History Blog / JohnKStuff

* EightDeadlyWords:[[invoked]]
** In "Milt Gray On Clampett's Black and White Cartoons", which discusses Creator/BobClampett's B&W cartoons, John K describes how WesternAnimation/PorkyPig was basically a boring prop character in the hands of Creator/TexAvery and Creator/FrankTashlin, and that Bob best understood how to make the character truly likable and sympathetic.
** In "Writing for Cartoons 3", he criticizes the Creator/{{MGM}} Creator/MarxBrothers movies for having [[RomanticPlotTumor romantic filler centered around boring characters]] at the expensive of the Brothers' comedy.
** His review of ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'' also cites this as a major flaw of the film.

* EqualOpportunityOffender: In "I'll Leave This to Mike to Answer--and Anyone Else", John states that comedians and cartoonists should do this and that everybody should be a comedic target, and that this is a big reason [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad why Political Correctness is so toxic to comedy.]]

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: The blog has a ''very'' libertarian slant to it, as John believes modern cartoons suffer badly from political correctness, also pointing out the double standard of this kind of people having a HolierThanThou mindset towards the people they consider offensive. In "I'll Leave This to Mike to Answer--and Anyone Else", he wrote a lengthy response to someone accusing a vintage "Injun Orange" drink of having racist intentions.

* SinisterSchnoz: Acknowledged as an animated feature villain cliche (referring to it as the "Turd Sniffer") in "The Gay Arabic Villain", using villains such as [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Frollo]], [[WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}} Lady Tremaine]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}} Anton Ego]] for examples.

* MorePopularSpinoff: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in "Art Lozzi 3-HB Starts to Standardize", which discusses how [[Creator/HannaBarbera Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera]] realized how popular the Yogi Bear segments of ''WesternAnimation/TheHuckleberryHoundShow'' were and, in an astute move, decided to give him [[WesternAnimation/YogiBear his own show]] two years later.

* AccentuateTheNegative: The blog has more screeds and posts about things John dislikes and doesn't want people to do than it does about things he ''does'' like or approve of. Even when discussing something he likes, it's undercut with an aside about how someone or something is doing it wrong.

* BaitAndSwitch: "Happy Father's Day" has John talking about how his relationship with his father inspired the ''Ren & Stimpy'' cartoon "A Visit to Anthony", and how John showed it to his dad and his friends. The next day, his dad told him he hated it. John assumed it was because he portrayed his dad as too rough in the cartoon, only for his dad to reveal that he hated it for the exact opposite reason--he made him look too ''soft''.

* BlackComedyRape: In "2 Types of Cartoonists: Origin of styles 2 -Rubber Hose animation part B", he contrasts [[Creator/WaltDisney Disney]] and [[Creator/FleischerStudios Fleischer's]] approaches to cartooning, highlighting how Fleischer's humor was very raunchy compared to what Disney did, even using rape jokes in cartoons like [[WesternAnimation/BettyBoop "Boop-Oop-A-Doop"]] (1932).

* BrokeTheRatingScale: In his review of ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'', he gives the film an even zero rating, also noting that [[DamnedByFaintPraise it is a higher rating than he will give to other contemporary animated features]], which he would rate thousands of negative points.

* CausticCritic: Lets put it this way; John's critiques makes the scribes of ''Creator/HarlanEllison'', himself being infamous for his at times tactless and strongly opinionated critiques, [[UpToEleven come off as a children’s picture book by comparison]]. John K pulls absolutely '''no''' punches when it comes to [[BrutalHonesty calling something on the carpet, or ripping into the flaws of other works or taking potshots at other studios]] for not living up to his extremely high and rigid (and often arbitrary) standards--and what ''does'' live up to his standards usually consists of a very small and narrow pool of animation and comics, otherwise consisting of classic movies and TV shows. He isn't afraid of criticizing sacred cows either, such as legends like Creator/DonBluth and Creator/RichardWilliams. Ironically, he will also rip into something he likes just as hard--for example, he is a diehard fan of early Hanna-Barbera for elements such as their great design, colors and characters, but he feels the cartoons were too conservative to live up to their full potential, and he also rips into them for their terrible stories and slow as molasses pacing, and he absolutely rips into their works from the late 60s and on for throwing out what he felt were the good elements of their earlier cartoons. To make a long story short; virtually ''nothing'' from the 1970's and on lives up to these rigid standards. Not even his own productions are safe from this, with him constantly advising people not to look at ''Mighty Mouse'' or ''Ren & Stimpy'' as inspiration. He looks at ''The Ripping Friends'' and ''The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil'' with almost as much contempt as he does his stint at Filmation.

* FurryConfusion: In "Mutant Cartoon Creatures from the Netherworld", he points out how weird it is to have a world of normal funny animals, animals with humanlike bodies and faces ''and'' normal, non talking animals all in the same place.

* GratuitousAnimalSidekick: Briefly criticized as a cliche type of animation character in "Writing for Character, , rather than plugging characters into a generic plot".
* GravityIsOnlyATheory: In "Whats Not To Love About Insanity?", John takes a brief potshot at the kind of people who constantly preach the "Evolution is only a theory" mindset.

