Patton Oswalt Recruited For New MST3K Cast (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Joel Hodgson has announced that actor and comedian Patton Oswalt will join the MST3K cast as "TV's Son of TV's Frank". "I first became aware of Patton around fourteen years ago, when he was doing commentary for the MTV Awards — live in the room during the event!" Hodgson wrote on the Kickstarter page. "I realized right away he was a kindred spirit, and damn funny too," Hodgson added. "Since then, obviously, he's bloomed into this amazing comedy/Internet dynamo. I've seen a lot of stand-ups over the years, but Patton really is one of the best ever. And just as important, he's a very fun, articulate and witty soul — just the kind of person who we've always tried to bring onboard for MST3K." Comedian Jonah Ray and actor Felicia Day are also on board for the potentially record breaking relaunch.

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Related links

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These, apparently, are what Slashdot considers to be "related links" for this story.

Re:Related links

[mwvdlee]

Mine just show "MST3K Kickstarter Poised To Break Kickstarter Record" and "Submission: Patton Oswalt recruited for new MST3K cast".
Slashdot must be using one of those algorithms that predicts what individual visitors would be most interrested in.

Re:Related links

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"Did Amy Schumer's breast pop out in this scene? Click here to see!"

Yup, you may be right.

Re:Related links

[foequeue7512]

Mine is exactly as yours is. On my other, muuuuch older account (forgot password, created new acct to post a few days ago - I don't like to post AC) the "related stories" list is usually both longer and less relevant.

It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[waspleg]

You can't recapture the lightning in a bottle dumb luck of a low budget local TV show slowly gaining traction with a record breaking kickstarter and already well known comedians...

I have to say I'm highly wary of this and am adopting the same attitude as the J.J. Abrams Star Wars - wait and see.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[LaurenCates]

The weird part is Patton Oswalt taking on "slumming" sort of projects, presumably by choice. Apparently, he also appears in Red Letter Media's "Space Cop".

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[Anonymous Coward]

Patton has earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[ThatsNotPudding]

You can't recapture the lightning in a bottle dumb luck of a low budget local TV show slowly gaining traction with a record breaking kickstarter and already well known comedians...

I have to say I'm highly wary of this and am adopting the same attitude as the J.J. Abrams Star Wars - wait and see.

What, no mention of your lawn?

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[Anonymous Coward]

You haven't looked hard enough inside your ass for it. Seriously, what the fuck does that matter?

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[cosmotherobot]

Last time I looked Baron Vaughn wasn't very white.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[NotDrWho]

Yes, it's slumming it a bit for Oswald. But it's really playing to his strengths and he knows it. Even if the show is a dismal failure, people will still remember him as being the one good thing about it. The only way he can lose is if they're stupid enough to force shitty dialogue on him and not let him improvise. And if they did that, he would probably just quit.

As for Felicia Day, I could care less. The only reason she has "nerd cred" is because she was on that awful Guild show. And that show would have been remembered as one of the shittiest online sitcoms ever made were it not for the fact that they made a MMO reference every now and then, giving everyone a nerdgasm. "OMG, the acting and writing on this show is TERRIBLE, but they said 'aggroed' so I think it's great!"

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[Anonymous Coward]

If it is good, if won't certainly be MST3K.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[nucrash]

Who crapped in your cereal this morning? I mean seriously, someone had to have taken a dump on your bowl of cornflakes for you to be such a fowl individual.
I know I am irritable if I don't have my morning coffee, but I can only gather that someone had loaded your fruit loops with a fecal surprise.

I hope your day goes better.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[LMariachi]

Dr. Horrible’s was pretty good though.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[DarkOx]

As for Felicia Day, I could care less. The only reason she has "nerd cred" is because she was on that awful Guild show.

First she created "that awful Guild show" which a lot of people thought was actually pretty non - awful at the time. I will admit to go back and watch it now it has not held up well but if you put it back in its context it was a pretty huge success. There had not been a lot of direct to youtube productions of scripted comedy/drama when she started that. "The Guild" whatever you feeling about it was among the early more complex productions (there certainly were others as well) that showed free/ad supported online shows could go beyond cat videos and porn. Have many things come along sense that are much better sure they have. We could say that a lot of early 17th century Novels were not all that great by latter literary standards either but they remain important because they paved the way for the format and the art.

I would also suggest that her 'nerd cred' comes as much from her roles on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Eureka as anything else she has done. Maybe you missed them...

You don't have to like her but she is doing alright as a C-list celebrity.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[T.E.D.]

