''Annoying Orange'' is an American
live-action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...
/
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
web series
A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...
created by
Dane Boedigheimer
Dane Willard Boedigheimer (born September 28, 1978) better known by his stage name DaneBoe, is an American Internet personality, voice actor, writer, and animator. He is known for creating the web series ''The Annoying Orange'' and the spin-off t ...
(known online as DaneBoe). The series follows an
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
who annoys fruits, vegetables, and various other objects by telling crude jokes and puns until their demise. In addition, the show satirizes and parodies
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 ...
, including television programs and commercials,
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
series, films, music, celebrities, politicians,
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
s, video games; and
internet culture
Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social media ...
, with a touch of
off-color humor
Off-color humor (also known as vulgar humor, crude humor, or shock humor) is humor that deals with topics that may be considered to be in poor taste or vulgar. Many comedic genres (including jokes, prose, poems, black comedy, blue comedy, insult c ...
,
surreal humor
Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causality, causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical. Portrayal ...
and
gross-out humor
Gross out is described as a movement in art (often with comical conotations), which is intended to shock the viewer(s) and disgust the wider audience by presenting them with controversial material (such as toilet humor and fetishes) that might be ...
.
The show became popular, leading to
three
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
3, three, or III may also refer to:
* AD 3, the third year of the AD era
* 3 BC, the third year before the AD era
* March, the third month
Books
* '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...
video games, a range of toys, backpacks, couches, pillows, blankets, lunch boxes, drink bottles, mattresses, towels, plushies and a T-shirt line. Other accessories, such as costumes of the series characters, have also appeared on the market.
The original web series has also expanded to multiple separate series, such as ''The Adventures of Liam The Leprechaun'', ''
The Misfortune of Being Ned
''The Misfortune of Being Ned'' is a 2013 animated short series created by the producers of the ''Annoying Orange'' web series. The series centers on the title role, titular character of Ned, voice acted by Steve Zaragoza, a young boy who repeated ...
'', ''The Marshmallow Show'', the television series ''
The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange
''The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange'' is an American live-action/animated television series created by Tom Sheppard and Dane Boedigheimer for Cartoon Network. Based on the characters from the web series ''Annoying Orange'', created ...
'' and many YouTube secondary channels featuring the rest of the main characters as well as a gaming channel. It also has released episodes such as ''Ask Orange'', ''The Juice'', ''Emoji Raps'', ''Foodsplosion'', ''How2'', ''Adventures of Buttman'', ''Storytime'', ''Let's Play'', ''Annoying Orange vs'', ''Annoying Orange - (insert random thing here) Challenges'' and ''Trailer Trashed''. A
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
-themed event called ''Shocktober'' has been releasing on every month of October since 2013, meanwhile, a
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
-themed event called ''X-Massacre'' has only aired in December 2017. A compilation of episodes with a particular theme called ''Saturday Supercut'' has also been released on Saturdays since 2017 and the Spin-off
The Juice
Orenthal James Simpson (born July 9, 1947), nicknamed "Juice", is an American former football running back, actor, and broadcaster who played for the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Once a popular figure ...
.
The ''Annoying Orange''
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
channel had around 11.5 million subscribers in December 2022.
Plot
The show is centered on Orange (voiced by
Dane Boedigheimer
Dane Willard Boedigheimer (born September 28, 1978) better known by his stage name DaneBoe, is an American Internet personality, voice actor, writer, and animator. He is known for creating the web series ''The Annoying Orange'' and the spin-off t ...
), who lives in a kitchen with other foods and objects like his best friend, Pear, an irritable, geeky
Bartlett pear
The Williams' bon chrétien pear, commonly called the Williams pear, or the Bartlett pear in the United States and Canada, is the most commonly grown variety of pear in most countries outside Asia.
It is a cultivar (cultivated variety) of the s ...
(also voiced by Boedigheimer). Other fruits include Passion, a sensible
passion fruit
''Passiflora edulis,'' commonly known as passion fruit, is a vine species of passion flower native to southern Brazil through Paraguay and northern Argentina. It is cultivated commercially in tropical and subtropical areas for its sweet, seedy ...
and Orange's love interest (voiced by
Justine Ezarik
Justine Ezarik ( ; born March 20, 1984) is an American YouTuber. She is best known as iJustine, with over one billion views on her YouTube channel. She gained attention as a lifecaster who communicated directly with her millions of viewers on ...