* LetsSeeYouDoBetter: "Comment Rules" says he won't post comments about amateurs or non-artists who can't draw, talking smack about professional artists.

* LostInImitation: Criticized late in "Observation, Creativity, Influence, Stealing, Blind Absorption of Styles", claiming that just copying influences without analyzing can lead to this.
* MagicAIsMagicA: The blog has a ''very'' clear cut definition of what it considers to be a cartoon, and it deliberately ties in animation's roots with newspaper cartooning. To John, it isn't enough to just look like a cartoon, the whole tone and ideas behind the cartoon have to be a caricature of real life to make their point, hence why he is not a fan of animation attempting to create what he considers a "contrived reality" by copying live action in aesthetic or tone (unless it is done satirically) or pull off stories without irony. He also doesn't consider cartoonists and animators to be mutually the same thing (though they can definitely overlap), as he sees cartooning as a specific mindset that strives to use caricature to make an opinion on life (mostly by making fun of it), whereas he considers stuff like Disney and its imitators to be mostly anti-cartoon because of their escapist fantasy tone and avoiding having anything beyond platitude opinions of reality (i.e. the BeYourself aesop, which he considers an insincere animation cliche).

** In "Rock N Rule - Mok, Robin Budd and dog noses on humans", he praises the scenes of [[WesternAnimation/RockAndRule Mok]] for not only how well animated they are, but also because they were able to animate Mok's design at all, which, dog nose and Nelvana style eyes aside, is a very unorthodox and complex design by cartoon standards and would normally be impossible to animate.
* TheOneThingIDontHateAboutYou: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the "What Disney Did Best" posts and a couple others, where John makes it clear that there are many elements of the classic Disney films that he admires--the sheer skill of the animation (it says a lot that even a vocal critic of Disney like him lists Milt Kahl as one of his influences, if just one of ''many'' he has), the more dramatic moments (the ones that aren't "watered down with comic relief"), the rich colors and all around beautiful art direction and craftsmanship, the grandiose feel of their best movies, and so on--it's just that the content of them (i.e. stories, characters and gags) are bland and formulaic to him and thus hold no appeal to him.

** In "Stock Disney Characters: The Bland Lead", he takes shots at Disney films using this, referring to characters like [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuers Penny]] and [[WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany Jenny]] as "WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}} in Drag" and making a crack that [[WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}} Ariel]] is a transvestite [[WesternAnimation/{{The Jungle Book|1967}} Mowgli]].

** In "Depressing Cartoon Studios 2: Hanna Barbera", he notices this about one of their Bible themed cartoons.

* OutsideJoke: Some of the humor of the blog depends on readers either not having knowledge possessed by geek culture or cynical indifference to said knowledge. For example, "Pizzatime Doodle--The Phantom" talks about how ridiculous it is for superheroes to go around in their underwear and rhetorically asks where it came from, and it resulted in a barrage of comments explaining its origins (which John felt ruined the joke by missing the point of the whole post).

** In his review of ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', he criticizes the film for (among other things) having what amounts to 10 minutes worth of plot stretched out to feature length.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: The blog has a ''very'' libertarian slant to it, as John believes modern cartoons suffer badly from political correctness, also pointing out the double standard of these kind of people having a HolierThanThou mindset towards the people they consider offensive. In "I'll Leave This to Mike to Answer--and Anyone Else", hs wrote a lengthy response to someone accusing a vintage "Injun Orange" drink of having racist intentions.

* PropagandaPiece:[[invoked]] John dismisses ''[[Literature/TheIllusionOfLife The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation]]'' as largely being Disney propaganda that claimed everything that was ever done with any quality or worth in animation only came from Disney, and said that the only good chapter in the book was the section on The Twelve Principles of Animation. Which is rather ironic and [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] in hindsight, considering his entire blog is a giant propaganda piece in of itself, being a misanthropic and [[NostalgiaFilter nostalgia-fueled]] political rant disguised as a serious commentary on the stifled freedom of political incorrectness and cartoonier animation, where the instructional posts are often considered the only bearable parts of it.
* QuantityVsQuality: Discussed in "By What Criteria Do We Judge Quality", specifically referring to the heavily detailed, super high-budgeted aesthetics of features like WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}. John gives the analogy that a layman audience member or critic would believe that this excessive quantity of details gives the impression of a better product, as opposed to a more economical approach to animation. In contrast, John's own criteria (discussed in "Soupy Sales - Pookie sings "I'd like to know") is that a film should rely on pure skill and entertainment, regardless of budget. In a humorous analogy, he contrasted the multi-million CGI Shrek to the approach of an [[NoBudget ultra low budget]] vintage tv show (namely, a SoupySales puppet skit) which relied on pure talent and skill alone.
* RandomEventsPlot: Discouraged in "Writing for Cartoons 5, saying that even funny cartoons need some kind of structure and pacing, even if the story is simple. He uses the Ren and Stimpy episode "Black Hole" as a example of how the cartoon had funny ideas, but the sloppy structure hurt it.
* RatedMForManly: The blog is very much in favor of a sardonic, masculine worldview. This is a blog run by the same guy who made ''The Ripping Friends'' and is a huge Creator/KirkDouglas fan.

