Some people do; in fact, MANY people do (I just wish the "likers" would leave as many comments as the "haters").

There's one thing I've learned over time: Likers almost never let you know they like your work, but you'll hear from every single person who hates your work.

And but so if everything on Video Dog is The Suck, what do you consider good? Because honestly, your criticisms mean absolutely nothing to me unless I know what's at the other end of the scale. They'll probably continue to mean absolutely nothing to me then too (as a syndicated political cartoonist for eight years, I'm used to much worse hate mail), but at least I'll know where you're coming from.

I love love love the kitty's little barrette!

Well, as a Queens resident myself, I had to represent.

I suffer from gout, and just looking at organ meats can trigger an attack. So, I won't be trying haggis. But Christina does make it sound tempting!

Standing up, I'm guessing.

Dunlap made a joke about Kon Kan? I doff my comedy chapeau in the general direction of Tennessee, because the difficulty rating for making a Kon Kan joke in 2007 has got to be 10.0...

Because everybody smoked on camera back in the late '40s and early '50s.

...are overrated.

That said, I wasn't fully happy with my arm work in this animation, either; I would fire my entire animation factory in Korea if I had one. But I'm just a guy with a laptop making animation at Starbucks on a tight, tight deadline. I do what I can.

...that Don Hertzfeldt invented the idea of rejection and is the only person who has ever had material rejected by a TV network. My bad.

Like most of the animated films I do, theis animation's idea came about through a confluence of random events.

The animation's idea came about after I appeared on Jon Friedman's "Rejection Show" at New York's Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York earlier this month. I went on to talk about my failed TV show (the failure being, the network ran out of money), but doing the show made me want to come up with a short film of faux rejected material. I'd been experimenting with 4-frame cycle characters, starting with the Deb Olin Unferth animation a few weeks back, and I had brown kraft paper sitting around, which seemed perfect for rejected material--who submits animation to a TV network on brown kraft paper? And the music's actually the same music that I originaly did for my animation The Lithium League, which just seems to suit this sort of material really well.

I remember it, too; I was about four or five and I got in trouble for singing the song around the house. That, and "Honky Tonk Women."

For those who are curious, here is the original PSA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK_jDA3qrUU

Get VD, get a free horse! Yay, VD!

...need a full-time, daily animator...?

After several meetings between our respective management teams, the members of Variety SHAC and I decided we wanted to do an animation together. We had Joe Eszterhas write the screenplay, and we brought in Patton Oswalt to punch it up. Then we recorded the voices: Jennifer Aniston is Chelsea, Janeane Garofalo is Andrea, Drew Barrymore is Shonali, and weirdly, Patton Oswalt is Heather (he does a GREAT Heather voice--who knew?). Once we had the recording, I had my team of college interns storyboard it, and then we sent the whole thing off to a factory in Korea to be animated. 24 months and six million dollars ($5.9 million just for Joe) later, here's the finished product!

It's not a laugh track. This was recorded in front of a live audience at a comedy club.

If you'd like, I can have Eugene ask the audience to leave the club the next time he is recorded.

Wrong, Dunlap. Clearly, the greatest album ever recorded is Now That's What I Call Music 24, not 23. Get with the times.

Surely you saw my "Hills" animation...?

http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/comedy/2007/10/25/thehills/index.html?source=video&aim=/ent/video_dog/comedy

I've only ever heard one Bill Hicks album, and that was years ago now. Which bit reminds you of Mr. Hicks...?

Have I mentioned how much I love your Atom Age Vampire limericks...? Good work!

You know that and I know that, but the character doesn't know that.

It's fixed now.

I blame Dick Cheney.

Karl Rove was involved in the outing of a CIA operative. This is, by our laws, treason.

I win some, I lose some. I learn and move on.

How come I don't get to play...?

All the animations are still up. Just go to the Video Dog page and scroll down. For some reason, the animations (and other Salon content) don't always get properly indexed and so don't turn up on the "Scott Bateman" page or in a Salon search. I blame Dick Cheney.

...I just animated Pat's appearance on Hardball, which should be up on Salon tonight. Two words: animated Joan!

Sadly, my friend who was a writer on the show left a few months ago, so I can't pull any strings for you. Or me. Dammit.

I didn't feel like drawing Brian Williams (he's kinda boring-looking anyway), and I had the Batman character from an animation I did back in July sitting on my hard drive. It's the same reason that in one of my debate animations, Tom Brokaw is a cowboy wearing pink and blue.

As far as I know, portraying Brian Williams as Batman has no deeper meaning, and certainly should not be interpreted as Batman and Brian Williams being the same person. Though you never do see them together...

Obama? Satire-proof? Really? I've had a great deal of fun with him this year, and I expect to continue doing so well into his second term.