Game Grumps

Game Grumps

Current title card as of 2016, featuring caricatures of hosts Danny (left) and Arin (right).
Genre
Created by
Presented by
  • Arin Hanson (2012-)
  • Jon Jafari (2012-13)
  • Leigh Daniel Avidan (2013-)
Theme music composer
  • Arin Hanson
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 3,965 (list of episodes)
Production
Editor(s)
  • Jon Jafari (2012)
  • Barry Kramer (2012-)
  • Kevin Abernathy (2014-)
Running time
  • 5-20 minutes
  • 30-75 minutes (specials)
Release
Original network
Original release July 18, 2012 (2012-07-18) - present
Chronology
Related shows

Game Grumps is a Let's Play webseries starring animator Arin Hanson, and musician Leigh Daniel Avidan from the musical comedy duo Ninja Sex Party. The show was created on July 10, 2012 by Hanson and comedic video game critic Jon Jafari. Jafari left the show in June 2013 to focus on his primary YouTube webseries, JonTron, and was subsequently replaced by Avidan. The channel also expanded to include new hosts in spin-offs: animator Ross O'Donovan, series editor Barry Kramer, and Suzy Berhow, the group's manager and Hanson's wife.

Additionally appearing in some, but few, episodes is the new primary editor of the show, Kevin Abernathy, as well as their newest member, Brian Wecht, the other half of Ninja Sex Party. Game Grumps was a part of Polaris, a network owned by Maker Studios, a subsidiary of Disney Consumer Products and the Disney Interactive division of The Walt Disney Company. They left the network in January 2016.[1]

Content

Each day, the channel puts out three videos that consist of varying hosts playing a video game, featuring their experiences with, and opinions of, the chosen game. Lengthy games often result in series of ongoing gameplay and commentary, until completion. Occasionally, the hosts will participate in multiplayer games, as part of their Game Grumps VS series.

With Jafari's departure on June 19, 2013, due to unspecified reasons and conflicts with his own show, Ninja Sex Party vocalist Leigh Daniel Avidan replaced him as co-host. Avidan would also join Ross O'Donovan as co-host of the show Steam Train, where both play PC games (the title references the retailer Steam). This expanded the channel's output to three videos a day: two standard Game Grumps episodes and a single Steam Train episode. Steam Train later expanded to include Hanson as a co-host at times, as well as featuring the group's previous editor Barry Kramer, and Hanson's wife, Suzy Berhow. The expansion also introduced a new Steam Rolled series, where four-player games (not necessarily PC games) are played by the group. In October 2013, the group began a gameplay series featuring Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the Polaris YouTube channel, titled Hunting Monsters. A second installment, featuring Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, began in February 2015.

In December 2013, Kramer and Berhow began hosting Table Flip, where they dress in Victorian/19th century American period clothing[2] and play tabletop games, such as card games, board games, and tile-based games with other YouTube personalities. The series is professionally produced by Polaris, with seven cameras and extensive editing in post-production to fit the content to the show's 45 to 60 minute format on Polaris's website rather than the Game Grumps YouTube channel.[3]

In November 2014, Kevin Abernathy was hired in order to assist Kramer with video editing and production. Although Abernathy took on editing for most of the series, Kramer continues to edit Steam Train.

In January 2015, to celebrate reaching 2 million subscribers, they released a new show, Grumpcade, featuring any combination of co-hosts playing any console games. The show also features guest YouTube personalities, such as game critics ProJared and The Completionist, O'Donovan's wife Commander Holly, and Markiplier. Shortly after, in February 2015, GrumpOut, a channel dedicated to recreational and live-action video projects, was created, which has no schedule to follow. In November 2015, Ninja Sex Party's other member, Brian Wecht, officially joined the team, leaving behind his career as a theoretical physicist.

The channel also airs special holiday-themed series, featuring holiday-themed games, including Jingle Grumps for Christmas, Ghoul Grumps for Halloween, Date Grumps for Valentine's Day, and Stout Train for St. Patrick's Day.

