RiffTrax Goes to the Gizmoplax (MST3K Special)

The Short

The special short presentation of this Gizmoplex special is Safety in Offices, a military safety film that also doubles as a slapstick comedy.  As Mike says, "No one is funnier than the United States Navy."  As proved by the movie Hot Shots!  The short centers a group of Naval officers who fail to adhere to basic office safety procedures, leading to hilarious antics, especially that little firecracker Miss Dipple.  The moral of the story is simple:  if one is injured, it's funny!

Shake Hands With Danger this is not, and maybe we should be thankful for that.  Nobody wants to see Miss Dipple in pieces on the floor.  We'd rather see her in her Lucille Ball era physical antics while teaching us a lesson that there are simple things we can do throughout the day to prevent us from a Shake Hands With Danger scenario.  Or to just prevent our finger being bitten by a filing cabinet or a typewriter.

"Typewriter bites girl!"

"I still do that with my laptop all the time!"

Mike, Kevin, and Bill seem to be the first to point out that, if anything, the short is anti-filing cabinet.  Most of the accidents seem to center on the misuse of the trusted organization tool, be it smashing one's thumb or knocking over a pile of paperwork.  But they also guide us through basic ladder safety, which Bill points out as something that leads to a "Me Too" moment.  Sometimes the biggest laughs of the short are just the short itself because it actually is a pretty fun little slapstick comedy on its own, containing moments of "Boi-oi-oi-oi-oing!" and wacky physical stunts.  And the character of Miss Dipple is delightful, or, as the narrator calls her, "Killer Dipple."  She's an ignorant little trainwreck who tears through this short like a storm with her "Unladylike gyrations."  I'm not sure if the riff overcomes the short being shown with this one, but what I can safely say is that I had a blast.

Thumbs Up

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The Livestream

During the 2021 Kickstarter, the folks at RiffTrax gave a tiny nudge by offering to do a special event of their own on the Gizmoplex should the campaign succeed.  The event wound up being the last special that the Gizmoplex streamed, and it was certainly a fun night.  The event started with a special presentation of Gumby:  The Movie (review here), which certainly seemed like a riff they were pretty proud of.  With good reason.  It's very fun and it shows RiffTrax putting their best foot forward while also showcasing a type of experience that MST3K didn't provide during its run, successfully letting MSTies know that supporting them brings a similar experience but just different enough.  For that, the movie selection is a home run.  No notes.

The actual new content begins afterward, other than a janky intro by Matt McGinnis where is sound is garbled.  He fixes it for the post-show, thankfully, as Mike, Kevin, and Bill jump into their live riff of Safety in Offices.  I will say that presenting the short after the movie was something that gave me creative indigestion.  So much of Mystery Science Theater and RiffTrax formats the short before the movie, and even all of the Gizmoplex events kicked off with the brand new short debuting before the tribute episode.  I understand why it's formatted this way, because it condenses all of Mike, Kevin, and Bill's participation into one section and it was probably easier on everyone.  But the short is fun and I'm happy with the result.

Afterward is Q&A time with special guest host Emily Marsh!  Emily jumps in with an immense fondness for this crew and she has questions for them about their creative process.  It's probably the noob asking the boomers for advice.  But first, Emily shocks the nation by admitting that she was one of the very few people who saw Gumby:  The Movie in theaters when she was a wee girl, claiming that it was like The Pagemaster in that it was so horrifying that she couldn't look away.  She then asks what draws them to the Gumby franchise, because both MST3K and RiffTrax have history with it.  They claim it's just something fun and different that they try to wrap their head around, and Kevin has some colorful descriptions of the IP, such as "The worldbuilding they do is so overwrought." and "As interesting as the visuals are, the dialogue is absolutely pedestrian."  It goes back to what I was saying about how movies like this are so rare in this format that it makes the ones that do appear something to treasure.

Emily then asks "What makes for a good RiffTrax movie?"  Mike says that it's kind of loose, as he said they'd never do Plan 9 from Outer Space until they did.  Bill points out a purpose of intent, claiming that the best of the movies for their format were made with a form of sincerity, like The Room or Birdemic.  Mike also brings up interesting quirks of small productions like this, bringing up "a recent shark movie" (I believe he's referring to Jurassic Shark) that had an obsession with popcorn shrimp and how he can't figure out what the reference is supposed to be.  Emily then asks them about self-awareness in a movie, and they all agree that it's hard.  They use Sharknado as an example, as they dropped the series because it was becoming to self-aware to handle.  They also bring up the sequels to Birdemic and Samurai Cop, which they opted out of doing because they were trying to be comedies.  Bill points out that it's when they're handling a movie like this that their format "leans into anger," and have the riffers just get irate at the movie, using Hobgoblins as an example.  Emily finds an apt description in calling the ordeal a "Turduckhen of comedy."  When asked what the most difficult movies to riff are, they bring up Hobgoblins again, but Bill also goes in a different direction and goes back to the OG RiffTrax format and brings up the Transformers movies, claiming they're so chaotic that they were hard to get a foothold on.

Talk turns to the Live shows, and Emily wants to know more about Rad, which was the show that was being crowdfunded at the time (and this event is primarily an advertisement for).  The boys discuss how this is an interesting kitchy teen sports genre that they don't do that often, the closest comparison being the volleyball movie Spiker.  But they love this realm of 80's cheese, and bring up the potential for even more to come with their reward riff of the Sylvester Stallone movie Cobra that they hoped to do (and they did do).  Emily then asks what they love about their live riffs, and Kevin loves the infectious energy in the room when a joke lands.  Bill counters that he loves it when a joke tanks.  Kevin agrees with that too, claiming that he loves the groans.

Matt then reads some listener questions.  One asks if there is anything they actually learned from the educational shorts.  Mike learned to not wash clothes in gasoline and Bill learned how to make masks from grass (corn?).  I'll also add that the Keeping Clean and Neat short on MST3K taught me that it was easier to cut toenails after a shower and that knowledge has served me well over the years.  Then someone asks if they can watch a movie and not riff it.  The short answer is yes, especially in a theater.  Though Mike and Bill admit their wives can get irritated when they start joking about little things throughout the day ("Stop riffing breakfast!").  The last question is about how they approach a movie they've already done before, and basically they all just forget what jokes they have or haven't done over the years.  Though, they'll definitely go back to the well if there is a joke they absolutely need to do for fan service, pointing out that they absolutely had to repeat the line "I'm gonna sink this bitch." for their riff of Titanic.

And with that, the Gizmoplex closes its doors.  For a final event, this is as good as you can ask for.  We finally got Mike and Kevin to participate in our little corner of the internet and we had some fun adventures with Gumby.  Also, Miss Dipple!  RiffTrax Goes to the Gixmoplex was a rousing success, bringing hope for more RiffTrax events in the future.  Of course, that never came to pass, but they closed out this one chapter in MST lore with a bang.