Professor Cat's Steampunk Spergtime Gallery -

[CatParty]

i think we can all agree steampunk is a fandom that doesn't get enough attention for how cringey it actually is. we can all agree it's just ners in goggles and top hats cavorting with fat girls who force themselves into too small corsets. all the spewing their words in shitty wannabe british accents while sewing clock gears on everything and spray painting nerf guns into gay blunderbusses.
as a fandom, they force their views onto every other artistic work. it's kinda like how furries will furrify everything or bornies will ponify everything or how there is inevitably porn of any subject.
with that said, let's get to some cringey shit:

 

[Sanae Kochiya]

Videos like this remind me why I stick with looking at the steampunk aesthetic and artwork and avoid interacting with the people who obsess over it.

Some people can't handle their interests like rational individuals.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

avoid interacting with the people who obsess over it

When I first heard of steampunk, I also liked the aesthetic - especially when applied in new and creative or functional ways instead of always going for the same tired old "slap some valves and gears on everything" 19th century England vibe. Some fans of steampunk make some cool stuff. But of course, some people go way too overboard. 3 indicators on a top hat... why?

Related: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA

Spoiler

Also, I like cat's bait intro. I wonder how long it'll take to get the thread diseased?

 

[Abethedemon]

I like some ideas of steampunk, but that said, it is a very cringy fandom. The people in it seem like an unholy combination of hipsters and goths. A lot of the fans seem to take it at a very shallow level, oftentimes only interested in the Wild West or Victorian England aspects and they seem to romanticize the corset.

Spoiler

 

[The Knife's Husbando]

Steampunk is absolute horseshit. It'a all about people who want the old-school tech look, but don't have the brains, willpower or backbone to carry it out, so they whip up together a bunch of non-functional bullshit, slap some brass paint on it and call it good.

Show me ONE of the spechul snowflakes that know how to find the static load on a vane pump, HOW ACTUAL POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH FUCKING WORKS, how to thermit weld a broken drive shaft, or how to mill a stem gear, or how to pour greensand castings from a homemade cupola, or just what the fuck a grease zerk is.

Go on, I'll wait.

 

[Surtur]

Steampunk is absolute horseshit. It'a all about people who want the old-school tech look, but don't have the brains, willpower or backbone to carry it out, so they whip up together a bunch of non-functional bullshit, slap some brass paint on it and call it good.

Show me ONE of the spechul snowflakes that know how to find the static load on a vane pump, HOW ACTUAL POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH FUCKING WORKS, how to thermit weld a broken drive shaft, or how to mill a stem gear, or how to pour greensand castings from a homemade cupola, or just what the fuck a grease zerk is.

Go on, I'll wait.

Their just spergs, calm down.

 

[Butta Face Lopez]

I just had to tend bar at a steampunk themed wedding and in addition to just gluing gears on everything, they also have horrible taste in music

 

[The Knife's Husbando]

Their just spergs, calm down.

I AM CALM! I....

Just kidding.

These people are a personal hatred of mine. As they are to any actual machinist, custom fabricator, antique dealer, or serious gearhead.

True story.

Back in my college days, I had to take a prerequisite "Machine Tool 101" class. All it was, was how to use a basic miller & metal lathe. Tools I had plenty of practical experience on before I even got there. The only project the entire semester was to make an all-metal claw hammer out of a length of 1" square steel stock, and a bit of 1" aluminum round for a handle. I whipped that out in the first class, first day. So every other class, I just basically hung out with the professor & chatted, and occasionally even helped some of the students do things like reading a non-digital micrometer & setting up 4-jaw chucks on the metal lathe, etc. Mickey mouse stuff all told.

One day me & him were walking out of the building after class, and on of the students came up to us. He wanted to know if he could borrow the machine shop a bit after class the next session. At first me & the professor were both surprised & happy. Then we asked what he wanted. He just wanted to use the Piranha (a diamond-abrasive blade cutoff saw) For a few minutes. Well, we asked why.

I will remember this to my dying day. And I Quote: "Oh, My pappy left me this big 'ol Grandfather clock he made. I got all the brass gears I could out of it with a sledgehammer for my costume, and I need some help to get at the rest."

Okay, I was mad. But my professor was livid. I've never seen a person so angry.

 

[Surtur]

I AM CALM! I....

Just kidding.

These people are a personal hatred of mine. As they are to any actual machinist, custom fabricator, antique dealer, or serious gearhead.

True story.

Back in my college days, I had to take a prerequisite "Machine Tool 101" class. All it was, was how to use a basic miller & metal lathe. Tools I had plenty of practical experience on before I even got there. The only project the entire semester was to make an all-metal claw hammer out of a length of 1" square steel stock, and a bit of 1" aluminum round for a handle. I whipped that out in the first class, first day. So every other class, I just basically hung out with the professor & chatted, and occasionally even helped some of the students do things like reading a non-digital micrometer & setting up 4-jaw chucks on the metal lathe, etc. Mickey mouse stuff all told.