MST3K itself though...well it wasn't *that* great. The only time I can remember watching a whole show was when I was killing time and literally had nothing else to do. That's certainly not a world I'm living in now. Today a show has to be pretty darn good to beat out the other 3 or 4 good shows on Netflix I can never get around to watching.

So yeah, it actually needs to be better.

That should be doable though, with the right format. I can remember they used to do a similar bit on the Thicke of the Night back in the early 80's that was just magical. However, it was only a few minutes long, so it didn't have time to get boring. If you show the whole freaking 2 hour movie, and its a bad movie, yes bits will be boring

FWIW, you can see Felicia Day doing a somewhat similar improv bit on 8-bit co-op games on her youtube show Co-optitude. She's pretty good, but she has her brother to play off of there (and he's probably even better). That should give you an idea of what kind of things to expect from her. For one thing, she can break into song with the perfect inappropriate song.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[LaurenCates]

Yes, and I have the right to question his motives.

Could he be supportive of these little "indie" ventures because he believes in them? Sure.

Could he also be doing these little "slumming" projects to put on the air of "look at how cool and counter-culture I am"? Sure.

Oswalt's always come off to me as the nerdy kid who's just DYING to sit at the cool kids' table. Maybe you didn't see it that way, but I do.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[foequeue7512]

Not every choice that doesn't fit your desires is a conspiracy, nor based in bias.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[malditaenvidia]

Did you know Space Cop took 12 years to make? That's amazing!

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[Anonymous Coward]

So in short, you think Felicia day isn't a camwhore and that MST3K wasn't clever, funny and defined a generation. Those are some terrible opinions, good sir.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[invid]

Oswalt's always come off to me as the nerdy kid who's just DYING to sit at the cool kids' table. Maybe you didn't see it that way, but I do.

The nerdy kids are the cool kids around here. Guess what, you don't get props from traditionally "cool" kids by starring in MST3K. By saying he comes off as the nerdy kid DYING to sit at the cool kids' table you just made him cooler.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[Muad'Dave]

He's no chicken - he had the courage to voice his opinion, even though he's crowing on about nothing. His ideas are real turkeys, so we shouldn't egg him on. I suppose he considers his diatribe a feather in his cap.

*Fowl individual, indeed.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno. I'm a huge fan of RiffTrax so I was pretty uninterested in the MST3K reboot, but that sounds like it could be a very good cast that might make MST3K worthwhile.

but then again I also liked the idea of one of a rifftrax that had Wierd Al as a riffer and it was underwhelming.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[Anonymous Coward]

If I "made it" and could pick and choose my work, I'd never do a shitty fucking big budget thing again unless I needed to buy a new mansion in a new city. I'd find people doing things I thought were cool or grew up admiring and hang out with them (and still probably make a few million here and there).

But then again, I'm weird and nerdy. Kind of like Patton Oswalt. Hmm. Suspicious...

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[JaredOfEuropa]

I love MST3K, but I can see it isn't for everyone. I've recommended it to all of my friends, and strangely the ones who enjoy it are almost all people who I thought wouldn't get the show.

Some people are just not that into old movies. I loved the Rifftrax versions that the crew did of contemporary blockbusters, and I really wish they'd do more of them. My guess is they stopped them because most people don't want to go through the hassle of mixing the soundtrack with the commentary (I've done it and it's a chore), and ended up pirating a pre-mixed copy instead.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[MightyMartian]

I think he just likes to work on interesting projects, and has enough big paycheck projects in the pipe that he can afford to work on some second tier stuff just for fun.

I'm actually pretty interested to see how he does at this. He's a major movie fanatic and a pretty good comedian and writer to boot, so I think his credentials as far as mocking bad films goes is pretty high. He's the king of cultural references, so I think, all things being equal, the reboot might have a chance.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[MightyMartian]

Who among the majority of the old tyme Slashdot posters wouldn't jump at the chance to be on MST3K. Oswalt in his way is one of us; one of the geeky crowd who came of age in the late 80s or early 90s and watched stuff like MsT3K and Kids In The Hall, and get jokes about 80s hair bands. Everything I've seen Oswalt do since he made it big with King of Queens and Young Adult (where a geek actually gets to hop in the sack with Charlize Theron) has been in two categories; 1. paycheck, and 2. 'cause I got lots of money and can do cool shit!

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[MightyMartian]

Anybody who doubts his ability to improvise brilliant dialogue out of thin air watch his Parks and Rec Star Wars rant:

https://youtu.be/5BBhNkywMJY

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[T.E.D.]

