered Plural Apostrophe (this is when people use 's instead of just s or es to indicate a plural).
Funny that I see this review, when not a couple of hours ago I saw on CNN people talking seriously about the US Military seeing UFOs, filming them, and thinking that they may be actual alien spacecraft (piloted by Lord Kimbote perhaps? ^_^)
Agreed this is a very good episode with lots of humor and popular culture references. Chung’s book cover pokes fun at Communion I believe. The surreal nature of the episode highlights the connection and fallability of memory as it relates to our understanding of what is “real/true” IMHO. I agree there are some deeper cuts that perhaps only lifelong fans of saucer lore might immediately get. The absurdity is also perhaps apparent with the casting choice of Charles Nelson Reilly.
How come everyone who talks about this episode always forgets to mention that it had a sequel, Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense, in Chris Carter's and Lance Henriksen's Millennium show? Sure, that episode wasn't that good, but it exists anyway and the character of Chung is explored much better in the Millennium episode. Also, Chung's book can be found in The X-Files, the 1998 FMV point and click video game for PC and Playstation. It's a great game and it has a couple of very fun Easter eggs like that one.
All I could find is a hardback journal that uses the cover www.redbubble.com/i/notebook/Jose-chung-from-outer-space-x-files-by-Luckythelab/21617932.RXH2R
@@DProductions0 Yeah, I saw a 16x23in poster on the same site. Not quite the poster size I'm looking for and you can tell they just copy/pasted the picture of the smoking ET from a screen grab of the episode because it's blury compared to the text. I'm sure if they blew it up any larger it would look even worse. :P It's also slightly skewed. Anyway, it's only 15 bucks plus shipping, so I might just get and see how bad it is in person. ;)
The one-two punch of the xenophobic aliens and the "words fail me" bit is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen on the internet. And the Yappie exclamation mark.
Okay, so I know this and Dr. Who's "Blink." or Star Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles." Are there other series which have perfectly self-contained episodes that expertly straddle the thin line between summing up the themes of an entire show and completely breaking it?
I just saw this episode last night. I thought my trustee DVR was recording but it was not. I need this episode especially for the scene that no one has mentioned. The men in black came in that room and pile-drived the guy in glasses 😂😂 No one else found that hilarious?? Ok seriously I need the full episode. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
11:14 I can't make out what he is saying. "Who? Mark Kimball" "Who? Mark Kimbo" "Who? Mark Kimbull" I'm trying to hear a name to a reference I may not know.
José Chung’s From Outer Space was the inspiration for the name of my TH-cam channel This should be apparent since I am not Asian, I do not hunt and my Christian name is *Rick¹* 1. It just so happens that my middle name is *José*
I'd love to see Chuck tackle Jose Chungs Doomsday Defense but he's not interested in doing Millennium. It's understandable since at times it's a pretty dense show and Chuck is time poor as it is. Still would make for a good video but oh well
This, Bad Blood, and Via Negativa were always my favorite X-Files episodes. Yes a Robert Patrick episode is one of my favorites! But I never watched the main-story episodes as I hated the main story of X-Files. I only watched the monster of the week ones.
7:03 th-cam.com/video/6vVSDGudOc8/w-d-xo.html Eugenio Finardi was singing about this guy in 1977... Is it Zeitgeist or did the XFiles writing team have some Italian immigrants?
- Makes Mulder yelp sound -
The problem is this is IO the legitemately BEST episode of X-Files in every way, but due to the comedy (which IMP is one of its strengths) makes it impossible to show this to people as their first XFiles episode.
But why show them the best episode first, anyway? Then every next episode they see will be weaker and weaker than the one that got them into the show. Besides, even without the comedy, this episode makes even less sense if you haven't seen at least half a dozen of episodes first, especially the mythology ones. My suggestion is to show them the pilot and "Squeeze" first. Possibly "Deep Throat", "Fallen Angel", "Eve" and "E.B.E." as well. If they don't like any of these episodes, especially the pilot and Squeeze, then I'm not sure they'd like this show at all. Then again, if they see these episodes first, at least they'll have better understanding of the show and they'll be able to get the satire. :)
I actually saw this as my first-ever X-Files episode, when I was about 10 years old!
This is probably the greatest X-files episode ever. In the early seasons of the show they tended to take many of the modern paranormal myths and put a new spin on them or just engage in satire. This episode takes it to a new level. It also uses a lot of the metaphors developed during the series. For example, smoking is like the fruit of knowledge in the garden of eden. Smokers know "the truth" about aliens. If you are new to the X-files, you should watch many episodes of the series first to really enjoy this one.
You didn't see this episode. You ONLY saw the planet Venus.
