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RiffTrax’s 200th Riff82 Replies to “RiffTrax’s 200th Riff”Commenting at Satellite News
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THEORY: EricJ is actually… Michael J. Nelson, in an elaborate trolling scheme.
Think about it, won’t we?
Perhaps a banning is in order? I know he’s been banned elsewhere. He clearly will not give up taking potshots and causing unrest.
But, Space Mutiny is Season 8
and please don’t ban EricJ, I find his unrest to be highly amusing
I’ve noticed EricJ has tried to quantify his displeasure with RT, but he apparently fails to appreciate how such protestations are strictly subjective.
In other words, EricJ has tried to logically defend what is purely an emotional reaction on the part of EricJ.
You know, EricJ fooled me. There were a few threads recently, particularly May 30th’s Weekend Discussion Thread: Truly Bottom-of-the-Barrel Movies where EricJ’s posts were constructive and not egregiously anti-episode 513 onward. There were one or two Mike jabs, but on the whole, EricJ’s posts were quirky and endearing. I got suckered in. I wanted to root for the underdog.
But EricJ’s posts in this thread revert to form. It really is pointless to engage EricJ, aka Lambert (the whiny woman in Alien). Even Trace’s Crow would rub EricJ’s face in crunchy underwear.
Does that make me a bully, EricJ?
MEANWHILE …
Rifftrax has released another short: “Animal Antics”, another “educational” short made by crazy people.
This time, we follow the adventures of a rabbit whose quest for the meaning of the universe is hampered by being in an “educational” short made by crazy people.
Enjoy, kids! And remember, 4th Grade is too early to decide to give up on our school system. It gets better, kind of.
And here I thought we were here to sing the praises of pants…
Just another bit of musing…
I’ve always found that the movie itself is the star. When the movie is interesting (color always seems to help), I can watch the episode over and over.
So, I can’t really sit through Slime People or Mole People. But I love me some Robot Holocaust or Time Chasers.
Some movies are endearingly bad. Some movies are just bad.
It’s the same with RT/CT. Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks is hard to endure, but Rattlers/Alien Factor are a treat. Voodoo Man and Maniac are a chore, but Kingdom of the Spiders and Mutant are delightful.
The movie is more important than Mike or Joel.
That’s something we always understood–By “we”, I don’t just mean “Old-school Comedy Central geezers”, but us special band of Knights-Templar MSTies who grew up in the Boston area in the 80’s: “Sheesh, here we go, the 24 Hour Sci-FI Festival story again….”–Yes, the Festival story again.
We knew what it was like to be trapped in outer space (just try being in a suburban college-town at 2am, with one main-street and no bus or subway back to the city), and having literally nowhere to go but back inside the theater to watch classic sci-fi movies, good and bad. With the bad ones, the mind rebels, and when a few hundred minds rebel all in the same direction at the same time, there’s a sort of psychic spontaneous mass-movement to get silly on an entire audience level. We might get excited about what sounded like a good sci-fi movie (“Hey, Galaxina, it’s got a Playmate in it!”, “The Terminal Man? Well, it’s Crichton, it might be like Westworld!”)–And when it sank in that, like Servo said, we were in for one long, hard ride, it wasn’t so much about “punishing” the movie as just, well, as they say in the song, keeping our sanity. For ninety minutes to two hours, in real time, with no commercials.
You get that feeling in the live concert videos and the live shows, when there’s a sense that there’s no escape from the theater without the riffing, and if the movie’s strange enough, the audience is one beat ahead of the jokes. CT captured that, RT Live tries to capture that, and the Joel episodes emphasized that they were just trying to survive the movies that the Mads were sending them. Castle of Fu Manchu, or even Hobgoblins, might not be the worst piece of celluloid ever made, but comically playing up the idea of the movie nearly driving either group of riffers to insanity just pushed them into legendary status.
And what seems to be the most gratingly negative aspect to the Mike era or RT is that MK&B simply don’t WANT to be in the theater. They’re too hip for the movie. It annoys them. They snigger and giggle at it. They audibly wish they could treat it like geeks in the school class (“Can I go up on screen and dump this movie’s books in the hallway?”) They’re impatient with it, like high school fratboys in the theater on Friday night waiting for the movie to get to some scenes with boobies in it. (“‘Final Sacrifice’? C’mon!–Start Finally-Sacrificing something!”) The movie is no threat to them, so it must be “punished” for being something some nerd in his parent’s basement created just to annoy them–After all, Some Movies Have It Coming.
