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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In real-life I’ve never heard a negative comment on MST3K. At the same time I’ve never really heard a positive comment about it other than from a few fellow fans of the show (which IMO do not count towards an outside opinion).
The only times I’ve come across negative comments are online in reviews and they’ve all been covered in this thread already.
I can’t think of any critics from TV or magazines that made dumb comments about the show, but I recall at one family Thanksgiving dinner, while my dad and I were talking about watching MST later on that evening, one of my uncles (having already consuming a few brewskies) overheard us and made the very loud comment: “MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER? Can’t stand that show, it’s just like Beavis and Butt-Head!”
Okay, I’ll sheepishly admit that I liked Beavis & Butt-Head in my younger days, but how could one even COMPARE that show to MST3K? B & B was almost all bathroom humor; MST made incredibly obscure references that at times only scholars would understand. My guess is that he had watched a small sample of the show – perhaps one of his beloved “Hercules” films – and had not taken to it kindly! :lol:
@ #52
When “Beavis & Butt-Head” debuted, I heard someone at school describe it to someone as “It’s like ‘Mystery Science Theater’ but they make fun of music videos, not movies.”
Somewhat off-topic, I know…
I too have come across the classic “I can’t hear the movie with them talkin’ over it all the time”. I now wish I simply asked this person if they actually listened to what was being said at the screen (they probably did not). I’m pretty sure they had no interest in any aspect of MST3K and this was the way to get out of watching episodes. For some reason I have found many people seem to be afraid to watch MST3K. I think if they don’t get some jokes they will look dumb in the eyes of fans watching with them. I always ask them to give it chance and they just respond “I just won’t like it”.
#45 –
That is hilarious! And a bit pathetic…it’s like “Dude – you cancelled us!”
That Mike Nelson crack about Comedy Central wanting to air to timely, up to the minute comedy meaning more Benny Hill repeats must’ve really stung them.
The only disparaging comment I’ve ever heard came from my bro-in-law who asked how I can watch a movie with those guys talking over it? I asked how he watched movies in theaters today without “guys talking over it”?
@CG (#42) – as a practicing Wiccan, I find it funny when people ask me if I’m offended by the HP rifftrax. Honestly, more offened by JK’s HP. Rifftrax is hilarious. It actually got me to watch the 4th HP…
I heard that people thought that it “there are people who paid good money to see these movies when they came out”, and it’s kind of disrespectful to the filmmakers…so people lined up and paid top dollar for “Hobgoblins”?!…
#36 said: I’ve heard people say, “Oh, I can make funnier comments than THOSE guys.”
Yeah, and some here have said this too. Check the “Space Mutiny” discussion.
Without meaning to ruffle any feathers (well, maybe a little), I’ve read some pretty dumb comments here on this site from supposed fans of the show. As we went through the Sci-Fi Channel seasons in the Episode Guide, a few people had very strong opinions about the show having lost it’s charm, arguing that the show seemed dumbed down for a younger generation of fans. While I agree that the tone of show evolved, it remained essentially the same. It’s a bit like saying you can’t enjoy any of the Rolling Stones’ music after Brian Jones left. Most folks would agree they only got better.
BTW, I am one of the few that doesn’t love “The Final Sacrifice” episode, the Colossal Episode Guide book, or MST3K: The Movie, so my opinions on these subjects could also be classified as “dumb comments.”
Well, it’s pretty obvious that some people just can’t “get” the show nor will they ever. That too bad because the riffs were written to cover a large portion of our culture – from the obscure to the notable. There is literally something for everyone. Will I get every joke? No. Will I get most and laugh my ass off? Yes. Humor is one of man’s most fickle emotions. And with that I say…WATCH OUT FOR SNAKES!
Bill Warren, God bless him, hates MST3K because he believes the show openly encourages other people to riff at live screenings of films. He also takes the show to task in the new edition of Keep Watching the Skies! for riffing This Island Earth in the MST movie, charging they could have done Queen of Outer Space instead…without once mentioning (or apparently even considering) that it’s a Warner Brothers-owned film, and pretty much out of reach for the Universal-backed MST movie.
Though I will grant him, a riffed version of Queen would be hilarious–probably moreso than TIE.
John Stanley does trash the MST movie in his Creature Features book, but is also amazingly complimentary towards some truly wretched films he neglects to tell you he appears in. He’s free to dislike MST, but the latter robs of him of any credibility as a critic.
