Line #61 Blog/JohnKStuff


1	''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).
2
3	While frequently updated on a daily basis in the late 2000s 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).
4
5	After two years and six months of dormancy, John makes a new post on the blog to [[http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2019/02/commissions-11x17-12x18-14x17-best-sizes.html initiate commission rates]] supposedly upon request by fans of his work on Facebook. Starting on February 28, 2019, he's been making on and off posts in regards to art sales, and Ren & Stimpy rarities. However as a result of the allegation releases, comments from old and new posts are hidden and only members of the blog [[https://imgur.com/a/DVTFzXp have access]] to comment on his posts.
6
7	The blog can be found [[http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/ here.]] A companion version, ''[[http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/ John K Curriculum]]'', exists alongside it and focuses more on the instructional posts.
8
9	-----
10	!!''John K. Tropes'':
11	* 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 else is doing it wrong.
12	* 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 projects 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.
13	* AnimationBump:
14	** In "Do All Bland Movies Make Profits?" and "By What Criteria Do We Judge Quality?", John is actually ''not'' in favor of doing this, or at least not in the way feature animation does it (i.e. lots of realistic details, non-cartoony designs that are harder to animate, crowd shots, spectacle, the sheer amount of money and effort sunk into the projects in general, etc.) seeing it as a huge waste of time and effort and [[HardWorkFallacy lots of hard work for the sake of hard work]] that has nothing to do with entertaining people.
15	** However, in "Rock N Rule - Mok, Robin Budd and dog noses on humans", he does praise the scenes of [[WesternAnimation/RockAndRule Mok]] for how well animated they are, especially considering how distinctive and complex his design is by animation standards.
16	** Invoked this during his time on the 1985 season of ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', 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.
17	* ArchetypalCharacter:
18	** In "Stock Disney Characters - The bland lead", he discourages using characters whose role or personality is entirely defined by their archetype or a single defining trait, in favor of caricaturing real life people, who tend to have more shaded motives or odd quirks in their personalities. He does acknowledge some well defined characters can fit in a general archetype, but still have unique personalities in spite of that. In "When Cartoons Evolved 2- Bugs Bunny prototypes", he uses WesternAnimation/BugsBunny as an example of an archetypal heckler character given three-dimensional personality traits.
19	** "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.
20	* ArtEvolution: The three "Rise and Fall of Construction in Cartoons" posts discuss Disney's evolution in art from the late 20s up to the 30s, 40s and 50s, (briefly dismissing their works from the 90s) covering how other studios adapted and evolved as well. "Evolution of Macaroni" gives a more general picture of how [[RubberhoseLimbs rubberhose animation]] from the old cartoon studios evolved over time.
21	* AuthorAppeal: He frequently discusses certain animated scenes he likes in detail.
22	* AuthorTract: John often writes out long posts against all kinds of modern stuff that he dislikes, and not all of it is about cartoons. He also frequently talks about how advertising to children, toys, movies... have gone downhill since 1970.
23	* BadassNormal: In "Wayne Boring's Superman", John talks about how ComicBook/{{Batman}}--a costumed superhero with no powers at all--is almost as ridiculous as Superman (who he considers a very preposterous character as is) because we are expected to believe we can't kill someone like him, and pointing out how the character is beloved ''[[AcceptableBreaksFromReality because]]'' [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality of this preposterous element]].
24	* 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 initially 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''.
25	* BeigeProse: Encouraged when writing a basic story outline in the Writing for Cartoons posts "Keep It Simple and Short" and "Don't Write Too Much". "Writing for Cartoons 6" also warns not to use [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness fancy words or prose]] for its own sake.
26	* 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)]].
27	* BrokenAesop:
28	** He rips into animated movies for constantly having preachy and insincere morals [[{{Hypocrite}} that the creators themselves don't believe]], such as in his ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'' review.
29	** In "Is It A Cartoon? Chapter 1", he uses a scene from an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Franklin}}'' as an example of the LittlestCancerPatient (a kid who needs crutches to walk, but is playing on his friends' soccer team) being a red flag that you are watching a "Fake Cartoon". He sees it as putting forth a message that is not only shrewdly manipulative and cynical, but also inapplicable to reality.
30	* BrokeTheRatingScale: In his {{review}} of ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'', he gives the film an even zero rating, and notes that [[DamnedByFaintPraise it is a higher rating than he will give to other contemporary animated features]], which he would rate thousands of negative points.
31	* CaptionHumor: Sometimes uses this in the pics in his blog. In "Creator/ChuckJones, 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".
32	* CaptainErsatz:
33	** The cartoon character adorning the top of his blog page is a recurring character of his called Donald Bastard, an obvious parody of WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck.
34	** "Wally Man 4 - Wally's Girlfriend" has a pig character named Petunia Man who is an obvious parody of [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Petunia Pig]].
