Artists Statement
Traditional hand drawn comics and 2d animation has been a passion of mine since I first picked up the pencil. Much to my mother’s dismay I would constantly waste sticky notes to make flip books. However, to me, the importance of animating a fat guy exploding was well worth the loss of a few sticky notes. And that’s really what all this is about for me. Well, not fat guys exploding, but creating characters that move and react to different forms of violent slapstick.
Slapstick can be described as a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence and activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense. It’s no wonder that slapstick is a constant through most televised cartoons. Considering I was inspired by said cartoons, it makes sense that my animations use exaggerated physical violence as an outlet for humor. But why is physical violence funny to us? From day one we’re taught to treat our peers with respect. So why is comedy based on another’s misfortune so prevalent in the media? I have always found excessive violence funny for the simple fact that it’s excessive. Not so much that there needs to be copious amounts of blood for extended periods of time. On the contrary when I say “excessive” I mean a single moment where the violence is excessive for the situation. But that doesn’t really answer the question does it? For the most part we as a people are not altruistic. For example, when someone accidentally falls down we’ll laugh about it once we know they’re okay. We laugh in a manner that says “well at least that wasn’t me”. I believe that this is a key component to why we find slapstick funny. All of the events in my animations are extraordinary. That is they could never happen in real life. There are no real world repercussions to viewing a cartoon character experiencing excessive misfortunes on screen. We can engorge ourselves on something that is almost primal. And that is why I believe slapstick is something that we can all easily identify with.
Growing into who I am and what I’ve created here today, It's become clear that slapstick is an integral part of my work. Regardless, I know for a fact, that the small child who created flipbooks with his mother's sticky notes would be very proud and delighted with what I have created in these 3 animations.
Slapstick can be described as a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence and activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense. It’s no wonder that slapstick is a constant through most televised cartoons. Considering I was inspired by said cartoons, it makes sense that my animations use exaggerated physical violence as an outlet for humor. But why is physical violence funny to us? From day one we’re taught to treat our peers with respect. So why is comedy based on another’s misfortune so prevalent in the media? I have always found excessive violence funny for the simple fact that it’s excessive. Not so much that there needs to be copious amounts of blood for extended periods of time. On the contrary when I say “excessive” I mean a single moment where the violence is excessive for the situation. But that doesn’t really answer the question does it? For the most part we as a people are not altruistic. For example, when someone accidentally falls down we’ll laugh about it once we know they’re okay. We laugh in a manner that says “well at least that wasn’t me”. I believe that this is a key component to why we find slapstick funny. All of the events in my animations are extraordinary. That is they could never happen in real life. There are no real world repercussions to viewing a cartoon character experiencing excessive misfortunes on screen. We can engorge ourselves on something that is almost primal. And that is why I believe slapstick is something that we can all easily identify with.
Growing into who I am and what I’ve created here today, It's become clear that slapstick is an integral part of my work. Regardless, I know for a fact, that the small child who created flipbooks with his mother's sticky notes would be very proud and delighted with what I have created in these 3 animations.