The Right Fangirl

I honestly follow very few people on Twitter (it's become more of the "easiest place for my friends and I to say things and the others respond" function on my end), and not a whole lot of celebrities. It's for the very reason that a lot of times, I don't care what they have to say, and I tend to only follow the ones I do because they're funny. The problem of course arises with the election years, and ohhhh boy with these debates. I've unfollowed one person and even a "friend" (who I had lost touch with anyway) for their incessant tweeting about election stuff that is, frankly, abhorrently wrong. Also unfunny. Twitter unfortunately gives unfunny people a platform to say whatever they want and the ability for their followers to retweet it en mass.

There's one guy I KNOW is conservative, and you want to know what I've noticed? He's very quiet about his political beliefs. The closest you've really come to "guessing" it is that he's made some jabs at the left, and only the left. He'll give everyone a good-natured ribbing, but reading between the lines is very easy and you can see what side he's on. And that's probably the most refreshing thing about having that on my feed; in-between all the lines about Romney being a satanic imp and Paul Ryan being...something...you get that. I do like how no one is really defending Obama so much as "LET'S ATTACK THE OTHER GUY BECAUSE HE'S he's...he's...money...and...Mormon and...uh...HIS NAME IS STUPID THAT'S IT AHAHAHA WIT".

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I don't blame you at all... to be honest I've never been a huge fan of Twitter anyway and most of the celebs I've seen over there are really outspoken and annoying. This particular guy I like because he's funny on his twitter and he'll sometimes post BTS pics. I nearly defriended someone on LJ for the same reason, and a person on FB.

I'm kinda curious, can you tell me which guy? :) The funny thing about this guy is that he always struck me as someone at least slightly to the right of center because he's made pro-gun comments, has declared Team America as one of his favorite movies, read a book that was pretty much only being read by conservatives, and made a couple of jabs about Obama and the stimulus in the past. Granted he didn't make this particular tweet himself, just retweeted it... suppose it could be he misread what Romney was trying to say, or something..... At least he didn't go crazy saying "BARACK KICKED ASS TONITE!!!"

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It's Michael J. Nelson from MST3K. Back in the day (the 90s) when his political beliefs were leaked out, there were some fans who were quite hostile about it. It still comes up even today, which is absolutely ridiculous. I guess they're threatened by him or...something. *rolls eyes* But I feel like his presence (and some of the other writers on the show) provided a balance for the humor, as I've never felt ostracized while watching the show. He makes VERY few political tweets, but when he does, they make me giggle. Like this one. (https://twitter.com/michaeljnelson/status/256758515794857985)

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Did anyone freak out about Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl's liberal politics, as some did with Nelson's conservative politics? (When Cinematic Titanic started online blogs, both of them went there with their liberalism, and Mary Jo, shall we say, freaking loved Obama.) I don't follow the MST3K behind-the-scenes, anymore, so I'm curious if there is a double standard with the fandom.

And Nelson knows funny. And I'll never watch Mask the same way again.

Edited Date: 2012-10-17 10:52 pm (UTC)

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I remember reading about 8 years ago that Frank had landed a gig on Air America. I don't remember anyone freaking out over that much. Just remember a couple of conservative fans saying things like "Too bad, he was really funny."

Nelson is pure awesomeness.

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Oh, of course not. I never, ever see jabs at Frank and Mary Jo's politics - I tend to see Frank lifted on a pedestal of fans because he's VERY open in his tweets and such about his political views. I apparently missed a kerfuffle on Tumblr a few weeks back where someone was complaining about Mike being conservative and Christian, so there are still people upset/threatened/angry about it. I was more impressed that my of-questionable-politics-but-apparently-very-liberal friend made a post telling those people to screw off and shut up.

So yeah there appears to be a double-standard with the fandom. I kind of see that in most fandoms. =\

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Indeed. I see that double standard well. I'm a fan of the show, but I never bothered with the fandom. And after hearing your anecdote, that may have been a good choice.

At least, your friend wasn't an asshat and had enough, so there is hope.

Edited Date: 2012-10-18 01:26 am (UTC)

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Oh, yes! I love Mike Nelson. I remember back in 2004-ish he did an interview with one of the conservative magazines, maybe National Review? He was asked who he supported in the election and he said the republicans, even though some of his buddies on MST3K were the opposite. I remember him calling the left-biased Minneapolis Star the "Red Star" *grin* and he said some nice things about The Passion of the Christ movie. Also called the democrats the "silly party", lol. I think I remember reading that some fans were hostile about his views. That's ridiculous, Mike's an awesome guy! I agree, it did provide a balance to the humor. They skewered some republicans, but also democrats (I remember a few jabs at Clinton and Gore).

