You might have heard the rumblings by now. You may have heard the latest name in #MeToo; that name is John Kricfalusi.
If the name sounds familiar, then you probably grew up watching Nickelodeon every Saturday night, eagerly awaiting the new Ren & Stimpy episode. He’s known as the creator of the show, which has been hailed as one of the best animated shows in the 1990s. Personally, I hated the show; it was too over the top disgusting and the humor relied on toilet jokes. To say I was not a fan would be putting it very mildly.
The creator of the show also had an appetite for underage girls. Read the Buzzfeed article only if you have a strong stomach. It’s a revealing look at what was going on behind the scenes at Spumco.
But it gets worse because of course it does and we can’t have nice fucking things and your heroes are all shit and everything (emphasis mine):
Byrd doesn’t remember Kricfalusi taking explicit photos of her; she also wasn’t aware, she said, that he showed explicit photos of her to other people. But Wyatt recounted an interaction with his then-boss that was similar to Mora’s. He said that at a party at Kricfalusi’s house between 1999 and 2002, Kricfalusi showed him “a stack of Polaroids” of Kricfalusi and Byrd having sex. He never mentioned the photographs to Byrd, nor did he confront Kricfalusi about the interaction. During another party at Kricfalusi’s house, Swarr said the artist pulled out a binder of photos that showed Byrd naked in his pool. “It was gross,” Swarr said. Affecting a gruff voice when he spoke as Kricfalusi, Swarr recalled, “He was like, ‘Oh, you like that?’ I was like, ‘No!’”
The Wyatt mentioned here is Derrick J. Wyatt. Yes, that Derrick J. Wyatt, the same guy who has popped in at more than one BotCon.
So Wyatt knew about this. He saw fucking evidence and he said nothing. Jesus fuck. When I read that paragraph last night, I wanted to throw my tablet across the bedroom, I was that pissed.
I get it: John K was his boss. Things like that will put employees in a very compromising position. But he could have let the victim know something, could have said something on the down low to let her know that this shit existed. But he didn’t.
Now, let me clarify things: Wyatt is not a hero of mine. However, he worked on something that I enjoyed immensely. When Transformers: Animated hit Cartoon Network, we had just come off the Unicron Trilogy, which was spotty at best and a disaster at worst. Animated was a breath of fresh air, with its shout outs to the original G1 cartoon, an engaging cast and a human lead that was female. The art style was different but the stories were incredible, which is why the show is held in such high regard in the Transformers fandom. Now, after reading about John K and his proclivities, after reading that Wyatt knew about some of this, I’m forced to wonder if I’ll ever be able to watch Animated ever again. It all seems too loaded now.
#KillYourHeroes
Iacon East 