Mike Nelson,

the former host of cult-hit cable-TV show "Mystery Science Theater 3000," has admirably added to his resume with

RiffTrax

: downloadable commentary tracks for blockbusters and B-movie obscurities that can be synced with your DVDs.

He and fellow Riffsters Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett also host live events, including the recent dismantling of Ed Wood's classic sci-fi bomb "Plan 9 From Outer Space," broadcast to hundreds of movie theaters nationwide.

On Wednesday, they're following up with the Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza, with "Weird" Al Yankovic will be a guest riffer. They'll get snarky about several obscure films, including a mostly forgotten Max Fleischer version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

I recently chatted with Nelson, who called from the RiffTrax office in San Diego, about his unusual career, the Stravaganza and the kind of person it takes to be a lover of terrible movies. Oh, and fish.

IF YOU GO RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza When: 8 p.m. Wednesday (encore presentation 8 p.m. Thursday) Where: Celebration Cinema North, 2121 Celebration Drive NE, and Celebration Cinema at RiverTown Crossings, 3728 Rivertown Pkwy. SW, 530-7469 or celebrationcinema.com, tickets $11.50; Holland 7, 500 Waverly Road, Holland, 546-7469 or gqti.com, tickets $10. More about the Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza

Tell me a little about the Christmas event. Are you friends with "Weird" Al Yankovic?

We contacted him pretty early in RiffTrax, after I started it, and he thought it was a cool idea. He sat with me to do "Jurassic Park." I've only met him then, and I've seen him a few times since then. I've gone to his shows. He's a great guy, easy to work with, and a lot of fun, obviously.

Is he riffing or singing?

He's just riffing with us. It's a musical short, so hopefully we'll get him to sing a little bit.

Is this the classic Claymation "Rudolph" you'll be riffing on?

No, it's a Max Fleischer cartoon from I don't know when. It's very weird. They haven't zeroed in how they're going to anthropomorphize the animals. Santa Claus delivers toys to reindeer (which are) wearing diapers. Rudolph's mom is disturbingly this curvaceous woman wearing a dress, standing on her hind hooves, so it confuses a man to watch this thing.

I don't think I've ever seen that before.

There's one guy in our office who said he saw it as a kid, and it gave him nightmares, so I said, "That's perfect for us!"

Has that been buried like the "Star Wars Christmas Special" or something?

Most of the stuff we're going to present has been buried, and we are sort of archiving it. ("Rudolph") is out there -- if you research the internet, you can find it. The other stuff, we went to small film libraries to get. We wanted to bring some new stuff to people.

Obviously, the Plan 9 event was pretty successful. Are you going to do more of these live events?

We hope to. We really like doing the live shows, but when we were doing them before -- when they weren't linked to all the theaters -- it takes us away from our main mission, which is to stay on top of the blockbusters and put out some odd video-on-demand stuff. We really are focused on the internet business, but this allows us, every quarter or so, to satisfy people's desire for the live experience.

So obviously, you're doing OK in the internet business.

Yeah! I told my wife the other day, it's kind of pathetic when you boil it down, and say to people, "I run an internet humor site." It doesn't quite capture what I do, but technically, it's correct. (Laughing)

And immediately they ask, "So, you're broke, right?"

(laughing) That's the assumption everyone would make!

So do you make a living doing this? And if you answer how I expect you to, I'll be really jealous.

I do! I do make a living.

RiffTrax and "Mystery Science Theater 3000" seem to have inspired a lot of people. My wife and I have bad movie parties in my living room, and call them Serba's Sucky Sinema Sensation. Are you at all threatened by this?

(Laughs) Not at all. The fact that I can find people who share (the appreciation for bad movies) is great. Even though I'm in this business and I do this for a living, when I go out with friends to see a movie, I'm magically drawn to the worst thing out there. You just know that you'll have something to talk about when you go out for a cigar and a beer afterwards. People just love the bad stuff. I love that mission, so I say carry on.

There doesn't seem to be any shortage of crap out there.

No, no. The only danger is when I make an assumption, that this is a bad film, and Twitter on it or something, and get a lot of hate in return. "Are you kidding? I loved 'Battlefield Earth'!" But I thought it was pretty much understood... (laughs) People are pretty passionate about their films, and I'm just not.

That might explain why nothing seems to be off-limits to you guys. Isn't riffing on "Casablanca" blasphemous?

It is. It admittedly was a stunt. People had always asked that question: Could you (riff on) this movie? You know, "The Godfather," stuff like that. It was more, can we find a way into this movie? It remains one of my favorite movies, "Casablanca." It's really sharply written. It ends up being a kind of meta-commentary that doesn't sharply cast aspersions on the film. There are none to cast, really.

How many times do you have to sit through a movie to come up with all your material?

We kind of break it into sections with writers, then combine them... It's the equivalent of maybe 10, 12 times through, maybe a little more than that. This is going slowly -- stopping and rewinding, and everything.

That sounds like torture.

It's a bit like editing -- you have a problem to solve, and you can kind of detach from the torture of that. You're so microfocusing on one little thing. But there are moments when a writer will snap and stand up and go on a tirade about a particular moment in a film, and you kind of have to talk him down.

Do you have a particular favorite episode of "MST3K" or RiffTrax?

Well, I'm kind of partial to cheesy ''80s movies. If it stars Patrick Swayze or Sylvester Stallone, I'm even happier. They're getting a little out of fashion. They don't sell as well, so we spice them in there every now and then. But that's where my true affection lies, with an "Over the Top," a "Road House," "Red Dawn," something like that.

We ridiculed "Over the Top" at my house. And "Cobra."

(Laughs) The thing I love about "Over the Top" is that, when they did those formula '80s movies, they made them kind of watchable, even though they're terrible. They hit all the beats right, and you're like, "Yeah, I can see why these things bring a smile to people." And then you enjoy them on a different level, too.

It's funny that we can enjoy bad movies on a different level. People enjoy good movies on a different level, too.

Exactly!

I solicited some questions for you on Twitter. One person suggested "lavishing praise and gifts of exotic delicacies to appease (the RiffTrax guys). They may, if they choose, grant a boon to you." Before I start ordering fine wines, are you capable of granting boons?

(Laughs) I think California law prohibits that.

A co-worker of mine asked, "How many different kinds of fish can you name?" You don't have to answer that.

Having grown up fishing in freshwater lakes in Wisconsin, which has its own peculiar names for fish, I could probably stump them on that.

You could greatly impress people with your obscure knowledge.

People don't know about the delicacy of walleye cheeks, deep-fried.

Cheeks?

Yeah, doesn't that sound delicious?

Well, I love walleye...

Walleye cheeks. A little bit of meat behind the gills. They should rename it. You know, pork is pork, you don't call it "pig meat." You should soften the blow, and call it "sweetbreads," or something.

E-mail John Serba: jserba@grpress.com