It's movie sign, again, again

May 10, 2021 4:57 PM

Mystery Science Theater 3000 lives once more! The show has been revived five times now: for Comedy Central (from KTMA), the Sci-Fi Channel (long before it was Syfy), for Netflix, as a series of live shows that technically (because of COVID) haven't even ended yet, and now, as the result of a second Kickstarter even more successful than their first, as a production for their own video site and apps, to be called The Gizmoplex. The first episode of the new season... GAMERA VS JIGER.

As a result: 13 new episodes, 12 new shorts, one a Halloween episode in 3D, another a fourth holiday episode, an era with multiple hosts (Emily and an alternate Crow and Servo doing some episodes instead of just Jonah and his bots), original host and creator Joel Hodgson hosting two of the new episodes, 24 special events, and Rifftrax doing a live show on the Gizmoplex.

posted by JHarris (24 comments total)

Will there still be a clown in the sky for me?
posted by StarkRoads at 5:05 PM on May 10, 2021 [9 favorites]

Pretty nice...
posted by voltairemodern at 5:08 PM on May 10, 2021 [5 favorites]

and Rifftrax doing a live show on the Gizmoplex.

The realest news here. All my sweethearts, back in one place.
posted by deadaluspark at 5:25 PM on May 10, 2021 [5 favorites]

The other two titles announced are "Robot Wars" and "Demon Squad".

The former is a Charles Band production from the nineties, which is a niche that is a glaring omission in the MST3k cannon, so this is great news.

The later is a microbudget scifi/fantasy film that's only two years old. It will be interesting how they treat this one given that it's so recent. They haven't had such a short interim between film release and episode since "Werewolf (1995)" in 1998. Of course, "Werewolf" was just ten kinds of awful, so the jabs didn't feel awkward. But "Demon Squad", while amateurish, looks like a labor of love.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:27 PM on May 10, 2021 [5 favorites]

...it was the show...THAT WOULD NOT DIE !!!
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 5:40 PM on May 10, 2021 [9 favorites]

Charles Band rules. Also, this is good news.
posted by brundlefly at 5:43 PM on May 10, 2021

But "Demon Squad", while amateurish, looks like a labor of love.
I mean, "Time Chasers" turned out great IMNSHO.
posted by stevis23 at 5:46 PM on May 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mac and Me was a milestone because I remember watching that movie on a top-loading VHS at a neighbor's house shortly after it's home video release. While watching it I kept wondering if there was anyone who saw a Bert I. Gordon movie or one of those serials as a kid only to see it again years later 1on MST3k.

The later is a microbudget scifi/fantasy film that's only two years old. It will be interesting how they treat this one given that it's so recent.

I thought Atlantic Rim (2013) was pretty weak and it just felt a little under-baked.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:00 PM on May 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

OMG I've always wanted them to do Robot Jox and now they're doing the sequel. Will I be able to follow all of the action? What's the giant robot equivalent of "BANG!"?

Also Emily is back! Yaaaaay!
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 6:34 PM on May 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

I too am very happy to see them do Robot Wars, which is absolutely the kind of movie they need to be doing a lot more of.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:59 PM on May 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I thought Atlantic Rim (2013) was pretty weak and it just felt a little under-baked.

Baste it with bull butter and return to the oven until it goes “bah-boom!”.
posted by dr_dank at 8:12 PM on May 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

I like it very much!
posted by biogeo at 8:51 PM on May 10, 2021 [6 favorites]

I'm feeling really good!
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:28 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

I supported this KS, and the one before that. I've supported at least a couple of Rifftrax Kickstarters as well, and paid for "Cinematic Titanic" and will absolutely go and see "The Mads" perform if they get anywhere near where I live. I have a lot of weird hobbies/fandoms/fixations, not all of them terribly recent (P.G. Wodehouse, Agatha Christy, Steely Dan) or terribly hip (TMBG, birding). Some of them are enormously popular right now, so that public discussions are readily accessible (Marvel movies, Taylor Swift, kpop, Fast & Furious movies, indie TTRPGs). But I don't think I've ever been as committed to any corner of pop culture as I am to MST3K. I'm just going to keep watching and paying and reading everything I can about it until they stop making 'em.

Which may turn out to be never. I sort of feel like the fracturing of the original troupe has been a good thing in the long run? Like, they grew the audience in ways that wouldn't have happened otherwise. And yet everybody seems to be more or less on good terms. And Joel H. seems serious about cultivating the participation of younger people on the creative side of things, which is what you want to do if you want the thing you created to outlast you.

