So Bad It's Good meets So Bad it's Bad
May 9, 2013 4:32 PM Subscribe
Lloyd Kaufman meets the Angry Video Game Nerd. Trash cinema impresario Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Films visits the Angry Video Game Nerd to play some Toxic Crusader games based on the cartoon that was based on his most famous movie creation. (WARNING: Last link has unstoppable audio.)
From the Wikipedia link for the cartoon:
I've always suspected that Captain Planet was actually a pro-business disinformation campaign.
/tinfoil hat
posted by brundlefly at 6:12 PM on May 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
The villains were still polluters, albeit polluters from a different world. Hailing from the planet Smogula, Czar Zosta, Dr. Killemoff, and Psycho wreaked ecological havoc with the help of Tromaville's corrupt Mayor Grody.Ah! So, as in Captiain Planet, the heavies are actively trying to pollute for its own sake, as opposed to being greedy corporate types who just don't care.
[...]
Dr. Killemoff and Czar Zosta were cockroach-like extraterrestrials from the planet Smogula, which is a world where pollution is natural as fresh air and water is natural to Earth. Natives of Smougula thrive on pollution and need it to survive.
I've always suspected that Captain Planet was actually a pro-business disinformation campaign.
/tinfoil hat
posted by brundlefly at 6:12 PM on May 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Believe it or not, I was in the first musical adaptation of Toxic Avenger: The Musical. I was more than in it, I was one of two actors who played Toxie -- I was him before he transformed, when he was Melvin Ferd, a janitor in a gym who is murdered by bullies.
I can't really explain it. I knew the writer/director, and he had convinced Lloyd Kaufman to let him adapt the film to the stage, and to try it out in Omaha at the Blue Barn theater. He wanted me to come to the auditions, and, at the last moment, I chose not to. He called me from the auditions. "Are you coming?" he asked.
"No," I said. "Toxic Avenger is the worst movie I have ever seen."
"The play will be better," he said. So I went and auditioned, and I was cast.
I don't think the play was better. There's always been a quality about the story of a fellow who gets sexually humiliated and gets revenge through sexual humiliation that results in murder, and it made me, frankly, queasy. For me, the most interesting element of the movie is the least explored -- that for Toxie, his transformation makes him a superhero, using his powers to battle evil, but to everybody else he has just turned into a monster, and that the difference between a hero and a monster may therefore be one of perspective. That wasn't really explored in the musical, either.
But I had fun on the show and remain friends with the cast. It's still weird to me that whenever the subject of Toxic Avenger comes up, I am permanently linked to it, and am the first actor to have limed the role onstage.
There was eventually a Toxic that opened in New York, but it wasn't ours -- I think there were some issues with the composer and they decided to scrap our version in favor of a new one. For a while, Wikipedia mentions of the Omaha version kept disappearing -- I suspect by somebody from the later production, who was trying to simplify the history of the show. But it was a genuine production, authorized by Kaufman (and attended by him, IIRC), and so there it is, a piece of Toxie history.
It's the only time I was ever a superhero, and I wasn't a very good one, and I wasn't even the superhero part. Just the nerdy alter ego.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 6:32 PM on May 9, 2013 [6 favorites]
I can't really explain it. I knew the writer/director, and he had convinced Lloyd Kaufman to let him adapt the film to the stage, and to try it out in Omaha at the Blue Barn theater. He wanted me to come to the auditions, and, at the last moment, I chose not to. He called me from the auditions. "Are you coming?" he asked.
"No," I said. "Toxic Avenger is the worst movie I have ever seen."
"The play will be better," he said. So I went and auditioned, and I was cast.
I don't think the play was better. There's always been a quality about the story of a fellow who gets sexually humiliated and gets revenge through sexual humiliation that results in murder, and it made me, frankly, queasy. For me, the most interesting element of the movie is the least explored -- that for Toxie, his transformation makes him a superhero, using his powers to battle evil, but to everybody else he has just turned into a monster, and that the difference between a hero and a monster may therefore be one of perspective. That wasn't really explored in the musical, either.
