Remix Project
Cyanide and Happiness is the original inspiration for this comic. These comics are made by Rob DenBleyker, Kris Wilson, and Dave McElfatrick, and are posted on explosm.net. Their comics are notorious for having very dark subject matter and being borderline offensive. They are more often than not very short in duration, most being between 3–5 slides, although some of their pieces are rendered through video animation. The pieces that I’ve used for my own iteration are not from a single source.
These comics communicate many different ideologies, however they are not the most favorable. There are comics that include gender degrading satire for both men and women, and then there are some that don’t touch on any societal constructs at all. The comics range from being a small sensible joke, to an overdone play on sensitive subjects such as abortion. The comic attempts to make light of every situation in an effort to get a laugh out of its audience.
The audience who these comics appeal to are anyone with a cynical/elaborate sense of humor. The content of the comics carry a “anything goes” attitude. Thus it privileges people who seek a different kind of comedic outlet. If someone is looking for humor that is dark and creative, then cyanide and happiness is perfect. While these comics are released on physical books, their largest audience exists online, where people can have easy access to download and share.
My remix is complicit with the established nature of the cyanide and happiness comics. It falls in line with dark humor and not so subtle plot twists in story dynamics to get a quick chuckle out of the audience. This was done by creating situations that would only be acceptable in the world of cyanide and happiness. In terms of my iteration, this includes killing a newborn child and its mother. Now upon writing this, it sounds absolutely horrific. That’s because taken out of context of the comics, everything portrayed is repulsive. What the creators have done is made a way to play out these horrific situations in a manner that still manages to make a sane person smile. Thus, it would most definitely appeal to the current fans of the comic.
This fits in with both convergence culture and remix culture because the source material has been altered in a way that changes the subject matter, however the ideologies and styles remain the same. These further perpetuate the ideas already agreed upon by the original creators that are loved by the community. The remix comes in when the comic is made to be 16 slides long. This is something that is different from the original source material as they are usually short and bitter-sweet. Realistically, the remix made could be split into three different comics. That’s just the way they are set up. They often deliver some kind of hook and a punchline. Stretching it out after the first punchline feels awkward and ruins the flow of the joke.
This has overall been a very enjoyable experience. It goes to show that originality can still come from pre-existing structures.
Clips from these images were used:
http://files.explosm.net/comics/Dave/yourehired.png?t=A30DE8
