Attack of the Shaggy Meme

Stoner vs Kaiju and Saiyan

As I may have mentioned more than once in past posts, the Cerberus at the gates to my personal hell probably has three Scooby Doo heads. While I disliked the entire show during my own childhood, I was particularly unfond of the talking dog and his scraggly chinned, BFF-in-binge eating, Shaggy.

And during the last 15 or so years of parenting, I have felt like there is always a new Scooby Doo movie or TV show sneaking up on me while my back is turned. I wouldn’t say that our kids are major Scooby and Shaggy fans, but their appreciation for the pair has tested my patience on many occasions.

But until recently, I had no idea how Shaggy had been proliferating out of control in the world of online memes. In these memes, the joke is that he is amazingly powerful.

The genesis of online memes can often be random or mysterious, but All Powerful Shaggy has a couple precursors that are easy to spot.

I’ll assume we all know that Shaggy is usually a wimpy, fearful whiner, frequently manipulated into acting as ghoul-bait by promises of food...often dog food. 

But in “Scooby Doo!: Legend of the Phantosaur,” the 16th direct to video movie in the franchise (you read that right: 16th and it was only 2011) Shaggy is hypnotized to become a motorcycle-riding, bar-brawl-winning badass whenever he hears the word “bad.” 

In the earlier 2004 live action “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed,” there was a memorable scene where Shaggy and Scooby consumed a fridge full of transformative potions, culminating in a ridiculously “buff” super muscly version of Shaggy. (This came immediately after the Shaggy with breasts and a crop top. But the less said about that, the better.)

Perhaps the availability of these source materials made it possible for Shaggy to become the new version of the “Chuck Norris facts” meme.  Chuck Norris facts, as helpfully explained on knowyourmeme.com are, “a series of satirical factoids and hyperbolic claims that characterize the American celebrity martial artist and actor as an extremely tough, virile and alpha-male archetype.” The meme originated in 2005, and lasted a long while. 

For instance: “When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.”

The Shaggy memes are usually more extreme than even the Chuck Norris facts.

In early 2019, it was popular to declare that Shaggy was actually an all powerful god who could end entire universes using only a small percentage of his powers- i.e. “Shaggy was responsible for the Big Bang while using only 14% of his power.”

Shaggy’s memed all-powerfulness also has anime/ manga inflection to it. He has recently appeared as a modded- in character in the game “Jump Force.” 

Previously some 270,000 people had signed an online petition to have Shaggy added in to the latest version of Mortal Kombat, so clearly the desire to see Shaggy fight is shared by more than just a handful of gamers. 

On this napkin, Shaggy is knocking down Goku, one of the superhuman fighters from Dragon Ball, having already trounced Godzilla. 

I would have liked to include a few more antagonists: Thanos? Darkseid? King Ghidora?

But let’s face it, just Goku and Godzilla were challenge enough.

Fortnite Llama and Red Dead Redemption Horse

But Does the Llama Have Metamorphic Gonads?

(Fortnite Hangs with Red Dead Redemption...or Does it?)

If you follow these sorts of things, no doubt you have heard it said repeatedly that Rockstar Games’ recently released Red Dead Redemption is “so realistic that the horses’ balls shrink in the cold.” 

And there is apparently some threat that Red Dead will eventually have a Battle Royale mode, this threatening Fortnite’s ubiquity.

Both games get played in our house, each having an advocate who attests the superiority of his chosen game.

I am unmoved by the relative merits of llamas and horses with testicles, but it seemed like a fine opportunity to embarrass my son’s by posting an image with the word “gonads” in the title.

Fortnite Skins

Upgraded in Pink:

Our kids found the upgraded versions of the Drift and Ragnorak skins in Fortnite pretty compelling.

But my younger son tells me that the pink version of Ragnorak depicted here is just fan art and it should be blue.

This was a quick sketch cludged together in the morning before departure for camp, so accuracy was not at an all time high. 

Helmets on the Subway

What if we could all wear our favorite helmets on the train?

Everyone is absorbed in their phone on the subway- a sort of digital, mental helmet.

But wouldn’t it be more fun to wear a Fortnite or Halo helmet? And you could worry less about other people sneezing and coughing on you.

I started thinking about this after watching our younger son wear a cardboard helmet on the way home from camp.

