Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Beyond!

[cue theme music]

Show of hands, how many of you actually know what my blog title is referring to? Well, Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a show from the 90's. The backstory of the show changed a lot in it's 10 season run, but the basic idea was to make fun of horrible movies, a show-within-a-show sort of feel. One thing always is consistent: a nice, regular guy named either Mike or Joel is stuck on a space satellite with two intelligent, sarcastic robots (Crow and Servo). A villain sends him tapes to conduct "experiments" on him to see how long he lasts watching a horrible movie, which he does with the help of humor.

I will be the first to admit it, the plot is non-existent (but as they say in the theme song "If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, repeat to yourself it's just a show. I should really just relax"). It's an excuse to make fun of those B-grade movies that Mike and the gang are forced to watch. MST3K (as it's referred to by fans) began as a small station show in Minneapolis. After a few seasons, it was quite popular and Comedy Central picked it up, rocketing the cast to stardom. Although Comedy Central wanted to move the set and stars to New York or another upscale city to film, the cast was determined to keep filming from their dear state of Minnesota. They did so for the remainder of the show's run, keeping the original lure of the show with their everyday man approach to the movies, and not becoming spoiled stars.

Fast forward another 10 years. Where are Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy (voice of Servo) and Bill Corbett (voice of Crow) now? Well, they moved from riffing on bad movies to...riffing on bad movies? But wait a minute...wasn't Mystery Science Theater cancelled back in 1999? Yes, it was, but the MST3K crew has a new venue called Rifftrax, an online site that they and Legend Films began in 2006. For only a few dollars, a consumer can purchase the "riffs" on popular movies from the Rifftrax website. The MST3K crew is keeping up with the times, using embedded video clips as samples of their work. They even involve their avid followers with iRiff, where a person can riff on movies themselves and send it in for a contest. They also have their own Youtube channel that they post fairly regularly on.

It's good to see that these guys are keeping up with internet tools. I personally think they are brilliant. They don't resort to vulgar jokes (not often, anyway) and are very cinematically well-rounded. Mike, Kevin, and Bill are intelligent guys who I can relate to and would want as friends.

What do you think of this? Do you think that these guys should utilize more Web 2.0 tools, and if so, which ones? Did you ever watch Mystery Science Theater? Did you like it? What about Rifftrax? Have you ever heard of this before?

Before you post, I'd highly, strongly, greatly recommend watching a few Rifftrax "best of's". I promise that you'll laugh at least once. Here are some of my favorites:

Twilight Rifftrax

The Dark Knight Rifftrax

Star Wars Rifftrax

Pirates of the Caribbean Rifftrax