Movie: (1967) Earthquakes in Korea turn out to be the work of Yongary, a prehistoric fire-breathing reptile who’s headed for Seoul.
Opening: J&tB are having their weekly dream journal meeting
Invention exchange: J&tB demonstrate their tiny desks; The Mads have Hitler Coffee
Segment 1: J&tB discuss astronauts and the music they like
Segment 2: Tom explains his monster-themed club, Yongary Nights
Segment 3: J&tB discuss what monster they’d like to be friends with
Closing: J&tB and The Mads sing “Push Past the Hurting”
Stinger: Monster a-go-go
(57 votes, average: 4.11 out of 5)
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• Capsule!
• A pretty good episode, with lots of great riffing and some mostly decent host segments. This sort of thing is right up their alley.
• The “music the astronauts like” sketch just sort of peters out. Thank goodness for movie sign.
• Another little bit of nomenclature from Max: The thing projecting onto the surface of the moon is called the “Iron Butterfly.”
• J&tB are very musical in the theater this time. Lots of singing.
• Callbacks: “I’m huge!” and “Thunderbirds are go!”
• The song they sing at the end is another great ditty by Paul & Storm.
• There was a bit more chuckling among the riffers in the theater this time. Maybe they just thought it was funnier.
• Cute moment the theater when something that looks eerily like the movie sign light goes off, and triggers Jonah and the bots.
• Movie question: What happened to the U.N. experts that were supposedly coming? Did they ever arrive?
• Cast and crew roundup: Just one this time: Macao Yagi, who built Godzilla and Gamera’s suits, supervised the construction of the Yongary suit.
• Fave riff: “I’M UPSIDE DOWWWWWWWN!” Honorable mention: “Everyone grab one thing. Doesn’t matter what the thing is! Just take it!” “Welcome back to Speaking Spectacles. I’m your host, Glasses McFancyHair.”
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Why doesn’t the ‘ignore’ function stick? It only works once and every time back you have to do it again.
The line they hit out of the park: “Yongary’s coming out.”
The gag I wanted to hear
J: “Did you ever see ‘Yongary Glen Ross?'”
C: “Is that the one where for no reason an oversize monster appears out of nowhere to terrify a bunch of helpless bystanders?”
J: “That’s the one.”
C: “Saw it. Alec Baldwin was amazing.”
If someone mentioned it earlier I missed it, but Yongary is a “lost” movie. Korea apparently didn’t take real good care of its B-movies, so as far as anyone can tell, only a beat-up 48-minute portion remains. (Search “Great Monster Yongary – Partially Lost South Korean Version” on YouTube if you’re curious.)
How many bad movies get even worse remakes? Yonggary (AKA Yong Gary, AKA Reptilian) is mindbendingly awful from beginning to end and would (might?) make a good Season 12 choice. (“I’ll just let my legs dangle in this intense flame…saaay, what smells so good?”) Pulgasari is a relative masterpiece!
I honestly don’t WANT to belabor the point here (because I don’t want this to be a Mike-Joel and now Jonah thing) but it’s the rest of you that apparently can’t stand it. I only jumped in to defend ANOTHER guy you jumped all over because he didn’t love this season. Apparently it’s fine if you love it (or even strongly like it) but, as with a certain group, dissent will NOT be tolerated.
I still think the older you are, the less you like this season. And I think it’s for good reasons — it’s not just the pacing, but the whole attitude of “we know what’s coming and we’ve prepared a joke for it” that was NEVER present in any of the past seasons. If you guys don’t get this — then we just agree to disagree.
I think this season is… pleasant. That’s about all it ever reaches. It’s still better than a whole lot of other television comedy (not drama — there are MUCH better TV shows out there, but few new good comedies). But it doesn’t even come close to some of the mediocre MST3K episodes of the past in my and my DW’s opinion (which means more to me than any of you here, anyway — it was actually her lack of laughing — and she’s an easy audience — that tipped me this might not be all that good).
I’m really glad Joel did this, and I AM glad it’s entertaining a whole lot of people. That some of the rest of us are not so amused you can chalk it up to the Queen of England effect (we’re old and like tradition and such).
