michael j nelson

Somehow, those little bite-sized Snickers and Milky Ways you got as Halloween Trick or Treat candy always seemed to taste better than the bigger ones you can snag in any store.

That's kind of the effect you get from watching a new pair of laugh-out-loud Shorts DVDs from Rifftrax -- Wide World of Shorts and Shorts-Tacular Shorts-Stravaganza.

The commentary of Mystery Science Theater 3000 alums Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy can usually make any movie funny. But, the riffs you buy off their website for major feature films can sometimes come with a cost.

For example, the problem with buying the riffs for Twilight or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is you then have to sit there and watch Twilight or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. That's a razor's edge trade-off for a few laughs.

The lackluster response to FOX News' Half Hour News Hour and the continued popularity of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have led many to conclude that liberals are funny, and conservatives are not.

I say that's a load of hogwash. It's not about being liberal, conservative, libertarian, or whatever else you happen to be. It's about being funny, or not being funny. To paraphrase something comic Doug Stanhope once told me during an interview: 'if you're good, and you're funny, you can find work.'

That's it. You want to be a stand up comic? Be funny. You want to make a funny TV show people will love? Then make a funny TV show people will love.

All that being said, here are three funny conservatives I admire, not because they're conservative, but because they make me laugh:

Ah, great news for fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 11 of the popular DVD series will be released in February!

No word yet on which movies will be covered. Fans can keep checking Satellite News, the official Mystery Science Theater 3000 web site for updates.

In the meantime, Mike Nelson has added a bunch of new movies to RiffTrax, his downloadable commentaries. The list of movies available now includes Plan 9 From Outer Space, Cocktail (hey, I voted for that one!), Star Trek V, Road House, The Fifth Element, and Night of the Living Dead (the original). MST3K cohort Kevin Murphy joins Mike on the commentary for Star Trek V.

[via TVShowonDVD]

You can take the man out of the Satellite of Love, but you can't take the Satellite of Love out of the man. Writer and actor Michael J. Nelson, who took over as host of the sorely-missed Mystery Science Theater 3000 after original host Joel Hodgson split, continued to riff bad movies even after the show was canceled, providing funny commentaries for classic B movies put out by Legend Films on DVD. Now my fellow Minneapolitan has been chosen as Chief Content Producer for the company and will be "leading the company's creative content, providing on-going commentaries and developing other premium web-based programming," according to Satellite News, the official MST3k fan site. If you want a real insiders look at Mike's first day at his new gig, check out the video after the jump.