VIRUS may be the most disappointing riff yet

[That's My Purse!]

What great responses - I'm Very encouraged by the commiserate results of the poll and for the sympathetic discussions this post has generated.

Lots of great points about the many possible contributing factors:

1. M,K,B being advanced in years and somewhat losing their gusto, 
   
2. their disjointed/separated approach to writing their scripts, 
   
3. selecting RLM leftovers that absolutely do not lend themselves to sustained riffing (or viewing),
   
4. selecting "shot on shideo" movies ...or really any VOD release of B-movies or Straight to Streaming movies (or worse) made after the year 2000,
   
5. picking an okay movie but having so little material that they decide to trim out 10-35 minutes of the film,
   
6. a general decline in organic inside jokes and truly pithy and clever lines (either due to laziness, or out of a gross underestimation of their audience's intelligence), 
   
7. a decline in creative, funny bits that AREN'T just groaner, see-it-from-a-mile-away puns (even some of the Just The Joke intros have more energy and creativity than many of the more recent VOD's in full!),
   
8. and a decline in bits that AREN'T intentionally annoying, and bits that conclude with one or more riffers acting mad, frustrated, or insulted - or leaving/threatening to leave over it (as if that earns it a pass or creates sufficient ironic distance - spoiler: it never does).
   

I pray they hit a new stride and get in the groove again. Maybe a new writer, or more collaborative writing style, or even just getting feedback on what riffs land and which ones absolutely do not - there have been breakdowns of MST3K riffs by category/types, they might benefit from a similar breakdown for their golden age and present day riffs...

...BUT the most SHOCKING thing I've read, across all the replies to this post, is that there are people, or supposed people, who ACTUALLY prefer Mary Joe and Bridgette riffs to...well, Anything!
I refuse to believe that anyone could find issue with even the least-inspired recent Rifftrax, and yet wholly enjoy Any of the femtrax releases...
I find that each of the issues listed above with the M,K,B Riffs go DOUBLE for the femtrax, plus many more issues unique to them!

I'd argue that for some people, a lot of rifftrax is consumed almost as comfort food, in a vaguely para-social sense, to view bad movies with a familiar, friendly, funny companion - while this may not be a primary motive for most, is SURELY must be prominent factor for the fans of the Mary Joe + Bridgette riffs. It just can't be for the raw comedic talent!

Please, I mean no offense - what, if any, are the Stand Out best riffs by MJ+B?? The 10 or so I've seen have all been full-on misses.

Long time lurker here, but I finally had to make an account after seeing this thread because I don't understand the EXTREME love for MJ&B riffs either! I SWEAR I give each of them a chance (except for the last couple admittedly) and can never get through one completely. Gravity was alright but it was probably the first one I saw with them riffing and I liked the movie anyway so I don't really count that. I did personally rank it as 2/5 stars comedy-wise on my Plex though, which puts it with lesser MKB riffs like Paranormal Activity, Cats and Copper Mountain on my scale. 

I'm sorry though, they just don't have the requisite voice mannerisms or inflection that makes me laugh, has nothing to do with them being women and actually I love BritTrax and I know MJE does a lot of the writing on their stuff so my kind of rips are there but their style of delivery just falls flat for me. And now it's like every other movie is an MJ&B riff which I don't understand. Where is Cole & Janet? Where are the BritTrax guys? Blame Society? I fucking LOVE most of their stuff, actually every BS riff was a 4.5-5 star rank for me. And even the one-offs like Ocean's 11 with Richard Cheese and Willy Wonka with NPH, these were 5/5 star riffs for me, so where are the OTHER non-MKB riffers? Just very forlorn about the state of things with RT now, and yes I thought Virus was horrible as well, just not a good riffable movie and the jokes were not even close to being there.

All your other points are well said and I pray they do hit a stride too. The last great riff for me was probably Maverick which is fairly recently but lots of stuff since then... maybe they should riff a major studio picture like that again? I know they pretty much stick to VODs now, but come on guys, pick some good movies (or please, some good "bad movies" again) to riff and the jokes will land. But yeah, enough with the MJ&B stuff, look at that recent riff history and it's more them than MKB anymore. I get it, lots of you love the chick riffs and probably dig this trend, but it's tiring to me at this point so it was nice to see a dissenting opinion about it finally.

PS - Your name is so dead-on, Frank is a TDS-ridden POS anymore, never liked him in MST3k and his drab, monotonous voice doesn't belong anywhere near a riffing microphone. That guy Chris from The Mads is great though, he gets some good laughs outta me.

Also PS - I LOVED Season 11 with Jonah and the others, probably even a less popular opinion than "MJ&B sucks", so just throwing that into the equation for the sake of fairness.

[WakkoBlues]

What great responses - I'm Very encouraged by the commiserate results of the poll and for the sympathetic discussions this post has generated.