), an arrogant
Grapefruit
The grapefruit (''Citrus'' × ''paradisi'') is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. The interior flesh is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark pink.
Grapefruit is ...
(voiced by Bob Jennings; later Jon Bailey), a tiny but hot-blooded
Red Delicious apple
Red Delicious is a type of apple with a red exterior and sweet taste that was first recognized in Madison County, Iowa, Madison County, Iowa, in 1872. Today, the name ''Red Delicious'' comprises more than 50 cultivars. From 1968 to 2018, it was ...
known as Midget Apple (though he prefers the name Little Apple), a happy-go-lucky and slightly eccentric
Marshmallow
Marshmallow (, ) is a type of confectionery that is typically made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or normally molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. The sugar c ...
who always sees everything filled with enthusiasm, and an elderly
lemon
The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China.
The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...
named Grandpa Lemon, all joining the show over the years.
The formula for most episodes consists of Orange heckling other characters until they meet a sudden, gruesome end, usually being killed or
mutilated
Mutilation or maiming (from the Latin: ''mutilus'') refers to severe damage to the body that has a ruinous effect on an individual's quality of life. It can also refer to alterations that render something inferior, ugly, dysfunctional, or imper ...
by a
chef's knife (although implements used to maim them range from a
blender
A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...
to a toy
pinwheel). Orange usually tries to warn them by crying out the weapon-in-use, such as "Knife!".
Orange has recurring mannerisms. He often begins an episode by repeatedly calling for a character's attention until the character responds. Orange also often refers to the character as something playing on the object's name or appearance (such as calling Grapefruit "Apefruit"). If an object behaves in a way that Orange dislikes, he will often call that object an "apple" (the food equivalent to "
asshole
The word ''asshole'' (in North American English) or arsehole (in all other major varieties of the English language), is a vulgarism used to describe the anus, and often used pejoratively (as a type of synecdoche) to refer to people.
History
...
"), even if the object is not an apple. Otherwise, Orange tells jokes, burps, breaks wind or makes noises with his tongue to get attention.
Despite the contentions of other fruits and objects, Orange generally cannot control his quirks and rarely tries to annoy others on purpose; he usually means well for most fruits and objects. In one web episode Mango, a life coach, suggests that Orange is using his annoying nature to cope with the demise of the fruits he tries to befriend. Regardless of his outward anti-social behaviour, Orange almost always finds comfort in the company of his friends and sometimes makes new ones.
Episodes
The first Annoying Orange episode was released on October 9, 2009. Since then, the Annoying Orange YouTube channel has uploaded two or three videos a week.
Background
![Dane Boedigheimer (7483764284)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Dane_Boedigheimer_%287483764284%29.jpg)
Before ''The Annoying Orange'', Boedigheimer had done many talking food videos for his channel and other sites including
JibJab
JibJab is an American digital entertainment studio based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1999 by brothers Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, it first achieved widespread attention during the 2004 US presidential election when their video of Geo ...
. He said in an interview that the idea for ''The Annoying Orange'' was a combination of the talking food videos,
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s and
special effects
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
he came up with and did before.
The original video was planned to be titled ''The Annoying Apple'', but when he started animating the video he found it easier to put features on orange than an apple and make it clearer.
The first Annoying Orange video initially was meant to be the only one on YouTube. However, viewers requested more videos,
and after the 4th one, Boedigheimer decided to make a full-time series. Following the success of the series, he created a channel dedicated to ''The Annoying Orange'' under the name "Annoying Orange" on January 11, 2010.
Reception
The series was rated as the most viewed web series of February and March 2010 by
Mashable
Mashable is a digital media platform, news website and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005.
History
Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2005. Early iterations of the site were a ...
, with over 52 million views.
On April 26, 2010, the series had over 108 million views on YouTube.
In June 2010, the channel had received 137 million views.
By August 13, 2010, it had received 1 million subscribers. In June 2011, the channel was ranked as the eighth most subscribed and 30th most viewed, with more than 2,000,000 subscribers. On January 13, 2012, the series hit 1 billion channel views and 2.3 million subscribers. The Annoying Orange YouTube channel currently has over 11 million subscribers.
