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Kirbopher
Animation Artist, creator of over 100 pieces of Flash animation on and offline. Graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Class of 2011.

Chris Niosi @Kirbopher

Age 35, Male

Animation Artist

School of Visual Arts

New York

Joined on 7/21/04

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The Tastes of the Entertained + Commishes!

Posted by Kirbopher - December 5th, 2008


First off, those've you who might have some interest in this type of stuff, I'm now officially taking comissions on DeviantArt! If there're any NGers that possibly wanna order a drawing for the X-Mas season, but are without a DA account, feel free to message me over Newgrounds instead, the same rules apply.

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So I've been wondering this for a while; I think it's a subject folks on NG might be able to have a good understanding of so I thought it'd be interesting to ask here.

Over the Thanksgiving break I watched a whole slew of TTA episodes for old times' sake. Despite my feelings on the series NOW, I enjoyed them for what they are and accept TTA simply my being at that "skill level" at that point in time. In the midst of this, I asked a whole bunch of people on my DeviantArt journal what it was about TTA that people (who liked it) enjoyed -about- it. The overall answer I got from people was that they KNEW what it literally was, that being a sprite series with no voice acting, virtually no -real- animation, a shit-ton of reading and a storytelling style in the vein of Shonen Jump type of series (not to mention completely self-concious throwbacks to Megaman.EXE and .hack//), but what they enjoyed about it was the story and characters that I portrayed throughout the entire thing.

Now, TTA was simply one example in my OWN case, but prior to this I thought: should what you're into mark you as unintelligent? I don't think it should, but yet it seems to do so anyway. It goes a little bit back to the whole thing I spoke about before regarding fandom and fanbases for particular things, but that aspect aside, I think generally just what you're "into" is more the core of what I was questioning. This applies to ANYTHING, not simply my own work, or anyone else's work on Newgrounds. Think about it, let's say you like Dragonball Z or even Inuyasha for instance. Let's say you don't have to necassarily have "oh this is a guilty pleasure, I KNOW this is a stupid series" mentality and you genuinely appreciate them for what they are. If people considered more "artisitic" or something stupid like that would simply scoff at works such as that, does that make people who ARE into those types of things less credible?

On a higher scale than that, what if someone in charge of a well-known cartoon or a really successful animated film or something like that were to say they like something that other people in the business would normally thing is ridiculous? For instance, the Avatar creators being big anime fans, they mention specifically that they love Miyazaki's films and Gainax Studio's works. What if they said they liked something like Naruto for example? What if Bill Plympton or Mike Sporn and such independant animators said they liked Robot Chicken and Family Guy? Hell, what if Richard Williams gotta kick out of Epic Movie? (I'm throwing out fake examples, don't take ANY of those seriously.)

Then, on a lower scale, with all of us doing flash animation and lot of things here built on viewership and viewer response, what about the tastes of people who enjoy flashes of all types across the board? What's the problem with getting engaged in sprite movies for instance? Or much more often than that, thinking parodies, despite unoriginalities and what not, are humorous? Biggest example I've been conflicted about is Brawl Taunts for instance. The style of humor used in Brawl Taunts flat out ISN'T my thing at all, and yet hundreds of people enjoy it. There aren't any typical excuses to go against it, because even close friends of mine and people that I look up to and respect as well, find Brawl Taunts funny.

With this issue that's crossed my mind, take note that it's more about LIKING things I'm speaking of as opposed to people hating things. But the "hate" side of it comes more into play when people are berated and embarassed for liking something that other people, even a vast majority of people in some cases, DON'T think is artistic, original, credible or even simply "good" at all. Hell, in elementary and middle school, liking Pokemon for more than the YEAR it came out was practically considered a crime it seemed like. This issue doesn't even, nor should it, specifically apply to "kids", or "dumb people" or anything as unfair and close-minded as that.

Thoughts?


Comments

what, of course what you like defines who you are.

i think it's perfectly justifiable to presume certain things about a person based on what they like - the concept of pop culture has us defining our identities through the stuff we identify with. like, music for example: if i like my chemical romance you can presume things about me that you wouldn't if i listened to only Rachmaninov.

and while liking some movies might not make you STUPID or 'unintelligent', it does indicate that. obviously your taste in comedy isn't the sole contributing factor but its a pretty obvious signpost to your development.

I think the main question you asked was "Does liking stuff that is below you make you unimportant/stupid?"

Not really. I find some of the dumbest stuff funny, like I love to read reviews on spam even though it seems stupid to laugh at people getting pissed off.

But what about times where a bunch of kids get together and make funny noises. (Like in my most recent animation, in the scene where it shows the outside of our SPace Helicoptor) Is it stupid to find something like that funny? Not really. It's just whatever manages to make you laugh. I can laugh at a stupid picture of a cat saying "im in ur printer" or something, but I'm not exactly stupid because of that.

