In Response To: An apology. *Short* or *Very Long.* (Stuntmutt)
: The short version - it was all an April Fool's gag. Apologies for any offence
: caused.
: The long version -
: The Setup.
: A couple of weeks ago, I sent Louis Wu an email.
: It asked if he would care to join me in a little April Fool's wheeze.
: The gist was that we would have a big, public falling out in the forum on the
: Monday before the event. I'd say "it's my ball, I'm going home"
: and not do a comic strip on the Wednesday. Then, on the Friday, Louis
: would claim he'd be continuing the comics himself. Wu's response?
: "Definitely doable. :)"
: So first, we needed a reason to fall out.
: Recently, Louis was inteviewed about his thoughts on videogame violence.
: Quite a touchy subject. Plus it resurrected the infamous 'Louis holding
: gun' picture. I started up MS Paint...
: Minutes later, I had a comic strip. Personal attack on Louis making him out
: to be a hypocrite? Check. Splattered brains and gore? Check. Utterly
: inappropriate joke about schools? Check. I was hesitant even to show the
: resulting monstrosity to Louis. When he saw it, he responded with wistful
: sagacity - "Oh, man... I just have to figure out how to sound
: outraged without going over the top (because there are plenty of people
: who know I'd probably be just fine with it :) )."
: The Fall Out.
: Louis said he'd write the newspost to say he wasn't happy and give me
: something to respond to. Sure enough, he did , so I did .
: One of my worries was that a couple of posts backwards and forwards between
: myself and Louis would go unnoticed. Boy, was I wrong. Louis didn't even
: manage to get his first riposte in before half a dozen other comments
: had been made.
: I ramped up the attack, but unbeknownst to me, I was making a mistake by
: pointing out (truthfully) that I had made the strip weeks earlier.
: I received an email from Louis that said, "I'm gonna have to call you a
: liar in my next post - here's why. Cybrfrk wrote this morning, telling me
: you'd gone WAY over the line with that strip. I told him that you'd just
: mailed it in this morning - if I'd had warning, I would have told you to
: redo it. He's gonna smell a rat if I don't correct your 'I submit stuff
: several weeks ahead' line in this case. :)"
: The thread raged on nicely - basically, the forum goers did our job for us!
: Eventually, I made my move . It was all true. Emails HAD passed back and
: forth between us. We'd shared some of the responses that were already
: coming into our inboxes (such as, "I had followed the comic when I
: got a chance because mostly it was amusing, but after today's I won't look
: at another one" and "this was shown to us. We both just had our
: bottom jaws drop. You didn't do this did you Claude???" -
: unbelievably, I even got one that said "Genius. I fucking loved that
: one, partly for the yeehaw, mainly for the where's the nearest school.
: Cheers Mate."), and Louis and I also swapped stories of the
: circumstances under which we had proposed to our respective ladies. Mrs Wu
: got the better deal by FAR, believe me.
: It seemed we had created a monster. Even after my 'So long and thanks for all
: the corn' post, the thread was still going strong. Louis eventually
: emailed me that, "I'm gonna have to lock that thread soon! It's
: getting downright political. :) YOU STARTED A FLAMEWAR, N00B!"
: Locked, the thread was.
: Just before I went to bed, I asked Louis to pull the strip itself. He was
: actually quite hesitant to do so, but by the time I woke up next morning,
: the missing strip had caused another disturbance in The Force. I emailed
: Louis; "TWO locked threads! Score!"
: c0ld Turkey.
: c0ld Vengeance is a great, great guy. Really. A few people sent myself and
: Louis emails of support, or urged us to reconcile. But c0ld sent us both
: this email on Monday night -
: "Ok you two, quit ya squabbling. Now, I have no idea what you two have
: said to each other but one thing i'm pretty sure of is, neither of you
: REALLY want to stay annoyed at the other.
: So I have a proposal.
: In 3 days it will be April 1st and I said to Louis that I would try to think
: of something to do, well something has popped up.
: THIS ARGUMENT COULD BE THE JOKE!
: Louis could start removing sections of 117 (i.e. the guest archive) and post
: news about it, do this building up to April 1st and then on that day,
: announce that 117 has officially been taken down or something to that
: effect. Stuntmutt could announce something on the forum and let everyone
: do what they do.
: Now I don’t know if either of you want to do this or not, I really have no
: clue as to what you are thinking. All I’m offering is a escape route for
: two very proud people and as a result, a VERY convincing April fools
: joke."
: Bless. His. Cotton. Socks. c0ld even SMS'd me to ask if I'd read his
: 'Ultimate Solution'. Louis thought it was hilarious - "He's never
: going to believe we'd planned all this before he came along... This is
: just too funny."
: Louis and I continued to get messages as the factions divided. I had some
: really, really sweet emails from the guys in my XBL clan - I started to
: feel MEGA bad that they were saying such nice things about me and it was
: all a practical joke. Louis sent me one of his, the thrust of which was,
: according to him, "Hehe - I got class, and you're just a loser.
: :)"
: I also loved the Clan Forum PM I received from 7he One which read,
: "Every cartoonist makes mistakes. Did you see the episode where
: Mickey Mouse stabs Donald Duck? No, because it was banned."
: Rumbled?
: Neither Louis nor myself had made any responses to the emails or messages. By
: Wednesday, some regulars started to smell a rat.
: Louis got an email from KP -
: "Hello kind sir, We're onto you. c0ld, jillybean and KP are demanding
: two (2) gratuitous front page mentions in exchange for keeping your game
: alive. If we receive nothing by 3/31/05 we will be forced to blow the
: whole damn thing. And you wouldn't want that, would you? WOULDYOU?!?!
: PS - jk plz no hurtz us.
: PSS- This was all Jilly's idea if it works out poorly, mine if you find it
: lollerific, and c0ld's if it strikes you as bland and unimaginative."
: Warbow wrote to Wu to warn him that I might be playing a joke. This tickled
: Louis; "rotfl - awesome. Now I'm a victim!"
: But Mere wasn't having a word of it, and Sep7imus was on the right track
: ...
: Of course, you always get carpers ...
: April 1
: The strip was posted. Louis really did make it himself!
: For the few who hadn't already worked it out, the the penny began to drop.
: Or so I thought. Louis forwarded me another epistle - "why the hell
: did stuntmutt stop creating the comics!?!?!?! i loved them. what did you
: do to make him mad Louis!!!!!!!?"
: Mind, I'd barely been 'gone' five minutes and there were already people eager
: to take a dead man's boots while they were still warm...
: Heheheheheh.
: The Apology.
: I say THE apology, I mean MY apology. I'm speaking just for myself here.
: The strip itself was made intentionally to be WAY over the top. It was
: written weeks before recent tragic events. I'm sure there are people who
: will still think that neither of these factors excuses its content. To
: those people, I apologise.
: To the people who may think this whole escapade is a joke too far, and
: particularly to the people who sent me such warm and encouraging personal
: messages who may feel betrayed that it turned out to be just a prank - I
: sincerely apologise. That stuff really did mean a lot to me. Some of it
: was so genuinely touching that it truly made me feel guilty. Thank you
: though
Yeah, your 4/1 joke created a shockwave in the HBO force worse than the Death Star blowing up Alderaan. Very nicely thought out, but please don't push it to such emotional levels next time.
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