No End In Sight?

What began as a discussion about Japanese Anime classics from our youth on Facebook the other day, turned into an analysis of two very similar though significantly different storytelling styles between myself and my very dear friend, William Corpening, the greatest Gamemaster I've ever had the pleasure of gaming with. 

Essentially, William noted that it took him some time to truly appreciate the Eastern approach to genre storytelling that, unlike an American Comic Books or TV Series for example, has a definitive beginning, middle, and end. The idea that Superman might have an end to his story wasn't a concept William ever considered. Likewise, he didn't plan on there being any 'grand finales' to his RPG campaigns. They simply went on and on until they didn't. 

While I like to think I share that approach, it simply isn't true more often than not. Will noted that my tales have regularly featured a final chapter and apparently always have, though in many cases this never occurred to me. 

In response to Will's statement about having to get used to the idea of Anime and Manga series coming to an end I posted, "I feel like Eastern storytelling of the kind you see in Anime and Manga, especially of the late 70s and early 80s, always spoke to me and that's why I was so WOWed by it. It was what I didn't know I wanted. It influenced my GMing even when I wasn't GMing anything specifically Anime-themed."

This initiated a most interesting exchange in which we compared our Gamemastering styles, with William's insight into my own both quite different and more insightful than what I have gleaned myself. 

Says Will (quoted from text, only slightly paraphrased):

"Are you familiar with Kishotenketsu? Introduction, development, twist and reconciliation. Your style seems to follow that pattern.

You have an end in mind, as far as I can tell. You begin with the ending in mind. I don't think I can even do that, which is why it always broke my heart to leave one of your games early. I wanna see how it ends!!!

I never really played with the end in mind back then. That's why it never ends."

I found this an odd perception initially, though not entirely wrong when I took a closer look at it. Generally speaking, I don't have an end in mind such as, "This campaign ends with the heroes triumphant over the evil despot" or "There will be a big battle in the final session with the PCs fighting the enemy forces while a third party tries to take advantage of the situation".

I don't do that. I don't know where a campaign will end and I don't want to know ahead of time. That leads to Railroading the players and having the GM's story taking precedent over the PCs actions and decisions. 

That said, more often than not I do have a story idea I want to explore going in. "What would it be like if everyone lived forever and death was an unknown? How do you tell that story? Where is the tension?" or "Imagine a Four Color Comic Book Superhero world set in turn of the century France. Where will that idea go?"

At some point while examining the campaign's meta-concept I do see that there will be an ending. There is a point in [most of] my campaigns where I realize the story and PCs are going somewhere, towards some kind of finale. The initial question that prompts the campaign needs to be answered somehow. I look forward to finding out what that answer is as much as they [the Players and their PCs] do and as Will so accurately points out, that process means my stories/campaigns do come to a distinct end.

As for Will's approach: 

"I never really played with the end in mind back then. That's why the story never ends.

I think we may be convincing ourselves and each other that there is some great difference between us. Our differences are likely infinitesimal. I'm starting to process it that way. I'll go left one day where you might go right the next. And yet, I still say you handle story better than I do. Maybe I might handle [large] ensembles better.

It's like I'm Biggie and you're Tupac. Biggie was a rapper and Tupac was a poet. You're the storyteller and I'm the freestyler."

An interesting analysis and one I think I will visit further sometime soon. I am talking to Will about doing a post where we discuss our approaches - both how they differ and what they share in common - and then putting it up and taking questions. Not sure exactly how this will be formatted yet but it is definitely on my agenda. 

That's all for now...

WAIT! Before I forget, a quick reminder that next month is the 2020 RPGaDay Challenge! Please check back as I tend to post A LOT during that time. 

OK, be safe,

AD
Barking Alien

Cameo #3 - GROGNARDIA Presents...High Culture

“Hi there, Sam, you're just the eagle I was looking for, because today I wanted to salute two beloved cultural institutions born in the 1970s.”

“Finally! A kindred spirit! Someone who understands that what we need more of around here is culture and an appreciation for history.”

“I couldn't agree more, Sam, as anyone who's read my blog, Grognardia, would know.”

“A blog, eh? Isn't that one of those new fangled Internet thingies where self-important blowhards with too much time on their hands talk down to everyone who disagrees with them?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“That's what I thought! How do I get a blog of my own?”

“I'll tell you later, but, as I said, right now we're going to honor two beloved cultural institutions that first appeared in the 1970s.”

“The Republican Study Committee and the Trilateral Commission, both of which were established in 1974?”

“No, not those.”

“The Moral Majority and the Covert Action Information Bulletin?”

“No, not those either.”

