Masyanya

This episode marks the end of the series' first life. What follows is an entirely different era — one that smells of television.

This short episode owes its existence to the unexpected wave of popularity that hit the series — with all that comes with it. It could more accurately be called "Masyanya for Sale," after the Beatles album.

Russian punk rock — senseless and merciless, one might add. This episode was made after attending Muse's first concert in Saint Petersburg.

A word of caution: some things are better left unexperimented with — unless you want things to end very, very badly. Features the iconic line "Welcome back to our crappy world!"

A landmark cartoon. The method Masyanya uses to pull herself out of the slump is unique — and surprisingly easy to apply.

A particularly remarkable episode in the history of Masyanya. It is almost documentary in nature, marking the appearance of a certain character dubbed Potter — a schemer and a scoundrel who would go on to play a tragic role in the development of the cartoons and the studio.

Made in the wake of skating sessions with friends near Chkalovskaya metro station. The episode is known for the lines about "wheels that you don't swallow" and "don't make excuses — this isn't the draft board" — though honestly, the whole script is quotable.

One of my personal favorite episodes. And it's not really about the subject matter — it's about the comedy of the situation, the simple natural reactions, the effortlessness of it all. Light and charming. God willing, may all our problems be this small. :) Music by "Lena Te".

Based on the personal experience of the daily journey home from Prospekt Bolshevikov metro station through the tomb-like expanses of Brezhnev-era housing blocks.

Made in literally a couple of hours after the sudden realization that tomorrow is International Women's Day and there's no holiday cartoon ready. Incidentally, when the first Masyanya merch store launched in 2005, the t-shirt featuring the image and catchphrase from this episode was by far the bestseller — leaving everything else in the dust. :)

A dated episode, narrated almost verbatim from the words of an ordinary cab driver.

These valentines were originally hosted separately on the site. The plan was to have three valentines in one cartoon — but of course, the third one never got made. Either ran out of time or just couldn't be bothered. Happened more than once.

Yes, there was a time when downloading even a Masyanya cartoon — a mere 3–4 megabytes — could be a real ordeal. Dial-up modems were awful, connections dropped constantly. Sometimes, as in this cartoon, at the worst possible moment. The episode is also known for the catchphrase "stopudovo" — roughly meaning "a hundred percent" or "for sure."

Made back when disposable pop hadn't yet completely consumed the Russian music industry. These days, what the cartoon talks about is hardly a secret — a producer who "wants to hear ass" doesn't raise an eyebrow anymore.

The undisputed record holder for most quoted episode.

Made to ring in the New Year 2002. Also of historical interest: Masyanya rattles off what amounts to a nearly complete list of the most popular alternative clubs of the era.

This episode — known for the iconic cry "a mug of cognac!" — became a fan favorite. Made in the aftermath of a night out at the Griboedov club. Ironic, to say the least.

A divisive episode about Moscow. It must be said — the city hasn't changed all that much. Still loud, chaotic, flashy, pop-cultured, and rude. Though of course, it all depends on where you're standing and how you look at it.

The episode about "the thing" and "something like that." A situation pretty much everyone has found themselves in at some point.

Probably the most well-known episode — the one responsible for the now thoroughly overused catchphrases "let's go have a smoke-y-woke-y!" and "go to hell, director!"

The episode famous for Masyanya's iconic cry "I wanna go out!!!!!" — and go out she does. This is actually the most typical scenario of a St. Petersburg night out: a wild start and a sad, but far from tragic — rather romantic — ending. Alone in a crowd.

An episode about Masyanya making a living by scamming passersby.

An episode about "Friday" and "mani-hani." One of the most beloved and relatable ones — famous for the line "half an hour, no matter what."

A psychological one. I think almost every guy out there can recall a similar episode from his own life.

This episode came together spontaneously after a visit to a Splean concert at some dingy community center.

Quite possibly the most controversial episode of the bunch — and, likely, the only one to have been translated into many major languages.

Masyanya demonstrates how to quickly, simply, and accurately share your impressions of a visit to the free city of Amsterdam. :-)

A simple little toon — but one that defined the entire direction of the character's development. And her gloriously mangled vocabulary, of course. Take notes on how to tell a joke. :))

A questionable one. This episode is from the era when the cartoons were made not for an audience, but for a couple of friends — so there was no particular need to keep anything in check. Restored animation from 2001.

Masyanya makes a living busking on commuter trains. Unconventional? Just a little. Restored animation from 2001. Back then Masyanya was pure punk — no filter, all chaos. The softer, more human side came later. This early incarnation is just straight-up trouble.

A modem is a thing of wonder — useful, essential, and universally applicable. Use it at home, on the street, around the corner, in a dark alleyway... and it shall reward you beyond measure. :-)

Getting from one end of this concrete maze to the other is no easy feat — especially when you live on Soldier Voskoboynikov Street.

The cartoon ended up consisting of 15 fragments. It's hard to give this one a precise description. The thing is, it's a collection of scattered "shards" or "fragments" of Masyanya's life — and really not only Masyanya's. The cartoon resembles a palette on which an artist mixes colors. That's exactly what the cartoon was called in the draft — "Palette." There are complete episodes here, like pure paint, and there's muddy mixing, and what might seem like "unfinished bits" and "half-baked ideas."

The character's name "Okolobakha" is a play on words between "Kolobakha" (a real nickname of a real guy whose real story the cartoon is based on) and "Okolo Bakha" — meaning "Near Bach." The details in reality were different, of course, but the essence of the story is barely fictionalized

Despite such a sweeping title, the cartoon is not about sex... but about something greater. I myself didn't used to like this episode, but now, rewatching it while editing, I realized it's actually a great one. It's about everything and nothing at the same time. Absolutely, one hundred percent natural. A small fragment pulled from life and described quite accurately.

A cartoon about how Masyanya and company decided to create a society for fighting jerks and ended up becoming its victims themselves. Writing this brief summary because some people don't quite get it. At the end both of them have signs on their backs. Seemingly, what's not to understand? And yet for some reason people kept missing the point.

At one point I had a paranoid fixation on the film "Groundhog Day." It worked on me in such a way that I decided "why the hell watch all kinds of different movies anyway? Suffer through choosing? They're all basically the same when you think about it. I'll just watch the same one." As a result, I watched "Groundhog Day" approximately 235 times. In different languages, with different voice tracks, in different prints, and on different devices.

Originally called "The Carousel Operator," but plain "Carousel" is better in my opinion. More global and mysterious-sounding. I always really loved this episode. It really "hits home." The thing is, during my time working with TV I was constantly under enormous pressure. And not just the purely work-related kind — work pressure, whatever, we can handle that. Mostly moral pressure. From all sides there was very strong pressure from people wanting to cash in on Masyanya's popularity one way or another, and there were countless such people. Among them were even friends and family, and generally decent people. All kinds. Many.

The plot of this episode has also faded into history by now. What came after New Year's? Right — long holidays. And what did people do during the holidays in the late 90s and early 2000s? Right — they headed off to Egypt.

The title of this jubilee, fiftieth episode is very accurate. Pure delirium. This is a one-hundred-percent hangover episode — made with a hangover, about a hangover, by hungover artists, aired by a hungover television channel at a hungover hour for viewers who had just gotten over their hangover. :)))) And that, essentially, is what makes it great. My favorite line from it: "...and I want something sweet and a smoke" :))

This New Year's episode, made for the new year of 2003, is quite simply the peak of my idealism. Having access to the pre-New Year's airtime on a leading channel, I was desperately overcome by the desire to make something truly fairy-tale-like and very kind. Something that would make people kinder, warmer toward one another... if only for New Year's.

