MST3K Returns For a New Audience
Monday, April 10, 2017 at 9:15AM 
by Chris Feil
This Friday marks the return of cult favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000, the spoof equivalent of sharing a movie theatre with a patron who won’t stop talking back at the screen. This time the crowdfunded production heads to Netflix, with many classic episodes also back on the streaming service as well. For some the original series is more of an acquired taste, but for its devoted cult, there is much to rejoice again.
The premise was simple: painfully bad films are forced upon two robots (the gumball machine-like Tom Servo and metallic rooster Crow) and one human (Joel Hodgson, then Mike Nelson, and now Jonah Ray) in a plot for world domination by some crackpot scientist...
But the concept is only context for MST3K’s real fun: the joking commentary over the cinematic turkeys, with the visible outline of the trio in front of the screen. What followed over nearly two hundred episodes is a hilarious and low-fi dive into the forgotten cinematic mistakes like “Manos”: The Hands of Fate and Eegah.
MST3K is a cult program in the truest sense, a fandom built of movie geeks and admirers of the silly. But if there is something to be gleaned from a revival (if not more than fan service for more of the same), it’s how social media has adopted similar comedic rhythms and tastes for the random. The show had its share of naysayers for it's absurdity and rapid fire streaming jokes, but that pacing is more at home with an audience accustomed to a relentless information stream.
MST3K is all about embracing the outlandish, the messy, and the flat-out stupid for the sake of endurance. After all, the films shown to this crew are intended to drive them all insane through their crappiness. But rather than succumbing to the absurdity thrust upon them, they shrug off awfulness by not taking it too seriously. It’s easy to forget that they are prisoners with all of the jokes and the relaxed tone they adopt, and for how unbothered they remain. In fact, it’s often the thwarted villains that end up going a little crazy.
Obviously the idea to outsmarting the villain here is that mocking the films means not succumbing to them. There’s something of that survival instinct in our current culture of difficult times, all micro-observations (not to mention the macro and obvious) quickly quipped before bouncing onto the next. We reject the awful or it makes us insane. And that’s precisely where the show is so smart, an intellectual idea encased in a daffy package. The ability to laugh is the key to our sanity.
Think of the instant meme-ification of politicians, a shouting Meryl Streep, or things like that batshit Book of Henry trailer.
The silly and smart are hand in hand for MST3K. For every funny voice or juvenile comment, the series mines humor from the films’ sometimes dubious philosophies and craftsmanship. For Tom and Crow (and their human), the powers that be are both asinine and suspect, and they will use whatever dopey voice they need to make you laugh about it. Meryl Streep shouts along with them.
MST3K, however, also comes from love. Despite the fact that it earns those laughs almost exclusively at the expense of the films it mocks, it’s far from a mean-spirited experience. Just because the show highlights these films missteps doesn’t mean it doesn’t find genuine affectionate delight in that very badness. It’s the kind of love that generates genuine fan followings for the likes of The Room, Plan 9 From Outer Space, and *ahem* Collateral Beauty. The “so bad its good” brand of cinematic passion where the heart outweighs the logic your brain gives you.
The mind of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 feels more at home today than it had before. If the new talent on board, like Patton Oswalt, keeps true to the original spirit of MST3K’s balance of loving sharp clownery, Netflix should have another cult revival success on their hands. Fan service or no, the series’s return gives us an outlet to push away the crazy by laughing away the nonsense.
Favorite MST3K episodes are on Netflix now and the revival arrives Friday, April 14!
Reader Comments (2)
Very excited for this; scheduled a three-day weekend for the occasion. The unconfirmed, leaked list of movies for this season was really encouraging as well.
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