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Weekend Discussion Thread: Cheering Someone Up with MST3KOur pal Timmy, aka goalieboy82, presents us with a great story:
Do you have a story? 30 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Cheering Someone Up with MST3K”Commenting at Satellite News
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All content posted on Satellite News is copyright © 2024 by Chris Cornell and Brian Henry, except where otherwise noted. This Date in MSTory is written and compiled by Steve Finley, Chris Cornell and Brian Henry. Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce This Date in MSTory items in any form without express written permission from the authors. Items of MST3K news may be duplicated or reposted, as long as Satellite News is cited as the source. The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Satellite of Love, LLC. No warranty is expressed or implied that the information given herein is completely accurate, and in fact this information can and will change at any time. So there. Mystery Science Theater 3000, its characters and situations are copyrights and trademarks of Satellite of Love, LLC. Banner image created by Larry Lee Moniz. |
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thanks Sampo.
When my uncle was celebrating his 83rd birthday he was given a gift certificate for a Segway tour of The Strand in Galveston. The instructor told them “When you come to a curb don’t brake. Let the machine handle it”. My uncle braked.
While he was recovering from a broken ankle I sent him Boggy Creek II to amuse him because he has a first cousin that lives in that area. The moral of the story, he says, is to not wait until you’re 83 to have your first Segway experience.
Tom and Crow’s small talk as Joel is mixing the Killer Shrew Brew is often used by me..
Hey did you see that weather!
Nice Day For It!
Great hotel here. Hey have you been down by the pool?
Aren’t people around here phony?!
About 20 years ago when my dad was in the hospital with a dire heart virus (the same kind that would claim the life of Jim Henson). None of us knew what was going on, but his heart rate would not go below 150 and doctors could not get him stable for hours on end. We spent a fair amount of time in our small-town hospital (with a little TV/VCR combo in the corner of the waiting room) with my mother going in and out of his room checking up on him. To take a break from this routine during one of the rare times he was sleeping I ran home and got VHS copies of Eegah and Santa Claus Conquerors the Martians. We needed a break.
A day later I had to go back to college 5 hours away in a blizzard and my dad was rushed to a bigger city on life support shortly after I left. He survived and we still talk about it — including watching MST in the waiting room so we’d stop worrying all of the time.
To everyone from Joel, Trace, and Kevin to Richard Kiel and Pia Zadora – Thanks for helping us get through that very tough time in our lives.
never found out if she liked the movie. to many things going on then.
This is not exactly about cheering someone else up as it is about myself. As you can tell by my handle, I live in Albuquerque, and thus have a great affinity for Track of the Moon Beast. Several years ago, when my wife’s mother was in her last weeks, she spent a lot of time at what is now Lovelace Hospital downtown. The entrance to the hospital seemed familiar every time we walked through it. I wondered, and rewatched TotMB. The hospital Paul escaped from was the same hospital, out the same exit. So the next time we had to go there, as I walked through the doors, Bill/Crow’s classic riff that came shortly after the escape, “I need a wheat penny and a Glock,” suddenly went through my mind. It gave me a well-needed chuckle. Every time afterward, when both my mother-in-law and later my father-in-law were in that hospital during their last days, that riff would pop in my head as I walked through the door and give me a little stress relief. It’s a little thing, but at those times little things sure do help.
I learned early this morning that my father passed away late last night. This is the first time I’ve visited this site today, and in all seriousness this very WDT has cheered me up immensely.
Thanks to Sampo and Erhardt for maintaining the site, and thanks to all of you who post here regularly and always manage to brighten my day.
I am so very sorry. I hope you and your family can find peace in your time of loss.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I wish you the best in the coming days and weeks.
All best wishes and sympathy to you and yours at this difficult time.
Whenever I get down, MST3K is where I go for solace and cheer–whole eps, shorts, highlights on YouTube, Satellite News, the ACEG, or just contemplating the figurines in front of the TV.
So sorry for your loss.
Professor Gunther,
I’m sorry for your loss. My condolences to you and your family.
I have a brother who is disabled and lives alone with his cat. Several years ago the cat he’d had for about 18 years died, and he was deeply grieved. So I had him spend a couple days with us, and he and I watched MST3K episodes together.
Professor Gunther, I’m very sorry to hear about your father.
My condolences Professor Gunther.
I lived with my best friend for a little while after High School and we watched MST together. When he went in the Army I would sometimes write him a letter while watching an episode and describe some of what was happening as I was writing. I remember doing this the first time I saw The Day the Earth Froze. “The witch who is keeping the Stay-Pufft Marshmallow Man in chains stole the sun so they’re trying to build another one. Seriously”. My friend like my letters.
Thanks very much everyone for your extraordinarily kind, supportive words. They mean more to me than I can say.
And AlbuquerqueTurkey–I’m sorry I failed to acknowledge your unique, moving story. There are just so many moving parts to your account, and I am glad MST3K was able to help you during very difficult times.
My dad passed away last October, so I’ve been watching MST3K more lately, and it is one of the things that has kept me going.
