MST3K: Episode 515 - The Wild Wild World of Batwoman

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 515: The Wild Wild World of Batwoman

First aired: Comedy Central on 13 November 1993
Availability: iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Amazon DVD (Rhino/out of print), Amazon DVD (Shout version), Rhino (Solo DVD/out of print), Shout (Solo DVD), Best Brains

What's in a name?

There are bad movies, and then there are bad movies.

Not just bad. Wicked bad.

And not just wicked bad, but evil.

Movies that should be punished, they are so bad.

Movies that don't you wonder if they mean to be that bad, but then realize that it doesn't matter if they meant to or not, they are really, really bad.

Remember in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where Dingy refers to Zoot as "wicked bad naughty evil Zoot?" Sure you do.

[Direct link]

This movie is like that. Wicked bad naughty evil movie. But without the redeeming values of someone who would sidetrack a search for the Holy Grail.

Frank's atomic-powered hair dryer has unintended consequences.

Yes, it's that bad.

Even the title is bad, as in wicked bad naughty evil.

It's an obvious ripoff of Batman, because the TV show was so popular when this came out. DC Comics sued the company that made this movie because of the title, but lost.

You can't find this actual movie today, unless it's the MST3K version. If you look hard, you can find Wild World of Bat Woman on VHS but ... why?

The only reason to own this original movie would be if it came with the MST3K version. It doesn't, and that is probably for the best.

Batwoman and the others dance. Soup will do that to you!

What's it all about?

A scientist has developed an atomic-powered hearing aid that the government rejected but told the Ayjax Company to destroy, but the evil Rat Fink wants to steal it, so he makes people go dance crazy with soup, while battling Batwoman and her Batgirls with henchmen and scenes taken from other movies, but Batwoman survives and unmasks Rat Fink who is the guy that made the atomic-powered hearing aid to begin with, so everything turns out well in the end because the movie ends. The end.

The movie tries to be funny. It isn't. It's just plain bad. I can't tell you how bad this movie is. Well, yeah, I can. It's bad. Remember the worst movie you ever saw? Maybe it was this one. If not, it's probably because you haven't seen this one.

Don't cheat.

Okay, maybe that's harsh. There could be worse movies than this one, but I don't want to think about that possibility. Because I have to think about this movie, and that's enough bad to think about at one time. It's dangerous to think about two movies this bad at the same time.

The only way to survive that scenario would be by cheating. Like mentioning another movie as bad without really thinking about that movie. And cheating is wrong.

If you didn't know cheating was wrong, then you also missed the short film that Dr. Forrester sent to Mike. It's about cheating. So much so, it's called Cheating.

It, too, has little redeeming value. Well, it does say that cheating is bad, which is true. So there's that. But just how they went about it... Well, let's say it's not as poorly made as The Wild Wild World of Batwoman.

It does inspire a series of Host Segments about Crow getting caught cheating. Makes the same point as the short, but in such a more enjoyable way. So, don't cheat. Cheating is bad. Richard Basehart is good.

Despite the bad, bad movie, it's a good episode. The riffing is top-notch, and the Host Segments based on the short are hilarious. Another winner.

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