But I had fun on the show and remain friends with the cast. It's still weird to me that whenever the subject of Toxic Avenger comes up, I am permanently linked to it, and am the first actor to have limed the role onstage.
There was eventually a Toxic that opened in New York, but it wasn't ours -- I think there were some issues with the composer and they decided to scrap our version in favor of a new one. For a while, Wikipedia mentions of the Omaha version kept disappearing -- I suspect by somebody from the later production, who was trying to simplify the history of the show. But it was a genuine production, authorized by Kaufman (and attended by him, IIRC), and so there it is, a piece of Toxie history.
It's the only time I was ever a superhero, and I wasn't a very good one, and I wasn't even the superhero part. Just the nerdy alter ego.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 6:32 PM on May 9, 2013 [6 favorites]
I love this because Lloyd Kaufman completely gets what he's here to do and jumps into it wholeheartedly. He's obviously having a blast, and James' corpsing is completely understandable.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:06 PM on May 9, 2013
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:06 PM on May 9, 2013
Ah, yes, armed with a mop and superhuman strength...I didn't realize they made a TV show about this...maybe I just forgot.
Did they do an Attack of the Killer Tomatoes video game, too?
Yes, I think so, based on the cartoon.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 10:42 PM on May 9, 2013
Did they do an Attack of the Killer Tomatoes video game, too?
Yes, I think so, based on the cartoon.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 10:42 PM on May 9, 2013
He's presenting himself as a poor man's Mel Brooks.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:48 PM on May 9, 2013
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:48 PM on May 9, 2013
...a destitute man's Mel Brooks.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:53 PM on May 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:53 PM on May 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
He's presenting himself as a poor man's Mel Brooks.
My first impression was that he came across as very Brooks-ian too, albeit much filthier.
It's great to see such a schlock icon hamming it up with James, who I've been a fan of for years. (His annual "Monster Madness" countdowns are not to be missed.
Incidentally, there's an Angry Video Game Nerd feature film in post production, in which yours truly makes a few appearances as an extra.
posted by ShutterBun at 12:04 AM on May 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
My first impression was that he came across as very Brooks-ian too, albeit much filthier.
It's great to see such a schlock icon hamming it up with James, who I've been a fan of for years. (His annual "Monster Madness" countdowns are not to be missed.
Incidentally, there's an Angry Video Game Nerd feature film in post production, in which yours truly makes a few appearances as an extra.
posted by ShutterBun at 12:04 AM on May 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
He's an old Jewish guy telling jokes, how do you expect him to come across, you know?
(His annual "Monster Madness" countdowns are not to be missed.
His tribute to Monstervision was like a tribute to my childhood.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:10 AM on May 10, 2013
(His annual "Monster Madness" countdowns are not to be missed.
His tribute to Monstervision was like a tribute to my childhood.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:10 AM on May 10, 2013
I don't know why, but it's really, really disturbing how he keeps calling him "Nerd."
I was big into all kinds of horror movies as a kid, and Toxic Avenger was a regular rental from the video store on the corner. They let me have the poster, in fact. I wonder if it's still somewhere in the house. I'll have to look for it next time I'm there.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:00 AM on May 10, 2013
I was big into all kinds of horror movies as a kid, and Toxic Avenger was a regular rental from the video store on the corner. They let me have the poster, in fact. I wonder if it's still somewhere in the house. I'll have to look for it next time I'm there.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:00 AM on May 10, 2013
I don't know why, but it's really, really disturbing how he keeps calling him "Nerd."
"The Nerd" is the name of the character.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:29 AM on May 10, 2013
"The Nerd" is the name of the character.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:29 AM on May 10, 2013
Not obligatory but still obligatory: The trailer for AVGN: The Movie.
posted by parliboy at 12:52 PM on May 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by parliboy at 12:52 PM on May 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
« Older The insect you need is on your shoulder... | Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Did they do an Attack of the Killer Tomatoes video game, too?
posted by Chuffy at 5:06 PM on May 9, 2013