Lots of great points about the many possible contributing factors:

1. M,K,B being advanced in years and somewhat losing their gusto, 
   
2. their disjointed/separated approach to writing their scripts, 
   
3. selecting RLM leftovers that absolutely do not lend themselves to sustained riffing (or viewing),
   
4. selecting "shot on shideo" movies ...or really any VOD release of B-movies or Straight to Streaming movies (or worse) made after the year 2000,
   
5. picking an okay movie but having so little material that they decide to trim out 10-35 minutes of the film,
   
6. a general decline in organic inside jokes and truly pithy and clever lines (either due to laziness, or out of a gross underestimation of their audience's intelligence), 
   
7. a decline in creative, funny bits that AREN'T just groaner, see-it-from-a-mile-away puns (even some of the Just The Joke intros have more energy and creativity than many of the more recent VOD's in full!),
   
8. and a decline in bits that AREN'T intentionally annoying, and bits that conclude with one or more riffers acting mad, frustrated, or insulted - or leaving/threatening to leave over it (as if that earns it a pass or creates sufficient ironic distance - spoiler: it never does).
   

I pray they hit a new stride and get in the groove again. Maybe a new writer, or more collaborative writing style, or even just getting feedback on what riffs land and which ones absolutely do not - there have been breakdowns of MST3K riffs by category/types, they might benefit from a similar breakdown for their golden age and present day riffs...

...BUT the most SHOCKING thing I've read, across all the replies to this post, is that there are people, or supposed people, who ACTUALLY prefer Mary Joe and Bridgette riffs to...well, Anything!
I refuse to believe that anyone could find issue with even the least-inspired recent Rifftrax, and yet wholly enjoy Any of the femtrax releases...
I find that each of the issues listed above with the M,K,B Riffs go DOUBLE for the femtrax, plus many more issues unique to them!

I'd argue that for some people, a lot of rifftrax is consumed almost as comfort food, in a vaguely para-social sense, to view bad movies with a familiar, friendly, funny companion - while this may not be a primary motive for most, is SURELY must be prominent factor for the fans of the Mary Joe + Bridgette riffs. It just can't be for the raw comedic talent!

Please, I mean no offense - what, if any, are the Stand Out best riffs by MJ+B?? The 10 or so I've seen have all been full-on misses.

Long time lurker here, but I finally had to make an account after seeing this thread because I don't understand the EXTREME love for MJ&B riffs either! I SWEAR I give each of them a chance (except for the last couple admittedly) and can never get through one completely. Gravity was alright but it was probably the first one I saw with them riffing and I liked the movie anyway so I don't really count that. I did personally rank it as 2/5 stars comedy-wise on my Plex though, which puts it with lesser MKB riffs like Paranormal Activity, Cats and Copper Mountain on my scale. 

I'm sorry though, they just don't have the requisite voice mannerisms or inflection that makes me laugh, has nothing to do with them being women and actually I love BritTrax and I know MJE does a lot of the writing on their stuff so my kind of rips are there but their style of delivery just falls flat for me. And now it's like every other movie is an MJ&B riff which I don't understand. Where is Cole & Janet? Where are the BritTrax guys? Blame Society? I fucking LOVE most of their stuff, actually every BS riff was a 4.5-5 star rank for me. And even the one-offs like Ocean's 11 with Richard Cheese and Willy Wonka with NPH, these were 5/5 star riffs for me, so where are the OTHER non-MKB riffers? Just very forlorn about the state of things with RT now, and yes I thought Virus was horrible as well, just not a good riffable movie and the jokes were not even close to being there.

All your other points are well said and I pray they do hit a stride too. The last great riff for me was probably Maverick which is fairly recently but lots of stuff since then... maybe they should riff a major studio picture like that again? I know they pretty much stick to VODs now, but come on guys, pick some good movies (or please, some good "bad movies" again) to riff and the jokes will land. But yeah, enough with the MJ&B stuff, look at that recent riff history and it's more them than MKB anymore. I get it, lots of you love the chick riffs and probably dig this trend, but it's tiring to me at this point so it was nice to see a dissenting opinion about it finally.

PS - Your name is so dead-on, Frank is a TDS-ridden POS anymore, never liked him in MST3k and his drab, monotonous voice doesn't belong anywhere near a riffing microphone. That guy Chris from The Mads is great though, he gets some good laughs outta me.

Also PS - I LOVED Season 11 with Jonah and the others, probably even a less popular opinion than "MJ&B sucks", so just throwing that into the equation for the sake of fairness.

It's apparent we need a greater variety of Riffing teams, though nobody will please the people who want to relive past years. RiffTrax has always gone through these periods, I hope they continue to climb back out of it.

