Reel Life: A man and two robots make fun of movies for an hour

Being destructive is ultimately easier and more fun to do than any sort of improvement or creation, it's a proven fact… and someone went around and made an entire TV show based on that premise.

Mocking bad movies, or for that matter, experiencing anything “bad” while armed with a discourse of witty jokes, is a concept as old as the first cave painting getting two rocks down, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 took the entire concept to new highs/lows. Packing a cast of boorish yet highly witty audience members, MST3K made riffing on films an art form.

Basing an entire show around riffing movies with no semblance of reason as to why would just be silly, wouldn't it? With that in mind comes MST3K's excuse plot; a lowly janitor is blasted into space by his doddering evil bosses, and as part of an experiment, is subjected to some of the worst material printed on celluloid. As Joel Robinson (and in later seasons, Mike Nelson), and his robot friends begin each show with their own brand of non-sequitur, transmitting in comes Professor Forrestor, and his assistant, TV's Frank, with the movie selection of the episode. It's where people really recognize MST3K; the iconic look of the three riffers sitting front row of the theatre, their silhouettes clearly visible as they mock the film onscreen, to cope with their odd circumstance.

The incredibly dry humour of Crow and Tom Servo, the two riffing robots that accompany their human host into the theatre, really is side-splittingly funny. Overall, the show's jokes are quite sharp and still hold up; even the ridiculous ongoing excuse-plot of Doctor Forrester versus Joel (and later Pearl, Forrester's mother, versus Mike Nelson) elicit a chuckle or two. Keeping in with the theme of the cheaply-made B-grade movies that get reviewed on the show, MST3K itself deliberately dons a low-budget look with rickety sets, fake-as-fake looking models and puppets made of recycled household appliances and old sporting equipment.

MST3K's jokes are oddly brilliant, and a lot of them are…well, obscure. Seriously obscure. It's not uncommon to hear a reference to The Metamorphosis' Gregor Samsa, or dropping the name of a lesbian feminist and critic when referring to a film's rather salacious undertones between its female characters, but when the jokes inevitably fly over your head, hopping online to the unofficial wiki generally helps keep your laughter not wholly ignorant. Hey, you're learning and being entertained, right?

MST3K was the definition of a cult show, one that its fans lived and breathed. Starting from the days of Usenet Bulletin Boards to early Internet forums, the fandom of bad movie lovers was part of what kept the show on full steam for a good 10 seasons. After being cancelled on Comedy Central due to low ratings, fan petitions and write-in campaigns led to MST3K being picked up by the Sci-Fi channel, where it lasted three more runs before truly calling it quits. It's not all doom and gloom for fans, however. The original writers and performers have gone on to create Rifftrax, downloadable DVD commentary for movies voiced by a lot of the original cast. It's not quite like the show, but it fills that void.

Getting to see the 197-episode run in its entirety is pretty impossible without dropping some serious cash on DVD box sets. However if you have Netflix and know the... methods, a choice selection of some of the best episodes can be found. YouTube has a smattering of them floating around as well. In a party, or alone, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is fun to watch if you're the kind of person who'd be the first to cast the rotten tomato on the failing vaudeville performer. It's still worth a look despite being the age of a highschooler.