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Post by Mighty Jack on Nov 18, 2010 2:00:41 GMT -5
I've reviewed the past 6 Rifftrax shorts, starting with... Safe Living At School and finishing up with "Values: Understanding Ourselves" - this one was interesting because the Outer Limits control voice narrated. No mention of this on the trax, not that I expected it (I'm not sure they even noticed it) I just found it kind of cool to hear his voice.
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Post by callipygias on Nov 23, 2010 23:07:37 GMT -5
That's about the best 99 cents I ever spent. The singer/guitarist was one of the funniest things I've seen from these amazing shorts they're finding.
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Post by mrmeadows on Nov 24, 2010 0:34:13 GMT -5
Downloading this now. How can I not?
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Post by solgroupie on Nov 25, 2010 3:35:18 GMT -5
the calendar - how to use it
i feel terrible for disregarding the calendar for so many years after viewing this. right now i have one hanging in my kitchen that is still on august from last year. and stupid me - i always used the calendar to get me out of buying birthday presents for friends - yesterday was your party? aw, man! wow. WOW. that was one of the most bizarre -hilarious- shorts they ever did. and that guitar guy was slammin. he really did have madonna arms! i know i will watch this one hundreds of times.
magical disappearing money
after watching the clip, i knew i had to see this one. that "witch" with the satin drapes as a cape reminded me of what having a mother-in-law might be like. following me around a store, pointing out what an idiot i was for buying such fancy foods when i could save money if i were only willing to put a little work into enjoying pudding or rice. awesome short. awesome riffing.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Jan 12, 2011 5:44:57 GMT -5
I watched and added another group of 6 shorts to the site, starting with, The Calendar: How to Use itMuch merriment was had. But is it wrong that when I look at the poster, I notice that the guy has a nicer ass than the gal?
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Post by callipygias on Jan 14, 2011 0:30:30 GMT -5
Courtesy: A Good Eggsample. Holy cow. This is one of those shorts I'll have to see a few times before I know how much I like it, because all I could think the whole first time was, "What in the hell?" I like Mike's line, something like "Somebody spent a lot of time on this, and immediately after killed himself."
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Post by solgroupie on Jan 15, 2011 12:59:02 GMT -5
i know i need more viewings too, but only because i loved it from the start. it is definitely a what-the-hell kind of short and those are my favorites. when the rude egg (spoiler alert) finally falls and cracks - that has to be my favorite part. hilarious. and one of the guys, i think mike, does an absolute flawless imitation of otto from the simpsons.
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Post by callipygias on Jan 16, 2011 12:32:00 GMT -5
Library World.
This is one of my favorites. I love the '70s shorts, and this one is funny all the way through. It also wins for best 'fro (young Sly Stone), and best theme song, thanks to Kevin.
And that's one funkified brief musical interlude from the Roadies, I wish it went on longer. It's not quite up to the standards of Grinny and his Guitar from the calendar short, but that's an awful high bar.
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Post by solgroupie on Jan 18, 2011 10:57:03 GMT -5
library world really is awesome. no, wait. it's GROOVY!
when i'm watching a short from the 50's, i think - shorts from the 50's are my favorite. then i'll see one from the 80's and think the same thing. but shorts from the 70s are definitely my favorite. until the next one i see from the 50's.
library world is worth it, just to see that boy/girl's fro. how do you sleep with something that big on your head? great short, great riffing. but that dracula guy harshed my buzz a little.
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Post by solgroupie on Jan 19, 2011 21:32:19 GMT -5
not only do we have groovy 70's kids (one of which has the most impressive head of hair i've ever seen), but horrible animation and a little tune that will drive you to lunacy. AWEsome! when kevin started screaming i think that had to be for real.
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Post by solgroupie on Feb 10, 2011 21:51:18 GMT -5
Meet The Customer, three time finalist for the title of Most Disrespected Man in America. No matter where he goes: the bank, the supermarket, even his job, somebody is waiting to ignore him, inconvenience him, or throw confetti in his face while laughing uproariously.* How does The Customer respond to this disrespect? By showing the merest hint of backbone and asserting himself ever so slightly? Or by absorbing life’s blows with dead eyes and muttering to himself that one day, he’ll show them... He’ll show them all!!! (He honestly does B. Seriously, it’s pretty creepy.) Mike, Kevin and Bill team up to riff the consumer education short, Remember Me, which is approximately 60,000,000% less tasteless than the Robert Pattinson movie, Remember Me. *Usually this only happens when he goes to Rip Taylor’s house
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Post by Mighty Jack on Feb 12, 2011 5:17:23 GMT -5
Watched a few: I didn't care for the Courtesy cartoon. Hearing Kevin scream again just doesn't cut it. I need real riffs.
Thankfully the next 2 provided them.
Remember Me, about a put upon consumer, had me laughing steady and the new Walking to School was a riot, not just for the funny quips, but the short itself. The kids keep walking, they never stop. How far was their darn school? With each step I got to laughing harder and harder 'till I had tears in my eyes. Someone get these poor kids a bus!
