Last Year-ish I Recall An Interview With Rhys Darby Where He Was Talking About Being A Young Comedian

Last year-ish I recall an interview with Rhys Darby where he was talking about being a young comedian and feeling like he always had to get the bigger and bigger laugh, to keep the audience, and the result was that he stopped caring how he got it. As he got older, he decided to just do his art, stop worrying about it, and hope the audience met him there. (I'm paraphrasing, 'cause I can't find the interview.)

I think this translates to what we see in OFMD with him and Taika Waititi, and what David Jenkins has said about how they make each other vulnerable. They don't try to undercut those serious, more emotional moments with humor, to "get the bigger laugh," and that's a big part of what makes the Stede/Ed relationship work. It's funny and it's fun, but there's no puncturing of the emotions with a sudden joke (which would've been so easy to do, and I'm sure there are times in rehearsal where they went too far and had to pull back). Even the ad-lib of the thumb war doesn't puncture anything, because it's sweet and silly and in character, and also quite intimate. The little whispered "you won" packs so much joy and love.

It's cool how the comedy itself is profound because it works alongside the more serious emotions, and that's very much down to the two of them.

like honestly just give your non binary characters traditionally "gendered" features. just do it. it's not like being androgynous ever stopped non binary characters from being misgendered.

frisk undertale and kris deltarune were androgynous and are only ever referred to by "they/them" and ppl are still arguing over how the "main character is not the player but their own person" message didn't apply to their genders bc they refuse to wrap their head around different pronouns. raine owlhouse was paraded around as "disney's first ever nb representation" by everyone and their mother but bc they have short hair other countries dub them as male. this also happens to most anime nb characters bc of how japanese pronouns work. halara raincode literally has the color scheme of the non binary flag AND their in-game profile says that they, and i quote "have no specified gender" AND several characters remark on it in the actual game but bc theyre voiced by a female voice actor ppl still call them a woman.

like literally at this point just give your nb characters huge tits and a massive beard. if ppl refuse to accept the existence of non binary characters in media, then there is no way to make a character non binary "enough" to convince them otherwise. no matter how much you hammer in their androgyny in an attempt to detach them from "male" and "female," there will be people determined to assign gender roles to any trait you give your character.

creators being hesitant to give their non binary characters traits that could be associated with a binary gender is why every goddamn genderqueer character that the creator wants you to take seriously in popular media has shoulder length hair and a board-flat figure and a perfectly neutrally pitched voice. like. just do what you want at this point. the character is non binary because your story said so and people who misgender them would have done that no matter how androgynous they look.

That's a fact

🎶 Feels so good inside

When you hold me

And your heart beats

And you love me

Oh oh, oh

Oh oh, oh 🎶

who wanna be in an unorthodox friendship w/ me

Breaking news! New single "Bart's Bike" by dirtbag boyband @bearsintreesofficial revealed to be specifically written about the long-distance best friend I constantly worry about! 1 dead, dozens more injured.