MST3K: My Escape

I get home from work. I'm tired. I want nothing more than to rest and not think. But there are dishes to be done. And the sound of water running and dishes clanging after my long day will be overwhelming. So I put on my noise cancelling headphones, connect it to my blutooth adapter, set my Roku box to the Shout channel, and start up... the movie.

Sometimes it is "The Giant Spider Invasion", sometimes "The Beginning of the End", sometimes "The Screaming Skull", and sometimes a double feature of "Devil Doll" followed by "Devil Fish". As Mike Nelson and his faithful robotic companions make fun of the movie, I relax and am able to take on the dishes.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 was an independent show that started on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis, MN in 1988. By the time I intersected with it in 1997, it had changed hosts, changed actors, changes characters, and had been on a journey from Comedy Central to the SciFi Channel. I even remember the first episode I ever watched.

When I was fifteen, I was visiting my grandmother in Louisiana for Christmas. We were also there because my grandmother had begun to develop dementia. All my life, my grandmother had been a caring and loving force in the family. Now that she was beginning to forget us, it was a techtonic shift in my reality.

My grandparents' house had an enclosed den at the back of the house where I would often steal away to watch the old TV in the back. When I was very little, I often hung out in the den with my grandfather. He passed away when I was quite young. But for me, the den was always my favorite part of the house.

I turned on the SciFi channel to see what might be playing. And I found myself staring at an old black and white film. Surperimposed on the image was the image of a man, two robots, and the front row of theater seats. At that moment, a monster was forcing a man to the bottom of a swimming pool. Servo shouted,

"This is our OOL! Notice there is no "P" in it! Let's keep it that way!"

I doubled over laughing. This ridiculous joke paired with the violent scene of a monster trying to kill one of the heroes of the movie was brilliant!

This was my introduction to Mystery Science Theater 3000. And the movie was "Revenge of the Creature", a pretty lame sequel to "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." My mother recognized the show and explained to me that it was a new movie every episode and they told jokes and made fun of the movies.

Once we were back in Georgia, my mother and I began watching the episodes once a week. They came on at 11 pm on the SciFi channel and every episode lasted 2 hours. So often we were up very late. We laughed and some times made our own jokes. During "Pumaman" I recall shouting out, "Use the force PUMAMAN!" "Pumaman" remains one of my very favorite episdoes.

One of the great things about MST3K was their humor. Certainly there were dumb jokes and puns made. But there were literary jokes, political jokes, history jokes, and even jokes that carried over from other movies.

During "Invasion of the Neptune Men", Servo commented that the whimpy kid in the group with the glasses was the "Piggy of the group." As a city is attacked by huge crickets, Mike commented, "Maybe we should have given the sanctions time to work." In "Hobgoblins", Mike sings "It's the 80s! Do a lot of coke and vote for Ronald Regan!"

They also did an amazing job of pointing out how movies exploited women and made them seem lesser on the screen. During "Werewolf", a woman is again being attacked by the monster. Servo remarks, "Oh good, cause it's been a few minutes since a woman was brutalized." Then in "The Giant Spider Invasion", a man has not realized that the woman in front of him is the scientist he is looking for and keeps guessing it must be her "father... husband... brother". Servo comments "Humor of the 1840s." "Horror at Party Beach" has a plethora of women dancing in skimpy bikinis which get an extra serving of riffing. At one point, two extras are watching a woman dance (specifically her butt shaking) and one says, "That reminds me did I bring my hotdog buns?" Crow comments, "That's a female buttocks Gary, I don't get the connection." And in "Girl in Gold Boots", there are once again many women dancing in bikinis. This happens so much that Mike comments, "Now it's kind of like vaguely sexual wallpaper."

I love this show. I love it for the stupid jokes. I love it for the intelligent jokes. I love it for pointing out the hilarity of badly made movies. I love it for ripping into old movies for their blatantly sexist attitudes. I love it for how it takes these movies down a notch and makes us laugh. After the show ended, I watched the reruns until they stopped doing those. I have two DVD collections of the show. And I have watched many episodes on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the Shout TV app on the Roku box (where the largest group of classic episdoes can be found).

To this day, I will often turn it on when I'm tired, bored, need something safe, or just want to laugh for a minute without having to use my brain. I highly recommend it to everyone who will listen.