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Post by Joker on Feb 14, 2011 16:27:07 GMT -5
Shortstoberfest
I have all of the shorts DVDs from Rifftrax and when they made two more I had to buy them. They are always consistently funny. Usually I play them in the background when I play WoW since you can only listen to video game music for so long before it becomes irritating.
Back to School with Joan Miller - Joan Miller was some sort of designer of formal plaid attire for college girls to wear to their Home Economics classes it seems. I always think that fashion is just a vehicle to start a bunch of body issue problems with young women and can spread anorexia like a zombie virus so when they make fun of it it's a delight.
Call It Free - A very backwards-thinking short where a dumb-as-a-doorknob blonde woman sets all of feminism back retroactively somehow as she cluelessly goes about getting her car maintained. It's a bit distressing to see a woman portrayed as this thick between the ears, but the Riff dudes make this hilarious.
Little Lost Scent - The story of a baby skunk wandering off into a life of psychotic aggression because of his "secret weapon" is strange enough and a primal scream from Kevin over a goose taking a defensive/intimidating posture is a highlight.
An Aquaruim in Action - An aquarium is supposed to be a tank of cold and distant pets in front of your face that teaches kids responsibility, but usually winds up becoming a part of the furniture. This one is in a classroom and is full of boring creatures, including a purvy snail that is "eating algae" off of another.
Drawing for Beginners: The Rectangle - This has to have been for pre-schoolers as that's the only group that would need instruction in how to draw a rectangle. They made sure that there were models made to illustrate this difficult abstract concept for good measure.
Families: Food and Eating - This is a very enlightening doc about how good we have it here in the U.S. while in other countries they don't nearly have as much food as we stuff our faces with. Apparently in Mexico they have to live off what they grow while in Japan they eat less and much more healthy stuff than the family in San Francisco. I don;t know if it was the lighting, but it appeared that their fried chicken was underdone. Mmm, salmonella...
Beginning Responsibility: Taking Care of Your Own Things - A little boy with glasses atilt has a messy room which forces his toys to have an insurrection against him, seemingly led by his out-of-sync talking pillow. Its a hallucinatory romp where I was more distracted by the cool Frank Frazetta Conan posters on the wall.
Geography of Your Community - May not apply to your community specfically. It seemed to have a lot to do with economic geography in some city somewhere. As if an obvious photograph of this city weren't illustrative enough they make it into a plain-looking map as you watch. I never did find out why the ice cream factory was next to the dam. "Some people live-" "Some people die."
Order in the Shorts
American Thrift - For some reason they brought in some sort of internet celebrity for a female voice as part of the riffing here, but she can't stick around for the whole short because she must be intensely busy on whatever it is she's doing that I've never heard of. The short is basically about how women have always been keeping America balanced economically by keeping things together as housewives. Because most of it is silent with people mouthing stuff it lends itself well to riffing with Bill voicing a kid bent on vengeance against the dog who bit him.
Story of a Teenage Drug Addict - Heroin is the most addictive substance in the world and when a pothead somehow becomes a boxer he turns to it for pain relief and then stays on it. He recovers then relapses, then relapses again. Apparently this was filmed in New Jersey or Brooklyn with high school actors and unfortunately these guys start to look alike because of their similar hairstyles, boxy suits, and inflections. The boxing part was the most inexplicable. I've never seen a pothead win a title bout...
Your Chance to Live - This was actually on a past Rifftrax disc and is on this collection again with the mellow Dick Cavett-like dessicated corpse of a narrator talking about why we should be scared of technological failures while we shouldn't at the same time. I've no idea who actually has technological anxiety really, but apparently at some point in the past this doc had to be made to address it.
Mr. Moto Takes a Walk - A pleasant looking woman and her leashed titular monkey walk us through the alphabet by walking through a zoo. There is no animal at this zoo whose name starts with the letter X so don't get your hopes up.
Kittens: Birth and Growth - A white housecat has a litter of adorable kittens whose new lives are charted from their slimy beginning to when they get old enough to get adopted by some unseen people somewhere. That's about it.
Summer is an Adventure - A family takes a vacation to some lakefront property. There is a strange poem about a speedboat that Kevin eloquently ends in a very poignant way.
Reading Growth: Basic Skills - Everything I know about reading and comprehension comes mostly from the innumerable comics I've read with some regular books thrown in occasionally. However, back in the day you had to read a lot of boring text books just to understand how the word "frontier" is used in many different ways. No wonder kids would rather watch MTV today - they forced them to read boring books instead of books about stuff they liked!
The Parts of Speech - There are many parts of speech that you needed to know to pass English classes in public school, but not necessarily when just speaking or reading. I never really needed to know any of these terms for my grammar to be comprehensible so it seemed pretty moot. The darkening trip to the beack and Bill's hatred of the professor in charge of this short become funnier as it unfolds.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Feb 19, 2011 2:54:20 GMT -5
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Post by solgroupie on Feb 25, 2011 19:53:57 GMT -5
i loved improve your pronunciation. those 70's shorts are such a blast. those furtive, uncomfortable, awkward glances and grimaces among the kids seemed much too real. but who could blame them with that ultra pink lipped bastard, mr. blanford lurking behind them with his tape recorder? some great riffs, too. one i know i will watch many times.
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