From MST3K to RiffTrax

I was pleased to learn (thanks Stu Bushman) that many of the people behind MST3K have returned to what made they successful in the 1990s: making funny comments during movies. I assume most readers of this blog will remember the wonderful TV series Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (see wikipedia entry), which ran for many years on Comedy Central and then the Sci-Fi network, where a human and two robots appeared as wise-cracking sillohuettes overlayed on really bad movies mostly from the 1950s-1970s. It was one of my favorite shows during my college years in the early 90s, and I continued to enjoy it until it was finally cancelled in 1999.

Well, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbet and several others involved in the MST3K are now doing much the same thing with their RiffTrax service. Gone are the sillohuettes and robots, but the basic idea remains: funny commentary while you watch a movie, or now also some popular TV episodes too. One big difference is that rather than picking on easy targets like Ed Wood movies and other cinematic bombs, they are taking on some of the most popular films of all time. Take a look at their site for a sample of what they are riffing on these days.

Their work isn't free -- seems like it $3.99 per movie. I haven't bought any yet, as I'm too busy and have too much of a backlog of other entertainment to watch right now. But I liked the couple of samples I saw on their homepage (refresh the page to see a few of them)... so I'll probably buy a few rifftrax at some point, to see their comedic take on some of my favorite movies.