Episode 637 - Rumours
May 28, 2023
Rumours can be damaging stories deliberately spread to harm people, they can grow organically of their own accord. Salacious rumours replace truth and stick around in history, like the silly stories of Catherine the Great and horses, Nero fiddling while Rome burned, Marie Antoinette saying “let them eat cake”, or the famously wealthy Roman general Crassus dying by having molten gold poured on his head. All rumours and silly stories but they become stronger than real history. Then there's the notorious story of poor Fatty Arbuckle and how he supposedly killed a woman during a sexual act due to his ‘enormous bulk“. A complete and utter fabrication but it destroyed his career and is still believed today.
Topics and Show Notes
Rumours can be hurtful, they grow in size, they spread and redefine stories, but they can be used as a really clever writing trick too: to cause tension and conflict: give unreliable narration, to cause humorous misunderstandings, to grow the legend of a character, for misdirection, and many other uses. It’s a great album by Fleetwood Mac too 😚
These days we seem to have a big rumour problem caused by ”fake news“, usually from clickbait news advertising sites that pretend to be satirical, and the spread of things like deepfakes. People wonder what we can trust. But the truth is that sort of ”fake news" has always existed, as long as humans could paint walls or speak language we've been making stuff up and spreading bullshit. There were plenty of lies spread about Romans and Egyptians in the old writings, and heaven knows how much garbage cavemen used to paint on their walls about each other! There were fake documents written about the excesses of the inquisition by protestant forces and Catholics did the same thing about protestants and the excesses of their brutality. We also have the myth of the Illuminati and conspiracy theories etc.
Have you ever believed a stupid rumour? Have you ever had one made up about you or have you made up one about another person? Do you use them as a story writing technique in your comic?
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by The True Face (end credits) - A reverential, yet joyous, celebratory tune with a ritualistic sound given by the mysterious, repeated chorus. A distorted electric guitar, drum, and bells provide continuous rhythm, while vocals range from sepulchral tones to an overlaying, madrigal-like chorus in some unusual language, (originally Quackcast 450).
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
Zed vs The World - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/may/22/featured-comic-zed-vs-the-world/
Featured music:
The True Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_True_Face/ - by Marcorossi, rated E.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
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Episode 634 - Boomer-myth
May 8, 2023
Generational tensions are a cultural constant. It's popular to pick on the young and say they're lazy, irresponsible, stupid, changing things in silly ways etc, but it's also just as popular too defend them and debunk myths associated with younger people, we don't have that with older people and I find that a bit sad and disturbing. This cast tackles the myths associated with “boomers”.
Episode 633 - Asterix is GOOD history
May 1, 2023
Asterix and Cleopatra VS Netflix… We were initially inspired by the furious reaction over Netflix's new series on Queen Cleopatra, a purported “documentary” and it's seeming focus on fantasy rather than history, but then we started thinking about the brilliant comic Asterix and how it handled history… It didn't pretend to be accurate, it's a comedy afterall, and yet it managed to retain a great level of veracity without taking too many liberties.
Episode 632 - Star Wars
Apr 24, 2023
We finally gave in to temptation and just started chatting about Star Wars. For our Patreon video we were talking about the idea of pivotal pop-cultural landmarks that changed the cultural landscape in various ways. Star Wars definitely qualifies… but instead of finding other examples we just decided to indulge in a Star Wars only cast. We didn't do more than scratch the surface unfortunately though. It's a cool cultural phenomena and it's something we always refer back to when we talk about story structure. SO please bear with us as we indulge!
Episode 631 - Entitlements
Apr 17, 2023
What rights are people actually entitled to? That question is a lot bigger than you think! The Quackcast today is sequel to last week's about entitled people, this one is about actual entitlements- what people SHOULD be entitled to. i.e. rights and such. It's a topic that Banes and Tantz really wanted to do and my purpose was to link it to writing and comics (not just theory and politics), which I think I did ok. This topic turned out to be very interesting.
Episode 626 - I didn't do nuthin'
Mar 13, 2023
Today we talk about an unusual type of villain, a secret type of bad guy and a particularly nasty one: the person who maliciously does nothing. This is a person who COULD intervene to resolve a dire situation or save someone, they could do it easily; they know how, they have the means, they're not scared or unsure, and it doesn't mean much risk to themselves, they just choose to sit back and watch the person die or the situation collapse… either because they know the result will benefit themselves or they're just curious to watch the person die or the everything turn to crap for the victim or whatever. Either way they COULD easily intervene but they choose not to.
Episode 616 - Happy New years!
Jan 2, 2023
Happy 2023! This was the last Quackcast of 2022 and the FIRST Quackcast of 2023! I was recording during 2023 while Tantz, Banes and Pit were still stuck in 2022 because of the time difference between us, so we straddled the years! We had the full crew here of myself, Banes, Tantz Aerine, and Pit Face! We chatted about what we did with comics in 2022, what movies we saw and the issue of “AI Art” and how it impacts actual artists. It was a really cool talk!
Episode 615 - Happy Christmas!
Dec 26, 2022
Happy Life Day! Hahaha! Merry Christmas for 2 days ago… This week we're talking about the “Christmas specials” that populate entertainment media this time of year. No particular reason for it, it's just because it's seasonal! It's not always Christmas focused there are the occasionally hanukkah things as well, and in the northern hemisphere this is the season for traditional winter festivals afterall.
