On Cartoons and Why All Other Shows Are Substandard (Higher-Enlightenment)

So... On cartoons and proving I'm not an overgrown child. 

This is a more personal write up, hope you enjoy it.

From a young age I've always favoured cartoons over any other form of media. I never understood the appeal of real-life media other than documentaries. I could never stand Power Rangers as a child, and would never watch shows like Drake and Josh unless forced to endure it due to the presence of an oppressive "teen" at the time. 

Real people doing abnormal (or even worse, normal) things never made much sense to me. It always seemed strange and distant even to my young mind at the time. Growing up, I started to see the appeal of iCarly and a few other shows but never had the same affinity for them as I had for cartoons. I even preferred to watch cartoons on Disney Jr at times, all the way into my teen years— questionable I know but was what I had a liking to.

Now older and more mature, the trend remains. 

I have a clear bias towards adult cartoons than to any other TV show that is offered (Yes, I haven't watched Game of Thrones, and will likely die not knowing what we say to the god of death, not tomorrow and not one hundred years from now will I know). I never really understood the reason for my leaning towards cartoons in general and never really bothered, or found reason to bother about it— I mean, you like what you like right? Thinking about it now, it usually isn't that simple. Most of the time it's "You like what you like because of what you like". Pause and ask yourself "What do I really like?". Not sure? There's something to wonder about for the day at least.

So, what got me thinking about what I really like? Same old, same old; engaging with the world in an elevated state.

Around afternoon time a month or so back, I decided to watch re-watch a show that I had told myself was a much-watch while elevated. Being elevated, I thought to myself "What better time to revisit my past self's suggestion than now?". So I went into my videos folder, found the must-watch series, The Midnight Gospel (A true gem), played some episodes from my "Favourite Episodes" folder and laid back to be fully entranced by this abstract/postmodernist art form masquerading as a simple childish cartoon. 

If you're not familiar with the plot, the show centres around a simple, stoic-like protagonist, Clancy Gilroy, as he travels to vastly different universes/worlds in order to record talks with one or two of the world's inhabitants for his space-podcast— his spacecast. Clancy neglects to take proper care of his multiverse simulator and so finds himself in worlds at the brink of collapse. Trying to not give too much away, that's bare-bones of what the series is about; elegantly done, and satisfying to watch.

So what in this series could have prompted me to a better understanding of myself? Particularly, Episodes 2 (Officers and Wolves) and 6 (Vulture With Honor) are what led to the train of thought I hadn't before come to think much of.

In Episode 2, we follow Clancy to a world where animal-like creatures, reminiscent of some sort of deer-dog-elephant hybrid, are preyed upon by smaller, humanoid-like clown figures. The biggest twist at the beginning of the episode was the surprising fact that the "animals" could talk and the clown figures seemingly couldn't - already an intriguing concept from the getgo. 

In Episode 6, for the first time in the series, we engage with Clancy's "overworld" and learn that his world isn't any more or less "unique" from any of the other worlds he travels to in his multiverse simulator.

You could write full-length essays on any one episode, just from the background animated antics going on in the worlds alone without even touching on to the themes being talked about. You could then write another essay about the themes talked about. You could then write an another-nother essay on themes talked about in relation to whats going on in the background. All in all, an artistic feat and animation masterpiece.

But the most aspect that struck me as surprising while elevated was how quickly Clancy became accustomed to the strange worlds he travelled to after just minutes of being there. Then it hit me "I'm watching this and also not really asking much questions either", subconsciously, unbeknownst to me, I had become as accustomed to witnessing the totally random and seemingly lawless worlds as Clancy has. 

Though I wasn't physically there like Clancy, it was similarly as absurd for me to find myself just accepting the rules presented to me as the episodes progressed without questioning them— I mean, what if I had to kill a dog halfway into the episode or risk assassination or something unexpected like that? Unlikely, but not impossible (Just ask JFK 🤫). 

A few days later, still pondering on the thought, I realized that was really what I enjoy about cartoons, the more reasonably absurd, the more enthralling the shows were.

I finally understood why I didn't like Family Guy so much but enjoyed American Dad, a show by the same creators (Just with an alien and a little bit more of an outlandish-normal theme). Family guy is "strange", but for the most part it's just like any normal wacky sitcom, but in cartoon form. Similarly said about Southpark— but Southpark's vulgarity is more so my issue with it than any other thing, being extremely wacky or vulgar without context isn't "funny".

I simply liked the idea of a world with vastly different rules than the rules of the world I'm used to. From there it all made sense. It explained why Bojack Horseman was far more interesting to me than any sitcom which could easily attempt something similar. It explained my semi addiction to video games and, most recently, it explained my fascination with psychedelic substances.

I don't think it comes from the fact that I want an "escape" per se, I think it's more of a "bored with mundane everyday reality" thing. It's a want for an adventure beyond the mundane, towards the supramundane.

Why did I write this post? Because I'm egocentric af, is that even a question?  

But yea, that's it for me. Maybe try pause for a moment or two and think about your likings, you might stumble upon something interesting. If you do, hmu, would make for an interesting convo.

Bless