Clock Crew History

From Clockopedia

Origins

The first known user to use the “clock” designation was StrawberryClock. StrawberryClock, as far as it has been gathered, got his username from the band Strawberry Alarm Clock. Note that this origin is still unclear, and we hope to get in contact with him soon to clear up any confusion. "StrawberryClock" was actually the name of the second account of a user who, to this day, calls himself Coolboyman (sometimes sortened to “cooboyman.”) At the time of his first Flash submission to the Portal, he was 14 years old, he is now 18. He created the StrawberryClock account with no real purpose in mind, but his intentions grew to anonymously upsetting Newgrounds users and laughing about it. The most famous of these is B, which is just a red letter B on a white background. According to StrawberryClock, he had at first submitted a movie titled “A”. It was the letter “A” on a blank screen. It was soon blammed from the Portal, and Strawberry himself had a good laugh at the outraged reviews.

The exact creation of “B” is unclear; in another movie of his, B2, Coolboyman claims that “B” was protected upon its first submission to the Portal, however, records from the Newgrounds BBS and various older Newgrounds users attest that B was submitted several times before it was finally protected and awarded Turd of the Week1), on the evening of August 15th, 2001. Though many have stated otherwise, it’s generally accepted that this day, August 15, 2001, was the day the Clock Crew was created. As a tribute, this day has been named "Clockday" by the Clock Crew; a day when members of the Clock Crew submit Flash in honour of the Crew’s inception. Clocks begin preparing for this day months in advance of its date.

It’s worth noting, though only on a small scale, that Coolboyman kept everyone in the dark about his alter ego. He even went so far as to fabricate many, retrospectively funny, arguments between Coolboyman and StrawberryClock. Coolboyman, in fact, became one of the first true "anti-clocks". The revelation of his antics on the part of the StrawberryClock account was taken with a grain of salt.

The First Three

OrangeClock, AppleClock, and RaspberryClock were a suprise to everyone. Seemingly out of nowhere, these three rose in both defense and support of StrawberryClock. Strawberry himself thought that they were just crazy. These three clocks formed the Clock Crew. (It’s a popular myth that StrawberryClock began the entirety of the Clock Crew, but the truth is that it really began with these three. Especially Orange.) StrawberryClock himself did not make movies about Clock Characters, just very low quality flash movies about very random subjects. In fact, the image of StrawberryClock as we know him did not originate for some time. A testament to this is StrawberryClock V, where StrawberryClock is depicted as two diffent objects; a strawberry, and a clock.

Gaining Followers

The original three never actively recruited people to join the ClockCrew. Despite their being continually rebuked by the Newgrounds regulars, a few more members such as Zipstyke and PineappleClock decided to join OrangeClock, RaspberryClock and AppleClock. The ClockCrew in its current form slowly started to emerge, and the Clocks at that time started feverishly producing movies with subjects revolving around StrawberryClock and his claim to the portal and the mastery of his talents. A large backlash against these efforts were underway, and “Anti-Clocks” - as they came to be called - rose up and attempted to form a movement against the Clocks.

The Anti-Clocks

Angered by the ClockCrew, many Newgrounds users began making Anti-Clock movies featuring such scenarios as Clocks being executed and other disturbing imagery. Instead of offering rebuttals and counter-attacks of their own, the Clocks from therein decided to deal with the Clock-Haters by confronting them and overpowering them with affection, and offering help with their anger issues and providing friendship and solidarity. The Clocks became unified and the kindness and love which was recieved by the Anti-Clocks served to enrage and further divide them, enlarging the divide between the Clock Supporters and the Clock Haters, and eventually the Newgrounds audience as a whole; becoming polarized by the everpresence of the ever expanding ClockCrew. Of worthy mention is ki1o. While not the first anti-clock, he certainly has become the most famous. He never actually assaulted the clockcrew on the flash front. Rather, he stuck to his guns of voting and reviewing zero on clock movies. Ki1o has been included in many clock movies as the main bad guy, often in a very mocking, or else tongue-in-cheek serious light. He was eventually banned and all his reviews deleted. Ki1o apparently switched sides after watching Knottsberry’s The Portal is Not Enough, and LeafClock claims to actually be him, though the notion is still unclear.

VeggieClocks

The VeggieClocks came around in generally the same time as the Anti-Clocks. The CarrotClock legacy was what began to draw infamous paralells between the Clock Crew and Transformers, with StrawberryClock more often than not taking something of an Optimus Prime role. If ki1o was the Clock Crew’s Unicron, Carrot was the Clock Crew’s Megatron. While CarrotClock himself is a rather mysterious fellow, the veggie clocks can be assertained as the beginning of new generations of clocks. The veggies and the fruits eventually made compromise and began a long standing trend of groups of clocks working against each other and eventually becoming strong allies.

Legacy

Despite there being a prejudice towards the Crew thanks to their rubbish masterpieces encouraging more Flash artists to submit terrible Flash, some members actually produce fantastic work. There have also been some fantastic collaborations amongst the Clock Crew that have led to some of their best work. The fact that there is a certain quality to at least some of their work probably explains why there are still so many new clocks jumping on the bandwagon (often to inadvertently corrupt the Crew’s name with more Flash trash), and why so many people have tried to copy their style.

Links

http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/clockcrew

http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/clockcrewhistory

http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/clockcrewanticlock.html