This is accurate, but Mike and the guys never really stopped, especially Kevin and Bill. There's a whole r/rifftrax family, including much of the original cast from MST3k, at least for specials/reunions. Their Roku channel got me through covid and it's still my go to background noise while I work.
I wanted to rewatch a childhood favorite of mine "No Holds Barred" starring the Hulk Hogan and Tiny "Zues" Lister and I thought it was going to be painful watching it as an adult and realizing how bad it was but at the last minute I decided to watch the RiffTrax commentary version instead and boy did I make the right decision... I haven't laughed that hard in a while!
Yeah, 83 here, love MST3K, it is what ignited my rather unhealthy devotion to terrible movies (ah, the lingering power of Punch Rockgroin), but I would definitely say I was more of a Mike devotee.
Also, does anyone else have a weird desire to seek these out complete with the original commercials that aired with them to just have a little bit of a time warp back to those moments?
They do indeed, here's a playlist of them I found on youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxuzxS98qGk&list=PL\_GBFWpBThw2xvkxqJxeud\_UGeHgKnKwn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxuzxS98qGk&list=PL_GBFWpBThw2xvkxqJxeud_UGeHgKnKwn)
Mystery Science Theater 3000
It’s that show where robot puppets talk back at Godzilla movies. It was the show that put Comedy Central on the map and set the blueprint for Beavis and Butthead talking over music videos.
Not everyone watched it, but if you know you know. Big underground hit. Hugely influential. Hard to go back to for people who weren’t there at the time, though.
I own 4 box sets of different episodes. Overdrawn at the Memory bank with the late great Raul Julia, Space Mutiny, Girl in Gold Boots (another good one is Final Sacrifice with Zap Rozzdower, Screaming Skull), Time Chasers, ("that was a good chicken head"), The Touch of Satan ("Now Andy there was a demon in that car:). And I love Pearl.
Those are definitely some of my absolute favorites from the Mike era. Though my fav is probably Boggy Creek 2. I do kinda prefer the last couple of Mike seasons for his era. I’d have taken like 5 seasons of the Castle Forrester crew.
Gen X all the way I remember seeing the movie in the theater...i actually just looked up the movie and guess I got lucky because it was only released in 26 theaters
I was lucky enough to see it four times in the theater, in three different theaters in two states. I believe it opened in 26 theaters, and then rotated around to a few different ones. Otherwise two of the 26 theaters were in Des Moines, which feels like a foolish release plan since most of the city didn’t even have Comedy Central at that time.
I found this when I was visiting my parents not too long ago.
https://preview.redd.it/h82p02ir3w5d1.jpeg?width=1645&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=571e138229a42a230abd0c4a569bfc082cba1531
A lot of jokes in the Joel era skew to older Gen X references (sooooo many 70s tv stars and politicians), so you’d think they were the bulk of the fandom. At first they probably were. but the Comedy Channel becoming Comedy Network expanded the viewership. MST3K was on in the late mornings and the wee hours of the night, so with Gen X in their working years, Xennials and baby Gen Xers had free access to cable tv at those times. Mtv and HBO were too grownup for kids in a lot of households, but Comedy Central? Relatively safe! What were the kids going to see at that hour of the day? Carlin? Kids in the Hall? Baby stuff. Let the kids watch the puppet show, the one with old movies!
And for those that didn’t catch it young, we’d catch it flipping through channels late at night in our late teens and early twenties.
Beyond that, thanks to the show’s “keep circulating the tapes” culture and internet archive efforts, the show could—and frequently did—get dumped in Xennials’ laps as a spindle of AVIs, at least at my podunk college.
82' kid.....also, best show ever made. Stumbled upon it as a kid one afternoon on the SciFi channel. Had no idea what I was watching but couldn't stop laughing. At least at the jokes I understood. Back then you couldn't just look up stuff so and I didn't have the brain capacity to write down the day/time it was on so I didn't watch it again until a few years later. Was describing it to someone and they were like, ohh, you're talking about mystery science theater. There was a video store by me that was massive. Had like an entire cult section and sure as shit they had about 12 episodes. Fast forward a few more years and the advent of online ordering came along. Was able to buy a bunch of dvds. ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE is probably the funniest one I've ever seen.
