#anyways this is my one (1) “april fools” meme/joke

[agonizedembrace]

ALLOW US TO INTRODUCE OURSELVES a totally serious, not joke promo of @windchaser @agonizedembrace @witchcraftandburialdirt

[bellmo15-blog]

Times People Took My Jokes Seriously

What is one of the main things I tend to do a decent bit? And I mean other than sharing art that I commission or request artists to do for me. If you answered “Calling people out on their stupidity” then you’d be close because, well that sort of stuff needs to be called out anyway, but that actual answer I was looking for is joke around a lot. I often make satirical posts, crack a few jokes every now and then, poke fun at a bunch of shit and in the past 4 years alone I’ve been actively going out of my way to try and do something for April Fools day every year. I am a jokester. I grew up on a decent bit of media that knew to lighten up and have fun with its story every now and then. I even wanted to be a comedian at one point growing up. (Yeah, I wanted to be A LOT of thing as a child.) And for the most part people have been able to tell I’m joking.

… Notice that I said “for the most part.” This is because sadly, not everyone has been able to get most of what I say IS in fact a joke. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it’s usually enough to make me groan, roll my eyes and question why I even try to make people laugh anyway. But what do you expect from people in today’s age anyway? This is not an issue exclusive to just me, that would be incredibly entitled and selfish of me to pretend like my jokes are the only ones that people over react to. This is an issue that’s been persistent on the internet for years now! I mean we got people who took the “THEY FLY NOW!?!?” scene from Rise of Skywalker, a scene that was made to get a chuckle out of the audience, WAY to seriously and try way too hard to dissect the scene about how the First Order having jetpack troops isn’t that new. Or how about that one meme that was made about a year after the Nintendo Switch came out poking fun at how many of the major games that been released for the thing were either ports of Wii U games or were very similar to games on the Wii U and not a few days after that meme, someone made a whole 10 min video complaining about what was basically a joke! Overreacting to meaningless and dumb shit or misinterpreting what’s said on the internet.

Sure, you don’t have to find every single joke you find the internet funny. I don’t, in fact one of my least favourite jokes from the last few years has been that stupid “PS5 has no games” joke that uses Linken Park’s In The End as a template and have even voiced my dislike for it recently but it’s not like I’m over-reacting to it or anything. I usually just ignore it and move on. The times I have gotten people taking my stuff overly seriously really should be par for the course for me at this point as much as I wish they were not. So, just for the hell of it, here’s some of the times people have taken what have been obvious jokes of mine way to seriously. And I will admit that this journal was slightly inspired by PolarSaurusRex’s video on people who took his memes two seriously so credit to him and his video.

Top 10 Most Over-rated Games Ever

I wanted to start this off with probably one of my favourite examples of someone not getting an obvious joke. For April Fool day back in 2022 I decided to make a list of the Top 10 Most Over-rated Games Ever. Out of all the April Fools day jokes I’ve ever done this one was probably the one I had the most fun doing for a few reasons.

1; I actually REALLY hate calling something “over-rated.” Anytime I’ve ever seen someone call one thing or another overrated they always have some of the most fickle justifications for saying it. Such as saying that people only like the thing because it’s popular or saying that something else similar to it is better or that it’s aged horribly (which isn’t a completely unfair thing to say as there are plenty of games that HAVE aged horribly but that’s really not a good reason to say something is over-rated to me.) So, it seemed perfect for an April Fools day joke. Me making fun of a phrase I can’t stand by playing an over exaggerated characterchure.

2; This was actually my top 10 favourite games of all time, but I was just talking about them from the perspective of someone who absolutely hated them! Something that really should have been obvious to anyone who has been following me for a long time especially considering I put Devil May Cry at number one on this list which is a game I have gone on record on multiple occasions before and after this joke that is my absolute favourite game of all time and put Shantae and the Pirates Curse at number 2 on this list despite how much the character means to me to the point where I ship my self insert with her. Well, someone didn’t get the hint.

Now this is an amusing comment for me to get not just because I’ve said in the past that Shantae and the Pirates Curse is another one of my favourite games of all but also because just one look at my gallery would tell you that I do have a love for Shantae. At the time I wrote this April Fools day joke I had gotten TEN commissions relating to the Shantae series and if you wanna count comms of Thayla since she is a Shantae OC of mine then that total would be raised to 13! At least three of them were of Shantae herself and at the time this was written I was having a Shantae X Helluva Boss based comm being worked on for me two of Verosika dressed as Shantae based of the fact they shared a voice actress.

The worst part? The person who commented this actually had been following me for years now! I mean obviously I’m blacking out the names of the comments I show here because I don’t want people to go after them since this isn’t intended as a personal attack on anyone and I’m just poking fun at people not being able to get a joke but still, they should of known that this was an April Fools day joke. Especially since a few months before this, back when I was regularly doing game reviews, I did a review on Pirates Curse where not only did I praise it for a lot of reasons but also went into the more personal side of why this was one of my favourite games ever thanks to some of the shit that was going on in my personal life like it being my final year of High School when I first played it and my mother breaking up with her boyfriend forcing us to move and even without the context of how much this series means to me as a whole, the way I talked about Pirates Curse in this post should have been the first indicator I wasn’t meaning ANY of what I was saying. Seriously, read this whole section I wrote on Pirates Curse. Does this sound like something I’d write and mean?

Everything Wrong With BellmoTheGreat Vol 2

Speaking of obvious April Fools day jokes… kinda. Okay to be technical for a second this post itself wasn’t an April Fools day joke but rather it WAS a sequel to something I made as an April Fools day joke. I’ve mentioned this in the past but one of my favourite channels back in the mid 2010’s was Cinema Sins as well a lot of the channels that followed their style because I genuinely found those videos funny. I don’t anymore! And for good reason two! Even with that said, there was one video of Cinema Sins I actually loved the most from them, there Everything Wrong With video on… THEMSELVES! On June 8th 2013 they made a video poking fun at themselves and it was genuinely a pretty funny video to me. (Well except for the “the books don’t matter” part at least.) It was a self-deprecating video poking fun at themselves and honestly, having a laugh towards yourself is kind of fun at times. And then they made a sequel in 2019 which was a passive aggressive response to all the criticism they had gained over the years and wasn’t as funny.

So, for April Fools in 2021 I decided to do a similar sort of journal but on myself poking fun at myself. And then in late 2023, out of boredom I decided “You know what? It could be fun to do another one like that just for the hell of it.” So I did. And despite it not being an April Fools day joke this time around it was still pretty obvious I was making this for the sake of harmlessly poking fun at myself.

It was not obvious to this guy though.

Yeah, other than him not getting this journal was sarcasm I really don’t know how I’m even meant to interpret this one because the grammar is all over the place. No full stops and The Only Words That Are Capitalized Don’t Even Need To Be Capitalized In The First Place. There’s not understanding an obvious joke, and then there’s this. Like, how do you even react to this one?

Seriously, what did I do wrong with this one? Did I NOT make it obvious enough that this was a joke? Was it two on the nose? I will admit, looking back, some of the stuff I wrote poking fun at myself might of been a bit on the nose but this was never really meant to be a serious thing anyway.

Again, this was just something I decided to do one day out of boredom and something I did out of fun. Kinda like this whole journal actually lol. Of course it was going to be goofy and silly! It’s kind of a shame I literally have to spell this out for some people.