I ❤ the X-Files. This show was my 20’s. Jose Chung’s is my favorite episode by a country mile. It’s just so funny, yet quasi-compelling. So well cast and Charles Nelson Reilly is just phenomenal. So much going on in this episode. Love it. 10/10 easy call.
Best episode of X-Files ever, 11/10, must see.
This episode is hilarious which makes it even better is that’s it’s from Scully POV this is probably how Scully views a lot of their earlier cases due to her skepticism
"Roswell! ROSWELL!!"
*backbreaker.
When X-Files was good, it was VERY good.
Great video dude. I loved this episode. This one and Clyde Bruckman were probably 2 of my favorites.
(0:16) The underside of the cherry picker shot is genius. I love such creativity. :) I still wonder if they are really that complex or if they greebled it up some, though. ;)
There is a reason why this episode is considered one of the best "Monster of the Week" episodes for X Files. And as a side note, the Diner is, or at least was, a landmark in Vancouver, BC. Now normally if I said Vancouver, British Columbia is the implied region, but with a story taking place in Klass County, Washington It puts it well within spitting distance of the OTHER Vancouver, the one that many see more as an extension of nearby Portland, Oregon. Now all this geography gets sillier to think about when you consider that a lot of those back roads that show up in the X Files would help to fill out the fictional town of Eureka, OR in the 2000s.
I really liked that show. It was just my kind of weird science.
I love the pilot playing with the mashed potatoes in the diner, like Roy in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Great homage.
Charles Nelson Reilly was a mighty man, the kind of man you'd never disrespect.
Weird Al speaks truth.
I gotta sing that song at karaoke when karaoke is a thing again...
This has always been one of my favorite episodes of the X-Files. I liked the Easter Egg in the Diner when Mulder was talking to Schaffer. Schaffer is eating mashed potatoes and doing the Devils Tower thing with his potatoes just like Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That was a great subtle touch to that scene.
Alex trebek the gameshow host!!??!?
On the Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade, there's an episode in which the crew of the Excalibur find two aliens in a shuttle craft that are basically that world's equivalent of Mulder and Scully. They even had found an alien with a human mask! It was a hilarious episode. The best gag was when the "Mulder" presented the captain with a golf club saying, "We're not sure if it's a recreational device or a weapon," to which the captain replied, "That depends on how the game is going."
I've always wanted to know if you ever actually went and bought that pie
Best episode right here.
"CARING IS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE PIE." - SFDebris.
i love mulders shriek
This most bizarre thing about this episode is that you can't even tell if that's really Mulder at the end, since what he says goes against everything Mulder stands for. Mulder has always been about telling the truth, damn the consequences and here he is at the end, arguing against the truth, just because it makes people sound crazy. Mulder has a fear of mental institutions precisely because he doesn't have the filter and doesn't want one.
Since the episode is a bit of a self critique, it doesn't surprise me that they portray Mulder as unhinged. I think that small bit of insanity is always there to go with his unwavering dedication. One reason the show worked is the grounded Scully balancing the crazy genius of Mulder. Don't forget when Mulder is talking to the lone gunmen they reply to him, "that's why we like you Mulder, your theories are crazier than ours."
11:40 Bonkers, fantastic and totally enjoyable episode. I'm still convinced that pie thing was a nod 'n a wink to Agent Coopers affinity towards cherry pie, in the (still) epic Twin Peaks. Simple as that!
Get it? His last name is Manners and he curses all the time. This one's a cult classic
One of your best :)
(6:58) I like how he's wearing a Space: Above and Beyond t-shirt. That poor show needed all the extra publicity it could get. Come to think of it, I really need to watch it. I don't know if I've recovered from my last "shows that had promise but were cancelled" marathon, though. It was pretty brutal. Nothing ducks more than wanting to know what happens next, but knowing that is never to be. :/ Let's see if I can remember all the shows I watched... Well, there was Stargate: Universe, Earth 2, Firefly, SseaQuest DSV (I couldn't stomach the 3rd season, though), um...that might have been it. Yeah, my psyche was pretty battered after that little project. ;)
SA&B was rubbish - crap theme, 2-dimensional 'acting' and boring, boring boring.
@@daveroche6522 Alrighty then! Thanks for the warning! 😉
@@CybershamanX Nature loves balance - so the other side of the proverbial is Babylon 5 - it's so good certain dimwits are working on completely destroying it, sorry, I mean the 'reboot' (sigh) - the original remains the best drama/sci-fi/series ever. In Valens Name!
Chris Carter was mocking S A&B. Me and my nerd friends were hysterical when we saw that shirt on that character.
Wish we could have another season of the Files, even a small 6-8 episodes. Or even a movie. I miss X-Files.
