First handful of seasons are really good, first movie is basically top tier for that kind of humor. Quotable line after quotable line after quotable line, and yet it flows really well. Like you, I had an uphill climb to see it for what it was, my knucklehead younger brother LOVED it. And I mean, for all the dumb stuff I’ve done, that guy ate his boogers, no chance I was taking his taste seriously at the time.
He was right 😌
Flapjack was my addition too :) great weird little show, hugely underrated.
Edit to add: even the theme song fuckin rips!! My head exploded after I’d watched all of Flapjack like twice, theme song over and over, and then I one day hear - the original. Way older and not even very different. My brain broke.
I read it as a useful point of recognition accessible to all, something more like a seed than a container (container being “anarchism is…”).
This is one of the most disastrously, menacingly wrong things I’ve ever read, holy fucking fuck with these people.
“Actually we’re the ones who have it bad, the way you jump down our throats when we say what we think, we can’t get anything done! You better let us do (and of course say) whatever we want or else!”
Was low-key halfway baiting to see if you’d go on a Don Bluth tear 😂 happy to have guessed correctly haha.
I can’t claim any deep knowledge, but one of my best homies ever helped me connect the dots that many many many of my favorite media as a youth came outta that studio / that approach to storytelling.
Looking back, yeeeeesh, dude made exclusively emotionally damaging movies lmao. I remember the heartbreak for each one. Still think they’re better.
[Edit: not familiar with Rock a Roodle, hoping I’ll remember to give it a whirl]
Seriously great show. Hilariously the Mormon bits require probably the least “suspension of disbelief” among the whole shebang lol.
Nice! On a whim I took the time to find and watch a couple episodes some years back and it was fun to remember how David just talks to the audience about stuff sometimes.
I remember it being a very “warm”-feeling show, but of course it’s impossible to disentangle my earliest thoughts about it from that quick review. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug!
Sidenote, I feel like David the Gnome and Fern Gully are strong examples of something lovely we lost in storytelling for kids. A less polished but somehow both a warmer and a more honest look at things.
Thanks for the recs!
Ahhh Squidbillies, solid addition. Not all that kid friendly to be clear.
This has been on my list of ancient lovely things to revisit. Have you given it a spin lately? How’s it hold up after all this time?
I don’t see “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” mentioned yet - it’s weird, has lovable characters, and excellent animation and voice acting. Actually I just can’t say enough good things about it, it’s delightfully odd and entertaining. The surgeon is also a barber, just like the good old days! Can I interest you in some surgery?
Tally ho lads
Sidenote, I really know what you mean about “straddling two ages”, what a bizarre and like…ineffably rare experience it’s been. A bit older than we, and computers (modern communication) are just a strange accessory to life - it’s mostly been lived IRL. Anything else must be imagined, and it isn’t easy, usually isn’t done very well. A bit younger than we, and there has never been a strictly IRL part of life. The slow way, that every other human before lived and died under. And so anything else must be imagined, and it isn’t done very well.
Utterly strange to one day notice this and recognize myself as among the small group of folks who really thoroughly experienced both. What a strange ride. Lucky, in its way, sincerely.
Sidenote aside, I don’t share your optimism regarding the rejection / degree of appeal for fascism and its companions, abroad. At all. Think I’ll leave it there, out of simple courtesy, and from having grown bored of my own words on the subject. Cheers friend.
I’m too old and been disappointed too many times to find that very cheering, but I appreciate ya. Pretty much strictly bummer mode for the rest of the comment, to forewarn.
The pendulum does indeed swing, and I’ve lately only really noticed how thoroughly the swing back is just blocked. Co-opted into what amounts to damn near nothing… in the best cases! Progress has been defeated, thoroughly, and has been reversing for some time, and that is now accelerating.
There is of course a low point somewhere, where things can only change, and our adventure in Iran may bring it, but the ruling class seems to have perfected the art of the slow simmer, at least here in the US. Defeating that will be ugly, but we do see some signs that they’re accidentally allowing things to boil via their unchecked greed.
