General Nickelodeon Scandal (Sexual Predators)

[ShineCero]

The Disturbing Secret Behind An Iconic Cartoon​

Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice were teenage Ren & Stimpy fans who wanted to make cartoons. They say they were preyed upon by the creator of the show, John Kricfalusi, who admitted to having had a 16-year-old girlfriend when approached by BuzzFeed News.

Robyn Byrd thought her plan was working when the letter from her hero arrived in the mail. It was 1994, and the 13-year-old had sent the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show a video of herself talking about her drawings and the animation career she envisioned; she thought if she got the attention of the studio behind the hit Nickelodeon show, she might get a job there someday. John Kricfalusi’s effusive letter, Byrd said, seemed like the first step toward her dream.

She could hardly believe he’d responded. “I had built up these characters and this mythos of Ren & Stimpy in my head,” Byrd, now 37, told BuzzFeed News. “It was exciting.”

Soon, she said, she began receiving boxes of toys and art supplies from 39-year-old Kricfalusi, better known as John K. He helped her get her first AOL account, through which he convinced her he could help her become a great artist. He visited her at the trailer park where she lived in Tucson, Arizona. “I thought I was still his little cute friend,” she said. And then, when she was still in 11th grade, he flew her to Los Angeles to show her his studio and talk about her future. She said that on the same trip, in a room with a sliding glass door that led to his pool, he touched her genitals through her pajamas as she lay frozen on a blanket he’d placed on the floor. She was 16.

In the summer of 1997, before her senior year of high school, he flew her to Los Angeles again, where Byrd had an internship at Spumco, Kricfalusi’s studio, and lived with him as his 16-year-old girlfriend and intern. After finishing her senior year in Tucson, the tiny, dark-haired girl moved in with Kricfalusi permanently at age 17. She told herself that Kricfalusi was helping to launch her career; in the end, she fled animation to get away from him.

Since October, a national reckoning with sexual assault and harassment has not only felled dozens of prominent men, but also caused allegations made in the past to resurface. In some ways, the old transgressions are the most uncomfortable: They implicate not just the alleged abusers, but everyone who knew about the stories and chose to overlook them.

Source

Can't say I'm surprised about this. What the heck is going on at Nickelodeon?

 

[LoopyPanda]

Well, with Dan Schneider's allegations popping back up not even the day before this happened, you may as well retitle this thread to the General Nickelodeon Scandal thread! There's also the Loud House creator's allegations for harassment of female employees (if I remember right).

John and Dan are some major creeps.

 

[ShineCero]

You're right. I change the title to reflect on the recent news. And yes, Chris Sarvino as outed for sexual harassment and remove from the show, studios and everything else. Won't be surprised if he was blacklisted from the animation industry at this point.

The problem I have is how some people tried to side-track their deplorable behaviors because they "did" something; over-exaggerations on their end, mind you.

Which brings into light: Where were the other employers about this issue? Why didn't none of them ever hope to stop this shit? Here's an detail account on Dan and his producers about the series of perversions done in their studio; Jamie Spears' disappearance from television is perhaps one of the biggest eye-openers out there.

 

[JamesYTP]

Well, he's not the first Nick guy as you've all said. John K. has had nasty rumors floating around about him for years, everything from him being gay to him using homophobic slurs addressing employees to him being a raging misogynist. Guess you can add he's an alleged pedophile to the list too. So the accusation doesn't surprise me too much really, sadly. I love his work and he had a huge impact on animation so it's a shame to learn at least that he's probably not a very good person.

 

[Nick]

Not to be rude, but please say the networks entire name, I think you can see why this bothers me... But seriously fuck those people.

 

[LoopyPanda]

Not to be rude, but please say the networks entire name, I think you can see why this bothers me... But seriously fuck those people.

[img=500x350]
[img=300x250]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DYdMobmXcAAtoWe.jpg[/img]
Edgy joke aside...


Typically I don't take Buzzfeed articles seriously, but with the abundance of photos between the girls and John K. uncomfortably close (ala Dan Schneider), I think I can reasonably conclude he's a little too into underage girls, especially if there are multiple people that worked at Spumco corroborating one of the girls's stories.

As for Dan Schneider, his behavior off-camera is documented in the form of online addons for iCarly and Victorious, but the Amanda Show contains behind the scenes bloopers as well that make things seem a little too comfy around the younger girls. His mildly creepy interactions with children are more documented, although the actresses involved do not openly speak out, most likely because these are their livelihoods and such a scandal against someone who was their 'boss' easily could take that away from them. I imagine a lot of young actors helped their families provide income, and perhaps their silence was forcibly bought.

Jamie Lynn Spears's abrupt cancellation of Zoey101 amid pregnancy rumors have an air of suspicious mystery behind it, considering that online, only Chase and the other guy appeared in the "reunion" clip in which Zoey's time capsule apparently is revealed. The girls in it, including Jamie and Victoria Justice, were not seen or even mentioned. In fact, Jamie faded into obscurity like everyone else, so it isn't exactly like she was too busy to do it.

Ariana Grande was on Victorious as well, and had a few clips on the DanWarp channel along with Victoria showcasing some... "gags" that involved feet... a lot. 

Spoiler: cursed tweets

Now, I don't care if people have feet fetishes, people argue even Quentin Tarantino is into pretty feet and shit, but I think it's crossing a very weird line when you bring your fetish to children's programming, or even preteen to teenagers (since they are still legally minors until they are 18 years old). If you look up the clip of Ariana Grande trying to fit her toe into her mouth for a skit on the DanWarp channel (it exists, but I advise you not to look it up, lest your recommended videos consist of feet vids), you will find open foot fetishists commenting right below it, getting plenty of upvotes that anyone scrolling will see. Not creepy at all!


