"Please provide a proof of why you believe Joel to be the superior MST3K host..."
"...don't forget to show your work ;)"
Today's prompt comes from mmmbrains.
Proof is for mathematics, so there.
I'm not dogmatic about my Joel love; I can see Mike's winsome qualities as host, and the early Joel years suffer from absolutely awful movies -- the kind that are a chore to watch even with robots cracking wise over them -- and undeveloped writing, which definitely improved over time. But which movies they could riff and the number of jokes they eventually learned to pack into one screening aren't the question here. If we're talking about hosting, and hosting alone, Joel is the obvious choice for me. Why? Because Mike is a goddamn cartoon character.
Joel is the perfect character I'd want to watch bad movies with in space. He's chill, kind of sleepy, has this slacker/stoner thing going on that actually fits the character of a guy who would respond to a mad scientist's experimentation by opting to build some robots and make fun of movies. He's watching these movies, because he gets electrocuted if he refuses, but damned if he's going to let the Mads into his mind. On the rare occasions when a movie makes him crack (as with Rocket Attack USA, which I watched recently on my ongoing slow-motion binge), it's hilarious. The invention exchange gets a bit tedious when it's forced and has no clever idea behind it, so I won't defend that, but the skits during the Joel years seem to tie into the movie or some aspect of filmmaking far more often than Mike's, which tend to be merely silly. Joel's skit during Warrior of the Lost World, portraying a teenage version of the movie's dopey protagonist trying to get a ride to the Lost World from his mom, is my pick for the perfect MST3K skit, from those (admittedly few) episodes I've seen.
I like Mike episodes because the riffs are snappier and the movies slightly more entertaining on their own, but Mike the character is a silly doofus. I like Joel's maternal relationship with the bots; Mike-the-peon lets the robots bully him around, which makes for occasional laughs but is (in my opinion) a less endearing character dynamic. There's more artifice with Mike, more of a sense that we are in fact watching a TV show instead of a mad science experiment that happens to be broadcast on basic cable, which may be a silly critique, given that we should really just relax, but it's another reason I prefer Joel's stint. Some people prefer silly Mike over sleepy Joel, but I'm just not feelin' it.
Today's prompt comes from mmmbrains.
Proof is for mathematics, so there.
I'm not dogmatic about my Joel love; I can see Mike's winsome qualities as host, and the early Joel years suffer from absolutely awful movies -- the kind that are a chore to watch even with robots cracking wise over them -- and undeveloped writing, which definitely improved over time. But which movies they could riff and the number of jokes they eventually learned to pack into one screening aren't the question here. If we're talking about hosting, and hosting alone, Joel is the obvious choice for me. Why? Because Mike is a goddamn cartoon character.
Joel is the perfect character I'd want to watch bad movies with in space. He's chill, kind of sleepy, has this slacker/stoner thing going on that actually fits the character of a guy who would respond to a mad scientist's experimentation by opting to build some robots and make fun of movies. He's watching these movies, because he gets electrocuted if he refuses, but damned if he's going to let the Mads into his mind. On the rare occasions when a movie makes him crack (as with Rocket Attack USA, which I watched recently on my ongoing slow-motion binge), it's hilarious. The invention exchange gets a bit tedious when it's forced and has no clever idea behind it, so I won't defend that, but the skits during the Joel years seem to tie into the movie or some aspect of filmmaking far more often than Mike's, which tend to be merely silly. Joel's skit during Warrior of the Lost World, portraying a teenage version of the movie's dopey protagonist trying to get a ride to the Lost World from his mom, is my pick for the perfect MST3K skit, from those (admittedly few) episodes I've seen.
I like Mike episodes because the riffs are snappier and the movies slightly more entertaining on their own, but Mike the character is a silly doofus. I like Joel's maternal relationship with the bots; Mike-the-peon lets the robots bully him around, which makes for occasional laughs but is (in my opinion) a less endearing character dynamic. There's more artifice with Mike, more of a sense that we are in fact watching a TV show instead of a mad science experiment that happens to be broadcast on basic cable, which may be a silly critique, given that we should really just relax, but it's another reason I prefer Joel's stint. Some people prefer silly Mike over sleepy Joel, but I'm just not feelin' it.