What do you get when you take a healthy doses of nonsensical and non sequitur humour, a relentless ear for pseudologic and a quite temperamental gnome? Well, Wesley The Gnome is what you ge ! Wesley is angry at the world and constantly gets involved in things that happen for no reason, and don’t go anywhere really. And every other story, he dies.
(Wesley the Gnome by and (c) Jonas Geirnaert)
Wesley The Gnome started as a series of one-page comics that comedian and animator Jonas Geirnaert created for Flemish media magazine Humo. Even though he is an accomplished artist, Geirnaert kept the strip’s art naive and almost childlike on purpose, as if he’s not able to keep up with the story itself. Not that there is much of a story -- the adventures of the grumpy gnome are quite often seemingly random sequences of absurd, surreal and quite often scatological sketches and anecdotes. The Humo public, which had been yearning for a next Kamagurka or Jeroom, loved it. They couldn’t get enough of it, and when television producers Woestijnvis asked Geirnaert to do an animated version of the strips, they were an instant success.
The shorts are currently being broadcasted on a weekly basis as part of the “marginal news” show Man Bijt Hond (Man Bites Dog). Right from the start, though, fans started posting them on Youtube where they became an instant hit. Every time a new short gets published, its viewing figures shoots to half a million and more, which in turn got the attention of several Dutch TV stations.
To give you an idea, I tried my hand at translating one of the shorts, Enchantment, the fourth in the series (originally broadcast on September 21, 2009). The Wesley Wikipedia page has links to all other videos (in Dutch). Try them, even if it’s only to practice your Flemish…
Enchantment
- One day -
Wesley : I hate working in my garden !
- When suddenly -
Watering Can : I am the magical watering can !
Wesley : And.. ?
Watering Can : If you say “Turbo” twice, I get set on fire !
Wesley : And what is the practical use of that ?
Watering Can : There isn’t any -- it’s very painful, actually.
Wesley : Turbo, Turbo !
Wesley : Ha, ha ha ! That’s a good one !
Wesley : Cut it out now ! I can’t take any more !
Watering Can : It stopped, it would seem.
Wesley : Turbo, Turbo !
Watering Can : Ha, ha, ha ! This is the most fun in a long time !
Wesley : The pain is unbearable !
- When suddenly -
Wesley : I’ve finished being on fire.
Cat : Hello, I am a cat ! Hello, friends !
Wesley and Watering Can: Turbo Turbo !
Cat : Ha, ha ! Look at those two, just getting set on fire !
- When suddenly -
Wizard : I am the Evil Wizard ! I have hereby lifted the curse !
Wesley, Watering can and Cat : Huzzah !
Wizard : Turbo Turbo !
Wizard : Haha, fooled you ! It’s not lifted at all !
- The end -
Incidentally, In 2004, Geirnaert won the jury prize for his animated short, Flatlife. That was a very stylised film about how the lives of four neighbours in an apartment building are influenced by what goes on in each other’s flat, which you can also see via Youtube:
Fri, Dec 11, 2009
Art and animation, Comics and cartoons, From our Continental Correspondent