Has this one been done? “Dumbest comments ever said about MST3K, by non-fans”?
I got one from my dad. Whenever I put in an MST3K episode to watch my dad’s complaint is something along the lines of, “Why do you even bother watching this show for? The only reason you watch it is because of the host and the robots, and their jokes.” That comment alone shows he doesn’t get it.
What immediately leapt to my mind was “freelance scriptwriter” Eric Wallace, on the Sci-Fi Channel show “SF Vortex,” who said to Mike and Mary Jo (and, I’ll acknowledge, was probably told to be a devil’s advocate): “When people see you doing your thing to bad science fiction films, and especially people who aren’t familiar with the genre, they’re going to bring that over and say ‘Oh, science fiction’s a hokey genre.'”
You can hear all the dumb things he said here and here.
What dumb things have you heard?
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“I’ve seen that Mystery Science Theater 2000, but I don’t think I’ve seen 3000 yet…”
I STILL don’t know what they were talking about, years later.
I think I’ll stay with the commentary on the unMSTed “Squirm”, with – what was it? Mystery Science Science Fiction 2000? – and ‘you can’t goof a goof’.
J/P=?
I started to watch on a regular basis during the CC era and my then girlfriend initially wrote it off as a ‘kids program’. I finally convinced her to watch it, fed her a few drinks, and we sat down to watch Catalina Caper. She started to get it and howled when Little Richard, a close up of his eyes showed that his irises were literally spinning, was singing and Joel riffed “I think I see a young man hopped up on goof balls.” or words to that effect. We were both rolling on the floor and she became a fan.
1) “MST3k is funny, but Adam Sandler is funnier.” – former roommate who apparently thought Waterboy was the funniest thing he’d seen in years.
2) “Wait, there were Christians who worked on this show? I always assumed that everyone was a freethinking anarchist.” — a summation many, many comments on blogs and forums; somehow incredulous that a group of people of various beliefs and backgrounds could work on the show and somehow get along.
3) “The MST3k movie is homophobic” — reviews in indie rags I can’t remember the names of, and won’t look up.
A co-worker and I were discussing MST3K once and he said he didn’t care for it. Why? Because after a while during the show he started getting into the movie and the riffs were too distracting!
This one’s easy, because I read the comment in “Sight and Sound” magazine. It’s from an article on Stanley Kubrick, “2001: A Cold Descent”, by film critic Mark Crispin Miller (http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0011.html) who sees in “Mystery Science Theater 3000” the decline of human civilization. It’s a bit unfair to take the paragraph out of context perhaps:
It’s hard to imagine anything topping #6 for sheer pompousness but didn’t somebody at Comedy Central? dismiss it as a cowtown puppet show? This isn’t so much a comment as a attitude but my sister is still carrying a major torch for Richard Basehart (I kid you not!!!) and makes a trucelent “is that the show will the robot puppets?” whenever it comes up, to this day.
Bonnie Hammer (USA network executive)
On the cancelling of MST3K…that it does not fit her vision for the SciFi Network.
Ahhhh, and what has that vision become now in hindsight? Really gawdalful scifi movies and pro wrasslin’.
I’m glad MST3K didn’t ruin the network’s future.
My wife and daughter just refer to the show as “my stupid movies.”
Oh yee of little faith, unsteel thy soul and revel in the pure joy of MST3K and JOIN US!
My next door neighbor’s mailman once said MST was “coo-coo, ka-ka”.
There’s always Stuart Galbraith 4’s review of The Wasp Woman and his prolonged rant about how horrible it is:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/34574/wasp-woman-the/
Whenever I watch the show my wife says ‘Oh, you are with your alien friends’ Even though there are no aliens on the show! Should I really just relax or tell her it’s two robots and a human?
My mother “I like to watch the movies!”