A gag. The number of times I've personally quit unhealthy habits — I've lost count. I envy people with strong willpower, but none of us is an angel, and saying "ah, to hell with it" is a very naturally human thing to do. Nobody wants to be or can be a "tin woodman." Though in the end, you do have to quit eventually.

Honestly, God help me, I have absolutely no idea of what was going on in my head when I came up with this episode's title. :) Let's consider it mysterious. Though the cartoon itself is not mysterious at all. A real situation with my friends. They, actually, weren't filming — they bought an apartment. Something like 20 grand, can you imagine. Not so long ago you could actually buy an apartment in St. Petersburg for that kind of money. The apartment, however, did turn out to have a little surprise.

This cartoon didn't help, alas. Pop Trash has completely taken over Russian TV and the entire Russian show business. Popular, mass-market music exists everywhere, of course, but in Russia it's particularly revolting because it requires absolutely no talent whatsoever. It's pure business without a shadow of art. You understand — Madonna is also pop, but some group called "Nogi Vniz" couldn't reach Madonna's level even if they tried. In short, nasty stuff. And the most nightmarish part is that the mass audience, which isn't particularly sharp to begin with, is deliberately trained to consume this garbage so that money can then be squeezed out of them. The drug dealer principle. A real disaster. For those who remember Masyanya's history, Pop Trash got its cruel revenge on Masyanya for this attitude later — by creating its own pirated version of Masyanya on "MuzTV," voiced by a certain well-known guy named Pavel Volya, who was peddling his own pop trash under the Masyanya name.

What "Prince Albert" is, I won't be explaining here. We're all adults and not new to the internet. In any case, this episode is an innocent gag about piercing. I have nothing against piercings and tattoos, but I myself don't have a single tattoo. Not one. The idea of something "for life" just isn't really my thing. One single earring in the ear. Though back then the guys at the studio had very diverse options going on. Well, in general this falls into the category of "everyone goes crazy in their own way" :))

This episode actually predicted the emergence of such a phenomenon as "trolling." Only from its "artistic" side — as art provocation. At that point the concept of "trolling" didn't yet exist. There was only "flood" and "flame". But that's still something a bit different. Trolling appeared later, together with blogs. And in its worst form. No "art" anywhere near it anymore. I myself once started out with an uncontrollable desire to make films, but back then you needed a ton of equipment and gear, film stock, chemicals, editing studios... And people still shot anyway, somehow on a shoestring, but they shot. It was called "parallel cinema." Now though — powerful computers, video right in your phone, editing at the drop of a hat — "shoot to your heart's content," as they say.. And somehow nobody particularly wants to... :) Too many possibilities kill the desire.. :))

The cartoon starts exactly the way it starts because literally a couple of weeks before this, an episode called "The Rat" had come out. And now here's "Hamster". We joked around in the studio for a long time about just shamelessly releasing another episode in "Namedni" that was identical to "The Rat," with the only difference being that the main character would be a hamster... :))) And then every week, one after another, episodes would follow: "Beaver," "Chinchilla," "Bunny," "Muskrat," "Opossum," and even "Skunk".. :)))) But again, I see it needs explaining what it's actually about. The cultural layer of "hamsters" (Home page websites) vanished instantly with the arrival of social networks and blogs in general. A shame, it was fun. Many people remember all those animated GIFs in headers, spinning 3D letters, enormous fonts, ridiculous colors, star-covered backgrounds, MySpace, and all that junk. Actually quite a layer of culture, in its own way... How quickly it all died, though...

The episode is also known as "Pogo Dance, or Counterculture." In reality, the cartoon is about how no such thing as "counterculture" exists. As everyone knows, St. Petersburg is the cultural capital. Which is, essentially, nonsense. That is, there is culture there, but no more genuine culture than in any other Russian city. What there's plenty of, though, is pseudo-cultural pretense. Because culture isn't in ossified dead matter — it's in human behavior. The carrier of culture is first and foremost a person, and only then a museum. By that logic, pogo dance is a perfectly wonderful culture. :) For those who may not know — "pogo dance" is when everyone in front of the stage shoves and slams into each other like mad. Especially enjoyable in a tiny cramped smoky basement club under some brutal punk riffage, a proper good time... :)

A sad and melancholy episode. Though it still ends on an optimistic note. The episode aired on NTV during a dark time — right after the Dubrovka terrorist attack, when releasing anything cheerful was simply impossible, and nobody was in a cheerful mood anyway. Back then (as strange as it sounds now) there was virtually no censorship on NTV. So Parfyonov called several times, worried about what we were planning to put on air. He was satisfied with my assurances that there'd be nothing fun and jolly. And it really was a bleak period — apart from the terrorist attack, a good friend of mine had actually gotten hit over the head with a bottle right in her own courtyard. In short, the mood was downright gallows-like. And yet Masyanya somehow manages to pull out life-affirming notes even in a situation like that. I don't even understand how myself..

"Two hundred bucks a month." Yeah, those times weren't so long ago, when people somehow managed to actually live on that. The theme of this cartoon is summed up in one punchy word: "styob." This word, alas, has no equivalent in literary language. But who needs that "literary" language anyway. That's what it's there for — writing smart books — but we talk a different language.

I really love the ending of this episode. I've heard this joke a thousand times — and it cracks me up every single time. The plot, so to speak, is familiar to every resident of any reasonably large city. Doesn't matter where. I don't like football, you know, may its fans forgive me. I mean, kicking a ball around in the park is fine, but as a mass spectacle — no thanks, no thanks...

A sort of tragic episode. About how a small, seemingly insignificant tragedy — like the death of a rat — can stick with you more deeply than serious drama. And if you dig deeper, it's almost a "misanthropic" theme, since human suffering is supposedly more important, but.. But "personal drama" is always stronger than "public drama" and that's normal, that's how it should be. Let's stay human.

Purely St. Petersburg humor, basically. Originally the script had around 7 bridge stories. By airtime, three bridges remained. In the end only two made it — the third simply didn't get finished in time. Airtime is a brutal thing. The stories are real.

An episode about getting the giggles. For a while I just took storylines from the previous night's hangouts and turned them into cartoons. This doesn't always work, because the viewer isn't necessarily in the same "loosened-up" mood as the author was last night with his crew. Most people just won't get it — but on the other hand, this method immortalizes those pleasant moments for yourself.. :)

A dumb episode. In reality, it's just a scene lifted straight from real life, down to the last detail. With the only difference being that the money never got fully drunk away in reality. And getting home was often impossible simply because back then he lived on Vasilievsky district, and as everyone knows, the bridges in St. Petersburg are raised at night. Well, if you know their schedule, you can figure out how to cross at some point — but that requires being somewhat reasonable to calculate... not everyone has that going for them, alas.. :))) And what else is there to do late at night on the streets of St. Petersburg? Nothing much, just fool around and waste time...

A sweet little episode about a German guy who ended up hanging around Saint Petersburg. The second episode to air on TV.

The release of this episode marked a huge turning point in Masyanya's fate. The show made its way onto television screens via NTV — a channel that was still very good at the time. This move was received quite ambiguously by the audience; to put it plainly, people criticized it left and right. But for us, it was simply incredibly exciting — getting onto TV for such an alternative project was pure adventure, and at the same time it allowed us to set up a real studio. Looking back from today, I can see that everything was done right. Otherwise, nobody would even remember these cartoons now.

