| “ | Oh my stars! | ” |
| — Gypsy | ||
Gypsy, also known as Gypsum and GPC/GPC 1/GPC 2, is one of the robot characters on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Gypsy normally only appears during the host segment parts of the series, but briefly took a seat in the theater to watch the movie in Episode #412. Since the series was re-launched with Season 11, she regularly adds some jokes every episode.
Role[]
Gypsy operates the higher functions on board the Satellite of Love. She needs to use most of her computing power to handle this responsibility, which generally makes her appear slow-witted when dealing with others. Episode #207 Wild Rebels demonstrated a much brighter Gypsy when the demand on her systems was temporarily reduced. (She also made a quick appearance in the theater during this experiment when someone mentioned Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.) As the show progressed, she became a more frequent participant in the host segments and appeared somewhat more intelligent.
In #112 Untamed Youth, her brain was once X-Rayed, and found to contain RAM chips and a photo of Richard Basehart, of whom she is a big fan. In the same episode, Gypsy was shown to have the ability to copy any material if she was told, she'd make copies by coughing them up, much like hairballs. She made copies of cotton, saltwater taffy, paper towels, Tom Servo even asked her to cough up another Tom Servo, and a partially-built Tom Servo fell out of her mouth. After Untamed Youth, she was no longer seen using this ability, though it might explain how Tom Servo made so many copies throughout the years.
Gypsy's physical form does not have any arms. Her ingenuity and control over the higher functions of the ship makes up for this, though. As the only "female" aboard the SOL, Gypsy is often portrayed as a mother figure to Crow and Servo while treating either Mike or Joel as the abusive older brother they need to be protected from. This behavior can be seen in Episode #415 The Beatniks where she crushes Joel after he cruelly dominates a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors with Crow and Servo (despite the fact that he was punishing them for a prank they pulled on him earlier that morning). This protective trait is carried on in Episode #603 The Dead Talk Back when she tries to execute a proper fire drill. Also, she fixes ship-wide decompression when they break a window in Episode #306 Time of the Apes and sternly reminds Joel and the robots not to play ball on the satellite. Her parental nature is explicitly depicted in Episode #320 The Unearthly when Tom chides Crow for his failure to appreciate all that Gypsy does (in a parody of the short Appreciating Our Parents). This motherly nature is forgotten from time to time though, such as when Servo is inspired to ask her out on a date in Episode #503 Swamp Diamonds, in which she is openly bored and indifferent to all of Servo's insecure attempts to impress her.
The pressure of being the only "female" robot doesn't seem to weigh her down, and she does her best to demonstrate that she is a strong and independent artificial person. Whether performing "Gypsy Rose Me" or dressing up as Gigi (as opposed to Demi Moore), she's not bashful about strutting her stuff and doesn't let anyone tell her not to.
In the unaired KTMA pilot, Gypsy was considered to be a male robot, but was later considered female beginning in the second KTMA episode Revenge of the Mysterions from Mars. Her name also alternated between "Gypsy" and "Gypsum". No explanation for this inconsistency has ever been given.
During the Episode The Human Duplicators, Gypsy mentioned that she singlehandedly redecorated her room, indicating that she had her own room, just like Tom & Crow did.
Body and name change[]
For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live - The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour, Gypsy was performed by Yvonne Freese. This Gypsy, sometimes referred as "Travel Gypsy", was redesigned to be a more compact and usable puppet.
This version of the character was eventually renamed "GPC," due to increased understanding that the term "Gypsy" is offensive to some people of Romani origin. Joel has since begun referring to the smaller version of GPC as "GPC 2," and retroactively referring to the larger version formerly known as "Gypsy" as "GPC 1."
The Cheesy Movie Circus Tour gave GPC 2 an origin story in which she shed the original Gypsy like a reptile's skin to become more compact. GPC 2 later referred to her earlier self as her "sad dragon phase."
GPC participated in the Live Riff-Along of May, 2020, the bumper segments of the 2nd Annual Puppet Camp Livestream that took place later that same year, and Turkey Day '20. GPC tends to be more prone to singing or speaking in a sing-song voice than previous incarnations have been.
GPC 2 is the version of the character used for episodes featuring Emily Connor, and is depicted as such on Emily's mission patch. This version of GPC is also performed by Yvonne Freese. She appears with the other versions of the 'Bots from the Simulator of Love in Episode #1306.
Construction[]
Gypsy (GPC 1)[]
Gypsy's head was built out of a now difficult-to-find "Century Infant Love Seat," an infant car seat from the late 1970s to the early 1980s; the inner seal of the seat was used for her jaw. Parts of an Eveready "All American Lantern" flashlight were used for her eye; the flashlight's hood (which was also used to make Tom Servo's shoulder pauldrons) was left on Gypsy's eye initially but removed for most of the series. Foam pipe insulation was used on her lips, and her neck was made of long 4-inch drainage tubing over a skeleton made from 1 1/2 inch CPVC pipe. She was painted with Testors Purple Metalflake Hobby Spray Paint. In Season 11, her eye was made from a RAYOVAC-EFL6V-BA Flashlight.
GPC 2[]
GPC 2's design was inspired by the work of a fan who'd made a smaller hand-puppet version of Gypsy.
