[mask131]

Unofficial haunted duology: The "Let's do a Shirley Jackson Grand Guignol"

[pmamtraveller]

"The motherboard" by takimunk

[mask131]

I see more and more people point out that one of the reasons the "TADC" experience went so sour is because it was meant to be a weird, bizarre little web-project aimed at a specific kind of audience (Youtube strange web-series, crazy queer Tumblr cartoons, etc etc), and it ended up becoming... [shivers with dread] mainstream. It escaped confinement. It became so much bigger, it became "common Internet culture", it became "number one on social media", it became "the new viral phenomenon", it became the big talk of everybody in town, it became compared to non-Internet media, it was snatched by... [trembles at the horror behind the words] ordinary people...

And I am reminded of this because the latest episode of "Perfect Husbands" was released not so long ago. "Perfect Husbands", the spin-off of the famed Internet phenomenon "Charlie the Unicorn", a series made by the same creativity that brought us "Llamas with Hats". And... I was reminded of how smoothly this entire series went. It was its weird, bizarre Youtube web-series of disturbing-but-goofy Internet humor, and it became big but never "mainstream", it remained "for the Internet people, by enjoyers of bizarre Youtube entertainment", and... everything went smoothly. Things went nicely. There was no drama. It is still going on nicely.

And I can't help but parallel the two, especially since FilmCow's many animations (Llamas with Hats and Charlie the Unicorn are the most famous ones, but there's much more) have a similar vibe (if you ask me) to Gooseworx's original, non-TADC web-animations - like that one "Ghost of the Year" short everybody was talking about back then...

Of course there's the fact FilmCow's successes came out during a very different time of the Internet, an era predating the one in which TADC boomed to fame... But I can't help wondering if there also isn't the fact of FilmCow purposefully making the show not "open", you know? It preserves the weird and the fun above all, resulting in a more hermetic product, not something you'd find going "mainstream", but by this occultism (metaphorically/etymologically speaking) it preserved itself... "safe" somehow? It remained in its little corner, grew and blossomed in its niche of weirdos who didn't want any explanation or deep lore, never became the big talk of the town with all eyes set on it, and as a result everything was fine.

TADC was a show which seemed to take on the same road of "Internet weirdness" so many other successful animated web-series had walked before... But it "opened" itself more. It was more "accessible", more "reachable", and it helped it become... "mainstream", for lack of a better word. But by becoming this, it underwent so much more toxicity, criticism, pressure and virtual wars, all leading to the downgrade of the TADC experience as a whole... Mind you the core "Internet weirdness" was still there (people are talking again about "Intermission time", and the Intermission Time is one of the proofs of TADC using this "WTF" vibe that made other bizarre-Internet-animations successful), but TADC was definitively never as "niche" or "UFO" as "Charlie the Unicorn"...

I don't have any real point, I am just wondering whether making your Internet animated series "hermetic" is the secret to keep yourself making a successful excentric web comedy, and if "becoming mainstream" is not the death of any "WTF epic web-series"... Just thoughts

[mask131]

But of course, the generation gap is also a big part of it... It cannot be ignored.

FilmCow's successes started in the early 2010s and continued forward. TADC became a hit by 2023. And the Internet had massively changed.

Back when people got enamored with Charlie the Unicorn and Llamas with Hats and all the rest, well... People kept Internet things on the Internet and didn't think of getting them "out there". There were no real big fandom wars, or at least never as vocal and vicious as the ones we had today. There was no fanatical search for "deep lore" or obsession with clues hidden everywhere.

It was a very, very different time... I wonder what would have happened had "Charlie the Unicorn" started releasing in the early 2020s rather than the early 2010s.

[mask131]

Unofficial haunted duology: The foundations of the modern haunted house

[mask131]

It can even become a quatuor if you add this other unofficial duology of 80s cinematic successes, both mediumnic-child-centered, both slightly twisting the "haunted house setting", and both becoming essential references of American haunt-fiction.

[geekynerfherder]

'Wolf Moon' by Frank Frazetta.

Cover art for the novel 'Phoenix Prime', book 1 of the 'Qanar' trilogy written by Ted White, published in 1966 by Lancer Books.

