First, here’s a link to that cartoon about poop that I mentioned before.
It’s called Aachi and Ssipak and it was released in 2006. I’ve watch a little over half an hour of it, and I must say, it’s amusing. The potty humour is, thankfully, non-explicit (at least so far), and so it is just a lot of people referring to defecation and “the holy anus”.
It’s highly stylized and reminds me a little of the underground comics scene of the 70’s in tone. It has that sort of anarchic madness, that feeling of life at full throttle, that the best of the underground cmics artists (and underground animators) depicted.
Doing awesome things because they are awesome.
Square : Why is there a big titted demoness on the side of your van?
Hip : Because big titted demonesses are COOL, man!
S: And why is she on fire?
H : Because fire is COOL, man!
S: And why is she wielding a chainsaw sword?
H : Because chainsaws and swords are both cool, man!
S :And why is she using it to gut some guy wearing a bowling shirt with “Steve” written on it?
H : ….because Steve’s a DICK, man!
And I have to admit, the movie’s anal fixation gets some highly immature laughs from me. So does the crazy poopcentric future it creates. Early in the movie, we are given a glimpse of the basic way their society operates. There’s port-a-potties where when you poop, it dispenses a JuicyBar, and those are super addictive, so presumably, that’s how Everyone Poops.
Oh. And there’s evil Smurfs with diapers on their heads.
Next up, we have a PSA about the idea that nobody goes hungry in America.
Funny how the people who say that the most are the people who want to do the least to make sure it’s true. They have a childlike faith that hungry people can just feast on the Magic That Is America, I guess.
Whatever cancels out the notion of guilt or duty, they will swallow.
When I was a kid, there was this kid in my elementary school class named Jason, who, looking back, must have come from a very poor family. I didn’t understand that at the time, though, any more than any of the rest of the kids did, and so we all thought it was pretty funny when Jason showed up for school with mustard sandwiches (just like it sounds, just bread and mustard) for lunch.
Looking back, of course, that’s not funny at all. His family, which I gathered was a recently post-rural family (grew up on a farm, but then…. there was no farm), must have been damned hard up to send him to school with that. And it’s not exactly nourishing either.
So Jason, if you are still out there, I am sorry if I laughed at your mustard sandwich lunch. I’m also sorry that I never liked you because you seemed stupid and irritating.
Like I was one to judge others at that time.
Our next feature is this rather marvelous short film. Warning, it’s nine minutes long and it’s a monologue, so it is quite stagey, despite not having been filmed on a stage and having actually quite high production values for a monologue.
I don’t mind that, but some do.
It’s a tad obvious and definitely quite earnest, but the kids are all about the New Sincerity now and I support them in that one hundred percent.
After all, they are just picking up where our Gen X cynicism left off. We hated everything because it was all so fake. They are keen to create things which seem real to them.
So I will forgive them for a lot of over-earnestness and pretension. They are Young, after all, and that’s something this tired old world needs like the desert needs rain.
And besides, if we’re going to change the world for the better with a democratic revolution, who do you think will be the front line soldiers?
Not us decrepit old farts, that’s for sure. We don’t have that kind of energy any more. All we really can do is cheer from the sidelines and offer them whatever advice they might find useful.
They have their own destinies to find, now. Some say they are the new Greatest Generation, but I think that is a bit too much pressure to put on a whole generation.
And they got enough pressure growing up from their helicopter parents!
Good luck and God speed, kids.
Finally, here’s the world’s most politically savvy 12 year old boy.
Amazing, isn’t he? Even if he is mostly just parroting back things he has heard adults say (and I am not saying he is), it still takes quite a good brain to keep all that straight and to understand what he is saying well enough to say it with conviction.
When I was twelve, I only had a dim idea that politics even existed. If I thought about it at all, it would have been “that boring stuff that Dad watches on the news” or “that thing that makes everything on TV suck when there’s an election on. ”
I didn’t become the political animal that I am today until high school. Like most kids, I ignored the serious world of adults until I was old enough to understand them.
I would have known some of what was going on in the world at that age, because I did watch the news with my Dad sometimes and there is always a certain amount of news that filters down to you via popular culture, especially if you are a hungry little information sponge like I was at the time.
Plus, you know, even game shows and cartoons are interrupted by News Breaks sometimes.
But I sure as hell would not have known as much as that kid seems to know, and what I did know I would not have had the interest or the wisdom to form an opinion about.
When you’re a kid, you’re a spectator. You don’t get into the game until later.
Well, I guess that’s it, all the video clips I have to show you today.
See ya later, folk… ah, I’m just messing with you. Here’s today’s vid!
Once more, I took something I wrote about ages ago and revived it in video form. It feels sort of cheap to do that, but I always add to my previous conclusions and refine my observations in the process of doing the video, so it’s just a matter of making a new version of an old thing.
And I think my thesis that obesity comes from an outdated evolutionary model that used to be a really effective survival package, is a damned good one. It explains where obesity comes from and sheds light on how someone can end up with such counterproductive and unhealthy instincts.
What do you think, folks?