The episode was made during a brief friendship between Masyanya and Greenpeace. This one is actually not quite a standard episode and isn't on the site, since it's partly "affiliated." However I like it and let it be here for the collection. Besides, this cartoon contains the word "Scuricat," which in my opinion significantly elevates this episode's importance in the history of humanity... The nerpa seals of Baikal are indeed dying off fast, given that they're being rather generously helped along in that process. I don't like it when things die. Greenpeace is perhaps the only organization in the world whose goals and objectives I actually like. Everyone else are bastards. Though of course practice almost always diverges from good intentions. But screw it. The nerpas are just plain pitiful. The Baikal ones and the Ladoga ones, of which there are barely any left. Scuricat!

The episode is called "The Penguin" because at the end of the cartoon, completely out of nowhere, penguins show up. I'm fully aware, by the way, that this isn't a very good reason to name a cartoon that. But, well, there was an episode called "The Sparrow" before this, and some other animals along the way, so why not. In any case the cartoon is really about sounds. Or rather about the constant level of noise that a modern city dweller lives in. In short it's a mess — even though we mostly don't notice the noise out of habit, the moment you accidentally pay attention to it, that's it, you can't shake the thought anymore. Finding silence, however, is no simple task. Especially inner silence. Because we carry all our noise with us — that's really the main reason. Noise has already become part of our modernized human nature.

Almost, damn it, like Tarkovsky. :)) This deceptively simple silent episode actually presents us with a practically complete spectrum of a person's relationship with their own reflection. Not with themselves — no, that's a different opera entirely. Specifically with the reflection. With one's own self-image inside one's own head, so to speak. A problematic zone, needless to say. For some people there's a whole novel in there...

One of my favorite episodes, even if it's far from the funniest. The humor here is a little more, shall we say, sophisticated. The ability to appreciate the beauty of the mess you've gotten yourself into, the beauty of a proper letdown — is a rare but extremely useful quality. Paradoxical and even absurd, one has to admit. And yet there are situations where it genuinely seems like the universe is skillfully and deliberately trolling you. And at some point you start laughing along with it, despite the fact that the main target of the prank is you yourself. Because the universe sometimes trolls with absolute mastery. :) The episode is based on real events, practically speaking. In the Leningrad region there really was at some point a certain super-ancient oak tree, which was unexpectedly and carelessly cut down by collective farm workers. But the cartoon isn't about that — see the first paragraph.

Essentially a parody music video based on Beck's "Loser." If you don't know it — easy enough to find on YouTube. Though this cartoon has nothing to do with the original video. Just the idea and the melody. The idea of a person who has accepted the karma of a loser and is generally quite comfortable living with it. The idea also being that in a world as crooked and thoroughly fake as ours, it's actually more abnormal to NOT be a loser.

Making cartoons out of anger is against my usual principles. Because nothing good ever comes from anger. Aggression only breeds aggression. But unfortunately, dealing with "Russian traffico" on a daily basis, there's no stopping the total extinction of one's nerve cells. As far as I know the situation hasn't changed one bit since this episode came out, alas.

An episode about a Masyanya workday morning. One of the few episodes with not a single line of dialogue. Just frantic morning action around the challenge of managing to make coffee while half-asleep. Normal black coffee in a cezve. This can be a very difficult task.

I have to say I never liked cars and always preferred the metro. Even when I got my license and even bought a car — still preferred the metro. I'd happily prefer a bicycle if it weren't for St. Petersburg's climate, which actively nudges you toward the warm and dry underground. And all my life, hanging from a handrail in the morning, I had to stare at those idiotic "rules for metro use." And in almost 40 years of my life in Petersburg those rules never changed, not once it seems. And if you, dude, are forced to hang in the crush right across from those rules with no player on you — you're forced to read them. I must have read them several thousand times. And naturally I hate those rules with every fibre of my being, as they say, because it's violence against the brain. As a result I always desperately wanted to do exactly what they forbid, point by point.

Well, this isn't quite a full episode — more like an extended New Year's card for the approaching 2006, which would, alas, turn out to be the studio's final year.

I really like this episode. Though it could have been made a bit more neatly. I don't know about you, but I've come across "cousins" like this quite often. You can't exactly call her stupid — however, the moment such a cousin opens her mouth, out pours just a remarkable torrent, a veritable tsunami, of clichés and stock phrases. People like this fill me with complete and utter delight (in the ironic sense) :))) The mechanism is simple — having not a single original thought of their own, such people rely entirely on things they've heard, seen and read. Some of them can even skillfully create the impression of being fairly intelligent, concealing absolute inner emptiness behind a large collection of borrowed bits and pieces. Though such people don't entertain for long. Careful here — after about 10 minutes of cheerful conversation you may unexpectedly feel like hanging yourself.

Here the raccoon is a stand-in for Lokhmatiy — his symbolic embodiment, so to speak. So despite the unusual format, this is still a pure Masyanya cartoon. The song lyrics become more relevant with every passing year. This is a parody of the music video and song by German punk band Die Toten Hosen called "Zehn Kleine Jägermeister." I have a lot of personal memories tied to that video. But the lyrics are of course completely different. That song itself is in turn based on a children's counting rhyme. The Russian equivalent of that rhyme goes "Ten Little Black Boys went swimming in the sea."

This episode is naturally dedicated to World of Warcraft, to which so much precious personal lifetime has been donated. It's a genius game that became the most famous in the realm of online gaming and made, one might say, a world revolution. Not everyone understands what exactly the "revolution" was about, but those who need to — will get it. The arrival of WoW will go down in history as a major breakthrough, and in about 100 years kids will probably think it was the very first computer game ever made. This thing left a deep mark on my soul and brain, you could write novels about it, honestly. :))

When Einstein died, his last words died with him — the nurse didn't speak German. Singer Nick Cave was born with a little tail. G. Washington grew marijuana in his garden. Napoleon suffered from ailurophobia — a fear of cats. There is no word in Russian or English for the back of the knee. A human has fewer muscles than a caterpillar, and the brain is 80% water. :))

You've surely had this happen too — suddenly a brilliant idea pops into your head. Genuinely brilliant. You start running with it, bringing it to life. This is going to be amazing, you think. And then suddenly — bam — the idea turns out to be complete garbage. And you laugh at yourself for thinking a minute ago it was genius. This is a normal process. A healthy person is practically obligated to constantly be chasing their next "brilliant idea." Even knowing that in most cases the idea will turn out to be crappy. Doesn't matter — what counts is the thinking-and-dreaming process! Really good ideas only appear in the flow of bad ones. Never stop and never despair!

"No crocodile plizz!!!" :))) Like many people, I've had those moments when after a fun night out you wake up in a completely bizarre place. In those moments you think, maybe it's time to drink a little less. I had quite a few of those moments, but the time I woke up in Namibia — that was already slightly too much. This episode was made after that wonderful trip, which, I must confess, doesn't convey even a hundredth of the sheer delight of ending up somewhere like that. Especially great when everything still turns out fine in the end. Almost none of what I wanted to cram into the episode actually fit, but alas, the short cartoon format dictates its own terms...

Anyone who has, by chance, ever dealt with girls in their life knows that they all periodically fall into a phase of self-torment known as "a diet." Though of course it's not only girls and not only food. Self-mortification is one of humanity's greatest quirks. That said, I won't claim it's a completely useless thing.

