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Anonymous asked:
rewatching s1 for like the 100th time--at what point does all the brilliant animal sight gag stuff (eg the croc wearing crocs) get added? is it like, we need to have a croc wearing crocs, where can we fit this in? or do you start out by needing someone to guard the food and say let's do a crocodile--hey, he should wear crocs? or some kind of total afterthought, or something else entirely? thanks. love the show, my favorite of all time.
Hello! I am going to answer your question, and then I am going to talk a little bit about GENDER IN COMEDY, because this is my tumblr and I can talk about whatever I want!
The vast vast vast majority of the animal jokes on BoJack Horseman (specifically the visual gags) come from our brilliant supervising director Mike Hollingsworth (stufffedanimals on tumblr) and his team. Occasionally, we’ll write a joke like that into the script but I can promise you that your top ten favorite animal gags of the season came from the art and animation side of the show, not the writers room. Usually it happens more the second way you described— to take a couple examples from season 2, “Okay, we need to fill this hospital waiting room, what kind of animals would be in here?” or “Okay, we need some extras for this studio backlot, what would they be wearing?”
I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that the croc wearing crocs came from our head designer lisahanawalt. Lisa is in charge of all the character designs, so most of the clothing you see on the show comes straight from her brain. (One of the many things I love about working with Lisa is that T-Shirts With Dumb Things Written On Them sits squarely in the center of our Venn diagram of interests.)
NOW, it struck me that you referred to the craft services crocodile as a “he” in your question. The character, voiced by kulap Vilaysack, is a woman.
It’s possible that that was just a typo on your part, but I’m going to assume that it wasn’t because it helps me pivot into something I’ve been thinking about a lot over the last year, which is the tendency for comedy writers, and audiences, and writers, and audiences (because it’s a cycle) to view comedy characters as inherently male, unless there is something specifically female about them. (I would guess this is mostly a problem for male comedy writers and audiences, but not exclusively.)
Here’s an example from my own life: In one of the episodes from the first season (I think it’s 109), our storyboard artists drew a gag where a big droopy dog is standing on a street corner next to a businessman and the wind from a passing car blows the dog’s tongue and slobber onto the man’s face. When Lisa designed the characters she made both the dog and the businessperson women.
My first gut reaction to the designs was, “This feels weird.” I said to Lisa, “I feel like these characters should be guys.” She said, “Why?” I thought about it for a little bit, realized I didn’t have a good reason, and went back to her and said, “You’re right, let’s make them ladies.”
I am embarrassed to admit this conversation has happened between Lisa and me multiple times, about multiple characters.
The thinking comes from a place that the cleanest version of a joke has as few pieces as possible. For the dog joke, you have the thing where the tongue slobbers all over the businessperson, but if you also have a thing where both of them ladies, then that’s an additional thing and it muddies up the joke. The audience will think, “Why are those characters female? Is that part of the joke?” The underlying assumption there is that the default mode for any character is male, so to make the characters female is an additional detail on top of that. In case I’m not being a hundred percent clear, this thinking is stupid and wrong and self-perpetuating unless you actively work against it, and I’m proud to say I mostly don’t think this way anymore. Sometimes I still do, because this kind of stuff is baked into us by years of consuming media, but usually I’m able (with some help) to take a step back and not think this way, and one of the things I love about working with Lisa is she challenges these instincts in me.
I feel like I can confidently say that this isn’t just a me problem though— this kind of thing is everywhere. The LEGO Movie was my favorite movie of 2014, but it strikes me that the main character was male, because I feel like in our current culture, he HAD to be. The whole point of Emmett is that he’s the most boring average person in the world. It’s impossible to imagine a female character playing that role, because according to our pop culture, if she’s female she’s already SOMEthing, because she’s not male. The baseline is male. The average person is male.
You can see this all over but it’s weirdly prevalent in children’s entertainment. Why are almost all of the muppets dudes, except for Miss Piggy, who’s a parody of femininity? Why do all of the Despicable Me minions, genderless blobs, have boy names? I love the story (which I read on Wikipedia) that when the director of The Brave Little Toaster cast a woman to play the toaster, one of the guys on the crew was so mad he stormed out of the room. Because he thought the toaster was a man. A TOASTER. The character is a toaster.
