
Michael J. Nelson
Writer · b. 1964 · St. Charles, Illinois
Michael J. Nelson is the former host and writer of the Emmy-nominated, Peabody Award-winning Mystery Science Theater 3000. Since that time, he has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows, penned a regular column for TV Guide, and authored best-selling books for both HarperCollins and Abrams. His first book, Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese, thrilled critics, including Richard Schickel of Time Magazine, who said of Mike, "He's more fun than a barrel of Val Kilmers... Smarter than a roomful of Patrick Swayzes... and almost as hilarious as Keanu Reeves." Mike's laugh-out-loud follow-up, Mind Over Matters, prompted Kirkus Reviews to enthuse, "From someplace called Minnesota comes a Nelson funnier than Ozzie, Ricky, Lord or Half," and even dared to compare him to another legendary writer, saying of his Serious Speech to Business People, "[It] could easily precede [Robert] Benchley's immortal Treasurer's Report." And Kirkus Reviews loved his novel, Death Rat!, saying, "Fast-paced, outrageous and funny, first-novelist Nelson's mockery of media mendacity is as biting as La Dolce Vita or Network--only funnier!" Nelson speaks all over the country, is a frequent guest on radio and television, and along with fellow former MST3K writers/performers Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy operate a podcast called RiffTrax, which, in a similar vein to MST3K, targets more mainstream films.
Movies22
Movie6.6Science FictionComedyIn the not-too-distant future, the evil Dr. Forrester forces a temp named Mike into a series of experiments, where he's forced to watch cheesy movies so the mad scientist can monitor his mind. However, as Mike can't control where the movies begin or end, he'll try to keep his sanity with the help of his robot friends.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
1996 · 236 votes
Movie7.3Science FictionComedyThe storied history of Mystery Science Theater includes many, MANY cheap rubber monster suits... and somehow, some way, Sting of Death may have the worst so far. MSTies might recognize director William Grefé as the director behind the MST3K Season 2 experiment Wild Rebels. You'll be happy to know he made Sting of Death first, so Wild Rebels was a movie he made as an even more experienced filmmaker. As an added bonus, this movie also features the aptly titled "Do The Jellyfish" by Songwriting Hall of Fame inductee Neil Sedaka. Does this tune warrant TWO extended dance sequences? Probably not, but it is an earworm that will still be drilled into your head long after the credits roll.
Movie8.5ComedyHorrorIs there any possible downside to accepting an invitation from Vincent Price to spend an evening in a creepy mansion that was built on something called “Haunted Hill?” If so, Mike, Kevin and Bill couldn’t find it! In fact they were so eager to join Mr. Price and his terrifying moustache that they riffed the film live, on-stage, and now you can reap the rewards from the safety of home with this live show DVD! Yes, horror classic House on Haunted Hill provides a mesmerizing walk down “people actually used to find this SCARY?!?” lane. Join the RiffTrax guys as they bring their special brand of rapid-fire comedic commentary to every skeleton-hanging-from-visible-wires, clumsy sexual overtone, and a stunningly inept test pilot whose “heroics” typically lead him to bloody his own nose after locking himself in a broom closet!
RiffTrax Live: House on Haunted Hill
2010 · 6 votes
Movie7.0ComedyWatch Mike, Bill, Kevin, and an all-star crew of hilarious guest riffers take on seven classic less-than-educational shorts, filmed LIVE onstage at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre in January of this year, in all its gritty, low-light, shakey-cam glory! Show includes: Welcome Back Norman Perc! Pop! Sprinkle! - with Cole Stratton (Pop My Culture Podcast) and Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra) Choking: To Save a Life - with Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall) Cooking Terms More Dangerous Than Dynamite - with Adam Savage (Mythbusters) If Mirrors Could Speak - with Kristen Schaal (30 Rock, Bob’s Burgers, Flight of the Conchords) At Your Fingertips: Cylinders - with Paul F. Tompkins (Best Week Ever, Mr. Show, Tangled)
RiffTrax Live: Night of the Shorts - SF Sketchfest 2013
2013 · 1 votes
Movie7.7ComedyMike, Kevin, and Bill take on some of the funniest, most unbelievable vintage shorts we've ever found, live in the beautiful Castro Theatre with a crew of hilarious guest riffers! Shorts performed during this event include One Turkey Two Turkey, Setting Up a Room, Writing Better Social Letters, Live and Learn, Making Sense with Sentences, and Safety - In Danger Out of Doors.
Rifftrax Live: Night of the Shorts - SF Sketchfest 2015
2015 · 3 votes
Movie7.8ComedyJoin Mike, Kevin and Bill, along with guests Bridget Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl, the Mads from MST3K Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff, and special guest Paul F. Tompkins and relive this amazing summer-themed night of riffing and comedy!