I’ve been asking this for weeks. Even if you just go from page 1 to page 2 of the comments in the same browsing section, it doesn’t stick. Sampo, I’m beggin’ ya — PLEASE fix it. This site is getting unbearable. WDT has become the Weekend Debate Thread, not the Weekend Discussion Thread.
Well, all I know is, if I were to watch an episode of MST3K with OriginalEricJ, I will NOT suggest any episodes from the SciFi era! So: “Sidehackers”, then?
How many monster movies do you see where the big monster dies bleeding out its anus? Not too many, I’d say.
I genuinely enjoyed Yongary. I laughed a lot — guys tromping around in rubber monster suits is precisely just the sort of cheese MST3K was made for. There was a lot of goofiness here to enjoy, and I felt great riffing.
Yeah, Ichio is a role model for sure (cue TV-Frank’s classic terrified grin as he turns toward the camera).
General observation: I’m really enjoying the new season. To me it is, on the whole, faithful to the feel and spirit of the original–honestly, more than I expected, given the fact that they needed to appeal to a new generation and (let’s face it) a much different world. The things about it I don’t like so much (sure, there are some) I just deal with and/or I’m getting used to.
But man, listening to some of you folks seriously reminds me of my bickering kids at their worst… they will go back and forth ad nauseum about the most inane things, and won’t relent because they MUST… HAVE… THE… LAST… WORD… PERIOD. Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion (and I, for one, just skip the junk as soon as I see the post heading down the same old path, so have at it if you will), but as I tell them: Can’t you just let it go?
I still think the older you are, the less you like this season.
I don’t care if you like this season or not, frankly. What I DO resent is your presuming to speak for me. I’m 61, my wife is just a bit younger (not going to broadcast a woman’s age!), we’ve both watched MST since the early 90s, Rifftrax from its inception, CT from its birth to its death, and we both love this season.
You have a differing opinion? That’s fine. But get off your effing high horse, put your ego in check, and stop speaking for strangers.
Mike….when even I say “Please stop it”, that’s about as clear a message of “Please STOP it” as you can conceivably get.
Yes, we know you think you’re the Lone Martyr in the Wilderness for not finding the new show great, and have to continuously defend your view that it’s good but not great, while more and more posts in the past few threads have opened up that yes: Thinking the middle of the season is Pleasantly Mediocre is not hating it, nor is it loving it.
Me, I AM the Lone Martyr in the Wilderness for being baffled as to what the heck they put in the soup to make everyone love Space Mutiny, but you are not for wondering why Loves of Hercules was only meh.
Is there some way we can show support, give you a group hug to take away these feelings of persecution and isolation, and see what positive effects these might have toward shutting you the heck up?? ;)
Sorry, Bub. If YOU get to crap on Mike, Kevin, Bill and the Sci-Fi Era in EVERY SINGLE POST you’ve made here for the past 5 years or so then Mike Kelley can say whatever he wants to say about MST3k: The Return and you have no right to try and silence him. Wannabe Fascist.
I am right there with you as far as why Space Mutiny is so beloved. We are very small in numbers, those baffled by the Space Mutiny love, but we are out here.
You seriously can’t wrap your head around why Space Mutiny, and the riffing thereof, are hilarious and enjoyed by many?
The prosecution rests.
This being one of the MAIN reasons, I show enough discipline to save any discussion until the appropriate Thursday (we’re coming up on it anyway).
Today, we are here to discuss the anal-bleeding and itchiness of large reptiles. Ask your pharmacist about Preparation Y.
How old does one have to be to have the correct opinion about this season? Just curious.
Also, I think most people objected more to him claiming to speak for all old school fans of the show than him not liking the new season.
I seriously can’t. I think it’s possibly the worst episode. But more on that in the upcoming weekend thread. But see, I know I’m an oddball, because my favorite Mike episode is Kitten With A Whip.
Wow. I really don’t understand where all this negativity is coming from. I’m with the faction that has enjoyed every season of MST3K, Rifftrax, The Film Crew, Cinematic Titanic, and the new MST3K. For some reason it seems like about half the posts in this thread consist of bitter bickering over trivialities and now arguments over who is the most qualified fan. As if being a mistie was something you got a degree in. I find myself thinking of the party in Girl in the Gold Boots where the detached black drummers are made to say, “Whatever, white people”.
