Mystery Science Theater 3000: C/D, S/D.

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I've never come across it here, Mark - but I have never had the Sci-Fi Channel.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 25 May 2003 15:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

It was certainly on (late night) on the Sci-Fi channel a couple of years ago.

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 25 May 2003 15:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

Michael, I kiss you! I had no idea there were mst3k episodes on soulseek.

― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 25 May 2003 15:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, that sounds great, rah Mike! Nicole, I might be able to help with dubbing too though I still need a second VCR, but also please drop me a line about another possible source...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 25 May 2003 15:52 (9 years ago) Permalink

FYI, Best Brains Inc. has its own little shop with some non-Rhino treasures. I highly recommend "Mr. B's Lost Shorts" which has the hands-down best short, "Mr. B Natural" - you know, the one with the ridiculously perky, questionably-gendered Neverland shill for Conn brass instruments.

"Bad touch."
"Does this mean I like guys now?"
"I feel ill."
"Spanking time!"

http://www.mst3kinfo.com/satnews/catalog/Basement.htm

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Sunday, 25 May 2003 15:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

It is a thing of beauty, that particular short. And chilling horror. Yeah, there are two short comps that are on DVD, but neither contain that gem. It's possible this thing Rhino is promising is some sort of basement-clearing compilation of all the various video oddities that have surfaced from Best Brains -- the second Poopie tape (the first is a DVD bonus with Manos, the scrapbook, more shorts like that, etc. But we'll see, I guess! (My other irrational hope is a full-on special edition of the movie...)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 25 May 2003 16:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

Michael, I kiss you! I had no idea there were mst3k episodes on soulseek.

Keep in mind that the fidelity on these files is sometimes suprisingly good considering the size, and sometimes fairly bad, but even the worst files usually have more than enough detail for a person to get what's going on.

I'm hoping the DVD is a Santa Claus vs. The Martians/Santa Claus double fun pak. It is going to come out late 2003, after all.

Later I may want to say something about MST3K in light of Mark's venting on Zappa, but right now I want to go to Central Park and maybe the Malevich exhibit before it starts raining (again).

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 25 May 2003 16:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

I SERIOUSLY NEED TO BUY SIDEHACKERS. I HAVE NOT SEEN IT SINCE HIGH SCHOOL

goooch....goooch....

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:29 (9 years ago) Permalink

the tuba is like a fat jolly king! knew your father I did!

This show got me through middle school.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

Live fast, die young, leave a fat, bloated, ugly corpse.

― luna (luna.c), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

"That squares my breasts!"

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Sunday, 25 May 2003 20:40 (9 years ago) Permalink

I've only seen about four episodes of MST3K, but "Mr. B Natural" has got to be one of the funniest shorts ever! "We're white, we're white, we're really, really white..." I obv need to get a-downloadin on this show.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Sunday, 25 May 2003 23:19 (9 years ago) Permalink

It is good to see the newer folks here who have the love. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 26 May 2003 00:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

I've only seen a couple but I didn't get the point. Why not just rent the original B-movies and come up with your own sarcastic comments?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 26 May 2003 00:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

Well...that is the point, kinda. The AOL MSTies used to monkey-pile together in a chat room, and riff like mad to cable TV movies or rented VHS tapes. I remember Congo and A Star Is Born being particularly good for that.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 26 May 2003 00:48 (9 years ago) Permalink

I have no TV. I have no VCR. But I do have about 40 tapes of MST3K, well over 100 episodes, mostly Seasons 2-7, with a few 1s and KTMAs.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 26 May 2003 00:52 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'll admit mst3ks were like bad movies with training wheels for me (and yeah, I love watching b-movies with friends now), but the best episodes still leave me crying.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 26 May 2003 01:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

Hard core MST3K-ites with lots of bandwidth should check out the Digital Archive Project which is where I'm getting most of my episodes from.

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Monday, 26 May 2003 06:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

blimey chris, that site's enough to make a young man run out and get broadband and a huge eff-off new harddrive...

(current space on home PC C-Drive abt 700meg, it are old and small)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Monday, 26 May 2003 10:11 (9 years ago) Permalink

did I mention that I saw them live w/Joel at the Uptown Theater, one of the TWO PERFORMANCES EVER w/him? well I did < /gloat>

"Santa Claus, you're coming with us!"
"You're coming to town."

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 26 May 2003 14:15 (9 years ago) Permalink

Well, I do have broadband and a sum total of 150GB of storage over a couple of drives. My consumption rate of DVD-R blanks is pretty scary.

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Monday, 26 May 2003 23:57 (9 years ago) Permalink

I've only seen a couple but I didn't get the point. Why not just rent the original B-movies and come up with your own sarcastic comments?

Because I'm not funny. And neither are you.