John Stanly (of Creature Features fame) wrote a VERY negative review of MST3K: The Movie but also gave films like Plan 9 from Outer Space and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians a 3 out of 5. He mainly complains that the MST3K: The Movie didn’t allow the shows characters to grow or expand. If Mr. Stanly was being fair he would have clearly seen the big jump in budget from the show to the silver screen. I personally think it was factor the Crew riffed on the beloved classic This Island Earth. Granted I didn’t see the movie un-cut and personally I do think the film was good but it’s riff-able as all hell.
The one thing I always hear (always) is this:
“That’s the show with like the shadows at the bottom of the screen? Yeah, I think I’ve seen that….yeah…”
or
“It’s like being in a movie theatre with annoying people who won’t shut up!”
I like how people don’t get it. Well…not your average bear, that is. That’s one of the funnest things about being a true MSTie!
I don’t have either the time or inclination to try and dig it up, but Harry Knowles over at AICN is ALWAYS ragging on MST3K (which is why I thought it was especially funny that Mike and company jabbed him during this last RT performance — I can’t remember what the riff was, but someone here should remember).
Harry revers even the oldest, horriest sci-fi and fantasy film — I guess you’d call him a purist alone the same lines as those of us who don’t think RT should riff “good” films. He doesn’t “get” MST3K and does hammer away at it any chance he gets (although those chances are fewer and farther between nowadays).
#6
“while television’s most devoted ironists probably could not enjoy the film, in their plight they also prove the chilling prescience of 2001 — for that pastime is just one more technical logical absorption, sold as a nice cold substitute for the warmth of actual others.”
===========================================
I think a certain film critic is hopped up on goofballs! :shock:
I haven’t really heard much in bashing MST or any real criticisims, other than friends who didn’t get it. Never really worried about who liked it or didn’t like the show. I still crack up about Bonnie Hammer’s comment that it doesn’t fit the Sci-Fi lineup. Well it she knows that the crap that’s shown on the network deserves the MST treatment, and she must have a special place in her heart for that junk. I’d imagine her fuming over seeing Time Chasers ot Space Mutiny going thru the ringer, herself thinking these are really good movies.
IMO, any and all involved with Sci-Fi (or whatever they are now)are, well idiots. Plain and simple.
In the commentary in the original War of the Worlds DVD, film enthusiasts Bob Burns and Bill Warren discuss the trivia of character names and red glasses of both Dr. Forrester’s in War of the Worlds and MST3K. Warren then launches into a quiet but lethal tirade into how MST3K destroys otherwise good films. After all that, Burns simply says (and I’m quoting from memory), “I thought it was funny.” Yeah… Bob gets it.
My own cringe-worthy comment is still embarrassing… a friend of mine told me about this little show on Comedy Central. My comment? “I like my movies without wisecracks.” Little did I know… My friend still won’t let me live this down.
If you’re in St. Louis again for the next Cinematic Titanic, yell at me… can’t believe they’re returning for a third show!
I’ve wondered what Bill Warren thought of MST3K. I respect Warren immensely–his Keep Watching The Skies! is an invaluable reference–but while I didn’t know until now what he thought of the show, I rather guessed that he wouldn’t like it.
I’m still reeling from the comment a friend of mine made when I tried to turn her on to the show … she watched about five minutes of the theatre portion of an episode and said, “So it’s basically BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD in outer space?”
I respect and admire Mike Judge quite a lot, so that’s not the issue — she was comparing Joel and the Bots to those two morons just because they were talking back to the screen. I was heartbroken.
Also, David Howe (the current president of “Syfy”) saying, “I’ve never found ANYONE who watched more than 20 minutes of this show.” Or something along those lines.
What did he only as four people in the SyFy building and then give up. I’d wager one of those four was a closet MSTie and just didn’t want to piss off the boss.
When my wife and I were first dating, I found out that her father “loves that show, but can’t pay attention to the movie when that guy keeps talking.”
Barry Schulman.
Queen Of Outer Space.
’nuff said.