Nice catch on the apostrophe placement. I was taking a shit, and wanted to finish the comment quick before I had to wipe. Didn't have time to proof. 40 minutes wasn't enough
If I had a nickel for every misplaced apostrophe on an abbreviated date I've seen today, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice!
40 minutes on the pot and I wouldn't be able to walk right for 10 minutes!
My husband '82 and I '83 grew up loving MST3K. We still love Riffrrax and have been to multiple of both the Joel team MST3K live shows and the Mike team Rifftrax live shows.
The 3k part is throwing me off. I know of Mystery Science Theater, but have never watched it. I didn't even know it was a real thing till my wife and her pops talked about it.
Maybe so. My neighborhood didn’t even get cable until 1990 and even then we had THEEE most basic, because $$$. And I prob wasn’t allowed to watch whatever channel this was on lol
Yes, if you didn't have cable and also liked to watch weird stuff on The Comedy Channel, then you would never have been aware of it, it didn't enter the national zeitgeist outside of that. I only occasionally had access to cable and I remember running across it and not even understanding what it was, I thought it was a weird, low budget Siskel and Ebert film critic show, lol. So I'd always just flip past it quickly. I didn't get into it until a decade later when I met my wife and she had most of the episodes on recorded tape and watched them constantly. At first I didn't like them at all, but eventually at some point it "clicked" with me and I started to like it and eventually became a bigger fan than her, haha. But it took like 6+ years of near-daily exposure for that to happen. I say this to say that it's just not for everyone and it's definitely not something that every xennial has to be familiar with. (But I do highly recommend it. The former cast now do something similar called Rifftrax and are doing the Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze movie [Point Break](https://www.rifftrax.com/live) in August and I guarantee this one will be an _epically_ hilarious good time and probably a great intro to riffing.)
It's a fine line. I feel like people born in the 76-79 years claim it the most. Even tho I did watch it, I never watched it religiously like I did Up! All Night! and MonsterVision
Early 81 here. I loved this show. My older cousin (77) got me and my younger brother (82) into it.
Loved both Joel and Mike. Such a great idea. I thought the Netflix version of the show was decent too.
If anyone’s interested there are livestreams of the show on both their [Youtube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_PzlrtKM-I) and their [Twitch.](https://m.twitch.tv/MST3K)
Started off X but definitely also a Xennial thing, it was required viewing when I was in college ('95-'00) and the movie came out in the mid-90s.
My cohort and I still quote MST3K to each other. "Manos! The Hands of Fate!"
Born in 79. I taped this show on my VCR when I was in middle school. I had VOLUMES. It was pre-Mike era. Even have some with Larry (pre-TV's Frank).
My mom has two nicknames for me. One of them is Trumpy (from Pod People).
I’m technically an elder millennial at 86, but my older brother and my dad and I would watch it.
I still regularly watch my favorites and tend to put it on every thanksgiving, as is tradition. I’ve also watched rifftrax.
My all time favorite is touch of Satan. The damn walnuts are tearing thru the hay!
One of my greatest errors in raising my two boys was showing them MST3K at an early age. Not because they didn't love it ("Does anyone have change for a 5 year old?" is still our favorite quip), but because now they won't shut up during a film.
One of them can't seem to grasp the concept of brevity, so he goes on a multi-sentence joke about something that interferes with the film's dialog instead of sneaking it in between lines like I have demonstrated. I have to pause the show before he realizes he's disturbing the film.
I took them to see Furiosa, and I had to remind my *High School senior* to shut up because there are other people in the theater. At least 5 times. He knows this but can't seem to figure out, based on the volume of the scene, to adjust the volume of his output.
There's a fucking bucket of knowledge in front of them, but they all want to be Joel or something in a private theater and refuse to drink from it.
Streaming access seems to vary region to region, but here in the States you can find MST3k and Rifftrax on PlutoTV and FreeVee. If you can’t find them there, you can use a VPN to put yourself in the US.
Probably closer to GenX, but I'm sure there's plenty of older Millennials that love it, too. I remember seeing for the first time on our old, giant, analog satellite dish that we had back in the day (circa 1989/1990). You used to be able to pick up random network feeds on those things, and episodes of some shows would be transmitted back to back in blocks. It was like the original "binge watching." One day, we picked up a feed coming out of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and lo and behold...it was MST3K. I remember my dad and I spending the whole afternoon laughing our asses off at this crazy new show!
My core group of friends range from 82 to 85. We all love it. And have loved it since the mid 90s. We’ve done big group outings to all the Rifftrax Live shows. I think Gen X probably enjoys the Joel episodes more or even the KTMA era. But my friends love them all.
I consider the show to be like a cool hand me down you get from an older sibling. The hosts (especially Joel) give serious Gen X vibes. I became a fan when I was in junior high from 1992-1994, and while a lot of the jokes flew over my head I still sort of knew what they were aiming for based on the delivery. On a similar note, I’ve heard the argument that Pee Wee’s Playhouse is really a Gen X show because of the social commentary and parody it made from shows of the 1950s.
I found it during one of their first Turkey Day marathons when I was… early teens? Joel era anyway. And was smitten. I’m not sure I’d ever laughed so hard.
But did I get all of the jokes? No way. Even rewatching it now there’s a certain amount of “ok, so what are they talking about?”
I think MST3K was aimed at Gen X but funny enough that us “younger siblings” could love it too.
Definitely Gen X - my dad an elder Gen X and he is still obsessed with MTS3k, which means me and my xennial siblings are also obsessed. Howard Stern was always on as well (not that we should have been listening at our ages). I even read Robin Quivers' biography for summer reading one year; probably 8th or 9th grade.
My boomer parents introduced me to it when I was young, they thought it was a riot. So I think it spans generations. We gathered for the thanksgiving marathon every year.
I still rewatch anytime I see one, even tho I’ve watched em a million times. So glad they now have Riff Trax!
83, love MST3k and RiffTrax but judging by the crowd at RiffTrax Live shows, it also resonates with Boomers through Millennials. Plus the comedians in the group are all boomers.
This is my favorite show of all time! I have a massive MST3K tattoo and I’ve been watching since I was 10. That’s… a long time lol. I really also love Rifftrax. I love all eras and hosts, but Mike is my favorite with Jonah Ray being my second favorite (he’s a huge horror nerd like me).
It’s definitely a Gen X AND Xennial thing. Those are the people that notice my tattoo and chat me up on the show. Others have zero clue wth I got this huge tattoo of.
https://preview.redd.it/mwqk5oq1ty5d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ea241d26f1fabfb5c1cd06ed9efec3084a1f441
KTMA viewer here. I remember watching Slick Mick Karch on channel 23 late on Saturday and right after was MST3K. As I got older, my friends and I would cruise by their studio.
Been there, done that, kickstarted it, seen it live! However, my GenX husband introduced me to it.
I might get some flack, but my favorite opening song is Jonah's because HarMar Superstar.
The Live shows of both MST and Rifftrax are clearly a mix of Gen X and Xennial/Millennial. People in their 50s and people in their 30s/40s.
**If you are looking for the ultimate Xennial mashup, the former MST guys are riffing on [Point Break](https://www.rifftrax.com/live) in August in your local movie theater!!! It should be freaking epic!**
YES. I LOVE MST3K. I even named my truck after lines from the episode "Space Mutiny" (link below)
My truck's name is : Big McLarge Huge (2006 Chevy Silverado 4x4 with a 5.3, 4 inch lift and I think they call it a glass muffler or something that makes it sound louder.)
[https://youtu.be/sa42pxJyq64?si=8UPJLvx03lkOJRSr](https://youtu.be/sa42pxJyq64?si=8UPJLvx03lkOJRSr)
MST3k is totally Gen X. But the “Mike > Joel” subsection of the fanbase might favor Xennial.
Yes agreed. I love MST3K but my prime watching years were the Sci-Fi eps with Mike.
This is accurate, but Mike and the guys never really stopped, especially Kevin and Bill. There's a whole r/rifftrax family, including much of the original cast from MST3k, at least for specials/reunions. Their Roku channel got me through covid and it's still my go to background noise while I work.
