Early Childhood Movie Influences
Korean life September 28th. 2008, 10:00pmJudging by my Internet Moniker, I’ve had a long standing connection with the show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Anyone that knows me and has watched a bad movie with me knows I love to crack jokes whenever possible. I’ve mellowed out on this more recently, more or less dropping it entirely unless it is a special occasion. I admit it’s something of a bad hobby for those people wishing to view a movie without an annoying neighbor. You shouldn’t do it unless you have some practice, or are a paid professional. Then it is more than okay. It’s encouraged. Expected even.
Anyway, I remember a time back when I was six years old or so. I had just discovered humor, and my idea of a good joke was repeating the setup for “Why did the chicken cross the road?” and then substituting a different reason, or changing the animal. I’d also change the answer to the joke if someone guessed it correctly. I usually would repeat the joke several times, as if I was talking to a person that spoke a different language and assumed saying it more than once would make the message funnier.
I guess I was under the impression jokes were like some sort of lame game show. I didn’t get why that particular joke was funny, and I still don’t. The “Chicken crossing the road” joke was what I thought comedy was at it’s core. Nonsense said in a particular way that made people laugh.
The first time I remember making a joke on my own that made other people laugh was during a movie. I remember I was sitting on our couch in my parent’s living room watching the movie D.A.R.Y.L.. It was this terrible movie about a robotic boy. Pinochicco meets the Turing Test. It was idiotic.
At one point or another, the robotic main character, Daryl, dies, or appears to die, to which I commented, “He forgot his batteries.”
It was well timed. This got a laugh from both my parents. I think my mom even repeated the line to my dad, which was more than she would normally do for my “Why did the…. cross the road” jokes. This was the first time I could remember making an off the cuff remark that got people laughing.
I didn’t do that sort of thing from that point on. My parents would speak while watching television, but it usually wasn’t an ongoing conversation about the show. I think somewhere in the back of my mind that experience of getting a laugh stuck with me, because as soon as I saw people on television doing the same thing, I was hooked. I was a fan after that.
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September 29th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Some friends of mine were trying to get a MST3K party together to riff some movies but we can’t seem to find the time. So sad. Last time I went to Half-Price Books they had the non-Mistie version of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians for five bucks. So perfect. Oh well.