The Rewatch Value of MST3K

[thebusdrivertohell]

I started out MST quite young (I believe the first episode I saw was when I was around 8 years old). It was funny then. I saw every episode I could, and eventually stopped watching. Then I picked up the habit again when I was in the Army, somewhere in my late teens/early 20's... some of the old jokes gained new meaning as my understanding of the world grew. Now I'm back in the habit again, in my *cough*30's, and the jokes take on yet another new meaning. 

With the upcoming new dawn of MST, with fresh pop culture references, fresh faces and voices, I'm excited, and I know there are lots of you out there who are also stoked that this lifelong classic is coming back. Yet, the old episodes still bloom with newness with the passing of each major life milestone. I sincerely hope the new season will be as fresh to our younger generations as the old episodes were to us. 

Which episodes have had a special rewatch appeal to you over the years (to our old school MSTies)? To the younger, or the newer folks to the MST universe, which are your favorites that you would still watch a few years down the road? 

[Afgncaap5]

Oh, several. A Case Of Spring Fever (and to a lesser extent Squirm, the movie it was in front of) are big favorites for me and my sister, and I always find something new, or a new way to appreciate an old favorite riff. "Shouldn't this be over?" is the current riff from it I'm trying to cement in my head as a quote... it almost always gets the biggest laugh from me, but it's never one of the ones I recall if I've not seen the episode in a few months.

I think any discussion of The Rewatch Value of MST3K needs to include at least a mention of The Atari Corollary (and it's predecessor, The Phantom Rule), even if the topic of discussion never quite gets around to the quality of the movie itself.

[gamera99]

Hi BD2H! I missed you!

[crowschmo]

The "A Date With Your Family" short never really gets old. I could watch Tormented, Sinbad, & I Accuse My Parents and never quite get sick of them. Time Chasers is also good for a laugh. Any episode that I like, I could always take a little break from then rewatch again in a year or so, and, well, it's all good.

[gamera99]

Dec 13, 2015 19:36:28 GMT -5 crowschmo said:

The "A Date With Your Family" short never really gets old. I could watch Tormented, Sinbad, & I Accuse My Parents and never quite get sick of them. Time Chasers is also good for a laugh. Any episode that I like, I could always take a little break from then rewatch again in a year or so, and, well, it's all good.

Me too for Tormented and I Accuse My Parents!  Those are two great experiments.  Collections of some shorts like Truck Farmer, Junior Rodeo Daredevils, Appreciating Your Parents, Posture Pals - I never get tired of these.

[Ford Prefect]

I think that part of the rewatchability of the series is the wide variety of jokes in each feature length episode and how long it takes to go through the whole series. If you have access to every episode, but only have time to sit down and watch it once every week, it will take about four years for you to circle back around to an episode you've already seen. At that point there's plenty of jokes you've forgotten about and some make more sense because you're at a different place in your life than you were the last time you watched it.