Dean Mathers

I have frequently been accused of “… wanting too much of people”. My friends often say I’m “…way too critical”. So if I’m going on the record and saying TV CARNAGE is THE greatest thing I have ever seen, you should take notice.

TV Carnage is the work of Canadian born, Brooklyn residing Pinky Beckles. Imagine if the Gold Rush was only one single person finding crazy amounts of gold… that’s the best way i can describe Pinky. He sifts through unimaginable amounts of television – finding clips that might not seem significant by themselves, but when added to a sequence of other clips – suddenly become genius.

I also find TV CARNAGE is a great barometer of who i should keep as my friends, if they like it – they get access to my inner sanctum, that means full access to me any time of day or night. If they don’t ‘get it’ however – I sever any contact with them.

I asked Pinky a few question about his Willy Wonka like factory of dreams…



Dean Mathers: What sets you apart from other video mashups is that there is a thread of thought that runs throughout your videos, each clip seems to have a connection to the next, is not just ‘crazy clip’ followed by ‘crazy clip’, but a subtle flow of strange and often hysterical video parts. Apart from ‘Lets Work It Out’ (which is entirely about fitness), do you sit down and think “This is what i am going to do” or do you just go with the flow?

Pinky Beckles: I Start them with a plan in mind but the discovery when editing is definitely a fun part of it. After a while you get to know the stuff well enough that you can edit it in your mind and watch it work out. So when I do these I really take my time. This shit is essay writing and every clip/ moment is a crucial word. Other people who have borrowed from my style tend not to have the patience and a lot of them just ain’t that funny. You can’t hack at this quickly otherwise you’re just making a boringly curated youtube comp. Whoa I got all heavy. Shit.

Dean Mathers: You must have a pretty good filing system to be able to merge clips from so many different sources together, do you use the post-it note system, or a mainframe type algorithm with keywords and metadata?

Pinky Beckles: I have a series of books filled with time codes. No shit. it’s the kind of thing a cop would find on you and arrest you for and figure out the charges later. The cops would be all “Look this book of numbers can only mean he must be the East End diddler cause this is just fucking weird”



Dean Mathers: I imagine the inside of your head to be a cross between Max Headroom and the original Tron presenting a community access cable show – What happens when Pinky dreams?

Pinky Beckles: In my dreams every night is cheap wing night, female construction workers try to fuck me when i walk by their site, the most popular TV show is a Geico commercial turned into a sitcom and Max Headroom and Tron have a car show about driving on wide streets on cable access called MAX TREADROOM. Wait…

Dean Mathers: Is it possible that a clip can be ‘too bad’ even for TV Carnage?

Pinky Beckles: Yes. TV shows with numbers in the title or the word Bang.

Dean Mathers: Have any corporate fat cats arrived with their legal teams and told you to stop using scenes containing traces of Steven Segal?

Pinky Beckles: Indeed. A letter from the one network. I went in to meet them and they ended up praising the comps and wondering if we could do a show. Either way it went my life would have been a comedy heaven known as: lawyers.



Dean Mathers: After watching TV Carnage a zillion times, it’s hard for me to watch TV without thinking ‘This is perfect for TV Carnage’ every now and then. It has made me watch TV through de-interlaced-VHS-cassette-eyes. Can you just sit down and watch something without examining it?

Pinky Beckles: Basically no. Even when it’s someone pleading for their family member to be returned safely all I can think is: “Whoa… that sweater is not helping your case.”

Dean Mathers: Has anyone ever returned home in the same state of mind they left in – after attending a TV CARNAGE live show?

Pinky Beckles: NEVER! They leave siding down a rainbow with a huge grin. It’s like i taught them to levitate. And that’s because I did.

Buy your copy of TV CARNAGE here…