Released in August 8th, 2008, "Destroy" was a Weebl and Bob special created in tribute to Ladytron's "Destroy Everything You Touch". The special was handled with special care as the animation saw a large graphical leap forward, going as far as using the filter effects in Flash that had largely been unused in previous Weebl & Bob episodes. It was largely considered a cornerstone in the history of Weebl & Bob as it led up to the movie parodies released in 2009. It is also considered to be the most controversial event in Weebls-stuff history; the project was later removed from Weebls-stuff.com, Newgrounds and Youtube on September 14th 2008 due to a cease and desist order from Ladytron's manager, Tim. The project would later be reuploaded with bizarre changes applied to it in October 3rd, 2014.
Cease and desist order[]
Sometime between August & September, Tim, Ladytron's manager, sent Jonathan Picking a cease and desist letter via Email requesting the tribute video to be pulled from the internet. Skeptic to the authenticity of this request, Jonathan Picking sought out and found Tim's Email address through Ladytron's website and contacted him through this Email, addressing Tim about the Email he received . Tim verified that the Email was his and Jonathan was forced to pull the episode down from the internet and it was announced on September 18th, 2009 to never return .
Piracy campaign[]
Not soon after the news broke about the sudden removal of the Ladytron tribute episode, many people began pirating the video in some of the most desperate ways possible. With the use of third party conversion software and browser caches, poorly rendered copies of the video began cropping up on Youtube , some of which came with watermarks . When this occurred, many fans openly suggested that Jonathan should secretly upload the video to SWFchan and pretend that a fan made the upload so that his fans could continue enjoying the episode at the original, lossless quality. Ironically, SWF files of the video began appearing on sites like Dagobah.net and Pown.it .
SWF file authenticity[]
When SWF versions of the video began cropping up on Flash portals, debate arose in regards to the authenticity of these SWF files. Since all of them were using an imported FLV file of the video instead of Flash's native vectors, many speculated that the publishers simply ripped a copy of the video from Youtube and imported it into Flash rather than drawing if from the host website where the actual SWF file would have been found. To those unaware, FLV files are designed for compression purposes and are horrendously lossy, meaning that the vector version would have been lossless since vectors are the format native to Flash. However, archived pages on the WaybackMachine also display these very same SWF files. This can mean that the current SWF file in circulation is indeed authentic or the internet archive in question was simply the first to recreate it and it was ripped from the archive by pirates. One should also note the difference in audio quality between the Youtube editions and the current Youtube pirated copies.
Re-release and updates; R.I.P. headset users...[]
|
2008 |
|
2014 |
FEEL the difference...
Due to changes in copyright and parody laws in the United Kingdom, the project was legally allowed to be published and was officially re-released to Youtube on October 3rd, 2014 with the extended title of "Destroy Every Pie You Touch". However, controversial changes were made from the original cut; the project is now coated in a hue of piss-yellow, there is a mirror effect set to the bottom of the stage and the music underwent an overhaul that included: deafeningly loud static, remixed instrumentals performed in a manner that is nearly alien to the original and the vocals being drowned out by both. It is believed that these changes were made to comply with the new laws, however, this remains to be speculation.
Another theory suggests that it was done in the vain attempt to bring the project to "modern" standards by increasing everything from the yellow hue color to the audio's decibel rating by +250%, this theory is more likely to be the case. The unexpected color change was also likely meant to add emphasis on the joke of Chris the Ninja Pirate pissing on Bob's head. Ha. Ha.
To put this into perspective, imagine the difference between Doug Bradley & Stephan Smith Collins both playing Pinhead in their respective Hellraiser movies. That is the difference this makes.
