Enjoy some humorous existential dread
November 27, 2023 10:05 AM Subscribe
The Amazing Digital Circus (Youtube, 26 minutes) is a computer-animated Youtube cartoon about a group of whimsical characters stuck in a whimsical VR world. They're all hugely dismayed by this fact and want to leave it please. In that way it feels a bit like social media. In a month it has gotten 147 million views. Meet the characters (1 minute). It was made by the talented Gooseworx, who also made Little Runmo (16 minutes, previously), a cartoon about a video game character who learns a little too much about the world they live in. CW: general disquietingness.
Some other things Gooseworx has made: Molbo (1 minute), Elain the Bounty Hunter (6 1/2m) and sequel Elain Gets Adopted (17m), The Ghost of the Year Awards (7m), and The Darly Boxman Show (5m). They also made an ad for their merchandise that's also unsettling in that distinctively Gooseworxian way.
This one's for Going to Maine!
Some other things Gooseworx has made: Molbo (1 minute), Elain the Bounty Hunter (6 1/2m) and sequel Elain Gets Adopted (17m), The Ghost of the Year Awards (7m), and The Darly Boxman Show (5m). They also made an ad for their merchandise that's also unsettling in that distinctively Gooseworxian way.
This one's for Going to Maine!
I thought this was pretty hilarious, although I realized it wasn't for me. What was really amazing to me was that it instantly had a whole Tumblr fandom before it actually had a season or funding, AFAIK. Clearly it was tailor-made for the kids who loved FNAF and Poppy Playtime.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:32 AM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Countess Elena at 10:32 AM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
(Sample size of one, but as far as I know, the youth of my acquaintance isn’t big on FNAF or Poppy Playtime - and the world itself is a riff on “I Have No Mouth, And Yet I Must Scream”. There’s just something very teenage about colorful angst.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:58 AM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 10:58 AM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
Ah. Now I understand my kid's Christmas wish list. I had no idea what this was, confirming that I'm quite old.
posted by iwhitney at 11:20 AM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by iwhitney at 11:20 AM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've listened in to more than a few reaction videos as my son has watched them on YouTube.
I appreciate the supplemental Gooseworx links. I'm wondering how the level of general disquietingness will compare to the Don Hertzfeldt deep dive we did after seeing the Simpsons couch gag.
And the nice thing about someone needing to scream while having no mouth is that I'll be able to hear the escalator.
posted by audi alteram partem at 12:13 PM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
I appreciate the supplemental Gooseworx links. I'm wondering how the level of general disquietingness will compare to the Don Hertzfeldt deep dive we did after seeing the Simpsons couch gag.
And the nice thing about someone needing to scream while having no mouth is that I'll be able to hear the escalator.
posted by audi alteram partem at 12:13 PM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
The carnival barker and inescapable digital hell also bring to mind 'Welcome to the Internet'.
posted by kaibutsu at 1:42 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by kaibutsu at 1:42 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is interesting. They're trying to make it a full series of some sort and are trying to sell merch to fund it? Something like that. It's really well done, if really really dark. I'd be all for seeing more of it, if they can make it entertaining!
Would never have seen this otherwise; thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 3:49 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
Would never have seen this otherwise; thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 3:49 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
Also, I have to appreciate how the music and framing of the going through the Exit Door into the Void moment was a pastiche of Roy entering the Mothership at the end of the Special Edition of Close Encounters.
posted by hippybear at 3:52 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 3:52 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is interesting. They're trying to make it a full series of some sort and are trying to sell merch to fund it? Something like that.
Per , this is the “most viewed animation pilot on YouTube”, with the previous title holder being Hazbin Hotel, a show that was subsequently picked up by A24 and Amazon. Glitch productions owns the rights and has previously or or animation series with less large receptions, so a series seems pretty inevitable. But I dunno how YouTube works.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:04 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
Per , this is the “most viewed animation pilot on YouTube”, with the previous title holder being Hazbin Hotel, a show that was subsequently picked up by A24 and Amazon. Glitch productions owns the rights and has previously or or animation series with less large receptions, so a series seems pretty inevitable. But I dunno how YouTube works.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:04 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
The video is technically impressive, well animated, but I can't get past the intense obnoxiousness (which, I get that it's supposed to be obnoxious, but still).
The description reminded me of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, the first season of which was wonderful (the much-delayed follow up was hit and miss).
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 10:43 AM on November 28, 2023
The description reminded me of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, the first season of which was wonderful (the much-delayed follow up was hit and miss).
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 10:43 AM on November 28, 2023
Yeah, that seems to be part of the style. Annoyingly loud and cheerful authority figures are everywhere in Gooseworx's creations.
Pomni is intensely fearful of everything around her, and for good reason. She's been put into this place without her consent, into a body she didn't ask for, and while most of the others around here are sympathetic enough Caine is pretty clueless of how she's dealing with the world, and Jax is actively antagonistic. (He reminds me a bit of another Jax I knew in a virtual world years ago, who was also unpleasant.) Pomni not remembering her name and being put into a body she didn't ask for makes me wonder if it might be intended a trans allegory.
If you check some of the other cartoons Gooseworx has made, this seems to be a common theme: terrible wacky things happening to helpless protagonists. Continual Arthur Dent predicaments.
posted by JHarris at 12:02 PM on November 28, 2023
Pomni is intensely fearful of everything around her, and for good reason. She's been put into this place without her consent, into a body she didn't ask for, and while most of the others around here are sympathetic enough Caine is pretty clueless of how she's dealing with the world, and Jax is actively antagonistic. (He reminds me a bit of another Jax I knew in a virtual world years ago, who was also unpleasant.) Pomni not remembering her name and being put into a body she didn't ask for makes me wonder if it might be intended a trans allegory.
If you check some of the other cartoons Gooseworx has made, this seems to be a common theme: terrible wacky things happening to helpless protagonists. Continual Arthur Dent predicaments.
posted by JHarris at 12:02 PM on November 28, 2023
Some trivia/interesting note:
On release, for several hours, this was a sticky on 4chan's /b/, as an autoplaying YT embed.
Stickys on /b/ are exceedingly rare, I honestly can't remember the last time I saw one.
posted by shenkerism at 3:20 PM on November 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
On release, for several hours, this was a sticky on 4chan's /b/, as an autoplaying YT embed.
Stickys on /b/ are exceedingly rare, I honestly can't remember the last time I saw one.
posted by shenkerism at 3:20 PM on November 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Hm. I had not been aware of that. It might explain some of the gigantic number of views the video received.
posted by JHarris at 3:52 PM on November 28, 2023
posted by JHarris at 3:52 PM on November 28, 2023
« Older Together, we can get paid in full | Rethinking the Green Revolution Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Going To Maine at 10:28 AM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]