The Master Would Approve

Maybe it's because I love classic NES games. Maybe it's because I love MST3K. Maybe it's because the guys over at RiffTrax are doing a live riff of Manos: The Hands of Fate this week. Maybe it's because I'm proud to be an American. Maybe it's because I've got bad movies on my mind. Regardless of why I'm posting this video, it's still pretty awesome. A company called FreakZone has created a video game based on one of the worst movies of all time. Let's take a gander, shall we?



If you're not a Mystery Science Theater fan, this video, sent in by, alert reader, Ryan, probably doesn't make much sense to you. And that's fine. But stop what you're doing right now and go find a copy of MST3K's Manos: The Hands of Fate. You'll be shocked and horrified by how bad that movie really is, but Joel and the Bots will help you through it, and you'll find yourself laughing more than cringing. . .hopefully. If not, blame Ryan.

If you are a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, however, then you probably noticed some shout-outs to other classic MST3K episodes, such as The Screaming Skull, Hobgoblins and Robot Monster. There's also a great reference to Castlevania and who doesn't love hearing the classic Torgo theme?

It's only available on iOS now, but I can't wait for the Android version to come out!

In the Not Too Distant Future?

Now that Mother's Day is over, I think it's time we all started looking forward to the next important holiday: Father's Day.

I already know what I want:

Now I just need to convince my wife.

My thanks to, alert reader, Ryan for sending this in.

Soviet Spies and Russian Sitcom Rip-Offs

Russia has given us many wonderful things: Russian nesting dolls, Eduard Anatolyevich Khil, classic Bond villains and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to name a few. But America's relationship with Russia hasn't always been so rosy. Believe it or not, there was a time when we believed that the Russians were spying on us.

Well, I hate to be the one to break this to you, faithful readers, but it looks like the Russians are still spying on us and they're not satisfied with military technology anymore - they want our television programs. That's right, our precious, precious TV shows.

This matter of national security was first brought to my attention by, alert reader, Jeff Tromphlin. He showed me the opening credits for a Russian television show called Project Popcorn (Проект “Попкорн”). 



Now, I don't speak Russian, but that looks pretty close to the opening credits for Mystery Science Theater 3000, one of the greatest TV shows of all time. But MST3K was only the beginning. After further investigation, I found a number of Russian rip-offs that shocked me to the very core.

For example, check out their version of the classic 80's television program, Married..with Children.



Счастливы вместе, or "Happy Together" as it translates to, has lookalikes for each member of the Bundy family! Shocking!

But maybe you're not the kind of person who watched Married...with Children or MST3K. Maybe your house was a little more strict and you could only watch wholesome, uplifting shows with a moral or some type of educational message? Well then, here's Russia's version of Full House:



I wasn't quite convinced that дом кувырком ("House Upside Down") was, in fact, Full House, until I saw that it was Dave Coulier (Uncle Joey) himself that posted the video. And, as we all know, if Dave Coulier says it, it must be true. I wonder if the Russian paparazzi is obsessed with the Tsvetkova twins. 

But we all know that TV sitcoms aren't worth their salt unless they feature our very own Tony Danza. But Russia, being the sneaky country that they are, has also copied Who's the Boss, and have creatively named it Кто в доме хозяин (Who's the Boss). They weren't even trying to hide this blatant rip-off!



You know. . .they can have Who's the Boss?. I'm ok with that one.

Now you're probably thinking to yourself, "Well, these are all old television programs from the 80s and 90s. Surely now that the Russians aren't our enemies, they don't have need for spying on us and stealing our TV shows!" Tsk, tsk, tsk. Oh, you poor naive reader. Watch the following clip and see if you can guess what modern TV show has been stolen by the Russkies. They call it Теоретики ("Theorists"):



It looks like the Cold War ain't over yet.

WOLVERINES!!!!