Reddit AMA: Joel Hodgson Creator of MST3K

We have a BUNCH of MST3K news for today as last week there was a big DVD release (more on that later) and to help celebrate series creator Joel Hodgson took part in a Reddit AMA chat last week right before there was a Youtube Thanksgiving Marathon. Here are some takeaways from the conversation the most of which were fans telling awesome stories about them growing up with the MST3K brand and what it meant for them to have a show such as this. To this day, Mystery Science Theater is seen in classrooms all over the country to which Joel seems to corroborate:

Yes, every couple of years I had a teacher that seemed to understand me and encourage me. It didn’t happen too much, but it happened at the right time. And also my parents were both teachers, and I felt like they were undervalued in society, so I felt like putting that in there because I so appreciate people who teach. It’s a vocation that does not get its due sometimes.

Ironically enough, when asked, Joel seemed to be completely fine with people borrowing some of MST3K’s concepts especially if they are used for educational purposes to which he has advice for:

I love it when people do movie riffs and my only advice would be don’t be disembodied voices on a video where no one knows who you are. If you don’t produce anything that explains why you’re riffing on a movie it’s very disorienting. You need to introduce yourself to the audience by creating a theme song or create an introduction on video so that the people who don’t know you will know you.

That’s not to say Mystery Science Theater hasn’t had some more notable names commend the hard work that Joel and his crew has done over the years in turning a simple puppet show into a phenomenon:

I’m always shocked when I meet famous people who like what I do. I was amazed to hear Frank Zappa was a fan, and I was lucky enough to get to speak with him before he passed away. I asked him what he thought when he heard us reference his music on the show, and he said it was “unsettling.”

Joel was nice enough to continue on and on with the AMA and did a great job in catching as many shout outs as possible. Read more of the AMA here and check in later today as we have more MST3K news incoming.