VIRUS may be the most disappointing riff yet

[SuspiriaTrumpsItFollowsCrap]

While you, yourself (again) showed no effort, again underscoring my point, BillyBubbieJoe.

[Otrader]

M, K and B are getting up there in age. The energy and comedic hunger from season 1 - 10 are just not there now. As I write this, I'm watching the 1080P EP 505 - Magic Voyage of Sinbad ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAkBgvKbnao ) and it's f'n hilarious. Honestly, I don't think there was a bad episode in season 1 - 10.

[NotRichBatman]

I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me, and it'll happen to you, too

I don't mind these topics coming up all the time.
I'm grateful they've done it for so long
I really wish over the years they had made different decisions (they skewed way too family friendly, nepotism hires, and sometimes the releases are meh, but I've liked the last handful)
it is what it is
Being 2024, I like to actually enjoy what I watch. that means an uncut movie, nice video transfer, etc

[tman54]

Rifftrax has made some of the funniest, most enduring and entertaining comedy ever, that will always hold a special place in my heart (and I'm sure most of yours, too). But their most recent efforts feel tragically uninspired and surprisingly unfunny.  
I watched the new 'grimtrax' film Virus, and there's not a single joke that stood out to me or that I even remember - I'm not saying that that will be the case for anyone else, and maybe you enjoyed it - I'm just mentioning it as a personal metric for what I fear is a noticeable drop in creativity and humor of their writing or riffing process. So many of the jokes are intentional groaners, baffling forced puns, and sub dad-joke level material, which, while present in even some of their best work, were never the substance of their creative wit, which they seem to form now: there were always actual jokes and energy around lampooning the films and creating a hilarious alternate reality of perception and humor that truly made their content memorable and irresistible!

Now, even though Virus is a grimtrax, which they took pains to distinguish from their regular content as material more striking or morbid in tone or substance...the jokes should still be jokes... it's not as though grimtrax are meant to be LESS funny or contain only certain jokes. I don't know that that should be a factor. And even so, many of their other more recent releases (The Amazing Bulk is similarly negligible and void of funny, memorable material, and both Hell of the Living Dead and Undefeatable may have had 3-4 good lines in them) just do not have the punch or level of quality that they so effortless achieved over the many years.

Idk if i'm so much expecting anyone to agree on THIS particular riff, but in general, does Anyone else sympathize with or relate to my concern that the Rifftrax boys are "more miss than hit" recently?


In case it helps or establishes my pedigree, these are some of my personal favorite rifftrax releases:
Laser Mission, Treasure of the Amazon, Sisters of Death, Missile X, Girl from Rio, Trucker's Woman, Ghost House, Psychotronic Man, Curse of Bigfoot, Neutron the Atomic Superman, Alien Outlaw, Abraxas, Contamination, not to mention their Harry Potter, Transformer, and Twilight series and all the other great just-the-jokes riffs. 

TDS Frank

I am a long time MST3k fan ever since it was on TV back in the day and I love Rifftrax, Problems I see in the content they are releasing lately. 

1. its shotgun, meaning they are just spewing out content even if it's terrible, I mean I understand the movies are supposed to be shitty, but some of the movies they have riffed are just beyond garbage... like I can't even watch it to enjoy the riffs.... 
2. They have a list of decent movies they could riff.... IDK how many ppl have asked for GOR, the first in the series and that would be a great riff for them and thats just an example... I feel like sometimes they are just phoning it in and that may be because Bill or Mike aren't writing their own jokes, they are relying on others to write them and they are just parroting the content, IDK that's what it seems like to me. 
3. I agree they should go back to a monthly release, take their time and produce worthy content..... they have already proven that MST3k cannot stand on its own without them.... Every season of MST3k that Joel has tried to reboot has been a dud IMO and that's fine.... you can't replace the OG. 

I appreciate the fan content and I love that some here have even spliced riffs to make movies riffed that is awesome! but these guys need to step up their game, I've since quit my sub to their platform, and I don't know if I will ever pay for it again tbh.... not unless they start producing decent riffs that like you said are actually funny.... which it has been some time since they did that.

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- The movies are getting far worse in general.

I think this has a lot to do with the fans recommending all the crap they see on Red Letter Media. Not every movie that appears on that channel needs a riff.

I love RLM but couldn't agree more. Surviving Edged Weapons, sure. That'd be a good riff. The others? Not so much. Suburban Samsquanch sounded great in theory, but in practice...? Nah.

Preach.

I watch Best of the Worst so I don't have to watch the movies they suffer through.

Every once in a while they stumble on a flick that they like and I end up watching, based on their recommendation. I'd say I watch one out seventy-five movies they talk about. That said, Suburban Sasquatch looked like pure trash on BotW, junk disguised as a movie. Forget low-hanging fruit, it's fruit rotting on the forest floor.

That said, I'm glad Rifftrax experiments. We've gotten some interesting offerings like the Shazam shorts and the wacky anime riffs, not to mention the always-something-offbeat cheesiness from Bridget and MJ. The B&MJ movies are films I would ever never watch unriffed, but damn they work as riffs  Whatever template they're using (chick flicks?) is on point.

Now, allow me to digress for just a moment: I would love for them to riff an unedited Hard Ticket to Hawaii, but that's hardly a bad film in the way Bulk and Saquatch are.

Any of the Andy Sidaris flix are worth a riff lol especially that one

[Lorem Ipsum]

My 2 pennies:

All of our favorite Riffers are actors (except Mary Jo who was just an uncredited extra on Darkstar). As such, they should be providing a performance which elevates the written material.

