Walk up to a random stranger (over 25) and ask him or her about the show. They may not get it at first, but start talking about the bad movies and the robots and silhouettes and for, I would estimate, 7 or 8 out 10 people, a smile will suddenly break over his or her face and they’ll say something like “Oh yeah! I LOVED that show!”
But, I always ask, did they REALLY? Now ask the stranger how many episodes they saw. Does he or she remember the names of any of the movies? What is his or her favorite character? For about 8 out 10 of the people who remembered the show, I find, what you will learn is that the person saw it once, and maybe not even a whole episode. Maybe they were at a friend’s house. Or they channel surfed to it and watched for a while, then surfed away. Oh, they LIKED it. In fact, their brief experience with it left them with a WONDERFUL sense of what a great show it was. But they never sought it out or watched it again.
If you’ve ever encountered someone like this, you have encountered that special animal, the “casual fan.” Another observation about them: most of them have committed to memory EXACTLY ONE riff that made them laugh during that one viewing. They very likely will recite it to you and then laugh riotously as if they’d heard it for the first time (while most of the time you sit there chuckling politely because, out of context, it makes no sense).
Most MSTies have had a similar experience. I’ve had it many times. One I fondly remember is the case of a father of a friend of my daughter’s. We got to talking about the show once and the one thing he remembered about the show was that there was a character in a space movie called “crank whore.” He thought that was hilarious. I didn’t have the heart to correct him.
Tell us about your encounters with that strange creature, the “casual fan.”
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
It’s funny, I don’t know how big a fan people are. I know I’m probably the biggest of my friends, but then I’ll meet someone in their early 20s who gets together with friends to watch it on Netflix on the weekends. It seems to have a bit of a Monty Python Syndrome: Everyone knows The Knights Who Say “Ni,” but they’ve never sat and watched the show on late-night PBS.
Some of that is just how geekery is: A lot of people know the basics and enjoy it when presented, but they won’t necessarily seek it out and don’t delve too deep. They know “Tom Sawyer,” but not 2112. They know Lord of the Rings but not The Silmarillion. They know “You Will be Assimilated,” but not “The Sisko has completed his task.” They know Pokemon but not Haruhi Suzumiya. That’s how people are.
And I’m okay with it. I wish I could stuff the house every Christmas to watch “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” But 90 minutes of a terrible movie with a (now) obscure actress as the only known name with meandering songs about Patrick Swayze aren’t going to bowl every one over — even just once a week at the same time.
My favorite example of with with MST3k was on a college band trip in the late 90s. I put Mr. B on the VCRs and a bus of 50 rolled in the aisles. I got requests to show it the year later and to find copies for future band teachers. We watched “Eegah” later on and only had about a dozen people intently watching. Oh well — I’m glad they enjoyed it.
Kum bye ya mystis
Kum bye ya
Oh mystis
Kum bye ya
Love the less knowing
Who’ve not memorized each riff
Oh mystis Kum bye ya
One day they’ll see the light
Slade!
I work with about 6 casual fans. Its pretty much what everyone says. They remember the show when you mention “the theater seats at the bottom of the screen and the guys that make fun of the movie.” Very few remember specific episodes unless its a really odd movie. One guy got into the show when his ex turned him on to it. I told him there are episodes on dvd and youtube. The younger the person I talk to though, they have no idea what I’m talking about. At least with them I can steer them to Rifftrax or Cinematic Titanic.
I don’t think the question is boring or pointless. I just think that a term like “fan”, casual or not, explicitly means more affection and enjoyment than “was vaguely aware the series existed”. Which more than a few of these examples seem to consist of.
When the show was actually on the air, I was just like the casual fan you describe who loved the show but rarely watched it. As a kid in the 90s, I didn’t understand most of the riffs, but I remember enjoying the late Comedy Central era shows. Kids also don’t read TV Guide, so I never knew when the show was scheduled, although I do remember marathons being aired around Thanksgiving. I also didn’t notice when it disappeared from CC, only to reappear on a totally unrelated network (whose other shows I was never interested in). Was there ever a standard time slot for the show during the CC years? It requires a big chunk of time to schedule a 2 hour show, so I have the impression it was moved around a lot, making it difficult for casual fans to follow.