Another little thing I like a lot in this episode is the description of Sally Ride’s musical taste the host segment. Crow’s response to her having Spandau Ballet in her locker and Josh’s defense of having broad tastes is straight out my high school where most of the kids found my death metal shirts off putting, but the anti-social stoner metal crowd rejected me because I wore a shirt I picked up at a Huey Lewis and the News concert (Sports era). I knew they’d react that way. In my experience similar groups at other schools had been populated with jerks, and I wanted to see if this bunch was the same before they got too enthusiastic about me being one of them. Nipped that in the bud I did.
Sampo, save us. Save your site. Can you please either have some new forum rules or re-state old ones that we don’t know? The ignore button DOES NOT WORK.
May I humbly suggest that the admins delete every thread in this WDT that does not contribute to the discussion of Yongary. Yes, that would include a couple of my posts, which would be AOK with me as long as it swept out the pissing contest between the trolls. Compared to this place the last couple of months, Facebook is a serene oasis of sunshine and rainbows.
Fer real. You’ve got like 3-5 people who don’t know how to share an opinion constructively without sh***ing all over everyone else, and they make it really unpleasant for the majority of people who just want to talk about the pros and cons of the episode without being condescending to everyone else. It’s become nearly unbearable ever since the new eps were launched. I really do not have a problem with anyone who loves the new season to death or are completely disappointed by it, but if we could not treat opinions as facts, that would be just lovely.
I have to re-watch this episode. I zoned out a lot during my first watch of this season, and they all deserve a second viewing with my full attention. I re-watched the first Wizards not too long ago and found it had some excellent riffing that had me rolling for a bit. I’m hoping I get a similar experience from this one.
Also, EricJ telling someone else to stop posting the same sort of opinion over and over totally broke my hypocrisy meter. I’m torn because I’m sick of Mike Kelley saying the same damn thing every single week, but if he’s found a way to make EricJ understand just how intolerable his own posts are, then maybe more power to him.
You have not seen the color of your own underwear in seven to eight years. You do know when you pick it out of corners of your room, but after that it’s madness.
And by the way, this movie was on a UHF station in upstate Poughkeepsie EVERY, I MEAN EVERY weekend. I watched it EVERY WEEKEND.
So my mother used to yell outside to me that “Dungarees” was on as she thought it was a weekly kids show minus the fact of the ending. (Parents)
Look docskip I don’t know where you come from but some of us in our older years…oh my go…..be right back……………
Cornjob: “Another little thing I like a lot in this episode is the description of Sally Ride’s musical tastes…”
Me too! I specifically mentioned that host segment in my first post for this episode, but forgot to mention how much I liked that part of it. I love heavy metal (well, my usual choices in music have always been your basic guitar rock bands). Black Sabbath hooked me in 1970, and a big part of my musical journey since then has been metal. But I also like to listen to other “kinds” of music; my motto is “I’ll listen to anything once”. If I like it, I’ll take it from the buffet, leaving what I don’t like. Anyway, I like how you wore T-shirts to kind of challenge people who have taken a static attitude regarding genres of music, and the way they handled it in the host segment was funny and made a good point.
Your post motivated me to watch the “Lemmy” documentary on Netflix all the way through; I had watched parts of it before, but not the whole thing. A fascinating guy, and Motorhead is of course a part of MST3K history with “Ace of Spades” featured in “Zombie Nightmare”.
I was actually less irritated by Korean Kenny, I mean Itchy, I mean Ichio — because at this point I’ve accepted that apparently every kaiju movie from a certain era just HAS to have an annoying child — than I was by the fact that apparently the science-military complex of the ROK thinks it’s perfectly acceptable for a helicopter pilot to load his craft with his entire cheering/giggling civilian family and hover over a rampaging monster while dumping loads of toxic chemicals both on the monster and in the waterway. I’m trying to figure out “In what world is any of this a good idea?”
So having to read comments and opinions concerning a show that is based on comments and opinions is “unbearable”?
Wow, if only I could live a life where having to use my scroll function on my computer in a comment thread is the worst part of my day.
