Ribbon
first off, watch Aaron Holly's DVD. Except the company doesn't seem to exist anymore? Googling it still finds you tutorials on Youtube and creative crash.. here's one for example:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/tutorials/character/c/ribbon-spine-rig
UPDATED: Josh Carey's tutorial HERE!
this uses no ik or fk, just a control ribbon to drive the other ribbon. He uses the example of a snail eye stalk as something this is useful for.
How do you make the nurbs ribbon from the joint chain with joints centered?
To script:
Create locators
Point-constrain to joints, then delete constraint
Use locators to make nurbs surface
How do you use locators to make nurbs surface?
How many joints should you put into a cartoony ribbon arm/leg? Are two joints btw each joint (ie., elbow and shoulder) enough, or should you put in as many as you have edge loops?
More joints = smoother arc. Less easy to use ribbon as your default bind joints though--need to have option for 'hard bend' or 'soft bend'