TOY STORY SLAVERY in China IL S02E07 Total Validation

➡ The text is a conversation about the animation show, Cartoon Cabal, where they discuss various animations and movies. They recently discussed Toy Story 3, arguing that it encourages kids to become overly attached to their toys. They also talk about their experiences with Adult Swim, a channel known for its unique animations, and how it influenced their careers. Lastly, they discuss the animation series, China Illinois, its unique aesthetic, and its potential reception in different cultures.
➡ The text discusses an episode of a show called “China, Illinois” where the main plot revolves around a new service in town that settles disputes by deciding who is right or wrong. The episode also features subplots about joyriding a car and a debate about the movie “Toy Story 3”. The characters’ interactions and the episode’s structure are analyzed, with the author expressing a preference for shorter, 11-minute animation formats. The text ends with a discussion about the controversial statement made in the episode that “Toy Story 3” is for people who are pro-slavery.
➡ The text discusses a debate about the movie Toy Story 3, suggesting it promotes slavery and hoarding because the toys are so devoted to their owner. The conversation also touches on other topics like a futuristic judge scene, a controversial 70s movie, and a car called Miata. The speakers also mention their personal red flags in relationships, their work, and their views on other movies and shows.
➡ This text encourages people to buy merchandise from Paranoid American, a store that sells various items like art, comics, and stickers. It also discusses the author’s life experiences, thoughts, and emotions, using metaphors and vivid imagery. The author expresses feelings of paranoia and faces criticism, but remains resilient and continues to create.

Toy Story 3 is pro hoarding. And that’s basically the simplest way that I think I can break it down too, is that it forces you to save all of your crap because your crap loves. So we fall founding games at the Cotton Cabal. Beyond what’s Just in a Name at the Cotton Cabal. See just at what cost comes fame at the Cartoon Cabal. So much for the fun and games at the Cartoon Cabal. Hello. Welcome to the Cartoon Cabal. It’s where we all have a few Canada cakes and talk about a bit of animation. This is Matt here.

It’s a paranoid American over there. How’s it grooving? It’s grooving. And I feel like a little bit of explanation is in order here. So we started with Occult Disney, and then we branched off into Cartoon Cabal. And for the first 20 odd episodes, 26 episodes or so, we will just watch the entire first season in a movie of Neon Genesis Evangelion. And now that that’s over, we’re branching out into other very specific episodes of different animations all across the board. So if you’ve got a specific animation episode or a movie or an anything, it doesn’t have to be Disney related anymore.

Suggest it. Maybe we’ll take a look, maybe we won’t. But today, this one, it did come from a suggestion, and it was a great suggestion because we had a Toy Story 3 episode. And I really. I’ve got strong feelings about Toy Story 3. I can figure out how to link it. I’ll make like the link pop up or do its thing or whatever. But essentially I feel that Toy Story 3 is one of the most insidious Disney plot lines because it teaches kids to become emotionally invested enough with their toys to the point where real human beings in the movie theater were crying when they were watching this movie.

And it still even comes up. And so, yeah, and you’ve got. You’ve got the toy. That’s the guy that wants to incinerate everybody. That’s why I bought him. He’s so evil. It’s such an evil. So that was. That was just a premise. And I remember seeing that movie because I went with my friend and he had kids. And at the time I was like, oh, my God. They’re evoking emotional responses from everyone in this theater right now about 20 toys being burnt. I was like, all right, so what? A toy gets burnt, you go to the store, you buy another one.

But to make kids feel like they lost a friend and a soul anyways, you have to Watch the episode to get the whole rant. So this is an episode where apparently someone goes on a similar rant about the same movie, Toy Story 3, and it got recommended and I think it was well worth a watch. It’s. If you want to just skip right to it. It’s around like eight minutes in or something. And it’s like a dinner conversation. We’ll talk about the rest of the episode. But that’s, that’s the reason why this one came up. Well, I want to go directly to the question that start in the dinner conversation, then you tell me what a good movie is.

Well, they, they mentioned. Are you asking me what a good movie? I’m asking you what yours. Because I had. Before they gave the answer, my response already went through my mind. So mine’s always the same as Demolition Man. Oh, that’s a good one. Okay. Because there is a pause before he says Last Tango in Paris. And, and when they. You tell me what a good movie is. For some reason, Taxi Driver so went through my mind. Who knows what that says about me? But not bad. It’s a little slow, but I, I feel like, you know, maybe just you’re watching, you’re watching Alka Seltzer Fizz for like two minutes in that movie.

You know, that’s fine. So, so this is a series called China Illinois. It was created by a guy called Brad Neely and Brad Neely was a writer for south, but he did a BU stuff, but he was a writer for south park in like 2007 through 2009. So he’s, he had some chops and he created a web series for Adult Swim. They had like a website that had website only series on it for a while called Super Deluxe 2008. So it was somewhere right in between him working for South Park. So in that web series he made one called I Am Baby Cakes, which is about like a mentally 30 year old guy that’s like going through philosophical questions.

But it’s weird. I mean if you know Adult Swim type animation, it kind of lived in the perfect spot for that. So China Illinois is. After he came out with that and a few other little animations in his mind, he said that all these characters kind of lived in the same place. And this eventually evolved into a show called China Illinois that had multiple seasons and it even included Hulk Hogan as the dean of a university where everyone goes is like the worst university in town, but it’s where they all work. So I think they’d say the worst university in America.

In America. So. So China, Illinois, the show, it’s essentially about Steve Smith and Frank Smith, who are two brothers who are both history teachers at the university and then their assistant, who’s the assistant to this department at the university. And then this guy Mark Babycakes, who’s this possibly mentally ill 30 year old man that’s also going to this university or at least gets tied into some of their shenanigans. And there’s a whole other role of cast of characters and stuff that we can get into. But that’s b. If you’re wondering what the heck is China, Illinois? That’s what China, Illinois is.

What is your Adult Swim history? Mine’s a little weird because, you know, when I was in university or stuff, that’s when like Aqua Teen Hunger Force was showing up. So, you know, of course space goes coast to coast. Guess kind of got the whole thing started off right. What else did I do? I did Robot Chicken, which isn’t. Yeah, for me it was definitely Metalocalypse. I was basically off the wagon by 2008, I guess is my main point. Because by that point I had pretty much moved to Japan and kind of lost the threat at that point.

Oh, you thought you lost it in some of its. Its better years, I think too. So yeah, it was lots of Robot Chicken, but I think the big one was definitely Aqua Teen Hunger Forest. This was in the late 90s, I think. Late 90s, early 2000s and 2021. That’s a big hit. We’re gonna have to do one of those 100. Yeah, that we’re probably gonna end up going through a lot of the catalog. It’s. There’s no real reason. This was the first one that we jumped into. It just happened because of the Toy Story 3 thing.

It felt very topical, but. But this particular series and the channel Adult Swim, that was actually personal story. That’s where I got started in the music industry. Like a. Professionally was. I sent in a tape to Adult Swim and they picked it out of however many they got sent in and they started playing my music on the little Adult Swim bumps in between. And that kind of like got me to get off my ass a little bit and focus more on music and focus more on getting music placement. So that. And it was right around then, I think it was like 2003, 2004.

Yeah, because just saying Adult Swim, like I very much enjoyed as a college student, you know, key demographic. But it is one of those things. I don’t think swims internationally much. You know, I don’t know how Much of a hold it has in Europe. In Japan, they don’t know any of this stuff. Aqua Team would be completely, you know, like foreign to them. That actually makes me kind of happy. Like we have our own little thing and a whole station filled with stuff. Like there’s so like squid billies. How would squid billies go in Japan? Would they get squid billies or no? Well, here, I mean, I think in Japan, like it has to be like cute, you know, or intense.

