It didn’t take Top Dog long to jump into action and he assembled all the Dede Dogs, and Foxy Lady too. Close enough he thought, as he needed the number for his plan to work. Though he regretted the inclusion of Foxy Lady quickly when she asked him straght into his face: “Why should we follow a self-promoter with a bad hairdo?” “Because I can save you!” He answered confidently. “From what?” asked Lapdog now. She was still beaming from being voted Super Dede 2016.
Top Dog was saved by Lou, the young puppy who turned to Foxy Lady and scolded: “This was very unDede of you. You judged Top Dog by his appearance, not his values or his programme! We Dedes simply don’t do that!” Foxy Lady was surprised “What values? What programme?” she replied.
One of our Instagram followers @wizened_gnome confessed in a comment yesterday, that she would love to ask a question, but she doesn’t know the Dedes well enough yet. The Dedes were surprised and told her, that they are only puppets and they don’t take anything personally. They haven’t invented the word puppetally yet! Anyway wizened_gnome said the Dedes seem to be pretty thick skinned. This promped Mouse to ask a question this morning. “Now this is an easy one” she said “the Dedes are thick skinned – True or false?” Snippedy laughed out loud and said “It’s not easy at all.” Then he explained, that the Dedes like to look at everything from all angles and they always endeavour to see both sides of the coin. But they often run into trouble, because disagreement is frequently interpreted as dislike. They know very well, that disagreement is on issues and dislike is personal. While the Dedes like to challenge beliefs and feel comfy in the position of Devil’s Advocate, they still want to walk away as friends. If this doesn’t work, they might just walk away and focus on something else.
The first week of the competition had taken it’s toll. Devil desperately needed a sleep-in on his day off. He is a little disappointed about the calibre of the contestants this time. In the last Super Dede Competition the contestants were much more willing to talk about themselves. This bunch here seems to be quite withdrawn. Devil had to find out the hard way, that the job of MC is much more demanding, when the contestants are not forthcoming. So yesterday he put his sleeping mask on and stayed in bed all day, not caring what else happened in the world.
Mouse on the other hand wants to make the competition a success. Instead of taking it easy on her day off, she spent all day yesterday to organise a retreat for the management team. It was rather short notice, but Mouse thought the three should learn from the first week and apply their findings to the second week. She was overjoyed, when she managed to secure the external consultant Millie. Millie was hanging around a dysfunctional workplace for a long time and had observed the most outrages things there. She was bound to offer invaluable and unbiased advice from the outside.
They met in the dining room. “Look a the contestants” said Devil to fill the cow in “There is a clown hiding behind his mask, a gender-fluid little dog, a sick old codger, a too gentle devil and an undervalued servant.” Millie listend, swaying her head a little and said “What’s wrong with that? That should make for a very interesting competition.” Then she focussed on Devil and said after looking straight into his eyes for a tad too long. “Can I have a look at your neck, is it by any chance red?”
It seems to be the day of the devils. At first light, lil’Devil, the the Super Dede Competition cheerleader, was dancing around the house like there is no tomorrow. We were all wondering if the competition had finished early or what. Turns out it was the regram contest that had finished. Last week in the post working hard on it the management team decided to make lil’Devil the cheerleader for the Super Dede Competition. While he was chuffed about the honor he soon found out that he would have to leave home if someone reposted the picture. For a week he was holding his breath, a hard thing to do for any devil. His job performance wasn’t that great either. You can barely see him in the pictures of the competition holding up the signs with the names of the contestants. Anyway, the offer is off the table now and no one took it up. That means the lil’Devil can stay with us. And while he will be a bit upset with the management team for some time, he will survive and happily do his job for the rest of the competition.
