Theorizing Stupid Media by Aaron Kerner & Julian Hoxter

Author:Aaron Kerner & Julian Hoxter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030281762
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

WTF Narratives: “There Is More Joy in Dissonance Than in Consonance”13

Adventure Time is strange for many reasons, including the mystery behind what the actual target demographic actually is, which is a commonly trafficked discussion in the popular press and blogosphere. It originally aired in the early evening, largely targeting an elementary school to adolescent audience. But clearly it appeals to adults as well—whether it is stoners, hipsters, or the parents of the supposed “real” target demographic.14 On a number of occasions, watching Adventure Time with my daughter (she was 4 years old when the series began), at the conclusion of an episode we might turn to each other in stunned amazement and in unison utter an exasperated, “What the …!?” This surprise usually stems from our shattered sense of narrative expectation: an episode might end “prematurely,” Finn and/or Jake, or some other character, seemingly might be left for dead.

Although Cartoon Network schedules Adventure Time in a standard half-hour broadcast time-slot, many of the episodes are only 10 minutes in length (a number of episodes are only 3 minutes long—for instance, “All’s Well That Rats Swell”). The length in itself is not necessarily an issue—assuredly economic conventional storytelling can be highly concentrated. The “limitation” of 10 minutes then is not what predicates the truncated quality of the narratives, rather these are conscious choices made by the writers. Herein lies the stupidity, or at least one variety of it: the apparent narrative “failure”—the narrative dissonance—found in some episodes. An episode like “All’s Well That Rats Swell” appears to meander without any purpose, the ostensible resolution finds BMO successfully chasing away a rat raiding the household’s stash of flour. However, the short episode in effect follows BMO on its morning routine—a mundane litany of chores and habituated procedures. And in the face of such a routine the compendium of events the spectator might be inclined to think: What was that about? On other occasions an abrupt conclusion of a narrative that leaves a plot unresolved, or resolved in some unexpected or improbable fashion (e.g., the death of Finn and Jake) wields the potential to stupefy the spectator. Stupidity, then, in these cases is not only located at the site of production but also in its anticipated reception.

Anecdotally at least based on my (Kerner ) 4-year-old daughter’s response to the conclusion of some episodes, it is striking how deeply seated narrative expectations apparently are. As stated previously, whether musically trained or completely ignorant we seem to innately recognize that which is consonant and dissonant. No doubt what we are referring to as “innate” comprehension of music is based in the acquisition of specific cultural musical conventions, and therefore strictly speaking not innate. Nonetheless, Adventure Time , because on occasion it shatters narrative expectations, plays with what we might call “narrative dissonance.”

Narrative dissonance might materialize in the untimely demise of a primary character(s), which appears to stand in opposition to the overarching narrative of the series as a whole. In “Web Weirdos,” for example, Finn and Jake are performing parkour-type stunts in the forest.

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