“The Office of Net Assessment and the Executive Intelligence Review?”

“Uh, no.”

“Surely, you're not talking about National Public Radio?”

“No, no, of course not. What do you take me for, some kind of hippie?”

“Well, you can never be so sure about people nowadays. Why, the things I could tell you from my time on The Muppet Show ...”

“What a coincidence! The Muppet Show is one of the two beloved 1970s cultural institutions I wanted to discuss.”

“The Muppet Show? A beloved cultural institution? Pop cultural maybe, but I'm interested in high culture -- programming that elevates the mind and ennobles the soul, not the low brow ephemera that distracts Johnny Know-Nothing from the drudgery of his daily existence.”

“I ... see.”

“So what's the other 'beloved cultural institution' you intend to discuss? Let me guess: Pong? Duck Hunt perhaps?”

“No, Sam. I'm as devoted to uplifting and edifying activities as you are. That's why I want to talk about another 1970s cultural institution that is, in my opinion, both uplifting and edifying -- Dungeons & Dragons!”

“...”

---

At first glance, it might not seem as if The Muppet Show and Dungeons & Dragons have a lot in common other than the decade in which they were both born. That's what I thought too when this blog's furry green proprietor approached me about doing a guest post on this very topic. What could I possibly say about these two staples of my youth that somehow connected them in a way that might provide even a small bit of insight to others? I spent a long time trying to unearth some hitherto unknown connection between Jim Henson and Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, something -- anything -- that might let me talk about these world-changing creations as part of a larger movement in entertainment in the 1970s.

And that's when it struck me. When I think back on the decade of my childhood what I remember was a riotous mess of strangeness. This was, after all, the decade of Star Wars, Jaws, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was a decade obsessed with the weird, the Fortean, and the Satanic, from King Tut to Bigfoot to The Amityville Horror and more. It was, for a kid like me, a great time to grow up, serving up a heady stew of half-digested oddities, claptrap, and, above all, fantasy with which to feed my imagination. I still largely subsist on a diet of such nonsense, the taste for which I first acquired more than three decades ago.

Both The Muppet Show and Dungeons & Dragons -- heck, roleplaying in general -- are fruits of that riotous mess of strangeness I remember so well. They grabbed hold of everything that was going on at the time, from the ridiculous to the sublime, and ran with it in amazing, imaginative directions. They treated us to the spectacle of Ethel Merman singing a duet with a vain, anthropomorphic pig and to a game where Conan and Gandalf can team up to fight Dracula. They were vehicles of wild imagination that taught us that value of reckless borrowing from anything we could get our hands on to create something that was somehow more than the sum of its parts, whether it was throwing an alien spacecraft or a cowboy into a D&D adventure or spoofing medical soap operas with a cast made up entirely of animals.

It's worth noting too another important lesson imparted by both The Muppet Show and Dungeons & Dragons: fantasy isn't just for kids. Whereas Henson's earlier Sesame Street was clearly aimed at children, The Muppet Show wasn't. It was broadcast in prime time and contained plenty of sly humor and allusions that would go right over a child's head, even as he laughed at the sight of Gonzo eating a rubber tire to the music of “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Likewise, D&D was a game whose audience included adults; my Holmes-edited Basic Set proclaimed itself “the original adult fantasy role-playing game.” That may seem like a small thing, but, to a child like me, it suggested that growing up didn't mean an end to fantasy, a lesson I've carried with me all these years and imparted to my own children, thanks to these beloved cultural institutions of the 1970s.

- James Maliszewski

Barkley
Barking Alien

Cameo #2 - Pigs in Space Meet The EXONAUT!

It's time for another thrilling episode of...Pigs In Spaaace!

When we last left the crew of the Spaceship Swinetrek they had discovered and boarded a mysterious, alien derelict..."My goodness, what a mysterious, alien derelict this is."

"Agreed First Mate Piggy. And spooky. Dr. Strangepork, what can you tell us about this vessel?"

"Vell according to the computer, this is the EXONAUT, a spaceship created to explore space and find intriguing items to collect and bring back to its creators in a distant galaxy."

"It looks like a galactic yard sale."

"The good stuff is in the Cargo Holds. Come on, let's check out..."

Muppet Random Space Finds!
By Jay of Exonauts







Barkley
Barking Alien

Cameo #1 - Lurking Humorously

FADE IN to scene. A young and lovely writer, MISS ERIN PALETTE, is tied to a chair by what appears to be a green garden hose.

(Groggily, as if sedated)

"Huh? Where am I? What's going on here?"
(Struggles against her bonds)





"Erin Palette? Erin Palette! Fifteen seconds to your blog post, Miss Palette!"

