Act Your Age (Rifftrax Shorts)

Rifftrax Year:  2008

Riffers:  Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

Jim is caught vandalizing a school desk and sent to the principal's office.  The overly enthusiastic principal then has a discussion with Jim about adults acting like children and asks him what he thinks would help him act his age.  Jim then devises a chart that will judge how old he acts and how to improve on it.

Personally I don't think the chart works.  It said my real age is 107!

This is more or less an over simplified-behavior modifier, trying to boil down human emotions and anxiety into one simply acting like a baby.  In reality it's more complicated than that and simply saying "Act your age!" isn't really going to help.  That said, the short has a non-judgmental calmness about it, presenting its by showing extreme examples of temper tantrums and saying "Well would you look at that."  However the moral stretches itself a bit too thin when it does something such as presenting a girl who is supposedly worried about something then is called on in class for a question she doesn't know the answer to.  To say this girl is simply not acting her age is judgmental nonsense, because we really don't know what stress she's dealing with.

Mike, Kevin, and Bill don't really question the short like I am, but seem to enjoy how visual it is.  A lot of the pantomime temper throwing provide great opportunities for them to offer a dub that enhances the humor, and they take great advantage of it.  They also love the old-timey quaintness of the short, having fun with it's laid back nature.  And of course, when they see a person with authority sporting a mustache there are mustache jokes up the wazoo.  This short is a delight, and very fun.  It's well worth having in your collection.

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