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So, my daughter and I were both ecstatic over the news of an Animaniacs reboot. But, as it came closer to her returning from school for break, she grew increasingly worried that I would reject the show, because of repeated use of President Trump as the butt of bits in the series.
I had told her I didn't mind if they took the piss out of Trump - in fact, I expected it. The Animaniacs never played favorites, and offered biting social commentary about every current topic and trend in society, with no sacred cows they weren't willing to tip. I expected them to carry on in that tradition. What I was worried about was that the reboot would play it safe and only go after approved topics for satire - basically becoming another mouthpiece for the Left agenda. I said I thought this was unlikely.
She responded, "Maybe I'm just seeing a lot of clips about Trump, but it seems like they're focusing on him a lot..."
I wondered - so I read this review:
https://collider.com/animaniacs-hulu-reboot-review/
Which gave me hope.
This MSN article, focusing on the same problematic issues, gave me even more.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/hulus-animaniacs-reboot-runs-in-circles-trying-old-tricks-in-a-new-world-tv-review/ar-BB1bb4EY
If modern reviewers hate it, for these reasons - that means the Animaniacs is probably doing their job - running afoul of what the establishment wants and calling everyone on their own follies and hypocrisies.
The first episode sure hit that mark - going so far to suggest that if Hollywood could reanimate Bea Arthur for a Golden Girls reboot, they wouldn't hesitate for a minute. Pretty serious stuff for a cartoon.
I notice some of the reviewers say that the new Animaniacs is "mean spirited" and "smug". The old Animaniacs was mean spirited and smug. That is why it gained such a cult following among nerds and geeks - because we are mean spirited and smug. Being "mean spirited and smug," generally translates into, "you're making fun of me and acting superior to me by pointing out flaws that society is supposed to ignore!"
I feel like the people writing the reviews today were probably children, if they were even alive at all, when the original aired. This generation lives in a bubble of thinking that whatever is happening now is unprecedented in human history. I don't think they know that in the late 90s there was a very controversial President in office who half the country loved and the other half hated, who people thought was not Presidential in tone and behavior, and there was a huge, vocal, youth movement about political correctness and social awareness among the college aged. We had also just left behind a very divisive 3 term Republican administration.
The Animaniacs formula never shied away from confronting these issues, wryly, smugly, critically and self-aware.
I've only watched one episode - but it was spot on satire of our entire society as it exists today - plugged in, instantly informed, and detached, judgmental, and comically self-unaware.
It probably won't make it. The Outrage Mob will probably boycott it - because it picks on them - and they think they're exempt from criticism. The one review above has this to say about the reboot:
"The opening crack about how wild and funny it is that bathrooms have gender-neutral signs is only the tip of the iceberg of this strangely conservative-leaning shift in comic voice."
While failing to realize the irony of this claim. Steven Spielberg and the team that creates the Animaniacs could only be considered "conservative-leaning" in a bizzarro world gone off the rails into the depths of radical Leftism. The first episode even acknowledges in a bit that they've got to be edgy and progressive enough to convince a new generation that this is "not their dad's Animaniacs," while also acknowledging that they've got to ride a fine line of not offending "their dads, who are key demographic for us, too!"
Which is brilliant. Obviously, they succeeded with the latter - but the former, cannot be appeased by anything that isn't fully invested in supporting their doctrines, dogmas and core beliefs and values. I hear that people are complaining that the new series is "too political". Make no mistake - what that means is, "it focuses on the hypocrisies and gaffes of BOTH sides of the political spectrum." If it focused solely on mocking Trump, Conservatives and Republicans - these same people would be claiming, "the Animaniacs has ALWAYS been political - get over it!" It is just another example of how the Far Left controls media and thinks anything RIGHT of them is Right Wing conservatism. Sadly, that means, that there is no way the Animaniacs will be able to appease their original core demographic while also gaining traction among this new demographic. It is a plight all of Hollywood finds themselves in - they have to pick one demographic or the other, and they can't actually survive doing that.
Here is a pretty honest take on what has changed. I don't mind those changes for the most part. I think Hello Nurse getting shitcanned is worse than Dot not relying on being cute anymore...
She was always assertively cute. She was assertive, confident, but she manipulated being cute, self-aware that this was *easier*. It still remains the case today - but we're not allowed to acknowledge this today. So, they've made the concession.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-hulus-animaniacs-of-all-shows-pulled-off-the-smartest-tv-reboot-yet
My wife and kid are watching "The Boys" on Amazon.
It is just so over-the-top in constantly reinforcing what douchebags the main characters are. I find this more consistently annoying than the transparent and clumsy social-justice and "white Christians who listen to Country are deplorable," messages that are thick and overdone in the series.
I understand it is about over-indulged, entitled, and ignorant celebrity - and really is a critique of professional sports culture and idolization in the US - and that should be something I'm fully behind.
But let's be honest - the characters would be a little more compelling if they were a little less inhuman. Frequently scenes border on torture horror - and that is another genre I just don't have a stomach for. I mean, I'm desensitized enough to ultra-violence in real life - I don't need to see glorified CGI versions of gore constantly in my super-hero movies.
I just don't see the end game in this series. I'd rather write about how shitty it is on my BBS than watch it IRL.
He will always be The Micro-Machines Guy to me.
Glad Animaniacs went well. It's true that Trump is much more normal than the media can afford to make him out to be. Hype is the only way to get those precious clicks. He's just another citizen president like Reagan but with the bombast of Schwarzenegger. They're saying most of the same things. Almost exactly the same, usually.
He *is* the Micro Machines guy! I forgot about that. This is what I really recognized him from! Just saying that made me think of being stoned, watching Thunder Cats, and his commercials coming on.
Ah, those were great times. No responsibilities, and only a slight narcissism that we would most likely nuke the world.
