This particular outtake is, of course, only one of a great many that were caused by…uh…the elaborate special effects that allowed an alien creature like Latho to come alive on the screen. >_>
In reality, we might have already passed beyond the horizon where realizing something like this with a puppet was actually cheaper than doing it with CGFX – at least for the cheapest sort of CGFX, which would be the type relevant to a B-movie production. So, yeah – perhaps it’s already unrealistic to assume that a B-movie production would use a puppet in this way today, and otherwise it will be the case very, very soon. So I’m happy I’ve managed to make use of – perhaps – the final opportunity to show it like this.
Since George is the only one with puppeteering experience in the crew, the rest of the task – to wit, manipulating the puppet’s left hand – falls to Lee Douglas. Simply because any task that’s not somehow assigned to somebody else automatically falls to him. He’s the indentured-servant-of-last-resort for this production. Given his lack of experience, he’s not doing too bad of a job…the thing about flipping the audience off could have been caused by the difficulties of fitting in beside George’s bulk, but just as likely was some kind of Freudian-gesture-slip.* >_>
In the process, the strip also reveals a little bit of background information on George Geekish. I.e., that he used to work for a very highly regarded puppet performance outfit in his youth. Which, I guess, does fit the character quite well? Oh, and, less surprisingly, that he used to thinner back then.
More on Thursday.
*The audience, after all, is the root cause of all of his problems, and they don’t care a jot about it. How could Lee not dislike them? =P
It appears that I was mistaken several days ago: the cast indeed was in space… sorry, in SPAAAAAACE before. I completely forgot. But it’s a good thing, because if I remembered correctly, I would decide against making that joke.
And where is fun in that?
Exactly, jokes might vary in quality and appropriateness, but they always are at least a little better than an absence of jokes…unless they happen to run afoul of the ‘too soon’ effect, that is… XD
Oh Lee… you might hate the audience, but they very clearly love you!
Well, love seeing you suffer, anyway.
To quote Vince McMahon jr.: “I don’t care whether people buy a ticket because they love to see you win or they love to see you lose, as long as they buy a ticket.”
Aw, George Geekish worked on Soybean Street? I grew up watching that program! Dang, I knew there was a reason I loved Latho.
And I’m the only one, probably!
Oh, I don’t know – if I was making any merchandise for the BMC, a Latho doll might actually sell better than the rest. Mostly to people who don’t know the strip, of course, but still. He was supposed to look highly marketable, after all. XD