MST3K Talkback - Or, Who Riffs the Riffers?

MST3K Central
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It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I’ll find myself in a flight of fancy and a riff will hit me while I’m watching (usually a fave experiment even). Above and beyond the usual taffy-streth that is my mind when I’ve got the show on. Today I put Hercules on while starting to get the turkey ready and to my surprise, a couple of lines hit me in the first bit that I thought well, maybe not obvious, but ‘had to’ have occurred to folks back in the day (and def with Joel et al.'s styles).

Now apparently there is a pretty well known human blind spot, and I suffer it greatly- ‘If I know it, think it, ‘discover’ it, ponder it, etc… then surely everyone else…’ So I assume anything I come up with (that doesn’t rely on the intervening years) MUST have occurred to them too. Some of these slings are AT the show, not just the experiment.

We don’t have a lot of insight to what was rejected or passed over in favor of a better quip, but I’m curious what your MST3K head-canon provides in any favorite experiments? ‘Too obvious’/on the nose or not. Riffs that you think/say/blab, and - do you ever target the hosts/bots/Mads with 'em?

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It doesn’t happen very often with me because I’m not that clever, but (and I may have mentioned this elsewhere before), when I watch RT Setting up a Room, there are two moments where I riff on the riff being said.

  1. Kevin: They are aware that there’s a camera and that it’s on, right?
    Me: Oh, they are extremely aware of the camera.

  2. Bill: On second thought, all these things could easily be undone later if needed and maybe this doesn’t need the planning level of the Normandy Invasion!
    Me: You’ve never taught kindergarten, have you.

But that’s pretty much it. :slight_smile:

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Sometimes it is a tumor.

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Sometimes, if the mood strikes. Usually, it’s along the lines of “oh, that joke didn’t age well” or insert something that’s more topical today. Can’t blame them for that.

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Once they’re on their third or fourth “LOAD!” in The Mole People I’m steadily responding with assorted and ever-escalating threats to their collective well-being.

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