Riff Raff

One of the funniest TV programs ever is the late great Mystery Science Theater 3000, a show in which really cheesy movies (usually grade Z sci-fi flicks like Attack of the Giant Leeches, Pod People, The Incredible Melting Man, Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster, etc.) are subjected to a non-stop barrage of hysterical comments from three silhouetted figures at the bottom of the screen. Rhino has been consistently releasing DVDs of the program (which ran from 1990 to 1995 on Comedy Central, and from 1997 to 2000 on The Sci-Fi Channel), but the show has been long off the air. One of the big problems that the show had was that obtaining the rights to the movies they busted on was quite expensive. You wouldn't think this would be the case for such awful films (where "paying for the rights" could just as easily be a euphemism for "paying the director's bail") but once distributors got hip to what MST3K was doing, they weren't all that eager to help out. So the cost of the program was one of the reasons why it was cancelled.

The program's host and head writer, Michael J. Nelson, has been making a name for himself as a film critic, author, speaker, commentator, etc., and has hit upon a way of producing a type of MST3K without the expense of buying the rights to the movie: Riff Trax. Riff Trax is essentially a podcast; Nelson (and the occasional guest) sit down, watch the movie, and record their comments, jokes, insults, etc., and sell them as downloadable MP3s for $1.99. You open the MP3 in iTunes (or the MP3 player of your choice), rent (or download) the movie yourself, cue it up as instructed, and you're off. There is some "drift"--the MP3 and DVD get gradually out of sync--but the Riff Trax producers occasionally have a voice speak a line of dialogue from the movie to help re-sync the video and audio. It works very well.

They have three movies available--Road House, The Fifth Element, and Star Trek V: Shatner Kills the Franchise, on the latter, Nelson is joined by former MST3K cast member Kevin Murphy. Last weekend we watched/listened to the Riff Trax for Star Trek V and it was hilarious. Highly recommended.

Also available are Riff Trax taken from the Legend Films DVD reissues of the infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space, Night of the Living Dead, and Reefer Madness. These Riff Trax are gleaned from the commentary tracks on these DVDs, which feature Nelson doing the MST3K thing. Some weeks ago, we had watched the Riffed version of the sublimely awful Plan 9 and, again, it was very very funny.

The ease of podcasting these days also means that just about anyone can produce their own "riff tracks." Hmm...