Bwahahahaha, that tweet is priceless. Thanks for the heads up!

Edited Date: 2012-10-17 11:13 pm (UTC)

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I got to find that interview. Hm...

Yeah, MST3K handled the political humor well. If it were made, these days, I'm not sure, quite frankly.

Edited Date: 2012-10-18 12:03 am (UTC)

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I'm not sure how much of it they, say, put in Rifftrax or Cinematic Titanic, as I have't seen very many of them. I remember a Rifftrax joke about Christine O'Donnell, which became so dated so fast that it's cringe-worthy to hear now. What I've realized with the political humor is that so little of it stays relevant after, say, ten years or so. There's jokes made in MST about Bush Sr. and Clinton that just blow over my head because a.) I wasn't alive/consciously aware of the world at the time of the joke's origin, and b.) said origins haven't become engrained in the public consciousness.

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In a non-comedic sense, yeah, such potshots don't work, because they're so topical and instantly dated themselves. And they don't last, save for very few exceptions. I see it with comics and television, and for those reasons, it fails.

I don't know about your age, but I was a late teen when I got into the show, by the Sci-Fi run. So. I didn't care about the politics, but it was even-handed, for the most part. (Now, an actual criticism would be how caustic the riffing and the Mike and the Bots characterizations were becoming, but that's a side thing.) Made by current Comedy Central -- which to this day pretends the show's being the network signature show didn't exist -- it would have been so out of place with Stewart/Colbert.

But then, back then, we didn't have 24-hour news cylces and everything under the sun being politicized, so it was allowed to go its way.

Edited Date: 2012-10-18 01:21 am (UTC)

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I'm 21, and while I remember watching the show when I was a kid, I didn't get into it properly until I was 16. But I can judge based upon the current landscape of television, internet, etc - MST would not have worked now. It's just not an aggressive show like a lot of what Comedy Central has now - maybe that's why I like it. None of this "let's throw in a quick cheap shot at a politician because that'll put us on top" - nope, just being funny.

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I'm 30, but I didn't really get into it, until the final season. (I didn't get CC until long after the show got cancelled, save for my grandmother's house, but I had little time to watch.) I definitely agree with you, in that, it's not as edgy as modern CC would want, so it would not work by today's standards.

Fun aside, I do want to re-watch certain episodes for their deconstruction of the values in the movies/shorts presented (40's-60's). I'm not saying they weren't wrong for pointing out X or Y or things that wouldn't play in the 90's or to modern ears, but these days, it would have been done in a much nastier fashion.

Edited Date: 2012-10-18 01:51 am (UTC)

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I'm 34 and I first heard of the show when I was about 15. We'd just got cable tv then, but we didn't have Comedy Central so I saw a few minutes of it at a friend's house (this was back during the Joel days... eep). When we finally got Comedy Central MST3K was in its final season on that channel. I saw a bit of it but wasn't really into it much. I really got into it when it started on SciFi, so I guess I saw the final 3 seasons. After SciFi canceled them, I remember seeing really cheesy movies on other stations and wishing the show was still around... figured they'd have a field day with them.

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Indeed. I got into it in the 8th season, then Season 9 bored me -- I didn't like the Castle Forrester setting or the movies weren't as awesome in the riffs -- so I stopped. (The timeslot moving around didn't help, either.) Then, Season 10, when I heard the cancellation, I had to watch, so. After that, I've enjoyed it ever since (and mad as hell, as I didn't care for DVDs back then, and didn't get the Rhino stuff. Now, I want them, but no money for them. Sighs).

Yeah, of the two, I grew up on Mike, but I really dig Joel, these days. One big difference between the two, Joel criticized the movies, but not in a negative or harsh way. Mike, at least, character-Mike, he doesn't suffer fools much, shall we say.

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Yeah, I admit I didn't like many of the season 9 eps (or the whole Castle Forrester thing). The one exception was the Canadian movie... The Final Sacrifice? With the chunky Rowsdower guy. The first time I watched that, there were times where I laughed so hard I missed what they were saying for a while so I had to go back and rewind. I never saw the Joel episodes first run, so I bought a few of them on Rhino video. And then I got into that whole "tape trading" ring and filled in more of the missing episodes.