Despite the popularity of the web series with sections of the public, it has received generally unfavourable critical reviews, many citing its rude humor. Liz Shannon Miller considered the show to be "annoying for many reasons." In the web series column ''Pass the Mustard'', Ned Hepburn called the show "pure, pure unfunny, highly concentrated, in droplet form, just purely nonsensical riffing from an Annoying Orange." Hepburn concluded, "''the Annoying Orange'' series is one of the few that I had a physically bad reaction to. It was horrible." 411mania.com called the show "idiotic" and "creepy as hell",
while other publications have referred to it as "third grade humor."
In 2014 The Annoying Orange YouTube Channel was listed on
New Media Rockstars
''NewMediaRockstars'' (''NMR'') is an online magazine which was launched in December 2011 and primarily covers YouTube performers, entrepreneurs, and artists with videos and interviews. In 2013, ''NewMediaRockstars'' closed because of lack of fund ...
Top 100 Channels, ranked at #32.
Lawsuit
The success of the series had received attention from H2M, a Fargo, North Dakota advertising agency, which in 2006 created its own "talking orange" character to be the spokesman for a North Dakota Department of Transportation ad campaign. Both characters were anthropomorphic oranges with ties to the Fargo-Moorhead area. Despite only slightly resembling H2M's talking orange, the Annoying Orange was looked into by H2M's attorneys as an intellectual property matter. Boedigheimer stated he had not watched H2M's talking orange videos before being informed about the disagreement, and also believed that the characters were not very similar. Boedigheimer and Grove was later sued by H2M in May 2013 for allegedly copying the character.
[ND Ad Agency Sues Creators Of Adult Swim Show](_blank)
CBS Minnesota. May 22, 2013. Accessed from July 9, 2013. No information has been made public about the status of the dispute.
Pay withdrawal lawsuit
On December 23, 2014, Dane Boedigheimer announced that ''The Annoying Orange'' has not been funded by
Collective Digital Studios
ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (officially abbreviated as P7S1, formerly ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG) is a German mass media & digital company. It operates in three segments: Entertainment, Dating and Commerce & Ventures. The company is listed on the Fran ...
since November 2014. This has led Boedigheimer to take legal action to get paid. Due to this, the series has had a noticeably lower budget on YouTube since then, with less use of live-action footage of foods.
Controversy
On April 12, 2021, the ''Annoying Orange'' channel faced significant backlash on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
when it was announced by their official account that the original Annoying Orange video from 2010 would be remastered in 4K and be sold via the digital market on April 15 as an
NFT
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the ...
. ''The Annoying Orange'' addressed the criticisms with: "NFTs do not increase Ethereum's carbon emissions, and to those that might be angry because you think I've 'sold out', I'm sorry you feel that way. We are a very small animation studio that work very hard to do what we love—which is make silly videos that make people smile". The announcement Tweet was later deleted and the video was eventually uploaded to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Merchandise
Collective merchandise
Since late 2011,
The Collective has produced many
accessories
Accessory may refer to:
* Accessory (legal term), a person who assists a criminal
In anatomy
* Accessory bone
* Accessory muscle
* Accessory nucleus, in anatomy, a cranial nerve nucleus
* Accessory nerve
In arts and entertainment
* Accessory ( ...
,
toys
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pet ...
and
clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
with toymaker The Bridge Direct and clothing retailers such as
JCPenney
Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...
,
Shopko and
rue21
New rue21, LLC (rue21) is an American specialty retailer of women's & men's casual apparel and accessories headquartered in the Pittsburgh suburb of Warrendale, Pennsylvania. Its clothes are designed to appeal to people who desire, wish, or feel ...
. The Collective also announced a partnership in December of that year with costume manufacturer Rubie's Costume Company to produce children and adult
Halloween costumes
Halloween costumes are costumes worn on Halloween, a festival which falls on October 31. An early reference to wearing costumes at Halloween comes from Scotland in 1585, but they may pre-date this. There are many references to the custom durin ...
and accessories featuring characters such as Orange, Pear, Marshmallow, and Midget Apple from the web series.
