The Big Picture: The Prophesy of Freakazoid
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Loved the in-jokes at the end, Bob! I've actually never seen the second season, but the first...oh my god the first. Everyone go buy it. Now.
I remember this show. I found it quite clever when I was a little kid watching it. Now I'm off to watch the show on the internet.
Congradulations on 100 episodes.
Congradulations on 100 episodes.
Hmmm, well I'm not sure if I agree with Bob about the Internet, though I agree Freakazoid was an overlooked gem.
Simply put I think The Internet could have been everything that was promised, and it does indeed have all of those positive promises contained within, but it was introduced badly. I think half the problem is arguably the degree it was made accessible and how it was changed for accessibility. If it had remained a powerful tool, something people had to actually practice to use and reap the rewards, it would have been fine.
I think technology is something that can bring about self improvement by forcing people to adapt to use it, it's when you dumb everything down to the lowest human denominator that technology and it's promises fail, because it falls into mediocrity and pretty mych stays there.
Kids have shown they can rapidly learn new and complicated technologies if introduced to begin with. The problem was when "they" wanted to get those who were already complete people and who weren't nerds online, which meant changing everything for the tech-ignorant and making things simpler and dumber, instead of increasingly more powerful.
To an extent I think Freakazoid wasn't really prophetic of what happened, he wind up becoming what he was because of the explosive potential of the internet, combined with youthful enthusiasm, ans what I think was supposed to be a metaphor for what your nerd was holding pent up inside, and was going to see an avenue of expression. At the end of the day the guy was a Freakazoid, but he did great things and saved the day. In reality we wound up where we are now not so much because of 4-chan and groups like that, as much as because of businessmen who wanted to get your dad and grandmom on the internet, and when they weren't willing to learn (and weren't inspired by the possibility) things were gradually limited, and dumbed down until they could use it. When you had these kinds of people involved they had no real interest in what The Internet could do, and instead got into the whole personalization aspects, and when you get a lot of people who weren't worthy of the technology to begin with involved, you see the changes to lead to things like Lol-cats, massive porn, pro-wrestling and NASCAR fan sites, etc... which are what those people are like and are projecting onto the Internet. Instead of using the internet to propel people forward, it was changed due to improper handling (and "right at this moment" greed) into simply a platform for all of the garbage it was supposed to move away from.
Basically The Internet should have remained entirely in the hands of nerds, and the upcoming generations, and slowly intergrated into society, as opposed to being plastered everywhere over a mere two decades.
I think there is a bit of a distinction between this, and what Bob is saying, unless I misunderstood his points.
That said, I always felt Freakazoid as an IP was one that was inevitably going to be resurrected.
Simply put I think The Internet could have been everything that was promised, and it does indeed have all of those positive promises contained within, but it was introduced badly. I think half the problem is arguably the degree it was made accessible and how it was changed for accessibility. If it had remained a powerful tool, something people had to actually practice to use and reap the rewards, it would have been fine.
I think technology is something that can bring about self improvement by forcing people to adapt to use it, it's when you dumb everything down to the lowest human denominator that technology and it's promises fail, because it falls into mediocrity and pretty mych stays there.
Kids have shown they can rapidly learn new and complicated technologies if introduced to begin with. The problem was when "they" wanted to get those who were already complete people and who weren't nerds online, which meant changing everything for the tech-ignorant and making things simpler and dumber, instead of increasingly more powerful.
To an extent I think Freakazoid wasn't really prophetic of what happened, he wind up becoming what he was because of the explosive potential of the internet, combined with youthful enthusiasm, ans what I think was supposed to be a metaphor for what your nerd was holding pent up inside, and was going to see an avenue of expression. At the end of the day the guy was a Freakazoid, but he did great things and saved the day. In reality we wound up where we are now not so much because of 4-chan and groups like that, as much as because of businessmen who wanted to get your dad and grandmom on the internet, and when they weren't willing to learn (and weren't inspired by the possibility) things were gradually limited, and dumbed down until they could use it. When you had these kinds of people involved they had no real interest in what The Internet could do, and instead got into the whole personalization aspects, and when you get a lot of people who weren't worthy of the technology to begin with involved, you see the changes to lead to things like Lol-cats, massive porn, pro-wrestling and NASCAR fan sites, etc... which are what those people are like and are projecting onto the Internet. Instead of using the internet to propel people forward, it was changed due to improper handling (and "right at this moment" greed) into simply a platform for all of the garbage it was supposed to move away from.
