The Round Stable

i mean, yeah

I mean, the cotton gin was invented as a labor-saving device

and look how that worked out

also youtuber shaun should voice a pony

his voice is to calm to be a pony

TIL Tumblr has/had its own version of "Do you have stairs in your house?" "I am protected." It's: "I like your shoelaces." "Thanks, I stole them from the President."

TIL that it wasn't unusual for old anime to have its series finale produced in advance, especially if they're in a risk of getting cancelled. That way, they can throw it in when the show does get cancelled.

This lead to problems sometimes. There was at least one anime where they introduced a new character in the later episodes, and they didn't appear in the finale at all because it was produced before they were introduced.

One extreme example I heard is where a show was to be cancelled in 1994, with the finale produced then, but they were forced to continue making new episodes until 1996 because they were unable to find a new anime to fill the time-slot. By the time the final episode aired 2 years after they made it, they made at least 100 additional episodes

One of my favorite sequences in "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" is the "We're Despicable" song sequence:



TIL a few things about this sequence:

1. This sequence was entirely animated by Gerard Baldwin, a Jay Ward animator, in just 2 weeks at his home. His style is obvious because of the exaggerated lip sync animation, something of a trademark of his.

2. This song sequence only exists because the special was running short, so director Abe Levitow added it to pad the runtime.

After getting sick of wondering why the hell Andy Williams always lists "scary ghost stories" among the traditions associated with the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, I decided to look it up for myself. Turns out, yeah, it really was a thing people did back in old-timey times (as mentioned by, among others, Marlowe and Shakespeare), and one of many traditions Charles Dickens was inspired to revive, both with "A Christmas Carol" and during his tenure as a magazine editor. Neither of those articles are clear on whether the tradition ever made it big across the pond, let alone survived by Williams's time, or if he just happened to be aware that it was still something people did over in England and decided to throw it in. I guess that's a question you'll have to keep in mind in case you're ever haunted by his ghost.

Some of you may remember "Snorks", a "Smurfs" clone that aired the same time.

Well, TIL why the show exists. It seems that Freddy Monnickendam, a Belgian businessman who licensed "Smurfs" in merchandising (and the TV show, hence why he was co-executive producer for a number of years), got into a dispute with Smurfs creator Peyo over the rights and royalties involved.

So Monnickendam decided he needed a new cartoon that can compete with "Smurfs" directly. In 1980, a Belgian cartoonist named Nic Broca created a comic featuring these creatures and published them



Monnickendam bought the rights and sold the show to Hanna-Barbera. So they wound up producing both "Smurfs" and "Snorks" concurrently.

In the end, Monnickendam's plan went unrealized, and "Snorks" never became a hit he wanted.

As for the differences between the original comic and the cartoon, I can't find very many examples of the comic. That book cover above took a ton of internet search to find. Although I found some art where it seems the Snorks would come out of the water and have fun on the surface. I don't remember seeing that in the cartoons (but I haven't watched the show in over 20 years, sooo )

oh, i remember these

The Snorks was a pretty big mainstay of Boomerang US back when I actually had cable.

Apropos of nothing I blame the water blur filter for Snorks failing.

Orange Fluffy Sheep wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 16, 2019 9:19 pm

Apropos of nothing I blame the water blur filter for Snorks failing.

Which adds to another TIL. Apparently "Snorks" was one of the first cartoons to use digital ink and paint rather than cels (specifically season 3. Seasons 1, 2, and 4 used traditional painted cels). I looked up a random season 3 episode and yeesh, it was very heavy with the water filter that was obviously digitized and kinda headachey to watch after a long time. Episodes from other seasons didn't seem to have it.

Also, the first season had a very different intro than "Dance Along with Snorks" theme song. Snorks has a lore apparently.

TIL about the War of the Bucket.

Er, rather there was NO war ever fought over a bucket. This video explains it:

TIL that there were typewriters that can "erase" mistakes.

Yeah, we had one of those growing up — IIRC it switches ribbons and “types” in white to overwrite the missed letter. Only works properly if you’re using white paper, obviously.

TIL cauliflower comes in colors other than white. We had a farm-to-table restaurant lunch and got green, orange, and purple cauliflower.

I've seen purple and green cauliflower before, but never orange

Mechanical Ape wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 19, 2019 8:15 pm

Yeah, we had one of those growing up — IIRC it switches ribbons and “types” in white to overwrite the missed letter. Only works properly if you’re using white paper, obviously.

I wonder if you could use it to type white text on dark-colored paper.

Mechanical Ape wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 19, 2019 8:15 pm

Yeah, we had one of those growing up — IIRC it switches ribbons and “types” in white to overwrite the missed letter. Only works properly if you’re using white paper, obviously.

The one I saw way back at school had a clear ribbon for that. Apparently you can just smack the ink back off the page.

TIL you can pin stuff in Discord DMs

whoa

I have vaguely heard of The Great Emu War before, where Australia declared war on the birds for eating all their crops.

Well, TIL more about it. Australia LOST the war.

don't fuck with birds

TIL you can make "slow" boost rails in Minecraft by just switching them on and off really fast. This will be very useful for finally finishing a thing I was working on ages ago.

TIL that the first "Arthur" book came out in 1976.

So "Arthur" has been around for 43 years.

TIL that Jack Warner's brothers really hated his guts (because he chronically backstabbed them).

I always knew he was an ass, but dang. It got so bad Harry Warner chased Jack with a lead pipe and threatened to kill him.

Mr. Big wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:11 am

So "Arthur" has been around for 43 years.

That’s a long time to be caught between the moon and New York City.

wrong arthur

And I say "Hey!"
I keep reliving the same day
Where in time stasis I will stay
Is there a worse way to suffer?

Mechanical Ape wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:55 pm

That’s a long time to be caught between the moon and New York City.

wrong arthur

He did the best that he could do

TIL that the late Alexander Key wasn’t just responsible for the Witch Mountain book and movies, he also wrote the source material for the anime Future Boy Conan.

TIL tumbleweeds aren't native to North America, they're an invasive species from Russia.

excuse me what

Well, TIL that as well

Also TIL that Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis.

I never considered the connection before.

W.T. Fits wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:39 am

TIL tumbleweeds aren't native to North America, they're an invasive species from Russia.

That explains why they're always trying to run away

The last few days I learned a lot about Japanese culture with this youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd4V3I ... nKwONcOSdA

Like for example the abundance of vending machines

EDIT: Never Mind

Mr. Big wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 25, 2019 6:03 pm

TIL that "Bee Movie" had a sequel in 2017

...how did I miss that!?

HOLY SHIT

THIS IS A BIG DEAL

Mr. Big wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 25, 2019 6:03 pm

TIL that "Bee Movie" had a sequel in 2017

...how did I miss that!?

what

WHAT

Uhhh, so I misread someone's post. And what I found were April Fools jokes. Whoops

Forget I ever said anything