7 fucking pages of people complaining about how MKB are tired and stale, and a quarter of those people are complaining that MJB is different. You want comfort food, complain when it tastes different, and you complain when it tastes the same. SMH

MJB are great. They bring a spirit back to RiffTrax that was missing from the MST3K writer's room days. Each to their own, a rising tide raises all boats.

[1500cc]

Long time lurker here, but I finally had to make an account after seeing this thread because I don't understand the EXTREME love for MJ&B riffs either! I SWEAR I give each of them a chance (except for the last couple admittedly) and can never get through one completely. Gravity was alright but it was probably the first one I saw with them riffing and I liked the movie anyway so I don't really count that. I did personally rank it as 2/5 stars comedy-wise on my Plex though, which puts it with lesser MKB riffs like Paranormal Activity, Cats and Copper Mountain on my scale. 

I'm sorry though, they just don't have the requisite voice mannerisms or inflection that makes me laugh, has nothing to do with them being women and actually I love BritTrax and I know MJE does a lot of the writing on their stuff so my kind of rips are there but their style of delivery just falls flat for me. And now it's like every other movie is an MJ&B riff which I don't understand. Where is Cole & Janet? Where are the BritTrax guys? Blame Society? I fucking LOVE most of their stuff, actually every BS riff was a 4.5-5 star rank for me. And even the one-offs like Ocean's 11 with Richard Cheese and Willy Wonka with NPH, these were 5/5 star riffs for me, so where are the OTHER non-MKB riffers? Just very forlorn about the state of things with RT now, and yes I thought Virus was horrible as well, just not a good riffable movie and the jokes were not even close to being there.

All your other points are well said and I pray they do hit a stride too. The last great riff for me was probably Maverick which is fairly recently but lots of stuff since then... maybe they should riff a major studio picture like that again? I know they pretty much stick to VODs now, but come on guys, pick some good movies (or please, some good "bad movies" again) to riff and the jokes will land. But yeah, enough with the MJ&B stuff, look at that recent riff history and it's more them than MKB anymore. I get it, lots of you love the chick riffs and probably dig this trend, but it's tiring to me at this point so it was nice to see a dissenting opinion about it finally.

PS - Your name is so dead-on, Frank is a TDS-ridden POS anymore, never liked him in MST3k and his drab, monotonous voice doesn't belong anywhere near a riffing microphone. That guy Chris from The Mads is great though, he gets some good laughs outta me.

Also PS - I LOVED Season 11 with Jonah and the others, probably even a less popular opinion than "MJ&B sucks", so just throwing that into the equation for the sake of fairness.

Agree on all points.  I can't quite tell if the MJ&B jokes are less funny than MKB (I assume many of the same writers are involved), or it's just that their voice and/or delivery isn't working.  But either way, we don't really enjoy MJ&B releases and skip all of them except maybe the shorts.  Even BritTrax isn't quite as good as MKB ... I think their jokes are actually probably better, but their pacing is too fast, and they sometimes try to cram too many words into a scene.  I find myself doing a lot of rewinding to try to hear the jokes.  MKB have a great pace that lets you relax and casually enjoy the humour without having to strain to pay attention.

Agree on Frank ... he just seems to lazily phone it in most times, and his timing is frequently off, like he forgot to flip the page or something.

And I also thought Jonah did a great job on the reboots.  His replacement (I can't recall her name) was okay but a definite step down.  Ultimately it was the un-watchable new Crow that caused me to stop watching the new shows.

[NexusWraith]

---

"I refuse to believe that anyone could find issue with even the least-inspired recent Rifftrax, and yet wholly enjoy Any of the femtrax releases... "

Believe what you like. It's okay for people to like different things.

Also, someone using a word like "femtrax" (or "milleniwank") has about a 50/50 chance of my not ever reading any of their comments again. Just FYI.

---

I don't understand the EXTREME love for MJ&B riffs either!

I prefer Marco's pizza to Little Caesar's, but I wouldn't call it "extreme".

Like what you like.

---

PS - Your name is so dead-on, Frank is a TDS-ridden POS anymore, never liked him in MST3k and his drab, monotonous voice doesn't belong anywhere near a riffing microphone.

I have googled it, but none of the meanings of "TDS" I have found appear to be relevant to this context:

• Ter Die Sumendum ("take three times a day")
  
• Total Dissolved Solids 
  
• Tower Defense Simulator 
  
• Tax Deducted at Source 
  
• etc.
  
  

What does that stand for in the sentence, "Frank is a TDS-ridden POS"?

[That's My Purse!]

---

"I refuse to believe that anyone could find issue with even the least-inspired recent Rifftrax, and yet wholly enjoy Any of the femtrax releases... "

Believe what you like. It's okay for people to like different things.

