RiffTrax Year: 2012
Riffers: Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett
Three boys set up a lemonade stand that doesn't do super well in the morning. After the kids take a lunch break, one of them decides to go play baseball instead just as business starts booming thanks to thirsty construction workers. The boy who ditched wound up losing his baseball and needs to buy a new one, so he returns to find that the lemonade stand has made three whole dollars! He asks for his share of the profits, but he only gets forty cents in return to recoup the cost of paper cups he bought and he throws a temper tantrum. Words across the screen flash asking if this is fair?
The answer is yes.
This is one of those morality shorts that teachers would show kids asking them what they would do in any given situation or what they might have learned from it. As an adult, the lessons seem to be clear: Don't skip work and expect to get paid for it (not including paid time off plans and scenarios, but that's a whole different thing). While it's true the kid did help set up the stand and bought materials for it, he was reimbursed for it and should have no right to complain after skipping out on it. An argument can be made that maybe he should also be reimbursed for helping make the lemonade and spending time running the stand during the morning, but his demand for half the money is entirely unreasonable when that probably should only amount to a few nickels more.
Did I just analyze this morality short for kids using the attitude of a capitalist entrepreneur? You bet!
"Lemonade Stand! The thrilling sequel to Watching an Apple Turn Brown and Waiting for Your Uncle at the Barber Shop!"
The riffing for this short is interesting because they seem more invested in the short's tone than its subject matter. This short film almost presents itself as being shockingly existential as it goes through long patches where nothing in particular is happening except kids looking bored trying to pass time however they can. At one point Kevin quips "They shouldn't let Werner Herzog directs kids films." and we're all inclined to agree. But while the film can be a bit like watching paint peel, the quips are light and airy enough to make it fun, right down to the ending moral where they conclude that however the split is made, everyone agrees that the little brother shouldn't get anything (even though he's the one who led the construction workers to the lemonade stand, but that's a whole rant we aren't getting into).
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