Joel/Mike Investigation

[Phantom Engineer]

Just doing a little research. Please don't vote if you have no preference.

[vanhagar3000]

I don't know, I started as a hardcore fan in 2003 by watching Sci-Fi episodes and the first one I rented was MST3K: The Movie (which was followed by Pod People though), should I vote, or no because I watched Joel as a little kid? Really though, from 1996 to 2003, MST3K probably never popped into my mind other than a mention of it from my dad.

[Captain Hygiene]

I went through an initial phase of Joel but decided I enjoyed Mike more later

[Phantom Engineer]

vanhagar3000 said:

I don't know, I started as a hardcore fan in 2003 by watching Sci-Fi episodes and the first one I rented was MST3K: The Movie (which was followed by Pod People though), should I vote, or no because I watched Joel as a little kid? Really though, from 1996 to 2003, MST3K probably never popped into my mind other than a mention of it from my dad.

I don't know, this is pretty specific. I'm not sure if this applies in your case.

[sirveaux]

I used to prefer Mike more, but that was probably because I hadn't seen many Joel episodes. The more I saw, the more I prefered Joel, and still do (though I have nothing against Mike episodes)

[losingmydignity]

I started with Joel and don't prefer either...but obviously that answer is not part of your "research."

[Ratso]

I started watching through the Scifi years, I lilked the show but I was not a insane fan... I got vol.1 and saw Catalina Caper and I fell in love with the way Joel did the show.

[Chuck]

I started with Joel and preferred him.

[OxfordProle]

I began watching just before Joel left, when MST3K was in its heyday on Comedy Central - i.e., it was shown at least once a day and usually more than that. So I got used to Joel first and was not happy at all when Mike showed up. In fact, I really hated him. But he grew on me, and I actually prefer Mike now.

[CBG]

I started with Joel.
There was no other.
When the news of him leaving hit,
"How can they replace the irreplaceable?"
Then came Mike.
As time went on, we learned that Mike
Really was MST3K.
Again, as stated before by me,
There is no bad MST.

[ash2]

I watched the sci-fi episodes over and over again but then one day I started watching the Joel episodes and I haven't stopped yet. I no longer feel the need to watch Mike episodes. I feel like an addict who traded cigarattes for cloves or something.

John

[ash2]

I watched the sci-fi episodes over and over again but then one day I started watching the Joel episodes and I haven't stopped yet. I no longer feel the need to watch Mike episodes. I feel like an addict who traded cigarattes for cloves or something.

John

[Melting Manos]

I know I've told my story of how I got into the show before, but I'll tell the detailed version now since this a study of starting out with one host, and preferring the other. I think my story is somewhat unique considering the fact that I never was a "superfan" until well after the show had been off the air, even though I had first seen it in the dark ages *AHEM* KTMA days!

I first saw the show late night on KTMA way back when I was about 13 years old. I tried to catch it as often as I could for the first couple seasons (KTMA-3), and then I stopped watching for reasons unknown sometime during the 3rd season. I didn't see the show again until sometime during the 9th season ('98) and had pretty much forgotten about it by that point. When I saw that they had changed hosts, I didn't even give it a chance like an idiot

Fast forward to November of 2001. I asked my wife (Then girlfriend) what she wanted for X-Mas that year, she told me she used to like a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000, and knew that some of the episodes were released on DVD. I told her that my brother and I used to watch that show way back in the early 90's, but I hadn't really seen it much since then. While X-Mas shopping for her I got her The Crawling Hand on DVD for one of her gifts. We watched it once, and while I thought it was funny, I wasn't hooked again by any means. I'm still not a huge fan of the 1st season episodes, but that's for another discussion

Now let's fast forward again to September of 2003. The wife and I are at Best Buy, and for reasons I can't remember, we decided that I would buy her some DVD's there or whatever else she wanted for birthday gifts. I was looking in the box set section and I saw volume 2 there. I picked it up and saw that it had an episode on it called "Pod People". Now to this day I really don't remember any of the episodes I saw way back then (Early 90's), but that one looked very familiar to me. The wife decided she wanted that box set so we bought it and watched that episode. I loved it, and have been collecting episodes ever since then. I did not discover the genius of Mike until we got Volume 1 next, and I watched The Creeping Terror. He had me laughing more than I ever had at any of the previous episodes we had watched from the two volumes we had. At the time I would have told you it was my favorite episode. That has since changed, but now after having seen 100+ episodes, eight of my top 10 favorites are Mike episodes.

I just find Mike funnier in the theater, and for me that is what makes or breaks an episode. No disrespect to Joel, but I just prefer Mike. Anyway that's my long winded story and I'm sticking to it!

[GAF]

I agree with melting manos that Mike is funnier in the theater, at least for my tastes. I still watch (and am trying to collect) Joel eps, but most of my faves are the Sci-Fi era ones. I find the Mike episodes to be of a more sarcastic humor, which I favor above all other forms.

[hopesfall]

Started with Joel, but prefer Mike.