Maybe you know Jonah Ray from his work as one of the co-hosts of the Nerdist podcast, or from the time he spent writing for a nearly ridiculous number of TV shows over the past decade or so. Maybe you’re hardcore and know him from his time in the Hawaiian punk scene. But anyone with even a casual appreciation for contemporary comedy knows The Meltdown, the weekly show he, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon put on for years in the back of an L.A. comic book shop that spawned a series of the same name on Comedy Central. At that same time, Ray was crafting the shaggy and irresistible Hidden America for Seeso (seriously, get a pitcher of mental margaritas and binge) and preparing for the return engagement of Mystery Science Theater 3000 — both live and on Netflix — which is the beloved pop-culture juggernaut bringing him Music City way this week.
So you were in a position where you were finishing up The Meltdown — the live show and the TV show — wrapping Season 2 of Hidden America, and then going right into MST after. Did you get a chance to catch a breath before having to head back out on the current tour?
In L.A., when you have any free time, everyone always wants to know what you’re up to next. I literally had two shows come out within a month of each other, and everyone was asking, “Well, what’s next? What are you doing next?” And I wanted to respond, “If I can, I’m just gonna watch TV and lay out on the couch for a bit.” So my wife said, “Why don’t you do that? Why not veg out for a couple of weeks?” And that’s kind of what I did. And it was great. It was a great way not to have to work for a bit. … My comedy friends would all be like, “Oh, here’s Three-Show Jonah over here.” But this time next year it could be No-Shows Jonah — it’s just the way it works. You work so hard for so long, and when the work starts coming your way, even if you don’t necessarily have that kind of work ethic, you have to make it work.
In the first episode of the new MST, how did it feel to get to play the drums again?
It was really nice. There’s a moment in Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up book where he was on The Tonight Show and Johnny Carson did a Donald Duck impersonation and a magic trick, and then they went to commercial and Carson leaned over to him and said, “You’ll end up using everything you’ve ever known.” And I never really thought I’d still be playing drums at this point in my life, but then having the drums be the first thing you hear from my character, something that meant so much to me for so long, it was really, really rad. And actually I started playing more and more, and I’ve started a band with a few other guys, and it’s nice to get back into it.
The first time you heard the MST rap track “Every Country Has a Monster,” what went through your mind? Did you know it was going to become as special as it has?
Well, the first time I heard it, when they sent it to me, my response was, “You’re kidding me. I have to rap this?” I am not a rapper, and I was asking if we could slow it down. For me, it wasn’t until I saw it at one of the premieres that I was able to say, “That was crazy. I can’t believe we did that in the first episode and were able to pull it off.” I don’t have a lot of moments where I feel what you would call pride, maybe it’s because I was raised Catholic and it’s a sin to feel good about yourself, but when I saw that I honestly thought, “I’m kind of proud of myself.” And then I immediately dropped my phone, because everything has its comeuppance.
What is it like to grow up a fan of MST, and now all of a sudden you’re the star of the newest incarnation?
I don’t really have much to compare it to. It is so otherworldly, and I find I have to have a healthy amount of disconnect to not get overwhelmed. This is gonna sound weird, but it’s almost like time travel. I’m getting to do the thing that made me want to do comedy, that made me want to do things in general, as a kid. Because of Mystery Science Theater, I’m in Mystery Science Theater.
It’s like The Terminator. The thing has to happen in order for the thing to happen in the present day and affect the thing in the future.
[Laughs] It’s such a beautiful circular thing, and if I think about it too much, I get overwhelmed. But I have to remind myself that I have been working very hard for a long time, and that I earned it.
Do you miss The Meltdown? Both the weekly live show and the broadcast version?
Yeah. I miss it a lot. But I feel OK with it being done. Now, outside of the hype surrounding the show and the TV version, it really was an opportunity once a week to hang out with my friends and just goof around with one of the funniest guys in the world, and to do it every week. It was our clubhouse, and that’s the part I really miss about it. It was an easy way to hang out, and it was basically our poker night. ... One of the things that’s so great about this tour is that we’re out there at the same time as the growing popularity of [Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon’s film] The Big Sick, and it’s great because I’m doing all these interviews, but I also get to talk about my friends and their movie. And I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being connected to Kumail and Emily because of that show.
What would you say is your philosophy for dealing with people who talk shit on the Internet?
I’m still learning. I’m still trying to figure that out. ... Luckily, I’m at a point now where I can just look at actual reviews. I can go to reputable sites where someone who has made a career out of being a critic can offer educated analysis. I’d rather read a really well-written bad review than someone just writing, “You suck, you’re a cuck.”
What’s your favorite episode of the original MST run? Or if not your favorite, the one you find yourself returning to?
Well, [show creator Joel Hodgson] doesn’t like it when I say this, but it’s the movie where they do This Island Earth. It holds a very special place in my heart, mainly because I got to see it in a theater. I was visiting my aunt and uncle in Carson City, Nev., and it was playing in Reno, and I knew it wasn’t going to make it to my home in Hawaii, so I made my uncle drive to Reno to see it. And when it came out on video, it was one that I always had around, and one that I went back to a bunch. I mean, I have two comedy albums [2006’s This Is Crazy Mixed Up Plumbing and 2012’s Hello, Mister Magic Plane Person, Hello], and both of them are named after lines from that movie.
Is it easier for you as a writer and performer to make fun of a film that you hate, or one that you have some degree of affection for?
It’s always better if you like it a little bit, because then your approach to the jokes will have that little bit of lightness, which makes MST palatable rather than hateful. There are times when a movie is just terrible, and all you want to do is just yell at it, “You suck! You suck!” But then your anger becomes a bigger monster than your creativity. But there were quite a few movies this season where I’m like, “Well, they didn’t pull it off, but pretty cool.” I mean, The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t? Santa Claus getting evicted is a really interesting premise.
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