Hitler Reacts to the Fallout 4 Trailer

So I wanted to end this one on a bit of an ancient joke of mine. I’ve been wanting to talk about this part of my life for a long time now so here it is. There was a point in time where I use to make Hitler Rants parodies. I found other videos people did of this kind of thing funny and wanted to try my hand at my own. And for a majority of 2015 I did just that alongside doing stuff with my Pony OC’s using pre made bases. They were honestly really fun and I had a blast doing them. Granted a lot of my stuff wouldn’t get a WHOLE lot of views especially considering I was working with Windows Movie Maker (and still am for some of my memes) but occasionally I would get a few things that surpassed 1000 views. However, there was one video in particular of mine that really took off and surprised even me with how much attention it got. My video of Hitler Reacting to the Fallout 4 trailer.

For context, the trailer had JUST come out around this time so hype for Fallout 4 was at its peak. And well, I happened to have a friend who really liked the Fallout franchise. And when I told him I was working on a video of Hitler and the gang reacting to the trailer, he was more than willing to help. He wrote some of the dialogue, we got to work putting it together and soon I uploaded to Youtube for 27,000+ people to watch. And it did quite well to my surprise. I mean it’s not my most viewed video on my channel anymore, that honour goes to my video of the French dub of the Hazbin Hotel Pilot but only when Alastor speaks which not only has 642k views at the time of me writing this but I somehow STILL get comments on even 3 years latter but I was still pleasantly surprised with the attention my Fallout 4 Trailer video got.

What also came to my surprise was some of the comments I got on this video...

Yeah, despite the fact that this was a parody video and was a style of parody video that had been around for quite a long time now, I got quite a few comments of people not understanding that it was a joke. It was mainly because of this part of the video here which was one of the things my friend helped write.

And I’m gonna be honest, up to this point I’ve been treating most of the comments I’ve gotten on the previous jokes in a joking manner but this one? … Okay well I still am but forgive me for getting serious here and vent for a moment because I have A LOT to say relating to this.

1; I, as in me the person writing this, NEVER said that I think Fallout 3 had a better plot than New Vegas. That was the characters in the video saying that. Yes, what some characters can say in any work of fiction, parody or otherwise, CAN be influenced by the creators’ personal views but not EVERY bit of art is like that. Some people just want to create something for the hell of it and this was one of them. I wanted to create this just because I wanted to and it does NOT represent my actual thoughts on the Fallout series. I mean, are we really going to pretend like there is some super deep reason as to why 2B in NieR Automata looks the way she does when Yoko Taro has already stated the reason for her design is because he said “I just like drawing girls?” This is what bothers me about media criticism nowadays. You can’t just accept that something it being made the way it is because the creator thought it’d be fun or cool. You have to look deep into that thing and come up with a bunch of conspiracy theories about it. And for the record, I love New Vegas! I really do!

2; Did I mention yet that that line wasn’t even written by me and was written by my friend who was a much bigger Fallout fan than me at the time? Because this line was written by my friend yet most of these comments were directed at me personally. I even say I had help making this video in the description and when you have multiple people working on the same project often with different ideas it can show.

3; Even if I didn’t love New Vegas as much as I do now and I really did prefer 3 or even 4 over it, would that really matter? No seriously, would it? I’ll give you a hint. No. No it would not! In fact, there are plenty of reasons why someone might prefer 3 or 4 over New Vegas. 3’s story feels a lot more personal since it’s about finding your dad, they might prefer the more run down and end of days atmosphere of 3 over the Wild West inspired one of New Vegas, they might prefer the companions you can get in 3 over the ones in New Vegas, maybe they just like the side quests more, maybe they might like how you can actually customize the theme of your player home, the weapons, the characters, the fact that you can continue playing the game even after the final main story mission. Yeah, you need the Broken Steel DLC to even do that but considering the Game of the Year edition of Fallout 3 is super cheep online nowadays anyway and comes with all of the DLC pre-installed unless you are seeking out the base game release without the DLC almost everyone’s gonna have that. And that would be okay if those reasons are why one prefers 3, because we all have a little thing you might of heard of called opinions and personal taste!

This is something I hate about fandom. Not just the Fallout fandom in particular but EVERY fandom and community on the internet. Your always expected to think like a hive mind and the moment you have any sort of different opinion or open up about enjoying something that’s not as well loved you get made fun off or told by people in extensive detail about how the thing your enjoying is “objectively” bad and never let you just enjoy what you enjoy or try to gatekeep people or say that your “not a real fan.” And it’s annoying. Like actually, really annoying! Oh what’s that? Someone is enjoying a game/movie/episode you don’t personally like? And they have their own perfectly valid reasons for liking it even though you don’t like it yourself? Who gives a shit? They like it, you don’t! You’re a grown adult! Get over it! Let people enjoy things. It’s embarrassing you have to act like this.

I fucking hate the internet sometimes if you couldn’t tell.

There are probably more examples of times people have taken my jokes seriously, I’ve been fucking around for years at this point on sites like this, but I just wanted to talk about some of the ones that live rent free in my mind because hot dam do I love poking fun at people who get angry over nothing. I just can’t wait to see what joke of mine people decided to take two seriously next. Or maybe those kinds of people will stumble upon this and realize that most of what I say can be a joke sometimes. God, one can only hope!

[thatlittledandere]

1, 2, 3, 13, 14, 21, 24, 37, 38 and 39 for those writer questions. (Sorry for being so many at once I'm just curious)

fic writer’s meme

1, 2 and 3 already answered!

13.  What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

You don’t need to write scenes chronologically! Changed my life.

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Those lists of words to use instead of “said” FUCK that. Also my high school Finnish teacher pissed me off, like, in general. And we didn’t even really WRITE fiction.

21. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

...Do I revise? *checks the definition of the word* Yeah it’s possible I don’t exactly “revise” after a fic is complete. Of course every time I open it to edit it or continue I go through what I already have and make alterations, but if all of that counted for this, it would be like asking “how many sessions does it take to write a fic” which is impossible to answer as it can range from one to dozens, even with oneshots. After I finish the last scene I post it and return to it, like, two days later to fix the typos lol

24. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?

Nope.

37. Talk about your current wips.

Uuuuh I have WAY TOO MANY unfinished ones to mention and I’m not even sure which ones I’ve abandoned for good and which ones I’ll finish one day... But I started and two fics for Souyo week and I’m still PRETTY determined to finish them! 

One was... more of a vague idea than an actual plot, which is why I stagnated. But it’s my personal headcanon that while the seeds for Yosuke’s attraction to Yu were sown while rescuing Yukiko, Kanji’s dungeon is where Yosuke first started to... start to be somewhat almost aware of it. Like that’s where he had the first butterflies and/or the “wait a second” double take that he adamantly refused to acknowledge. And yeah that was supposed to be the fic for the Fog prompt because, uuh, steam is almost like fog, right? Yes I know what words mean

The second one was for the Stormy prompt. I made the storm more of a mood than a weather condition because I’m pretentious like that, and it was an argument fic. But then it spiraled out of control when more and more narrators kept forcing their way in and I got a case of bad conscience bc the reason for their argument was Yosuke’s internalized homophobia that he still wasn’t completely over and idk suddenly I started feeling guilty for exploring it constantly;; Like I haven’t even WRITTEN anything with that trope/headcanon yet but it’s always on my mind and it kinda feels like it’s all I can think or write about and like I’m somehow making light of other people’s trauma and yeah I’ll stop typing now

*clears throat* ANYWAY! I may or may not finish these one day.

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

I feel awkward naming names sdsfsdgf but this one time I felt a fic came out really forced and then one of my favorite authors commented that it “flowed naturally” and I was so happy I showed it to my mom lol. And my April Fools mistake got a really long comment picking apart scenes and lines I had already forgotten writing by that point (next day, but I wrote it in a real frenzy). Oh and someone commented on one of my stupid joke fics that “the plot is actually really good” and yea... I think about it a lot.

39. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

Luckily I haven’t gotten any!

[welcometomy20s]

April 9, 2022

#48 - Matryoshka (Hachi) [Hatsune Miku, GUMI]

Achievement Date: 10-09-21, Upload Date: 10-08-19

If the previous Hachi song made him notable, this made him arguably one of the more important stars in VOCALOID history. It’s easy to see this song as something lewd, the song does feel like a morning after song, but doing this series makes me think back to World’s End Dancehall. Perhaps this is Hachi’s version of a wowaka song. The heaviness of the rock complements the unsteady and cynical lyrics… Hachi’s madness is much darker and cynical, but perhaps more hopeful, than the dizziness of wowaka. Another Mythical song in this list, you can see that we’re in the golden age.

#49 - Yowamushi Montblanc (DECO*27) [GUMI]

Achievement Date: 10-09-23, Upload Date: 10-04-15

DECO*2 7’s first GUMI song, although DECO*27 is more known for his insistence of Miku, his GUMI song is what gave him prominence, although he had success for two years before. This is a slower song, and kind of a song that is unlike any other in DECO*27’s catalog, at least to me. Perhaps it’s due to the soft tuning and the repeating structure of the chords, which is more rare in DECO*27 songs. There is a minor interpretation, refuted by DECO*27 himself, that this song alludes to abortion, and although I think people interpret too many songs to be about abortion, this song does fit very well to the situation. Perhaps songs about romantic regret do lend nicely to that interpretation, although Mozaik Role and its remake betray this.

#50 - The Rampage of Kagamine Len (cosMo) [Len, Miku, Rin]

Achievement Date: 10-11-01, Upload Date: 08-09-29

While songs like Disappearance rightly showcase the musical brilliance of cosMo, I think it’s songs like this that truly shows why he is called Rampage-P. If you want to understand how Len is seen by the VOCALOID community, just listen to this song. cosMo perfectly captures all the inane things that Len is saddled with, while continuing to showcase the same musical talents in his more appropriate songs.

#51 - Iroha Uta (Ginsaku) [Kagamine Rin]

Achievement Date: 10-11-12, Upload Date: 09-02-11

Iroha Uta is a famous pangram that is sometimes used as a substitute as an alphabet order for the Japanese script. Of course as a pangram, it has a meaning, and Ginsaku has re-interpreted the Iroha Uta as a… masochistic plea and expanded the thought. The song is a nice blend of Japanese traditional sound and electronic rock, which is what I think makes Japanese music sound unique… There is a well-regarded cover of a song which actually garnered the attention of AH software to the point that he (an FtM, by the way) was asked to be the voice of Nekomura… Iroha. So this song indirectly gave birth to a VOCALOID. Yes, there is an Iroha song on here, and the previous phrase is a hint. 

#U-1 - Ochame Kinou (GojimajiP) [Kasane Teto]

Achievement Date: 10-11-24, Upload Date: 10-04-01

The first UTAU song on this list. Yes, the list contains all vocal software songs, as I said during the intro. There’s not a lot, so it won’t be much, and besides almost all UTAU legends are important to the narrative anyway, and this isn’t an exception. Written by GojimajiP to celebrate Teto’s birthday, April Fools by the way since it was first released as a joke character. The song showcases the inherent goofiness of the character, which is why she is my favorite VOCALOID, and also just the fact that she is very versatile and performs very well in many different kinds of songs, which you will notice as we go through the list. But of course, this is not really the reason this song is on here.

LamazeP used this song as a meme, and eventually there were other 2nd PV creations mostly involving people shaking her head back and forth to the song. This is what caused the song to enter into this list. Funny thing is… LamazeP is just the ‘main’ account for GojimajiP. (LamazeP makes VOCALOID songs, while GojimajiP makes UTAU songs, basically) Which means the writer memed their own songs and it actually worked… this, in the end, showcases the sheer power of LamazeP as a memester.

#52 - Our 16bit War (sasakure.uk) [GUMI]

Achievement Date: 10-11-28, Upload Date: 09-07-12

Very much a departure for sasakure, bit more of a futuristic rock piece, and also being his first GUMI song. The song details the wars that caused Hatsune Miku to wake in a barren wasteland in *Hello, Planet., and it nicely transitions in our next song on this list. Although it is a departure, it is still a good song and shows how talented sasakure is in just general composition, which is further evidenced when listening his ProSeca songs. 

#53 - Wander Last (sasakure.uk) [Megurine Luka]

Achievement Date: 10-12-09, Upload Date: 09-02-02

Apparently this is Wonky House? Feels a bit more trance to me, but I can hear the ‘house’ aspect in the background. The tuning is very different and I want to hear more of it, but I don’t think sasakure ever wrote another Luka song. The ending, as Luka sings the refrain to welcome her death, it almost turns into a kind of a ryo style, which is an odd and pleasing turn, and with the context, almost feels maddening. I like it.

#54 - from Y to Y (JimmysumP) [Hatsune Miku]

Achievement Date: 10-12-19, Upload Date: 09-03-24

Probably still one of the most famous songs by JimmySum-P, and the start of a trilogy of songs about breaking up, roughly. During the first verse, you might wonder why people praise this song so much, but when that chorus hits, you know why. I think JimmySum-P really presents a bit of a synthesis to the harshness of people like wowaka and warmness of people like kz, and in the end creates something that is astounding. And when the second chorus hits even harder… At this point, you are just blown away and you don’t even register the melancholic lyrics. 

#55 - Convenience Store (cokesi) [Hatsune Miku]

Achievement Date: 10-12-25, Upload Date: 07-12-30

It’s one of those electronic songs about young love that you usually hear in those rhythm games… which I really love, like DJ Max Respect songs? Those are freaking amazing, and so I like this. Perhaps the producer could have balanced the voice a bit, but overall I approve. Also listen to the halyosy version, which re-interprets the song with kind of a 90’s cheesy ballad, which honestly works just as well.

[featherlinnea]

Nother Update

Lol always writing these when I am not home.

So last update wasn't to long ago. But eh I like writing.

First things first: Like I said I am in my first semester of my Bachelor of Science so a large chunk of my time involves studying. Despite that there is still plenty of time to do work on other stuff!

Second: Journey of a Wott will be back next month! Once chapter two is done I may rework the design. I will at the earliest upload a page on the 3rd(Don't want to upload on April fools, + time zones) but at the latest between 3rd and 15th of April. Pages will not follow a strict upload schedule, there will be one every other week.

Third: My own projects, there are plenty from fanfiction, videos to animations etc. For now I am easing into things, I afterall get overwhelmed quickly. My shiny hunting channel is my way to ease into it, learning some things along the way.

Some projects that I am working on seperately are:

-> Fanfiction(Unlucky is the stranger) which I'll only upload when the first version gets its rewrite lol. Currently taking a break in favour of school and making a proper plot and worldbuilding. I write for hours so I can only work on this on days I know I have no obligations. (I lost track of everything around me last time, so I am a bit scared of losing track again, therefore I am more cautious on how and when I'll work on it)

-> 2.)Plushies! Working on the Finneon plushies, I was a bit discouraged since I said I would work on the next ones of Batch 1, but from the get go I wanted to finish the next 3 Finneon plushies first. So that is what I am going to do! Due to colour variations it will be 4 in the end. After the next one(number 2) I intend to redraw the pattern entirely, just had a few issues, but also want to make a pattern that everyone can freely use. I work on the plush whenever I feel like it or need a break from other stuff.

