They missed the boat not calling it "McChronic."

Legalized Pot - the Animation from Taiwanese Animators. Well, you've heard about the Seattle Supersonics - how about the Seattle Superchronics?

Yes, it's our old friend the Taiwanese Animators are at it again, taking on the stoners up in Washington State.

The marijuana cartoon depicts pot shops with names like “Starblunts Chronic,” “Amazonkush,” “Seattle Superchronics” and “Microblaze,” with logos parodying the real companies with similar names.

Well, at least tourism should pick up, it concludes. Actually, it already has in Colorado, the leading land of dopers.

Who is that?

Anybody who has followed their videos knows that Next Media Animation, the folks behind this series, plays to the foreign audience like crazy. The Internet, after all, is a worldwide phenomenon and most users are not Americans. So, they are taking the usual tactic of playing to the largest audience.

Thus, Americans are portrayed as fat, lazy, greedy slobs with too much money and not enough brains, who dress like pimps and are rude, arrogant and have the attention span of gnats, only interested in self-gratification, with parochial interests and complete indifference to others and the world around them.

And they even say some incorrect things about Americans at times, too!

If you don't think that that is how an awful lot of people outside the US view Americans, well, let's just say that these videos are proof positive that it is.

This is an old, old game. To cut through all the noise, be as annoying and edgy as you can to get noticed. Insulting people is the best way to get them motivated about your product, and being noticed is what these guys are after. People getting upset about it is one reaction that they are looking for - that, and for you to laugh when you get over it. Which is usually the case. So taking this stuff too seriously is just playing into their hands, it's simple entertainment that approaches topics of the day the way a wise-guy late-night talk show host might.

The American obsession with professional sports is their usual target, but they always manage to work in some kind of potshot (haha) at overall American culture. So it must have been a slow sports day if they resorted to the low-hanging fruit of weed legalization. But we're sure they'll get around to Lebron going to Cleveland at some point.


Taiwanese Animators feel they are doing the world a big service with these animations. "With animation, we are able to fill in the blanks that other news outlets are missing. We always present the news as it is, straight facts without any sugarcoating and nothing is off-limits,” the company says.

Okaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy, well, we're so glad we have them to pick up the ball when the New York Times drops it. At least they don't present news and politically slanted editorials and pretend it is just innocent comedy like some other folks ("Look, folks, I'm just a comedian!").

You either find these videos funny or you don't, there's not much middle ground on this, so you take them or leave them. Their work is almost certain to offend someone, which says more about the offended person than about Taiwanese Animators. It's an interesting trend to keep track of, animation as daily political satire.

2020