| Neil Cicierega |
| Birth name |
Neil Stephen Cicierega |
| Born |
August 23, 1986 (1986-08-23) (age 22)
Kingston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Genre(s) |
Comedy, Synthpop, Geek rock, Pop rock, Experimental rock, Pop |
| Occupation(s) |
Vocalist, Musician, Actor, Puppeteer, Singer-songwriter, Animutator, Comedian |
| Years active |
1999-present |
| Associated acts |
Lemon Demon |
| Website |
EvilTrailMix.com |
Neil Stephen Cicierega (born August 23, 1986), is an American comedian, actor and musician. He is the creator of a genre of Flash animation known as "Animutation". He also performs as a musician. Cicierega lives with his parents and two of his siblings in Kingston, Massachusetts, United States.
Neil Cicierega is the creator of a genre of Flash animation known as "Animutation". Animutation features arbitrary scenes and pictures influenced by pop culture. These scenes are accompanied by (and usually in time to) foreign or novelty music, often Japanese. Most of his early Animutations used music from the original Japanese version of Pokémon. His style, seen in his 2001 work "Hyakugojyuuichi", has been imitated by other artists on the Internet. These works were originally known as "fanimutations", but due to some creators thereof feeling that their work should be viewed as art in its own right rather than fanart, the term "fanimutation" has fallen out of favor. Cicierega's most recent Animutation, Rugrats, was released in January 2008.
Potter Puppet Pals
Potter Puppet Pals is a series of flash animations and live puppet shows about Harry Potter. Episodes so far have been about annoying Snape (titled "Bothering Snape") and killing Lord Voldemort with machine guns rather than spells (titled "Trouble at Hogwarts"). Due to the complexity of Flash animation without physics (it was introduced in later programs), several further non-animated movies featured real puppets ("PPP Teaser", "Potions Class", "Wizard Angst", "The Mysterious Ticking Noise", "Wizard Swears", "School is for Losers", "Awakening of the Incorruptible" and "The Vortex"). "Wizard Swears" features Neville Longbottom as a butternut squash [1] on a stick with his face drawn on with a marker. The videos have been released on the popular video sharing site YouTube. The episode "The Mysterious Ticking Noise", based around the concept of a musical ostinato, has become the fifteenth most-viewed video on YouTube with over 48 million views. The video was nominated for,[2] and won in the Comedy category in the 2007 YouTube Awards with 33.6% of the votes in that category.[3] Cicierega promised a video of himself "caressing" his trophy for ten straight minutes in a promotional video for the show. On March 29, 2008, he added a video that was ten minutes long to YouTube of himself with romantic music in the background and the trophy. Due to the popularity of Potter Puppet Pals, Neil performed a live musical show called The Yule Ball, which is a Harry Potter-related show mostly based around wizard rock in previous years. Also on the local news, Cicierega revealed he was going to make a new puppet, which has not been shown in any episodes yet. The puppets were meant to be featured in Weezer's "Pork and Beans" video, among other YouTube phenomenons, but due to a mixup with FedEx, the puppets did not arrive at the set in time. However, the crew ended up making their own Dumbledore puppet, which was given a split-second cameo.[4]
Episodes
Note: "PPP Teaser" isn't numbered because it doesn't count as an episode.