Also, someone using a word like "femtrax" (or "milleniwank") has about a 50/50 chance of my not ever reading any of their comments again. Just FYI.

---

I don't understand the EXTREME love for MJ&B riffs either!

I prefer Marco's pizza to Little Caesar's, but I wouldn't call it "extreme".

Like what you like.

---

PS - Your name is so dead-on, Frank is a TDS-ridden POS anymore, never liked him in MST3k and his drab, monotonous voice doesn't belong anywhere near a riffing microphone.

I have googled it, but none of the meanings of "TDS" I have found appear to be relevant to this context:

• Ter Die Sumendum ("take three times a day")
  
• Total Dissolved Solids 
  
• Tower Defense Simulator 
  
• Tax Deducted at Source 
  
• etc.
  
  

What does that stand for in the sentence, "Frank is a TDS-ridden POS"?

Giving you the benefit of the doubt here, because I Googled TDS and found the wiki for it as the 3rd overall result but whatever, in this case TDS = Trump Derangement Syndrome, an affliction of the mind due to severe stress/paranoia over simply not liking a politician so much that it makes them prone to non-sensical ramblings and extreme agitation, usually accompanied with bouts of unnecessary and awkward swearing. None of the guys like Trump and some of the rips are actually funny so it's whatever but dude is mental about it and his toxic attitude to people online is embarrassing, I'm pretty sure he's alienated some of their fans because of it too. I hardly follow the guy anymore, maybe he's calmed his tits down about it but with the election coming up but I wouldn't bet on it.

---

And I also thought Jonah did a great job on the reboots.  His replacement (I can't recall her name) was okay but a definite step down.  Ultimately it was the un-watchable new Crow that caused me to stop watching the new shows.

Yes friend, I remembered your post from a few months ago about liking Jonah and the the new MST3k guys too and almost came out of lurking to post about it. Emily was OK, Joel did alright with his movies too, but you're right the new Crow was simply not listenable. Shame too, some of her jokes were actually pretty funny but the weird voice just couldn't carry water for me.

[billythefist]

Imagine thinking Frank isnt the best MST-related riffer/writer

Couldnt be me

[NexusWraith]

---

PS - Your name is so dead-on, Frank is a TDS-ridden POS anymore, never liked him in MST3k and his drab, monotonous voice doesn't belong anywhere near a riffing microphone.

I have googled it, but none of the meanings of "TDS" I have found appear to be relevant to this context:

• Ter Die Sumendum ("take three times a day")
  
• Total Dissolved Solids 
  
• Tower Defense Simulator 
  
• Tax Deducted at Source 
  
• etc.
  
  

What does that stand for in the sentence, "Frank is a TDS-ridden POS"?

Giving you the benefit of the doubt here, because I Googled TDS and found the wiki for it as the 3rd overall result but whatever, in this case TDS = Trump Derangement Syndrome, an affliction of the mind due to severe stress/paranoia over simply not liking a politician so much that it makes them prone to non-sensical ramblings and extreme agitation, usually accompanied with bouts of unnecessary and awkward swearing.

What a strange response. Why would I lie about Googling something?

But yeah, Frank rants. A lot. Sure, Trump sucks, Republicans suck, we know, but just *saying* that over and over isn't *funny*. I'd prefer he leave the rants for his Twitter account or whatever: I don't need to hear it in what's supposed to be an hour or so of goofy fun.

But that's just my opinion.

[Gingher]

Imagine thinking Frank isnt the best MST-related riffer/writer

Couldnt be me

Mike has always been rated the best by all MST staff themselves.

---

But yeah, Frank rants a lot, and it's rarely funny (in my opinion). Sure, Trump's a con artist and a compulsive liar, and Republicans are a doomsday cult, but just repeating that over and over isn't *funny*. I'd prefer he leave the rants for his Twitter account or whatever: I don't need to hear it in what's supposed to be an hour or so of goofy fun.

It violates the policy they sort of have against material that will become super dated in a short period of time, plus isn't as smart as Frank thinks it is when Trump is really an old school Democrat, the kind the party used for decades but now has declared their enemy.

[NotRichBatman]

I don't really care for bridget and mary joe riffs either
I think they are cozy and for people who would like to watch a movie with the two personas, not for me
and surprise! based on a lot of the comments here I wouldn't want to watch a movie with many of you either
people want to know their idols more personally and then get butt hurt when they disagree on ideology
trump derangement syndrome is as much a thing as the virginal persistence disorder that affects these titans of rational thought

[doysh]

Honestly most of their riffs for the past couple of years have been more miss than hit for me.

As for Bridget and MJ I gave them a chance but they don't do it for me. I think it's the delivery.

I think Jaboody and Jason Brant's stuff is better than current day Rifftrax. It's not scripted but genuine reactions and on the fly jokes are more my thing.