This is what the kids are watching these days. It’s a show called “Yu-Gi-Oh” – and has something to do with magic cards that make monsters and have the ability to kill other kids. Except the other kids can make their own monsters to stop those monsters. And they also have other cards that aren’t monsters that can stop monsters.
Does anyone play checkers anymore? Or how about a nice game of Monopoly? I must be getting older.
Formed in 1997, Schad began performing sketch comedy on Chicago’s north side. The troupe has since performed at countless venues around the world including The Goodman Theatre, The Second City, Steppenwolf, Lollapalooza, ImprovOlympic, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (LA), HERE (NYC) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
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All content © 2010 by Schadenfreude.
Anyone with kids (especially boys) knows “Yu-Gi-Oh”. It was on KidsWB for over three years before (finally, blessedly) being removed from the Saturday morning schedule. Luckily, my kids never got into it, though they did watch a couple of episodes and I suffered with them. The clip you selected shows many attributes (or deficits, depending on your view) of the show, such as: 1) Cool superhero-like figures and monsters emerging from playing cards. 2) Players being able to seemingly change the rules of the game by pulling out all sorts of nutty, bizarre cards. 3) An extremely conceited villain. EVERY villain on Y-G-O was extremely cocky and certain that he/she would win every game, thus eliminating the need for new villain dialog each week. 4) Low grade animation. You’ll notice that in a lot of shots the only thing moving is a character’s mouth and/or a subtle camera pan. 5) Lots and lots of talking. Not only do the adversaries talk to each other about the moves they are making, but they have internal dialogs that are often mindnumbingly long. (“Yu-Gi-Oh doesn’t know that I still hold the Spectromaxitillian card, which will obliterate his Multhyinialasterimatritaxiclontin on its first attack!”) The only thing missing from that clip is the title character. “Yu-Gi-Oh” is a guy with a split personality and the most bizarre spiky hairdo I’ve ever seen. Sometimes he’s the wide-eyed wimp with a high voice, but then he can switch over to the other personality with a deeper voice, darker eyes, and (I’m not kidding on this) a spiked dog collar around his neck. (There are definitely a few fetishes on view in this show). It was seriously disturbing on so many levels, and no one was happier than I when it was removed from the Saturday morning schedule. Yet it was also successful, and for a while there were Y-G-O playing cards, toys, a soundtrack CD, and my son even got a birthday present in a large Y-G-O gift bag. Even though the merchandising is now almost non-existant, it’s a shame that you still found it. And my kids do play checkers and Monopoly, only it’s Powerpuff Girls checkers and Star Wars Monopoly (episodes 4-6, not the later [awful] trilogy, which there is also a Monopoly game for. We also have Powerpuff Girls Monopoly, but that one isn’t nearly as popular. And I saw Pirates of the Caribbean Monopoly not too long ago, but my kids opted for Pirates of the Caribbean Life instead. Thankfully, I have never found a Y-G-O Monopoly).
Wow. You also forgot to mention “LifePoints” – apparently you can lose them, and sometimes you die, other times you don’t, and sometimes you have a friend who gives you another card.
I play LOTR Monopoly – it’s Sheila’s favorite.