Corky Quakenbush is an American filmmaker and television producer specializing in comedy and stop motion animation, particularly parody.

Animation

He is known for the dozens of animated short films he created for Fox Television’s MADtv

MADtv

MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...

 as well as numerous parodies of the Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (TV special) for Christmas episodes of series such as That 70's Show and The George Lopez Show which earned him a mention in the book “The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass” by Rick Goldschmidt. Quakenbush’s films are generally known for adult-oriented themes of comic violence and often find humor in the blending of the innocent with the profane.

Short films

Quakenbush is a prolific short filmmaker who, through his company Space Bass Films, has produced more than 100 short films that have been included in broadcast and cable television shows, screened as individual entries or in their own programs at film festivals worldwide, included in theatrically distributed collections such as Mike Judge

Mike Judge

Michael Craig Judge is an American animator, film director, writer and voice actor, best known as the creator and star of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-head , King of the Hill , and The Goode Family .He also wrote, directed and in some instances produced the films Beavis and...

’s The Animation Show

The Animation Show

The Animation Show is a touring festival of animated short films that was first held in fall 2003. It was created by award-winning animators Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt....

, and featured on high visibility comedy websites. Among his film festival presence is a record number of films screened in competition at the Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 by a one director (9), including “A Pack of Gifts Now” which was awarded Honorable Mention in 1999. Notable screenings also include a retrospective program of work shown at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the inclusion of CLOPS and CLOPS II in a program exploring social satire in cinema called “Situating Comedy” at the Guggenheim Museum

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...

, both events in 2000.

Pilots

Quakenbush’s work in television also includes producing and directing numerous live-action and animated pilots including those for Gary and Mike and Drew Carey's Green Screen Show

Drew Carey's Green Screen Show

Drew Carey's Green Screen Show is an improvisational comedy television series that aired in the fall of 2004 on The WB Television Network, and the fall of 2005 on Comedy Central. The show was hosted by Drew Carey, and was somewhat a follow-up to the show he formerly hosted, Whose Line Is It Anyway?...

, although he did not participate in the subsequent series. In 2010, Quakenbush joined the directing roster of the commercial production company, ka-chew! He was also a director on the TBS television series The Chimp Channel

The Chimp Channel

The Chimp Channel is an American comedy television series which aired on TBS Superstation in 1999. Based on the highly popular Monkey-ed Movies interstitials that TBS aired one year prior. It is the network's first original sitcom...

. He also assisted in the production of Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...

's acclaimed science series, Cosmos.

Apart from his filmmaking, Quakenbush is also an instructor in the art of Aikido

Aikido

is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to...

 and founder of Kakushi Toride Aikido.

See also

• Corky Quakenbush at List of stop motion artists