Customer Reviews

Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Shorts [VHS]

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Three of the shorts on this video are absolute gems. "Body Care and Grooming," with its preachy, condescending 50s rules that anyone with half a brain should already know, makes us roar with laughter, especially how the heroine is alternately shamed like a cheap tramp and upheld as a pure white goddess of cleanliness . . . with robotic comments such as, "Grooming is between you and the Lord God." "A Date with Your Family" (also known as "The Woody Allen Story") is hysterical, the best part being when the family displays the behaviors that are to be avoided at the dinner table (Sister asks herself, "I wonder if I should have washed my hands after handling that dead woodchuck?") The "Cheating" short is also a laugh riot, as the high school boy, who appears to live all alone in a perpetually dark house ("It might help if Johnny had some parents!"), is sucked into a Kafka-esque web of cheating that eventually draws his poor friend Mary in, too (the robots urge, "Sweet Mary, nooooooo!") The other four shorts are funny, too, and definitely better than most any comedy you'll see on t.v. I highly recommend this and any other shorts tapes that may come out in the future.

For sustained entertainment value, it's hard to beat the MST3K shorts, and some of the series' very best are on this video. If I could give it six stars, I would.

'The Home Economics Story' and 'Why Study Industrial Arts?' are propaganda for these underappreciated subjects, while 'A Date with Your Parents' encourages young people to make time for the folks who are paying your way through life, you little ingrates. 'The Chicken of Tomorrow' is an awe-inspiring look at advances in the world of poultry science, while 'Junior Rodeo Daredevils' shows us future poultry scientists risking their necks for prizes and acclaim. 'Cheating' and 'Body Care and Grooming' discuss, well, cheating and grooming (apparently the former is bad, the latter good).

The Best Brains (the folks behind MST3K) seem to have been able to pack as much comedy into a short as they sometimes did into an entire full-length film. This video highlights some of their best work, and features new host segments by Tom Servo. If you or the MSTie you love don't have this yet, get it right away!

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.

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.

Fans of the show, particularly early seasons on Comedy Central, will get a big kick out of these short films. Tom Servo is your host through several short propoganda films, and through each of them he, Crow and Joel deliver "additional touches." From the Home Economics story sponsored by Iowa State University (The High School After High School) to the Chicken of Tomorrow (Faces off with the Chicken of Today) and Why Study Industrial Arts? (Because you're bad at math?), viewers are sure to have fun and invited to join in on the commentary. We can only hope that more Shorts videos are to follow.

This video was great! "The Home Ecomonics Story" was a one of the best, with this group of girls who seem to be brain dead half the time but are still going to collage. "Cheating" was also way over the top, with it's boy who cheats on a test and seems to end up in an Igmar Bergman film. "Why Study Industrial Arts?" has a entire school that thinks shop class is a great help for anyone's future. The other shorts are great too. A great buy and full of laughs.

Pearl, I, and Bobo always have a laugh when we watch this. It's hilarous. Pearl remembers how she and her son used to torture Mike with these shorts. There are seven of em, The Home Econmonics Story-A very weird short. It follows the life of a girl named Kay, who gets to go to a home econmics college. She meets three friends and they spend four years of weird, bizare adventures together. Junior Rodeo Daredevils-Two anoying Gamera-esque boys try to steal Old Timer Billy Slater's horse. Billy would've hung them, but he decided to sentance them into an even worse fate, forcing them to start a Junior Rodeo!!! What follows is terror. Body Care and Grooming-A short about just keeping clean. Shames a poor girl who looks a bit shabby. Cheating-The BEST short on the tape!! Poor John is caught cheating off his friend Mary's answers on an algebra test. He is thrown off the student councel and suspended. What's so bad about cheating!! Even me, an alien who knows all things, cheats all the time. So John goes into an Ingmar Berman-esque depression. A Date with your Family-This one is another classic. It's about the horrors of an average 50s dinner hour. Why Study Industrial Arts?-A really DULL short. An insane boy is obsessed with his Ind. arts class. He is obsessed with tools, wood, chizels, it's really sickening. The weirdest kid ever on film. Chicken of Tommorow-Another one of my favorite shorts, this one's about how Chicken's these days are too thing to an extensive plan to fatten chickens and make them yummier. Really sick, this is both a documentry and a film about chickens. I loved this tape! They made good choices, but they could have included such classics as Robot Rumpus, Mr B. Natural, and The Last Clear Chance on the tape. All in all, a rave.

The MST shorts video with more volumes to follow gives the MST3K fan a chance to re-live some of those wonderfully hideous short films that most children from (another generation) had to endure in school. A must see is "The Home Economics Story" "Chicken of Tomorrow" and "Cheating". Catch Crow, Joel Servo and Mike at their best with these very funny short films.

While all three of the MST3K shorts videos released to date are good, this first video has to be the best. With such classics as "The Home Economics Story," "Body Care and Grooming," "A Date with Your Family," and "The Chicken of Tomorrow," this volume will keep you laughing each time you watch it. Plus, this is the only volume of shorts to actually be hosted by Tom Servo, who provides some funny commentary in between each short. I'd recommend all three Shorts videos to any MST3K fan, but this one should definitely be the first to enter your video collection!

Very very very very very very very very funny tape! Some of my favorites: Junior Rodeo (Bold and saucy, Texas style.), The Home Economics Story ("Mary was really going to town on her Physics." "Go, Mary, Go! "), and Hygeine (Don't change a tire with your face.). Best of all, I think, is the Date With Your Family. ("Dad, I had a feeling today." "Well, don't.") A definite buy for any MST3K fan!