History Trivia / RiffTrax

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: At the ''Film/Sharknado2TheSecondOne'' live, they decided against including a joke about Jared Fogel's cameo, since he had been arrested on multiple counts of pedophilia and possession of child pornography the week before.

** Ditto for the ''Film/TheRoom'' live "due to [[Creator/TommyWiseau certain a litigious cast member who will remain nameless]]".

* CaliforniaDoubling: During the ''Serial/BatmanAndRobin'' shorts, the guys make a number of jokes about how Gotham City looks a lot like rural 1940s southern California.

* CaliforniaDoubling: During the Batman shorts, the guys make a number of jokes about how Gotham City looks a lot like rural 1940s southern California.
** The same applies for the riff of ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', since the filmmakers didn't do anything to hide the fact that "Gotham City" was actually Chicago.

* CastTheExpert: {{Parodied}} when James Lileks appeared to co-riff ''Film/SpiderMan3'' with Mike. James is a huge Spider-Man fan and some of the jokes involve him getting mad about adaptation differences, but it's made clear that (within the track itself) Mike doesn't give a shit and James was just going off on his own.
* DawsonCasting: Bridget and Mary Jo riff a collection of '40s films called ''[[NonIndicativeTitle The Teen-Agers]]'', specifically ''Junior Prom'', ''Freddie Steps Out'', ''High School Hero'' and ''Vacation Days''. The women always make it known that these teenagers look a hell of a lot older than they are.
* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: At the ''Film/Sharknado2TheSecondOne'' live show, they decided against including a joke about Jared Fogel's cameo in the film, since he had been arrested on multiple counts of pedophilia and possession of child pornography the week before.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Their VOD riff of ''Film/WizardsOfTheLostKingdom'', which was taken down possibly due to rights complications. Interestingly, the film would later be used for Season 11 of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' with completely different jokes.
** A good chunk of the official [=DVDs=] are out of print due to Legend Films going out of business.
* MissingEpisode: The guys couldn't get the rights to release their live action riff of ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' on DVD, necessitating a separate audio recording.
** This seems to be the default situation for the live episodes from Sony, as ''Godzilla'' won't receive a DVD release; instead, they included a gift certificate for the [=RiffTrax=] site for supporters in a certain tier to compensate for them having to get a DVD of ''Godzilla'' to play the riffs. In the case of Sony's films, it seems, according to WordOfGod, that the problem lies in them having to negotiate with and pay rights to two different departments within Sony for both the live show and [=VoD=]/[=DVD=] rights. Since the expense in time and money is significant, they've gone the live-only route for them.
** The DVD of the ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'' live show removed all references to ''Manos 2: The Search for Valley Lodge''.
** Ditto for the live action riff of ''Film/TheRoom'' "due to a certain litigious cast member who will remain nameless".
** Comments from [=RiffTrax=] seems to indicate that their live show of ''[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]'' will also not get a VOD or DVD.[[note]]Bootlegs do exist.[[/note]]
** Following Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka being outed as a serial spousal abuser, the riff for [[Film/Troll2 Troll 2]] was removed from the site.

** The live showing of ''Film/{{Santa Claus|1959}}'' had one riff by a fan for a contest as well.

** Creator/NeilPatrickHarris is a big ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'' fan and got to riff on ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' with Mike. This would eventually be turned UpToEleven when he became a guest star on the Netflix revival of the show itself.

** During the last short in the Sketchfest 2016 show, the film freezes, causing the ten riffers to ad-lib for a couple minutes while the projectionist finds where to pick up where they left off. This is all kept in the filmed version.

