#woy04

[loreweaver-universe]

I wonder how smear frames were invented.

Not just the “movement faster than the framerate” kind, though that’s obviously what I’m looking at right here.  When did that first animator go “Huh, you know, people don’t really see this stuff frame by frame.  I can do better and faster motion by making the in-between frames Real Fuckin’ Weird”?

[loreweaver-universe]

All right, let’s talk about telling the same joke over and over, and how it’s really, really, really hard to pull off well.

Humor generally relies on subverting expectations.  Everything from the complicated, thousand-word punchline setup of the “I’m not a monk” story all the way down to basic knock-knock jokes gets its hits in by hitting you in ways you don’t expect.  It’s why the knock-knock format even works past childhood experiments with the format--you know the structure of the joke, but you’re mixing up something new to fit that shape every time you tell a joke, and clever people will find ways to mess with the structure as well.

It’s also why this little angel works so well:

Padparadscha is a walking punchline...the same walking punchline, over and over and over and over, but she’s so effective because of the way she’s delivered.  You can tell the same joke a thousand times and have it still be funny if you’re constantly mixing up the delivery in fresh and creative ways.   “Steven’s back!” is one of the most raucously funny moments in the entire series because it’s flawlessly slipped into a conversational downbeat when you least expect it.  “Padparadscha exists fifteen seconds in the past” is funny by itself, like, twice, because a punchline all by itself loses its impact once you know what it is.  “Padparadscha constantly messes with the flow of conversation because she exists fifteen seconds in the past” can be funny forever if you’re clever about it, because the joke in this isn’t the punchline as much as it is the delivery.

This joke, though, isn’t mixed up at all.

We know the setup; Sylvia’s trying to get them out of danger, Wander spots somebody in need of seemingly innocuous help.  We know the punchline: Sylvia chases him down only to discover that he’s rendering vital, life-saving service that she just didn’t see the context of.  That’s a pretty good joke!  It was even a good joke the second time!  The third time, it’s boring and predictable, because it’s going through the joke equivalent of a copy-paste and a font change.  We’re halfway through the episode, and I am begging it to mix things up a little, because the performances are good and the designs are good and the joke is stale and I want so badly for them to get to something new.

(I am enjoying Wander, but I got on a roll with this and wanted to write a thing.  LET’S GET BACK TO THE LIVEBLOG)

[loreweaver-universe]

“no more helping,” he said.  you know, like a liar

[loreweaver-universe]

ALL RIGHT WELL I THOUGHT THEY’D FLAP THEIR EARS OR SOMETHING I WASN’T EXPECTING ROCKET FEET

[loreweaver-universe]

no seriously I am 100% convinced that none of this sort of thing is smear frames.  wander is genuinely some kind of reality-warping trickster demigod and all the stuff like this and the multi-wander award routine is actually happening

[loreweaver-universe]

It’s always interesting to find out that someone you know knows how to hotwire a car.

It’s really really really interesting to find out that someone you know knows how to hotwire something that isn’t a car.

[loreweaver-universe]

GOD I LOVE WHEN CARTOONS REMEMBER THEY’RE CARTOONS

[loreweaver-universe]

oh this one’s a right bastard.  you ever tried stacking fruit?  there’s a special level of hell reserved for this minion and this minion alone, wherein he has to stack an endless, sisyphean tower of mixed fruits while listening to every nia jax anti-bullying promo playing simultaneously until the end of time