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Weekend Discussion Thread: Best Eps for When You’re SickI’ve had a low-grade summer cold for about two weeks, and that has mutated into awful post-nasal drip that has given me a hacking cough for about a week. So I’m sick.
And it occurred to me that I’m constantly seeing tweets to the effect of: “I’m sick, so I’m curling up in bed with MST3K.” So what is your favorite episode to watch when you feel crappy? Me, I gotta go with “Daddy-O.” All the energy and music, it takes my mind off my ills. What’s your pick? 68 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Best Eps for When You’re Sick”Commenting at Satellite News
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I have a lot of “go to” episodes, but two of my favorites would be “Blood Waters of Dr Z” and “Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living…” , both are just goofy, insanely fun in different ways.
Space Mutiny, Werewolf, Time Chasers, and Pod People would be a quartet that would not only lift my spirits and make me smile, but I would be laughing so hard that I would start coughing, which they say is good.
Any black & white movie.
Oh, and “Overdrawn At The Memory Bank.” Anteaters. No matter how bad I feel, I’m reminded that things could be worse.
“Agent for HARM” and “Girl in Gold Boots” work for me, not that I would turn down any MST3K. Two Rifftrax VODs that serve the same purpose are “Viva Knievel” and “The Guy from Harlem”.
‘Mitchell!’ the insanity of JDB as a hero puts me in a pretty helpful mood. the humor is always good medicine and if all else fails, the love scene is sure to induce vomiting which ought to get the bug out the system. also ‘Time of the Apes.’ after a while ‘i don’t care’ that i’m sick anymore.
Pod People and Werewolf will make me feel a little better if I am sick.
Gotta be a marathon of:
Pod People
The Beatniks
I Accuse my Parents
Beginning of the End
Terror from the Year 5000
Boggy creek II
Man, I can’t wait to get sick!
I usually like to watch the Russo-Finnish episodes when I’m sick. There’s so much crazy stuff going on, it distracts me from how crappy I feel.
Don’t watch ‘The Incredible Melting Man’ if you’re sick. Unless you want to induce vomiting.
My go to episode is Samson vs the Vampire Women. Pretty woman, werewolf wrestling, hovering bats, “Come in, now get out!”, killer karate chops, henchmen in wife beaters and capes, cool sports car, stiffest masquerade party ever, goofy professor, cops arresting cops, bad dubbing, great riffing, Frank’s departure (only bad thing although he ended up well)……..
I never get sick.
I’m down with a cold too (which I caught in Florida, no less :( ), and I find the more innocently-silly Joel eps play easier on the floating sense of consciousness–Pod People, Cave Dwellers and the fairytale movies (Day the Earth Froze, Sinbad) chief among them. Not as much excess brainpower required to process the gags.
Oh, and not Manos, that’s already enough of a fever-dream.
Soultaker works for me, probably because if I see Joe Estevez heading my way I know I have a chance to run, even if I’m wobbly & feverish.
Angels Revenge and The Skydivers are great for dozing, then waking up, hearing something funny, and dozing off again.
I suppose Hobgoblins would work as an emetic, but I’ve never tried that.
MOOOOOON ZEEEERO TWOOOOO
I don’t usually get sick, but when I do, I get REALLY sick! In those times, I go for the really low-key episodes that are just so laid….baaaaack. “Cave Dwellers” and “Pod People,” plus as the_dumpster (#3) said, any black-and-white movie works too.
Beatniks
I Accuse My Parents
Magic Voyage of Sinbad
Crash of the Moons
That’s how we do our sick days around here.
Like Rachel in post #8, I would go for the Russo-Finnish episodes. But if I only had one to choose, it would be Jack Frost due to it being so friggin’ insane even by the high standards set by the other three.
First Spaceship On Venus never fails to make me smile. Lively, fun movie, great riffing and host segments. Hilarious!
A slower-pace Joel episode usually would work for me. Pod People, Daddy-O, It Conquered the World, Stranded in Space, etc. Most of early Season 3, really, except the Japanese episodes.
Probably some of my favorites, episodes I’ve seen so many times I can anticipate the riffs and not have to attend too closely to enjoy them. Teenagers from Outer Space and The Day the Earth Froze spring to mind first; then Pod People or Cave Dwellers if I’m drifting in and out of sleep, since they’re quieter (especially with Pod People’s snoozy new-agey soundtrack) and familiar favorites.
I watched Revenge Of The Creature when I had an ear infection.
