Op Ed Review: Why Cyanide & Happiness Should Still Be On Your Watch List

I was having a particularly crappy weekend until I saw this pop up in my twitter feed. Hilarity ensued thanks to Cyanide and Happiness.

 

By now a franchise that needs little introduction, the  Cyanide and Happiness channel is the animated arm of uber popular site, Explosm.net. Spawned from the daily webcomic of the same name, Cyanide and Happiness is a collaborative affair created by Rob DenBleyker, Kris Wilson, Dave McElfatrick and Matt Melvin in 2005. The pick ‘n’ mix approach to writing can mean that the strength of each animated offering often differs with each episode but this weekend’s short contained hilarity of exceptional strength and for me summed up everything that makes the show, and the comic, work so well.

Taking a simple premise (what if all the spam that fills your inbox wasn’t actually spam?) and seeing it to its most illogical and brilliant conclusion, the Explosm team reminded me why they earn themselves a few million hits everytime they post a new cartoon.

We can often forget about the more obvious internet hits and many a snarky YouTube commenter will chime in and let the world know that they don’t think X, Y or Z was as funny as when it first began but there is a reason shows like Cyanide are so popular, they find a winning formula and stick to it. And, the Explosm formula is a brilliant one that makes the team presumably pretty rich; anyone can read the comics or watch the cartoons for free but for extra content, including behind the scenes animatics and ad free streaming, you have buy a “season pass”. At a time when most bloggers struggle to successfully monetize their sites, the Explosm guys have struck on a novel way of benefiting from their creations in a business model we should all aspire to.

It can take time to find gems among the seemingly endless piles of very average YouTube content, but we shouldn’t forget the tried and trusted stalwarts of the internet. Cyanide and Happiness manage to sum up all of our surfing experiences in three minutes and for this, they made my weekend. I quickly passed round my phone and shared Junk Mail with anyone willing to watch and the verdict was unanimous, Cyanide and Happiness are on tip top form at the moment and if you have taken them off your watch list, you need to resubscribe stat!

By the end of this short my mood had changed and the world seemed like a better place, so much so I wanted to remind you all of Explosm’s brilliance, hopefully you’ll feel the same way!

Utterly hilarious: