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| An apology. *Short* or *Very Long.* | |
| Posted By: Stuntmutt | Date: 4/4/05 2:34 a.m. |
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The short version - it was all an April Fool's gag. Apologies for any offence caused. The long version - The Setup. A couple of weeks ago, I sent Louis Wu an email.
The gist was that we would have a big, public falling out in the forum on the Monday before the event. I'd say "it's my ball, I'm going home" and not do a comic strip on the Wednesday. Then, on the Friday, Louis would claim he'd be continuing the comics himself. Wu's response? "Definitely doable. :)" So first, we needed a reason to fall out. Recently, Louis was inteviewed about his thoughts on videogame violence. Quite a touchy subject. Plus it resurrected the infamous 'Louis holding gun' picture. I started up MS Paint... Minutes later, I had a comic strip. Personal attack on Louis making him out to be a hypocrite? Check. Splattered brains and gore? Check. Utterly inappropriate joke about schools? Check. I was hesitant even to show the resulting monstrosity to Louis. When he saw it, he responded with wistful sagacity - "Oh, man... I just have to figure out how to sound outraged without going over the top (because there are plenty of people who know I'd probably be just fine with it :) )." The Fall Out. Louis said he'd write the newspost to say he wasn't happy and give me something to respond to. Sure enough, he did, so I did. One of my worries was that a couple of posts backwards and forwards between myself and Louis would go unnoticed. Boy, was I wrong. Louis didn't even manage to get his first riposte in before half a dozen other comments had been made. I ramped up the attack, but unbeknownst to me, I was making a mistake by pointing out (truthfully) that I had made the strip weeks earlier. I received an email from Louis that said, "I'm gonna have to call you a liar in my next post - here's why. Cybrfrk wrote this morning, telling me you'd gone WAY over the line with that strip. I told him that you'd just mailed it in this morning - if I'd had warning, I would have told you to redo it. He's gonna smell a rat if I don't correct your 'I submit stuff several weeks ahead' line in this case. :)" The thread raged on nicely - basically, the forum goers did our job for us! Eventually, I made my move. It was all true. Emails HAD passed back and forth between us. We'd shared some of the responses that were already coming into our inboxes (such as, "I had followed the comic when I got a chance because mostly it was amusing, but after today's I won't look at another one" and "this was shown to us. We both just had our bottom jaws drop. You didn't do this did you Claude???" - unbelievably, I even got one that said "Genius. I fucking loved that one, partly for the yeehaw, mainly for the where's the nearest school. Cheers Mate."), and Louis and I also swapped stories of the circumstances under which we had proposed to our respective ladies. Mrs Wu got the better deal by FAR, believe me. It seemed we had created a monster. Even after my 'So long and thanks for all the corn' post, the thread was still going strong. Louis eventually emailed me that, "I'm gonna have to lock that thread soon! It's getting downright political. :) YOU STARTED A FLAMEWAR, N00B!" Locked, the thread was. Just before I went to bed, I asked Louis to pull the strip itself. He was actually quite hesitant to do so, but by the time I woke up next morning, the missing strip had caused another disturbance in The Force. I emailed Louis; "TWO locked threads! Score!" c0ld Turkey. c0ld Vengeance is a great, great guy. Really. A few people sent myself and Louis emails of support, or urged us to reconcile. But c0ld sent us both this email on Monday night - "Ok you two, quit ya squabbling. Now, I have no idea what you two have said to each other but one thing i'm pretty sure of is, neither of you REALLY want to stay annoyed at the other.
Bless. His. Cotton. Socks. c0ld even SMS'd me to ask if I'd read his 'Ultimate Solution'. Louis thought it was hilarious - "He's never going to believe we'd planned all this before he came along... This is just too funny." Louis and I continued to get messages as the factions divided. I had some really, really sweet emails from the guys in my XBL clan - I started to feel MEGA bad that they were saying such nice things about me and it was all a practical joke. Louis sent me one of his, the thrust of which was, according to him, "Hehe - I got class, and you're just a loser. :)" I also loved the Clan Forum PM I received from 7he One which read, "Every cartoonist makes mistakes. Did you see the episode where Mickey Mouse stabs Donald Duck? No, because it was banned." Rumbled? Neither Louis nor myself had made any responses to the emails or messages. By Wednesday, some regulars started to smell a rat.
"Hello kind sir, We're onto you. c0ld, jillybean and KP are demanding two (2) gratuitous front page mentions in exchange for keeping your game alive. If we receive nothing by 3/31/05 we will be forced to blow the whole damn thing. And you wouldn't want that, would you? WOULDYOU?!?!
Warbow wrote to Wu to warn him that I might be playing a joke. This tickled Louis; "rotfl - awesome. Now I'm a victim!" But Mere wasn't having a word of it, and Sep7imus was on the right track... Of course, you always get carpers... April 1 The strip was posted. Louis really did make it himself! For the few who hadn't already worked it out, the the penny began to drop. Or so I thought. Louis forwarded me another epistle - "why the hell did stuntmutt stop creating the comics!?!?!?! i loved them. what did you do to make him mad Louis!!!!!!!?" Mind, I'd barely been 'gone' five minutes and there were already people eager to take a dead man's boots while they were still warm... Heheheheheh. The Apology. I say THE apology, I mean MY apology. I'm speaking just for myself here.
To the people who may think this whole escapade is a joke too far, and particularly to the people who sent me such warm and encouraging personal messages who may feel betrayed that it turned out to be just a prank - I sincerely apologise. That stuff really did mean a lot to me. Some of it was so genuinely touching that it truly made me feel guilty. Thank you though <3 I'd also like to apologise to my partner in crime for the flak he caught. And for all the spam I send his way on a weekly, nay, daily, make that hourly, actually hang on, just need to send him an email... BUT - I'd maintain that there was still quite a bit of fun to be had out of it all. Which is part of the reason why I have written this excruciatingly long version of events. I just wanted to share some of the amusing and bizarre things that Louis and I were privvy to over the last few days. It has been MURDER not answering the posts and emails, and I have missed being on XBL with the Helljumpers SO much. Man, I hope they'll see the funny side - not sure there are any other clans out there who'd befriend a player that only arrrrrgh, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 seems to speak huerrrgh, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 in very gaaaahhh 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 short phrases. And finally, to those of you who are still angry or upset, and for whom no heartfelt expressions of regret or unctuous mollification will suffice...
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