I remember one day hearing my father downstairs laughing his ass off. Went down to see what was so funny to find he had just discovered Mystery Science Theater 3000, and was losing it watching The Giant Gila Monster. I sat down to watch. I didn't really get it then, but I've been a fan ever since.
The Final Sacrifice is one of my all-time favorites!! It is the perfect mix of a bad movie that is just the right kind of entertaining and hilarious jokes at the awkward kid, hopeless drunk, and other ridiculous side characters. I think I could watch it literally every day.
This is one of the harder episodes to find. Tjardus Greidanus lives up to the name he's given durning the opening credits and doesn't allow Shoutcast to have a license for the movie and will frequently go copyright strike anyone that puts the episode up online.
Mitchell, Manos, and Pod People are probably a three-way tie for me. Some of my underrated favorites are Girls Town, The Incredible Melting Man, The Giant Spider Invasion, Teen-Age Crime Wave, and Kitten With a Whip.
I think Giant Spider Invasion is the first one I ever saw, randomly showing on SciFi channel early one morning. I was dying from laughter, just laying on the floor gasping for breath from laughing so hard. Been a fan ever since!
I really love pod people. I introduced mst3k to my friends I made in college my freshman year with this and they didn’t think I was a huge weirdo!
Instead they all just fell in love with trumpy.
I use the movie to introduce people to the show. It sets up the whole universe without tons of in-jokes that newbies won't understand. And "This Island Earth" is a weird combo of being a decent enough movie while still being infinitely mockable.
Teenagers From Outer Space is a good start. It was hilarious to me when the old man was muttering and singing "it's the New Zoo Revue" and he looked like the man from the show. I had actually seen the show (don't blame me, we didn't have cable and after you watched cartoons, it came on) It was just so obscure :D
I'm not sure if you count RiffTrax (it's all the same guys), but their commentary for The Last Airbender (2010) and Twilight leave me in tears every time.
i can't remember the name of the movie, but there were 2 aliens who looked like humans and they were causing some sort of trouble.. they had the ability to shapeshfit into other humans
i remember there's a scene where a protagonist steps into an elevator and there's some young man listening to his walkman. after some time, the young dude starts making these awkward noises because he's jamming out on his headphones to the music.. the protagonist is totally paranoid as he's not sure if young dude's really a human being or an alien, so the elevator finally reaches their floor and they try to escape only to get grabbed by the young man and he reveals himself to be the alien..
so the camera pans to the aliens face looking all menacing and one of the MST3K crew says "you didn't think i could get jiggy with it!?" 🤣
it's been years so if anyone knows the ep i'm talking about, i'd be extremely grateful so i can watch it again.
MST3K hasn't really held up for me. I don't find it even little-chuckle funny anymore, but I remember Space Mutiny making my teenaged self laugh the hardest.
P.S. Bill Corbett was the only funny one in the entire history of that show. ducks and runs