Sing whenever I sing whenever I sing whenever I sing...
Or;
Riff Away!
Part 4 of "How to MST"
Okay, you have you riffers in the theatre, now to make jokes! It's really
very simple once you get the hang of it (heck, it's easy in the beginning!). A
few simple rules of riffing are:
Don't get OOC (out of character).
Don't get too hentai.
Bash the author as little as possible.
Now, those are just in general rules. There are some specifics that might
want to be followed.
Try to keep the grammar/spelling riffs at a minimum. When you're MSTing
something like Koopa, you should watch out for the nasty habit that some have
picked up concerning the grammar and spelling jokes. One should only make them
if it's begging for it, such as the Dr. Thinker quote earlier. Also, there's
this:
>>After hitting Speedy with a frying pan Polly finishes opening the letter.
>>It just says to come in to the doctors.
Now, there are many branches that one could take from this particular
quote. Such as the obvious hentai joke, or the elaborate shortness of the
letter, or even the fact that "the doctors" is grammatically incrrect. The path
that I took when posting this was:
>Crow: (laughs like Beavis)
>Mike: (Slaps Crow on the back of his head)
>Ranma: It just says, "Come into the doctors?" That's all?
I took two of the three routes, and perhaps even the third one
unknowingly. That was from one of my earlier MSTings, and not one of my better
ones. (BTW, if you ever find a MSTing that is Meta-MSTing material of mine, then
go ahead and do it! I don't really mind, as long as it's one of my earlier
ones.) Anyway, back to it!
The hentai jokes are a touchy subject, especially with Mike, Joel, and
other characters. An easy to remember rule is, if the story sinks to that level,
then use as many as you want (within taste). If the story is original flavor or
normal crossover, then you should try to keep it to under five hentai jokes per
MSTing (this is my personal rule, other places can have other rules of their
own. You can make up your own rules as you get more experience).
When doing self-insertinon fics, one should try to remember that making a
riff against the author is asking for a flame. If you're going to make a riff,
make it about the self-inserted character. A good way to do this is to avoid
using the terms, "the author", or, "when he was writing this," and the sort.
Sticking to riffing the content of the story, and the sort is just much easier
to do. The more absurd the self-inserted character, the easier to riff the story
will be.
When doing Meta-MSTings (which are particularly hard, and I should only
recommend for experienced MSTers), you should try to stay away from the, "why
are you acting tht way?""It's not me!" riffs. They've become cliches and are
beginning to stop being funny. If you could just stick with the riffing the fic
and riffing any OOC comments, that should be just fine.
When MSTing lemons (which I should stress that no minors, I know you're
out there, should do), try to remember that you should keep the hentai jokes
within good taste and within reason. See any random Megane Lemon MSTing for
further information and examples. Try to associate things that are said that
could relate to some every-day function, such as brushing your teeth, eating
breakfast, etc.
There are some riffs which have become a standard in MSTings. Whenever
there is a line said, one should try to remember to make these riffs:
>>"What?"
>All: HE/SHE SAID...
>>sat on/in a piece of furniture.
>All: TOGG!!!
>>She rolled her eyes...
>Random: He then cleaned them off and rolled them back.
People, after going over a lot of fics and doing a lot of MSTings, come
across parts that they like to use as jokes. Such as the "Togg!" joke above.
This was started in Megane's MSTing of the War by M. Llave, and he has kinda' made it a running gag throughout his whole series. Then, other people picked up
on it and began using it for their own. When one author picks up on a joke from
another of his own MSTings, it's called an "inside joke". When other people pick
up on it, it's then called a "running gag". Another inside joke is Megane's
"Nuku-nuku School of Smiling". It started in his MSTing of "Transitions", a
Nuku-nuku fic. Not many people have picked up on this one yet, so it's still an
inside joke.
Notes on Tom's head exploding: Tom Servo's head someties explodes during
the course of a MSTing. This happens when he and the others come across a lemon
that is particularly disgusting (his head exploded twice during the MSTing of
Artemis's Lover) or when he comes to an incredbly stupid part of a fic (his head
exploded during A Ranma Fanfic when the story stated about three times that
Ranma left in the same sentence). Although funny, one should use this tool
sparingly for the repairs take time away from the others' riffing time.
Notes on Editing: One should edit only when absolutely necessary, such as
when a lemon gets too, uuhh... "kinky" for normal readers (see "Artemis's Lover"
once again, or the MSTing of "Artemis" for good examples of that. Same premise,
different writers) Also, it should be used when a story comes to a part where no
riffing can be done, or if the story gets so long and tedious that no one will
have read it for that long!
Well, that handles the riffing. Once you get to the end, have someone say,
"Let's get out of here." They exit, you write down, "reverse door sequence", and
you're ready to make the final touches!
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