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?
Cambo
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.