Most of yall may know about Pluto tv but I just found out about it last week. And among other channels it has a mst3k and riftrax channels that just run episodes continuously. Super good for background noise and it means I don’t have to make a choice of what to watch.
How do they play rifftrax? I thought those were audio things that you played over movies yourself? How can they play those on Pluto TV?
They’ve also purchased the licenses to some crappy old movies like MST3K did/does, and those you can buy with the riffs embedded. So that’s what streams.
Also Rifftrax has a Twitch channel where they stream their programming 24/7 for free. The audio only version of their stuff tends to be for the big budget movies (e.g. Harry Potter, Twilight). The “bad movie” riffs they usually have distribution rights for the movie itself.
Even better than that, there’s a Twitch channel that plays MST3K movies (Shout Factory), but the downside is that this isn’t all they play. There’s other stuff like a weird Japanese kiddie show that my son loves to watch. Still, some MST3K is better than none.
Yes, I understand that. I’m saying that I can choose just about any random episode from the old stuff and it’s classic. The new stuff is just “pretty good.” Now that’s not entirely fair - I’ve been watching the old stuff for decades and I’ve internalized so much of all that, and I’m comparing that against two new seasons. But since that’s all I’ve got to compare against, that’s how it breaks down. Ask me in twenty years, my answer may change.
Don’t you mean, “pretty nice”?
Oh wow. Yeah, I’m a much more casual watcher of the old stuff. I certainly loved certain episodes, but I’ve never seen an episode a second time. I didn’t envision watching the new stuff a second time either. The idea had never occurred to me.
This is something that has made me reserve some amount of judgement about the new Netflix seasons is that I ended up seeing many of the old Comedy Central episodes multiple times, picking out fun new things with every viewing. That’s part of the reason I love MST so much is that multiple viewings, particularly across a span of time, sometimes allowed me catch up to jokes that first went over my head.
I recall posting to alt.something.mst3k (remember Newsgroups?) in the 90s asking who Garrison Keillor was. Later, after I became familiar with his work, I was able to appreciate those riffs.
I’d say, do yourself a favor and watch some episodes multiple times (both new and old) and see how that feels. As far as The Day The Earth Froze, it’s worth it, I think, to re-visit without the initial shock of “what in the world is happening…?” and appreciate the Sampo for what it is.
Got a mailer today from my local performing arts center, and among announcements of a new touring show of Book of Mormon and My Fair Lady was an announcement of the Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour, apparently the last tour by Joel.
Netflix has officially canceled this show.
Wow, that really sucks. These Netflix episodes were by far the funniest best time I’ve had with the show.
Ah that’s it - there goes the last lingering guilt over canceling my Netflix subscription. I feel lighter!
Too bad, but not surprising.
The laffs per minute rate on the new shows were pretty low, though they did get off the occasional knee-slapper.
They should cold call Shudder.
I still say the whole “Every Country Has a Monster” song is one of the best moments MST3K has produced. I sing it all the time to myself, it drives my kids nuts.
“I bet he met a yeti!”
Yeah, can’t say I’m surprised given the vibe that Elliott Kalan has been giving off on the Flop House. Still very disappointing, especially since Netflix is in the business of acquiring movie rights anyway.
Just noticed that Tubi seems to have acquired a whole crapload of the old, crappy movie Rifftrax episodes. I’m more of a Joel guy, but I’ve been enjoying some of them quite a bit.
What does that mean?
Just various off-hand comments that suggested Netflix weren’t exactly biting off his hand for another season.
Thanks for this tip! Never heard of Tubi but besides ads it works great.
Just because it’s Christmas. This seemed the best place to park this.
Awwww, I was hoping for a post about a miracle resurrection and a new season.
What movie is the .gif from?