About Ratboy Genius
September 10, 2016 11:11 PM   Subscribe

Minuet of the Fishfood, and other matters concerning the Ratboy Genius....

Before reading on, if you're the kind of person who needs to know what kind of a hole he's jumping into before taking the leap, here's The Daily Dot on Ratboy Genius.

Okay. Here's a selection of standalone items from the Ratboy Genius video series:

Fugue in D Minor
Little King John sings about his kingdom
Starship Genius Theme
Happy Factory
10,000 Subscriber Fugue
Fanwork Tribute (Prepare yourself for some unexpected dialogue. "That one reminds me of the work of Ralph Steadman!")
and of course, Potato Kinshes

I really don't know what to say about these! At first I laughed at how clumsy they seem. Now, I kind of admire it all. He certainly has a fanbase, and it's not an ironic fandom. Get a look at some of those fanarts in the video! But I still don't really understand it. Maybe it's age.

This is what I've pieced together:
The titular Ratboy Genius was originally a flat drawing created by Ryan Dorin, a man whose blog makes him seem pretty much like a normal sort of guy. R.G. has adventures with his similarly flat friends in Ratboy's Kingdom, a place which seems to be a bunch of photographic backdrops or taped video. Most characters have names that describe what they are or do, like: Ratboy Genius, Green Monster, Happyman, the Summer Solstice Baby, Mister Fisheater, etc.

Soon into the series Ratboy discovers how to use 3D modelling software, and makes a weird, three-dimensional version of himself. Soon after most of the other characters also get rendered adaptations. This goes on for a while through Ratboy's adventures and Happyman's adventures.

And then the R.G. had a dream about living in the world of Minecraft, which many of the later episodes use as a backdrop instead of photographs or real world video. In this world lives a somewhat-evil alter ego, Little King John, who steals a factory from Happyman that he uses to make his beloved potato kinshes. He also kidnaps the Summer Solstice Baby. RG manages to escape with her, but that's not the end of it, for it turns out that King John's domain, indeed his whole world, is flooding beneath a mysterious deluge of water....

If you want to follow the story of the Ratboy Genius and friends, here's some playlists:
Ratboy's Kingdom
Happyman
Ratboy Genius Dreams of Minecraft
Little King John: The Flood
Galactic Superheroes
Starship Genius

Joe Marin interviews Ryan Dorin: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Ratboy Genius' Bandcamp page
posted by JHarris (5 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
I really enjoy Ratboy Genius. It's not always on, but when it is, there is indisputably nothing like it. Little King John can be an oddly compelling villain, a little like the Ice King. I haven't heard the interviews yet, but I wonder if Dorin thinks of himself as an outsider artist; that's what he seems like to me.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:13 AM on September 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


I would have appreciated Ratboy's contortionist abilities back when I was playing the pipe organ.

This is the second interesting minuet post I've seen recently. If you are minuet-curious and want to see what one actually looks like, here's something for you.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:22 AM on September 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


to quote "Little King John: THE FLOOD Part 10"
That sounds preposterous! Tell me more.
posted by idiopath at 8:35 AM on September 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh, I had forgotten, here's a rendition of "Potato Knishes" orchestrated, sung by a tenor with a Jack Skellington quality to him
posted by Countess Elena at 12:57 PM on September 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


The story continues....
posted by JHarris at 10:37 PM on September 24, 2016


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