FYI, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 just got added to Netflix. And inspired by my recollection of Rushkoff’s analysis of this show and the pop culture it exists within, it seemed right up my alley and I gave it a go. Within the first 20 minutes the show presented a truly dense network of references and in-jokes that I fell for it. I became a part of it. As Rushkoff puts it, “To belong to MST3K culture is to understand at least some of the literally hundreds of references per show and, more important, how they relate to one another.” I’m in. I’m with them. I haven’t been able to have a movie night with my movie friends (now spread across the suburbs of Melbourne) so today these robot dudes were my companions.

To relate to his writing with depressing irony is that while househunting I’ve been posted up in a friend’s apartment in the city (a place which brings along with it an ounce of loneliness) during the week. Some days he leaves for uni before I wake up and gets back while I’m out (that’s today) and the whole situation is kinda of isolating. I don’t have a key so I’ve just gotta chill. Rushkoff writes that for the most part, those who watched this show during its original broadcast were ‘isolated in their apartments, using these images on their screens as surrogate companions’. And I guess today that’s how I felt.

Ironic, telling a story to empathise with the collapse of narrative. Yes, I realise how much of Rushkoff’s analysis I’m ignoring with this post. Yes, I will get back to work on philosophy and stuff.