Annoying Orange

Annoying Orange
Genre	Surreal humour Black comedy Toilet humour Slapstick Splatter Suspense
Created by	Dane Boedigheimer
Written by	Spencer Grove Dane Boedigheimer Bob Jennings Sara Christensen
Directed by	Dane Boedigheimer Bob Jennings
Presented by	Dane Boedigheimer
Voices of	Dane Boedigheimer Justine Ezarik Bob Jennings Kevin Brueck Aaron Massey Jess Lizama Jon Bailey Various guest stars
Narrated by	Dane Boedigheimer
Composers	Dane Boedigheimer Kevin MacLeod
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	13
No. of episodes	692 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Dane Boedigheimer Aaron Massey Kevin Nalty
Production companies	Daneboe Productions YouTube The Collective (2009–2016) Annoying Orange, Inc.(2012–present) 3T Studios (2012-2014)
Distributor	Google Play YouTube
Release
Original network	YouTube
Original release	October 9, 2009 (2009-10-09) – present (present)
Chronology
Related shows	The Adventures of Liam The Leprechaun The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange The Misfortune of Being Ned The Marshmallow Show Trailer Trashed The Juice Emoji Raps Foodsplosion How2 The Adventures of Buttman Let's Play Video Games Story Time with Annoying Orange Ask Orange Shocktober (Only in October) Saturday Supercut X-Massacre (Only in December 2017)
External links
Website

Annoying Orange is an American live-action/comedy web series created by Dane Boedigheimer (DaneBoe) in early 2009. It stars its creator as an anthropomorphic orange who annoys fruits, vegetables, and various other objects by telling jokes and puns. Fred Figglehorn has appeared on the web series, mostly in Ask Orange and Annoying Orange vs. Fred.^[1]

The show became popular, leading to a television series, a video game, a range of toys, backpacks, couches, pillows, blankets, lunchboxes, drink bottles, mattresses, towels and a T-shirt line. Other accessories, such as costumes of the series' characters, have also appeared on the market.

Since its inception, the Annoying Orange YouTube channel has amassed around 11 million subscribers as of October 2021.^[2]

Plot

The show is centered on Orange (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer), who lives in a kitchen with other foods and objects like his best friend, Pear, an irritable, geeky Bartlett pear (also voiced by Boedigheimer). Other fruits include Passion, a sensible passion fruit and Orange's love interest played by Justine Ezarik, an arrogant grapefruit (voiced by Bob Jennings), a tiny but hot-blooded Red delicious apple known as Midget Apple (though he prefers the name Little Apple), a happy-go-lucky and slightly eccentric marshmallow who always sees everything filled with enthusiasm, and an elderly lemon named Grandpa Lemon, all joining the show over the years.

The formula for most episodes consists of Orange heckling other characters until they meet a sudden, gruesome end, usually being killed or mutilated by a chef's knife (although implements used to maim them range from a blender to a toy pinwheel). Orange usually tries to warn them by crying out the weapon-in-use, such as "Knife!".^[1]

Orange has recurring mannerisms. He often begins an episode by repeatedly calling for a character's attention until the character responds. Orange also often refers to the character as something playing on the object's name or appearance (such as calling Grapefruit "Apefruit"). If an object behaves in a way that Orange dislikes, he will often call that object an "apple" (the food equivalent to "asshole"), even if the object is not an apple. Otherwise Orange tells jokes, burps, breaks wind or makes noises with his tongue to get attention.

Despite the contentions of other fruits and objects, Orange generally cannot control his quirks and rarely tries to annoy others on purpose; he usually means well for most fruits and objects. In one web episode Mango, a life coach, suggests that Orange is using his annoying nature to cope with the demise of the fruits he tries to befriend. Regardless of his outward anti-social behaviour, Orange almost always finds comfort in the company of his friends and sometimes makes new ones.

