(Background was from here while border frame is here)
Same with my Dr Loboto analysis page, if you haven't figured it out by now from my crazy cousin gizmo shrines or aren't a personal friend of mine, I'm a particulary huge fan of Nickelodeon's Robot and Monster character, Crazy Cousin Gizmo. That obviously isn't enough to encompass how obsessed I've been with this character ever since last year, hell one of my names is taken from this character and even if I'm not that obsessed about Robot and Monster like I was earlier this year I don't think my obsession with this character is going to stop anytime soon. Ever since I first started my page for rambling about media or such i've thought of making a Gizmo anaylsis/character study page as Gizmo isn't a character I've seen the greater, majority of the rnm fandom apart from my friends really acknowlegde all that much and sadly due to the fact Gizmo only really appears for about two episodes at best and one mostly as a joke/gag. However through thinking more about gizmo as a character and what she meant to me I started realizing a much more personal connection to gizmo especially in relations to how she's handled as a character with schizophrenia, one thing I came out of this thought is that I hope somebody is able to have the same revelations/connection to a character and what it ultimately means to them no matter how ridiculous it sounds.
First before I start this, this is how I personally see/interpret the character which some may not agree with but I doubt there's much any people out there who enjoy gizmo as much as me to really object and second I genuinely don't care anymore if it feels like I'm taking this too seriously/deep, this is once again what I've gathered from gizmo as a character which greatly comforts me to be able to put into words.
Without further ado this is my:
Analysis/Study of Crazy Cousin Gizmo and The Party episode
Who is Gizmo?
Crazy Cousin Gizmo is a one off side character from nickelodeon's Robot and Monster, only appearing fully in episodes Apartment 3 1/2 and The Party, also being briefly mentioned or seen in other episodes such as the finale or the episode Blinking Lights.
While not a major character in anyway, far from it, his introduction and character in the show is unforgettable and leaves a lot to be thought about, especially in the context of how she's potrayed within the show.
Soooo, let's get out a very obvious and large elephant in the room (plus it's not big secret if you've watched any episode she's majorly in), Gizmo is heavily implied to experience psychosis and is by all means, a stereotypical depiction of psychotic/schizospec people in that typical cartoon sense. He's nonsensical and wacky for the sake of being wacky at all times, he causes a ruckus for seemingly no "logical" reason, he's a general nuisance and embarrasment even compared to other common character punching bags such as Robot or Perry and most damming of all, she hears "voices" in his head and regularly communicates/believes said voices/people are real. For fuck sake if that all doesn't scream "hello I am a cartoon depication of what people think schizophrenic/psychoctic people act" his name is crazy cousin gizmo, like let's put the pieces together.
This by far isn't the most surprising news ever, especially I feel for most schizophrenic people (or just anybody who has experienced psychotic symptoms) burned out by the amount of "representation" or better called, caricatures of this mental illness we suffer from, whether explicitly (such as characters who display psychotic or positive symptoms of schizospec disorders who are violent blood thirsty serial killers who do similar henious acts cause "they're crazy beyond saving" or cause of "the voices") or more subtely from characters who are either a. paranoid to all hell (especially if said paranoias stem from persecutory beliefs) for comedic purposes or b. are simply crazy for the crazy (often also cause of hearing "voices" or being potrayed in straight jackets/being placed in mental institions. Of course, with what I just said not every character who's ever been depicted in a straight jacket as a gag or has been paranoid once or has killed before is schizophrenic, far from it, it just depends on the context of said character and other factors that play in with how these traits are depicted if it can be catergorized as a definitive caricature of schizophrenic or psychotic people.