We did Evangelion where everything was intense. Otherwise it has to be cute. Like the Muppets have never taken quite hold. I mean, I think they like some of the Sesame street characters. I did buy that Cookie Monster wearing shoes in Japan, but most of the Muppets look too weird. Like they don’t think Gonzo is cute, for example. So this seer, the China, Illinois. I don’t know if it would hold up in Japan or no. This would sear the eyeballs of a. Of the discerning anime watcher. It’s. It’s very low quality. Not in a pejorative way, but low quality.

Maybe intentionally or practically, but it has like a very certain aesthetic that you don’t get from say, Evangelion or Disney. So I think that it works very well though for the type of story and for the type of jokes that they’re trying to get into. It absolutely does not. It doesn’t like hold me up or distract me a whole lot. So I don’t. It’s not a barrier for me having the low quality, like flash style animation. Also, I did have to pay a dollar and seven cents to watch this. It was easier. That’s insane. I could just go to adult swim.com on.

You should have went to a US VPN. You can watch the whole thing for free. I did. I tried to do some VPN jiu jitsu and it wasn’t working. So I was like, I guess I’m paying the dollar. I’m like, I can pay a dollar. That’s fine. Okay. Yeah, it’ll. I mean, I don’t know if we’re going to revisit China, Illinois. This was kind of the episode and so what. What did you think about the conversation? Was the conversation within the episode worth watching the entire episode? I mean, there was other amusing stuff in here. You know, like I started off with a Canada cake because I thought that was pretty hysterical.

A Canada. I still don’t know what the heck a Canada cake really is. Oh, he makes. He. He’s talking about the ingredients in the Beginning. I don’t think it’s a real thing. I think it’s just for this episode. But it’s, it’s a jar of oats. And then you pour in a bottle of whiskey and you pour in a bottle of maple syrup and it keeps you wise. Okay, and. And this is the mentally challenged 30 year old student. Yeah, yeah. Which dad doesn’t get. He immediately goes outside knowing that his insane sugar rushed drunk son is about to lock him out.

I mean it’s probably, this has probably happened before. You know, the premise, I guess, of this episode is called Total Validation. And that there’s this new consulting service in town that you can go to this company if you have a dispute with someone and they will tell you objectively who is right and who is wrong. So he goes to this place with his dad because he’s eating this can, these Canada cakes and they have a disagreement and they eventually say that nope, the Canada cakes can stay. Dad was wrong. And they lock dad up in like a jail, like a relationship jail rehabilitation.

Well then they actually call it jail at one point. So that’s the premise, is that whoever’s wrong in a conversation, then they get punished somehow by this company. And then he gets to go home and he starts just screaming home alone. And he has a wrap and he eats all the Canada cake that he wants. Also, let’s not forget there’s a third plot involving a joy riding a Miata Mazda Miata, which I’ve never driven a Mazda or a Honda family over here. So this is a 22 minute episode, I believe. And you’ll over time you’ll realize that usually what happens is in the quick little Looney Tunes style shorts, there’s no B plot, there’s no C plot.

If you then have a 11 minute animated short, which is usually 11 minutes and then a commercial and then another 11 minutes and then you can have an A plot and maybe a B plot and. And then only when you start Getting into this 20 minute range plus can you have multiple plots. So in this one it’s the total validation relationship jail thing. It’s the plot line about the joyriding a Miata. And then there’s also this Toy Story plot and then there’s like a few others that kind of get stitched in between those. But those are like the three main plots is that this guy is going on a date with his girlfriend and he meets their parents for the first time and, and he needs to make a good impression.

And the first thing that the dad needs to talk about is how Great Toy Story 3 was. Toy Movie 3 in here. Have to pay out anything. So they watch Toy Movie 3 and he’s like, yeah, it’s okay. And then he moves the conversation along. But then the dad is like, hold on, bud. Like, we’re not done talking about toy movie 3 here. It was one of the best movies ever created. Do you not agree? And he kind of decides to take a stand there. And he’s like, no, it’s not. It’s actually a horrible movie. Well, but what you said at first, it’s not so much it’s horrible as it’s just like, it’s.

