Mike Gravel (and Rifftrax political riffs gen'rly)

[TheNewMads]

both mike and bill corbett do a lot of mike gravel jokes, or at least references. they rarely seem to be at his expense, they just reference him to say "vote Mike Gravel" (pronounced "grah-VELL") or something similar. is it possibly because of this?



if herman cain's ads are the political version of dadaism mike gravel's is the political version of italian neorealism. but more importantly... i like mike gravel! if you consider yourself a conservative, he's sorta to liberals what ron paul is to conservatives, in that he's a strong civil libertarian but disagrees with ron paul on financial policy. mike gravel and ron paul are both honest, responsible politicians, a rare commodity these days, and though i disagree with ron paul on many things, and with mike gravel on some things, i respect them both.

but what's more to the point, i'm noticing Rifftrax going in a more political direction themselves, and I'm sorta mixed on it but mostly I think it's a good thing. At the beginning of the live nashville House on Haunted Hill -- i think it's in the grocery witch short -- there's a title mentioning lost money and kevin tosses out a joke about the stimulus package. that joke rankled me a bit, honestly, because the idea that the stimulus package money "disappeared" is pretty misleading, but as i remember it he didn't call out obama by name.

Mike Nelson is rather famously conservative according to his wikipedia entry; though i consider myself a moderate liberal this does not diminish him in any way in my opinion, and in fact because i think he and the other rifftrackers are all great guys i'd be curious to know more about his political opinions, because even if i disagreed with them -- if the rifftrax guys wanted to take a couple digs at obama or whoever else -- i think i'd actually like that and would be curious to find out more about their personal politics.

Honestly i get a slightly left-of-center vibe from bill, a slightly right-of-center vibe from kevin, and a midwestern mellow churchgoing but somewhat jingoistic on US foreign policy vibe from mike (just based on the wikipedia entry i read).

have you ever wondered about the rifftrax trio's personal politics? and if so, what conclusions did you draw? funny thing is, cinematic titanic, i don't even spend a minute wondering: all those guys are lefties, i think they telegraph it very clearly, and god love 'em for it. If the rifftrax guys are moderate to conservative, i'd sorta like to see them telegraph that too.

no flames please! i know the guys on this forum and know flamewars won't happen but i should just say it explicitly. i just would like to hear from some fellow rifftrax fans if you've ever pondered the politics of rifftrax and if so what conclusions you drew.

[happyatmywork]

From following Kevin on Twitter, I'm guessing he is more or less moderate to liberal, and the same goes for Bill. However, none of the Rifftrax guys seem to mention politics too much in their tweets, and when they do its a bit vague on where they stand. Although some see this as cowardly, it does not come off that way to me, unlike with Jay Leno. Bill actually made fun of how tweets about politics don't seem to change anyone's mind at one point, so I think he at least sees the pointlessness of them.

I'm actually okay with Rifftrax staying out of the political arena. Nowadays, with the atmosphere so (unnecessarily) heated, I am finding less and less political humor funny. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are the only exceptions since they seem to be pulling it off. Since politics is more depressing then ever, all I want to do when I turn to the MST3k guys is laugh and forget the world exists for a while, but when too much politics is inserted, that's difficult. This is why Cinematic Titanic bugs me sometimes. I don't find the political references, particularly Frank's, that funny. They just come off wrong, and they also seem hell-bent on driving away people who disagree (heck, it's driving me away and I'm more or less a liberal). They also seem to take away from the movie to me when such riffs are thrown in there. Granted, I still love CT, and I have posted my fair share of political rantings on Facebook, but I have a feeling its just gonna get worse and that makes me less likely to see them live.

I loved going to the last Rifftrax show, because it seemed like all MST3k fans, no matter what the political stripes, were able to come together and laugh at the same thing. With so much politically charged comedy, this is a rarity. Sure, the reference here and there is great, but having too much of it just seems uncomfortable. I am hoping Rifftrax does not get too political for the sole reason that I don't want to lose that. Despite disagreeing with Mike's politics (even while sharing in the same religious faith), I think his approach to these issues for the most part has been excellent. Now if only he could work on the blue humor....