Shark Bytes

BEST SHOW EVER!! We have gone around quoting this show for years now and have LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. One thing good about werewolves...they scoop their own poop

You people who like to slam MST3K need to remember that it requires absolutely no talent whatsoever to make fun of something. And just because you can make fun of something that doesn't mean it's bad...Hey, wait a minute...

It definitely jumped the shark before the final season, which had a palpable air of being written and performed on autopilot; season 8 had "Space Mutiny" and "Overdrawn", but I can't think of a classic from seasons 9 or 10. And it was always hit-and-miss. Joel and Mike had different styles (Mike was slick and consistent, but a bit bland, whereas Joel had intermittent flashes of genius), the story arc host segments were short enough to ignore, Pearl was irritating, but even when it wasn't side-splitting it was pleasant background entertainment. It didn't so much jump the shark as gradually slide over it.

I don't know where somebody gets off accusing MST3k of bigotry. Can you present even one example of that? MST3k consistently presented feminist points of view in their jokes (see, e.g., The Home Economics Short). They also did a lot of jokes that took a racially thoughtful point of view (e.g., the joke at the end of I Accuse My Parents). If you don't understand irony, then at least don't criticize it.

I think MST3K jumped the shark when the fans went nuts and started acting like any and all legitimate criticism of the show was just an assault on Mike's fragile male ego. I think we've all seen way too many exchanges like this all over the internet:

Deranged Mike Fan: I see in your profile that you enjoy watching bad movies. Did you like MST3K?

Reasonable Person: Sometimes it was okay. Other times it sucked even worse than whatever movie was being shown.

Deranged Mike Fan: WHY DO YOU HATE MIKE?! YOU SUCK AND SO DOES JOEL!

Now in many cases the reasonable person may have only seen the later years of the show and won't even know who Joel is but that won't stop Mike's unhinged fans from trying to flame everything the reasonable person says like this:

Reasonable Person: Y'know, I really like sex!

Deranged Mike Fan: Sex is for losers! You suck and so does Joel!

And for those Mike fans who don't want the show criticized because they say it ruins their fantasies about being part of the show? Grow up! It's not up to the rest of us to accomodate your pathetic fantasy life. Mike's fans themselves invite much of the criticism of him with this kind of behavior.

Joel Hodgson once said during an interview about MST3K that (paraphrase) "We're not concerned that everybody will get it- just that the right people will get it."
Obviously, many of the comments on this show post are not from the 'right people'. The target audience of this show spanned the 60's-80's pop culture generation. If you weren't up on these subtle, sometimes blatant, references throughout the show, you would be lost- and probably would deem the show stupid.
As for me- I'm glad I was one of the 'right people' that Joel was aiming for. This was and always will be one of TV's most creative and hilarious shows.

Oh, I loved this show. I have "Copies" and like to watch them all the time.

I think it jumped the shark after a year or so after Mike took over. Certainly, around that. But it still had some episodes I would consider 'great'. Yes 'great'! Space Mutiny and that horrible Werewolf film.

Oh yeah... let me also say that Mad Movies, which used to air on Nick-At-Nite in the eighties, was much better than this show ever was. It's a crime that so many episodes of the Pearl years have become DVDs, but there hasn't been a single Mad Movies DVD (at least not yet, anyway) and there are so very few people who remember that show.

Oops... I meant 10 years old where it says 19 years old. But you've got to admit, that WOULD make for an interesting childhood...

I spent the end of my kiddyhood (19 years old) to the last of my adolescence and into my teen years (13 years old) watching this show. The first couple seasons I watched on HA! (the channel that would later turn into Comedy Central) were awe-inspiring. Then HA! turned into Comedy Central, and my local cable company stopped carrying Comedy Central, and I lost my precious MST3K.

Then I started hearing reports that the Sci-Fi Channel was going to pick up the show, and wonderful memories flooded back and I got a strong blast of nostalgia. And then I saw the first show on Sci-Fi, and WOW, I wished I hadn't. TV's Frank and the other bad guy were gone, only to be replaced by Pearl, Joel was gone, the writing had taken a nosedive, stupid Sci-Fi execs forced them to only show sci-fi movies (which is ironic, considering all the non-sci fi horror movies they show these days) and all my sweet memories of the show were ruined. Nowadays I still can't think of MST3K without thinking of "The Pearl years" as I call them. Oh well, at least I can still download episodes from the Joel years.

MST3K was a wonderful show. I buy the DVDs as soon as they are released. My favorite short had to be "Mr. B. Natural". Classic! The battle of who was a better host, Joel or Mike. They both had their moments. The MST3K movie was funny. I would say my favorites are "Manos, Hands of Fate.", "Terror from the year 5000.", "Horrors of Spider-Island" and "Horror of Party Beach". But they are great shows, check them out if you haven't.

NEVER, EVER JUMPED! Joel was great, Mike was great, the Bots were great, Dr. Forester was great, TV's Frank was great, Pearl was great, Bobo and Brain Guy were great .. well, you get the drift. I will always love MST3K.

When compared to the crap that's popular today i'll take MST3K anyday. If the show jumped it happened when Forrester's mom took over as the lead mad.

And it does seem there is alot of hate for MST going on here. I'll head over to the thread for Keeping Up With the Kardashians to keep karma in balance.

If you look carefully, you can tell that almost all of the negative comments over the past year or so are written by the same person - the same phrases are used over and over, and the points made are almost identical. There's a very strange person stalking this board.

No I think people are just fed up with fans trying to "prove" that you can't criticize either Mike or his show.

And I don't think Mike is that funny. He doesn't understand deadpan. He tries to sound focused and quiet but he applies the same delivery to everything so he just sounds phony.

If you look carefully, you can tell that almost all of the negative comments over the past year or so are written by the same person - the same phrases are used over and over, and the points made are almost identical. There's a very strange person stalking this board.

Anyway, MST3K was a great show no matter who the host was. The Sci-Fi years were a little weaker, but it never completely jumped.