How Kid Cosmic Perfected What Velma Butchered

all right it's time I talked about Velma yeah it's a weird way to start a video with this thumbnail and title don't go anywhere I'm making a point but oh boy Velma everybody and their father's Brothers nephews cousins former roommate is talking about Velma and I get it it's unfunny unlikable un entertaining I have no shade to any of the hundreds of people who've made videos clowning on the show hell I was thinking of doing one had an intro setup and everything that you can read in the description if you're interested I was ready to put my cynical little mask on and make another Santa anchor High Guardian spice video raking in the big bucks given my perspective but then I really sat down analyzed the show took notes and well uh I couldn't make it past episode two I had nothing to say but on that it left me speechless with how bad it was I couldn't take it anymore kind of way I've been through far lower quality the reason I stopped watching Velma wasn't as much from shock and ah more so [ __ ] boredom God it was so boring I I swear it was made to piss people off which definitely worked if we're going by YouTube videos but you've got to put in some effort if you want me to get angry you've got to take a risk and show you're brave enough to offend like sent Inc gigantic pile of dog [ __ ] fails on every level but it tried to do something the writers for that show completely dropped the ball but I could tell they were doing it with some level of passion Velma no way it's a big spoonful of nothing scrounging together a bunch of adult cartoon cliches without a hint of substance and from what I saw the one trick it had for hiding that like of purpose was reference humor and oh God I am so sick of it hey so you guys remember when making references to other media was subtle when being self-aware breaking the fourth wall and such was a unique concept it would come up in a joke or two that caught you off guard then you'd move on with the episode of course you don't I barely remember we've been living in a post Justin Roiland era ever since that show appeared you know exactly which one near the start of the 2010s he went to adult swim with this new show called my domestic affairs that got turned down for being too referential to his own life a little too so he gave it a bit of thought drank a couple of beers with Dan Harmon and the next day he pitched Rick and Morty the kind of concept Network Executives would be foaming at the mouth to have now but it only would have been taken by Adult Swim when it was a self-aware series that in itself was a reference to another piece of media and once it got popular all hell broke loose give that comedian a TV show make that reference comedy a full-blown series green light green light green light but there's one thing I know about executives it's that they never get the full picture all they see is a property going big so they try to find the secret ingredient to its success to pump out a million imitators just like it but it never ends well because there is no secret ingredient it's not one aspect of a show that makes it popular it's everything that show is put together but the executives don't understand that and they don't want to try anything new so the issue will keep getting worse until the next big Trend repeats the process that's why Rick and Morty wouldn't have been picked up by anyone but Adult Swim when it was they were the one adult animation Network that did and still does take chances back in 2012 Fox and Comedy Central were still stuck in the phase of imitating Family Guy success with Brickleberry and Alan Gregory awful shows that represented the peak of a terrible era for adult animation and you guessed it Velma is this generation's Brickleberry since it knows nothing about what made Rick and Morty work but thinks it does kind of like the later seasons of Rick and Morty and uses its references to either say this is currently what's happening in the show it's a cliche and mystery series you may clap now or mystery shows suck for doing these things I'm sure glad we're not doing them just completely non-substantive lazy condescending writing that believes explicitly pointing out these things and not doing anything else with them is going to be enough to say something and it's not special I've seen it a dozen times before but as long as execs think it sells we're going to have to suffer through another dozen times before it finally dies off but do we really I mean yeah self-awareness and reference humor have been beaten into the ground so hard none of us can identify it as being meant for anything other than shows like Velma and movies like ready player one but that doesn't mean it's an impossible idea to make work early Rick and Morty was popular for a reason it did something right check out my Rick and Morty video if you want to learn more theoretically there's gotta be a way to do it well again possibly better all it would take is the right person with a good grasp of what they want to do and an actual statement to be made but who could handle such a task hmm ah I got it wait no I don't what was the title of the video again this is kid Cosmic a three season Netflix series about a ragtag team of unlikely heroes in the middle of nowhere who find a collection of alien stones that each give a classic superpower which they then need to use to fend off aliens that want the stones for Intergalactic domination it's a cartoon I've been a big fan of ever since it released back in 2021 though I haven't seen too many other fans making videos but for those that have seen it they know it's got an iron grip on how to use references and self-awareness unlike anything airing today all created by one of my personal favorite individuals in TV animation Craig McCracken who you might know as the creator of Powerpuff Girls Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Wander Over Yonder I.E the perfect guy to make a self-aware