Better living through chemistry 50's style as Rifftrax iRiffs presents "The Relaxed Wife"- a vintage short from Pfizer. Join riffer mister X (professional smart-ass) as he tackles all this bizarre little film tosses at him:
-see an actor who's mugging makes Jim Carrey seem subtle
-hear pathologically whimsical music that will test your sanity
-endure a rhyming narrator who makes the poetry of Jewel sound like ee cummings
Complete with disembodied arms coming out of desks, a man with a pressure cooker head and a product we never get to see, "The Relaxed Wife" is a trippy prescription drug short that makes you think the makers were on something a little stronger when they made it. Fortunately the snarky, silly and deceptively crass commentary by mister X is the cure for this one.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I think it helps that the short is just NONSTOP ridiculous (and I finally now know where that soundbite from the Everclear song comes from). I thought the second half was a BIT weaker than the first half, but overall very, VERY strong. Thanks!
Personal favorite line: Bitch, I cut you!
Michael T Bradley
Ice on Mars
misterX started out by picking a short which pretty much riffs itself. He could have said "Hey, just *try* to watch this!" and the short would have been funny enough! (particularly with the rhyming narrator) But misterX adds a good variety of riffs, well-timed, and well-paced. ______
Minor tip: At least when I bought it, what i downloaded was ".avi" file which was listed (on my file downloads web page) as a DiVX file. I'm watching it on a Mac, and I could not play the file in Quicktime or the DiVX player. However, it did play fine in the VLC app that is easy to download for MacOS Note that I bought it the first day I was available, so maybe the download will be changed to other formats over time.
-I appreciate all the comments-i do try to respect both the legacy of what inspired me to do riffs in the first place and my own concept of quality.
-At this time i do believe all VOD iRiffs are being re-encoded into h264 avi.
-I agree that by the tenth viewing the short was melting my brain and I was just happy to survive, hence the more random riffing near the end
And as soon as I have to time to do it justice, I plan to check out all the iRiff previews.
quite enjoyable all around. well done, Mr X...if that is your real name. very well done indeed. i shall look forward to hearing more from you in the, hopefully not too distant, future. next sunday, perhaps?
--the monkey
A very good riff on a very bizzare short. Great jokes, well performed. You got a buyer of future riffs.
Really awesome first half, though the second half devolved into too much "I do not understand this" jokes. Favorite Riff: "Oh, I'm so unfocused." So simple, so wonderful, had me laughing for about five minutes and I had to rewind to catch what I missed.