So, for this weekend’s discussion thread, your assignment is to try to put into words, if you can, why you still care about a little cowtown puppet show that’s been canceled three times, most recently nearly a decade ago, that hasn’t been on TV for years, and will probably never be seen on TV again.
Though it’s been altered a little since I wrote this for my FAQ in the mid-90s, I’m still pleased with this.
So, after nearly 200 bad movies, ten years of production and fifteen years of television audiences joining the crew of the SOL for “movie sign!”, it’s fair to ask what it was that kept this show so beloved.
Well, Joel said something very profound about his show in an interview in 1990: “It’s about liberty, in a small, goofy way,” he said. And that is probably at the heart of it. It appeals to an innate human desire to unabashedly say what you think. And for young kids, that seems to be the principle draw: the whole notion of grown-ups in power being heckled and ridiculed for their obvious inadequacies is irresistible.
But there’s more going on here, or this would just be ‘Beavis & Butthead.’ More importantly, MST3K is a call to arms in a war most thinking people are waging every day: the battle against the mediocrity that floods our lives. MST3K is an object lesson, a demonstration that we don’t have to — and shouldn’t — passively accept the garbage we are spoon-fed on a daily basis. Indeed, the series places the ‘bots and their human companion on the front lines of that battle. It’s in this way that MST3K rises above mere heckling and becomes a compelling metaphor about fighting the good fight.
But beyond that, there is no mistaking the genius at work here. It shines so clearly that toddlers are instinctively drawn to it and senior citizens smile knowingly — even if neither gets the Courtney Love jokes. From Joel’s forehead-slappingly simple concept to its loopy yet graceful execution, the show has a cool elegance, an endearing off-kilter brilliance. It engenders an astonishing loyalty in its viewers — a loyalty that stems in part from the way it makes its viewers feel like they are “in on” a very special secret. It manages the near-impossible by being one of the most delightfully unpredictable programs on national TV, while also being one of the most re-assuringly formulaic. “The show,” as devotees simply call it, rewards knowledge and insight, punishes inattention and passivity. But most importantly, it always has been — and always will be — really, genuinely funny.
In the theater, the give-and-take rhythm between movie and commentary can be, at its best, dazzling and exhilarating; while the host segments often build to the kind of antic cartoon chaos (reminiscent of Monty Python or a Warner Brothers Looney Tune) that is a tonic for anyone who feels trapped in a dreary, workaday world. The overall result is an entertainment experience that leaves its viewer a little happier than when he or she found it.
Your thoughts?
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I love to laugh; I mean laugh so hard you almost panic for a second because you don’t think you’ll ever breathe again. :lol: I get that with MST3K. Those guys and gals just seem to have my exact sense of humor and practically everything they did on the show made me laugh.
I’ll echo something other people have said about how rewatchable the shows are. I’ve been watching it since ’93 and I’m not sick of it yet. I usually don’t go more than a few days without watching an ep and today in fact while I was doing chores around the house, I watched three of them. :wink:
I also love the homemade feel the show had. It wouldn’t have been the same if had been done somewhere like Hollywood or New York on a fancy set with a separate crew. I like that the same guy running the company also ran one of the ‘bots and so on and so forth amongst everyone involved.
There is nothing out there today in movies or on TV that come close to the level of true comedy that our little puppet show achieved and that is why I still watch it!
“The Onion is capable of some vicious, brutally cutting satire. It’s not always affable in the way that MST3k generally is, even if it is extraordinarily and brilliantly funny.”
Well said. At the beginning of my post I wanted to make mention of The Onion as it is the only other brilliant satire to have come out in the last 20 years.
I also want to make mention of the fact that MST3K seems to have been the last vestige of local programming. Even though it was a cable show, it had its roots in local programming and was far away from the corporate mindset that runs all television now. I am old enough to remember Son of Svengali, The Ray Raynor Show, etc. in the Chicago market. I moved to the Green Bay area in 1989 (home of Joel) and witnessed their local scene die out by 1993. Even radio has been bought out by the big guys and local flavor is a thing of the past. Hearing the ‘bot’s imitate the Norwegian accent that still survives in Minnesota reminds me of the regionalism that makes meeting someone from a different geographic location so charming.
i value this show (and always will, i suppose) because they did so much with so little.
thanks guys.
adam.
I’m 53 years old and I’m going to be a father for the first time in February. Twins. I can’t wait to watch MST with them. I hope it still matters to them 50 years from now.
:mrgreen: Why do I love MST3K?? For me,it’s not one thing.I don’t see how it could be just one thing,but many things.I love the originality of the show;how it pays homage to the creature feature local tv shows they used to have in the 60’s and 70’s;the robots;the riffs;the chemistry between Forrester and Frank;the bad movies and the shorts they used to do as well.I love the look of it;the theme song and last,but not least:If I’m in a down mood or bad mood,they show never failed to make my laugh and it always put me out of that mood completely!! Plus,they might not have been the first show to make fun of movies(Fireside Theater comes to mind),but they’re the best! They’ve raised it to an art form..Besides,how many of us(myself included)used to talk back to the movies when we were kids anyway???? And,another thing,the best thing about the show is that it can go on forever because there is no shortage of bad movies..Long Live MST3K!!!!
Why do I love Mst3k ?
That’s easy because I get it. It’s something my friends and I would do. I remember once being at a midnight movie with one of my best friends and two young ladies we worked with (one would later become my wife but that’s a different story) It was “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” during one scene a guy falls from a great height and gets impaled on a fence post or something. He’s obviously toast but I lean to Matt and say loud enough so we can all hear “I’m not dead yet, I’m getting better” to which he and the girls bust out laughing at, and then a guy in the row in front of us tells his friends what I said and they laugh and pass it on and around the theater it goes with laughter ensuing. I then realize it’s part of me baby and I love that. It comes out in my life every day. Sometimes it’s a song other times it’s a favorite quote. I just love it and it never gets old even after many viewings. So that’s why I love Mst3k and now CT and the Film Crew. :mrgreen:
Why does MST3K matter :?: Because it does. :smile:
I’ll cut it down to 4 key reasons:
1. Irreverence.
2. Humor, both low- and highbrow.
3. The people making it were having a great time, and it shows.
4. Irreverence.
Good stuff!
When I have a bad day nothing is betting than popping the cap on on an icy cold episode of MST3K to bring up my spirits.
And when I’ve had a good day, its all ways good to celebrate with the cool refreshing taste of Joel/Mike and the Bots.
Put simply, it was, and remains, one of the funniest and original TV comedies ever made. I was quickly hooked and remain so and I always will be. I was a die-hard Python fan and always will be but MST3K supplanted Monty Python’s Flying Circus as my all time favorite TV comedy.
What’s so wonderful about this show is that I can watch episodes again and again and still find new lines and scenes to laugh at, while old favorites still make me laugh or smile despite dozens of viewings.
I just love it, ok? :grin: