Strengthening Forms
There is an episode of Merry Melodies called Duck Amuck that I absolutely adore.
It's arguably one of their most famous episodes and for good reason. It's hilarious, and surreal.
I love how the beginning of the episode feels like any other, right down to the Three Musketeers motif with the title credits. It doesn't take long for you tell something is wrong, and then the rest of the episode is just a completely delightful ride, ending with a wonderful punchline true to both of the characters involved. I only wish it could have been five minutes longer for more opportunities to play with the form.
The attached wikipedia article on the episode in question elaborates on the concept that I heard Chuck Jones speak about in some interview from long ago that may or may not have happenedt:
" ...Jones (the director) is speaking to the audience directly, asking "Who is Daffy Duck anyway? Would you recognize him if I did this to him? What if he didn't live in the woods? Didn't live anywhere? What if he had no voice? No face? What if he wasn't even a duck anymore?" In all cases, it is obvious that Daffy is still Daffy; not all cartoon characters can claim such distinctive personality."
A nice little jab at other cartoon directors at the time. One which I feel is more than appropriate. (Sorry Chilly Willy)
I was thinking about all the other strong cartoon characters in our collective animated media, and while I could think of several that are more distinct and entertaining than our friend Daffy, I was more interested in how this is a rare case in which having a static form is a positive thing.
The strongest aspect of The Venture Bros., for example, is how the characters develop over time. The show wouldn't be as strong without the different character arcs. Hank, and Dean Venture have come a long way in terms of their personality, and who we identify them to be.
If they had just stayed the same people up to season four, it would still be a hilarious show, but not one worthy of discussion necessarily.
In Steven Johnson's surprisingly good book "Everything Bad Is Good For You" he demonstrates how the television we watch and then complain about watching and then secretly judge others for watching, is actually far more complex and interesting than what was considered good in the past.
There are hundreds of anecdotal examples that you no doubt just thought of, and if we were having a conversation about it, I would agree. Mr. Johnson attempts at making his findings more scientific than that, but the success of such attempts are certainly up for debate.
My point is that this is an example showing that our media has advanced slightly since 1953, so Hurá!
This, however takes nothing away from my love of Daffy Duck. It's perhaps mostly nostalgia at this point, but I don't tire of seeing Daffy getting troubled over nothing. I still smile, and laugh, and yearn to smack that Bill Maher level smug look off of Bug's face.
It was just an appropriate step in the evolution of our entertainment.
Which leads us to an example further down the line:
Parody of Forms
Crispy Pops Commercial
This is my favorite sketch from The State, which is arguably my favorite sketch comedy group of all time.
I don't know how this sketch was created, but it would sure help my point a whole bunch to think that they realized how you could make the idea of an early nineties breakfast cereal commercial stripped completely of dialogue, and it would still be completely identifiable.
Here we have same principles of Duck Amuck being applied, only now in mockery. True it's towards an advertisement, so parody is far more appropriate than an homage would be. However, I still think this hints at a larger issue with our culture, and the direction we've headed. Mainly the dismissive and sarcastic nature of current generations, and the effects it has on our media.
This is too large and innappropriate a derail for this already lengthy post about cartoons, but I will likely cover this in the future.
You could easily do the same thing with an entire sports movie. The protagonist watches others play with dreams in his eyes. He tries out, fails, meets a girl, tries again, maybe fails again, whatever, remembers something from earlier in the movie, succeeds. Eighty nine minutes long, all dialogue replaced with complete gibberish.
I wouldn't bother with such a thankless task, as the idea has largely been examined, which brings me to Tim & Eric.
Tim & Eric: A Parody of Comedy, Posing As Smart Surrealism, Defended By Arrogant Crap Like "Yeah, It's Not For Everyone. I'm Not Surprised That Most People Don't Get It."
I don't think I could dislike Tim & Eric more.
Perhaps I'm over looking something, and if I am, I'd love to hear exactly what that is. But to me, Tim & Eric's entire existence is in essence, the Crispy Pops sketch. They simply made it more grotesque, and then stretched it out to represent their entire career.
I admit that I haven't watched an entire season of their content, but I don't see the point. It seems to be a variant on the same thing over and over again. They take a form we're all used to seeing (Low Budget Instuctional Videos, Cable Network Programming, etc.) and they distort it to the point that we still understand what we're looking at, blah blah blah. You see the connection I'm making here.
It's incredibly odd to see them take a premise from over a decade ago, and make it the basis for everything they do. (Honestly, I'm willing to learn, link me to a single sketch they've done that has a punchline.)
In the interest of balance, I submit a sketch of theirs that would have been perfectly acceptable if it was the only one of its kind: iJammer & eBumper.
Again, the problem is that this is just one of many. This is likely an acceptable example to me because it was the first video of theirs I had ever seen, and I grew up watching weird gimmicky toy commercials.
I take no issue with media that lacks narrative, if it has larger implications. But leaning on their surrealism crutch just feels lazy to me.
The Next Step
I'd love if the next leap past The Venture Bros. were something along the lines of The Wire only with a complete emphasis on comedy.
The "Arrested Development" of comedies, if you will.
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