Let's Make an Episode!

How do I get in on this here riffin’ stuff?

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@MaynardBangs will need to message me with an e-mail address (preferably Gmail). Then I can do it.

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Funny you should mention that.
Just click bit.ly/MSTBuffy, and you’ll get the ultimate revenge

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I’ve been off on vacation I’ll be returning to productivity tomorrow I’m very excited to hop onto this project and contribute to the best of my ability!

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Late to the party, but now that the episode is chosen, (and because it looks like you can’t go back and edit the first post to let people know that) you might want to create a new thread specifically for working on the riff, link to it, and then close this thread, so it doesn’t get confusing. It would be nice if we could get it thumbtacked by the mods. (And if this works out, maybe even give it a special section on the forum)

A couple of logistical suggestions before we start:

1) We should agree on a standard “base” version of the movie to write from, so all our time codes match. I suggest using this copy, since it’s the cleanest looking print I’ve seen online, and archive.org won’t interrupt you every 15 minutes with commercials.
https://archive.org/details/theincrediblepetrifiedworld1959

2) We need to determine where the host segment breaks should be in relation to the film. This can be important for the placement of skits, since you don’t want to reference something in the movie that hasn’t happened yet.

3) I suggest we all start writing riffs right now independently using the mm:ss [character] riff format, since that’s something we can do while the project leaders are trying to figure out how we want to link everything together.

4) While not essential, the invention exchange is often more fun when both the Mads and the Bots are both doing invention exchanges that are vaguely on the same wavelength. I came up with a list of prompts for doing a monthly Invention Exchange project in another thread, but if we want to pick one of these as a “theme” for the experiment, it might help fire people up with some interesting invention exchange suggestions:

  • invent a new musical instrument
    
  • get people to exercise more
    
  • make real life more like the movies
    
  • help speed up housework
    
  • come up with a new alternative to texting
    
  • bring families back to the dinner table
    
  • get back to nature
    
  • help people to relax
    
  • create an alternative energy source
    
  • help people become an artist
    
  • going retro (aka. living in the past)!
    
  • make reading fun
    
  • help people to stand out from the crowd
    
  • make it easier to work from home
    
  • live like a ninja
    
  • gifts for Grandma
    
  • help encourage recycling
    
  • tell the future!
    
  • help people eat more healthy
    
  • make wars less violent
    
  • fashions… of the future!
    
  • puppets!
    
  • living on the go (make things portable)
    
  • corporate-sponsored holidays
    
  • stay clean and neat
    
  • gifts for baby!
    
  • help people get out of the house
    
  • get that job!
    
  • help people quit smoking
    
  • make real life more like cartoons
    
  • love and affection (show you care)
    
  • go big!
    
  • take back a bad decision
    
  • microliving/miniaturization
    
  • new versions of old toys
    
  • live like a celebrity
    
  • make sports more interesting
    
  • draw inspiration from animals
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Whoops, now I think I understand this thread. Thank you for finding an archive.org link.

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I believe that I can. At least, the edit window comes up for me. I’ll get around to updating it sometime in the next couple of days.

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Now that we’ve officially selected The Incredible Petrified World as our movie, I plan to do my riff writing in Google Sheets, as it’s simple to use and a great way to riff collaboratively. I’ve already created one for the movie with 5 second riff increments. (That’s only 800 or so jokes. We can do it!) and made it editable by anyone who wants to join in and start adding their own riffs into the mix:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g-3wUogIONYX9LuJhtFfJVM1es7AwtmMByeBwB0FMvw/

Here’s how it looks (with the half an hour it took me to riff just the first minute and 30 seconds):

It’s pretty self-explanatory. Just write your riff at the appropriate timecode (again, I’m using the archive.org print because it’s cleaner than the others I’ve found online, and we want to make sure everyone writing riffs has the exact same time-code because even 5 seconds off could be confusing.

If somebody else already has something written in a slot, just write your riff idea one slot over. Please don’t delete anybody else’s jokes even if you think you have a funnier one.
Though if you want to suggest an alternate phrasing or tweak to it, just write your version in the next slot.

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YES a thousand times yes to Ice Sharks. I don’t normally talk back to movies but I was SCREAMING about the physics in this one. I believe I saw it as part of SiFi Channels counter-shark week programming, where they aired about 20 of the worst shark movies ever made. Which I then watched. Of my own free will.

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I’ve updated the original post. Now, I think it’s time for everyone to get their creative juices flowing. Watch the film as much as possible, think of riffs, but ALSO think of potential for host segments! I’m working right now on a software interface that I hope will be able to successfully work to make this a collaborative and fair project.

Here’s what I’m thinking. A “pure democracy”, almost never works, for many various reasons. That’s why most successful democracies are representative democracies. So, I say that’s what we do, we create our own little representative democracy here. Here’s my idea:

Watch through the movie. Think of as many riffs as you can, then pick your BEST possible riff.
Submit this riff to this thread, along with the “TimeStamp” for the riff, along with an optional link to the specific time in the video. Here’s an example submission:

[17:23] “You need a beer as much as I do brother?” TimeStamp Link: The Incredible Petrified World (1959) John Carradine | Sci-Fi | B-movie - YouTube

Then, after submissions have been closed, we’ll put ALL of the riffs into a poll. The highest six vote-getters will become “The Writing Room”, a group of people (let’s call them “Co-Directors”) that will decide, by democratic vote, which of all of the submitted riffs make it into the “final product”. I will just stand as a tie breaker, if the need should arise (call me the “Executive Producer”).

