Links of the week - SHREK themed
what will history make of this strange green creature that we spent twenty-five years reproducing, distorting, mocking, and venerating?
shrek has had an eternal afterlife in digital culture. the joke is that it’s shrek. ironic megafandom works on meta and absurdist levels turns but nevertheless turns into sincere consumption through the power of belonging aka. friendship in the form of meme making and sharing. you make things real by sharing it with others, this is why posting matters. folklore etc.
yesterday i had the honour of introducing a screening for the twenty fifth anniversary of shrek in rotterdam. an open-air cinema: ambitious for late september in north holland, but fortunately blessed by a sunny day and dry afternoon. when i was asked to grab the microphone, i was staring at a crowd of students who were huddled up under blankets, eagerly waiting for the film to start. as the speaker, i had the unenviable job of interjecting into their excitement with a scientific introduction. when i saw how many people there were (hundreds) and how animated the crowd was, i realised that my notes would had to be cut down by half. good thing i’d put a 1.5 minute gif of a screen recording of me scrolling shrek memes. it would act as a subway surfers-esque distraction while i went through topics like subversion of gender roles, corporate in-fighting, and 4chan as they related to the development of shrek as a popular digital cultural obsession.
the laughter emaneting from the crowd when they encountered the screen recording was incredible. it had a good effect on everyone, including myself. we spent a minute or two watching the screen. we finished soon after, and i took my train back to amsterdam.
so that’s why today’s links of the week are all Shrek themed.
TEXT
THE SCHOLARLY PURSUIT OF SHREK: 20 YEARS OF OGRES AND IRONY
Jamie Loftus observes and mocks the academic conference style brilliantly in this piece on the “scholarly pursuit of Shrek”. the comedian and writer attends a zoom conference on shrek and writes her cynical takes on each speaker and their topic. hilarious to read if you also dissociate at academic conferences.
SOUND
good vibessss
VIDEO
THE ORIGINAL SHREK TEST FROM 1995
this was an early shrek test for dreamworks. it was considered lost media until the animator and producer of the screen test barry jackson shared the recording online in 2023. it’s low-budget grotesquerie.
IMAGE
SHREK FAIRY
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