That about sums it up for me. I managed to see Joel in one of the live Cinematic Titanic appearances about a year and a half ago. They were in NJ and I remember Frank in particular making quite a few "Chris Christie is fat" jokes. Which I guess was expected from him. Heh, totally agree on the Joel vs. Mike methods of critique.

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Well, the Projected Man was mega-awesome, but the season otherwise.... But I agree that the Final Sacrifice was awesome, in its way. Especially the end with Crow making the TV series pitch to Mike in the end credits.

"Make everyone into a damn girl!" Which amuses me in light of DC's Ame-Comi line (which is one of the few modern DC series I really like) and it basically doing that. Prescient much?

And Frank, geez. You're not exactly super-slim, last I checked. Feh.

As for the critique, indeed. Another reason that, as much as I thought the riffing in the Sci-Fi run was sharp, the characters basically hating or undermining each other was a tad much. Plus, look at Bobo. He was never a genius, but did he fall hard. And, these days, I prefer Seasons 5-7, when the show was at its best.

Edited Date: 2012-10-19 02:57 am (UTC)

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Yeah, I enjoyed the Projected Man, too. The one right after it... Phantom Planet, I think... I thought was awful. I could barely stay with it and I think even their riffing couldn't save it. Yes! I loved that. The scene where the kid is looking at his map and at the landmark in the distance, and he has that weird, squinty-eyed grin, always cracks me up. One of them (Crow?) does this gravel-y laugh. Someone put that scene up on YouTube a few years ago. They repeated it three times and the third time they slowed it down quite a bit. Funniest thing ever, but Viacom (or whomever) made them pull it :(

Hah! My thoughts exactly. Whenever he said that, my then fiance went "Boo!" And I mumbled "You shouldn't talk, Frank."

I agree, it was a bit over the top. Bobo was kind of funny in the beginning, but then they really dumbed him down, and Pearl was always trying to blow him and Brain Guy up. I was excited to see the final season premiere when Joel and Frank guest appeared, though wasn't quite as good as I expected. And Gypsy PMSing was a little bit much for me. LOL

I think seasons 5-7 are my faves, too.

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(Augh, LJ ate my comment.)

I'll concede that Phantom Planet is an acquired taste, but I did enjoy it. And, copyrights, yeah, why MSTies don't have nice things. Although, the latest DVD set has the Season 8 premiere, so this may be changing. I think enough time elapsed, so the copyright, owned by Paramount, could expire.

Why did he boo, if I may ask?

Yes, it's a shame, as many TV shows focus on a character trait and ovewhelm the character, over time. Because I like early Season 8 Bobo more than any other character --- until the bit where he ate an Observer's brain like a sandwich. That was funny, yet creepy.

And Gypsy, might be due to her actor changing hands, as Jim Mallon had other priorities and 8 years is a good run. 9 if you count the KTMA fare.

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I may pull it out again one of these days and try to watch it. The copyrights thing annoys me to no end, but glad to hear the season 8 premiere is finally available.

He booed Frank's Christie cheap shot (my fiance was a conservative, too). There were maybe three that night, and they all came from him. I almost expected Mary Jo to join in, but not a peep from her. They did a good job riffing the movie, which was breathtakingly bad. It was called "Rattlers" and came out around 1976. Some really bad editing made for some good laughs.

LOL. I remember when I saw him eating the Observer brain for the first time... I was torn between laughing and saying "WTH?"

That could be it. The way she acted in that season 10 premiere I found a bit jarring, but I liked her the rest of the time.

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I need to re-watch it, too. I finally got see Laserblast, via YOuTube -- though, it's out on DVD, finally. Boy, what a transition.

Gotcha. I thought you meant, "booing" at the "make everyone into a girl" line. Silly me.

Yes, I was torn, but the Observers making Pearl and Bobo fight in a later episode, made up for that. "And for your weapon, ape, the sea snail."

"My sea snail!"

Yeah, Bransteg's Gypsy takes some getting used to, but itI's okay. I love how she ditched Mike and the Bots after the SOL landed on Earth. She's "rich and famous, so screw you." Heh.

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*digs*

Well turns out it wasn't with National Review. It was for some fan website that doesn't seem to exist anymore. :/ But I found the excerpts of it here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1145333/posts

Awesome stuff.

Edited Date: 2012-10-19 01:13 am (UTC)

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Thankies.

Edit: He reads Steyn? Oh, I really love him, now. Hee.

You made my night.

Edited Date: 2012-10-19 01:26 am (UTC)

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No prob.

*grin* You should've heard my squeeing when I learned that. I think I scared my dog...

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