Remember Bazarov from "Fathers and Sons"? Should still be on the school curriculum. Well, that book never gave me any peace until I made this episode. At school they taught us that Bazarov is, supposedly, a nihilist. A nihilist — meaning someone who denies everything. God, I wrestled with this thought for years — what kind of nihilist is Bazarov, for crying out loud? Sid Vicious is a nihilist, or Nina Hagen, or Svin from our scene — now there's the most nihilistic nihilist of all time — but Bazarov? What kind of nihilist is this boring nerd supposed to be?

The episode is named on the principle of "if a word is not a sparrow, then this cartoon is exactly the opposite — a sparrow." It's obviously not about birds at all. In my opinion this is the perfect Masyanya episode. Everything in it is spot on — the setup, the middle, the resolution, all perfectly balanced. And the art is pleasant and the voice acting too. The theme is admittedly light, but very true to life.

These days, thanks to Google and antivirus software, spam has become somewhat more manageable. But just about 10 years ago it really seemed like spam was going to kill the internet stone dead, bury it completely. Nowadays we've more or less learned to filter it out and blacklist spammers, though it still seeps through sometimes. The main mystery remains — who on earth orders this stuff, and does it actually work? And the key thing is — they do leave their contact info, otherwise what kind of advertising would it even be. Meaning the people ordering spam are actually known. So why not punish the bastards, one might ask.. and that's where the plot comes from.

An episode about games. Ordinary games. Games in general are basically the very essence of human psychology. A normal human being in a normal state of mind tends to turn everything into a game. That's how we simulate situations and train ourselves while having fun. Incredibly useful trait. :)

Just an episode about a theatre. And technically a "New Year's" one. Why exactly it's called "anatomical" here is hard to say precisely. It's just a cool word combination. And the word "anatomy" for me is associated with a kind of "getting to the essence of things." The episode is an attempt at an autobiographical cartoon. If I made one episode about every job I had "before Masyanya" — that'd be enough for a whole season. :) In this case it's my experience working as a furniture mover at the Leningrad Comedy Theatre. Two years I spent moving furniture there, which I have absolutely no regrets about — it was a lot of fun.

The episode is essentially just an illustration of Masyanya's rather anarchic worldview and lifestyle. Though, it seems to me, what's actually more interesting isn't even the main plot about celebrating a divorce — but the opening, where Lokhmatiy first feels like a third wheel, and then just... unnecessary altogether. Honestly feel sorry for him, even as the author. I've been in situations like that quite a few times myself, and it cuts surprisingly deep. You start thinking — why am I even here, just "taking up space" and "burning through air." It's a good thing when there's someone in your life to remind you that you're not just another spare bag of guts. :)

The idea here wasn't even to make a parody — but an exact REPLICA of a legendary music video. Compare it with the original and you'll see that even the short cuts are the same length. Everything is practically shot-for-shot, frame-for-frame. Why, you ask? Hell if I know, I'll answer. It just felt fun. Some music videos have long since become cult symbols of their era, and the temptation was to try those clothes on Masyanya — to see things "through the lens," so to speak, to run it through yourself..

This episode has a pretty transparent allusion to "Hedgehog in the Fog." I'm personally not a fan of that beloved classic, sorry. So this is a little jab at it — though not the main point. Just a passing dig. The real theme is those mysterious days when absolutely everything goes wrong — every corner, every step, every object snaps at you like a wild animal. On days like that, the only solution is to lock yourself in a wardrobe "just in cases," as they say. ;)

On the site this episode is listed as "The X-Files" or "Masyanya making of", but neither felt quite right, so it's been renamed to the more fitting "Bloopers." Any self-respecting film project includes bonus materials on DVD — usually a collection of bloopers and gags from the set. So, to coincide with the official Masyanya DVD release, this episode was made as a parody of the ever-popular blooper reels. The DVD wasn't a success, though — by that point the market was already flooded with dirt-cheap pirated DVDs stuffed with cartoons crudely ripped from SWF files. Such were the Russian realities of the time. :)

The term "flooders" originally referred simply to people who posted too much in chats and guestbooks. In Russia, however, it took on a somewhat different meaning — describing the generation of "early internet users." The internet wasn't always the common space it is today; back in the 90s and early 2000s, a distinct social layer formed around it, with its own culture and communication style. It even gave rise to a peculiar "paradoxical" way of thinking, shaped by the nature of online existence — and that's exactly what this episode is about.

There was a film called "Dead Mountaineer's Hotel", in case anyone missed the reference. This episode has a nightmarish ending. It's the only episode with a bad ending. Masyanya dies. Even if in the form of a moth — still... The episode was planned to be the last Ragtime. And the last Masyanya episode altogether. Which is why she dies.

This one went completely off the allegory charts. A species of creature called "Shurikis" (means "Fellas") inhabits the Serengeti national park. A wildlife documentary segment about them — in the style of the classic Soviet nature show "In the Animal World" — is the subject of this episode. Yet what seems like an overly elaborate allegory effortlessly brings us back to a world of simple, instantly recognizable realities. The cartoon's allegory is as simple a game as the mating rituals of the "Shurikis" themselves that it describes. A primitively Freudian episode, one might say. Pretty cool, in my opinion... :))

This is what happens when you let an artist off the leash. :) In this episode the Masyanya characters aren't even playing animals anymore — they're playing characters from "Buratino" in a sort of contemporary-to-them interpretation. The cartoon is packed with references and quotes that probably only make sense to me, which is also a side effect of the "artist unchained" phenomenon. Many of the little songs reference Soviet radio productions of "Buratino" that were the soundtrack of my childhood — but not necessarily yours. You're really not supposed to do that. Which is why I'm saying — went a bit overboard, pardon me. On the other hand, a little piece of my own personal history is baked into this one. And at the same time, despite its abstractness, the cartoon is a time capsule of very specific era markers: CD-ROMs, a floppy disk on the desk, ICQ chat history and all that...

The title, like the plot of the cartoon, contains a pretty transparent — oak-level obvious, I'd say — nod to the work of one Richard Bach and his seagull. But Bach didn't quite think it through. His character is this laser-focused idealist-fighter-go-getter. A real stormy petrel of the revolution. Nonsense and pomposity. The cartoon shows how the "reality and dreams" mechanism actually works. Idealists are mostly numbskulls. Though that's precisely what makes them valuable.

— And who makes the rules for us? — Those whose income exceeds 10,000 koku. — And why do they have so much koku? — Because they make the rules, why are you acting like a child? Another evergreen, eternally relevant episode. The alternative, original title was "Lasius neglectus" — somewhere between the Latin name for the black garden ant and a nihilist. This time it's a full-on manifesto of humanist anarchism, voiced by Lokhmatiy. With all its ins, outs, and everything in between.

The episode about monkeys is actually about the traps we set and the pits we dig. Two different approaches to catching the bluebird of happiness — well, the monkey, rather...

On the website this episode is listed under exactly this title — "The Black-o-eared Parrot." With that extra "o." And the description explicitly notes that it's not a typo. However hard I tried just now, I couldn't remember what the joke with that extra "o" actually is. So let's just say there is a joke in the title, but its nature remains unknown. Which is somehow even better. :) This episode will never lose its relevance. Especially for parts of the world where freedom (in the idealistic sense) never existed and apparently never will, because almost nobody there actually wants it. Such parts of the world exist — more than one — you know the ones. A good episode by every measure, and I'll say so without false modesty. And huge props to Sasha Proskura — he did the animation here, as in all the Ragtimes. Clean and precise.

