Animutation

Editor's Disclaimer: If you suffer from epilepsy or any related conditions, it is advised not to watch these videos as they're known to trigger such medical conditions.

About

Animutation (a portmanteau of "animation" & "mutation") is a genre of animation that uses vast array of pop culture references to create a humorous and often shabby-looking video. Generally, the animation is set to foreign or gibberish music that lends to the structured randomness of the video. Additionally, the creator occasionally gives "misheard" English subtitles (known as soramimis^[10]) for the video, similar to Phonetic Translations.

Origin

On February 28th, 2001, Neil Cicierega, an internet celebrity also famous for creating Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and a web series known as Potter Puppet Pals, released "Hyakugojyuuichi," the artist's most famous Animutation and, perhaps, the first known Animutation.^[17] Within two decades, the video received more than 580,000 views on Newgrounds. ^[7] Introducing numerous Animutation character, such as Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Colin Mochrie, Pee-Wee Herman, and Harry Potter, the video was uploaded to YouTube by AlbinoBlackSheep on May 8th, 2008^[14], receiving more than 370,000 views in 10 years (Animutation Archive reupload shown below).^[6][8][9]

Spread

On June 14th, 2001, Cicierega released "The Japanese Pokerap." Occasionally cited as the first Animutation. On Newgrounds,^[2][3] the video received more than 132,000 views in 17 years. On April 27th, 2012, YouTuber Ashkdies posted the video to YouTube^[15]. The post received more than 10,000 views in six years (Animutation Archive reupload shown below, left).^[1]

Later that year, on November 26th, 2001, Animutation artist Veloso released "Irrational Exuberance."^[12] The video was reuploaded to YouTube on January 20th, 2010^[16], where it received more than 150,000 views in nearly nine years (4K repload shown below, right).

Precursor

Cutout Animation

Animutation shares many of the traits of "Cutout Animation," found in the work of seminal British sketch comedy group Monty Python, or the American animated series South Park (Python example below, left). The first recorded use of cutout animation was produced by Argentinian animator Quirino Cristiani in the early 1900s (example below, right).^[4]

Hatten är din (the hat is yours!)

Even though "The Japanese Pokerap" is established as the ever first Animutation, several fans of the Animutation genre of flash animation believe that the 2000 video Hatten är din can be considered as the first Animutation seeing as it bears the necessary qualities of an Animutation and precedes "The Japanese Pokerap" by about a year (shown below). Cicierega has cited this video as an influence.^[5]

Fanimutations

On February 15th, 2005, the Wiki "Fanmutations" launched.^[11] Currently, the site holds a large list of different videos, many of which exist on Newgrounds, Animutation Portal, YouTube, and Albino Blacksheep. Fanimutations are generally created with flash, and though many creators have uploaded versions of the videos to YouTube, they retain a higher quality in their original format.

Recurring Animutation Characters

Some popularly known people and fictional characters often recur in several Animutations. This list contains the most notable of those characters.

Real People

• Adolf Hitler
• Alex Chiu
• Bill Gates
• Colin Mochrie (The staple Animutation character)
• George W. Bush
• Matthew Lesko
• Michael Jackson
• Mr. T

Fictional Characters

• Dancing Banana
• Darth Vader
• Domo-kun
• Harry Potter
• Hello Kitty
• Homer Simpson
• Jay Jay the Jet Plane
• Mario
• Mink
• Pac-Man
• Pee-wee Herman
• Pikachu
• Ronald McDonald
• Santa Claus
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Zippy

Original Characters

• A plastic statue of Jesus, more commonly referred to as "Jesus H. Christ"

Copyright Infringement

Because of legal issues concerning some pop culture characters being featured in Animutations, some of the videos had to be edited so as to be posted on YouTube again.

One notable example is an Animutation known as JamezBond. After Randy Costan filed a copyright claim against using his image in videos not his, the creator of the Animutation, Dwedit replaced Peter Pan Guy with a green silhouette version of the man with text below him that reads "DMCA Violation."^[13]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References