Game Grumps

Game Grumps
Current title card as of 2016, featuring caricatures of hosts Danny (left) and Arin (right).
Genre	Let's Play Improv comedy
Created by	Arin Hanson Jon Jafari
Presented by	Arin Hanson (2012–) Jon Jafari (2012–13) Dan Avidan (2013–)
Theme music composer	Arin Hanson
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	4,415 (list of episodes)
Production
Editor(s)	Jon Jafari (2012) Barry Kramer (2012–) Kevin Abernathy (2014–2016) Ryan Magee (2016–) Matt Watson (2016–)
Running time	10-20 minutes 30-75 minutes (specials)
Release
Original network	YouTube Polaris
Original release	July 18, 2012 (2012-07-18) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Game Grumps VS Guest Grumps Steam Train Table Flip Steam Rolled Grumpcade Guild Grumps

Game Grumps is a Let's Play webseries starring animator/voice actor Arin Hanson and comedian/musician Dan Avidan. 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 incorporate new hosts in spin-offs, including Ross O'Donovan, Barry Kramer, Suzy Berhow and Brian Wecht.

Additionally appearing in some, but few, episodes is the primary editor of the show, Barry Kramer; Brian Wecht, who is in the band Ninja Sex Party with Avidan; as well as editors Ryan Magee and Matt Watson of SuperMega.^[1] The webseries is formerly 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.^[2]

Content

Each day, the channel typically 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 25, 2013, due to 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 one of the group's editors, 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^[3] and play tabletop games, such as card games, board games, and tile-based games with other YouTube personalities. The series was 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.^[4] The final episode of Table Flip aired on October 14, 2016.^[5]

In November 2014, Kevin Abernathy was hired to assist Kramer with video editing and production. Although Abernathy took on editing for most of the series, Kramer continues to edit Steam Train. After Abernathy's departure from the show in mid-2016, Kramer, Ryan Magee, and Matt Watson have taken on editing duties.

In January 2015, to celebrate reaching two million subscribers, a new show called Grumpcade was launched, featuring any combination of co-hosts playing console games. The show also features guest YouTube personalities, including game critics ProJared, The Completionist and Markiplier. Shortly after, in February 2015, GrumpOut, a channel dedicated to recreational and live-action video projects, was created. In November 2015, Ninja Sex Party's keyboardist, 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 and Scream Train 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^[6] and 31.^[7][8] 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.^[9][10]

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.^[11] After the auctions had ended, the total amount they had raised was over $7,000.^[12]

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.^[13] 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.^[14]

As of 2015, Game Grumps has raised over $70,000 by hosting charity livestreams on Twitch.^[15]

In 2016, Game Grumps raised approximately $155,000 by hosting another charity livestream on Twitch,^[16] 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, Brooke "Dodger" Lawson, Mike Lamond and John Bain.^[17] 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.^[18]

Popularity and influence

The show and its hosts have also since been referenced in a number of video games such as DLC Quest^[19] and The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures.^[20]

In the third issue of the 2016 Doctor Who Ninth Doctor comic series, an alien girl is seen wearing a "Hey I'm Grump! I'm Not So Grump!" shirt.^[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]

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Olympic swimmer Tom Shields said that Game Grumps was one of his favorite shows and that he watched it "almost daily." He mentioned that the show's hosts "helped [him] normalize a lot of things. It's kind of a new phenomenon in [his] life."^[23]

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Game Grumps at the Internet Movie Database
• Game Grumps' channel on YouTube