Talkin’ Nerdy: Nitpick the Rainbow
Today I’ve got to pop off for a bit about Marvel Comics’ Infinity Gems.
Shiny!
For those who don’t know, the Infinity Gems are 6 fictional gems (duh!) in the Marvel Universe. They are very powerful, and can be used in unison to make anyone who wields them omnipotent, basically a god who can control time, space and reality and generally be a really bad muchacho.
“I HAVE THE POOOOOWEEER!!!”
Each gem is small, smooth and oblong (basically Magic Skittles) and each performs a particular special power:
- SPACE: Allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
- MIND: Allows the user to boost mental power and access the thoughts and dreams of other beings. When backed by the Power Gem, the Mind Gem can access all minds in existence simultaneously.
- SOUL: This gem is sentient and allows the user to steal, manipulate and alter souls, living or dead. This gem is also the gateway to an idyllic pocket universe.
- REALITY: Allows the user to fulfill wishes, even if said wishes are in direct contradiction with scientific laws.
- TIME: Allows the user total control over the past, present and future. It allows time travel, can age or de-age beings and can also be used as a weapon by trapping enemies or entire worlds in unending loops of time.
- POWER: Accesses all power and energy that ever has or will exist, and can back the other gems and boost their effects. It also allows the user to duplicate almost any superhuman ability and become invincible.
-In addition, each Gem is a respective color:
- Power=Red
- Time=Orange
- Reality=Yellow
- Soul=Green
- Mind=Blue
- Space=Purple
Bling-Bling!
When Thanos of Titan first popped up in The Avengers, it became obvious that the Infinity Gems were going to be the all-powerful MacGuffins that would permeate throughout the Marvel Universe (MCU), (though in the movies they’re called Infinity Stones–I think Gems sounds better, but whatever), and that’s all well and good, fine and dandy, BUT……
For some reason, Disney/Marvel decided to switch the Stones’ colors around!
To be fair, this isn’t the first time this has happened: as Jason noted in his Videots of Marvel Super Heroes, for that game Capcom mysteriously changed the colors of 2 of the Gems (they changed the Time Gem from orange to magenta and the Reality Gem from yellow to orange) while leaving the other 4 Gems intact, but the MCU swapped the Gems’ colors completely.
In the MCU as well as the video game Marvel VS Capcom Infinite, the Stones’ colors are now:
- Reality=Red
- Soul=Orange
- Mind=Yellow
- Time=Green
- Space=Blue
- Power=Purple
And this is my reaction to this.
Why you do this thing, Disney?? The Gems’ colors were fine the way they were, why switch them around? Why make the Reality Gem red? Red is traditionally the color of strength and power, making the Power Gem red is therefore a no-brainer. And the Mind Gem is yellow? No! Blue is often associated with the mind, but here the Space Gem is blue. And the Power Gem is Purple? Double-No! The inky abyss of space is often purple, the SPACE Gem should be purple!
What I find particularly jarring about this is that there doesn’t seem to be any reason for the change; Disney/Marvel Studios just wanted to do this for some reason, maybe to establish that the Marvel Movie Universe is different from the Comics’ Universe, I don’t know. I realize this is a little thing that bugs me more than it should, but it still bugs me. It took me long enough to memorize the Gem colors from the comics, now I have to memorize a whole new set of colors!
“YOU’RE TEARING ME APART, MARVEL!!”
*Side Bar: I can’t believe it took us this long to make a Tommy Wiseau joke!
Cartoon Country: Funny Face
What’s this? A new Twinsanity blog post? Imagine that!
Just to keep you guys up to speed: we’re still planning to start implementing original videos onto the site, and those are still in the works. In the meantime, we still have a few more text posts on the back burner, so we’ll be dedicating the upcoming weeks and months to getting those out before we go full throttle on transforming Twinsanity to a predominantly video format. Now that that’s out of the way, on with the fun!
Today’s Cartoon Country takes another look inside the weird, weird world of Uncle Grandpa and friends.
Hang with the Gang!
Specifically, we’ll be looking at the short “Funny Face”, season 1, episode 4.
