I’ve seen a few threads about R & S and/or Billy West here, thought this recent rant might give some of you a chuckle. Obviously I can’t be absolutely certain this is Billy at the keyboard, I’ve posted at BillyWest.com and recieved feedback that seems genuine.
From the link, regarding John K. :
Why is he ALWAYS the victim?..It’s an old loser trick to blame everybody else so you don’t have to take responsibility for YOUR failure. But I forgot, ‘‘geniuses’’ who act like petulant 5 year olds don’t have to take resonsibility for anything. How could anyone dare expect that from him. This is where we get to witness the phenomenon of ‘‘genius’’ morphing into hapless sociopath.
I wager we should not expect any R & S retrospectives or joint DVD commentaries from these two. BTW, he mentions that the forum is now closed to discussion of the topic.
He confirms everything I’ve suspected about John K from reading his arrogant-assed interviews where he hypes up his pretty yet unfunny and pointlessly offensive crap as if he’s the king of animation. And I like how he thrashes John’s fanbase that treats him just like the god he professes to be. I never knew that West & K had a falling out, though, but there’s no competition between the new Mel Blanc and a guy who can’t even afford a website for his company anymore.
I find the final third of his rant interesting when he’s talking about the second guy to do Popeye’s voice, especially in light of the fact that Billy does the Looney Tunes character voices now. Mel Blanc’s shoes are mighty tough to fill.
You know, it must really suck to be as good at what you do as Billy West obviously is, but still have people always say, “He’s great and all, but he’s no Mel Blanc,” when they talk about you.
I like his response to an innane comment: “How DRUNK is that?” – I think I’ll steal that one from him.
The John K. legend seemed impressive years ago, now it does seem like he killed his own career by being unprepared when it came time to actually produce work. If he failed to communicate his grand artistic vision so that others could produce, that is his responsibility and not a conspiracy.
I have my doubts that this is really Billy West speaking. I met him about 2 years ago, and tried to get him to dish the dirt on John K. and Howard Stern (he worked for Howard for a while) and he had nothing but nice things to say about both. I introduced myself as a fan, and it was just him and me speaking.
I suppose he might have worried that I would report him to some news outlet or something, but why start bitching now?
I’m here to say that I’ve never laughed as hard in my life than I have at some Ren and Stimpy. The Happy Helmet, and Nurse Stimpy, and the forbidden episode with George Liquor, American… oh yeah, and don’t whiz on the electric fence.
Disclaimer: I am easily amused. It’s both a blessing and a curse.
Freido, John K. was the creator of R & S. His version of events are representedhere and elsewhere. The story of the creative rebel put down by the evil Nickelodeon channel resonated with me when I was 14, not so much now.
Yeah, I loved R & S when they came out. John K. did look like a genius back around '91 or '92 or so. Ren and Stimpy were unquestionably a cultural phenomenon.
But what’s he done since then? OK, so the networks won’t let him do exactly what he wants. Hey John, welcome to 1996! Learn Flash. Publish your own cartoons on the web. You’ve got a built in fanbase, so you should be able to sell enough T-shirts from day one to pay the freight…
I mean, if you’re a creative genius being frustrated by the evil corporate overlords, isn’t this what you’d do? Unless you were only in it for the money… or you had nothing to publish…