Glad you cleared that up. With internet culture these days, I almost assumed it was the newly-discovered Plural Apostrophe (this is when people use 's instead of just s or es to indicate a plural).
Funny that I see this review, when not a couple of hours ago I saw on CNN people talking seriously about the US Military seeing UFOs, filming them, and thinking that they may be actual alien spacecraft (piloted by Lord Kimbote perhaps? ^_^)
I really liked this episode :)
Agreed this is a very good episode with lots of humor and popular culture references. Chung’s book cover pokes fun at Communion I believe.
The surreal nature of the episode highlights the connection and fallability of memory as it relates to our understanding of what is “real/true” IMHO.
I agree there are some deeper cuts that perhaps only lifelong fans of saucer lore might immediately get.
The absurdity is also perhaps apparent with the casting choice of Charles Nelson Reilly.
Great video great episode
tHIS EP NEEDS A PART2 WITH CURRENT EVENTS WOVEN INTO THE PLOTLINE
The thing is that Mulder is MEANT to be insane in this issue.
How come everyone who talks about this episode always forgets to mention that it had a sequel, Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense, in Chris Carter's and Lance Henriksen's Millennium show? Sure, that episode wasn't that good, but it exists anyway and the character of Chung is explored much better in the Millennium episode. Also, Chung's book can be found in The X-Files, the 1998 FMV point and click video game for PC and Playstation. It's a great game and it has a couple of very fun Easter eggs like that one.
(12:53) I want a poster of that book cove SO BAD! I think it would really pair nicely with my "I want to believe" poster. ;)
All I could find is a hardback journal that uses the cover www.redbubble.com/i/notebook/Jose-chung-from-outer-space-x-files-by-Luckythelab/21617932.RXH2R
@@DProductions0 Yeah, I saw a 16x23in poster on the same site. Not quite the poster size I'm looking for and you can tell they just copy/pasted the picture of the smoking ET from a screen grab of the episode because it's blury compared to the text. I'm sure if they blew it up any larger it would look even worse. :P It's also slightly skewed. Anyway, it's only 15 bucks plus shipping, so I might just get and see how bad it is in person. ;)
I am suddenly reminded of the fact that I don’t have pie.
Channel your inner Dean Winchester, and yearn for pie
The one-two punch of the xenophobic aliens and the "words fail me" bit is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen on the internet. And the Yappie exclamation mark.
Okay, so I know this and Dr. Who's "Blink." or Star Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles."
Are there other series which have perfectly self-contained episodes that expertly straddle the thin line between summing up the themes of an entire show and completely breaking it?
Probably Supernatural...somewhere in its 1000 episodes. Maybe latter day Stargate SG-1.
Millennium had the pseudo sequel to this episode, Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense
. It's not AS good, but it's hilarious.
I just saw this episode last night. I thought my trustee DVR was recording but it was not. I need this episode especially for the scene that no one has mentioned. The men in black came in that room and pile-drived the guy in glasses 😂😂 No one else found that hilarious?? Ok seriously I need the full episode. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
11:14 I can't make out what he is saying. "Who? Mark Kimball" "Who? Mark Kimbo" "Who? Mark Kimbull"
I'm trying to hear a name to a reference I may not know.
"Who, Lord Kimbo?" It's the name of the alien that the Power Company Worker, Roky, said was told to him by the third alien, in Ye Old English.
@@jfridy Thanks!
It's Kinbote, a reference to Nabokov's "Pale Fire", which shares some flavor with this episode.
José Chung’s From Outer Space was the inspiration for the name of my TH-cam channel
This should be apparent since I am not Asian, I do not hunt and my Christian name is *Rick¹*
1. It just so happens that my middle name is *José*
Lovin it, man. U should have a TH-cam channel! Ha!
I'd love to see Chuck tackle Jose Chungs Doomsday Defense but he's not interested in doing Millennium. It's understandable since at times it's a pretty dense show and Chuck is time poor as it is. Still would make for a good video but oh well
Oh I have wanted to see you cover this one.
I'm pretty sure it was sweet potato pie too.
This, Bad Blood, and Via Negativa were always my favorite X-Files episodes.
Yes a Robert Patrick episode is one of my favorites! But I never watched the main-story episodes as I hated the main story of X-Files. I only watched the monster of the week ones.
You're missing out! The Max Finnig episodes are incredible.
Maybe the other alien train to stop the gray virus
7:03 th-cam.com/video/6vVSDGudOc8/w-d-xo.html
Eugenio Finardi was singing about this guy in 1977... Is it Zeitgeist or did the XFiles writing team have some Italian immigrants?
how can one watch this episode .
Wow I must be the only one here that hates this lame episode 😂
I am suddenly reminded of the fact that I don’t have pie.