#turds

[maxwellatoms]

In one of your last answers, you said “series reboots are usually pretty gross and sad”, and I was wondering if you could expand on that? Assuming “reboot” covers any kind of continuation of a currently cancelled or finished show (and maybe that’s the wrong assumption!), from the outside looking in it feels like a pretty mixed bag. On one hand, if I love XYZ Show, it’s cool that I get more stories with these characters and another chance to support XYZ Show and its creators. On the other, it definitely feels like a lot of ideas can only get funding if they’re tied to something already, meaning creatives are having to now tie whatever cool idea they have to some reboot/relaunch/retread, which can feel pretty disheartening if you don’t want to do a reboot/relaunch/retread. Is that a similar feeling from your side of the industry?

Thank you so much for all your answers and insight!

Usually reboots and spin-offs are just cash grabs. It happens a lot in animation. In fact, I would argue that the entire industry is just one big cash grab now. In the 80s, everyone complained that cartoons were just half-hour commercials for toys. And they were right. And we're right back there, but now that you can't legally push toys all day, it's just general "IP". Mugs, posters, more spinoffs, whatever.

I was offered three show running gigs over the pandemic. All reboots that I would consider unwise to pursue because they were "of a different time" and didn't (in my opinion) have anything more to say. Two of them were properties created by notorious sex pests, so there's also that. The animation industry loves to prop up its sex pests.

I turned all of them down, partially because I didn't respect the original creators but also because none of them had anything going for them except just being "more of the same".

I don't think any of those projects survived the intervening years, so in retrospect I maybe should've taken the job. I'd probably feel a bit gross, but at least I'd have floors in my house.

The entertainment industry is in a bad spot. The whole thing. I've had I don't know how many pitch meetings in the last few years, and they all start the same way:

"Hey! Before we start, we just want to let you know that we're not actively producing anything right now. We think maybe soon, but we won't be picking anything up today..."

And then later:

"The little we are doing is IP, so if you have a new take on our IP or a new IP you're connected to that you can bring in, that'd be great."

I always wanted to make original stuff. There came a time when I'd had my fill of Billy & Mandy and wanted to do something else new and original. That never manifested, and I was constantly being offered IP to produce. I turned too many of those down, maybe, before deciding that it was probably better that I run the IPs that mean something to me rather than having some hack do it.

But now those jobs have all gone to celebrities and fallen live-action writers, who are also slowly being eaten by the system. WB was hot for Scooby stuff a few years back, so I pitched some ideas. A few of them were turned down for being "off-brand" in a variety of ways. WB has now made (I think) all of those off-brand shows (or something close) with celebrity show runners.

I was going through a whole Midlife Impostor Syndrome thing recently where I was wondering if maybe I don't just suck. Like, it's weird that for a couple of decades I'd have people calling me trying to get me to run shows, and now nobody will call me back about the possibility of a design job.

Talking to some friends and realizing that they were in a similar situation helped me feel like I wasn't alone. That was nice. Talking to some of the most talented colleagues in my industry made me made me realize that those people weren't getting jobs either. That was unnerving. Talking to complete strangers in other parts of the entertainment industry now has me thinking that the whole house of cards is coming down. That's real concerning, yo.

It's hard not to think it's purposeful, when deranged billionaires own the entirety of our media and want to shape a society where they can't be criticized. We're letting wealthy tech bros firebomb the very heart of our culture, and it's weird that no one is talking about it. Because (for now) we still have that capability.

[seattlewalls]

[spinthetags]

SOUTH PARK MARCH MADNESS! ROUND 1, MATCHUP 10:

Refresh your memory on Turds and Give Life A Try by following the hyperlinks! Happy voting!

[angelx1992]

[slack-wise]

[cameraphonethephone]

🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

[suicideandcheese]

Dreamgate

If I can't today it's coz I can't. Some doorway To nowhere opened up and I'm slammed. Stuck in this, christfuls, cereals, Utterly amiss. Cringeth. What the fuck is a carry-on? Why do I bring Penguins to the party on the plane? Exotic, nice, find a mirror. Black and whitenings. Balance this bird out before it crashes.

[outofcontextstuff]

[duhmemo]

“Thou art a hag”

“o ho? Well mine own eyes declare that thou art made of the same fabric as this misshapen attempt at a horse likeness“.

*gasps in peasant*

Do y’all think siblings in medieval times would look at the little beasts in illuminated manuscripts and point at each other like ‘ha! ‘Tis thou!’

[angelx1992]

[vonkubler]

The misguided belief in supernatural powers such as deities.

[judahmaccabees]

YouTube doesn't let you report animal cruelty. Real heroes.

[liberalsarecool]

Shitty people deserve shitty prizes.

Message to all insecure misogynists: FAFO

[eaglesnick]

Where There’s Muck, There’s Brass

We learn something new everyday. Apparently, the price the privately, mainly foreign owned, water companies charge us for our water is in part determined by the number of discharges of raw sewage into our water supply.

“The number of pollution incidents a company reports, and any breaches to permits attached to water treatment plants to control raw sewage releases, are actors in determining the price water companies can charge for their services.."  (Guardian:09/08/23)

The big row this revelation has caused centres around the alleged underreporting of raw sewage into out rivers, streams and waterways, thus allowing the water companies to charge more for their services. 

“Water bills: Fight for money back over sewage leaks begins The UK's six biggest water firms are facing legal action over claims they underreported pollution and overcharged customers.”  (BBC News: 09/08/23)

Fair enough, sue the bastards if they are lying about the true number of  raw sewage discharges. But what I find even more worrying is the fact that if the water companies DO meet their pollution targets they can charge us extra on our water bills.

We know the government has given them until 2050 to clean up their act so in the meantime raw sewage will be pumped into our waterways and onto our beaches. I have no idea what the pollution targets are but I don’t really care if its 20 turds per cubic metre of fresh water or 50: it still equates to polluted, unsafe water that is killing fish stocks and aquatic wildlife and presenting a dangerous hazard to human life.  The very idea that the water companies can charge you and me EXTRA for having only 20 turds in our water  rather than 50 is mind-boggling.