** In "Whats Not To Love About Insanity?", John talks about how his cartoons are exaggerations of real-life events which he has experienced. He is surprised when his cartoons get called "unrealistic" as a result.
** In "We Heard From My Indian Pal, Joe", John responds to comments about people considering an innocuous "Injun Orange" drink package racist by getting an ''actual'' Native American to look at it, who considers it totally innocent and abstract, and in the same breath decries Hollywoods stereotypical depiction of Indians as being either very stoic or of the CryingIndian variety.

** Discouraged in a comment to a student, saying it doesn't help animation at all, and looks terrible on top of that. In "Daffy In Book Revue-Cartoony Believable Action", he also criticizes ''WesternAnimation/{{Beowulf|2007}}'' for relying on motion-capture to heavily ape reality, even saying that they may as well have just shot the actors for real if they wanted it to be believable.

* SceneryPorn: Encouraged in his color theory and background painting posts, which cite an eclectic variety of beautiful color schemes from not only cartoons, but fine art and illustration for reference points.

** "A Shameful Ignorant Stereotype" discusses how the Ren and Stimpy character Sven Hoek was [[InvokedTrope intentionally written]] as an ignorant caricature of Nordic culture (which John notes encompasses hundreds of different kinds of sub-cultures), while in turn satirizing the idea of stereotyping cultures in the first place [[TakeThatAudience by playing a stereotype which people believe in completely straight, in order to mock viewers who would believe in it]] [[InsideJoke without tipping them off that they are being made fun of.]]

* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: In "Comics by the LB", John talks about how as a kid, he could instantly tell the difference between a real, 'professional' looking comic against an obvious wonky knockoff, even briefly believing as a kid that Marvel comics were poor knockoffs of DC due to the (initially) sloppier inking and more eccentric design sense. However, he says these knockoff comics and more wild, energetic comics like Marvel helped him grow to appreciate skilled drawing styles that favor individual quirks over more polished and carefully balanced, but risk free, artwork like in DC or a Harvey comic.
* ShowDontTell: John adamantly stresses this in "Writing For Cartoons 9: Dialogue", that even if a cartoon is dialogue-heavy, that writing should only partly aid the storytelling in animation and not be the main storytelling tool. He also claims that blatant exposition, meta humor that serves solely as a writer mouthpiece, and cliche dialogue are anti-character and actually undermine the humor.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The blog leans heavily towards the cynicism side of the scale. To put it gently, it has no tact when it comes to discussing offensive subject matter or the hardships of life and being a cartoonist. The blog's definition of a real cartoonist (using cartoonists like Virgil Partch and Creator/DanGordon as examples) is basically that it requires you to be a hard-edged, salty person who has a no-nonsense outlook on life, but plays its hardships and the faults and hypocrisy of humanity for laughs. This, more than any other reason, is why the blog is in favor of cartoon animation of the kind like Fleischer and Warner Bros. did as opposed to that of Disney, whose worldview and style of cartooning is as far as you can get from that kind of abrasive outlook.

* SophisticatedAsHell: Many of the blog posts make long, elaborate and detailed arguments and compare and contrast posts about why one would and should want to do cartoony animation or vulgar humor.

* StrictlyFormula: He is ''very'' critical of this kind of mindset, and his blog dedicates many posts pointing out cartoon formulas and how to break them, not merely in stories but in the various techniques used to make the cartoons. While he frequently cites Disney and Tom and Jerry shorts as laudable for their excellent craftsmanship, in "An Age Of Extreme Conservatism pt 2 - Cartoons Today", he considers their content extremely formulaic and conservative. However, he really reserves his hatred of formula for the many [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation Dark Age shows]] he worked on, pointing out how the system of that time was geared against ''any'' kind of creativity.

** "Whats Not To Love About Insanity?" takes potshots at [[TheFundamentalist bible-thumping revisionists]] who believe that [[GravityIsOnlyATheory the idea that Evolution is just a theory]], believing them to be a display of stupidity that is far more offensive than what people actually consider offensive today, namely a innocuous orange drink package with a cartoony "Injun" face on it.

* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Likewise, having characters merely describe their feelings is a big no no. Of course, a rule can be broken with care, such as when Ren says "I'm so angry..." In Sven Hoek, when he's clearly going through a lot more complex emotions than mere anger.

** Several posts address them in detail, and he believes the first five (Solid Drawing, Appeal, Exaggeration, Staging and Timing) are all the basic needs for a cartoon, with the rest being accessory principles. In "The Essential Principals VS The Extras - Will Finn", he uses Roger Ramjet as an example of using those five principles alone and still being skilled and fun, while arguing in other posts like "Dizzy Red Riding Hood" that Disney and their followers' insistence on following the principles to the letter handicapped creativity in animation by imposing "arbitrary rules" on how animated characters can or can't move. In the same post, he recommends adding "Funny", "Clever ideas", "Imagination" and "Interesting or entertaining characters" as principles.
** In a post discussing the merits of Bob Clampett's early cartoons, he compares and contrasts a gag shared between Clampett's ''WesternAnimation/PorkysBadtimeStory'' and Creator/FrankTashlin's ''WesternAnimation/PorkysRailroad''--a building getting turned inside out by a vehicle moving really fast. He shows how in Clampett's debut film, he was already experimenting with these animation principles by having Porky's garage turn inside out (from Porky speeding right out of it) in a very rubbery, squishy way that gives the gag impact, while noting how Tashlin's take on the gag (a train zipping through an above ground train tunnel) has the tunnel animated to turn inside out in the most mechanical, literal and unimaginative way possible.

* VulgarHumor: John K is very much in favor of anti-politically correct comedy and considers vulgarity to be the most human form of humor, so the blog has many examples of it--but also adds that its not being nasty for its own sake that makes it funny, but ''how'' the vulgarity is presented is what makes it funny. He cites an example from the Bob Clampett cartoon "The Wise Quacking Duck", where Daffy Duck tricks Mr. Meek into thinking his head was lopped off by his axe, hamming up his death throes by screaming like crazy and spraying ketchup in lieu of blood everywhere, and then walking out headless (his head is actually hidden inside of his neck), flailing around like a headless chicken and collapsing right in front of Mr. Meek, to the latter's horror. He points out that the scene is presented in such a ludicrous way, that it takes what could have been just a morbid or mean-spirited gag in the wrong hands, and makes it outrageously funny to watch instead.

** "Tex Avery Takes and a Sense of Design" discusses the use of wild takes in cartoons, discussing how Tex took a basic cartoon tool (a normal cartoon "take") and turned it into a funny and entertaining tool in itself, and how seeing them in cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/NorthwestHoundedPolice'' changed his life. He also points out that takes depend not on story or even animation, but design to work properly, comparing a strongly exaggerated Tex Avery take from ''Millionaire Droopy'' to a phoned-in, very mild wild take from the ''Popeye'' cartoon "Fright to the Finish", and also taking about how the ''WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost'' cartoons used wild takes but missed the humor of it by making the takes just ugly and not funny or well designed.

''John K. Stuff'' (formerly named ''All Kinds of Stuff'') is a blog run by (as the title says) animator Creator/JohnKricfalusi, in which he gave info on animation, expression, character design, and many other animation subjects. It's home to John K’s opinions regarding animation, including his belief that good drawings are the back-bone of a cartoon's success (rather than it being the story, which is the common contemporary belief).

The blog can be found [[http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/ here.]] A companion version of it, [[http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/ John K Curriculum]], exists alongside it and focuses more on the instructional posts.

!!''John K. Stuff'' provides examples of:

* AnimationAgeGhetto:[[invoked]] In "Walt Craves Respect", John speculates that Creator/WaltDisney pushing so hard for his movies to have more serious content and realistic art in movies like ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' was a shrewd attempt to pander to critics and convince them that his studio was a real arthouse and not just a fun lowbrow cartoon studio. John is quick to point out how this backfired in ''Fantasia'''s initial release because Walt ''also'' tried to pander to general audiences at the same time with the film's cutesy elements and [[BlackAndWhiteMorality clear cut morality]], keeping critics from taking the film seriously.

** Invoked this during his time on the 1985 season of ''The Jetsons'', where he encouraged the animators working under him at Creator/WangFilmProductions to be expressive and break the guidelines given to them, something that they would [[SignatureStyle adopt]] for most of their work going forward.

** In "Specific Heads, Specific Expressions, Specific Gestures and Mannerisms, he talks in detail about how actor Creator/KirkDouglas' appearance fits into the heroic archetype, almost like a cartoon design in real life, but still manages to be a specific variant of the look in spite of it due to his own unique appearance and movement as a result of both his physique and his distinct and inventive personal mannerisms, using his role in the film ''Film/DetectiveStory'' as an example, and also compares and contrasts actors Creator/RobertMitchum and Creator/RobertRyan as specific variations of the archetype. He also talks about how Burl Ives is an example of the [[BigFun "jolly fat guy"]] but also has specific traits that make him into a three dimensional personality and distinct looking person, using his role as Rufus Hannassey in ''Film/TheBigCountry'' as an example.
* ArtEvolution: The three "Rise and Fall of Construction in Cartoons" posts discuss Disney's evolution in art from the late 20's up to the 30's, 40s and 50s. "Evolution of Macaroni" gives a more general picture of how [[RubberhoseLimbs rubberhose animation]] from the old cartoon studios evolved over time.

* BaitAndSwitch: "Happy Father's Day" has John talking about how his relationship with his dad inspired the Ren and Stimpy cartoon "A Visit to Anthony", and how John showed it to his dad and his friends. The next day, his dad told him he hated it. John assumed it was because he portrayed his dad as too rough in the cartoon, only for his dad to reveal that he hated it for the exact opposite reason--he made him look too ''soft''.

** John K rips into animated movies for constantly having preachy and insincere morals [[{{Hypocrite}} that the creators themselves don't believe]], such as in his review of "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs".

* CaptionHumor: Sometimes uses this in the pics in his blog. In "Chuck Jones, Style, and the Future - Bugs Bonnets", he refers to the pic of Elmer Fudd in a wedding veil as "Gay Elmer" and labels the ending with Bugs and Elmer getting married as "Gay Ending".