series with references to pop culture but if you don't get what I mean let me illuminate ya Powerpuff Girls is literally a distillation of everything he loved about old Kaiju battles taken to their most extreme extent in a comically genius way like we kind of just accept the show's premise with all the crazy [ __ ] on TV we get nowadays but back in 1990 the idea of cute little girls getting into extremely violent scuffles with monsters and demons in between regular school life was absolutely absurd for children's television and McCracken knew that spending considerable time making fun of the genre's typical tropes superhero groups giant Mech fights radical 90s kids alien abductions hell if you want to go outside of that it had an episode dedicated to parent groups that thought the PPG were a bad influence and this level of self-awareness is evident in his other series as well which reference UPA cartoons epic Space Adventures Chief 80s toy tie-ins and so on however technically speaking these shows don't have overarching themes across Seasons dedicated to deconstructing the genres they homage at least not directly so kid Cosmic is a new Avenue for McCracken in that sense being his first fully serialized cartoon with a single ongoing narrative that uses its format to purposefully comment on ideas relating to Comics which yes includes being self-aware or making references and the reasoning behind why it works for many series before it failed begins with who's doing it and often overlooked aspect of reference usage but it is important in context for instance say there's a teenage girl that's given no indication within the film or TV show she's appearing in to be anything other than a normal teenage girl with average teenage girl interests she goes to the mall she each newborn children I don't know what teenage girls do but you get the picture wouldn't it be weird if she suddenly referenced The Carol Burnett Show No build up no idea that she would be into 1960s TV comedy but she made the reference so she has to have some knowledge on the subject or for a more contemporary example let's say you're a interdimensional 80 year old scientist with blue hair that gets into crazy Adventures across the Galaxy I know there's more than one of you watching me right now but yeah what if you were that guy and you made a reference to browsing Reddit isn't that odd wouldn't that make you question the internal logic of the series and think wait this guy he browses reddits what it doesn't make sense there's no reason for a guy that old with that much going on in his life to be concerned about something as menial as Reddit upvotes and on that same flow of thought even if the characters in context might reasonably have knowledge of what it is they're referencing is it the right time to make that reference and does it add meaning to the current situation another contemporary anecdote here totally on the Fly you're a red-headed Asian teenage girl in a locker room shower and you randomly get into a discussion about how the First episodes of TV shows are often far more gratuitously violent or sexual or open viewers and the other girls you're showering with all contribute to having great familiarity with the subject now on a technical level it's fully possible that these characters could be aware of this trend among certain shows whether we know what they're talking about or not but why are they they the characters talking about it now in the context of this scene is there a new show they're all watching that happened to commit this are the girls in this scenario TV whizzes that commonly argue about pet peeves and teen dramas or is this the first episode of Velma and the writers need to make a joke but can't think of one so they have the characters unnaturally mentioned exactly what's happening as though that somehow makes it clever I'm leaning towards the first option personal so how does kid Cosmic avoid these issues well it's about a kid named kid that forms a superhero team from a bunch of random people he knows around town that have to fight aliens how about they make it so the kid likes comics in fact let's push it further than that this is a kid that's been through adversity akin to many superhero origin stories he lost his parents and lives with his grandpa now he fantasizes about wanting to do something more in this desert town where nothing happens he has specific ideas about what it takes to become a hero ingrained into him through his vast collection of hand-me-down comics and he's just waiting for the day when his life will finally begin believing he's destined for greatness that is a guy it would make complete sense to hear about common superhero tropes from especially when it doesn't go exactly how he'd imagine it to and that's where the first bits of commentary come in kid is really keen on creating a perfect comic-esque superhero team with him as a leader since he should be the very best of them all but instead he ends up being the weakest of the group having the hardest time controlling his power and he's generally a bad leader not to mention immature so most of that Duty has to go to Joe a teenage girl that plays along with kids Antics thinking it'll help him and it's easy to see why Joe is better at keeping the team together than kid she knows how to get Rosa a four-year-old girl with the power to grow in science to cooperate and listen she's more authoritative and ready to fight than Papa G kids sagely pacifist caretaker with the power of Multiplicity she can do more than tune a sandwich who's a cat that can see into the future and later gets the ability to speak but he's still a cat and kid is kid he's got tons of heart and spirit but he's not a leader and he has trouble accepting that at first as any kid would if given the dream they wish for only for it to not go how they imagined he's strict about having total control over this fantasy and following the typical conventions of his Comics so that's