Best of the Worst is a regular online show from RedLetterMedia in which a few members of the production company will watch and Review several terrible films. After a rousing discussion, the cast votes on which movie is the "Best of the Worst", sometimes also deciding which one is just the worst. At the end of an episode, the physical copy of the worst movie may be destroyed in some inventive way.
Regular episodes feature three movies picked by the staff beforehand. Several spin-off varieties of episodes feature different methods of video selection:
- Wheel of the Worst: Three VHS tapes are chosen at random via spinning a Wheel of Decisions. The slots on the wheel are frequently occupied by an assortment of "weird" videotapes that include failed television pilots, Instructional Films, promotional videos and recordings of live events, mostly sent to them by viewers.
- Battle of the Genres: The gang watches one movie from three different genres and determine which is the best of its representative genre instead of the best overall. Since most traditional episodes no longer feature a specific theme, as they did in the first few years of the show, instead featuring a mix of movies, this has become a rare feature.
- Plinketto: Three B-movies are randomly selected by dropping a ball down a giant legally-distinct Plinko ... sorry, Plinketto board.
- Black Spine Edition: Adjacent to the types of videos seen on Wheel of the Worst, the gang selects unlabeled VHS tapes, giving an air of mystery and exaggerated dread to what they're choosing to watch. This was soon turned into a game, Junka, where two members play a modified version of Jenga with the VHS cassettes. The group is then forced to watch every single tape pulled by the winner, although only a selection of those tapes are actually reviewed during the roundtable.
- Spotlight: An entire episode is devoted to a particularly enjoyable or notable B-movie, generally running much shorter than a standard episode. Some episodes see the group reflecting on films which were early favorites of their "bad movie night" screenings which preceded the show, often seeming quaint compared to the various titles and personalities they've since covered.
Mike Stoklasa, Rich Evans and Jay Bauman are the central personalities of the show. They are supported by a rotating cast and crew, most of whom have worked on previous RedLetterMedia projects, including Jack Packard, Josh "The Wizard" Davis and, in more recent years, Tim Higgins. Early episodes often included Mike's girlfriend Jessi Nakles. Some episodes feature special guest members, such as actress/comedienne Gillian Bellinger (co-star of Red Letter Media's feature film Feeding Frenzy) and Canadian visual effects artists Colin Cunningham and Jim Maxwell (both of whom worked on Space Cop).
Further, celebrity guests of varying degree have included:
- Actor/fight choreographer/Giftedly Bad director Len Kabasinskinote
- Comic book artist Freddie Williams IInote
- Screenwriter Max Landisnote
- Actor/writer/director Simon Barrettnote
- Actor Macaulay Culkinnote (typically alongside Shawn DePasquale of Bunny Ears
) - Comedian/actor Patton Oswaltnote
- Actor Jack Quaidnote
- Comedian/impressionist Josh Robert Thompson of The Howard Stern Show and The Late Late Show with Craig Fergusonnote
- Composer Bear McCrearynote