In February 2016, it was announced that Avidan and Hanson would appear at Hollywood Improv for a special performance of Game Grumps Live on March 30[4] and 31.[5][6] Later, in April 2016, it was announced that Avidan and Hanson would appear at Levity Live in Nyack, New York for more performances of Game Grumps Live on April 29 and 30.[7][8]

Charity

In late 2013, the Game Grumps had put various games, which they'd received multiple copies of, on eBay for auction, with all the proceeds going to the children's charity Child's Play.[9] After the auctions had ended, the total amount they had raised was over $7,000.[10]

In June 2015, a 5-episode miniseries was released called Guild Grumps. O'Donovan mentored Hanson, Avidan, Kramer and Berhow in a 5-day race to advance from Level 90 to Level 100 in World of Warcraft. Each participant had $1,000 to donate to a charity of their choice, if they reached the goal. If they did not, their donation would be split between those who won. In the end, O'Donovan was the sole winner, and, combined with the participants distributed funds, donated $5,000 to cancer research.[11]

As of 2015, Game Grumps has raised over $70,000 by hosting charity livestreams on Twitch.

In 2016, Game Grumps raised approximately $155,000 by hosting another charity livestream on Twitch, as well as redirecting all proceeds from an exclusive shirt to the cause. The livestream was for the Crisis Text Line; a free text service available for people experiencing moments of crisis.

Promotions

In 2013, before Jafari's departure to work on his own JonTron series, Jafari and Hanson appeared in a promotional video for the Warner Bros. movie Pacific Rim produced by Polaris. The video also featured other internet personalities Jesse Cox, Dodger, Mike Lamond and John Bain.[12] In the video they played new recruits under training by "The Lieutenant Commander" played by Robert Kazinsky.

In 2015, the Game Grumps were featured in the official reveal trailer for the Shovel Knight Amiibo figure.[13] They have also heavily advertised the anime streaming site Crunchyroll.[14][15]

In 2016, the Game Grumps made a comedic advertisement to promote YouTube Red.[16]

Popularity

Due to the popularity of the series, there has been a large amount of content created by fans based on the series. Common fan creations from the show include fan art and animated re-creations of scenes from the show featuring audio from the show, musical remixes of audio from the show,[17] clip compilations,[18] and also comic strips.[19] The show and its hosts have also since been referenced in a number of video games such as DLC Quest[20] and The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures.[21]

A specially modified version of the demo for The Stanley Parable was played on the show which addressed the show's hosts, Avidan and O'Donovan.[22] Avidan appeared in the PC game Default Dan as a playable option.[23] Special versions of Haunt the House: Terrortown, Electronic Super Joy, and Dr. Langeskov were modded for them as well, featuring the hosts themselves. Hanson, Avidan, and O'Donovan, along with O'Donovan's cat, Orph, will be playable characters in the game Hex Heroes for the Wii U. They will also be providing voiceover work.[24]

Singer Hayley Westenra thanked the show for their version of her song "Prayer." She called it a "very fresh spin," and said that "performing that song will never be the same again."[25]

Video game designer Markus "Notch" Persson has cited multiple times of being a fan of the series,[26][27] and voiced himself in the Starbomb song, "Minecraft is for Everyone."

Comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, during a Reddit AMA session, claimed that he enjoys Ninja Sex Party's content, as well as the show, and has expressed interest in joining the show for a possible Guest Grumps episode in the future.[28] The show has featured video game composer Grant Kirkhope, Jackass performer Steve-O, Game of Thrones actor Jacob Anderson, and Coheed and Cambria lead singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez.