You ever notice, that the person who says “I could do better myself.” is always the guy who is constantly talking about “that one Family Guy when…” and repeatedly laughing at all of his own jokes? I’ve had like six or seven of these guys at every place I work. It’s embittered me deeply about the human race.
I used to be one of those “Why do they have to talk during the movie?” guys.
Honestly, when MST3K first started I was turned off because of the people I knew who were fans. Now I’m a pretty huge nerd myself, but the fans I knew were hardcore basement-dwelling dorks, the kind of people who were unable to hold a conversation without throwing in lines from Monty Python or Red Dwarf every other sentence or would crucify you if you blanked on the name of a third-teir character from The Hitchhiker’s Guide. Because of those mouth breathers, I steered clear of it.
As years went by I really got into B-movies and exploitation cinema (the Psychotronic Video Guide was my Bible) and my attitude towards MST was more ambivalent. What they were doing didn’t offend me in the least, but all in all I’d rather just watch the movies on their own, wether they were good or not. Luckily, a friend with much better social skills than the aforementioned dorks came along who lived within stumbling distance of my favorite bar and would always have people over and put on an episode after a night of drinking. Thanks to her, I was able to really just relax.
Erik Wallace is an effing idiot. You can dislike the show, but jeez, do you have to be such a stick-in-the-ass whiny douche? Jeez.
A little background first. When MST3K was still on Comedy Central, I was having a friend tape it for me as we did not have cable at the time. A few months later I went to a Star Trek convention with her and a friend of hers. When her friend (a teacher) heard us talking about the show, he launched into a hateful diatribe. It seemed that he blamed MST for the kids in his class making fun of the film strips he showed.
I pointed out that some of those film strips NEEDED to be made fun of. I also told him how my classmates and I made fun of them long before MST3K ever came along.
He wasn’t impressed with my reasoning, so I dropped the subject. After all, it was his car and I still needed a ride home. ;-)
I’m just happy to be a mistie. Pure, and simple, we’re awesome.
“Bill Warren, God bless him, hates MST3K because he believes the show openly encourages other people to riff at live screenings of films.”
I see his point but I think he’s wrong. I love MST3K and I don’t talk during movies in public, simple as that; I know that “there’s a time and a place”. Let me draw an analogy: I watch movies at home and (depending on the movie) don’t feel bad about pausing them, going to the bathroom, talking to my mates, and whatnot; I can do all these things without feeling the need to talk and go to the bathroom &c. during a movie at a proper theater.
This was actually a comment about me, but mst3k is mentioned
My mom was watching that STUPID MTV reality show “My super sweet 16”. I got so angry at the show because while everyone is financially suffering, MTV shoves pretentious, pompous, and (pardon my french) bitchy teenage girls down our throats. as i was talking to my brother about why was my mom watching that show, he said “dude, you watch a about with a guy and his robot puppets”.
Say what you want, but I’ll take mst3k over any MTV reality show any day.
I agree with #67!
My older sister has always referred to Crow as “the armadillo looking thing” :roll:
-Any excuse from movie fanboys/people involved with the making of the movie that is some form of, “It only looks like a bad movie because they edited out parts for their stupid skits!” I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe that any movie can go from “cinematic masterpiece” to “abysmal, eye-raping failure” due to the excision of five minutes of filler scenes.
-This is really just a pet peeve of mine, but anyone who declares that they and their friends should “totally write for MST3K.” No. No you shouldn’t. You know why? Because MST3K/RT/CT have a staff of talented writers and performers who spend long periods of time crafting their jokes. You, on the other hand, have your WoW buddies, a six-pack of PBR and a repertoire of jokes that mainly boil down to “That guy is totally gay!” and “She’s ugly!” Comparing the two is like suggesting that your bird-watching experience has prepared you to fly a 747.
My ex couldn’t understand how I was able to sit through more than just a short… Although to her credit, she did watch Eegah! all the way through. But I got a lot of disgusted looks when I’d state I was doing marathons.
Another girl I know, when I showed her some clips of the show, said “I just don’t get how anyone could think that’s funny…” to which I replied “I don’t get how anyone COULDN’T!” She’s lucky I talk to her.
Admittedly, when I started watching my first episode of MST3K, I was disappointed to learn that Joel and the Bots were going to be in the theater the entire time – I remember thinking that their silohuettes were going to get in the way of the movie… :oops: Still kicking myself for thinking that. Anyway, while I’ve never heard someone badmouth the show, I have plenty of lectures planned out…just in case >.< I am proud to be a MSTie.