** "Wally Man 4 - Wally's Girlfriend" has a pig character named Petunia Man who is an obvious parody of [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Petunia Pig.]]
* CausticCritic: Lets put it this way; John's critiques makes the scribes of ''Creator/HarlanEllison'', himself being infamous for his at times tactless and strongly opinionated critiques, [[UpToEleven come off as a children’s picture book by comparison]]. John K pulls absolutely '''no''' punches when it comes to [[BrutalHonesty calling something on the carpet, or ripping into the flaws of other works or taking potshots at other studios]] for not living up to his extremely high and rigid (and often arbitrary) standards--and what ''does'' live up to his standards usually consists of a very small and narrow pool of animation and comics, otherwise consisting of classic movies and TV shows. He isn't afraid of criticizing sacred cows either, such as animators like Creator/DonBluth and Creator/RichardWilliams. Ironically, he will also rip into something he likes just as hard--for example, he is a diehard fan of early Hanna-Barbera for elements such as their great design, colors and characters, but he feels the cartoons were too conservative to live up to their full potential, and he also rips into them for their terrible stories and slow as molasses pacing, and he absolutely rips into their works from the late 60s and on for throwing out what he felt were the good elements of their earlier cartoons. To make a long story short; virtually ''nothing'' from the 1970's and on lives up to these rigid standards. Not even his own productions are safe from this, with him constantly advising people not to look at ''Mighty Mouse'' or ''Ren & Stimpy'' as inspiration. He looks at ''The Ripping Friends'' and ''The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil'' with almost as much contempt as he does his stint at Filmation.

* ClicheStorm:[[invoked]] He often ripped into animated features old and new for having formulaic story-lines, most infamously in his review of ''Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs'' and his (deleted) impressions of ''Tangled'', which he claims consists of nothing ''but'' formula.

** In his review of ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', he compliments elements of it, but felt it just didn't work as a film at all, giving it [[BrokeTheRatingScale an even zero]] -- which he adds is a much higher rating than he gives to most other animated features.

* DesignatedHero:[[invoked]] In "The Best Bugs -- Pre 'Tude", he argues that Creator/ChuckJones' later interpretation of WesternAnimation/BugsBunny turned Bugs into an unlikable and boring protagonist who, unlike in his 40's cartoons where he had to earn his victories by actively thwarting his foes, is basically [[BornLucky handed his victories on a silver platter daily]] while doing little more than standing around and acting smug because his foes are so hopelessly incompetent and unlucky compared to him.
* DeusExitMachina: In "Wayne Boring's Superman", he points out how the writers of the Silver Age Superman comics had to constantly find ways to work around the fact that their starring character is a [[PhysicalGod guy who could juggle planets with his pinky and time travel as effortlessly as going on a Sunday drive]] in order to give him ''something'' resembling a conflict, such as [[DramaPreservingHandicap robbing him of or changing his powers or appearance on a daily basis.]]

** In "Rock N Rule - Mok, Robin Budd and dog noses on humans", John praises parts of WesternAnimation/RockAndRule for moments of really good animation and the unique design of Mok, but also points out some of the film's flaws, such as the weird and unappealing designs, that are basically realistic humans with dog noses slapped onto their faces. He especially points out how strange it looks on Mok, because he is [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed specifically designed to look like]] Music/MickJagger and not [[WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup Pluto the dog.]]
* DreamworksFace: Criticized and mocked in "'Tude Treats", with examples like 90's artwork of the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog and many feature animation studios like Dreamworks being present. At the end, [[SelfDeprecation he takes a shot at]] [[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow his own cartoon]] for Ren [[HypocrisyNod using the expression on one occasion.]]

** His review of ''Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs'' also cites this as a major flaw of the film.

* ExcusePlot: A point brought up in his posts about writing for cartoons, such as "Writing for Cartoons 1", is that many cartoons very rarely have anything resembling a real story, and that most of the entertainment value comes from the emotional sensations and other ingredients of visual filmmaking. While his blog and Curriculum does have many posts dedicated to story and writing, he stresses that story is just one of the many creative ingredients that can be used to make a good cartoon, and that it isn't particularly necessary. He also says that a straightforward premise that can be described on one or two pages is more convenient for a cartoon, using such an approach for episodes like [[http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/05/writing-for-cartoons-stimpys-invention.html "Stimpy's Invention"]] and [[http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/12/yogi-bear-pie-pirates-1958-frank.html "A Yard Too Far".]]

* FurriesAreEasierToDraw: In "Wally VS UPA 3: Walt Craves Respect", John makes remarks about films like ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', saying its weird that they plop cartoon heads on top of realistic anatomically correct bodies as part of Walt's attempt to gain critical respect, and that it calls to mind the furry fandom. He then parodies it by putting WesternAnimation/ElmerFudd's head on top of a photo of a real life bodybuilder, with the caption [[ElmerFuddSyndrome "May I Pwease have your wespect, Mr. Disney(?)"]]

* {{Gonk}}: PlayedForLaughs in "The Most Beautiful Girl in Cartoons", taking pics of Olive Oyl from "For Better Or Worser", where she is deliberately drawn unattractively to setup the cartoon's punchline, out of context.

* InsultToRocks: In "Depressing Studios 3: [=DiC=]", John describes Creator/DiCEntertainment as being such a terrible studio, that he claims their animation "makes Creator/{{Filmation}} look like [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts 40s Disney.]]", which is saying a lot considering just how much he hated working at Filmation.

* RecycledInSpace: In "The Bygone Golden Age of Kids", he remarks in the comments that when he saw ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' in 1977, he unfavorably described it as feeling like he was watching a sitcom like ''Series/HappyDays'' in space.

** Invoked this during his time on the 1985 season of ''The Jetsons'', where he encouraged the animators working under him at Creator/WangFilmProductions to be expressive and break the guidelines given to them.

* CausticCritic: Lets put it this way; John's critiques makes the scribes of ''Creator/HarlanEllison'', himself being infamous for his at times tactless and strongly opinionated critiques, [[UpToEleven come off as a downright generous guy by comparison]]. John K pulls absolutely '''no''' punches when it comes to [[BrutalHonesty calling something on the carpet, or ripping into the flaws of other works or taking potshots at other studios]] for not living up to his extremely high and rigid (and often arbitrary) standards--and what ''does'' live up to his standards usually consists of a very small and narrow pool of animation and comics, otherwise consisting of classic movies and TV shows. He isn't afraid of criticizing sacred cows either, such as animators like Creator/DonBluth and Creator/RichardWilliams. Ironically, he will also rip into something he likes just as hard--for example, he is a diehard fan of early Hanna-Barbera for elements such as their great design, colors and characters, but he feels the cartoons were too conservative to live up to their full potential, and he also rips into them for their terrible stories and slow as molasses pacing, and he absolutely rips into their works from the late 60s and on for throwing out what he felt were the good elements of their earlier cartoons. To make a long story short; virtually ''nothing'' from the 1970's and on lives up to these rigid standards. Not even his own productions are safe from this, with him constantly advising people not to look at ''Mighty Mouse'' or ''Ren & Stimpy'' as inspiration. He looks at ''The Ripping Friends'' and ''The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil'' with almost as much contempt as he does his stint at Filmation.

* PlayingTheVictimCard: The main thrust of the blog is portraying hard-edged cartoonists and cartoonier animators and proprietors of politically incorrect humor (which includes John himself) as an abused minority that is being unfairly silenced by stifling tyrannical executives. John claims that getting ''any'' kind of creativity into contemporary animation is an endless uphill battle that requires a complete rejection of societal norms. Whether you buy into that argument is up to you.

* BiasSteamroller: The entire blog is basically a big soapbox and propaganda piece for John to make uninformed, blatantly biased or downright false accusations against works he dislikes while showing favoritism to his favorite things and turning a blind eye to context and the flaws of the things he loves. His arguments, in particular, are often loaded with narrow-minded fallacies that don't stand up to any real critical scrutiny.

* HorribleHollywood: John does not paint the animation business as being a pleasant place to work in. Among his tales include "Ideas - Arenas - The Modern Way To Write Stories", where he describes taking a visit to Dreamworks and coming back with an executive horror story.

While frequently updated on a daily basis in the late and early 2010s, the blog posts started slowing down around 2013, with John claiming he was simply losing interest in maintaining it due to many other blogs that he considers better than his own popping up (plus the blogger scene drying up in general), as well as getting tied up training new animators, working on newer projects and attempting to start a new cartoon studio (although that went south due to the scandals surrounding his sexually predatory behavior).

** "Fanboy Admission and Genetics" has John take a potshot at journalist Thad Komorowski for painting him in a very bad light in the book "Sick Little Monkeys", by drawing a grotesque caricature of him as a hateful, snot-nosed puppet with the pic caption "Puppet Aspergers".

* WorldOfJerkass: In "Bob [=McKimson=] Tribute", he talks about what he loves about the cartoons of animator and director Creator/RobertMcKimson, such as how almost all of his characters are grumpy, middle aged curmudgeons, with the main contrasts in the different characters' personalities being how smart or how stupid the various curmudgeons were. He goes on to claim Bob's worldview showed the world to be "a hornet's nest of swindlers and wiseasses who go through life shouting, manhandling and pushing each other around - just like real life would be if we were unfettered by political correctness and insincere manners." John also notes the irony of how in real life, Rob was by all accounts [[NiceGuy a soft-spoken, conservative and pleasant fellow in real life.]]
* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants:[[invoked]] In "Artists Finally Win Some Respect and Credit", John mentions offhand that the Ren and Stimpy episode [[Recap/RenandStimpy1x04FireDogsTheLittlestGiant "Fire Dogs"]] was improvised in an afternoon to fill in for a rejected George Liquor centered episode.