The short begins with Uncle Grandpa, Pizza Steve, Belly Bag, and Giant Realistic Flying Tiger having a “funny face party”, which involves them taking turns as they make silly faces at each other. Mr. Gus comes over and questions what they are doing. They all explain to Mr. Gus that they were having a funny face party and did not invite him because he is too serious and rarely laughs.
Really? This joy jockey almost never laughs??
Mr. Gus warns them to be careful with their funny face party before leaving them to do…things off-camera.
You know…stuff and stuff.
After Mr. Gus leaves, Uncle Grandpa takes his turn by making the ultimate funny face. He makes the rest of the gang laugh into tears. Uncle Grandpa detaches the funny face from his body to see how funny it truly is. He ends up laughing as hard as the rest of the gang. After laughing for a while, they decide to end their funny face party and go about their day. Little do they know, the Funny Face Head follows them as they do.
Let the wackiness ensue.
Trivia Time: The Funny Face Head is actually that of the series’ creator, Peter Browngardt.
“It’s so FUNNY!!!”
After exploding to get away from the Funny Face Head (as you do), Uncle Grandpa and Belly Bag end up hiding in a closet, where they find Pizza Steve and Tiger hiding as well. They all mutually agree that the funny face is making them laugh too much. The Funny Face Head ends up being in the closet with them, so they run out of the closet laughing. The Funny Face Head chases them all over the RV.
“That guy’s always one step a-HEAD! Waka-waka-waka!”
Mr. Gus sees these shenanigans and thinks they are just simply having a good time without him.
“That gets me right in the feels.”
Uncle Grandpa tells the others that they must destroy the Funny Face Head, so they put on some army gear ready to attack the Funny Face Head. Unfortunately for them, they can’t stay serious enough to destroy the Funny Face Head, and they decide to recruit Mr. Gus to help them because of his serious demeanor.
They make their way to Mr. Gus’s room, locking the door behind them so the Funny Face Head can’t come in. Uncle Grandpa knocks on Mr. Gus’s bedroom door. Mr. Gus opens it before Uncle Grandpa begins to explain everything that happened and why they need his help. Mr. Gus refuses to help due to the fact he was excluded from their party. Mr. Gus shuts the door on the rest of the gang, leaving them all very upset.
“Ooh, those feels again!”
As they are discussing how bad they feel, the Funny Face Head begins to knock on the door. Tiger and Pizza Steve try to hold the door to the best of their ability as Uncle Grandpa creates an invitation for Mr. Gus to join their “Destroy the Funny Face” party.
“Um, I know we dissed you earlier, but could you, like, do us a solid?”
Uncle Grandpa knocks on the door again and gives Mr. Gus the invitation. Mr. Gus again refuses him, stating that they are no longer friends.
“Dat’s cold, bro!”
Every wrinkle etched in misery…
Uncle Grandpa and everyone else get very distraught by this news. They all begin to cry over the loss of their friendship as the Funny Face breaks in and tries to make them all laugh. Unfortunately for the Funny Face Head, they were all so upset that they were beyond being cheered up by a silly face. This made the Funny Face pop like a balloon and fly right out of the RV.
Though they destroyed the Funny Face, they were still very upset that they lost their friendship. Mr. Gus comes out of his room to inform them all that he’s actually still their friend and he said what he said because he knew that would help them become serious enough to destroy the Funny Face. The gang is happy to hear this, so Uncle Grandpa announces a “Cuddle with Mr. Gus” party as they all give Mr. Gus a big, warm group hug.
Sweet, in a bizarre, twisted way.
And that was “Funny Face”. As Jason noted before, Uncle Grandpa isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. The biggest complaint I’ve heard about this show is that it’s too silly, to which I say, well, so effing what? Is that really a bad thing? Not every cartoon has to be Grave of the Fireflies. Sometimes, a little silly and surreal can be just what the doctor ordered. Some cartoons have to bring the zany, and that’s just what Uncle G and company do. My favorite animated shows have always been the ones which embrace the big, dopey silliness of the medium and just run with it.
“Weird. Is. Good!”
