Mystery Science Theater Turns 20 165
RimmerExperience writes "Hard to believe that Mystery Science Theater 3000 is 20 years old. This NY Times article provides a brief synopsis from the humble but inspired beginnings in a Midwest TV studio, to the making of MST3K: The Movie, to what the creators are up to today. It's interesting that the original creators are still involved in MST3K-style riffing in some way. So if you are looking for your traditional Turkey Day fix, plug in your old VHS, tune into BitTorrent or check out their current projects — Riff Trax (Mike Nelson) or Cinematic Titanic (Joel & Trace). Keep circulating the tapes, er, MPEGs."
Gamera - classic (Score:5, Funny)
Dr. Hidaka: The war even comes to this Eskimo village. Soon there won't be any peace anywhere.
[Cut to a ship cutting through the ice.]
Joel: There's nothing more tragic than a war in an Eskimo village.
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I don't remember which movie it was, but I recall the opening sequence of an old B&W movie where they showed the a map to let the audience know where the action was taking place. The caption under the map in large, dramatic letters was... "ASIA".
The sarcastic comment was, "Well, that narrows it down."
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I loved Gemera!
Gamera is really neat!
Gamera is full of turtle meat!
"What happened to my hair?"
"The space aliens did it. They're cannibals!"
"They ate my hair!"
Quick, before they make it illegal! (Score:2, Insightful)
Quickly now children, download them all before they make satire illegal. Wait... my phone's ringing. Hello? What? Oh. Hey guys, I have an announcement to make... Satire is now illegal. The lawyers are calling it a "collection of derivative works" and that it "damages the brand identity". Just kidding. For now. O_o
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Satire is now illegal. The lawyers are calling it a "collection of derivative works" and that it "damages the brand identity".
The lawyers called back. Satire is not totally illegal, but according to the new "Fairness Doctrine", all satire has to be balanced with equal time to opposing viewpoints.
MST3K seemed nice... at first. (Score:2, Funny)
Then it started gettting creepy. Does anyone else notice that the riffs seem to coincide with things that are happening in your life?
Just too coincidental for me. Especially after smoking weed.
Slap Hardbody (Score:4, Funny)
Big McLargehuge!
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Buff Bigblock!
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Butch Deadlift! (Score:3, Interesting)
We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese [youtube.com].
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Instead of someone's remix, this video [youtube.com] includes 9 minutes worth of clips from that episode.
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Cliff Ironjaw
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Chief?
MACLEOD!!
HBO? (Score:2)
--
Keep One Eye Open on Craiglist.com - Search hundreds of communities from one place with one click [bigattichouse.com]
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Ah yes I think you are thinking of Mad Movies.
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Cheech and Chong did the same thing in "It Came From Hollywood!" as well, specifically to The Giant Mantis (Look out, it's the attack of the 50 foot chicken wing!) and Reefer Madness.
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That would've been "Whose Line Is It Anyways?". They actually did a large variety of improv setups, but that was one of them.
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Actually, I hate to give him this credit, but the earliest example I am aware of doing something in a SOMEWHAT similar vein as MST was Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily.
(though I am sure someone else will pipe in with something earlier ans no one hit the perfect recipe for this like Joel did)
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It may have turned 20 (Score:2)
...but it has the emotional development of a 13-year old. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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Is that you, Rowsdower?
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Side note: I have a friend who has the last name "Roscover" and I call him Rowsdower.
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Is that you, Rowsdower?
I miss Toblerone!
What do you want for Christmas? (Score:5, Funny)
"I want to decide who lives and who dies!"
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Oh yes, easily my fav MST line ever (and there are so many close competitors...)
***I*** want to decide who posts on Slashdot and who is banished to kuro5hin.
Probably a fate worse than death
Commemorative Box Set (Score:5, Informative)
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I think you mean "Werewelf", yaniglotchy... you know, that which runs about on all fours from place to place? Nothing better than a werewolf movie set in the american southwest where the actors are all from eastern europe.
The Sci-Fi channel era had a few Joe Estevez gems. In "Soul Taker" he plays an Angel of Death. Dunno if that one is available on video or not.
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I think you mean "Werewelf", yaniglotchy... you know, that which runs about on all fours from place to place? Nothing better than a werewolf movie set in the american southwest where the actors are all from eastern europe.
The Sci-Fi channel era had a few Joe Estevez gems. In "Soul Taker" he plays an Angel of Death. Dunno if that one is available on video or not.
Not yet, though I have it on VHS and watch it regularly. It also has Robert Z'Dar (OH Z'NO!) also of Future War fame--you know, the catcher's mitt with eyes [youtube.com]? I think I nearly urinated myself 8 times during Soul Taker.
