So these are basically sarcastic YouTube videos

October 26, 2016 6:52 AM

So this is basically [MLYT]....
Steven Universe - Gravity Falls - Adventure Time - Miraculous Ladybug - Cowboy Bebop - Overwatch - Pokemon

Please don't take these too seriously!

posted by JHarris (35 comments total)

I won't take them too seriously, but I still dislike them very much.

>___<
posted by ELF Radio at 7:24 AM on October 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

Now I'm not one to hate on snark, but it's confusing to see so much effort and talent concentrated on not especially insightful takes.

The Adventure Time one veered towards meanness when it went from 'network executives' to name dropping Rebecca Sugar?
posted by pmv at 7:31 AM on October 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

WHAT'S UP WITH THIS MOVIE THE GODFATHER? So there's a crime family and the youngest son, Michael Pacino, doesn't want to be a criminal for SOME reason except his father (also called the GOD FATHER!!!!) has to do whatever anyone asks him at his daughter's wedding (LOL WHUT? IS THAT A RULE NOW???) so he helps some Mortician guy get revenge on some OFFSCREEN guys who raped and beat up the Mortician's daughter (OFFSCREEN!) This has nothing to do with the rest of the plot at all! LOL! So anyway, the Godfather helps some singer get a part in a movie by -- get this -- PUTTING A HORSE HEAD IN HIS BED! And it works, because they guy could've called the police but instead he puts the singer in the movie! (LOL THIS WORKS?)

So anyway, at the end Michael Pacino just kills all his enemies, wow, great solution, especially since he coulda just done that right off the bat! AMIRITE??????

Then Michael Pacino becomes the Godfather like how he never wanted to be, what a stupid movie LOLOLOLOLKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKKEKEE
posted by ELF Radio at 7:33 AM on October 26, 2016 [9 favorites]

These seem specific enough to only be amusing to people knowledgeable of the shows but snarky enough to not be enjoyable for people that actually like the shows
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:42 AM on October 26, 2016 [17 favorites]

The Overwatch one was worth it just for Gremlin D.Va
posted by davros42 at 7:45 AM on October 26, 2016

snarky enough to not be enjoyable for people that actually like the shows

I like Steven Universe, and was still relatively amused by "two lesbians in a trenchcoat" and some of the rest.

And I enjoy Overwatch, but the Overwatch one is on point. There's quite a disconnect between the lore and the actual game.
posted by Foosnark at 7:49 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

The Adventure Time one veered towards meanness when it went from 'network executives' to name dropping Rebecca Sugar?

That was praise for Sugar, unless I interpreted it wrongly. The implication was that the side-character bottle episodes were much more interesting than the main plot that matters, and he gave Sugar credit for those episodes being interesting.
posted by explosion at 7:55 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

These seem specific enough to only be amusing to people knowledgeable of the shows but snarky enough to not be enjoyable for people that actually like the shows

They are entirely made for people who are deep into these shows. He doesn't hate any of them. He constantly makes the kinds of points that only someone who is obsessively immersed in the shows' lore could make, and I'm here wondering how the heck that's not obvious.

Like when Grunkle Stan in the Gravity Falls one says there are no monsters, he elbows the secret vending machine door that had the whole GF fanbase asking questions for 29 episodes closed. These videos are crammed full of injokes like that, often just little throwaway bits on screen, and way too many for these videos to actually be the dismissive putdowns they pretend to be. Subtext!

(Honestly, I think the only really sucky thing about these are those obnoxious Audible ads, which seriously had me considering not making this post.)
posted by JHarris at 8:01 AM on October 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

That was praise for Sugar, unless I interpreted it wrongly.

Yes it was praise for Rebecca Sugar, it's not even subtext there! How can someone not see that?
posted by JHarris at 8:03 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

The Overwatch one was pretty good. The backstory really doesn't matter when you have a team of robot-hating characters fighting to stop a robot-killing bomb escorted by a team of Overwatch and Guys That Killed Overwatch.

