DragonBall Z Abridged

[Attitudefan]

People need to understand that Yamcha is in fact a joke. What did he accomplished in Dragon Ball? Nothing

- Dragon Ball: The first to beat Goku in the series (ok), always defeated and sometimes humiliated in Tenkaichi Budokai, but he was dating Bulma

- Dragon Ball Z: Killed by a Saibamen, spent the entire Namek Arc dead, lost his girlfriend to the guy who indirectly killed him in the Saiyan Arc. First "kill" of the androids later more he was completely useless in this Arc. Just a random human that no longer fights in Boo Arc, eated by Super Boo

- Dragon Ball GT: Gone for exile


And people complain about Yamcha being made as joke by fans in media? Please...

Yamcha was integral to Dragonball as a character that gave exposition (which has now been replaced by Piccolo and even Vegeta). Yamcha had the knowledge of the DB world and gave the readers/watchers all the info we need to understand. I'd say that is a character that accomplishes a lot.

Also, it isn't the fact that they make fun of him, but HOW they do it (with one running gag that was funny once).

[Gyt Kaliba]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - if anyone is at fault for the way Yamcha is perceived now, it's more so certain fans taking TFS's jokes to heart, not TFS themselves.

The way I see it, TFS isn't so much making fun of Yamcha, so to speak, so much as they're making fun of Yamcha's 'treatment' in the series. I mean, let's face it - the character gets a bum treatment in the source material. Even the most ardent Yamcha fan would probably agree that Toriyama pretty quickly decided just to use the guy as a measuring stick for Goku's opponents. He's used in the first two tournaments as early proof of how powerful Goku's final opponent is going to be. He's demoted from that position to being used as a measuring stick for Kami in disguise as a measuring stick against Piccolo. He loses to Baba's fighter that Goku one-shots effortlessly. And as a final degradation, he pretty much has his love life ripped away from him by the author, for no reason other than to introduce another half-Saiyan to the mix (he could have just as easily used Gohan coming from the future. In retrospect, given where the arc as a whole ends up, that wouldn't have worked as well, but it doesn't make it any less pointless at the start really).

So yeah, even in the source material, Yamcha gets crapped on constantly sadly. But somehow, people that just go 'LOLZ YAMCHA' seem to forget that in-between all that, there are hidden gems of good material with the character, that really doesn't need to be forgotten as much as it does. In his fight with Jackie Chun at the first tournament, Roshi in disguise may defeat him with relative ease, but he compliments him for his skill none-the-less. Tenshinhan may not respect Yamcha by any means at first, but Yamcha's skills are enough to take Tenshinhan back a bit compared to his early thoughts on him, as well as making him assume that Yamcha must be the strongest of the Turtle school students. Oh yeah, and let's not forget, that Yamcha was good enough to be taken on as a third student by Roshi, a guy who barely wanted to take on the two students he already had. Yamcha is again complimented for his skills by Kami himself, and later taken in to be trained by him along with the others. And then he goes on to train under Kaio too. Say what you will about his lack of standout moments with these skills, all of this sounds like elements far from being a loser to me.

Yamcha's place is made all the worse by the fact that he's sidelined even earlier in the story than the other non-Saiyan characters, so people tend to overlook the fact that he was relevant in the past even when they cry out for the same return to relevancy for people like Piccolo or Tenshinhan. Yamcha is also a victim of being the most visible character with his 'lack of achievements'. Chaozu does far, far, far less than Yamcha, and yet nobody ever really seems to bash him much...by virtue of the fact that he's barely even a character to begin with.

I'm not even really that big a fan of Yamcha - he's just a character that's there, that I would like to see more of, yeah, but I'm not clamoring for more moments for him like I do for my favorite, Kuririn. But at the same time, the mindless hate for him gets old, and fast - but again, I don't think anything about it is really TFS's fault in the end.

[DBZMerciter2005]

The way I see it, TFS isn't so much making fun of Yamcha, so to speak, so much as they're making fun of Yamcha's 'treatment' in the series.

I agree with your entire post but this sentence here rings especially true with me. I don't feel they're doing it just because he's become a "lame" character but rather he's done absolutely nothing the entire Z series other than get killed. I can understand how Yamcha fans might feel otherwise but that was the impression I got as well.

[Dbzk1999]

The worst was the hanging joke. Not funny. Never was. It isn't creative, it's easy "humor"

Pretty sure that wasn't meant to be a joke

[FoolsGil]

Why is it we have to have a 'lynch TFS for Yamcha' walls of text at LEAST once a year? I don't like to say this stuff, but Yamcha is a cartoon character. You all need to get over yourselves and go get laid and stop bothering Kaiser with this worthless moaning and groaning.

[Regarder]

I seem to remember some interview where even Toriyama confirms he saw Yamcha as a joke. I could just be imagining that, of course.