Not quite MST related, but in a similar area: my brother was once thrown out of a local movie theater ten minutes into a showing. The movie being shown was Rocky Horror Picture Show, and he was kicked out for standing up ten minutes in and bellowing, “Will you people SHUT THE F*** UP! I’M TRYING TO WATCH!”
I’ve been a fan of MST3K for a long time, and it makes me extrememly mad when someone disses it. My friends say that it’s “stupid” and that it’s just plain dumb. I then get mad, say that they’re wrong and that MST3K was the best thing to come to television, then I storm off in a rage.
There was the failed attempt at turning my friends on to MST3K this past school year when I brought in “Monster A-Go Go” for all to see. The volume on the speakers wouldn’t really work, and no one tried to fix it. At that point, I got comments coming from people from all corners of the room about how they thought that MST was “stupid” and that they hated it. I felt hurt that my hobby was being torn to shreds by people that watch stupid stuff on MTV and all those other channels. A few of my friends that liked the show tried to bring my spirits up, but there attempt at putting a smile on my face failed. I left school at the end of the day, angry and wanting to punch one of the haters in the face.
My dad really likes MST3K and watches it with me all the time. His favorite is “Escape 2000”. He only has good things to say about the show. My mom, on the other hand, really dislikes the show. She always tells me that it’s “stupid” and a “waste of time”.
I try to riff on movies and videos during school. All my friends love doing that, but most of them still don’t like MST. What are their problems?!
I look back at the comments above and am happy that people don’t tell me things about the show that some of these people have heard. Despite what people tell me all the time, I’ll always love Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Lump two of my friends in with the folks who say “These movies are terrible. Why don’t they watch good movies?” or “My jokes are WAY FUNNIER than these idiots.”
Of course, these two also poop on most of the shows/movies/music I like… perhaps I need to branch out and find some new friends. :lol:
“You ever notice, that the person who says “I could do better myself.” is always the guy who is constantly talking about “that one Family Guy when…” and repeatedly laughing at all of his own jokes? I’ve had like six or seven of these guys at every place I work. It’s embittered me deeply about the human race.”
Yeah those people are the reason movies like “Vampires Suck” get made. My father-in-law doesn’t fit into that category really, but he has said several times that he just thinks he and his friends could make funnier comments. I honestly think he’s simply jealous of the success of the show. He’s a huge fan of puppetry, movies, Monty Python, the Marx brothers, and a million other things that you’d think would make him a great MSTie. It really bothers me that he will not watch an episode with me(I don’t know if he’s even seen a full episode or not), but whenever he starts raving about some new show he’s watching he’ll basically just turn it on while we’re having a conversation, forcing me to watch.
@55 – That Mike Nelson crack about Comedy Central wanting to air to timely, up to the minute comedy meaning more Benny Hill repeats must’ve really stung them.
If Comedy Central had EVER
aired Benny Hill repeats (which, if they ever had, I don’t think they had since the early Clinton administration), it would funnier than an entire YEAR of Carlos Mencia.
I’ve noticed that the biggest MST3k haters listed here are all “horrible people with too much money” reality show fans. That’s fairly telling, both of their intelligence and why we aren’t allowed to have nice shows like MST3k anymore.
My ex-friend’s attempts to explain that Soultaker, the Mary Sue Motion Picture, was somehow too good for MST3k. It mostly consisted of “But that’s too good!” repeated over & over. Given her writing style, somehow I’m not surprised she would defend Vivian Schilling’s ego-fest like it was her own; they were cut from the same cloth, only she was a much larger swath.
Any attempt on my father’s part to prove that anyone can riff. This is then followed by either incredibly unfunny fart jokes (not well-timed ones but ones where just mentioning farting is somehow comedy gold) or INSANELY unfunny jokes about an actor being gay & this in itself supposed to be hilarious. Thankfully, my mother can semi-appreciate it, if only because it brought “Killer Shrews” out of obscurity.
Off topic , but I guess we can chalk Stuart Galbraith IV as one of the reasons why G-Fest (Japanese Sci-Fi convetion) will probably never have any of the MST3K cast as guests. Even though various convention goers have voiced their opinion that they would get a kick out of seeing them there.
@71 – I remember having similar reservations about shadowrama the first couple of times I watched the show. It probably didn’t help matters that I had a TINY television, and every bit of screen was precious.
Comic book writer Warren Ellis was/is an MST3K basher. He once remarked on his forum that only stupid people could possibly laugh at the show, and that people doped up on drugs and booze could think of much funnier jokes than MST3K did.