It's like having a GI Joe game where either side can be Joes or Cobra and there's three Destros across both teams because he's so edgy and cool.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:12 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I like Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe and thought these were amusing digs at those shows.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:13 AM on October 26, 2016

You will not find a greater fan of Steven Universe or Gravity Falls than I, and I made the darn post.
posted by JHarris at 8:30 AM on October 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Not bad! Not as funny as the real Plinkett (which they're clearly imitating), but the real Plinkett reviews are actually hostile and contemptuous, whereas these are just affectionate mockery.
posted by edheil at 8:41 AM on October 26, 2016

I'm basically a SU stan and I thought that it was funny. I think the point of these things (and they are def A Thing) is to relate to other fans about how crazy you all are that you all consistently ignore these plot holes/character flaws/etc because you just love the show so much. It's poking more fun at us the fans, who are willing to just blindly agree with whatever the show feeds us, rather than making fun of the show.

I thought it was a bit out of touch, though. I've never in the fandom seen Amethyst called out in that way, and I think without the shared "Oh I know it's ridiculous but we all love it anyway" the jokes fall flat. I've seen it for Pearl before (She's a deeply flawed character with a lot of real mental illness), but throwing that kind of shade at Amethyst seems to take the "in" out of the in joke.

I did love how he described pearl's backstory, then garnets, then just called her "the purple one". Amethyst's character is really underdeveloped compared to the others (though w the rise of Jasper it's been getting much better).
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:47 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

These take at least some DNA from Neil Cicierega's Races of Star Wars/Star Trek/Lord of the Rings videos.
posted by sleeping bear at 8:47 AM on October 26, 2016

From what I understand the Adventure Time one is meaner than the rest because the author really doesn't like it, but he got tired of getting flooded by comments requesting it.

Most of the others come from a "Yeah, I like them but they have some problems" perspective.
posted by Memo at 8:58 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Now I'm not one to hate on snark, but it's confusing to see so much effort and talent concentrated on not especially insightful takes.

Got partway through the Bebop one, and this is pretty much where I landed. The videos are obviously tongue-in-cheek, but they're not particularly clever or funny.

Maybe they work better if you're immersed in YouTube comedy culture and watch all the Plinkett videos and such, since these videos seem to be parodies of those more than anything else? But in that case I find the subject of the parody utterly insufferable, and watching a barely exaggerated version of the same thing turns out to not be any less insufferable.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:16 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

So it's a guy doing a Harry S. Plinkett impression reviewing pop culture stuff?
posted by growli at 9:21 AM on October 26, 2016

These seem specific enough to only be amusing to people knowledgeable of the shows but snarky enough to not be enjoyable for people that actually like the shows

I pretty much only watch this sort of thing for media that I enjoy, and I thought that both the Overwatch and the Cowboy Bebop ones were on point, though I'm not a huge fan of the voice acting.

I think that these will obviously be bad for folks who can't stand the idea of someone implying that something they loved is flawed. But for folks who can have a sense of humour, even about cherished gems of pop culture, snark borne out of a deep love/understanding of a work is pretty great.

That being said, cheap shots from someone who obviously dislikes or doesn't get or has little respect for the work or its fans are no fun -- if it's true that the Adventure Time review is "mean" in a "this thing actually sucks and you suck for liking it" way, I can understand why Adventure Time fans are displeased.
posted by sparklemotion at 9:46 AM on October 26, 2016

These videos aren't pointing out flaws or anything, though, as far as I can tell. It'd be fine if that's what they were doing. What they're actually doing is making fun of the way that YouTube snarky reviews intentionally mis-summarise things for comical effect by... intentionally mis-summarising things for comical effect.

There's no actual joke or criticism or anything of worth here.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:08 AM on October 26, 2016

So it's a guy doing a Harry S. Plinkett impression reviewing pop culture stuff?

