Reviving Fan/fic/ Theater 3000 · 6:23pm Jun 4th, 2015
Hey, remember the riffing project I left to kinda stagnate a year or two ago? Well... surprisingly, people still leave comments on some pages, for one. But also, I'm bringing it back with a new project.
RingmasterJ5, the founder of the little pony-centered riffing ring, finally reinvigorated his motivation to riff again, and he knows just what he wants the target to be. Being the technical forerunner of F/F/T3K at present, it falls to me (and to a couple other people I'll encourage to spread the gospel) to promote the project, and to see if we have anyone who wants to contribute.
For those of you who don't remember (there are probably a fair number by now), the way F/F/T3K works is pretty similar to the way my own riffs worked. Hell, the F/F/T3K format was what I based my own on, as well as RatherHomely's now tragically unpublished fic. Basically, the text of the story is laid out in the doc, unedited from its source, and the riffer goes in and inserts their own snarky commentary on the events happening in the story. The standardized format for it is such:
Story text story text story text...
Username: Witty remark that may or may not get a laugh from the audience!
More story text.
The commentary tends to range from jabs at the botched meanings of ill-constructed sentences to mocking the actions and mannerisms of the characters to lampshading the ludicrous nature of the narrative. It's all good-natured and lighthearted, and even GOOD stories are able to be riffed by one who can extract enough material from them, but let's face it, worse stories just provide more to comment on and lambast. You can look at any of the riffs linked on my userpage if you need examples, though those are almost exclusively "bad" stories.
Damn. Really says something about my lack of productivity that I feel like I need to re-explain riffing to a bunch of followers who are probably here because of it.
If you want to join in the fun on this new project, F/F/T3K (or, as Ring likes calling it now, F/F/T3K15) is provided off-site via Google Drive as per site rules against publishing riffs and other MST3K-esque works as stories, and this bit of freedom means we can leave the docs open for others to leave comments right on the text even if they're not on our list of people with editing access. You can insert your own quips and jabs alongside ours by putting the doc into suggestion mode (unless Ring can default it to that, in which case that's less work on your part) and typing in your line in the "Name: Comment!" format detailed above. If we like the joke, there's a good chance it'll find its way into the text of the document. So yay, you're a helper!
Anyone who's committed to tackling a 5K-word project (at first; the commentary will probably bloat it to several times that size) can leave a comment replying to RingmasterJ5 and/or myself on this thread. So far we seem to have an "all-star" lineup of myself, Ring, twow443, KillerSteel, and Kanzerlin Maud (aka TheAuthorGl1m0, creator of the site I host my riffs on), at least out of the people who have weighed in. Pop in and leave a response if you want in on my first new project in fuck knows how long. Ring and I want to keep this a surprise until we get it started, though trust me, it should be a surprise most of you will want to see.
We're gonna launch the doc for editing and suggestions on Saturday the 13th, the night of the 100th episode, at 10 PM EST. Get your asses into formation before then if you want in.
Tempting...
3123471 DO IT FILLY.
3123555
Got any story prospects lined up?
3123631 Well, I have a few I'd love to do in the future, mainly some of the huger shat-on stories from the last two years that I'd love to put as multi-parters. And I just might, since the suggestion system on GDocs makes the comments less annoying to deal with and I can better handle what would otherwise be an awful loading slog.
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe I can tackle one of kudzuhaiku's stories. Or Sir Hat's. Just someone who's bad with criticism. Oh, and that one Spike harem story that had Rage Reviews all up in arms for a bit.
3123810 I'll just leave this here.
http://www.ponyfictionarchive.net/viewstory.php?sid=1511
Break out the brain bleach boys...it's alllllll down hill from here.
3124070 ...oh, shitcunt.
3124093 Shitcunt indeed my good man, shit cunt indeed.
It has a sequel too. And people like it. Don't ask me how cause I couldn't tell you.
Oooh... based on the excerpts I've read, that one is truly horrible. Yeah, I might have to get on board with this.
3124227 Well, you'll have to go show your interest in the forum thread linked here if you want to join us for the first new one. We're keeping it a surprise for now, but rest assured, it's a special kind of bad.
Jesus, I had been so busy with my own stuff I had put this aside for way longer than I should have. I might have a few ideas to work with, though I should check if there are new rules to prevent possible kerfuffles.
The Fuckin Janitor will be reborn! Now with more chin chin sacrifices
Or: cool totally jumping back into this, been missing the laughs for a while. So are you putting a blog up with the link on saturday?
3134453 I will be, yeah. You want in, pop by the thread and let Ring know.
3134608 where is the thread? On rings page? And sure i will totally be jumping in :)
3134646 I linked it in the blog. And right here.
3134650 so are we going to see the rusty sawblades come out for the debut fic? Any hints as to what the story that everyone is going to rip the shit out of?