Again, it's just whatever tickles your funny bone (Tickle and bone should never be in the same sentence, btw) and it doesn't make you dumb.

People who like sprites aren't dumb, and people who hate them aren't, they may be ignorant and place stereotypes over everything, but they aren't necessarily stupid.

one thing newgrounds needs to get over is blamming something on certain premisses. some of ng's best movies are parodies and sprite animations, hell even parodies using sprites, and no matter how much they LMAO they say "how unoriginal" and give t a low score. When u vote u should vote if u liked it or not, if it made u laugh u must have liked it so give it a good score. If a flash had excellent animation but was a lame piece of crap, give it a low score, they deserve to know it wasnt good/funny. Take Oney's random day for example, LOUSIEST ANIMATION EVER,but of course done umpurpose, AND WAS FUNNY AS HELL. It proves u dont need to be good at drawing to have great ideas, hence make good movies(even though Oney was good at it). so basicly what im trying to say to Ng. Y give it zero if u liked it? y give it 5 if it made no sense?

srry if this is a bit off topic

I personally think the idea of someone being judged simply because of a show they enjoy is wrong. For instance, I enjoy reading several books that I'm sure that few would consider good. One of my favorite shows now is a series on AdultSwim called Superjail! The show is pretty odd to most people, but I still watch it. I also watch Go Go Parody Rangers, the Awesome Series, the Madness series, and I feel that many people would never expect it to be any good. There she is! is a series that I feel is on par with major productions, yet I couldn't get my friends to watch it when I went onto Newgrounds. They just looked down on it and me from them on.
To sum it all up, I think someone feeling guilt at liking a series is wrong. If you like a series, don't feel guilty about it, but understand why you like it. Is it because of the style, the story, or the randomness of the jokes? I try to answer that myself, and I feel I sometimes don't have answers. At least I know what I like and feel no guilt about it.

It is quite possible to like stupid things for intelligent reasons.

today in opposite-ville richard williams watches naruto and says "boy what a classy program"

"(I'm throwing out fake examples, don't take ANY of those seriously.)"

Humor is completely subjective. however, you can be a tasteless person.

Never watched TTA, never found it interesting.
Brawl Taunts is funny mostly because of the voice acting.
Sprite flashes are compelling because they bring 10+ years of backstory to the viewer with the characters they are based on. The story , acting, or dialogue is never as compelling as the nostalgia that is sparked within the viewer when seeing these characters.
Invoking those types of feelings with original characters takes twice the amount of work, and time. Sprite animators should never forget that, and remember that they are riding off these characters. That said, if it inspires them to do more than just sprite animations, then in the end, it was worth it.
Still Artist really have no right to chastise or harass viewers for enjoying someone else's work. No one is gonna sit around and stare at a blank front page because these artist take years to finish a flash submission, and they feel no one deserves the frontpage more than them.

In the end when those that scream for originality become "popular" their artwork and style will be raped and duplicated beyond control, and there will be a new group of self loathing artist condemning them.

Yes i agree because right now im in middle school and my friend likes pokemon cards but not the show but people make such a big deal about it and automatically think that he is a nerd or a geek, When i be myself i am considered weird. Today everyone is really worried about what other people think about them because they dont want to be called names and crap like that.

People often accuse viewers of my show of being "stupid", that my show is "exploitative" and "tacky".
Worse still, people accuse my GUESTS of being "actors" or "fakes".

Listen, there is nothing wrong with my viewers, HELL, even I watch my own show sometimes, but when you accuse me of using fake guests in a cheap attempt at stealing viewers away from Oprah then you have gone too far.

I will go on record that my guests are 100% malformed inbreds of the highest pedigree and each is screened individually before the show to quantify an I.Q no higher than 1.
We then get them drunk and starve them for a day before releasing them into the studio to claw out the eyes of one of their relatives.

Until next time, take care of yourself...

...and each other >:(

Cool, I'll tell Maury he owes you 20 bucks.

What's with all this "beneath you" crap? Those who like something should not care what other people in the business say, in my option, you like what you like. You shouldn't look you nose down on someone who watches (or reads) stuff you think is "ridiculous" because peopel might think the stuff you watch is "ridiculous". You let what other people think affect you to much. If I was in yoru shoes (which I'm not), I wouldn't let what other people say concern me, especially if my stuff was popular and on a website with flagging jerks.

I enjoyed TTA much more than your other stuff because of its story. In my mind story (orginal at that) is what makes something popular. Things like DBZ and Naruto are poular because they combine serious and comical elements, with background to the characters that mere parodies do not add. That is the basis of my 50% writing, 50% artwork philosophy though I'm lingering on that since artists acually have to go to school to learn artwork.

