Posted by Phlipper at pc137.etown.com on June 29, 2000 at 15:21:55:
In Reply to: And in 'Clerks' Cartoon news... posted by Repost for Kevin on June 29, 2000 at 15:03:56:
Okay, first the disclaimer.
I saw clerks in the theater, I own every DVD, and I have Silent Bob for
Halloween four years running. I'm not competing, I'm just qualifying
myself as a fan.
I hated the Clerks cartoon. After twenty minutes of the first episode, I
started playing nintendo and watching in the background. I forced
myself to sit through the second episode, and I just never laughed. I
never even cracked a smile. I could launch into a theoretical diatribe
over its problems, its post-postmodern self-referential pop cultural
blandness, but I won't.
Maybe ABC was right. I hate Spin City, too, but, much like the Odd
Couple, it makes me laugh at least once per episode. They were
probably wrong for so many reasons, but it just doesn't make the
cartoon better.
Mr. Smith, you can do better than this. My advice: Don't let this be your
Howard the Duck. Don't release it on video in the U.S., only in Japan,
or somewhere where serious fans, like myself, will be able to go
through some major effort to get it, and then cherish it, if not for the
product, at least for the effort itself. But whatever you do, bury it,
distance yourself from it, and move on.
And learn from it. Don't learn about networks, we all know networks
all suck. All of them. Even Comedy Central, which brought us, in the
same year, South Park and Public Citizens Brigade (and if you liked
PCB then you probably suck too, and I don't want to hear about it).
Its time to reinvent yourself. I mean, not at the expense of Jay and
Silent Bob. Think Jay and Silent Bob in Chasing Amy, pure brilliance.
Think Bluntman and Chronic. Forget about pop cultural references:
No one loved clerks because it referred to Star Wars, nor because of
how many times they said "fuck." Clerks was a moment, but it was a
combination of complete brilliance and ignorance, of obvious talent
and a complete lack thereof. Returning to it would overwrite it, which
should be avoided at all costs.
Think minimal. Again, think Bluntman and Chronic.
Bluntman and Chronic.
thanks,
-Philip (who will be a live-action Silent Bob