Sunday, July 22, 2007

Introducing the Angry Frog

I was looking for something different to do this weekend. I'd shown my kids the interactive toys on ZeFrank's website and the frog in particular proved popular. It's simple enough, you talk into a microphone and the Flash-animated frog will do an approximation of lip-synching to your words.

This formed an idea in my mind when I was looking at some recently featured videos on YouTube. One that caught my attention was a simple-looking animation featuring my long-time YouTube nemesis - a cute kitty. While cute kitties are normally my most hated thing, I suspect the people who create this series of videos, known as The Pinky Show, are incredibly devious.

The animated kitty is not only cute, the voice-over is a cutesy kid's voice. And what are they using this cuteness for? To disseminate radical left wing ideology. And I mean radical. I think they read a lot of Chomsky. Plus, they do a serious amount of research before putting a video together.

The video that was featured has the intriguing title "Thomas Edison hates cats". The video explores (among other things) how Edison electrocuted cats (and one elephant) in his attempts to discredit AC and bring favour to DC. This gave me the inspiration to use the frog to respond as follows:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nydfJW5W7I0

I also worked my way through The Pinky Show back catalogue. They've done some really interesting stuff over the last year. I don't agree with all their politics but as I said before, I admire their deviousness in delivering their sometimes radical message undeer a veneer of cuteness.

I also responded to their most recent video "Cats with guns". In this video, they give their response to someone who is angry about a t-shirt design they are selling. I have a more than passing acquaintance with people who think they have the right to tell me what I can and can't say, so I gave my view on responding to detractors:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgncoNrMbH0

Oh, and I don't know why the angry frog has an American accent.

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