[mask131]

I think... I heard of Qanar... once... a long long time ago... I need to do some research about these books

[glitterywreckage]

the more I read about Lorraine and Proust the fucking funnier it gets.

like what do you MEAN Lorraine talked about Proust mpreg in his lit review????

what do you MEAN it was a duel between two homosexuals and they BOTH MISSED????

this is how i should be asked out from now on. time location and water gun

[atrusovaartist]

I always thought Reddit was a place where people could share things they created.A few days ago I posted one of my original paintings. People loved it. We had wonderful conversations about art, emotions, and how everyone saw something different in the same sunset.

About two hours later I was permanently banned from r/MadeMeSmile for “self-promotion.”

I accepted that different communities have different rules.But then something even stranger happened.Soon afterward, a moderator from r/pics started going through my account. Not just the new post—many of my older painting posts disappeared as well. One after another. Then I was permanently banned there too.

Maybe it was the same moderator. Maybe it wasn’t. I honestly don’t know.

What surprised me wasn’t even the ban itself. It was realizing how much power individual moderators have over what millions of people are allowed to see. One decision can erase years of posts from a community and instantly cut off your ability to participate, even if those posts had been happily sitting there for months or years.I’m not saying moderators shouldn’t have rules. Communities need moderation.But it does make you wonder where the line is between protecting a community and allowing a single interpretation of the rules to completely reshape what people can share.

The funny part?

I wasn’t advertising anything in those posts. I wasn’t posting prices or asking anyone to buy anything. I was simply sharing my original paintings because I enjoy discussing art with strangers from around the world.

Anyway…

Here’s the painting that apparently caused all the trouble. 🎨

[mask131]

I see more and more people point out that one of the reasons the "TADC" experience went so sour is because it was meant to be a weird, bizarre little web-project aimed at a specific kind of audience (Youtube strange web-series, crazy queer Tumblr cartoons, etc etc), and it ended up becoming... [shivers with dread] mainstream. It escaped confinement. It became so much bigger, it became "common Internet culture", it became "number one on social media", it became "the new viral phenomenon", it became the big talk of everybody in town, it became compared to non-Internet media, it was snatched by... [trembles at the horror behind the words] ordinary people...

And I am reminded of this because the latest episode of "Perfect Husbands" was released not so long ago. "Perfect Husbands", the spin-off of the famed Internet phenomenon "Charlie the Unicorn", a series made by the same creativity that brought us "Llamas with Hats". And... I was reminded of how smoothly this entire series went. It was its weird, bizarre Youtube web-series of disturbing-but-goofy Internet humor, and it became big but never "mainstream", it remained "for the Internet people, by enjoyers of bizarre Youtube entertainment", and... everything went smoothly. Things went nicely. There was no drama. It is still going on nicely.

And I can't help but parallel the two, especially since FilmCow's many animations (Llamas with Hats and Charlie the Unicorn are the most famous ones, but there's much more) have a similar vibe (if you ask me) to Gooseworx's original, non-TADC web-animations - like that one "Ghost of the Year" short everybody was talking about back then...

Of course there's the fact FilmCow's successes came out during a very different time of the Internet, an era predating the one in which TADC boomed to fame... But I can't help wondering if there also isn't the fact of FilmCow purposefully making the show not "open", you know? It preserves the weird and the fun above all, resulting in a more hermetic product, not something you'd find going "mainstream", but by this occultism (metaphorically/etymologically speaking) it preserved itself... "safe" somehow? It remained in its little corner, grew and blossomed in its niche of weirdos who didn't want any explanation or deep lore, never became the big talk of the town with all eyes set on it, and as a result everything was fine.

TADC was a show which seemed to take on the same road of "Internet weirdness" so many other successful animated web-series had walked before... But it "opened" itself more. It was more "accessible", more "reachable", and it helped it become... "mainstream", for lack of a better word. But by becoming this, it underwent so much more toxicity, criticism, pressure and virtual wars, all leading to the downgrade of the TADC experience as a whole... Mind you the core "Internet weirdness" was still there (people are talking again about "Intermission time", and the Intermission Time is one of the proofs of TADC using this "WTF" vibe that made other bizarre-Internet-animations successful), but TADC was definitively never as "niche" or "UFO" as "Charlie the Unicorn"...

I don't have any real point, I am just wondering whether making your Internet animated series "hermetic" is the secret to keep yourself making a successful excentric web comedy, and if "becoming mainstream" is not the death of any "WTF epic web-series"... Just thoughts

[mask131]

Unofficial haunted duology: The foundations of the modern haunted house

[mask131]

Now that the steam was blown off and the drama-storm has settled down a bit... Another thing I want to say about the TADC finale.