Well, the interesting thing about Trump is how the depictions of him are so frequently sexualized and fetishized... they see him in a Jabba Hutt with Slave Leia chained up sort of way. They feature him as a large, stupid, orange cyclops who rubs Odysseus against his body - with a real focus on Trump's nipple.
They constantly portray Trump as a disgusting but highly virile old man - and they seem to have a lot of rape fantasies about him.
They did nail his odd style of hyperbole though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8vKt3o3wyU
Sat Dec 05 2020 03:06:20 MST from WangissHe will always be The Micro-Machines Guy to me.
Glad Animaniacs went well. It's true that Trump is much more normal than the media can afford to make him out to be. Hype is the only way to get those precious clicks. He's just another citizen president like Reagan but with the bombast of Schwarzenegger. They're saying most of the same things. Almost exactly the same, usually.
I've been posting things about TV shows in the Cinema room - because I didn't have a Television related room...
NaaaaaaaaahhhwwwIreeemember what this room is actually for!
I really don't watch TV. Last thing I really watched was To The Lake and Animaniacs.
Sat Jan 16 2021 00:32:14 MST from TheDaveCurrently watching: The Blacklist and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Sat Jan 16 2021 17:50:36 MST from ParanoidDelusionsI really don't watch TV. Last thing I really watched was To The Lake and Animaniacs.
Sat Jan 16 2021 00:32:14 MST from TheDaveCurrently watching: The Blacklist and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I mean, I don't watch broadcast TV, I watch netflix and amazon prime and hulu. Watching shows on someone else's schedule doesn't make sense lol
I've got those. I don't watch them, either. My wife and kid do. Can't break them of the habit. We dropped cable several years ago. Agree with your reasons.
Did you hear they're rebooting Buffy with a black lead? There is talk of it, anyhow.
Sun Jan 17 2021 21:42:13 MST from TheDave
Sat Jan 16 2021 17:50:36 MST from ParanoidDelusionsI really don't watch TV. Last thing I really watched was To The Lake and Animaniacs.
Sat Jan 16 2021 00:32:14 MST from TheDaveCurrently watching: The Blacklist and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I mean, I don't watch broadcast TV, I watch netflix and amazon prime and hulu. Watching shows on someone else's schedule doesn't make sense lol
Sun Jan 17 2021 22:19:22 MST from ParanoidDelusionsI've got those. I don't watch them, either. My wife and kid do. Can't break them of the habit. We dropped cable several years ago. Agree with your reasons.
Did you hear they're rebooting Buffy with a black lead? There is talk of it, anyhow.
Reboots are inherently boring, especially when they pepper it with social justice.
The vampires will be a proxy for the Patriarchy. It will be OK to destroy the vampires, because their ideals do not deserve to see the light of day.
Tue Jan 19 2021 04:49:39 MST from Google BotBuffy will learn to accept and love the vampires, becoming a vamp rights advocate.
Norm McDonald clips are a great way to find a little joy in these troubled times.
He doesn't give a fuck - about anyone or anything - and is basically, obviously black-balled in Hollywood.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJNky9LM9wx0cmWfrg5eUcw
Here is a pretty honest take on what has changed. I don't mind those
changes for the most part. I think Hello Nurse getting shitcanned is
worse than Dot not relying on being cute anymore...
That's all I need to hear. If they binned those two gags then it isn't worth it.
Comebacks are seldom any good.
It was actually better than I expected. They literally pissed off all the SJWs and *admitted* that they had to find the balance between appealing to a modern audience while not alienating that audience's fathers, who were their original audience, in a skit.
And that was enough, by way of an apology, to get me to ignore that they were pandering occasionally to the modern sensibilities (Digs at Trump, removing Hello Nurse, making Dot more feminist).
They *still* worked in enough references to Hello Nurse to let you know that she was on *their* minds, too - and Dot still fell back on being cute.
In fact, one could take those parts as a subtle hint that the producers and writers think it is ridiculous that they have to dance around those things, too.
Sat Feb 06 2021 18:11:10 MST from IGnatius T FoobarHere is a pretty honest take on what has changed. I don't mind those
changes for the most part. I think Hello Nurse getting shitcanned is
worse than Dot not relying on being cute anymore...
That's all I need to hear. If they binned those two gags then it isn't worth it.
Comebacks are seldom any good.
Norm McDonald is awesome, just because he figured out how to get rich by making people uncomfortable.
I've been watching black millennial dudes on youtube reacting to music that people recommend. It's very satisfying watching them get exposed to classic rock and new wave and classical and big band for the first time in their lives. It blows their minds. VERY satisfying.
It can't be a bad thing.
This is maybe one of those ethnic differences. The Indian guy I knew from Intel was John Carmack's roommate in college. He already had a circle of friends that had introduced him to classic rock and metal from growing up in New Jersey.
He was fully assimilated in Whiteboy Western culture as a 2nd generation, native born immigrant from *India*.
Samir also pointed out, "when white people started getting all absorbed in Indian culture again, wearing henna and sarees... you WANT that - it means you're being *accepted*."
White boys broke down the barrier between black and white culture when they started accepting inner city black hip hop and rap and fashion.
The black guys still have a ways to go in returning the favor. Other than Slash and Jimi Hendrix - there haven't been a lot of them who've grown out their hair and become rock stars. The more that changes, the better.
Now granted - there have been barriers to them being ACCEPTED when they've tried. But that doesn't mean they can stop *trying*.
Thu Feb 18 2021 12:12:33 MST from TheDaveI've been watching black millennial dudes on youtube reacting to music that people recommend. It's very satisfying watching them get exposed to classic rock and new wave and classical and big band for the first time in their lives. It blows their minds. VERY satisfying.