where many of the references to Common superhero tropes come from he in the beginning uses them to say that the situation isn't correct in his mind or he attempts to imitate what he sees in comics to poor results but even more impactful than that I think the best implementations of self-awareness in kid Cosmic Beyond The Times kid does it himself are when the mentions of those archetypes are used against him or the group take the scenario in episode 6 for example kid discovers through an alien the group defeated Chuck that an achievement he thought he'd earned after a long period of training was just Papa giving him a confidence boost knowing he was lagging behind which Chuck then uses to get under kid's skin as he spent his time reading comics in Kids trailer so he knows there's a common theme of Heroes giving up and having tragic accidents so kid is all the tragedy without any of the skill and damn we know this is nothing more than a ploy so kid'll let Chuck call his leader giving kid the chance at a real battle and thus a real win but that's such an effective way to use references to get to a character using their love and admiration of something to manipulate them in their weakest moments and it's a pivotal scene too being the first time reality really sets in for kid and he understands he isn't living in a peppy cheerful fantasy he's in real life and needs to take this seriously instead of goofing around so when he goes Rogue with the power stones and Joe tries consoling kid with the idea that this is the moment where the group makes up and have a triumphant reunion against the bad guy it doesn't work he's become disillusioned with the fantasy of this being like the comics and tries to prove his worth with a real battle it's such an Innovative method for using reference-based dialogue entwining it with characters to show how they're changing over the series though that doesn't mean it isn't also used for the sake of Comedy as it is one of my favorite jokes in the first season is discovering the kid's ring didn't Grant him flights it gave him tell telekinesis he just subconsciously chose to use it for flight so it would make him look cooler that's such a fun twist that fits right in with kid as a character and it all relates back to kid referencing Comics as a guide for how he should act it's so purposeful and you don't even need to have a great understanding of superheroes to get what the show is going for it's written to make complete sense whether you know the more specific references or not because that's what a good reference is accessible it's like a good parody you should be able to watch the material and enjoy it no matter your knowledge that's why most reference based comedy fails it relies on the viewer to get the joke but it doesn't provide enough context to be funny outside of a certain demographic so it confuses more people than it satisfies and kid Cosmic knows this that's why so much of the first few episodes is dedicated to defining what Comics tell kid this situation is supposed to go like and why we're getting natural Exposition through the characters so we'll be in on the general reference when it thematically returns later in the season to be subverted through the introduction and reveal of the True Villain you see in the very first episode owed two of the earliest Trope references we get are for the generic alien Invader about to destroy the Galaxy and the mysterious government forces that'll want to cover it up fairly simple ideas in the beginning that kid is adamant about believing and adhering to no matter the other's opinions but both of these stereotypes are slowly revealed to be incorrect following the massive battle in episode 6. as the government seizes the stones to create their own fighting force Allah Power Rangers and Captain planets to protect the Earth and stop the evil Alien Invaders but that's not really what's going on at all it's just a front in actuality the aliens not out to get the stones for their cosmic power only wanted them as final mementos of their destroyed homeworlds which kid discovers when he sees them fight for the stone matching their color and abilities and not the others so problem solved tell the mysterious government get a high five and let them know there's no need for any of this mazel tov except well they're the governments our governments so they obviously already know they can say it's about protecting the planet using the top Specialists from around the world to crack cheesy one-liners fight with power suits and beat up a legal limit aliens but really same as the Invaders they're out for power and looking cool the kind of things kids strove for with his own superhero team in the beginning but came to see weren't realistic or necessary sure having super suits and worldwide recognition and looking cool beating up the evil alien oppressor is desirable when put into a controlled fictional comic book but if you remove the absurdity and bring it to the real world those conventions fall flat when all it really takes to be a hero is giving a helping hand to those who need it and the government are doing the literal exact opposites so they can play pretend all they want it's kid and his crew who are the true heroes stones of power or not these references kid has made over the season these tropes and signature Staples of comic books have all been stated for the express purpose of subversion it's not just about having a one-off line or Snappy joke about the cliches of a genre it's got a point there's significant narrative relevance to it unlike anything I've seen in recent series children or adults and those same themes continue into the following Seasons where the crew plus the patrons of Joe's mom's minor Traverse space to find the remaining Cosmic stones and stop the single being destroying planets in the first place erodius as well as its gushy Fanboy phantos the amaster however to do that I need to go into heavy spoilers and I know