Jakebert
03-03-2007, 09:23 AM
I Hate Adult Swim: An Essay By a TV Nerd.
By Jakebert, PH.D in Nerdology.
I Hate Adult Swim, and Obnoxious Adult Swim Fans.
When Adult Swim was first coming out, I couldn't have been more excited. I'm a huge animation buff, and hearing that one of my favorite cartoons of all time was going to be one of the centers of the line up, I was estatic. But, as you've probably already figured out, I was incredibly disappointed in the end. The reason I got as disappointed as I was and still am is that something like Adult Swim, but with quality, is needed badly. Television animation for adults is a dying art form, at least in terms of quality and legitimacy.
The whole thing with them re-airing classic-but-canceled shows like Futurama and Mission Hill is something I really like. I want to state that right away, just so I can acknowledge that I do give it some credit. That's a really good thing that they did, since prime-time animation was essentially dead, with the exceptions of King of the Hill and the Simpsons, and there wasn't room for anything other than reality shows and CSI ripoffs. Giving these shows a chance to reach their target audience is a great thing.
The rest of Adult Swim, mainly almost all of the original programming with the exception of the Venture Bros. and Aqua Teen (40% of the time. The 60% left is shit), are generally shit. The Bob Clampett Show was a really, really good idea, but unfortunatly got canceled because the dumb fanbase that Adult Swim is catering to didn't like it.
Don't get me wrong: some of the original shows that were aired when it first come out were decent. They were underdeveloped, but because of the experimentation they were doing, it was okay for the time being. The problem is that a fanbase of incredibly retarded 14 year olds started clamoring for the dumb "lolz random humor", and the entire block turned into 10 minute long half-assed shorts with no plots, horrible animation, bad voice acting, and writing that seems like it could come from a 14 year girl's Myspace. It's just garbage, and most of the time, it makes my head hurt.
Case in point: Assy McGee. I remember for the week before it first aired, everyone I knew was talking about how great this was going to be. "It's a talking ass!" "OMGZTALKINGASS!" And I'll admit, it got my attention even though the whole premise seems like something me and my friends would have loved in 6th grade, the time that we all thought The Man Show was hilarious.
But, that week, I watched it out of curiosity despite the lame premise. And, well, I was correct in doubitng it. The show was essentially comprised of one joke: the premise itself. That's it. They basically based an entire series on one fucking joke. It's like "Yes, Dear" only with even less intelligence. Essentially, that's what most of the Adult Swim original shows are now. They take one joke and turn it into an entire premise, and a lot of times that one joke wasn't even really that funny to begin with.
The other thing that I absolutely hate about Adult Swim is the abundance of "random" humor. For those who'd like an example of what that is: you know that slightly obese kid you went to school with who walked around saying words like "cheese", "Captain Crunch!", and "pickles" in a really dumb, loud voice? That's random humor right there. And it's not funny unless it's pulled off completely right, and usually it's not. Adult Swim is that fat guy who thinks that "random for the sake of random" is inherently hilarious no matter what the context.
To me, that's incredibly lazy writing. Maybe I'm picky since I'm a TV nerd who wants to be a writer, but I just think that writing a gag about a pancake monster fighting off an invasion of tupperware aliens is lazy as fuck. There's no real gag there, it's just random words that sound "random" thrown together into a scene that isn't even remotely coherent. There's no depth or intelligence in the joke writing, there's just things that sound "wacky" when put together. That doesn't take effort or talent to write, it takes about 30 seconds of looking around a room for random objects and putting them together.
The argument I always get when I point that out is that "cartoons aren't supposed to have depth, they're supposed to be funny drawings that do funny things". No, you're wrong. The best cartoons all have some sort of depth. The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Futurama, Mission Hill, and even the original Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies cartoons all have a lot of wit and subtle commentary and satire in there, and a lot of layered humor. That's what makes them watchable over and over again because there's more there than just "omgz wacky random drawings!!". With Adult Swim, even the good shows, you can't watch them over and over again like you can with King of the Hill because once the initial response to seeing whatever random, outragous thing they're doing wears off, it loses the impact it has.
Finally, I hate obnoxious Adult Swim fans who think that it's the greatest thing on TV. They're even worse than pretentious Seinfeld fans. (I like Seinfeld, but let's face it, some of the fans are asses). Just about every day, I can expect some person coming up to me and quoting the newest lines from Robot Chicken or Squidbillies, and then get pissed when I don't even crack a smile at whatever lame joke they're telling me. These people are the already mentioned fat kid who thinks that saying the word cheese is funny. That alone should be proof enough that Adult Swim fans are generally idiots or stoners.
