A 10-year denizen of the online adult space is moving into the mainstream with a project that features adult humor, adult situations, adult language…
And puppets.
Jason “Loki” Smith (founder of PlanetXCash, a 3D adult cartoons affiliate program) and stand-up comedian Dan Rackley launched George W. Puppet’s website Dec. 18. Guess who it lampoons.
“It’s a daily video blog portraying the secret life of our commander in chump,” Smith explained. “He’s obsessed with LEGOs, Steak-umm, Britney Spears, his new Nintendo Wii game system, and ridding the world of his arch enemy, Dick Cheny. He wishes harm on him in almost every episode.”
His arch enemy is his vice president? According to Smith, the antagonism arose from some nasty business in the backstory about the relationship between the prez and the veep in college.
As edgy as it is, “The George Show,” which will run online in segments of one to three minutes daily until at least the end of February 2007, is just a precursor to the mischief the two men plan to embark upon in March. The real shock and awe will start when “The Wicked Puppets Show,” featuring a cast of at least 18 puppet characters, tackles pressing social issues like masturbation, strippers, science, law enforcement, censorship, and Emeril Lagasse in weekly 22- to 30-minute episodes. In one particularly risqué series of skits called “Evil Oatmeal,” a character named Willford Grimley undertakes the task of helping an amnesiac Jesus Christ regain his memory by convincing him he’s a different person every week.
“[Christ becomes] a car salesman, a comic, and my favorite, a porn star named Woody Cross,” Smith said.
These guys are so going straight to hell. As the promotional materials trumpet, “This ain’t no Saturday morning kids show.”
“Remember ‘The Muppet Show’?” Smith asked. “Wicked Puppets follows the same forumla: It’s a variety show with music, skits, one-liners, etc. For lack of a better explanation, it’s the Muppets for adults.”
The creators are seeking a cable television deal and hope the first season of self-produced online programs will help secure one. They’ve already begun viral marketing through social-networking sites like YouTube and MySpace, and an affiliate program may debut next summer.
Although Wicked Puppets seems fresh, Smith explained the concept has quite a lengthy history, both with him personally and within the arts.
“Puppetry is a very old medium that, regardless of what you would normally think, has never really lost its flare,” he said. “Kids love puppets, and parents mostly watched some sort of puppetry while they were growing up. Our show is geared to the parents—those of Dan’s and my age group as well as the 18- to 25-year-old market who are currently watching the newer puppet shows like ‘Greg The Bunny,’ ‘Crank Yankers,’ and ‘Wonder Showzen.’
“A few years ago, when I was at the peak of my 3D [computer-generated imagery] stuff, I wanted to take all my voices—the verbal ones, not my ‘inside voices’—and make a full-length TV show, but it never happened,” Smith continued. “So, I put the idea on the back burner, and then, like magic, I found a box of my old toys. Inside it was Bob, a five-foot-tall furry monkey monster puppet, and all at once the idea hit me: Why not do the CGI show with puppets?”
Smith pitched the idea to Rackley, an old friend and radio-show co-host, who loved the idea and “demanded to play Jesus.” The two took their idea to what Smith called “the large puppetry community,” found support and a company to build the characters, and the rest is history.
“With puppets, much like in my 3D artwork, there are fewer rules and much less drama [than there is when dealing with flesh-and-blood models and actors],” Smith said. “Public figures are 100-percent fair game, so that’s a big plus, and there is ultimate freedom with puppets. You also have the ability to pretty much shoot anywhere: Give me a 6-by-5 backdrop and a camera, and I’ll give you a funny puppet skit.”
Though Smith said he'll continue his adult-industry endeavors until at least 2010 (he has updates to the cartoon sites planned through the end of 2008), he expects puppet government to claim an ever-larger percentage of his time. He has a good feeling about the project, he said, adding, "Knock on wood."
