Reminder to everyone that the Sci Fi channel premieres Tripping the Rift tonight. Set your Tivos.

For those who don't know what Tripping the Rift is, it began as a side project by some digital animators a few years ago. It was a bit filthy, but absolutely hilarious. Does anyone have a link to the original video file? Looks like the scifi channel site doesn't have it. Of course, I could just be missing it amongst the obtuseness of their flash interface.

Ah, here we go.

http://www.pocketmovies.net/detail_99.html

I love the home media option's remote scheduling...

-Zeke

What? They have a new non-reality-based program?

(Does it strike anyone else as odd that the Science Fiction channel is making several reality-based programs?)

Tony - that link did some tremedously evil extra window stuff in IE. I know, I know, using IE is asking for trouble...

-brendan

Terribly sorry about that. I'm popup-blocked in all my browsers, so I never know if a site is rife with them or not.

Damn, missed the first 15 minutes. It's pretty funny so far though.

Damn, I didn't see this message early enough. The airing is over and my TiVo is in the middle of cleaning itself out after a complete software re-install. Is it going to re-air anytime soon? I loved the original short when I saw it a few years ago. I still have it on a drive at work. I thought I remember some hoopla after the release of the short on the King of the Hill set (where the creator had directed and produced). Nice to see it return as a series.

Bruno

Really? I thought it was quite dull. Already cancelled the season pass.

Interestingly, the two guys credited as creators (or something like that), Chuck Austen and Chris Moeller, are both comic book guys. Chuck Austen is best known to me for writing and drawing an intelligent indie porn comic called Strips. I think he's also been involved in some feature animation. Chris Moeller writes and paints comics. Most of them I'm familiar with are far-future SciFi things. Great writer and artist.

None of that came through in that episode, though.

Maybe I'll check out that original one.

OH HOLY CRAP!! That is one of the funniest things i have ever seen. But sadly...no tivo...hell i dont even have cable.
But I do have a broadband connection and Direct Connect.

I thought it was pretty funny, but then I thought Beavis and Butthead was funny, so there's not really any accounting for taste.

That short linked above was a little better, but it may have been because it was short enough to not oversell the premise and the voice acting was better (yay voice extraordinaire Stephen Root!). Still not that great, though.

... Stephen Root!

You mean "Tony C's avatar", don't you?

It reairs like 10 times between now and the next one, so you can catch it. I thought it was pretty funny. Not Family guy funny, but just the fact that it's an adult aimed 3d cartoon is pretty awesome if you ask me. Thanks for the heads up Tony, i'd never have seen that otherwise.

I could burn this BBS to the ground...

I don't know. I don't find crudity inhernetly funny, and there were very few jokes or funny situations. Most of those that were were telegraphed so much that they couldn't be.

But I have a problem with this beyond you guys. I have a friend that watches everything that comes on the air that calls itself SciFi because "if I don't support it, they'll stop showing any SciFi at all." My argument is that if you continue to support crappy SciFi, that's all you'll ever see. Of course, he somehow also refuses to watch almost any SciFi that's promises to be good. He always comes up with some excuse about how it's not SciFi. I don't get it.

I don't find crudity inhernetly funny

i generally don't either. But for some stupid reason, if it's in cartoon form, i find it hilarious. South Park, Family Guy... genius. Can't think of any off the top of my head... but most live action "crudity" i find annoying. Hm. Never realized that.

I'm going to have to watch it again to decide whether it was really funny or not. (This time, setting my Tivo to go a minute or two over... They ran long and I missed the very ending...)

The reason I have to watch it again is that I spent most of my time with my jaw hanging open with amazement at just how raunchy they got on regular television. Didn't have time to actually pay attention to the jokes. I was worried that they would be toning down the humor for TV, but I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that they were getting even more raunchy than the original short. Wow.

My hat is off to them for making sure they offended just about everyone they possibly could in the initial pilot. Get the air cleared, as it were, right off the bat. After this, anyone still watching the show is of the not-easily-offended type and they have the freedom to do whatever they want with stories and jokes.

if only the lip sync was better. that drove me nuts the whole show. It wasn't just bad, it was WAY off.

I didn't notice any problem with lip synch, but then again I'm not an animator and may not be sensitive to subtleties that you are. However, I have sometimes seen my Tivo screw up and get the audio slightly desynched with the video. Stopping playback and going back to the menu, then resuming playback, would fix it in those cases.

I remembered the premire episode from a few years ago, I had no idea that it was a series. Does anyone know where i can find more episodes? I seem to lack the funding for cable TV.