We’re Still Here
Just wanted to pop in to let you guys know what’s been going on here as of late. Since neither of us are on social media (it’s basically here and email exclusively), communication isn’t always that easy. We want to assure you that new material is coming. I know these gaps between posts are annoying; we’re not happy about it either, but we’ve both been really busy and occupied with other things lately. So apologies about these delays, but we haven’t forgotten about you or this site. There will be new posts here soon; we have some in the works currently, and they’ll be typed and published as soon as they’re ready.
Among the things we’ve been busy doing this past month or so is we’ve been learning the ins and outs of video production. As many of you who’ve been following us here for the past few years already know, one of our long-term goals is to transform Twinsanity from a blog to a full-blown website, moving from text to videos, our ultimate plan is for Twinsanity to consist mainly of videos; there may still be the occasional blog post, but those will largely consist solely of text, the stuff with visuals, jokes, skits and cutaways (i.e. Cartoon Country, The Cartoon Couch, The Retro Bin, Toon Adjacent, etc.) will be presented as videos, in addition to some other totally new video material ideas that we’re currently kicking around, among them a revised 2 Funny in which the material will be made, written and performed by ourselves as opposed to just embedding someone else’s work. We’re currently in the process of picking out software programs and equipment, learning how shoot, film and edit, assembling props, costumes, writing up scripts, juggling ideas and everything else that comes with said transition, so if all goes according to plan, the next crop of blog posts with images and jokes and stuff which will be coming out within the next few months or so will be the last of their kind before we make the switch to video production.
To sum up, we apologize for the wait, and we thank you for bearing with us. The face of this site is going to change, but Twinsanity is far from over.
Pop Dream #12: Lynn Sr. and Rita
Well folks, this is it. We’ve finally reached the last installment of our Pop Dream miniseries salute to The Loud House.
“But Star Bros.”, I hear you ask, “How could you have one more? You’ve already covered Lincoln and each of his 10 sisters…
“…Who’s left?”
-Why, their parents, of course!
“What the what??”
Yes, we’re throwing y’all a curve ball for this one. Our final Loud House Pop Dream is all about the couple who made all of the Loud kids possible. Today’s Pop Dream spotlights Lynn Loud, Sr. and Rita Loud!
Lynn Sr.: A Pop Dream all about the ol’ parents? Well, that gets a few points on the Dad-O-Meter!
Rita: Hon…that’s joke’s so lame it’s on crutches.
Wait a minute. Lynn Sr. and Rita? Senior? Rita? Senorita!
OVERVIEW
Lynn Loud, Sr. (a.k.a. Dad) is the father of Lincoln and his sisters. Lynn Sr. is a supporting character in the first season, but becomes a more major character from Season 2-onward.
Additionally, Rita Loud (a.k.a. Mom) is the mother of the Loud children. Rita is a supporting character in the first season, and a major character from Season 2 and onwards.
The only Loud family member not to have an alliterative name, Rita’s name is a pun on the phrase “read aloud”, referring to her desire to be a novelist, which involves reading (and writing).
The Loud parents act playfully romantic towards each other (an example of this is when they skinny dip into the hotel pool).
Don’t worry, we’re not gonna show you that.
“Thank goodness!”
Initially, the parents’ faces were never shown during the first season. They were finally revealed in the Season 2 premiere, “11 Louds a Leapin'”.
“Yeah, brutha, it sucks to not have a face!”
“Eh, it’s not so bad. For one thing, you never have to shop for hats!”
At the beginning of the episode “Suite and Sour”, for the first few seconds of the episode their faces were again kept hidden, as if their reveal never happened, only to show them afterwards.
“Fooled ya!”
APPEARANCE
Rita wears a pink shirt with a white collar and cuffs, and purple pants. She has big blonde hair and white earrings. She also wears blue eye shadow and red lipstick. She also wears black low tops.
Plus she’s got a serious set of thighs and glutes!
“Dude! That is not cool! You’re gonna get us in trouble again!”
Lynn Sr. wears a sea green sweater over a light-green checkered collar and cuffs, and brown slacks. He has a long pointy nose, brown eyebrows, and curly brown hair that is thinning on the top.
Also, Dude’s kind of hairy!
“He’s bringin’ sexy back!”