My favorite Riffers are Bridget and MJ. In every movie or short they helm they come across as two friends enjoying cracking jokes at bad films, similar to what many of us have done in the past with our own friends. No matter how bad of a feature they may get, they always project fun and enjoyment with each others sense of humor and that is contagious.

Similarly, Cole and Janet have such comedic chemistry that they have produced one of my all time favorites, Jaws Ei-Ei-Ei. At this point I think I've seen Jaws Ei-Ei-Ei more than Jaws and that should say something about the ability of Cole and Janet to craft a diamond out of last years christmas gift.

In contrast I hate the Mike alone riffs. There are many good lines in Predator, but Mikes delivery reminds me of reading through an EULA, which I do each and every time so I know what I'm talking about.

Finally, I watched one of the more recent Rifftrax Live events a few weeks ago and during the opening banter the thought struck me, do these guys even like each other anymore? They had zero chemistry and came across as three random guys just trying to get their lines in on a crowded conference call.

I think Mike, Bill and Kevin are hitting the same wall that Joel has recently found himself up against; just being a place holder of what you were in the past is not enough. The fans want what you have delivered so successfully before: innovation, creativity, enjoyment...a performance.

Will MBK and even Joel step up? Who knows. If they do choose to step down I thank them for the joy they have delivered over many, many years and in closing...MAKE MORE BRIDGET AND MARY JO DAMNIT!

[I Want To Go Faster]

I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me, and it'll happen to you, too

I don't mind these topics coming up all the time.
I'm grateful they've done it for so long
I really wish over the years they had made different decisions (they skewed way too family friendly, nepotism hires, and sometimes the releases are meh, but I've liked the last handful)
it is what it is
Being 2024, I like to actually enjoy what I watch. that means an uncut movie, nice video transfer, etc

I'd be *so* with it ... except I can't remember where I put it.

[KingSuperMaster]

Finally, I watched one of the more recent Rifftrax Live events a few weeks ago and during the opening banter the thought struck me, do these guys even like each other anymore?  They had zero chemistry and came across as three random guys just trying to get their lines in on a crowded conference call.

I dunno; I've literally always found their pre-riff banter to be pretty painful.  Way back on Christmas Village of Madness, they introduce the segments and those hurt as much as anything recent.  I watch the riffs on Roku, where I can't view the content I'm skipping whiz by, and I STILL fast-forward past the banter because it's less painful to stab forward and back to get to the beginning of the first short than to listen to what they're saying.  My point being that I don't think the (lack of) banter quality is related to how much the do or don't like each other. But I'll also say I do indeed perceive an occasional eye-roll from one to another.

What I do think is that there's a lack of rehearsal like what there obviously used to be.  I don't have any solid examples, and I'll try to note some from future viewings, but they used to have some seriously tight sketches and intermingled riffs/punchlines, and I can't remember any recent ones (aside from Rifftrax Live episodes) where they have that kind of tight, well-rehearsed material.

[Cephus]

That's really the problem with a lot of people who take something they love and turn it into a career. You can tell in the early days of MST3K that they all loved doing, just for the sake of doing it. It was some of their best work. I can still remember tons of riffs from the early days of MST, decades later. Rifftrax started off strong, but in the last couple of years, I find myself hard-pressed to remember much, if anything from recent riffs, even after I just finish watching it. It's getting stale, I think, because they HAVE to keep cranking these things out. They don't have to wait for the perfect movie, they have to have these things out every couple of weeks or they don't eat.

That's not a good way to stay creative.

[Flowers789]

Also so few just the jokes is sad.

[ktel69]

In "Virus", there were more than a few fab jokes, yet a lot of weak-sauce jibes.  The weak-sauce material was clearly created from the non Kevin/Mike/Bill writers (look at these Millennial "writers" and their attempts at jokes, when they are alone and "only amongst themselves" during a stream when none of their comedic elders are present; no funny jokes).  It's like Gersbeck (whom is often funny) compared to his partner, whom is rarely funny (why else would they reduce their youtube presence?).  Gen Y is often funny, but Millennials (a privileged behavioral subset of Gen Y) are almost *never* funny. When anyone has witnessed the travesty of comedic attempts by the Millennial writers on-their-own, it's wretched. When you listen to jokes primarily written by MKB, the laughs ensue.  Therefore, when we are asked this question regarding "Virus", it behooves us to answer in a manner which evaluates the jokes individually. The "boomer" jokes (and Kevin is a boomer, as is Bill, and Mike squeaks by as the youngest boomer on the cusp of "booming") land more often than not, whereas the millenniwank/hipsterwank jokes (like most Jonah "hipsterwank" jokes) fall flat. Again, Gen Y can be funny, but there are no funny Millennials nor hipsters. Thus, I do not think "Virus" is the most disappointing Rifftrax yet, but ALL Rifftrax jokes written by Millennial writers are more disappointing than material written by non-coddled, non-helicopter-parented performers whom grew up before "screentime", and whom had to make their bones on-stage.  The greater the preponderance of millenniwank jokes becomes, will mean the "less funny" that Rifftrax becomes.  But if Rifftrax hires funny Gen Y writers rather than millenniwanks, the result shall be different.  It's up to them; MKB can say "In a Comedic sense, the Millenniwank Emperor has no clothes!".  Or they can clap at the naked Emperor and play musical instruments as the Titanic sinks into freezing waters.

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The Poll: true democracy!  Bwah hah!

Against every instinct I have I am going to respond this insanity and ask for some examples of what you mean by jokes that are 'clearly' written by 'millenniwanks' and 'non-coddled boomer' jokes.