Never Forget Dicktowel

oh dennis....

TGWDLM IS COMING BACK HOLY SHITTTTT!!!

TGWDLM was the first Starkid show I ever watched, I've been a fan ever since asfghfeubjdk the show still has a very special place in my heart because of this <33 AND NOW THEY'RE COMING BACK TO ME AAAA ALL MY FAVOURITES TED, PAUL, BILL THEY'RE ALL COMING BACK ASFDGHJFGHHJF

The timing is so perfect I'm literally in the middle of a Hatchetfield hyperfixation rn holy molyyyy never off yourselves kids!! Supes excited

If I ever have a child I will accept them no matter what. If they're Gay, Trans, Neurodivergent, even if they want to convert to a different religion unless they're gonna be a protestant then I'm kicking them the fuck out!!!,!!!.!.!!.!

“The Gang as Animals” 🐭🐶🐱🐸🐤💕

sometimes i need to remind myself that i'm writing fanfiction for free and i'm allowed to have a shitty sentence or two

Wait wait wait remember that post about how Team Starkid/the Lang brothers are going to be comparable to Shakespeare 500 years from now and it was mostly played for laughs like yeah lol you’ll need a paragraph of footnotes to explain the zefron poster but like

I don’t think that’s actually far off from how Starkid’s place in theatre history might play out and here’s why. Just hear me out

Why is Shakespeare so popular today when he definitely wasn’t the only playwright from that era? When he’s not even the only playwright from that era from England that we have surviving works from?

Two main reasons:

1) Shakespeare’s work is (relatively) universally relatable. The characters do things that are so fundamentally human. They make jokes at their friends’ expense. They complain about being awkward in front of their crush. They have daddy issues. The plot lines of the plays aren’t too complicated. The dick jokes land whether you’re watching in 1611 or 2024, and they probably still will in 2637. Shakespeare’s works are timeless because he didn’t try to outsmart his audience. He wrote about things everyone could relate to rather than trying too hard to peacock his intellect in front of the nobility. This is not true of every playwright.

2) Shakespeare was really popular right around the time England started colonizing everything in sight. Copies of his work got shipped all around the world, translated into dozens of languages, performed probably thousands of times. Setting aside the moral implications of this, the important thing to note is that Shakespeare was about the most easily accessible English playwright during a time of rapid, intense globalization.

Meanwhile, Starkid:

1) Invests hard in meaningful, relatable character arcs instead of spectacle and expensive sets or costumes. Also, lowbrow, immature humor and dick jokes that make A Very Potter Sequel funny and enjoyable regardless of if you’ve ever seen any other Harry Potter media in your life.

2) Posts professional recordings of their musicals to YouTube FOR FREE, making their shows about the easiest, best quality musical theatre you can get pretty much anywhere in the world, regardless of if your area has an active theatre scene. Proshots from other companies are rare and usually not free. Bootlegs are all well and good, but even if the video quality is alright (and that’s a big if) the audio is usually garbage. Starkid has been posting the best quality free recordings they can afford since 2009, shortly after the birth of social media, another time of rapid, intense globalization.

In short, I’m not saying that theatre historians in 500 years won’t remember any our current Broadway faves, but I am saying that in my opinion, Team Starkid is probably going to be more accessible for the general public. If you’re a 26th century English teacher trying to teach your class about narrative structure in 21st century theatre, what are you going to show your students? A bootleg of Hadestown with blurry video and garbage audio? Or the professional recording of Twisted, parts of which they will probably even enjoy, because even long after no one remembers Disney’s Aladdin anymore, your class of 26th century 16-year-olds are still going to laugh at “No One Remembers Achmed.”

Dennis is funny because Macs tried to heal a relationship outside the gang (his dad) but it failed immediately (rejected, unfair) and Charlie's done it too, even planned to leave, but also failed straight away (loser father up and died on him) and Frank doesn't want to leave, and Dee is not permitted to leave (not even to go bowling! they need their punch bag!) but Dennis has actually been out there. He's gone and tried it. He invested in a life outside of Paddy's Pub, he left and tried to go be a dad, be a better person than Frank was, and... it did not fuckin work! Couldn't do it. Came crawling right back after being gone for months. Which means he's the only one out of all of them that knows for sure there's nowhere else to go. None of the rest have really tested it—it's just a pipe dream for them—they can imagine it however they want! And that's a pretty useful psychological pressure valve. Their own places in the gang are inherently lower stakes for them because they can still believe if it all falls apart they'd figure something out, they got plenty of other options, definitely. They may worry there's nowhere else for them, sure, but you know what you can do with a worry? Move past it. Except for Dennis. Who knows he can't afford to rock the boat, or deviate too much from his assigned role, i.e. still very much the "leader" of the Freight Train, still their new psycho, even if he is a little mellowed with age. So he left because he wanted to quit all the delusional bullshit, wanted to try something real. Then found out "real" didn't want him in it. And came back to the gang, and for a little while he tried to make a change: The Gang Escapes, "let's keep this between us"; Times Up, "I don't want you kissing me" + [extensive instructions in how to not get caught]; Even up to New Wheels he's trying something new, til he embarrasses himself in front of Frank. Til fate hands him his old car back. And if reality don't want you, you're not gonna say no to fate, are you. At least he's got a place in the world. At least somebody wants him around, some kinda way. It's good actually. Who cares if it's not who he really is. He knows there's nothing else out there. The others don't, but he does. So he can keep his secrets, play his part, don't dwell on it, it's cool. It's whatever. After all it's not like you can just "move past" reality, can you. Can you?

The first trailer for Glenn’s new series, Sirens, has dropped!

Feast or Famine

I'm a day late but happy Black Freiday Starkid!!!

You know, since it's Pride Month (and also I miss them), I feel like reminding everyone how fucking important Ruby and Sapphire were.

The way they were both unambiguously conceived as queer characters and let the writers make an established character queer retroactively. The fact that as soon as they share the screen, they immediately show how in love they are, without any ambiguity to please the censors, and they do that almost every episode they're in.

How their relationship isn't always 100% perfect, and they do conflict and fall out, but make up in the end because they genuinely love each other. How they were allowed to be iconic parts of the show, not just through being the focus of two of its most famous songs (Stronger Than You and Here Comes A Thought) but also through the book version of The Answer.

The fact they got the first gay kiss...

...and the first gay wedding in the history of kid's TV.

The way their reception showed networks that yes, people do enjoy media with queer characters, and so they contributed to many other series with prominent LGBTQ characters getting greenlit.

I honestly don't think it's exaggerating to say they're among the most important queer characters in the history of fiction for all that. And people need to say it more, and demand stuff like them more.