dude i fuckin agree, and i've been saying it for years. i mean i've made a couple parodies myself but they get no where near the amount of views because I do not use the same formula that everyone else uses. most of the time I use satire as it's the only satisfying way to make a "parody". I can understand why Tom FP's them a lot though, they bring the most click through and ad revenue. But it's really sad that more original content isn't being featured or even considered being looked at just because it doesn't have a well known character in it. I really don't understand why these parodies are so popular, especially with the content creators who seem to just help eachother out with promoting them, I never see any of these big names help promote smaller guys like you, or myself and I really think we gotta start being the change, we gotta round up like minded people, who have talent but do not conform to the petty ways of gaining internet popularity. People will look at this post and think you're bitter, but I see through that shitty excuse, I'd really like to see how they'd be if they didn't leach off franchises and parodies to get where they are. The last time I was on frontpage for my original short I was really happy, but I was only up there for not even a day and didn't even reach 2000 views, resorting to making video game parodies is such a depressing thought and even making satire about it can get old too. I am just typing at the same time my brain at the moment, so this post is probably all over the place and I could of worded things better but like i said, people who are likeminded need to band together and show that you don't need to join in on the stupid online bandwagons to get some decent recognition.
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I'm sorry. That joke was distasteful. I guess I just found it fitting to the subject.
I do agree that it's going a bit too far, to the point that you can't even get a single view with something original on youtube.
I didn't even knew about that whole animeme thing. It was kind of disgusting. Most of those things aren't even funny. God, why are image macros still a thing just kill me. And of course ricepirate is included in the team jesus what a hack i never liked that guy i knew he was a traitor
Last comment I swear, but I just remembered something;
Animated parodies have ALWAYS been around on Newgrounds. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Newgrounds start the whole parody thing? I mean NG was around way before youtube was sucking on its mom's tits.
So in a way, NG is like that snake eating its own tail. If you know what I mean.
I guess it just got a bit out of hand ;__;7 RIP in pieces internet 1999-2006
Yes Damien, but that was back when people did parodies for fun, people don't make them for fun anymore, you can see that because most of these guys even PAY others to basically do the slave labor for them. it's all about the revenue now, not about producing because it was actually a fun thing to do.
Trust me I'm the most ironic hypocrite in the universe as well as I've done mixtures of Original work as well as other work that wasn't original but while there are plenty of parody's which are shit that doesn't mean every single parody should be judged only for being parody's because some of them actually work or are good but it's not that we must get rid of parody's it's that we must find the balance of Original work as well as parody's
Ive ranted about this shit enough over the years. I don't care anymore. The dumb 10 - 14 year olds that make up about 80% of the viewer base for online animation love this shit, they don't care about original stuff and they never will. If you don't want to be stuck watching all this parody shit then go to vimeo where you can complain about how all the animation is too arty farty instead. I really couldn't care less about any of this anymore. Honestly. Its been going on since 1998, sure theres money involved now, who cares. Smart people give people what they want, if they don't feel guilty about it its probably because they don't care about animation as an art form in the first place. If you do care about animation then ignore all this shit and just make stuff. It doesn't effect any of us, all it seems to do is make people jealous. I know I was jealous for the longest time, till it was finally beat into my head that nobody cares what I make because I am making it for me, not for them, and as long as I keep working that way they never will. This is no different to the shit pop music you hear on the radio, the boring repetitive dribble that is reality TV or the plague of boring and dull sequels at the box office. Welcome to real life, move on.
"Ah, chess."
"Chess!"
"You know what they call people who play chess?"
"No."
"..."
You should just make original content and place a misleading thumbnails and tags or a shot within the cartoon that is only on the screen for a second.
You might be able to trick them in to watching something that's not a
Also the concept of originality doesn't really exist.
I agree with you 200%, some people don't even have an excuse like Harry Partridge whose original content is as popular as his parodies. Also you forgot about the "original content" that uses what i like to call "the retarded format", you know those OneyNgish cartoons that have a lot of stupid faces and shock humor that is super annoying. That is just as bad, even worse when parodies and the retarded format are mixed, which is very common too.
Anyway, Emrox for Obama 2014.
TO be honest, I feel like this is better than the shitty game grumps trend. Not too long ago the front page was flooded with those unoriginal recycled "animations".
stop writing this baloney and just make a flappy bird's parody already geez get with the program elfman
hey didnt i tell you to shut up enough is enough!
Shit parody has been a staple of NG for a long time. Now it's just that we don't have many people like rtil and other hooligans bashing the shit out of them with movies like Metal Gear Funnies. I appreciate your anti-parodies though.
