Prototype Issue
The So-Called International Day of the Ninja
By Polly Cole
(page 1 of 1)AKA Influence is the New Plagiarism
I have to admit that when my editor Kamren asked me to cover an event billed “The International Day of the Ninja” at the El Rey Theatre, I was pretty excited. She asked me to take pictures and to write a little blurb about it. Sweet! I had visions in my head of a convention-like atmosphere of quiet but deadly (not to be confused with silent but deadly) martial artists, speakers pontificating on the virtues of honor and discipline, and an array of people from all over the globe; you know, it being “International” and all. And also, I expected nun-chucks and throwing stars. Lots of them.
But you know what I got? NONE OF THAT! The so-called International Day of the Ninja was a total sham. The evening, which started promptly and 8 o’clock, featured a knock-off band called Hard n’ Phirm, a ridiculously funny set by comedian Patton Oswalt, and a Q & A session with “The Ninja”—a guy in a ninja costume who wasn’t even on stage, but being filmed somewhere in the bowels of the theatre and projected onto a screen for the audience. Because I guess that’s his shtick.
You see, Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine, co-creators of www.AskaNinja.com, put on the so-called International Day of the Ninja. AskaNinja.com is a “comedy” website where clips show Sarine dressed up as a ‘ninja’ answering “viewer” questions. (Yeah, lotta little quotation marks there – but much sarcasm is being expressed.)
So there I am, standing in the El Rey theatre amongst a whole bunch of 25- to 40-year-olds, watching the headliner, a grown man in a ninja suit projected onto a screen as he answers the most asinine questions I’ve ever heard from people in the audience. Questions like which superhero is the most ninja? And you know what? People were laughing!! I AM STUCK IN A GENERATION OF IMBECILES!! It became even more totally surreal and ridiculous as the Ninja’s costume started to malfunction, revealing a large piece of wardrobe tape stuck on the center of Sarine’s sweaty forehead. Boy, oh boy. Luckily, the event was over by 10:30, leaving plenty of time for everyone to go home, get into their pajamas, drink hot chocolate and have bedtime stories read to them before getting up to go to work the next morning.
The whole thing irked me, but mostly because the ‘ninja’ seemed vaguely familiar and I couldn’t quite place why. Then last night it hit me. Oh my god, it’s a complete and total rip-off!! About 10 years ago, I used to watch the flash-animated adventures of Strong Bad. Strong Bad is a cartoon who wears a Mexican wrestling mask and boxing gloves. He sits down at his computer and checks his emails, wherein viewers of his show ask ridiculous, albeit funny, questions and Strong Bad replies, often with terribly amusing antidotes. The ‘ninja’ is such a knock off that not only do they use the exact same format as Strong Bad but Sarine even uses the same voice! Sure enough, I do a wikipedia search on AskaNinja and in the overview paragraph it divulges that Sarine and Nichols are ‘influenced’ by Strong Bad. I guess influence is the new plagiarism.
But don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself: www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail and, of course, www.askaninja.com.
Editor’s Note: Sorry to have put you through such pain and struggle, Polly. If I knew this Ninja dude was so whack, I’d have never assigned it. I owe you one big time! For some real inspiration, check out Polly’s shots at www.pollycolephotography.com.
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