Picture of the author: At work, or at play!
Good evening. Unless, of course, it is day where you are, to which I say “Turn off your computer, walk away, and then come back tonight so my greeting can be received in its proper context.” Truly, it’s the least you can do.
Is it evening now? You may want to check outside the nearest window. It is? Good.
My name is Jim Vorel. Welcome to my “365” project blog, MST3k Riff-a-Day. After watching a number of friends attempt “366” projects last year with varying degrees of success (that leap day is a bitch), I began to wonder what sort of daily blog would suit me best. I didn’t want to do something I’d seen plastered all over the internet before. There are, after all, dozens if not hundreds of “beer a day” blogs, and there are certainly blogs devoted to Mystery Science Theater 3000 as well. But if there’s already a blog out there that takes an in-depth look into individual obscure riffs from the cult-classic show each day, well, then I apologize to the guy I’m ripping off.
What I aim to attempt here is a daily deconstruction of a single joke from Mystery Science Theater 3000. If you don’t know what the show is, I recommend you visit the “What is MST3k?” page.
If you have seen the show before, though, then you would likely understand why a blog like this could be helpful. The writers of MST3k came from varied backgrounds and possessed an absolutely ridiculous panoramic grasp of pop culture. Their riffs on bad movies contain references to sports, advanced science, literature, advertisements, music, and of course other movies in equal aplomb.
This inevitably tends to confuse people. I readily admit that I don’t understand many, many of the riffs that are spaced out over almost 200 episodes of the show. I figure that in doing this blog and committing myself to the internet research, I’ll learn a lot as well. And ultimately, isn’t that why we usually undertake these projects?
And I even picked a non-leap year.
What do you think, sirs?
This is going to go just fine.
MST3k Riff-a-Day 
What a great idea! Love the Gizmonic profile picture! Thanks for giving me a daily dose of MSTie geek.
And thank you for reading.
I’m madly in love with this blog. Thank you so much for taking the time to research the more esoteric jokes from the show. I did a blog for which I read one book a week. It was pretty tough and I ended up abandoning it for a few months but catching up and finishing all 52 books in the end. I hope you fare better than I in that regard. Much luck to you!
You only missed by one day, it looks like. I would call that a victory.
As for mine, I don’t think I will have too much trouble–I have a solid archive built up of posts that are already scheduled. And it really pleases me to know that random people I’ve never met are enjoying the blog.
Well, actually, I stopped the blog in December of that year and started again in, I think, April. I left my husband in December, so the blog fell by the wayside. In April, I had to read like a demon to get up to my goal of 52 by the end date. So technically, though I did read 52 books in 52 weeks (plus one day), I didn’t actually read a book a week, as I had planned.
Hi, there is an episode with a riff that I can’t explain. can you help?
Its mst3k #414 tormented.
I have supplied the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCSFM5-emyY
And its the riff at 7:14
Any ideas
Thanks
Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell what Servo is even saying. It sounds like “Hawaii,” but then he just makes like a noise after that. I have a feeling it’s probably a reference to a certain character or something, but there’s very little to go on in trying to look it up.
I think it’s a theme song, but its difficult to figure it out.
Worked it out. The song Servo is singing is: Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 – Mas que nada.
took me a while 🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have thoroughly enjoyed your 365 Riff-A-Day series: some of the riffs I immediately recognized (“I remember that commercial from my childhood”) while with other riffs I shared your bewilderment (“Whoa, man, how did they come up with that joke?”). It is a testament to the wit of MST3K that you were able to dig so deep into esoteric jokes that are decades old, yet still funny. I understand how difficult it is to write everyday––I’m a professor that has to publish as part of my job––and over the past year I always looked forward to your daily insights and writing. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You know, the thing I didn’t expect was how easy it was to find the riffs. Many times, I would put an episode on and find one to look up within the first minute. It made me realize just how few of the jokes I still understand.
I stumbled across your blog looking up the Red Goose Shoes riff. Good work! Great idea for a project.