By request.
I was first introduced to Mystery Science Theater 3000 back in 2004. I was up late, flicking between channels when I stumbled upon it on ITV. Incidentally, showing MST3K: The Movie is the only good thing that ITV has ever done.
I should pause for a moment to explain to those of you who do not know what MST3K is. Better yet, I'll let wikipedia do that for me:
The series features a man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a satellite in space and forced to watch a selection of terrible movies, especially (but not initially limited to) science fiction B-movies. The man and his robots make a running commentary on the film, making fun of its flaws and wisecracking their way through the film in the style of a movie theater peanut gallery.
That summary doesn't mention just how funny the show(and later movie) really is. The script went through dozens of re-writes, with the films being pored over to find every single opportunity for a laugh. Space is limited, since viewers need also to keep track of what is happening in the feature being mocked, so any joke that is only "okay" doesn't make the cut. Lines are often smart, and sometimes reference obscure facets of pop-culture - if you get it, it kills you.
So I was watching the MST3K movie on ITV. Initially, I wasn't convinced - the film takes a few minutes to get to a good laugh, there's a lot of setup to get out of the way(usually taken care of in the TV show by the theme song). What got me to sit up and pay attention? This line:
Keanu Reeves in 'My Own Private Airfield'.
I don't know, to this day, what made me laugh so much about that line. I hadn't even seen "My Own Private Idaho", barely heard of it. Maybe it was the reference to Keanu, an actor who was particularly ubiquitous at the time. Whatever it was, I was hooked from that point on. As usual, I had subtitles up, so every sentence made it's way clear and load to my brain(a side-effect of the 'lack of room' issue is that sometimes jokes can get lost in the rapid delivery). My favourite lines? Completely out of context? Sure.
Acting!
Okay, let's see here... Shatner, Shatner... no, doesn't look like he's in this one; we're safe.
See big men sticking screw drivers into things - turning them - AND ADJUSTING THEM!
Exeter: ... they're magnetized.
Crow T. Robot: And if your hands were metal, that would mean something.
Then I ram my ovipositor down your throat, and lay my eggs in your chest! But I'm *not* an alien!
Exeter: A PEACEFUL relocation...
Crow T. Robot: After the genocide, of course.
I quickly jumped to the internet, and researched the history of MST3K. I won't go into it's long and storied past, since it's available here. After browsing around for a few hours and seeing a couple of pages(dial-up humour!) I learned that the episode I simply 'had' to see was... 'MANOS: The Hands of Fate'
Wow. I mean... Wow. It's a truly terrible movie. And, therefore, excellent canon fodder for the
Joel: So, it's Manos...
Crow T. Robot: ...the Hands of Fate?
Joel: Yes.
[watching the women wrestle in the desert in Manos the Hands of Fate]
Tom Servo: I'm guessing this is the whole reason this movie was made.
Crow T. Robot: [when Torgo appears one bit of music keeps playing over and over] Ahh, yes, the haunting Torgo theme.
Every frame of this movie looks like someone's last known photo.
I had downloaded Manos on E-Mule, using my Aunt's broadband connection. It took 4 days. I then tried "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians!" I had failed to plan ahead, and therefore had to wait another 4 days for my fix. No quotes this time - 'Martians' did nothing but disappoint me. I'm not even sure I made it to the end - and if I did, I sure as hell can't remember what happened!
Hell, even dwarves dressed up like elves apparently failde to make me like this movie. What the heck?
My time with the broadband used up, and my spirit broken by 'Martians', I stayed away for a little while. I figured I'd gotten enjoyment out of 66% of my voyages into MST3K-land, and that would do.
It was not until 2007, when I was stuck house-sitting in America with nothing to do that I tried once more. I was browsing one of the few fora I frequent, and stumbled upon the MST3K topic there. Someone recommended the episode 'Space Mutiny', along with quoting one of it's jokes(below, obv). A lot has changed between 2004 and 2007, and nowadays watching 'Space Mutiny' is just a quick hop, skip and jump over to AllUC.org.
[after Space Mutiny finally ends]
Mike Nelson: Boo! Boo!
Tom Servo: Man, a retarted jellyfish could make a better movie than this!
Crow: A severely impaired box turtle with a very busy schedule, just give him a camera for a day, he'd come up with something better than this.
Captain Devers: [referring to another character] Sir, we both know there's only one man here who's capable of combat. A man who's had training, both physically and mentally.
Commander Jansen: Alright.
Crow: [as Jansen] Fetch me my warrior muumuu.
My love was re-invigorated! I immediately ordered 'Manos' and 'Martians' on DVD, to re-enjoy and re-evaluate, respectively.
I scoured the net for discussion, information and episodes. And then..!
I sort of... forgot about MST3K.
Some personal things were happening, and 'fun' took a back-seat for a while. Eh.
Then!
The Sound of Young America came to the rescue! TSOYA is a podcast and radio show in which the host, Jesse Thorn, interviews famous people. And in the episode linked above, he talks to Joel Hodgson and Frank Conniff, big players in MST3K's history(Joel was the star for the first few seasons). They talked about their new venture, Cinematic Titanic(basically MST3K but not on TV) but more importantly informed me of RiffTrax.
Rifftrax is the brainchild of another former MST3K star, Mike Nelson. It's also a lot like MST3K, but instead of old movies, they 'riff' on new ones - Jurassic Park, Spiderman - even the first few episodes of Heroes! I downloaded the RiffTrax for 'Daredevil', laughed my socks off, and then paid for others - Spiderman, Matrix, Fantastic Four and Casino Royale. All were hilarious and more than worth the £1/£2(thank hellfire for the low dollar!).
So that's my history with MST3K, as requested by one intrepid listener. I've fallen in and out of love with the format over the years, but it's won me over once more to even greater degrees. I'm desperate to do one myself. Which, with my group of friends, certainly sounds feasible, eh?
A quick epilogue - I use the phrase 'I downloaded' a fair few times in this post, and that may come off badly. But I also use the phrases 'I bought' and 'I paid for'. I would not have bought the MST3K dvds and later the RiffTrax if I had not been able to illegally download examples of both from the internet. So I don't think it's a bad thing that this post highlights numerous times I have stolen content from hardworking people.