comments that make your jaw drop

[Barry]

I thought I'd start a place for anyone who wants to write about any comments they'd heard about animation. Here are a few that have been said to me over the years;

From EVERY visitor to a set;

'Oh you must have so much patience!'

'How do you know how much to move the puppets.'

'Do you know Nick Park?'

Those three come round again and again but these thankfully are one -off.

Someone staring at the set, the puppets, the camera....
'But where are the strings'

A similiar person looking at the puppets
'Yes, but where are the real ones?'

'So do they do it themselves?'

After working for three months developing a commercial and in a final pre-production meeting with shooting the following week...
'Oh I didn't realise this would be animated'

And an old reoccurring favourite from clients;
'That's lovely, but can we have it in blue!'

About an animated potato chip I was filming
'can we have it more chip than chip'

After watching Achilles someone said ' didn't the actors mind being naked?'

[Peter]

Well here is one that I remember Barry's (dear departed) Granny Grace coming up with...
"But how does he get his hand up the puppets?"

[Barry]

having watched Robert LePage's brilliant one man show about Hans Andersen last night in which he played several characters, there were the ubiquitous comments from people looking for the names of the other actors. Some people should not be let out at times.....especially to watch a piece about connecting!

[Aaron]

Ha! That really made me chuckle to myself!
Thanks Barry

[Barry]

I don't know how much truth there is to these statements, but it sounds like
some of the people I have sat next to in theatres in the past. Sorry not much to do with animation. These were sent to me.........



ONE Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could
have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen
nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the
counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was
the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?"
"That's right." So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets

TWO I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the
lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of
those "dividers" that they keep by the cash register and placed it between
our things so they wouldn't get mixed.
After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the "divider",
looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the
bar code she said to me, "Do you know how much this is?" I said to her "I've
changed my mind, I don't think I'll buy that today." She said "OK," and I
paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just
happened.

THREE A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive
and pulling it out very quickly. When asked what she was doing, she said
she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card
number, so she was using the ATM "thingy."

FOUR I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you
need some help?" I asked. She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the
battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you
think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to
fit this?" "Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too ?" I asked. "No, just
this remote thingy," she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I
took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive
over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk."

FIVE Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day
she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, "I'm almost out of typing
paper. What do I do?" "Just use copy machine paper," the secretary told
her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper,
put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five "blank" copies.

SIX I was in a car dealership a while ago, when a large motor home was towed
into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of repair and
the whole thing generally looked like an extra in "Twister." I asked the
manager what had happened. He told me that
the driver had set the "cruise control" and then went i n the back to make a
sandwich.

SEVE My neighbor works in the operations department in the central office of
a large bank. Employees in the field call him when they have problems with
their computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one of the branch
banks who had this question: "I've got smoke coming from the back of my
terminal. Do you guys have a fire downtown?"

EIGHT Police in Radnor, Pa., interrogated a suspect by placing a metal
colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine.
The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the
copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth.
Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed.

NINE A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to
take her kid to the emergency room, the kid was eating ants. The dispatcher
tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and should be fine, the mother says,
I just gave him some ant killer.....Dispatcher: Rush him in to emergency!

[edwina]

After my friend graduated from Model Making in the summer, he performed the obligatory rite of passage and signed onto the dole. When interrogated by the Dole Officer as to what jobs he could possibly perform, my friend mentioned that he was hoping to break into model animation. The officer, a true connoisseur of all things cultural, then said, 'why don't you show your work to Nick Park?' My friend shot him the look that his naivety truly deserved.

Also, when I was in college we got a lecture from a producer in Aardman. She brought lots of nice things for us to look at, including an armature of Gromit and a Morph. After a bit into her talk somebody put up their hand and asked what Gromit was made from!?!!!!?!! I'd like to point that this was an art university and not just a random congregation of illiterate monkeys. (Barry you visited this North Eastern university in 2003 might give you a hint).

[chrlane]

Personally, I am floored on a regular basis by how many people shamelessly inform me in casual conversation of how much they detest "The French" right after I tell them my Dad was French Canadian.

Like I am the one who went around bombing innocent civillians and sided with Hitler or something?! I wasn't even BORN yet! I am an Anglophone CANADIAN!!

And these same people never say a word when I mention my German roots because it is always coming from ignorant blonde people who think they can cover up some ridiculous white supremist nonsense with political "concern". Well I'll have them all know that we have blonde people in my family too and my son is as fair as they come and I am not deserving of this hurtful treatment.

I hate racism more than anything. I hate reverse racism too. It all is just the same, ugly animal and it comes from ignorance- nothing else.

Had to spit that out today because I am totally fed up with it!!!

[Barry]

I mentioned elsewhere about another site I write on, where a lot of them are up in arms at the moment, because some non caucasion children have been cast as the new Billy Elliot, in the musical. Ignorant of the talent of the kids who have to sing, dance and act for three hours, all they can see is the colour. Someone actually said they would not go and see the show if there was an asian Billy Elliot, and I fear they weren't just talking about the historical accuracy of the story. I'm a great believer in the performance coming first not the literal representation. Some people really don't have the imagination to connect with they are looking at, or realise that art is often a representation, not the real thing.

[chrlane]

That is ridiculous, Barry. Who cares what ethnicity they are so long as their performances are convincing?! We complain that we don't like the way other countries do things and then when they try it our way we pick on them for that too. Just apalling…

[ShayneThill]

I don't know how much truth there is to these statements, but it sounds like
some of the people I have sat next to in theatres in the past. Sorry not much to do with animation. These were sent to me.........



ONE Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could
have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen
nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the
counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was
the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?"
"That's right." So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets

TWO I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the
lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of
those "dividers" that they keep by the cash register and placed it between
our things so they wouldn't get mixed.
After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the "divider",
looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the
bar code she said to me, "Do you know how much this is?" I said to her "I've
changed my mind, I don't think I'll buy that today." She said "OK," and I
paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just
happened.

THREE A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive
and pulling it out very quickly. When asked what she was doing, she said
she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card
number, so she was using the ATM "thingy."

FOUR I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you
need some help?" I asked. She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the
battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you
think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to
fit this?" "Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too ?" I asked. "No, just
this remote thingy," she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I
took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive
over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk."

FIVE Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day
she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, "I'm almost out of typing
paper. What do I do?" "Just use copy machine paper," the secretary told
her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper,
put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five "blank" copies.

SIX I was in a car dealership a while ago, when a large motor home was towed
into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of repair and
the whole thing generally looked like an extra in "Twister." I asked the
manager what had happened. He told me that
the driver had set the "cruise control" and then went i n the back to make a
sandwich.

SEVE My neighbor works in the operations department in the central office of
a large bank. Employees in the field call him when they have problems with
their computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one of the branch
banks who had this question: "I've got smoke coming from the back of my
terminal. Do you guys have a fire downtown?"

EIGHT Police in Radnor, Pa., interrogated a suspect by placing a metal
colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine.
The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the
copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth.
Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed.

NINE A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to
take her kid to the emergency room, the kid was eating ants. The dispatcher
tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and should be fine, the mother says,
I just gave him some ant killer.....Dispatcher: Rush him in to emergency!

I don't believe in the "lie detector". Different from rf detector, it is always reliable.

[Barry]

over hearing someone watching War Horse ' it's like watching 'bloody Muppets' - needless to say I glared at him with a look to say ' it is not like watching the Muppets, you ignorant txxt!'