I’ve had a lot of fun reading the talkbacks in the last couple of days with some people blowing their wigs about the number of cartoon DVD reviews the gang and I have done in the last week or so.  I myself have slogged through seven of them this week and my man Anderson has posted up quite a few as well.  Everything from George of the Jungle, to Scooby Doo to Smurfs to Charlie Brown.  People seem to be wondering if CHUD is being hijacked by toons.

Some talkbackers – as some talkbackers are known to do – have come out against this with a fervor I haven’t seen…or have I?

Yes, as a matter of fact I have: last year when Muslims were ready to burn Europe to ashes over a cartoon depiction of Mohammed.  The Danish guy who drew him has had death threats out the wazoo.  The Middle East massed by the hundreds of thousands to burn flags in effigy.  Now I don’t pretend to understand any of this, but one thing I knew long before any of that occurred, it’s probably best not to piss off people who are literally willing to die – and more important to kill – over their beliefs.

Now here at CHUD, we don’t have anything quite as incendiary as that going on, but the anti-toon talkback has been pretty damn entertaining.  Allow me to do a bit of schoolin’ on the whole review process:

1. Studios send us their swag to review.  Some of it, like Bourne Ultimatum, rules the earth.  Some of it, like The Lair (yes I was the one who had to brave – and I mean BRAVE – that review) make you want to run out of your domicile screaming.  But what the studios send us is what goes up on the site.  In this recent case, it’s been a lot of toons.

2. One the discs come, we choose the ones we want to do.  In cases where there’s a popular disc up for grabs, there may be some random bloodletting in the scramble to get it.  But generally, we receive the discs we want if we get to them in time.

3. There are plenty of discs no one wants.  But they have to be reviewed.  ‘Cause that’s what we do here.  So we man up (or in Eileen’s case woman up) and do the job. 

4. We watch the discs and throw our opinions up in cyberspace for all the world to see.  I’ve checked out CHUD in both Europe and Africa, so I do mean the world.

5. Talkbackers – if they feel so inclined – either praise us, make a random comment about the show / movie / toon, or tell us to fuck ourselves for our said opinions.  That’s the fun part.

All of this is subjective bullshit anyway.  We like something, you don’t.  And that matters how exactly…?  Yet with all of the crap going on in the world, sometimes we reviewers get called names or bedeviled by anonymous posters with jerkoff monikers.  My ultimate thinking is: Cool, that’s the gig.  That’s CHUD.  That’s the internet.  That’s life.  I have no prob with that.  In fact I love that. 

So basically, what I’m trying to impart here in my own convoluted way is that it’s all good.  Tell us to fuck ourselves if you want.  Tell us you like our stuff if you want.  Make random comments if you want.  But just do it on an informed basis.  We review what comes down the pike.  Decisions on whom to eliminate from talkbacks – if any such decisions are made – are done at higher air than we reviewers generally breathe.  I believe it comes from a certain threshold of douchebaggedness that is achieved by a talkbacker in order to qualify for that honor.  Apparently some of you have indeed triumphed in that regard, and I applaud your success.

And CHUD’s not being taken over by toons, FYI. CHUD reviewers do this because we love it, not for money (unless I missed something at the last staff meeting).  We do it for the talkbacks, for the occasional free swag.  And ultimately, I don’t care that you have something to say, only that you say it.