Mystery Science Theater 3000

It's way up there. Shame they took so many of them off of Netflix Instant recently. Particularly the one where they mocked Werewolf, which is one of their all-time best.

I assume you're aware of--and similarly infatuated with--RiffTrax?

I've streamed a few of the "best of" clips from YouTube but I have yet to hear a full RiffTrax of any movie so far.

Ah. Well, odds are good you'd like them. They can lose something in that they're not always done on terrible films, which gives them a very different feel. And I find after one I've kind of had my fill of the humor for a little while. But they can be pretty great.

Definitely start with the Twilight riffs, if you're going to give them a go. If you like those, the Star Wars prequels are pretty good, too.

They also have live shows from time to time; I've been to a few and they're pretty invariably hysterical.

Ya I saw them do Manos a few months ago and it was two solid hours of non stop laughing. The short films they riff on at the start are even better than the movie proper. Easily the funniest movie theater experience I've had

Rifftrax is very hit-or-miss. The really great ones are those featuring Bill Corbett, as he's easily the funniest writer in MST3K's history, which is why the riffing in the show became immensely better when he was hired during the 1996 hiatus. This was a great move after losing the brilliant Frank Conniff, who gave the early seasons most of their amusingly obscure film and literary references. But I digress, the bottom line being Rifftrax recordings with just Mike or Kevin tend to be kinda lame.

The problem with that is that they have other writers who don't riff at all, so it can't be assumed that any joke was written by the person who spoke it. I would assume there's a tendency towards that, but who knows?

All we can appraise with certainty are the deliver styles. I tend to prefer Mike and Kevin's, though not greatly, but mainly I like the way all three play off each other. Kevin's probably the most absurd (again, performance wise, though that obviously augments which jokes he ends up reading, I'm sure), Bill the most deadpan and obscure, and Mike more sarcastic. It's a great combination, and I have a suspicion that it's that lack of a third person, more than the specific combination of people, which most contributes to the relative lameness of some of the subpar riffs. I'm at the point where I'll usually skip any effort that doesn't have all three of them, regardless of which two are involved.

I'm not basing what I say on that at all. These are observations I've pieced together from years of reading about the show and listening to interviews and panels.The combination of those three styles is certainly part of it, but not all. When Corbett is involved all of their riffing improves, at least from what I've seen. Obviously I haven't watched every Rifftrax out there, and I know there are quite a few.

If you're saying you mean he's just the funniest person, then that's certainly the kind of thing you could glean from interviews. But if you're saying he actually writes the funniest jokes, that would seem to require some highly specific (and numerous) interviews/panels to render a verdict from. If such things exist, hey, I'd love to read them! Which is an honest request and not a chest-thumping challenge or anything. Most of what I've seen about the show gives you a rough idea of each guy's style, but not enough to parse out each guy's contribution.

As for the combination of riffers: insofar as you're just saying you like the ones with Corbett more, hey, to each their own. Whatever the reasons, the end product can be pretty great, and it's a slam-dunk recommendation for anyone who loved MST3K. And I'm consistently surprised by how many fans of the show haven't heard of it, though they've done a much better job of getting the word out over the last year or two.

I honestly don't remember the specific sources, but this weekend I will do some digging. That said, just think about the huge improvement in the riffing in the jump from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel. The only change to the writing staff is that Trace Beaulieu left and Bill Corbett came on. Yes the show was becoming more sophisticated with each season, but I think it's obvious there's a link there, and it definitely didn't have to do with the new network.Also synced videos of Rifftrax and the movies they riff are huge on torrent and pay-to-pirate websites, which I think have spread the news far better than their official website. Still, even so, few people have heard of it. Odd.

Another MST3K fan checking in here! My first episode was City Limits, with Robby Benson, Kim Cattrall, and James Earl Jones, among others. This was in the early 90s and I had no idea what it was, but after about five minutes I was laughing my butt off and hooked. City Limits is still a favorite---I'm still waiting for it to be released on DVD.

