We further recognize that the number of bad films is so enormous and the competition for the very worst is so intense, that all decisions reached here are subject to considerable second-guessing.

The Medveds had previously celebrated bad cinema in the 1978 The Fifty Worst Films of All Time, many of which were also featured in the various Golden Turkey Awards categories.

Raquel Welch is judged the Worst Actress of All Time over nominees including Candice Bergen and Mamie van Doren.

Richard Burton is judged as the Worst Actor of All Time over nominees John Agar, Tony Curtis and Victor Mature.

While conceding he is sometimes brilliant, the authors claim Burton's "occasional triumphs only serve to highlight the pathetic waste in most of his films; for every Equus in which he appears there are at least a half-dozen Cleopatras or Boom!s.

"[4] The "Acknowledgements" page of The Fifty Worst Films of All Time ends with: Betsa Marsh wrote for the Gannett News Service, "In their breezy, irreverent style, bristling with puns and sarcasm, the Medveds take us from one debacle to another...

The Medved position — if we discount its patina of Mad Magazine masochism and resolve to stomach their facetious tone — also suggests that the best bad movies are akin to masterpieces.