lunes, 11 de octubre de 2010

WOW



I knew it! I always knew it!

Anyways, in case you haven't heard it yet, it seems that graffiti legend Banksy has created one of the edgiest things to hit TV this year. As a Simpson's intro of all places.

And someone at Fox greenlighted its airing.

Simply amazing.

PS: Am I the only one perplexed to find out that South Corea has unicorns?

7 comentarios:

  1. The question is:

    Is really Banksy creating conscience among viewers on the awful working conditions in which most of the mainstream cartoons merchandising is manufactured or just giving some free coolness to a once incredibly great but now boring and annoying cartoon that ran out of ideas? I'm not buying this really.

    ResponderEliminar
  2. I'm quite agree with Peter, I couldn't say it better. It's the same if the intro were animated by Lev Trotsky or the Anti-Christ, in the very moment that Fox decides to show this, it automatically plays their game. While maybe subversive in its own ground, the media is the message. It belongs to a system of signs in which its possible (and still debatable) counter-culture potential fades and adds to Fox's pretended coolness and edgyness.

    Scornful, in my opinion. It's just a media giant so overconfident on himself that allows himself to blink an eye, because he knows as hell that nobody can do a thing to him.

    Even worse, from the moment that a megacorporation takes the role of criticizing itself and we allow it and think it's cool, we are screwed, because if the network starts to criticize itself, that rules out our role as active consumers.

    So, Banksy, I'm sorry: as soon as you make Campbell cans art to show how despicable they are, you will find that Campbell can't be more glad about it. You are not against the system, you are the most pitiful part of it, the one that believes that can actually make jokes about sweatshop labour and go away with it.

    Not that his "revolt" as a graffiti artist mean something to me anyway. I'm fine with urban art, even in some places where is illegal, but the whole graffiti-artist pocket-anarchism thing is pathetic. An angsty wanking against everything which is wrong with the system, without the commitment of really doing something about it. And don't even let me started on the whole graffiti-superstar thing... Vomit inducing.

    So i'm sorry, Okam's friends. This is not true edge, this is only edgy crap of the worst type. Stick to independent creators, as you use to, or to the classic Groening Age of The Simpsons.

    (and sorry for the ranting wall of text, people)

    ResponderEliminar
  3. Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.

    ResponderEliminar
  4. Fox approved it (More than obvious):

    http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/the-simpsons-explains-its-button-pushing-banksy-opening/

    "Like we always do, every show is submitted to broadcast standards, and they had a couple of [changes] which I agreed with, for taste. But 95 percent of it is just the way he wanted."

    The main difference about mostly any other Banksy's work (Which I'm a big fan) is that daddy was watching... Sad.

    ResponderEliminar
  5. @El Profe

    Here at Okam we present information from mainstream media and independent animators. We don’t do that discrimination; we just analyze or present what catches our attention. We stand by our decision to call the piece “edgy” (I’m quoting without irony, here) in the basis that its content is outside the norm of a prime-time program (especially for The Simpsons), its director having radically different political ideas from those of the network, its director background, the executive meddling that Banksy’s sketches brought upon, the irony of the piece being animated by South Koreans (I wish to know what impact it had over there, if at all) and, of course, the polemic discussion that rose on the internet. We believe that the short sheds new light and re-signifies (to a certain degree) all of the above mentioned, and opens up new debates by the very nature of their makers, broadcasters, viewers and commenters. You might take it as a poignant critique, as a conspiracy of the network to control both sides of the argument or even as a feeble attempt to bring viewers back to a once-edgy-now-tame show, but the truth is that you probably won’t be seeing anything this polemical and edgy on fiction TV in what’s left of the year.

    We're sorry if you thought this was a blog strictly about independent animation. But we're only five posts old, so I see where the confusion might come from.

    @Syn

    Thanks for the video! I'd like to see the movie.

    ResponderEliminar
  6. I hope you friends don't take my comment above as mindless trolling against this site, for which I have great expectations. You are probably right: I likely won’t be seeing anything this polemical and edgy on fiction TV in what’s left of the year... and that's just sad. If this is what we are supposed to consider edgy and polemic, the post title shouldn't have been "WOW", but "MEH...", or "YAWN" or, well, you get the point. It's perfectly fine with me if this blog is about mainstream animation as well, but, people, come on: don't be naive. I'm not a tin foil hat paranoid, Fox game is as obvious as a paper thin disguise, and every single guy commenting here agrees.

    This said, I remark that your blog rocks anyway, and I thank the moderators for letting me to express freely, a luxury not any blog allows. You'll find me around, praising and complaining with equal passion.

    ResponderEliminar
  7. We already asked the PFFR guys (Creators of Xavier, Renegade Angel) for an interview. I think that will cover everyones thirst for edginess for a very long time.

    ResponderEliminar