History YMMV / MysteryScienceTheater3000

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** Valeria (from the movie ''Film/RobotHolocaust'') appearing on the Viewscreen in ep. 201 ''Film/RocketshipXM'', for seemingly no reason. Joel and the robots seem just as puzzled by her appearance as the viewers. After Valeria leaves, the incident isn't brought up again.
** In ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S02E05RocketAttackUSA Rocket Attack USA]]'', the crew's reaction to the sudden appearance of the blind man who [[DullSurprise rather flatly says "Help me"]] resulted in the scene becoming the show's first [[TheStinger stinger]].
---> '''Tom Servo''': Lucky one. He didn't have to see any of this!
** Crow, in particular, has issues with the movie showing some rather casual reactions to the pending apocalypse.
---> '''Crow''': Cut to New York, where Art Metrano and Harry Connick eat pizza and buy ties for their stupid girlfriends, and Harry Truman gets off a plane by the sewage dump and then a blind guy goes by and says "Help me." ''WHAT THE HELL WAS '''THAT''' SUPPOSED TO BE?''
** In ''First Spaceship On Venus'', Tom and Crow have an encounter with an angry gorilla. It isn't really in context with anything and not even Joel believes that it happened.
** The infamous "Joey the Lemur" sketch, where Joel flings around a lemur puppet and tries to sing a song about it. He gives it a tough guy voice, a rude attitude, and flubs every single line. Also, there were no lemurs in the movie (Joel and the bots confused a kinkajou with a lemur.)
*** Subverted, when Joey makes a comeback in "Last of the Wild Horses", much to Tom Servo and Gypsy's horror.
** Crow's dark counterpart Timmy in ''Fire Maidens from Outer Space'', especially when he pops up in the theater.
** A host segment from ''Teenagers from Outer Space'': a rogue spaceship makes contact with the SOL. On the Hexfield, a silent human skeleton attempts to wave, collapses in a heap, then leaves. Even Joel and the Bots are baffled and write off the entire encounter as "lame".
** A host segment in "Angels Revenge" has Aaron Spelling's house flies by in space for almost no reason.
** During the ending host segment (the parade of "troubling things") in the ''Carnival Magic'' episode, Jonah is briefly replaced on the viewscreen with a different host, one in a purple jumpsuit. Kinga is the only one who seems to notice, commenting "Please ignore that, since you didn't see anything because it doesn't exist" before the screen switches back to Jonah. The credits list him as Matt Claude Van Damme, played by Matt [=McGinnis=], one of the writers and producers.

** The episode, "Marooned," has a simple, sarcastic NonSequitur declaring, "Creator/CharlesRocket," mocking the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' alum whose post-''SNL'' career floundered badly. However, after the episode aire, his also ended, with his suicide.

** The older series didn't shy away from offhanded jokes at the expense of [=LGBTQIA+=] people, most notably in its highly popular ''Mr. B Natural'' segments, which can certainly be a bit uncomfortable for some viewers nowadays.
*** However, even some people who ''are'' non-binary [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales find Mr. B Natural unsettling in an inexplicable way]] and can get laughs out of the short.
*** In addition, most of the jokes came from Joel and the 'Bots being genuinely aroused by Mr. B. ("Oh, Mr. B....")
** Similarly the original series contained a lot of bodyshaming, mocking characters for weight, height and other aspects of their appearance, which can often [[CrossesTheLineTwice cross the line]] into insensitive. The Brains themselves are well aware of this, as both Mike and Joel have said that they've done their best to avoid that sort of humor in Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic and the revival series.

* VindicatedByCable: This happened to many riffed films. ''[=MST=]'' is the only reason many of them have pages on this wiki in the first place.
** This actually ''backfired'' a bit. Some rights-owners saw the chance to actually make some money from a film which was only featured because it was a flop and tried to charge [=MST=] through the nose for the rights.
* VindicatedByHistory: Josh "J. Elvis" Weinstein's tenure on the show falls under this. Since the first season episodes were rarely shown on Creator/ComedyCentral, and the KTMA shows weren't widely available, Weinstein's tenure was frequently dismissed by many. (For example, one notorious CC promo referred to Weinstein's character of Dr. Laurence Ehrhardt as "a fake Frank".) However, recent DVD releases of first season shows, KTMA shows being available via the Internet, and his later work with WebVideo/CinematicTitanic, has given fans the opportunity to favorably reappraise Weinstein's work, particularly his talent for ad-libbing riffs.
** Weinstein would reference this during CT appearances by introducing himself as "the Tom Servo you don't like as much".[[note]]Save the person who sent Kevin Murphy the "I HATE TOM SERVO'S NEW VOICE" banner.[[/note]]
** Not so much the show - it's good and successful, so there's no vindication to be made - but KTMA, the Minneapolis TV station were Season 0 was shot. Unlike both Creator/ComedyCentral and the [[Creator/SyFy SciFiChannel]], who tend to steer away from the show as much as possible and prefer to pretend they were never involved with it, KTMA - nowadays WUCW, a [[Creator/TheCW CW]] affiliate - just ''LOVES'' the show and cast to bits. While there is some obvious self-promotion going on by reminding people that ''[=MST3K=]'' began on their station every time they get, they've also uploaded old clips of different comedy bits the performers used to do there and invited several of them back to revive old shows and events from the KTMA era. One example is Kevin Murphy reviving an old character, Bob Bagadonuts, in the very same new year's eve celebration special (The Melon Drop) that Kevin had created after it hadn't been done for more than ''20 years''.[[note]] Although the Melon Drop had been revived two years before his re-appearance.[[/note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKbdSsKGb7k You can watch an interview here.]] They've also uploaded all previous Melon Drop specials to their Youtube page.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Synthia, the clone of Pearl in the 2017 series. After an intriguing introduction that hints her CloneDegeneration is an act, she hardly ever appears outside of silently loading in the latest experiment. Part of this may be that her character wasn't originally planned for the series and was only added after someone realized Rebecca Hanson, who originally had only been cast as Gypsy, also happens to look like a younger Mary Jo Pehl.
** Nicely averted in Season 12, where the show gets much more use out of Hanson's talents as both Gypsy and Synthia. Synthia particularly shines in ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S12E05KillerFish Killer Fish]]'', where she handles both the legwork and the mad science required to turn a liquid Kingachrome recording of "Idiot Control Now" into a portable drink.

** In the episode showing ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'', in the scene at the beginning where the family pulls into a scenic overlook, Joel calls the city in the background "Beautiful Ground Zero". Said city is Ciudad Juarez (the scene was shot in El Paso.) In between how "Ground Zero" is nowadays associated with the area immediately affected by 9/11, and given the reputation that Ciudad Juarez has today after being run over by drug cartels, that riff becomes all that much cringworthy.

** Not so much the show - it's good and successful, so there's no vindication to be made - but KTMA, the Minneapolis TV station were Season 0 was shot. Unlike both Creator/ComedyCentral and the [[Creator/SyFy SciFiChannel]], who tend to steer away from the show as much as possible and prefer to pretend they were never involved with it, KTMA - nowadays WUCW, a [[Creator/TheCW CW]] affiliate - just ''LOVES'' the show and cast to bits. While there is some obvious self-promotion going on by reminding people that ''[=MST3K=]'' began on their station every time they get, they've also uploaded old clips of different comedy bits the performers used to do there and invited several of them back to revive old shows and events from the KTMA era. One example is Bill Corbett reviving an old character, Bob Bagadonuts, in the very same new year's eve celebration special (The Melon Drop) that Kevin had created after it hadn't been done for more than ''20 years''.[[note]] Although the Melon Drop had been revived two years before his re-appearance.[[/note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKbdSsKGb7k You can watch an interview here.]] They've also uploaded all previous Melon Drop specials to their Youtube page.

* EvilIsSexy: Kinga Forrester, the MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter. Felica Day makes singing about torturing someone with cheesy movies while monitoring their mind oddly arousing.

** During the host segment for ''Film/GirlInGoldBoots'' where Crow strips, one of Tom's reactions to Mike's horror is to call him "Mike '[[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Taliban]]' Nelson."
*** The Taliban, prior to 2001, were an obscure group on the State Department's "hostile but ineffective" crazies list - getting the gag was a GeniusBonus at that time. The Taliban were simply thought of as a RealLife version of the town leaders from ''Film/{{Footloose}}''. ("I can't believe it, but I'm starting to agree with the Taliban Militia. Dancing should ''not'' be allowed.")