Characters

Main

• Orange (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) The main protagonist in the series. He can spit seeds from his mouth and has a passion for breaking wind, TNT, kazoos, making noises (such as "nya, nya" and the roar of a motorboat engine) and touching his tongue to his eyeball. Yet he appears to be good-hearted, to the point of warning his guests about their imminent deaths. Orange enjoys making puns and jokes, usually punctuated with his signature laugh. Orange also has a fear of dancing hippos.
• Pear (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) - a D'Anjou pear. The only fruit who puts up with Orange (at least most of the time), and is arguably his best friend, although Pear would refuse to admit it. Other foods regard Pear as a bore, owing to his passion for reading; he is often the butt of jokes throughout the series. As such, Pear occasionally resorts to extreme behaviors to defy the idea that he is boring.
• Marshmallow (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) - A cute, squeaky-voiced marshmallow is almost always happy. He is regarded to be Midget Apple's best friend. He loves unicorns (his mother herself is a unicorn), rainbows, cuddly animals, and all things cute. A running source of humor involves questioning Marshmallow's gender - although Marshmallow has self-referred to be male even in his early appearances. Marshmallow is given to say "Yay!" a lot and has an audacious giggle.
• Midget Apple / Little Apple (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) - A diminutive Red Delicious apple who prefers to be called "Little Apple" - as he hates the appellation "Midget Apple" for being insensitive to fruits his size. He owns a monster truck and is often ridiculed for his height, mostly by Orange. He's also ridiculed for being illiterate, which he constantly denies. He's an expert at horror video games, according to the Gaming Channel. His catchphrase is "Neato burrito!"
• Passion Fruit (voiced by Justine Ezarik) - A sweet, sassy passion fruit who is Orange's love interest - although Orange is embarrassed to admit he loves her. Grapefruit is also in love with Passion, although she hates him. At one point, she dated a giant granadilla named GG, whom she later found out was her cousin. Their relationship did not last long.
• Grandpa Lemon (voiced by Kevin Brueck) - An elderly lemon who constantly falls asleep and often mishears words. In his first appearance Grandpa Lemon died, being sliced and juiced into a glass of lemonade. He was resurrected in "Frankenfruit" and has appeared subsequently since then. Despite his old age, he drives a stunt-optimized motorcycle. In the High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange episode "Veggie Zombies", Grandpa Lemon mentions a character called Grandma Lime, presumed to be his wife, although it is unconfirmed if she is alive or dead, as she has not been mentioned since then in the series.
• Grapefruit (voiced by Bob Jennings from 2010-2021; Jon Bailey 2021-present) A brawny grapefruit who has a bit of a temper - and who others (often Orange) often call fat, much to his displeasure. Like Grandpa Lemon, he was killed by Knife in his first appearance and was resurrected in "Frankenfruit" as the head of the titular amalgamated monster, and subsequently has appeared since then. In earlier seasons, he was antagonistic, but in later seasons has become part of the main cast. He has a bodybuilder's personality, enjoys flexing and using bodybuilding terms a lot. He also likes to impress others, particularly female foods, although he usually fails at this. Following Bob Jennings' departure from the role in 2021, the episode "Grapefruit’s New Voice!" introduced Jon Bailey as his new voice actor.
• Orange's sister (voiced by Jess Lizama) - Also referred to as Sis or Sissy, she is just as annoying as her brother Orange. Originally a one-time character, over time, her prominence has grown to that of a recurring character, and then a major character (even appearing in episodes of The Juice and Storytime), likely due to Passion Fruit making slightly fewer appearances.
• Corey Apple (voiced by Kevin Brueck) - Little Apple's literal "half-brother", Corey is a golden delicious apple who managed to survive a knife attack, although losing his backside in the process, which he constantly talks about or tries to replace in his very frequent appearances. He tends to be over-the-top, and appears rather oblivious or dopey at times, since the knife injury also appears to have damaged his brain.

