So that’s a ridiculous title… But apt. Very apt. And wait, what’s the deal with there being no watermelons? Well, it’s time for something exciting and brand new!
So what are we doing here? Well the plan was to make some type of cartoon about myself. Something clever about being handicapped and running into a bunch of weird experiences that could only be told in comedic form because it would be too unrealistic for people to believe. I’m not saying the experiences I’ve had didn’t happen, but I am saying that they are so ridiculous that they’re almost unbelievable…most of the time. So the best way to tell them would be through a teenage-like version of myself. And instead of just having me, why not have a brother?
I think the idea mainly came from my time going to Camp courage in Minnesota. Oftentimes it would come up at the last week of school which would complicate matters but somehow school didn’t seem to care which was weird. Little did they know I would go to college and do normal people stuff despite missing a bunch of school… Specifically I would go to this Camp because my disease, muscular dystrophy, made me eligible which was cool because they don’t make a whole lot of camps for kids that can’t specifically camp. Like, at all. Regardless, at said camp there were two twins. I remember one of them was named Gibraltar and the other… Definitely had a fake name too, maybe we’ll just call him Gibralso. Whatever, point is they were mirror images of themselves, or each other I guess would be the right way to say it. Unfortunately they were kind of whiny, but they were kids, and so was I, so I’m not going to be too judgmental. Just remembering back they dressed the same, talk to the same, and a bunch of other mannerisms were almost identical because imagine that, I’m pretty sure they were identical twins.
Really the only difference between them were the colors of their wheelchairs. So anyway, I thought the best way to convey my ideas and stories were through an avenue of twins with the same disability, my disability, so ideas could be mocked and ridiculed by each other instead of new random characters coming off horrible and it seeming terribly insensitive. It’s that age old scenario where you can call yourself fat and ugly, but when somebody else does, regardless of it if it’s true…they’re complete and total monsters. Or it’s like when your sibling says something horrible, like, you know them, so there is some padding. But if some random person on the street said the same thing to you that would be insane. Like how did you know that I killed my sister’s pet in the middle of the night?
Because of my limited physical capabilities, much like the watermelon cartoons I had made, I wanted to keep the animation to a minimum. An animation that’s low on animation…? Disney, here I come! Still be able to tell a story without compromise but not rely on much physical movement, so the goal was to develop the characters sitting. Basically everything but the arms and face would be static. So I kind of worked out the idea to just keep them sitting…and fat. Not because they needed to be fat, but because being fat is funny as a cartoon. Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin, Patrick Star, Majin Buu, and I’m sure a bunch more… I think it lends to the character’s believability when they’re disabled that they’d obviously be overweight. I was chubby as a kid, I don’t know if it was overweight, but the scoliosis definitely made me seem more round than I actually would be standing.
So this is what I came up with, which is actually an earlier draft of the characters. Not all the puppetry is worked out, like the arms aren’t functional like they would end up being, but it still shows the evolution. I went with the names Matt and Mike. Because technically, and I’m pretty sure I read it in a book somewhere, 50% of all the disabled people who are in a wheelchair are either named Matt or Mike. So who am I to argue with general statistics? Hell, my parents picked my name (as well as my sister’s) because they were the most popular names of those years. How depressing is that? Lineage, heritage, maybe friends that you look up to, or maybe even the name of somebody who saved your life once? Nope. Forget creativity. So the lesson here is, try not to put much thought into anything, because apparently nobody else does. Even when naming your own child. The child you acquired on purpose. Now this might be terribly awful advice for somebody writing a manual on dismantling bombs or assembling spaceships and other expensive and well-meaning endeavors…so I don’t know, your mileage may vary or something.
I’m still flushing out the other characters. The most important character however is Ron, or Ronald as I’m going to call him. As I was growing up there was a guy named Ron that applied to be a PCA for me. In Minnesota, a PCA is a personal care attendant, which means they basically take care of me and help me do all the stuff I should be able to do myself. Well, Ron was much more than a PCA. Ron was much much more. Ron was a father figure, a mentor, an inspiration, as well as a great person to spend time with. He was there for all the important Milestones of my life between 15-19. He added perspective and a sense of understanding for the things that was going through and expanded on them with a very unique take. I could go on and on, and I might in a book one day should this cartoon ever become something. But he’s a great guy and I plan on featuring him as the guy that gives them direction when they need it.
So yeah, it’s not completely flushed out but I got what I would seemingly call a pilot complete. And I’m pretty proud of it. I took some ideas for my life, pushed and pulled it around like clay, splorted them down in some software, edited the ideas a little further and magically in about 6 months made a short cartoon out of it. Now I’m not saying it’s amazing, but I think it’s easily the best cartoon I’ve done. And if some of the Bots that leave comments on my posts have any connections to Cartoon Network or Adult Swim hook me up. I’ll definitely click your fake links to all sorts of pills and supplements. They don’t even have to work which I’m sure they don’t anyways!
I started developing this in November 2023, and finally finished the first episode April 1st of 2024. It was like one of those really good dumps that kind of get stuck on the way out. It took time, the good stuff usually does. And I feel like this is pretty good at least for what I can produce. There’s a good chance I could create something without a joke regarding testicles or something, maybe something cleaner for a more PG audience but this felt good. A good balance of goofy characters, a popular art style, and my style of jokes. Hopefully you enjoyed it it because I look forward to making more.
So…if you’ve made it this far and watched the cartoon, thank you!
-mh