"Push the button, Frank"

February 23, 2021 10:10 PM

The Mads Are Back. Another new destination for riffing from the classic MST3K cast has appeared on the web. Frank Conniff (who has a quite lively twitter presence) and Trace Beaulieu have taken their show to the web, establishing a new YouTube channel that will host their future movie riffing endeavors. “Every second Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET,” Conniff and Beaulieu will be presenting ticketed livestreams on the site, with viewers free to tune in from around the world. Meanwhile, previous riffing projects from The Mads will be added to the YouTube account over time for free viewing.
posted by valkane (19 comments total)

Yayyyy!!! :-)
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 2:43 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thank you very much for posting this, as I probably would not have heard about it otherwise.
posted by wittgenstein at 3:28 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yessssssss.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:23 AM on February 24, 2021

I've been watching their quarantine livestreams for the past several months, which I had noticed were presented in a variety of formats (Youtube, Zoom webinar, Twitch stream), seemingly as an experiment to see which platform worked best for a live show done via teleconferencing. Looks like my hunch was correct, and I'm glad that they have a semi-permanent home for their riffs now.

The shows are a great deal of fun, and about as stripped down as you can get with the movie-riffing concept; It's pretty much all public-domain movies from the Internet Archive so it's a much lower overhead than either MST3K or Rifftrax, and Frank & Trace treat it as a very straightforward and relaxed riffing exercise.

There are no writers other than themselves, so the pop culture references are definitely coming from the POV of two 60something boomers, but it will feel very warm and familiar to anyone who grew up with them on MST3K. The monthly live element does allow for the occasional "ripped from the headlines!" type riff, which made for some good topical (but not too topical) riffs over the last few months.

They've also been devoting about 30 minutes after every show to a conversation with a different special guest, usually somebody from their MST3K days or other comedians and TV folks. For their riffing of Vincent Price's "The Tingler" a few months ago, they managed to get a hold of Vincent Price's daughter Victoria, who shared some lovely anecdotes about her dad.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:14 AM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]

Frank "TV's Frank" Conniff was one of the best parts of MST3k, both as an actor and writer.
posted by SoberHighland at 8:54 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I saw their version of Glen or Glenda a while back - it was a real hoot! And their more serious discussion after the movie was also very interesting.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:20 AM on February 24, 2021

Conniff wrote much of Invader Zim

I did not know this.
posted by doctornemo at 9:20 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Nightly MST3k or rifftrax has been my pandemic ritual. This is relevant to my interests.
posted by Think_Long at 9:52 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]

I've probably told this story on MeFi before (under my previous account), but my sister and her then-boyfriend were big into MST3K when I was in high school. So the early 90s. Boyfriend would buy (or circulate?) tapes of the movies and the three of us would crack up watching them. My favorite back then was 'The Cave Dwellers.' We would reference the sudden development of a hang glider all the time!

I hadn't really touched the stuff in decades, but like Think_Long it's been a pandemic balm for me. I've seen scads of MSTies I had previously not seen, and have, somewhat weirdly, gotten into a genre that I previously wouldn't have watched - semi-realistic 70s films, like Mitchell and Piranha. I still mostly love when MST does 80s SFF, as I grew up with that and love to gently laugh with it.

I've also liked Frank Conniff's Twitter.
posted by Tchozz at 10:16 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

Sustained MST viewing does bring you down some odd genre rabbit-holes. I had no idea they covered so many teen-vagrant movies (and associated weird moralizing) as I so strongly associate them with SFF fare from the Mike years.

Also a lot of movies used to break for a full song number sung by a tertiary actor who must have been rep'd by the production company's label?
posted by Think_Long at 10:35 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yeah, before MST3K I had no idea there were so many 1960s-70s biker movies.

I found that my favorite episodes tended to be with movies that were bad enough to make fun of, but good enough that they weren’t boring. And with really sincere performances. Like, I find myself genuinely wondering what happened to Mick, Geri, and Alma after the events of Squirm.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:35 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

This makes me ridiculously happy.
I finally went to enough DragonCon's back in the day to meet all the MST3k folks, and Trace and Frank, were, without a doubt, always the nicest, their characters, the most oddly charming.
Forget Pearl and Brain Guy, give me Frank and Forrester every time!
As others have mentioned, streaming MST3k or RiffTrax 24/7 on Twitch has been a balm in these turbulent times.

My own podcast was influenced by MST3k, and I will gladly repay the debt by throwing some money their way.
Now, if they will just come down to Tampa/St Pete after all this COVID mess is over, I will be double ridiculously happy.
posted by Bill Watches Movies Podcast at 11:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've been watching their quarantine livestreams for the past several months

Link?!
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 11:48 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

CheesesOfBrazil, this is their EventBrite page where they sell tickets to their online shows: The Mads Events

The next show is scheduled on Tue, Mar 9. The main feature is Phantom from Space.
posted by ringu0 at 12:17 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

I found that my favorite episodes tended to be with movies that were bad enough to make fun of, but good enough that they weren’t boring.

Without MST3K I would never have known that there was a Corman film that had some modestly (?) redeeming (?) qualities, The Gunslinger.
posted by praemunire at 12:50 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

My favorite back then was 'The Cave Dwellers.'

I recently rewatched this and discovered a line that I'd missed before but has now become one of my favorites:

Exposition-delivering guy: “When you seem to have reached the ends of the Earth…”

Crow: “Ask for Earl.”

posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:37 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I found that my favorite episodes tended to be with movies that were bad enough to make fun of, but good enough that they weren’t boring.

It's been decades since I've seen it, but I still remember Attack of the Killer Shrews being one of the worst episodes because there simply wasn't enough going on most of the time to riff on. Though there was a fun intermission segment where they mocked the issue by making a board game of the movie where likewise nothing happened other than the board game characters standing around drinking.
posted by Candleman at 4:00 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

As a mathematician who once lived in a done with an ant problem, Phase IV was a real discovery. I had no idea a movie could be so specific and weird, and yet so relevant.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:48 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

I lucked out so much by having 4 total episodes on VHS but two were Cave Dwellers and I Accuse My Parents.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 11:20 AM on February 25, 2021 [2 favorites]