REJECTED vs asdfmovie

The coronavirus really has me writing about asdfmovie in 2020 huh.

So I recently watched It’s Such a Beautiful Day for the first time in years. After it concluded, I looked into Don Hertzfeldt’s filmography and tracked down whatever I could watch…for free that is.

Look, I’m saving up money for Animal Crossing okay?

Anyways, I watched his short film REJECTED on YouTube and somewhere in the middle I said to myself, “asdfmovie wanted to be this so badly.” So I got to thinking about why REJECTED holds up better than asdfmovie (aside from the fact that Hertzfeldt is just funnier than TomSka). What I realized is that REJECTED has a point, and asdfmovie doesn’t.

Like asdfmovie, REJECTED is a series of surreal comedy skits, animated in black and white with simplistic characters. Unlike Thomas “TomSka” Ridgewell’s still ongoing series, however, REJECTED has an actual premise. The short film came about after Hertzfeldt’s student film Billy’s Balloon started receiving acclaim. Various companies approached him to create commercials for them. He considered sending them the worst pieces of shit animations to see if they’d get approved, but decided against it. He liked the idea though, so he made a short film out of it. REJECTED‘s skits are interrupted by black cards with white text that say what these animations are advertising, and each skit ends with a shot of the product animated in the same style. REJECTED works so well because the random humor doesn’t exist just to be random. The fact that the shorts are so nonsensical, and sometimes violent, is funny is because they are intended to be advertisements. The disconnect between what we’re shown in the skits and what we’re told they’re advertising satirizes commercials that have nothing to do with the product they’re selling. The ending, where Hertzfeldt’s sanity collapses and reality folds in on itself (literally, the paper he’s animating on crumples as the characters run for safety), is an exaggeration of how soul-crushing he perceives animating for commercials must be. Is this the deepest cartoon in the world? No. Is it a little “we live in a society”? Sure, a little. But it has something to say and that’s pretty admirable.

In contrast, what does asdfmovie have to say?

Uhh…beep beep, I’m a sheep, I guess…

asdfmovie is comedy for the sake of comedy, and it’s not particularly funny. Granted, the latter half of that statement is extremely subjective, but I believe the reason why many people would agree with me is that there’s absolutely no substance to the series. Random humor works best when it’s playing with expectations, not when it’s just “haha look at the sheep say ‘beep beep I’m a sheep.'” Some of the earlier installments play with this in their skits, but even then this subversion of expectations doesn’t really say much. For example, the “I like trains” bit relies on you not expecting a train to come out of nowhere and hit everyone. That can be funny on first viewing, and may even be amusing one or two more times, but after a while you just go, “alright I get it.” It only gets worse, as the series starts to rely on these hollow catchphrases for laughs and it just feels empty. It feels like Ridgewell came up with one or two kind of funny bits and rode on their success for years. Meanwhile, Hertzfeldt continued to grow and evolve as an artist and make beautiful films. Even if he stopped after REJECTED his legacy would be far more respectable than Ridgewell’s.

Look, I know that’s really mean, but my semester was ruined and now I’m stuck at home for at least another month, so someone’s gotta get it. No but really, I don’t think Ridgewell is a complete soulless hack. He seems like a nice guy who just likes to make silly videos with his friends, but fuck me asdfmovie is devoid of any substance, and it really sticks out when you see how much more it’s predecessor has to say.

Anyways, go watch It’s Such a Beautfiul Day. It’s a great film and Hertzfeldt currently has it free to rent on his Vimeo if you use the code IAMSTUCKINSIDE at checkout. This isn’t sponsored and I don’t know the guy, I just really like this film and think you should take advantage of this opportunity.

I think this is meaner than my Joker review. Also it’s fine if you like asdfmovie. It’s fine.

EDIT: asdfmovie is now automatically better because of the “I Like Trans” shirt.