-> Youtube, generally I'd love to do all my projects at once, but I know how badly I'd fail if I did that. So the shiny hunt channel is up. Like I mentioned it is like a test run and to ease more into work, editing etc. It also serves as my archive for my catches. I use a tumblr blog for archiving my shiny hunts as well. My plan is to animate my intros/outros for all of my planned channels, even if I won't do anything with the channels until I am certain that I won't be overwhelmed. I do plan to do an animation, gaming and commentary/story telling channel, but that would be too much on me right now. But that said Main channel would consist of stories/commentary of stuff that interest me and shorts similar to the comic I mention later. The animation channel would be Map parts, practices, animated songs and animation memes. Then there is also the gaming channel, which I thought about doing silent playthrough and stream re-uploads(my twitch streams). But that is all dreaming big and for now unrealistic to approach.(Unlike the Shiny channel obviously none of the channels would have daily uploads lol)

->Comics, like mentioned JoaW will come back soon. Even if I did not practice as much as I would have liked, I feel a lot more confident about my art! My backgrounds still suck though lol. Anyway I do plan to do a comic series of my own, but more of one-shots, like these 4 panel comics. Which is what I want to use my 6 legged characters for. But! I'm not ready to do that yet lol. I still have to design 6, maybe even more characters since geez I have plenty of different hobbies and fields and they represent a field each. Relateable comics/or simple jokes. That way I get to draw them and make some comics afterall. All my other comic projects which I surely mentioned before are cancelled or better said on hold until I actually manage to work on them. Just don't expect anything but JoaW(Kilian bless your patience with me, really) and that new comic.(that said no idea when I do that comic series, I'll take my time with JoaW and ease back into a healthy workschedule and mindset first)

->On the otherhand when I do have the time I'll go ahead and study/learn to make my own music as well as 3D modelling. In general I want my own music to use and make my own remixes and so forth, just always interested, but never took the time to properly study. 3D Modelling is too aid me in plush making as well.

-> I pushed back my plans in Game development and book writing. Fanfictions themselves right now are for preparing me for writing books in the next couple of years. That and I don't want to publish anything under my current name. I want to transition first, specifically change my name first. I just hate the thought about publishing anything under my deadname, bad enough that I am a closet case everywhere but online and my closest family. I am currently slowly easing i to a proper work/healthy schedule and work load. Which consists of 3 things lol, School, Shiny channel, soon comic again. That and boosting my self esteem. Since at the moment social anxiety is pretty unmanageable. (the point of need a therapist but like I have too much anxiety to go/find one) So... slowly I'm building up my confidence to find a therapist for that (I obviously need one after all). Granted I am no where near as bad as like 1-2 years ago, but dang. I'm adult, can't always asked family to help me out. Not that they(some) take this struggle seriously. :/ But that is just me venting. I found some ways to cope which improved lots for me as well as giving myself talks to boost my confidence/self esteem. Just need to remind myself of a specific goal of myself really, and viola I am motivated again hehe. That and the reminder that I stress myself over nothing all the time. Ah but I rambled enough.

Tldr: JoaW is coming back in April, I have a shiny hunt channel to ease into (youtube)work, and I am doing my bachelor meaning spent lots of time studying. I have lots of stuff planned, but until I can manage it won't even be started.

[flowerpotphil]

Not-So-Chocolate Bunnies

@easterphandomgifts @tatitnof

Summary: It's Easter, who doesn't love a bit of chocolate? Only there's a bit of a mix up with what turns up at the apartment.

Easter, birthdays, Christmas, they're all such good ways to indulge in a little extra chocolate. In reality it's a whole lot of chocolate, but that's just a given anyway. Phil had been caught sick with a cold a week before, and it really knocked him back a lot. He was dizzy when he moved, lethargic, and he just wanted to sleep. Dan had gone out and brought all his Easter presents for people, he'd gotten some for Phil to give out too, but Phil had to get Dan's still and he had no idea how long he'd be stuck in bed.

It was around midnight when he got the idea to order it online instead, and see if he could get the chocolate delivered on the day itself. He patted himself on the back for that idea, it was one of his best. Unfortunately, his snuffed up brain couldn't remember the word 'chocolate', so he typed in 'bunny that is brown' and searched it. Too tired to read the description of the page, Phil clicked the first link and went through it without thinking, putting his card details in and ordering the chocolate bunny, or what he thought was a chocolate bunny.

Over the week, Phil started getting better. He'd watch movies with Dan and even got the energy to record a gaming video, but he did fall asleep where he was sat until midnight, leaving Dan to edit the video. What Phil didn't know was that Dan planned on doing a liveshow, and while talking about the next gaming video, he decided to show Phil live, to thousands of people, asleep. And  decided to flip him off. So that really was great, there was a new meme to add to the already endless pile.

Easter came quick enough, it fell on April Fools day that particular year, and they'd already formulated their plans to prank their fans - a livestream of pigeons. Of course, it was Phil's genius that came up with it.

"Who do you think will watch it? I bet no one with stay for the full 5 hours." Dan grinned, cuddling into Phil and away from the cold. It was going to be a dreary day anyway, and he was leaving for Reading at about 3 so he wanted to get his fill before being split up for a few days. Not that they wouldn't constantly text; they were as lovestruck as teenagers and that passion hadn't ceased since day one.

"There's a few that will, I'm guessing 1 out of 100 will stay for it." Phil sighed, "I'm sorry I couldn't get you an easter egg." He ran his hand up and down Dan's arm when he felt him shiver. "You've been sick, you don't need to apologise to me you dumbass." He wiggled out of Phil's arms and rolled to face him. "You're enough of a gift for me."

Phil had to admit, Dan looked cute with his little scrunched up nose at the soppy thing he just said, but it didn't stop his reply, "You've still got to pay the rent, you stalker." It was a running joke, and it wasn't a secret than Dan literally hadn't left Phil's side for more than a week, and that was only when it was dire.

"I'll move out then. Bye!" Dan stuck his tongue out slightly, then practically bounced out of the bed. Feet patting along the carpet as he half-ran through their apartment. "Dan you're scared of the dark, how are you even going to survive on your own?" But he could already hear the clatter of porcelain bowls on their marble counters. He counted 2 clatters, so he took it as Dan was bringing him his breakfast. It was too cold to get up anyway.

It was so cosy in the bed that Phil started to drop back off to sleep, eyes shutting as he burrowed into the pillow. Then there was a smash and a scream. A lot of screaming. And curse words. "Fuck you, stupid moth, fuck you, get out!" He was yelling, the entire of London would know there was a moth at this point. Phil groaned and got up, putting his glasses on and blinking as he sight was suddenly so much clearer. His socks were warm, so at least he didn't have cold feet like Dan.

"What's going on?" He asked, walking into the kitchen to find Dan curled in the corner. "Get it away from me." There was a moth on the counter, it was probably in shock at a giant yelling at it. There was a smashed glass on the floor by the oven, probably from when he saw the bug in the first place. "It's just a tiny moth, what's so bad?" Phil cooed, laughing as Dan glared at him. He took a glass from the draining board and put it over the moth, leaving it to flap around until it calmed down. "It's sorted. You okay?" Phil reached to pull Dan to his feet, being careful of the glass. "I'm okay, it just surprised me when it flew in front of me and I freaked. "And that's fair enough. But now I'm hungry."

Dan got breakfast ready while Phil cleaned up the mess and threw the moth out of the window, it was quite an effective system really. They went to the lounge, put Riverdale on, and ate as usual. Phil kept an eye on the clock, he was expecting the doorbell to ring at 10 and the chocolate to be delivered.

