Jon Favreau played Maz Kanada. Or Pablo Hidalgo. Or something like that
There are Easter Eggs hidden in media that might be spottable by viewers/readers, and others that the audience would never know unless they got the inside scoop from somewhere.
It's one reason I like commentaries and behind the scenes documentaries and interviews so much. It's fun to get behind the scenes info on these things.
There's a theory recently that the death of a character voiced by Jon Favreau in the Mandalorian is a signal of Favreau himself leaving the show as writer/showrunner. Fans have theorized about secret messages in the Mandalorian that indicate some of the behind the scenes battles that have gone on, and signals showing when certain creators are rising, and when they're falling (or leaving). I won't go into detail on this now - there's just too much explanation required and to be clear, there's no confirmation that these secret messages are intended as such.
By the way, I'm not suggesting these things are intended to be for the fans in the first place - if they are there, it's just as likely to be the creators expressing themselves in the scripts or on the screen for their own satisfaction.
These can be fun little easter eggs, or venting some kind of frustration, or even a back-and-forth between different creatives, either teasing each other (or going back in forth in a nastier way, knocking on each other or each others' work).
These Creator Feuds are especially intriguing, mixing the fiction we love with the behind-the-scenes dirt that's so tempting to want to know about!
Examples:
Some vintage newspaper comic strips would take digs at each other in their pages. Al Kapp, who created Li'l Abner, had multiple feuds with other creators. He had a FAKE feud with another comic strip creator for awhile - I don't remember who - but they would take shots at each other in their comics before eventually revealing in was all in fun.
In music, there's the song “Alabama” by Neil Young that elicited a response in the song “Sweet Home Alabama” that mentions Neil Young by name in the lyrics.
Of course, much has been made of the reversals made between the Star Wars sequels, with the Last Jedi cancelling multiple plot threads and the Rise of Skywalker doing an un-reverse on at least some of them. Very unusual for a big movie franchise - I imagined this kind of thing was more for comics. But it seems to have…worked out…? ‘Nuff said on that, haha.
I’m also reminded of some struggles between the writers of Marvel Comics back in the day, where Dr. Doom would appear in a story, and then another writer in another series would use Doom again, but refer to that previous appearance as one of Doom's robot doubles. This went back and forth multiple times apparently - not sure if the writers were having fun with each other or if it was a more serious argument between writers using the same characters in different series.
Do you know of any interesting creator feuds in shows, movies, or comics? Ever been in a creator feud or known about one? I'd still like to be in one someday…dare to dream!
See you next time,
-Banes
Don’t forget you can now advertise on DrunkDuck for just $2 in whichever ad spot you like! The money goes straight into running the site. Want to know more? Click this link here! Or, if you want to help us keep the lights on you can sponsor us on Patreon. Every bit helps us!
Special thanks to our patrons!!
Justnopoint - Banes - RMccool - Abt_Nihil - Gunwallace - PaulEberhardt - Emma_Clare - FunctionCreep - SinJinsoku - Smkinoshita - jerrie - Chickfighter - Andreas_Helixfinger - Tantz_Aerine - Genejoke - Davey Do - Gullas - Roma - NanoCritters - Teh Andeh - Peipei - Digital_Genesis - Hushicho - Palouka - cheeko - Paneltastic - L.C.Stein - dpat57 - Bravo1102 - The Jagged - LoliGen - OrcGirl - Miss Judged - Fallopiancrusader - arborcides - ChipperChartreuse - Mogtrost - InkyMoondrop - Jgib99 - Hirokari - Orgivemedeath Ind - Mks Monsters - GregJ - HawkandFloAdventures
Creator Feuds and Hidden Messages
Banes at 12:00AM, April 20, 2023
6 likes!
©2011 WOWIO, Inc. All Rights Reserved Mastodon
Banes at 6:38AM, April 21, 2023
@Ozoneocean - wow! That's a scandal I'd never heard of. Wild!
Ozoneocean at 1:38AM, April 21, 2023
The webcomics world certainly saw its share. I was a fan of the comics "A Modest Destiny" by Squidi. He could be a bit of an irascible fellow though and seemed to have pretty one sided feuds going on with much more popular creators. Partly he didn't like the formulaic nature of gamer comics, which were the biggest webcomics back then (PVP, Cntrl Alt Delete, Penny Arcade), he had a point in that they were pretty stale but the ire was a bit much. Then a toadying Penny Arcade fan on their forums stole some of his art to use for forum avatars, and that seemed to get official sanction... He complained to the Penny Arcade people to get it taken down but they told him to buzz-off and that pixel art wasn't worth protecting... Now THIS really WAS legitimate cause for anger, they were frankly ignorant %$#@@ to say that to a fellow creator. Of course their fans were stronger than his and they were far more popular so he was just left to complain without recourse while their...
Ozoneocean at 1:35AM, April 21, 2023
...fans made fun of him. Anyway it turns out he really WAS in the right, not only did that POS toad really and knowingly steel his art, that same %^$%**@@ was going around DELIBERATELY starting feuds with other creators in order to get his own thoroughly generic gamer comic off the ground. Among other things he made an extremely sexual parody of the comic PVP in order to get notoriety and piss of the creator, which he did... The guy was a prize cock.
Banes at 8:59PM, April 20, 2023
@MOrgan - from the little bit I know of him, Al Capp had feuds to spare! I didn't know about the Peanuts thing. The first time I saw the guy was on the John Lennon documentary where Capp was so nasty. Talented cartoonist though!
MOrgan at 3:35PM, April 20, 2023
I think Al Capp tried to get multiple feuds going. I've read that he was disappointed that Charles Schulz didn't do anything in response to his making fun of Schulz & Peanuts. (Although frankly even if Schulz wanted to I'm not sure Peanuts would have been the best place to do it.)
Banes at 1:04PM, April 20, 2023
@PaulEberhardt - Thanks Paul! That sounds quite fascinating - I'm definitely checking those out tonight when I'm free. Jonathan Swift was a rapscallion, to be sure. xD
PaulEberhardt at 7:15AM, April 20, 2023
As I'm a strong advocate of reading the classics for inspiration, let me just give you the oldest example (and one of the best imo) of the diss track genre that instantly popped up in my mind. There are much older ones, still, but this is one that I remember very well from my student days. Back then, it was a custom in polite society to answer poems you didn't like or (as in this case) whose author you didn't like with another poem. Y'all know Jonathan Swift of Gulliver's Travels fame? This is what he wrote as his take on polite female society: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50579/the-ladys-dressing-room And this is what a famous female poet wrote as her reply: https://www.nku.edu/~rkdrury/422/e_texts/montagu_reasons.html (harder to find because her fame didn't last like Swift's, but she was clearly a pro, as you might notice from the clever way she twists the original poems' style) Treat yourself to the two. Just one little piece of advice: don't read them while eating. ;)
PaulEberhardt at 7:02AM, April 20, 2023
Creator feuds seem to be a powerful tool for inspiration, and I kind of like them for all the collateral entertainment they bring. Often enough they make me look at the works of the person that is being dissed, too, so if anyone ever finds themselves in that position I'd suggest taking it with grace and a good sense of humour. Not that everyone does, I'm sorry to say. I could probably find dozens of examples, additionally list the various Megadeth songs that owe their existence to Dave being angry at former bandmates, etc., but I've got a different idea...