I hear how the humor got meaner with Mike but, for me, that was the era of the show I revisit the most. But yeah, “This Island Earth” probably would have worked better with Joel.

“Ha, my wife could use one of these around the house!”

I have not seen the movie in years but the whole “Why, this isn’t paper, it’s some kind of metal.”  “No sir, that’s paper.”  Sticks with me and still makes me laugh.

This movie was something I showed to my D&D group over a decade ago to get them in to the whole idea of MST3K. We were all native Minnesotans, but they had no idea what it was so I had to correct that. “Normal view!” chants became a thing with us for years because one guy in the group, who’d only mildly chuckled…

Some of their best riffs were actually them riffing on their own credits.

“Its the amazing Rando!”
“Puppet handlers? There’s no puppets in this movie.”
“Watch Rando the magician construct sets with his very mind!”
“We’d like to thank the people of St. Paul who are, in order, Anderson A...”
“Eastman! He came out of the east…

It still baffles me that Universal interfered so heavily with a project they were spending so little on, and which they ended up just dumping anyway. It makes a little more sense when you read that nobody at Best Brains really knew how to run interference, but a damn shame. Like they had to cut a lot out of the movie…

Great lines from this that I still remember:

This wasn’t a reunion which I didn’t mind because I usually don’t like the reality competition show reunion show format. Usually they’re just an excuse for all this contrived drama. Having said that I don’t know if this ...whatever this was ...was the answer either. 

I don’t remember the episode numbers and names all that well, but there are a fair few in season 1 that I was really into.

I don’t remember individual episodes well, so some highlight moments for me:

it’s clear the hunt for mainstream acceptance and awards, and the rabid online fanbase that comes with that, has removed almost all the rawness of the earlier seasons.

I’ve been told that the contract that the contestants sign appears to divest them of all intellectural property rights to any idea that they develop in the course of the show. That suggests to me that, even though the song is Tamisha’s own, the show will not pay her anything for it or residuals from any future…

80 minutes of nothing. Skip it.

B feels generous for this episode, though I have to give props to LaLa Ri for somehow winning an episode where there isn’t a winner. She both looked amazing and had the best video/song by a mile.

Nope. You’re not missing anything. I’ve only watched it because i had nothing else better to do. Plus, Kate’s recap is literally bit by bit the whole episode in written word.

Most shocking part of the reunion was to see Ru with a broom at the very end. Can’t imagine it was easy to get him on board with that gag.

I love a lot about this first season. Namely, Hazel and Herbert. I found their relationship fascinating. Combative but warm. You can’t go wrong with Cristin Milioti and Ray Romano, mind. This one’s up there with Romano’s best, and I think there’s potential for him to be nominated for something.

Yeah, I heard a rumor that he works for the Daily Bugle 

Of course. They know they’re selling this game to delusional, passive aggressive, young males who write manifestos in composition notebooks and aspire to be like Rick Sanchez.