Look at this stuff. It was airtight.
February 12, 2022 11:49 AM Subscribe
Almost Everything by Kirby Ferguson was a web series featuring a good-natured Canadian geek who used slick, fast-paced video presentations to comment on the world's ills. Highlights: Trajan is the Movie Font - Slumdog Controversy - Talent is Hard Work. Ferguson would soon perfect his craft with the sprawling pop-cultural project Everything is a Remix [website - transcripts] -- described in a 2011 Atlantic interview as a "sweeping, four-part series asserting that all creative work is a recombination and transformation of existing elements" that is "as much a philosophical odyssey as a documentary series" -- as well as This is Not a Conspiracy Theory, "a documentary about where conspiracy theories come from, what they reveal about all of us, and the real quest to discover the hidden forces that shape our lives."
The original Everything is a Remix series:
Kirby Ferguson previously on MeFi: Discussing Everything is a Remix, Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4, along with "the truly numerous amount of references, call-backs, remixes, quotations, scene mimics, and inspiration parallels found in The Matrix"
This remixed post brought to you by #DoublesJubilee
The original Everything is a Remix series:
Part One: Music [transcript] - Part Two: Remix Inc. [transcript] - Part Three: The Elements of Creativity [transcript]- Part Four: System Failure [transcript]More videos in the This is Not a Conspiracy series:
The 2015 HD remaster of the entire series
The 2021 sequel series: Part One [transcript] - Part Two
Shorter looks at The Force Awakens, The Matrix, the iPhone, remixing reality, fair use, and TED Talk "Embrace the Remix"
CONSTANTLY WRONG: The Case Against Conspiracy TheoriesMore vids from the Almost Everything days: Apple's Stealth Jabs at Microsoft - Protecting and Maintaining Your Heterosexual House of Cards - Americans Love Lists - Punchline Piracy - The F*g Bomb - I Love Progress Bars - The Distraction Machine. Like the background music? Windom Earle's tracks are on Bandcamp.
Trump, QAnon and The Return of Magic
Rogan vs Jones: The Ultimate Analysis
Kirby Ferguson previously on MeFi: Discussing Everything is a Remix, Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4, along with "the truly numerous amount of references, call-backs, remixes, quotations, scene mimics, and inspiration parallels found in The Matrix"
This remixed post brought to you by #DoublesJubilee
Smart guy. And I really like hearing Canadians speak as we speak.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 5:34 AM on February 13, 2022
posted by Turtles all the way down at 5:34 AM on February 13, 2022
Thanks for doing the heavy lifting in putting this together! Lots to dig into.
The conspiracy theory documentary is appealing but I'm a little wary of YouTube criticism in general as a compelling and convincing argument doesn't necessarily mean it's backed by actual science-based research. Having watched the "CONSTANTLY WRONG" link above, it's very much about "I've thought about this and watched a bunch of documentaries and consumed first source conspiracy theories and can put together a compelling argument" but not a lot of direct sources cited.
This might be an issue of expectations with me rather than anything else.
posted by slimepuppy at 8:27 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
The conspiracy theory documentary is appealing but I'm a little wary of YouTube criticism in general as a compelling and convincing argument doesn't necessarily mean it's backed by actual science-based research. Having watched the "CONSTANTLY WRONG" link above, it's very much about "I've thought about this and watched a bunch of documentaries and consumed first source conspiracy theories and can put together a compelling argument" but not a lot of direct sources cited.
This might be an issue of expectations with me rather than anything else.
posted by slimepuppy at 8:27 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Halfway through the 2015 Everything Is a Remix, and I don't know that I agree completely with the thesis.
Taking Alice in Wonderland as an example, I'm not an expert on Victorian children's literature (and would welcome comment from those who are), but I'd say that Alice was a one-off that had no clear precedent.
Looking at Krazy Kat, I'd say that there might be hints of it in Herriman's earlier work, but the strip was, fully formed, an utterly original thing.
These are two examples from Big Names in Western culture. I'm sure there's a stack of lesser-known works that would provide equally valid examples.
I don't disagree that there now exists a widespread tendency to "sample" (however we might define it) works of art, literature and music—modernism and postmodernism were predicated on that, I think, particularly the latter—but I guess I'm nitpicking the universality of application of the thesis. Thanks for posting. A fun watch.
posted by the sobsister at 9:17 AM on February 13, 2022
Taking Alice in Wonderland as an example, I'm not an expert on Victorian children's literature (and would welcome comment from those who are), but I'd say that Alice was a one-off that had no clear precedent.
Looking at Krazy Kat, I'd say that there might be hints of it in Herriman's earlier work, but the strip was, fully formed, an utterly original thing.
These are two examples from Big Names in Western culture. I'm sure there's a stack of lesser-known works that would provide equally valid examples.
I don't disagree that there now exists a widespread tendency to "sample" (however we might define it) works of art, literature and music—modernism and postmodernism were predicated on that, I think, particularly the latter—but I guess I'm nitpicking the universality of application of the thesis. Thanks for posting. A fun watch.
posted by the sobsister at 9:17 AM on February 13, 2022
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a strange choice for a counter-example. Of course it was filled with originality, but it was also filled with repurposed characters from nursery rhymes (Humpty-Dumpty, the Queen of Hearts, Tweedledum and Tweedledee), existing tropes (a grinning Cheshire cat), caricatures of public figures and historical events (Queen Victoria, Disraeli, the February Revolutions), and remixes of prior literature. Nearly all of the poems and songs, for example, are parodies of works by other authors.