I already spoiled big parts of the first season but these are far bigger and better building on the show's already established ideas so in case you want to First experience them for yourself after getting this far click off this video and watch it on Netflix it's worth pausing to go and watch okay we good cool before we get started though I should let you guys know that during this discussion it's important to note that basically Seasons two and three of kid Cosmic are more so a single entity than two separate ones as the show itself tricks the audience into thinking there's going to be a whole new set of Adventures by having the last six episodes called season three but that isn't the case in fact I won't actually go much into season two aside from the finale as well I would like to it's a great season no doubt it doesn't Focus nearly as much on the main point of this video aside from fantos who's a pretty clear parody and he's hilarious but disregarding him for a second to make a long story short at the end of season 2 after Joe learns the true value of leadership with the help of her mother the gang comes together and saves the day before Earth is engulfed leading to the real government officials coming forward to make them official Protectors of the Earth with matching uniforms and power suits and cinematic universes and Sidekicks in a talking car but hold on this is the stuff we were told wasn't reality at the end of season one why is it all happening now and I'm not gonna lie before I watch the season and saw the trailer I thought maybe it was due to a writing shift in some radical way but McCracken that slide devil man he fooled me he punked me he got the super up his own ass reviewer man to think kid Cosmic had become unself-aware but no that's far from the truth and it becomes evident as soon as episode 2 when Joe starts recognizing the artificiality of these adventures and how unrealistic they're becoming even within the world they belong to which turns out to be because season three in of itself is a subversion on the typical all's well that ends well storyline where the show passes its peak and begins taking formulaic routes with nowhere new to go monster the weak type battles bringing back old villains that are bigger and better than ever for the sake of nostalgia plot points includes that make no sense being included creating a deus ex machina style 14th power stone that never existed before it's all the common devices you used by writers that have backed themselves into a corner and it's done by Design to make us think that way don't you get it this in setting is a massive reference for the sake of fulfilling kids original Fantasy it has all of what he wanted when he found the power Stones all that time back believing his life was a comic book and that goes as far as to include his dead parents coming back out of nowhere with a [ __ ] explanation to Boots and you might think that seeing as this is all fake that'd be the determining factor to make him stay in this fantasy forever but speaking in terms of what this means outside the story this heavily referenced-based situation is here primarily to demonstrate how far kid has come noticing how empty the interaction with his parents feels simultaneously commenting on how stupid this Trope is when used in other media and the kid has grown past the want to pretend he's living in anything other than reality since fantasizing about a better life won't improve how he or anyone else is doing taking action will no relying on references or delusion meant for some sense of entitled Comfort he knows that needs to be forgotten as he the gang head into their true final battle against phantos to stop Earth from being destroyed and it's so incredibly satisfying with this dissection I don't intend for people to conclude that this is always how references and media should be handled to a t that's ludicrous kid Cosmic takes a highly specified variant of the concept behind the corpse of reference based dialogue to create something entirely new from its ashes I'm not saying people need to follow it to the letter and include references as a mounting obstacle for their main character to overcome in his journey towards facing reality however it does provide a great standard at the base of its implementation for what has always been needed to make it enjoyable references to other media should be stated by characters that would realistically say them hold some appropriate relevance to what's currently going on be accessible to people who might not get the reference without any prior knowledge and say something anything about the character who says it or what is trying to be said within the show all cave Cosmic does is take these rules and roll with them to create its own spin through a refreshingly unique perspective that's got great characters with nice designs a fun setting and sense of humor impressive animation and music that matches the vibe of mid 20th century Comics so well and other series that rely on references so heavily could do just as well if they understood what made references funny or worth using in the first place but when these rules are disregarded you get Velma you get Disaster Movie you get depressed at the oversaturation of the market from people that don't care and I'm sick of it more than ever when kid Cosmic is proof we don't need to stay that way forever but until it gets better the series isn't going anywhere unless Netflix randomly decides to remove it for whatever reason which they've done several times before you know what no no go out and watch it before it's too late [Music] [Music]

Channel: Just Stop

Views: 505,134

Keywords: Kid Cosmic, Craig McCracken, Netflix, HBO Max, Velma, Velma Rant, Kid Cosmic Review, Powerpuff Girls, Just Stop Review, Just Stop Rant, Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland

Id: Eqh0aEHi3nw

Length: 21min 6sec (1266 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 11 2023