35	* CausticCritic: John K pulls absolutely '''no''' punches when it comes to ripping into the flaws of other works or taking potshots at other studios for not living up to his extremely high standards--and what ''does'' live up to his standards usually consists of a very small and narrow pool of animation and comics, usually consisting of classic movies and TV shows. 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 incredibly slow pacing, and he tears apart their works made after the mid-60s for throwing out the good elements of their earlier cartoons. Not even his own productions are safe from this - he constantly advises people not to look at ''Mighty Mouse'' or ''Ren & Stimpy'' as inspiration, and he looks at ''The Ripping Friends'' and ''The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil'' with almost as much contempt as his stint at Filmation.
36	* CatchPhrase: "Writing for Cartoons 7" says not to use them, and that the ones that popped up in his cartoons came out entirely by accident.
37	* 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 ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', which he claims consists of nothing ''but'' formula.
38	* ColorContrast: The Curriculum Color Theory Posts are dedicated to color theory and how color theory from other mediums like illustration, fine art and real life can be applied to cartooning. He also notes how raw primaries and secondaries are nowhere as effective as more subdued palettes of carefully balanced color.
39	* ClarkKenting: In "Wayne Boring's Superman", the ridiculous nature of this trope is pointed out.
40	* {{Cliche}}: Many posts are dedicated to the process of learning creative skills and spotting cliches in animation so they can be broken and avoided. He considers an analytical mind to be very important for an artist in "Cartoon College Year 3".
41	* DamnedByFaintPraise:
42	** In his review of ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'', 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.
43	** In "Stock Disney Characters: The Bland Lead", John describes WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse as the ultimate bland character, because everything about him is completely generic, from his circle and oval design to his stock falsetto voice and [[FlatCharacter complete lack of a distinguishable personality]]. He admits that he's a cute character and makes a good logo after the fact.
44	* DeconstructiveParody: Discussed in the post "Funny pathos vs cheap trick pathos- Ralph has remorse", and how he made Son of Stimpy as a {{Satire}} of shallow sad moments in movies and animated films, using every emotional tripwire in the book to make the audience cry over the most ridiculous plot element (namely Stimpy ''not being able to fart again'').
45	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Frequently used and PlayedForLaughs by the blog to constantly spit in the face of modern political correctness.
46	* DerangedAnimation: The blog strongly advocates it, because John loves the creative possibilities of it for animation, especially in regards to acting, because he thinks that it allows for not only wild, but even subtle microexpressions, normally absent from animation, to be used to great effect.
47	* DesignatedHero:[[invoked]] In "The Best Bugs -- Pre 'Tude", he argues that Chuck Jones' later interpretation of Bugs Bunny turned Bugs into an unlikable and boring protagonist who, unlike in his 40s 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.
48	* 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]].
49	-->"No, to me the art and stories and concepts have to be as [[RefugeInAudacity insensible as possible]] to make Superhero comics work. Like I said, everything about Superman is unbelievably illogical and the writers in the 50s and 60s had their tasks cut out for them. They had to keep coming up with ways to get around the fact that [[InvincibleHero you can't hurt Superman]], [[StoryBreakerPower because he can do everything]]. How do you find conflicts for that? They had to contradict all their own premises to be able to continue writing millions of stories about God and his friends. And they did it!"
50	* DigitalDestruction: TropeNamer; his blog has [[http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/digital%20destruction done several posts]] addressing issues with the restoration of classic cartoon dvds, with particular regards to DVNR line erasing and tampering with the original colors.
51	* DisneySchoolOfActingAndMime: Discussed and discouraged in several posts as formulaic and insincere acting, once making an analogy that if anyone acted like a Disney character in real life without a hint of irony, it would come off as extremely embarrassing and juvenile. He does agree with the point Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston made in their book "Literature/TheIllusionOfLife" that it is impossible for animation to reach the same subtle acting as live action. John argues that real-life acting should be caricatured to make its point, instead of using stagey mime like acting. There are several posts that reference ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' as a good reference point for getting anti-formulaic acting into animation. He also cites Bob Clampett and sometimes Creator/ChuckJones and Creator/RobertMcKimson cartoons, and occasionally even Creator/FleischerStudios cartoons like ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}} Popeye the Sailor]]'' for examples of non-Disney style animation acting. He even praises a [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Flintstones episode]], "The Flintstone Flyer", for Carlo Vinci's animation having natural, believable acting, without following the Disney template.
52	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing:[[invoked]] In "Creator/JimTyer Creator/TerryToons Comics", he claims that Tyer is one of his favorite animators, but he also discourages students from studying his work since they can pick up bad habits from his work.
53	* DogFace:
54	** In "Mutant Cartoon Creatures From the Netherworld", he talks about how the use of his trope in funny animal comics (putting animal noses on humanoid looking animals) creeped him out as a kid, but he got used to it as an adult.
55	** 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]].
56	* 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]].
57	* DullSurprise: In "Wayne Boring's Superman", he talks about how the stiff, emotionally stoic art style of ''Superman'' artist Wayne Boring was an influence on his cartoon The Ripping Friends''.
58	* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference:
59	** Discussed in the posts about the evolution of Bugs Bunny's character design from the late 30's up to the 50's.
60	** "Betty Boop Story Ideas" pitches an idea for a Betty Boop story called "What Kind Of Animal Am I?", which is inspired by the fact that Betty Boop was a dog in her earliest appearances.
61	* 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 [[PoliticalCorrectnessIsEvil why political correctness is so toxic to comedy.]]
62	* 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"]].
63	* {{Filler}}: "Writing for Cartoons 3: P.O.V., Ideas, Sincerity" brings this subject up, specifically referring to things like Character Arcs as a waste of the audience's time and having zilch to do with entertainment.
64	* FlatCharacter: "Stock Disney Characters - The Bland Lead" considers Disney type characters to almost always be stock archetype characters with little to no personality beyond their defining trait and consisting of a large cast drawing from a very narrow and limited pool of simplistic personality traits with minor variations to make them stand out from each other, even labeling their cast as "Disney's Lonely World of Six Characters". However, in "Disney Gets Almost Specific", he lauds the early scenes of [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Captain Hook]] as setting him up to be a more charismatic, shaded villain, but felt the rest of the film didn't build on it. He also acknowledges the villain [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuers Madame Medusa]] as a specific character in "Character Design 2 - Primer".
65	* FriendToAllLivingThings: Parodied [[BlackComedy in a dark way]] in "Betty Boop Story Ideas", where John pitches a Betty Boop story called "Feeding the Animals", which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin involves Betty doing just that.]] One gag in it involves Betty feeding a ladybug, and then a cute praying mantis comes up to Betty and asks her for food--Betty complies by feeding the ladybug to the mantis.
66	* FurriesAreEasierToDraw: In "Wally VS UPA 3: Walt Craves Respect", John remarks on films such as ''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(?)"]]
67	* 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, nontalking animals all in the same place.
68	* GeorgeLucasThrowback: Defied. While he is a huge fan of old cartoons, he is ''not'' a fan of "Retro Cartoons", since he considers them to be pale imitations of the old films at best or clueless imitations that completely miss the point of what made the older works great in the first place. In "Is It A Cartoon? Chapter 1", he rips into ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' for this.
69	* {{Glurge}}:[[invoked]] Besides considering the content of their films bland and trite, John K. also feels that animated features by Disney and its followers use blatant OscarBait on a daily basis and are too emotionally manipulative and preachy to come off as sincere.
70	* {{Gonk}}: PlayedForLaughs in "The Most Beautiful Girl in Cartoons", taking pictures of Olive Oyl from "For Better or Worser", where she is deliberately drawn unattractively to setup the cartoon's punchline, out of context.
71	* GratuitousAnimalSidekick: Briefly criticized as a cliche type of animation character in "Writing for Character" rather than plugging characters into a generic plot.
72	* GravityIsOnlyATheory: In "What's 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.
73	* GuiltyPleasure: In "Pizzatime Doodle--The Phantom", John says he considers classic superhero comics to be this due to the inherently preposterous nature of their stories.
74	* HardWorkFallacy: "Do All Bland Movies Make Profits?" and "By What Criteria Do We Judge Quality?" criticizes the mindset behind making animated features as having them mindlessly follow Disney's example by being huge money sinks and having lots of hard animation to do for the sake of doing hard work (i.e. lots of realistic details, non-cartoony designs that are harder to animate, crowd shots, spectacle, millions of smooth inbetweens, the sheer amount of money and effort sunk into the projects in general, etc.) or trying to impress the audience, arguing that it is a complete waste of time because the audience really doesn't know about, care about or notice the effort or detail put into them, and that they should instead find intelligent, more creative ways of using their resources for far less time and money. "My Quality Criteria" acts as a counterpoint by listing John's own criteria for "quality".[[note]]Charistmatic fun characters, Cartoony, Humanity, Creativity, Skill, Fun, Funny, Did It Blow My Mind?, and "Does It Swing?"[[/note]] In general, one message the blog constantly hammers in is [[HardWorkHardlyWorks "Work smarter, not harder."]]
75	* HobbesWasRight: In "Bob [=McKimson=] Tribute", he lauds the cynical worldview of Creator/RobertMcKimson's cartoons, saying he shows the world to be [[HumansAreBastards a hornet's nest of swindlers and wiseasses]] who go through life shouting, manhandling and pushing each other around and that real life would be like that if it weren't for political correctness and insincere manners.
76	* HomoeroticSubtext:
77	** PlayedForLaughs in "Solid Drawing Preview", where he jokes about [[WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet Jim Hawkins]] being in love with John Silver ([[ParentalIncest and his mom as well]]).
78	** Also PlayedForLaughs in "Beany and Cecil - The Weirdest TV Cartoon", where he refers to Captain Huffenpuff as gay and [[WesternAnimation/BeanyAndCecil Cecil the Seasick Serpent]] as a "not very subtle visual metaphor with a catch phrase to advertise it; "I'm comin' Beany boy, I'm COMIN'!"
79	** In "Bugs Bunny Evolution - Egg Shaped Head", he takes Bugs' TakeThatKiss to Elmer from ''WesternAnimation/AWildHare'' out of context, saying "Bugs is a fag. Is everybody mad now???"
80	** "Chuck Jones, Style, and the Future - Bugs Bonnets", he makes caption jokes about how Bugs and Elmer get married in the ending of "Bugs Bonnets".
81	** In "Pinch and Outrage - Bob Clampett gift of perversion", he talks about a scene from a Creator/BobClampett cartoon ("Porky's Snooze Reel"), referring to the Doberman Pincer ([[VisualPun who likes to go around pinching other dogs]]) as a gay and carefree pervert.
82	** "Stock Disney Characters: The Gay Arabic Villain", referring to villains like [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Jafar]], speaks for itself.
83	-->"Disney animators have shrewdly deduced that the average Joe thinks homosexuals and people of middle-eastern descent are the most evil people in the world. So when an animated feature needs a villain, they automatically create a stereotype combination of a hooked nose man with fruity gestures. For some reason, these characters are always [[LeanAndMean lanky, so tall skinny people]] I assume must also be evil."
84	* 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 Creator/DreamWorksAnimation and coming back with an ExecutiveMeddling horror story.
85	* ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars:[[invoked]] John defends early 1930's cartoons, which he considers generally disparaged and overlooked by critics in favor of Disney, as having their own virtues when put into context.
86	-->"For decades these cartoons have been derided by cartoon historians and even some of the animators themselves. These cartoons have attributes that far surpass their seeming limitations. They were extremely inventive and the animators were encouraged to do what comes naturally to cartoonists and animators. They were allowed to draw and animate in their own individual styles. In the early 1930s, there were no set bible of rules for how to animate. The medium was too young. Every animator figured out their own unique ways of moving things."
87	* 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.
88	* InternalConsistency: In "Tex Avery's Rational Story Structure", the cartoon ''WesternAnimation/BadLuckBlackie'' is cited as an example of building on a basic premise with a well built gag structure (a kitten blows a whistle that summons a black cat to protect him from a bulldog, and every time the cat crosses the bulldog's path, something falls on it), while throwing in some twists here and there. He also acknowledges that the ending sensibly breaks the cartoon's own rules (namely, the bulldog gets things dropped on his head without having the black cat cross his path, all because he swallowed the whistle and keeps blowing it against his will) [[RuleOfFunny for the sake of pacing and humor]].
89	** "Great Writing Can Be Found In Comic Books" cites a WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck comic book as an example of good cartoon logic in action--a preposterous idea ([[FlatEarthAtheist a talking animal who lives in a world of talking animals finds it ridiculous that a dog can talk]]) that follows its own internal logic to make it funny.
90	* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Parodied in "The First Anime I Was Aware Of", where John makes a caption of [[Anime/{{Gigantor}} Jimmy Sparks]] saying "I will spawn a master race of cartoon characters [[OnlySixFaces who look exactly like me]] for the next 50 years and beyond, then we will take over the heathen American barbarians and their entire decadent entertainment empire!"
91	* JustHereForGodzilla: [[invoked]] John claims the only part of ''Literature/TheIllusionOfLife'' that's worth reading is the chapter on TheTwelvePrinciplesOfAnimation and that the rest is just Disney {{propaganda\|Piece}}.
92	* KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect: Invoked; John has made no mystery of his contempt for writers calling the creative shots in cartoons instead of the artists, especially since the artists basically did call the shots in the Golden Age cartoons, and since writers are held in higher favor in the contemporary animation industry than the animators, who usually have little to no creative input on the cartoons. He absolutely stresses that if you're going to work in animation, learn to draw well and use the medium visually. To drive the point home, in "Cartoonists, Lumberjacks and Middle Meddlers: Chainsaws 3", he drew an analogy of the situation, likening it to a lumberjack who has had experience in his craft for years being forced by [[KnowNothingKnowItAll someone who has never once picked up an axe]] to follow his instruction manual on how to do the job (the lumberjack in question, George Liquor, does try out the manual to be a good sport, but it ends up making the simple job of chopping down a tree [[EpicFail turn into a needlessly convoluted mess]]).
93	** He is likewise critical of many animation history books, since he thinks that many of their writers don't practice the art form and only have a surface understanding of it at best, have never set foot inside of an animation studio, and tend to blatantly misrepresent animation history and what it's actually like to work in animation (which is a view also shared by older animators, such as the Disney and Looney Tunes artist Rob Givens). The books he praises tend to either be ones actually written by animators (I.e. John Canemaker's books), books that champion the merits of other classic cartoon studios and don't show favoritism to Disney's view of animation history (i.e. Leslie Cabarga's "The Fleischer Story"), or books that focus on the entertainment value of the films rather than editorializing about them (I.e. Leonard Maltin's "Of Mice and Magic").
94	* LazyArtist: Strongly discouraged, as he teaches that poor artistry is a serious handicap to not only being a functional artist, but using animation to its full creative potential, and he has numerous posts dedicated to sharing foundation skills of drawing.
95	* LetsSeeYouDoBetter: "Comment Rules" says he won't allow comments from amateurs (or people who can't draw) criticizing professional artists.
96	-->"There is a small handful of wanna be artists who can barely scrawl a stick figure who get on and yell at top professionals present and past and pronounce with complete certainty who is good at what and who isn't - as if it's a fact. I say, if you are gonna criticize someone with actual skill and talent, you better be able to back it up with your own drawings and considerable experience in performing the same or similar tasks, so you know what you are talking about. Post a link to your own drawings and I'll make a post featuring your work and your criticism of someone who has achieved something amazing."
97	* LighterAndSofter: In "The Most Beautiful Girl in Cartoons", he felt that Creator/FleischerStudios suffered from going in this direction by abandoning their urban cartooning [[FollowTheLeader in favor of imitating Disney]], although he admits they were still doing some nice animation.
98	* LimitedAnimation: Many posts are dedicated to the virtues of low budget cartoons and that many techniques can be learned from them, and that low budgets are no excuse for lack of skill or cheating your audience out of entertainment, pointing to shows such as WesternAnimation/RogerRamjet, WesternAnimation/BeanyAndCecil, and WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones as proof you can make a good cartoon with only the most paltry budgets. He points out that the problem with most Dark Age cartoons wasn't the lack of budget or the use of the trope, but that any kind of creativity was actively discouraged or impossible to put in the cartoons.
99	* LittlestCancerPatient: In "Is It A Cartoon? Chapter 1", John points to this trope as a red flag that you're watching a "fake" cartoon, using a character from ''WesternAnimation/{{Franklin}}'' (who clearly needs crutches to walk, but is playing on his friends' soccer team) as an example of an insincere message being put in to make the cartoon to tripwire fake emotion.
100	-->"A real sign of fake cartoons. Cartoons that teach you something that [[{{Hypocrite}} the creators themselves don't believe]]. Like-just because you are crippled, doesn't mean you can't be a great athlete, just like all the other kids. And just because you are retarded and evil, doesn't mean you can't make up cartoons."
101	* LostInImitation: Criticized late in "Observation, Creativity, Influence, Stealing, Blind Absorption of Styles", claiming that just copying influences without analyzing can lead to unintentionally plagiarizing from said influences.
102	* 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).
103	-->"A real cartoonist is a contradiction. It's usually someone who sees life realistically and has a sarcastic view of all the hypocrisy and insanity in the world, yet he (she) draws in a really happy lively, funny style."
104	* MickeyMousing: "Timing Story To Melody" discusses how vintage cartoon directors structured their animation around music, sometimes in a straightforward way before the music was even composed (but planned to a tempo), planned directly around a specific piece of music, and sometimes in a more creative, intuitive way. He points out how cartoons like those directed by Creator/BobClampett play out more like visual music, rather than as a straight narrative.
105	* MonochromeApparition: In "Naked Dead Baby With Dangling Parts Cut Off Construction", John notes with humor that WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost's BedsheetGhost character design is probably the cheapest cartoon character design ever conceived; its so simplistic, even by animation standards, that it's basically Preston Blair-style baby construction stripped down to its bare essence ("Even ears are too expensive to draw!"), noting that while many characters are variations of this kind of figure construction, Casper is the only one that is nothing ''but'' construction.
106	* MorePopularSpinoff: [[invoked]] [[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.
107	* MotionBlur: "Smears and Poses" has John talk about how the smear and blur techniques in cartoons like WesternAnimation/TheDoverBoys influenced his style.
108	* MotiveMisidentification: "Writing for Character" mentions how this trope was partially involved in refining the ideas behind ''Stimpy's Invention''. The initial idea of the episode was simply that Stimpy's inventions constantly backfired on Ren, but John quickly realized that it needed to take more advantage of the characters' personalities, so he added the idea that the [[GeniusDitz well meaning but simpleminded and naive Stimpy]] thinks Ren is just unhappy, and is [[ComicallyMissingThePoint oblivious to the fact]] that it's his inventions that are making the already neurotic chihuahua more angry, [[FromBadToWorse so he invents the happy helmet to "solve" the problem]]. Once that was established, the rest of the story wrote itself.
109	* MumLooksLikeASister: PlayedForLaughs In "Solid Drawing Preview", where he takes a potshot at ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'', joking about Jim being conflicted on whether he should marry John Silver or [[ParentalIncest his mom]] (who he claims looks the same age as Jim).
110	* MundaneMadeAwesome: In "Writing for Cartoons 10", he parodies a thrilling scene from the 1951 film ''Film/OnDangerousGround'', by having a cartoonist hunt down and beat up a scriptwriter, [[DisproportionateRetribution all just for writing the Filmation cartoon]] "Disco Droopy", only to be stopped and chewed out by his boss. The point, of course, is to contrast the kind of dialogue used in movies like that to the dialogue of a typical cartoon script posted below it.
111	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In "Rock N Rule - Mok, Robin Budd and dog noses on humans", the fact that Mok is an obvious Music/MickJagger caricature does not go unnoticed by John, and he points out how weird it was to [[DogFace put a cat nose on him]] when he's such a specific looking person and not a cartoon animal like Pluto the dog.
112	* NonStandardCharacterDesign:
113	** For all the flak he gives Disney for their [[OnlySixFaces stock design templates]], he acknowledges the wolf kids from "Three Little Wolves" and celebrity caricatures in shorts like "WesternAnimation/MotherGooseGoesHollywood" as standing out in their works. He also compliments Madame Medusa as being a unique (if heavily copied) design for Disney, but understands that because of how complex and specific her character construction is, only one man on Earth ([[Creator/DisneysNineOldMen Milt Kahl]]) could have animated her!
114	** 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.
115	* 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 many influences), 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.
116	* OnlySixFaces:
117	** The Character Design posts cover many stock animation designs from old and new cartoons, while also acknowledging specific designs that don't follow a standard template. WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry is addressed as relying on this trope in "Animation School Lesson 9A - Tom and Jerry Again", but John [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools acknowledges]] that their simple designs also make them ideal to study basic drawing principles from.
118	** 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 trans [[WesternAnimation/{{The Jungle Book\|1967}} Mowgli]].
119	** In "The First Anime I Was Aware Of", he makes a caption of [[Anime/{{Gigantor}} Jimmy Sparks]] saying "I will spawn a master race of cartoon characters who look exactly like me for the next 50 years and beyond, then we will [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld take over the heathen American barbarians and their entire decadent entertainment empire!]]"
120	** In "Depressing Cartoon Studios 2: Hanna Barbera", he notices this about one of their Bible-themed cartoons.
121	-->"The bible has some of the craziest stories ever invented so it's a complete irony to give it such a bland "realistic" treatment. Did everyone have the same face and body 2500 years ago?"
122	* OscarBait: In "By What Criteria Do We Judge Quality?", John accuses Disney and its followers of shrewdly exploiting this trope with pathos scenes in an attempt to get critical respect for animation.
123	* OutOfCharacterMoment: In-character writing is stressed by John. In "Writing for Cartoons 7", he points out that "In the Army" originally had a scene where Stimpy blows his top and chews out Ren for getting them in trouble. He thought it was funny, but realized it was completely out of character for Stimpy, since it's [[ThePollyanna very difficult to actually get him mad.]]
124	* OutsideJoke: Some of the humor of the blog depends on readers either not having "geeky" knowledge or not caring about 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 a barrage of comments explained its origins (which John felt ruined the joke by missing the point of the whole post).
125	* {{Padding}}: [[invoked]]
126	** 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.
127	** In "Writing for Cartoons 1", he criticizes ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' as being a movie with this same problem, and also setting a bad example for other animated movies to follow as a result.
128	* PoliticalCorrectnessIsEvil: 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" flavor of the defunct Funny Face drink mix brand of having racist intentions.
129	* PragmaticAdaptation: State to be a virtue of the B&W ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' cartoons in "Popeye Rules", pointing out that directly adapting the story lines from the comics (which ran for weeks to months at a time) would have impractical or flat out impossible to do in a six-minute short cartoon, so they built custom situations centered around the characters' personalities instead (which the animation team not only kept intact from the comics, but built on them by adding unique voices, mannerisms and touches that were never in the source material).
130	* PropagandaPiece:[[invoked]] John dismisses ''Literature/TheIllusionOfLife'' 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.
131	* 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 incredibly low-budget]] vintage tv show (namely, a SoupySales puppet skit) which relied on pure talent and skill alone.
132	* 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 an example of how the cartoon had funny ideas, but the sloppy structure hurt it.
133	* RatedMForManly: The blog is very much in favor of a sardonic, masculine worldview. Of course, this is to be expected from a blog run by the same guy who made ''The Ripping Friends'' and is a huge Creator/KirkDouglas fan.
134	* RealityIsUnrealistic:
135	** In "What's 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.
136	** 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 Hollywood's stereotypical depiction of Indians as being either very stoic or of the CryingIndian variety.
137	* 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 ''Series/HappyDays'' in space.
138	* RefugeInAudacity: The blog prides itself on how abrasive, immature and vulgar its humor is.
139	* RomanticPlotTumor:[[invoked]] "Writing for Cartoons 3" criticizes the Creator/{{MGM}} Creator/MarxBrothers movies for falling back on this element at the expense of their comedy.
140	* {{Rotoscoping}}:
141	** Discouraged in a comment to a student, saying it doesn't help animation at all and looks terrible. 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.
142	** [[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 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.
143	* RubberhoseLimbs: The beginnings and evolution of them are talked about in "Evolution of Macaroni".
144	* {{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/AdolfHitler.
145	* SceneryPorn: Encouraged in his color theory and background painting posts, which cite an eclectic variety of beautiful color schemes from fine art and illustration (along with cartoons) for reference points.
146	* 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 which John created)
147	* ShallowParody:
148	** "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]].
149	** On the other hand, in "Writing for Cartoons 3", he heavily criticizes parody that only uses pop culture references where the joke just relies solely on the novelty of referencing something, as opposed to making a funny point about said reference, since he considers using caricature to make fun of something to be the entire point of cartooning.
150	* 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 their 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.
151	* 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.
152	* SimpleCountryLawyer: In "Color Theory 6 - Montealegre - Lion Hearted Huck", he quips "In my dumbass regular guy on the street who likes girls opinion..."
153	* 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/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney Frollo]], [[WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}} Lady Tremaine]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}} Anton Ego]] for examples.
154	-->"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."
155	* 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.]]
156	* 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 are driving the stories themselves, and not be driven by some outside conflict or coincidence.
157	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The blog leans heavily towards the cynicism side of the scale, as 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.
158	* SlobsVersusSnobs: The subject of his four-part "[[WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker Wally Walrus]] Vs. [[Creator/ColumbiaCartoons UPA]]" posts, where he unfavorably contrasts the more serious, artsy approach of UPA cartoons to those of standard funny cartoon shorts like those of Creator/WalterLantz.
159	* SoBadItWasBetter: [[invoked]]
160	** In "Canadian Animation -- The Beginning", he talks about the show ''WesternAnimation/RocketRobinHood'', saying he liked the first season better than the second because it was [[SoBadItsGood so cheesy and sloppy.]]
161	** In "Wayne Boring's Superman", he claims he prefers {{superhero}} comics before UsefulNotes/TheSeventies because he believed that their appeal came from just how ridiculous they were, and that they ruined this appeal when writers tried to rationalize and take the preposterous stories seriously.
162	* SophisticatedAsHell: Many of the blog posts make long, elaborate, and detailed arguments about why one would and should want to do cartoony animation or vulgar humor.
163	* 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 are nonsensical in the first place, using the [[PhysicalGod unstoppable nature of Silver Age Superman]] as an example.
164	* 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 & Jerry shorts as laudable for their excellent craftsmanship, in "An Age Of Extreme Conservatism pt 2 - Cartoons Today", he considers their content to be 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.
165	* 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.
166	* SuicideAsComedy: In a post about "WesternAnimation/AnItchInTime", it is recommended for an artist to learn to draw suicide pistols, as they are in big demand in the cartoon business.
167	* TakeThat:
168	** 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 Creator/RubySpears, and filmmakers like Creator/GeorgeLucas and Creator/StevenSpielberg, along with their most famous films (i.e. ''Franchise/StarWars'', Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial and Spielberg's cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', etc.)
169	** "Whats Not To Love About Insanity?" takes potshots at [[TheFundamentalist bible-thumping revisionists]] who believe that [[GravityIsOnlyATheory evolution isn't real]], 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.
170	** "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 would "probably wouldn't be much fun to hang around with".
171	** Another post takes a jab at the artwork of the openly gay Disney artist David Kanewa and his RuleThirtyFour artwork of Disney characters.
172	** "Fanboy Admission and Genetics" has John take a potshot at journalist Thad Komorowski for painting him in a very bad light in the book ''Literature/SickLittleMonkeys'', by drawing a grotesque caricature of him as a hateful, snot-nosed puppet with the pic caption "Puppet Aspergers".
173	-->"There is a new kind of rare fanboy, encouraged by the internet, somewhat like Bobby, only much angrier, a very strange sort of genetic defect that luckily doesn't have chance of breeding."
174	** "Ripping Friends Vehicles and More" has a drawing of a tank about to fire at a [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pikachu.]]
175	** "Its Been A Whole Year So Thanks", which explains the origins of the blog, starts off with what is basically a big snipe at animation historian Michael Barrier (unnamed in the post, but the description of who John is talking about clearly refers to him), who John once got into a heated email spate with.
176	* TakeThatCritics:
177	** Posts like "By What Criteria Do We Judge Quality?" take hearty potshots at what animation critics consider to make up an animated movie critical of praise (although in the same post, John is quick to say he doesn't paint all critics like this and likes some of them, like Creator/LeonardMaltin).
178	** In "Wally VS UPA 3 - Walt Craves Respect", John gives a backhanded compliment to ''Fantasia'' because it actually got sour critical reception in its original release due to being considered a kitschy and pretentious film.
179	-->"This outraged serious music critics, which is OK with me. But it also bored the general audience who wanted cartoons to be funny - and that's the real shame."
180	* SweetnessAversion:[[invoked]] A big factor in why he's so alienated by Disney and their followers. He finds their films so [[RealMenHateAffection unmasculine]], sentimental and sappy that he says there isn't any Disney film that doesn't make him want to reach for the fast forward button.
181	* 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 having a ''lot'' more complex emotions than mere anger.
182	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:[[invoked]] In "Disney Gets Almost Specific", he lauds the early scenes of [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Captain Hook]] as seeming like they are building him up to be this charismatic, shaded character, but expresses disappointment that the rest of the film did not build on it.
183	* ThrowItIn:[[invoked]] Discussed in a post about the WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "WesternAnimation/BarbaryCoastBunny", pointing out how Creator/ChuckJones rewrote the dialogue to accommodate the kind of characterization Daws Butler brought to Nasty Canasta.
184	* TomHanksSyndrome:[[invoked]] [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in a few posts. John is not a fan of cartoons doing this in a non-comedic context and sees it as a shrewd, cheap way of pandering to critics and emotionally trip-wiring audiences in order to get artistic respect in animation.
185	** 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 the critical praise or respect which live-action filmmakers received,]] 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.
186	** In "Wally Walrus VS UPA part 1", he criticizes [[Creator/ColumbiaCartoons UPA]] for doing this, seeing them as a group of [[StopHavingFunGuys snobbish elitist animators]] who thumbed their nose at the approach of other animation studios, singling out cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/TheUnicornInTheGarden'' as going out of their way to be as dreary and anti-cartoon as possible in order to pander to critics.
187	** 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 [[SweetnessAversion trite]] or [[SophisticatedAsHell lowbrow content.]]
188	** As the above examples attest, John hammers home that if you want to make kitsch, then [[MagicAIsMagicA treat it like kitsch]] (unless your plan is to make fun of it) -- don't treat kitsch as something to be taken seriously so you can crassly pretend it has genuine artistic merit behind it.
189	* TwistEnding: In "How to End A Cartoon", John lauds the Fleischer brothers for their unpredictable and funny twist endings, using WesternAnimation/BimbosInitiation as an example.
190	* TheTwelvePrinciplesOfAnimation:
191	** 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.
192	** 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.
193	* UnintentionalUncannyValley: [[invoked]] Discussed:
194	** 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 motion-capture 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.
195	** 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''.
196	* UnderwearOfPower: Discussed in "Pizzatime Doodle—The Phantom", where John points out about how ridiculous it is for superheroes to go around in their underwear and rhetorically asks where it came from. Cue the comment section [[OutsideJoke flooding with serious answers and discussion]] about the trope and [[ComicallyMissingThePoint missing the entire point of the post.]]
197	* UnfortunateCharacterDesign:[[invoked]]
198	** In "By What Criteria Do We Judge Quality?", John jokes that [[WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}} Grandmother Willow]] looks like a face in a vagina.
199	-->"Pocahontas consults the wisdom of the magical pussy-tree, complete with every fold and crevice."
200	** In another post, he uses CaptionHumor to compare [[WesternAnimation/BattleForTerra Mala]] to a flying sperm cell.
201	* 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 it's 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.
202	* WingdingEyes: In "Wonderful Cartooniness", a post about the comics of animator Creator/DanGordon, he points out the combination of a character's angry expression with the cartoon symbolism of skulls in her eyes, which he says doubles the impact of said expression.
203	* WildTake:
204	** "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 the story or even animation, but the 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 talking about how the ''WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost'' cartoons used wild takes but missed the humor of it by the takes not being funny or well designed and being just plain ugly as a result.
205	** All three of the "What Causes Tit Eyes?" posts center on analyzing a milder form of this (the eyes getting really angular and pointy, but not big), using Creator/ChuckJones' ''WesternAnimation/MouseWreckers'' as a source of reference.
206	* 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.]]
207	* 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.

Context Blog / JohnKStuff