Recurring/Minor

• Knife (voiced by Kevin Nalty, later by Dane Boedigheimer, singing voice by Peter Coffin) - A chef's knife who often kills various foods against his will. He is terrified both by the fact that he is used to mutilate food and by a cruel knife sharpener who seems to enjoy Knife's suffering.
• Liam the Leprechaun (portrayed by Bob Jennings) - A short-tempered leprechaun who is always losing his pot of gold, and ever since first encountering Orange, has become among his most bitter enemies. He has his own YouTube channel. In early episodes, Orange refers to him as the "Jolly Green Giant".
• Zoom (voiced by Bob Jennings) - An energy drink. His recurring one-liner is "EXTREEEME!". Zoom also appears in the Annoying Orange App Game, "Splatter Up!".
• Zip (voiced by Aaron Massey) - Another energy drink like Zoom, who claims that Zip has more energy per ounce. Like Zoom, Zip appears as a power-up in an Annoying Orange app game, "Splatter Up!".
• Zoop (voiced by Bob Jennings and later Aaron Massey) - Another energy drink, but also the combination of Zoom and Zip.
• Squash (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) - A nervous butternut squash who invariably falls onto various foods by mistake and, to his horror and disgust, crushes them to death. Squash does not intend to hurt anyone.
• Copper Lincoln (voiced by Bob Jennings) - A miniature copper Abraham Lincoln statue who enjoys break dancing and was birthed by an ordinary penny after being swallowed and coughed up by a magic oyster.
• Dr. Bananas (voiced by Aaron Massey) - A brilliant, rather insane banana scientist whose inventions have been known to be incredible achievements or to have caused certain death. Although sliced in two by Knife in his debut, he managed to reconnect his two halves with an invention known as the Slice-Twice-Splice Machine - with the side effect that electricity surges through his stitching, although this side effect appears to have gone away in later appearances.
• Nude Dude (voiced by Jack Douglass, later Kevin Brueck) - An apple who became permanently naked after being put into an electric peeler. It is revealed in "Barewolf" that he is a werewolf. Episodes after his debut usually depict him with a censor bar over his groin area.
• Captain Obvious (voiced by Steve Zaragoza, later Shannon Jones) - A sea captain onion who always points out the obvious, much to the annoyance of others.
• Lou the Tick (voiced by Michael "Mike 3D" Wingate) - A conspiracy theorist tick who lives in a shelter, always worrying about aliens possibly taking over the Earth.
• Gaming Grape (voiced by Shannon Jones) - A grape who likes to play video games on his PlayStation 4 and other game consoles, much to the chagrin of his mother and Game Ball, his sports-fanatic older brother. He mostly appears on the Annoying Orange Gaming channel.
• Sour Rangers - These four sour candies who resemble Sour Patch Kids are parodies of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, and have saved the kitchen from the threat of domination or destruction by various villains, including Marshageddon, Lord Bread, and Chivan Stews, by using their powers as well as their Gourds (which are parodies of Zords), which can be used to form Megagourds (parody of the Megazord). So far, they have starred in four episodes that chronicle their adventures.
  • Red (voiced by Steven Zurita) - The team leader, Red seems to be rather a braggart as well as the strongest of the four. His Gourd is a zucchini which was gifted the power of the Mussel Chowdergourd in the fourth episode.
  • Pink (voiced by Shira Lazar) - Pink is a gymnast and the sole female member of the team. Her Gourd is a pumpkin and was gifted the power of the Oyster Chowdergourd in the fourth episode.
  • Yellow (voiced by Kevin Brueck) - Yellow serves as the brains of the team. His Gourd is a squash and was gifted the power of the Clam Chowdergourd in the fourth episode.
  • Green (voiced by Bob Jennings) - Green is the always-ignored voice of reason; his teammates - much to his chagrin - always dismiss his strategies about confronting villains, even though his plans would be very effective. His Gourd is a courgette which was gifted the power of an unknown Chowdergourd in the fourth episode (presumed to be a scallop).

Episodes

The first Annoying Orange episode was released on October 9, 2009. Since then, the Annoying Orange YouTube channel has uploaded two or three videos a week.

Background

Dane Boedigheimer, creator of The Annoying Orange

Before The Annoying Orange, Boedigheimer had done many talking food videos for his channel and other sites including JibJab. He said in an interview that the idea for The Annoying Orange was a combination of the talking food videos, puns and special effects he came up with and did before.^[3] The original video was planned to be titled The Annoying Apple, but when he started animating the video he found it easier to put features on an orange than an apple and make it clearer.^[4]

The first Annoying Orange video initially was meant to be the only one on YouTube. However, viewers requested more videos,^[5][6] and after the 4th one, Boedigheimer decided to make a full-time series. Following the success of the series, he created a channel dedicated to The Annoying Orange under the name "Annoying Orange" on January 11, 2010.

Reception

The series was rated as the most viewed web series of February and March 2010 by Mashable, with over 52 million views.^[7][8] On April 26, 2010, the series had over 108 million views on YouTube.^[1][9][10] In June 2010, the channel had received 137 million views.^[6] By August 13, 2010, it had received 1 million subscribers. In June 2011, the channel was ranked as the eighth most subscribed and 30th most viewed, with more than 2,000,000 subscribers.^[11][12] On January 13, 2012, the series hit 1 billion channel views and 2.3 million subscribers.^[13][14] The Annoying Orange YouTube channel currently has over 11 million subscribers.