Discussions might result in differing opinions. That is the life of fandom. C’mon, in the grand scheme of things, the comments regarding a puppet show are pretty small potatoes. And those potatoes are definitely not “unbearable”.
I’m sorry if my mildly hyperbolic use of the word “unbearable” is so much more terrible than people presenting their opinions as facts, speaking for entire groups of people, and being condescending to anyone who likes the new show. I don’t think asking for a properly working ignore feature is asking for too much. I’d certainly prefer if people could just discuss the show like respectable human beings so it wasn’t a desired feature to X out certain commenters, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Differing opinions are one thing, acting like a dick to everyone is another.
I’m 65, and have watched MST in all its iterations since the earth’s crust cooled. And it’s not a stretch to say I’ve enjoyed Every. Single. One.
I dunno, maybe I’m an outlier. Or maybe I’m just flexible. At any rate, I know what I like, and MST in whatever version is simply great.
Now get off my lawn, dammit. It’s time to go the cafeteria, and they’re serving tapioca today
I’m tickled by this post. Why, I’m practically all itchy-fied.
“totally broke my hypocrisy meter”
Sounds like you just don’t know how to use it.
I’d like to interject just a few things I think, if we all considered them, would help out our little community.
Man is a feeling creature.
The wisest and the best is to focus our attention on the good and the beautiful.
It’s just a show.
Watch out for snakes.
Oh, and in all seriousness… that “golden rule” thing is a really good idea.
Think about we, won’t you? Thank you!
I should have added, I’m a writer with seven novels out (click my name), and the very first thing that attracted me to the show’s premise nearly three decades ago was the crackerjack scripts. I love me some good, quality smart assery, and the good folks at MST have never failed to disappoint. YMMV, of course.
Hve you tried running it through the Shame-O-Meter?
I recommend the Steve-O-Meter. ;)
I know I’m going to catch more lobed vitriolic Malatov cocktails than a misguided Blood Beast, but I gotta thank Mike “the genius” and some of the others here for articulating what I could not when it comes to my feeling about the new season. I have recently read everything from literary-linguistic criticism singing lofty praise for MST3K to ones simply offering some constructive suggestions. I actually understand more about how this season works through all of these comments. I was at first apprehensive when it became apparent most of the cast was not included. There must have been some fundamental decisions about the re-launch that precluded a retro-fitting of any part of the former cast. I am afraid that what this bought upfront, cost something in the way of continuity-too much of a departure from past practice I guess; whether it be completing the whole season at once to rehearsed dialogue. I think Joel’s “this isn’t something Hollywood could turn out” years ago rings a bit true here-albeit ironicly. And it doesn’t take a genuis to figure out perhaps the tightly-scripted riffs and what seems to be an emerging formula of jokes and Moon 13 incidental music trying to hit all of the (targeted) audience demographics. There is a parable about Theseus’ ship being altered to the point where so many original planks might be replaced that it’s not reasonable to consider it Theseus’ ship anymore. There’s nothing wrong with the new ship; some of us just would have liked to see a bit more of what we once relied on every week to brace us for the next. I wonder what might have been if we had been treated to two separate original crews trapped in space, alternating from show to show. We’re not alegeric to change, but sometimes I feel like Crow when he drank too much Mountain Dew and listened to Nitzer Ebb when I try to follow the new format. Now, I’ll crawl back under the rock before the cocktail party begins.
The Reptilian DVD cover is a ridiculous ripoff of 1998’s Godzilla. Question is why?
Wow just saw that, what did someone do take it to a toilet and drop it in?
It’s like a storm raging inside you.
I doubt anyone is going to attack you for not being super enthused about the show. I have similar feelings about the show that you and Mike Kelley do. People took issue with him blaming the show’s differences on millenials every week without any supporting evidence, no matter how many people have come out of the woodwork to assert that they’re in their 50s/60s and are enjoying it very much. There’s obviously a lot of enthusiasm for the new season, but there’s clearly support for the people that aren’t into it because their comments tend to get a fair amount of likes as well. I think people would just prefer that others not make these bizarre assertions when sharing their opinions (“if you like it you’re probably not an older fan like me” “if you write up a big comment about the episode you must have too much free time”).
As much as I wanted to stay out of this (because, truly, I want this to be a discussion of this episode. Which ain’t that good) can we then say that no one has come up with a decent hypothesis on why this particular season is, at the very least, not thought of as well as the original BY SOME PEOPLE? At least I offered a theory (which I still believe, and those who disagree are the exceptions that prove the rule) only because it’s what Mike Nelson and company have stated as much. The whole concept of why RIfftrax has moved in the direction it has moved in is to appeal to the younger crowd, those who were not around when MST3K was even on the air. I don’t think it takes an author (the one who said “I wrote seven books” — geeze, I’m SO impressed, my wife has only written three) to understand the riffing pace IS different. VERY different. Maybe I haven’t done a scientific study, but I’d love it if someone did (amount of jokes but also time between comment and joke made about it would be the telling points).
Can’t we ALL agree that speeding up the pace is a nod to the younger generation? Aren’t they the ones most in to social media? (Yah, I know, there will be three or four old folks here who will say “NOT AT ALL!! I use twitter ALL the time, so that disproves your theory!” Which doesn’t mean a thing). If someone wants to argue here that the attention span of younger folks isn’t shorter I’ll just leave and SMH.
But I WILL keep writing the same thing IF that “same thing” is I don’t like the episodes (trust me, for those of you who haven’t been tempted yet, no spoilers but it gets MUCH worse, bad to the point where my wife and I actually couldn’t make it through a couple of episodes). I will continue to call it MST3K-lite. I’ll leave out the millennials, despite the fact I think it’s true, but we’ll all take it as given and just assume that every single person here ALWAYS reads every single message on every single episode (so no need to repeat ourselves, right?). As I said before (yep, saying it again) I did pay my money so I do feel I have a right to express my opinion. And, kids, it’s easy to scroll past or block me (and that, again, is something very true of the younger generation and no other — the unwillingness to even listen to other opinions. Hell, I even listened to Eric J back when no one else would, and will continue to read all of his stuff despite his telling me, in essence, to shut up. Just because).
I was down for a good discussion until this ridiculous line. Sounds like you need to work out your issues with the younger generation. We all know how older people are never stubborn and set in their ways and are always willing to listen to others, so I’m sure you’ll take that to heart.
Of course you’re free to express your opinion; no one’s stopping you. But maybe stop acting like your opinion is incontrovertible fact and you’ll get a more positive response.
And now you feel, what, “betrayed”, because the only other “reasonable” older-generation poster “turned against” your cries of lone martyrdom? No, don’t feel that way–I wasn’t in the least disagreeing with you on the somewhat occasionally underwhelming results of the middle season episodes (and yes, maybe the pacing, but I put that down to the comics not rehearsing together), and that while Jonah isn’t Joel and isn’t Mike, he’s not bad and not great either.
I was only sharing the opinion of the larger group that your lone need to sound this opinion at every individual episode discussion, rather than that one long post-debut discussion last April, was BEATING IT INTO THE F’IN’ GROUND!!!!
And more importantly, that we know why: You don’t hear, or selectively don’t hear, people saying “Ehh, y’know, the Coizzi Hercules would have been better for 1108…”, hear only the Netflix-noobs or the “More stuff!” kids praising the series to the skies, fear that Hell Is the Futility Of Reason, and think unstoppable Space Mutiny-ism has set in.
What can we therapeutically say to convince you that it hasn’t, and to stop Defending Your Old-Generation Fandom?
You ask for “Won’t somebody else out there in that vast wide universe say that the new season is a Millennial love-letter, but too artificially created to capture the old CC soul?” And at this point, those who share some of that general sentiment are saying “For the love of freakin’ HUMANITY, if we give you one, will you go away and focus on the episode discussions again??”
Here–
(straps Mike into Ludovico-Treatment chair)
Open wide:
(stuffs “While Jonah has the good sense for pop-culture reference lore that the SciFi/RiffTrax writers didn’t, there’s more to 20th-cty. pop-culture than just The Muppets and 70’s songs” down Mike’s protesting throat, shouting “Eat it, boy, EAT it!!”, takes a breath, and then jams “Joel’s passion for making the series has cooled somewhat after the troubles of the breakup and CT tours, and his interest with just fan-perpetuating a cult icon is now half-and-half with exploring new riffing material.”)