Basically The Internet should have remained entirely in the hands of nerds, and the upcoming generations, and slowly intergrated into society, as opposed to being plastered everywhere over a mere two decades.
I think there is a bit of a distinction between this, and what Bob is saying, unless I misunderstood his points.
That said, I always felt Freakazoid as an IP was one that was inevitably going to be resurrected.
I was waiting for that joke to come in at the end, really I was, the whole episode in fact, and while he didn't do it exactly right it still made me smile from ear to ear.
Seriously Bob, if I ever meet you in person, you are getting a heck of a high five for both reminding me about this series, and running a Candlejack joke. So much nostal
Seriously Bob, if I ever meet you in person, you are getting a heck of a high five for both reminding me about this series, and running a Candlejack joke. So much nostal
Congrats on 100 episodes. And yes, Freakazoid is on my list of "cartoons you should feel bad about not knowing about" up there with Megas XLR and The Tick.
Kind of funny that Bob would do a show on this. I've always dissagreed with Bob's opinion on the 90's. They were a wonderful time for animation and media in general and this is one of the shows I always point to when I argue with people of Bob's persuasion.
Aww man. I can't even begin to describe how much I love Freakazoid. I had a picture of him as my facebook avatar for over 5 years, I dressed up as him on Halloween, memorized the dialogue of half the episodes... Ahh, good times.
Truly a shame more people don't know about him. He was pretty much the start of me becoming an outcast for having strange and specific interests. He's like Deadpool for kids. If on;y it wasn't cancelled. Freakazoid was my favorite show of all time. Spielberg cartoons were the best family shows of the decade. You know what? I'm going to go watch it again.
Truly a shame more people don't know about him. He was pretty much the start of me becoming an outcast for having strange and specific interests. He's like Deadpool for kids. If on;y it wasn't cancelled. Freakazoid was my favorite show of all time. Spielberg cartoons were the best family shows of the decade. You know what? I'm going to go watch it again.
Freakazoid was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid, and I remember I was sad it got cancelled.
Fast forward to now where MovieBob pieced together that he's basically the internet pre-carnate, and it just blew my mind.
It's not like Freakazoid laid a time-bomb joke that I just got years later, it's more like Freakazoid laid the schematics for a time-bomb joke in which life was cleverly manipulated into dumping all the pieces in my mind, re-arranging them over the course of growing up, and then pulling the trigger just now.
MAN that's awesome.
Freakazoid!
Freakazoid!
Fast forward to now where MovieBob pieced together that he's basically the internet pre-carnate, and it just blew my mind.
It's not like Freakazoid laid a time-bomb joke that I just got years later, it's more like Freakazoid laid the schematics for a time-bomb joke in which life was cleverly manipulated into dumping all the pieces in my mind, re-arranging them over the course of growing up, and then pulling the trigger just now.
MAN that's awesome.
Freakazoid!
Freakazoid!
I didn't know what you were talking about before this post. Then I did research. Now I wish I didn't know. Brain bleach, anyone?Steve the Pocket said:
Anyways, yes, top notch episode, Bob. I've always thought that Freakazoid was a show that was ahead of it's time. It really has held up exceptionally well. Shame it never had the fame or success of Tiny Toons or Animaniacs, it's just as good a show as them.
And I say we need more Freakazoid memes. The show is ripe with memetic potential. Just having Candlejack isn't enou
AM I the only one that out of shear mental training habitually even think that character is named Jandle Cack? perhaps I have some nascent aversion to rope, and being kidnapped.