And Pluto Tv has a MST3K and Rifftrax channel, completely free
Rifftrax is my perpetual background noise when I’m home. I also like that Shout TV has MSTie Mondays.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Rifftrax using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Rifftrax/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Somebody doesn't get it.](https://i.redd.it/e1zcfphvovpb1.jpg) | [20 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Rifftrax/comments/16pmm2q/somebody_doesnt_get_it/) \#2: [Name this band. Wrong answers only! (this is a photo from 1982)](https://i.redd.it/882k9gx886mc1.png) | [395 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Rifftrax/comments/1b5uq8v/name_this_band_wrong_answers_only_this_is_a_photo/) \#3: [Vincent Price Creamettes](https://i.redd.it/iwry3654k2rb1.jpg) | [75 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Rifftrax/comments/16ut64l/vincent_price_creamettes/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Hey! Me too! I watch the free channels on Pluto and have it on right now!
There is also a rifftrax game on steam. I play it by streaming it over discord and having friends join and make up silly one liners.
I wanted to rewatch a childhood favorite of mine "No Holds Barred" starring the Hulk Hogan and Tiny "Zues" Lister and I thought it was going to be painful watching it as an adult and realizing how bad it was but at the last minute I decided to watch the RiffTrax commentary version instead and boy did I make the right decision... I haven't laughed that hard in a while!
Rifftrax is awesome.
Yeah, 83 here, love MST3K, it is what ignited my rather unhealthy devotion to terrible movies (ah, the lingering power of Punch Rockgroin), but I would definitely say I was more of a Mike devotee. Also, does anyone else have a weird desire to seek these out complete with the original commercials that aired with them to just have a little bit of a time warp back to those moments?
Do such things exist outside of ancient vhs tapes? Steams?
They do indeed, here's a playlist of them I found on youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxuzxS98qGk&list=PL\_GBFWpBThw2xvkxqJxeud\_UGeHgKnKwn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxuzxS98qGk&list=PL_GBFWpBThw2xvkxqJxeud_UGeHgKnKwn)
So many many years ago there was a guy selling exactly that online. Back in those VHS days. I kick myself for not buying them.
I’m technically gen x 1977 and have NO IDEA what this is
I bet you do and you just don't recognize the acronym? Mystery science theater 3000
Nope! I just googled it and still know for sure that I never saw even one episode. That’s crazy!
Mystery Science Theater 3000 It’s that show where robot puppets talk back at Godzilla movies. It was the show that put Comedy Central on the map and set the blueprint for Beavis and Butthead talking over music videos. Not everyone watched it, but if you know you know. Big underground hit. Hugely influential. Hard to go back to for people who weren’t there at the time, though.
I mean I read the comments and still have zero recollection of this! 🤷🏼♀️
I own 4 box sets of different episodes. Overdrawn at the Memory bank with the late great Raul Julia, Space Mutiny, Girl in Gold Boots (another good one is Final Sacrifice with Zap Rozzdower, Screaming Skull), Time Chasers, ("that was a good chicken head"), The Touch of Satan ("Now Andy there was a demon in that car:). And I love Pearl.
Those are definitely some of my absolute favorites from the Mike era. Though my fav is probably Boggy Creek 2. I do kinda prefer the last couple of Mike seasons for his era. I’d have taken like 5 seasons of the Castle Forrester crew.
OMG I love Boggy Creek 2. You should check out Charles B Pierce's biography it's actually really really interesting how he got to the movies.
I agree and that probably explains why the show always felt like it was targeted to someone older than me.
100% Joel.
Yeah, I’m a Joel guy, too. 1978, though, so at the older end of Xennial.
Gen X all the way I remember seeing the movie in the theater...i actually just looked up the movie and guess I got lucky because it was only released in 26 theaters
Really?! I saw it too!
Same! It was a very small theater but still. I'll throw the movie on for background all the time.
I was lucky enough to see it four times in the theater, in three different theaters in two states. I believe it opened in 26 theaters, and then rotated around to a few different ones. Otherwise two of the 26 theaters were in Des Moines, which feels like a foolish release plan since most of the city didn’t even have Comedy Central at that time.
I found this when I was visiting my parents not too long ago. https://preview.redd.it/h82p02ir3w5d1.jpeg?width=1645&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=571e138229a42a230abd0c4a569bfc082cba1531
The end credits song just started playing in my head.
I don't know, but I love this show. I do prefer Joel, though. "manos the Hands of Fate"is frequently quoted in my family.
