Theninjacowboy’s Mr. Mochi is “machinima“‘s answer to silly variety shows. Besides Mr. Mochi, theninjacowboy has made videos from GTA4 and is working on a comedy video from a farming simulator. He is one of the virtual mischief makers I interviewed for my project.
I just did some queries about slapstick + gif in google in order to see if I could find some good animated gifs of classic slapstick films, or remixes of them, or re-enacting of them. I was not surprised by the result. There are not that many. What perhaps could mean the beginning of an interesting project. To make gifs of classic slapstick lazzi or gags. I it could be interesting to see how do they circulate nowadays on the Internet and if they get appropriated or re-posted. I will start making some of them soon so wait for them. For now, I just want to share one little gif I was able to find. It combines frames from a three stooges film I cannot identify and also frames from the Bush situation of the shoe. A video of that shoe situation can be found in this news clip: http://youtu.be/duLds-TZMGw
this animated gif could be the first of a series about remixing classic slapstick on the internet
Philosophical comments about a Skate 3 glitch video
Most of the comments viewers make on funny YouTube bloopers and glitch videos refer to a gag they particularly liked or capture their LOLs. HelixSnake’s Skate 3 video has however triggered two rather thoughtful (if still funny) responses:
___ It’s like America’s Funniest Home Videos without the schadenfreude.
And later, HappyHamProductions ponders the tragedy of the “Red Skater”:
___ After the lulz came the realization that Red Skater has to be one of the most tragic figures of our time. Unwavering in the face of constant pain and the fragility of modern life, where not even gravity or solid surfaces can be relied upon, and the slightest touch of a stranger can (literally) catapult you out of your comfort zone. Devastating.
Funny video game montages, “cinema of attractions” and the “mischief devices”
When I started studying physical humor in virtual spaces, I was shocked by how little has been written about the role of mediation in humor. For most humor scholars (and there are quite a few), humor is something so natural and homogeneous that it doesn’t really matter if a joke is told at a bar, on TV or played out as a sketch. Humor scholar tend to be biased to a certain medium - be it theatre for Bergson or jokes for Freud - without explicitly acknowledging its specifics. However, a substantial body of medium-specific and technology-aware work on humor does exist in the realm of early cinema. Concepts developed by the film historian and theorist Tom Gunning are especially interesting as they focus on the interplay of the medium and the performance of humor.
First of all, he describes much of the early films as “cinema of attractions”. The Lumiere brothers output did not primarily attempt to tell a story - it demonstrated what their technology was capable of, focusing on the power of the medium to display. Gunning argues that this vision of the medium preceded the one of “narrative cinema”. The same approach could be applied to the funny video montages I am studying for my project. Within the contemporary “machinima” production, these videos occupy a space is similar to the one cinema of attractions did in the early history of film. Instead of telling stories, they show off what can be done in the virtual worlds. Like the cinema of attractions, they too rely on spectacle and humor.
However, the possible application of early cinema studies to our case and games and general runs even deeper. Many film scholars, including Gunning and Jenkins, have pointed out that a gag - a joke form - disrupts a narrative. Likewise, the stunts and comical situations that players experience or stage, capture and share have usually nothing to do with the main narrative thrust of the game. They are also often described by their makers as “silly”, “random” or “junk”. However, they constitute a considerable portion of gameplay, especially in open-world games such as the Grand Theft Auto series. GTA is not advertised as a car crash simulation. That is nevertheless the way many players use it. We could go on to discuss how the idea of a gag versus narrative relates to the emergence versus progression or paidia versus ludus dichotomies.
Another inspiring concept introduced by Gunning is that of the “mischief device”. He analyzes the silent comedy’s fascination with crazy machines and technology on the case of Buster Keaton movies. He describes Keaton’s fascination with “how things work”, with mechanical devices and the effects they can produce. The example he gives is that of the waterfall scene in “Our Hospitality” (see 1:07:00).
Following the Bergsonian explanation of humor as the mechanical, Gunning points out that after swinging on a rope to save his girl, Keaton’s characters becomes a marionette. We could add that he is no longer in control of his body. Suddenly, it is laws of physics and the machinery what’s moving him around. A similar recurring theme is to be found in funny game videos. The player drive the character into a hazardous situation and… observes the outcome.
I would argue that the sudden loss of control, often experienced by players of video games as frustrating, can be considered laughable when observed from the position of a spectator. The more unpredictable the result of hurling oneself into a car crash or a ditch is, the funnier it is likely to be found. The makers of funny videos therefore use the whole game as a mischief device, prodding and poking it to see the (often hilarious) results.
Socially awkward penguin in action
penguins and the LULz
Randomness is often emphasized in these haphazardly compiled videos. As if dividing making these games from regular, sanctioned gameplay, this practice is called “messing around” and its results “fun junk”.
Compared editing between Segundo de Chomón’s “Pickpock ne craint pas les entraves” (1909) for Pathé Frères and early arcade videogames like Pacman, Bubble Bobble, Donkey Kong, Excitebike and Paperboy.
should we look at 4chan for sources of digital slapstick?
4chan’s troll-tastic obsession with rainbows and unicorns reaches a new mark with My Little Pony, an animated TV series inspired by the colorful pony dolls.
Kind of an alternate ending to this comic http://loceri.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5f8ptx
Also, I have nothing against Rainbow Dash, I just felt she fit the part in this comic.