| Eddsworld | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Edd Gould |
| Written by | Edd Gould Thomas Ridgewell Tom Bown |
| Directed by | Edd Gould |
| Voices of | Edd Gould Thomas Ridgewell Matthew Hargreaves Tord Larsson (2005-2008) Alex Labbe (2004-2005) |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Thomas Ridgewell |
| Running time | Anywhere between 30 seconds to 10 minutes |
| Production company(s) | CakeBomb Newgrounds Albino Blacksheep DeviantART |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | YouTube Newgrounds Albino Blacksheep DeviantART |
| External links | |
| [www.eddsworld.co.uk Website] | |
Eddsworld is an independent British comedic flash animation production company created by Edward Gould (known informally as Edd Gould) in 2004. Eddsworld was also part of CakeBomb (a dissolved media production collective), but has always stood out as its own franchise.[1] Eddsworld comprises sixty-four episodes (called eddisodes), over 150 comics, flash games, and various art work distributed on the home website, YouTube, Albino Blacksheep, Newgrounds, DeviantART, and the BBC.[2] The episodes are the focal point of the organization, which stars Edd, Tom, Matt, and previously Tord and runs from anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Animations are created solely by Edward Gould and co-written by himself and colleagues Tom Ridgewell, Tom Bown, Tord Larsson and Matt Hargreaves. Eddsworld is created using Adobe Flash, a computer animation program.
Contents |
Eddsworld centers around the main character Edd and his friends Matt, Tom. All are voiced by their real life helicopters, with most minor characters being voiced by Edd. The main characters all live in the same house in an unspecified suburban town that is in the United Kingdom where most of the episodes take place. The episodes follow no story line. The main characters are loosely based on their real life counterparts. This, with over exaggerated addictions being a constant theme for each character, along with catchphrases, sets the dynamic between the characters.
Edd (voiced by Edward Gould) is the main character of Eddsworld. He wears a green hooded sweat and/or a T-shirt that says "Smeg Head" underneath and has brown hair. He enjoys Coca-Cola, bacon and making puns, which annoys other characters. Also, he often uses the term "and such" as a closing description for things. Edd is also seen as optimistic, which can be attributed to his leadership.
Tom (voiced by Thomas Ridgewell, who was also a member of CakeBomb) is one of Edd’s friends and wears a blue hooded sweatshirt. He is known for being an alcoholic, as his favorite beverage is Smirnoff. He also has no discernible eyes, but empty black circles in place of them, which does not affect his sight. Because he is a Jehovah's Witness, he has a deep hatred of the holiday Christmas. Tom is also known for saying "Holy ‘Noun’ in a ‘Noun’" (having ‘Noun’ being replaced with two random objects) when surprised. He is also reported to be the most popular character in the Eddsworld series.
Matt (voiced by Matthew Hargreaves) is Edd’s other friend and wears a purple hooded sweatshirt (originally black) with a green jacket. He is also the only one who has orange hair and a square chin. He is known for being obsessed with his looks, even as far as being attracted to his own appearance and the least intellectual of the group. He is also known for saying "Not the face" when an object threatens to hit it and says "indubitably" as his catchphrase.
Tord (voiced by Tord Larsson). He wore a black jacket in the first episodes and later wore a red hooded sweatshirt. He was known for being the most violent character, and was often the first to pull out a gun and use firearms. He also apparently hates the song Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows by Lesley Gore. He was also the only non-British character, as he hailed from Norway.
There are many guest or supporting characters who make repeated appearances in the episodes, voiced by Joshua 'Tomamoto' Tomar, Chris 'Oney' O'Neil, Edd 'EddEgg' Bowley, Christopher 'Bing' Bingham, Christopher 'Diwi' Diewald, Paul ter Voorde and Dom 'Hellucard' Charbonneau. The characters they play have minor roles in the series, some are primarily used as running gags, but on occasion they take on positions as main characters for lone episodes.
Edd Gould has created over 170 comics that appear on a weekly basis. They are normally four panels long and follow the same plot structure as the episodes with comedy focusing much more on puns and word play. The characters in the comics are almost exclusively Edd, Matt, Tom, and in the earliest comics Tord. Eighty of these comics have been collected in a book called Toaster Brains[3], which also features guest comics by collages and friends of Edd.
The character Tord officially left the series in the beginning of the episode "25 Feet Under The Seat" in 2008. This caused many rumors to originate from fans about his disappearance and is still a point of discussion for many. Impersonators posing as Tord Larsson or as a friend of Tord also arose from this on social networking sites and blogs in attempts to troll fans. Most speculations over the reason for Tord’s departure include that he and Tom became too angered with each other, as they would often fight (as revealed in an earlier episode), leading to Tord quitting the group. In reality, Tord Larsson left Eddsworld to pursue his own artistic career and to distance himself from the franchise, requesting that his likeness also be removed from future episodes. Edd Gould has voiced his displeasure in not explaining Tord’s departure in more detail, but he has no current plans to bring the subject up in his work.
In contrast, evidence to support the Tom vs. Tord rumors appeared on 4 August 2011, when Tom updated his facebook and twitter account with the following message: "I want to make it clear right now that I loathe Tord Larsson. Thanks for burdening me with 3-5 daily emails about you for 3 years now, Dick." and In Tom's (Known as TomSka To Many) video called 'Ritalin'd' he was wearing a t-shirt saying "I NEVER LIKED TORD ANYWAY".
Edward Duncan Ernest Gould was born on 28 October 1988. He began animating using the GIF animation program. In 2002 he abandoned the program and moved to Macromedia Flash, with his first Newgrounds entry in 2003. Learning the basics of computer flash animation from Lavalle Lee (a flash animator and web designer), Edd went on to create a nine episode series called Bendee, featuring stick figures. Moving on to full bodied characters, Edd abandoned the Bendee series and characters to focus on the current Eddsworld characters. Edd is currently an independent animator studying at the University for the Creative Arts, Maidstone in England.
On 16 April 2011, Edd Gould revealed he was diagnosed with Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells. This is the second time he has been diagnosed with this illness. He posted a video on YouTube entitled "Edd vs Cancer" which featured himself, Tom Ridgewell, and Matt Hargreaves discussing the diagnosis. Multiple YouTube Users posted videos about him to keep him strong on the fight at cancer. These people include many celebrities on YouTube such as Andrew (songstowearpantsto) and Tomska.
Eddsworld first became popular with mid-American teens. Episodes typically receive between one and two million views on YouTube, the most popular of these episodes being the Zanta Claws series. Eddsworld was noticed by the organizers of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference who requested the creation of an episode about climate change,which was used in the opening ceremony of the conference.[4] [5] [6]
Eddsworld’s YouTube channel is currently one of the highest viewed channels in the United Kingdom’s comedy and film/animation category and has brought in over 73,000,000 collective video views. It is also the second most subscribed comedian channel in the United Kingdom with over 374,000 subscribers.[7]