He hovered around the door until the doorbell went, it was blatantly obvious to Dan that he was waiting for something. "I'll get it!" Phil nearly squealed, like a preschooler at an ice cream van, and made more noise than a horse as he ran down the stairs.

He opened the door, and a lady stood there with a cardboard carry box with holes in it. "You wanted a bunny?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Phil didn't really get why, from what he could see it was pretty cute that they'd made it look like an actual animal was being transported in the box. "Yes, thanks!" Phil took the box carefully, he didn't want to break it. She smiled and walked away, tossing her hair over her shoulder and she did.

"Daniel! Delivery!" He giggled giving the box to Dan. "God Phil it's heavy, have you literally order me a house? Are you trying to get rid of me?" Dan looked in mock horror as Phil laughed, tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth slightly. He was still laughing when Dan let out a confused 'huh' and looked over at Phil. "Phil, come here." He raised an eyebrow and it was a little concerning.

When Phil looked in the box he was taken aback. A brown rabbit with black eyes stared back at him. "When did you order this?" Dan asked, reaching in to get the rabbit out. "In the week?" Dan looked up at Phil and pulled a face, he must've thought it was a chocolate rabbit, not a chocolate coloured one that was actually alive. "I'm such and idiot..." Phil hid his face in his hands and huffed.

"You aren't, anyway, I like her!" Dan was smiling at the little rabbit that was cuddled in his lap. "You do?"

"Yes! She's such a darling. I feel like this is better than a chocolate one, we can keep her and love her and it'll be the sweetest thing!" Phil loved seeing Dan get worked up over cute things, he really loved it more than anyone could imagine. "She needs a name though." Dan put his hand on her to try and settle her a little. "Anna?"

"Annabelle? It seems a little more eloquent?" Phil suggested, reaching down to stroke her fur, she was really soft and he fell for her quicker than he'd ever imagine. "Annabelle, it suits her."

They sat on the couch cooing over her, stroking her fur and playing about with her ears, Dan completely forgot that he was waiting to do something special for Phil - something he'd never, ever forget - the bunny was too much of a distraction.

After about an hour, Phil looked at the clock and muttered something about going to get the stream set up. It was midday so he'd probably get some food on the way back. He did. He got some left over pizza ready for the stream to start at 1, they munched on it and then, taking Annabelle with them, went to their room to pack Dan's bag.

Although it was more of Phil lying on the bed playing with her than it was helping Dan pack.

"You need to coordinate your outfits." Phil commented when he saw Dan just throwing any old thing into the bag. "Why? It's just my family who'll see me and then I'll come straight home." He dropped the shirt he was holding onto the floor and looked over at Phil. "You pack for me then." Here was a cheeky smile on his face, he just wanted to play with their new pet. "Fine."

Dan squealed at that and stumbled over to the bed while Phil got up and dumped the clothes onto the floor. "You're cleaning that up." He pointed at the clothes, but Dan didn't even react to it, he just continued talking in his baby voice to Annabelle. Perfect.

Nearly an hour passed and they started the stream, watching it on Dan's phone cuddled up on the couch until it was time for him to go. They did feed the birds on the hour, but there wasn't really anything exciting going on.

That was until Dan realised he hadn't given Phil his big surprise yet. And he was due to leave in 5 minutes.

Without waiting a second, Dan ran upstairs to their room and started rummaging through the boxes he'd stacked in the corner. "Come on, come on." He groaned to himself, trying to find the box he'd hidden from Phil. Phil was always the type of person to go looking for his surprise, so it was hidden well. "Aha! Here we are!" Dan punched the air in triumph and grabbed hold of a black box.

Phil was obviously a little tense about Dan's timing, ever since he drunkenly blinded his eye temporarily it had become even more of an issue. He couldn't call out because of the stream, or text Dan.

When he appeared, he walked over and muted the video, then watched as people commented frantically about them muting it. Dan chucked and put his hands on Phil to turn him around. "Close your eyes and look when I say." He instructed, then there was some shuffling. "You can-" Dan didn't even finish the sentence before Phil had turned and was looking at him. "So, Mr Lester." Dan was smirking as he saw the slap of shock on Phil's face. He didn't reply, but Phil was shaking slightly at the sudden load of emotions. "Will you marry me?"

"Is this a joke? Because it really isn't funny if it is..." Phil stuttered, but then Dan got out the little black velvet box. "I promise you this isn't a joke."

That was it, that was enough to make the tears spill faster than ever.

A brief pause ensued. "Of course I'll marry you!" Phil had to wipe his glasses down, giving Dan enough time to get up and wrap his arms around him. "I think it's time I need to leave, I'll see you soon Mr Lester." Dan grinned and kissed his nose, then unmuted the stream.

And no one had any idea.

[notdeadjusttrash-blog]

My Friend has been Falsely Accused of Tracing So I Will Defend Him

Okay I accidentally deleted the blog I posted this one because I’m a dumbass, so I’ll just repost it here even though I don’t use this blog anymore, but apparently I still have followers. Bless caches because I was able to get this back from google caches so I don’t have to retype everything. I added further evidence and refutes to claims that were not in my original post btw.

Anyways, I am making this post to help out my good friend @5ru9 aka Falco who has been recently accused of tracing/copy pasting other people’s / official art!

I’ve known Falco for over 3 years, and we’ve grown as artists together. Once in a while we give each other advice on art (thanks for the mech and armor advice and teaching me how you line and color!), but most of the time we just meme each other.

Anyways, a lot of people have pointed out that they’ve seen him livestream before, and he’s already posted some of his block outs and other wips as proof that he does not trace in his post here:

http://5ru9.tumblr.com/post/168277137427/hello-i-have-been-informed-about-a-callout-post

To further prove his claim with solid evidence, I shall present to you!

Times he’s asked for advice on his art, or I randomly decided to mention things I notice in his WIPs!

Exhibit A-1:

A Tenkai Knight he made up! I pointed out a few things I thought were awkward about the perspective in his WIP.

Exhibit A-2:

He started working on this way back in July and didn’t finish it until much later because he was working on several other pieces at the same time. I suggested lowering the eyebrows and drawing the eyes a bit narrower to get more of the playful expression he was aiming for. In his final piece here, you can see that Falco continued to refine the piece.

By the way! The reason he sometimes posts a lot of detailed artworks one shortly after the other is because he sometimes works on multiple pieces at once! And then finishes coloring them around the same time.

Exhibit A-3

Falco and I spent good time trying to figure out why he felt like something was wrong with his sketch! I thought maybe it was the trapezius and I decided to red line (or blue line i guess) it so it’d be easier for him to see approximately where i thought the line should go to fix it.

Exhibit A-4:

The gif-ing process turned white bg into blue… anyways! Falco showed me an early version of his Tenkai Knights OC that he eventually used in an April Fool’s joke to pass off as a new character in the series. He mastered the tenkai style enough that at first glance, people really did believe it was official! Like you had to get a good look to realize Shiyu was not really a real new character! Btw I had to go into my old twitter acc to find this…. (Edit: the gif wasn’t working bc it was too big so i had to make it smaller… and choppier and stuff to fit the mb max)

Well now that brings us into!!!

Exhibit B

Some of his old art!! (I’m so sorry falco i’ll be exposing your ancient art to ppl now)

Here you can see his progress from 2014 Tenkai fan art to early 2015! It starts looking more and more like the official art, which is what he was going for.

