Shut Up! Cartoons was a
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
animation channel project created with 2 people from the
Smosh
Smosh () is an American YouTube sketch comedy-improv collective, independent production company, and former social networking site founded by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. In 2002, Padilla created a website named "smosh.com" for making Flas ...
crew (
Anthony Padilla,
Ian Hecox) and Barry Blumberg that features various animated videos. Shut Up! Cartoons launched on April 30, 2012, with ''Do's and Don'ts'' and ended with the termination of the series ''Smosh Babies'' on June 23, 2017.
Ownership and production
The channel was launched as part of YouTube's $100 million "
original channel initiative" by Smosh co-creators
Anthony Padilla and
Ian Hecox, as well as Barry Blumberg. Blumberg served as the president of the Smosh YouTube channel, as well as Shut Up! Cartoons. Previously, Blumberg served as the executive vice president of
Harvey Entertainment, as well as
Disney Television Animation
Disney Television Animation (DTVA; also shortened to Disney TVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is an American animation production company that serves as the television a ...
chief.
At the time of Shut Up! Cartoon's launch, Blumberg was the Head of Content for
Alloy Digital, which would become
Defy Media via its 2013 merger with
Break Media. As such,
Defy Media owned Shut Up! Cartoons.
At the channel's launch,
Lenora Hume served as its production lead.
[ Later, TeamTO co-founder Corinne Kouper served as head of production on Shut Up! Cartoons.
]
Content
The initial teaser trailer featured clips from 11 different shows, with Padilla and Hecox later informing their viewers that there were 18 planned shows in total. The first three cartoons launched by the network included ''Do's and Don'ts: A Children's Guide to Social Survival'', ''Zombies vs. Ninjas'', and ''Pubertina'', a show about an 11-year-old girl going through puberty. In May 2012, Smosh launched '' Krogzilla'', a show created by and starring Cory Edwards
Cory Edwards (born August 21, 1968) is an American film director, screenwriter, and stand-up comedian. He is best known for directing, co-writing, and voice acting in ''Hoodwinked!, Hoodwinked'' (2005), and for co-writing and voice acting in t ...
featuring John O'Hurley
John George O'Hurley Jr. (born October 9, 1954) is an American actor and game show host. He played Jacopo Peterman, J. Peterman on the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld'', provided the voice for King Neptune on ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', and hosted the game s ...
, about a shrunken sea monster seeking employment. ''Snowjacked'' soon followed, broadcasting on Tuesdays, meeting mixed reception.
At the end of the first three cartoons' 10-episode run, they were replaced by ''Nature Break'', ''Weasel Town'', and ''Oishi High School Battle''. ''Oishi High School Battle'', a series starring a 2D animated anime heroine attending a live action American high school, spawned a second season and prequel series. Another show was added replacing ''Krogzilla'' called ''Samurai! Daycare''. In September 2012, they also launched ''Politicats'' to replace ''Snowjacked''. The show that replaced ''Nature Break'' is ''Planets'', a reality show about the ten celestial bodies of the Solar System (the eight planets, Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
, and the Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
).
''Weasel Towns replacement, entitled ''Really Freaking Embarrassing'', created by Peter Hannan (Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
's ''CatDog
''CatDog'' is an American animated television series created by Peter Hannan for Nickelodeon. The series follows the zany hijinks of orange-furred conjoined brothers of different species, with one half of the resultant animal being a cat and t ...
'') had its first trailer removed from the website, stated as "shocking and disturbing content".
A new trailer was added, with fewer disturbing scenes. In September 2012, the channel launched ''Oishi Origins'', a three-episode prequel to ''Oishi High School Battle''. The show replacing ''Samurai! Daycare'' is ''Icons of Teen'', which features both fictional characters (such as Batman
Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...
and Spock
Spock is a fictional Character (arts), character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), USS ''Enterpri ...
) and real celebrities (such as Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
) as teenagers. Also that week, ''Oishi Origins'' was replaced by ''Teleporting Fat Guy'', which is based on a character from previous Smosh videos and explains how he became the Teleporting Fat Guy.
