VIRUS may be the most disappointing riff yet

[TDS_Frank]

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

[KingSuperMaster]

Bullets outta the way:
- I love Rifftrax.
- They have to write a LOT, and crank out a LOT, so it's excusable when they have some duds.
- The movies are getting far worse in general.
- I'm only concentrating on MKB here, not The Ladies, BritTrax, etc.
- What I'm writing is just scattershot thoughts.
- Entertainment is subjective, I imply "IMO" with every sentence below, etc, etc, etc.

With that said, I hate to agree, but I agree.  Virus was the worst one in a little while.  And it's tricky to just blame it on the movies because for every shitty movie like Virus where the riff barely even helps, there's a shitty movie like Fungicide where the riff's a gloriously hilarious complement that makes one of my all-time favorite experiences. IMO the last gem was Demons of Ludlow, from April, which I ended up watching 3 times in one week because it was so funny.  Every one after that, and a surprising number of riffs before that, have been fine-to-mediocre.  "Mildly amusing and almost immediately forgettable" would be my review of just about all of 'em since In the Line of Duty 2: The Super Cops, and that one was more remarkable for how awesome the movie turned out to be than about its riffs.

By comparison, there was a 3 month stretch of time in which Amityville Lamp, Dancin': It's On, Atomic Eden, Hobgoblins Live, Mirror Mirror, AND Dangerous Men were all released, and ALL of those are funny, fun to watch, and easy repeat viewings.

Possibly worst of all, and it could just be my imagination, but I feel like they used to have more fun doing riffs back in the day. I just feel like more often than not, they're not enjoying the movie they're riffing, and they're just putting in the work to get the product out for sale, 9-to-5er style.

Some suggestions to get the groove back:
- No more movies featuring at least 30 minutes of people wandering prisons, warehouses, or forests with guns.
- For God's sake, bring back more frequent JtJs despite the fact that they might not be as profitable.
- Create stronger callback/repeat gags (How? I don't know; I'm not a professional.  But when "Line?" comes up in a Twilight movie, it crushes).
- Would be nice if they did more than one Rifftrax Live! a year like they used to; those feel like events.
- More Cole and Janet riffs would be desperately welcomed.
- They gotta find their joy in riffing again: this might be THE biggest step toward genuine improvement.

Finally: After sifting through the old catalog, they have definitely had lulls in the past- a bunch of releases that were One n' Done watches, and I think that at least the two of us just feel like this lull has gone on longer than usual.

Lastly: I still love Rifftrax, it's one of my favorite forms of entertainment, I still donate to their site and their GoFundMe, they rule, don't hate me, etc.  But yeah, I wish they'd pour a little more into their work and regain their old Love of the Riffs.

[Meat Trademark]

I wish they went monthly and spent more time on the writing. Weekly is just too much; they seem spread a bit thin at times.

Still on par with their *best* work? That's a high bar.

---

- More Cole and Janet riffs would be desperately welcomed.

I agree!

[Coldyron]

- 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.

[Meat Trademark]

- 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.

[I Want To Go Faster]

- 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.

This is true.  Some films are perfect for RLM, but not at all suited for Rifftrax.

[JetJaguar73]

- 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.

[Dr. Nobody]

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

In my opinion they've been hit or miss since Rifftrax began. Bridget and Mary Jo, however, are almost always 100%.

I think the problem is that the guys are too comfortable. They have no reason to not rehash joke themes.
I really with it weren't so, but it happens in the majority of creative cases. It's just the same as how so many television shows start out brilliantly, but fade as time goes on 
It's a shame because we know they are capable of great comedy. But I think the time is really overdue for them to do some honest self-examination. Maybe take some time off,

[thecellar]

The riff pattern I really dislike in a lot of Rifftrax:

"This is a bad movie. I'm leaving."

"Stay here."

*groan*

"This is a really bad movie."

[hitzjeff]

Mike (as camera zooms in on a charred skeleton behind the wheel of a burned up car) - Gary Numan was wrong - "Safest of all" my ass!! - Come on, that's some top quality riffing right there.