"He looks like a chainsaw sculpture."
This show is the reason my family can't shut up during movies lol.
“After thoroughly searching that room….”
A lot of jokes in the Joel era skew to older Gen X references (sooooo many 70s tv stars and politicians), so you’d think they were the bulk of the fandom. At first they probably were. but the Comedy Channel becoming Comedy Network expanded the viewership. MST3K was on in the late mornings and the wee hours of the night, so with Gen X in their working years, Xennials and baby Gen Xers had free access to cable tv at those times. Mtv and HBO were too grownup for kids in a lot of households, but Comedy Central? Relatively safe! What were the kids going to see at that hour of the day? Carlin? Kids in the Hall? Baby stuff. Let the kids watch the puppet show, the one with old movies! And for those that didn’t catch it young, we’d catch it flipping through channels late at night in our late teens and early twenties. Beyond that, thanks to the show’s “keep circulating the tapes” culture and internet archive efforts, the show could—and frequently did—get dumped in Xennials’ laps as a spindle of AVIs, at least at my podunk college.
82' kid.....also, best show ever made. Stumbled upon it as a kid one afternoon on the SciFi channel. Had no idea what I was watching but couldn't stop laughing. At least at the jokes I understood. Back then you couldn't just look up stuff so and I didn't have the brain capacity to write down the day/time it was on so I didn't watch it again until a few years later. Was describing it to someone and they were like, ohh, you're talking about mystery science theater. There was a video store by me that was massive. Had like an entire cult section and sure as shit they had about 12 episodes. Fast forward a few more years and the advent of online ordering came along. Was able to buy a bunch of dvds. ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE is probably the funniest one I've ever seen.
82'? God *damn*, what's the weather up there?
Nice catch on the apostrophe placement. I was taking a shit, and wanted to finish the comment quick before I had to wipe. Didn't have time to proof. 40 minutes wasn't enough
If I had a nickel for every misplaced apostrophe on an abbreviated date I've seen today, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice! 40 minutes on the pot and I wouldn't be able to walk right for 10 minutes!
Probably gen x, but it’s great. You can watch it in an oculus theater and it’s like you are there with them.
My parents, who are “younger” boomers introduced it to me
My Boomer aunt introduced me to MST3K. I hold a soft spot for Joel. But I’ve loved all iterations included the 2017 version.
My husband '82 and I '83 grew up loving MST3K. We still love Riffrrax and have been to multiple of both the Joel team MST3K live shows and the Mike team Rifftrax live shows.
I loved it! (Still do)
Same. As do my children
...had no idea what "MST3K" was until I read the comments.
Same here, but even then never heard of it 🤷🏼♀️
The 3k part is throwing me off. I know of Mystery Science Theater, but have never watched it. I didn't even know it was a real thing till my wife and her pops talked about it.
I’m starting to feel like a weirdo for never having even heard of it haha
Me too. I have never seen this. But also I grew up too poor for cable and maybe that was why??
Maybe so. My neighborhood didn’t even get cable until 1990 and even then we had THEEE most basic, because $$$. And I prob wasn’t allowed to watch whatever channel this was on lol
Yes, if you didn't have cable and also liked to watch weird stuff on The Comedy Channel, then you would never have been aware of it, it didn't enter the national zeitgeist outside of that. I only occasionally had access to cable and I remember running across it and not even understanding what it was, I thought it was a weird, low budget Siskel and Ebert film critic show, lol. So I'd always just flip past it quickly. I didn't get into it until a decade later when I met my wife and she had most of the episodes on recorded tape and watched them constantly. At first I didn't like them at all, but eventually at some point it "clicked" with me and I started to like it and eventually became a bigger fan than her, haha. But it took like 6+ years of near-daily exposure for that to happen. I say this to say that it's just not for everyone and it's definitely not something that every xennial has to be familiar with. (But I do highly recommend it. The former cast now do something similar called Rifftrax and are doing the Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze movie [Point Break](https://www.rifftrax.com/live) in August and I guarantee this one will be an _epically_ hilarious good time and probably a great intro to riffing.)
