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Updated: Spontaneous RiffTrax Live! Show

With an extremely short notice–it was announced only an hour ahead of time–RiffTrax beta tested its live pay-per-view capability with an impromptu live riffing by Mike, Kevin and Bill on Tuesday. For $0.10, people were able to watch the crew riff the 1949 short “Cooking: Terms and What They Mean.” There was no audience interaction or Q&A session during this test, but RiffTrax promises that there will be in the future.

24 Replies to “Updated: Spontaneous RiffTrax Live! Show”

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  1. The Professor says:

    Ten cents is a lot to ask, folks.

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  2. Cabbage Patch Elvis says:

    EXTREMELY short notice, I’d say. :???:

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  3. Frank says:

    That was fun. Here’s the short they riffed, if anyone is interested:

    http://www.archive.org/details/CookingT1949

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  4. mst3ktemple says:

    That worked well. Any idea when this will be available to view again?

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  5. casimar says:

    Wow the announcement AND the show came during my commute home… oh well.

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  6. Andre says:

    Yeah, me too.
    The story of my life…..

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  7. Jeff in Denver says:

    Too rich for my blood! :shock:

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  8. Cronkite Moonshot says:

    Wow I thought that the live webcasts were just them being really cool and giving their fans a few free little shows. Of course I know it was also promotion, and in fact I bought both of those shorts right after the webcasts ended (well, when their website eventually came back up after that last live show crash debacle anyway). But now it kind of looks as if those free webcasts might have just been a way of testing the waters to see if doing live webcasts was actually feasible so that they could eventually charge for them. I personally wouldn’t go for that. I might have dropped a dime on this one had I known about it simply out of curiosity, but I would never pay any real money for a choppy, artifact filled webcast video.

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  9. Jana says:

    More notice next time! And you might want to consider doing them at a later EST – to catch people on the west coast who might not be able to check it out before the work day is over. :)

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  10. beth563 says:

    fat lot of good it did telling us less than an hour prior. why bother doing it at all?

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  11. Katana says:

    I caught it fifteen minutes before the go-time and decided, 10 cents, why the hell not? I was thoroughly amused.

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  12. Scooter says:

    @10
    I imagine they announced it so short beforehand because, as mentioned, it’s a “beta test”, and they want to make sure they can have it working. If they announced it earlier, and the amount of people that showed up last time tried to watch it, and the whole website crashed again….well that wouldn’t have exactly been a successful test now would it?

    I work overnight, so I missed the announcement, show, and the complaints/praise following since that is my sleep time. I’ll just have to wait for the official release.

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  13. tim says:

    whats the advantage of seeing it live?

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  14. Codemus says:

    What? WHAT? Wait, when? That’s… that’s hours ago. HOURS AGO. Is this some kind of sick joke?!?
    Wait, what time zone? 6 EST… darn! I was at work! DARN IT!
    Hmm… maybe it’s already on youtube…

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  15. Ukridge says:

    Got home yesterday just in time for this. It was a nice surprise and a funny riff. Look forward to more of these.

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  16. It IS kind of an interesting question — what would be the point of this?

    I can understand a truly live show, where you hear laughter from others and get a kind of feedback/energy you would not get otherwise. But isn’t this basically like paying for a rehearsal? Why would anyone want to do that?

    Unless there is some kind of interactivity planned (and I have no idea if that is even feasible) I just don’t understand this at all. Can someone even give me a clue? Is it because they might make a mistake, and that’s funny? I guess if that was the case you could simply pay for a show they did just once, mistakes and all, but I don’t think we should be encouraging sloppy work.

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  17. badger1970 says:

    I think of it as the McLean. Another product put out to see if consumers will purchase this service. If it fails, no biggie, the McLean goes away. If it is successful then it can evolve into something bigger- a McLean with low-fat, slightly processed American cheese.

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  18. Ah, good cheese analogy (because this is all about cheese in it’s various forms :>)

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  19. Magicvoice says:

    There is really no point to doing this live on ppv. It’s essentially the same as watching a DVD or download. Maybe they should take it on the road like the CT crew!

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  20. Bat Masterson says:

    I personally think there’s a completely different energy when they do it live that makes it feel a lot more fun.

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  21. lamontcranston says:

    I agree #20. Even without an audience there is a certain kind of live energy you get from the riffers that makes it feel special.

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  22. Ukridge says:

    #16, as far as interactivity, I believe most of these live events have had and are planning to have a Q&A with the riffers after the short. This one didn’t because it was a beta test to try things out again after the last live event crashed in the middle of the short.

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  23. Cronkite Moonshot says:

    I’m glad to see them trying to iron out the kinks of live webcasts after the last one melted their servers, but why does it have to involve PPV? I’d gladly pay for a ticket to see them in person at a real live show, but the way these live webcasts are I just can’t imagine paying to see them. A crummy, blurry and artifact filled little streaming web picture of them watching a big TV and audio that sounds like it’s coming over a VOIP phone? It’s great fun when it’s for free, but I can’t imagine paying for that.

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  24. lamontcranston says:

    #23, do you honestly think that this isn’t worth paying 10 cents? I’ve seen two of the live PPV things now and I found the picture and sound to be fine. And I thought it was plenty fun. Definitely worth the buck or whatever that earlier show cost (don’t recall the exact price anymore).

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