the cat has fallen. the situation is at a loss.

my my my look at the time. is it 4/20 already? WELL YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.

PROPAGANDA POST TIME!

with SNORKS.
before i even get into this let me say holy shit i don't even know anything about snorks. i mean, i watched snorks. it was definately something i did see on television. i watched it during my youth, but i can't claim to have paid attention. i think i paid even less attention than i paid to the smurfs. which is really all the snorks are, an aquatic smurf ripoff who didn't say snork every other word

so i don't know any of these characters. or villains. or towns or anything about it. but i DO know the title is a reference to the 1930s propaganda that should crown every collection, REEFER MADNESS. so without further ado...


( REEFBERRY MADNESS AWAITS in 114 or so caps )

so...WAS this a propaganda?
well, it certainly has plenty of propaganda tropes. but at the same time, there was no real effort to deliver some sort of scare tactic moral (apart from 'unless one of your pals is sober you're all doomed to enslavement') and overall the effect of the 'silly powder' on the snorks was just ...well, it was pretty close to realistic? just mellow and goofy as fuck. so i don't think this strictly WAS a propaganda.

what i think it really was? was the writers giggling to eachother that they should do a reefer madness take-off. and really if you know reefer madness, you know why it's silly, and you're probably closer to being pro-legalization than pro-propaganda. but i also think there's only so much a writer's department could get away with without having to package it up with a little bit of a 'drugs are bad, stay sober' morality.

either way it's fun!
and i'll have the snorks theme song stuck in my head for like ten weeks now.

HAPPY EASTER Y'ALL!

it's been a long time since i did a propaganda post, and i can't think of a better date to let it drop than today.

and certainly, i can't think of a better subject to tell you about the dangers of drugs than well...scooby doo.

...alright, that's bullshit, i can think of a MILLION characters who make a LOT more sense than having SCOOBY FUCKING DOO tell you stay off drugs. but none of them have half as many rediculous tweens, smears, or misguided writers.

shall we then?


( like there's 300 screenshots under this cut, scoob! )

have a good one, dudes.

oh, and don't miss chris's wonderful commentary on the anti-drug episode of "Defenders of the Earth"! it's every bit as splendid.

good morning space cadets.

let me talk to you a moment about a tv show i've been dutifully (and regretfully) watching. it's about to wrap up its second season.


this tv show is called "the new version of thundercats" and hey, i won't lie, the art design is really nice. the animation isn't too shabby i guess. the series started off with a LOT of promise. but then they did something stupid. they wouldn't meet the first episode writer's pay demands, and fired him, and hired some absolutely atrocious writers in his place. the series has been in a steady downward spiral since that point. it's almost painful to watch. the writers have no idea what they're doing. liono has a cathardic revelation that he must prove himself as king and stop being jealous of his brother about once every three episodes and never changes his behavior, in spite of this.

"blundercats" about sums it up, really.

the fact of the matter is that i wouldn't be writing this except for one thing: the new thundercats fandom? is quite active on twitter. and last week i watched them go biz-zonkers crying that this was the "best episode yet" and "taught the dangers of drugs" and how "deep" the show was. i was extremely skeptical. but i thought maybe the writers were throwing me a bone, here, and actually did a propaganda episode!

alas, this was not the case. it was just a lame throw-away side gag where tygra accidentally drinks a potion and goes all lovey dovey telling liono his feelings and picking flowers and cuddling catterpillers and shit. there were really no negative repercussions, no lecture, and it wasn't the focus of the episode at all. i found myself sitting there shouting
REALLY? REALLY NEW THUNDERCATS FANDOM? YOU THINK THIS IS PROPAGANDA?? REALLY?? REALLY. REALLY???

so i had to bust out my screencaps.

i know what you're thinking. "but icarus, you already did the thundercats propaganda episode!" I SURE DID. FOR SEASON THREE. the original thundercats had not one, but TWO propaganda episodes! and you know me. propaganda collection is my favourite hobby, next to drawing comics about emotionally crippled aliens.

join me, won't you?


( season 1, episode 9. 315 images. )

so there you go. the first thundercats propaganda, though the second one i posted. this one had subtler undertones relating to the drug (silky fruit) causing strife and danger for everyone, but in the end kind of had a more realistic solution to it in tygra just finding the willpower to stop on his own. part of me thinks this is because of how early in the series this was, because when you look at the era of propaganda between the 60s and 70s, it generally has the moral of "be careful" instead of "DRUGS ARE EVIL EVIL EVIL ANYONE WHO DOES THEM IS EVILLLLL"

naturally that all changed by season 3. but yeah.

TAKE THAT, NEW THUNDERCATS.
YOU THINK YOU CREATED AN EPISODE WITH HINTS ABOUT DRUG ABUSE?
FUCK YOU, YOU DIDN'T. IN FACT, INSTEAD, YOU HAD LIONO TRY TO DRUG A WOMAN INTO "LIKING" HIM. SO FUCK YOU. SOME HERO YOU'RE WRITING LIONO INTO, NEW THUNDERCATS.

I HOPE YOU GET CANCELLED AND BURIED AT SEA. WHERE NO ONE WILL EVER FIND YOUR HORRIBLE SCRIPTS EVER AGAIN.

wow i haven't run out of space in an lj entry in a long time. anyway, so let's continue.

PART TWO OF CARTOON ALL STARS TO THE RESCUE. the first part is here.



( complete with a horrible music number )

indeed, that's it. the biggest crossover in cartoon history. and primarily most of it is spent shaming drug addicts and belittling their intelligence and self accountability. QUALITY.
also it confused the hell out of me as a child because in all honesty the average ten year old did not have a lot of experience around drugs.

best intentions
utterly misguided.

oh it also featured the most ear-piercing horrific ending theme ever. worse than the song midway through! i can't even listen to it! but maybe you can. enjoy?

i'll be back later with a post meant for the site with some links and whatnot. for now i need to get a cup of fucking coffee. cause my day is a wash without drugs. perfectly legal drugs, but still.

well it's almost 10am est, and it's the day before the night before xmas and day 4 of propaganukka. that means three more days to go!

following my enormous rant about the space race on tumblr, i thought i'd take us on a little trip into the stellarsphere with propaganda too. this one is relatively new to my collection, but already near and dear to my heart.

i don't know much about Galaxy High School, but i do know it's the kind of show that had it aired on any of my local stations i would have been a compulsive viewer. i also know that this particular episode won several awards for its relevence/delivery/message/writing...? it IS one of the better propagandas, both in its semi-realistic depiction of a downward slide aaaand also in its quality of writing. there's also other reasons i like it. a few folks might be able to guess at those. but if you can guess, please don't share. i don't like to give out my real name onliOOOOOOPS

so strap in, and prepare for lift-off. we're in for some 90s animated scifi tweenaged goodness with The Brain Blaster.

( being kidnapped by aliens to go to their space school...every nerd's wet dream )

so what did we learn from today's Propaganukka gift?
well, we learned that pressure (like failing school, or being told the entire championship rides on you, or racism) can lead to drug use. we also learned that real friends are willing to help you BEFORE they lecture you, that sometimes your friends might also have tried drugs, and that drugs will get you kicked out of a sports tournament.

wait what the!
DID WE ACTUALLY LEARN REAL FACTS AND MORALS ABOUT DRUG USE TODAY?
WHAT THE FUCK
well it was all wrapped up in a nice package with lightbulb aliens, singing wigs and surfer talk so i guess that's okay.

see you tomorrow, everybody! get ready for your next present!