Here's the answer to the one question every single fan of the original wants to ask: Yes, it's still funny, even with different hands operating the robot arms. The jokes are just as rapid-fire and absurd, the references just as wide-ranging: In the first five minutes of the first episode, the bots and Jonah name-check the theme song to The Munsters, The Wicker Man, Stretch Armstrong, Star Trek, vintage ads for Smucker's and DiGiorno pizza, Prince, and North by Northwest. What's different? Not much. The actors, of course, have been switched out, although the show takes pains to point out how they're connected to their predecessors -- Max is the son of TV's Frank (played in the original by Frank Conniff); Kinga, who calls herself a "third-generation supervillain," bears the Forrester family name; Jonah, like Joel (Joel Hodgson) and Mike (Mike Nelson) before him, was a low-level worker before winding up on the Satellite of Love. Other differences: Jonah and company are now marooned on the Moon 13 Research Station instead of deep space, and Tom Servo's hands now appear functional instead of being mounted on Slinkies.

Otherwise? Same vibe, same style, similar sets, each episode ends with a "button" (a clip from the episode's movie), and the movies haven't gotten any better or better known (the first movie skewered is Danish monster movie Reptilicus, which of course gives Jonah and the bots a chance to sing a surprisingly catchy song about how each sovereign nation boasts its own giant monster). Best of all, the gags are just as sharp and unexpected, whether they're stupid-funny, surprisingly erudite, or oddly philosophical. This show hasn't lost its edge; Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return is just as much as a hysterical, lightning-quick, geek-freak cult artifact as it ever was. Thank heavens.