I try to think about that when writing new characters— is there anything inherently gendered about what this character is doing? Or is it a toaster?
karenmarshall-blog-blog-blog reblogged
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Here is a side by side comparison of how The New York Times has profiled Michael Brown — an 18 year old black boy gunned down by police — and how they profiled Ted Bundy, one of the most prolific serial killers of all time.
DAY THIRTY-FIVE / REINTRO DAY FIVE
Felt fine from the dairy in the morning, so unless it kicks in 24+ hours after eating, it's not an issue. Back up on the scale, but daily fluctuations and all.
Breakfast (8am): duck / taro root / caramelized onion hash with thyme and 2 tsp ghee with 2 fried eggs. Twas an experiment, for sure, turned out well.
Morning (10am): Coffee, black.
Lunch (12:30pm): 3 spicy tuna cakes, a head of brocolli steamed then pan fried with olive oil, sundried tomatoes and marinated mushrooms.
Afternoon (1-4pm): Made then ate a decent amount of Thai Roasted Cashews (hey did you follow that link I HAVE A FOOD BLOG NOW!!!), drank watermelon lime kombucha, had 2 strawberries and some cherry tomatoes. On the way to softball drank water with 4 watermelon ice cubes and a splash of lime.
Dinner (7pm): 2 chicken cakes with sunshine sauce (made with cashew butter) and cucumber relish.
2nd dinner (8pm): Stomach felt super urpy when I got home so I fried up the remaining chicken livers and had them with awesome sauce, and had 2 frozen figs.
DAY THIRTY-FOUR / REINTRO DAY FOUR
SIde-bar - woke up 4lbs lighter than my official weigh-in four days ago. Not sure what sort of strange wizardry of bloat / water weight led to this, but it's certainly pleasing, and made me feel on track. Until today. Wah wah wah.
Breakfast (6:30am): A cup of Fage 0% greek yogurt with 2 green figs, Swiss Chard with Raisins, Cashews and Porkitos. Perfect breakfast.
Morning (8-9am): Made this almond and macadamia nut milk and had 8oz of it with some cold brew concentrate (standing in for espresso, which I am not yet able to make). Honestly I kind of prefer it black. My roommate will happily drink the milk though. The "apple pie" kombucha. A high sugar morning, relatively.
Lunch (11:30am): steak salad with 50/50 greens-spinach mix, cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions. blue cheese and a tbsp of Tessamae's southwest ranch
2nd lunch (1:30pm): hmm didn't feel super great - sharp pang in the stomach - but (as I do) chalked it up to dehydration and hunger so I had a fried egg over kale fried with a rasher and a half of bacon. Stomach felt better. Issue adequately addressed!
Afternoon (3:30pm): I made these rosemary raisin crackers from the nut pulp from earlier and couldn't stop munching on them and their dough. Failure. Also had a strawberry. In an attempt to make me drink more water I threw some lime juice and two ice cubes made of watermelon puree into a huge glass.
Dinner (6:30pm): pulled pork with roasted nectarine and melted Beecher's No Woman cheese drizzled with balsamic vinegar, with broccoli steamed then fried with 1 tsp ghee, some garlic powder, red chili flakes and lemon. I also had a bit of Cypress Grove Bermuda triangle on the crackers from earlier, which I gotta figure out how to cook / dehydrate or whatever cause they floppy. CHEESE. I then had about 1/3 of the bottle of unsweetened bahkti chai that I got at whole foods earlier in a cute mini mason jar on ice. Almost like a night cocktail. :)
I was in Whole Foods today and just got so excited about food and recipes and things that exist, and I thought of all the people who look at these diets and think "There's so much you can't eat!" and I just want to respond that I eat SO much more diverse and great food now than I ever did when I ate everything, and every meal is so new and surprising and exciting.
