Did you ever notice?

It's Coming...

And the suspense is killing me. I spent about 2 days on the first round of research for this one a few weeks back and my main conclusion was that no one should ever sit through as many Peanut Butter Jelly Time videos as I did gathering the notes and resources for Yatta, Ellie, and Jamiedubs to do their magic.

I haven't gotten to see the episode yet but the final draft of the script looked pretty good. And after seeing this pic... the suspense is getting to be too much.

Farewell Joanne

Okay, so this news is about two days old but it's about time I post on the subject.

We're all very sad to see Joanne go. To follow what Joanne has in store next, see her website here.

I think my reaction to seeing Joanne go is unique amongst the Rocketboom team. Being based out of Minneapolis, I've never even met Joanne in person, but have had the awesome privelege of writing and contributing to a good deal of the words that she speaks in the program. I think that from having watched Rocketboom for a number of years prior to writing for her, I had developed a strong mental model of her character and persona which enabled me to write in my own version of Joanne's literary voice. Every time that I would see an episode released that used some of my own ideas, phrasing, and jokes, it was so fun to see what Joanne and the rest of the team would do with them; and this has been incredibly fulfilling for me.

Joanne is an incredible host, and a true professional that will no doubt be successful in all that she does. And while she was a blast to write for, it's really about time we try something new. That's really all I can say about that. But not to worry, even without Joanne, the whole Rocketboom team is comprised of an interesting and intelligent cast of characters. Rocketboom Daily News will return, with much of the same Rocketboom style, and a few new things very soon.

In the meantime: Know Your Meme has been growing at an incredible speed and I'm incredibly thankful to be a part of that as well. Check out the MemeDB where The Internet Scientists from the Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies and myself research all sorts of internet phenomena.

Know Your Meme: Yo Dawg

After a few days worth of research and writing with Kenyatta Cheese, Jamie Wilkinson, and some seriously nice work from our editors Barry and Kornhaber, the "Yo Dawg" episode of Know Your Meme finally went online today. Kenyatta has basically said it better on his Tumblr Blog, so I'll just reblog his reblog from the Rocketboom Blog so you can read his blog while you read my blog.

Know Your Meme: Yo Dawg — {yo,sup} dawg, I heard you like X, so I put an X in your Y so you can VERB(x) while you VERB(y)

We went through several iterations of this script until I had an a-ha moment the day before the shoot and wrote a Know Your Meme episode inside of the Know Your Meme episode. Chris Menning and I had two long days of scriptwriting including conversations about the work of Kurt Godel, Lewis Carroll, and simple call stacks.

After the basic format was set, Jamie and I went to work on rewriting the script as pseudomath (great idea, Jamie), logically correct but more entertaining than educational. Although the episode clocks in at 3:26, it’s one of our shorter scripts (on paper.) Slowing the story down through mid-tempo beats and montage breaks help make the intricacies of the meme easier to grok with a single glance. Using music beds to set up the punchlines helped deliver jokes that would have gone unnoticed otherwise.

I’m very proud of the work we did on this episode. As Jamie noted in a conversation today, the show is getting tighter. I still would love to have better props and a real set (we shoot each episode in the Rocketboom office, causing a bit of disruption to the workday) but the stories are good and the characters fun to work with.

Written by Chris Menning, Jamie, and I. Research by Chris and Jamie. Hosted by Jamie (and a cameo by me.) Shot by Barry Pousman. Edited by Barry and Andrew Kornhaber.

Related: Andrew has a nice write-up about how the series fits into the larger Rocketboom Universe. One day we’ll have to do a more formal ‘About’ page on kym.com

viarocketboom

Like a Boss.

Okay okay, Dick in a Box was funny the first couple times.

On a Boat was pretty funny too.

But I've gotta say, I get a kick out of Like a Boss.