3134664 I can't really say all that much. You'll have to wait and see.
3124070 thats nothing m80
http://explicit.ponyfictionarchive.net/viewstory.php?sid=1168&warning=9
3134769 Oh, that one looks ripe for the picking.
3134769 Okay I'm one sentence in and you've almost convinced me already, is PFA just a dumping ground for the worst fiction ever or something? Because the one I found and the one you've just shown me are slowly convincing me of this.
3134862 Man you just really seem to have a special place in your heart for gore fics don't ya? The one I posted was just bad because...well, it was bad. But this one is bad because it's bad. Like, jail time bad.
I'm not saying you shouldn't riff it but, try and maybe diversify a little this time around. Try riffing some fics that aren't disgusting a few times, mix it up.
3134876 Oh, no, yours is just as perfect for the cutting board. The pull of the one Matoro linked, though, was only in part because of the content. I realized it needed some treatment when I saw the name attached to it.
Of course, whether it goes into F/F/T3K remains to be seen. Maybe I can get off my ass and start riffing solo again to cover what the crowd won't.
3134880
3134880
i swear to god we have to rip the story i linked to shreds, and the dude wrote an apparant sequal to it as well D:
Edit: and someone reviewed it.... AND LIKED IT?!?! *looks at prime pleadingly* for the love of god can this be in a multi story riff, like you did with octavia's stories?
3134880 Wait what? *Goes back to check author*
Oh.
Oh.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. Okay I got ya now. And just to clarify, I wasn't trying to come off like 'Hey don't riff that, riff the thing I posted'
I just kind of got done re-reading a few of your older riffs and just noticed how much gore riffing there was.
But yeah, Destroyershy deserves what he gets. I only read like his stupid Pony Battle thing, I thought that was the worst of it but apparently not.
3134901 ...How do you write a sequel to something where in the first two sentences the main character talks about how he'll kill himself?
3134917 like so.... http://explicit.ponyfictionarchive.net/viewstory.php?sid=1141
3134921 It just never ends. I mean...come on Destroyershy, don't feel the need to top yourself.
3134930 You read kudzus mess of a story called The Chase?
3134995 Do I look like I have 12 years to waste?
I could start reading today and not catch up with him until he either dies or finishes the story at the rate he posts.
3135003 well, we as a group have to riff at least a bit of that clusterfuck story
3135161 Quite, I've heard it's terrible.
3135161 3135222 See, interest for long projects has historically divebombed with every new installment. By the time we hit chapter 700, no one would be around to riff it anymore.
3135414 Well then let's limit ourselves to simply doing ones that are hailed to be especially bad, or perhaps just a sort of short series where the first few chapters get riffed.
Could work, could not, worth a shot though.
It doesn't have to be another Griffin the Griffon. (Which to my eternal shame I actually liked when I first got into fanfiction long, long ago. I think I liked the setting more than anything else.)
3135521 especially the creepy fetish this guy haves with poo and farting....
3135756 Wat.
3134876
A bit late here, but that's more F/F/T3K's domain. We don't do the fics that are disgusting because of excessive gore/clop, we let the solo riffers handle those. Our stuff is more "classically" bad, with terrible self-insert OCs, bad writing/grammar, and authors that leave comment graveyards because they can't take criticism. Especially that last one.
(But no, that is not a hint to the fic we're doing. I wouldn't reveal that without some sort of high explosives, but all the ones I found were turned to stone so it doesn't look like that'll be happening.)
3134664
3135774 not even joking, apparantly farting is considered good manners in that universe...
3135777 Well then I guess in order to find those you just have to spend all of, what five minutes on PFA? They basically have those kinds of stories in spades.
3135831 I...no. Just...no please.
3135848 yep its the effin truth, honestly? I wouldnt make you even try to read it.
3136565 Making someone read that should be made illegal, put it in the geneva convention.
3136932 its a violation of human rights to be forced to read The Chase
3136956 Would you say that not reading The Chase...is the right of all sentient beings?
3137077 the fact i read snippets of the chase when rage reviews did a review on it enforces what you just said. Oh god the clop chapter.... *huddles in a corner shaking back and foward* so yes i hope to god the sane, non scrubby bronies never read the chase.
3137546 Well put.
3137546 Speaking of Griffon the Griffin, the second it posts a chapter it gets instant front page. Not even The Chase gets that.
3139391 hold on boys, the winter of riffing is coming... so whos keen for tomorrow?
So im in queensland aus is the timezone right?
3144225 Timezone's for East Coast US. So I think it's a fair bit earlier in the day for you than it is for me.
You know, I think this is why I love you guys over the jerks at project after. You are doing this all for fun and have a good time.
3144434 So it's ten for me, is the doc going to be launched at 10:00 your time?