* VulgarHumor: John K is very much in favor of anti-politically correct comedy and considers vulgarity to be the most human form of humor, so the blog has many examples of it--but also adds that its not being nasty for its own sake that makes it funny, but ''how'' the vulgarity is presented is what makes it funny. He cites an example from the Bob Clampett cartoon "The Wise Quacking Duck", where Daffy Duck tricks Mr. Meek into thinking his head was lopped off by his axe, hamming up his death throes by screaming like crazy and spraying ketchup in lieu of blood everywhere, and then walking out headless (his head is actually hidden inside of his neck), flailing around like a headless chicken and collapsing right in front of Mr. Meek, to the latter's horror. He points out that the scene is presented in such a ludicrous way, that it takes what could've been just a morbid or mean spirited gag in the wrong hands, and makes it outrageously funny to watch instead.
* WingdingEyes: In "Wonderful Cartooniness", a post about the comics of animator Creator/DanGordon, he points out the combination of a characters angry expression with the cartoon symbolism of skulls in her eyes, which he says doubles the impact of said expression.

** In "Daffy In Book Revue-Cartoony Believable Action", he contrasts the totally unrealistic, exaggerated cartoon actions of WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck to the ultra-realistic approach of a mo-cap movie like ''WesternAnimation/{{Beowulf|2007}}''. He considers Daffy's impossible actions to be believable because they use caricature to represent a strong personality, while he considers Beowulf to be completely fake and unbelievable for superficially (and pointlessly) copycatting reality.
** The [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dt_NeL4vRpM/UVcMUhR36II/AAAAAAAA06Y/SuR3B-thO6k/s1600/MouseDW.png "Dreamworks Mickey Mouse" doodle]] in "Fanboy Admission and Genetics", which parodies the style of CGI in Dreamworks movies by depicting Franchise/MickeyMouse as a hairy, pore infested creature with realistic eyes and ''giant human ears''.

** Several posts address them in detail, and he believes the first five (Solid Drawing, Appeal, Exaggeration, Staging and Timing) are all the basic needs for a cartoon, with the rest being accessory principles. In "The Essential Principals VS The Extras - Will Finn", he uses Roger Ramjet as an example of using those five principles alone and still being skilled and fun, while arguing in other posts like "Dizzy Red Riding Hood" that Disney and their followers insistence on following the principles to the letter handicapped creativity in animation by imposing "arbitrary rules" on how animated characters can or cant move. In the same post, he recommends adding "Funny", "Clever ideas", "Imagination" and "Interesting or entertaining characters" as principles.

** In "Walt Craves Respect". John believes that Creator/WaltDisney tried going in a more serious direction with features like ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' because he wasn't happy about the fact that making funny cartoons [[AnimationAgeGhetto didn't get him critical praise or respect like live action filmmakers did,]] so he tried pandering to what he thought critics took seriously, like more naturalistic designs, lush art, classical music and darker thematic elements to get their favor. John also points out that it backfired horribly in its initial release, getting panned by critics and flopping at the box office.

** He isn't a fan of live action movies doing this either. In "Funny Pathos vs Cheap Trick Pathos- Ralph Has Remorse", he singles out ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' as an example of a film using trick pathos to elicit an audience response. In general, he loathes Creator/StevenSpielberg and Creator/GeorgeLucas for similar reasons as he does Disney, mainly for what he sees as them having a cynical, insincere and manipulative "Take my cake and eat it too" attitude towards [[OscarBait eliciting serious audience emotion with emotional trip-wiring and pandering]] in films with [[TastesLikeDiabetes trite or]] [[SophisticatedAsHell lowbrow content.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:[[invoked]] In "Disney Gets Almost Specific", he lauds the early scenes of [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Captain Hook]] as seeming like they're building him up to be this charismatic, shaded character, but expresses disappointment that the rest of the film didn't build on it.

** "Appeal 1-Starting With Cuteness", "No More 'Tude" (no longer on blog but available on Archive.org) and "Clampett- Porky's Snooze Reel- MAN animation" infamously took a potshot at the early works of Creator/KyleCarrozza for being "unappealing" and "wonky", as well as accusing him of copying from his "Anthony's Dad" design, claiming his cartoon lineup was a furries-based sitcom, poking fun of his self-caricature for having a sneer look with half-closed eyelids and mentioning him as a cartoon man who'd "probably wouldn't be much fun to hang around with".
** Another post takes a jab at the artwork of the openly gay Disney artist David Kanewa and his Rule 34 artwork of Disney characters.
** "Fanboy Admission and Genetics" has John take a potshot at journalist Thad Komorowski for painting him in a very bad light in the book "Sick Little Monkeys" by drawing a grotesque caricature of him as a hateful, snot nosed puppet with the pic caption "Puppet Aspergers".

* SuicideAsComedy: In a post about "WesternAnimation/AnItchInTime", its recommended that an artist learn to draw suicide pistols, as they're in big demand in the cartoon business.

** The blog takes a lot of potshots at different things, including major animation studios like Creator/{{Disney}} (particularly the post Creator/WaltDisney films), Creator/DonBluth and Dreamworks, Saturday morning cartoons from the 70's and 80's and the studios that made them like Creator/{{Filmation}}, Creator/DiCEntertainment and Ruby-Spears, and filmmakers like Creator/GeorgeLucas and Creator/StevenSpielberg along with their most famous films (i.e. ''Franchise/StarWars'', Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial and his cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', etc.)

