For me personally, it's the Season 8 episode "Space Mutiny", which was also the first MST3K episode that I ever watched.
That bit with Mike bonking his head on one of the many railings Servo placed in the Satellite of Love and tumbling all the way down it while yelling before splashing into water sent me into an absolute laughing fit. I laughed for a good 10 minutes at that, I kept replaying that scene. It was pure comedic gold.
Space Mutiny is easily the best "introduction" episode to the show for newcomers and it remains a classic that shows what MST3K is all about.
I do want to give honorable mention to Star Crash, a Jonah-era Italian attempt to do Star Wars featuring a surprisingly famous actor playing the space emperor, a cowboy drawling bounty hunter robot, and a lady wearing transparent plastic that grits her teeth a lot. It's a good time too.
Space Mutiny is easily the best “introduction” episode to the show for newcomers and it remains a classic that shows what MST3K is all about.
I totally agree! The best introduction for first-time watchers of MST3K. It really is the best of MST3K's riffing from Season 8, and in my opinion, let alone the whole series. I am glad I picked Space Mutiny as my first episode. I got a great introduction to the series, and I have been a MSTie ever since. If you haven't seen Mystery Science Theater 3000 yet, start with Space Mutiny.
You will love it.
If ONLY for the names, Space Mutiny is a great intro to the craziness of MST3K. I don't go very long without using 'Big McLargehuge' as a name for something.
The Wizards of the Lost Kingdom movies are a fine slice of the fantasy side of cheese, as is the delightfully named Deathstalker and the Warriors From Hell.
Oh, and Delta Knights!
I also recommend, for those that like spy/heist/Italian weirdness, to try Diabolik, and Operation Double-Double-07.
Hard mode might be "Agent From H.A.R.M." because there's long stretches of very little happening, but what happens can be downright hilarious.
I’m torn between I Accuse My Parents and Hobgoblins, though I also put on Monster A Go-Go a lot (usually as background listening because NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS IN THAT MOVIE, but when things do happen the riffs are top notch (plus its host segments are top notch and the short is easily in their top 5))
I'm very fond of Jack Frost. It's as corny and delightfully bizare as one could want from a Russian mythology movie made in 1965 USSR, and the riffs are obviously great.