Today’s contestant is also a devil, Milky Bar Devil. He skulked on stage and didn’t know what to say. In the end the MC prompted him. “You said in your statement that you want to be in the competition to learn about how to become ruthless. Isn’t that a strange thing to say?” Milky Bar Devil looked surprised. “You of all Dedes should know what is expected of a devil, but it simply doesn’t come naturally to me.” Then he told the audience that he is studying hard and reads all the books. But when he applies all the devilish things he learned in theory, everybody just laughs at him. “I am such a useless devil! I will never fulfill the expectations of my parents. I will never be a success in their eyes.”
“Mhm” said Devil, “not sure if this competition is the right therapy for you.”
This week is a preliminary round and you are asked to vote for your favourite puppet or puppets, those you would like to be contestants in the Super Dede Competition. Of course, not all Dedes are in favour of the competition and Detail has done a great job of rustling up these 10 brave Dedes to choose from. The five with the highest score will go on to compete. The others will be sent home. To help you with your decision the ten puppets were asked to briefly state why they are here.
It will be a bit tricky establishing the winner of the preliminary round, as the competition runs on Instagram, Facebook and this blog. Mouse will simply add the Instagram and Facebook likes to the poll result on the blog. We have until next Saturday to establish who will become contestants.
You can vote for more than one puppet and please, please, please tell all your friends to vote too :)
The Dedes work impromptu and they appreciate any comments and suggestions. We are all very excited about what is going to happen in the next four weeks. All comments will go into the draw for a signed copy of the first Dede puppet book Hermit’s Web or the few friends I need, I handcraft myself.
Now give a big hand for the applicants!
(In alphabetical order)
Alley Cat
“I am here because it wasn’t cool enough for Cool Cat, but we felines need a representative in the cast.”
Chambermaid
“I want to be in the competition because I am sick of tidying up after all the other Dedes.”
Granddad Max
“I am old but I am not dead. We seniors have something to say.”
Milky Bar Devil
“I am a devil in training and I want to learn how to become ruthless.”
Lapdog
“I am here because I’m soooo prettaay.”
Loudmouth
“Honestly, I am the only Dede who can sing. This is a singing contest, isn’t it?”
Snippedy
“I didn’t make it last time, so I’m trying again.”
Snotty Nosed Prince
“The king said I should experience what the commoners enjoy.”
Sunny
“I want to be an artist and the prize money might set me up.”
Top Dog
“I will win. I am a joker, I simply trump them all.”
The Dedes ruthelessly evicted the cast from the shadow theatre and took over the premises. Of course the Shadows weren’t pleased about this, but they know too well that the Dedes are more important. I expected they would put up more of a fight, but no, they just moved out!
The Dedes didn’t waste any time and immediately started setting up the stage. There’s not much time left, the competition starts on Monday. Like last time, it will be an impromptu event and the Dedes will incorporate comments from the readers. There are prizes to be won for readers who take part, but the Dedes haven’t made up their minds yet what they will be. In the meantime, Devil has decided to make the ebook about the previous competition available for free until the Super Dede Competition 2016 officially starts on Monday the 6th of June. In the first week we will be selecting the contestants.
Detail is currently going around canvassing the puppets to find out who wants to become a contestant. Like last time, she is aiming to get 10 puppets to apply and the readers will whittle it down to 5 puppets. Over three weeks these Dedes will have to battle it out to find out who will become the Super Dede 2016.
The Dedes are currently discussing love. I am sure, we all agree, love is the most wonderful thing that can happen to someone. However, when there is an imbalance in affection it can also become scary. Lou, the young puppy, is infatuated with Skeleton Edeltraut. Who can blame him? Any young puppy will fall in love with a pile of bones. Whenever she shows up, he gets all excited, jumps up and down, tries to lick her and basically follows her around sniffing and worshipping the ground she walks on. Skeleton Edeltraut is outright scared, but no-one offers support. Everyone believes she should be able to cope with it. After all, she is in the scaring business herself. When she comes out of her closet, a lot of people are very frightened. It doesn’t help that she is generally a bit distant and cold and not as cute as Lou. No one takes her cry for help seriously. They put Lou’s behaviour down to his nature and advise her to harden up. Mhm. That is such a classic dede conundrum. How can this be resolved?
