Mystery Science Theater 3000 and why rebooting franchises should be left alone.
I’ve been a long-time fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (From here out will be referring to as ‘MST3K’ of course) from 1988 till very recently. Season 13 is about to come out in March 2022 and since the reboot of season 11, I’ve been a little hesitant about it ever since. Where I noticed my hesitancy became a reality is when I made a comment about the current Season 13 coming up and when I said “I think since season 11, MST3K has taken a huge hit in the writing department when Mike Nelson wasn’t on the writing team.”. I was met with a huge backlash and was told that Season 11 and 12 was so much superior to Seasons KTMA thru Season 10. I was going to respond to that negative backlash, but it hit me square in the jaw that I was right and Season 13 is going to seal the coffin of MST3K’s demise. This is why reboots need to be cautiously avoided, for anything.
The interchange between a fan and 2 of the writers, as in above, is worrisome to me. Kennedy should have obviously ignored this post and moved on about her day as well as Mary should’ve as well. But this is the world we live in nowadays. I do appreciate Kennedy and Mary’s response to a worried fan, but it is in how they responded and the attitude behind it that leads me to believe that neither Kennedy nor Mary has ever seen a single episode of MST3K or not or even has any respect for Joel Hodgson or any other contributor to the show. Kennedy and Mary’s response is very telling and forthright and for that, I commend them for being forthright. It solidifies to me what I’ve been worried about since Season 11 premiered and absolutely tells me what’s going on behind the scenes. MST3K was never used as a cudgel or a wedge or to push a singular message, it was always a show that didn’t have a political or moral agenda behind it but with seasons 11 and 12, you start to notice these agendas taking shape and form into something more sinister. As I’m writing this, I almost forgot Jonah’s name which should tell you how much I’m trying to forget the reboots but just in the nick of time, I remembered Jonah’s name so here are my thoughts.
No, Seasons 11 and 12 don’t have an overtly political or moral message. This isn’t what I’m saying at all. S11-12 was ok in the recreation, look and feel of the original series sans the commercial cuts and an overbearing usage of bringing the old quips/sayings and trying to get them to make sense in the here and now which didn’t work for me and it just wasn’t funny. Both of the bots in S11-12 talk with a lisp, as if to come across as emasculated or borderline homosexual. I realize by me saying this will garner me some backlash and I really don’t care. It just isn’t cute nor is it appealing when the robots you grew up to are acting a part they weren’t designed to act out in the first place. It’s unsettling and somewhat diminutive of gay people, particularly gay men. This “lisping” I caught during the first few minutes of starting Season 11 and I thought to myself, “I hope this doesn’t continue”, to wit… It did. It’s a turn-off, it isn’t funny and more or less disparaging to gay people. Please stop it. I mean, it’s ok if you are trying to drive a single joke home with some inflection, but not all the time.
I guess I shouldn’t have had my expectations set too high and I blame myself for setting the bar too high. Totally my fault indeed. However, this doesn’t change the fact that MST3K has gone downhill. To Mary in the tweet above, you’re right, it’s not their show. It’s not your show, it’s not Kennedy’s show and while Joel and a few others created the show, I can guarantee you that Joel didn’t create MST3K just for him, Joel created MST3K for the fans, and congratulations, you just shit on everything Joel worked hard for. You are shitting on the fans and if you want to make money in this business, the one thing you don’t do is shit on the fans. Of course, you won’t care because you will get your cut and jet because your heart isn’t in it. Kennedy’s heart isn’t in it either. It’s all about the money and for both of you to shit on fans like that, you will have killed a perfectly good franchise, drove it into the ground while collecting your blood money. You have no stake in it at all, Joel and the fans do and it shows how little you care about the fans and it only speaks volumes about your narcissism. Kennedy, Joel is just another “rich white man” to you and it doesn’t matter to you if you kill his creation, you still got paid so it isn’t your concern anymore. I just hope people realize what I’ve said and don’t support this garbage.