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Post by Captain Amadeus (Legendary Em) on Dec 5, 2009 0:57:03 GMT -5
Meh, IMO, the lack of profanity is one of the strong points of the series. I personally don't think that people need to cuss to be funny, as it kind of kills a lot of potential originality. I think the best humor is the kind that can be used in any audience. [/font][/quote] I disagree. Nowadays, most of the comedy that can be done for an audience HAS been done already, to the point of becoming stale. Pixar is a great example of a studio going down the creative tubes. Toy Story was a brilliant movie, A Bugs Life was good, everyone but me loves Nemo... but eventually everything just got stale. The Incredibles will probably be the last great Pixar movie ever made. This is why the crass humor entertainment market started, with South Park, Beavis & Butt-head, Drawn Together, and the like. The point wasn't the swearing though (besides that one episode of SP where they said s**** something like seventy times), it was about pushing the envelope, seeing what could be gotten away with, and being as offensive as possible while still being funny. We're still currently in this period today, but the sign are slowly pointing in a new, perhaps familiar direction. Removed from both the senseless swearing and the almost squeakily clean entertainment aimed at the truly young, I see entertainment swiftly moving in the direction of randomness. Look at the popularity of internet memes; one well placed non-sequiters: Can cause one to erupt into laughter just as much, if not possibly more, than what one would consider a well conceived joke (with standard setup, and all that). The process of throwing in something completely unrelated to the events at hand has quickly become one of the most widely used form of joke in America today. Look at Family Guy, or to use a live action example, Scrubs, and you'll see this in droves; hell, if you want a version that's family friendly, look at Kappa Mikey or Chowder. It's not that the style of humor has just been invented, but it was lost somewhere along the 80's and 90's (I blame sitcoms), only to pop up again in my generation. Randomness and surrealism have reached an all time high, and I feel it is where the entertainment industry will continue to head for it's laughs for quite some time to come. And with randomness comes the anything goes mentality, which more often than not, means throwing censorship out the window.
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Qwertman
Habarool
Work work work...
Posts: 736
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Post by Qwertman on Dec 5, 2009 1:04:39 GMT -5
Wow, captain, kudos on that epic post. It so perfectly sums up the recent history of humor. Just before visiting these forums yesterday, I was LMAO over at knowyourmeme.com Makes you wonder what's next for humor?
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Tau
Cannam
Abridged the Series
Donation for ze little fr?ulein?
Posts: 345
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Post by Tau on Dec 5, 2009 1:50:21 GMT -5
Started watching, great so far! Just curious, what are you using to edit? Also, IMO this could be improved with a little less censorship. For example: "Yoink! That was easy. What the... AW $#!||)(()()7!!!" I'm not a huge fan of profanity but for anyone of a greater age than 13 it is undoubtedly humorously inept when used in moderation. I'm using Blender for video editing and sound mixing, and Audacity for recording and effects. Yep, free software. I do my image editing in Paint Shop Pro 8, though pretty much all of it could also have been done in GIMP or whatever. As for profanity and censorship, my view on this is essentially what Buster Cannon said. Comedy can be done perfectly well without profanity. Captain mentioned Pixar. Toy Story, which is cuss-free, was brilliant when it was released. It's still just as brilliant now as it was then. Trends change and comedy styles change, but funny is funny. Have you ever watched a Charlie Chaplin movie? They're still good! If someone consistently relies on F-bombs to make otherwise unfunny jokes funny, then I think there's a serious problem. As I watched various abridged series, I noticed that one of the most consistent things was the high amount of profanity and otherwise offensive material. Good humor certainly wasn't. One of my goals when I started this was to show that an abridged series could be funny and still have a G-PG rating. While doing this may hurt it in some people's eyes, I personally have no interest in "pushing the envelope" as it were. I want to make something high quality that people can show their younger sibling without worry. Essentially, it's not censorship. It's restraint.