"Scooter? What are you doing here? What am I doing here?"

"Why, you're the first guest author for Mr. Adam's blog, Miss Palette! Adam's missing though so Barkley said to bring you in anyway. You're here to talk about Muppets, Monty Python, and subversive humor."

"So I've been shanghaied?"

(Scooter nods assent)

(Shaking her head is resignation)

"Done in by my own rules. Isn't that ironic?"

(Scooter checking guest list) "No, Alanis Morissette isn't until next week."

(SFX: Sad trombone)

END SCENE.

CUE MUPPET SHOW OPENING.

SPOTLIGHT ON PALETTE, STILL TIED TO CHAIR.

Er… hello, everyone. Apparently I'm today's guest author for Adam's blog. I knew that making rules suggestions and revisions for his Muppet RPG would eventually have repercussions, but I had no idea it would be something like this. Oh well. At least I'm earning that co-author credit!

When I started reading Adam's posts for Muppet Madness Month, I noticed an amazing bit of similarity between the humor of the Muppets and that of Monty Python. Compare the following videos:

Beef Falling Dramatically

French Secret Weapon

Now you may well be asking "But Palette, what do these two sketches have in common other than airborne beef?" That's a good question, and thank you for asking, purely theoretical audience who might be only the voices in my head. I'll tell you: Both are forms of subversive humor.

When I say "subversive," I don't necessarily mean treasonous, radical, or designed to overthrow established social order (although some sketches on both sides frequently satisfy that last definition); I instead mean that they take the audience's expectations and subvert them humorously. Well, what's a subversion, then? It's what happens when the audience is led to believe one kind of thing is going to happen, and something else – perhaps even something completely different – happens instead.

The classic example of this is the speeding car hurtling down a busy street as two workers are carrying a pane of glass across the road. The audience expects that, one way or another, that glass is going to be broken dramatically. Played straight, the car will smash the glass. But if something else happens – the car avoids the glass, something else smashes the glass instead, or perhaps the car itself shatters after hitting the glass – that's a subversion. It is essentially messing with the minds of the audience, wherein what happens is funny not necessarily because it is humorous, but because it is so unexpected that it strikes the viewer as absurd, and therefore hilarious.

Both the Muppets and Monty Python are masters of this technique, and pioneered it at a time when humor was very straightforward and formulaic. Both heavily influenced the evolution of televised humor, and both are still immensely popular over thirty years later – a testament to the immortality of their craftsmanship. "But what about this alleged similarity you talked about earlier," I hear you say.

Well, my thesis is quite simple. Monty Python has never been especially huge in the United States, due perhaps to its very British-ness, despite how absurd or subversive it could be. But the Muppets – cute, unassuming, and decidedly American – made this form of humor much more palatable to U.S. audiences. In fact, Muppet humor is doubly subversive, because audiences are not inclined to expect sophisticated wordplay from brightly-colored pieces of felt with funny voices.

Van Gogh Impressions

In fact, I would go so far as to say that The Muppet Show is, in fact, Monty Python made American. An American Python, if you will.

The GREEN HOSE that was wrapped around PALETTE twists and shifts, revealing itself to be an oddly-dressed snake. He hisses in PALETTE's ear.





American Python: You rang?

PALETTE shrieks and faints. AMERICAN PYTHON shrugs – don't ask me how a snake with no shoulders manages to shrug, he just does, okay? – and continues narrating in a voice much like David Ogden Stiers, only prissier and more New Englandish.

Oh dear. I seem to have startled the poor dear. But not to fret! I studied theater at Haaaaahvaaaaahd.

To illustrate the point that the Muppets are American Python – hellooooo, everyone – watch this clip from 1967 and pretend that instead of Jim Henson doing the computer voice, it is actually John Cleese. I think you will find that it would be quite at home in any Flying Circus episode.

IBM Training Video

And wouldn't this sketch be simply splendid performed by Muppets?

Military Fairy

Yesss. Yesss, indeeeeeed.

And so, my friends, in conclusion, please consider the following:

What's That On The Television?

"Our first rule was: no punch lines.. [some sketches] start brilliant, great acting, really funny sketch, but punch line is just not as good as the rest of the sketch, so it kills the entire thing. That's why we eliminated them." -- Terry Gilliam, Monty Python Live at Aspen, 1998

Swanee

"What my father figured out was if you can't get out, you just either blow something up, or you eat something, or you just throw penguins in the air." -- Brian Henson, Brian Henson Introductions, 1999

Thank you very much, and goodnight.

SFX: AMERICAN PYTHON explodes.




CUE CREDITS.

FADE OUT.

-- Erin Palette


Barkley
Barking Alien