I think my love for MST3K has been well established on this blog, so it’s surprising that I’ve never mentioned RiffTrax!
The idea of RiffTrax came about after Mystery Science Theater 3000 was canceled and Nelson had researched and consulted a lawyer about the possibility of directly releasing DVDs of films with the commentaries included. But Nelson realized this initial idea was not feasible since he would be “sued out of existence.” Instead, the best way to distribute the commentaries would be to sell them independently of the films, to avoid having to obtain the rights to distribute the movies themselves.[3] There would be no legal or monetary restrictions to prevent Nelson from producing them, though viewers would have to provide the movies themselves.
They have recordings for tons and tons of movies. While our good friend, Diana, was in town we watched both The Room and Birdemic with RiffTrax. And, while I think The Room would still be horribly entertaining without commentary, Birdemic would have been nearly unwatchable without it (we tried).