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Post by Buster Cannon on Dec 5, 2009 2:17:21 GMT -5
As for profanity and censorship, my view on this is essentially what Buster Cannon said. Comedy can be done perfectly well without profanity. Captain mentioned Pixar. Toy Story, which is cuss-free, was brilliant when it was released. It's still just as brilliant now as it was then. Trends change and comedy styles change, but funny is funny. Have you ever watched a Charlie Chaplin movie? They're still good! Yeah, a lot of older classics still retain their great humor, and had no need to push the envelope. I've never actually watched a Charlie Chaplin movie before, but I've heard good things about it so I may look into it in the future. I've noticed that as well; a lot of humor these days tends to rely on overbearing amounts of cussing/sex references for their humor. A lot of shows like Family Guy are perfectly capable of making clean humor, and yet they still have to use other junk as well. Youtube Poops pretty much follow the same pattern as well. There are some pretty nice ones, but a lot of them fall into the category you mentioned. *tosses him a cookie* My advice would be to just keep doing what you're doing now. A lot of your humor is drop-dead hilarious if I must say so myself; your strong point is that you rely a lot on clever references.
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Post by Dashe on Dec 5, 2009 3:10:47 GMT -5
To add in a personal note on the development of humor in the last decade...honestly, I'm not pleased with the way it's been heading, and I have a few of my own opinions on the whole ordeal. I'm completely with you on Pixar getting stale. I literally agree with every bit you just said. Even The Incredibles had a lot of things wrong with it in the end. The reason Pixar is so stale now is because they are regurgitating the same theme with every movie they put out...the concept of old vs. new. Think about it. Buzz vs. Woody in Toy Story. Marlin vs. Nemo in Finding Nemo. The monster collective's view on humans vs. Sully and Mike's new discoveries on humans in Monsters Inc.. Wall-E and Eve, Carl and Russell...you get the idea. The reason the humor fell flat completely for me in UP was because every gag, with the exception of Alpha's voice, was spoiled in trailers that had advertised the movie as a comedy. This backfired twice, actually--not only did it weaken the jokes by spoiling nearly all of them, it also primed the audience into thinking they were going to watch a comedy when in reality it was a sap-fest. Why did they prime it as a comedy? Because this country has a preconceived notion that all mainstream animation must be A) for kids, and B) either highly comedic, or Disney. But I digress. I wouldn't say it was removed from the senseless swearing movement entirely. I'm completely convinced the senseless swearing movement stemmed from the FCC crackdown on media censorship, and those nasty elementary school parents who just didn't want little Johnny subjected to all that nasty cartoon violence. It worked because being so vulgar on television, at the time, was a huge risk. It was such a huge risk people weren't expecting it. Because at the heart of all humor, no matter what sort of comedy dominates the media, the art of hilarity revolves entirely around presenting the unexpected. Comedic movements start to wane when people start to expect the results before they happen. My problem with the hyperrandomosity found throughout Youtube, the Internet as a whole, and all of the television shows you mentioned, is that there just doesn't seem to be much thought behind any of it. Add horrendous spelling and grammar into the mix and it makes the whole movement seem even dumber. Anyone, I repeat, anyone can create a non-sequitur. My facial scrub digests swollen chopstick livers. But jokes like this one show no analysis of the situations and environment at hand. In essence, it's cheap. You could take that single line virtually anywhere, plop it down, and it'll probably get a quick laugh out of it. Except, of course, in a pile of other nonsensical statements (see the Internet for further reference. ) Seriously. If you look at the comedy that's really stood the test of time, it's the things that really had a lot of effort behind them. Same deal with Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First." And I swear, the Lucille Ball's timing with the Vitameatavegamin commercial is pretty close to comic perfection.
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Post by Jhreamer (Razor_Guardian) on Dec 6, 2009 22:47:25 GMT -5
Allow me to follow up this intense discussion.
*ahem*
I like the series.
<.<
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Post by Captain Amadeus (Legendary Em) on Dec 6, 2009 23:47:22 GMT -5
Allow me to follow up this intense discussion. *ahem* I like the series. <.< I agree. We've gotten a bit off topic. Also, will you PLEASE change your signature? It is far too large, and not funny (I suspect it was a "had to be there" momment). At LEAST change it to this: IceAge70 :Where I'm at Tornados aren't a factor Razor_Guardian: Cool IceAge70: Mountains > Tornado Razor_Guardian: Rock > Scizzors IceAge70: Paper > Rock Razor_Guardian: D*** IT It's still too big, but if you absolutely MUST use that conversation, at least make it this small.
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Tau
Cannam
Abridged the Series
Donation for ze little fr?ulein?
Posts: 345
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Post by Tau on Dec 7, 2009 4:19:37 GMT -5
Yeah, a little bit off topic here. I posted this as a Twitter update yesterday, but I figure I should post it here too (since I'm guessing no one actually reads it). MMLA is on hold until my college finals are over, which will be December 17th. Officially at least. I plan to keep working on it in my spare time, but the pressure of finishing a video is not something I need at the moment. Don't worry, this isn't an early sign of abandonment.
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Post by Captain Amadeus (Legendary Em) on Dec 7, 2009 9:43:45 GMT -5
Yeah, a little bit off topic here. I posted this as a Twitter update yesterday, but I figure I should post it here too (since I'm guessing no one actually reads it). MMLA is on hold until my college finals are over, which will be December 17th. Officially at least. I plan to keep working on it in my spare time, but the pressure of finishing a video is not something I need at the moment. Don't worry, this isn't an early sign of abandonment. Today, I'm turning in my final exam for Literature class. After that, I'm taking my fourth and final music exam, but if I do bad on the exam, it won't be counted because my lowest of the four test grades will be dropped (leaving me with an automatic 88.6% grade). After today, I'm done with the semester and can leave. Well, time to go turn those papers in!
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Qwertman
Habarool
Work work work...
Posts: 736
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Post by Qwertman on Dec 7, 2009 22:53:31 GMT -5
I made that post before I watched past half the first episode. It definitely gets a lot funnier, I can't wait for more!
Editing in Blender? Wow! What's that like? The result is great. People are always asking me what they can use to edit videos that is free and I haven't found anything even bearable for video editing that's free.
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Tau
Cannam
Abridged the Series
Donation for ze little fr?ulein?
Posts: 345
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Post by Tau on Dec 8, 2009 2:05:09 GMT -5
Blender's VSE has been working very well for this. It's not the easiest editor to jump into and use right away (like the rest of Blender), and it has some quirks such as MP3 files not always synchronizing correctly, but once you get used to it you have a pretty decent, stable video editor with a lot more hands-on editing freedom than Windows Movie Maker will ever give you. By the way, I've had to keep an installation of 2.49 because 2.49b freezes whenever I try to edit anything. I don't know if the Linux version has that issue or not.
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Post by Pitch on Dec 9, 2009 21:55:01 GMT -5
It's a proven fact that swearing makes you 100× cooler. Plus it's so mature; only mature people swear. ... seriously guys? I thought proboards doesn't let people under 13 join ... #ontopic I just watched this a while ago, and I thought it was good. I got a few good laughs at some of the references in there. Looking forward to the next one.
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Post by Jhreamer (Razor_Guardian) on Dec 9, 2009 21:58:15 GMT -5
Embarrassment ensues as I realize I put this signature on the wrong forum.
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Tau
Cannam
Abridged the Series
Donation for ze little fr?ulein?
Posts: 345
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Post by Tau on Dec 25, 2009 3:30:09 GMT -5
Merry Christmas everyone. We decided to make a Christmas special, which escalated from something fairly simple into a major production. Kinda like this entire series. Anyway, after much work, it's done. And actually on Christmas to boot. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AleGybqKrO0
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Trege
Poh
oro?
Meddling with Legends 1, Legends 2 and Mega Man 64 data.
Posts: 463
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Post by Trege on Dec 25, 2009 11:30:51 GMT -5
That was pretty funny, I cracked up at the party part, poor Roll. "Stop moving!!" ;D
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