4 Reasons I Got Rid of Joe and Steve

Believe it or not, getting rid of Hentai Man Joe and Camera Man Steve is possibly one of the hardest decisions I've had to make for AMR. Since I started in Oct. of 2009, they have been a staple in my show and they were my original gimmick to make the show different from everyone else's anime review show. Like I said in the Battle Arena Toshinden review, those two were really a part of me, and in a weird short of way, I feel as though they were a side of my personality that wanted to flesh out a little bit more. I'm actually a very quite and layed back person in real life and Joe and Steve were a part of myself that wanted to get out and poke fun at the sexual innuendos in anime, movies and my own sexual tenancies.

But in the last few months I've run into a bit of writer's block with AMR and for a while I couldn't understand why. So this last week, I sat down and forced myself to write the Battle Arena Toshinden review, something that I had been putting off for many months, and I had a bit of an epiphany when I was working on the third re-write. As much as I loved Joe and Steve, they had become a giant ball and chain to my creative process. And there are four reasons as to why that is.

4. Mixed Reactions from Fans

I am more than aware that Joe and Steve have a lot of hate following them, but at the same time, people have expressed their liking for them as well. What's odd is that one voice is never louder than the other. I've hard people say they are funny and creative and there are other people who want to burn them alive. Although for the longest time, I just ignored them cause ultimately, AMR is my show, I'll do what I damn well want to in it. I'd also be lying if I didn't say getting a letter from Rob at TGWTG saying he like them, didn't help my motivation either. (I still have the e-mail to prove it =P) But at the same time, I am tired of the mixed response from their segments and I think it would be better for everyone if I just moved on from this point with out them.

3. New Material Isn't as Easy to Write Now
When I first started, the Joe and Steve moments came to me almost instantly with every movie and OVA I watched. I'm actually now at a point where I've finished my first round of material I wanted to cover and working on the second batch of things I either didn't want to cover cause I liked them too much or just things I hadn't come across before. Although with this new batch of movies, there are still plenty of sex jokes to be had, I just couldn't think of a funny way to write them with Joe and Steve's Characters. It's easily one of the main causes I get writers block. I just spend too much time writing Joe and Steve characters that I either forget about the movie I just watched thinking how I'm going to fit those two in or, I just dread the idea of putting them into the review of something I liked to such an extend that I would put off the review for ages on end. By getting rid of these characters, I hope to be able to jump into writing reviews that more quickly, and focus on my own jokes from now on.

2. I've Lost the Ability to do Joe's Voice
When I started back in '09, I actually did have a voice set aside for Joe. I liked to describe it as "a Snooty British Film Maker Accent" and for the first couple of episodes you can hear a difference between my voice, Steve's (which is simply a southern drawl) and Joe's. But as the months went by, I slowly forgot how to pick up this accent, and it slipped more and more into my own voice, and people are starting to notice this, and they point it out as one of the biggest flaws with my show and I do have to agree with them. It sucks I've lost the ability to do his voice, but maybe it was a sign that I needed to stop doing these scenes.

1. They Take Forever to Edit
Writing new material for them is one thing, but actually editing these moments together is a bit of a nightmare. I have no idea how I was able to edit these moments together back when I was using iMovie and I'm surprised I didn't kill myself in the process. Even now with Final Cut, editing Joe and Steve will easily take over an hour to do. I'm not exaggerating either. I actually do try my damnest to make the lip sync match, but it never comes out right. I've never been satisfied with the final out come of any of these Joe and Steve moments cause even if I get it close to being perfect, its still off and noticeable to me as a creator and I feel I will never really be able to give these characters the life they deserve. Not only that, but there's a certain amount of dread that comes with writing a segment. I've constantly went, "Great, that's funny on paper, but how the hell am I going to get this to work in post." One example of that was the La Blue Girl Review. Originally, it was suppose to be like a normal Joe and Steve joke, with me and Vix talking in live-action and Joe and Steve in their anime forms, but after looking how long the segment was, I had to pause and think how the hell I was going to edit all of those lip flaps in time to post this on Vix's schedule. I couldn't was the the answer, so I did the skype thing as a work around. It pains me to know that these jokes will never be fully realized, and its a thought that's constantly on my mind as I'm editing and it stops being fun and it turns into a giant mess.

So, ultimately, I had trouble Writing, Recording, and Editing these Joe and Steve jokes to the point where they got in the way of creating the episode, but on top of all of that they always got a mixed reaction. So instead of beating a dead horse, I'm going to abandon Joe and Steve. It still does greatly pain me to do this, but its something that must be done for the benefit of the show. I'm sorry for those of you who were fans of the characters, and I thank you for supporting them.