"You'll never get the smell of Hardee's out of that car."
"Where does that guy even keep all his acorns?"
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Yeah, some of the SciFi channel eps I consider to be the pinnacle of Best Brains production, mostly because once Joel was out the way, the jokes got edgier and the skits finally strayed from the (classic, but wearing at the edges) Deep 13 stuff. (though the latter was more due to moving to SciFi I guess).
In any event, the tone of the humor on SciFi was much more to my liking than the frequently relatively "safer" humor of the Comedy Central days. I often explain it as being: Joel was a father figure to th
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Yeah, some of the SciFi channel eps I consider to be the pinnacle of Best Brains production, mostly because once Joel was out the way, the jokes got edgier and the skits finally strayed from the (classic, but wearing at the edges) Deep 13 stuff. (though the latter was more due to moving to SciFi I guess).
I don't know - I thought the constant changes of locale in early season 8 had potential, but the more their settings settled down the more stagnant it got, IMO.
Mind you, I'm not gonna argue that the Deep 13 days were perfect - or better, even - except they did have Trace up through the end of season 7 and his was a tough act to follow.
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Well, that was kinda the thing for me. Pearl was a lot more interesting once she left Deep 13. I wouldn't have wanted to see anyone try to follow up Trace in that setting. I personally quite enjoyed Castle Forrester, myself :D
Re:Commemorative Box Set (Score:5, Interesting)
True stories:
I love this town! It's easy to ridicule these films, and I love MST, but the really interesting stories are from how these films get made in the first place, and the fact that people often pour their hearts into the work, and they themselves may be very talented but other factors simply doom the thing.
Not to defend Golan-Globus of course. The last few Rhino box sets had interviews with actual cast and crew from some of the films on the DVD, and I really treasure these, as it gives me some perspective on my job. It's like a hacker reading about the Tech Model Railroad Club.
Sorry it's OT, just thought I'd share.
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A few editors I worked with recently on High School Musical 3 had credits as assistants on Alien from LA. At the time they knew it was kindof goofy, but they really appreciated the director's vision and thought it was very Terry Gilliam-esque.
Which, Alien from LA or High School Musical 3?
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My Two Favorites (Score:2)
"Attack of The Eye Creatures" and the TV premiere of the ninja show "The Master".
I know Joel got off the ship by stranding Mike, but did Mike ever make it off the satellite of love?
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"Attack of The Eye Creatures" and the TV premiere of the ninja show "The Master".
I know Joel got off the ship by stranding Mike, but did Mike ever make it off the satellite of love?
SPOILER ALERT!
In Danger:Diabolik [mst3kinfo.com], the very last episode, they do make it back to earth in a crash landing. The funniest part is Tom Servo blowing up all the extra Tom Servos they've accumulated over the years. At the end, the three share a one-bedroom apartment and settle into eat popcorn and--you guessed it--riff on a cheesy movie on TV. Speculation: Someone told me that that was the first movie they had ever riffed before but I can't verify it and I don't think that's true with the KTMA episodes.
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It was indeed "The Crawling Eye" they are watching in Mike's apartment at the end of episode 1013 ("Danger: Diabolik"). That was the first cable episode (i.e., episode 101). Jim Mallon and the Best Brains prefer to pretend the KTMA episodes never happened. For the first half or so of the season, I'm inclined to agree. However, it would be sweet if they made a DVD out of the host segments from the KTMA season, many of which very really good.
The summary mentioned Rifftrax and Cinema Titanic, both of which
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"Attack of The Eye Creatures" and the TV premiere of the ninja show "The Master".
You mean Attack of the the Eye Creatures. They had a typo in the title of the film. "They just didn't care."
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My favorite "they just didn't care" moment was in Cave Dwellers, when Tom Servo was re-playing the film at the end of the movie. In one scene, there's a producer or something in the middle of a shot of cavemen, and Tom Servo says something like this:
"In the caveman fight scene, this caveman in the back is wearing fashionable sunglasses! Who's that in the Foster-Grants? OGG!"
But yes, Attack of The The Eye Creatures was awesome. The other movie with a typo was either "The Head that Wouldn't Die" or "The Brain
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Actually the movie in question was The Crawling Eye. And it was the first movie watched by J&TB when MST3K made its way into Cable TV.
Attack of The The Eye Creatures (not a typo, look at the movie title card) was in the latter half of season 4, MST3K's heyday.