― NA. (Nick A.), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

"nipple nipple tweak tweak AWAY!"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

sundar OTM. funny at times, but c'mon snapping along to a movie is way up there on the annoyometer.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:44 (9 years ago) Permalink

And to explain the 'point' a bit more to the unbelievers Sundar and Gff, or at least note the method -- the Best Brains put in a lot of effort and practice over time to make what seemed like a casual delivery of comments done on the spot be just that rather than the intensively scripted effort it really was. When they're firing on four cylinders at their best, it's a marvel.

Fave all time moment ever, from any episode -- this snippet from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, delivered and timed JUST RIGHT:

MARTIAN: "What soft, and round, and you put it on the end of a stick --"

SERVO: "An elf?"

MARTIAN: "-- and green?"

SERVO: "Oh, a DEAD elf."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:47 (9 years ago) Permalink

"It's not funny when other people do it" is one argument, but "do it yourself" is silly. Why watch a movie at all, then, when you could make your own? Because that's what people do.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

Someone should invent MST3K glasses with the robots printed on the bottoms of the lenses for people to wear to movies, except that it would be unnecessary, since the robots are already built into the cognitive and aesthetic faculties of an entire culture. MST3K assumes its audienes are so impotent that they can't enjoy even "bad" films first hand but can derive pleasure from them only over the shoulders of robots.

Chris Fujiwara (sounding a little prim), here.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:53 (9 years ago) Permalink

(I don't endorse his opinion fully, btw, but hey dissent and all.)

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

Argh, that article. Did I ever want to smack up Fujiwara after reading it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

Fujiwara = fun hata x10,000,000

― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

(For instance -- his complaint about 'why didn't they get the really big trashy movies to rip down' falls flat when you realize the economics of what the Brains had the rights and access to in their various TV deals. It wasn't like they could pick anything and everything, and I'm annoyed with Fujiwara essentially ignoring the realities of TV production.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

Add me to the "traded for all the tapes" club. I even bought a separate bookshelf just to display them.

Gamera Vs. Guiron is one of my most underrated favorites, with the Gamera song, Cornjob and the Zabriske Point ref. The "Hello/Thank You" scene with the mothers is my #1 funniest MST3K moment.

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

The first time I saw MST - sittng around livingroom with roommate, TV playing in background.

We both idly comment on stupidity of movie showing and the commentary from Joel + robots. Go back to reading book/half-watching.

15 minutes later - 'actually, this isn't that bad'

10 minutes later - we have both decided this is the best show ever created

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 15:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

I even bought a separate bookshelf just to display them.

I salute you!

I am still in fact missing Gamera Vs. Guiron, though happily I've seen it a number of times -- that along with Gamera Vs. Gaos, It Conquered the World and four season six entries are now the only things I'm missing from season two on...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:00 (9 years ago) Permalink

his hate is more fun than the show!

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

Not really. It's just reading a tedious man moan in a tedious manner.

― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

circle the wagons!

ignoring realities of production? tedium?

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

I really don't understand why this is being approached as some sort of argument to be won. A number of people here like and get the show, some don't. Big deal.

― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think the argument lies in the needle of "and get" there...

I think Fujiwara scores some good points, but yes of course we must give no quarter to a fun-hater.

The show made me laugh but I can't love it.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:28 (9 years ago) Permalink

So don't. Why's it worth anyone's time to give a shit beyond that?

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

The article is very, very flawed. I would go into detail about why but then I would have to read it again, and I have no interest in doing so.

― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

The biggest problem I have with it is that it falls into the "any opinion or reaction I have must somehow express a greater aesthetic" camp for which I have unending disdain and contempt. There are six paragraphs before MST3K is even mentioned. Fuck that. Like something or don't, and have the balls to ignore the increasingly-common taboo against disliking something simply because it isn't your thing or you think it's crap.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:41 (9 years ago) Permalink

"he died as he lived: with jelly on his face."

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:41 (9 years ago) Permalink

You're a wise man, Mr. Piumaman.

(...when -- you want -- the flavor of bacon -- in a dip.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

why? oh, you know, conversation.

The thing I like abt Fujiwara's thing (and yes I do realize what a humorless piece of writing it is [but bits make me laugh out loud so eh]) is that it's about giving a shit, about not letting something slide. He thinks the whole enterprise was deeply, offensively unfunny, and that seemed like a rare and valuable enough er perspective w/r/t ile & mst.

I have a strong affection for cranks and fuddy-duddies.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:47 (9 years ago) Permalink

If I stopped to rail about everything I found unfunny (or unmoving, I guess would be the word for dramas), I wouldn't have time to watch anything. The world is a big place. Entertainment media offer enormous amounts of things, especially if you speak English. I don't have time to stop to stomp the roses, and no patience for those who revel in it.