** Similarly, they tried to make a live show of ''The Room'' but Tommy Wiseau wouldn't let them, not right away at least (he apparently called their office and yelled at whoever answered the phone). However, this changed, as they were able to do a live show on May 6, 2015, having raised enough with the Kickstarter project.
** They really want to live-riff ''Film/MiamiConnection'' but Alamo Drafthouse didn't want to license the film to them. As with ''The Room'' this changed in 2015, as they raised enough money in a Kickstarter to successfully negotiate with Alamo Drafthouse for the rights for an October 1 live show.
** ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077942/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1 Moment by Moment]]'' was never released on home video[[note]]There is a German DVD release (region 2), by MIG Filmgroup, that exists but it can be difficult to find and must be imported. As of yet, no region 1 release exists[[/note]] due to its poor reception so a normal [=RiffTrax=] mp3 commentary is impossible due to that which is why they would need to license it.
** The ''Starship Troopers'' live show happened because the guys couldn't get permission to riff their original choice, ''Film/{{Twilight}}''.

* ApprovalOfGod: The crew is fully aware of and approve of the various "Best of" compilations throughout Youtube. They even leave comments on some of them. Heck, they've even linked the "Rifftrax vs. Coronet" video on their own site!

** The same appllies for the riff of ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', since the filmmakers didn't do anything to hide the fact that "Gotham City" was actually Chicago.
* TheCastShowoff: Usually inverted. Kevin Murphy and Mike Nelson can both sing but they usually get Disembaudio to sing (badly) during the closing credits. Sometimes they play it straight and let Kevin show off.
* CastTheExpert: {{Parodied}} when James Lileks appeared to co-riff ''Film/SpiderMan3'' with Mike. James is a huge Spider-Man fan and some of the jokes involve him getting mad about adaptation differences, but it's made clear that (within the track itself) Mike doesn't give a shit about any of it and James was just going off on his own.
* DawsonCasting: Mary Jo Pehl & Bridget Nelson have been riffing a collection of '40s films called [[NonIndicativeTitle "The Teen-Agers,"]] specifically "Junior Prom," "Freddie Steps Out," "High School Hero," & "Vacation Days." The women always make it known that these teenagers look a hell of a lot older than they are.
* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: At the live show for ''Film/Sharknado2TheSecondOne'', they decided against including a joke about Jared Fogel's cameo in the film, since he had been arrested on multiple counts of pedophilia and possession of child pornography the week before.

** A good chunk of the official dvds are out of print due to Legend Films going out of business.

** This seems to be the default situation for the live episodes from Sony, as ''Godzilla'' won't receive a DVD release; instead, they included a gift certificate for the Rifftrax site for supporters in a certain tier to compensate for them having to get a DVD of ''Godzilla'' to play the riffs. In the case of Sony's films, it seems, according to WordOfGod, that the problem lies in them having to negotiate with and pay rights to two different departments within Sony for both the live show and [=VoD=]/[=DVD=] rights. Since the expense in time and money is significant, they've gone the live-only route for them.
** The DVD release of their ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'' live show removed all references to ''Manos 2: The Search for Valley Lodge''.

** Comments from Rifftrax seems to indicate that their live show of ''The Five Doctors'' will also not get a VOD or DVD.

** The jokes for the ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' trax. The live showing of ''Film/SantaClaus1959'' had one riff by a fan for a contest as well.
** 2017 saw uploads of pre-existing fanmade riff compilations.
* {{Padding}}: The guys never fail to mock examples of this each and every time they see it. And since they riff a lot of low-budget movies with paper-thin plots, they have many, many opportunities to do so.
** ''The Curse of Bigfoot'' is an especially bad example. It takes over half an hour for the actual plot of the movie to even get started, and even then there's still long sections of characters mountain climbing and the like. At least half of the riffs in the movie are about the ridiculous amount of padding.

** Creator/NeilPatrickHarris is a big ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fan and got to riff on ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' with Mike. This would eventually be turned UpToEleven when he became a guest star on the Netflix revival of the show itself.

* ThrowItIn: If they think a joke is particularly funny the crew will leave their laughter in as opposed to editing it out. During live shows, it can go on for several minutes and almost derail the commentary.
-->(After Kevin's "Whoa!" when Santa says to Rudolph "I need you tonight" gets an especially huge response)
-->'''Bill:''' Well, we lost three lines in that.
-->'''Kevin:''' It was worth every moment.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The guys wanted to riff ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068248/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_2 Baffled!]]'' and ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077942/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1 Moment by Moment]]'' but they couldn't get the rights.
** Similarly, they tried to make a live show of ''Film/TheRoom'' but Tommy Wiseau wouldn't let them, not right away at least (Apparently he called their office and yelled at whoever answered the phone.). However, this changed, as they were able to finally do a [=RiffTrax=] Live for the movie on May 6th, 2015, having raised enough money with the Kickstarter project.

** ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077942/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1 Moment by Moment]]'' was never released on home video[[note]]There is a German DVD release (Region 2), by MIG Filmgroup, that exists but it can be difficult to find and must be imported. As of yet, no region 1 release exists.[[/note]] due to its poor reception so a normal Rifftrax mp3 commentary is impossible due to that which is why they would need to license it.
** The ''Starship Troopers'' live show happened because the guys couldn't get permission to riff their original choice; ''Twilight.''

** They offered Creator/NeilBreen to riff one of his movies but he declined. (Apparently Breen doesn't care for the so-bad-it's-good status of his films.)
** In 2008, Legend Films [[http://www.mst3kinfo.com/?p=1877 announced]] a 3D colorized version of ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 Night of the Living Dead]]'' would be available on [=RiffTrax=] along with a new three-riffer commentary from Mike, Kevin, and Bill. The updated commentary did materialize the following year, but the 3D color version of the film... didn't.

* TooSoon: At the live show for ''Film/Sharknado2TheSecondOne'', they decided against including a joke about Jared Fogel's cameo in the film, since he had been arrested on multiple counts of pedophilia and possession of child pornography the week before.

* HollywoodHomely: There are many, ''many'' jokes about Lisa in ''Film/TheRoom'' not being the beauty all the characters say she is. Creator/MaggieGyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' gets it too, though not as badly.

* HypeBacklash: The intro and outro to ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' is all about how people, especially on the Internet, were proclaiming it to be the Greatest Film Ever Made. Bill ties a rope around his ankle, like priests in the book of Exodus, in case the splendor of the movie literally kills him and they have to yank his corpse out of the recording booth. Kevin warns the others that he may weep openly, [[SubvertedTrope though]] it later turns out he thinks they were going to watch ''Film/FirstKnight'', and says that ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' [[HypeAversion sucked]].

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Their VOD riff of ''Film/WizardsOfTheLostKingdom'', which was taken down possibly due to rights complications. Interestingly, the film would later be used for Season 11 of ''LiveActionTV/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' with completely different jokes.

* OneOfUs: The commentaries feature frequent references to nerdy or geeky activities/interests, unsurprising considering we're their target audience. In the ''Film/HarryPotter'' Rifftrax, several jokes were made referencing things that were either only in the books, or hadn't been introduced yet in the films (like a joke involving Horcruxes before the ''Half-Blood Prince'' film had been released). In the ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' rifftrax, the guys gushed about Middle Earth and its rich history, like Mike giving a detailed explanation of the meaning behind Aragorn's war cry "Elendil!" Video game references are the most frequent and generally occur with the least provocation. Mike makes jokes several times that hint he spent most of his teen years playing NES games, and jokes about more modern video games like ''{{VideoGame/Portal}}'' get brought up as well, though they have more of a WereStillRelevantDammit feel to them sometimes.
** It seems that Bill Corbett is a dyed-in-the-wool Whovian -- during the riff of ''Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks'', he was the one who made riffs about the movie not being canonical, and during a Christmas live-riff show was seen wearing the Fourth Doctor's scarf.

* ApprovalOfGod: The crew is fully aware of and approve of the various "Best of" compilations throughout Youtube. They even leave comments on some of them.

** A good chunk of the official dvds are out of print due to Legend Films no longer existing.

** ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077942/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1 Moment by Moment]]'' was never released on home video due to its poor reception so a normal Rifftrax mp3 commentary is impossible due to that which is why they would need to license it.

** This seems to be the default situation for the live episodes from Sony, as ''Godzilla'' won't receive a DVD release; instead, they included a gift certificate for the Rifftrax site for supporters in a certain tier to compensate for them having to get a DVD of ''Godzilla'' to play the riffs.