MST3K fans love to quote Joel Hodgson: "The right people will get it." And they always do; there's no disputing that. But occasionally, the wrong people want in on the joke. Not to say that you're the wrong person, of course — just that you're not the right person yet.
There's plenty of sites on the Internet dedicated to explaining all the obscure riffs, in-jokes, and quips made during Mystery Science Theater 3000. However, we feel confident in saying this could become the best. Why? Because we don't have to explain every single joke — that's where you come in.
If you've ever seen the show, there's bound to have been some joke that you laughed at but left your friends or family scratching their heads. No one gets all the riffs (at least, no one that needs this site). So why not pool our collective knowledge of obscure and not-so-obscure knowledge, organize, categorize, and give everyone the benefit of our surplus of free time?
We have every episode that aired listed, and a few bits of other material that come with the MST3K package deal. We even listed K00 (hey, we're optimists). In each episode, we supply the ability to add quotes, link to references, and even upload related images. All this to help you articulate why a given riff is funny.
In general, we've left it pretty open-ended for what you can annotate. As long as it's something concrete you can point to from the show — and it isn't blindingly obvious — you can comment on it all you like.
Maybe you're familiar with the parent project, the Digital Archive Project (neé the MST3K Digital Archive Project)? If you've downloaded or otherwise acquired any of the files created by said project, just fire up your favorite media player and start listening for material. For episodes that have been commercially released, put your chosen media into your viewing apparatus and watch that timer.
Once you've found your riff, check on the episode page to see if the quote's been added. If it hasn't, see if it's in the queue of old quotes — if it is, all you need to do is add a timestamp. If you're the first person with the quote, add it to the system. Then you can go back and add your annotation to the system.
That's not all, though. Maybe you never get any jokes but still want to help. Well, if any of the episodes lack a nice 80×80 pixel graphic, go ahead and grab a still from the episode and send it my way. Or, start looking through the existing annotations. If you spot something that's clearly incorrect or clearly brilliant, feel free to rate it accordingly. Or maybe you have a grand vision of categorizing every riff made that's voiced in the third person. Go for it — that's what tags are for.
In short, we've tried to make it as easy as possible to get involved. All you need is an account at dapcentral.org, so sign up if you haven't already!