Tuesday 28 June 2011

Gypsy Cab by Jordan Rubin: Clips on Vimeo





Gypsy Cab was written and created by Jordan Rubin and developed by the Cartoon Network.  It was designed to be an animated show featuring 30 Rock star Judah Friedlander as a wacked out gypsy cab driver cartoon character whose greatest ambition in life is to be the best cab driver on the east side of west. When Judah’s not scheming to get his real cab license, he roams the streets of Manhattan picking up celeb fares like Sarah Silverman, Jim Gaffigan, John Mayer, Tracy Morgan and Dave Attell.

The show consists of celebrities doing "stand-up comedy style" rants from the back seat of the cab. During the rants the animation cuts from the cab to illustrate the celebs story and then back again for Friedlander to put in his two cents.

From the two clips I've seen, the show really rests on the shoulders of the guest talent. If you like the talent then you'll like Gypsy Cab... if you don't then you'll likely give it a miss. Friedlander's character just doesn't have what it takes to upstage the talent in the same way that guests can appear on The Simpsons or South Park and the show still retains it's integrity.  My guess is that that's one of the quirks that killed this show during development.

I found out about Gypsy Cab while perusing Cold Hard Flash.

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Online Animation: Dick Figures Rules!

Alright.  Need a laugh?

Check out Dick Figures from Mondo Media.

DISCLAIMER: People easily offended or highly impressionable should watch at their own risk.

Dick Figures is the ultimate buddy flick.  It's like the classic buddy stereotype on acid.  Stickman fuelled acid.

Note: Random and glorious quotes are in abundance.

In this animation it's not the end that counts.  It's how Blue & Red get there. Sometimes you never even see the end, as in Zombies & Shotguns,  but it doesn't matter.  That's how good this show is.

The animation is also top notch.

Some people discount their artistic skills by saying they can only draw stick figures.  This show is a testament to how amazing the ability to draw stick figures can be.

This animation, on the Somnus scale of awesome, is a 10/10.  It is flawless.  A perfect victory.

Check it out!


Dick Figures: Flame War

Red and Blue turn a simple video game shopping spree into a black-ops killing spree. Dick Figures was created by Ed Skudder, who wrote, directed and voiced the episode along with Zack Keller.

Dick Figures on Facebook
http://tinyurl.com/dick-figures-FB



Wednesday 8 June 2011

Eggs Gone Wild T-Shirt Debut

Sergio wearing an Eggs Gone Wild T-Shirt
My buddy Sergio made an appearance on Rayme The Minx, one of the top Canadian Blogs, a little while ago. Guess what T-Shirt he was wearing at the time? An Eggs Gone Wild T-Shirt!

See for yourself: http://raymitheminx.com/2011/06/05/the-revolution-will-be-blogged/
Sergio has written a couple Eggs Gone Wild episodes and also runs the Gay Bachelor Blog.

Saturday 4 June 2011

A Wendy's Career: Serves Me Right

A Wendy's Career: Serves Me Right
Alright, so we're finally going to break away from my tangent on adult animation and move into the realm of other media.  Such as the new brochure designed to entice people to consider a job at Wendy's as a solid career move.

Now, Wendy's has always held a special place in my heart.  My grandmother used to take my sister and I there when we were on road trips and as a result it became my 'happy' place.  However, since Dave Thomas passed away Wendy's has headed steadily down hill.  Their square burgers have now become an anachronism since it seems that all Wendy's is capable of doing is upping the price and cutting corners on quality.  I long for the days of the 99 cent junior Hamburger Deluxe where neither price nor flavour was an obstacle to enjoying my Wendy's indulgences.

I was recently in a Wendy's in London, ON (ever hopeful that maybe this time I might get a Wendy's meal I can once again enjoy) and was yet again shocked at the high cost and poor quality of the meal.  Immediately after finishing I noticed the brochure in the image above advertising for Wendy's Careers.

Now, maybe it was that the food wasn't sitting right with me, or maybe I would have picked this out anyway, but I can't recall a place or time when the catch phrase "Serves me right" has been used in a positive context. All I could think upon seeing it was that someone in middle management told the Wendy's marketing firm that they were going to do a paradigm shift on the "serves me right" slogan, but I really can't see how a fast food chain could ever think they were going to accomplish something like that. Yes, if they succeeded they would have bragging rights, but it's like me trying to climb a Indian coconut tree in bare feet (it's not likely to end well). Whoever made the decision to go ahead with this was either really proud of Wendy's or oblivious to the nature of North American culture and either can be very dangerous when it comes to marketing campaigns.

However, before posting this, and just to make sure I wasn't alone in my assumption that this brochure was highly ironic I've been showing it to countless folks and asking for their opinions on it.  So far only one person, we'll call her Rosemary, didn't get the irony of it.  Rosemary did get it once I asked her what her opinion of the brochure would be if the people had label's like W.o.W. (World of Warcraft) Addict and so on.  So for her and the people like her I added the labels to the image to make sure the irony wouldn't be lost on anyone.

In conclusion, if you'd like to impress family and friends with your media savy sense of humour all you have to do is visit a local Wendy's, pick-up one of these brochures and share it at the appropriate time.  I guarantee you'll get chuckles and if you don't you're probably not hanging out in the right groups of people - not that I'm judging ;)