I wish I were more animated

Animation is the new craze, with do-it-yourself cartoons everywhere.

Services like xtranormal, goanimate and animasher let you build your own. Xtranormal went from 800,000 to 2.4 million subscribers in the last six month.

This is not Disney World. But it can be funny. The characters and voices are stiff, but that adds to the comic effect. And many of the popular ones, like “So you want to be a lawyer” involve a little self mockery, or the mockery of ones profession.

I enjoyed “So you want to be a journalist” but there are scores of others along this theme— like “So you want to write a novel,” where the would be novice writer wants to finish a book by the weekend.

“What’s the last book you read?” the publisher asks.

“I saw all the Harry Potter movies,” he replies.

So bored this weekend? Amuse yourself. And us.

At xtranormal you can choose a setting, characters, voices, music and start typing. As you type the script you can drag in motions, faces, or pauses—and the first one is basically free, as long as your don’t chose the expensive settings or characters. It works on a point system, and isn’t too expensive. One grad students produced “So you want a Ph.D. in the humanities” for under $5 and has had a 500,000 hits on you-tube.

I’ve been working on a series called Small Man on Campus and have produced two short cartoons so far about a student I may or may not have had in my classes. Each one took my about half an hour. One, About Your Grade is about, you, know, a student’s grade. And About Class Last Wednesday is about, well, I’ll let you figure it out. It’s posted above.

My cartoons are about as good as a lot of Christian fiction. But at least I was trying to be funny.

If you make something, and it’s G-rated, post it below so we can all enjoy it. Or just post script ideas.

Have an extranormal weekend.