Poopie Parade of Values (MST3K Special)

*Warning:  Offer No Longer Valid.  Phone number may or may not be phone sex hotline now.

Probably one of the slighter little corners of Mystery Science Theater history is Poopie Parade of Values, a little infomercial Mike, Kevin, and Trace put on for Turkey Day 1995, which advertised home video products being sold by Best Brains Inc. directly.  Up for sale is the half hour MST3K blooper reel tape Poopie! and in addition to it is the MST Scrapbook tape of series highlights and behind the scenes footage, and if you buy both you can have them for the low, low price of only $30 (a $37.50 value)!

Being the comedians that they are, Mike, Kevin, and Trace don't just sell their tapes, but put on a delightful little parody of infomercials in general.  Kevin puts on his best Bob Vila fake laugh and smile while Mike enters and they mock the phony pleasantness of the artform in between sharing clips of the Scrapbook and blooper reels.  But things really spice up once Trace enters the picture, as he puts on the fakest of Australian accents and demonstrates how the tapes perfectly fit into a VCR, much to Mike and Kevin's amazement.  While the rest of the infomercial was pleasant enough, that was the one moment where I let out an audible laugh.

Outside of historical curiosity, there isn't much in Poopie Parade of Values to actively recommend.  It's just a scant 17 minutes long and a fairly amusing look at these guys selling products that are now out of print.  But Best Brains would branch out a bit, selling more tapes of their own making to fans.  They would start doing host segment compilations, tapes of popular songs from the series, and in some cases full episodes themselves.  This was only the beginning of MST on home media, as the following year Rhino Home Video would begin releasing VHS tapes of the series into retail stores (including Poopie!), which would begat them releasing episodes on DVD, which would begat Shout Factory acquiring the DVD license, which would begat Shout Factory buying the series outright, which would begat the show's revival in 2017.  In a weird way Poopie Parade of Values is the beginning of a domino effect that would ensure Mystery Science Theater 3000 would endure for years to come.

And Poopie Parade of Values may not be much, but it's a testament to the fact that we wanted to immortalize this show on home media way back in 1995 if nothing else.