PFFR

[Vitalstatistix]

Any news on whether a second series of Delocated is at all on the horizon?

Completely different shows, I know, but for me Xavier lost its way a little this time round, whereas Delocated went from strength to strength.

Most people didn't go for it much though, so I'm not hopeful...

[Tiny Poster]

2nd series of Delocated was announced a few weeks ago.

[Vitalstatistix]

Hooray!

[Tiny Poster]

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/515c8fd4a1/jon-anderson-cooper-interview

[Vitalstatistix]

'I wanna talk about toasting bread, not burning people'

I could watch Jon all day.

[chocky909]

No scrawl on my box but a few goodies inside including a (far too small for me) very worn polo short with the PFFR logo on the back. I actually requested a CaB shoutout in the Paypal notes and was very excited to see an enclosed envelope with "as per your request" but it's just a rather good sketch, no namecheck. That big picture is a newspaper page from Showpaper Austin with gig listings on the reverse.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2871/pffr.jpg

[Wadded Bliss]

I found this while while scratching around the net. It's old, from rotten.com, but still an interesting read...

Wonder Showzen

MTV2 is a fast-paced entertainment network largely inspired by the Internet and video games. It brings a fast-paced mix of music programs and young-adult lifestyle features into approximately 59 million homes. The channel serves as a unit of Viacom, one of the world's leading creators of television programming, wireless services, and interactive broadband media content across all platforms, including Nickelodeon, CMT, and VH1.

Sneaking through this enormous hose pipe is Wonder Showzen, a not-exactly-for-kids program which most closely resembles Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, Teletubbies, Dora The Explorer and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood all smashed together. Between animation, documentary footage, and live-action video segments featuring actual children, specific themes and emotions are directly injected into the developing subconscious of its youngest viewers. Telegraphed messages of hatred, racism, paranoia, animal death, drug use, white people, Mexico, how hot dogs are really made, how slaves built America, and how using one's imagination is dangerous -- to name but a few. The unspoken experience of this program inspires images of wide-eyed toddlers staring at the television, growing increasingly fragile and freaked out over thirty minutes, while Mom putters about in the other room, just happy to have a reliable babysitter.

Portions of the program feel like the extended "Altered State of Druggachusetts" sequence from Mr. Show -- and even David Cross once described Wonder Showzen as "the funniest, most subversive comedy on American T.V. right now".

The creators of Wonder Showzen, John Lee and Vernon Chatman, met at San Francisco State. Chatman, a writer for The Chris Rock Show and That's My Bush is also the voice of Towlie from South Park.

The program started as a brief eight-minute tape which got shopped around to various media outlets. Lee told The Portland Mercury it's a struggle to get what he wants on the air: "The show we really want to make -- that has one hundred percent of what we want -- would never make it on TV. It would be so raw, even we wouldn't want to watch it".

Wonder Showzen enjoys experimenting with forms which tests the limits of children and adults. In an first-season episode called Patience, viewers are treated to a lengthy sequence of looping segments which are both painfully slow and borderline annoying. At the halfway mark of the program, the entire sequence is reversed -- playing backwards for fifteen minutes.

The program is hosted by Chauncy -- a fluffy yellow muppet with a wiggling top hat -- whose presence anchors each episode. Chauncy links together the individual sketches and animations, incrementally morphing inflammatory and misleading messages into bits of wisdom the viewer can take away. His adventures invariably advocate experimenting with drugs, selling your friends for money, or killing and cannibalizing God.

A recurring feature is Beat Kids, an uncomfortably-named kid-on-the-street showcase of young reporters out in the real world, looking for the scoop. One boy goose-steps and stomps around Manhattan dressed as Adolf Hitler, waving a microphone and asking grownups, "What do you think is wrong with the youth of today?" Adults are momentarily stunned by the visceral disconnection between the child's clothing and his playful demeanor -- but they don't know how to respond to the boy's offer of letting them stay at his "summer camp".

Unfortunately, the Hitler kid episode aired during Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Caryl Stern -- Holocaust survivor and associate national director of the ADL -- told one reporter, "There are enough things to do in the world that one doesn't have to dress up as Hitler for humor".

After the Jewish Anti-Defamation League complained, the segment was removed. Salon reports that white supremacists on various message boards have also puzzled over the show's racial humor. Both the NAACP and the Aryan Nation have expressed dismay and displeasure with Wonder Showzen. Catalyst, a mouthpiece for the Catholic League fired off a vitriolic press release, citing the show as anti-Christian. Unfortunately, the document's anti-Showzen remarks only make the program look more entertaining:

    On March 11, 2005, MTV2, sister channel to MTV and a Viacom subsidiary, aired the first episode of a new program called "Wonder Showzen". Seven additional episodes were shown throughout the season. MTV2 is planning to air six new episodes, at a date not yet set.

    The show is styled like the PBS show "Sesame Street," with child actors, puppets and cartoons. The content, however, is far from child-friendly. Gratuitous sexual references and lewd portrayals of all things Christian are the norm in this prime-time program.

    Many quick and cheap shots at the Church are taken by "Wonder Showzen." In one skit, a scrolling tape reading "Catholic Church approves condom-flavored breath mints" runs across the screen during a mock newscast. A segment in which a little girl writes a letter to her dead grandmother includes mention of a priest feeling granny's breasts while she was in the coffin. In another, a child answers the question "What is your greatest wish?" with "to punch God in the face."

    But one episode, titled "History," delves into new levels of sickness. A cartoon shows a young boy praying by his bed. An animated Bible walks into the bedroom along with a syringe full of heroin, a knife and a bottle of liquor. After the Bible injects the heroin and drinks the liquor, it performs a sex act with a prostitute.

    As if this isn't enough, the next scene shows a priest reading from the Bible in church. The figure of Jesus comes down from the cross and begins break dancing. At this point, the rest of the statues in the church transform into bikini-clad blondes.

One of the best regular segments involves 1950s-era documentary footage spliced together in a manner echoing instructional "how things are made" features from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In Wonder Showzen, children recite a rapidfire sequence of endlessly hilarious one-liners narrating their trip to the hot dog factory. Pigs are unloaded from a truck, then progressively killed and chopped up. Excruciating closeups of meat and filth push like Play-Doh through grinders, straining into large vats of liquid shit. That's what my grandma did on the coffee table, one child remarks. A worker hangs hot dogs and sausage links on a rack in a huge oven. That guy's a weiner smoker -- I can smell it on him. Then footage of the factory break room is shown: adults twisting rubber hoses around their arms and shooting up heroin. Finally, actual hot dogs emerge from the other end of the factory, spilling onto conveyor belts against the sound of agonizing screams, machine gun fire and animal death.

The killing of animals is regularly evangelized on Wonder Showzen -- both directly and indirectly. During the song "Animal Dance," footage loops forward and back to the sound of a jazzy kazoo: snakes devouring rabbits, crocodiles chomping on gazelles, enormous wobbling rhino penises during mating, the splushy, clumsy live birth of yak, red bulbous mouse tumors in a medical lab, and a dead zebra carcass lingering in the sun. To suggest the lengthy passage of time, instead of cutting to a spinning clock on the wall, Wonder Showzen dissolves to a dead fox in the forest, rapidly decomposing in time lapse over several weeks. In a storyline about an anthropomorphic number "2" trying to kill itself, a large black beetle is strapped into a miniature electric chair and set ablaze.

From time to time, a disturbing video effect warps a portion of the screen for a split second. An interview with a cherubic Asian girl gathers horrifying, demonic momentum when her eyeballs suddenly appear closer together than they were a moment ago. The visual is never addressed outright: she continues her brief monologue about where babies come from, and the segment moves on. Other times, the audio track is slowed to a repetitive growl or layered in echoing loops, highlighting one small boy's screams of pills! pills! pills! pills! Wonder Showzen is at its most effective when you can't fully pinpoint why you feel so paranoid and awful.

Entertainment Weekly and Time magazine both attached Wonder Showzen to their best-of lists for 2005. In an era where "subversive" entertainment includes titles like Will & Grace and Punk'd, Viacom insisted Wonder Showzen be prefixed with a warning titlecard similar to that featured at the beginning of South Park, and the team obliged:

Wonder Showzen contains offensive, despicable content that is too controversial and too awesome for actual children. The stark, ugly, profound truths Wonder Showzen exposes may be soul crushing to the weak of spirit. If you allow a child to watch this show, you are a bad parent or guardian.

I found this line particularly interesting:

Salon reports that white supremacists on various message boards have also puzzled over the show's racial humor. Both the NAACP and the Aryan Nation have expressed dismay and displeasure with Wonder Showzen.

[yesitis]

Have any of you seen Hands of God? It was directed by Alyson Levy from PFFR. I just downloaded and watched it recently and I don't really know how I feel about it. Definitely worth a watch though. It's not listed on IMDB, but here's a synopsis kind of thing.

http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/video-documentaries-review-pffr-hands-of-god-christian-puppeteers-are-freaking-scary/

[Jemble Fred]

That sounds brilliant, thanks. Will it have those nutjobs from Screenwipe I wonder?

[Lee]

Where did you download it from? Been after that for ages since Super Deluxe was shut down.

EDIT: never mind, found a DVD ISO on MySpleen. Incidentally, if anyone's wondering where MS has gone, try .cc instead of .net.

