In all the excitement surrounding Comic-Con last week, nobody here even realized that Wednesday, July 21st marked RiffTrax’s fourth anniversary. That’s right, four years ago we released Road House. I still remember the first emails coming in from e-junkie indicating that someone had actually purchased it.  Who’d have thought that four years later I’d be able to hold my own in conversations about plot points in the Twilight movies?

A lot has changed in the past four years:  We got a shuffleboard table.  That’s pretty much it, actually.

But no, of course there have been all sorts of great things that have happened along the way that we couldn’t have predicted. We have 17 RiffTrax DVDs. Two live theater shows down and two more coming up soon. Webcasts. A state quarter tournament that many consider the defining occasional currency based blog post series of our generation.

And oh, the characters we’ve met along the way: Tommy. Gregory. Crazy old lemon drink lady. The Schnapster. Moosebaby. Norman Spear Jr.

I’ve been lucky to be at RiffTrax since day one. The job has allowed me to work with incredibly talented, funny people every single day. So thanks for your support that has allowed  it to happen.  Here’s hoping we can continue to make you laugh for many more years to come.

*** KEVIN MURPHY CHIMES IN ***

While we’re getting maudlin, I’d like to make a tip of the whisky glass to everybody who’s helped to keep the riffing engines humming. That would be David D, Casey, Josh, Sarah, Erik, Chris, Jason, Cam, Rick at Lethal Sounds, David G and Barry – is this sounding like an Oscar speech yet? – and of course our crack(ed) young writers Sean and Conor; all our guest Riffers; Joco and Veronica Belmont; Paul, Storm, Adam, Wil and all our new play-pals from W00tstock; madman Lowtax; Cole and Janet; and the fine people at O’Brien’s Pub.  I’m sure I’m missing people because I’m a thoughtless inconsiderate wad, so forgive me if I didn’t give you a proper shout-out, and I’ll try to make amends.

Most of all, Thanks go to you, the readers, downloaders, the people who laugh at our jokes, who keep the conversation lively, who come see us at our live events and at cons.  That we are four years old is entirely thanks to you.

-kwm

Ladies and gentlemen, it has been forever since I’ve written in these digi-pages. Mea culpa. A combination of too much work, too much social media, a so-called “family” and my new semi-pro ice dancing career has kept me away from the Rifftrax Blog. That, and wolves.

BUT.

When I heard that Mike, Kevin and myself were invited back this year to do a gigantic night at the San Diego Comic-Con (approx. 700,000 seats!), and that our host would be none other than our good friend, the high priestess of geekery Ms. VERONICA BELMONT — well, it’s was time to fire up the WordPress.

Here is the 411:

RIFFTRAX LIVE!

Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett (RiffTrax.com, Mystery Science Theater 3000) return to Comic-Con to perform another live, hilarious riff to a classic short! The panel is hosted by Veronica Belmont (host of Tekzilla on Revision3 and Qore on the PlayStation Network). Join the riffers for fun, laughs, and the latest news from RiffTrax.com, the site where MST3K-style humor meets mainstream movies, TV shows and vintage shorts. At RiffTrax.com they don’t make movies, they make them funny!

Friends, I have nothing to add except: come join us, wolves be damned!

Now that we’re in that groggy, mosquito-infested nightless fever-dream between Memorial Day and Independence Day, isn’t it time to watch a doughy middle-aged guy offer his tribute to Liberty, freedom, faith, hope, charity and other things?

Of course it is.  Here’s RC Kouba with Lady Liberty.

Earth Day is upon us, a day which has considerably more meaning and practical application than Life Day.  And what better way to celebrate the day, there in San Diego and here in the Minnesota Satellite Offices, than to release our riff of James Cameron’s Brobdingnagian Planet-Buster of a movie, Avatar.  Say what you will about the film, it will go down in the annals of cinema history as the most successful film to feature digitally-rendered tree-dwelling naked blue people.

Although one may find it incongruous that the DVD is being released on Earth Day notwithstanding that the story occurs entirely on another planet, prompting the urge to broaden the brand and rename the day Planet Day so as not to offend other planets with our Earthbound provincialism, and although our own planet has no fiber-optic trees or domesticated work animals with which we can commingle our tendrils, nonetheless this actual planet we live on is worth keeping healthy and in good working order.

And when we uncynically suggest that our riffs, being digital, are possibly more environmentally friendly than the six-foot-square blister pack surrounding your half-inch-square SD card, we truly hope you enjoy our enjoyment of the Very Big And Often Very Silly Film.  But we’ll also suggest that if you’re looking for something far bigger, far more spectacular and undeniably breathtaking, look no further than Earth’s own blockbuster, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.