One of many reasons why I feel Warren Ellis is overrated.
@81 – Warren Ellis makes his living mocking the people who buy his work; if the comic book fandom wasn’t so Stockholm Syndrome-y, he’d be that drunk crank who sits in the local sandwich shop all day without buying anything & makes snide comments about everyone else’s orders.
Warren Ellis? Really? He just made the list. A person who makes his money off of people buying his creative works does not want to be on my list. :evil:
I have to confess the dumbest thing I ever heard about MST3K came from (blush) me. When I first saw the show, I HATED it.
Yes, it’s true. I did hate the show. I love bad movies and I hated them talking over them. I wanted to watch the films! They came on every midnight (at the time), while I was working on my writing and I would have it on in the background. It was the only thing on that time of night besides infomercials.
But, little by little the jokes started to work on me. I would be concentrating on something and a joke would permeate and I would laugh and admit, “Okay, that was funny.”
Eventually hate turned to love, and I’ve become a stone cold fan.
The only other thing I can think of is:
I was listening to the commentary to King Kong(1933) with Ray HarryHausen. Another person on the commentary track (I forget who), brought up MST3K to which HarryHausen said with distate, “Oh I hate that show!”
I was taken aback. I can’t imagine why. They never touched his films.
The only thing I can imagine is HarryHausen never forgave them for “The Black Scorpion” on which his mentor Willis O’Brien worked. Poor O’Brien. He never did get another chance to do another film like King Kong. :(
By far the worst was when Moriarty of (at the time) Ain’t It Cool News fame lamented the lack of commentary track for one of the season sets. The. Entire. Show. Is. Commentary.
#62 – What!!!!!??? Third tiered characters of Hitchhikers’ Guide are not worth remembering? (LOL)
Actually, I know that my father does not like MST3k. He has not told me that, but I was told that by my mother, and my father has no sense of humor that I am aware of, so I just do not broach the subject.
Generally, what MST3k has done for me, is that it has made current television shows unnecessary. I can come home, do some minor stuff, maybe read a chapter from a book, put on a MST episode, and the evening is complete.
Back in the late 90’s when I was in art school my photography teacher saw me wearing my Tom Servo “I’m Huge!” t-shirt and complained that MST3000 ruined going to the movies because people would yell at the screen. I told him that he should go to better movies that people wouldn’t want to yell stuff at. I have always adored and respected movies as possibly the greatest artform, and so I’ve also always gone to see a ton of them, and I would never “yell” anything at any movie (though I have been known to quietly say a riff to my friends if the film is bad, and the riff is irresistible). I’ve also never noticed an overall increase in people in the theater yelling things in theaters even during MST’s prime. I think people have a bad experience in a movie with some douche bag who can’t act like a human being in public, and then blame it on the show they know nothing about. I’m pretty sure that anyone who is a big fan of MST3000 must have a relatively large appreciation of films in general (as we also already know most if not all of the guys and gals of MST do), and it’s usually not the people who care about movies yelling things in a theater.
Also I’ve been hearing a lot of comments about Beavis and Butthead in this thread and I feel the need to defend that brilliant show and Mike Judge. It’s video segments are definitely similar enough to MST that I don’t see a problem with MST laymen comparing the two, though B&B’s comments during the videos aren’t anywhere as funny or clever as MST’s riffing. But anyone who thinks Beavis and Butthead is just about those two stupid characters doing stupid things for cheap laughs is just as clueless about that show as many of the people mentioned in these comments are about MST3000. The brilliance of Mike Judge and Beavis and Butthead is that the show is about the people and world around them, how they impact it, and it’s reaction to them. It’s not stupid, it’s a comment on stupidity. Sure, the show was such a runaway hit because so many people who couldn’t actually grasp the real intent and humor of the show saw themselves in the duo and just laughed at what they did, but that portion didn’t comprise the entire audience of the show, it just added to it, and those people aren’t the ones who are now clamoring for Beavis and Butthead to be released on DVD, or the rumored new episodes they are making. The Beavis and Butthead cartoons are definitely not low brow.
Also the Reefer Madness Live riff on Harry Knowles was “He’s sweating like Harry Knowles”. And screw Harry Knowles. He’s a well known paid tool who excepts gifts and things like trips around the world to film sets and premiers in exchange for rave reviews and hyping up of garbage movies on his site. I became so tired of reading all the glorious praise for movies that wound up being miserably bad that I stopped going to the site at all like seven years ago. Thankfully even though they are still known as an early example of success in that kind of thing on the web they are pretty much a non-entity now. Seeing AICN quotes plastered all over movie ads was once unavoidable, but you hardly ever see them anymore.
