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IRiffs Takes MST3k Open Source

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-your-friends-are-clearly-funnier-then-the-professionals dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Michael J. Nelson started up Rifftrax as a 2nd act to his stint as host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and now they're making their website open to anyone and everyone who thinks they're funny with iRiffs — allowing people to upload their own comedy commentary tracks and charge whatever they want. They've already got a few would-be groups online, including one who takes the open source a step further — soliciting jokes from listeners and combining submissions into a final product."

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I have to say... by alexj33 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Watch Weird Al's Rifftrax commentary for Jurassic Park. THEN you'll be impressed.

  2. Open Source? by HeavyD14 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So how exactly is this "open source"?

  3. MST3K will not be appreciated by future geeks by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was born in '77 and started watching the show in the early 90's. While I got a lot of the jokes, some of them were simply before my time. When I got a hold of the MST3K episode guides where every reference was explained, I was amazed at how much slipped by me. Most of my friends enjoyed the show but I had one who was intelligent but just didn't "get" it, mainly because he had no familiarity with the pop ephemera being referenced. Some of the jokes will remain timeless: "I got a man who knows all the angles -- yeah, the name's Euclid." Other jokes will become incomprehensible: "What, a V-2 rocket? He could have had a V-8!"

    It's sort of the same problem with watching certain anime with a lot of in-jokes, Excel Saga for example. So many of the jokes rely on having a familiarity with animes that came before or silly puns that only work in Japanese, easily half the humor is lost in translation. Even when the subbers explain the jokes, jokes just aren't as funny when they're explained.

    But this new riffing stuff is good. By open-sourcing it, we should get even better yucks.

    Gamera is really neat! Gamera is turtle meat! We love Gamera!

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  4. Re:Fine, but by Tetsujin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Rifftrax != MST3K. If it were, you'd have Cambot, Tom Servo and Crow.

    What concerns me more:
    when you set up something like iRiffs, a community for would-be comedians (particularly people who are just interested in it 'cause they all saw the same funny TV show) you run into a few problems...

    First, lots of people think they're funny, but aren't.
    Second, a fair number of the ones who aren't funny will use gags sufficiently cheap (memes, particularly) to boost their popularity...
    And the end result is you wind up with a few gems, maybe, sloshing around in a sea of crap... And you can't rely on popularity rankings to tell the good from the bad.

    I think it's kind of funny that you equate MST3K with "Cambot, Tom Servo and Crow"... I mean, you never even see Cambot. But you left out Gypsy...

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