Anyway, on a whim I looked up the show on Netflix 3 years ago, rented some episodes including Manos, and was hooked from then on. Long story short, for me it was always about being able to catch the show when it was on, a problem that was solved with Netflix, YouTube, and Google.
I think the reason so many people have vague memories of the show is because the “theater silhouettes talking over an awful movie” was such a strange thing to see on television when channel surfing.
The only casual fan I know is my wife, who will say I’m with my ‘alien friends’ when I am watching an episode. A few times she has been in the room while I am watching an episode and will laugh at a riff, like the time a reference to her favorite band, The Who, came up, but she has never watched a whole episode.
I’ve always been a casual fan since the show aired. Once I realized the show was out on DVD I quickly bought up as many as I could And delved into it as much as I could. I realized my friends had no idea what I was talking about when I talked about MST3K so I invited a few of them over for a viewing. Now a year later we’ve had a viewing get together every month since and each time the last few months we’ve averaged 13-14 people with about 20+ regulars. While I don’t think any of my friends are diehard fans, it’s been great to introduce another generation to this great area of comedy.
I always seem to get haters. Lots of “That show was stupid.” or “Family Guy is way funnier than that.” and the always dreaded “I always thought I could do better myself.”
But to keep it balanced. I have a friend at work who has never seen the show. But whenever I give a description of a joke or a host segment (or a Rifftrax joke, for that matter). He usually laughs and goes “How did I miss this show?”
That’s just as valid a question to me. “How did I miss this show?” 10 years and 2 channels and a lot of people missed out on it.
I have yet to have found someone who was like “Oh, yeah! I remember that show. That was really funny.” That’s why I’ve always thought this was an “your in, or your out” show.
casual fan does not equal person who vaguely knows of something
I’m a bit surprised at the level of the only word i can think of is disdain towards the casual fan. It was a 2 hour show. A lot of people have what i call STD “**** TO DO”. I watched the show when i would be hungover on the couch on sunday mornings. Then as we had more STD like houses,spouses,kids bla bla bla 2 hours is gold. A lot of people who saw the show and loved it just didn’t have the time to get hardcore.
2 hours is gold….that’s a great quote….gonna remember that!
One of my friends has seen a few episodes – mostly because we have a mutual friend who has several on tape – but when I asked him which he had seen, he responded, “Well…one had spiders in it…And there was another one where these people were stuck on some island and were being hunted down by some guy…” It took a while to determine that the ones he’d seen were “Bloodlust” and “Giant Spider Invasion”, because he just hadn’t paid enough attention.
(In his defense, the show was a bit before his time – he would have only been about eight or nine when it was cancelled – although I was five when it went off the air and I’ve become OBSESSED….)
@ 48 Thanks for reading my post. It’s nice to see someone is paying attention to what I say. I’ve been a fan for a long time and while I may not know everything I do know enough to make some valid points.
@63
Yeah, compared to other message boards/forums I’ve been on, I feel like there’s a distinct lack of reciprocity here. It seems like a lot of people just post their own personal commentary without any direct indication that they’ve even looked at anyone else’s, except the original post. It’s just not all that communal as fan communities go. Though some subjects do inspire more lively back-and-forth than others.
So I appreciate that you appreciate that someone cares enough to offer feedback.
My boyfriend is a fan, and one of the few people I’ve met that actually know the show. I watched in high school and still do. It’s the only show (other than Mythbusters) that I’ve been able to get into. I am so grateful I can get DVDs of my favoritest show ever. And, I have someone whom I can talk about the show with. I do have a bunch of Rhino sets (including the original Volume 10), and I have a bunch of the Shout! Factory sets. The rest I downloaded off DAP. And from what I transfered to DVD from taping off SyFy. I used to have two shirts (one black and white with MST3K on the front and the shadowrama on the back, the other a scene from the Movie), but they disintergrated over the years. :(. People would think I’m strange whenever I would mention the show. But I don’t care. I love the show and nothing, and no one, will ever change my mind.
