Careercow Hayden Black - Untalented comedian with a string of failures including the infamous Gen Zed; suspended from Twitter

[Captain_Asshole]

Whenever I hear "Pew Pew" I think of that unique laser pistol from Fallout: New Vegas.

THEY HAVE IT COMING

 

[MayMay]

I think Pew Pew is supposed to be like Fozzy Bear saying wokka wokka but in no way endearing

Also really jarring.

A lot of the most famous catchphrases have some sort of context or use in causual conversation. For example "D'oh" is used as an expression of annoyance at screwing up or getting slightly hurt (say, stubbed toe). If anything some of the better catchphrases sound more like just little quirks someone uses in casual conversation.

There's not really any way saying 'pew pew' can be natural at all since it's just shoehorned in with no context in conversation.

 

[APerson]

THEY HAVE IT COMING

They had it coming all along!

 

[Sanae Kochiya]

Whenever I post something truly angry, I justifiably and deservedly get autistic ratings. Well, I'm pretty pissed off:

From this article.

Spoiler

View attachment 47449

The last line. Fuck them. Fuck them in the ass with an unlubed dragon dildo.

Gotta say, I've never seen something patronize and downright insult:

1) Japanese animation and culture.
2) The trans rights movement.
3) A teenager's tragic suicide.

In one single paragraph. That's a new achievement in wtf.

But since I'm feeling autistic, let's go for the entire article.

Where did you get the idea for the show?

I was wondering how younger people just emerging out of high school and college were going to handle life now they’d grown up immersed in tech and the bazillions of choices it gave you. It’s a double-edged sword, tech. These days you can find anything you want, download it, listen to it, play it, watch it – but it can also bury you alive. Plus I was hungry to tell a story with a Transgender woman in it. Transparent got there first and they did an absolutely magnificent job. Gen Zed is aimed at a much younger audience .

I fail to see how the trailer reflected any of this.

Great to see that you wanted to make a story focusing in four troubled individuals but Shona is gonna be getting some emphasis because she's trans. Glad to see that your other three characters are just afterthoughts for more oppression points.

Also what fucking younger audience cares about Bill Cosby rape jokes?

What were your main influences when writing Gen Zed?

First influence is “The Young Ones” – the anarchic, rebellious spirit that formed my childhood. I wanted to do a show that WASN’T for your parents. Something “the kids” (thanks, Rik) could own. The second is “Spaced”; specifically the flights of fancy that Edgar Wright did so brilliantly. I actually wrote the pilot as live-action but I always had animation in the back of my mind. I got talking to an animator who thought it was a great show to animate but her busy schedule prevented her from coming on board. And then the magnificent Alex Bradley showed up and BAM.

Glad to see that other animator didn't get roped up into this crap.

If Gen Zed is trying to come off as edgy then it's failing spectacularly. Pop culture jokes and current events fail to encapsulate any "edginess" that people who care about this shit would like and just having a trans character doesn't mean you're pushing any real boundaries here. In fact, you focus so much on her being trans that you could say that that's her only defining characteristic and you're selling the show on that alone. "Transploitation," basically.

How did you come up with the characters?

Shona, the young Trans girl, is based on a Trans girl I know who’s hysterical, witty, beautiful, amazing and brilliant. I wanted to capture her; both her beauty and her pain. Living your life that way, the only way you can live if you’re born in the wrong body, takes such bravery because of how some shitty, ignorant people choose to live theirs. I always think that men who make fun of Trans women aren’t really men at all. Irony! The other characters were mixtures of various things; Cameron’s a shit poet which is based loosely on The Young Ones’ Rik. Living in LA, I know a few people like Betsy who are a little too dependent on prescription drugs but don’t think they have a problem. And Huey’s just a complicated nutter; sort of like The Young Ones’ Vyvyan but with a bit more depth.

So, The Young Ones if it had a tranny?

Did you set out to write a Trans character, or did they naturally fit with the rest of the characters?

Yes, I did. Shona was the first character to emerge. The rest followed her lead.

Oh, I see. A tranny in shit The Young Ones fanfiction.

How long did the scripts take to write?

I wrote a 28-page pilot in June 2014, in about 2 weeks. It sort of sat there while I worked on other things but Gen Zed began picking up steam around October. For the next few months, it became re-write city, involving table reads, etc., and it just got better and better. I also decided to change the pilot presentation into a web series so I let it grow from 28 pages to about 54, knowing I’d split it into roughly 7 x 5 minute webisodes.