[Quebaz]

Think of the video games from the early 2000s, and it never treated Yamcha so poorly, whereas now one of Yamcha's moves is that he is dead. It became a meme recently, where artists from Japan have mimicked his death scene. It is a trickle down effect.

It's not recent, for years both Yamcha and Broly have been parody hits on the Japanese side of the net and even in other anime. There's a ton of [MAD] videos starring the two, Yamcha often with his dead pose and Broly just being Broly.

[Kamiccolo9]

Think of the video games from the early 2000s, and it never treated Yamcha so poorly, whereas now one of Yamcha's moves is that he is dead. It became a meme recently, where artists from Japan have mimicked his death scene. It is a trickle down effect.

It's not recent, for years both Yamcha and Broly have been parody hits on the Japanese side of the net and even in other anime. There's a ton of [MAD] videos starring the two, Yamcha often with his dead pose and Broly just being Broly.

They had widespread "Yamcha Sucks" jokes when I was in elementary school. Late 90's-early 2000's. It's hardly a recent phenomenon, and this was back when, at least where I was, if you liked DBZ you were instantly labelled a super nerd. Because Pokemon was the other thing that was really popular, yet nobody actually wanted to admit that they liked it.

[KaiserNeko]

The worst was the hanging joke. Not funny. Never was. It isn't creative, it's easy "humor"

Pretty sure that wasn't meant to be a joke

It was. It was shock humor. Something so over-the-top dark and shocking that it's intention is to get a gutters laugh and a feeling of repulsion at the same time.

Listen, you can't blame us for the way fans react. We're a parody of the series. We write to address both the way the characters act and the way they are treated. Ho estly, I feel like the way we've written Kuririn has been far worse, making him far more of a dumb, cowardly idiot than we probably should have. Of course, we've been working on fixing that as of late.

With Yamcha, we've been trying to cut back on the constant barrage, but it won't just disappear. Fact is? He's one of the series original punching bags and we enjoy pointing that out. Did we ever go too far? Maybe. The hanging scene was certainly preeeetty stark and, perhaps, uncalled for.

But don't think for a second that Yamcha jokes didn't exist before us, and doubly don't think we inspired any of those Yamcha-is-dead merch. The Japanese don't pay attention to our show.

[Polyphase Avatron]

I think the complaints are unwarranted. Keep doing what you're doing, guys.

[Tsufuru]

no1 is perfect so keep doing your thing.

[jjgp1112]

Kinda, but I know many people who did. Also, that episode came out a year ago (give or take).

Exactly, kinda. The joke is done.

Look for something that just makes people hysterical. Move on from the Yamcha jokes. Please.

Demanding guys not use a joke for their show just because you don't like what you think it's doing to the perception of a character you like is pretty unreasonable, not to mention self-centered.

[Yuli Ban]

Now onto a new topic: I've watched DBZA all the way through, and I noticed that it's lacking but one thing— a naked/sexy Goku moment. I bring this up because, upon last check, there are only two more instances in the series (+movies) where Goku loses his shirt— movies 7 and 8. I sooooo don't want TFS to miss the opportunity...

[Kamiccolo9]

Now onto a new topic: I've watched DBZA all the way through, and I noticed that it's lacking but one thing— a naked/sexy Goku moment. I bring this up because, upon last check, there are only two more instances in the series (+movies) where Goku loses his shirt— movies 7 and 8. I sooooo don't want TFS to miss the opportunity...

There's the bath scene at the end of the Buu Arc.

[Yuli Ban]

Now onto a new topic: I've watched DBZA all the way through, and I noticed that it's lacking but one thing— a naked/sexy Goku moment. I bring this up because, upon last check, there are only two more instances in the series (+movies) where Goku loses his shirt— movies 7 and 8. I sooooo don't want TFS to miss the opportunity...

There's the bath scene at the end of the Buu Arc.

Indeed, true...

PS, don't ask why I need a Sexy Goku moment. In fact, forget I even said anything.

Hello there! I'm new to Kanzenshuu. I have one quick question to the staff of TFS— what is the song that plays when Goku and Gohan enter the RoSat?

[dbgtFO]

Did they cut the scene of naked Goku at Snake Princess's place?
I feel like I remember her getting a girl boner in that scene and having made a box, where she hid inside, so she could get real up close and personal without Goku realizing he was being watched.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Honestly, I feel like the way we've written Kuririn has been far worse, making him far more of a dumb, cowardly idiot than we probably should have. Of course, we've been working on fixing that as of late.

For what it's worth, as a huge fan of the character, I don't think there's been a single time that I've been "offended" for his sake. I want to say there was at least one time where I did briefly think 'wait a sec' for a split second (and the fact that I can't even remember what this moment was should speak volumes as well), but the thing is...hmm...I guess the best way to put this is 'I don't take the series that seriously'. DB in general, and especially Abridged.

