Neil Stephen Cicierega ( ; born August 23, 1986) is an American comedian, actor, filmmaker, singer, YouTuber, musician, songwriter, puppeteer, artist, and animator. He is known as the creator of a genre of

Flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...

he termed "

Animutation Animutation or fanimutation is a form of web-based computer animation, typically created in Adobe Flash and characterized by unpredictable montages of pop-culture images set to music, often in a language foreign to the intended viewers. It is not t ...

", the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' puppet parody series ''

Potter Puppet Pals ''Potter Puppet Pals'' is a puppet show web series parodying the ''Harry Potter'' novel series by J. K. Rowling, created by Neil Cicierega. The first two episodes were animated, both released in 2003 on Newgrounds. On September 26, 2006, the ...

'', and several music albums under the name

Lemon Demon Lemon Demon is a musical project and band created by American comedian and musician Neil Cicierega in 2003 in Boston, Massachusetts. Most Lemon Demon music is performed solely by Cicierega, who is the project's sole official member, but a fu ...

. He also released a series of mashup albums under his own name that have since gained a cult following.

Early life

Neil Stephen Cicierega was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 23, 1986. His father was a programmer, which meant he was surrounded by computers while growing up. He has a brother and two sisters. His sister, Emmy, went on to become a storyboard artist for animated series such as ''

Gravity Falls ''Gravity Falls'' is an American mystery comedy animated television series created by Alex Hirsch for Disney Channel and Disney XD. The series follows the adventures of Dipper Pines (Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (Kristen Schaal) wh ...

'', ''

The Owl House ''The Owl House'' is an American animated fantasy television series created by Dana Terrace that premiered on Disney Channel on January 10, 2020. The series stars the voices of Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick, Alex Hirsch, Tati Gabrielle, I ...

'', and the reboot of ''

DuckTales ''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four sea ...

''. At a young age, Cicierega started using a simplistic game developing program named

Klik & Play Clickteam is a French software development company based in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine. Founded by Francis Poulain, François Lionet and Yves Lamoureux, Clickteam is best known for the creation of Clickteam Fusion, a script-free p ...

. Beginning in the fourth grade, his parents

homeschooled Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...

him and his siblings. He continued making amateur games, and even began creating digital music to feature in them; he soon shared his music online through MP3.com under the name Trapezoid, which was later renamed to the anagram "Deporitaz" at the behest of another band already named Trapezoid. He also began composing

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

music fragments that were referenced in his later works.

Career

Animutation

Cicierega was first known for a series of

dadaist Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

s he termed "

". Animutations feature arbitrary, nonsensical scenes and

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * Pop (Gas al ...

imagery and are typically set to novelty or foreign music, often from the Japanese version of ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

''.

''Potter Puppet Pals''

Cicierega's ''Potter Puppet Pals'' is a comedy series which parodies the book series ''

''. It originated as a pair of Flash animations on

Newgrounds Newgrounds is an entertainment website and company founded by Tom Fulp in 1995. It hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and offices in Glenside, Pennsylvania. ...

in 2003, and later resurfaced in the form of a series of live action

puppet show Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...

s released onto YouTube and PotterPuppetPals.com, starting in 2006. The central characters of the ''Harry Potter'' series are portrayed simply by puppets. The most successful ''Potter Puppet Pals'' video, ''The Mysterious Ticking Noise'', currently has over 200 million views (). Cicierega has done puppetry live at ''Harry Potter''-themed events.

Lemon Demon (2003–present)

Lemon Demon performing in 2006 Since 2003, Cicierega has released 10 full-length albums under his musical project Lemon Demon. In 2005, he and animator Shawn Vulliez released a Flash animated music video "

The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", often shortened to "The Ultimate Showdown", is a comical song and video released on December 22, 2005. The song was written and performed by Neil Cicierega under the pseudonym "Lemon Demon", with art ...

" on

. The song was later included in the 2006 album ''Dinosaurchestra''. An updated recording of the song was released to the Rock Band Network in 2010. In April 2009, Cicierega released his first four albums as free downloads on his site "neilcic.com", however they are now currently hosted on "lemondemon.com". In January 2016, Cicierega announced ''

Spirit Phone ''Spirit Phone'' is the seventh album by Lemon Demon, a musical project created by American musician Neil Cicierega. Released in 2016, the album was Lemon Demon's first full-length album in eight years. The album was released digitally through ...

'', a full-length Lemon Demon album released on February 29, 2016. On July 10, 2018, it was announced that copies of the album on CD, cassette tape and vinyl would be sold through Needlejuice Records, who would later distribute remastered versions of Lemon Demon's Christmas EP ''I Am Become Christmas'', as well as ''Nature Tapes'', ''View-Monster'' and ''Dinosaurchestra''.

The ''Mouth'' mashup albums (2014–present)

Cicierega has also created mashup music under his own name. He released two mashup albums, ''

Mouth Sounds ''Mouth Sounds'' is a mashup album by American musician Neil Cicierega. The album was released independently by Cicierega on April 27, 2014. Consisting of mashups pairing Top 40 hits of the 1980s and 1990s along with Smash Mouth's " All Star" ...