For reference, here’s what the character Ceylan Jones/Washizaki looks like:

I blocked out fan art by everyone except falco (which i marked) that shows up in this google search. Everything else is official art. The two fan arts by falco you see here are more recent, the angel one being from 2016 and the chicken one from 2017 (i think he also made a version with sonic instead of the chicken? lol). They’re both on his dA accounts btw! The 2017 one really looks like official art, doesn’t it? But it’s his artwork! He practiced a LOT to reach that point, and I hope the earlier arts I showed above this one are enough to convince you in his art progression! Side note: i only used images w/ceylan because 1. i’m biased because ceylan is my favorite character and 2. he drew ceylan a lot because ceylan is his favorite character Also you can see his handle change from s3iwashi to burningbraven. 5ru9 is is a pretty recent handle.

ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN IN THE TENKAI FANDOM FOR A WHILE CAN VOUCH FOR HIM!!!!!

And now for the last one,

Exhibit C

WHAT? WHO IS THIS???

This is my favorite character from a Chinese series called AOTU World! His name is Grey, or 格瑞。I commissioned Falco to draw Grey for me, and let me tell you it would be IMPOSSIBLE for him to have copied any of this. Why? Because the donghua is 3D and the manhua’s art is very inconsistent!

Let me show you the reference pictures I gave him to work with!

They’re all in my gdrive folder here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CqwH5KS-pHX0ZqLHQpoIZBi6W-gsU_Tz

This is all official art from the manhua, except the 3D model is from the donghua. Look at how inconsistent the references are! There’s no way he could have copy and pasted or traced this! Grey doesn’t even do this particular pose anywhere. lol. I told Falco “give him a cool sword pose”. (I’m sorry for being so vague, Falco! But it turned out great!!) The style he ended up drawing in was a mixture of all of them.

Btw!! here’s the blockout and the sketch he sent me before I sent my payment for the commission!! You can see his construction in the block out!! The arm construction and leg construction is light, but it’s there. You can also see the block out below the sketch. Notice he actually fixed the leg length from block out -> sketch?

ARGUMENTS AGAINST SPECIFIC ACCUSATIONS

LOOK, thte actual drawing doesn’t even match the sprites that closely. Pay attention to the collar especially. The whole frankensteining the image and then painting over it thing is just way more effort than drawing it himself. They don’t even match that well in the overlays. Like wow it’s such a crime to try and stay on model.

WHO WOULD EVEN NEED TO TRACE A MOUTH LIKE THAT? IT’S SO EASY TO DRAW. I CAN DRAW IT PERFECTLY JUST BY LOOKING AT IT. (well i AM an animator so I also do style mimicking)

Doesn’t the fact that you have to edit the sprites to match his artwork prove that you’re just a tryhard in making up fake evidence and not a tryhard enough at art since you think it’s so impossible for people to draw characters on model?

Yes he referenced the broom and possibly the heels from this image, but your overlays for the leg and arms are disingenuous and you know it. The leg positions are different, and the overlay doesn’t even match up. Face tracing also makes no sense. You literally stretched the mouth to try and make it fit but it still doesn’t fit. Do you really think it’s that hard to draw mouths and eyes in the DR style? DR faces are really simple to emulate. Also you fool, if you follow Falco’s artwork enough, you’d realize the way he draws bodies is actually rather consistent even as he does different styles. Especially when it comes to hands. His way of drawing hands is how I recognize his art and know right away it’s his art and not official art or a trace (also his coloring style). The heels he drew are also reminiscient of how he typically draws shoes/feet. he draws them bulkier. The other art has dainty heels. At most he referenced how backside works because he’s used to drawing sneakers.

Also come on, if all you referenced from an image was a broom because you liked the style (his is also clearly drawn by himself since you can’t overlay it on the other one. like i said he mostly used the style as a reference for how-to-broom) and you referenced pieces from many other images, are you going to list every single thing you referenced? While yeah it’d be nice to, it’s a little ridiculous to expect all 5-20 references whenever they post the image. It’s a thing where, if someone asks, you’d tell them, but it’s too much to list all of it. This isn’t a 20 page thesis.

If it’s such a crime, then holy shit sue all those people who parody other people’s comics and sue everyone who dares!!! to ever draw something remotely similar to someone else. Dang.

Art doesn’t live in a vacuum.

Okay, this one is just plain stupid. You distorted the sprite to match it up with his, but what would be the point for him to distort it just to trace? Also if he traced, can you explain the rest of the fingers that are drawn nicely but clearly different from the sprite? Also the thumbs don’t even match up. His faces more downward while the sprite is facing more forward. Also explain the turned body in Falco’s sketch, then!! And the hair! OH WAIT YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN IT BY ANY OTHER WAY THAN HE DREW IT HIMSELF!!! BECAUSE NO SPRITES MATCH IT AND YOU CAN’T FIND ANY SPRITES TO DISTORT ENOUGH TO EVEN GET CLOSE TO MAKING FAKE EVIDENCE FOR IT.

By the way, the style he drew it in is closer to the drv3 than this sprite. while it’s pretty much the same style as the older games, drv3′s art is more refined than the older games. Falco’s art is also more refined as you can see. (wow not only did falco’s art improved from back when we first met; even professional artists improve. shocker. /s)

Dude what the hell? The overlays don’t even match up even ifi you tried to frankenstein them. And these are really common poses at really common angles, and once again, must every single thing we reference from be listed in the description of every place we post an image? Let me just list all 30 videos and 50 images i used as reference for one of my prints. jfc.

As for the saihara animation based on the digimon opening animation? It was pretty clear to everyone that it’s some kind of parody. Many people when making parody animations don’t mention the original video either?? It’s a fun thing for fans of the franchise to recognize the reference themselves. Yes he could have said it was the digimon opening on the description, but at least he didn’t say he thought of the idea himself? And if you talk to him about the animation, he will openly tell you it’s from digimon. And the fact that you think it’s a trace despite how much the overlays do NOT work out is practically proof that you’re just doing this maliciously and hoping that saying he traces enough with shoddy evidence will make people believe you.

ALSO PEOPLE LITERALLY TRACE ANIMATIONS TO MAKE PARODIES OF, DOWN THE STYLE WHERE ALL THEY CHANGE IS THE HAIR AND OUTFIT, AND YET SOMETHING WITH DIFFERENCES EVEN DOWN TO THE STYLE LIKE THIS IS SOMETHING YOU THINK IS A TRACE? Do you need a new pair of glasses?

I was gonna ignore this one because it was the same as a lot of the others, but you literally erased Falco’s face line so it would match the sprite, and you covered the bigger boobs Falco gave her, and totally ignored that the angle doesn’t even match properly. Like you covered parts of his sketch in your overlay just to make it look more like it matches, but if you actually fucking overlayed it correctly, even with squashing it, it won’t fit. (Also sorry to point this out Falco, but the circles on your goggle lenses are too small compared to the sprite; Maybe if you actually traced like this person claims you’re doing, they’d be perfectly like the sprite. OH BUT WAIT YOU DREW IT YOURSELF SO OF COURSE THERE’S SOME DIFFERENCES. JUST LIKE HOW EVEN THOUGH ALL YOUR OTHER WORKS ARE REALLY CLOSE TO THE STYLE AND PRETTY MUCH ON MODEL, THEY’RE NOT EXACTLY THE SAME WITH THE SPRITES! SHOCKER...!)

HOLY FUCK. I already pointed out and gave evidence that Falco started on the Nier Automata drawing waaaaaaay before he posted the actual picture. The 2 sketches are sketches! They don’t take a super long time. I busted out 10 inktobers in 1 day. (thumbnails of my artwork below)

Look I even even lined and colored 5 fairly detailed chibis in 1 day (i did the sketches earlier though. btw i hand drew the plaid on ray. it was annoying)

At the moment I have 5 wips. They’ll likely all be done around the same time. I know Falco often has multiple wips as well, and sometimes he also finishes some of them close to each other. Some artists (like my friend Fish) can pump out extremely detailed paintings in less than a day. WOW some artists can draw at a fairly fast rate. WHO KNEW? (manga artists in weekly magazines pump out 15-20 pages of manga in a week)

He’s still developing a style; he’s mostly doing style mimics of series he likes in the mean time.

