He is now calling for presentations/papers for the upcoming conference of the Southwest/American Popular Culture and American Culture Association, Feb. 19-22, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The conference theme this year is: Popular and American Culture Studies: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. Abstracts for papers/presentations on the topic “Mystery Science Theater and the Culture of Riffing” are due on Nov. 1.
Rob also supplied a handy list of topics that might be written about. They include: “Fan Culture and MST: The Misties (who are they and why)?,” “Gender roles, women and MST,” and “The rise of B-movie popularity as a result of being on MST.” (The full list, and full instructions on submitting, is here.)
So, this is where you get to help wannabe scholars: What topic do YOU think should be covered at the conference?
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Perhaps a study on the ability to find entertainment in areas that society (or, in this case, the box office) deemed were not entertaining? “Lemons from Lemonade: The Ability to Find Entertainment in Unlikely Places” would be a workable title. There seems to be a certain type of personality that can find the entertainment value in stuff others cannot see, and I suspect most MSTies fall squarely into this category. Perhaps this is tied to personality types, or a shift in how society as a whole perceives entertainment venues? The Angry Video Game Nerd is a successful video blogger on YouTube who does to bad videos games what MST3K does with bad movies – if with a bit more profanity – and he’s just one example. We can see how MST3K fits into this evolution that may be seen as started with local ‘Horror Hosts’ like Vampira ect and stretches into modern YouTube times with The Nostalgia Critic and the like.
“Laughter in the Pain: The Cathartic Experience of Mocking Atrocious Movies (AKA ‘The Manos Effect’).”
How about: “Define ‘Bad’: The Question of What Makes a Movie ‘Bad’ and How to Differentiate Between Types of ‘Bad’.”
MST3K, as well as CT & RT, have riffed on a wide variety of movies that can be called ‘bad’. But, is there one general definition of a ‘bad’ movie, or are there different types of ‘bad’ movies? Is one type a better sort of ‘bad’ than another? How do the movies used by all three presentations represent these types?
Or: “‘Bad’ on Purpose?”
Both within and without MST3K, some filmmakers have justified their respective ‘bad’ movies with the explanation, “We meant it to be that way.” Is it possible to truly and purposely make a ‘bad’ movie with the express desire to make it ‘bad’? Is there truly a difference between a purposely ‘bad’ movie and a movie that was meant to be good but came out ‘bad’?
MST3K to Sharknado: How Laughter at bad movies brought about a culture that loves a bad movie for badness’ sake.
As a middle-aged man who grew up watching the fantasy, horror, and science fiction produced on film and television (many that were used and abused on MST3K), I would like to compare and contrast what could broadly be called special effects between that age (approximately the 1930s through the 1970s) and what could loosely be called the “modern age” of special effects (approximately the 1980s through the present. When I use the term special effects, it is a catch-all definition including make-up and costuming, photographic effects, editing, the use of models, computer generated images, etc. For example, I can accept the stop-action model technique, most famously used by Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen in films such as the original “King Kong”, “One Million Miles to Earth”, and the original “Clash of the Titans”, as equally viable as the CGI creations of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, in terms of an end product that is enjoyable and worthy of consideration as high quality entertainment, especially in the context of when the film was produced, i.e. what materials, technology, and filming techniques were available to the creative team. Another example would be the make-up genius of a Lon Chaney, Sr. vs. Rick Baker. On the opposite side, what makes the photographic trickery of Bert and Flora Gordon (“Beginning of the End”, “Tormented”, “Village of the Giants”) any more laughable than the terrible CGI effects used on dozens of the made for the Sci-Fi channel movies? There is also the issue of black-and-white vs. in color films. Most of my children and grandchildren cannot accept watching a black-and-white film, of any genre, no matter the excellence of the film. Anyway, I think you get the idea. A title for the paper? Hmmm…that’s a tough one. How about “Perceptions of Worth: The Golden Olden Age of Special Effects, Make-up and Costuming vs. The Modern Age of So-Called Sophistication of Computer Aided Special Effects, Make-up and Costuming”. Anyway, this is something that I think about often when watching these types of film. What do you think, sirs?
“Gunslinger, Swamp Diamonds, The Undead, and Viking Women: A Feminist Study of Roger Corman.”
I’d like to see a study into race with regards to the kinds of movies watched by MST3k. Off the top of my head, I can only think of a handful of POC in MST-d movies: the requisite Nigerian on 12 to the Moon, the scientist on Zaat!, Zombie Nightmare’s Voodoo Priestess and, of course, Fred Bellows. I would say the only particularly positive representation of a non-white individual was Vadinho from Pumaman, and that might just be because Tony Farms is one of the least likeable characters ever.
For the record, I’m not counting the entire casts of the films made in Japan, though even those managed to spoon in white people for some reason.