RiffTrax Live: Summer Shorts Beach Party
2017 · 4 votes
Movie7.7ComedyMike, Kevin, and Bill were joined onstage at SF SKetchfest Live 2016 by very special guest riffers Bridget Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl, Cole Stratton, Janet Varney, Adam Savage, Paul F. Tompkins, and John Hodgman including a gigantic, possible world record TEN PERSON riffing grand finale!
Rifftrax Live: Night of the Shorts - SF Sketchfest 2016
2016 · 3 votes
Movie9.0ComedyFor our fifteenth year of RiffTrax Live, we've selected the 1990's cult classic about bank robbing, presidential masks, and surfing: Point Break! It was directed by Academy Award Winner Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) and stars Keanu Reeves (The Matrix, John Wick, Keanu), Patrick Swayze (Road House), and one of our all-time favorite character actors, Gary Busey (A Star Is Born, Predator 2). Mike, Kevin, and Bill will riff Point Break LIVE at the State Theatre in Minneapolis on July 27th, and the resulting hilarity will be broadcast to over 700 movie theaters across America on Thursday, August 8th with an encore on Tuesday, August 13th thanks to our partners at Fathom Events.
RiffTrax Live: Point Break
2024 · 1 votes
Movie8.2ComedyTV MovieWhat do ice-skating reindeer, pipe-smoking santas and a parade of aquatic champions have in common? You’ll see them all in the RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza, now available as Download to Stream, DVD and Blu-ray! The stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000® have a sackfull of delightful and demented shorts to riff live onstage. Some of the forgotten gems of Christmases past prove to be the perfect targets for the rapid-fire riffs of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. And if that wasn’t enough, they’re even joined by comedy legend “Weird Al" Yankovic for a musical short about the wonders of pork! It’s funnier than Ernest Saves Christmas and far less creepy than The Polar Express! Join Mike, Kevin, Bill and Al for a festive night of hilarious holiday comedy that is destined to become traditional Christmas viewing.
RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-stravaganza!
2009 · 6 votes
Movie9.0ComedyMike, Kevin and Bill were joined on stage by their MST3K colleagues at the State Theatre in Minneapolis to bring it back to their roots in an MST3K cast reunion the likes of which have never been seen before! Joining the guys are their old cohorts Frank Conniff (TV's Frank), Trace Beaulieu (Crow, Dr. Forrestor), Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester), Bridget Nelson (Nuveena, Mr. B), as well as Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson, AND the host of the revived MST, Jonah Ray, for a hilarious night of riffing for RiffTrax's 20th Live event. Taking turns in various permutations to riff on a slew of old-timey shorts, the show culminates in a Super Riff-A-Palooza finale with all nine riffers on stage at once!
RiffTrax Live: MST3K Reunion
2016 · 6 votes
MovieComedyAfter being laid off, Brandi enters the world of stand up comedy. Over a year, her comedy coach Tim teaches her the art of joke telling culminating in a online comedy competition with a celebrity judge who hates her.
Movie7.0DocumentaryComedyA documentary about the cult television favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000.
This Is MST3K
1992 · 1 votes
Movie7.0ComedyScience FictionMike Nelson, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo from MST3K review the summer blockbusters of 1998 in their usual ironic style.
Movie8.5ComedyScience FictionBlast off to the 80s with RiffTrax Live: Space Mutiny! Mike, Bill, and Kevin riffed this cult classic low-budget space opera live in Nashville. Now you can watch the show from the comfort of your own home, or space golf cart, if you have one of those. This is the Big McLargeHugest show you'll ever own. It's a brand new riff, completely different from the original MST3K episode. The show stars with a live riffing of The Magic Shop, a hilariously weird short that's somehow based on a story by H.G. Wells. Also included: pre-show slides and more bonus material! Also also included: Kevin wearing a shiny space muumuu you won't soon forget.
RiffTrax Live: Space Mutiny
2018 · 2 votes
Movie10.0ComedyIn the futuristic world of 2004, Jean-Claude Van Damme isn’t just doing leg splits, he’s splitting the very barriers of space and time. Get ready for TIMECOP! Yes, it’s one word! After the death of his wife (Mia Sara) at the hands of time-traveling goons, Jean-Claude Van Damme is recruited to an elite task force of time-based police officers. Why does the government have an elite task force of time-based police officers? TIMECOP may, or may not, have answers to that perfectly reasonable question! Unfortunately, a U.S. Senator (Ron Silver) has gained access to their system of time travel and he’s using it to commit unspeakable evils – huge campaign finance violations – across generations. Imagine a nightmarish world where stuff like THAT happens. You can’t! Will the Timecops stop the senator in time to save the future?
RiffTrax Live: Timecop
2025 · 2 votes
Movie8.6ComedyThe stars of MST3K riff the worst movie of all time in RiffTrax Live - Plan 9 From Outer Space. Live from the historic Belcourt Theater in Nashville! Hosted by internet superstar Veronica Belmont, and featuring geek troubadour Jonathan Coulton, RiffTrax Live offers non-stop music and laughs.
RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space
2009 · 5 votes
Movie10.0ComedyScience FictionIt’s the year 2762. The galaxy is plagued with warring factions using hokey special effects to destroy each other. Out of this chaos a hero rises: the dashing, exquisitely bearded Captain Saber Raine (Casper Van Dien). Saber and his elite squad of commandos (other actors) embark on a dangerous quest to save the Prince and Princess of an unnamed planet from the clutches of the Evil Overlord Sinjin - an overlord so evil HIS VERY SKULL IS FILLED WITH CHERRY JELL-O. Can our heroes fend off Sinjin’s army of mutant androids and rescue the Prince and Princess? Probably! After all it’s Space Opera, but you never know! Join Mike, Kevin and Bill for an unforgettable Sword-And-Laser Swashbuckling-ly fun time, beamed to theaters nationwide!
RiffTrax Live: Star Raiders
2019 · 1 votes
Movie9.0ComedyScience FictionShorts, Volume 3 is a compilation release from Rhino Entertainment featuring seven popular shorts from Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was originally released on VHS and later as a limited bonus with The Essentials DVD set if the set was ordered through a special website offer. Shorts, Volume 3 has since been re-released by Shout! Factory in The Singles Collection. The seven shorts featured are: Speech: Using Your Voice (Episode #313), Aquatic Wizards (Episode #315), Is This Love? (Episode #514), Design for Dreaming (Episode #524), The Selling Wizard (Episode #603), Out of This World (Episode #618) and Once Upon a Honeymoon (Episode #701).
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Shorts, Volume 3
2000 · 2 votes
Movie8.0ActionIf you put everything about the 80s in a blender, then somehow ran the resulting smoothie through a translator that only speaks languages from another dimension, what you’d wind up with still wouldn't be half as hilarious, weird, and oddly charming as Miami Connection. It's 1987, and the Biker Ninjas behind the Miami drug trade are finding themselves facing the newest heroes in town: the Taekwondo-loving rock band Dragon Sound! They'll focus all of their black belt skills, alongside performing their hit songs "Friends" and "Against the Ninja" at a popular Orlando night club - to end the threat of Ninja Biker violence once and for all!
RiffTrax Live: Miami Connection
2015 · 11 votes
Movie8.7ComedyFor those who missed it in theaters, this is a completely new riff of “Manos” The Hands of Fate, the Texas-fertilizer-salesman-directed classic made famous by Mystery Science Theater 3000. All new jokes, same old Torgo. See Mike, Kevin and Bill riff it all on stage in front of a live audience at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville! PLUS! Before the main event, a live riffing of two extra-demented shorts. At Your Fingertips: Cylinders, from the same insane child arts & crafts series that brought you Grasses and Boxes. And Welcome Back, Norman which introduced us all to revolting folk hero Norman, along with his now famous (and also revolting) catchphrase.
RiffTrax Live: "Manos" the Hands of Fate
2012 · 6 votes
Movie8.8ComedyMichael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett of RiffTrax riff Tommy Wiseau's The Room LIVE onstage and broadcast to 100's of theaters across North America. Like a modern day Ed Wood, Wiseau wrote, directed and starred as Johnny in this "dark comedy" about his tumultuous relationship with future wife Lisa, their best friend Mark, and their amorphous group of friends. This includes frequent uninvited guest Denny, a couple of frisky couch crashers, and psychologist friend Peter, who during the course of the movie is played by two different actors.
Rifftrax Live: The Room
2015 · 5 votes
Movie8.0ComedyDramaTeens! Bikes! Feathered Hair! Love and revenge! Leotards and acid-washed denim! It’s all here in the legendary Eighties BMX-racing action-drama-romance RAD! Join Mike, Bill and Kevin as they spin, flip and slow-bike-dance their way into your hearts, LIVE in theaters nationwide on August 17th! Don’t miss it, if you want to be RAD!
RiffTrax Live: RAD
2023 · 1 votes
Series4
TV7.7ComedySci-Fi & FantasyA stranded spaceship pilot captured by mad scientists survives a blitz of cheesy B movies by riffing on them with his funny robot pals.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
1989 · 230 votes
- TV
The Adventures of Edward The Less was a short lived, animated web-series published on the SciFi Channel's website in 2001. It was written and performed by most of the core cast and crew members of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It ran for a total of 13 episodes, with plans for more, though the SciFI Channel never renewed it.
The Adventures of Edward the Less
2001 · 1 votes
TVComedySci-Fi & FantasyMystery Science Theater 3000: The RiffTrax Experiments is a 2026 limited series that reunites legacy MST3K writers and performers Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett. Serving as an official collaboration between the RiffTrax team and the MST3K production house, the series brings the core cast of the show's 1990s era back to the Satellite of Love.
- TV7.0
Total Riff Off
2014 · 4 votes