'' and ''

Mouth Silence ''Mouth Silence'' is the second mashup album by American musician and comedian Neil Cicierega. Following the format of his previous release, ''Mouth Sounds'', the album is composed of mashups and remixes of popular songs from the 1980s, 1990's, a ...

'', as free downloads in 2014, and a third, ''

Mouth Moods ''Mouth Moods'' is the third mashup album by American musician and comedian Neil Cicierega Neil Stephen Cicierega ( ; born August 23, 1986) is an American comedian, actor, filmmaker, singer, YouTuber, musician, songwriter, puppeteer, artist, ...

'', in 2017. A fourth album, ''

Mouth Dreams ''Mouth Dreams'' is the fourth mashup album by American musician and comedian Neil Cicierega. It was released on September 30, 2020. Like his three previous mashup albums ('' Mouth Sounds'', ''Mouth Silence'', and ''Mouth Moods''), its source mat ...

'', was released on September 30, 2020. All four albums are linked by their usage of

Smash Mouth Smash Mouth is an American rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994, and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). With Harwell's depar ...

's "All Star", which is repeated frequently throughout ''Sounds'' and ''Moods'', and appears through Easter Eggs and references in ''Silence''. In ''Mouth Dreams'' "All Star" only makes one appearance in the track "Mouth Dreams (Extro)", where a heavily distorted edit of the lyrics can be heard.

Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks (2012–2015)

In October 2012, Cicierega created the darkly satirical "Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks" blog, located at windows95tips.com. In the blog's telling,

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...

is a brooding, evil presence bent on dominating humanity. Most of the posts are faked error messages, with disturbing messages like "Windows needs a lock of your hair to continue," but presented in the exact graphical style of Windows 95. The blog has received favorable press attention.

Video games

On October 3, 2002, Cicierega launched his first

point-and-click adventure An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

game, ''Satan Quest''. On February 26, 2015, he announced another game, ''Icon Architect 1.0'', with themes similar to his "Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks" blog. On February 5, 2018, he released ''Monster Breeder''.

Other works

In February 2019, Cicierega created Endless Jeopardy, a Twitter account that automatically posts a bot-generated ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

'' prompt every hour and awards points to the most-liked responses within 15 minutes. In March 2019, he created "Bot Pops" (@BotPops), a Twitter account that writes setups for jokes on popsicle sticks, then finishes them with a punchline from the replies. In April 2019 he created "4:3" (@FullscreenDream), a Twitter account that randomly makes GIFs from old commercials and CGI shorts. Cicierega was commissioned to make three songs for the TV series ''

'': a theme song, a musical number for Bill Cipher titled "It's Gonna Get Weird", and the song "Goat and a Pig" (a parody of

Natalie Cole Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the h ...

's "

This Will Be "This Will Be" is a song written by Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy, arranged by Richard Evans and performed by American singer Natalie Cole. Often appended with "(An Everlasting Love)" but not released as such, this was Cole's debut single, releas ...

"). Both of Cicierega's theme songs and "It's Gonna Get Weird" were unused, but "Goat and Pig" appeared during the credits sequence of season 2 episode "The Love God". One of the two unused openings appeared as a bonus track on the 2016 Lemon Demon album ''Spirit Phone'', titled "Gravitron".

Personal life

On August 8, 2015, Cicierega married illustrator and comic artist Ming Doyle, with whom he lives in

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81, ...

. Their first child, a daughter named Darcy, was born in March 2018.

Discography

as Deporitaz

*''Outsmart'' (2000) *''Microwave This CD'' (2001) *''Dimes'' (2002) *''Circa 2000'' (2007)

Trapezoid

*''OC ReMix: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge "Monkey Brain Soup for the Soul"'' (2002) *The Count Censored (<2007)

Lemon Demon

*''Clown Circus'' (2003) *''Live From The Haunted Candle Shop'' (2003) *''Hip to the Javabean'' (2004) *''Damn Skippy'' (2005) *''Dinosaurchestra'' (2006) *''View-Monster'' (2008) *''Almanac 2009'' (2009) *''Live (Only Not)'' (2011) *''I Am Become Christmas EP'' (2012) *''Nature Tapes EP'' (2014) *''

'' (2016)

Neil Cicierega

*''

'' (2014) *''

'' (2017) *''Not For Resale: A Video Game Store Documentary'' OST (2020)Amazon.com
/ref> *''

'' (2020)

References

External links

*
Official YouTube channelMouth SoundsMouth SilenceMouth Moods
and

, each on

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cicierega, Neil 1986 births American alternative rock musicians American amateur film directors American animated film directors American Internet celebrities American puppeteers Computer animation people Flash artists Living people American mashup artists Music YouTubers People from Somerville, Massachusetts Keytarists Film directors from Massachusetts Remixers 21st-century American musicians