Yes, I left civilisation and it looked like I never came back. But I can set your mind at rest. I have returned and the Dedes have been posting on Instagram every day. Fittingly, having had Valentine’s Day this month, they are discussing the various notions of love. :) It started with Minor, Detail‘s teenage daughter, looking for true love. Today Skeleton Edeltraut complains about an admirer who doesn’t respect her boundaries. Below I have put together a catch-up picture gallery. If you have any forms of love to add, please feel free to make a comment.
I have to apologise for my longer blog posts that have fallen by the wayside again. I am trying to make a major decision. I am investigating the feasibility of leaving ‘honest work’ and the big smoke behind and moving to the country side, engaging in art (not just the puppets), full-time and for good.
Minor is looking for true love
Rob was Minor’s lover once, but her mother disapproved
Motherly love
Nosy Neighbour loves himself
Harvey loves everyone
Foxy Lady gives Minor advice
Valentine’s Day and Pig, one of only two puppets in a known relationship, finds a love message on the beer fridge
Professor, Pigs long-term partner knows that love is a work in progress
Witch believes the path to a man’s heart is through the stomach. Pity she burns the food regularly
Court Jester says people in love make fools of themselves
Daredavil believes fearing love is fearing life
Bossman doesn’t strive for love but for respect
The benevolent King’s strategy is to love and respect will follow
Philosopher agrees with King in parts. but not entirely
Jessie Martinovic asked what the strangest request was so far for the Dedes. I didn’t have to think hard, but I have to go back a long way. It was definitely when Arindam asked the Dedes to do a dharna, indian style. So what happened then?
I had discovered the blog of German artist Jürgen Küster who writes together with his alter ego art figure Buchalov. Unlike the Dedes, Buchalov is very supportive of his artist and acts like a mentor. The two have deep and meaningful conversations. I aired the wish I would love to have similar conversations with the Dedes, but they are not intellectual at all. Of course this blog post offended the Dedes big time. (There are four consecutive posts to the story). Bad Conscience got involved and it got a bit messy.
The next day, our reader Arindam said I should apologise to the Dedes and if not, they should do a Dharna. Neither I nor the Dedes knew then what this was, but the Dedes looked it up on the internet and figured out a Dharna is a way to show the world that somebody had treated them in an unjust way. It involved sitting on the offender’s doorsteps until they get justice or die.
Thankfully, it didn’t come to the latter. Witch and I negotiated the end of the dharna, as it started to drizzle (The Dedes can’t stand rain). I certainly didn’t want my behaviour to cause the demise of the Dedes.
Thanks Jessie for your question. It was fun reading the story again :)
Devil is the oldest Dede. As I metioned before, he used to be the spokesperson for the puppets but lost his job some time ago. Back then, the Dede management decided to restructure. In Devil‘s mind it was simply a move to get rid of him and to this day he still believes it was based on ageism. He heard a rumour that his approach was a bit too old-fashioned because he favours a slow and steady approach. In the restructuring process he was promoted to breakfast director and young Top Dog took over the marketing department. Top Dog knows everything and can do everything (he is a great self promoter). Have you ever seen Top Dog around? No? That is exactly my point. He is too busy convincing management what a brilliant job he does on social media. But look more closely and you’ll find no evidence whatsoever that he’s done anything.
In the beginning Devil thought the Dedes would quickly figure out what a wind bag the new one is. The Dedes are not stupid. But the longer it takes the more agitated he becomes. Absolutely no-one seems to see through the ruse. Have you ever been in such a situation? You know exactly what’s best, but management just wont listen? It’s been going on far too long and the situation is starting to take its toll. Devil has developed seriously high blood pressure and has to measure it every time he enters the meeting room. Maybe he needs to accept there is no way back and start to move forwards.
dedepuppets 