I still miss Turkey Day to this date, I didn't have cable TV (back in the late 80s/early 90s, it was difficult to get new service if you didn't own your home, and even if you DID have cable, there was only a 20% chance they carried The Comedy Chann
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Yes, in the very last episode of season 10. Mike and the bots are brought to a fiery crash landing due to a malfunction of Pearl Forrester' joystick. They survive and end up watching the very first bad movie ever riffed by MST3K.
ever riffed by MST3K on cable... important distinction...
But, of course, not many people saw the KTMA run, so really The Crawling Eye is where most of us remember the show starting...
This being the 20th anniversary of the show, I really wish they'd finally dig out some copies of those first couple of KTMA episodes and release 'em. Those are the only episodes in the entire run that aren't available online.
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I remember watching the first runs of the KTMA episodes for MST3k and finding them funny. (I was quite young).
In recent years I searched and obtained some KTMA episodes through the MST3k DAP, and man... they were not very good.
Writing scripts starting on comedy central was a very good idea.
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But, of course, not many people saw the KTMA run, so really The Crawling Eye is where most of us remember the show starting...
Last I heard, the first few episodes of the KTMA season were still MIA, with possibly the only existing copies residing in Jim Mallon's Best Brains vault.
I know from the KTMA dubs I've seen not to expect much, but it sure would be nice for historical completeness if those first few episodes were somehow leaked onto the internet for distribution...
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Funny thing is, MST3K's first day on KTMA is probably one of the most memorable days of my life, but not because of MST3K. I was sick with the worst case of strep throat I've ever had along with a high fever, and I couldn't go to the doctor because it was turkey day (plus my parents had company over). Between bouts of sleep (that never lasted long because of the pain) I was flipping through the channels on the TV in my room and I came across the show. I missed about the first 10 minutes and wasn't sure w
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The 2 things I remember from KTMA were MST3K and the annual New Years Watermelon Drop, you ever catch that? Positively absurd stuff; I wish I could get those on DVD... sigh.
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Some background on Bob Bagadonuts [mst3ktemple.com] and the KTMA Watermelon Drop [quickstope...inment.com] for the curious [mst3kguy.com]. Good times. I watched MST on KTMA so many times I have ads for Davani's pizza [davannis.com] and Brandyderry's [highbeam.com] burned into my brain.
ATTACK of the THE EYE CREATURES! (Score:2)
Actually it's "Attack of the The Eye Creatures". Yes, "the" actually appears twice on the title screen.
They just didn't care.
It's been replaced for me (Score:2)
"Who frames labels in a linen closet?"
"Some flamer framed them."
"How does she keep a straight face?"
"She's thinking how much fun it will be to scream at the crew when the segment's over."
etc.
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Semi-OT I know, but if you haven't seen "Whatever, Martha!", make a point of looking it up. Martha Stewart's daughter and a friend of hers sit and watch old tapes of the Martha Stewart show and make snarky comments - it reminds me exactly of MST3K - think MST3K meets Martha Stewart.
Is this the "recommend shows inspired by MST3K" section of the thread?
If so, I endorse tracking down some digital copies of "Cheap Seats", which ran for a few seasons on ESPN Classics. The premise: tape librarians Randy and Jaso
Prince of Space all (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, even better than Manos. Manos is more horrible to behold, but Prince of Space is funny from start to finish, and hits every key sci-fi demo - B&W, bad SFX, awkward costuming, dubbed from Japanese to some weird form of Brooklyn tough guy accent ("I like it VERY MUCH!"), great callbacks (Krankor's laugh, "your weapons are useless against me", bumbling scientists). It was a cinematic goldmine, ably plundered by Mike and the Bots.
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There's no doubt that Prince of Space was more funny than Manos, simply because Manos was god awful.
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies [imdb.com] was far, far worse, though.
("let's use bare hands!")
What? (Score:2)
Yes, even better than Manos. Manos is more horrible to behold, but Prince of Space is funny from start to finish
What's that? What did you say?
(Ah, literal translation of Japanese idioms...)
My favorite was at the end, when Phantom is sending the scientists to their overly-elaborate deaths...
"Each of you will board a space capsule."
"What?"
Servo: "Oh, for crying out loud... EACH OF YOU WILL BOARD A SPACE CAPSULE!"
Of course, "I'll throw my doll at you!" was great, too...
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And his stalwart companion, Duke of Puddles!
More seriously, Prince of Space and Invasion of the Neptune Men are my favorite episodes, I think. What were the Japanese thinking, showing those to kids?
BTW, I've tried researching it (lazily, on the Internet), but does anybody have *any* information on the Hitler Building? What the heck was the deal? Why was it still Hitler-themed years after the war ended? You'd think the American GIs would pull that that facade.
Oblig... (Score:2)
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Push the button, Frank.
