For Montco Students, ‘Rifftrax’ shatters the gender barrier in movies

By: Matt Murray

BLUE BELL, PA-50% of male students surveyed reluctantly admitted that they watched at least one of the Twilight films—the most popular reason being along the lines of being coerced into watching it with their girlfriends. Most of the remaining male students interviewed weren’t jumping at the chance to watch a film in the Twilight series either, but an exception did pop up for a few of them.

“I’ll definitely watch [Twilight] with the Rifftrax!” said another 15% of male students. They were referring to the riffing commentaries available to download on Rifftrax.com. A movie riffing is essentially a commentary made independently from the movie with jokes, made up lines, and puns that are all meant to add a humorous new layer to the film. A Rifftrax commentary usually comes in the form of an .mp3 file, but it can also be streamed via an internet browser or even a smart phone; the tracks are then played—or synced—with a movie. Rifftrax produces a wide variety of humorous commentary voiced by Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett. The trio is best known from their 90’s television show that riffed old movies, Mystery Science Theater 3000—which is essentially Rifftrax’s spiritual predecessor.

“I loved watching the Harry Potter ones,” said Montco student Saranya Muhunthan. ”I remember watching the first one with some friends—we were dying!” Muhunthan recalled that watching Harry Potter with the Rifftrax was almost an entirely new experience. The commentary seemed to add a whole new level of fun to the movie, but it didn’t take away from the story. She and 80% of the other females surveyed were intrigued by the idea of using something like Rifftrax to make sharing movies like Twilight or Harry Potter with their boyfriends.

Many male students interviewed also expressed interest in sharing predominantly male-biased movies like Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and Star Wars with their girlfriends. Despite Examiner.com’s 2009 article that reported 80% of Twilight: New Moon’s audience was female, 100% of male students interviewed said that with a Rifftrax commentary that they were more likely to watch Twilight or other films they previously didn’t care to watch. Rifftrax seems to level the playing field and open doors in demographics that were previously closed.  

Although the larger majority of Montco students seem to be unaware of Rifftrax, all of the students surveyed seem to think it would be an interesting way of watching films that would otherwise only appeal to single sexes, and beyond that it adds a whole new element to films that they’ve already come to know and love.

Montco Students Give Up On Cable

By Matt Murray  

BLUE BELL, PA--Only 8% of students surveyed at Montgomery County Community College said that they still prefer to watch conventional cable on their televisions. Five years ago, 40% of students were watching cable TV and catching their favorite shows as they aired. It seems that students want to pick when and where they watch their favorite shows; they’re no longer locked in to time slots and days of the week. They get what they want when they want.   

     Services like On-Demand, Tivo, and DVRs have allowed viewers to gain control over their cable subscription and watch shows when it’s convenient for them. More recently, internet streaming exploded onto the scene with services like Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video. 68% of students surveyed at Montco preferred to use services like these to watch TV.  

     The other 24% of students surveyed also like to watch TV, but they don’t necessarily prefer live cable or internet streaming. These students still prefer to illegally download the shows they want to watch. Most of the shows that are being illegally downloaded are shows from premium channels like Dexter and Homeland on Showtime and HBO’s Game of Thrones; these shows are not available on any of the popular internet streaming services.  

     Student Mark Black says, “Keeping six gigs of one show on my hard drive just to watch a series through once is a lot less convenient than streaming on the TV, computer, or tablet.” Many of the students pirating shows already subscribe to services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. If the premium channel shows were easily available on internet streaming services they’d be less likely to pirate these shows purely out of convenience. It’s convenience that Montco students are seeking, and the convenience of the viewer seems to be the future of television.