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I think Vonnegut's wrong on this one. Possibly he doesn't get the concept of the thing, doesn't understand the roots from which MST3K sprung or the brilliant extrapolation of those roots that the folks at Best Brains, Inc. managed to build.
(A little MST3K History for interested parties.)
MST3K lies on the cutting edge of a subset of science-fiction fandom. Namely, the Creature Feature. Small TV stations in the U.S. (and I say "U.S." because I don't know if this "sub-genre" was ever a part of the sci-fi set 'cross the pond) have, for many years, run a late night or Saturday afternoon "monster movie", complete with host and super-cheap crypt set. The idea is simple really: B-movies are a cheap way to fill two hours in the programming block. As far as I can tell, the host is a local flavoring. A sometimes goofy/sometimes serious set piece to soften the transition from 'The Beast of Yucca Flats' to dog food commercials. Some hosts become personalities in their own right and make guest appearances at retail center grand openings and the like, or go on to better things. The most immediate example I can think of (and the one I grew up with) is The Son of Svengoolie. Svengoolie was irreverent to a fault. Nothing about the movies being shown was taken seriously. Jokes at the movie's expense during the host segments were standard. And Svengoolie wasn't just B-movies, as I recall. That show introduced me to the Hammer horror films and the Godzilla movies and, oh, all sorts of wonderful films. Films I still have time for to this day.
The brilliance of MST3K was taking this format to the next level, bringing the hosts into the theater, playing with the irreverence of good friends in front of the TV, bringing a new level of intelligence (or smartassery if you prefer) to the proceedings, and using the format as a story point to justify the madness of it all. Importantly, I think, the MST3K crew never tried to put themselves on a level above the films they watched. Their production values were just as low, the acting just as uneven, the effects just as laughable. Even the 'bots, Crow and Servo, were kinda pathetic. Tom Servo is a gumball machine with arms and a beak. Crow's proboscis is a plastic bowling pin. But it worked. It worked, I think, because there was a certain self-awareness to the whole proceeding. A subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) self-depreciation suffused the show. An acceptance, and a reveling-in, their B-movie status. I remember clearly an MST sketch where Crow, having been shaken a little too much, began to fall apart. It seemed to me that there was a moment of hesitation on the part of the crew...and then they just start screaming in alarm. It didn't seem planned. Just one of those moments when the man behind the camera said, "Keep rolling!" In the voice of Ed Wood, one would hope.
Now, as to whether the writers and actors "deserve" this kind of treatment...I don't think it's a question of do they "deserve" it so much as how they feel about it. I don't know if Roger Corman ever objected to the treatment his AIP movies got. I would be surprised if he did, frankly. Movies created on a 10-day schedule can't be that precious. Sidney Franks came in for a lot of stick on MST and yanked the rights to his movies. So that's one that was upset and probably felt he didn't deserve it. I know the people who held the rights for these movies must have been happy, because some of them upped the price for syndication rights after their movies appeared on MST3K. That's got nothing to do with the actors or writers, obvs. Still, MST was an outlet for these movies, and I doubt I would appreciate the oeuvre of Tor Johnson without MST. True, I don't enjoy it in the way Kurt Vonnegut might have me enjoy it, but then that's really none of his business. Callous maybe, but there it is. There's a great quote in Stephen King's 'Danse Macabre' about the appeal of bad movies that I'll have to dig out later. He says, essentially, that our urge to laugh at bad movies is rooted in being a fan of movies. We like the good, and we're willing to dig thru the shit to find the occassional diamond. And this is true for me. Seeing, for example, 'Warrior of the Lost World' and 'Parts: the Clonus Horror' on MST, I was able to laugh along with the barbs and jabs, but also enjoy the movies in their own right knowing that if I'd seen them as a teenager I would have loved them. So maybe there's a bit of us that's laughing at ourselves when we're laughing at a horrible B-movie. Maybe.
Further, bad sci-fi wasn't MST's only target. Marketing and info films were also run to fill space in the show. Short motivational films for milk delivery men. Horribly simplistic educational films like the one Tuna Ghost links to above. "Uncle Jim's Dairy Farm" (fucking classic BTW). Are these sacred as well? Should we spare the feelings of these writers and actors? I'd love to hear the case being made, but I doubt I'd agree with it. That's me, tho.
Which, to me, signals that the show is more than just funny riffs--the characters Crow, Tom Servo and Mike have their own personalities that work very well in tandem. They do have host segments, after all, and even though these are only a fraction of the running time of the show I don't think it's fair to claim that there is no progressive story going on or that that story has no influence on the quality of the show in general.
Absolutely. And I think that's why some of us have a hard time when it's just one of the MST knuckleheads making fun of a movie. One person making fun of a movie just seems bitter. A group making fun of a movie is easier to take, as it's easy for the viewer feels a part of that group. The singular viewpoint was what made it hard for me to read 'Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese', which is basically a one man MST show in novel form. It seemse to me that Mike realized this as well, as the book is packed with self-depreciating comments. Perhaps that's just his schtick, tho. At any rate, that bitter has to be leavened somehow, even if it's only by spreading it evenly around.
I may be blanking out the more vicious material from the show, given, but I don't remember a lot of vicious material to MST3K.
I do feel kind of sorry for the lead actor in 'High School Big Shot'. It's one of my favorite episodes, but the boys put a lot of thought and effort into denigrating the guy's looks. "Ugh, I hate when his face lights up." |
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