The title — I myself can't read it without stumbling. This episode is about birds. About parent-birds and chick-birds. Not sure what else to describe here — it's all in the cartoon itself. The only thing worth mentioning is that recording chaotic multi-character dialogues solo, voicing everyone yourself, is quite the task. Enough to drive you mad.

This is the first of the "Ragtimes" — a peculiar subtype of Masyanya cartoons where the characters play not only themselves but also various animals. Allegorical cartoons, so to speak. There are nine Ragtimes in total, and I'm putting them in a separate playlist precisely because of this unusual concept. Though it's not really that unusual, when you think about it. We're all roughly 97% animal, and our behavioral patterns are easy to recognize as distinctly beast-like — so easy, in fact, that it's often funny. That's what the Ragtimes are about. And vice versa: animal behavior sometimes strongly resembles human behavior, only caricatured.

A long and tedious cartoon about how Lokhmatiy's independence, self-sufficiency and individuality itself were put through serious stress-testing by Masyanya, a liberal anarchist of the existentialist persuasion. Also about zombies, punks, a primer, naked ladies, excessive impressionability, meditation, railway station literature, homosexuality, physical dependency and everything all at once really... :)

Try to look at the plot of this episode a little broader than just the situation shown in the cartoon. Approximately, of course, the message could be described as in the famous motivational poster "Never Give Up", but it's far from just that, far from just that...

The peculiarity of Petersburg summer is unique and one of a kind. And since summer is already leaving — I thought it would be nice to take a spin on this eternal topic.

This is a rare case. I haven't made topical cartoons for several years now. But sometimes you just have to. Have a little mischief, so to speak. If it seems to you that the cartoon is too cheerful for such a topic — don't trust your eyes and ears! Don't trust your index toes either! They can't point at anything! Although, well, it is. The cartoon is too cheerful. While being not at all optimistic. Yes, it turned out strange, I agree. And that's on purpose. As they say, "I'm too sexy for my shirt". Meaning only laughter will save us. Description done.

What are we living on? What are we breathing? What are we eating? When are we finally going to croak? How long will the fat-bellied bourgeois keep poisoning us with toxins for our own money? How long can we keep feeding on carcasses and petroleum byproducts? These kinds of ecological questions unfortunately in most cases have only a blunt and unoptimistic answer. But that's no reason to be glum... :)

A homey, kiddy, comedy cartoon. Started making it about something completely different, and then suddenly scene number one grew so much it took up the entire cartoon. That's how I make cartoons now. Masyanya's virtual personality is already outshining mine and independently decides what the cartoon will be about and how it'll go. When Masyanya was still pregnant many people asked — well what kind of mother will come out of such a goofball? Well here's your answer, sort of. A wonderful one, actually! Better than many.

An episode that was originally conceived as a simple comedy about a phone suddenly, unexpectedly, halfway through, turned itself in a completely different direction. I'm not to blame, the plot turned out unusual and dictated by who knows whom. I think my hand and brain were taken over by a parrot with a propeller!

I don't know how to write a description of this cartoon without spoiling it for those watching for the first time. This is, in short, a somewhat strange episode. Although we are living in a strange world right now, one that changes faster than we can comprehend what exactly has happened. At that kind of speed you get thrown wildly off course into complete lunacy on every turn. You just have to get used to it.

Always wanted to make an episode like this.. about photographers. Or rather about the miracles of modern photography and what this hobby does to people. What used to be a high art has now become a "something-to-do-when-bored". I'm imagining what it would be like if the ability to play banjo (just as an example) could simply be bought in a store, or if it came bundled with a pick.. :)) You could quite easily declare the death of photography as an art form, but... you can't. If everyone suddenly starts playing banjo, someone will still play better than the rest...

A slightly chaotic but very fun episode. But, as they say, c'est la vie. Even in all those disciplined organizations like the army or prison, something is always going sideways. Let alone in our own affairs. We're all people, all human, and a little "going-sideways" accompanies us 24 hours a day and is perfectly normal.

The cartoon is called "One Hell of a Bang". This cartoon was inevitable. I believe I was pressured by someone from above, some angel-creep.. :) The cartoon draws on the experience of many people, thanks to everyone. If anyone happens to recognize themselves in some moment — don't even ask — yes, that's you. Hope you enjoy it. :) Hooray for everyone!

This cartoon continues from the previous one. For better or worse, Masyanya is growing up and toughening up. Many didn't want this, but I went against the grain :). Let Masyanya be the only cartoon character growing up together with her audience. Let her suffer along with us, why the hell not? :)))

This bonus episode was made for the 20th anniversary of the show "Namedni", in which Masyanya had the pleasure of flourishing over the course of a year. The cartoon isn't even about her at all, but about me and the guys from the studio. About our struggles with the series in 2003-2004. Everything is as clear and truthful as it gets. :)

At first, after watching this cartoon, people said something like: "Well, yeah... the cartoon's fine, sure, but we don't want Masyanya with kids and all that business". In short, despite the fact that Masyanya, judging by the 10-year history of the series, by human standards should already be somewhere around 30, the audience denied her the right to start a family. However I took a pause, and then continued to push the theme. And I was right. The subsequent cartoons with Masyanya, where she already has a kid, turned out to be no less, and by pure statistics even more successful.

It's pretty hard to explain why I made this cartoon. In principle it explains the concept of karma in an accessible, idiotic form. On the other hand there are such wonderful proverbs as "He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned" and "Man proposes, God disposes" and other such wisdom... In other words — we know nothing. Absolutely jack squat. And all our assumptions are rubbish. Even, as in this cartoon, seemingly obvious things. In short — fatalism. Although in reality I'm not a fatalist at all, not even a little bit, and I don't believe in fate. But sometimes there's this persistent feeling that someone or something is steering you, gently nudging you along... The term "karma" is still easier to work with.

The cartoon was made for the upcoming New Year 2009. Hence the tsar's congratulations to his vassals at the end. The cartoon is known for the wonderful song about "two thousandth rublev", which I later heard several times on the phones of complete strangers.. :))

A sloppy little cartoon mess revolving around pizza and the methods of handling it. Absurdities on wheels. Just a laugh with no deeper meaning whatsoever. To hell with all that deeper meaning. As if we needed cartoons to get all heavy on us too. Just felt like some pure silliness... :))

As Mark Twain said — "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it many times myself". I think there are no smokers who have never tried to quit this filthy business. Just as there's no smoker who hasn't at least once been recommended that little book by Allen Carr, I think that's his name. I found this book to be extremely dumb. He simply, throughout the entire book, plants certain thoughts into the reader. Literally plants them, pushes them, shoves them down your throat, hammers them in. I don't like being treated like an idiot and just having something force-fed to me. And the ideas themselves are mostly so-so. But if you jam them into someone's head labeling them "life-saving", they settle in there for good. Self-hypnosis initiation. Works on many people. But it's not even about smoking — the point is that the result is often achieved by a completely different path. What works for one person is absolutely wrong for another. Know and love yourself and your Lokhmatiy ones.. :))

The hundredth episode turned out to be "Little Surprise", a rather sweet cartoon about the petty nastiness of the female nature. Although male nature is not far behind, and sometimes even surpasses it in irrationality. Give me a different globe, as they say.

