fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2629 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2629 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 071 secrets from Secret Submission Post #376.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 - too big ], [ 1 2 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

01. http://i58.tinypic.com/eqnpqw.jpg

Congrats. This is the most boring and unremarkable thing I've ever heard.

Just where do you think you are?

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-16 16:57 (UTC) - Expand

1. Have you seen episodes from the whole series? Some people strongly prefer the Sci-Fi era to the Comedy Central era, or vice versa.
2. There's episode to episode variation. You may have been watching not-so-good episodes.
3. If you think datedness may be a factor in your lack of enjoyment, it's worth checking out Rifftrax.
4. It may not be your type of humor at all, and that's fine.

Some of the jokes are probably kind of dated now, and others were somewhat obscure to begin with, like when they make references to things in Minnesota or Wisconsin or bring in a lot of literature references. Also, some episodes are funnier than others - it depends a lot on what they had to work with.

As someone from Minnesota who was a teenager during most of this show's run, I find it hilarious, but I can get that not everyone would and there are definitely episodes that I don't think were all that great.

Eh, I can see where you're coming from. For me, it's extremely hit-or-miss. There are certain episodes that make me bust out laughing, and other where I'm sitting stoneface through the whole thing. It's understandable (but I still enjoy the series regardless).

Well, some of the jokes are also more relevant due to the time period. I still can't believe it's 25 years old now. And there are in-jokes too which is all huh?

But it does also depend on the movie. I've fast forwarded through some just to see the skits.

You need to watch The Final Sacrifice and get back to us.

Nah, Jack Frost or Merlin's Shop of Wonders. Both of the movies are already hilarious in their bizarreness, Mike and the bots just make it moreso.

thezmage - 2014-03-15 22:05 (UTC) - Expand

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-15 22:35 (UTC) - Expand

truxillogical - 2014-03-15 22:52 (UTC) - Expand

Space Mutiny. Minimal outdated jokes, the many names of Dave Ryder, and the movie itself is aaaaaaalmost watchable without the 'bots.

And Horror of Spider Island (Enjoy Gary!)

Same. I get them, I just don't think they're funny.

It could have be the build up! MST3K is one of the Classics, so it has a lot of praise for its quality. Sometimes the more you hear how great a thing is, the less you end up enjoying it, because it couldn't match your expectations.

Yes! My brother praised A Christmas Story to the skies when he first saw it; when I saw it, I was like --it's a-ight. I was over it by that point (and TBS's obsessive Xmas Eve screenings don't help).

You can't watch them in order, if that's what you did. You have to watch the good ones and get a feel for the show before going for the other ones- if that's what you did. It also helps to have some fuzzy nostalgic feelings for the show.

I agree. Even when I was growing up and this show was in its heyday, I still didn't find it all that funny.

TBH, while I loved this show growing up, most of the jokes I didn't get until I was much older, with more of a grounding in pop and world history.

Watching late at night helps with the weaker episodes, but while some are pure genius others are super boring, and enjoying the ones that aren't either extreme depends as much on my mood as anything else.

Maybe you were just watching ones that didn't appeal to you? Some of them just didn't appeal to me but others were hilarious. I find liking them has to do with the actual movie they're watching, some lend themselves to the humor better or just lend themselves to the style of humor/jokes I like better.

I personally loved "The Horrors of Spider Island", "The Screaming Skull" and "The Phantom", and of course "Hamlet", especially that one line "Who died and made you king?...oh."

truxillogical - 2014-03-16 02:16 (UTC) - Expand

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-16 23:20 (UTC) - Expand

illiadandoddity - 2014-03-16 04:12 (UTC) - Expand

Same. I was like "this isn't funny as people made it seem like :("
or maybe it's just because I've only seen a couple of episodes but the ones I saw didn't make me want to see another..

Aww, did you at least find the terrible movies funny? You could ignore the comments :/

This sounds like textbook Seinfeld is Unfunny (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny) to me. Most humor dates very fast, and the kind of snarking the guys do in MST3K was novel then and really isn't now.

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-16 19:56 (UTC) - Expand

I could have done without the movie riffs. I just liked the hosts and the robots. That was all I needed. That and the theme song. The theme song is by far the best part (it's so catchy!)

To me, it was disappointing to find out that they didn't dub over the movies but just shot jokes at them.

Like others have said, a lot of the jokes are a little dated and very specific to the culture of the 80s and 90s... little call-outs to commercials, tv shows, etc. If you weren't there at the time, it just sounds like they're babbling. Even now I'm caught off guard when they reference some obscure commercial or jingle that I thought I'd forgotten.

Which is not to say that people who are unfamiliar with that time period won't enjoy it, they just won't get ALL the jokes. On the other hand, who does? It's a weird show, you sit back and enjoy the sheer weirdness of it. "Space Mutiny" was a good intro for newbies, though, and second the suggestion to check out RiffTrax, since they do recent movies.

It's such a variegated format. Did you watch Joel or Mike (Joel is MCH funnier)? Did you watch Comedy Central or Sci-Fi Channel (CC is funnier because they had a broader format with which to work)? Did you watch a feature film or one of the shorts (i LOVE the shorts--those bizarre '50s shorts that our parents and grandparents used to have to watch in school! Hilarious!