Rifftrax goodness.

Rifftrax Live: Night of the Living Dead.

I am a rather zealous fan of MST3k(Mystery Science Theater 3000 -If you don't know what it is, kindly visit Google.com and remedy this. I'll wait. And maybe finish this blog post in parenthesis, e.e. Cummings style. mikenelsonwasstrandedinasatelliteinspace) and have been since Junior High back in the early 90s when the show made its debut. Whilst in college I managed to acquire quite a collection of episodes thanks to the power of the internet. Yep, while the other kids were drinking, socializing, and studying, I put my energy into finding every episode of a dorky 10 year old television show.

Mission accomplished. But how it cost. It seems that the girlfolk are as little impressed with a large collection of illegal copies of a obscure show from cable television as they are with one's ability to beat Super Mario 2 using just Toad. I don't know what terrible realities that this fact implies about our society, but I fear for our future.

I love the show, and use it as part of my model for my perfect (and fictitious) future bride. Intelligent. Geeky. Looks good clad in the metal bikini from Return of the Jedi(or dressed as Velma from Scooby-Doo – I have expanded my horizons some). Likes/loves MST3k. Where are you dream girl? Cause I'll be hiding in my apartment and avoiding the real world when you're finally ready to come find me!

Basically the show is this: A man is launched into space by a pair of mad scientists. The Mads are running experiments on the simpleton in the form of forcing him to watch the worst movies ever made so that they can find the worst of the worst and use it as a weapon to conquer the world. Said victim makes several robots to keep him company while he's trapped on a satellite orbiting the earth. Finally, it all boils down to a trio of characters making wisecracks at terrible movies for our enjoyment.

If you like it, we are cool.

Sadly, MST3k was canceled in the late 90s. Which makes sense, it had quite a run and I expect that most of the people involved wanted to get on with the lives and do something else.

For a little while at least.

They've come back. With Gusto!

First there was the Film Crew – which was almost a carbon copy of the old show, down to the host segments(sketches) that broke up the films into easier to swallow doses. The Film Crew was comprised of half of the Mst3k cast and they released 4 movies before running into legal issues and then moving on. If you've not sampled their wares, I suggest going straight for the gold and jumping into Wild Women of Wongo.

Finally came Rifftrax. Rifftrax is basically MST3k without the host segments. But more than that, they are no longer affected by budget issues. One of the main difficulties of the original show is that they were constrained to public domain films, or whatever drek they could get on the cheap. But with the power of science, chemistry, industry and technology they only need to record the track to whatever movie they desire. The end-user provides a copy of the movie and downloads the appropriate file, and bam, comedy gold.

They've got quite a catalog. Check it out. 

Recently, they've added a new trick to their repertoire. Live shows that they beam internationally(Canada counts as internationally). This is exactly what it sounds like, you goto the theater and watch the movie as the crew performs their riffs in front of an audience.

While driving over, it occurred to me that I'd be stuck in a theater for some 2 hours. In my late teens and early 20s I would have started to panic at the thought – to the point that it colored my whole outlook on life. And still taints how I think of things to this day – thus the aforementioned thought. I shrugged off the notion. Amazing enough as that is - but by and large I've gotten over the worst of my anxiety – and then went on to enjoy the evening.

That's it. I sat in a theater with a friend and laughed my ass off for the better part of two hours. Night of the Living Dead was the second time I saw a Live event (the first was Starship Troopers). It was a fantastic experience, and I look forward to the December 5^th showing of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.