Feels Good Man: The Movie

[ecosophia]

I have to say that being a bit part player in an award-winning movie was never something on my to-do list. Still, odder things have happened. Something like two years ago now, I fielded an email from a filmmaker named Arthur Jones who wanted to talk to me about Pepe the Frog and his magical metamorphoses during the 2016 presidential election. That conversation eventually landed me in the Providence Athenaeum after hours, with film cameras rolling as I talked about the chans, the alt-right, the Egyptian god Kek, and topics of that sort -- and the footage ended up in Feels Good Man, a documentary about cartoon artist Matt Furie's creation of Pepe the Frog, and what happened next. 

Apparently critics and audiences like the result -- my few minutes on the screen certainly didn't keep Feels Good Man from winning a slew of awards, including best US documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Now it's on its way to the little screen, at the 10 pm time slot on Monday the 19th on your local PBS channel -- https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/feels-good-man/. 

The weird thing is that this isn't even my first appearance on the screen. I've appeared on a TV movie, American Collapse, and a documentary about a Pennsylvania faerie festival, Glen Rock Fae -- I even have my own IMDB page, of all things, though they don't have a photo, and didn't have a bio until I sent them one. Kind of an odd experience for someone who doesn't take in much visual media...

Comments

[troyjonesiii]

Ha, that's pretty cool. One is even tempted to say that it... feels good, man. [insert Pepe meme].

The Pepe thing is a really interesting phenomenon. I remember last year there was a professional Overwatch player (Overwatch is a video game) who got suspended from the pro Overwatch League for a few games, fined several thousand dollars, and made to publicly apologize for the harm he caused because he posted "feels birthday man" on his personal Twitter on his birthday.

[ecosophia]

That doesn't surprise me at all. Well, actually, one thing does -- I was unaware that there were professional video game players!

[ecosophia]

Oh, I forgot the Pepe meme:

[peristaltor]

Excellent! I've been hearing your voice on podcasts for years now; it will be a boon to see your mouth (well, beard, I suspect) move at the same time. I'll put the show on the DVR tonight.

That way, I'll be able to point to the screen and say to the wife, "See that guy? He's been writing all those books I'm constantly yapping about!"

[ecosophia]

Too funny. Yes, it may just be a moving beard.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you know if all of it ended up in the film? If it didn't, do you know if there's somewhere we could find it all?

[ecosophia]

I have no idea. If it's like most movies, most of what I said ended up on the cutting room floor.

[(Anonymous)]

Just watched it and I thought it was good. The interviews with you and Matt Braynard were essential to understanding the story, in my opinion, I'm glad it happened. A couple of my friends had shared the trailer with me a few months back and were quite excited about it.

Pepe is a sensation on the live streaming website twitch (twitch.tv) now. Majority of the popular emotes are based on Pepe and used incessantly. (here (https://betterttv.com/emotes/top) and here (https://www.frankerfacez.com/emoticons/)). I'm thinking a huge number of people (especially younger) are going to be privy to what little you had to share in the documentary.

- Nomad

[ecosophia]

Thank you! I hope some of them will be interested in my book The King in Orange, which will be out next June and goes into much more detail about the same business.

[(Anonymous)]

Just saw the film, Im impressed by how well it was put together ! Also, couldn't stop busting a laugh when they made a book fly in your hand. Was it their idea ? an advanced manipulation of the etheric force only taught in the long lineage of archdruids ? Maybe a miracle from the grace of the great old one kek ?

[ecosophia]

That was their idea. We shot it eight or nine times to make it work; yes, somebody was shoving the book out from the other side of the shelf unit.

[grandswamperman]

Oddly, I had a dream a few nights ago that you made an appearance on a TV special, though I think in the dream it was a nature documentary of some sort. Also you had shaved your beard - which seems even less likely than you being on TV! I won't be able to watch this film when it airs tomorrow, but hopefully it will be available to watch elsewhere at some point.

[ecosophia]

I'm not sure what they have in mind for distribution, but it should be available somewhere.

Frog the God of Plenty

[(Anonymous)]

Congrats and looking forward to watching it!

May the Kek God bring the plenty ( of votes) in the upcoming election for our King in Orange!

Re: Frog the God of Plenty

[ecosophia]

The thing that interests me just now is that literally the only evidence that Biden is doing well comes from polls that oversample Democrats by 10-15%. Every other indication suggests that Trump will win relatively easily. Still, we'll see...