I would say that Alice is a prime example of a work that could not even exist without the other works that it remixed! Lewis Carroll without his character and song parodies would by like Weird Al without Madonna and Michael Jackson.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:46 AM on February 13, 2022
I would say that Alice is a prime example of a work that could not even exist without the other works that it remixed! Lewis Carroll without his character and song parodies would by like Weird Al without Madonna and Michael Jackson.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:46 AM on February 13, 2022
Weird Al without Madonna and Michael Jackson.
…So a really terrific comedy musician with amazing original tracks that one-up the styles they parody?
posted by LooseFilter at 9:52 AM on February 13, 2022
…So a really terrific comedy musician with amazing original tracks that one-up the styles they parody?
posted by LooseFilter at 9:52 AM on February 13, 2022
I will not argue against Al’s genius (UHF is the greatest comedy of all time, don’t @ me) but I don’t think anyone would claim that Dare to be Stupid could exist without Devo.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:56 AM on February 13, 2022
posted by mbrubeck at 9:56 AM on February 13, 2022
mbrubeck,
Thanks. Of course, you're right. I was overfocused on the things that made it sui generis in my mind: the inventive verbality, a girl hero with agency and attitude (perhaps more so in Wonderland than Looking Glass), the surrealism. Blessedly free of the pointedly didactic intent that dates a lot of Victorian children's literature (and that Carroll, oddly, employed in his two-volume Sylvie and Bruno swan song). That combination and absence of factors is what made the book pop out as its own, original thing. But your point is well taken: Alice's structure is driven by episodes that rely on parody, caricature or allusion.
posted by the sobsister at 3:30 PM on February 13, 2022
Thanks. Of course, you're right. I was overfocused on the things that made it sui generis in my mind: the inventive verbality, a girl hero with agency and attitude (perhaps more so in Wonderland than Looking Glass), the surrealism. Blessedly free of the pointedly didactic intent that dates a lot of Victorian children's literature (and that Carroll, oddly, employed in his two-volume Sylvie and Bruno swan song). That combination and absence of factors is what made the book pop out as its own, original thing. But your point is well taken: Alice's structure is driven by episodes that rely on parody, caricature or allusion.
posted by the sobsister at 3:30 PM on February 13, 2022
One correction: Kirby's old web series was called Goodie Bag (formerly at Goodiebag.tv), not "Almost Everything." I think Rhaomi just got a bit mixed up remixing the 2010 post, which called out that it was linking to "almost everything" that he had posted publicly until that point.
I was a big fan of Goodie Bag, and am lucky enough to have gotten to know Kirby and his partner over the years. They're both uper talented and two of the kindest people I know.
posted by waxpancake at 11:54 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
I was a big fan of Goodie Bag, and am lucky enough to have gotten to know Kirby and his partner over the years. They're both uper talented and two of the kindest people I know.
posted by waxpancake at 11:54 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
waxpancake: "One correction: Kirby's old web series was called Goodie Bag (formerly at Goodiebag.tv), not "Almost Everything." I think Rhaomi just got a bit mixed up remixing the 2010 post, which called out that it was linking to "almost everything" that he had posted publicly until that point."
Huh, I think we're both half-mistaken here -- on the one hand, I'm pretty sure I didn't misinterpret the original post... because I wrote it! And the linked minisodes do end with an "Almost Everything by Kirby Ferguson" title card after the final line like I remembered. But then it occurred to me -- maybe that's just the credits literally saying "almost everything" in the video was made by him? Like, the next card is "Music by Windom Earle," but that doesn't mean the soundtrack is from Earle's album "Music". D'oh!
waxpancake: "I was a big fan of Goodie Bag, and am lucky enough to have gotten to know Kirby and his partner over the years. They're both uper talented and two of the kindest people I know."
I'm so glad to hear that -- one of the potential pitfalls of revisiting old topics this month has been the possibility that the subject has turned out to be a complete jackass in the meantime (you won't be seeing a Louis CK repost, for ex). Thankfully I'm at 2 for 2 so far in terms of Fergusons remaining decent!
posted by Rhaomi at 8:09 PM on February 18, 2022
Huh, I think we're both half-mistaken here -- on the one hand, I'm pretty sure I didn't misinterpret the original post... because I wrote it! And the linked minisodes do end with an "Almost Everything by Kirby Ferguson" title card after the final line like I remembered. But then it occurred to me -- maybe that's just the credits literally saying "almost everything" in the video was made by him? Like, the next card is "Music by Windom Earle," but that doesn't mean the soundtrack is from Earle's album "Music". D'oh!
waxpancake: "I was a big fan of Goodie Bag, and am lucky enough to have gotten to know Kirby and his partner over the years. They're both uper talented and two of the kindest people I know."
I'm so glad to hear that -- one of the potential pitfalls of revisiting old topics this month has been the possibility that the subject has turned out to be a complete jackass in the meantime (you won't be seeing a Louis CK repost, for ex). Thankfully I'm at 2 for 2 so far in terms of Fergusons remaining decent!
posted by Rhaomi at 8:09 PM on February 18, 2022
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posted by fritzthecat at 1:43 AM on February 13, 2022