Now, railing about MST3K in its own style -- responding to it and heckling it -- that could be clever enough to be worth the time.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

And when they *did* do that, as happened with the Little Golden Statuette thingummybob, it actually undercut a lot of the claims MST3K could make to somehow being a subversive force battling against whiteelephantHollywoodbullshit because the special arguably ended up being essentially more hype for the Oscars and the Hollywood machine.

IIRC, the central reason for Fujiwara's groaning and moaning about MST3K was due to the lack of respect they were giving to these oddly wonderful artifacts suitable for voyeuristic delectation. (Fujiwara once wrote up a list of the best movies of 1953 and included *Robot Monster* as his tenth best -- and seriously, the only reason I can imagine ANYONE doing that is to prove some banal point about hegemony and the canon blah blah blah FIGHT THE POWER!!! etc. As bad movies go, there are so many better ones, like *Monster A Go-Go* for starters) This is baloney on many levels. "MST3K involves people making fun of bad movies" is a good shorthand description of the show, but only that: most of the time, Best Brains aren't "making fun" of the movies (most of the riffs' humor are totally incidental to the badness of the film), nor are most of the films they riff on aren't really *bad.* A good chunk are, most are just utterly indifferent, and few are pretty good for what they are (say, the Lassie or Godzilla movies.), and a movie's badness is no guarantee of an episode's goodness. (I think *Monster A Go-Go* is probably the worst thing I've ever seen and most of the time BB was just struggling to say something, anything about it.) Most of the time I attribute BB's claims to a movie being bad as just a bunch of hyperbole for comedy's sake. (On the other hand, if *I* had to watch most movies with the kind of attentiveness *they* did in creating MST3K, I think most films would probably come up short, anyway.)

And ANYWAY, I knew a lot of hardcore MSTies who argued the 'essence' of the show wasn't the riffing but the relationship between Joel/Mike, the 'bots and the Mads.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 17:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

"The Girl With Golden Boots" was a horrible movie, though. And DON'T GET ME STARTED on "Manos"!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 17:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

Woman: What about us?
Servo: I give not a crap for thee.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 18:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

And ANYWAY, I knew a lot of hardcore MSTies who argued the 'essence' of the show wasn't the riffing but the relationship between Joel/Mike, the 'bots and the Mads.

Well, yes. This is why I stopped watching during the Sci-Fi years.

― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 18:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 1084 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Manos: The Yarn of Fate

― tokyo rosemary, Thursday, 18 April 2013 19:57 (1 month ago) Permalink

Been watching more and more episodes and I'm becoming convinced - and forgive me if I've already said this in one way or another - but there's a real difference between basically two kinds of episodes...ones where the movies is kind of crappy and lame and goofy and dated, which they make fun of, and movies that were really made with total contempt for their audience, which they hate. Thinking here of Catalina Caper's jokes that are funny to no one, plot that's involving to no one, rock and roll that doesn't rock, etc. Or how the bots clearly loathe Monster-A-Go-Go more than Manos, though the latter is certainly bleaker and more unsettling (though maybe just as empty in terms of nothing happening).
Like, a b-movie or a shoddy dub like Gamera can be good camp material, but you really get the sense of glee when they get to serve justice to a movie that was made specifically and solely so that something could be on-screen at a drive-in and what difference does it make if it's done well. And The Giant Gila Monster's greatest sin is just how lazy and shitty the "giant"-ness is: there's not one damn shot that gets the gila monster in the same frame as the cast, and so as bad as Earth Versus The Spider may be, there's at least some measure of effort there that lets Joel and the bots get into the spirit of things and focus mainly on the absurd Fifties behavior and decision-making of the cast, not to mention that one old guy ("Who ARE you?").
Dunno if this really holds up or if it's just in my head, but it's been bouncing around in my head.

I think that is pretty solid. This may be my own hazy thinking, but I feel as though the Mike and the 'bots were 'meaner' as the show entered the Sci-Fi years; more vicious toward the film and those involved, like the attacks on the director in Hobgoblins, or lines like 'Sure I'm an unappealing actor in a bad movie! Sure!' in Time Chasers. I had no problem with it, but I know a pal of mine disliked it because she felt, even when Joel disliked a film, there was amiable-ness/gentleness in his mockery rather than outright 'ugh, this sucks'.

― blatherskite, Friday, 19 April 2013 21:18 (1 month ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

Hulu has 25 of these now, fwiw:

http://www.hulu.com/mystery-science-theater-3000

― Not Simone Choule (Eric H.), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 01:11 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

Hulu also has a bunch of Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax

― mimicking regular benevloent (sic) users' names (President Keyes), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 01:13 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

Amazon Prime has a ton of them too

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 03:49 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

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