Not long after Joel Hodgson launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring Mystery Science Theater 3000 to a new generation, he’s revealed who he thinks should take over as host. The A.V. Club noted an update to the MST3K Kickstarter page, where Hodgson explains how he ultimately landed on choosing Meltdown cohost Jonah Ray as his top choice to take over MST3K should it reach its $2 million goal. It started after Hodgson met Ray on the Nerdist podcast then later wrote jokes for an awards show with him:
He was just incredibly funny and easy to write with – there was flow, really – and who can ask for anything more? I guess I also just felt like his heart was in the right place, and I could see how much he loved and understood MST3K. I think that’s when I started thinking about inviting him to be the next host on MST3K, if we ever got to come back. About a year after that, I asked him what he thought about it. He said “yes†right away, without a second of hesitancy, and we’ve been talking about it ever since. Since this is the internet, I guess some people will hear this news and rush to declare – for better and for worse – “what this means for the future of MST3K.†(In fact, since a lot of people guessed that it was Jonah’s voice in our first video, that’s already happening!) I can’t really tell you what kind of host Jonah is going to be, but I hope you’ll give him a chance to show you. And even if you’re familiar with Jonah’s career, remember: that doesn’t mean he’ll bring the same exact approach to MST3K. I think a lot of you may be surprised. Plus, like the previous members of our cast, I think Jonah has great instincts and a lot of range. He’s funny, he’s wicked smart, and like I said, his heart’s in the right place. He loves MST3K, he seems to understand what makes it so special, and most important, I know he takes the role seriously. At the end of the day, he’s just another regular guy in a yellow jumpsuit – not so different from you and me. I’m excited to see what he can bring to the next hundred episodes of Mystery Science Theater, until it’s time to hand the jumpsuit over to someone else.
To say the least, Ray is excited for the new gig: