A joint production by Kris Straub (of Starslip and Chainsawsuit) and Scott Kurtz (of PvP), now appearing on Penny Arcade TV, Blamimation is a monthly series of comedic Flash shorts. Each episode generally consists of a couple of brief sketches bookended by a Framing Device about Straub and Kurtz's adventures. Recurring sketches include:
- The Airhornsman, about a man who uses an air horn instead of talking;
- Fin & Feather, depicting an Odd Friendship between a renaissance-era fish and a modern-day bird;
- FUCK Hospital, an ultrasexy Medical Drama;
- Get Sharpe, a Detective Drama set in a town full of morons;
- Monster Nash, a thriller in the same vein as The Incredible Hulk (1977);
- Night Driver, a parody of Knight Rider;
- Saw Babies, which reimagines Jigsaw as a vengeful elementary school student;
- Tetris Cop, a Cop Show about a grizzled Z-block who refuses to play by the book
Watch them here
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Blamimation contains examples of:
- Accidental Truth: Discussed in the commentary.Scott: We're sorry that our ridiculous premise of people throwing away cats is what people actually do.
- Art Shift: Each sketch is drawn in either Kurtz's comic-booky style or Straub's signature noseless style. Each creator is also drawn in his own style, even when both appear together.
- Bigger on the Inside: Kris' butthole, as discovered by MC Frontalot's uncle.
- Bland-Name Product:
- Kurtz and Straub are pulled into a digital world that they assume is TRON, but are quickly corrected in that TRON is "bullshit" and the real deal is called "FRON." Instead of Light Cycles, they have Glow Bikes, "but you have to pedal them."
- Straub offers to celebrate with Capri Moon and Fruit by the Length.
- The second Alliday episode features B1 sauce, which apparently goes well with human flesh.
- Body Horror: Nash's transformations are pretty grotesque.
- Cowboy Cop: McTetris ends up with a lot of Dead Partners, and Da Chief is getting too old for this shit.
- Credits Gag: The season 1 finale ends with a credit reel, complete with "corrections" from the series so far. Penny Arcade business guru Robert Khoo is listed under "Special Thanks", followed immediately by "Thanks Redacted".
- Disproportionate Retribution: The entire concept behind Saw Babies. Subverted in that it usually backfires.
- Gift of the Magi Plot: Parodied in one Blam, where the air conditioner cuts out during a heatwave. Kris buys Scott some freon for the air conditioner, which Scott has sold in order to buy Kris a snow cone. Alas, Kris is unable to enjoy the snow cone because he traded his head for the freon.
- Hilarious Outtakes: During the sketches. Sometimes they'll redo flubbed lines, mock each other for mistakes, or scribble out animation errors.
- Idiot Ball: Held by everyone apart from the Sharpe brothers in Get Sharpe.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Kris and Scott discover that, during the Alliday festivities, they killed and consumed someone.
- Inspector Javert: The Major in Monster Nash is a General Ross Expy who is sure Nash is hiding secrets.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: Monster Nash is presented as a thriller about a man who needs to avoid looking at or hearing any mention of things associated with stock movie monsters (bandages, bats, blood, the moon, pyramids, etc.) or else he'll turn into all monsters, simultaneously.
- Limited Animation: There's very little animation besides characters snapping into new poses like they're in a storyboard or animatic.
- Major Injury Underreaction:"Thank God we got out of there in one piece!""Ha ha, Scott, speak for yourself! Check out what's going on down there! (camera pans to reveal that Straub has a basketball-sized hole where his crotch should be) Whoa-ho-ho augh ugh." (dies)"Heh heh heh oooooh! Eh, guess my friend's dead. Heh heh."
- Motor Mouth: The so-called "Blam Cadence" used by both Blamimators in their interstitial bits is as follows: A SERIES of PHRASES, PUNCTuated at RANdom, aSCENDing in pitch and then suddenlydippingbackdownthehillconstantlygainingspeeduntilyouretalkingfasterthanyoucanthink. It's basically engineered to guarantee slip-ups. Mike Krahulik made a huge effort to match the style in his guest appearance, whereas Jerry Holkins deliberately broke it.
- Rightful King Returns: Parodied in Deep King where the heir to Atlantis is an average Joe who nonchalantly leaves in the middle of a crisis situation because his air tank is running low.
- Take That!: The Airhornsman is patterned after cartoonist Ted Rall.
- The Speechless: The Airhornsman is a champion debater despite "speaking" with an air horn.
- Unreadably Fast Text: Some of the gags can't be seen unless you pause the animation.
- Unusual Euphemism: A frat boy uses the term "pee-poops" to describe going to the bathroom, which everyone around him finds bizarre. Especially since he has no problem cursing out the guy who bumped into him at the urinal.
