Lots of inspiration for this one: Zefrank, Strong Bad, whoever made “End of the World,” “Washington” by Cox and Combes, the Ask a Ninja guy…
Yes, I pronounced “waterfowl” as “waterfall.” I just noticed that a half an hour ago and I’m not ready to go back in and fix it.
Anyhow, this was fun. It was nice to do so much drawing, and fun to work in a new medium. Obviously the sound levels need fixing and I need to enunciate more, but it seems promising.
10:48 pm, April 11, 2007 -- 48 comments
…
How? How do you make the Ratings, which I thought were made of distilled and concentrated humor, and make them even funnier?
How!?
This is rad. Please, sir, might I have more?
The only drawback of this medium for your humour – as opposed to the plain ol’ written Ratings – is that I was laughing so hard during the video that I had a hard time catching all of it. (But I guess that’s what the Replay button is for, hmmmm.)
Very funny, although your facial expressions.. I dunno, they reming me of someone or something that I know not what. And this unsettles me.
Not that I love you any less. Very funny, especially the idea of the buffalo “start[ing] some shit.”
Totally, totally awesome.
Love it. Although, seeing your mug up-close and through-the-peephole-like was a little shocking.
I wanna see more.
Yeah,”waterfall” confused me.
That was awesome. More please?
I agree, that was pretty damn awesome. I am a little bemused as to why Willy Wonka was carrying the canadian money at the end though… is there something I’m missing?
Thanks, folks.
Re: Wonka. My original thought was to hold the money myself, but I didn’t want to run out and get a hundred and eighty-five Canadian dollars. Wonka is there to add visual interest, and because Canadian money is colorful and candy-like.
That was spectacular!
(But you should always be wearing shades and holding a drink when appearing in public, so I can recognize you as your cartoon self)
That was pure, distilled awesomeness, with two olives. I might suggest moving it to Revver or some other potential revenue-generating site if you feel you have the discipline to make it a weekly or semiweekly thing, on top of your other weekly things.
I like! I did find myself pausing every now and then, because I like to squeeze every drop of humor I can out of your material. (Don’t ask what I do with the resultant husk.) I’d love to see more video versions, but I think you might find a way to spruce up the shots of yourself speaking. Nothing over-the-top, but something whimsical, maybe, that still serves as a base to center the entire piece. (Base to center? I’m an idiot. Ignore this.)
Great stuff, Lore. I’m sure all your hardcore fans are happy to see more Ratings in any form, but seriously, this is a fantastic medium for you. It has all the style aspects you’ve been looking for in Bad Gods – Easy-does-it animation that’s still stylized enough to avoid the “laziness” label, well-paced humor that’s not short on actual comedy, and your voice (which 9 out of 10 people all agree makes any joke funnier). PLEASE keep this format going, this is awesome!
On the West Virginia quarter, I half-expected a joke about BASE jumping. ” Total f#@king lie” was much better.
Good stuff! I can’t quite place it but I think the timing could use just a smidgen of work, but that’s just me. Also, I’d rather see more simple cartoons than the up-close mug shot. I think the juxtaposition of really simple (and funny as hell) drawings and real footage was a little jarring for me. I’d rather see more basic drawings, even if you went with a simplified version of you from your comic panels or something. Seems like it might make things flow a little more smoothly.
Overall I liked it though, funny stuff. The randomly drawn comments here and there were easily the best parts!
That buffalo! I’ve seen that buffalo before, and he was handing out drugs, too! It was… it was just a few days ago, I think…
What everybody else already said, Lore.
AWESOME!
Awesome! I laughed more at this than at an average Zefrank video, which is saying something, and I think you’ve managed to merge the varied styles of your influences with your own in a beautiful way.
My only problem was that the quality of your voice changed a lot between the mugshot and your voiceover, which felt a little jarring. Keeping it consistent (even if it means lower-quality) would help ease the transitions, methinks. But I tend to notice things like that.
Wow, that was really great, Lore — I hope we see more of these experiments.
Its as if you asked me what I liked most about the internet and converted my thought balloon into an actual thing. You rule, Lore.
That was Fing awesome. Who would have thought you could make the ratings that much better? And I second the motion for the next one having: A) you in sunglasses and B) the same tonal quality on the two different voice-overs
Not so sure about the sunglasses thing. First off, with the lights they probably wouldn’t look that dark, and so wouldn’t be as cool-looking. Secondly, eyes are important to facial expressions. Maybe those two would cancel each other out, though…
I don’t feel bad after watching this video instead of studying for the test I’ll be taking in less than an hour.
A+
I don’t know how much time it takes to make this (I would think it would take less, but I remember Ze saying it took six hours for The Show), but I definitely loved it. The only thing that bothered me was the aforementioned swap in voice quality. “Voice quality” is a bad way to put it, though. The voice sounded the same. It was like there was more background static, or something, on the live shots. I don’t know a lot about this sort of thing, but hopefully that might be a detail that helps you iron it all out.
For some reason, it was the “Wow, this is the most interested I’ve ever been in Kansas before” comment that put me over the edge. Hilarious.
The other good thing about the Kansas buffalo is that you can’t see its junk.
Very nice. I think you’re onto something. I have a few minor pacing quibbles here and there (in particular, your live shots tend to have an unneccesary silent beat at the beginning and end), but overall very good.
