SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Mystery science theatre 3000 is unfunny bullshit

Posted: Jun 13 2008 01:18 pm

Fuck that shit, and fuck RiffTrax. If I wanted to hear a bunch of whiny idiots speak in a monotone over my movies making antiquated reference humor, I'd invite my uncles over on movie night.

I think the most painful part of the show is the "sketch comedy" portion where they get a bunch of untalented, unfunny morons to stand around saying incredibly trite shit. The sketches prior to and between the movie portions of Space Mutiny were so bad, they literally brought tears to my eyes. I was embarrassed to be seeing it, and I was embarrassed for the actors.

RiffTrax is especially goddamn annoying, because not only are the shitty jokes coming at you at break-neck speed, so you barely have time to give each one a forced courtesy chuckle, but half the time they're talking over the movie and half the time they're replying to the dialog. They're discounting everything about the movie and openly mocking it, then they expect you to have carefully listened to the lines so their witty and timely reply is well-received.

The theme song to the show is fucking awful too.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

MST3K is just one of those love it or hate it things.

I love it. Very Happy

Posted: Jun 13 2008 01:47 pm

I never really minded MST3k, but your analysis still made me laugh. Very Happy

Posted: Jun 13 2008 01:59 pm

I've only seen part of one episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and to be honest you're pretty right. I enjoyed it, but the humor was really hit-or-miss. Their jokes were either really funny or just stupid, and there were times that it just felt like morons mocking everything with no real reason, the kind that you would whack if you were sitting next to them.

Don't get me wrong, I thought they were funny -at times-, but when you're commentating on a movie you have to pick the right cues. It reminded me of my unfunny friends who take shots at every possible thing in a movie without actually being good at it (sometimes that even includes me).

I've never tried RiffTrax, so I'll take your word for it on that.

Posted: Jun 13 2008 02:08 pm

i like MST3K. i havent seen the show in about 10 years, but i remember enjoying it a lot when i was younger. i wonder if it has aged well or not

Posted: Jun 13 2008 03:21 pm

The only problem Mystery Science is that you can easily sit around with your freinds making stupid jokes at the movies expense instead of watching robot puppets do it for you.

Joined: Aug 24 2005 Location: Mount Holly, NJ Posts: 1062

I dug it.

Posted: Jun 13 2008 04:16 pm

I think the best thing about MST3K is that it brought a wider attention to hilariously aweful movies and how much fun it can be to watch them. Personally I like it better to watch the movies itself, but that won't keep me from watching them again on MST3K. And I still haven't seen a lot of the movies, so using a list of MST3K episodes as a recommendation for future watching is a great help.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

I loved mst3k it really got me into cheesy movies

Title: Alexz Aficionado Joined: May 21 2008 Posts: 2889

I like MST3K, but it is one of those particularly kind of humor shows. Atleast in that show they didn't make you have to listen to the dialogue most of the time. Plus, their choices of movies to watch had some appeal too. I never saw more old monster movies and alien invasion movies than I did when I watched that show. I say thumbs up to MST3K, never watched that other one.

Joined: Aug 26 2007 Posts: 2752

MST3k is awesome, gran-it, it takes a few shows to get into it but it's still a good show. Hell, half the stuff they riff, i'd never watch without them.

Posted: Jun 14 2008 05:44 pm

The problem with MST3K is that "Mitchell" turned out to be a really awesome movie by itself. So awesome, I paid John Saxon to sign my copy.

Wait, I guess I wouldn't have seen "Mitchell" if it weren't for MST3K. GO MST3K!!! Very Happy

Posted: Jun 17 2008 11:47 am

MST3K was / is the best reviewer of movies, albeit while the movie is going on, EVER!!!
I would laugh my ass off all the damn time, sober or drunk, to that show, and most times it was sober.

Posted: Jun 18 2008 12:28 am

I really love the show.

Joined: Jun 20 2008 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 408

I live in London (England) and i tripped over MST3k while i was looking for a movie to watch on Google vid and i fell in love with it immediately. It kind of reminded me of a programme called ''in bed with medinner'' that used to be on about ten years ago..check it out on you tube.

favorite MST3K ep = Space Mutiny ''spider skank, spider skank''

Posted: Oct 14 2009 09:31 pm

I love MST3K. Rifftrax aren't bad either--its a lot of fun to see the guys take on big budget movies. I have to admit though, some of the charm is lost when they aren't doing horridly bad B movies. And, I loved the sketches. Tom and Crow were awesome, so was Mike, and Joel was more than passable. I mean, how can you not fucking love this shit:

Watch it and don't laugh. I dare you.