In November 2015, actor Chris Pratt tweeted out praise for the show, linking the final episode of their Super Mario Galaxy serial, which jokingly discussed how Pratt robbed Bowser of the role of Star-Lord.[29]

In December 2015, Hanson and Avidan were featured as guests on Rhett and Link's morning talk show, Good Mythical Morning.[30]

Awards and nominations

Awards and nominations for Game Grumps
Year Award Show Category Result Recipient(s) Ref
2013 Shorty Awards #Gaming Nominated PewDiePie [31]

References

  1. ↑ Joy, Shaun (2016-01-13). "Polaris is Not So Grump: The Game Grumps Leave Polaris". TeachRaptor. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
  2. ↑ "18th Century-ish Table Flip Theme? - Suzy and Barry Game Grumps AMA". Polaris. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "How is Table Flip filmed? - Suzy and Barry Game Grumps AMA". Polaris. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "Game Grumps on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  5. ↑ "Game Grumps on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  6. ↑ "Game Grumps LIVE". hollywood.improv.com. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  7. ↑ "Game Grumps on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  8. ↑ "Levity Live". Levity Live. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  9. ↑ Aziz, Hamza (2013-08-21). "Game Grumps auctioning off games for Child's Play". Destructoid. Retrieved 2014-11-01.
  10. ↑ Conway, Ryan (2013-08-30). "Game Grumps eBay auctions raise $7K for Child’s Play". ScrewAttack. Retrieved 2014-11-01.
  11. ↑ Guild Grumps EPISODE 5
  12. ↑ "Pacific Rim - Training Day with Jesse Cox, Dodger, Huskystarcraft, Totalbiscuit, and the GameGrumps". YouTube. 2013-07-12. Retrieved 2014-09-05.
  13. ↑ Parlock, Joe (2015-08-28). "Yacht Club and Nintendo confirm the Shovel Knight Amiibo". Destructoid. Retrieved 2015-08-30.
  14. ↑ Crunchyroll Equations
  15. ↑ Crunchyroll? What's That?
  16. ↑ Ad Monster
  17. ↑ Amini, Tina (2013-03-29). "In 70 Or So Years, The Game Grumps Will Be The Game Gramps And This Is …". Kotaku. Retrieved 2014-11-01.
  18. ↑ Neltz, András (2014-10-31). "Nothing Says Halloween Like People Screaming at Horror Games". Kotaku. Retrieved 2014-11-15.
  19. ↑ Napierski, Steve (2014-08-03). "When Grumpy Met Sally". Dueling Analogs. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
  20. ↑ "DLC Quest". VGFacts. Retrieved 2014-01-19.
  21. ↑ "Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures". VGFacts. Retrieved 2014-01-19.
  22. ↑ Thew, Geoff (2014-02-14). "Vertical Slice Demos Provide a Clear-Cut Advantage". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
  23. ↑ Kikiwik Games (2014-01-30). "Play as Default Danny!". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
  24. ↑ Prismatic Games LLC (2014-09-04). "OUR GRUMPIEST ANNOUNCEMENT YET". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2014-10-04.
  25. ↑ Hayley Westenra (2013-11-12). "Twitter / Hayley Westenra: I'd like to thank @egoraptor & @GameGrumps for their very fresh spin on "Prayer". Performing that song will never be the same again.". Twitter. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  26. ↑ Markus Persson (2012-03-11). "Twitter / Markus Persson: So far today, I've watched Game Grumps. I'm ok with this.". Twitter. Retrieved 2014-03-22.
  27. ↑ Markus Persson (2013-11-16). "Twitter / Markus Persson: Sometimes I wish I was a game grump.". Twitter. Retrieved 2014-03-22.
  28. ↑ "This is "Weird Al" Yankovic - AMAA (Ask Me Anything, Again)". Reddit.
  29. ↑ "Chris Pratt".
  30. ↑ What's Up My Sleeve? ft. Game Grumps (GAME) #2
  31. ↑ Ngak, Chenda (2013-09-04). "Shorty Awards 2013 honors Michelle Obama, Jimmy Kimmel". CBS News. Retrieved 2014-06-01.

External links

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