Story-Telling: Can You Tell It In Order? (Rifftrax Shorts)

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

Likely the short that Christopher Nolan consulted before he made Memento, Story-Telling:  Can You Tell It In Order? has Pennywise the demonic clown teaching children about the proper way of telling a story.  He relates two stories:  one about a boy getting ready for bed and another about an epic quest for a rubber band.  He then asks the children to tell the story in order the exact way it occurred, and if they fail he will eat them.

Well, maybe that last part doesn't happen onscreen, but it's implied, I think.

Ultimately this is a rudimentary short about a rudimentary skill.  I don't know how important this lesson was in my overall education, as it seems to me I probably would have learned it on my own.  Or perhaps I'm taking for granted the education that prevented me from rambling on stories with constant uses "Did I mention that this part happened first?  Well it did, and it's important."  It also might have been a fun puzzle activity for kids, to put things in proper order, so it would be unfair to dismiss it.

Too bad about that terrifying clown.  We all float down here...

And that clown gets the bulk of the jokes from Mike, Kevin, and Bill here, exclaiming in horror initially then just trying to understand his rambling as he goes on, as well as adding more of a psychotic personality.  While occasionally there's a break from the clown impressions as he tells his simple little stories, which allows our comedians to help narrate the simple stories that are unfolding, but in the end it always falls back on the clown.  He is the backbone of this short and the riffing.  Is it funny?  Yes.  The short as a whole doesn't offer much else, but they wring him for ten minutes full of good chuckles.

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