I’ve been meaning to watch an episode of Mystery Science Theater for a while, but my computer doesn’t have sound and I just never got around to it. Tonight I just happened to remember it when someone else was in the computer room, and he let me watch it on his computer.
I watched the Manos: Hands of Fate, because I’ve heard it’s one of the best. And it’s pretty darn funny. Sure, I had trouble making out the sounds and images of the original Manos, and I had trouble telling if a speaker was a MSTer or part of the movie, and I had to skip a large section because the video wasn’t working. But it was still great. The cat fight between Manos’s wives was hysterical.
What episode should I watch the next time someone lets me on their computer?
Zombie Nightmare, a Mike-era episode, it has Tia Carrere (Schwing!) and Adam West in it
Laserblast is another good one, as is Time Chasers, one of my freinds knew the director of TC
Santa Claus Conquers The Martians. Easily the best one there is. Manos suffers from the movie being too bad; it’s legendary because it’s so bad, but even the jokes have a hard time saving it. Santa Claus manages to keep you at least mildly interested, and the jokes are absolutely killer. The sound mixing is better too.
Mitchell!, and Final Justice. I loves me some Joe Don Baker taunts.
Another vote for Werewolf. “This is the most ineffectual rampage ever.”
For a short fix, watch Mr. B Natural. I didn’t love War of the Colossal Beast, the movie that accompanied the short, but Mr B Natural is some of the best riffing ever. If you can, see the host segment afterwards, in which Crow and Tom Servo have a point-counterpoint debate on whether Mr B is a man or a woman. Wonderful stuff.
I have to agree with all the episodes mentioned here, and add Puma Man, Outlaw of Gor (Peabody winner), Pod People, Prince of Space, and of course, The Movie.
The trouble with MST3K, is that, while the best episodes are some of the funniest stuff ever on TV, at least half the episodes are unwatchable. While the riffing normally isn’t bad, its just not enough to overcome the crappiness of the movie.
To me, a lot of the improvement in later seasons isn’t so much better riffing, but movie choices that aren’t bad so much because they’re boring and dreary, but because they’re stupid and cheesy.
I do want to register that I never found Santa Claus vs the Martians that entertaining. It seems like the subject of the movie itself should be almost enough to carry the show, but it’s not. The riffs seem to me to trail off in level of humor for very long stretches.
That never fails to make me giggle. There’s also Pod People, with the “McCloud!” running gag. I’m only very vaguely familiar with the reference (I think I read a parody once in MAD Magazine) but it cracks me up every time.
