EPTWe all have a soft spot for cheaply made, poorly filmed movies. Whether you legitimately love it, or it is so bad you can't help but laugh everyone has their guilty pleasures.
This is an actual scene, from the movie The Room, which is precisely one such film.
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In the late 1980s Joel Hodgeson, Mike Nelson, and several other talents from the Wisconsin and Minnesota region came up with the premise for a show called Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090707073130/mst3k/images/4/40/10_joelmike.jpg)
In the show Joel and eventually Mike were launched into space by an evil scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV's Frank, where they would be monitored for the psychological effects bad movies had on them. Joel builds the robots Tom Servo and Crow to help him stay sane by making fun of the awful films they are sent.
The introduction to the show sums it up nicely (note this is season one's intro)
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The mock the films with the iconic images of the Joel or Mike and their robots in silhouette at the bottom of the screen.
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The public domain is filled with movies that for lack of a better phrase, should never have been made. To call the movies "B, movies," is frankly an insult to B-Movies. From "The Planet of the Dinosaurs," to "The Pod People," the characters incessantly rip on the dialog, screen play and music in this abominations of films.
They do this in several ways both during the film and during interim skits. I would like to apologize in advance to any Canadian readers that may come across this blog, but my personal favorite episode is for a Canadian film entitled "The Final Sacrifice." Ergo, they opted for several Canadian jokes (We are Minnesotan, I think US being "little Canada" you all can appreciate the joke <3)
The crew contracts hockey hair:
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In a Canadian film entitled "The Final Sacrifice," Tom Servo sings:
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Just a little sample of some of the general riffing style of the group from Satan vs. Santa Clause, yes Satan vs. Santa Clause
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Mike Nelson and the Robots (Kevin Murphey and Bill Corbett) continue their work selling audio tracks to be put over more modern movies including Harry Potter, Twilight, LOTR and several more through their company Rifftraxx. All of which are brilliantly funny, movies don't have to be bad to do what you and your friends do with movies every time you watch them anyway.
The show MST3k was cancelled in 1999, but lived on through its cult following and the well recognized phrase at the end of its VHS series:
![[image loading]](http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/503/keepcirculating.jpg)
I just wanted to share something that has been a source of great joy and entertainment with the TL community. There is currently only one episode available on Netflix, several Rifftraxx available on Hulu (Including Plan 9 from Outer Space and Reefer Madness), and I even have two streams which can be found here and here.
Check it out and keep circulating the tapes. I hope you all find some joy in MST3k.