On November 20, 2012, ''Politicats'' was replaced by ''Sub: 3'' following a Speed Racer
''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuo Yoshida. It was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in form by Sun Wide Comics and later re-re ...
-like character that delivers pizza on a tight time limit, met by mixed reviews. On November 28, the trailer was released for ''With Zombies'' created by Matt Clark (the creator of ''Planets''). On November 15, 2013, ''Do's and Don'ts'' and ''Krogzilla'' received IAWTV nominations for Best Animated Web Series.[http://iawtvawards.org/portfolio/best-animated-web-series-2017 ] The second seasons for ''Do's and Don'ts'' and Pubertina premiered in April 2014, with ''Do's and Don'ts'' ending in April, and ''Pubertina'' ending in May.
On June 12, 2013, the paper series ''Paper Cuts'' premiered on the channel. The ten episodes featured shot-by-shot re-creations of famous movie scenes and trailers made entirely out of construction paper. On June 23, the Canadian stop motion series '' Life's a Zoo'' premiered on the channel.
On June 23, 2017, the channel posted their final video, which was the series finale of ''Smosh Babies'' and ceased operations following Anthony’s departure from Smosh
Smosh () is an American YouTube sketch comedy-improv collective, independent production company, and former social networking site founded by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. In 2002, Padilla created a website named "smosh.com" for making Flas ...
.
Series
Legacy
Several creators who worked with Shut Up! Cartoons have gone on to create their own series or worked on other successful shows, including Mike Hollingsworth (creator of Nature Break, who went on to become the supervising director for ''BoJack Horseman
''BoJack Horseman'' is an American adult animation, adult animated tragicomedy television series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, and Aaron Paul. Set primarily in ...
'' and serves as an executive producer for ''Inside Job
An inside job is a crime committed by a person in a position of trust, or with the help of someone either employed by the victim or entrusted with access to the victim's affairs or premises.
Inside Job may also refer to:
Books
* ''Inside J ...
''), Brian Wysol (creator of Icons of Teen, Munroe, Maganzo and Staff of Gelroth, who went on to create '' Hot Streets''), Emily Brundige (creator of Pubertina, who went on to develop '' Harvey Street Kids'' and serves as a writer in various animated shows like ''Unikitty!
''Unikitty!'' (stylized as ''UniKitty!'') is an American animated television series developed by Ed Skudder and Lynn Wang for Cartoon Network and produced by The Lego Group and Warner Bros. Animation. The series is based on and stars the char ...
'' and ''Amphibia
Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniotic, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all tetrapods, but excluding the amniotes (tetrapods with an amniotic ...
'') and Daniel Dominguez (co-creator of Oishi High School Battle, who went on to work as a writer for various shows like '' The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants'').
Notes
:a.''Originally created by Cuppa Coffee Studios
Cuppa Coffee Studios (formerly known as Cuppa Coffee Animation) is a Canadian production company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Cuppa Coffee was founded by Adam Shaheen and Bruce Alcock in 1992. It specializes in both stop-motion animation ...
in 2008 for Teletoon
Cartoon Network (formerly Teletoon) is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel primarily broadcasts animated series aimed at children and teenagers. It was launched on October 17 ...
in Canada. Shut Up! Cartoons obtained the rights to the series, but it has been deleted from the YouTube channel.''
:b.''Originally created by Harriss and Matt in 2008 and published to Super Deluxe
Super Deluxe was an entertainment company owned by Turner Broadcasting. Founded by Wolfgang Hammer in 2007, the company's main output was in online video, television series, and documentaries.
History
Turner Broadcasting System announced the l ...
. Shut Up! Cartoons gained the rights to the series following the revival of Super Deluxe in 2015.''
References
{{reflist
Animation-related YouTube channels
Smosh
YouTube-funded channels
YouTube channels closed in 2017
YouTube channels launched in 2012
YouTube original programming