Dairy seems not bad so far, though I'll definitely do it as another reintroduction day (especially as I don't super care about reintroducing non-gluten grains or legumes and I plan to eat mostly whole30 for a little while anyway) as this one was tainted by stay at home snacking. :( I'm the worst!
eta that I went to Sprouts and bought and ate about 8 dark chocolate espresso beans from the bulk section. :\
DAY THIRTY-THREE / REINTRO DAY THREE
Pre-workout (6:30am): Aforementioned peach beef jerky (with added sugar! shock horror!), about 1.5oz. Coffee, black. Maybe about 7 spiced cashews.
Breakfast (10am): 3 fried eggs, roasted asparagus wrapped in about an oz of pancetta. Homemade lemon ginger kombucha. I put a date in my mouth and then decided I knew better and put it down.
Lunch (2:15pm): a little over 4oz steak (that I got from the farmer's market!) with an espresso balsamic glaze (I could straight up drink that vinegar, and i'm trying to find ways to), half a head of cauliflower roasted with 1tbsp better butter.
Afternoon (4pm): Coffee, black.
Dinner (7pm): Scheherazade Omelet, 1/4 recipe.
Once again, my desire to cook far outpaces my ability to eat, and after the pulled pork overnight tonight I can't really excuse cooking much until Tuesday. ULTIMATE SAD.
Although it doesn't appear like it today, I'm going to move away a bit from the rigidity of the 3 meals a day Whole30 plan into a world where I'm allowed to snack when hungry, at least until my meal size evens out. Problem is keeping around high protein low sugar snacks - nuts and fruit don't really cut it. I do have to say though that today's consumption is REALLY impressive considering I was at home all day, normally the ultimate in little snacks. Ok, I had a cherry tomato a minute ago. Who can begrudge that?
Dairy reintro tomorrow - just greek yogurt and cheese. Cheese is my #1 favorite thing in the world, and I'm happy with it in moderation (since I don't plan on having mac & cheese or pizza or grilled cheese anytime soon, cheese overconsumption becomes a little more difficult! - maybe a fondue on special occasions.) Cross fingers.
DAY THIRTY-TWO / REINTRODUCTION DAY TWO
Breakfast (5:30am): 3 eggs, half a bunch of kale with pecans, a rasher of bacon and 1 tsp of bacon fat. The watermelon homemade kombucha. Note: I used coconut oil spray for the eggs, which I had been avoiding on Whole30 because of its use of soy lecithin as a stabilizer.
Morning (8-10am): Coffee, black x2. Yogi Egyptian Licorice Tea.
Lunch (11:45am): 1 roasted Duck leg, Casablanca Carrots.
Dinner (5:30pm): half a basket of cherry tomatoes, 4oz of the chicken livers, crowns from 1 head of broccoli steamed then tossed with 1 tsp of Better Butter, vadouvan curry powder and a handful of Princess raisins, the best raisins of all.
Night (7-9pm): A very small amount of mixed nuts at my parents' house, a hard boiled egg with Omnivore salt, 5-10 cornichons. (All from legit hunger. Except maybe the nuts.)
I was hungry for a lot of today, and I remember the article I read about people who counted calories feeling less full or more full depending on the number on the screen. I have decided I don't like that. Tracking is not for me. Here's my new strategy for the next 2 weeks:
- Measure my fat.
- Know how fatty a cut of protein is, and size it and pair vegetable dishes with it accordingly.
- Do not eat when I am not hungry.
- Have the lower end of the recommended portions (if it says serves 2-4, split it into 4)
- Eat slowly and only until I am full.
- No fruit course "just because". Fruit must be part of the savory dish.
Tomorrow morning I plan to have as my pre-workout some peach beef jerky I got that has no soy, but does have brown sugar. I'm still going to limit added sugars of all sorts, which I think is a better strategy than limiting the types of sugar. That jerky looked so good though!
DAY THIRTY-ONE / RE-INTRO DAY ONE
Breakfast (5:15am): 2 fried eggs, creamy garlic spinach but with waaaaaay less mayo than before :)
Morning (8am): Coffee, black.
Morning, part 2 (10:30am): I knew I wouldn't be able to have lunch until later because of an 11-1pm meeting, so I had some baby carrots.