Since you listed some influences, I’m going to make a stab at a couple of specifics:
John Muir description == Strong Bad (hesitation, ending in self-questioning tone)
“Canadian money… sooo pretty…” == Ze
There it is! This, I think, is what I was yapping about the other day. There are, of course, a number of notes I could offer, and likely will if you choose to continue exploring in this direction (which you should), but this was a first try – you certainly are aware of what could be improved, so for now, I’ll offer my congratulations and a big thumbs-up. You’ve earned it.
It’s funny to see so many other comments saying “awesome,” because seeing this, I actually said “awesome” out loud. (AOL’ed?) Either internet users’ vocabulary is getting just as bad as people like to complain, or you have effectively inspired awe.
I think it’s just about perfect. I disagree with the comments that you should change the talking-head bits; the whole idea is that you’re giving your opinions about stuff, so we should see you. It really does take the tone and concept of the ratings and make it even better.
I guess if this is officially an “experiment,” you want all the anal-retentive criticisms: I’d just say make the actual letter grade bit stand out more — linger on it a little bit longer, or have it as a graphic that stands out more, or something. Even after reading all of the ratings, and seeing the state quarters, it still took a minute for me to process that this was a video version of that.
Personally, I’d be fine if you abandoned every other creative outlet and just did Ratings video podcasts from now on.
Hey fellas! This bum doesn’t know who John Muir is! Shall we teach him?
Oooooooh, there once was a man named John Muir
A naturalist noble and pure
Whose love for all beasties
The most and the leasties
Has never been equalled… for sure!
EDUTAINMENT!
I have a lot of trouble believing I’m the first person to make this joke.
The voice difference is kind of noticeable, yeah. It’s because in the video ones you’ve got the microphone somewhere offscreen, and it’s picking up (I assume) a more natural voice sound, plus room ambience/natural reverb.
Whereas the rest of the time the voice is a little more “studio” sounding, and seems noticeably tonally different; I think that’s just because you’re much closer to the mic (or it’s a different mic); mics have “near field effects” and stuff like that, plus the closer you are to the mic the more you lose the room ambience.
On the other hand, it was noticeable but it wasn’t necessarily bad; I just heard it as “here is the voice-over voice” and “here is the me-looking-at-you-talking-to-you voice”.
Great first attempt. Do a few more to get your groove, and you’ll be an Internet Celebrity before you know it.
You definitely need better enunciation, and possibly closer mic’ing. Also, I think there might be something about the timing when cutting to/from Lore-head shots that needs work. (Eg, the shot where you say “Oregon” seems jarring to me, because it’s so brief.)
I like the jingle at the beginning, but it seems to be begging for a complementary jingle at the end, to close things up. There are other audio dead-spots (like after you cut to the Canadian money, but before you admire its beauty) that feel sort of empty to me.
I have no doubt you’ll figure all this out. Looking forward to seeing the results!
I agree with everyone else. Positive comments.
Fun. Now I wish we could have ratings of Canadian quarters. They ruined that whole coin a month for every province and territory thing we had going on in the 90s by creating Nunavut. (Sets of 13! No!) So then we went through remembrance day coins and breast cancer coins that had colours. And there were volunteer coins, and Canadians are great coins. Now we have Olympic Sport coins, and in true Canadian style, they started with
hockeycurling.I laughed, I cried, I went to the archives and read more ratings.
Another way to make it more visually consistent might be to replace the real live Lore with the cartoon Lore. It might also allow you to smooth out the voice difference other people are noticing.
Holy crap gods on a slip ‘n slide that was everything I’ve ever desired. I wouldn’t bother to add to the comments, but I’m hoping that eventually a critical mass of all our approval and prodding will take human form and bully you into doing this every. freaking. day.
Very sweet. Keep it up. More of you speaking, video or not, will always be great.
Genius! Please keep at it! The boyfriend and I both loved it.
I also want to put in a vote for seeing you pose with sunglasses and a cocktail, however. It would be strangely satisfying.
Brilliant. Lore, you need to sell something. Like a DVD collection of these clips once you ve accumulated a hulking pile of them. I feel dirty receiving so much entertainment from you with only the Book of Ratings on my bookshelf to symbolize the mere pittance I ve given back. Clicking on Wired links is not enough… we need more of this and we re willing to pay!
This is far and away the best experiment yet. The others were, frankly, all worse than your usual articles/lists/film shorts, but this one finally gets it right.
That said, your animated, talking face briefly startled me. Lore Comics didn’t prepare me for the truth.
I’ll pile on and say “I love it” too.
Highly rad.
Piling On… Lore’s Best Work since Brunching…
Why it worked so well.
1. A real Lore for us to enjoy. And he looks like the comic Lore
2. The coins are so freaking topical, everyone can relate.
3. 180 Proof Humor… he never let up on funny. Where can I find more of that.
4. Wonka and Canadian money… how can that not be funny.
I loved the old ratings, but I love this even better!
Washington’s crotch nickel cracked my ass up!
A resounding success!
I’ve decided that my favorite thing about this rating is the way you say “start some shit.”
Fantastic! Max wants more!
You know when they make a cartoon of a comic or something and the first time you see it, there’s one or two characters whose voices just sound off?
Finally seeing a face to match with the voice was kinda like that in reverse.
But yeah, that was pretty great. I’d say hold on the actual letter grades maybe a little longer, or pop them in the lower right corner or somesuch, but great otherwise.
Just another person chiming in to say that this is fantastic! Oh, thank you.
I was skeptical when I saw the flash player appear, but after watching it, I’m sold. More please.
Just pick a mic position and stick with it, it’ll even up the voice thing. To help with enunciation, by the way, throw everything as far forward as you can, talk with your teeth.
Other than that, absolutely brilliant. You, sir, are a comedy genius.
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