I seem compelled to draw things on the subway, though the environment is clearly way too complicated for my skill set (and maybe the napkin genre) 

Just struggling to put one thing in front of another lends a weird outsidery art quality to the endeavor. And as a teacher at an institution that grants MFAs, I am afraid that my outsider privileges have been permanently revoked. Hashtag “notoutsiderartjustawkwarddrawing”

And despite the crowded train scene, I only managed to include 7 helmets, just the tip of the desirable helmet iceberg around here.

Shark vs. Knight

Left Shark vs Daedric Knight:

The kids have been playing Garry’s Mod. They are mostly interested in repeatedly blowing one another up with ridiculous weapons.

I thought their avatars could be interesting to draw in unweaponized acrobatic combat.

I might be alone in that interest.

...and while the Left Shark was not all that challenging, the Skyrim armor was clearly a bit more complicated than I needed. 

Fortnite Llama

Llama, Llama, Fortnite Drama:

Damaged as I am by 15 years of sleep deprivation, I cannot hear the word “llama” without mentally echoing “Llama,  Llama, Red Pajama.” This is the hooky title of a children’s book that I read over and over again to at least one of our kids. (The younger one claims no knowledge of it, but that probably means I only read it to him 50 times instead of the 100 times I read to his brother.) 

Five minutes of googling tells me that this 2005 book by Anna Dewdney has since become a “cultural touchstone” and a franchise (several sequel books, a Netflix series, a rap by Ludacris, etc) So I am no doubt not the only one burdened by the mental compulsion to echo all instances of “llama” with “pajama.” 

But there is a strange relevance here in regard to Fortnite and online gaming.... 

Ms. Dewdney’s book was about a young person’s difficulty with staying alone in his bedroom without his mama.

As I recall, baby llama’s poor self-regulation eventually led to much “llama drama,” boo-hooing, and wailing, which finally summons his annoyed mother to tell him to simmer down and go to sleep....while of course reassuring him of her love. 

The drama, wailing, and general poor self-regulation in our house is now less about separation anxiety and more about the frustrations of online gaming in general...and Fortnite in particular.

We had intense stress about llamas over the weekend. I cannot claim a deep understanding of these “llama”/piñata things’ role in the game, but their acquisition is essential. Hysteria can easily blossom when they can’t be found...or when, GOD FORBID, one is snatched away from under ones nose by another player.

Listening to my sons intermittently screech in frustration is perhaps unnecessarily traumatic for me. If only I, like the mother in the book, could successfully encourage less startling expressions of llama drama.

... but let’s be serious, I never succeeded in getting them to go to bed without drama.  

At least we did get a llama, so there’s that.

Fortnite Rogue Agent Birthday Card

This is another mother/son collaboration card.

The birthday kid’s Fortnite skin is Rogue Agent, therefore, this.

Sadly, none of my son’s friends favor the more outlandish, more entertaining to draw, Fortnite skins like, say, Cuddle Team Leader or Leviathan.

Fortnite Birthday Card Collaboration

Sadly, not a napkin, just plain old paper

When the gift for a good friend is a lame gift card... you might have to make an extra special card. 

Rust Lord is the birthday kid’s favorite skin in Fortnite  so he seemed like the appropriate bearer of birthday greetings.

I drew the ink outlines and my son did the color. He did a much nicer job than I would have. I would have been all wrapped up in the light problem with the glowing candles reflecting off the helmet and such...and past experience indicates that I probably wouldn’t have been able to make any of that work.

There are more birthdays coming up, (with more lame gift cards) so perhaps there will be more such Mother/Son collaborations.

Mercenary/ Furry Acroyogo

Aspirational Yoga: Wade and Cuddle Team Leader get their namaste on. (Characters our kids have been deprived of do some acroyoga that we are not capable of)

Deadpool 2 opened and somehow we haven’t seen it yet. I haven’t figured out how I am going to fast forward through the parts inappropriate for an 11 year old in the theater.

And, curmudgeon that I am, I refused to give my older son $20 to purchase the Cuddle Team Leader skin in Fortnite.

But I drew this napkin. 

Because every mother wants provide her sons with an picture of an amoral violent superhero and a sexy furry...?

