Krasner, Norman: Beloved Husband of Irma (Rifftrax Shorts)

Rifftrax Year:  2013
Riffers:  Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

The guys at Rifftrax have a strange fascination with a gentleman named Norman Krasner.  They have riffed three of Norman's shorts in their Live shows for Manos, Birdemic, and Night of the Living Dead.  Yet they never riffed Norman's first short live, choosing instead to just riff it in a studio version and release aside studio versions of Welcome Back, Norman and Norman Checks In.

Norman is an odd duck indeed.  Somehow these shorts exist, starting with this strange little black and white number from 1974, and Norman seemed to come back in six minute intervals like clockwork every five years.  Who was making these and who he was making them for, I am uncertain.  The cast and crew of these Norman shorts seems consistent, but all they've ever worked on are Norman shorts.  Norman himself was played by a man named Douglas P. MacIntosh, who passed away around the same time Rifftrax started showing these shorts.  As far as I can tell, Norman is the only character he ever played.

Nothing about the production of these shorts makes sense...but here they are.  For better or worse, we have Norman Krasner.

But other than a certain fascination with the production (or lack of details behind), I'm indifferent to Norman.  Mike, Kevin, and Bill love him, but I never really found him ideal for riffing.  Rifftrax's use of these shorts in their live shows seems more or less just them sharing with use these weird things they've found, that tell us about a miserable man who has the worst luck in the world.  Some portions of these shorts are funny on their own, so I don't really see why they need Rifftrax's format.

Despite riffing the other shorts live, this first one, titled "Krasner, Norman:  Beloved Husband of Irma" (which was altered to "Norman Krasner" on the Rifftrax site) was never riffed in front of a studio audience.  Watching it now, it's easy to see why.  Norman's first short is about his struggles in a public restroom, and it's about as endearing as it sounds.  If you ever wanted to stick with Norman through his bowel movement rituals, this is the short for you.  We get to see him run out of toilet paper, solicited for anonymous restroom sex, and get trapped inside a stall.  Out of all the Norman shorts I'd say this is easily the one I want to unsee the most.

The riffing is par for the course on Norman.  They more or less just underline the gags in the short itself, which really isn't needed, especially not in this one.  I did get a good laugh from Kevin's line "Oh no, he's going back for another round...AND HE'S GOING TO DROP IT FROM A HIGH ALTITUDE!" but this short is firing blanks for the most part.  Norman shorts usually depend on the gags of the shorts themselves to work, whereas this one is too low-momentum and has gags that are really just gross.

I say flush this one down the toilet.

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