Neil Cicierega
Born	Neil Cicierega August 23, 1986 (1986-08-23) (age 23) Kingston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Internet personality, actor, comedian, puppeteer, vocalist, musician, animator, filmmaker
Website EvilTrailMix.com

Neil Stephen Cicierega (born August 23, 1986), is an American comedian, filmmaker and musician. He is the creator of a genre of Flash animation known as "Animutation". He has also gained success as a musician under the stage name "Lemon Demon".

Contents 1 Animutation 2 Potter Puppet Pals 2.1 The Mysterious Ticking Noise 3 Lemon Demon 3.1 The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny 4 Short films 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Animutation

Neil Cicierega is the creator of a genre of surrealist Flash animation known as "Animutation".^[1] Animutation features arbitrary, nonsensical scenes and pop culture imagery, are typically set to novelty or foreign music, often Japanese. Most of his early Animutations used music from the original Japanese version of Pokémon.

Animutations found online popularity in early 2001 with Cicierega's "Hyakugojyuuichi", and the genre soon developed a cult following. Over the following years, a community of Flash animators began making their own animations inspired by Cicierega's works.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Potter Puppet Pals

Potter Puppet Pals
Also known as	PPP
Genre	Comedy, puppetry, variety
Created by	Neil Cicierega. Emmy Cicierega, Alora Lanzilotta
Voices of	Neil Cicierega
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
Broadcast
Original channel	Newgrounds (2001-2007) YouTube (2006-present)
Original run	Animated series: September 27, 2003 – December 15, 2003 Puppet series: September 26, 2006–present
External links
Official website

Cicierega's Potter Puppet Pals is a comedy series which parodies Harry Potter. It originated as a pair of Flash animations on Newgrounds in 2003, and later resurfaced in the form of a series of live action puppet shows released onto YouTube and Potterpuppetpals.com in 2006. The central characters of the Harry Potter series are portrayed simply by puppets. Cicierega has done puppetry live at Harry Potter-themed events.

[edit] The Mysterious Ticking Noise

"The Mysterious Ticking Noise", released March 23, 2007, is the 21^st most viewed on YouTube, with over 71 million views as of November 4, 2009. This episode of " Potter Puppet Pals " is one of the most popular in the series. The video was nominated and won^[2] in the Comedy category in the 2008 YouTube Awards with 61.6% of the votes in that category.^[3] In the video, Professor Snape hears a strange ticking and begins singing to it, followed by Dumbledore, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter. Towards the end, Ron discovers the source of the ticking is a pipe bomb and explodes as they celebrate, letting Voldemort sing his name by himself to the tune of "Lollipop" by The Chordettes.

[edit] Lemon Demon

Neil Cicierega releases music and performs it live under the name of "Lemon Demon".^[4] The band has released six albums since 2003.^[5]

[edit] The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

In 2005, Neil Cicierega and animator Shawn Vulliez released the Flash video Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny on Newgrounds. This became very popular, reaching over 11 million views on Newgrounds^[6], as well as topping the "Funny Five" on The Dr. Demento Show for several weeks and becoming the #1 Request for 2006.^[7]

[edit] Short films

In addition to Potter Puppet Pals, Cicierega adds regular video content to his YouTube channel. He has worked on videos with fellow Massachusetts internet film makers and friends Kevin James, Ryan Murphy, Max Pacheco and J.L. Carrozza. In 2008, Neil, Ryan and Kevin were commissioned to make a series of "webisodes" for Plymouth Rock Studios. The series, New Kids on the Rock, is a tongue-in-cheek comedy about the trio's attempts to make webisodes for Plymouth Rock Studios. Several of Neil's short films have been featured on television shows such as G4's Attack of the Show!, The CW's Online Nation and CBBC's Chute!.

[edit] References

• "All hail Neil Cicierega" by Katharine Mieszkowski and Amy Standen, Salon.com, 26 April 2001
• "He's a hit with Internet set" by Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe, 22 June 2006

[edit] External links

• EvilTrailMix.com, Neil Cicierega's personal website
• Lemon Demon homepage
• Potter Puppet Pals homepage
• Animutation homepage
• Neil Cicierega's YouTube profile
• New Kids on the Rock
• PPP on unofficial Neil Cicierega's wiki.