Bros in Bowls

(They hate it when you tap on the glass)

Recently, the Leviathan skin in Fortnite was of great interest to our older son, (that’s Levianthan on the left) But unfortunately, he did not have the funds to purchase the fish head for gameplay.

Leviathan was purportedly inspired by Minion from the 2011 DreamWorks movie Megamind. (That’s the one with the gorilla suit on the right)

But Leviathan also reminded us of Fish from “Fish N Chips” a comic by Steve Hamaker, unsurprisingly, the one in the middle.

And there was also Fish, a character from “Chicken Little” a rather misguided effort from Disney back in 2005. Our older son was absolutely fixated on “Chicken Little” around age three, and in a Stockholm Syndrome sort of situation, after endless viewing, I learned to love it also. And it has Fish, who is based on the children’s book “Fish Out of Water” (also obsessed over here at our house many years ago). Fish wears a sort of reverse diving helmet/bowl on his head. His pal and classmate, Chicken Little reminds their friends: “They hate it when you tap on the glass” (I may still have all of the movie’s dialogue memorized)

But, sad to say, that Fish did not have a cool robot body, so he is excluded here, despite being the likely source of our affection for fishy persons wearing helmet bowls.

Raven from Fortnite

Raven from Epic Games’ Fortnite busts a move on a Tilted Tower:

There’s been a lot of Fortnite around here lately. The skins (playable character appearances) are amusing and quite good at extracting allowance funds from adolescent boys. Last week, both kids were desperate  to have Raven for the remarkably steep price of $20. I still have trouble getting my mind around the concept of the purchasing of virtual appearances within a limited virtual world....but clearly this is a very lucrative business model.

Though now that I have drawn Raven, my kids have moved on and are no longer even slightly interested.

Spider-Man Noir and Gotham by Gaslight Batman

Brothers in Stylish Darkness:

Spider-Man Noir teams up with “Gotham by Gaslight”s Batman.

Our sons are fond of both of these “alternate universe” iterations of  these characters. Darkness, stylish outfits and significant violence...what’s not to like? 

Although they are supposedly separated by a few decades: Batman in “Gaslight” tracks Jack the Ripper in the late 1880’s London, and Spider-Man Noir swings in the 1930’s during the American Depression, they look like they could work together.

A crossover opportunity, perhaps?

Wyvern from Ark

Ark Wyvern rendered in butter, sugar and food coloring.

We have survived another birthday event, complete with a frosted surface.

The Wyverns have been a source of contention at our house recently as they require round the clock care and feeding. This maintenance interferes with other bodily and academic functions (sleep, school)

Fortunately, the Wyvern has reached adulthood and I can stop hiding the cord to the WiFi overnight.

Skylanders Skyrim Mash up

Skyrimlanders. Or is it Skylandrim?

The younger set takes on The Elder Scrolls and Spyro the Dragon faces the Dovahkiin

Our sons might be too old for Skylanders, and technically too young for Skyrim. 

But we are all pretty confused at this point about what is age appropriate.  

Our older son claims that he has been playing Skyrim in a mod that turns all the dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine, but I have not personally observed this.

If there is one for Thomas, there should definitely be a Skylanders mod for the Elder Scrolls, but I don't know if such a thing exists. Although purple Spyro would seem to be the Barney of the Skyrim dragon universe. I considered drawing the "Dark Spyro" version of the character, where he looks more serious in black and silver. 

But I decided if I were going to mash up the two games that Spyro should be in his more colorful, child friendly form. 

Rainbow Six Siege's Sledge Makes a Partial Appearance

Who needs explosives?

Or napkins?

My older son asked for this character from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. 

I hear his catchphrase is "Who needs explosives?" Apparently his "tactical breaching hammer" works better than incendiary devices. 

I was more interested in drawing his stylish gas mask, but quite frankly, did not have time to draw either very well. This napkin was produced in the morning, in the harried 15 minutes between serving a breakfast that the kids ignored, and hurrying them out the door to camp.

Thus it has the dreaded (and previously forbidden) white space.  In their younger youth, my kids decided that napkins with white areas were a sign that Mom was shirking. And God forbid that one brother got a fully colored napkin, and the other an example of maternal lack. I tried to explain the design appeal of properly used negative space, but no one was buying. 

Perhaps napkins are just not the medium to elicit discussions of design and negative space?