I remember one person, though I forget who, that once said to me “Why do those guys talk through the movie instead of just watching it?” You…just…don’t…get it! :???:
You may not believe this but another Internet website host celebrity JUST as big as Harry Knowles from Ain’tItCoolNews hates MST3K just as much! (and yes has made it publicly known on his website!)
The web celeb? – Mr. Skin from mrskin.com. Don’t know why but I will speculate here: no naked women in the films they riff on?
And FWIW I posted the following at the blog post on the recent Rifftrax event so since Mr. “Ex-Genius” asked again here I’ll just post my reponse here too:
….From what I could remember I thought their riff on Harry went like this:
One of the characters in “Reefer” was sweating heavily or something happened to the character that involved water and I think Kevin said “That’s how Harry Knowles takes a shower” or again something like that.
Anybody else hear or see it differently? Sampo? anybody @Rifftrax?
Whoever it was from Comedy Central that said the show didn’t belong on their network was right. MST3K is actually funny unlike the rest of the crap on that network.
Back when MST3K was on the Sci-Fi channel,I was recording it over my friend’s house because for some stupid reason the town I was in didn’t carry it and the movie was “The Thing That Wouldn’t Die” was on and he said,”Is that all they do??”
I had to show my new girlfriend the show, so I took Space Mutiny over there and she laughed a few times, but when it was over she said “It was funny, but the movie was too terrible to really enjoy it. If they had a good movie then it might be better.” Since she didn’t like it, I had to actually watch The Notebook with her. She kept waking me up during it…
@28
I feel sorry for you. I’d take MST3K over some crappy chick flick any day for the week. Talk about TORCHA! ;-)
My sister would sometimes sit in when i’m watching an episode, but never really liked the riffing just the host segments, until I showed her Pod People. She couldn’t stop saying “It Stinks” and “McCloud” for weeks
>…when it was over she said “It was funny, but the movie was too terrible to really enjoy it. If they had a good movie then it might be better.”
Clearly, you should have shown her Castle of Fu Manchu.
1- The Dennis Miller remarks about the treatment of Space Travelers (one more reason to loathe Dennis Miller)
2- A guy at a party tells me (thanks to #1 for jogging my memory)- “yeah, I’ve watched Mystery Science 1000 and 2000- but I haven’t caught it on Sci-Fi. WTF?
majorjoe23 says:
August 21, 2010 at 10:26 am
There’s always Stuart Galbraith 4?s review of The Wasp Woman and his prolonged rant about how horrible it is:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/34574/wasp-woman-the/
I don’t many negative comments on the show, but that’s the one I was thinking of.
I guess another would be all of those people that were shocked at the use of “This Island Earth” for MST3K: The Movie.
The whole Chris Gore thing G4 when the 20th anniversary came out was epic fail.
@13 – My mother “I like to watch the movies!”
(Had one of those too, huh? :roll: )
But how can any list be complete without “The MST3K guys should do [pick one: Plan 9, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Showgirls, Troll 2, Tranformers 1&2, Battlefield:Earth, or any bad new release in the last six months], they’d have a ball with that one! :razz: ”
…No, you’re thinking of the RiffTrax guys–
The old-skool Joel/Titanic crew prefers the bizarre and obscure that few mortal men have ever seen before riffing, to clear the palate.
(It’s thinking like the above comment that got the “Hobgoblins” director to subject his own movie for riffing as a vanity stunt, and we can only hope his lil’ rat-dropping brains were satisfied.) ;)
#21: Someone should find David Howe and just punch him. Yeah, people buy the DVD’s to watch just 20 MINUTES of them, then take them out. :roll: Then, buy another one and just watch 20 MINUTES of it, and take it out. I know he was talking of when it was on TV, but, that’s just plain stupid. He doesn’t know anyone who’s watched more of it ’cause everyone he knows has crappy senses of humor, like him, apparently. (Okay, comedy is subjective, SO WHAT?!!!)
