3rd May 2004, 8:30 PM
Well I think so. I find a good part of the charm of worlds like Mario and Looney Toons, those sorts, come from a large amount of things being PURPOSEFULLY unexplained.
Look at Star Trek. One flaw of that show is that they feel like they have to explain every little thing to the nth degree. Star Wars, for instance, will do some things and not even try to explain them. It leaves it up to the viewer to figure it out. This is just an example of PART of what I'm trying to say though.
With something like Mario, a "through the looking glass" world where nothing makes sense, it's actually a big PART of the magic, to me at least, that suddenly something can change and have NO explanation at all for it, and not a single character in it seems to take a second to say "wait a sec" and they just accept it. It's part of the magic, and the comedy, that that's the case.
You know, something like:
"How much does that weigh?"
"HAM!"
"Ah, perfect."
And that all took place in a world that uses normal measurements for EVERYTHING else, up to that point anyway, where for a split second saying "ham" was perfectly acceptable, then later... from the guy who said "ham!"
"Hey there, how far away is it?"
"Sponge!"
"...THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!"
See? That is COMEDY right there, because it makes no frickin' sense!
Look at Star Trek. One flaw of that show is that they feel like they have to explain every little thing to the nth degree. Star Wars, for instance, will do some things and not even try to explain them. It leaves it up to the viewer to figure it out. This is just an example of PART of what I'm trying to say though.
With something like Mario, a "through the looking glass" world where nothing makes sense, it's actually a big PART of the magic, to me at least, that suddenly something can change and have NO explanation at all for it, and not a single character in it seems to take a second to say "wait a sec" and they just accept it. It's part of the magic, and the comedy, that that's the case.
You know, something like:
"How much does that weigh?"
"HAM!"
"Ah, perfect."
And that all took place in a world that uses normal measurements for EVERYTHING else, up to that point anyway, where for a split second saying "ham" was perfectly acceptable, then later... from the guy who said "ham!"
"Hey there, how far away is it?"
"Sponge!"
"...THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!"
See? That is COMEDY right there, because it makes no frickin' sense!
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)