{"id":4196,"date":"2012-08-24T11:08:01","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T17:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=4196"},"modified":"2012-08-24T11:08:01","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T17:08:01","slug":"mstk3000yelling-at-the-screen-makes-us-smarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=4196","title":{"rendered":"MSTK3000:Yelling At The Screen Makes Us Smarter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Is there anything worse than one guy talking to a movie screen, ruining the viewing experience for everyone? Get a group of people together talking to the screen, however, and suddenly you have something like a party \u2014 a brand-new experience that potentially emphasizes camaraderie as well as comedy.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Joel Hodgson learned in the late 1980s when he created \u201cMystery Science Theater 3000,\u201d one of the most beloved \u2014 and surprisingly durable \u2014 cult TV shows ever. (Time magazine once called it one of the 100 best TV shows of all time.) Well into the third decade of his movie-riffing career, he is exploring the way clever criticism might empower viewers to watch more movies and television shows more actively.<\/p>\n

The show began in the late 1980s when Hodgson found some bad movies in the vaults at KTMA in Minneapolis, built two robot puppets out of a gumball machine and a bowling pin, and starting riffing on movies in real time. The premise of the show was simple, sort of: He was trapped in a spaceship orbiting the Earth, while two mad scientists made him watch truly wretched cinema in an experiment that would somehow help them conquer the world. The aesthetic was homemade and decidedly meta.<\/p>\n

On early episodes at KTMA, the cast and crew were still trying to figure out the nature of riffing, but Hodgson\u2019s sleepy-headed humor \u2014 a mix of the funniest kid at the sleepover and your stoner college roommate \u2014 made him an ideal host for a show that recycled old movies into something new, funny, smart \u2014 encyclopedic in its pop cultural knowledge. It became a national sensation once it moved to Comedy Central<\/p>\n

The show ended in 1999 after 10 seasons and two hosts (the affable Everyman Michael J. Nelson replaced Hodgson in 1993), but it found new life on YouTube and especially on DVD. Shout! Factory recently released Vol. 24 in an ongoing series of four-disc box sets, and it may be the best and most diverse collection yet: two Japanese movies from the \u201980s, a Finnish fantasy film, and a Mexican \u201cluchador\u201d action pic.<\/p>\n

Of course, Hodgson didn\u2019t invent the idea of movie riffing, which has been around as long as there have been movies. People interact with films on a gut level, whether they\u2019re yelling \u201cdon\u2019t open the door!\u201d at a horror-movie heroine or rolling their eyes at the implausibility of an action-movie stunt. According to Hodgson, it\u2019s a natural urge, one that empowers the viewer and potentially improves the viewing experience. And after 12 years away from it, he\u2019s happy to be riffing full-time now. \u201cI love repurposing stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cThis was the job I was born to do.\u201d