[Jemble Fred]

This kind of thing, then: http://wormhotel.co.uk/wormhotel/blog/Entries/2009/7/1_God_is_Grrrrrrreat!.html

[yesitis]

Where did you download it from? Been after that for ages since Super Deluxe was shut down.

EDIT: never mind, found a DVD ISO on MySpleen. Incidentally, if anyone's wondering where MS has gone, try .cc instead of .net.

I'm attempting to upload the avi to sendspace. My computer is really really awful though. If it works I'll let you know and if anyone is interested in the avi as opposed to the iso, i'll hook you up with the link.

[Wadded Bliss]

I'm attempting to upload the avi to sendspace. My computer is really really awful though. If it works I'll let you know and if anyone is interested in the avi as opposed to the iso, i'll hook you up with the link.

Yes please.

[Lee]

Well I'm pleasantly surprised to find out the DVD is at full quality, as opposed to being rips of the Flash videos from SD. Does this mean Levy/PFFR put out a proper DVD too? i.e. something else to spend money I don't have on buying?

As for the film... I really want to scoff at the tragic lack of talent of many (but not all) of these puppeteers, but I just can't, because they clearly love what they do, and as long as they're not indulging in any Billy Brit-style cuntery then they're fine to do it. And I'm glad Levy chooses not to do that horrible "cringumentary" trick of lingering on a shot after someone's said or done something embarrassing, like the docu equivalent of a "Dan reacts" shot, and instead actually chooses to present them as exactly what they are - puppeteers or varying qualities singing, doing stupid voices and just having fun while serving God and Jesus (even if he is the acceptable face of occultism). In a way I envy them, just as I envy anyone with such a strong belief in a higher power or force, but particularly because they channel it into a creative process that has some kind of greater effect on a given group or community, which I guess is the ultimate aim of any creative individual (it's certainly one of mine). So yeah, a really lovely film.

Re: "nutjobs from Screenwipe", you might like to watch Tim And Eric Awesome Show Great Job, which features occasional cameos from The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show (the show featured on Screenwipe I guess you're referring to) creator David Liebe Hart and regular guest James Quall. I remember being very annoyed at that clip because I think Hart in particular is far more knowing about the whole thing than Andy Nyman gave him credit for. Eccentric, yes, but not entirely deluded.

[yesitis]

I think the avi is up on sendspace now. It's my first time uploading something there. I don't see how anything could have gone wrong, but I said the same thing the first time I tried fisting. PM me or just post here if you want the link.

[Famous Mortimer]

The bit on Screenwipe where they talked about Liebe Hart annoyed me - whoever it was claimed they had a friend who was watching it on public access in the USA and told them about it...slightly more likely would be them having seen them on "Manhattan Cable" years ago, on Channel 4, or via Tim and Eric. But then that wouldn't be as cool.

[Jemble Fred]

Gosh. That documentary was just sad... Not what I expected at all. There were one or two moments that were genuinely disturbing, but overall it was all just so... well, sad is the word.

[Moribunderast]

Mmm, thanks for making me aware of (and able to view) this film. It took me a few attempts before I could get through the whole thing. It's almost like the Horse Apples episode of Wonder Showzen where you feel like you've been watching for half an hour and then you look at the clock and it's been five minutes.

I do like the non-judgmental aspect of it (even though it being a PFFR film about religious puppeteers implied mockery to me). I tried not to judge the people as I watched it but that was sometimes difficult. I got a message on my phone as I was watching from a friend who was also watching it that read "these people are slavetraders" and while I disagree with the severity of that, I definitely don't like the vague, child-friendly stories they tell and purport as the truth of the bible just to get the kids in young. Breeding faith before intellectual curiosity has a chance to sway the outcome and so on...

Some of the puppeteers are quite good, some awful. I felt horrible watching the young lass with glasses who seemed to have learning difficulties. The older couple were hilarious though with my favourite line being: "And then, with great grief, God blessed me with the ability to do ventriliquism." Awesome.

Also, the man making the cross had some great lines, talking about how having a "rough" look to it was what the "cross is all about."

So, yeah, I don't know if "enjoy" is the right word for what I experienced watching this film but I'm definitely glad I've seen it. PFFR are my heroes.

Lastly, that "Na Na Na" song early on is catchy as fuck.

[yesitis]

After a month of countless redelivery attempts I finally have my own little PFFR doll thing. I'm really really happy with the package I got. I felt almost giddy actually having the box in my hands. Although I didn't get the cool art on the box that youse guys got, I did get some goodies.

This iron on patch that I'm sure I'll put on something soon.


A dollar bill with an Adult Swim badge pinned to it


A poster that I thought one of you who ordered the figure also got. I may have been mistaken. It has this message written on it.