It’s not fun, it’s not funny, it’s drearily negative, it’s nothing that even appeals to our own experiences as audiences unless we were the same snotty bastards to begin with, and it’s not created by anyone who spent time in a theater with any love for the movie, for the audience, or for, well, anything other than the comics’ own belief in their own hipness-made-to-order.
The movie IS the star, because it should bring something so strange you just didn’t see it coming–Anyone who’s in charge of the show has to come from a background respecting the strangeness of an unexplainably bad movie writing its own jokes, and if it does, the audience will be in on the joke before the joke’s even delivered.
Rifftrax may not equal MST in it’s hey day, but few things make me laugh as much or have anywhere near the rewatch value. I can’t say I understand all the negativity here. Maybe “someone’s bitter”.
Boy, I hate to write even one more thing on this thread the way it’s gone, but I feel like I have to at least point out a clear distinction between what Eric is saying and what I was (trying?) to establish: unlike him, I LIKE Mike (and Kevin and Bill) and thought their seasons of MST3K were just fine (like Joel’s, some were classic, some were lesser efforts, but all were amazing and rewatchable and every bit as good as anything that had come before).
And I also liked a LOT of what Rifftrax had done at the start — the first few years were, if not *quite* as good as MST3K, at least very, very solid work. It’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve noticed a DEFINITE drop in quality and I think anyone who actually compared it would notice as well.
But a poster here who talked about the differences in business model between CT and RT was *somewhat* on the button when he pointed out that Joel and company were going after a different audience. I would argue that that particular change has only happened relatively recently with RT, though. It has nothing to do with movie selection — you can riff a contemporary movie with the same sensibilities as MST3K always had. Or you can take the “modern” approach, which I just don’t find funny at all.
I think RT is indeed now pandering (and that’s a very appropriate word) to a younger audience and I really believe it’s directly due to who is writing for it — newer kids like Conor just don’t have the same comic attitude, nor wit. And it is this latter element that is desperately missing from about 90% of all the riffs I hear come out of RT. That lack of wit is what did The Simpsons in, and it’s hard to come by, and MST3K had it in spades, The Film Crew as well, and definitely CT and RT had it for a while (when I suspect Mike was still at least doing some of the writing) and it’s vanished.
Anyway, that’s the last I’ll say — Mike and company seem to be doing very well without my business (well, I *just* stopped buying, but I’m sure they’ll never miss me :>) and as I’ve said a number of times, I DO want them to do well. They gave me many, many hours of enjoyment, so much so that I can never repay them enough (so that even the money I “wasted” the last few years of RT had some value). It’s always sad to see legends deteriorate but I won’t watch it happen anymore.
Wow. I blinked and the thread went from congratulating Rifftrax for reaching a major milestone to a drawn-out “Rifftrax vs MST3K” and “Mike vs Joel” debate.
Over 15 years after MST3K was cancelled, I find it odd that there are still people trying to argue a case that Mike didn’t contribute anything significant to the show. If they still feel that way, there’s nothing I can say to change their opinion.
As for Rifftrax, I see no reason why enjoying it is any kind of betrayal of my loyalty to MST3K. It is a smaller project and can certainly be more hit-or-miss. That being said, I continue to enjoy it immensely and there are still occasions where it has left me laughing to the point that I’m watering at the eyes and gasping for air. I’ve loved being along for the ride as Rifftrax has evolved and I can’t wait to sit in a theater with other fans to watch Miami Connection the day before my birthday!
Not to beat a dead horse, but I’m wondering why EricJ is still subscribed to receive email updates from Rifftrax. It seems to be the equivalent of an atheist signing up with “Bible Quote of the Day” and then b*tching about the stuff showing up in his email everyday.
(Apart from Hulu/Amazon, I’ve never paid them a dime–except for the occasional free previews–and they send it to me anyway, probably because they just canvas the member list of Satellite News. It’s either A) that, B) a website cookie left around from the time they tried showing the free Magic Christmas Tree bonus (another childhood memory I had to verify), or C) they’re just doing it to be nasty.
In any case, if they’re going to sock me with one anyway, like the homeless guy who follows you for two blocks after you already told him you’re not giving him any change, is there any way I can switch to a weekly sales e-mail instead of a DAILY one? Or don’t they have one?)
David J, #61: Agree 100%
Many here who claim to be MST fans seem to have forgotten the “Prime Directive”: It’s just a show, you should really just relax!
EricJ, I would try using the “unsubscribe from this list” link at the bottom of the Rifftrax emails. If that doesn’t do the trick, email them directly… They really are a small company and they’ve always responded quickly to me (unless they really do have it in for you, lol).
Someone needs a Joel-shaped tampon for his uptight vajayjay.
Wow. Pretentious much?
Say what you will about “Joel vs Mike” or “MST3K vs RiffTrax”, the one thing we can all agree on is that modern pop culture SUCKS.
Like a previous poster said: “I love Mike, Kevin, and Bill… but even they aren’t enough to make we want to buy(or watch) a ‘Twilight’ movie”
That’s actually not a bad point about the RT list. I enjoy getting it because I buy VODs from time to time, but I really don’t need to be reminded constantly about their live shows.
But I really don’t see them being much different from MST3K. I can’t bear to watch the MST3K skits over and over and over, most of them weren’t even funny once. So Rifftrax is actually better in that regard. But they seemingly do lot more bad bad movies, as opposed to the good bad movies and a lot of times I’ve been burned spending $10 on a movie that really sucks..
I know rational arguments might not make much headway here… but I find that Rifftrax has done a pretty good job about being more inclusive and less hurtful with their humor, both over the years and in comparison with MST3K. Try watching the original riff of “Mr. B Natural” without cringing at the gay jokes. I dare you.
@#70: Rifftrax tells its fair share of gay/trans jokes, too (a few people have complained about this on the Rifftrax forums). It doesn’t make me cringe, however, because I see it as ridiculing the stereotypes, not the people.
Well, it does and it doesn’t. There’s some pretty quality made stuff out there, but the problem is that there’s not a lot of diversity. If you like fantasy, you’re expected to watch Game of Thrones. If you like sci-fi, it’s Doctor Who. Outside of those, there’s not really a good alternative in those two genres. And that’s a shame, because I’m getting kind of tired of Doctor Who lately. As for movies, it seems like it’s either superheroes or adaptations of children’s books. And they can be good, don’t get me wrong, but there’s other stuff I like that they’re not even touching.
Off topic enough? ;)
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I have many gay friends, and some are hardcore Msties from way back. Mr. B’s a fav of theirs.
Wow. This may well be the worst thread I’ve ever seen on this website.
Eric, man, you’re making yourself look really bad here. It’s been over twenty years. Give it a rest. It’s okay, honey. It’ll be okay. You’re complaining for the sake of complaining and doing a bang up job convincing nobody of anything except that you really, really don’t like rifftrax. We all do believe that, though. I don’t know why you need us to believe that, but I assure you, we do.
Great job rifftrax! Love you guys ????
@75:
I wish I could like this comment more than once. It should be “liked” into triple digits. Seriously. Thanks for putting into words what most of us are thinking.
Rifftrax’s writing is more mainstream and approachable than MST3K’s and CT’s. But, I’ve come to appreciate it as friendlier and more optimistic. And, it’s still really not all that different from MST.
In the end, though, fan debate will always come down to Joel vs. Mike. More than cancellation and the channel switch, the host succession was the seminal event in MST’s history. It was a huge change for fans.
@#52 I don’t think a banning is in order, sure his comments are unpopular & most of us disagree with them. I believe his voice should be heard just as much as mine or anyone else. Without opposing viewpoints comments are boring. I only think a banning is in order if someone is being an outright jerk name calling and stuff.
Without people feeling free to speak their minds this message board will lose all meaning so please don’t ban or censor anyone, even an unpopular opinion has value.
What I meant is that they’ve been getting better. Some of their stuff is problematic, yeah, but they’ve been getting more inclusive than it was early in the Rifftrax run (or, especially, the Film Crew material).
Re: #79
No ban. I’ve come to regard our Mr. EricJ not as a troll but a grouch. He’s in a bad mood, and he likes it that way. As a depressive I can appreciate that. Perhaps a Grumpy Cat avatar is in order.
For what it is worth, I saw Stone Cold when it was released at the drive-in leading the bill. We managed with the help of a great deal of beer to get through Stone Cold, but stood no chance against the second feature, Hudson Hawk.
Say what you will about Stone Cold, at least we didn’t drive out of it like Hudson Hawk which is a movie that actively hates its audience.