I think NG could start giving more attention to original series. Especially NWAR, those movies deserve a lot more time on the frontpage.
Newgrounds was built on violent parody of pop culture, lol. I don't think it's a trend - It's the bedrock of the community. Instead, it should be seen as relatively positive that a community based on cynicism and masochism can embrace things that are serious or meaningful or artistic, even when those things aren't the greatest quality.
Long live independent animators and their varied interests! Huzzah!
I don't disagree. Although I would say that folks always told me that another reason people liked doing parodies and comedy was because you could take it a lot easier, fuck around with it, less pressure. Whereas a serious and relatively original drama (like, oh, I dunno, the Eden project I'm in) is a bit more important to not fuck up the details of.
I also think there's more to viewers than ad revenue. If I create something and nobody looks at it, I can't get constructive feedback, and it feels like playing to an empty room. Sure, you love creating your product, but it does begin to feel awfully lonely without anyone to enjoy it.
If you use the exact same skill to make something slightly different (like, perhaps, a parody) that people WILL watch, you will at least get to feel like someone enjoyed your work.
I agree with you for the most part, though. There are just some counterpoints I came across when I started actively trying to dodge parodies since that's all I was getting roped into, which seemed like it might problem for me because I didn't feel like I could proudly present that material in a professional way when comedy itself was never even a goal of mine.
Signed,
Guy who will be unwillingly compared to Batman until the day he dies.
I've been thinking about this more, and I think I came to a realization the moment I glanced to the side of the site and saw advertisements for Happy Bird and Flappy Bird Multiplayer.
Creators in need or desire of money will always latch onto the success of other things no matter what it is. Creating and promoting fewer parodies isn't going to change that, and it might even make things worse. At least with a parody, it's almost essential that you put your own spin on it to make work. With a parody, you take something that exists and provide your own commentary on it, you tell your own joke, even if it's not necessarily that clever.
But take away the parodies, and instead you'll have people ripping off the original stuff. Flappy Bird had some Mario-esque graphics, but it wasn't a parody of anything. It was its own little mini-game that somehow got insanely popular, and people responded in different ways. On one hand, a lot of people have made Flappy Bird parodies (in movie and game form). On the other hand, a lot of people have made their own blatant Flappy Bird copies in an attempt to hitch a ride on the money train. Both the parodies and the ripoffs ended up becoming naturally successful after the original game was promoted. Which one would you like to see more of?
So yeah, the situation sucks, and it's something to complain about.
But I honestly don't think there's anything we can do to make it better.
Although I do think that one of the great things about parodies is that they allow us to clearly observe how an original piece of work has influenced the world, and over time, whether or not it seems to have a lasting cultural impact on content creators. Just seeing the tremendous response to the humble little creation that is Flappy Bird is bound to make some people think, "Imagine the impact I could have on others by making something of my own."
I also would like to add something else, and that is that I disagree with the notion of artists losing integrity via this type of content.
I don't think they're less valuable as creators for doing a different kind of content for a different goal. The only real way to lose your integrity as a creator is to lose it as a professional, which would mean something like just ditching the work you agreed to do, or tossing deadlines in the air.
But RedMinus is awesome and I didn't even know he worked on Animeme until you told me, and for all I know Partridge just has a personal enjoyment for Elder Scrolls, and even if they did it purely for cash, they're still stellar creators with sexy minds and we've seen that.
If you told me RedMinus just signed a contract to do nothing but Pokemon parodies for the next five years of his life I wouldn't be offended and "trust" him less as a creator though, because at the end of the day I reckon it'd be a much greater curse for the animator than the viewer to work on that instead of your own visions. I would just be waiting for the day to come when he got some work that did him justice.
And he's a perfect example here too, because despite being a huge fan of his work and I feel like I can't get enough of things he's made, I'm still not gonna go and pick through Animeme for his contributions to it because I know that I won't really enjoy anything there, and I know I was never even meant to.
Worse than creating clickbait is not creating at all, so I'm just glad to see any of them still at it regardless of what the project is.
Well there are people who actually do it because they have a good and original way to parody the video game and they want to share their idea but also others that obviously do it just for the views.
But I don't mind video game parodies as long as they bring something new and if they make me laugh then I can't complain since they did their job.
Yup I agree....
I usually tend to skip over parodies when i see them around (basically always) and go straight for the good stuff (like your stuff).
Even though parodies and ripoffs do kinda suck... they wouldn't exist if people didn't want to see them. For some reason, there is a demand for that stuff, and people provide what people want.
Soupcat
I made a video game parody once, but then I took an arrow to the knee DOOHOHOHO