Sadly, the idea of pedophiles being in the shadows of Hollywood isn't new. Even as far back as the early 1900s, it's something that lacks subtlety. For example, Shirley Temple's earlier acts as a toddler consisted of "Baby Burlesque" shows-- these are essentially toddlers cast to parody adult films/skits, and the imagery is not innocent in any way. If you feel like hating Hollywood execs, here's a part of a documentary I found regarding Shirley Temple's early career, which she has recounted before when she was an adult (I'll have to look for these interviews in particular seeing as they were filmed too):
[video=youtube]
in case the player does not work: 
This is part 4 of a full documentary that is found with separate parts (the entire documentary focuses on different themes, this segment is just about Shirley).

Personally, I recognize Shirley Temple most in that commercial for her Little Darling DVD collection that constantly aired year-round in the early 2000s in "spectacular remastered technicolor," I assume these were her later works and were not the Baby Burlesques since... I assume times changed in terms of what was marketable in recent decades.

The full doc's title: The Lolita Riddle: Nabokov and Shirley Temple (may edit if this is not the correct name, but you should be able to find all four parts on youtube).


It is a difficult situation to be involved with, considering people who have a status in Hollywood know who is a pedophile in Hollywood like an open secret, but these people have the money and power to keep you quiet.
Former Goonies actor, Corey Feldman, was stabbed in an attempted murder. He is openly against pedophile rings in Hollywood and is working to expose them, and believes he was targeted after a string of threats came his way recently. Source
So you either must anonymously discuss it, or keep your life as private as you can lest you make the wrong kinds of people angry.

 

[ShineCero]

Well, he's not the first Nick guy as you've all said. John K. has had nasty rumors floating around about him for years, everything from him being gay to him using homophobic slurs addressing employees to him being a raging misogynist.n Guess you can add he's an alleged pedophile to the list too. So the accusation doesn't surprise me too much really, sadly. I love his work and he had a huge impact on animation so it's a shame to learn at least that he's probably not a very good person.

I mean, did he? He was pretty much a attempted has-been who barely got into 10 episodes before getting booted off of his own show. When he tried to make a "sequel/remake/reboot" in the form of Adult Party Cartoon, it dragged whatever "good" (and I'm using it LOOSELY here) the original cartoon had into the ground. 

I wager that there were plentiful animators that made a significant impact of how animation works in the 90s than John K. Heck, you have Joe Murry who, in some ways, similar to John K in terms of "crude humor" in his cartoon, Rocko's Modern Life, but unlike John K, he went on and became an successful animator with little to no baggage carried with him (as of now). 

Not trying to downplay anyone here, but I'm legitimately confused of why people think he made contributions to animations when everyone and their mother hated the guy in the animation world, aside from his legion of followers on his blog and few animators who also participated in his sick games. 

Not to be rude, but please say the networks entire name, I think you can see why this bothers me... But seriously fuck those people.

There is no escape....

@"LoopyPanda" 

Different strokes for different folks, but this is not one of them. It bordering disgusting nature where these men target young girls in order to manipulate them for their own desires. Worst thing about this own ordeal that I feel there is a chance that John K is not the last of them; there are more creeps within the Studios (and Hollywood as a whole).

 

[JamesYTP]

Well, he's not the first Nick guy as you've all said. John K. has had nasty rumors floating around about him for years, everything from him being gay to him using homophobic slurs addressing employees to him being a raging misogynist.n Guess you can add he's an alleged pedophile to the list too. So the accusation doesn't surprise me too much really, sadly. I love his work and he had a huge impact on animation so it's a shame to learn at least that he's probably not a very good person.

I mean, did he? He was pretty much a attempted has-been who barely got into 10 episodes before getting booted off of his own show. When he tried to make a "sequel/remake/reboot" in the form of Adult Party Cartoon, it dragged whatever "good" (and I'm using it LOOSELY here) the original cartoon had into the ground. 

I wager that there were plentiful animators that made a significant impact of how animation works in the 90s than John K. Heck, you have Joe Murry who, in some ways, similar to John K in terms of "crude humor" in his cartoon, Rocko's Modern Life, but unlike John K, he went on and became an successful animator with little to no baggage carried with him (as of now). 

Not trying to downplay anyone here, but I'm legitimately confused of why people think he made contributions to animations when everyone and their mother hated the guy in the animation world, aside from his legion of followers on his blog and few animators who also participated in his sick games. 

Well, there were definitely people who were/are more successful in that regard than him, since as you say most in the animation world don't find that his talents outweigh the baggage that comes with him and this might very well be the last nail in the coffin for him as far as continuing his career. The impact was mainly that he demonstrated that you can have a hit cartoon that didn't have a toyline attached to it from day 1, in the 80s most cartoons had the toyline come first and then the creatives just had to work there show around that. Ren and Stimpy and to a lesser degree Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures really paved the way for Rocko's and a lot of what Nickelodeon would do after. I don't know that I'd call him THE biggest game changer of the era (I'd say Ralph Bakshi would get that honor, who basically started John K's career and a whole host of others...and incidentally even Bakshi apparently fired him multiple times). But he did make some huge contributions to the medium, but obviously, they weren't big enough contributions that they justified anyone keeping him employed for very long and I guess now we might have a better idea of why that is.

 

[ShineCero]

John K posted an apology a few months ago... and, wow... just, well, read it among yourselves: 

Talk about a fucking yikes.

 

[LoopyPanda]

I couldn't stomach to finish the entire photoset. So much of it sounds like what a predator says to a child they're grooming into not telling their parents about what the predator did. The language here is so discomforting and it creeps me out just being a passerby reading it. 

If you are not easily distraught by the subject matter, it becomes readily apparent why he was told not to publish it "as is".


Btw, is it me or are the Boo-boo and Yogi drawings a little off-putting out of context?