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Post by Mrs.SusieTorgo? on Nov 8, 2005 23:30:46 GMT -5
I cannot even decide. Their personalities are too different and both made the show great in their own way. Joel you want to nurse, Mike you want to party with...no?
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Post by Prisoner416 on Nov 9, 2005 11:16:04 GMT -5
Joel all the way. Even though I started watching during the Sci-Fi years and own all dvd's Rhinos realesed, along with the KTMA season, Joel had this sort of quality about him that got you into the spirt of things more. Example- intro to Mitchell. Line... "Hi everyone, welcome to the Satellite of Love... oh look, here come Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot!"
That line was delivered PERFECTLY! With emotion, depth into the character... and making you just know something funny was about to happen.
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Post by fathermushroom on Nov 10, 2005 16:22:56 GMT -5
Props to Joel for setting the stage, but once he got going Mike was consistently (IMO) less annoying. Joel often seemed--well, unprofessional about playing the part. Glad he was there, love the eps, but I prefer Mike if forced to choose.
So glad no one cares enough to make me choose.
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Post by dlobro1080 on Nov 17, 2005 14:42:59 GMT -5
It's tough to choose. I laugh so much with either of them at the helm. I know this: my favorite thing ever on the show is Mike coming out as Torgo at the end of MANOS.
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Post by FredC on Nov 17, 2005 14:59:31 GMT -5
While I love both Joel and Mike episodes, and Mike's episodes seem to be a bit more consistantly funny, I'd actually have to say Joel. I just like how laid back he is, in comparison to Mike. Both great though.
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guiron
Anteater
From the hideous foundries of Chicago cutlery comes a monster...
Posts: 4
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Post by guiron on Nov 17, 2005 15:38:36 GMT -5
I always preferred Joel, although I still don't know exactly why...It just seems like his host segments were more fun and entertaining. They were both great in the theater though.
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Post by dlobro1080 on Nov 19, 2005 22:14:12 GMT -5
I know this is kinda off-topic, but does anyone know what Joel's politics are? Mike is semi-vocal about his being "center-right," just curious about Joel.
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Post by Skyroniter on Nov 19, 2005 22:29:51 GMT -5
I cannot even decide. Their personalities are too different and both made the show great in their own way. Joel you want to nurse, Mike you want to party with...no? I would prefer to party with Joel but I'm not sure I would want to or be able to nurse Mike.
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Post by Cleolanta on Nov 20, 2005 5:48:39 GMT -5
Hello. Yes, I know I'm new here and I should introduce myself, but I feel like just leaping in. Besides, I've been a MSTie since 1993 and I was a very active member of this board--or the early version of it, anyway--years ago, so...
As for the actual topic--well, I prefer Joel, but I'm going to come right out here and say that it's not for purely objective/technical reasons, and I _know_ it isn't.
First of all, I came into the show on Season 4, ("Crash of the Moons" was the first episode I saw all the way through, and that's where my username comes from--the evil Queen Cleolanta) so Joel is just the host I'm the most familiar with. To me, the "real" era of the show, the one that is the most _right_, has the following set-up: Joel as the host, Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank, Invention Exchanges, and Mike appearing as all different whackazoid characters. Everybody thinks that the era they "grew up with" is the "right" one, so, that's mine. Just to let you know where I'm coming from.
That's part of it. Then there's all the stuff Vanhagar said (by the way, I'm coming to _worship_ your rants, VH, you not only say everything I was thinking better than I could have, but also with opinions that almost nobody else but me has and I was DYING to hear some other MSTie say them) about how Joel got the better movies, the good ones were taken by the time they got to Mike, etc. I also do miss the Invention Exchanges, etc. And the host segments. Do you know, I once "converted" somebody to full-out MSTiedom with one episode? She was angrily DEFENDING the show to others in a conversation later that evening...after only seeing parts of _one episode_! An episode that even _I_ hadn't seen before at the time (so I couldn't have picked it out specially TO show to somebody in a careful, deliberate attempt to Introduce the show to a Newbie)--and it was during one of the host segments that she just FELL OVER laughing for the first time. And it was from the Joel era. (If you want the full story, I'll tell it in some other post. It's a fun story.)
To me, what it boils down to is..._feel_. I recognise that Mike _is_ a better performer, he's a much more polished actor, hardly ever flubs his lines the way Joel did often, has a MUCH better singing voice (I'm into music; so that does matter to me a bit), etc.--he's more polished, but that doesn't, to me, make the show _better_. The Mike episodes are still entertaining. But when it hit the Sci-Fi era and EVERYBODY I knew from the "classic" days was gone, and the sets got darker and colder looking...I just...I don't know. I also just don't like the style of the in-movie riffs in the later years, as much, either. They did have changes in their writing staff as the years went by and I guess the people who were there before were responsible for more of the jokes that I like, or something.
