Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

(…and my artwork appears in their video!)

By Professor Popinjay

While I’ve had comics and humor articles in a couple small newspapers, a fact for which I am indeed grateful, nothing has excited me more than seeing my work on Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan’s Ten Minute Power Hour on YouTube.

Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan might not exactly be household names but they’ve definitely made their mark in my life. It seems everyone has a favorite YouTuber or two and with the multitude out there, it can be a rare thing when any two people know of the same YouTubers, let alone have the same favorites.

Arin and Dan, aka The Game Grumps, aka The Grumps, exhibit their creativity in a multitude of venues including but not limited to video game playthroughs, music (with two bands Ninja Sex Party and Starbomb featuring TWRP), and a sort of variety show called The Ten Minute Power Hour wherein they hilariously demonstrate products, rate bizarre foods, or create art in entertaining ways.

One event out of many which endeared me to them happened during a very rough time in my life. The mother of my children and I were separated. I had taken a whole day off from work that I might file some necessary paperwork at the courthouse. Not a fun day to begin with.

Making matters worse, I happened to become gravely ill that day, undeniably feverish. But I had to do what I had to do. I donned a mask (even pre-Covid or “Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour” as The Grumps call it.) and stood in the long line to file my paperwork. I was feverish, sweating bullets, and just generally miserable in every way. But I got my stuff filed and got out of there as fast as I could.

Even though I was supposed to pick up my kids from their mother, I called and explained my situation and asked if she could please continue to take care of the kids. I could tell the kids were disappointed but if I could prevent them from getting whatever this sickness was it would be best for all parties.

I was alone, depressed, bed ridden, and switching from feeling too hot to too cold and back again. I could not eat. Convalescing as I was, I was barely even drinking water.

To distract myself, I turned on the Game Grumps and was instantly healed! Just kidding. I was still puking my guts out. However, while watching their playthrough of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Dan goes into a bit as “Sherryl” describing her dream guy, a particularly bizarre looking fellow in the game named Jaggle. Despite Jaggle’s attributes being terribly unappealing to most, “Sherryl” describes them with happy enthusiasm.

The whole bit made me laugh so hard I threw up again. That probably sounds awful, but I was suddenly very happy and that’s about the time this illness and life in general took a turn for the better. I had a good long sleep and then chugged an entire citrus vitamin water. Life was good.

While these fellows do have a habit of speaking rather crassly and profanely during their video game playthroughs, their variety show they attempt to keep fairly family oriented and quack out any accidental obscenities. Despite the name of the show, only rarely does it only go for ten minutes but it’s never run for a full hour, so far as I know. In addition to their domestic monkeyshines, the duo also visits various attractions abroad which thankfully has recently included my family’s favorite amusement park, Salem Oregon’s Enchanted Forest.

I was surprised to learn that Dan Avidan had been there before and loves the place. The video of their visit is very enjoyable as they traverse the park attempting to complete a homemade bingo card of park based tasks. Arin’s endeavor to sit on every bench in the park makes for several funny awkward moments.

Among the many tasks on their bingo card, one space required a full face painting, a task Arin reluctantly took on in order to complete a bingo. Once the painting was done and Arin looked fabulous, there on the back wall behind Arin hung a shirt with my Challenge of Mondor artwork on it!

The kids and I could not have been more thrilled! I immediately took screenshots and sent it to my mom, dad, wife, and especially my buddy Michael Iverson who helped tweak the artwork considerably to meet the requirements the park managers were wanting to see.

After the Enchanted Forest had produced their first shirt with my artwork on it (seen below)

they commissioned me for an image that would be associated with their ride The Challenge of Mondor. This is a combination dark ride/rail shooter. Riders actually get to use a sensor gun to hit targets that pass them by as the ride progresses. It’s great fun and even kind of scary! Dan Avidan even commented on the size of a giant bat which had also impressed me enough to include in the first draft of the artwork.

Susan, a daughter of the park’s creator, liked this artistic direction but really wanted to feature all three of the ride’s great dragons. I liked my first design but I was happy to keep working to perfect the look Susan wanted.

After many many revisions we finally got it just right. The printing job on the shirt is a bit darker than the original but I think it looks cool both ways. Michael deserves a lot of credit as he painstakingly tweaked and tweaked and tweaked this image as I directed. Kudos to him for inviting the nitpickiest of instructions. But we both agree, the finished product is well worth the toil.

I was SO hoping The Grumps would encounter the shirt with the park design on it but alas, they didn’t seem to enter the specific gift shop that sells it. Nevertheless, it WAS still exciting to have this kind of connection to a couple of fun guys that have meant so much to me, even if it is only through seeing my work on their show. I hope to actually meet them someday.

A Special thank you to Dan and Arin and their whole crew for all the good times.