The Gamma Rabbit Hand Puppet Finds a New Home
Posted on October 4, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 37 Comments
You’ll recall that Whatever commenter Stringmonkey knitted up a Gamma Rabbit hand puppet; Stringmonkey was also kind enough to send it along to me. I know just where to display it.
I knew that ol’ doodad would come in handy one day!
(Confession time: I’m totally stealing this idea from my friend Pamela Wallace, who used her Oscar as a stand for a gorilla handpuppet. You know, like you do.)
Perfect LOL now the award will never get cold
Can’t think of a more appropriate home for your Gamma Rabbit puppet. The symbolism there is just delicious.
Win.
Brilliant :)!!
He looks a little unhappy. Like you would if you had a chrome rocket shoved up your ass. A prestegious chrome rocket, but still.
Your other Hugos will be jealous they don’t warrant such a magnificent Trophy-Cozy.
Gamma Rabbit Hugo Condom!
Seriously, I love the symbolism. We’ll probably have to explain it to the dudebros.
Who will then be angry and offended. They will claim that this indicates disrespect, and that one of them would never have done such a thing … Which just goes to show that they don’t understand whimsy.
Gamma Rabbit’s expression has ‘surprise buttsecks’ written all over it, hee hee!
I’m pretty sure that fannish legend, or possibly fannish apochrypha, says at least one earlier Hugo winner used his Hugo in the bathroom as a, umm, paperholder.
Bonelady, the symbolism has nothing to do with the implied buttsecks or the condomish visual.
Disrespect to dudebros is what they deserve and should expect.
Perhaps he looks unhappy because he’s without a mallet?
As a professional puppeteer, may I say that this is a brilliant puppet stand.
Mary, are you going to put puppets on your Hugos, or have you already?
Gamma Rabbit is ready to be launched against prejudice anywhere in the galaxy now.
Hee.
Look! It’s a bird… it’s a plane… no it’s Gamma Rabbit to the rescue!
Awesome. Just awesome. Praise Gamma Rabbit! Praise the glorious Mallet of Loving Correction! Praise Our Lord Host, may His name be praisèd!
Up until now, I was trolling a dudebro for amusement. This, however, is more awesome than any amount of calling assholes assholes..
I confess that particular use for him never crossed my mind. Well done, Mr. Scalzi!
that’s too cute…great to guard your prestigious award!
Yeah, the puppet does look a bit unhappy with his new home. But at least the Hugo won’t get cold!
Dear Stringmonkey, you are now Famous On The Internet. My hat is off to you.
Writing competition time.
In the alleged Gamma Rabbit mindframe, what’s Gamma Rabbit Sockpuppet’s actual mental experience like having been err… well, you know, with his nether opening.
@Jason
That look telegraphs more surprise than unhappiness, but that’s just to me. I don’t claim to be an expert in hand-puppetology. For that I would defer to our resident expert, Mary Robinette Kowal.
Happiness is a warm rocket.
Although the implication is that poor Gamma is…impaled.
Hat for trophy. Keep trophy waaarmmn.
That’s definitely the best trophy warmer I’ve ever seen. My husband uses a Goofy beanie baby as a hat for his Emmy, but this fits way better.
I love it! :)
Re Ms. Wallace: a person whose FIRST SCREENPLAY was “Witness” is worth emulating.
That is all.
Rocket proctology.
Gamma Rabbit’s expression looks disapproving to me. I think that’s his “I Judge You for Being a Troll” face.
I was thinking “What a nice Hugo cozy,” myself…
I always like a little bit of taking back something from your enemies, but at some point, it does tend to look quite weird. When is enough is enough? At some point ignoring your enemies to marginalize them requires you to.. actually ignore them. Not theoretically, not partially, not sarcastically.. just literally.
dpporter:
At this point, the Gamma Rabbit is pretty much its own thing without reference to the complete dipshits who helped spawn it. Besides, in this case one of my readers sent me a nice thing and I wanted to show it off, because I appreciated the gesture.
Beyond that, “enemies” is a little strong of a word for that they are. “Sources of amusement” might be better.
@brucearthurs – it’s a standing joke among the, er, more mature section of British fandom that Dave Langford has his own independent missile defence system cunningly disguised as a doorstop for every room in his house.
@dpporter:
John did not commission the GR puppet. I made it because it amused me to do so, and I happened to have the right yarn on hand.
That said, I’m delighted it has found a wider audience, and a far more prestigious address, than I ever expected.
@dpporter
I don’t see why you think Gamma Rabbit is weird. Lots of Internet communities have running jokes and nobody cares about their provenance, just whether or not they’re funny. Now if you’d said that Gamma Rabbit was dumb or was being run into the ground, I could understand that as a matter of personal taste. I didn’t like Gamma Rabbit very much myself at first. It’s not that I disagreed with his principles, it’s that I thought he was ten pounds of silly in a five pound bag, and I have a low silly threshold.
How did I learn to stop worrying and love the Gamma Rabbit? By realizing that Gamma Rabbit drives the trolls nuts. He’s ten pounds of silly, yes, but it’s ten pounds of weaponized silly in the war against trolling, and Internet trolls are a much more serious problem than jokes that don’t work for everyone. So a Hugo rocket is a very appropriate place for Gamma Rabbit, because he’s the warhead on the missile. (Besides, that little knitted handpuppet Gamma Rabbit? Ten pounds of cute. Really excellent job, stringmonkey!)
@Harry Paine: indeed, Dave has a better missile system than most countries.
Gamma Rabbit IS, at this point. He’s a fully-actualized meme and a shorthand reference. He’s a concept, a t-shirt, and now a terrific puppet. He has a life of his own as a small purple part of Internet discourse.
Also, we’ve learned that stringmonkey is awesome with crafts.
J.S.
Fair enough, it’s your thing.. It doesn’t exactly lend a lot of credance that they are marginal, however. Even with it’s own life, it’s strong evidence that in fact the whole business has your attention for a non-zero amount of the day.