Crapstick Doodle: Episode 2

I've actually already made 5 episodes of this new Youtube project I'm working on, but I've been so lazy that I've never bothered to post them to the blog. Anyways, here's the second episode:



I used to think the biggest problem with making these funny is that I can't draw or animate worth a shit, but I think I have a much bigger issue to contend with than that. You see, I do all of the voices and normally don't use much more than a simple pitch shift or light southern accent to hide it. Since my dialog recording sessions are basically me talking to myself, getting the comedic timing right is a huge problem and ultimately much bigger than my shortcomings as a visual artist.

In this video, the dialog between the Black Evil Thug and the White Evil Thug is taken from my script for Smoke Stoppers 3, a sketch that unfortunately was never produced. The joke at the end in which the "Corey" character, which virtually any viewer has already figured is an avatar for me, tries to warn his friend about his impending death and gets too annoyed by the ringtone was based on two people I know. Some people have their wireless service set up so that when you call them, a recording states, "Please enjoy the music while your party is reached" and then an excerpt of the most annoying pop song that's dominating the charts plays.

My friend Scott had that exact same song play when I called him, and this reflects my annoyance with that. It's also based on an ex-girlfriend who had a voicemail greeting that was two fucking straight minutes of random noise and shouting. One time I called her with something really important to say and hung up because I couldn't stand listening to the final minute and a half of the voicemail message. That joke is a combination of those two incidents.

Anyways, I don't think this video is very good, but my first three or four live action comedy sketches were dogshit too, so it's all a learning and growing process. If you agree to tolerate this one and the next one which sucks as well, I can promise you that the fourth and fifth are much better and approaching the realm of actually being funny.

New Radicals

When I'm at work I have no control over what godawful radio station my boss decides to play, and that usually results in me listening to the local top 40 station that plays fucking "Sober" by Pink and "Love Story" by Taylor Swift at least twice an hour. My only relief from the relentless parade of shit is the DJ's "pick six" at noon, in which he plays whatever six songs he feels like playing before returning to the twentieth daily airing of "Gives You Hell".

On one of the pick sixes from last week, he played "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals. It's a passable and mostly forgettable late 90's pop song about following your dreams or some shit. I never really paid close attention to the lyrics the first decade or so that I'd heard the song, but I really gave a close listen this time and found I had serious issues with this excerpt:

Fashion mag shoots
with the aid of 8 dust brothers Beck, Hanson
Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson
You're all fakes
Run to your mansions
Come around
We'll kick your ass in!

Okay, so here are the people that they're threatening to kick the asses of because they're so damn real:

This drug addled woman....

These flagrantly effeminate children...

This frighteningly skinny man covered in female makeup.....

....and this guy.

Well shit, New Radicals. I can't see how a group as real and tough as you only had one hit song and immediately sucked yourselves into a vortex of irrelevance.