Guess this means it isn't going on TV after all.

How do differences in cultural references in Britain and America have an influence on your writing? Do you feel you can only use American ones?

I write for an American audience because that’s where I live. But at the end of the day, I can’t (and don’t want to) escape my mother culture, so both cultures go into my writing. I look at both styles of comedy – American and British – and try to use both. So there’s wit, intelligence and smarts along with bad puns, toilet humour, and physical comedy. Hopefully it’s a good mashup.

"Wit" and "intelligence."

Do you use your British humour in your writing, and do the American audiences ‘get it’?

I always use some British humour but I’m all about writing a comedy that everyone can get. I won’t get too self-indulgent because what’s the point? I do like a handful of earned jokes though; something you don’t get at first but when you do, you go “Ah!” So I’ll pepper in a few jokes here and there that not everyone will get but if you’re one of the few who do, you’ll know I was writing specifically with you in mind.

90% of your jokes will cease to be relevant in a fucking month. No one will get this comedy if they watch it when it's aged. Although thanks for admitting that you are writing some self-indulgent jokes that matter to the real target audience: You.

Did you have actors in mind for the role or did you just see who turned up for auditions?

I had no actors in mind – I never do, to be honest. I just write it. Actors come to the table with their own talents; their take on their character can add something you didn’t realize was there. I got very lucky with Gen Zed because I cast it so quickly.

Julie Rei Goldstein was the first trans actress I auditioned and she just nailed it! She got the character, got my humour, and delivered Shona so quickly I was amazed. Shona is a complex character – they all are, really – but Julie knew just how to drive it. There are moments of snarkiness, moments of over the top silliness, and moments of sadness and horrible things and she knows when to put her foot on the pedal and when to hit the brakes.

John M. Keating was referred to me by America Young (of Goodnight Burbank) and he’s so talented and such a great bloke. Emily C. Chang I met a few years ago at a comedy festival here in LA. I watched a short of hers that she starred in and it was clear how talented she is. So I made sure to add her to Facebook in case there was ever a time when we could work together and I’m glad I did! She just batted it out of the park with her first read.

Kevyn Richmond was recommended to me by a producer friend and the moment I saw his reel I knew he was Cameron. And then there’s Marcelo Tubert who plays Miguel, their landlord. He’s a very established character actor so what you get with Marcelo is a huge talent and a man full of ideas that he brings to the table. I even sneaked in a line for the girl who Shona is based on! So she gets to cameo alongside the character based on her.

No real comment here. Sounds like he just got the first people that expressed interest because that's all he could get.

I find it funny that he had to say "trans actress" with regards to Julie. I wonder if he was saying that because he was specifying that only trans actresses would be allowed for the pitybux and Tumblr cred.

How did Jane Wiedlin become involved?

We follow each other on Twitter and so I sent her a DM asking if she’d like a cameo. She agreed to read the script then responded with an email that said she wouldn’t do a cameo. She’d only do a recurring character because she loved the script so much. I created a brand new character for her that wasn’t in the pilot; she plays the girl who works with Cameron in the video game store that he has a mad crush on. She even flew down from San Francisco just to record with us in person and she was SO lovely.

Still no comment. Don't recognize her at all.

What about the music? Did you write your own theme tune again?

Yup! I co-wrote this with James Semple, a British composer. And I also wrote pretty much all of the incidental music that you hear in the show too. Have I made a stupid joke about playing with my organ in public yet? – because this would be the place to do it!

... There was music? I'm not making a joke. I seriously don't remember any musical tracks from that abysmal trailer.

How long has it taken from when you first had the idea for the show to actually recording the voices for the first episode?

Really quickly – about 8 months. I wasn’t planning on shooting Gen Zed when I first wrote it so it’s all taking off rather fast. But that’s how these things usually happen. It’s the stuff you least expect.

Can any animation fags that know more about the industry than I do tell me whether or not this is normal? If it's rushed then it explains why it's so terrible (aside from the lack of talent).

How long does the animation take to complete?

Alex is telling me a month per episode, so all I can do is hold my breath. His preliminary artwork has been rather fantastic so I know I’m going to be gob-smacked when I see it all come together.

Again, not sure if this is normal or not. However, if Alex is doing all of the animation then I at least have to hand it to him for being an overachiever and doing whatever he can to make this insanity a reality. Hopefully he'll get a gig in some better show after this.