So in short, you think Felicia day isn't a camw****

I would never even think of such a term, let alone apply it to another human being (except perhaps it the very most literal definition possible). I will say that I don't personally find her very physically attractive (not my type at all), so I'm fairly confident that what admiration I do have for her work (which is a fair bit) is entirely about her talent, not her looks.

Those are some terrible opinions

You are correct there. That would indeed be a terrible opinion, if I held it. What a terribly shitty thing to think about another human being. Glad I don't.

Re:It might be good but it won't be MST3K

[T.E.D.]

Oh don't get me wrong. It was damn funny. But it spread the condensed funny of that short "Thicke of the Night" bit out over two whole freaking hours. At most they should have made the shows 1 hour long, but 30 minutes would have been even better. Again, I've seen the idea done both ways (unlike rather a lot of people I guess. Thicke of the Night didn't last more than a year), so I know what can be done. Somewhere in the middle would be great.

Ugh.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know how to feel about this: Patton Oswalt is great, but I *hated* TV's Frank and thought the show was much better-off before he joined the Mads.

Patton and Trump are kindred spirits

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a golden quote of Patton's that sounds exactly like something Trump would say: http://i.imgur.com/ZZMDIig.jpg

Re:Patton and Trump are kindred spirits

[mwvdlee]

Quite frankly, I agree with Patton on this one; you have to tolerate bullshit, but you don't have to respect it.

SJW's don't really seem to understand this distinction, hence their frequent misusage of the word "intolerant" to describe tolerant people who don't respect SJW believes and values.

Also; just because somebody agrees on one particular point doesn't necessarily mean they agree on everything else.

Re:Patton and Trump are kindred spirits

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh I entirely agree with him too. It's a great quote.

Re:Patton and Trump are kindred spirits

[Anonymous Coward]

All I'm hearing is "don't call me names wah wah wah".

Re:Patton and Trump are kindred spirits

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me guess, you are a social justice warrior "atheist", that is somehow pro-islam and pro #fuckparis.

Re:Patton and Trump are kindred spirits

[nitehawk214]

Your sig is quite relevant to social justice.

Re:Patton and Trump are kindred spirits

[Anonymous Coward]

Whenever anyone says "All I'm hearing is X", what they really mean is "I need you to be saying X, please don't take that comforting lie away from me."

Re:Patton and Trump are kindred spirits

[Anonymous Coward]

You are a terrible listener, yes, we know.

But try really hard to get the message: Using the term SJW in earnest says something about the user, not the target.

Enough Already

[Anonymous Coward]

It's nice that the MST3K Kickstarter is a success, but yesterday we were already pointed to it (again, we already had this on Nov 11st and this on Nov 21st), and yesterday the Kickstarter page already had the update that mentioned Patton Oswalt and his photo was already the video thumbnail.

Stop it already. Three times last month and already one this month, one day after the previous article. We don't need to know all the developments, if we actually care then we'll occasionally check the Kickstarter page ourselves. At this point we are aware that there is a MST3K Kickstarter. You could've simply waited until 10 days from now when you're going to publish yet another article about how much money it made in total. (And then another one when the first episode(s) are being released.) Patton Oswalt isn't exactly jaw-dropping either. It's not like they got Robert Downey Jr. or Tom Cruise or something.

Re:Enough Already

[Anonymous Coward]

Dammit, *11th
(Is what I get for posting anonymously.)

Re:Enough Already

[Anonymous Coward]

Tom Cruise as Crow T. Robot would be brilliant. Make it happen, Joel!

and the rest of the cast?

[Anonymous Coward]

What about Mike? Mary Jo? Kevin Murphy? Bill Corbett?

Kevin Smith

[ChoGGi]

After listening to his Batman & Robin commentary, I'd say he'd be pretty entertaining as a cast member (If you forgive a few stoner rambling moments).

I don't give a shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

You lost me the moment you announced Felicia "I cross the street when I see a gamer, because I am scared of them" Day.

Fuck her.

Re:I don't give a shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Liar. They didn't "lose" you at all. You're going to watch, and you're going to keep fantasizing about Day realizing that you're her one true love.

Adding stars won't make the show any better

[Anonymous Coward]

Ugh, am I the only one that "doesn't get" this show. I hated the first two runs of this show (Joel and Mike), now they are going to make a third? Why anyone enjoys watching extremely shitty movies while a few people failed attempts at witty comments is beyond me. The part the really gets me is even if you think the comments are mildly interesting, you STILL HAVE TO WATCH AN ENTIRE SHITTY MOVIE! Why would anyone waste there time with this lame show. Let it die.

Re:Adding stars won't make the show any better

[MightyMartian]

Then don't watch it, Mr. I'm So Fucking Important.