Now I know, let many people who post, I have nothing on my site. I'm currently working on two series of my own. "Drogo the exocist" audio should come out soon by Eisaysek (hopfully) and Cyborg Project, a full flash drawn by rockov should also be out soon. Both are series that I scripted for. I'm not trying to advertise on an advertisment (not in it for the money as I said last post), I'm just saying that I've worked on stuff and am not a "noob"

Maybe this is just coming from the "out of touch" 17 year old who still has all his old JUMPs and who's first real anime was the not so popular Yu Yu Hakusho, but I have never given a crap about what other people thought about me. If I am doing everything everyone tells me to do and watching what people think is "at my level" than what makes me any better than a fanboy who can't look past one anime? If I am only what people tell me to be, am I really me?

If anyoen actually reads HALF of this, I'll be surprised. My ranting usually tends to never get commented on because it's to long for anyoen attention span (plus it's a rant complaining about stuff that's popular)

I figure that parodies or sprites are fine as long as they're funny or whatever they're trying to prove. Egoraptor for instance lives off of parodies, thats what a lot of people know him for and his "unique" art style but people dont care about that they just know its funny and go with that.

On to the other matter of "does what you watch determine who you are?". It can and it may not. For example people may watch DBZ for its characters and hate the plot. Just because you watch it doesn't mean you love all of it. If you went into a more broad situation like what type of shows you like then you could find out what determines what people are into.

why did you delete my comment, I was just saying that what you wrote was really boring and nothing interesting. That's your opinion, other people might have other opinions. What's there to talk about.

If you think it's boring and uninteresting, then that's fine. However, posting so when you therefore have nothing to add is completely uneccasary.

i have to add that you are silly if you think people having strong opinions AGAINST something is a bad thing. if we all liked everything the world would be super gay.

also draw this without being all willy nilly about it being different kay?
<a href="http://supapeeves.newgrounds.com/news/post/229654">http://supapeeves.newgrounds.com/news /post/229654</a>

ffff wrong link
<a href="http://newsimg.ngfiles.com/98000/98848_aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.gif">http://newsimg.ngfiles.com/98000/9884 8_aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.gif</a>

Wait, does this means you're bringing back TTA?!!

Yes, just for you.

About TTA, it was great; I don't care what anyone says. I watched some of your latest work such as parody rangers and such, and wondered what else you might have made, and as I watched the first episode of TTA, I thought it wasn't anything special. But as I watched a few more episodes, I saw what made the series so great. It's Story. Every day I looked to see if there was a new episode of TTA. It was like an anime. I was crushed when I heard you canceled it. I love a good book. I feel like I didn't get to finish yours.

Addressing everything else, To insult or embarrass someone because someone else likes something you think is "stupid" or "gay"? Listen, here's how it works. Let's use Naruto as an example. Let's say there's someone who really likes Naruto, and he tells this to a friend. This friends responds, "Naruto is gay,". Why would he say that to him? I mean, surely this person who really likes Naruto would be offended by such an insult? Why would this friend say something to hurt his friend? Because when he receives the information that his friend likes something that he doesn't like, he associates his friend with Naruto and thus becomes hostile. What that means is, That when one persons ideas and beliefs are disliked by another, that other person will force his or her opinions on the other until they either fight, or one person surrenders his opinion to the other. What all this confusing philosophical crap means is, we are who we are, and our opinions do not make us any more or less than anyone else, no matter what anyone says.

I hope i might have somewhat answered some part part of your questions.
(It'd be nice if you responded

*response*!!

The dumbest things are usually the most entertaining. I have a weakness for old-ass, testerone-driven, corny-as-hell old school anime like Street Fighter II V, Fist of the North Star, and DBZ (when it first came out, and the first few movies, before everybody became super saiyans), and will readily make fun of them, they'll still fun to watch.

The disconnect happens here on NG when sprites and lazy shit gets presidential hype just because it's only halfway decent with a side of familiarity.

^
Too true.

I randomly blame the Simpsons, and I like Pokemon.

over the years i've dealt with the judgment of others.(including my own brother) and what i've learned is that as long as you like what you see , it doesn't matter what others whether it be your best friend, older bro, or the older kids in your life. My brother is a good example of this. If you looked at him you'd think he wouldn't even considering watching bleach or naruto(but he does) and he's open with that cuz he doesn't care(plus he graduated last year anyway). i've shown my friends you parody ranger movies, they didn't like them and they'll probably never will, but aslong as i like them that's okay. Other examples are i like video games made by Nippon Ichi Software, but they don't. I can't stand the xbox but i don't judge my friend who do have one. Bottom line is pop culture brings out our true selves and thats fine. Unless if you a real asshole

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