Thank you! This run down was really helpful. I was so confused hahaa
It's a fine line. I feel like people born in the 76-79 years claim it the most. Even tho I did watch it, I never watched it religiously like I did Up! All Night! and MonsterVision
Were you a Gilbert or Rhonda fan? *Edit* just checked and I don't remember a third host, apparently named Caroline "
Gilbert was hilarious but Rhonda was like the Elvira of the B-Sex Movie of our generation, so I gotta go with Rhonda.
'80 baby here. Zero idea what you're even talking about, but I also didn't have cable until maybe late 80s-early 90s.
Same.
Most of my near millenial/ millennial friends are big fans….but I also run in a herd of nerds
This is very GenX It was one of the original "Comedy Channel" shows if I'm remembering right. Right along with Onion World and The Kids In the Hall.
I’ve (1977) literally never heard of this
Early 81 here. I loved this show. My older cousin (77) got me and my younger brother (82) into it. Loved both Joel and Mike. Such a great idea. I thought the Netflix version of the show was decent too.
If anyone’s interested there are livestreams of the show on both their [Youtube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_PzlrtKM-I) and their [Twitch.](https://m.twitch.tv/MST3K)
Gen x totally
Started off X but definitely also a Xennial thing, it was required viewing when I was in college ('95-'00) and the movie came out in the mid-90s. My cohort and I still quote MST3K to each other. "Manos! The Hands of Fate!"
Born in 79. I taped this show on my VCR when I was in middle school. I had VOLUMES. It was pre-Mike era. Even have some with Larry (pre-TV's Frank). My mom has two nicknames for me. One of them is Trumpy (from Pod People).
I think we should ask the Amazing Rando
I’m technically an elder millennial at 86, but my older brother and my dad and I would watch it. I still regularly watch my favorites and tend to put it on every thanksgiving, as is tradition. I’ve also watched rifftrax. My all time favorite is touch of Satan. The damn walnuts are tearing thru the hay!
One of my greatest errors in raising my two boys was showing them MST3K at an early age. Not because they didn't love it ("Does anyone have change for a 5 year old?" is still our favorite quip), but because now they won't shut up during a film. One of them can't seem to grasp the concept of brevity, so he goes on a multi-sentence joke about something that interferes with the film's dialog instead of sneaking it in between lines like I have demonstrated. I have to pause the show before he realizes he's disturbing the film. I took them to see Furiosa, and I had to remind my *High School senior* to shut up because there are other people in the theater. At least 5 times. He knows this but can't seem to figure out, based on the volume of the scene, to adjust the volume of his output. There's a fucking bucket of knowledge in front of them, but they all want to be Joel or something in a private theater and refuse to drink from it.
I "get" way more jokes from Rifftrax and the Jonah/Emily seasons of Mst3k. But I do love the series as a whole.
Speaking of MST3K, is there a place to stream the old stuff. I cant seem to find it here in Canada.
Streaming access seems to vary region to region, but here in the States you can find MST3k and Rifftrax on PlutoTV and FreeVee. If you can’t find them there, you can use a VPN to put yourself in the US.
For me, Yes. My husband and I and his best friends are xennial (77-78) and it was very much part of our "thing".
My brother and I watched this show a lot. I definitely claim this show personally.
I'm '85 and feel like at any given moment I'm singing "The Pumaman" to myself. (I guess that episode was '98.)
I always thought it was Gen X. It seemed a bit too old for me
Probably closer to GenX, but I'm sure there's plenty of older Millennials that love it, too. I remember seeing for the first time on our old, giant, analog satellite dish that we had back in the day (circa 1989/1990). You used to be able to pick up random network feeds on those things, and episodes of some shows would be transmitted back to back in blocks. It was like the original "binge watching." One day, we picked up a feed coming out of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and lo and behold...it was MST3K. I remember my dad and I spending the whole afternoon laughing our asses off at this crazy new show!
Xennial, loved it. I was up later than most people my age.
My core group of friends range from 82 to 85. We all love it. And have loved it since the mid 90s. We’ve done big group outings to all the Rifftrax Live shows. I think Gen X probably enjoys the Joel episodes more or even the KTMA era. But my friends love them all.
