The Annoying Orange (series)

The Annoying Orange is a comedy web series created by Dane Boedigheimer, also known as "Daneboe". The first episode was uploaded on October 9, 2009. By June 2010, the Annoying Orange videos had amassed more than 200 million views on YouTube.[1][2] Originally, the episodes were uploaded to Boedigheimer's YouTube channel as well as to the channel and website attached to his company, Gagfilms. When the first Annoying Orange episode reached 11 million views from Daneboe's channel, he was inspired to make an Annoying Orange YouTube Channel. As of October 10, 2010, the channel is ranked as the 10th most subscribed channel of all, and 61st most viewed of all time.
==Background==
The show features an animated talking orange called Orange[citation needed], played by Dane Boedigheimer. Boedigheimer's partner Spencer Grove writes the episodes.
Orange heckles other fruits, vegetables, or nearby animated objects, with puns and laughter. Orange lives on a kitchen counter, which he shares with his best friend Pear, a Bartlett pear, also played by Boedigheimer. Despite being his friend, Pear finds Orange just as annoying as everyone else he encounters. Passion, a female passion fruit played by Justine Ezarik, lives in the same kitchen on another counter. Other recurring guest stars include Midget Apple, Marshmallow, and Knife. Most episodes consist of Orange talking to other characters, who become annoyed and meet a gruesome end, usually by evisceration with a knife (although fates have included a blender and "deathtrap"), which Orange tries to warn them about before it happens, by saying "Knife."[1]
To animate the characters Boedigheimer will superimpose their voice-actor's eyes and mouth on the object they are playing. For instance, he uses his own eyes and mouth to play Orange and Pear (although Orange's mouth has a distinctive orange tint to it that Pear's mouth doesn't have) and will do the same for Justine Ezarik when Passion appears in episodes and for all the guests YouTubers that don't appear in any human form.
Orange has several distinctive mannerisms that make him annoying. He often starts by saying "Hey, (name of character)!" until they get frustrated enough to respond, and will often use a play on words mentioning the object's name or appearance (e.g., in the second episode, he calls a pumpkin "plumpkin") throughout the rest of the episode. He also has annoyed people by telling bad jokes, burping, and making noises with his tongue. Orange has a braying laugh that tends to grate on people as well as an annoying voice, and he often tells the objects he annoys "You're an apple!". In the latter case Orange's calling things "apples" serves a dual purpose, as he will also use the term as an insult toward someone he doesn't like or offended him (e.g. in the episode "Pain-Apple", where he told a pineapple "you really are an apple", and in the episode "Picture Contest" when he calls a disembodied voice an apple because there's no new video to upload).
The earliest episodes featured Boedigheimer play the fruit/vegetable Orange was annoying, but this has since changed to include at least one guest actor/YouTuber in every episode. These have included Bob Jennings, who played Grapefruit, Ginger and Liam the Leprechaun (which spun off into his own series - see below), Justine Ezarik (which led to her becoming a regular cast member), Lucas Cruikshank, Take180's Evan Ferrante, and Weezer. Two crossovers were spawned as the result of guest spots. In July 2010 Boedigheimer guest-starred as Orange in "Fred Goes Grocery Shopping!", and Cruikshank returned the favor the next day by playing Fred Figglehorn in the Annoying Orange episode "Annoying Orange vs. FRED!!!". In August 2010 Ferrante appeared the leader of a race of broccoli aliens in the Annoying Orange episode "Close Encouters of the Annoying Kind" one day after Boedigheimer appeared in Ferrante's Take180 series "Not Tom Cruise" as Orange. Three of Weezer's members appeared as objects on a party platter in the episode "Wazzup 3: Bonsai Tree", with lead singer Rivers Cuomo appearing as the title object; the appearance was part of Weezer's promotion of their album Hurley, where they took to several YouTube channels (including Boedigheimer's and Cruikshank's) to promote the record.
In August 2010, the Annoying Orange gained its 1,000,000 YouTube subscriber. The series was rated the most viewed web series of February and March 2010 by Mashable, with over 52 million views in March.[5][6] In April 26, 2010, the series had over 108 million views on YouTube.[1][7][8]
Category:The Annoying Orange
Category:Favorite Shows
Category:YouTube