Kent State University - Adult Swim class

[noclist]

I just took the one and only class in the nation covering Adult Swim at Kent State over the spring semester. Pretty amazing class, 1 day a week we watch adult swim cartoons and learn about the creators, animation techniques, etc. Anyone else happen to go to Kent State and have taken it?

 

[dmoss]

I can't believe that there is actually such a class! That sounds like something that would be pretty fun, really. What kind of tests and things were there, if there were any? Also, what kind of a degree does it help towards?

 

[D Dubbs]

Date of Birth: March 20, 1986
Age: 22
Location: Ohio, USA
Biography: 16 year old male
Occupation: high school student
Other Interests: adult swim, video games, late night with conan o'brien, music, movies, guitar

 

[dmoss]

It looks like he just hasn't changed his profile page since he joined. His age says 22, so obviously he was 16, and in high school when he joined Toon Zone in 2002. I suppose that's what you were bringing attention to...?

 

[D Dubbs]

Ah. That makes sense. I was wondering how a high school student could enroll in a college course...

 

[SandStone88]

lol wut

An Adult Swim class in Kent State? Oh how I wish every university would have a class like that. (At least the ones close to where I live) heh

 

[noclist]

yeah, I haven't posted in quite a while. apparently i was 16 when i signed up, guess I should change my profile...

the class was basically 3 assignments, a "bump" assignment where you are assigned a night to watch adult swim in it's entirety and record all of the bumps between shows, a terms assignment where you were given animation terms and had to watch shows and find examples of them, and the final assignment was just a paper on any adult swim show, music, or topic. i wrote about home movies. if anyone has the opportunity to take it, make sure you do so. the teacher has great connections with all the adult swim guys and usually has guest lectures via webcam. one of the first years he taught it brendon small actually visited the university to give a lecture.

the class is in the journalism and mass communication department.

 

[mupidchik]

best class ever

hard to believe such a class exists, right? but our Adult Swim class was so great! you get credit for watching cartoons once a week and hardly doing any assignments at all. it's a pretty easy A. we didn't have a special guest this past semester but our teacher is going to invite us back because he's trying to get Seth Green and Matthew Senreich to do an interview over the summer. we watched everything from 12 oz. Mouse to Mission Hill, the Futurama and ATHF movies and much much more. I miss my Metalocalypse friend, and the entire front row...

 

[Master Moron]

So, does this class only focus on the Adult Swim originals, or does it also focus on the acquisitions? For instance, could you write your paper on Death Note?

 

[Deadman]

is that the best class ever or what?

 

[Racattack!Force]

Whoa, that's just amazing.

 

[noclist]

The class was actually broken into 4 sections, Reclamation (Home Movies, Mission Hill, Oblongs, Futurama, Family Guy, American Dad), Recycled (Space Ghost, Brak, Harvey Birdman, Sealab), New (Aqua Teen, Squidbillies, etc.) and Indies (Tom, Robot Chicken, etc.). You were free to write the final paper on anything you wanted, didn't even have to be a show. For example, it could have been on the music of MC Chris or like a biography of Aaron McGruder

 

[mupidchik]

I wrote my paper on a show that wasn't even originally an Adult Swim cartoon...Mission Hill. And I'm proud to say I was the first person to ever write a paper on that show, or at least that's what our teacher told me. My paper focused on how the show got started and how it came to Adult Swim. Plus we were supposed to find instances in our chosen topic that related to the terms we defined in a previous assignment. For example...Implied Line Animation. In Mission Hill you can see Andy drink hot coffee...the lines seen coming from the cup of coffee are there to imply that there is steam coming from it. Or other instances show people smoking cigarettes and the lines are there to imply smoke coming from that cigarette.

 

[Master Moron]

The class was actually broken into 4 sections, Reclamation (Home Movies, Mission Hill, Oblongs, Futurama, Family Guy, American Dad), Recycled (Space Ghost, Brak, Harvey Birdman, Sealab), New (Aqua Teen, Squidbillies, etc.) and Indies (Tom, Robot Chicken, etc.). You were free to write the final paper on anything you wanted, didn't even have to be a show. For example, it could have been on the music of MC Chris or like a biography of Aaron McGruder

So, then I guess the class didn't cover anime at all? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering how much Adult Swim neglects anime. Wait, how are Tom and Robot Chicken indies? Doesn't Williams Street make those?

 

[noclist]

The only anime the class covered was Shin Chan, if you consider it one. I didn't think Tom and Robot Chicken were Wiliams Street, maybe they are though. Regardless, they were in the indie section of the class. Doesn't Seth Green have his own production company Stupid Monkey that does Chicken?

 

[Space Cadet]

So, then I guess the class didn't cover anime at all? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering how much Adult Swim neglects anime. Wait, how are Tom and Robot Chicken indies? Doesn't Williams Street make those?

Robot Chicken and Tom aren't in-house WS productions.

And Shin-Chan is definately an anime, noclist. So how many people were in your class? Did it fill up quickly?

 

[noclist]

It was probably 25-30 students, pretty sure it filled up super fast, I registered for it the first day I was eligible to. This fall I'm taking a film comedy class from the same professor. Other classes he has include Cult Films, Comics to Movies, Monster Movies, and Orson Welles. Pretty cool guy.

 

[noclist]

I'm guessing the prof was in his mid-40's. He actually wrote the book for the class. (available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Adult-Swim-Comedy-Ron-Russo/dp/0977137716 )