This is great, new to me. Posted with the credits too?! Sheesh, we don’t deserve you.
I flat out have not been able to “catch up” my subconscious to the alarm bells my consciousness is ringing. That’s how significant the shift in the corporate stance is for me (though to be clear it’s not surprising and I never saw them positively).
Always always always the tech companies were at least a weighty line of defense, like you said. Not so much a guide toward good things but at least a “hey! I’m making money over here, don’t mess that up with your bullshit!” kept things manageable. (Well. Kinda. For a while.)
But yeah, the mask-off corporate fascism simply realizes it has shed those shackles entirely. They can directly fund and support the fascist in chief for basically all upside.
We are in fucking trouble. Like I said, I can’t even get my own goddamn brain to see the threat clearly.
Right?! Such a perfect example of how rent-seeking and exploitative every goddamn thing in the US has become.
Everyone and their mom knows what TicketMaster is up to, even the most politically disconnected folks understand “yeah they control it all and get to charge whatever they want, prices are insane and that’s why”.
And our court system says “yeah guys you were right that’s totally what was happening! Nice job” and that’s it. Every fucking time. Maybe a check for $3.12 or some bullshit a few years after you forgot there was even any suit.
After months of expensive litigation. Whole country is a goddamn scam. Financial (and worse…) predators run fucking everything.
Please, dear readers, don’t let this sound encouraging (and no shade to you commenter, I’m not disagreeing with you, just adding on top).
Broad unenforceable laws that everyone basically constantly violates because of how they’re written - these are actually weapons used to perform selective enforcement.
Speed limits are a good example, in many jurisdictions all speed limits are artificially low, everyone goes the “normal” speed, and this allows cops to pick and choose their targets. This is partially how “driving while black” could be de facto criminalized, if that reference is familiar.
Them being bad at this stuff is not as helpful to us as it may seem, when ultimately this and many other laws have a primary purpose that supersedes the stated aims of the law. That purpose being, facilitating targeted enforcement by giving a plausible air of legitimacy.
I play this role in my family too, have for a long time. I have a “good” job, and I’m extremely grateful, but even with that we’ve been solidly losing ground for a few years now. Had to make increasingly kinda desperate moves to retain the required stability to be able to just predictably house myself and my loved ones, both the present folks under my roof and keeping an eye toward the future.
All signs (to me) point to this situation getting much worse, and I see no concrete expectations of improvement on the horizon. Can’t think of one hopeful signal. And I know very, very well that my family and I are clearly among the more fortunate, all things considered.
My point is that Christians don’t get to enjoy an assumption that they don’t wish for the suffering of others.
There’s a kernel of hatred at the core of the religion, by way of “source of all moral truth also insists that some people will be sentenced to extreme suffering for not believing the same”.
In my experience, and unsurprising given the discrimination at the very core of the belief system - the vast majority of Christians (American ones, regardless of political persuasion or even voting record) are more than happy to let that seed grow and express itself in various ways.
Your point seems to have ended with “one group of those are very vocal about that hatred” and also “there are some good Christians”.
Okay.
Those are weak uninteresting points. They certainly don’t justify any assumption of Christian good will. Much like any assumption of some kind of “benevolent imperialism” by the cultural “West” is thoroughly behind us today, so is any such assumption. Christians have had ample time to emphasize what matters about their Christianness and they have done so. The evidence speaks for itself.
Another I don’t think I saw mentioned - Pinky Malinky! If you’re looking for a slightly deranged but entirely sweet, over the top and extremely fast paced modern one, Pinky Malinky will not disappoint. This show was made with real love lol. And several other weird things I don’t think I have.
Just note, if you’re old, you’ll be laughing at jokes about 3-jokes-back, the entire time. It’s quick, and I usually hate that cuz it usually just hides poor craft. Not here.
Oh don’t think I saw Courage the Cowardly Dog on your list. Haven’t returned to it in a real long time but it was a classic of oddity in its era of course.