Pepe The Movie

[(Anonymous)]

John,

Congratulations for being in the documentary about Pepe that actually got made!!

Looking forward to your book. Hope it comes in a plain brown wrapper.

All the best,

John B

Re: Pepe The Movie

[ecosophia]

Thank you. As for the book, nope:

[seasidehermit]

Huh. All I'd heard about this movie was a critic's review I came across a few weeks ago, who portrayed it as a tragic story of a cartoonist who made something innocent and good, and then had to watch as his intellectual property was stolen by evil alt-right nazi white supremacists and made into a symbol of hate and terrorism. The critic himself has had a raging case of TDS (among many other things) for the past four years, so I'm not too surprised to see from comments here that the movie he saw doesn't bear much resemblance to the one that was made.

Maybe I'll see it after all. The real story is much more interesting than the one the TDS crowd pushes (I'm very much looking forward to your book).

[ecosophia]

Oh, it's got a lot of that in it, but it also touches on the stranger dimensions.

[esingletary]

I may have to watch this. Incidentally, how much of The King in Orange are you holding in reserve to finish until after the election next month? Do you plan on including an epilogue exploring how the themes of the book played out similarly (or didn’t as the case may be) in 2020 and what that may mean for the future?

[ecosophia]

The book's not out until June, and so some of the passages have been drafted so that I can rewrite them lightly in case the election doesn't turn out the way I expect. The crucial point here is that Trump is not an anomaly, and despite the fantasies of his opponents, if he loses the election, the rising populist movement that made him its figurehead will simply regroup and strike back. The political monoculture of the last forty years is already as dead as a doornail, and the Democrats played a huge role in killing it; they just don't know that yet.

Brek-kek-kek-kek! connection connection

[(Anonymous)]

"...And all the little frogs look out at the world from ponds, gardens, and trees alike and chuckle satisfyingly 'Brek-kek-kek-kek! Brek-kek-kek-kek!' while the good people lie awake the in beds they have made."

Here I have made indiscreet allusion to many things, not the least of which was Aristophanes and the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim's 'The Frogs'.

I would believe that you are familiar with both, but just in case here are the (1974) lyrics.

https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-the-frogs-lyrics

What do you make of this? Is there a relevant connection with 'The Frogs', the chans, the alt-right, the Egyptian god Kek -- or am I simply seeing the omens I want to envision in the cake of the last queen of France?

Black Tuna and Hand

Re: Brek-kek-kek-kek! connection connection

[ecosophia]

If you go here, the first four posts (in reverse order) will give you my take on the phenomenon.

Congratulations!

[stcathalexandria]

Watched both trailers and it looks amazing! I burst with laughter at why the frog was named Pepe. Can't wait to watch the whole thing.

[(Anonymous)]

Turns out PBS stations run things very differently, so the exact day and time the film runs is all over the place. Still, I have it set up to record it, so I look forward to seeing it!

Thanks to the heads up, I was just able to catch it streaming this evening.

[(Anonymous)]

It gave me a lot to think about -- especially because of JMG's comments about there always being some magic involved in major elections (or however he said it).

For years I've been interested in "the madness of crowds", mass psychology, and, more specifically, how the major governments of Rome, France, Russia, and Germany were all toppled by relatively small groups provoking much larger groups.

Maybe you could write a book about that specifically, John? I should think it would sell and I think you could give a unique perspective with your command of history, philosophy, and magic.

Re: Thanks to the heads up, I was just able to catch it streaming this evening.

[ecosophia]

Specifically about the madness of crowds, and the way that small groups can cause large changes? Hmm. I'll put that in the hopper and consider it.

[(Anonymous)]

I was able to watch it last night. It was a fascinating trip. What I ended up finding most fascinating was not Pepe, but his creator, Matt Furie. He and his story seems pretty emblematic of the sort of tepid liberalism that let extremism (the alt-right in his specific case; wokeness in the general case) build until it was out of control.

On the other hand, his options were genuinely pretty limited. Even if he had enforced his copyright sooner, most of the chans' uses are covered under parody. He might have softened the resentment the chans felt at the "appropriation" of Pepe by normies, and the extent to which they radicalized, but the basic dynamic was going to play out regardless. (On the other hand, the chans might have taken offense to the crackdown. Counterfactuals are hard.)

JMG sighted in the Washington Post

[(Anonymous)]

John-

The movie was reviewed in the Washington Post today, and your name appeared in the review, as "an expert on the occult".

Lathechuck

Re: JMG sighted in the Washington Post

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Thanks for this.