There. Now you’ve gotten your theory about why it’s “Too millennial and not quite as good”. Please retire in contentment and move on.
Ironically, this comments thread makes me want to sing a song about pushing past the hurting. It’s like the center of my back where I can’t reach, except my back is everywhere.
So, Yongary!
The thing that really stood out to me about this particular monster movie (other than the downer ending) was the special idiocy of the MEN IN CHARGE, sitting in their little room somewhere. I know that every monster movie has one of these rooms (a lab, a bunker, etc.) and, in terms of making a movie, it’s easier to have one standing set rather than show a bunch of people out and about doing things. And to be fair, this movie does show the same small number of people out and about doing things. But my goodness, every time they cut back to that room I just want to tear my eyes out! You’re never sure exactly who they are or what authority they have. Does the movie ever explicitly say? There’s government guy and general dude and science men and…a bunch of people in the background doing…something…and it’s just scene after scene of interminable and unnecessary dialogue and I know these movies are supposed to be bad and…why is the woman in the background typing everything and…
Okay, let me recover for a second. I think I was overcome by an itch ray.
The thing I really enjoy about the song at the end, other than the song itself is…how bad Jonah&tB are at singing it. When it goes from minor to major at the chorus they just butcher it – and keep going. And Max very oddly and painfully sings up in Kinga’s range at the end. If that isn’t classic MST3K, I don’t know what is.
Irony is dead.
I imagine I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong, but every single argument I’ve seen about why Season 11 doesn’t stack up to the CC/Sci-Fi eras boils down to the same essential point: “it’s not the same as the old show”. All the stuff about the riffing, about their comedic sensibilities, about the Mads, about Jonah & Co., about Gypsy, about *all of it* – it just goes back to “it’s not the same as the old show”. And that’s fine! I mean, what the hell else would you use as a comparison point, or as a frame of reference? It makes zero sense comparing Jonah Ray to George Costanza or something like “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom” to “The One With The Embryos”. Of course we’ll compare it to the old show.
My thing is that the show has changed and evolved so much that, honestly, what “the old show” is isn’t the same thing for everyone. I know some of y’all have very large axes to grind w/r/t one particular fellow (I only just joined the board, so I’ve only really seen what I imagine is the tip of a very large iceberg), but what his viewpoint on *a certain era of MST3K* tells me is that everyone sees the show the same way. I made a joke on MST3K’s Reddit in a discussion about Jonah like “this must be what Joel vs Mike was like, only it’s Joel vs Mike vs Joel’s hand-picked guy”, but I don’t think it’s a joke anymore – I’m now certain (even with only the most cursory investigations into this) that that’s *exactly* what it was like. Like I’d said in my last post, this is what fandom of something considered “cult” in particular tends to be. Why else would we argue about this stuff if we weren’t going to argue passionately about it, and if we weren’t going to always see things the same way?
So that’s why I, myself, a guy named “Anthony” on an MST3K website/message board of sorts, actually don’t want to put too much stock into comparing Season 11 to the old show, no matter how much one wants to – because “the old show” isn’t just about “the old show”. It’s about *how we perceive the old show*, how the old show fit into our lives, how the old show helped shape us as human beings and how we see the world and all that good stuff, how someone might have had to stay up late to watch an episode in Season 3 or (in my case) watched Sci-Fi reruns on Saturday morning while paying semi-reasonable prices for DVD-Rs of old episodes (that weren’t even labeled!) that weren’t officially released by Rhino, and so on. And that gets in the way of things, not because it doesn’t mean that you can’t be clear-eyed, if not objective – which is impossible when talking about art, of course – about the merits (or lack thereof) of a different version of the show, it just means that you’ve got a lot tied into what “your” version of the show is, and sometimes it’s hard to put that aside. I’ve busted Mike Kelley’s balls about his seemingly unending use of “millennials” in these threads, but at least now I understand it more – “millennials”, by definition, are NOT HIM. He doesn’t share their perceptions of the world or sense of humor (or, more accurately, his perceptions thereof), and because they might be the sort, to him, that find this show funniest, of course they’re going to become the frame of reference for his criticism and occasionally outright disdain of the show (I, for one, entirely disagree that the show gets *worse* after Yongary).