Posted: Oct 14 2009 10:26 pm

MST3K is awesome. I dislike the idea of RiffTrax because:
1. What's the point of making fun of good, big budget films? It'd be one thing if they stuck to shitty, big budget films, but that's not the case at all.
2. They get around it being illegal by being lazy. Rifftrax couldn't be bothered to pay to license movies, so they merely sell you audio tracks that require you also already owning the movie. While that's hardly beyond the realm of possibility since they do big budget movies, it's still lazy.

Also, Cinematic Titanic has the much funnier members/writers of MST3K. I highly recommend their version of The Wasp Woman.

Posted: Oct 14 2009 10:48 pm

Well in fairness to the laziness charge, they would probably have to pay absurd amounts for some of those movies, and a good amount probably wouldn't even allow them to license them at all. Not many people are keen on allowing their work to get ripped to shreads.

Joined: Jun 20 2008 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 408

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

MST3K is awesome. I dislike the idea of RiffTrax because:
1. What's the point of making fun of good, big budget films? It'd be one thing if they stuck to shitty, big budget films, but that's not the case at all.
2. They get around it being illegal by being lazy. Rifftrax couldn't be bothered to pay to license movies, so they merely sell you audio tracks that require you also already owning the movie. While that's hardly beyond the realm of possibility since they do big budget movies, it's still lazy.

Also, Cinematic Titanic has the much funnier members/writers of MST3K. I highly recommend their version of The Wasp Woman.

I totally agree. I don't wanna watch Jurassic Park with someone ripping it to bits the whole way through, they should stick to movies with names like - THE BEAST FROM URANUS!!

Posted: Oct 14 2009 11:27 pm

SoldierHawk wrote:

Well in fairness to the laziness charge, they would probably have to pay absurd amounts for some of those movies, and a good amount probably wouldn't even allow them to license them at all. Not many people are keen on allowing their work to get ripped to shreads.

What's funny about doing this with Jurassic Park though?

Posted: Oct 14 2009 11:36 pm

I'm a big fan of the ripping, but I don't care for the little skits they have in between.

Posted: Oct 14 2009 11:57 pm

They have some great skits though. The time distortion thing in Prince of Space, the time they call the mad scientists in The Beginning of the End, Crow's screenplay "Just Plain Peter" in The Beginning of the End, the invention exchange in Manos: The Hands of Fate (Both the Cartuner and the Chocolate Bunny Guillotine)...I like a lot of the skits actually.

Posted: Oct 15 2009 12:13 am

I don't hate them or anything, and I concede it moves the plot of them being trapped on a ship along, but I always fast forward to get to the riffing. Confused

Posted: Oct 15 2009 12:34 am

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

MST3K is awesome. I dislike the idea of RiffTrax because:
1. What's the point of making fun of good, big budget films? It'd be one thing if they stuck to shitty, big budget films, but that's not the case at all.
2. They get around it being illegal by being lazy. Rifftrax couldn't be bothered to pay to license movies, so they merely sell you audio tracks that require you also already owning the movie. While that's hardly beyond the realm of possibility since they do big budget movies, it's still lazy.

Also, Cinematic Titanic has the much funnier members/writers of MST3K. I highly recommend their version of The Wasp Woman.

im pretty sure the cast of MST3K got ripped out of some royalties somewhere, hence why they are doing the RiffTrax

That dirty bastard Seinfeld did the same thing to his cast

Posted: Oct 15 2009 02:36 am

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

SoldierHawk wrote:

Well in fairness to the laziness charge, they would probably have to pay absurd amounts for some of those movies, and a good amount probably wouldn't even allow them to license them at all. Not many people are keen on allowing their work to get ripped to shreads.

What's funny about doing this with Jurassic Park though?

Everything, if they can write good jokes for the movie!

Now, if they can't write good jokes, that's another story. And I'll concede that its a lot harder to make fun of a *good* movie than a bad one. But then again, its also hard to make fun of a truly, truly terrible movie. Some of the B movies they did were just TOO damn bad to be funny. The same thing happened with most of "The Wicker Man" rifftrack (although the last 20 minutes are comedy gold even without the commentary lol. That shit just writes itself.)