Lunch (1pm): Scheherazade omelet. Excited to make variations of this with a meat other than lamb because the lamb is so so so so fatty!
Dinner (4:30pm): GLUTEN! Bread Lounge - "Plenty of Fish" Preserved lemon and dill aïoli (I asked, it's made in store with olive and canola oils), Albacore tuna, North African harissa, sliced tomato and arugula on a baguette, came with a green salad and pickles on the side. I got about half way into this sandwich and decided I could stop, but I ate the rest, because bread has always been my "I'm ok with it being an very rare treat but there's no way I'm saying goodbye" food, so this re-introduction is more of a formality than anything.
Night (7pm): Drank some watermelon juice since I blended and froze it for future kombucha brewing so I wouldn't have to eat it in the next soon. A couple of concord grapes.
Felt a little burpy (very clean burps) and bloated after dinner, but I'm chalking that up to eating more than I should rather than the gluten, though obviously it's not been long and final verdict will come tomorrow.
I feel confident about my upcoming food choices. Saturday will try dairy, some time next week some alcohol. Not entirely interested in re-introducing the rest - the only thing I miss is peanut butter and that's not a food that's safe for me to have in the house. For the most part I'll still avoid added sugar, though as I previously mentioned those Maple Walnut Scotch Eggs are getting hella made, and I've recently bought some tomato vanilla jam and fig and fennel jam, both made with sugar and to be used sparingly.
One thing I've learned in the Whole30 is that I love food and the process of eating it. THERE is where I need the control, not necessarily in the choices I'm making. Now I'm torn: is is better for me psychologically to make the same portions and force myself not to eat it all? Or to make smaller portions and continue eating everything on my plate?
Weigh-in.
No weight lost, no change in body fat %. Crazy! But not that crazy, I can think of all these reasons:
- Eating too much meat compared to vegetables.
- Using too much cooking fat.
- Not accounting for fatty meats when using the thumb rule.
- Eating when I am full because it is "eating time".
- Eating everything on my plate.
- Starting off with too big portions.
- Eating too much fruit.
- Less exercise (walking) in general since moving to CA.
- Not drinking enough water.
I'm going to start weighing, measuring, and myfitnesspal-ing during the re-introduction and see the damage of some of these foods. I'm not worried. I still feel good.
DAY THIRTY
Day thirty.
Breakfast (5:15am): Well Fed 2's Scheherazade Omelet. My homemade strawberry basil kombucha, which was baller - this second batch isn't super fizzy, but tastes so so much better.
Morning (8am): Coffee, black.
Lunch (11:45am): Salad with chicken, bacon, avocado, peach, hard boiled egg, with spicy mustard vinaigrette. 2ish cups of watermelon ish.
Afternoon (1pm): Coffee, black.
Pre-workout (4pm): Epic Turkey Bar. (better than the Bison, but unsold)
Dinner (6:30pm): Crispy Chicken Livers & Sweet and Salty Broccoli Salad. Not totally sold on the livers but I figured for my last Whole30 meal I should have some offal! At least once on the program! They're a little... smooth. That make sense? A "dessert" of unsweetened apple sauce with apple pie spice and pecans.
Wow, ok. So it's the last day, technically. My boss mentioned something about the diet being over today, and I had to clarify that it's still restrictive of legumes / sugar / grains / gluten / dairy until the reintroduction period ends - a coworker overheard and asked if I was going to be real grumpy in the next week. He was shocked to hear I'd already been eating like this for 30 days!
Workout rekt me, but 40lbs one-arm dumbbell snatch was a GREAT milestone to have reached!
Some pre-weigh in thoughts:
- I've been amazed at how not a problem this all is, even indulgent (if I do this again strictly to lose weight I'm thinking maybe I should kick the mayo and duck and the huge amount of sweet potato I had in the first 3 weeks).
- On days that I felt i overate grossly it didn't even slightly compare to how I felt on days in the past - either in guilt or physically. Whether or not that is justified on the guilt front is to be determined.