The Joel era had this more warm, fuzzy feeling to it, for me, what with the "family" attitude between himself and the 'bots, and the brighter set lighting, etc. And the very unpolishedness gave it an _extra_ charm rather than taking away some. And as someone else said (I forget who, now) I find little kids cuter and more fun to watch, personality-wise, than obnoxious teenagers/frat boys. That, and for some reason, I like the show WITHOUT a fourth wall. Once they stopped answering letters, which happened during the Mike years, the show became more of its own closed-in thing--I lost that feeling of them actually being in the room with me. Well, not right away. That happened as of the darker, blueish-lit sets of the Sci-Fi era.
Anyway. That's what it boils down to, for me. I recognise that Mike is technically a better performer, and that the show was more polished, etc. during his years as host...but I just like the basic _feel_ of the Joel years, better.
Or to sum up: I'm not saying that Joel definitively _is_ better--just that I happen to LIKE him, or rather the whole style of his "era", better. That's my personal preference, is all. (shrug)
Again, sorry for the long post. It's just the way I am.
...Notorious
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Post by jeanclaudegoshdarn on Nov 20, 2005 17:41:49 GMT -5
I can't choose between the two guys. Both have different personalities and styles of humor. Both are quite brilliant.
Personally, I like Mike a tad bit more. Doesn't mean he's the better host considering it's only my opinion.
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Post by dunkpork on Nov 20, 2005 21:34:16 GMT -5
Isn't there an interview where Mike says Joel was better?
And I say Joel. Anyone who complains about his "laidback" attitude is not realizing that's part of the act. Joel is a better performer. He has more professional experience. He was a standup. He did television. He had better timing and better vocalization.
Mike was often painfully over-the-top in trying to live up to the part. I like alot of Mike's stuff, and he gets better towards the end of his time, but Joel is better.
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Post by Cleolanta on Nov 21, 2005 3:41:14 GMT -5
Not debating who's "better" anymore (I already did my post about that) but as a side-note: The people who say Joel is so "laid-back"...have they ever WATCHED him in the _theater_? He's constantly leaping up to interact with things on the screen, a couple of times even going so far as to _dance_. (CROW: Rock it, Joel!) Compared to that, Mike pretty much just sits there and talks. And yet they say that Joel has no energy.
...yeah right. :P
Another thing is that his _personality_ isn't as laid-back as people think. If it was, he wouldn't go around ripping bots' arms off for making puns or doing nasty things to them to punish them, or sometimes just because he felt like it. Really, our Joelie has a _dark_ streak*. That, again, Mike doesn't have. (Well, partially because he knows that if he took the 'bots apart he wouldn't be _able_ to put them back together, but still.)
Conclusion? Mike is, in actuality, the more "laid-back" host. Joel only has that impression because of his sleepy-lidded eyes. But in this case...appearances can be decieving. Bwahahahahaha and all that. :P
...Notorious
*I mean this in a good way, however--I think it makes the character more interesting. It's also makes him closer to Dr. Forrester's equal, just on the other side--makes an interesting balance between the "hero" and "villain"--they're both wacky inventors, it's just that one is out to take over the world and the other isn't. But the hero isn't a total goody-two shoes himself, either. That's another thing that the Mike years lack--that interesting counterbalance between the hero and villian. Like I said, it's pretty much the _situation_ and overall feel that makes the Joel years my favourite, not JUST the host himself.
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Post by dlobro1080 on Nov 24, 2005 1:23:19 GMT -5
Well after doing much soul searching I'm going to say Joel (though I reserve the right to change my mind). Mike is a genius, but Joel brought a certain charm to the show.
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Post by hike'em'up on Apr 14, 2021 14:55:48 GMT -5
Props to Joel for setting the stage, but once he got going Mike was consistently (IMO) less annoying. Joel often seemed--well, unprofessional about playing the part. Glad he was there, love the eps, but I prefer Mike if forced to choose. That bit is exactly why he was the better for me - it blended in perfectly with the mileau of the show
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Post by crowschmo on Jul 11, 2021 20:48:21 GMT -5
Wow. This is an old thread. I'm surprised I didn't post anything in it until now. I think I posted in another one that asked this question. Love Mike, but Joel wins it for me. The feel of the show was more, well, the show, when Joel was hosting. The relationship with the 'Bots was better, I think, in the Joel era. Everyone was just kind of there with each other in the Mike era. It was more familial, in my opinion, during the Joel years. The riffs were more in your face during the Mike era - especially when they got to the Sci Fi channel, and it was just, a bunch of obnoxious guys talking incessantly over a movie, like, they didn't know when to quit and let it breathe. That's why I don't find Rifftrax as funny as MST3K. And it's not that I don't like Mike and Kevin and Bill. I think they're funny overall, they just go overboard with everything now and it seems stale and like they've run out of ideas (and I don't even know if they even do most of the writing anymore - do they?) There was a more folksy feel in the Joel years and it seemed more organic and homey and junk. I do think that the higher-ups at Sci Fi who wanted some kind of story line in the host segments might have ruined things in the later years and it wasn't entirely the fault of those on the show, but it just got - blah. But even the theater segments weren't as funny in the later seasons, to me anyway. There are quite a few Mike eps I do like, of course, but they are mostly from the Comedy Central years. I barely revisit the later seasons.
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