Sorry for the length of this post.
I had a friend whom, whenever I mentioned MST, would roll his eyes and proclaim :
“That show is STUPID!”
His problem was that he was at the opposite end of the pop reference recognition scale, and ‘got’ virtually none of the riffs, and what few he perceived were just not his idea of funny.
He absolutely LOVED “Beavis & Butthead”….
I think that fact ‘says it all’ about him.
I haven’t had many dumb comments made to me. If I mention the show, some people know it and like it (not necessarily huge fans, but they have a positive opinion of it), or (most people) never heard of it and just give me a blank look. The only notable comment is from my husband, when we first started dating. He had heard of the show but never saw it, and he said he wasn’t interested because “it seems like most people who like it are dorks.” Well, he must be a dork too, because I finally got him to watch it and now he loves it! So at least that dumb comment had a happy ending.
#44:
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’d have to read the whole review (and I haven’t a clue where to find it) to be sure, but calling the show “cynical” isn’t really that odd. A lot of the sketches and comments showed a great deal of cynicism (Joel’s Christmas essay recalling 70s office parties, the Bots turning the circus into a dark carnival of the soul, and the sketch where Mike and the Bots talk to the A-Bomb, to name the first examples that come to mind) about the world in general. It’s not really a criticism to notice that the show had a fairly world-weary edge to it in more than a few places.
A lot of these comments seem to be about people who were saying that the show was stupid and pointless, and that they could write better jokes. I wonder what they’d say if you pointed out to them that the show was good enough to win a Peabody award (in its early years, at least.) They don’t just give those out like candy.
@91
They’ll probably just say the Peabody’s are rigged. Or “anyone can win one of those”. Or “What’s a Peabody? They gave the dog from Rock & Bullwinkle his own award?”
“Also the Reefer Madness Live riff on Harry Knowles was “He’s sweating like Harry Knowles”. And screw Harry Knowles. He’s a well known paid tool who excepts gifts and things like trips around the world to film sets and premiers in exchange for rave reviews and hyping up of garbage movies on his site. I became so tired of reading all the glorious praise for movies that wound up being miserably bad”
Thanks — I couldn’t remember this exactly, but did laugh at the time.
And you’re spot on about Harry, although I still visit the site just to get the gossip from the other writers. Harry’s reviews of films are nearly ALWAYS 180 degrees away from my opinions, and are actually useful in that way (so I stay away from things he likes, and go see things he doesn’t).
I have 3 personal encounters with MST haters
A college ex-roommate(he was a real asshole) said they “ruined” Coleman Francis, and that Roger Corman was a genius and EVERYTHING he wrote was a masterpiece. Oh, and the writers(of MST3K) were “just jealous” of Corman’s greatness, another person, when i showed him a DVD of “I accuse my parents” that they were ripping off “Family Guy”, and finally my theology professor claimed MST was a conspiracy by “evil capitalist big motion picture companies” because MST never did movies like Leonard Part 6 or Superman 4. I have also gotten the standard, “talking through the movie” bit from people.
I stopped reading comments about halfway through – my blood pressure – so pardon me if this has already been mentioned. In the “Talkback” section on AICN (always a veritable Algonquin Roundtable of basement-dwelling halfwits) after the very entertaining interview plugging last week’s Rifftrax live show, one particularly astute commentor called Mike, Kevin & Bill – and by extension the rest of the MST3k crew – “no talent parasites.” (Funny, I’ve often used the exact same phrase to describe professional critics…)
Somewhat off the topic: My fiancee, when seeing a new MST3k episode for the first time, almost always says something along the lines of “This movie is really bad.” Why is she always surprised? Oh well. At least she “gets it,” even if she rarely makes it to the end of the movies. I doubt I’d be marrying her if she didn’t.
A lot of the comments here are from those who assume all the movies riffed were worthless UNLESS they were riffed, which isn’t true. There are a lot of people who (ironically or not) like bad movies, especially really awful scifi movies, so I don’t see why it’s so “dumb” for someone to say they would prefer to see the movie rather than the edited, riffed version. That’s preference, not stupidity, and one person’s bad movie is another’s camp classic.
So while I agree that someone who harps on the idea of MST3K being sacrilege is tiresome (especially those 2-3 people who just keep harping about it over and over), it’s also tiresome when MST3K fans do things like go to the IMDb and vote all MSTed movies to the bottom 100 out of reflex and assumption. Or the vitriol directed at Roger Corman earlier this year by MSTies who only know him from a couple of MST3K episodes.
