Oh I agree with that – that’s why you don’t throw out the whole dang project just because they made jokes that we only later realized were hurtful to some people. I appreciate that they have grown and moved forward with a show that’s still hilarious and doesn’t need that stuff. (And MST3K was a lot less offensive than many of the most middle-of-the-road sitcom were back in the early 90’s.)
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Yeah, they were meaner to the films and meaner to each other, too. Sometimes it wore on me. 
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Honestly, I think they’re much meaner on Rifftrax than they ever were on MST3K. I have a hard time with Rifftrax because there’s so much punching down.
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Some of them are better balanced than others. But yeah… without skits and cute li’l robots for contrast, they can be a hard road to hoe.
If I never have to hear another Nick Nolte or John Carradine joke again, it’ll be too soon.
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That’s why I like the Bridget and MJ riffs. They’re much more light-hearted and fun.
And also, don’t forget Trace and Frank as The Mads, who are doing online riffs every month. Very much in the fun spirit of the Comedy Central years of the show.
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Yes, I really enjoy those too. Much more than other Rifftrax things I’ve watched. In fact, I will probably keep my future Rifftrax experiences light with the exception of what they do.
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Interesting. That one didn’t make much of an impression on me at first, and there are some heavy-duty misses. (Like, okay Guys we get it you don’t want to see a fat guy in shorts. Enough already!) But it grew on me over time, and some of the riffs are really choice. (Cave-aged Roquefort. Heh.)
I think it was a little less that it was a fat guy in shorts and more that it was specifically Jackie Coogan in shorts. No one wants to see Uncle Fester’s legs.
But it wasn’t like there was a bunch of voyeuristic lingering on them by the camera or any of the other characters. He was at the beach so he wore shorts. After the first few comments about it they could’ve just moved on.
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I think they were a little enamored with Coogan being in the movie in general. He had a long (and sometimes very sad) Hollywood history starting when he was just seven years old and thrust into megastardom from being the titular character in Chaplin’s The Kid and then his parents wasted all of his money leaving him an impoverished adult who barely got any roles but tried to eke it out as an actor for years until he finally got some cult success as Uncle Fester. I don’t know if it was because of his child stardom and the movie being full of child actors or that they just loved The Addams family, but they definitely were a little on the obsessive side about Coogan.
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I feel like the references to the Indian workers is mocking the fact that the movie refers to the Native Americans as Indians.
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“Robot Holocaust” is on Twitch right now, and there was a “Lancelot Link - Secret Chimp” reference.
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This.
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They make a lot of fatphobic jokes. Even in the new season. Avalanche is probably the worst.
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I feel like I should’ve noticed those. What did I miss? I don’t even remember anyone in that one whose size could be classed as “above average.”
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It’s mostly aimed at dudes (and you’re right none of them are “big”). I of course can’t think of any right now. In The Land the Time Forgot they make lots of references to Doug McClure eating.
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The anti-trans/anti-gay jokes from the “Mike era” come off as very mean. “The Incredibly Strange Creatures…” in particular, is hard to watch. Incredibly strangely, the barbs in that one are aimed at a woman who’s not trans. Unfortunately, Rifftrax will still do queer jokes that seem more fitting for 1960s than 2021.
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The problem I have with the jokes from that period and from Mike, Bill and Kevin in Rifftrax are the “gay panic” lines - whenever a man is shown without a shirt or in shorts, they loudly protest that he should put some clothes on as if it’s really important that they establish that they’re straight. I mean, I’m gay and I don’t loudly protest whenever a scantily clad woman appears on screen - I just don’t care. I would think it would be the same for straight men seeing a man’s chest.
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Yeah, of all their forays into Japanese movies, Invasion of the Neptune Men is the hardest to get through. That aged like cheese on a Texas highway in August.
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E’h, topical riffs are like caterpillars that transform into esoteric quips for the next generation of fan.
And I said elsewhere that I like bad taste in comedy, so I’m not automatically up in arms when they drift into that - now, I have my limits (watching Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s makes my teeth hurt). And it’s especially cringy when it’s overdone and unfunny. Those riffs in Strange Creatures for example, aren’t funny and aren’t getting funny, no matter how often they repeat them.
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