Thank you!
(In retrospect, I like Larry better than Frank.)
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(Mike is funnier.)
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I think "Who's the better evil sidekick" is even worse than "Who's the better host." As far as nerdy debates, I mean.
<shrug> I'm not interested in trying to tell people what to think about the matter, really. I just think Larry (and Josh, in general) seems to be a bit underrated IMO.
Plus I wanted to make it clear, in case people didn't get it, that I was saying "Thank You" as a reference to the first-season catch-phrase, rather than thanking Notquitecajun for his post. :)
P.S.: YOUR MOTHER FLOSSES IN HELL! GAAAAAAAA!
DIY (Score:2)
whoah (Score:2)
Something I loved from my childhood is 20 years old.... am I old?
How about a "Slashdot Poll" of Favorite MST3K Eps? (Score:2)
My votes are for:
myke
Re:How about a "Slashdot Poll" of Favorite MST3K E (Score:2)
Seconded. Since I already see a mention of "Prince of Space" above, I suggest:
Which might actually have been a pretty good sci-fi film if it had made the slightest bit of sense.
Worst. Superhero. Ever.
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The best concept (and worst execution) has to go to "Parts: the Clonus Horror."
The modern action flick "The Island" is based on the same premise, in fact the writer of Parts even sued IIRC. It's kind of a shame that the movie *could* be great, bringing up philosophical and ethical issues, yet one production of it was all-around terrible, and the other just focused on explosions and action scenes.
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Tough one. Here are my nominations that haven't been mentioned:
- The Cave Dwellers
- The Mole People
- Manos The Hands of Fate
And let's not leave out some classic short films:
- Mr B Natural
- Hired!
- A Date With Your Family
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And let's not leave out some classic short films:
- Mr B Natural
- Hired!
- A Date With Your Family
Great riffs to be found in all of these!
Mr B: You can bet I was in the garden with Mr. & Mrs. Adam!
Crow: You were the snake...
Mr B: Knew your father, I did!
Joel: Hey, you leave my father out of this!
Tom Servo: Hired part II, laid off!
Tom Servo: A date with your family, the Woody Allen Story!
Mike: I like my family as a friend!
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Thank you for mentioning "Teenagers". The only way I'd watch that without it having riffs is... WITH TORTURE!!!!
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* Warrior of the Lost World
"MegaWeapon"
Re:How about a "Slashdot Poll" of Favorite MST3K E (Score:2)
Cave Dwellers - it typifies all the early 80's Conan knockoffs
Pod People - "Good, He's the best"..."It Stinks"
Mitchell - "Mitchell"
Sidehackers - "Side hacking is the thing to do..."
BTW Season 3 was amazing
Re:How about a "Slashdot Poll" of Favorite MST3K E (Score:2)
All good choices, but no love for "Girl in Gold Boots"? I love when the Regis looking "heavy" just magically appears in the middle of the shot in the diner.
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died at 11 (Score:5, Insightful)
MST3k didn't turn 20, it died at 11.
The Simpsons recently turned 20, and Meet the Press just turned 61.
Re:died at 11 (Score:5, Funny)
MST3k didn't turn 20, it died at 11.
The Simpsons recently turned 20
Yeah, but it died at 8.
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The difference between "That's someting I agree with, and surprisingly few people realize" and "+1 Informative" seems very small to me. Am I doing it wrong? (I'll mod insightful or informative for things like that; I don't use it as "I agree!", but if I don't find myself agreeing that it's true, why would I mod it informative?)
Not the first (Score:2)
TFA seems to imply that this was something unique. However, I remember the old Thicke of the Night (Alan Thicke's late night talk show, from back when everybody had one in the early 80's), had a regular bit where about 4 or 5 comedians got together and did the same thing. The only real difference was that it was only a few minutes instead of the duration of an entire B movie. Well...that and nobody was pretending to be a robot.
Since I'm probably the only person still alive who witnessed this, I guess it's s
Often wonder... (Score:2)
It was created by students at the U of Denver and called High Street -- a double entendre on the street address of the school and the default condition of the participants.
It ran at 10 PM Fridays, simultaneously with the evening movie on Channel 2, a non-network TV station. You were instructed to turn on the movie with the sound off, and High Street would supply the dialogue.
The guys were insanely creative. The
favorite episodes of all time? (Score:2)
Not all movies lent themselves well to being made fun of. There's a special kind of awful that lets you make fun of it thoroughly from beginning to end.