At the moment he’s mostly experimenting with the drv3 style, but he was practicing p5 earlier. By the way, he DESIGNED a phantom outfit for mishima. Who the heck would he copy that from? He made it up because he loved mishima and wanted to make him part of the gang in some AU fan art. Mishima doesn’t have artwork like this for him to trace, so it should be obvious it’s his own work.

And the pokemon and crash bandicoot ones are actually not that close. The pokemon one looks like a good attempt at imitating the pokemon style, but since he hasn’t practiced it enough, you can tell it’s a little off model because, well, he drew it himself and doesn’t practice the pokemon style a lot. Same with the crash one. Had it been a trace, with his level of control over his lines (which you can’t refute), it would have been much closer.

And you act like it’s a crime to imitate others’ art style. It’s really not. What is wrong with you? Do you want to slow down animation production by only letting the character designer draw everything? Or do you want animation where the art has 0 semblance of consistency because all the artists draw in vastly different styles? lol. What do you have against artists that try to stay on model?

LOL THIS IS ONE IS SO STUPID WHERE DO I EVEN START?

Oh, I KNOW. Why don’t I do that same pose with my own hands?

IT’S A MIDDLE FINGER, YOU IDIOT.

Just because YOU don’t know basic anatomy and can’t tell a middle finger from a pinky, doesn’t mean everyone else is as incompetent as you. He wasn’t doing the rock-on hand pose (sry idk if that pose actually has a name lol), and he’s drawn the rock-on hand pose properly before.

Closing statement

I believe I covered a lot of things and provided a lot of evidence here that Falco and his other friends did not cover in his defense against the false accusations.

I even added more counter arguments in this repost because apparently my original post wasn’t enough to convince people.

Perhaps the person calling him out meant well (no, I doubt it because they made a new side blog just to diss him because they knew if they did it on their actual blog, they’d be called out for being a jerk), but they did not do enough digging to find out if their claims were true or not (and they probably know well enough that they MADE UP THEIR EVIDENCE).

If you’re going to make a call out post, please make triple sure sure of everything before you accuse people. Talk to them first. Talk to those who know them too.

Many jobs require you to be able to draw characters exactly in the style given. Animators for example! There are multiple animators working on one series, and they all need the skill to draw consistently! Some games also have teams that need to be able to draw in the same style so they don’t have to leave everything up to one person. Comic artists often have assistants that help them draw background characters, but those background characters can’t be too different from the main style either.

As for the people who believed the call out post before, it’s perfectly understandable. I am also guilty of falling for similar posts in the past. Due to that, I decided it was best to double check before retweeting (i say retweet because i use twitter far more than tumblr these days. heck i almost never post anything on this blog) things, and if i wasn’t sure, I would just leave it be.

I hope my post was able to convince you on Falco’s innocence and all his hard work. And if you already believed him but checked out this post anyways… Thanks! ObligatoryPleaseWatchAotuWorld.

And again:

Art does NOT exist in a vacuum. All artists are influenced by each other and MANY artists, especially professionals, use a lot of references, whether it be from photographers, their own pictures, others’ artwork, life, or whatever. We all use many different resources. If you’re going to say that’s wrong, you just dismissed millions of artists in the world.

[deadcactuswalking]

The Beauty of “Doin’ Your Mom” by Ray William Johnson

Love him or hate him, Ray William Johnson is a pioneer of new media. He was one of the most famous YouTubers back in the day in what was about the late 2000s and early 2010s, and was really the first dude to make a true, long-term career on the platform, forming a company just to fund his Equals Three show, which, yes, it’s somewhat unwatchable but it’s vintage YouTube so I give most of it an excuse and play it off as dated comedy from someone who was actually old enough to know better, but it was a different time and I’m actually consistently impressed by Ray and how he continues to pop up everywhere as nostalgia for the early days of YouTube starts to seep into this post-ironic era of Internet culture, as people remember the remnants of the more sincere YouTube, with people like Quinton Reviews, TheGamerFromMars and wavywebsurf making informative videos about the classic YouTube and its viral videos that propel someone into stardom for at least about 15 minutes. Now we’re in the age of a company-fuelled platform that treats its community of content creators as the fries on the side of their order of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Do I miss the days of “Chocolate Rain” and when any viral hit could make it through the cracks? Of course I do, but it’s not like that can’t happen and memes can’t spread, look at how Lil Nas X has taken advantage of the memes surrounding “Old Town Road” to build his own career – and it was only a matter of time before massive companies learned how to use the Internet. I’d argue Ray is at fault at least in some capacity for making the transition to a talk show highlights website a tad cooler, though, and it’s not like he wasn’t making himself and his show (As well as his animated “Band” which I’m pretty sure is just him) a brand in itself. Ray overall was a fascinating man and still is, and whilst most of his content isn’t looked upon fondly, he does have a few gems in there, like “Orphan Tears” from the Your Favorite Martian days, one I still jam to every now and then, because it’s catchy and whilst incredibly dated now due to the club beat and Bill Cosby references doesn’t feel like it won’t last the test of time like most other YouTube content that has ever been uploaded, especially its music – including the more recent stuff from people like the Paul brothers, but before “It’s Everyday Bro” there was another iconic comedy hip hop track on YouTube that I’d argue is a much more judicious choice for analysis, and it was by Fatty Spins – often stylised as FAttY SPiNS for the sake of confusion – a hip-hop collective fronted by Ray William Johnson and his friends Micfri (The white dude) and Breeze, a singer and according to this song, guitarist? They released about six known songs and have since been lost in the sands of time, at least for all we know. This is my review of the hip-hop classic, “Doin’ Your Mom”.

SONG REVIEW: “Doin’ Your Mom” – FAttY SPiNS (Ray William Johnson)

This song only has 400,000 views on its music video as we speak and it’s on the official channel for the band (The description states Micfri uploaded it) so I’m perplexed, I thought it was much bigger but I suppose it’s either a late reupload or it was never as viral as I assumed. Anyway, let’s dive deep into “Doin’ Your Mom”.

Doin’ your mom, doin’-doin’ your mom, doin’ your mom, doin-doin’ your mom...

I’m not even going to get into the absolutely insane video that screams early YouTube but it’s pretty cute, it’s just a bunch of adults probably too old to be yelling along to the repeated refrain of “Doin’ your mom” but they’re having fun  with it at least, although Micfri makes no effort to actually lip-sync. My favourite shots in the video include of course the iconic intro where they walk on the street with a boombox like they just walked away from an explosion and the acapella version of the hook plays in the background like it was the most grandiose chorus in the history of music, but also honestly any shot where Ray is making a face, like at about 1:20, the shot with the green-screened purple background while the hook’s playing. I know this is intended to be funny (That’s why I didn’t do this for April Fools as I was going to; it felt too contrived) but there are parts in the video that seem so natural and like they thought the song was so much better than it is, and it’s almost more humorous than the song itself. Let’s briefly cover the instrumental while we’re here – it’s nothing all too special but it’s a fitting backing for the epic feel the song has, with the reverb and echo on Ray’s voice as he sprays over an odd yet VERY late-2000s fusion of rock and hip-hop, as there are some GarageBand-sounding guitars and a buzzing synth that help propel the intense strings that almost carry the song, with additional little tweaks like the twinkling synths adding a lot of punch but not making it too cluttered. Honestly, there are some parts of the song that seem like genuinely great musical ideas that may seem kind of wasted on this topic, like the screeching guitar solo or when the beat cuts out in the middle of each verse just to return with the guitar added and an additional synth melody, with both Ray and Micfri’s verses reflecting this change in a shift of their flow. I should probably add that Ray is actually a pretty good rapper for a YouTube personality, and his voice is suited for tracks like this (Yeah, somehow the chorus never gets old despite being repeated ad nauseum). As one of the comments said on the band’s Equals Three Wiki page (Yes, that exists and its comment section is hilariously absurd), he kind of sounds like he could voice Knuckles the Echidna.  That’s enough rambling about how oddly appealing this song is sonically and let’s get straight to the meat and potatoes.