It’s possible for people to like the riffs but also explore the unedited versions of some MSTed films, and to see more of the genres MST3K got movies from. It doesn’t have to be either-or.
Since the topic was dumbest comments and not worst comments. May I now submit the dumbest comment ever made about the show. Well, sort of about the show. It’s actually about the show on dvd. “I really wish they had a commentary track in the extras.” By the way, I was the brainiac who made that comment. Two seconds after I said it, I realized what an absurd comment it was. I was actually thinking about more behind the scenes style of stuff and what inspired particular riffs. Not to have a commentary track on a show that is itself the commentary track.
“A lot of the comments here are from those who assume all the movies riffed were worthless UNLESS they were riffed”
Wait, no one has said that. :?:
“That’s preference, not stupidity, and one person’s bad movie is another’s camp classic.”
No one has said that people aren’t allowed to like unriffed versions of the movies. :???:
“So while I agree that someone who harps on the idea of MST3K being sacrilege is tiresome (especially those 2-3 people who just keep harping about it over and over), it’s also tiresome when MST3K fans do things like go to the IMDb and vote all MSTed movies to the bottom 100 out of reflex and assumption. Or the vitriol directed at Roger Corman earlier this year by MSTies who only know him from a couple of MST3K episodes.”
So MST3K fans are a brainless mass of zombies who only do things because the show told them to? Ummmm…let’s talk about assumptions, shall we? :smile:
“It’s possible for people to like the riffs but also explore the unedited versions of some MSTed films, and to see more of the genres MST3K got movies from. It doesn’t have to be either-or.”
Who said it wasn’t?
#98: Is there some reason you can’t write a unified paragraph in response? Responding sentence-by-cherry-picked-sentence, while common practice, is also deeply lame and difficult to read.
This much is plain after spending some time looking up MST3K movies on IMDb: they are all absurdly low-rated compared to other movies of comparable wretchedness–or, for that matter, comparable competence. To name a couple specific examples:
Operation Kid Brother (or Operation Double 007) is rated 2.1 points. Secret Agent Super Dragon gets an even sorrier 1.9 points. Are these secret-agent movies really that much worse than, say, a Matt Helm movie (e.g. The Ambushers at 3.9) or even a “respectable” Bond movie like The Man with The Golden Gun (an absurdly high 6.7)?
Godzilla vs. Megalon gets 3.4 points. Immediately preceding it, Godzilla vs. Gigan gets 5.0 points; immediately following it, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla gets 5.7 points. Was there really some stunning drop in quality with Megalon?
Even the moderately competent MST3K movies get ridiculously underrated on IMDb. Surely a ripe bit of cheese like Girls Town is worth more than 2.3 points even if it does have Paul Anka in it?
Look up other MST3K’d movies and you’ll see a similar pattern. There’s some kind of effect here, one worth more discussion than a couple of snide one-sentence replies.
Guess I’m lucky. I haven’t gotten a lot of dumb comments, or even really disparaging ones. When I got into MST3K, it was ’97 and I was in 5th Grade. I had drawn the Shadowrama for some reason and the girl next to me commented that the show was “stupid” (eh, 5th graders, what do they know?). Aside from that, I have an uncle that loved the show until Mike came along, and then stopped watching. I suppose that wasn’t too unusual for the time, but I was surprised to actually meet a Mike-hater. Also, I had a friend that liked the show, bur stated it had gotten pretty bad towards the end. Like I said, nothing too major. Nothing that left me pissed off, that’s for sure.
In regards to a post somewhere up above regarding G-Fest, I was at the 2001 convention (a largely miserable experience, though I did come home with some really great Japanese VHS tapes, but that’s another story). Anyway, I was with my family and my cousin & his family, and they ordered the souvenier VHS. A few years later I was over and decided to check it out. At the end (after all of the ‘highlights’), there was a lengthy segment with a mock Shadowrama making fun of some Japanese monster flick. I was pretty surprised, and IIRC, the tone was very mocking towards MST3K rather than the movie itself.
One more thing, somewhat off-topic, regarding the G-fest trip: On the last day, I was talking to a guy that stated he used to do magic/stand-up, and had met & worked with Joel. He said Joel was a good guy, but could be a real hothead. I don’t know if there was any truth to that, but it was interesting (the dude seemed to be fine with MST3k in general though, and he wasn’t ripping on Joel, just telling a story).