Obviously, it is rude to do so in most settings, but sometimes it’s okay or even appropriate.
When I was much younger, I would go to midnight movie showings at a movie theater at my alma mater’s student union (I started going when I was in high school and kept going for a bit after college). The fun thing was almost no one ever showed up and most of the movies were ones everyone had already seen anyway, so riffing was common.
The two I remember:
The Shining - Applauding every time the day of the week popped up on the screen. The entire theater did this for some inexplicable reason.
Stand By Me - When Wil Wheaton is running from the train on the bridge, my friends and I yelled, “beam me up! Beam me up! Beam me up! BEAM ME UP!” It got a good laugh.
Have you ever done anything like this? I suppose Rocky Horror counts.
Well, if Rocky Horror counts, I am definitely in. I have also been known to riff along with the Rifftrax movies at the theater during the Fathom events. Actually, our entire local crowd is pretty good at it, and there are usually at least one or two big laughs from riffs that originated in the crowd.
Numerous Rocky Horror showings, plus the occasional midnight movie. In St. Louis, this art house theater would show older movies at midnight during the summer. Saw a lot of great movies there, but one time, we went with friends to go see Purple Rain. The musical parts are great. The rest of the movie was cheesy, and we riffed it throughout. The ending, where Prince and the Revolution sing Purple Rain, and he dedicates it to his dead dad, made us lose it. (If you know anything about the lyrics to Purple Rain, you’ll know why.)
It’s a good thing I don’t go to many movies because it’s natural at this point for me to make a quip during a movie. I remember going to Air Force One during high school (shortly after getting into MST3K) and during one fight scene against a refrigerator, I said, “Got milk?” It was very topical.
Count me as another Rocky Horror audience participant.
The conditions required to make in-theater riffin’ work out and not result in being keelhauled are weird but when you know, you know.
The first time I can recall chancing some riffs was at an evening of anime (back when the going term was still “Japanimation”) at a college’s Student Activities Center. There were three films on deck and the first one was an absolute stinker; probably should have left then and there (the second sucked just as hard and the third was… engh, not as bad but it was too late for it). But boredom had me feelin’ smarmy so I started making quips. By the end of the first feature, and for the rest of the night, everyone at the theater was participating and it was hilarious.
Haven’t taken jabs at a movie since Snakes on a Plane.
Not the movie itself, but I did once riff a preview for a movie with Madonna (Evita maybe?) I said a bit too loudly “Well Madonna’s never made a bad movie!” which made some folks near me laugh.
I’m FAR too polite to riff the actual movie we’re there for.
Normally I’m the person who looks at you like they’re going to kill you if you talk in a movie theater. Actually, I do that at home too. Anyway, the exception to this was Vertical Limit. A friend and I really wanted to see it and went to the final showing of the day on its opening night. The crowd was loud and raucous. We sat in the front row and I could not stop myself. The guy on the other side of my friend couldn’t either. To this day, neither of us can remember a line from the movie but we can remember the riffs me and that anonymous dude came up with.
My favorite was a massive in-joke. Way back when when The Three Musketeers came out I remember getting Premiere Magazine and looking at the cover thinking 'Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt and… Anne Murray?" Chris O’Donnell with his blondish curls just made me think of her. Ever since then he’s been referred to by my friends as Anne Murray. At some point in Vertical Limit he’s hanging off a cliff (go figure) and in a tiny voice I whispered to my friend “Spread your tiny wings and fly away” and she lost it. Very dramatic moment in the movie and there’s this chick cackling in the front row. Possibly one of my favorite memories.
We kindly refer to the movie as ‘the one where Bill Paxton couldn’t remember how to be a bad guy so he just flared his nostrils a lot’.
Well if we’re going to count whispering- when we went to see Forrest Gump, at the point where he’s at Jenny’s grave, I whispered to my wife, “Jen-nay? Are you dead?” in my best Forrest impersonation. People were not very happy about the giggling.
When I used to go to the dollar theatre everyone was half in the bag so everyone was riffing, it made otherwise unwatchable movies tolerable (I’m looking at you “Scary Movie” )
So this was at a revival theater that also showed Rocky Horror so they were kinda used to people mildly acting up.
The Sound of Music - some friends and I threw rice at the wedding
The Shining - when the bartended says, 'Ah, women. You can’t live with 'em, you can’t live without ‘em’ a friend and I spontaneously broke out with 'There’s something irrestibullish about ‘em!’
There was an all day showing of the first three Indiana Jones movies interspersed with newsreels and a serial (The Iron Claw) and the entire audience would read the serial recaps out loud and one guy did an AMAZING evil laugh.
A guy in front of me brought his Animal puppet to The Muppet Movie and carried on a hilarious conversation with the puppet during the entire film.
There’s probably more, but that’s all I can think of right now.
First off…I wish to sincerely apologize to anyone who saw Kill Bill with my friends and I.
However, the almost midnight showing of Starship Troopers was just about the most fun I’ve ever had in a theater. We had a tendency to shout “If you would like to join the Starship Troopers…” every time someone died horribly.
And during the shower scene.
Also, “They’re doing a good job covering up the nudi…NEVER MIND!”
I also kep a running tally of bad guys killed at the end of Soldier. They said there were 20 super soldiers there.
SPOILER: There were more than 20.
I went to see ST: Insurrection with some friends (the reasoning behind going escapes me…). We were, unsurprisingly, the only ones there and had a blast devouring the low-hanging fruit. We even got a few guffaws from the projection booth. Good times.
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