Some of my favorites through and through:
1. Attack of the the Eye Creatures
2. Pod People
3. Manos, Hands of Fate (some say it was too bad to be funny, I say it was just bad enough)
4. Warrior of the Lost World (Megaweapon!)
5. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (probably my all-time favorite)
6. Creepy Mexican Santa Movie
7. Beginning of the End (the one with the
B-Fest, riffing alive and well (Score:2)
Just to chime in:
Each year I go to one of the most popular riffing festivals: B-Fest! It's held at Northwestern University near Chicago, and it's a BLAST! 24 hours of a whole theater FULL of people riffing on stuff. There's the annual Plan 9 showing, and all sorts of shenanigans.
Riffing is alive and well, and not just being done by the MST3K crew. Rifftrax is even offering people their own chance to riff through iRiffs.
Put your helmet on, we'll be reaching speeds of 3! (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably what's more funny is that I own some of the VHS's of the sci-fi films they ripped into so it was a delight to watch them with the SOL crew.
Two of my favourite episodes are "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" and "Space Mutiny" (I have the original VHS, they cut the MST3k version, no boobies!)
What are people's reccomendations of episodes to introduce friends to?
Hercules against The Moon Men... (Score:3, Funny)
"The blood of Uranus can NEVER be healed!"
"EWWWW!"
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Almost as good as Roadhouse!
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Yeah, but Rifftrax is routinely funnier than Cinematic Titanic, so I'm willing to overlook that Mike and the Bots aren't actually on screen.
Re:HAI! HAIKEEBA! (Score:4, Funny)
...He tried to kill him with a forklift...
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THEY BLEW UP THE HITLER BUILDING (Score:2, Funny)
Another fave riff from Attack of the Neptune Men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt02kBH7-W0 [youtube.com]
Re:Written just for us.. (Score:5, Insightful)
like Futurama back when IT was funny.
So, today, in other words. Cause Futurama is still funny.
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oh, and Indy 4... Well that's just a story that HAD to be told!
Yeah... i'm not usually confrontational, but you're gonna need to open your doe eyes and let in some harsh reality... World hoarding stereotypical jews and bisexual tentacle monsters are just hollow reminders of Jurassic Bark and Godfellas. Most of us would agree you can tell the difference between passion for the writing and "wow you mean i can still
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Sorry for being so argumentative... www.bringbackfuturama.com is a really nice site and you must have put a lot of work into it. I can understand why you need to believe.
Huh? How fucking impossible is it to believe that I legitimately enjoy it, not out of desperation, but because I like it? Are you that stuck on yourself that you think just because you don't like something, no one else does?
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I think the issue is that just because you enjoy it, doesn't make it good. I can enjoy the fuck out of eating a big sack of Doritos, but that doesn't make it fine cuisine.
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I disagree. There is no such thing as an objective measurement for art, so we can't ever really say that something is "good" or "bad". Since Futurama is meant to entertain, I hold that as long as even one person enjoys it, it can't be said to be "bad". The strongest statement that can be made is "I didn't enjoy this". This applies to all entertainment, and is why it's ludicrous to make claims like "you're wrong that this thing is good". There's no basis for such a statement.
I'd like there to be an objective
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I don't know about you, but I'm able to appreciate that some of the things I don't like are nevertheless high quality. I'm also able to appreciate that some of the things I do like are kind of trashy. I don't think that there is an objective measurement for art, but that doesn't mean we should throw our hands up and just agree that everything is as good as everything else. There is some other metric at work here, but I'm no art critic or philosopher, so I don't know exactly what it is.
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I don't know about you, but I'm able to appreciate that some of the things I don't like are nevertheless high quality.
I can appreciate a certain amount of craftsmanship, even in works I don't like, yes. I don't agree that there must be some other metric at work here, though. If there is no objective measurement, what do we have? How can we stand on any sort of firm ground when we make claims about the quality of an artistic work? I think that not having an objective measure necessarily means that all art is of the same quality, and can only be measured by how much/how many people like it.
If someone can give us a good, obje
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America just elected a black man to the office of President and so far he has received over 500 death threats... Yeah, somehow he's still way more mellow than you.
Yeah, and he has to be. It's anyone's guess if he would be so mellow about it if it wasn't necessary.
Rethink your definition of personal attack
I'm using the standard definition. Maybe you should rethink yours.
and while you're at it rethink your priorities as a human being, k?
If you think this discussion, or this site, or a TV show, takes any sort of high priority in my life, you're dreaming. I'm killing time here (as are you, I should point out, so don't even try to pretend like you have some magical correctness of priorities over me).
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Have the early KTMA episodes surfaced? Last I checked there were a couple known only to exists in the hands of producer (and voice of gypsy) Jim Mallon, who was not forthcoming with copies.
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