And the thing I'm happiest with (alongside the figure) is this soon to be framed sketch of Xavier by Jim Tozzi.


I'm so glad I ordered when I was drunk enough to request free stuff. I love these guys.

[Lee]

Colour me insanely jealous...

[Retinend]

Is myspleen invite only? If so, could some kind soul help a 'whore out?

[Blumf]

Is myspleen invite only? If so, could some kind soul help a 'whore out?

Check your PM

[Retinend]

Thanks a lot, Blumf and Gavin :)

[Moribunderast]

The way these guys treat their fans mirrors the way the make shows: AWESOME.

I hope they'll deliver to Australia.

[Lee]

The way these guys treat their fans mirrors the way the make shows: AWESOME.

I hope they'll deliver to Australia.

I'm not one to namedrop*, but I have struck up an email acquaintance with Jim of late, and although it's been brief, what is obvious is what a decent, generous guy he is, and I'm sure if he'll ship to the UK (as he evidently has on many occasions) an Aussie delivery won't be beyond the realms. Send the guy your money already.

_{*although I did get a kiss off Sarah 'Dubstar' Blackwood once; not sure if I've mentioned that here before.}

[naniwaelegy]

Sorry to sound worthless but are there any myspleen invites? I can't find hands of god anywhere else despite actively searching.

[naniwaelegy]

Thanks to some lovely people I have now seen the documentary and "pray to Jesus for Mad Skills" every time I go breakdancing.

An interesting watch. Can't wait for more Delocated and the Xavier DVD. Am even thinking about buying one of those crazy models.

[Moribunderast]

I want a shirt with the bloodfarting PFFR symbol but a friend rightly asked me: "Where would you wear it?"

That said, I'll be looking into getting a Xavier shirt and if they've got any of those little models left I'll get one to sit atop my work computer.

I'm intrigued as to what they can do in a second series of Delocated. More intrigued about TV 4 Teens which apparently is coming. It looks horrendous. I can't wait!

Thanks to some lovely people I have now seen the documentary and "pray to Jesus for Mad Skills" every time I go breakdancing.

An interesting watch.

Just hope that through enough grief and time, you'll be blessed with the gift of ventriliquism.

[Lee]

PFFR talk food, wah-wah-wahs and other things.

[Lee]

Exciting news ahead... besides the X:RA DVD due to hit next month, it also looks like Drag City will be releasing Final Flesh on DVD in November. I found a review of the film online dated June this year, here it is:

Final Flesh is a film by Vernon Chapman, one of the creators of PFFR, Xavier: Renegade Angel and Wonder Showzen. He screened the film last night in LA to a packed house at the Silent Movie Theater. The films set-up is this: There are porn companies online that do custom porn. You can send in whatever your fantasy is and they will act it out, record it, and send you the tape. Well, Vern wrote a series of absurd scripts for the porn actors to do- weird and bizarre shit, no sex. He made it so the actors thought he would be getting off on it- not turning their videos into art films. He presented the films exactly as he received them- the companies did all the titling and editing. The result is very twisted, often times gross, and always funny. The film is in four parts. The first begins with three black actors talking around a table moments before the Atom Bomb is about to drop. One of the ladies goes into the shower and pours a jar of 'neglected children's tears' over herself in an erotic manner. Read into this what you will... She goes on to give birth to a piece of raw meat that she breastfeeds. And that's just the beginning; the parts get progressively crazier from there. Check out the DVD that will be released by Drag City later this year.

...and the Drag City blurb...

Final Flesh
From the fevered mind that helped bring you Wondershowzen and Xavier: Renegade Angel (Vernon Chatman, yeah?) comes this mind-melting work of satire, sex and biblical imagery that would cause Jenna Jameson to brush up on her philosophy and Joseph Campbell to run shamefacedly to his masturbation station! Oh, and Peter Sellers will roil in his grave, too - that covers everything, doesn't it? Manipulating the forces of adult entertainment for hire, Chatman's scripts cause innocent amateur porn actors and actresses to wax existential and apocalyptic with their classic shallow-yet-sexy delivery, all the while telling a story of doom and redemption that Speilberg would kill for - though probably without the XXX overtones. Don't worry, there's no sex here at all but we feel compelled to warn all potential viewers of this DVD, PSYCHOLOGICALLY-STABLE ADULTS ONLY!

Which all sounds fantastic. And not at all what I imagined; I was under the impression this was hardcore porn filmed by PFFR. Wrong on both points, and almost certainly for the better.

Also, I'm not going to go into detail about this because of the buying and selling rules, but I should be getting an exclusive PFFR music track for a compilation I'm working on. I probably can't say any more than that, but needless to say, I'm very excited.