How does that sound, sirs? If you don’t think that’s a good idea, what’s yours? At some point, I think there needs to be some “captains” steering the ship, because if everyone tries to do it all at once, I’d expect mass chaos. By providing anyone the ability to submit a riff and be a “Writer”, and yet there’s a group of Directors with a good sense of comedy that decide which ones are considered Canon (consider them the “Philosopher-Kings of Kallipolis” perhaps Philosopher king - Wikipedia ), then I think we’ll have a successful project!

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Agreed, but I’m sure we each have kind of our go-to strengths as well. Observational humor, obscure references, etc. So, whoever the “co-directors” end up being, I think a wide swath of ability needs to be covered.

What I am finding fairly fascinating as I sit here and go through this movie is deciding on who gets what riff but hearing it in distinct voices. Like, I can see Jonah or Mike or Joel saying host bits, or Trace/Bill/Hampton’s various Crows. It’s kinda trippy. Sorry, Baron, I’m team Kevin as Tom for life, though he has grown on me the past two seasons.

I think we should all agree on 16:55-17:05 being the end tag. Freaking brilliant.

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One idea to play around with for perhaps the intro segment and the final host segment:
The movie was sort of advertised on posters and in the trailer as having monsters. However, they actually failed to include any in the film, unless you count a lizard the characters basically ignore or the creepy cave hermit’s actions right before he is killed.

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Also, an invention exchange idea:
Is a hot dog a sandwich? Some say yes, Some say no. Some are undecided. But, now we can fix all of the horribly divisive confusion with this, The Hot Dog Disambiguator!

You simply insert a hot dog into the input tube here, and out pops a controversy-free meal. [Demo]
See? Peanut butter and jelly. Definitely a sandwich.

Plus, it’s easier to digest because there is no need for a stressful debate while you eat. What do you think, sirs?

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I agree about having some “Captains” to steer the ship and review riffs.

As there are going to be 800 riffs to get through, I also recommend we have some sort of sign-ups where people who want to participate take one of the five blocks (separated by host segments) of roughly 14 minutes of filmtime, to focus writing on. Otherwise we’re going to end up with a ton of riff submissions for the first block, and the last one is going to be crickets chirping.

Note: Just because you get assigned to a specific block doesn’t mean you can’t riff the rest of the movie, but we need you to focus on that one partition and go over it multiple times to try to squeeze out as many jokes as possible.

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Hi! Just an update on my sub-project here. I’ve got 10 people sharing my Google Sheet, and I want to assure everyone that your riffs there will be transported to whatever system we end up using. Message me with your Google account if you’d like to join.

Based on how I’ve seen real episodes split (and logical break points), I split my Google Sheet into eight segments (tabs). Just my suggestion; easily changed:

  • Intro segment (about 2m) - What wacky things are the host(s) and the bots doing before the Mads call?
  • Commercial sign
  • Invention exchange (about 2-3m)
  • Movie segment 1a (00:01-08:14) - Intro and Matheny bits
  • Commercial sign
  • Movie segment 1b (08:15-15:59) - The first time we see the ship; the bell’s accident; Mallard talking to the press
  • Host segment 1 (about 2-3m) - Something wacky happening on the SOL
  • Movie segment 2a (16:00-24:07) - The divers survived, and make it to the cave; Mallard tells the press there’s no hope for them
  • Commercial sign
  • Movie segment 2 (24:08-31:49) - The survivors explore; radar detects something
  • Host segment 2 (about 2-3m) - Something directly related to the movie
  • Movie segment 3a (31:50-42:09) - The survivors look for an exit, and find cave Torgo
  • Commercial sign
  • Movie segment 3b (42:10-51:01) - The survivors check the volcano; Mallard flies to California
  • Host segment 3 (about 2-3m) - Something with the crew interacting with the Mads
  • Movie segment 4a (51:02-58:56) - Mallards and Matheny get ready for another dive
  • Commercial sign
  • Movie segment 4b (58:57-67:14) - Exciting climax
  • Host segment 4 (???) - Something totally off the wall, with a callback to an earlier host segment
  • Fan letters - from us?!?

@DeepHurting , you can protect ranges so that only the assigned contributor (and the owner) can modify it. That also means no additional rows/columns/cells can be inserted into protected ranges, which is why my sheet has a row for each 1 second, and a column for each contributor.

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I love it. I can imagine Tom and Crow trying more and more ambiguous combinations (tacos! PB&J on a hot dog bun!) until they reduce the HDD to a smoking pile of scrap :smiling_imp:

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I love this idea - I always thought there ought to be an episode where we see the SOL rebuilt and re-launched. After the end of the Sci-Fi years, where we see the SOL plummet to earth, I always thought there’s probably a crater somewhere in the desert, or perhaps the Amazon jungle, where the SOL lay in pieces. Mike and the bots escaped unharmed, of course, but the nanites are still there, and I would’ve credited them with rebuilding the ship and getting it off the ground. I remember when the Nanites were introduced it was casually mentioned that their ultimate goal was to take over the universe, so that might have been their reasoning for getting the SOL back into space. Then of course Kinga would’ve gotten involved, cleaned them all out, and kidnapped Jonah, and the rest is MSTory.

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I love this idea. As it came from this site its truly a fan experience

I think the idea of a “Production Team” is a good idea. Riffs from others can be credited when it is all pulled together so no–one feels uncredited

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Just joined the group today, and as such am terribly late to this particular party. Would love to participate - not sure how far along this is - and I’ve been a bit of an inventor for a while. Wondered if I could throw out a few of my inventions for your consideration - I have the “Fridgidairrierre” refrigerated fanny pack,


The “Koilet”…

Justin Bieber-que Sauce…

an annoying tick…

and many more - what do you think, sirs?

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