COOL TRANSiTiON

The last line of the hook has always puzzled me.

You know we straight, we doin’ your mom!

“Yes, I had to confirm I am in fact heterosexual by engaging in intercourse with your mother”. I know “Straight” is part of hip-hop slang and refers to people who don’t engage in criminal or dangerous activity like gang violence...

Yeah, we straight but if you wrinkle up the situation, he will go grab the iron – Tyler, the Creator on “OKRA”

..But did we really need reassurance from Ray William Johnson that he and his friend Micfri aren’t shooting people? – Oh, and what does this have to do with doin’ my mom? I shouldn’t worry, the verses go into fascinating detail about how Ray and Micfri met my mother as they trade bars recalling the event.

I’m doin’ your mom, yes, yours! / I first saw her in the Wal-Mart picking out your drawers

Micfri’s first verse is probably the most normal verse here, and doesn’t really have anything I can make all too much fun of other than an awful pun, until it ends because the last line is... well...

Five minutes later, she agreed to get with me / So we went and rocked the minivan like, “Giggity, giggity, giggity”

Micfri goes painfully offbeat just to shove his awkward Family Guy reference in there because I guess it still was 2010 and the show was still relevant, although I’d argue it has more of a place on YouTube now that those funny moments compilations are piling up way more views than they should. That’s all fine, right? Like there’s nothing in this verse that is too interesting, but that dreadful joke transitions pretty hilariously into when Ray comes in...

I was ridin’ your mom like she’s Mario Kart / I gave her a lift back to her crib ‘cause her car wouldn’t start

Yeah, okay, he stretches out some sentences and mumbles a few lines so they barely fit the meter but it works in such a janky manner because the rest of the song is an absolute mess anyway so if anything Ray is just making it work, because, mmm, he just gets it. I love he pronounces words here as well, it’s odd as hell, especially when he accentuates “Car” with a high-pitched and slightly Canadian accent?

How many times I tap that ass? OVER 9000!

Oh, my God, I forgot about this part. This is obviously a reference to the ancient Dragon Ball Z meme where Vegeta says Goku’s power level is at “over 9000” in the 4Kids dub and it was probably funny then, but with the gang vocals and his enthusiastic delivery, it’s even funnier now with nearly a decade of hindsight. There are some jokes that legitimately hold up though, mostly because they’re not incredibly dated and instead rely on Ray’s wit.

Yeah, she called me Pledge ‘cause I knocked the dust off her

Come on, that’s actually pretty clever, I suppose. Ray’s still a comedian after all despite all the memery so he has some clever jabs throughout his verses at least, especially the second verse, which is... even more interesting.

I like your momma’s big butt, and I cannot lie

That’s a cool reference that doesn’t feel forced because it fits in with the song. Nice, we’re seeing some improvement.

We make sexy time, yes? And every night I tap that / She saw me butt-naked, now she thinks I’m half-black

Wh... What? I thought Ray WAS half-black? Is that the joke? I don’t know, I mean seemingly it’s saying how black men are stereotyped to be packing under there but HALF-black? Aren’t you underselling yourself a bit there, Ray? Also, he’s already half-black, or at least mixed. I mean, he’s said the N-word once or twice before on Equals Three so I assumed he had to have some sort of privileges. Is he just that insanely tanned? This is probably the second most questionable punchline in the song, we’ll get to the worst one in a bit.

And I blame it on the al-al-alcohol

Wow, this song really IS dated, huh?

She likes the donkey punch, she likes the dirty Sanchez / Sometimes, she even likes to fool around in YOUR bed

Okay, that is epic, and by that I mean it’s the only bar in this track that feels like it was a good diss directed towards the listener, because most of this song goes into grim detail about the intercourse with said listener’s mother but none of it is as ruthlessly personal as that one.

And I’ll be honest, she likes me to Chris Brown her when she acts like Rihanna

Oh... Oh... That’s, uh, that’s a big yikes from me, Ray, Jesus, okay, well, this was topical in 2010 but I’m still not going to excuse this. I don’t mind using Chris Brown’s domestic assault case as a punchline against him because he deserves all the vitriol he gets, but relating him leaving Rihanna bruised and bleeding after having her phone smashed and being punched and freaking BITTEN to having rough sex with the listener’s mother is insanely insensitive, and how the drum pattern cuts out for Ray to say the last part, especially with the reverb on his voice, makes it even more awkward. You’ll be glad to know, however, that Micfri immediately justifies that horribly problematic bar with easily the best on the track.

She’s so therapeutic when I need to cure my restlessness / I (Brrrrrr) motorboat your mom’s breastesses

I don’t know if it’s the “Brrrr” or the “breastesses” but this line is hilarious to me, and I have mostly no idea why it’s such a good one. Anyway, the verses are finished now, so you expect us to have just a few repeats of the chorus until the song ends, right? But no. We have a bridge, and it’s the gorgeous climax of the song (No pun intended) that honestly may just be the best part, other than the comments on its Wiki page, but we’ll get to that. Breeze croons the bridge in cheap Auto-Tune, and the amount of vocal effects that are added unnecessarily to accentuate the oddly profound lyrics here, that are said only twice but are so essential to why the song has aged much better than it seems to have on the surface.

I’m havin’ sex with your mother and that makes me (Better, better) better than you

There’s something I can’t describe about this bridge and the subsequent guitar solo that makes it work so effectively, and I’m left speechless by it every time. The best part is I’m not joking for the most part, and this song, despite its mind-numbing chorus and incredibly dated and at some times shockingly offensive lyrics, it’s aged incredibly well because it knows it will not be taken seriously and is entirely self-aware, but in a way that doesn’t seep into the song’s content. Most memes these days are TOO self-aware, so when a legitimate, genuine meme comes along that embraces it instead of revelling in it, I’m fully supportive.

You was at the club / Bottoms up when I first met you – The Boyboy Westcoast on “Bottoms Up”

Boyboy embraces the meme and he has a very lighthearted perspective and modest attitude on the song that makes his self-awareness less of an aging factor, and it’s the same for Ray, but some of the memes feel self-aware to a fault when they’re all too loud about the sarcastic manner in which they desperately cling onto a self-awareness that may not actually be there, like when the Backpack Kid did that awfully cringeworthy Verified video on Genius about his flossing song. The heart wasn’t there and it felt plastic and manufactured, but it’s all present in Ray, Micfri and Breeze, as they’re all having fun dancing in the video and while they know they’re really stupid and they look like lunatics, they don’t care... and disregarding the comments of the wiki page in which anonymous users respond to in-depth analysis and rankings of the Mario Kart games with “I will end you”, and no, I’m not kidding, that is the beauty of “Doin’ Your Mom”.

You know we straight, we doin’ your mom

deadcactuswalking

Seriously though check out the wiki page for both the song and the band (They’re linked here). The comments are beautifully absurd.