Okay.
I’ve heard people say, “Oh, I can make funnier comments than THOSE guys.”
Yeah, let me know when you hit on somethin’ funny, Zeppo, and I’ll remember to laugh. :|
My roommate in college said that he couldn’t stand the show because they showed bad movies and also talked all the way through them. So pretty much a standard answer from what I’ve read above. I always take that complaint as being similar to the old joke about complaining about food: “The food here stinks and the portions are too small!”
Also I read some of those links to other rather vitriolic reviews and wow, I forget that riffing can just drive someone up the wall at times! That Wasp Woman one was a doozy and didn’t realize the self-appointed king of cool awareness, Mr. Knowles, was so filled with hate towards the show and its offspring.
And like some others on this comment board, I am a fan of sci-fi/horror/whatever movies from the 50s through 80s and they can’t all be good. There’s a reason why The Day The Earth Stood Still or The Thing From Another World are revered and 12 To The Moon and Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman are firmly placed on the “At Best B-Movie” shelf. Everything in a genre cannot be the best or a masterpiece, that’s why the few that are stand out and the rest are good, OK, bad, or gawdawful. And MST, CT, and RT have a good track record of picking out the cream of the bad to gawdawful crop.
Similar to others, I had a friend who said, “I’d enjoy the show more if the movies were good.” :roll:
Almost my whole family enjoys the show (although none as much as I do). Unfortunately, my dad–who is widely recognized as not having a sense of humor–has said repeatedly, “What’s the point of showing a movie if they’re just going to talk through it?” Again, echoing what others have said here.
I don’t follow movie critics that much, but I was pretty surprised at how defensive some got when the movie riffed “This Island Earth.” Maybe I should watch the original cut, but I don’t seem much that’s of redeeming value in the film.
And speaking of people who just don’t get it or are defensive about he MST3K treatment of bad movies. Are there any authentic/official quotes from Sandy Frank about how he feels about the series?
Don’t remember where it was –I’m afraid it might have been here :oops: — but I once saw someone complain that when Trace Bealeau left, it ruined the show because Bill Corbett’s Crow jokes ‘weren’t as funny.’ Lemme clarify: Someone asked it was made clear. He didn’t mean Bill’s DELIVERY was bad. He meant Crow’s JOKES weren’t as good, and he accussed Corbett of basically just repeating what the other people said. It had to be explained to the person Bill Corbett and/or Trace Bealeau did not make up all Crow’s jokes up the top of their head.
Over at AICN this week, Harry’s weekly DVD column mentions those two new Blamire films: The Lost Skeleton Returns Again & Dark And Stormy Night. In his blurb about the first he starts, “If you love MST3K – this is a film made intentially for you. Now the problem is this. With a little more effort, for this same kind of budget and acting – they could intentionally attempt to make a very good movie.” At the end of the second, he closes with “This just isn’t for me. I just respect the genre and prefer a straighter take on all of this. But then, I’m not a MST3Ker either.”
I love that he’s such a non-fan that he doesn’t use the term “MSTie”:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46171
Similar to Knowles, but way more eloquent, is Video Watchdog creator Tim Lucas who loves the B-movie genre so much that he can’t bear to see it re-purposed for humor. I discovered VW & MST3K concurrently and wondered why the magazine would never review the Rhino sets as they were coming out. When I eventually learned that Lucas hated the show on principle, I nearly cancelled my subscription. Here’s a video of him being interviewed about the subject and he ends up complimenting the show despite disagreeing with its basic premise. (The first three minutes pertain to MST):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A2L7nDv-8s&feature=related
He seems to think the show was stating that these quirky old films were inferior to today’s slick, big-budget blockbusters. He just doesn’t get it. I’d say you have to have a fondness for B-movies to be able to enjoy MST3K, but enough distance from them to be able to laugh. Lucas must have had a fit when the series ended by doing a Mario Bava movie.