You don’t have to love it. Right. This is the quote. He says it’s about kids unhealthy relationship with his toys. And it would be different if he knew they loved him back, but he doesn’t. And that’s such a great freaking point. Right. That the. Andy doesn’t realize the toys really do love him back. If he knew that, it would be even more toxic and even more unhealthy. Right. And I think that that’s probably a good reason that these movies about kids and they have animated toys and stuff, they can’t know because then they would get way overly attached or a kid is already attached to their little action figure, their doll.

Imagine if they knew that that doll really did love them back. It would. It would be a little bit crazy. Yeah. And then how bad would they feel when they set it on fire? I’m just assuming that’s still gonna happen. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I’m just. Kids set their toys on fire, you know, that’s what I’m saying. That’s one of the fun things to do, man, is this. It is like, start. Really. That’s when you know you’ve evolved into big boy territory. Just start destroying your toys. You start melting things. Yeah. My buddy’s covered in gasoline and burning, as we’ve discussed.

Fireworks. Yeah, It’s. There’s like an escalation. Adult Swim in general. And I’ll use the Metalocalypse rule. I do kind of feel like 11. The 11 minute is the sweet spot. I’m using Metalocalypse because it went a few seasons as 11 minutes and then maybe in the third season expanded to 22 and it just like dragged. And then they brought it back to 11. So huge, man. That my by far, the 11 minute format for animation is my favorite. I’m very biased because that was the default for Nicktoons. Like all Rugrats, Angry Beavers, Doug, just you can name any of them.

They all followed that format. A lot of the early Saturday morning cartoons would follow that format too. And I think one of the best parts about it is that it lets them get out so many different ideas and one shot characters and they don’t have to follow a bunch of different B plots. Like, I don’t need to have a million different plot points unfolding in a freaking animation that’s under a half hour long anyways, you know what I mean? So that’s, that’s the American in me. But I really do love that little 11 minute format in, in this China, Illinois episode.

I guess everything is so disconnected. Like you could. I haven’t seen other episodes of the series, but I’m guessing you could take one before or one after and probably just completely swap a few plots because they don’t like connect with each other. Yeah, I don’t think that. I mean, I’m sure that there’s some kind of a cohesive balance between the episodes, but it doesn’t feel like persistence is strong. It’s not like something happens in the first episode where it’s Chekhov’s gun and you know it’s going to come back up later in the series. And that, honestly, that’s sort of a trend with animation.

That’s usually a thing that. Because when you send out the animation, you might have different studios working on different batches of it at different times and have different directors, which I guess they kind of do with TV shows now too. But there’s still like a linear quality of TV shows if, even if they’re not completely episodic, just because the human beings can only be one place at one time. But with animation, you can actually be running it. So, you know, the first three, it’s not like Ava, where they get to decide halfway in, hey, let’s like change course a little bit.

Like your ending might already be done before your middle part was done. Right, Right. But yeah, I was, I was wondering if the. How much the Adult Swim format kind of does allow people to swap things around. Because watching this, I was like, oh, these, these do not connect at all. Which probably helped because I didn’t know the characters. Right. So I’m noting. Oh, I’m getting three discrete things. So the, the other really strong point was that he claims that Toy Story 3 is for people who are pro slavery. That that’s just. That is a, you know, full on Adult Swim stuff to stay say, isn’t it? You ever see wonder shows in.

That was One more hardcore ones, I guess. That was Adult Swim, wasn’t it? I think it was. And they had, like, the slaves built the pyramids. They have, like, a cheery, you know, kid song about slaves or whatever. So that. That’s definitely, like, in the blood of Adult Swim around that time. Well, and. And he’s not making fun of it. He’s condemning toys. Toy movie 3. And then he follows that up and he says that the reason why he says that toy movie 3 is about people who are pro slavery is because it’s about pro property that should be so devoted to its master that’ll do anything to get back to him so that he can just use them again and again.

He doesn’t even know that they love him back. He’s got to be prompted for that, too, though, because the first five times when asked about the movie, it was fine. You know, it’s wind provoked when he’s like, starts to throw it into the. Throw it into the furnace. And then as soon as the dad gets that response from him, the dad gets animated, too. And the dad has this, like, Stanley Kubrick liners, like, you fool. It’s about God. It’s about death. It’s about everything. Like, now, all of a sudden, Toy Movie 3 is the most important movie in this guy’s life, which drives the wife to go outside and have a quick affair with him.

