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Yeah, I remember reading an interview with John K in some or other magazine before the whole molestation shitshow came up. He was ranting about South Park and just came across as a bitter old fuck throughout the whole thing. And this was an interview published in the 2000s, even.I want to make this point, so here it is...
I recently was reading the revised edition of Sick Little Monkeys on Google Books, in particular the chapter dealing with Adult Party Cartoon. I'm happy to say it confirms @Someone in a Tree's theory that Spike TV's interference on the show was just telling John they wanted something like South Park and John interpreted it as "put in a ton of gay sex jokes."
But South Park comes up a couple other times in that chapter. One artist is quoted as telling John "You can't put naked boobs on TV," and John is quoted as replying: "Well, South Park does it!"
If you look around, though, South Park actually came up a lot with John in the late 90s and early 00s. He ranted about it all the time. When the show was new he even tried to sue Parker and Stone, claiming that Mr. Hanky was a ripoff of his much-beloved, well-known character Nutty the Friendly Dump.
Why did it come up so much, though? It's easy to guess: South Park was then the new kid on the block, the newest show to offend parents and bluenose censors. John, as is very obvious, liked to portray himself as the rule-breaking transgressor, positioning himself against said parents and bluenose censors. But by 1997, Ren and Stimpy was in reruns and he wasn't doing much. Perhaps he was subconsciously worried about becoming old hat?
So, in a way, I think Adult Party Cartoon was partly John's attempt to show that he wasn't old hat and that he could produce something that'd compete with Parker and Stone in offensive content... except, of course, it wasn't as good as South Park on its worst day.
Yeah, I remember reading an interview with John K in some or other magazine before the whole molestation shitshow came up. He was ranting about South Park and just came across as a bitter old fuck throughout the whole thing. And this was an interview published in the 2000s, even.
And the remaining episodes didn't even end up airing on Spike. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall John stating that Spike initially wanted to do 13 episodes, but he talked them down to 6 under the guise that he'd have to train a bunch of animators (John thinks all animators are poorly trained, so he has to "fix" them) to learn how to make Ren and Stimpy before he could commit to a production of that size. It's almost awe inspiring how he fucked up such an opportunity.Like I said, subconsciously bitter that he was becoming old hat. The fact that Trey Parker and Matt Stone were not fans of Ren and Stimpy was probably another reason why he ranted about it so much.
And, of course, when Spike TV came calling he decided to use the opportunity to show people what an adult cartoon was really like... (Incidentally, Spike TV was incredibly accommodating to John. He blew the budget for the whole series on the first three episodes, then went to Spike to beg them for more money - and somehow this actually worked. The money they gave him didn't even cover the rest of the episodes.)
And the remaining episodes didn't even end up airing on Spike. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall John stating that Spike initially wanted to do 13 episodes, but he talked them down to 6 under the guise that he'd have to train a bunch of animators (John thinks all animators are poorly trained, so he has to "fix" them) to learn how to make Ren and Stimpy before he could commit to a production of that size. It's almost awe inspiring how he fucked up such an opportunity.
That may have been the case. I don't know. By the time it went into production, though, it was 6 episodes and a movie. The six episodes were all delivered, but years late ("Stimpy's Pregnant," the last of them, was delivered in August of 2004, by which time the show was pretty much canceled) and at such lengths that they were pretty much impossible to air, and the movie never made it at all.
As for "having to train a bunch of animators," Spumco at this point was composed of old friends of his and novice animators who worshipped him, so there's some truth to that. The problems the series had were all largely because of him, though, and those novice animators rushed out footage without sleeping just to make sure the episodes weren't late. Even the old friends got screamed at by John.
Fucking hell, really? It takes a whole three month separate intervals to produce episodes instead of working on a few different episodes simultaneously?
John K. really fucking sucked at being a lead showrunner of things and lead operator. There is no excuse for that. That's a lot worse when Ren and Stimpy Season 2 was supposed to have 20 episodes (2 segments, with a few 1 episode full-ons) when it only churned out 12.) at least a partial amount of those episodes got out on time instead of only 3. Those APC episodes were also pretty inconsistent in length too. Onward and Upwards was the regular 22 minutes (although it could've easily ran at 11 minutes) while Altruists ran for 40 minutes for some fucking reason.
The first three episodes managed to get out one after the other (the second part of "Fire Dogs 2" was delivered to Spike the day it was supposed to air) but the final 3 took longer. "Altruists" was finished in April 2004.
Remember that partway through season 2 Games Animation took over; now you know why they got all that out on time.
"Onward and Upward" was originally an 11-minute idea meant for the original show which didn't make it - you can guess - because it sucked. The length is, needless to say, all due to John. ("Altruists" was a tribute to the Three Stooges done at twice the length of an average Stooges short.)
On a tangent, a lot of people talked about how his blog is bad advise.
Are there any ALTernatives to his blog if I want some good resources on animation?
On a tangent, a lot of people talked about how his blog is bad advise.
Are there any ALTernatives to his blog if I want some good resources on animation?
@Steamboat_Bill's posts.
Did that have anything to do with why they filmed live action bumpers with Ralph Bakshi for that episode?Not trying to be an ass BUT Fire Dogs 2 part 2 (whatever) was delivered on the right day but arrived a half hour late. So Spike played a re-run of Stripperella in it's place and played the episode later. That was probably the big red flag aside from John not getting the rest of the episode's done on time.
Did that have anything to do with why they filmed live action bumpers with Ralph Bakshi for that episode?
The lore of John K seems like a cringefest nightmare waiting to happen and yet we are all enjoying his fall from grace. Seems like a perfect day for a Thursday night. Now if only we get a bear fight that would be great.It was actually Bakshi's idea to package the first part of the episode with the original "Fire Dogs" and the live action bumpers, just so something would be available on time.
The lore of John K seems like a cringefest nightmare waiting to happen
"He preys on young women. We want people to believe WE'RE young women. Let's try scapegoating him even though it's late, to prove we're WOMEN!"
Jessica Udischas & their thread here: