It’s always interesting to discover the history of things, even when those things are really annoying. It turns out that Crazy Frog started life as an animation called The Annoying Thing, and the soundtrack – which we first saw on the net as the Stupidity Test, which seems rather appropriate – was a genuine attempt at motorcycle mimicry.
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Incidentally, I can’t take the credit for finding the site – someone on MetaFilter posted it the other day.
You are so last month.
I was busy last month :-)
Have you noticed that the frog’s genitals have been covered by a black rectangle in the latest ads? The broadcasters must have had some complaints.
No, I’m not obsessed.
Yeah, they had loads of complaints. People who complain – officially – about ads worry me… the current KFC “people talking with their mouths full” has generated a legion of complaints to the ASA, apparently.
I’m afraid the black box covering the “genitalia” of the frog is the thing which pisses me off about those ads the most. The straw which has broken the camel’s back, so to speak.
I wonder if you can tell me Gary, as I am far too lazy to read anything for myself, who gets the money from the the ringtones sounds of the frog? I first heard that sound in an email which went around Australia years ago, a joke about racing cars. Was anyone approached and asked “Can I cash in on your frog noise?” when it was decided to sell it as a ringtone? Also, at Christmas, did Band Aid get any cash from the ringtone sale of “Do they know it’s Christmas?” from these horrible ringtone people? I’m asking you because you seem to know everything. Apologies if you have covered this before and I wasn’t paying attention.
Oh and I happen to quite enjoy those KFC ads at the moment.
As far as I can tell, the process went a bit like this:
* Bloke makes mad noise, which gets picked up for the racing car joke
* Animator makes The Annoying Thing, with mad noise as soundtrack
* A few people on the internet are amused
* The mad noise maker gets in touch with the animator, who promptly credits him in the copyright stuff
* Mobile phone companies come a-knocking. They’ll either have negotiated a flat fee and no royalties, a royalties-only deal or an up-front-advance and a smaller royalty rate. Sound-only revenue (well, a cut of it) would go to the mad noise maker; image-only revenue to the animator; video revenue to both.
Probably :-)
Despite the fact that he deserves to rot in hell – the guy that did the animation put a link at the end to ask the guy that did the sound to get in touch.
The guy is obviously evil but mibbe he isn’t beyoind redemption.
Thankyou.
Sorry Ms. Mac, I missed a bit:
> Also, at Christmas, did Band Aid get any cash from the ringtone sale of “Do they know it’s Christmas?” from these horrible ringtone people?
They should have, yes. Provided the ringtone firms were trading legally, they’ll have the necessary licences in place to pay royalties. Not all ringtone sites are legal but most of ’em are; the collecting societies have spent a lot of time and effort cracking down on the cowboys.
Sound-only revenue (well, a cut of it) would go to the mad noise maker; image-only revenue to the animator; video revenue to both.
And nothing to the frog! It’s yet another sad example of frog exploitation.
I love that KFC ad. The “Hello. Emergency helpline” bit is a great start to a chorus. The tune was going round my head for days. Only, in my head, the mouths weren’t full.
People are complaining about that? Really? Jesus wept.
You know there are complaints about Ainsley Harriott’s Fairy Power Spray ads, too? Because he kisses the cooker, and kids might kiss it when it’s turned on. If they have really bad, really stupid parents.
People complain about all kinds of things. There’s an irate letter in today’s Herald suggesting that the BBC’s new 3d weather maps make scotland look like a backwater. No, really:
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The old BBC weather charts used a standard Grid projection. The new-style maps use a perspective view taken from above the island and well to the south. This results in massive geographical distortion, such that the image of England (actually 50,000 square miles) occupies a graphical area at least 10 times that of Scotland (30,000).
Does this matter? Very much so.
For example, a country’s economic importance is partly determined by its land mass. The BBC’s weather maps are probably the most widely and regularly viewed representations of UK geography. Reinforced many times a day for years and perhaps decades, domestic and business viewers at home and abroad will be subliminally taught that Scotland is a tiny backwater of the UK.
The maps powerfully convey where the centre of things lies, and which parts are peripheral. But where there are losers there are also winners. So, while Scotland shrinks dramatically, the area whose status gains most is England’s south-west – home of the Met Office in Exeter, Devon.
The BBC is a national broadcaster, and has a duty to treat the nation’s regions on a fair and equal footing. Such blatant distortion is insulting and damaging and is entirely unacceptable. I urge readers to protest to the BBC, to Ofcom, and to their parliamentarians, to demand an immediate revision.
Dr Nick Fiddes, managing director, Scotweb Marketing Ltd, 13a Albert Terrace, Edinburgh.
BBC News today (May 16) introduces revamped weather reports, using new computer-generated maps. These are undeniably more entertaining than before. But they also do Scotland serious harm. The old BBC weather charts used a standard Grid projection. The new-style maps use a perspective view taken from above the island and well to the south. This results in massive geographical distortion, such that the image of England (actually 50,000 square miles) occupies a graphical area at least 10 times that of Scotland (30,000).
Does this matter? Very much so.
For example, a country’s economic importance is partly determined by its land mass. The BBC’s weather maps are probably the most widely and regularly viewed representations of UK geography. Reinforced many times a day for years and perhaps decades, domestic and business viewers at home and abroad will be subliminally taught that Scotland is a tiny backwater of the UK.
The maps powerfully convey where the centre of things lies, and which parts are peripheral. But where there are losers there are also winners. So, while Scotland shrinks dramatically, the area whose status gains most is England’s south-west – home of the Met Office in Exeter, Devon.
The BBC is a national broadcaster, and has a duty to treat the nation’s regions on a fair and equal footing. Such blatant distortion is insulting and damaging and is entirely unacceptable. I urge readers to protest to the BBC, to Ofcom, and to their parliamentarians, to demand an immediate revision.
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On a completely unrelated note, I met the film director Danny Boyle this morning. He’s probably the cheeriest man on earth.
Arse, the herald’s evil formatting screws up copying and pasting yet again. Their site’s crap – barely works in Safari or Firefox due to what I think must be bad ad code.
So, while Scotland shrinks dramatically, the area whose status gains most is England’s south-west
Oh well ;)
England’s South-West is the nicest non-Irish part of the UK.
> For example, a country’s economic importance is partly determined by its land mass.
This guy’s clearly a Luxembourg counterintelligence agent, spreading disinformation in case someone realises that they’re stinking rich and could be invaded during a coffee break.