I even gave Rob a copy of Werewolf for Christmas one year. It was before I had a DVD burner so it was on a CD. He didn’t mind at all and was really surprised. He still has it to this day. :)
I work as a geologist on a drilling rig out in North Dakota so you can imagine that no one out here has a clue what I’m talking about or what I’m constantly watching. Most of them are too busy watching CMT or some other country music station…..not a big fan, or a small one. I’ve also tried to convert my wife, who is in her mid-20’s, a good 6 years younger than me, and she sort of humors me into watching it at times. I think some of the movies are too bland for her, although she does like Space Mutiny with all the nicknames. Every so often she’ll yell out Big McLargeHuge at me or something along those lines. In the end though, it seems you are either a MST3K nut or not at all.
My brother could be considered a casual fan. I’ve shown him a few episodes, and gave him my VHS tapes once the DVD’s came out. But he only enjoys the movie riffing, he can’t stand any of the host segments from any era. He will fast forward through the host segments and watch the movie riffing only, he prefers the shorts collections (he loves the Rifftrax shorts collections too) as opposed to sitting down to a complete episode.
I have no friends who are a true fan. During its initial run on CC, and friend of mine would watch the show with me often, but that was primarily because he had nothing better to do, but he could take it or leave it, as far as his desire for viewing the show, and has never watched the show on his own that I know of. I’d say it’s been many years since this friend has done any MST3k viewing.
I have a co-worker who, when we first met, initially talked as if they were the biggest fan ever, but then the conversation revealed that he hadn’t watched it in years and had stopped viewing back when Joel was still the host. He’s now good with Mike and has developed into more of a true fan, but I’d still say he’s only a notch above a casual fan and likely if I were to stop talking to him on the subject of MST3k, it would fall off his radar pretty quickly.
So yeah, I’ve historically watch MST3k alone, since no one around me or that I’ve been involved with was interested in the show or its format. A former girlfriend had the complaint that she couldn’t pay attention to the movie with the riffing, or the riffing because of the movie.
Forever MST3k Alone…
I know exactly what you’re talking about. This has happened to me three or four times in my life, and they all remembered the Mitchell episode. I have no idea why. This has perplexed me for years now, as younger fans mostly know the Sci-Fi years…the only thing that makes sense is that many video rental stores carried the Rhino releases, and maybe this accounts for it?
I have several friends who are casual fans, they remember certain episodes. One of them laughs about my obsession with “that silly puppet show”
I tell her they’re not puppets, they’re robots!
Most people I know have never heard of MST3K or would admit to knowing very little about it. I do know more or less casual fans, one former co-worker remembered riffs from This Island Earth, and one friend really likes the show but has been academically busy for years and she probably hasn’t seen many episodes. Another friend was watching the show years before I was but it had fallen off his radar screen, so I showed him Merlin’s Shop (which he hadn’t seen). He was laughing uncontrollably during the shop scene, specifically the repetition of “you’re welcome” and Servo’s imitation of the music. Well, we were both laughing uncontrollably. Finally, my ex-girlfriend sort of enjoyed a few episodes I showed her, like Space Mutiny, but there’s no chance she’ll ever be a die-hard fan.
#69, I’m with ya all the way. Back when it was on Comedy Central, and me and my nerdy friends were all in our early 20’s, we couldn’t get enough of the show. Then, life changes, friends drift apart, soon you die, as Joel once said. I am also very alone in my enjoyment of MST, Cinematic Titanic, Rifftrax, The Film Crew, and insanely funny upstarts like Incognito Cinema Warriors. Whaddya gonna do?
For many years I was that casual fan. My very limited exposure to the show was positive, but I never had cable TV and never wanted it. And lets face it, the MST3K volumes are way to pricey for a casual fan to purchase. So it was always something on my radar, but always a little out of reach. It wasn’t until several years back, after getting a better paying job, that I had the money to take a chance on MST3K Essentials. From there it quickly snowballed, to the point where I have 18 of the 19 volumes plus a slew of other MST3K related items. I have to think that many of those casual fans of the show aren’t that far away from becoming full fledged misties.