If cheering someone up means cheering myself up- nothing works as well for me as MST3K (except for Beatles music). I work a pretty stressful job, and, after a long week there is nothing like pumping my veins with a few choice episodes. All eras, all hosts and any genre. It’s an instant happiness pill- like the one in Wild world of Batwoman.
Actually, I have experienced the opposite: Confidently displaying an incredible MST3K riff or segment, only to see my “mark” frowning or bored.
I will never pretend to understand such humans. Heh.
I’ve been reading these posts.
They made me cry.
I send you each a hug.
I hope there are better days for you all.
Bingeing on MST3K episodes has often helped lift my spirits and/or take my mind off my troubles.
Professor Gunther, I am so sorry for your loss. I hope you find cheer in your memories and other bright spots.
Like many others here, cheering “someone” up with MST3K usually means cheering myself up. However, sometimes if I think my husband, who is wonderful but often stoic, is a little down I’ll suggest an MST episode that I think he’d like, usually something in the giant mutated bug genre, or angst-y teens from the 1950s. We sit together and laugh, maybe share some popcorn, and we both feel better.
This is a Rifftrax story over MST3K, but it still falls into the theme of this question.
Last January, after receiving the news that my grandmother had passed away (she was the only grandparent I knew, with the others passing before or just after my birth), I opted to drown my sorrows in a riff. I more or less grabbed Kiss of the Tarantula because the DVD was on top. When the ruffians are breaking into the funeral home, Mike riffs “I wanna steal a classy coffin. Grandma deserves the best!” I start laughing like a maniac. The perfect mix between “What is wrong with me?” and “Thanks, I needed that.”
This is also about me and not someone else. I discovered MST when I was at my lowest point so far in my 46 years. The only times I laughed or smiled was when I cued up I Accuse My Parents or The Day The Earth Froze. As the show was still active at that point, new episodes gave me something to look forward to.
I’m always amazed at how many people have had this sort of experience. It seems MST has helped a great number of us deal with sadness and loss and grief. I managed to fumble around telling that to the CT crew when I saw them at my first MST-related live show a few years ago.
I’ve always said that if I ever end up in a home, just put on a bunch of MST eps on repeat, and put a dead remote in my hand so I can click buttons and go “hey, Mystery Science is on again. Cool!” all day long.
Sampo,
what is your story.
I’m very sorry to hear this my friend. You’re among friends here and I think the majority of us have made use of MST to cheer ourselves up at the worst of times.
Gare
“Brevity is the soul of wit” –
Some several years ago I worked with an older fellow who was a lifelong confirmed bachelor. Out of the blue he finally met someone and they hit it off. The world became his oyster, as they say. Happy guy. One morning he came in looking like the dog’s breakfast. Rumpled shirt, tie askew, a haggard face. He had gotten a “Dear John” letter and his name was actually John. Bummer.
To cheer him up I lent him a copy of MST3K HAMLET since he was a Shakespeare buff. He brought back to me the next Monday and declared it “sophomoric and cretinous”. I declared him a pompous high brow. My friend burst out laughing and said “Yes, I am.” He told me later that that was the first time he had laughed since his breakup, so another good deed got chalked up to MST.
Way back a friend lived a few hundred miles from me. I had video taped a gag tape with two Gamera eps, vs Guiron & Jet Jaguar and two Drag Net hippie eps. His sister and kids were staying with him during a domestic issue. The kids and the rest apparently had a blast watching this tape. I received a nice letter of thanks because it broke the tension and provided everyone with some laughs. I never expected that this tape would be a hero for a traumatized family. One small thing can make a difference.
This has been a great WDT. I couldn’t agree more with those who’ve written about how hard it is to gauge who will like MST3K and perhaps be uplifted by an ep or two. I have had decidedly mixed results in my evangelism efforts. But, there are a couple of stories to share, not so much MST helping in a crisis as much as providing some unexpected uplift. A friend of mine who travels a lot for work mentioned that she had to go to Blue Earth, Minnesota the following week. I recalled the grating Gloria in The Sinister Urge and the exchange between Crow & Mike: “Well, what kind of weird-ass get-up is she going to have on this time” “Oh . . . She’s dressed as the Blue Earth Sugar Beet Queen!” My friend hadn’t heard of MST before, but she enjoyed the YouTube highlight reel that included this quote!
On a more profound note . . . The last time my parents visited us in Maine was right at the first efflorescence of my MSTification. I decided to share with them Mr. B-Natural as a good intro. My mother was dubious–she referred to Crow and Servo as “ugly little things” and my then 7-year old daughter responded indignantly, “They’re cute!” Now, my dad was a difficult person with whom I had a challenging relationship, and at that time he was suffering through the onset of Alzheimer’s. He was the one I half-expected to scoff, but he couldn’t stop laughing at The Mads! Every time Forrester and Frank appeared on the screen during the invention exchange, he cracked up. I couldn’t believe it! So one of the last memories I have of my father is him getting a big kick out of MST3K! In the end, that has meant a lot, though he never knew it.