Those who have to fly often will relate to this cartoon more. I hate flying. All these airports, security checks, endless waiting. It's some kind of evil. You feel like you're on a conveyor belt in a torture chamber. Although of course it's nonsense. Nothing serious, just one more excuse to take the piss. Could probably put out another couple dozen of these aero-triangles. Stories about how we get messed with over little things are endless in their variety. :))

A little return to the "triangles" genre. There are two parts on the site. Here I combined them into one. No point dragging it out. The second part came out for the New Year, 2008, so the last bit is a New Year's one. After all, the Masyanya series has always had a lean towards female hang-ups. So topics touching on female psychology fit in nicely.

"I have two cartoons made based on posts by friends on LiveJournal. One is about a diaper, if you remember, and the second is this one, about a mouth ulcer. And in general I've always boasted that I can make a cartoon about any topic. And that's probably true. Because it's not about the specific situation, it's about the Masyanya approach. :))

This is probably the most shittiest job Masyanya has ever had or ever will have. Unfortunately people do work jobs like this. These kinds of "little shows" exist on pretty much every channel, in almost every country. A rare-breed lunacy that would be a sin not to take the piss out of.

This episode was inspired by a long-standing mystery from my childhood. You all understand that I'm talking about the show "Good Night, Little Ones". One day I saw a photo online taken from behind of the host, and it brought back how much this mystery tormented me as a kid. Well, let's consider this cartoon my way of closing out that old childhood complex... :) And I wish the same for you..

Everyone's gotten so uptight! That's because you need to eat your carrots! Vitamins! There's not much else to say about this episode. I've carried this burning issue with me my whole life. Sometimes it seems to me that people are just completely incompatible. Completely. Just don't get worked up. Eat your carrots more often! :)))

So, basically, the episode "Moth" was made as the finale. The series is over. Studio's disbanded. Nothing to do, situation's grim. For a couple of months I just did absolutely nothing, stuck in a depression. I wasn't planning to make cartoons anymore. However, completely out of the blue, I stumbled into a situation on Nevsky, in one of those fast food joints — the very situation described in this cartoon. Well, tell me, how could I NOT make a cartoon? It's just absolutely impossible not to! :)) Well, it's exaggerated here, of course, but hey, that's what cartoons are for. And off we go again..

Politics in its ideal form is a competition between diligent officials over who can better and more pleasantly organize people's lives. In reality, especially in totalitarian countries, it's nothing but a turf war between criminal clans over money and the suppression of all life. Masyanya doesn't take part in any of that. There are the "politically obsessed", there are the excessively amorphous.. and most people just try to live without the Blob.. with varying degrees of success..

The cartoon is based on a true story, practically a documentary. A tale of unusual mystical events that once took place. I suspect many won't get the joke, so it's not exactly a million-dollar gag. All I can recommend is upgrading your sense of humor to the latest version.

A New Year's episode. As the patrons' poll showed, people still want magic. And the desire for something magical turns into an understanding of how that magic can be real. The cartoon is a little sappy. But that's the tradition.. Happy New Year to all! Which will definitely be better than the last one.

Time is a damn relative thing. Sometimes it feels like there's none at all. Like when you need to "carve out just one little minute" — there's still nowhere to get it from. Even though there's never any time, it runs out fast. A paradox that everyone experiences firsthand.

The topic this time is not as extreme as last time. I've adopted a new approach — one time about the big stuff, one time about the small stuff. One time abstract — one time real life! So today — real life! It must be said that what happens to us sometimes — doesn't kill us. What kills us is what happens to us every single day.

Well why not. Sooner or later it'll happen. Because it's silly and it's the trend. But the desired and the actual almost never match up. And sometimes you just want everyone to stop killing each other and causing all kinds of grief, and instead try to get at least some enjoyment out of this short life.

Masyanya the 3D girl — or the alternative title for the episode: "Anthropomorphism". In a world where a person can no longer be sure whether they're talking to a real human or a bot, it gradually stops mattering. Can you communicate with a piece of hardware as if it were human? Sure you can, of course, why not, it hasn't been banned yet.. which is strange... but a fact. You can talk to a rugby ball too, as we know. And the laws of communication and emotional intensity don't change even if one of the parties is completely dead. No biggie — we'll humanize anyone we want! :)

The previous episode was apparently way too meaningful. Requests started pouring in to stop making anything that reminded people of real life. As in "you can draw from life, but make it some silly nonsense just for laughs". Heavy stuff — we don't need that. We've got enough as it is. Just want fun with nothing attached.. And there were also requests for something about sex, like why is there never anything about sex? I'm only interested in sex, writes user X. I'm exaggerating of course, but that's roughly how it went. And a fair demand at that! Fun without the heavy load and something that hits where it lives.. And I love drawing all kinds of stuff. Nonsense especially, because that's where the true meaning reveals itself! :) The main thing — it should feel good! So here's a cartoon about nothing — fun and erotic! :)))) Whoever manages to watch the entire ending — rays of happiness to you (spelled with a Shch, that's all we have left in stock..).

The author is not advocating anything or propagandizing anything. Nothing at all. Just singing about what I see. Alternative title: "Protest, Masyanya Style".

An absolutely apolitical and generally almost meaningless episode. If you came here for "serious meanings" — you've got no business being here. These are cartoons where the characters simply enjoy life and that's pretty much it..

Just a Masyanya gag. I decided to stop showing off with deep meanings and puffing myself up with self-importance. There's too much gloomy crap and toxic evil around. And there's not enough of the good, the kind and the fun. Well, at least there's Masyanya — that's already something. :)

The promised episode on a children's theme. The problem is not new. Our ancestors suffered from the problem of unruly little rascals no less than we do. Let us digest their experience! And, hopefully, not choke on it... this is not a disaster... :) PS: "I must say in hindsight. As viewers have pointed out, there is one mistake in the cartoon. The word "ne pelay!" never existed in the original. It's just that in some scans of "Zersalo" there's a typo and "ne delay" (don't do) turned into "ne pelay". Should've checked other scans if I had any sense. But I'm no archivist.. and then there wouldn't have been a good joke.. :)"

Parallel lines meet at infinity. And this doesn't violate common sense. Quite the opposite. This is higher mathematics — the highest form of common sense. The quantum world is closing in and will make our lives hilariously amusing. The intersection of different meanings and characters draws us into a little absurd game with a big underlying meaning. Underlying meaning rules in general.

18+!!! Words run wild these days. It's become very hard to keep them under control, though many try hard enough. Parents too have to face this problem sooner or later.

The cartoon is long, heads up. So watch it when you have the time, no rush. Apocalyptic humor. Grotesque fantasy. Tedious squabbles. Exaggerated reality with no direct relation to any specific country. Cheerful gloom. Existential wisecrackers. Dead can dance. Our reality is getting increasingly harsh. Might as well take the piss out of that fact instead of moping around. That's the method.

A musical cartoon. This one has a long backstory. As for the history of the song — look up "Casey Jones" on Wikipedia (in Utesov's version the name is spelled with a "Z", "KeyZie", from the German). The song's roots, as they say, run deep. :) But I have my own history with this song. The record came to me from my grandparents who left us too soon, along with a prehistoric record player. This unusual-for-the-USSR song was played until the grooves wore out. In short, it's the song of my childhood. And mine alone. Because nobody else knew it. For a long time I kept trying to fit it in somewhere or sing it somehow, but it never worked out. And I realized that sooner or later I had to cover it, or else. . In Utesov's original version I only changed one line about the rails. Because in the original American song it was exactly that way. Restored historical justice, so to speak, removed the proletarian extremism. Anyway, hope it turned out fun. :) Enjoy!

