Rushing  straight downtown after work, I manged to score street parking closer than Wednesday night and hop in line for the RiffTrax panel roughly an hour and a half before the scheduled time. Luckily, I jumped in line when I did, as many people behind me did not make it in.

The program started with clips from previously riffed movies including Avatar, Lord of the Rings, and Twilight. The crowd roared in favor of “team what-the-hell-is-this-sparkly-vampire-bullshit.”  Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, all from the original Mystery Science Theater 3000, joined by moderator Veronica Belmont, exchanged short quips before launching into a live riffing of a black and white 1950′ educational film called “Buying Food.” The movie explained the dangers of impulse buying (really, who can ever eat three pints of oysters) while Mike, Bill and Kevin indulged us in their take on the film. The subtle and sometimes very direct humor  really come straight from our own heads. The boys are just better at vocalizing it for everyone’s benefit.

Much of the rest of the session was reserved for opportunities for the audience to give 20 second (or so) pitches for movies the team could riff. Immediately, there was a rush to the mic, a scuffle and a victor. The first up threw out a clear crowd favorite, The Last Airbender. Later another guy displayed his pure passion for needing this movie riffed. I swear he was going to bust into tears. Spoiler alert: this is one of the movies chosen to be done in the next year.

Other movies people shared including 2012, Sex in the City, Black sheep, Cold as Ice, and the remake of Clash of the Titans. A number of children’s movies received shout outs including Disney’s Pocahantas, Mighty Morphen Power Rangers, Super Mario Brothers and Hook. The latter came with boos from the crowd and chanting of “Rufio, Rufio!” Several movies I had never heard of and subsequently didn’t even write them down.

Some of my favorite moments included:

• The suggestion of  Passion of the Christ came with the question, “Too soon?”  The look on the panels faces seemed to indicate the time will never really be right for that.
• Some girl offered to take her top off for her suggestion to be used. I don’t even remember now what she was pitching.
• Someone else suggested Jonah Hex to bid a final farewell to Megan Fox’s career.
• Blade Runner was pitched to some serious boos and the guy dug himself deeper with continuing his pitch. He should have feared for his life after stepping away from the mic.

In the end, the panel chose 2012, Clash of the Titans (remake), The Last Airbender, and the 1973 SciFi classic, B-rated movie, Zardoz. I think this year will be an awesome year for riffing but considering I haven’t seen any of the chosen movies, the first time I see them, they will be hilarious. Thanks for making my world my “three pints of oysters.”