653: So Bad It's Worse

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So Bad It's Worse

Title text: You think it's so legendarily bad that you'll torrent it and sit through it just for the kitschy nerd cred. I, too, once thought as you did.

Explanation

The graph in the comic shows the enjoyability of movies - going from good to okay to bad, then popping back up with " So Bad It's Good". The term is used to describe movies that are so terrible that, ironically, watching them is actually an enjoyable experience, even if just to poke fun or marvel at the absurdity of how bad they are. The comic lists Plan 9 from Outer Space and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, two widely known films of this type.

However, the graph warns of showing The Star Wars Holiday Special, as it manages to wrap back around from "So Bad It's Good" to being So Bad it's Horrible. The Star Wars Holiday Special is a prime-time comedy special based on Star Wars. It is widely known for its terrible quality, and has never been fully released (although an animated segment that introduced Boba Fett, which George Lucas has approved of, has been released as a bonus feature on a DVD).

The bottom of the comic shows Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail watching a movie with alcohol - first enjoying it, then merely watching, then not watching it and unhappily drinking.

The title text refers to torrents, which are a way to obtain large amounts of data over the internet. Since the Holiday Special was only aired once on television and was never released on VHS or DVD, torrents of the TV recordings are one of the few ways to actually see it. According to Munroe, he had torrented a copy of the film and intended to watch it in its entirety, in spite of its terribleness, just to cement himself as a nerd. However, he underestimated how bad it really was, and could not make it all the way through.

The title text may also contain an subtle play on a line of Star Wars dialogue. In Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader says to Luke Skywalker, "Obi-Wan once thought as you do. You don't know the power of the dark side! I must obey my master." The implication here being that "kitschy nerd cred" is the "dark side" being served by those who would sit through a torrent of The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Transcript

Protip: Even at "Bad Movie Night," avoid the Star Wars holiday special.

[A graph plots movie enjoyability against movie quality. It drops steadily through points marked "Good Movie" to "Okay Movie" to "Bad Movie," rises up again for "So-Bad-It's-Good (Plan 9, Rocky Horror, etc)," and then drops off the bottom of a graph with an arrow pointing to where "Star Wars Holiday Special" would be. There are three mini-panels below the graph, arranged from "Good" to "Bad" along the movie quality axis.]

[Three friends are on a couch, drinking and gesticulating enthusiastically.]

[The same three are sitting quietly, with a bottle on the floor.]

[The three are sitting around a table, drinking and looking miserable. One seems to be passed out on the table.]

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Discussion

Once, I trolled my friends by "recommending" the movie to them. They won't know what hit 'em. :) (P.S. Mwhaaa Haaa Haaa) ‎173.72.159.14 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Mandatory... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo........!!!!!!" 108.162.216.79 18:47, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Does anyone else take exception to Randall considering Rocky Horror to fall into this category? So it's not The Godfather, but it's not supposed to be! I think it's exactly the movie they were trying to make, and the result is low-budget brilliance. 108.162.219.223 01:03, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Does anyone else think Manos: The Hands of Fate should be below Star Wars? 108.162.238.11 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It's not nearly as bad, in my opinion. The MST3K version is definitely enjoyable. Birdemic, on the other hand, is definitely worse. Ad1217 (talk) 01:36, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

You could obtain an original home videocassette recording quite legally. Hundreds, if not thousands, still exist; otherwise, how could it be uploaded to Internet torrents? 108.162.250.217 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The graph appears to show the graph dropping below the line that would be projected from the section before the "so bad it's good" spike. At least, the slope becomes steeper and shows no sign of decreasing, and the Christmas Special is indicated to be far down, off the screen. This seems to imply an anti-spike, a sort of inverse to the "so bad it's good" spike, which fits with the title of the comic. Richmond tudor (talk) 05:25, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Could someone please explain what he means by torrent on this page? 108.162.221.4 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Should a link to the Archive.org page where the Star Wars Holiday Special can be seen in it's entirety be added to this description? (link removed) --199.27.133.100 19:41, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Anonymous editor here; that would be condoning piracy, which I'm fairly sure Dgbrt does not allow. Out of a precaution of safety I've removed your link, but it can be seen in the edit history for the talk page should someone willing wish to subject themselves to that... at best, hot mess.

On a side note, your comment was (probably unintentionally) pretty funny. 172.69.68.17 18:24, 19 October 2021 (UTC)