Other favorites they've done: Teenagers From Outer Space
Manos: The Hands of Fate This one seems to be on any self-respecting Mistie's Top 5 or Top 10 list.
Mitchell Oh, do I love this one. Joel and the 'Bots ream Joe Don Baker mercilessly and deservedly so. This is also were Joel left and Mike stepped in at the end.
The Giant Spider Invasion
Prince of Space
Werewolf I didn't know Rifftrax did this also, but the MST3K one is one of my favorites.
Godzilla vs. Megalon This one was available on MST3K Collection #10 and Godzilla fan that I am, I picked it up right away. I'm glad I did because they lost the rights to the film and it was replaced on subsequent sets with The Giant Gila Monster, which is a great one in its own right.
The Final Sacrifice
The Pod People I'd better stop there...I could list a whole lot more!


For those of you who don't know, five of the past performer/writers of the show have their own gig, called Cinematic Titanic. They perform it live on a stage and stand on a structure to either side of the giant screen were the film plays. They have many DVDs available and are on tour a lot. The performers are Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein (I believe he was on the first season only and was the first sidekick to Dr. Forrester), Frank Conniff, and Mary Jo Pehl. I've seen just bits of their videos but really need to get some DVDs!

Here is their site: http://www.cinematictitanic.com/

Plus, if you need a guide to what aired and when and if it's available on DVD, here's another site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mst3k_films#Season_3

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Saw the Starship Troopers Riffrax Live recently - terrible choice on their part. The movie's too long so they couldn't attach any weird shorts to it and, unforgivably, they treated it like it wasn't self aware and made fun of it for things where they clearly didn't understand what was meant to be achieved. So bad. So unfunny. After about fifteen minutes all I wanted was for them to shut up so I could enjoy watching Starship Troopers on a big screen with a packed house. That would have been cool

Zuh? They specifically went out of their way to make fun of how overt and clumsy the so-called satire was (IE: the Nazi-styled uniforms), so they knew exactly what it was going for.

I laughed plenty. Did miss the shorts, though.

"Hello, discount Rob Lowe."

I remember the quip about the Nazi uniforms. But it definitely felt like they completely missed the boat on so much of the point to the casting and acting and overall the Buenos Aries 90210ish part and the over-the-top military stuff. Or maybe I just give Starship Troopers way too much credit for how smart it is. Either way I didn't think their jokes were good

Well, yeah, if you think Starship Troopers is brilliant satire, there's a pretty good chance that's going to color your view of the whole thing, rightly or wrongly. I just don't think there's any reason to think they didn't "get" it; more likely they just didn't think a lot of the attempt. I didn't either, for what it's worth, so maybe that's why I liked it more.

Anyway, they've shown they can riff any film pretty well, I think, but obviously the best efforts remain those that have the added hilarity of being inexplicably terrible.

I always saw Starship Troopers as just a CGI popcorn flick and not much else.

As for MST3K, I had an incident last week where I nearly got hit by a forklift. Immediately after the incident I could not get this song out of my head.

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I'd be interested in seeing a Rifftrax of Starship Troopers. It's a big favourite of mine and, while I feel they work best with poorly made 'straight' films, I can see that Starship Troopers could work well.

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It's so disturbing how many people don't get Starship Troopers. BRILLIANT satire. One of Paul Verhoeven's best imo.

I've had The Final Sacrifice stuck in my head for months, I have it on VHS along with other favorites like Giant Spider Invasion, Riding with Death, and The Final Sacrifice.

I love the difference in their approach to the Rifftraxx of The Matrix as opposed to Reloaded and Revolutions. Reloaded starts out with a bang, citing movies that sucked on the third sequel, but The Matrix boldy sucked on #2, cracks me up every time. That clip is on YouTube somewhere, still can't post links yet so sorry for the inconvenience.

I caught one of their live shows broadcast via movie theaters, Reefer Madness, can't wait to catch another. So glad those guys are doing what nobody could possibly do better.

I preferred Kubrick's satire in Dr Strangelove personally. And do not misunderstand me I like Starship Troopers a lot, just never saw it as satire.

Oh, it's definitely satire, GS.

So I have been told. Granted I have seen the movie since I was a teenager so maybe the satire will be stronger beyond the "Would you like to know more?" segments which were most certainly a crack on wartime propaganda.