| Episode |
Episode name |
First aired |
Episode plot |
| 1 |
Bothering Snape |
September 27, 2003 |
Harry and Ron decide to "bother" Snape (they go up to him and repeat "Bother, bother, bother" while hovering around him). Infuriated, Snape uses Avada Kedavra to kill Harry and Ron. Dumbledore arrives and Snape sneaks off, while Dumbledore rifles Harry and Ron's pockets and dances naked. |
| 2 |
Trouble At Hogwarts |
December 15, 2003 |
Dumbledore announces that Voldemort has invaded Hogwarts. Snape attempts to stop him, but is killed by Voldemort. Harry, Ron and Hermione flee (although Ron does "bother" Voldemort once), but return soon and kill Voldemort with Uzis. Snape, miraculously returned to life, arrives on the scene and is hugged by Harry, Ron and Hermione (to his annoyance). Dumbledore comes in, naked, sees the hug and joins, exclaiming "Alas! A cornucopia of love!". |
| 3 |
The Potter Puppet Pals Adventure |
Unaired |
|
|
PPP Teaser |
September 18, 2006 |
The Trailer for the Live-action series on YouTube, features a revolving image of the Snape puppet with music (Lullaby by The Cure) in the background. |
| 4 |
Potions Class |
September 26, 2006 |
Harry, Ron and Hermione have a Potions lesson with Snape. When Hermione asks what they will learn today, Snape goes into a monologue (containing material from the Potions lesson in the first Harry Potter movie) accompanied by melodramatic organ music. The monologue ends with "...and even score with hot babes. Class dismissed." Ron and Hermione leave; Harry stays behind: "Hot babes?...Teach me!" but is scolded off by Snape. Dumbledore arrives and asks for "expired gorilla milk", which has "done a wonder on [Dumbledore's] bowels". Both leave, apparently to get the milk. |
| 5 |
Wizard Angst |
November 2, 2006 |
Harry is feeling "cranky and pubescent" today, so he takes it out on Ron ("I'm sick of your dreadful speckled mug!"). Hermione asks Harry what his problem is, and Harry goes into a short angry monologue about how much his life sucks, eventually deciding to "quit magic." He puts all responsibility of fighting Voldemort on Ron, and leaves. Terrified, Ron goes up to Voldemort, but runs away again. Harry, meanwhile, begins hitting his head against the wall ("Angst...angst...angst"). Ron tries to cheer him up by hugging him, but Harry begins beating him up. Snape arrives on the scene ("What is this rumpus?") and begins dealing out a severe punishment. Harry and Ron put a spell on him ("Pantalonius poopicus"), which causes Snape to leave (slowly) in embarrassment, apparently having soiled his pants. Dumbledore and Hermione arrive, and when Hermione asks what the smell is, Ron proclaims "Why, it's Snape's greatest potion of all!" Dumbledore floats away. |
| 6 |
Yule Ball 2006 |
December 10, 2006 |
A live musical episode |
| 7 |
The Mysterious Ticking Noise |
March 23, 2007 |
Snape, hearing a "mysterious ticking noise", begins singing his own name to the ticking. Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione and Harry eventually join in with their own names. Ron finds the source of the ticking noise ("It's a pipe bomb! Yay!"). They all blow up and Voldemort appears, using his wand to make a new ticking noise and singing his name to the tune of "Lollipop". |
| 8 |
Wizard Swears |
December 1, 2007 |
Harry finds a list of forbidden words Dumbledore has posted on the wall of his office. He, Ron and Hermione try some out. Snape hears them and is disgusted, especially when Harry, Ron and Hermione bolt. While Snape goes to get Dumbledore, Harry, Ron and Hermione coerce Neville (played by a butternut squash colored in by a marker) into saying one of the swearwords. Eventually, Neville says "Hagrid's buttcrack", causing Harry to banish him from Hogwarts ("Hagrid's ten times the man you'll ever be"). Dumbledore tells Snape to let the children have their fun, and the Potions master leaves in a huff. Harry asks Dumbledore if he knows any ancient swear words, and Dumbledore teaches them the "Elder Swear" (consisting mainly of censored beeping interrupted by individual phrases such as "hippopotamus", "Republican" and "with a bucket of"). The three promise never to repeat the swearword, but moments later use it against Neville. |
| 9 |
Yule Ball 2007 |
2007 |
The sequel to Yule Ball 2006 |
| 10 |
School Is For Losers |
April 7, 2008 |
Harry is walking through Hogwarts singing "I'm Harry Potter, school is for losers, I'm totally awesome..." when Snape confronts him about the fact that he has missed three weeks worth of Potions lessons. Harry zones out, hearing Snape only speak 'Harry Potter' and punches Snape. Harry then plays a saxophone solo, turns to the camera, and freezes. The words 'Harry Potter is Awesome' appear. |
| 11 |
Awakening of the Incorruptible |
May 16, 2008 |
A gag episode, Dumbledore appears for a split second. |
| 12 |
The Vortex |
May 17, 2008 |
Snape and Dumbledore tell each other about the dreams they had last night, but are interrupted by Harry, who asks for Dumbledore's help ("Magical emergency!"). Ron has been trapped in an alternate dimension. Using his "problem stick", Dumbledore pokes the vortex and Ron falls out, wearing sunglasses, a leather jacket, and no longer speaking in falsetto. When Dumbledore exclaims "Wow! You're much cooler than Harry!" and Ron decides to have a "beach party in London", Harry puts a spell on Ron ("Pituitarius shrinky-dinky"), causing him to return to normal. Harry then decides to have a dance party in London, and begins singing a self-praising song about himself. Hermione and Dumbledore hug Harry; Ron tries to do so, but is told by Harry to "lose some weight before you hug me, Ron." |
Trivia
- An Easter Egg can be found in "Trouble at Hogwarts". By pausing the movie as Voldemort kills Snape, a star shape appears in the spell. This is a link to a short movie of Ron following the butterflies with a surprise ending.