Despite the popularity of the web series with sections of the public, it has received generally unfavourable critical reviews, many citing its rude humor. Liz Shannon Miller considered the show to be "annoying for many reasons."^[15] In the web series column Pass the Mustard, Ned Hepburn called the show "pure, pure unfunny, highly concentrated, in droplet form, just purely nonsensical riffing from an Annoying Orange." Hepburn concluded, "the Annoying Orange series is one of the few that I had a physically bad reaction to. It was horrible."^[16] 411mania.com called the show "idiotic" and "creepy as hell",^[17] while other publications have referred to it as "third grade humor."^[1]

In 2014 The Annoying Orange YouTube Channel was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #32.^[18]

Lawsuit

The success of the series had received attention from H2M, a Fargo, North Dakota advertising agency, which in 2006 created its own "talking orange" character to be the spokesman for a North Dakota Department of Transportation ad campaign. Both characters were anthropomorphic oranges with ties to the Fargo-Moorhead area. Despite only slightly resembling H2M's talking orange, the Annoying Orange was looked into by H2M's attorneys as an intellectual property matter. Boedigheimer stated he had not watched H2M's talking orange videos before being informed about the disagreement, and also believed that the characters were not very similar.^[19] Boedigheimer and Grove were later sued by H2M in May 2013 for allegedly copying the character.^[20] No information has been made public about the status of the dispute.

Pay withdrawal lawsuit

On December 23, 2014, Dane Boedigheimer announced that The Annoying Orange has not been funded by Collective Digital Studios since November 2014. This has led Boedigheimer to take legal action to get paid. Due to this, the series has had a noticeably lower budget on YouTube since then, with less use of live-action footage of foods.

Merchandise

Collective Merchandise

Since late 2011, The Collective has produced many accessories, toys and clothing with toymaker The Bridge Direct and clothing retailers such as JCPenney, Shopko and rue21.^[21] The Collective also announced a partnership in December of that year with costume manufacturer Rubie's Costume Company to produce children and adult Halloween costumes and accessories featuring characters such as Orange, Pear, Marshmallow, and Midget Apple from the web series.^[22]

Plushies

In 2020, Annoying Orange partnered with Warren James, LLC and has produced Memory-foam plushie toys depicting every major character. The inventory of plush toys includes Orange,^[23] Pear,^[24] Midget Apple,^[25] Marshmallow,^[26] Grandpa Lemon,^[27] Grapefruit,^[28] and Passion Fruit.^[29] The toys can be purchased on the official website individually, or in a bundle of seven.^[30][31]

Comics

Annoying Orange comics are published by Papercutz.

1. Secret Agent Orange (December 11, 2012) – Reference to James Bond.
2. Orange You Glad You're Not Me? (May 28, 2013) – This is a reference to the joke that ends in the punchline orange you glad... ? and has other endings depending on the joke, like "that I didn't say 'apple'?".
3. Pulped Fiction (August 27, 2013) – Parody of Pulp Fiction.
4. Tales of the Crisper (January 14, 2014) – Parody of Tales from the Crypt.
5. Fifty Shades of Orange (April 8, 2014) – Parody of Fifty Shades of Grey.
6. My Little Baloney (August 5, 2014) – Parody of My Little Pony.

Television series

The Annoying Orange got a TV series on Cartoon Network, and it ran from 2012 to 2014.

Games

Kitchen Carnage

A video game developed by Bottle Rocket Apps named Kitchen Carnage was released for the iPod Touch and iPhone on April 7, 2011. The game was later released in HD for the iPad on May 6, 2011, and for Android devices on October 14, 2011. The Christmas version of the game was released in December 2011 and the free version of the game, Kitchen Carnage Lite, was released March 2, 2012.

The aim of the game is to throw different items across the kitchen into a series of blenders before the time runs out. The player is given apples and bananas at the start. When the second level is reached, tomatoes are added. Level 3 adds cantaloupes, level 4 pineapples, level 5 strawberries and level 6 adds Fred FiggleCorns.

Splatter Up

Annoying Orange: Splatter Up is the second game by the Annoying Orange, after Kitchen Carnage. The game is based on baseball, and the player slides a finger while a fruit enters the home plate. The faster the player slides, the farther he gets. The game sprites are the same as the Kitchen Carnage game, the only one that does not appear in this game but appear in Kitchen Carnage is Fred Figglecorn.

Skewerz

Skewerz is the most recent Annoying Orange game. The player is given fruits and vegetables to collect and they need to catch them in the skewer. When collected, you can send them to a blender called the froomba.

TV series

Country / region	Series premiere	Network
United States	May 28, 2012	Cartoon Network
Australia	July 15, 2013	Cartoon Network
Canada	September 5, 2013	Teletoon
Brazil	September 9, 2013	Cartoon Network
United Kingdom	September 7, 2015	Kix
Malaysia	November 30, 2013	Cartoon Network
Israel	December 2013	Comedy Central

See also

• Syncro-Vox, a low-cost animation technique it has been used in the series

References

External links

• The Annoying Orange official website