Or this…
“Three Channels, One Show”
MST3K was presented on three separate, very distinct channels: KTMA, Comedy Channel/Central and Sci-Fi. How did each of these venues differ in their presentation of, and support for, MST3K? Further, how did the show itself reflect these differences? On the speculative side, how would changes in these factors have affected the show (for example, less restrictions on available movies during the first two Sci-Fi seasons)?
@ #3 — “How bad?” “Bad bad.” “Bad bad bad??”
Let’s see, I propose “MST3K and the Bechdel Test — An Overview.” This scholarly paper would of course have to be written by Sitting Duck, and any women who attend really should try to speak to each other. About something other than a man.
“Draining all Enjoyment from Riffing via Over-Analysis – A Heuristic Approach.”
The Psychology Of Humor And Inanimate Object: When and why some comments are funnier and perhaps even more acceptable to a wider audience when voiced through a puppet than they would be directly from a human.
Note to one of the comments above, the appearance of American Caucasian actors in the later Gamera films was due to a request from AIP (American International Pictures) to make them more marketable in the US. AIP was the original American company that had them dubbed and distributed in the US. The quality of the voice acting in their dubs is much better overall than that in the Sandy Frank dubs done roughly twenty years later in the 1980s. If you watched Gamera on TV during the 1970s it was the AIP versions that were shown, Sandy Frank hadn’t gotten his paws on them yet. I still occasionally see an AIP version on TV instead of a Sandy Frank version, it’s easy to tell after hearing the low-budget Sandy Frank dubs on MST3K.
My papaer would be an attempt to find the mathematical equation for the perfect riffing sequence. I’d title it, “Net of The Golden Triangle,” based on Joel Hodgson’s explanation of the difference between a joke and a riff. Of course this would all be another excuse to watch a lot of MST3K, but perhaps if I used enough fancy wording somebody would fund me to continue my research (television). I guess that’s the real dream here.
@3 – Or: “‘Bad’ on Purpose?”
Both within and without MST3K, some filmmakers have justified their respective ‘bad’ movies with the explanation, “We meant it to be that way.” Is it possible to truly and purposely make a ‘bad’ movie with the express desire to make it ‘bad’? Is there truly a difference between a purposely ‘bad’ movie and a movie that was meant to be good but came out ‘bad’
And specifically, the Bride of the Monster vs. Hobgoblins Factor:
Why do we have comic sympathy to find funny a bad movie (like Robot Monster or Eegah) that went in with the full earnest intent and belief it was a “good” movie, more than someone’s attempt to make what they thought was a Bad On Purpose movie? (Like Wild World of Batwoman, or how Larry “Lost Skeleton of Cadavra” Blamyre suddenly insinuated himself into the inner circle of Ballyhoo Productions.)
And if you wanted to academically take on the Joel vs. Mike Dichotomy, how about “Survival vs. Superiority: Do Bad Movies ‘Have It Coming’, or is Riffing the Shared Audience Experience?” (Is the self-deprecation of “Help, make this movie stop!” funnier and more universal than venting an angry high-school spleen?)
– “Gender roles, women and MST,”
(Ohhh, yah–Let’s show them a few Mike riffs on Deathstalker, The Sinister Urge and Space Mutiny, and give them something to write about….)
How about a study on changing cultural sensitivities and their deadening effect on riff-based comedy? What carefree MST riffs of the past might today be perceived as modern-day hate crimes?
Industrial Instruction and Accidental Entertainment:
The Jam Handy Organization’s filmography influeence from
World War II to General Motors salesmanship to a Midwestern
puppet show: For good or ill?
Pivotal moment in show history for me:
“Teen-Age Strangler or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Michael J. Nelson”
Maybe: “Rude, junior high teenagers: MST3K and the genre of Satire.” It would discuss how the show went from just some guys making jokes in front of a bad movie to being a serious, satirical show.
“The Joel Vs Mike Conflict : A Study Of Flame Wars And Their Affect On Beloved Cultural Icons”.
“Torgo’s Knees: A Psychoanalytical Approach.”
(Note: there is new evidence that Tor Johnson actually coined the word “psychoanalytical, not Samuel Taylor Coleridge.)
the better second banana, Erhardt, TV’s Frank, Bobo, or Brain Guy.
or
what i have learned in life by watching MST3K.
“Why Johnny Can’t Riff: The Failure of the American Educational System to Explicate Cultural and Pop Cultural Points of Reference.”
Leaving EricJ’s bias out of this, there actually is a good subject to be made out of the shift in riffstyles in later years.
@11 That would explain War of the Monsters, an alternate dub of vs. Barugon I saw on one of the Mills Creek public domain mega-collections. I always thought there was a decent movie lying underneath that dub, and I was right.
This is something I’ve been thinking about lately: Riffing on an actor’s physical appearance–is it more socially objectionable to mock a female actor in this regard than it is to mock a male actor? If so, why? If not, why? (I can’t come up with a snappy title for this topic, sorry!)
why “movies” that sandy frank did are bad and how they ended up be riffed for our enjoyment by people on a cowtown puppet show.