I played the “Touch of Satan” episode in the background last time I had a migraine headache, because I’ve seen it so many times that I don’t need the visuals to understand the riffs. I like to think that it helped… somehow…
When I’m sick but can actually look at things, I always watch episodes I haven’t seen before. Bundled up on the couch, alternating between coughing my lungs out and laughing them out, is when I first saw “Jack Frost,” “Squirm,” and “Gamera vs Guiron.”
Time Chasers. What could be more relaxing than watching Bob Evel work his
magic in the same library where children are enjoying hearing Madeleine’s (sp?) Rescue.
I like to go with the familiar as comfort. Therefore, the first episode I caught only part of but was intrigued (Outlaw), the first episode I remember watching all the way through (I Accuse My Parents), the one that made me a fan for life (The Day the Earth Froze), and the one I’ve seen so many times I can do the riffs ahead of Mike & the Bots (Space Mutiny)…all on an infinite loop.
“The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”
Whatever the illness, at least I’m not in a hospital with that bunch in charge.
Also Mary Jo’s “Jan” character is an all-time favorite.
Be well if possible.
If one is feeling very nauseous, there’s always Bloodlust, which is —
Oh, wait… That should be for Worst Eps For When You’re Sick. Never mind.
(Ditto Melting Man!)
Hope you’re feeling better soon, Sampo!
My “comfort food” MST3K episodes are the Godzilla and Gamera episodes, the “Fugitive Alien” and “Rocky Jones: Space Ranger” shows, “Time of the Apes”, “The Magic Sword”, “Space Mutiny”, most of the “Hercules” episodes, and during the holiday season (which is when I usually get sick), “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” and “Santa Claus”. Since I discovered the KTMA shows, I’ve added “Cosmic Princess” and “Hangar 18” to the list: the more casual pace of the KTMA shows is a good fit for when I’m not feeling well and just need some pleasant “background noise”.
And, if I can include some Cinematic Titanic or Rifftrax shows: “Doomsday Machine” and “Legacy of Blood” from Cinematic Titanic, and “Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny” and “Frankenstein Island” from Rifftrax. Depending on how sick I am, I may be feeling gloomy and lethargic like the first two of these films, or I may be living in a delirious fever dream like the last two of these films.
My wife and I are on the same page on this one, and while there are many contenders, I am going to highlight three in particular:
Earth Versus the Spider
Deadly Mantis
Riding with Death
For us, these are “feel-good” episodes, and they always make us feel better when either of us is sick (or feeling crappy).
In fact, my wife fell asleep to Deadly Mantis the first time she watched it, after a minor but unpleasant medical procedure, and I still have fond memories of that silly movie, and the razor-sharp riffing, taking her mind off how she was feeling, to the point that she fell comfortably asleep. She loves the episode even more now that she has seen it in its entirety. :-)
I want to say that I’d watch just any episode and feel better, but that’s not a fun answer. So instead, I’ll say any of the Russo-Finnish movies and maybe the Japanese ones from season three. Jack Frost and Gamera vs. Guiron are a couple of my favorites.
The Master Ninja episodes and Riding With Death. Bad TV repackaged as stand alone movies complete with terrible ADR over slowed down/still shots = muh comfort episodes.
Any of these:
Touch of Satan… I can take short naps through the pauses in the dialogue
Merlin’s Shop of Wonders… For when I feel all mystical
Phantom Planet- I can try magic rim-music over my glass of orange juice for my cold
Giant Spider Invasion….I can see all the delicious food with the sun-brewed mayonnaise (great for the stomach flu!) Yummy!
Soultaker…If I die, there’s someone there to take my soul (however creepy they are) and remember me from a previous life.
The Brain that Wouldn’t Die…..If I have a headache, I can see Jan in the Pan and know at least mine is still attached.
Almost any episode would cheer up MST3K fans, but stay away from Hamlet. That could put you into a coma you may never come out of.
Y’know, it’s been damn’ near 20 years since the last time I was so sick that I was actually laid up in bed for a day or more, but if I recall that state I was in, I’d want episodes that are more “quiet” and move a bit more slowly: Robot Holocaust, Cavé Dwellers, Radar Secret Service, Fire Maidens, Tormented, Hamlet.
Catalina Caper — the sun, the music, the energy, the stupidity.
The Incredibly Strange Creatures…
The ultimate fever dream.