PERSONALITY
Lynn Sr. is stern, and often calls a halt to his kids’ fights, but he loves and cares about them. He also loves his wife, and often acts playfully romantic towards her. He has been shown to have a childlike side at times, even sometimes taking part in his kids’ antics, when it’s all in good fun. He’s also the more sensitive of the two parents, often necessitating his wife, and stepping in whenever he needs to pull himself together.
In the episode “House Music”, we learn that Lynn Sr. used to play the cowbell. He was even in a band…
…Until the other members kicked him out for going nuts with it.
Thankfully, he does get his moment to shine at the family fair.
Rita is caring toward her children, but is not afraid to punish them if they go too far. She and her husband act playfully romantic towards each other, though she is apparently more level-headed than him.
She dreams to be a novelist but initially seems to lack a creative side, as she wrote a story about a bored dental assistant talking to her fish before being inspired by Lincoln to write about a thrill seeker with white hair, himself.
“_ _ _ _ _ ,
_ _ _ _ _ _ _.
_ _ _ _ _ _.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _.”
-Four lines from a lazy poet.”
Lori, Leni, Lana, Lola, and Lily seem to resemble Rita the most. Out of all the kids, Rita she is closest with Lincoln. Out of all her daughters, she’s the closest to Lori, Leni, and Lily.
Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lisa seem to resemble Lynn, Sr. the most. Out of his children, he’s the closest to Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lana. He is the first character in the series, apart from Lincoln, to speak to the audience. This instance occurred at the end of “It’s a Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud, House”. Lynn Sr. seems to enjoy jokes and dancing. He is shown to dance on occasions in episodes such as “The Loudest Yard”, “Ties That Bind”, “Come Sale Away”, “House Music”, and “Lock ‘N’ Loud”. In addition, it is mentioned in “A Tattler’s Tale” that he won a dancing contest, and had a disco ball trophy that Lincoln broke. In addition, in “Sleuth or Consequences” he mentions enjoying karaoke. On occasion, he enjoys Luan’s jokes, and tries making his own, which appeal to Luan as well, as shown in “Raw Deal”.
He’s also shown to be quite a coward, as he screams and faints at the sight, sound, and idea of spiders, Lana’s mud wrestling, horror movies, and Halloween.
“The nuts don’t fall too far from the tree! Yuk-yuk!”
“What are you, NUTS? That joke was NUT very good! Get it?”
FUNNIER MOMENTS
“The Price of Admission”: The fun begins when Lincoln wants to go see a horror movie starring a character called The Harvester, a fiend who harvests peoples’ innards. Lincoln shows his mom Rita a trailer for the movie on the phone, but Rita forbids him from going.
Rita: Uh-uh, Lincoln, you are not seeing that movie. It is too scary for you. He pulls around a cooler full of organs!
Lincoln: (disappointed and groaning) Mom!
Rita: You know how you get. You’ll have nightmares. You’ll think something’s out to get you. You’re just like your father.
(As she walks away, Lynn Sr. comes out from behind the sofa with a teddy bear.)
Lynn Sr.: That is a total exaggeration! On a completely different note, that trailer is never to be played in this house again. (walks away fidgeting in fear.)
But wait, there’s more: later, after Linc sneaks into the theater to see the movie anyway, and is of course, freaked out beyond belief that night, he does everything he can to stay awake, at one point going to the kitchen and spotting this:
“I’m gonna slice you right down the middle!”
Lincoln reacts the way you’d expect. This gag comes up again in the following scene the following morning.
(In the kitchen, Lynn Sr. is working on the ceramic pumpkins and Rita is checking the fridge.)
Rita: Honey, have you seen the cake I baked for the school fundraiser?
Lynn Sr.: (spits out coffee) No, I didn’t see your carrot cake.
Rita: (suspicious) How did you know it was carrot?
Lynn Sr.: I…uh… (sees his son) Lincoln! There you are.
And later on, after Rita and Lynn allow Lincoln to see the movie and even accompanying him (not realizing he’s already seen it), Lincoln confesses and the folks let him off the hook. Lynn Sr. laments what a ‘shame’ it is that they won’t get to see the films because he “loves scary movies” so much, he spots the family’s neighbor Mr. Grouse cosplaying as the Harvester.
“AAAHH! THE HARVESTER! DON’T TAKE MY PANCREAS!”
What a guy!
“April Fools Rules”: the parents deal with their daughter Luan’s annual pranking spree in the appropriate manner.
“Lock ‘n’ Loud”: The parents return from a night of dance lessons. Lynn Sr. twirls Rita…right into the bushes, then gets riled up at those darn kids not locking the front door that he forgets to retrieve her. This happens twice in the short.
“Homespun”: Hiding out in the basement during a hurricane, the family talks about, among other things, how thin the walls are, leading to a flashback involving Lucy gripped in a romantic conundrum on whether or not she should cheat on her vampire bust Edward with a sexy werewolf. Eventually nearly everyone in the house weighs in on this, including Lynn, Sr. and Rita.
“Don’t these books sound a little old for Lucy?”
“Of course not, dear. When I was a girl, I read a series about a cute lumberjack.”
Side bar: I love the title of the book Rita’s reading, The Mom Jeans Ultimatum.
In another flashback we see the time the kids treated their parents on their anniversary by painting the house…quite literally.
“SURPRISE!!!”
“O-M-Gosh!”
Later the kids re-paint the house back to normal, but they still leave their mark by leaving their hand prints on the side.
Note how the color of the hand prints each Loud sibling places on the house, all match the colors they appear in the show’s theme song (except for Lincoln):
-Lincoln – Orange
-Lori – Light blue
-Leni – Turquoise
-Luna – Purple
-Luan – Yellow
-Lynn – Red
-Lucy – Black
-Lana – Blue
-Lola – Pink
-Lisa – Green
-Lily – Lavender
And if you picked up on that, congratulations! Here’s your Geek Card!
“Best…anniversary gift…ever.” (sniff)
“Come Sale Away”: the kids are showing off their victory butt-dances, trying to out do one another, until Rita intervenes.
“Kids! Please!” (The kids stop their victory dances.) “This is how you do a victory dance!” [does her own victory dance.) “Uh-huh! Go Mom! Shake that booty!”
CONCLUSION
While The Loud House is first and foremost a kidcom, I have to say that the parents and their little scenes and interactions are one of the highlights of the show for me. I like how Rita and Lynn, Sr. are actual characters, rather than just being cardboard rule-givers or perpetually off-screen entities. Each of them has a clear-cut personality, the 2 of them compliment one another perfectly and neither is perfect; they sometimes disagree, do silly things and occasionally set bad examples for the kids; that’s much more interesting. I hope to one day create a kidcom, and the parents’ roles on the show will basically be like Lynn, Sr. and Rita’s. It’s good to show that kid protagonists have parents, and moms and dads are always around to keep the kids grounded, or just to embarrass them beyond belief.
That wraps up our Loud House Pop Dream. Next time, Pop Dream is gonna get wild, savage, in fact, downright animal. We’ll be heading to the mystic land of Jaamu for a little…
Keep on Pop Dreaming.
Coming Attractions…and Leaving Producers
silverstar ♦ March 27, 2018 ♦ 13 Comments
We try to avoid dishing dirt or making posts about current events here on Twinsanity; we generally try to keep things light and stick to the pop-culture fun, but in the wake of the plans we’ve made for the site recently, I thought this was a timely thing to discuss.
In one of life’s great ironies, shortly after Jason and myself have chosen to largely move away from text posts in favor of videos (something we’ve been wanting to do for some time), there has recently been this mass exodus of content creators jumping ship on one of the more prominent entertainment/pop culture aggregate sites on the internet right now, Channel Awesome.
Just yesterday, we read that longtime CA producer Lewis Lovhaug (a.k.a. Linkara of Atop the 4th Wall fame) has departed from Channel Awesome. (He actually left last week apparently, but we only just got the news yesterday morning.) On that same day, another producer, Mike Jeavons (Mike J) announced he was leaving, then shortly afterward yet another producer, Diamanda Hagan, announced her departure from the site, then we found out that 3 other producers: Todd Nathanson (Todd in the Shadows), Will Dufrense (Suede) and Darren Jackson (Rap Critic) have also parted ways with Channel Awesome. So that’s 6 prominent internet reviewers/personalities who have left CA in this short space of time, and this wasn’t the first case of such departures: last year, Dena Netalli (Cyborcat) announced her departure from the site, and yet another producer, Chad Rocco (CR!) was fired from CA late last year. Two other notable producers, Allison Pregler (Obscurus Lupa) and Phelan Porteous (Phelous) had a VERY noticeably ugly breakup with Channel Awesome, and having watched their live stream this past New Year’s Eve, it’s clearly still a touchy subject with them; they and their friends spent a sizable portion of the stream mocking CA and its’ top brass. Yet another producer, Lindsay Ellis (the artist formerly known as the Nostalgia Chick–a title she never relished, BTW) cut ties with Channel Awesome a while ago. Another Chez Apocalypse producer, Kyle Kallgren (Oancitizen) likewise departed from CA some time ago.