I suspect there’s something interesting in the actors and characters who appear in typical MiSTed movies, especially ones from before about 1960 when the studio system really cracked up. I mean, for the most part, these will be people who couldn’t be fit into the studio system; in a sense, they’re outcasts from the mainstream movie universe. There’s something obviously outsider-art about, say, the works of Coleman Francis; but there’s something of that attitude to be seen in less bizarre MiSTed movies too.
You can see this (bluntly) in how often the performers just don’t quite look like movie actors (think of any time you hear a riff like “that’s an odd face” or “he’s got an inner beauty”), or when they go on location to places that are just the neighborhood where the director knew some guys who’d warn if the cops were coming. I forget which Brain pointed out the default emotion in a MiSTed movie is depression, but, depression, alienation, isolation — these are palpable even if not always well-explored in these films.
So, what is it that MiSTed films are about, and how did that differ from what the movies made by, you know, actual movie-makers at the same time were about?
“Watch out for Snakes!, and Other Applicable Life Lessons Culled from the World of Mystery Science Theater 3000.”
Or these…
“That $%#@!^&*% Puppet Show”
MST3K was a successful show from several viewpoints. It had good ratings, a solid fanbase, a cult following among critics and insiders, and it was relatively inexpensive and trouble-free to produce. So, why did so many studio executives want to meddle with the show (from altering the premise to killing it outright)? Why did the execs from Comedy Central, Sci-Fi and Universal/Grammercy decide that they knew the show, and how to sell it, better than BBI? And how does this fit in with the general concept of executive interference, dating back to the days of the Studio System and earlier?
“Your Friendly Neighborhood Riffers”
Today, individual TV stations offer very little in terms of locally-produced or -oriented programming, except for, possibly, the news. Years ago, however, local stations (particularly the independent channels) offered a lot of local programs, including talk shows, kiddie shows, editorials and movie shows. How does MST3K fit into that area of a show produced with a “hometown” feeling? And how was it able to maintain such a feeling when it went national?
Title: How Do They Eat and Breath, and Other Science Facts?
Abstract: It’s just a show, I should really just relax. It’s just a show, I should really just relax. It’s just a show, I should really just relax. It’s just a show, I should really just relax.
How about a panel on the two anti-commie movies, “Rocket Attack USA” and “Invasion USA”, and how both call for lots more defense spending to protect us all.
Of course, you have to have a panel on comparing MST3K with Cinematic Titanic, where the riffers are on both sides of the screen. There may be no reason why, but certain people can come up with one.
I wish I could help out here, but about a week ago. I gathered all my scholarly B Movie essays and completely filled up three cardboard (printed in imitation wood grain) file boxes. I sealed them securely with gray duct tape, and sent them to Joe Bob Briggs, who is a close personal friend of mine.
Later, I held a special ceremony in my backyard and shot my mint green Selectric typewriter. (It was already dead, but tradition is tradition.)
Hopefully, JBB can make some sense of my arcane ramblings and help someone down the road.
Being one of the few people on the planet who won runner up in the “I Wrote Worse Than Joe Bob Briggs” contest in 1990, I can only pray he will read through these holy arks of discontent and not just have them dropped off for recycling.
It’s all original papers and I made no copies.
I live dangerously.
Live by the Selectric. Die by the Selectric.
(weeping)
Heres One,
Mst3k: the culture of riffing and the evolution/shift of the viewer’s sense of humor. In some ways as I have watched mst3k over the years its still funny- but i find that other things seem less funny- i have to find things a bit more crude outside of mst3k/rt/CT (i.e. family guy, southpark, little Britain, trailer park boys) in order to get a good laugh. Has this show made us critical of what is humorous- and has that critical-ness of humor affected how we interact/perceive others or function in society. ok i just tried to make it sound deep in that last sentance.. ;)
A snapshot in Time: A visual history of culture and people as shown on MST3K.
Short_Man’s Syndrome: A Case study of the life and (over-compensating-on-every-level) times of a little red gumball machine.
@23 Very good idea, as I was very disappointed in their insulting of Lisa’s appearance in The Room, but was okay with similar riffs in ISCWSL (though I totally understand why Steckler wasn’t). Then there’s Joe Don Baker – he actually isn’t that disgusting in Final Justice, but they pile it on because of his comments against them.
“Good-Bad Cognitive Dissonance: The Ipsative Thought Processes of Directors Selected by MST3K for their Mind-Boggling Bad Work.”
As a research psychologist, one of my dream ideas was to somehow ethically isolate someone and remove all media from them and determine what viewing one bad movie a day for two weeks does to them in a battery of neuro-cognitive domains, like intelligence, mood, etc. It would probably start a helluva tug-of-war with my Uni’s IRB, but I think it would be cool.