I mean, to clarify, I take it seriously in the fact that I enjoy all the hard work put into the series (especially all the visual edits, since the best video editing tool I've ever worked with is freakin' Windows Movie Maker...so...yeah...you're practically putting an amazing magic show on from my POV), but I don't look to Abridged as the 'end all' answer to things in regards to characters or anything else. Because it's a 'parody'. It's meant to entertain me. And it does that very, very well.

But then again, I find a lot of people take the series proper way too seriously at times as well. I love the series far more than is probably healthy, but it's still 'just a series'. It's still not something that people should get nearly as riled up over when things don't 'fit' their personal headcanons. But eh, I've been pretty guilty of that in the past too I guess, so...live and let learn.

A bit more on topic - best part of the last episode for me at least was the 'moostache' bits. I even had to show my mom that gag, because she loved Vegeta's 'moostache' in GT.

[ShadowDude112]

Honestly, I feel like the way we've written Kuririn has been far worse, making him far more of a dumb, cowardly idiot than we probably should have. Of course, we've been working on fixing that as of late.

For what it's worth, as a huge fan of the character, I don't think there's been a single time that I've been "offended" for his sake. I want to say there was at least one time where I did briefly think 'wait a sec' for a split second (and the fact that I can't even remember what this moment was should speak volumes as well), but the thing is...hmm...I guess the best way to put this is 'I don't take the series that seriously'. DB in general, and especially Abridged.

I mean, to clarify, I take it seriously in the fact that I enjoy all the hard work put into the series (especially all the visual edits, since the best video editing tool I've ever worked with is freakin' Windows Movie Maker...so...yeah...you're practically putting an amazing magic show on from my POV), but I don't look to Abridged as the 'end all' answer to things in regards to characters or anything else. Because it's a 'parody'. It's meant to entertain me. And it does that very, very well.

But then again, I find a lot of people take the series proper way too seriously at times as well. I love the series far more than is probably healthy, but it's still 'just a series'. It's still not something that people should get nearly as riled up over when things don't 'fit' their personal headcanons. But eh, I've been pretty guilty of that in the past too I guess, so...live and let learn.

A bit more on topic - best part of the last episode for me at least was the 'moostache' bits. I even had to show my mom that gag, because she loved Vegeta's 'moostache' in GT.

I think the thing that bugs me about their Kuririn treatment is how it's affected the way fans see him. The first two times I saw RF in theaters everyone laughed when Sonny Strait was on screen in the pre-show. He didn't even start saying anything at all. They were laughing at him, because Kuririn is a joke now. Anytime Kuririn was on screen or did anything? Laughter. Even if it was badass. It drove me up the wall. It borderline ruined my theater experience. There were other reasons, but that was a main one.

[Kamiccolo9]

Honestly, I feel like the way we've written Kuririn has been far worse, making him far more of a dumb, cowardly idiot than we probably should have. Of course, we've been working on fixing that as of late.

For what it's worth, as a huge fan of the character, I don't think there's been a single time that I've been "offended" for his sake. I want to say there was at least one time where I did briefly think 'wait a sec' for a split second (and the fact that I can't even remember what this moment was should speak volumes as well), but the thing is...hmm...I guess the best way to put this is 'I don't take the series that seriously'. DB in general, and especially Abridged.

I mean, to clarify, I take it seriously in the fact that I enjoy all the hard work put into the series (especially all the visual edits, since the best video editing tool I've ever worked with is freakin' Windows Movie Maker...so...yeah...you're practically putting an amazing magic show on from my POV), but I don't look to Abridged as the 'end all' answer to things in regards to characters or anything else. Because it's a 'parody'. It's meant to entertain me. And it does that very, very well.

But then again, I find a lot of people take the series proper way too seriously at times as well. I love the series far more than is probably healthy, but it's still 'just a series'. It's still not something that people should get nearly as riled up over when things don't 'fit' their personal headcanons. But eh, I've been pretty guilty of that in the past too I guess, so...live and let learn.

A bit more on topic - best part of the last episode for me at least was the 'moostache' bits. I even had to show my mom that gag, because she loved Vegeta's 'moostache' in GT.

I think the thing that bugs me about their Kuririn treatment is how it's affected the way fans see him. The first two times I saw RF in theaters everyone laughed when Sonny Strait was on screen in the pre-show. He didn't even start saying anything at all. They were laughing at him, because Kuririn is a joke now. Anytime Kuririn was on screen or did anything? Laughter. Even if it was badass. It drove me up the wall. It borderline ruined my theater experience. There were other reasons, but that was a main one.

If fans are being immature, that's their own fault, not TFS's. I'm fairly certain Kaiser and co. aren't implanting subconscious triggers in the minds of their fans that cause them to ruin the franchise for other fans.

So, be mad at the people who deserve it. Don't blame TFS for doing what they're good at, blame the annoying fans who don't know how to behave in public.

[dbzfan7]