* StylisticSuck: In "Wayne Boring's Superman", he talks about how ''ComicBook/{{Superman}} artist Wayne Boring was an influence on his cartoon ''WesternAnimation/TheRippingFriends'', feeling that his stiff, [[DullSurprise emotionally stoic]] art style fit the series and just served to highlight how preposterous superhero stories were by playing them straight.

** In "Wayne Boring's Superman", he claims he prefers {{superhero}} comics before UsefulNotes/TheSeventies because he believed their appeal came from just how ridiculous they were, and that they ruined when writers tried to rationalize and take the preposterous stories seriously.

* StoryBreakerPower: In "Wayne Boring's Superman", he talks about how superhero comics were ruined in the 70's when writers tried taking the preposterous stories seriously, claiming the appeal of superheroes is in the fact that they're nonsensical in the first place, using the [[PhysicalGod unstoppable nature of Silver Age Superman]] as an example.

* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVersusFate: Encourages storytelling driven by free will and discourages using contrived circumstances to create conflict in "Tale 2 Kitties - Clampett Film Pacing Structure", a post about Creator/BobClampett's ''WesternAnimation/ATaleOfTwoKitties''. He states that characters should feel like they're driving the stories themselves and not by some outside conflict or coincidence.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The blog leans heavily towards the cynicism side of the scale. It, to put it gently, has no tact when it comes to discussing offensive subject matter or the hardships of life and being a cartoonist. The blogs definition of a real cartoonist (using cartoonists like Virgil Partch and Creator/DanGordon as examples) is basically that it requires you to be a hard edged, salty person who has a no nonsense outlook on life, but plays its hardships and the faults and hypocrisy of humanity for laughs. This, more than any other reason, is why the blog is in favor of cartoon animation of the kind like Fleischer and Warner Bros. did as opposed to that of Disney, whose worldview and style of cartooning is as far as you can get from that kind of abrasive outlook.

* ShowDontTell: John adamantly stresses this in "Writing For Cartoons 9: Dialogue", even if a cartoon is dialogue heavy, and that writing should only partly aid the storytelling in animation and not be the main storytelling tool. He also claims that blatant exposition, meta humor that serves solely as a writer mouthpiece, and cliche dialogue are anti-character and actually undermine the humor.

** "A Shameful Ignorant Stereotype" discusses how the Ren and Stimpy character Sven Hoek was [[InvokedTrope intentionally written]] as an ignorant caricature of Nordic culture (which John notes encompasses hundreds of different kinds of sub cultures), while in turn satirizing the idea of stereotyping cultures in the first place [[TakeThatAudience by playing a stereotype people believe in completely straight to mock viewers who would believe in it]] [[InsideJoke without tipping them off that they're being made fun of.]]

* SelfDeprecation: In "Appeal 1-Starting With Cuteness", he says he likes to "add a pinch of retardation to my cute drawings sometimes to make fun of appeal." (In context, the caption refers to a dead eyed drawing of Yogi Bear and Boo Boo that he did)
* SinisterSchnoz: Acknowledged as an animated feature villain cliche (referring to it as the "Turd Sniffer") in "The Gay Arabic Villain", using villains such as [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Frollo]], [[WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}} Lady Tremaine]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}} Anton Ego]] for examples.
-->"I'm not sure if Disney invented it, but animators know that the quickest way to turn the audience against someone is to have them sniff the ceremonial turd. Decent people instinctively know you shouldn't be poking your nose around that area and won't root for the turd sniffer."
* SissyVillain: Criticized as an animated feature cliche in "Stock Disney Characters: The Gay Arabic Villain", a tongue-in-cheek post referring to villains like [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Jafar]] and how his roots derive from outdated villain archetypes like [[DastardlyWhiplash Simon]] [[Literature/UncleTomsCabin Legree]] and other older Disney villains like [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Captain Hook]], and how this kind of character would be considered hopelessly outdated to use in a live action film, even if it was a comedy, [[UndeadHorseTrope but is still used without irony in animation.]]

* {{Satan}}: In "Wonderful Cartooniness", while analyzing a ComicBook/{{Superkatt}} comic where Satan appears, he quips that he is a real a child pleaser in cartoons - right up there with UsefulNotes/AfolfHitler.

* {{Satan}}: In "Wonderful Cartooniness", while analyzing a ComicBook/{{Superkatt}} comic where Satan appears, he quips that he's a real a child pleaser in cartoons - right up there with Hitler.

** Discouraged in a comment to a student, saying it doesn't help animation at all, and looks terrible on top of that. In "Daffy In Book Revue-Cartoony Believable Action", he also criticizes ''WesternAnimation/{{Beowulf|2007}}'' for relying on mo-cap to heavily ape reality, even saying they may as well have just shot the actors for real if they wanted it to be believable.
** [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] In "Betty Boop Story Ideas", he pitches an idea for a Betty short called "The Littlest Mermaid", which would star Betty in the role of the mermaid and have her fall in love with with a rotoscoped prince living on land (whose parents are tiny cartoon characters who don't approve of the romance). They would elope in a cottage, and 2 seconds later (the gestation period of classic cartoons) would be followed by rotoscoped CG kids in fish bowls on wheels.