Every movie can have value and provide entertainment—even the bottom rung of B-movies, especially when they’re combined with the antics of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 gang. A TV show focusing on a single captive human making fun of low-quality cinema with robotic companions Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, Mystery Science Theater 3000 has endured as a beloved project for decades for a reason.
Videos by ComicBook.com
It’s an incredibly witty program full of fun puppet characters and endlessly quotable observations of subpar cinema. The 10 greatest episodes of this show, ranked below from “least best” to greatest, are an especially fun showcase for all of Mystery Science Theater 3000’s charms. Come enjoy how every movie can provide chuckles, and remember, “it’s just a show, I should really just relax.”
10. Mac and Me
The season 12 premiere of Mystery Science Theater 3000 covered Mac and Me, one of the most infamous bad movies in history. Decades of anticipation over seeing the Satellite of Love inhabitants cover this E.T. knock-off could’ve resulted in a disappointing episode. Instead, Jonah Ray and company produced a knockout funny episode, especially with Crow T. Robot’s observation that Mac and Me is “like a Pixar film, in that it exists and has a title.” The ludicrousness of this E.T. pastiche and the hideous, static designs of those aliens inspired plenty of iconic MST3K antics.
9. Space Mutiny
A super low-budget sci-fi film full of abandoned factory backdrops and clumsy “futuristic” costumes was a perfect vessel for MST3K silliness. In particular, these characters got so many laughs out of giving the film’s lead actor so many ludicrous names, like Slab Bulkhead or Punt Speedchunk. Some running gags in TV show episodes overstay their welcome. Not this one, which just gets funnier and funnier as the runtime goes on.
8. The Creeping Terror
There’s no question that 1964’s The Creeping Terror has one of the stupidest-looking movie monsters ever put to celluloid. This beast consuming teenagers and local townsfolk looks like a rug, a slug, and lots of assorted living room clutter got bound together. Such a misguided creature design inevitably produces lots of MST3K laughs while the sharp wit of Servo and Crow keeps things entertaining even when that man-eating entity isn’t on-screen.
7. Hobgoblins
As noted by MST3K’s leads, Gremlins rip-off Hobgoblins doesn’t feature a ton of its titular beasts, especially in the drawn-out first act. That means, though, there’s plenty of time for riffs and jokes about the most 80s teenagers who ever lived, as well as some truly awful “youthful” dialogue. Once those Hobgoblins do show up to create mayhem, the MST3K crew gets a lot of mileage out of the critters, particularly in acting like a bunch of Hobgoblins charging a door are just trying to spread pamphlets about their religion.
6. Manos: The Hands of Fate
“Every frame is like someone’s last known photograph!” That Joel Hodgson line perfectly encapsulates the lived-in, dingy look of Manos: The Hands of Fate, one of the most inexplicable bad movies ever made. While some dismal features inspired tedium in the Satellite of Love gang, that’s not a problem here. Manos keeps conjuring up bizarre digressions and storytelling points that keep the entire episode lively. It’s only natural that one of the all-time great bad movies would produce an MST3K installment this hysterical.
5. Cry Wilderness
One of the first MST3K episodes released in 2017 after the show’s lengthy time off the air, skewering Cry Wilderness demonstrated that this program hadn’t lost a beat in its disappearance. This 1987 film about Bigfoot is a ludicrous enterprise that provides belly-laugh-inducing fodder for the MST3K characters right from the get-go, like the characters riffing on the sight of Bigfoot hollering outside the adolescent protagonist’s house.
4. Mitchell
Sometimes, it’s fun to watch the MST3K robot characters suffer. There’s just something so amusing about hearing outsized emotions expressed by these intentionally jangly-looking automotons. One of the best examples of this phenomenon came in the Mitchell episode, in which Tom Servo begins shrieking in frustration at an inane “comedic” exchange between the titular lead and a snarky kid. Such a banal and tedious movie brought out the best spicy barbs from these characters. Their misery is, once again, our joy.
3. The Final Sacrifice
It’s bizarre The Final Sacrifice was ever in danger of vanishing entirely from the cultural consciousness, given that it stars a character with as cool of a name as Zap Rowsdower. Luckily, season nine of MST3K made room for the movie and launched it into eternal notoriety. This ridiculous adventure film just sparked creative fireworks from the Satellite of Love crew, including unforgettable jokes about beer on the sun and a guy’s hair being on fire. Thank you, Zap Rowsdower, for inspiring such glorious MST3K laughs.
2. I Accuse My Parents
Like many classic MST3K episodes, the I Accuse My Parents installment doesn’t just cover that classic B-movie. It also saw the show’s main characters skewering a short film. Here, that shot was The Truck Farmer, a dry 1950s educational segment. These Truck Farmer quips would already be enough to guarantee this episode a place on this list thanks to jokes like Crow’s confident declarations that “Texans” are the new problem Texas farmers must grapple with. However, I Accuse My Parents and its story of a goody-two-shoes being led astray is also a hilarious treat. No MST3K fan can ever hear the phrase “essay contest” the same way again after how the Satellite of Love inhabitants rake this feature over the coals.
1. Laserblast
Laserblast seems like it was made in a lab for Mystery Science Theater 3000 mockery. The stop-motion aliens, the dumb plot, characters exhibiting traits like saying “hush, hush!” at the end of every sentence, it’s all so perfect for MST3K ridicule. All that potential gets exploited and then some in this endlessly hysterical episode. Scenes like two aliens talking to their leader in gibberish inspire especially hilarious commentary, as do the dumb antics of these dimly written teenagers. If there’s any episode perfectly summing up how MST3K can wring comedic gold out of abysmal cinema, it has to be the Laserblast installment.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is now streaming on Peacock.
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Marvel Studios -
Image Courtesy of DC Comics -
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
