After watching the first three episodes I now understand how my mom felt watching the Sci-Fi era shows with all their 1970s references. I didn’t get all of those withoug my mom’s explanations, but I’m falling off the couch laughing at the 1980s jokes Jonah & the Bots are cracking. Especially the McDonald’s birthday party in Mac & Me. I went to waaaaaay too many of those in the early 80s. Although the ones I went to never had b-boying in the parking lot. Maybe that’s because I didn’t go to a California McDonalds party.
Is Trace back? I watched #4 last night, and there was another long-shot surprise return, but not Trace…
My 11 year old son is getting into the show now and we’re working through season 11 (I had already seen it). We just finished Avalanche Monday and I’m getting kind of excited for us to get to some of the later movies like Starcrash but I’m also bouncing between trying to explain some of the comments and just letting him watch.
I mean, it probably depends on your son. I was the sort of kid who enjoyed not getting some of the references when I first watched an episode, only to decipher them later.
He likes the wisecracks and the host segments so I’m mostly biting my tongue when there’s a reference that he misses. He’s only 11 so his knowledgebase isn’t that expansive - I mean he’s seen Warriors and Big Trouble in Little China so I’m working on showing him the classics, but the pop culture stuff from 20 years ago and the deeper cuts fly right past him. Ultimately, I think I’m handling just fine, I explain a couple things here and there but mostly let him watch the show. Explaining references gets in the way of the timing and everything. That stuff can always come later.
Anyway, we have to get through this season so I can watch the next one.
I used to let the references I didn’t know fly by unless it was a recurring joke (“I thought you were Dale!”) or my mom was laughing way too hard at a throwaway comment. Then I’d ask for an explanation. It’s more rewarding to suddenly realize the joke on a subsequent watching anyway.
oh that part was a response to an above poster seeing some of the actors live and they made a comment about not even being asked for a cameo yet and I sorta rememberd what trace said when he was asked why he didn’t move over with the show to syfy
which was a long the line he was getting too old and he wanted to do more “grown up” projects
Yes, that was me. I saw Trace and Frank live, and they seemed open to cameos on the new show, but said they hadn’t been approached.
So in “Mac and Me”, did anyone else notice they were playing the Predator theme music during the shootout in the grocery sequence?
My biggest complaint is the movies are cut down TOO much. Its almost a collection of disjointed scenes to riff on.
Thats my only real complaint. The riffs are better than the old-school ones. They are more ‘bit like’ then ‘guys sitting in a theatre making shit up’. Which isnt to say the old ones are bad. They just arnt as good IMHO.
I don’t mind the occasional extended ‘bit’, but I feel like overusing that style basically turns the show into a sketch comedy program that happens to have a movie running in the background, and that’s not MST3K.
Yes. A movie running in the background that sometimes you could neither see nor here. Part of the artistry of MST3K is putting the riffs into the holes in the movie. First season was fine, but they talked over too much of the movie - for nothing - this season.
There were definitely tons of jokes that I had to ask, “Who are you writing this for?? Cause I got it, but I am rapidly a vanishing part of your demo.”
At the end of the Day Time Ended, there was this vaguely Ten Commandments sounding music so Jonah said “You must go on without me! The Lord has decreed I shall not enter!!”…I appreciate you guys making me feel smart but man. I guess its allright. They also made a Rick and Morty joke at nearly the same time. “SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!”
Wasn’t it Joel who said when they were writing jokes for MST they never asked themselves “Will people get this?” but said “The right people will get this.”?
Yeah, I believe about 20-30% of MST3K riffs should be ‘deep cuts’. Encourages people to rewatch them more often, see if they pick up on anything new. 
Honestly, from my first watch-through, the hardest belly laugh I got was from the riff “‘Ryan Styles, DSV’”. I wonder what the cross-section of Whose Line, Seaquest, and MST3K fandoms are, but that one hit me square in the funnybone.