Pani Poni Dash! is funny when you actually get it
I recently finished my second complete viewing of Pani Poni Dash! at MIT tonight. Over the course of this second viewing, I’ve noticed my kung-fu has improved. That meaning, I get a lot more of the jokes now. Nods to GeGeGe No Kitarou and Uchuu Senkan Yamato no longer feel random and strange, and obvious pokes at Cobra and Mazinger Z don’t go over my head any longer. However, there is still a lot of shit I just don’t get. I’ve found the hilarity of PPD episodes depends entirely on how much you just get it. Entire episodes will go by where I simply don’t understand anything at all, while some episodes will just be chocked full of stuff that makes perfect sense to me (episode 25 was Yamato, Gunbuster, Giant Robo and Eva all at once.)
The point here is that inbetween the year or so when I first finished the show and now, I’ve learned a lot. I think I should just watch PPD every year just to guage my otaku knowledge, and see how much I can pick up. Hell, given how many times it pokes fun at old anime, I’m sure even Macias would like parts of it.
“I’ve found the hilarity of PPD episodes depends entirely on how much you just get it. ”
That’s the biggest problem about the show. Other parody shows like the great Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi or The Simpsons use a lot of insider jokes but are told in a way that the whole concept even works for outsiders.
I think that this is the art of making parodies: having a lot of nods to other shows but still being funny on its own.
Unfortunately PPD only works for insiders.
I don’t see how watching a bunch of old shows makes you an “insider”, whatever that means.
Sorry, I thought the word “insider” describes people who are familiar with something others aren’t (since it is English I thought it would be used the same way in English as it is used in German: Insiderwitz = a joke that can only be understood by people with specific topic related knowledge).
So “watching a bunch of old shows makes you” able to get the jokes other people aren’t getting. And that’s how I criticize PPD: Its entertainment value is reduced because the scences don’t work on their own.
Yeah, it’s valid criticism. Definitely the show’s weak spot, as it makes or breaks whether a person can laugh at it or not. But if you’re a total otaku with no life, it’s great.
When you said “insider” I was more thinking of people on the production staff, or something. I’m sure the show is chock full of jokes between those guys too, but I’m assuming all that is reserved for the blackboard scribbles (which is probably why they are mostly incomprehensible).
Maybe I’m weird, but I laughed a lot even at episodes where I hardly got any reference. Its own recurring jokes are enough to keep me satisfied.
That’s true. The show has a good amount of character-based humour.