Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 The best EVER of Mystery Science Theatre 3000! April 4, 2006
I always thought that this was the best video ever of MST3000! I've seen many of the full length movies and they were usually a bit too long to keep my attention. Hilarious, but jokes only run so far in a horribly bad film.
I would recommend this to anyone as it is hilarious and pokes fun at these 1950's-1960's short films and the way that they do it is provacative and makes you laugh, yet is short enough that you don't get bored. My personal favorite is the 'Grooming' one. This will not disappoint.
Really hilarious December 17, 2003
A must see for MST3K fans. Tom Servo hosts this one, the first of three Shorts (for some reason unknown, there is no host for 2 or 3). Quite a few of the shorts are older ones with Joel, but no less hilarious. My personal favorite is "Why Study Industrial Arts?" in which the narrator goes on about the sensual pleasures of woodworking...(plenty of fodder for riffs)...also high on the amusement factor are "The Home Economics Story" "Cheating" and "Body Care and Grooming." Personally, I could have done without the story of poultry and I usually fast forward through the Junior Rodeo, but still. The good overshadows the mediocre. And of course, I just love Tom Servo :-) so the fact that he is the host is a bonus.
Shocking! August 9, 2003
This will shake the funnybone straight out of your body! No kidding! This is a compilation of some of the shorts that have appeared on the show. It includes the brilliant short on cheating. There's nothing like seeing a floating disembodied teacher's head to put you off of cheating. Even without the comments from the boys, this is hilarious. It seems hard to believe that anyone would make (or watch) these chestnuts. This video is a great time capsule. Check it out.
Fortunately NOT short of laughs October 22, 2002
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I didn't realize the MST3000 gang made fun of old propaganda clips on the side until I saw "Manos: Hands of Fate." Soon after, I stumbled across this VHS that shows different episodes of Joel or Mike with the two robots poking fun at seven different shorts, everything from chicken breeding to cheating to industrial arts. These films are so old and lackluster -- and dumb -- that "the boys" never ceased to keep me chuckling. If you like Mystery Science Theatre to any degree, get this tape. Sure, it takes the "Mystery Science" out of "Theatre," but there's always good fun to be had making fun of ANY movie. And these movies pack a lot of opportunity for random one-liners.
Seven classic MST3K shorts August 24, 2002
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Many MSTies will agree with me when I say that the short films are often funnier and more enjoyable than the featured movies the Satellite of Love inhabitants are forced to watch. Among the seven shorts collected in this initial volume are some of the funniest ones produced by Best Brains. Of course, most of these productions are pretty funny to begin with, and one gains much insight into the America which produced these silly, seemingly unnecessary educational/informational videos. Body Care and Grooming, a true MST3K classic, immediately comes to mind. Did teenagers in the 1950s really have to be introduced to the concept of grooming and shown by way of video examples the steps involved in such a process? Apparently so, if this video is any indication. Of course, it also includes a subtle connotation that young people should all look and act a certain way, prompting the sagacious Crow to comment that "expressing individualism is just plain wrong" in reaction. A Date With Your Family (referred to on the SOL as The Woody Allen Story) is a similar, yet even weirder little short which the guys rip into gleefully. While it makes the case that a family should come together every night to enjoy each other's company over dinner, it essentially implies that a woman's place is in the home; the women, it declares, seem to feel as if they owe it to the men to look relaxed, rested, and attractive at dinnertime. With comments from the narrator such as "the boys greet Dad as if they are genuinely glad to see him" (necessarily implying that they are not), this short is hilarious in and of itself, but it is made even funnier by comments from the guys (such as Servo's classic line "A violent argument erupts about whose day was more pleasant"). The Home Economics Story is another endorsement of female domestication from the 50s which the guys do a great job of humorously criticizing. If the girls are supposed to dream no higher than home economics, the boys aren't offered the grandest of options, either, as Why Study Industrial Arts? reveals. Chicken of Tomorrow introduces us to the birth, life, and deaths of the nation's chickens, presented in purely economic terms. It is a rather involved process, prompting Mike to wonder why eggs don't cost about $100 apiece, but its purpose is unclear; after all, did men and women need to be sold on eating chicken and eggs? Junior Rodeo Daredevils is probably the funniest short on this tape. The only thing funnier than watching youngsters being thrown from horses and bulls in a rodeo is hearing the reactions from Joel and the Bots about the physical effects of such events. For me, though, the true gem here is Cheating. This video alone seems to have some merit, but the stiff acting and monotonous delivery of lines leaves this short wide open to hilarious assault by our more than able crew of cynics and jokesters. Breaking this video of 92 minutes down, we have two shorts with Joel and five with Mike; all of them are quite enjoyable no matter how many times you see them. Hosted by Tom Servo, this tape (and its two follow-up volumes) is a must-buy keeper for all MSTies.
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