Less rapey.
posted by rokusan at 10:12 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

The ones for the shows that I know well enough to follow were on-point, in that way that a show's missed opportunities drive me up the wall sometimes. (Finn's arm in the Adventure Time one, for example, which bothers me as much as the fact nobody ever went out that window on Mad Men. Maybe more.)
posted by rokusan at 10:14 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was a huge fan of Cowboy Bebop when it came out, and I thought the one about that was funny!
posted by thedaniel at 10:57 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

RAZZLE DAZZLE DORITO
posted by The Whelk at 11:13 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

These comments have just about taken all the wind out of my sails.
posted by JHarris at 11:37 AM on October 26, 2016

Sorry! They're well done and competently executed. I watched some of his other videos (basically the same thing, but for online communities) and I think his style is just strongly cynical which doesn't go over as well now as it used to. It's okay to unironically like things without being so tsundere about it.

Most of the videos are more loving than the Adventure Time one, and I think I will look into this Miraculous Ladybug, which I have learned about for the first time.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:56 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Each video has a few nuggets of truth stretched out a bit. I thought the art was pretty solid.

And it true, the Bebop characters basically never even interact with each other. Why does Jet even let them stay on the ship?
posted by GuyZero at 12:04 PM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I hail from the softer end of Doctor Who fandom, so these are Just Mean Enough for me, great stuff!

"Together they're co-dependent!" had me laughing.
posted by comealongpole at 2:17 PM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Re: Miraculous Ladybug, same here. Of all the things covered that was the one I never heard of, but it actually sounds pretty interesting!
posted by JHarris at 2:40 PM on October 26, 2016

Do unending snark over bad media content and you have the magic formula for Mystery Science Theater 3000. Do the same thing to GOOD media content and you just end up feeling uncomfortable. That's the problem with these videos, as well as Neil Cicierega's 'Races of SciFi/Fantasy' and half of Rifftrax doing 'mainstream' movies. And that's how I became very glad I'd never watched "The Walking Dud Dead" when a promo for the British channel airing it did a 4 minute 'promo' that was just John Cleese doing unending snark and I felt no discomfort. There is more than enough crap content out there to make snarking on Good content really unnecessary. You can never do too much snark aimed at "Game of Thrones". But then, it takes a lot of talent to find ANYTHING funny in "Uncle Grandpa".
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:46 PM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah you don't mess with my pals on the Bebop, they are very real to me.
posted by vrakatar at 6:24 PM on October 26, 2016

"Snark + Good Media = Discomfort" is true to me too. It's what put me off of the Cinema Sins series where he started attempting to slaughter sacred cows. It felt like the Godfather comment upthread, where he's ignoring obvious plot points and making minor nitpicks in service of his jokes.

Stated more simply, you have to be able to make better art than what you're mocking. If you're less competent than your target you're going to look silly.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:05 PM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Well-regarded media is every bit as valid a target for negative criticism as poorly-regarded media.

Also, Uncle Grandpa is funny.
posted by Small Dollar at 9:56 PM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well-regarded media is certainly a valid target for negative criticism, as well as for parody/satire; but it takes a lot of skill to do successfully. But simple snark is easier with easy targets and pretty much impossible with hard targets - it's only really enjoyable if you DON'T respect the subject matter.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:53 PM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Seconded on Uncle Grandpa! It's part of a new age of Cartoon Network shows that are miles above stuff like, say, Johnny Test. It's not classic Warner Bros. sure, but then what the heck is?

And I will fight to the death for Steven Universe, but even the show's creators don't take it that seriously. Remember Say Uncle?

I feel like MST3K was brought up in an attempt to get me to see something, because like I dunno I'm supposed to be the site's resident MSTie or something, but these are an entirely different category of thing. And I feel like these videos themselves are all the rebuttal needed to people's statements about so-called snark about good media. But I feel like I've said these things multiple times already, and that I'm threadsitting, so I'm done here.
posted by JHarris at 10:59 PM on October 26, 2016