One day me & him were walking out of the building after class, and on of the students came up to us. He wanted to know if he could borrow the machine shop a bit after class the next session. At first me & the professor were both surprised & happy. Then we asked what he wanted. He just wanted to use the Piranha (a diamond-abrasive blade cutoff saw) For a few minutes. Well, we asked why.

I will remember this to my dying day. And I Quote: "Oh, My pappy left me this big 'ol Grandfather clock he made. I got all the brass gears I could out of it with a sledgehammer for my costume, and I need some help to get at the rest."

Okay, I was mad. But my professor was livid. I've never seen a person so angry.

Wait he destroyed something his father worked hard to build....for a fucking costume?

 

[Super Collie]

Say what you will about steampunk but it's relatively easy money if you know how to sell tat to them. I had an epiphany at a Michael's hobby store a couple years ago when I saw steampunk-ish crap like gears and tiny vials for sale in their trinket department. Since the hubby is always taking shit from Goodwill apart to build "the next BattleBots champion" I started collecting all the bits and baubles he didn't need (gears, springs, levers, etc), spraypainting or faux-aging them, and selling them as little autistic goodie bags.

I mean, it's not life changing money or anything but it's a free video game or two on the house at the expense of people who think painting a Nerf gun brown is a fashion statement.

I was at an anime/sci-fi convention a couple months ago and in the dealer's den there was a steampunk guy with buckets of just random trash. All of it painted brass/bronze and given some fake distressing. He also had literal boxes full of what I could only assume were broken Nerf guns whose first steampunk paint jobs were less than stellar, because they were all matte black or brown and were being sold as canvasses for projects. He was taking up a whopping three dealer's tables, and those spaces ain't cheap. Either he's a total idiot or he's making a ton of money off of this somehow.

Probably the former.

edit: I just realized, aren't Nerf guns stupidly expensive these days? For someone to have that many gun fuck-ups he must be in the hole an exorbitant amount of money.

 

[TheMightyMonarch]

I don't mind steampunk in media, like in Bioshock Infinite or Wild Wild West (Even though that movie is total shit) and I like seeing steampunk cosplays at times. But the fandom in general is super cringey. Besides we all know that cyberpunk is superior.

 

[AnOminous]

I will remember this to my dying day. And I Quote: "Oh, My pappy left me this big 'ol Grandfather clock he made. I got all the brass gears I could out of it with a sledgehammer for my costume, and I need some help to get at the rest."

Okay, my jimmies are rustled.

Kill them all.

 

[CatParty]

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

Like Zombies, Steampunk is one of those things that was really cool for about a year, and the people that are really into it have been beating it to death ever since.

Thing is, there's a lot of really cool science fiction either from that era or based in that era. If they want to make something really cool, there's a body of work to look at. But no, they just want to slap some gears on shit and call it a day.

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

Sorry to double post, but...

Holy hell, TURN ON THE LIGHT WHEN YOU'RE RECORDING!!!

 

[Lipitor]

I have to admit I'm more of a cyberpunk guy myself. I don't particularly hate steampunk, cyperpunk is just better. But having said that I don't go around identifying as a "cyber punk" (or try to emulate the style in my dress). I think its fine to have these things as aesthetic concepts, but it's when people actually act like they could BE steampunk, etc that it becomes a little ridiculous. Bioshock and Deus Ex are cool games and I appreciate the Steampunk and Cyberpunk influences in both them. But going around Dressed like Andrew Ryan or JC Denton would be a little ridiculous.

It's a thing that can be cool when done right, but pretending it's an identity is just weird.

 

[Mrs Paul]

I will remember this to my dying day. And I Quote: "Oh, My pappy left me this big 'ol Grandfather clock he made. I got all the brass gears I could out of it with a sledgehammer for my costume, and I need some help to get at the rest."

Okay, I was mad. But my professor was livid. I've never seen a person so angry.

Hell, I'm horrified just listening to this. That could've been a family heirloom, and now he's smashed it all to pieces for some stupid fad. I mean, I was upset when my cousin wanted to look for stuff in my grandparents' house just to sell...this is so much worse.

I mean, can't a person go and find a falling apart clock at a garage sale or something? *cries*

(I've got a history degree and I interned at a museum for a semester. THIS is the kind of thing that makes me spergy)

 

[cumrobbery]

How is this even remotely punk

 

[CatParty]

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

but it's when people actually act like they could BE steampunk,

I don't even get how this would work. Steampunk, as it's been defined, is just an aesthetic. Saying you "are" steampunk is like saying you "are" the color teal. It's meaningless.

I mean, I don't think someone could be a jedi or a pony either, but at least those are definable roles with intelligible traits.