Unrelated to this topic, I was doing some mst3k research this weekend and stumbled upon this article from Corporate Report Minnesota, April 1991. It’s an amazing look into the series’ early days and includes concrete numbers (budget, who owns mst3k and at what %), stuff even I’ve never seen anywhere else. Take a look!
http://dbrauer.tumblr.com/post/68080493885/from-the-archives-mystery-science-theaters-origin
814 Agent for H.A.R.M. got me through a bad case of the flu in February of 2007!!! I really wish 1013 Danger Diabolik was on DVD!!!
I don’t get sick very often, but when I do, I WATCH OUT FOR SNAKES!
Eegah and Arch Hall, Jr.’s crooning face always lift my spirits.
Santa Claus, what else?! lol
@34. Catalina Caper came to mind for me too. What better to feel better than Little Richard on goof balls?!!
A lot of people have mentioned Pod People in this thread. I like Pod People on a rainy, dreary evening. So I guess I’d call it a “mood” episode. Much like, when its snowing outside, I’m in the mood for Jack Frost. I don’t know if I have a “sick” episode, but I did watch the entire Gamera collection after I had knee surgery and was drugged up. They’re quite funny when you’re “hopped up on goofballs” as J&TB would say.
If I’m feeling sick or it’s late then my faves are definitely The Last Chase (best KTMA episode ever, better than some S1 episodes), Pod People and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. Something about the way those movies were shot with muted colors, cloudy/foggy settings/often being at night (hello Pod People and a good chunk of Last Chase’s beginning) and their laid back soundtracks makes me feel relaxed. And most importantly they all have great riffing. Also Overdrawn at the Memory Bank appropriately gives me that feeling of being home sick from school when I was young and finding weird, random stuff on PBS.
Prince of Space. It’s just so damn goofy.
@33 – You mean that in the past 20 years you haven’t had a bad case of The Flu…gennock? “No really I kid the good doctor…”
I’ve been under the weather this week too and while this isn’t an episode, the Poopie reel of outtakes always makes me feel better. I love to watch Frank totally lose it.
http://bit.ly/YvkMKO
I know this is an odd choice (I don’t think anyone else has mentioned it) but my under the weather/mood altering go-to is “Tormented”. I have no idea why.
I’m always sick.
I see KTMA and Cinematic Titanic have been alluded to. Why not include the 4 Film Crew movies? Not the uber depressing Golden Girl stripper film (which makes the post World War II
Italian cine The Bicycle Thief seem cheery) but the others, especially The Wild Women of Wongo. The lunch breaks in all of
the movies are also soothing for someone sick in bed, and there’s educational value—for example, learning all about the Battle of
Marathon (granted at the cost of a nice lunch).
In the summer 2012 (Or as I like to call it the summer of Rob..er,um, I mean the summer of Ross)
I was real sick and was home and at our friends camp in Maine for the whole summer. I watched every
MST movie I had, and fell asleep to many because of the meds I was on. I was able to watch 2 or 3 a day.
I did watch Cinematic Titanic/ Film Crew as well as other non MST stuff. I was able to mix it up with a Joel
or Mike day and I gotta say it was the most relaxing summer I’ve had since I was a kid in school.
#45: But that’s exactly how it works, and in fact I can imagine being cheered up mightily for watching Joel and Crow and Tom decide which singers have earned the right to be tossed from the lighthouse. And the movie itself is bad and relaxing (because it’s by Mr. B.I.G.). And it features a jazz pianist who has never heard jazz in his life. And BOTH Gene Roth and Merritt Stone are in it.
And at the end of the day, none of the reasons I have mentioned probably get at why Tormented is your choice, but I can imagine watching this one the next time I’m sick (although I hope that won’t be for a long time, and not because I don’t want to watch Tormented!).
JCC says:
September 27, 2014 at 11:30 pm
@33 – You mean that in the past 20 years you haven’t had a bad case of The Flu…gennock? “No really I kid the good doctor…”
Well, I’ve had a touch of flu a few times between then and now, but around mid-90s’ish was the last time I remember being hit so hard that I stayed in bed pretty much all day. Most times it was mild enough that I could just slam down my meds, keep some orange juice handy and be cool around people. Of course, going freelance about 15 years ago kind of dealt with the whole “too sick to go ‘in’ to work” thing. I remember maybe once declaring myself “too sick to work” and not taking client phone calls or email, and alternated between doodling in the studio and napping two or three hours at a time.
Still, back in the day… I was pretty much stuck with whatever episode or two I had laying around in the VHS pile, and quiet old B&W movies on TCM.