growing older and more socially and politically aware has meant that many of the entertainments that I used to regard as favorites—the "comfort" viewing, the stuff that I'd return to again and again—are now (as the kids say these days) problematical. that's not the worst thing in the world; it's not as though I don't still occasionally go back to (say) Lovecraft stories or Raiders of the Lost Ark. but it does mean that stuff I used to watch uncritically, just because I wanted to make myself feel a bit better, is now just a bit irritating to watch. I feel like I have to be on my guard, and that kinda sucks.
I'm particularly saddened by how "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" comes across now. I used to be stoutly defensive of that show, which has always had some enemies; I felt like it introduced me to a bunch of movies that otherwise I wouldn't have known about, and I've even been moved to watch a couple of those movies on their own. heck, I've seen Manos: The Hands of Fate in a Seattle movie-house! but these days I have to admit that a lot of the humor just plain sucks, and maybe it really was a bad influence. who can say for sure?
MST3K was definitely at its best when Joel Hodgson, alias Joel Robinson, was the host. he brought a kind of sleepy weird-uncle quality to his hosting job; he was like the surrogate father to an unruly family of lovable but infuriatingly clever and troublesome children, trying to get through a family movie outing together. much of the humor went towards showing off an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema and literature—heck, Tom Servo refers to The Sorrow and the Pity at one point, and Joel memorably compares a child in a short film to the Lathe of Heaven. it's still pleasant to watch a lot of the Joel Hodgson MST3K episodes, although one still gets blindsided occasionally by a mildly racist or queerphobic joke.
but Joel's avuncular and scatterbrained style gave way to Mike Nelson's generic nice-guy act, and a more generic (and mean-spirited) superficial style of "riffing", one that was all about making fun of appearances and voices and such. that is to say, it was bullying humor: good for all occasions because it's easy to be snide and shallow about anyone. corporate pressures and the switch to the Siffy channel didn't help, I'm sure. I don't dislike ALL the changes Siffy made to the "Mystery Science Theatre" format; for one thing, it led to some hilarious sketch comedy, like Mike Nelson being hauled before a tribunal for his crimes against the Cosmos (https://youtu.be/P-FO0lH8gm0) but the humor is undoubtedly nasty sometimes and it's tough to endure. mostly I don't bother these days.
but there's a few late-stage MST3K episodes I still feel drawn to revisit, most especially "The Final Sacrifice". and I rather wonder about why. (cw: talk about racist pseudo-history)