Wednesday, August 27, 2003
The Chapman's bandwidth usage is just about to get crazy-go-nuts
Over at National Review Online, Peter Wood has penned a reverential but breathtakingly over-analyzed piece on one of my favorite websites, HomeStarRunner.com
I agree with at least one part of his analysis, that being that the appeal of the Chapman brothers' work is mostly cultural. I believe it's a pretty lean slice of the culture to which the appeal fully applies, however, and I think I'm right in the center of the slice. Time after time on that site I've seen a little joke that I'd swear I must be one of about four people on Earth who fully appreciate.
Case in point: In one of Strong Bad's emails a few weeks ago, someone wanted to know what the craziest cartoon he could make would be like. What followed was something between a tribute to and a lampooning of such surrealist cartoons as George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" (or at least it seemed to me to be so. Perhaps I, like mr. Wood, am over-analyzing here). At the end, after Strong Bad is finished introducing all the characters ("Hey Steve!") in his crazy cartoon, he tells us that He'd also be in it, but his head would be an old keyboard, and when he got mad it would play the demo.
When the Keyboard first appeared on Strong Bad's head, I chuckled to myself thinking "that looks just like the little Casio I got for my birthday when I was about 12". When the demo started playing, I realized that it was, in fact, the very same keyboard. It'd been years since I'd heard that little ditty, and yet I could remember every last note. Give me a few minutes on a piano and I could probably tap it out. It was a spooky moment of cultural connection.
Then again, maybe it's just funny.
I agree with at least one part of his analysis, that being that the appeal of the Chapman brothers' work is mostly cultural. I believe it's a pretty lean slice of the culture to which the appeal fully applies, however, and I think I'm right in the center of the slice. Time after time on that site I've seen a little joke that I'd swear I must be one of about four people on Earth who fully appreciate.
Case in point: In one of Strong Bad's emails a few weeks ago, someone wanted to know what the craziest cartoon he could make would be like. What followed was something between a tribute to and a lampooning of such surrealist cartoons as George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" (or at least it seemed to me to be so. Perhaps I, like mr. Wood, am over-analyzing here). At the end, after Strong Bad is finished introducing all the characters ("Hey Steve!") in his crazy cartoon, he tells us that He'd also be in it, but his head would be an old keyboard, and when he got mad it would play the demo.
When the Keyboard first appeared on Strong Bad's head, I chuckled to myself thinking "that looks just like the little Casio I got for my birthday when I was about 12". When the demo started playing, I realized that it was, in fact, the very same keyboard. It'd been years since I'd heard that little ditty, and yet I could remember every last note. Give me a few minutes on a piano and I could probably tap it out. It was a spooky moment of cultural connection.
Then again, maybe it's just funny.