- Another Easter Egg can be found in the "Potter Puppet Pals Adventure" on http://stl.dreamerstoday.com/potterprev.htm when snape is singing his song "Stopper on my Pain" while Snape sings "There are oh so many potions in the world" there is a link on a bottle what says The Best Website in the world. It should link to the Potter Puppet Pals website.
- A running gag in a few Potter Puppet Pals films has been Dumbledore stripping completely naked except for his hat randomly in the story and misusing the word "alas".[5]
- There was also a cancelled episode, The Potter Puppet Pals Adventure, that still exists in audio form, and has been animated by a member of the Lemon Demon wiki. In it, Rubeus Hagrid, the Dursleys, and Draco Malfoy were originally slated to appear.[6]
- On the Potter Puppet Pals website, there is a link to a video of Neil Cicierega dressed as Harry and lamenting the death of Dumbledore. The clip is broken up by various random videos of a Muppet-like Dumbledore puppet drawing the viewer's attention to the coolness of his socks and being thrown into the air, in an obvious parody of his line to Harry in the first book, and his death in the sixth book.citation needed
Lemon Demon
Cicierega's music is influenced by They Might Be Giants and similar rock bands. His lyrics tend to have a surreal, humorous slant, though he has said he rarely writes songs with "jokish" intentions. His songs are distributed under the name of "Trapezoid" and "Lemon Demon". Following a notice from a trademark holder, Trapezoid was changed to "Deporitaz" (an anagram of "Trapezoid"). Outside of music distribution, Cicierega is still known to sometimes use the nickname "Trapezoid" or "Trapezzoid". The popular music channel VH1 was going to use his song "Dead Sea Monkeys", and offered him $1000, but ended up canning it.
He also produced the music for a number of Adventure Game Studio adventure games, and contributed to AGS forums. [7]
Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
"Good guys, bad guys, and explosions, As far as the eye can see."
-
On December 22, 2005, Lemon Demon and collaborator Shawn Vulliez released the Flash music video Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny on Newgrounds.com. The video features dozens of famous people and fictional characters, largely from 1980s and 1990s pop culture in a large century-long brawl where "...only one will survive."[8]
The video was featured as the Newgrounds daily feature on December 23, and the weekly user's choice on December 28; it has since been released on Flash Portal, Albino Blacksheep, Transbuddha, Weebl's Stuff, and eventually its own fan-created site at UltimateShowdown.org. The song topped the weekly "Funny Five" and became #1 of 2006 on the Dr. Demento Show. The song's popularity resulted in a significant increase in sales of Lemon Demon's earlier albums Damn Skippy and Hip to the Javabean, and Cicierega encountered difficulty meeting the sudden demand. The song itself was later included on Dinosaurchestra, his fifth album as Lemon Demon.
Discography
As Trapezoid/Deporitaz:
- "Outsmart" (2000)
- "Microwave this CD" (2001)
- "Dimes" (2002)
- "Circa 2000" (2007)
As Lemon Demon:
- "Clown Circus" (2003)
- "Live From the Haunted Candle Shop" (2003)
- "Hip to the Javabean" (2004)
- "Damn Skippy" (2005)
- "Dinosaurchestra" (2006)
- "View-Monster" (2008)
Filmography
In addition to his animutations, Cicierega formed film production company, Cinema Rocketry.[9]
He has worked on videos with fellow internet film makers and close friends Kevin James of Not A Tad Bad Flim Co., Ryan Murphy, of Rojhelio Studios and J.L. Carrozza of Gen-Y Films. Together, they have created many short films, and were recently commissioned to make a series of five webisodes for Plymouth Rock Studios. The series, called New Kids on the Rock, is a tongue-in-cheek meta-referential comedy series about Neil, Ryan and Kevin's attempts to make webisodes for Plymouth Rock.
Neil also help created a feature-length remake of The Wizard of Oz, No Place Like Home by Rojhelio Studios. Neil wrote part of the score for the movie and also starred in it as the Scarecrow. The movie is available for free on YouTube, and is also sold on DVD, packaged with a soundtrack album. [10]
Neil's short film, Filed Away was aired on the first episode of The CW show, Online Nation.
References
External links
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