I said in a post that, at least, Caine's return allowed for the "Void" to be used - because had the "Void" NOT been used by the end of the series, it would have been a massive waste... But that being said, I don't think Caine returning was the best idea. At all.

I can accept it, I can go by it, but when I cried for "poor Caine in the recycling bin", I was joke-crying, so to speak. It was a fan's fancy. Obviously I had made my peace with Caine just dying, and I do believe Caine's character ending with his deletion would have been... perfect. The perfect tragedy, exactly as abrupt as the show was known to be, heck even made some wonderful Gummigoo parallels. Caine's character was done, and had the show stopped there, had a finale without Caine, I would have been happy.

Mind you, this is just my personal opinion... But Caine remaining dead would have been much more impactful. His return seems to be mainly to help "reinforced" the happy ending vibe, to joke on the Willy Wonka references, and to give the characters a reason to be aware of their IRL selves... But I would have preferred the cast found it another way than by Caine returning.

And not only that but... It results in a very strange and bizarre subtext, Caine's return being put in parallel to Jax's disappearance: humans can't evolve or chose to not evolve, but... AIs can change, evolve and become better people? Mind you I get where this comes from - we are in a work relying on famous and well-known sci-fi tropes, among which AIs and robots acting more like humans, growing sentience and morality, evolving for the better, blabla... And it is also to help show that Caine can do what he can because he is not a "real" AI but a "fantasy" AI going rogue, sure. Yet, such a subtext, in our current days where dangerous AIs are getting indeed more and more human-looking, for our own suffering, are getting very clever at tricking people and when more and more people believe AIs are just like "real people"... You know, it is... a very weird subtext to have.

ESPECIALLY since the entire opposition between Caine and Jax (the two "antagonists" of the show, though the morality is more nuanced than that) was that one was an AI who had no "real" choice and tried his best with his limitations but whose every decisions was limited by a programming ; as opposed to Jax who was still a human with free will, and the ability to make creative choices in full awareness. It was a key part of balancing their respective "crimes" (so to speak) within the circus, so... the "humanization" of Caine and especially things like the Moon "growing out of their programming" (I know the Moon thing is a nice meta-moment, which makes sense meta-wise, but in-universe it... irks me a bit) just muddles things a bit too much...

All of this long rant just to say: had I been asked, I would have been against bringing Caine back, and I do believe that leaving Caine dead would have been the best route to take for a TADC narrative, as it would have fitted better the tone/motifs/themes set up before.

[thebiballerina]

Trying to fall asleep in summer is much like the dilemma described in Katy Perry’s hit song Hot N Cold (2008).

[thebiballerina]

Allow me to demonstrate. I am not a visual artist, but I will attempt to communicate my point. If any actual visual artists would like to improve upon this, please feel free.

[thebiballerina]

Well, I can’t sleep for SOME REASON, so here’s more.

[mask131]

This has been my life these past few weeks

[animentality]

me.

[the-rainbow-of-doom]

To give more context: The reviewer was Jean Lorrain, who also was gay. Both showed up to the duel and both missed on purpose.

[stardusted-cirby]

gay people can never just ask each other out

[chuuyastinywaist]

Fun date idea just dropped

[geekynerfherder]

Showcasing art from some of my favourite artists, and those that have attracted my attention, in the field of visual arts, including vintage; pulp; pop culture; books and comics; concert posters; fantastical and imaginative realism; classical; contemporary; new contemporary; pop surrealism; conceptual and illustration.

The art of Thomas Blackshear.

[mask131]

I knew several of those pieces, but I fully and utterly ignored that they were from the SAME PERSON

[maroonracoon]

[mask131]

Oh gosh I had forgotten those two existed

[enchantedbook]

Mermaid and Dolphin from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1908.

[mask131]

"Of course it's a dolphin... A Fae Dolphin. Not exactly the same as your average dolphin."

[dailyclassicart]

Ivan Fedorovich Choultsé - "Fontainebleau Forest in Autumn" (1921)

[mask131]

I had these ones in my likes just a few day before it started burning...

[image-plus-official]

Moebius - Nighthawks (1993) [1080 x 675]

[mask131]

That's Moebius for you