Jonah Ray Teases New ‘MST3K’: I’m ‘the Irritating Younger Kid From Next Door’
On April 14, the Satellite of Love returns to the skies with the Kickstarter-assisted relaunch of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Netflix. But there’s a new passenger onboard: Comedian and Nerdist podcast co-host Jonah Ray is taking over the role of host formerly played by series creator Joel Hodgson (who spearheaded the revival) and Mike Nelson. Ray is front and center in Netflix’s new trailer for the next batch of MST3K episodes, which reveals how he winds up a prisoner of Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day) and her henchman (Patton Oswalt) and is forced to watched terrible movies alongside wisecracking robots Tom Servo (Baron Vaughn) and Crow T. Robot (Hampton Yount).
That may sound hellish for some, but it’s heavenly for the 34-year-old comic, who tells Yahoo TV that he first encountered MST3K during its initial run in childhood and credits it with shaping his sense of humor as an adult. “I still get overwhelmed when I think it actually happened,” Ray says of stepping aboard the Satellite of Love. “It felt weird when I stepped onto set, because I was seeing it from an angle I hadn’t before. Than I saw myself on the monitor and I was like, ‘I’m in the show!’ That made it feel more real.”
So far, Hodgson has kept mum about which Z-grade pictures Jonah and the ’bots will be riffing on, but this teaser does provide some clues. One of the films is Reptilicus, a 1961 Danish monster movie in which a Godzilla-like creature stalks Copenhagen, and there are also clips of a Toho-style giant robot movie. “Each movie’s a different monster, sometimes literally,” Ray teases. “They all look and sound like movies you’d see in the original run, and that made me very happy. Some are on the more recent side, but they’re all from that classic era. There are some movies where the gender roles are pretty [strange]; you kind of just have to laugh at how the women are treated. You’re like, ‘Wow, this is a completely unacceptable time in history!'”
As for how he approached his role of the master of ceremonies for these geeky roasts, Ray says he sought his inspiration from Doctor Who. “I read interviews with the different actors who took over the role of the Doctor, and their approach to embodying that character,” he says. “My take on it was, ‘I’m stuck on this satellite, but I’m going to make the best of it, because it’s pretty neat! I went into it with this childlike excitement, because I had that feeling anyway. Joel was the father figure to the ’bots, Mike was the older brother, and I feel like the irritating younger kid from next door who just wants to come over and hang out with the big boys.”
Mystery Science Theater 3000 premiers on Friday, April 14, on Netflix.
Read more from Yahoo TV:
“Shots Fired” Preview: Stephen Moyer and Tristan Mack Wilds on Preparing to Play Cops
“Little Big Shots” Sneak Peek: Amazing Acrobats
Ken Tucker Reviews Dave Chappelle’s Netflix Standup Specials