This episode is dedicated to all lonely people. Loneliness is the illusion of company. But social stereotypes are very much real.

You could say the episode has all kinds of silly hints, but you could also say there are absolutely no silly hints whatsoever. You can never figure out this Masyanya. Just a cartoon about Masyanya's Birthday. A fun one. :))

I've been bombarded with letters asking when Lokhmatiy will finally get a girlfriend. Well, this short cartoon is apparently the answer to that question. It's complicated. Complicated before it even begins.

Sublimation is basically replacing something with something else. This short cartoon demonstrates how to properly substitute something you're missing from your past life. Like a free Internet, for example. There's a lot of fun stuff you can sublimate. Plenty of room for imagination now. :)

The only question is whether everyone has gone crazy or not everyone yet. Brainwashing is a terrible thing. And the person with the washed brain usually calls their opponents the brainwashed ones, and total confusion ensues. In our time, more than ever, personal information hygiene is crucial!

All in the title. This is not a political cartoon, not even close to one. Just a joke. Admit it — don't you sometimes feel like the government has been taken over — long ago and for good — by idiots? And it seems like many countries just stay that way...

In December, you're supposed to make New Year's cartoons. With Santa Claus and other silly stuff. Usually some kind of New Year's adventures. But after 12 years of running this series, I'm thoroughly sick of making New Year's episodes. And then innocent users ask: "Why does it say 'Happy New Year 2003' at the end? It's May 2013 now. Typo?" :) So we drop the "New Year's" part and keep just "adventures". We're, like, having a good time all year round, not just on New Year's. Though for Khryundel, who the author put through the wringer in this episode, "good time" is probably not quite the word. But what can you do. If you don't want to be messed with — don't go being a cartoon character. :) The lack of a New Year's greeting doesn't mean I have anything against the holiday. Quite the opposite. It's just that holidays come and go, but cartoons are forever. If you're reading this comment around New Year's — then Happy upcoming New Year to you. And if not — never mind. :))

We live in very strange times when absurdity is no longer the domain of fringe comedians, but headlong barrels into real life.. And because of that strange things sometimes happen to us. The main thing — is to have someone or something that would remind you from time to time that all of this is vanity of vanities and nonsense.

Masanya says Khryundel is lying. Khryundel says Lohmatiy is lying. Lohmatiy says both Khryundel and Masanya are lying. Given that all three either always tell the truth or always lie — who among them is telling the truth? Is there any truth at all?

So it is on exactly October 22nd, the day this toon comes out, that the "Masanya" series turns exactly 20 years old. A long road. But the most fun one... All thanks to you! The toon consists of just two scenes as stated in the title. Kind of a challenge. :)

Hooray everyone! The ban as an act of exile from modern digital life has become a real problem. The failure to comply with certain unwritten murky, most often idiotic rules, when some unknown dimwit clothed in power starts harassing and tormenting, when every minor and major bigwig tries to dictate how people should think and what to say, is leading us somewhere in the wrong direction, imho. A talky-talky episode, conceived as a continuation of the fan-favorite episode "Gentlemen".

I've somehow taken a liking to making dystopias. Sorry. It's just that it implies a completely free flight of fantasy, which can't help but be pleasing to any artist. The slightly trashy editing here is intentional. Because the plot is trashy too. It's all because I somehow started losing the thread of logic in what's going on around us. Well, we'll just have to master the chaos, what else can you do... :)

What will remain from this time of ours — it's not books, not films and not photography. Not texts and not documents. But only tiny tiktok-ed clip-fragments shot by random people. Fragments of languages, situations, cultures and events. Some little vids like shards of vessels can be pieced together into a single picture, into a complete story. The toon is composed of sequential uploads from Masanya's phone. You could call it a kind of "mockumentary". Such an unusual way of presenting info is what got into my head to use this time. You don't have to love it, but you're welcome to fancy it.

What are toxic people? Toxic comments and posts.. It was the trolls who invented them, and having let the genie out of the bottle, the social toxin spread far and wide across the internet... And why is that?

This is like a dystopia. In some respects. Obviously having nothing to do with reality. The world is shrinking and getting cramped. In tight spaces — there's always resentment. And there's always someone aiming at your temple. Sometimes it's you yourself.

Psychology sometimes plays unpleasant tricks on us. The situation is probably familiar to many. But if this has never happened to you and you're all proper and self-assured — move along. Normal people hang out here.

The toon is published on the 31st of December. 2020. Well, it's been quite a... not-so-great year… So the content of the toon is accordingly. Not in the sense of "not-so-great", but in the sense of mean-and-sarcastic, because what else could it be in a year like this?

Don't judge the "slightly unhinged" plot too harshly. This is "Surreal", not "what the heck was that". Watch the movement of the hands! It's been almost a year with the virus, a year since I've been to St. Petersburg, it's madness. And nowhere else either. The gears are already catching on the sprockets. The cuckoo's already sliding off from all this staying-at-home. So don't be surprised if this drags on for another couple of years — the toons will go completely abstract... ;))

Extraordinary events, accompanied by unusual reactions and consequences, ultimately resulting in an even greater paradox than there was, like, before... :)

The toon was made both topical and timeless at once. I just couldn't decide whether to make it current or not at all. And then I thought, why not both. No sooner said than done. So here I am calmly sitting on two chairs and my mug won't crack. Except maybe from laughing. It's all the Lithuanians' fault! And Tesla with Musk! ;)) By the way, the toon is not about politics even a little bit. It's just that the events of our life unfold against the backdrop of "yet another piece of idiocy". Isn't that so?

This episode is about Lohmatiy. The plot is simple — two guys drink beer. That's it. The rest is just life. A long-promised episode. Because Lohmatiy has somehow become a cult figure among those who follow me. But a lot about him was unclear and raised questions. This episode clears up many things about this remarkable individual. Politics in the episode — absolute zero, if you can put it that way, so trolls — you're on vacation. Everyone's better off without you. The rest — enjoy it to the extent you're capable of. Although the episode wasn't planned to be funny, it was planned to be experimental. Though it still turned out to be a Masanya toon. Nothing you can do about that. And that's just fine... No woman — no cry!!!!

A fairy tale's a lie, but holds a lesson true, young lads get the ice rink too... It seems to me the toon follows the general rising tide of idiocy in the world. Where we're headed isn't clear, but the distortion of reality in a destructive direction is very noticeable. Feels like we'll soon be waking up to a new world every day. But is it really that new? And this isn't about any specific tsar. There are plenty of those. The glue was apparently exported too.. :)

The description you have to write here is always the hardest part. Every script is born from hundreds of piles of mental garbage and candelabras. And summing it up in a few words is almost always impossible. Well, the toon is about... u-u-u-m.. about the balance between human wants and circumstances. Something like that. But mostly, as usual — just a laugh..

There are people who are dimwits, and there are people who are, well, decent. The decent ones are far fewer in number. By definition. And because of that, the decent ones have a rough time in a world of dimwits. So being a dimwit is a conscious choice for many. It's easier to be a dimwit. And we can't blame them for that. But we can have a laugh.. The toon features a song by the band "Vnezapny Sich"."

I really didn't feel like making a toon on such a painfully relevant topic. But ignoring it would've been dumb too. So here's a compromise — a toon not about the illness, but about the state of isolation. Mood-lifting. I hope.

