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Henry Darger was a janitor in Chicago for most of his life, and died poor and unknown in 1973 at the age of 81. After he died, in the small room that he rented, his life’s work was discovered: a 15,000 page fantasy novel describing a war between little girls and an army of soldiers, as well as numerous paintings depicting scenes from the novel. The paintings often feature tornadoes, and many of the little girls have penises because Henry Darger had, supposedly, never seen a naked woman and did not know that there was any anatomical difference. Posthumously, Henry Darger, who suffered from mental illness, duh, has become a figurehead for Outsider Art, and his paintings are shown all over the world.
It is still too early to determine who on YouTube will be the on-line video equivalent of Henry Darger, but Ricky Tic is certainly a promising candidate!
Ricky Tic is a YouTube self-chronicler, who is using the medium to make sure that his Dangerous Genius is dutifully recorded in the annals of history. He has self-illustrated and self-narrated a three part auto-biography:
He puts on bravura performances (because when you own a Nazi costume it is important to use a Nazi costume):
And he even does paintings! He will sing you the soundtrack!
He really should not be giving this stuff away for free. That’s no way to exploit serious medical problems* in order to make a splash in the art world! You have to lock it up under the stairs along with your collection of hair and bones, where the bad men will never find it. (Thanks for the tip, Cameron.)
*Seriously, though, someone might want to call him a doctor. For his brain.
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the voice reminds me of a C list “How Things Are Made” narrator
why isn’t every person of walmart this glorious?
You gotta go on Single’s Night.
oh my, have i been a glorious person of wal-mart all this time after all?
it’s this kind of spontaneous publicity that makes people! things are gonna start happening to me now!
This is going to give me nightmares for a while… thanks a lot Ricky Tic.
So many centaurs.
the kick butt painting in the last video is my favorite. ricky tic needs a cafepress store so i can get that on a t-shirt.
at first, i thought that pic at the top was of Sinbad. I was like, dude, ur really funny, being a nzi is so not cool.
It pains me to think that if Daniel Johnson had come of age with access to the internet, he’d be dismissed as just another crazy.
I, who have seen Daniel Johnson play live several times, and who was at opening day of Speeding Motorcycle in the front row, think that Daniel Johnson is just another crazy.
And by Johnson, I mean Johnston. Naturally…
lest we forget the magnificent crazy of Wesley Willis
Did I really just sit through those videos, Gabe? What power do you have over me?
Was I the only one who had never heard of Henry Darger before this post? He seems like he was a pretty cool guy (even if he though girls have penises, which is surely a mistake we’ve all made from time to time).
I went to school with this kid who was genuinely shocked in health class when he discovered girls didn’t have penises, which prompted him to yell out, “So can they pee?”.
Gotta find that guy on facebook and see if he ever figured it out.
there’s a doc about his work. i forgot about it until this post. let’s all rent it.
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/in-the-realms-of-the-unreal/19735/video/in-the-realms-of-the-unreal-trailer/1215265
Yeah, very interesting. The doc itself isn’t that snazzy but the subject is fascinating. Netflix it now!
don’t you listen to Animal Collective?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!!!!!!!!! AnCo?!?!
I don’t need this stuff in my brain
I don’t know I think he’s kind of adorable. Like a schizophrenic puppy.
I want to give him a hug and then fasten the locks on the strait jacket before I let go.
i like the authentic monk. someone needs to give ricky tic a budget.
I’m really glad that I knew he was singing along to Faith Hill. Also don’t worry Walrus Parade I didn’t know who he was either.
I’ve got a crazy idea, not like little girl penis centaur crazy but hear me out. “Inglourious Basterds Redux” with every character played by Ricky Tic. Full scholarship to the Eli Roth School of Method Acting pending.
So, I’m pretty sure every small town with a public access channel has one of these guys, but: my small town’s public access channel had one of these guys. A brilliantly insane master of videotape who would film these hour long dramas, which consisted of him talking on the phone in these longwinded, one-sided conversations with the other “characters”, and long, awkward montage transitions of clocks.
The best one was where he played a “canine lawman” on the search for spacepups from another dimension. Or the one where he bought an evil Christmas tree from a treebroker (who turned out to really be Hitler in disguise) that wound up killing his son.
If I could find all of his tapes I would post them on youtube in a heartbeat.
he IS getting medical help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhDhGaoVMj0&feature=related
What a fool you have been! Ricky Tick is not black!
See? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-sayhzOpfc&feature=channel_page
Cake Eatur?