Why did I just now find out about RiffTrax?
Around age 10 I grew up with Mystery Science Theater 3000, a great concept tv show in which a dude and his robot friends were trapped in space by a madman and forced to watch awful public domain and B-movies. They survived the torture by running commentaries on the films and juxtaposing their own dialogue over the characters’.
I thought the show ended in the late 90s. Apparently that’s when head writer (also the guy who took over as host in 1993) Mike Nelson created RiffTrax.
RiffTrax are just like MST3K, but applied to widely distributed blockbusters. With an attorney’s counsel, Nelson discovered he could sell the audio if users supplied their own dvd.
Looking back, I think MST3K trained me to deal with life’s annoyances with excitement. I can’t remember a single specific time in my life when I was actually bored. If a situation is boring and cannot be escaped, find a different angle or create a new meaning. Every moment is productive.
//A list of RiffTrax is on wikipedia. I can’t wait to hear the one for the new Indiana Jones.