A somewhat heavy cartoon. In every sense. You can't call it light. About the struggle against evil. About tragedies. About war. About survival. About despair. About flight. About.. today. But as always with Masyanya's irony and sarcasm. For those who have trouble following Masyanya's rapid-fire chatter there are subtitles (Russian and English).

Reality at this point is so absurd that one needn't bother making the plot even remotely realistic. On the contrary — the more absurd, the closer it gets to reality. And humor will survive — it doesn't care about realism and it is the opposite of aggression. So the more laughs there are — the sooner Evil will go away.

There are all kinds of perverted forms of human oppression. And nobody believes it will happen in their lifetime, in their city, in their country. Such forms of dictatorship and violence never end well... if taken to their logical conclusion... I apologize in advance to all the Antons.. :)

I'm already afraid to make dystopian videos because too often they become reality. Honestly I exaggerate to get a laugh, but dictators do all of this in earnest with real people. But what choice do I have? The principle of my cartoons is absurdity built on elements of reality. And if the elements of reality are dark — then the humor will be dark too.

So here's the thing — introducing the concept of 'parallel reality' into the series allows one to somewhat justify the existence of peaceful storylines in our nightmarish times. This is also a slight continuation of the "Plavunets" episode... but that will only become clear at the very end.

With the words 'Director's Cut' I'm sort of warning you that the episode is long. Though all my cartoons are director's cuts. There can't be any other version, because I do everything alone. I can't even make an electrician's cut — I fix everything myself. :) So pick a time to watch the whole thing calmly in one sitting. This isn't some TikTok clip to scroll past — this is about a genuinely serious metaphysical paradox. We all want there to have been no Hitler or Stalin in the past, but would we ourselves exist then?..

Since the normal future has been killed, one has to invent it. What will happen to everyone in 2050? Nobody dares to predict. And this is also NOT a prediction. This is a free artistic fantasy as one of the possible scenarios. And claims to be nothing more. The main character in this cartoon is not the heroes, oddly enough, but the circumstances. A little artistic trick. If someone thinks: "This is a pretty controversial cartoon" — the answer is: Well, duh! It is controversial! I make controversial cartoons, in case you didn't know... It's the job. Welcome to the "sporno". :))) If you don't understand anything — turn on the subtitles.

A hypothetical situation. Many people, it seems to me, still don't understand that animation is exaggeration, pushing things to the point of absurdity. And in this way, through caricature, we see the essence. Well, so let's push. Bon appétit!

Reality at this point is so absurd that one needn't bother making the plot even remotely realistic. On the contrary — the more absurd, the closer it gets to reality. And humor will survive — it doesn't care about realism and it is the opposite of aggression. So the more laughs there are — the sooner Evil will go away.

Empathy is the main human feeling. The ability to sympathize. The ability to put yourself in another's place. This cartoon is addressed to those who, by some monstrous mistake, support the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Children can see perfectly well that something terrible is happening in the world. With their country and with the neighboring one. How to talk to them about it without causing trauma. It is they, the children, who will live with the consequences of this horror. Not sure Masyanya did it well, but she tried.

Murky and gloomy times have come. Humor is going underground.

A thoroughly modern, wildly topical parody of an old Soviet comedy song, itself based on an even older French one. So modern, so terrifyingly topical... and utterly comedic... to the point of nausea. We live in an age of borderline humor. My grandmother used to tell me about the kind of humor that existed during the Siege of Leningrad, so dark humor was something I learned from childhood...

The subject, sadly, is no local quirk — it's a global one... Money! (cue the face from Cabaret). Quantum worldviews have infiltrated daily life, whether we like it or not. Fine, let them in — just as long as we hold it together somehow. Oh, and the finale? Pure parody. Copyright — stand at ease!

This whole stupid flare-up of dictatorships and clown politicians lately — it's the last dying convulsion of the state as such. As a structure. It's outliving itself as a machine of violence. Digital anarchy is the mother of order and freedom! :)))) A digital army of robots with lasers — the best defense against zombie-emperors and fanatics! People are not meat!

The toon is, on one hand, about what's happening right now in every company, and no matter what people are celebrating, whatever the occasion they've gathered for, the conversation always slides into the goddamn clown show of world politics. And furthermore, the toon is about how one person shouldn't be deciding "all by their lonesome" what concerns millions of people... it's stated outright in there. That's where all the trouble comes from.. :))

Whatever crooked period of history we're in — that's the kind of crooked lopsided New Year's toon we get. In another time it would of course do as a proper New Year's greeting but that's the best I can do.. Krampus is the equivalent of the Devil (though the Christians gave him a supervisor). Also a mixing of the folkloric element with the war and modern reality. Anyway, Happy New Year!

The episode is dystopian again... What can you do? We're living through this mess together with the rest of the world... Democracy is a dying social experiment of the 20th century... isn't it?

This toon is a continuation of "Moments. Monday", naturally. Made in a somewhat unhinged manner, without linear narrative. More like mini-stories, mini-parodies: mini-ribbing, albeit a bit dark in places of course. These times — you can't go anywhere without Kharms. Basically the simple principle of a kaleidoscope, whose pieces assembled together create a general mood of living here and now... :)

No description.

Author: This is a parody of a film Commenters: Stolen idea! :))))

This toon has no straight narrative. There is no story. No setup, no resolution. Me and the patrons decided a month ago to try and return, at least in some small part, to just plain funny toons, without (almost) any social weight, tragedy and sarcasm. We live in a war. Even in war, but mostly we live. This method of making toons was invented 20 years ago in the ep "Triangles" and everyone liked it back then. Basically the simple principle of a kaleidoscope.

A parody of my all-time favorite Russian-language film — Kin-dza-dza!. Made with complete and utter respect for the original and absolutely zero respect for the idiots who have seized power in the largest countries.

I had already forgotten that ordinary humor once existed in ancient times, beyond the black kind. The last few years have been so filled with aggression that I'm not sure we'll ever return to simple humor (in the Russian language, that is). This toon is a traditional Masyanya New Year's greeting. What could possibly go wrong? :))

Under the toons about Ukraine and the war, trolls always wrote "What about Israel, too scared?". I always told them — don't egg me on, you'll be the first to not like it. But they wouldn't let up. Plus the patrons voted for the topic. And so — the Hanukkah Masyanya. My apologies for the passion for experimentation in the final song. This is an interpretation of the Hanukkah song "באנו חושך לגרש" which fits the theme perfectly.

Hey! Look! Kuvaev posted a new Masyanya!

A poetic ballad about the legendary ill-fated Cringe from the top of a snowy mountain, and about that intricate event which later the wisened historians will call the "Epochal Theft of Common Sense", which took place in the glorious city of Lopukhburg. All participants of the narrative are purely fictional and bear no relation to anyone whatsoever.

With this toon, real karma happened. I didn't want to make part 4 of MaMS, but then BG unexpectedly showed up, bringing a song that seemed written specifically for this toon. In short, higher powers are watching over us and making sure the content stays quality... :) BG approved the toon despite the mild ribbing aimed at him.

Last time someone commented "schizo", clearly expecting me to take offense. But honestly, that's exactly what it is. "MaMS" is schizo. How else to be, in times when common sense, justice, the value of life and everything else that matters have been turned to nothing? Only joyful schizo will save you from crushing gloom and pessimism. All the music in the toon is a parody. I recommend turning on the subtitles.

The continuation of the "harrypotteriad", part two. Unfortunately, a rather lighthearted episode. Just a gag. But I myself had a great deal of fun making this one, despite the winter, the war, the colds and the holidays..

The punk version of Harry Potter.