Cartoons: The Ironic Remake
by Noby
Nobriga
I categorize modern
cartoons into a number of differing classes. Here, I will
discuss one of those classes which is not good. I will
discuss The Ironic Remake.
Some Ironic Remake cartoons can be seen on Cartoon
Network during the Adult Swim time slot. Most
specifically, Sealab 2021. Take an older cartoon
that most people under thirty have never heard of and
re-edit and/or recreate dialogue. The new dialogue must
have characters think and speak outside what one might
consider would be normal or applicable for this character
or scenario. But, that is the irony (and apparently the
comedy). The dialogue is often sophomoric, immature,
and/or absurd. Everyone's dialogue becomes disconnected
from the environment, characters, and stories. The
characters are forced into absurd dialogue and actions
seemingly for the sake of being absurd in an attempt at
comedy. What the character says does not seem to be of
much consequence as the next character will speak his own
discontinuous lines as if pulled randomly from a hat. A
lot of humor is attempted by simply making a character a
foul-mouthed aggressor, using phrases like "I'll
kick your ass," or some variation thereof. Or, the
character might be oblivious to these aggressors and
everything else around them so that all of this craziness
and his naivete provide a "humorous" contrast.
You are to think, "Oh, gee! That's hilarious! The
entire building is burning down because his incense stick
fell in the wastepaper basket and he's just wandering
around wanting to ask people if they have seen his
missing incense stick."
The type of dialogue coming from the characters seems
out-of-sync with the images of the characters (i.e.
personality images), their environment, and what the
externally perceived premise of the show is. You can
separate the dialogue track from the video and place it
on any other cartoon video and have the dialogue and new
video make just as much sense as with the previous. In my
opinion, none. I have read people review these types of
shows using the words "clever wit" and
"hilarious." I guess as many people would tell
me, I just do not get it.
Imagery is superfluous. Plot is near non-existent.
Dialogue is written with the intent to capture within a
couple of lines of dialogue what amounts to a
four-year-old trying to tell his first joke he just
thought up. Except, the four-year-old's joke would be an
earnest effort of searching out the correct and complete
structure of what he is trying to say, as well as
original. With the dialogue here, the writer simply
rehashes MTV mind-speak (maybe actually raising it a few
levels so that there are six words in a sentence instead
of three) so everyone is wanting to kick someone's ass,
make homo-erotic suggestions, be exceedingly spastic, be
incomprehensibly irrational, or be just simply
sophomoric, immature, and crass.
I have rambled through much of this editorial as I wrote
it as the thoughts came to me. So, it may be a little
disjointed. But, I do not believe this article could be
applied to anything else. These words are my opinion.
And, I guess just do not get this "humor."
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