He’s like, no one’s ever stood up to him like that. He becomes a bull because he stood up about Toy Movie 3. I don’t really like Toy Movie 3 either. And then he makes another. And I think this was the one point that I was like, man, we’re. We’re thinking the same. Whoever wrote this dialogue, we’re thinking the same. The Toy Story 3 is pro hoarding. And that’s basically the simplest way that I think I can break it down, too, is that it forces you to save all of your crap because your crap loves you. Yeah, I think we talked about on that episode, but I have a room with too much crap.

So who knows? Maybe. Maybe it destroyed my mind. Toy Story 3. Movie 3, whatever it is. So in the end of the episode, after they wrap up all the other plot lines, it goes back to the total validation and the guy that was beefing with his dad over the Canada cakes and everything. And they go up to the judge, and I swear it looked like Rufus and Rufus’s sidekicks from Bill and Ted like that. It looks like this futuristic judge scene. And. And they had the same glasses and the same little like facial hair and outfit.

I don’t know if you picked up on that. Maybe I was reading into it. I was probably thinking too hard about all the Total Recall things at that point. Now. Now that you bring it up, yes. But because I certainly watch those movies a lot, that’s one of my. My Law of Comedy sequels are better because I do prefer the Bogus Journey. Me, too. And also, what was the movie that he said was the best? Tango and something. Last Tango in Paris with Marlon Brando. Last Tango in Paris. And then at the very end, and someone gets offended when he brings it up, he’s like, that’s the one where they use butter as lube.

And I didn’t know what you were talking about. And then at the end of the episode, he’s breaking up with the mom, and she’s like, but I banged you with a stick of butter or something. I haven’t seen the movie. Have you seen the movie? What the hell are they talking about? No, I haven’t actually seen it. It’s. It’s basically like, you know, like an erotic drama from the early 70s that was pushing, you know, cinema boundaries at the time. About what you could show people are like, is it pornography or is it art? You know, it’s one of those movies, and apparently they use a stick of butter to do something in the movie.

They have some fun with some butter. Yeah. I pointedly noticed the Miata had. You know, it’s. Miata can fit four. I don’t know why they drove off without her. I guess he was just finished. There’s a seat for her. She wants it, right? Yeah, but that’s kind of the point of having a Miata is you can just tell people, I don’t have room, and you can just drive off. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was certainly amusing. I’m just like. The one bonus of having a Miata is being able to do that in that one situation. Don’t leave the redheads behind.

Yeah. Although, yeah, he had just crossed the Miss Robinson border. Mrs. Robinson border. But. Oh, I don’t know. This guy’s what, A professor? A bad professor? Is that. Was that the story again? I don’t know the character, so I’m coming. History professor. It’s an older brother who’s a history professor and a younger brother who’s a history professor, both of the same college. Okay, there we go. So let’s see, what else do I have? Yeah, the total Val. Oh, the other part of the total validation. Did I pick up correctly? That basically they’d been Making all the wrong calls.

Like every. Everything had been coming out opposite. Yeah. I mean, it was like Woke Gone wild or something. That was kind of. The premise is that everyone needs to have their feelings validated and that it doesn’t matter what logic seems like. Let’s. Let’s really get to the heart of this matter. And everything was wrong for comedic reasons, obviously. Right. That’s what you think of the Orville. The. The. The sci Fi show where there’s an. You know, everyone’s. It’s like. So it’s like social credit and God wild, basically. On. On. I think it’s the third or fourth episode of the series, but, yeah, you know, with all the X’s and O’s that had me think of it, you know, so.

Yeah, I guess this was sort of a lighter version of a Black Mirror episode. Oh, yeah, yeah. For that. That one strain. Of course, I don’t think Toy Movie three accounts for that or. Yeah. But the rest of it, all the Total Recall references, all that sort of stuff. We got a Pear pad. I noticed that they show an iPad, but it’s clearly a Pear, not an apple. Yeah, every. Everything is just like, shifted over a little bit. It’s HAL instead of IBM, essentially. Yes. What else do I have? My notes. Have you ever gotten a.