I’ve never personally worked with Channel Awesome, so I don’t possess firsthand knowledge of the inner workings of the site, but I’ve heard things about how CA is run, and not all of them have been positive. (More detailed info on the inner turmoil at CA can be found in various places throughout the internet.) The basic gist of it is that Channel Awesome (formerly ThatGuyWithTheGlasses) is owned by one Mike Michaud and fronted by Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic), who’s basically the face of the site. Word is that Mr. Michaud isn’t the easiest person to work with; he’s known as something of a tyrant who’s not transparent with his dealings and interactions with his contributors, he’s known for being hard to get a hold of and he, Doug Walker and Doug’s brother Rob (a behind the scenes personality at CA) have been accused on numerous occasions of purposely focusing the site on just the Nostalgia Critic at the expense of the other producers and not paying or properly compensating–or even acknowledging–the other content creators or their contributions.
All of this news cuts me to the quick; I regularly watch and enjoy the content of many of these people. Several of them are what initially inspired me to want to go into video production (Phelous and Allison in particular are personal heroes of mine whose work I aspire to emulate in my own way). For a long time I fantasized about being part of an online entertainment hub like Channel Awesome or NormalBoots; presently as of this writing the only producers I follow who are still on CA are Mathew Buck (Film Brain), Tony Goldmark (Some Jerk with a Camera), Brad Jones (The Cinema Snob), Elisa Hansen (Maven of the Eventide), Joe Vargas (Angry Joe) and Eric Rodriguez (The Blockbuster Buster). Lewis’ departure was particularly shocking to me; I NEVER thought Linkara would ever leave CA. Don’t get me wrong, I know entertainment is a business and it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, I’m not delusional, but to hear about all of this ugly business at CA and so many talented people getting burned and walking away from the site is just a tad disheartening, especially for someone like me who has only just now decided to follow in the footsteps of these amazingly talented individuals.
I guess it’s not so bad; at this point these folks have substantial followings as well as Patreon accounts, it’s not like any of them need Channel Awesome to survive. I follow most of their work on YouTube anyway.
Our plans for Twinsanity haven’t changed: we’re still going forward with video production; I can no longer avoid the fact that over time I’ve really become bored with just making text posts. Going back to Linkara, one of the things that gave me the incentive to try this new venture was when Lewis mentioned that started his internet career making text reviews before deciding to switch to videos after being inspired by the Nostalgia Critic and ThatGuyWithTheGlasses/Channel Awesome. I also still don’t think that aggregate sites like CA are a bad idea in principle, and would still like to be part of such a site if we can find a group of like-minded individuals (provided things are kept small and intimate; one of the many complaints people have with CA is that it’s run like a corporation rather than a community of friends like TGWTG was), but at this point it seems clear that Channel Awesome isn’t going to be that place. They’ll probably never ask me to join, but I’ve become very wary of CA now, this number of dissatisfied producers jumping ship on the site isn’t something to be ignored, Mike Michaud clearly doesn’t seem to give a crud about anyone not named Doug Walker.
This is not to spite those who have chosen to stay at Channel Awesome; they have their reasons for remaining loyal and if they can find success and gain followings there, then more power to them, nor is this meant to be a knock against Doug or Rob Walker; I still enjoy the Nostalgia Critic and the Walkers’ other videos (ironically I enjoy their Sibling Rivalries and Real Thoughts more then the NC videos these days), though there are other producers whose work I enjoy more, but for me the prospect of joining Channel Awesome, which used to be a dream of mine, has now just left a bad taste in my mouth.