When will the episodes be available to watch?

I’m hoping it’s ready to go by late Autumn 2015. But we’ll have snippets and scenes to promote the show much sooner than that. If you follow the twitter @Gen_Zed and find us on Facebook, you can be up-to-the-minute and take place in competitions, win prizes like signed scripts, etc.

Get the popcorn for November, folks.

Also, no shit is ever too minor.

https://archive.is/R6DIw

 

[VLAD]

Also really jarring.

A lot of the most famous catchphrases have some sort of context or use in causual conversation. For example "D'oh" is used as an expression of annoyance at screwing up or getting slightly hurt (say, stubbed toe). If anything some of the better catchphrases sound more like just little quirks someone uses in casual conversation.

There's not really any way saying 'pew pew' can be natural at all since it's just shoehorned in with no context in conversation.

Catchphrases don't work when they're forced out of the character's throat (and down the audience's). It's recurring, sure, but it has to be naturally recurring, like Apu's "Thank you, come again!" to take another Simpsons example, or Hank Hill's "BWAAAUUUHH." They're used in contexts where they make sense, and not shoehorned in after every failed punchline like Herbert West delivering an overdose of his reanimating serum to a patient (or joke, rather) that's already in the throes of advanced decomposition. Shona's PEW PEW falls into the latter category, and feels even more forced than a joke about how unfunny forced catchphrases are.

"And that's the WAAAaaaaAAAY the news goes!"

 

[AnOminous]

"Mein Kompf."

The asian girl is the only one with a vaguely human looking body. The black guy looks more like a racist caricature what with the big lips.

He also has a slouchy posture like a racist caricature of a lazy black guy.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Posting tbis(most likely again) because it's a hell of a lot more entertaining than the promo.

 

[Meowthkip]

...Didn't they just cross-dress?

 

[JU 199]

A visual representation of Shona Sommers twitter feed

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Something tells me being a "standup comedian" on this show means "posting 'hilarious' videos of them telling jokes online" instead of, you know, actually getting on a stage in front of people and telling jokes.

 

[JU 199]

Something tells me being a "standup comedian" on this show means "posting 'hilarious' videos of them telling jokes online" instead of, you know, actually getting on a stage in front of people and telling jokes.

Stop being ableist.

 

[CWCissey]

Something tells me being a "standup comedian" on this show means "posting 'hilarious' videos of them telling jokes online" instead of, you know, actually getting on a stage in front of people and telling jokes.

Well how else are you going to stop people from sharing their opinions about your lame 'comedy act'?

Besides from spamming this to your Twitter of course?

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Stop being ableist.

#pewpew

 

[JU 199]

I'm banking on him being a closeted gay man.

 

[Wabbu]

View attachment 47501

I'm banking on him being a closeted gay man.

Original story arc do not steal.

 

[JU 199]

Evidence to the contrary

Vivian Darkbloom is the alter ego of Alison DiLaurentis and laterCharlotteDiLaurentis. Alison used to dress up as Vivian to spy on "A", while Charlotte used Vivian to escape from the police to go to France.

 

[AnOminous]

View attachment 47501

I'm banking on him being a closeted gay man.

Since it's the most boring possible thing that could happen, it's probably true.

In fact, the "psychotic" Huey is probably Hayden's autistic self-insert. We can expect tons of LOLSORANDOM.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Since it's the most boring possible thing that could happen, it's probably true.

In fact, the "psychotic" Huey is probably Hayden's autistic self-insert. We can expect tons of LOLSORANDOM.

Don't you see? He's angry because he can't be his true gay self! But thanks to the flawless amazing person that the redhead(WHO'S TRANS AND VOICED BY A TRANS ACTOR, DID YOU KNOW THAT?), he learns to love who is is and come out of the closet(and it'll be the redhead he comes out to first) and become so stereotypical gay.

 

[sassyma seed]

Don't you see? He's angry because he can't be his true gay self! But thanks to the flawless amazing person that the redhead(WHO'S TRANS AND VOICED BY A TRANS ACTOR, DID YOU KNOW THAT?), he learns to love who is is and come out of the closet(and it'll be the redhead he comes out to first) and become so stereotypical gay.

Through her they shall all realize they are gay, bi, Demi, asexual, voidsexual, trans, whatever. Point is, no straights allowed.

 

[Bugaboo]

I hope for the series finale the white guy goes crazy and murders his friends. That's his story arc