A. A camera ticket? I don’t think so. No, I know what they are. I know plenty of people that have gotten them, but I’ve. I’ve lucked out. Yeah. I haven’t got one of those. Do you have any red flags, maybe in the past for relationships where if someone doesn’t like one of these things, like, doesn’t like Toy Story 3, you’re like, no, no, no. Usually I can test the waters a little bit with saying maybe, like, slightly offensive things and seeing if there’s, like, a laugh or a nasty look. And then eventually I can figure out if, you know, if this will work out or not.

Okay. My red flags have always been not liking the Muppets or Jimi Hendrix. Yeah, that. I think that in itself is a red flag. The fact that you have a red flag about the Muppets is in itself a red flag. Well, you have to decide if you’re a Muppet or a man in the end, don’t you? What else do we have? Oh, we didn’t even mention a Miata Mike, which I don’t know if he matters much in this, but he’ll come back later at some point in a few years when we revisit. If we revisit here.

Squash can be good when prepared. Well. And one more thing I think I wanted to say that’s not wrong. Don’t want to drink the hand sanitizer or soap. That’s. That’s not up my alley. Oh, street trolls. That was the other one. The. The baby cakes. Calling all homeless people street trolls and seems to attack me at will, especially after some Canada cake. There was just one line here when again, when they were talking about the toy movie and the slaves and stuff, but I can’t remember the context, but the line was, they’re party slaves and he doesn’t even know they have feelings.

And that was the whole quote. Anything else you want to throw on this one? I think we’re trying to keep these ones a little more streamlined. We’ll definitely be jumping back into the adult swim waters. Maybe China, Illinois. We’ll see. But. Well, congratulations. I mean, yeah, we just. We just crossed the. The same run time as an episode of China, Illinois, so I think this is a good time to wrap up. That seems about right. Okay, I’ll do a little plug in on my end. I. I just put out an album over@rovingsagemedia.bancam.com the Deep Dream Realm.

It’s, you know, kind of like indie rock, psychedelia sort of stuff. REM the Moles. If you like that store stuff, you might dig it. Bloody Valentine. I like thinking of those things. So, yeah, music plug today. What’s up for you? More podcasts, man. Go and check out under the Docks. It’s another podcast where we do old conspiracy documentary reviews. Old David, Ike and Alex Jones and William Cooper and Michael Sarion and Art Bell. And if any of those names ring bells, then you should go and check out a couple episodes of it. There’s. I think we’re like 30 or 40 deep already.

All right, let’s. I’m gonna get my Canada cake ready and go. Traveling across the town with a rain of destruction Just buy something Just buy something from Paranoia Just buy something Just buy something from Paranoia Mirror get some merch, buy some art Click that link Add to car say it back need that print? Nod your head, give consent Buy a comic three or four Think this thought I want more Buy a sticker from the store Think this thought I want more Just buy something Just buy something from Paranoid American Just buy something Just buy something from Paranoid American Paranoid.

No I scribbled my life away Driven the right to page Will it enlight your brain Give you the flight My plane paper the highs ablaze Somewhat of an amazing feel when it’s real to real you will engage it your favorite of course the lord of an arrangement I gave you the proper results to hit the pavement if they get emotional hate maybe your language a game how they playing it well without Lakers evade them whatever the cost they are to shake snakes get decapitated met is the apex execution of flame you out nuclear bomb distributed at war rather gruesome for eyes to see max them out than I like my trees blow it off in the face you’re despising me for what though calculated you’d rather cut throat paranoid American must be all the blood smoke for real lord give me your day your way vacate they wait around to hate whatever they say man it’s not in the least bit we get heavy rotate when a beat hits so thank us you’re welcome for real you’re welcome they never had a deal you’re welcome man they lacking appeal you’re welcome yet they doing it still you’re welcome.
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