Interview No. 143

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today's guest has been with us once before. When he was last with us he gave us works such as Dollar and Wii Are Sold Out. He has been on a bit of a hiatus, but he has continued his works and brought us American Politics and Donald 'n Gang. I am pleased to welcome back, @SardonicSamurai.

Q: The last time you were with us nearly seven years ago. We spoke about a movie called Stamper N' Johnny. You seemed to have disappeared for the remainder of that time and did not return until 2010. Why the long absence?

A: It was around this point in time that I graduated from college. I had an associates in Information Tech, and needed to look in to furthering my education. Unfortunately, I soon realized I could not get the financial assistance required to continue on to a Bachelor’s degree. I tried for a year to find a job that was NOT an unpaid internship, but to no avail. To be quite honest, I was pretty depressed at the time. You’re told that if you do well in school and in college you’ll find yourself in a decent paying job. I felt that I wasted several years of my life getting a degree that I couldn’t possibly progress further with financially. Not only that, but I was supposed to fly out to Pico Day around that time and had to cancel. Apparently, a girl I had been seeing at the time had Mono... I thought I had a very long winded flu, until the day of my flight, in which I got very sick trying to rush around to catch my flight. Funny note: the time I took off of work to go to Pico Day was the very first paid vacation I ever had. I ended up spending my vacation, and the following couple of weeks later, sick as a dog. My “return” to Newgrounds was never the same. Missing Pico Day was kind of the last straw. I felt like everything was against me at that point. I wasn’t nearly as motivated as I was, less active in the forums, and fell out of other forms of social media.

Q: Your return would be brought to us through a movie called IMMA BE(E). You said it was because you hate this song. Last you were here you stated that you enjoy venting through animation. What is the name of the song that has annoyed you? Would you say that you still vent through animation?

A: The song in question is “Imma Be” by the Black Eyed Peas. At the time I made the animation, the song was all over the radio, and I didn’t understand its popularity. Half of the song is just some guy saying “Imma Be”! During one of my drives to work it came on the radio, and I just pictured a bee rapping about himself. It’s really as simple as that! A lot of the animations I come up with are spur of the moment, not very well thought out catastrophes. I generally make the animations to entertain myself and to vent, but it always makes me happy to see that others enjoy them too!

Q: Gramma's Halloween is absolutely hilarious! How did you come up with this character and will we see more of her in the future?

A: Most of anything I create spawns from a voice I come up with. I spend an unhealthy amount of time talking to myself, seeing what kind of sounds and voices I can come up with. I believe the character was inspired by the grandma in Squidbillies. I love the idea of a slutty yet sex deprived, easily aggravated old woman, ha. I can actually talk like the Squidbillies grandma (at least I believe so), but I wanted to make her sound more soft and caring. Her visual and demeanor is more shared with Granny from the Looney Tunes, however. As far as seeing more of her? I never really thought about it actually. It was another one of those “spur of the moment” things. So planning to use her again kinda goes against that pattern? I can say maybe though!

Q: American Politics talks about political ads on television and how you don't like them. I honestly thought this movie would have expanded a bit further than it did. What can you tell us about politics that you don't like? Will we see anymore political satire from you in the future?

A: There were a lot of political ads on the radio and on television that annoyed me around that time. It was between John Kasich and Ted Strickland for Governor of Ohio. (Thus the last name “Kasland”, a combination of the two). From what I remember, both of the candidates ran smear campaigns against one another. That’s generally what politics is about. They barely ever talk about what they plan to do. They’re more interested in bashing their opponents, and I find it disgusting. Not to mention you can barely ever trust what any candidate is saying. It’s just tiring. I ended up stopping the toon because I felt my point was made. No matter what you do (in politics), anything you do will be caught, repurposed, and used against you. Even doing an animation ABOUT politics was tiring, so I doubt I’ll do more political cartoons… Scratch that… Trump is running isn’t he? He’s a damn gold mine for content. I’ve actually thought about doing something on him but I’m not sure!