Not so much a dumb comment, but a dumb omission…
The Comedy Central 13th anniversary special, which aired in 2004. A two hour, patting themselves on the back wankfest, in which MST was never mentioned. Nor were any clips seen in the montages of just about everything they ever had put on the air. Even the crap that lasted mere weeks got screen time! To pretend the show never existed at all was insulting, no matter what grudges may still be held.
I have to wonder if C.T. or the Rifftrax gang could even appear on the Daily Show?
I recall someone online blaming MST for people yelling out stuff in movie theaters. Yeah right!
I remember reading that some fans were super-offended by the Rifftrax treatment of the “Harry Potter” films, because there are numerous riffs about “Satanic dark magic” and that Mike, Kevin and Bill must be narrow-minded and prejudiced against Satanists. Uh…..
What makes it extra-ludicrous is that they riff on people from every religious/regional/socioeconomic sect. It’s always funny until it’s about you.
Stuart Galbraith IV got very personal with Joel. My guess is that since he appears to be a scholar of Japenese SciFi cinema of some sort, he may be feeling threatened by riffing as he appears to have a reverence for bad films. As we riff these movies, we riff him.
The poor dope just doesn’t get it. That, or he’s a Gallegher fanboy.
J. Hoberman of the Village Voice (a very astute critic btw, one of the best…usually), in a review of MST3K, the Movie, called the show “cynical.” I’m still trying to get what he meant.
I have had friends who are so highbrow about their lowbrow that they can’t handle such geniuses as Corman and company being mocked. This is seriousness taken to a level I will certainly never climb…
#40 – One of the writers for “The Colbert Report” once said that they wanted to promote Rifftracks, but Comedy Central would not let them.
CHRIS GORE’s review on the 20th Anniversary Box Set
“There are four unaired episodes” – Wrong
“You know, you get all these box sets, I didn’t get a chance to watch everything.” – MST3K episodes being available for the first time on Home Video is not worth watching compared to the other titles that he reviewed which were ALL DOUBLE DIPPED RE-RELEASES!
Holding the Crow T Robot figurine: “Look at this. But It comes with this. Uh, look at the. Look at the. Look at the. You got this uh.. It’s a little uh..” (Puts the figure down with a very “whatever” look on his face) – Name’s on the base you moron.
“Because you know you can see these on Television. I know! I know. The fans of the show are going to hate me.” – I’ll leave it at that.
The IMDB comments on the original films that MST3k riffed on. The one that comes to mind is “The Touch of Satan”, where someone really liked the film: “Mystery Science Theater ruined this film, it does not belong on the ‘Bottom 100’!”
I never heard of ANY of the films until MST3k got a hold of them, so I find it funny that the people who own the rights to the films don’t want them released in MST3k format because hardly anyone outside of MST3k knows that the films exist.
Never heard much beyond, “How can you watch the movie when they won’t stop talking?” and even a mean spirited, “Crap.”
When I talk to folks who haven’t seen the show, generally their impressions are good, as reviews have always been pretty positive. I’ve even gotten some people to sit through an episode or two! No converts though…
I knew a guy awhile back that said he thought only people who were 60 year old 18th century british archivists (exact words) could find MST3K funny. He then went to go watch badly spliced up footage of old cartoons on youtube which were hilarious to him.
I was once thrown out of Blast Off Video, the cool underground video rental store in Atlanta’s Little Five Points area, many years ago for telling the owner I loved MST. I mentioned it casually in passing as we were discussing our love of old strange movies. He burst into a rage, spittle flying he tore my membership card up in front of me and ushered me out the door.
I was so flummoxed that I don’t recall exactly what he said, something about the movies MST ruins being classics in their own right, that only a moron would need someone to point out what was funny about them and that basically anyone who watched it should be shot.
I eventually returned to the store months later, got a new membership and began renting again. The place was too great to stop going there. But you can be certain I NEVER mentioned MST in that place again!