By Jakebert, PH.D in Nerdology.
I Hate Adult Swim, and Obnoxious Adult Swim Fans.
When Adult Swim was first coming out, I couldn't have been more excited. I'm a huge animation buff, and hearing that one of my favorite cartoons of all time was going to be one of the centers of the line up, I was estatic. But, as you've probably already figured out, I was incredibly disappointed in the end. The reason I got as disappointed as I was and still am is that something like Adult Swim, but with quality, is needed badly. Television animation for adults is a dying art form, at least in terms of quality and legitimacy.
The whole thing with them re-airing classic-but-canceled shows like Futurama and Mission Hill is something I really like. I want to state that right away, just so I can acknowledge that I do give it some credit. That's a really good thing that they did, since prime-time animation was essentially dead, with the exceptions of King of the Hill and the Simpsons, and there wasn't room for anything other than reality shows and CSI ripoffs. Giving these shows a chance to reach their target audience is a great thing.
The rest of Adult Swim, mainly almost all of the original programming with the exception of the Venture Bros. and Aqua Teen (40% of the time. The 60% left is shit), are generally shit. The Bob Clampett Show was a really, really good idea, but unfortunatly got canceled because the dumb fanbase that Adult Swim is catering to didn't like it.
Don't get me wrong: some of the original shows that were aired when it first come out were decent. They were underdeveloped, but because of the experimentation they were doing, it was okay for the time being. The problem is that a fanbase of incredibly retarded 14 year olds started clamoring for the dumb "lolz random humor", and the entire block turned into 10 minute long half-assed shorts with no plots, horrible animation, bad voice acting, and writing that seems like it could come from a 14 year girl's Myspace. It's just garbage, and most of the time, it makes my head hurt.
Case in point: Assy McGee. I remember for the week before it first aired, everyone I knew was talking about how great this was going to be. "It's a talking ass!" "OMGZTALKINGASS!" And I'll admit, it got my attention even though the whole premise seems like something me and my friends would have loved in 6th grade, the time that we all thought The Man Show was hilarious.
But, that week, I watched it out of curiosity despite the lame premise. And, well, I was correct in doubitng it. The show was essentially comprised of one joke: the premise itself. That's it. They basically based an entire series on one fucking joke. It's like "Yes, Dear" only with even less intelligence. Essentially, that's what most of the Adult Swim original shows are now. They take one joke and turn it into an entire premise, and a lot of times that one joke wasn't even really that funny to begin with.
The other thing that I absolutely hate about Adult Swim is the abundance of "random" humor. For those who'd like an example of what that is: you know that slightly obese kid you went to school with who walked around saying words like "cheese", "Captain Crunch!", and "pickles" in a really dumb, loud voice? That's random humor right there. And it's not funny unless it's pulled off completely right, and usually it's not. Adult Swim is that fat guy who thinks that "random for the sake of random" is inherently hilarious no matter what the context.
To me, that's incredibly lazy writing. Maybe I'm picky since I'm a TV nerd who wants to be a writer, but I just think that writing a gag about a pancake monster fighting off an invasion of tupperware aliens is lazy as fuck. There's no real gag there, it's just random words that sound "random" thrown together into a scene that isn't even remotely coherent. There's no depth or intelligence in the joke writing, there's just things that sound "wacky" when put together. That doesn't take effort or talent to write, it takes about 30 seconds of looking around a room for random objects and putting them together.
The argument I always get when I point that out is that "cartoons aren't supposed to have depth, they're supposed to be funny drawings that do funny things". No, you're wrong. The best cartoons all have some sort of depth. The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Futurama, Mission Hill, and even the original Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies cartoons all have a lot of wit and subtle commentary and satire in there, and a lot of layered humor. That's what makes them watchable over and over again because there's more there than just "omgz wacky random drawings!!". With Adult Swim, even the good shows, you can't watch them over and over again like you can with King of the Hill because once the initial response to seeing whatever random, outragous thing they're doing wears off, it loses the impact it has.
Finally, I hate obnoxious Adult Swim fans who think that it's the greatest thing on TV. They're even worse than pretentious Seinfeld fans. (I like Seinfeld, but let's face it, some of the fans are asses). Just about every day, I can expect some person coming up to me and quoting the newest lines from Robot Chicken or Squidbillies, and then get pissed when I don't even crack a smile at whatever lame joke they're telling me. These people are the already mentioned fat kid who thinks that saying the word cheese is funny. That alone should be proof enough that Adult Swim fans are generally idiots or stoners.