Plushies
In 2020, Annoying Orange partnered with Warren James, LLC and has produced Memory-foam plushie toys depicting every major character. The inventory of plush toys includes Orange, Pear, Midget Apple, Marshmallow, Grandpa Lemon, Grapefruit, and Passion Fruit. The toys can be purchased on the official website individually, or in a bundle of seven.
Comics
Annoying Orange comics are published by
Papercutz
:PAPERCUTZ (stylized as :papercutz or :PAPERCUTZ) is a Portuguese electronic music act formed as a side project in Porto that became a fully active band in 2008. Bruno Miguel is the only official member of Papercutz and solely responsible for ...
.
#''Secret Agent Orange'' (December 11, 2012) – Reference to ''
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
''.
#'' Orange You Glad You're Not Me?'' (May 28, 2013) – This is a reference to the joke that ends in the punchline ''orange you glad... ?'' and has other endings depending on the joke, like "that I didn't say 'apple'?".
#''Pulped Fiction'' (August 27, 2013) – Parody of ''
Pulp Fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...
''.
#''Tales of the Crisper'' (January 14, 2014) – Parody of ''
Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt may refer to:
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s
** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...
''.
#''Fifty Shades of Orange'' (April 8, 2014) – Parody of ''
Fifty Shades of Grey
''Fifty Shades of Grey'' is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It became the first instalment in the ''Fifty Shades'' novel series that follows the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, ...
''.
#''My Little Baloney'' (August 5, 2014) – Parody of ''
My Little Pony
''My Little Pony'' (''MLP'') is a toy line and media franchise developed by American toy company Hasbro. The first toys were developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steve D'Aguanno, and were produced in 1981. The ponies feature c ...
''.
Television series
''The Annoying Orange'' got a TV series on
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
, and it ran from 2012 to 2014 with two seasons and a total of 60 episodes.
Games
''Carnage''
A video game developed by Bottle Rocket Apps under the name ''Kitchen Carnage'' was released for the
iPod Touch
The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...
and
iPhone on April 7, 2011. The game was later released in
HD for the
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
on May 6, 2011, and for
Android devices on October 14, 2011. The Christmas version of the game was released in December 2011 and the free version of the game, Kitchen Carnage Lite, was released March 2, 2012.
The game aims to throw different items across the kitchen into a series of blenders before the time runs out. The player is given
apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
s and
banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...
s at the start. When the second level is reached,
tomato
The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...
es (replaced by
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
s for the 64-bit version) are added. Level 3 adds
cantaloupe
The cantaloupe, rockmelon (Australia and New Zealand, although cantaloupe is used in some states of Australia), sweet melon, or spanspek (Southern Africa) is a melon that is a variety of the muskmelon species (''Cucumis melo'') from the fami ...
s, level 4
pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...
s, level 5
strawberries
The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...
and level 6 adds Fred FiggleCorns. ''Kitchen Carnage'' was renamed to ''Carnage'' in 2021.
''Splatter Up''
''Annoying Orange: Splatter Up'' is the second game by the Annoying Orange, after ''Carnage''. The game is based on baseball, and the player slides a finger while a fruit enters the home plate. The faster the player slides, the farther he gets. The game sprites are the same as the ''Carnage'' game, the only one that does not appear in this game but appear in ''Carnage'' is Fred Figglecorn.
''Skewerz''
''Skewerz'' is the most recent Annoying Orange game. The player is given fruits and vegetables to collect and they need to catch them in the skewer. When collected, you can send them to a blender called the Roomba.
See also
*
Syncro-Vox
Syncro-Vox (sometimes spelled Synchro-Vox) is a filming method that combines static images with moving images, the most common use of which is to superimpose talking lips on a photograph of a celebrity or a cartoon drawing. It is one of the most ex ...
, a low-cost animation technique it has been used in the series
References
External links
The Annoying Orange official website
{{The Annoying Orange
2000s YouTube series
2009 web series debuts
2010s YouTube series
2020s YouTube series
American animated web series
American comedy web series
Black comedy
Cultural depictions of Abraham Lincoln
Fruit and vegetable characters
Internet memes
Internet memes introduced in 2009
Leprechauns in popular culture
Parodies
Satirical works
American surreal comedy television series
The Annoying Orange
Viral videos
YouTube controversies
Works about death
Works subject to a lawsuit
Works involved in plagiarism controversies