The concept of "movie Riffing", done by people who can trace their lines of influence and collaboration back to the original basic cable show, may turn out to be bigger than the individual brand "MST3K'", with MST3K itself remaining one of the centers of gravity for a long time to come. That may be the best possible outcome. I think that's probably the best light in which to understand Joel's ultimate goals for "the Gizmoplex".
posted by Ipsifendus at 4:53 AM on May 11, 2021 [5 favorites]

Yes! It is great that there's now three movie riffing groups going, that all like each other but are mostly independent. It's possible that one of them in the future will say something that will get them cancelled (looking nervously at Mike), and it's a shame that Jim Mallon seems on the outs for having sat on the MST3K rights for so long, but other than that it's difficult really to see how the concept could be in better hands? Surviving in three different, but slightly linked, forms, while not so popular so as to have gotten corrupted by Big Hollywood Money, and turning into something horribly fake like things tend to do in popular media. Just, good people saying smart and funny things about cheesy movies.

For its part, MST Club chipped in $165 among us, and one of its members contributed $150 on their own. An offline friend of mine also backed it for $150, so we're good on helping the show's legacy to continue.

Regarding the Gizmoplex, there's a lot of opportunity there, and it may in fact become something bigger than just MST3K-related? Like, how great would it be if Dana Gould's wonderful Hanging With Doctor Z showed there? It's fairly MST-adjacent, with Gould being I think a Friend of Joel (he's done Dr. Zaius twice now for the Kickstarter telethons). Joel is one of those people who quietly seems to know tons of people in comedy circles, he's hosted events like the Super Ball, he knows Jerry Seinfeld, and he got Mark Hamill to do a bit in Season 11. This could become a big ol' indie Netflix for breakout comedy!
posted by JHarris at 5:26 AM on May 11, 2021 [6 favorites]

I saw Demon Squad on Amazon Prime recently, and I kind of liked it. It was low budget, but it was clear that everyone was having fun with it and producing something they cared about. With regards to riffing, I think that's grounds for optimism where you look at that versus Atlantic Rim, which was just a cash-in mockbuster.
posted by unreason at 9:59 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

versus Atlantic Rim, which was just a cash-in mockbuster.

“...a showcase for some very expensive toys.”

“CALLICO CRITTERS!”
posted by dr_dank at 1:10 PM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

"It's possible that one of them in the future will say something that will get them cancelled (looking nervously at Mike)"

I supported the new kickstarter and have been watching for 30 (!?) years now, but the promotional pic of the live cast (seen in the link below) had me wondering if they were...? Well, I don't know. Unaware? Naive? Anyway, not a good look.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k/posts/3168008

and for those who aren't clear why this isn't a good look -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_gesture#White_power_symbol

I feel like (hope!) it was probably naivete, but if they had a more diverse staff and cast someone might have noticed.
posted by Patadave at 7:37 AM on May 15, 2021

You're going to have to be a lot clearer than that? Tons of people, I'd be willing to say most people, are unaware of this attempt by bad actors to co-opt the "okay sign." And especially in this context, where it's the "It stinks!" symbol well known to people who follow the show.

I myself don't know much about it's use as a... "white power symbol?" On the surface it looks like an attempt of awful people to muscle their way into a fairly universal (in western cultures) symbol? Is it a good idea to just cede it to those people?
posted by JHarris at 8:58 AM on May 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

I don't immediately see it used on the page you indicate. Is it part of a video? If it is used by Joel, from what I know of him, it is extremely unlikely that it is being used to indicate solidarity with neo-nazis.
posted by JHarris at 9:12 AM on May 15, 2021

You'd have to be a lot more online than these guys to know about that particular cooption from the last few years.
posted by Think_Long at 9:27 AM on May 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

I asked around on Twitter, and it seems they're attempting this co-option of an ordinary gesture specifically because of the ease with which it can be mistaken. Which I'm feeling, like... why do we have to give them this? MSTies, heck the rest of the whole world, were using the OK-sign with positive intent (well, bad movie reference intent in the case of MSTies) for centuries. A bunch of extremely online evil people decide between themselves that no, now it means hate, and we all have to give them that? No. Fuck them. They can all go to extra hell.
posted by JHarris at 1:04 PM on May 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

(OK sign) "Nazis stink!"
posted by JHarris at 1:05 PM on May 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I don't accept that Nazis own the "OK" sign now just because they decided they do. Remember when the Online Nazis decided that they were going to put multiple parentheses around the names of (((globalists))) (i.e., Jews) as some sort of stupid "code" to identify them? And non-Nazis decided the best response was to mock them by sticking parentheses around their own names? To the point that when you saw that used, the safe assumption was that the person was making an anti-Nazi statement rather than being a secret Nazi? I think that's the proper response to their "OK" sign nonsense, too.

(((Nazis stink.)))
posted by biogeo at 2:17 PM on May 15, 2021 [1 favorite]