Mystery Science Theater 3000: Manos, The Hands of Fate

In this episode, Joel and the ’bots yuck it up watching a reel on leadership in business and the hysterically bad feature flick, “Manos, The Hands of Fate”. Produced by a salesman from El Paso, “Manos” initially appeared in only a handful of theaters in the southwest and was virtually unknown until dug up for MST3K merriment.

Tagged by many as the absolute worst movie ever covered by MST3K (which is saying a whole lotta something), the 1966 gem “Manos” features a road-tripping couple, their young daughter and the family poodle who, after long sequences of driving through rural Texas, find themselves imposing on the hospitality of the creeptastic Torgo and the Master he insists won’t like the girl, the man or the dog. (Spoiler alert: the Master really likes the mom. Turns out that in addition to failing to stock appropriate snacks for drop-in guests, the Master is a polygamous worshipper of a demon named Manos.)

MST3K jolted new life into old movies with its wraparound low-budget production of the adventures of Joel Robinson and his robots, Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo and Gypsy who are trapped on a space station and subjected to watching bad movies by an evil scientist.