- This has gotten me excited about cooking in a way I wasn't really (and was about baking) before starting the program. I've made duck and homemade mayo for the first time (even if per the first point maybe I shouldn't have). I made pork ribs, and cooked with chinese five spice, my new favorite spice. I mixed my own spice mixes. I've rendered and re-used fat from my duck and bacon. And in these 30 days I haven't even tried so many of the things I'm most excited about! The possibilities are endless.
- Meal planning! I'm proud of my newfound ability to empty my fridge.
- So many recipes from long forgotten cookbooks are, or can be made, paleo-friendly. Can't wait.
- The structure is good for me. Having a tangible reason to say "No" in that it breaks rules, works better than trying to imagine the overall concept of my health, which just one cupcake won't truly affect. The restrictions also make decisions easier.
- Losing that structure might prove problematic for me. Will I be able to loosen up? Should I? Will that lead to my old eating habits?
- 3 larger meals a day with minimal snacking had worked well. Eating when I'm hungry? Still figuring that out. I know how to eat enough that I won't be hungry before my next meal. I don't know how to eat little enough that I will be hungry before my next meal.
- I drink black coffee now!
- Water water water. I need to be better at water.
Tomorrow: gluten. We're going big!
DAY TWENTY-NINE
Breakfast (5:15am): My first whole30 day with no eggs, since I had the salad I prepared but wasn't hungry enough for yesterday. Mixed greens / chicken / bacon / onion / avocado / tomato / Tessamae's Southwest Ranch dressing.
Lunch (12:15pm): BBQ Beef and Sweet and Salty Broccoli Salad
Dinner (6:20pm): Kombucha Ceviche with beet chips from the farmer's market (ingredients: beets), and I drank the rest of the kombucha. This way by far the most expensive meal of the Whole30, between the halibut ($12), kombucha ($3.5) and chips ($5)!!!
Very full all day - again, it's too late in this to justify eating when I'm not hungry, but I was so very excited about the ceviche and let's be real, it was a light ass dinner (especially as I got skin-on halibut from Whole Foods which was truly uncuttable and I would say I wasted a LOT of it with my hideous knife skills). I think something I'm definitely going to do from day 31 onwards is to weigh my meat so that I'm having 4-8oz, depending on how fatty it is (the lamb in tomorrow's omelet is 290 cals per 4oz, and halibut is 94 cals per 4oz!) because honestly right now I have no idea what I'm eating! One day. One day left. One day left!
DAY TWENTY-EIGHT
Breakfast (6am): 3 eggs, sweet potato soup (finally gone, sheesh), kale with pecans and prosciutto cause I was too lazy to open the next pack of bacon. Accidentally went immediately back to sleep.
Morning (9-12pm): Coffee, black. Citrus kombucha. Some nectarine samples at Whole Foods.
Lunch (12:30pm): beef bacon jalapeno burger with a fried egg and spicy mustard, then a lemon cucumber, a handful of cherries and watermelon. In truth lack of veg here comes from two things: none were instantly prepared and avail, and I wanted to finish the pre-cut watermelon so I could cut the other half and condense space in my fridge. Did I also have a handful of walnuts, some raisins, and the dried mango my roommate left for me two weeks ago while cooking this afternoon? Yes, yes I did. Not being at home and in kitchens is going to help with this bad spell.
Dinner (8pm): After a softball game and a spout at a bar not drinking (not even club soda, cause I ain't had no cash) I came home and didn't want the salad I'd prepared. Not super hungry after all the fruit binging earlier. Had some leftover pork ribs (and glad I did cause I would have been disappointed in the amount of meat if it were a full meal) and half an orange.
Alright. I'm losing the plot a little with this fruit. 2 more days of official, then just mostly. I'm going to try - especially once the 30 days is over - to go back to the hard and fast no snacking rules. I can't believe it's day 28. I really think I haven't lost much weight / changed body comp at all - maybe back to what I was pre-summer and pre-moving to hey guy's let's drive everwhere CA. Guess we'll find out wednesday morning.
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN
Man. Man oh man.
Pre-workout (6:30am): 1 hard boiled egg
Breakfast (8:30am): 3 eggs, sweet potato soup, kale / bacon / pecans.