** The quip in ''Prince of Space'' "Creator/WoodyAllen asked me out", then a reference to Allen's marriage to his stepdaughter Soon-Yi took a much darker tone after his stepdaughter Dylan accused him of having molested her.
*** Same goes for the joke "The Woody Allen Story!" when the "A Date with Your Family" title screen comes up.

** In ''At the Earth's Core'', one of the jokes is that the bots were hoping for the new host to be a Creator/TJMiller type instead of Jonah, as that's what they imagine someone who was equal parts Joel and Mike would be like. Then in late 2017 TJ Miller's history of sexual harassment and misconduct surfaced...

** The episode, "Marooned," has a simple, sarcastic NonSequitur declaring, "Creator/CharlesRocket," mocking the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' alum whose post-''SNL'' career floundered badly, ultimately ending in his suicide.

** Joel was a lot more frustrated with being in outer space during the KTMA era and season 1. Did the situation grow on him, or was he slowly ConditionedToAcceptHorror? The same could be assumed of Mike. During his first couple seasons as host, he was often seen trying to escape the satellite, but he gave up by around Season 7. In Season 9's ''Film/QuestOfTheDeltaKnights'', Pearl gets ''infuriated'' when she sees Mike acting too accepting about being held captive in space.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Not during the show, but during the period that [=MST3K=] was canceled, in 2007 the official web page released a series of animated Flash shorts starring the bots with Paul Chaplin as Crow, James Moore as Tom, and Jim Mallon himself as Gypsy. These videos weren't memorable at all and actually lacked the comedy of the original series. The web series only lasted four episodes.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3M-eXhuGYM 2017 rearrangement of "Mighty Science Theater"]] is performed by a real orchestra and is something to behold.
** From the revival season: Kinga's duet with [[spoiler: ''Neil Patrick Harris'']] is both this and a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.
** From the same season has TheElevenOClockNumber "Push Past the Hurting" from ''Yongary.''
** "[[https://youtu.be/EiJylMyfu9I Every Country Has a Monster]]" is cited by many as the GrowingTheBeard moment for both Jonah and the revival era as a whole.
** "The Gauntlet" provides us with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3GdsxtIcSE "Paradise Below The Dam"]], one of the rare songs actually performed ''in'' the movie theater.

** M. Waverly from the Season 11 episode "Hercules and the Captive Women". He appears for less than two minutes in one host segment at complete random, and [[spoiler: immediately gets killed by Crow and Servo]]. Despite his brief appearance, fans immediately began wanting him to come back in a future episode.

* GrowingTheBeard: The cast and crew themselves have acknowledged the uneven quality of early episodes. This was largely because the on-screen talent were watching the movie for the first time, and many of their riffs were being made up as they watched. By season three, they had a more organized approach where the writers watch the movie in its entirety before approving it for [=MSTing=], then watched it a second time to write the jokes[[note]] part of the reason for this was season two's ''Film/TheSidehackers'', which included a graphic rape/murder scene that the writers first saw during their joke-writing session because nobody in the crew had watched the film in its entirety[[/note]], and a third time to film the episode. Season three's ''Film/PodPeople'' is frequently cited as the first truly great episode.

** Servo can act a bit obnoxious and egotistical, but it's because he's incredibly insecure about his height and intelligence, and has more than enough BreakTheHaughty moments to make you feel a bit bad for him.

*** However, even some people who ''are'' non-binary find Mr. B Natural unsettling in an inexplicable way and can get laughs out of the short.

** The episode, "Marooned," has a simple, sarcastic NonSequitur declaring, "Charles Rocket," mocking the Saturday Night Live alum whose post-SNL career floundered badly, ultimately ending in his suicide.