Again, I’m not saying that criticizing Season 11 isn’t valid – of course it’s valid, there’s episodes I think aren’t good and things I wish were different and so on and so forth. And I know that it’s impossible for Season 11 to live in any sort of vacuum, because that’s just not how this works. I just think that the closer you can get to seeing it in a vacuum, the more that there is about Season 11 to like. And if you disagree, that’s totally fine! Vive le difference, as they say.
(ps: I don’t think the tour’s a “money-grab”, but that’s another discussion)
COMPLETELY RANDOM NOTE – I just watched The Sadist the other day, in which Arch Hall, Jr., late of Eegah!, basically plays Charles Starkweather. He’s really good in it – creepy and threatening.
Anyway, what does this have to do with “Watch our for snakes!”?
See The Sadist and find out!
I need to dock this ship pronto, if’n you get me.
Anyway, meta-fandom discussion aside (which, again, I come from Phish fandom, I get into discussions like this about the 1997 incarnation vs the 2015 incarnation of Phish on the reg), a few other things about this episode:
1. My favorite riff is probably Jonah saying something along the lines of “I’ve been following the movie so far, but why is Yongary in a Wild West town all of a sudden?”
2. A note about the movie itself – again, as noted, I’m of Korean descent, so it was eminently fascinating to get that slice of Korean culture circa the mid-1960s, especially given that Korea had gone through TWO separate wars in the middle of the century, not just one (and had basically been an appendix of Japan until the end of the first one).
3. One thing I’d agree with when it comes to any sort of Joel v. Mike debate – I prefer Joel-era sketches that are almost entirely about the movie (not that his episodes didn’t have flights of fancy sketches or runners like “waffles”) to the more out-of-nowhere stuff or season-arc-continuity Mike did (not that he didn’t have movie-related sketches, of course), mainly because they reward attention to the movie itself. It’s fun to see stuff like the fashion show of Beast of Hollow Mountain costumes or a rap song entirely about kaiju in an episode about a Danish kaiju movie.
4. As noted before, the last 20 minutes of the in-theater segments had me laughing very hard. That’s one thing that separates MST3K from other shows – when the riffs come that quickly and are that good, the show can gather up the momentum of a boulder rolling down a hill in a way no other comedy on TV can. That’s a special feeling!
I think you make a lot of good points. I’m able to keep my nostalgia for the old show separate because how I’ve watched it in recent years has changed so drastically from how I watched it when it was on TV originally. It used be that show that would drag my lazy teenage ass out of bed in the mornings to watch, or that I would stay up way too late to watch, knowing I’d hate myself for it Monday morning. Now it’s that comforting show I put on when I want to fall asleep quickly, because something about a dude and two robots making fun of a movie in my own home is like a wonderful sedative now. I can still do that with the new show too; a dude and two bots riffing on movies is always going to be a welcome concept to me.
For me, my biggest issue with the new episodes in terms of how it’s different from previous iterations isn’t as much the pacing (as that does get better as the season goes on), but it’s just how overly excited and hyper the riffing tends to be. I just like the lazier, laid back riffing style of the first 10 seasons. Maybe that will change in the future, maybe not. Doesn’t really bother me one way or another. I got new MST3K and there are plenty of things I like about it. I really like most of the new cast, and feel like they nailed the host segments. As is MST3K tradition, there are others that feel the exact opposite; that the riffing is near perfect but the host segments are meh. I just don’t really see a point in categorizing those people all in some “other” group because I think it implies that there’s something wrong with them for feeling differently than me.
I like the fact that for every episode that is someone’s favorite, it’s also someone else’s least favorite. I might not “get” exactly why Cry Wilderness is someone’s favorite episode of all time, but so what? I don’t need to get it. It doesn’t affect me. I should be able to love Hellcats or The Girl in Lover’s Lane or Leech Woman or Space Mutiny or The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t just as someone else should be able to love Castle of Fu Manchu or Hamlet or Yongary, without someone making implications that they’re a bad fan for doing so.
The same goes for the other way around. Usually, when I mention I really don’t like Space Mutiny, I’m instantly labeled a troll. It is possible not to like that one.