Morning (10:30am): Coffee, black.
Lunch (1:30pm): Here's where we start to lose it. A BUTTLOAD OF CHERRIES. Lamb rib chops with a quick cherry pan sauce, whole30-fied. Velvety Butternut Squash. This was the first meal I've had this month where I went back for seconds.
Afternoon into evening (2-10pm): So I wasn't planning on staying out the WHOLE day but food wasn't particularly a problem there - just that the activities were "blanket", "picnic", "movie" which were all snacky activities, and my companions were having cheese, plum buckle, ice cream, pita crackers. It really was the first moment I was truly truly tempted by so so much. This all after I managed to refuse samples at the Murray's Cheese in Studio City. (Did buy some for next Saturday though!). Over the course of the day I ate: more cherries, pistachios, some whole frozen figs, carrots dipped in guacamole, cherry tomatoes, clementines, pineapple, pickled okra wrapped in prosciutto, Well Fed 2's BBQ Beef and another black coffee. All compliant (the guacamole had a preservative I didn't quite recognize, but it wasn't sugar and not one of the 4 main restricted groups) but so much, and so much sugar.
Midnight (12am): And when I got home I had a handful of raisins.
Hey, they can't all be winners. I bought some wonderful spices. My workout was pretty good in the morning.
(Edit: Forgot I also date 2 dates. Damnit.)
DAY TWENTY-SIX
Breakfast (5:30am): garlic creamed spinach and 3 eggs. Coffee, black.
Lunch (12pm): beef bacon jalapeno burger with awesome sauce and a onion / pickle / tomato relish, big arugula / greens salad with strawberry / beet / pecans and a balsamic vinaigrette.
Afternoon (2pm): coffee, black (with nutmeg and cinnamon). There was a stray drop of simple syrup on the top of the lid which I mistook for dew water, and it felt... very weird. But it was unintentional.
Birthday Friday (3pm): while the rest of my office ate 2 ice creams and brownies I made, I had some blueberries, cherries and strawberries. Still a bunch of sugar.
Dinner (6:45pm): chinese five spice pork ribs and sesame cucumber noodles.
After dinner (7:30pm): while bottling kombucha for its second brew I had a couple of pieces of watermelon and a handful of muscat raisins. About 4oz of fig & fennel kombucha from the last batch. This one did its first brew for twice as long so I'm hoping it will end up half as sweet. I'm also flavoring almost exclusively with juice.
Really feeling all that sugar!!! It's not my favorite! Yep, fruit = all that sugar now. Interested to know what would have happened if I'd tried some of my brownies. They were, by the way, a hit! I'm always totally shocked by what I make is the most popular at work, and what people tell me they like vs what disappears quickly.
DAY TWENTY-FIVE
Breakfast (5:30am): garlic creamed spinach and 3 fried eggs. I know the stereotype is that you're supposed to get sick of eggs every day and start eating steak for breakfast or whatever, but eggs are the shit and I'll hear no other. Although, this makes me want steak & eggs. Coffee, black.
Morning (10am): Coffee, black. (They offered bagels, cream cheese and coffee in our weekly office meeting. I opted for the coffee.)
Lunch (12pm): chicken, arugula, greens, peach, tomato, bacon, hard boiled egg, spicy mustard vinaigrette salad. The stand by.
Farmer's Market (5pm): Tried a bit of a nectarine, some concord grapes, 2 compliant salsas, and a metric ton of raisins at the farmer's market. Ate a lemon cucumber.
Dinner (6:30pm): beef bacon jalapeno burger with awesome sauce and a pickle/onion relish with sweet potato fries (cooked in duck fat). So utterly decadent. A few more concord grapes.
Made these brownies tonight for the office tomorrow which was indeed a bigger challenge than either ice cream. I made it through though. I made it through.
Not much to report. EXCEPT FOR KOMBUCHA CEVICHE IS ALL!!! Bought some beet chips at the farmer's market to have with it when I get around to making it. Oh sweet kombucha ceviche! Could you possibly be as good as I dream you are?