* FanficFuel: Even after learning Kinga's mother is [[spoiler:Creator/KimCattrall]], we still get nothing on how they hooked up and what their relationship was like beyond falling apart due to Forrester's failure to convert her to mad science. And of course the possibility of Kinga trying to re-establish ties now that she knows. [[note]] That being said, [[TheWikiRule the show's official wiki]] suggested that Forrester could be lying about her parentage. After all, he ''is'' evil.[[/note]]

** The older series didn't shy away from offhanded jokes at the expense of [=LGBTQA+=] people, most notably in its highly popular ''Mr. B Natural'' segments, which can certainly be a bit uncomfortable for some viewers nowadays.

** [[Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate Torgo]], especially Mike's humorous portrayal of the character. Ortega took over Torgo's duties during the Sci Fi years, being played by Mike again, and ''this'' time being TheUnintelligible.

** Not so much the show - it's good and successful, so there's no vindication to be made - but KTMA, the Minneapolis TV station were Season 0 was shot. Unlike both Creator/ComedyCentral and the [[Creator/SyFy SciFiChannel]], who tend to steer away from the show as much as possible and prefer to pretend they were never involved with it, KTMA - nowadays WUCW, a [[Creator/TheCW CW]] affiliate - just ''LOVES'' the show and cast to bits. While there is some obvious self-promotion going on by reminding people that ''[=MST3K=]'' began on their station every time they get, they've also uploaded old clips of different comedy bits the performers used to do there and invited several of them back to revive old shows and events from the KTMA era. One example is Bill Corbett reviving an old character, Bob Bagadonuts, in the very same new year's eve celebration special (The Melon Drop) that Kevin had created after it hadn't been done for more than ''20 years''.[[note]] Although the Melon Drop had been revived two years before his re-appearance.[[/note]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKbdSsKGb7k You can watch an interview here.]] They've also uploaded all previous Melon Drop specials to their Youtube page.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWyOLBNajCQ Hired! The Musical]] is the perfect parody of your typical musical, Joel and all the Bots really got into their roles, and it's one of the best and most famous host segments by fans.
** It's [[CuteButCacophonic more... hilariously jarring]] than awesome, but if you handle [[LarynxDissonance Gypsy's]] wacky singing in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3Je8aE_yv8 Gypsy Rose Me]], that host segment [[CharacterizationMarchesOn gives her a lot more character]].
** Every bot scatting to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LYpTgl-QgQ Master Ninja Theme Song]]!
** It's nice for Mike and the Bots to sing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-CRcmjUa_Q The Bouncy Upbeat Song]] after nearly going insane from watching Red Zone Cuba, even Gypsy's (who has a [[LarynxDissonance hilariously jarring falsetto]]) singing sounds a little better than usual when singing that song with them.

** It's nice for Mike and the Bots to sing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-CRcmjUa_Q The Bouncy Upbeat Song]] after nearly going insane from watching Red Zone Cuba, even Gypsy's (who has a [[LarynxDissonance hilariously jarring falsetto]]) singing a little better than usual when singing that song with them.

** Every bot [[Scatting scatting]] to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LYpTgl-QgQ Master Ninja Theme Song]]!

** Every bot scatting to the[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LYpTgl-QgQ Master Ninja Theme Song]]!

** It's [[CuteButCacophonic more... hilariously jarring]] than awesome, but if you handle [[LarynxDissonance Gypsy's]] [[wacky singing in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3Je8aE_yv8 Gypsy Rose Me]], that host segment [[CharacterizationMarchesOn gives her a lot more character]].

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Not during the show, but during the period that [=MST3K=] was canceled, in 2007 the official web page released a series of animated Flash shorts starring the bots with Paul Chaplin as Crow, James Moore as Tom, and Jim Mallon himself as Gypsy. These videos weren't memorable at all and actually lacked the comedy of the original series. The web series only lasted four episodes.

*** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3M-eXhuGYM 2017 rearrangement of "Mighty Science Theater"]] is preformed by a real orchestra and is something to behold.

** From the same season has TheElevenOClockNumber "Push Past the Hurting" from ''Yongary.''

** Other fans wonder why they'd even ''need'' a revival when Nelson, Murphy and Corbett are still in top form on Podcast/RiffTrax, albeit sans silhouettes, and thanks to the audio commentary format, have riffed blockbuster films and franchises (most notably ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''.)