Q: You would participate in a collab called Happy Birthday Joy!!, a birthday tribute to CosmicDeath. Unfortunately this came out after I had interviewed CosmicDeath. How did this collab come together? How do you know CosmicDeath? What did she think about it?

A: Oh man, it’s been so long! Most of everyone I knew from the old Paltalk days, where we would chat about newgrounds or whatever else we wanted! I honestly don’t remember how it came about! As you’re aware, I have a shit memory, so my guess is it was probably another spur of the moment thing! Regardless, it was very fun to be a part of!

Q: And now we come to the part of the interview where I have to say... that I hate you. Shape Up. The writing and voice acting for this was very good, it started off funny and slowly became pretty tense and serious. The part where I hate you is that it abruptly ended. Why did it just end?

A: Another shape cartoon! I never really made a shape cartoon until this one actually (since “Stamper ‘N Johnny wasn’t really about shapes after all) They’re surprisingly fun to make since you can only use basic shapes and colors to tell a story. I felt it was funnier to end it as abruptly as I did to be honest! The toon was at its grand climax: Green was potentially dying, Pink was on the verge of a mental break down, the police had no idea what to do, and then BOOM, end. Does green die? Will the brothers recover from this traumatic incident? Find out next time! Actually I just didn’t know how to continue making the toon funny and felt the ambulance showing up would ruin everything, so I just stopped, ha.

Q: When Sarkazm was here we talked about LUCKY DAY FOREVER. A movie that you contributed your voice to. How did you come to work on this movie? Can you tell us anything about working with Sarkazm?

A: This was the first time I really voiced in any kind of cartoon! I was so excited to work with him! I was the voice of the Television/ Announcer of Why We Love the Great Lottery! Sarkasm was looking for voice actors and asked the Newgrounds community for tryouts. I jumped on the opportunity and was very lucky to be chosen for the part! I still wish I did more voice acting, but even at that time it was VERY hard to do as I still lived at home and lived in a rather noisy environment. I now live by myself in my own studio so I hope that changes!

Q: When Jonnyethco was here we talked about Prostitute Mickey and when HeRetiK was here we talked about Sickey Mouse. You join these two for The Interviewer with your latest movie Donald 'n Gang. What made you want to make a Disney parody? Will we see more Disney stuff in the future?

A: I actually met Jonnyethco at Pico Day last year! I can’t say if he remembers talking with me, as it was brief. There were a few people outside the office talking about his animation, and so a couple people started doing their impressions as well (So obviously I joined in. I can’t help myself sometimes). People said I was pretty damn good at it, so I was obviously delighted! I’ve actually been told that a few times. Donald Duck was one of the very first voices I learned to do a looong time ago. When friends started watching my cartoons on Newgrounds, they would tell me that I needed to make something with Donald doing something vulgar. The conversations I had at Pico Day, and a few others motivated me to make a Disney themed cartoon!

Q: When last we spoke you were a Forum Moderator. You are a Forum Moderator no longer. Why?

A: Nothing juicy, sadly! Just inactivity! Moderating was exhausting at times anyway. Constant messages of “Why am I banned?”, “Mister Police man come save this thread!”, or anything else really would get annoying rather quickly. Not saying being a Moderator is a bad thing, but it’s just not my thing. But I guess I do it well? I tend to be given Moderator privileges for other things, ha!

Q: What can we expect from SardonicSamurai in the future?

A: I can’t say for sure. I’ve learned that life is unpredictable. No matter what I say or do, I’ll never know what the hell is going to happen. It can be a fun, albeit rough, ride. I PLAN to make more animations. I WANT to do more voice work. I’ve made friends with people that are rooting for me. I have started backgrounds on another animation, so hopefully I’ll have another toon out in the next few months! I’ll also be at Pico Day again this year (So I’ll be even MORE motivated!) Sorry if this isn’t a very clear answer, but it’s an honest one!

I was attracted to SardonicSamurai's animation when I saw him vent through his craft. However he has shown that he is still a wonderfully funny storyteller. Hopefully he has returned to Newgrounds to stay here for much longer and help us expand even further.