But by now, the kids are older and slightly more relaxed about how much time was spent on one napkin or another. This is good, as the whole activity is obviously beyond ridiculous. 

I do think, however, that Sledge looks kind of nice disappearing off to the side. And thousands of napkins later, I still appreciate the lovely patterns on fancy Vanity Fair dinner napkins.

My older son asked for this character from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. 

I hear his catchphrase is "Who needs explosives?" Apparently his "tactical breaching hammer" works better than incendiary devices. 

I was more interested in drawing his stylish gas mask, but quite frankly, did not have time to draw either very well. This napkin was produced in the morning, in the harried 15 minutes between serving a breakfast that the kids ignored, and hurrying them out the door to camp.

Thus it has the dreaded (and previously forbidden) white space.  In their younger youth, my kids decided that napkins with white areas were a sign that Mom was shirking and probably didn't care enough. God forbid that one brother got a fully colored napkin, and the other an example of maternal lack. I tried to explain the design appeal of properly used negative space, but no one was buying. 

Perhaps napkins are just not the medium to elicit discussions of design and negative space?

But by now, the kids are older and slightly more relaxed about how much time was spent on one napkin or another. This is good, as the whole activity is obviously beyond ridiculous. 

I do think, however, that Sledge looks kind of nice disappearing off to the side. And thousands of napkins later, I still appreciate the lovely patterns on fancy Vanity Fair dinner napkins.

Terraria's Moon Lord

The Moon Lord's Hand Sees All (...the Food You Are Not Eating at Lunch)

The Terraria game resurfaces as a favorite with our kids on a regular basis. Hanging out with a couple of friends at camp reinvigorated their interest recently.

I don't know much about the Moon Lord beyond the fact that his face resembles Cthulhu and he has a glowing eye in each palm.  For whatever it is worth, the eyes in his palms are oriented vertically and are not like the "Hamsa" hand common in eastern religious iconography. 

The Terraria wiki says: "Moon Lord is a Hardmode, post-Lunatic Cultistboss.  It is Terraria's final boss."

There's a lot more to this boss, thematically, and visually. I just went for the aspect that was easiest to draw on a napkin.

Sharks in Rainbow Six Siege

For Shark Week 2017

My older son has been playing a lot of "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Siege" with friends from school.

The game's website explains that "Siege is a brand-new style of gameplay embracing the reality of counter-terrorist operatives across the world: intense and asymmetrical close-quarters combat between attackers and defenders."

Sounds compelling, but maybe what it really needs is playable sharks.

The Red Hood and Deadpool

The Red Hood and Deadpool Point Some Fingers Nonviolently:

One cannot help but notice the similar appeal of these two red masked individuals. 

And their visual appeal is intensified when they are holding and pointing their guns. 

I was trying to find a less weaponized arrangement for the two that also explained why they are so close to one another....other than to fit on the napkin...

I thought perhaps the finger trap allowed for some gratifying finger pointing posing without the actual guns.

Maybe.

Unfortunately, it meant I had to draw both of their overly detailed gloves.

Sub Zero Serves Some Soft Serve

Injustice 2's Sub Zero Holds Cold Cones for the Belated Observance of National Ice Cream Day.

Sub Zero seems to be able to create frozen "clones" of himself and then use them as projectile weapons. Sadly, he does not extrude or throw frozen desserts. 

Our sons are always big fans of soft serve ice cream, particularly when it comes out of a Mr. Softee Truck. 

I did buy them each a soft serve cone from a truck on the actual day of National Ice Cream Day (July 16th) even though this napkin did not appear at a camp lunch until today (July 18th, National Caviar Day, unfortunately)

Demon of Song

The Demon of Song from Dark Souls 2 Reads the Label, Wondering Whether an Honest Kids Lemonade Packet Contains Too Much Sugar.

There are an endless number of creepy, gross bosses in the Dark Souls franchise.

This one is a giant nasty frog with a skull and spindly arms protruding from the mouth...or maybe it is some sort of skeleton wearing a frog? 

But even monsters need to consider excess carbohydrates and tooth decay. Right?

And this one has a lot of teeth to worry about.

(This Honest Kids Lemonade packet is in my kids' lunch boxes because, presumably, it has less sugar than some other things...)