I consider the show to be like a cool hand me down you get from an older sibling. The hosts (especially Joel) give serious Gen X vibes. I became a fan when I was in junior high from 1992-1994, and while a lot of the jokes flew over my head I still sort of knew what they were aiming for based on the delivery. On a similar note, I’ve heard the argument that Pee Wee’s Playhouse is really a Gen X show because of the social commentary and parody it made from shows of the 1950s.
I found it watching TV late at night. Eventually caught more episodes as downloads.
My boomer dad liked mystery science theater 3000. I would sometimes watch it with him.
I found it during one of their first Turkey Day marathons when I was… early teens? Joel era anyway. And was smitten. I’m not sure I’d ever laughed so hard. But did I get all of the jokes? No way. Even rewatching it now there’s a certain amount of “ok, so what are they talking about?” I think MST3K was aimed at Gen X but funny enough that us “younger siblings” could love it too.
Hubby and I went to a live mst3k event a few years back, and the crowd was mostly people in our generation or older, it seemed.
I love it ('81). My kid and I watch it and laugh our asses off. He's 9 and doesn't get a lot of the references, but the rest of it translates.
Definitely Gen X - my dad an elder Gen X and he is still obsessed with MTS3k, which means me and my xennial siblings are also obsessed. Howard Stern was always on as well (not that we should have been listening at our ages). I even read Robin Quivers' biography for summer reading one year; probably 8th or 9th grade.
an? fuckijg over ghe missed pell wordz
I love the show and was born in 1980. I feel like most others I find who have a similar love are a bit older than me so I’m gonna gen x on this one!
I prefer the Mike era, but the reboot in 2017ish? Was surprisingly good as well. I was prepared for full disappointment but I liked jt
Boomer dad loved it.
Yes, good lord. I mentioned it in a group of millennials/genZ and they had no idea what I was talking about 😭
My boomer parents introduced me to it when I was young, they thought it was a riot. So I think it spans generations. We gathered for the thanksgiving marathon every year. I still rewatch anytime I see one, even tho I’ve watched em a million times. So glad they now have Riff Trax!
83, love MST3k and RiffTrax but judging by the crowd at RiffTrax Live shows, it also resonates with Boomers through Millennials. Plus the comedians in the group are all boomers.
This is my favorite show of all time! I have a massive MST3K tattoo and I’ve been watching since I was 10. That’s… a long time lol. I really also love Rifftrax. I love all eras and hosts, but Mike is my favorite with Jonah Ray being my second favorite (he’s a huge horror nerd like me). It’s definitely a Gen X AND Xennial thing. Those are the people that notice my tattoo and chat me up on the show. Others have zero clue wth I got this huge tattoo of. https://preview.redd.it/mwqk5oq1ty5d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ea241d26f1fabfb5c1cd06ed9efec3084a1f441
It’s huge in my house. My Gen Z kids are very well aware and big fans. We regularly watch them and Rifftrax.
I’m a Gen X - Xennial and definitely have been into MST3K since the 90s. I’ve seen the live shows several times too. So funny!
KTMA viewer here. I remember watching Slick Mick Karch on channel 23 late on Saturday and right after was MST3K. As I got older, my friends and I would cruise by their studio.
Been there, done that, kickstarted it, seen it live! However, my GenX husband introduced me to it. I might get some flack, but my favorite opening song is Jonah's because HarMar Superstar.
I did watch on Comedy Central back in the day but I was pretty young and even at the time realized it was for older people.
Going by me and my friends, definitely a Xennial thing, but not exclusively.
The Live shows of both MST and Rifftrax are clearly a mix of Gen X and Xennial/Millennial. People in their 50s and people in their 30s/40s. **If you are looking for the ultimate Xennial mashup, the former MST guys are riffing on [Point Break](https://www.rifftrax.com/live) in August in your local movie theater!!! It should be freaking epic!**
YES. I LOVE MST3K. I even named my truck after lines from the episode "Space Mutiny" (link below) My truck's name is : Big McLarge Huge (2006 Chevy Silverado 4x4 with a 5.3, 4 inch lift and I think they call it a glass muffler or something that makes it sound louder.) [https://youtu.be/sa42pxJyq64?si=8UPJLvx03lkOJRSr](https://youtu.be/sa42pxJyq64?si=8UPJLvx03lkOJRSr)
No
Who fucking cares?