Egoraptor Arin Hanson

2006creatorclassic

Egoraptor is the online handle of American animator and Let's Player Arin Hanson, who broke out on Newgrounds in 2006 with the Flash short Metal Gear Awesome. He later co-founded the Let's Play channel Game Grumps and the video game comedy band Starbomb.

flash animation memesnewgrounds memeslets play memesyoutube culture memesgaming

Overview

Egoraptor is the online handle of American animator, voice actor, and Let's Player Arin Hanson. He built his reputation on Newgrounds in the mid-2000s with the Awesome Series, a run of loud, deliberately scrappy Flash parodies of console games3. That aesthetic became a signature: MTV reportedly commissioned shorts from him early on with the note that he should keep the animation looking cheap3.

Beyond animation, Hanson co-created the Let's Play channel Game Grumps in 2012 alongside JonTron and fronts the video game comedy rap band Starbomb with Ninja Sex Party1. His main YouTube channel Egoraptor collects most of the Awesome Series alongside Starbomb music videos, giving him a foothold in both older Flash animation fandom and modern YouTube gaming culture4.

How It Spread

The Awesome Series climbed through the late 2000s and hit its peak on December 8th, 2011 with PokeAwesome, a Pokémon battle parody that reached 27.4 million YouTube views by April 20165. That popularity spilled into a second act in July 2012, when Hanson and Jon Jafari launched Game Grumps, a two-host Let's Play channel that pulled in more than 197 million views and a million subscribers inside its first year6. When Jon left in mid-2013, Leigh Daniel Avidan of Ninja Sex Party stepped in as co-host5.

Starbomb, the video game rap side project Hanson formed with Ninja Sex Party, widened his audience again1. The band's first animated music video, Luigi's Ballad, went up December 17th, 2013 and passed 22 million views; the follow-up Zelda rap posted April 8th, 2014 cleared 27 million5. Earlier in 2012, Hanson also drew a wave of press when Sony's reality show The Tester voted him off after three days despite a fan campaign that had put him on the show, an outcome writers at VentureBeat used to question the series' judging2.

How to Use This Meme

Egoraptor isn't a template meme so much as a body of work people quote and reference. Common conventions in fan circles include reciting lines from Metal Gear Awesome ("SNAAAKE!"), swapping in clips of Hanson's exaggerated shouting for reaction-image purposes, and citing Game Grumps moments as shorthand in gaming subreddits and Discords6.

Frequently Asked Questions

Egoraptor Arin Hanson

2006creatorclassic

Egoraptor is the online handle of American animator and Let's Player Arin Hanson, who broke out on Newgrounds in 2006 with the Flash short Metal Gear Awesome. He later co-founded the Let's Play channel Game Grumps and the video game comedy band Starbomb.

flash animation memes newgrounds memes lets play memes youtube culture memes gaming

Overview

Egoraptor is the online handle of American animator, voice actor, and Let's Player Arin Hanson. He built his reputation on Newgrounds in the mid-2000s with the Awesome Series, a run of loud, deliberately scrappy Flash parodies of console games3. That aesthetic became a signature: MTV reportedly commissioned shorts from him early on with the note that he should keep the animation looking cheap3.

Beyond animation, Hanson co-created the Let's Play channel Game Grumps in 2012 alongside JonTron and fronts the video game comedy rap band Starbomb with Ninja Sex Party1. His main YouTube channel Egoraptor collects most of the Awesome Series alongside Starbomb music videos, giving him a foothold in both older Flash animation fandom and modern YouTube gaming culture4.

How It Spread

The Awesome Series climbed through the late 2000s and hit its peak on December 8th, 2011 with PokeAwesome, a Pokémon battle parody that reached 27.4 million YouTube views by April 20165. That popularity spilled into a second act in July 2012, when Hanson and Jon Jafari launched Game Grumps, a two-host Let's Play channel that pulled in more than 197 million views and a million subscribers inside its first year6. When Jon left in mid-2013, Leigh Daniel Avidan of Ninja Sex Party stepped in as co-host5.

Starbomb, the video game rap side project Hanson formed with Ninja Sex Party, widened his audience again1. The band's first animated music video, Luigi's Ballad, went up December 17th, 2013 and passed 22 million views; the follow-up Zelda rap posted April 8th, 2014 cleared 27 million5. Earlier in 2012, Hanson also drew a wave of press when Sony's reality show The Tester voted him off after three days despite a fan campaign that had put him on the show, an outcome writers at VentureBeat used to question the series' judging2.

How to Use This Meme

Egoraptor isn't a template meme so much as a body of work people quote and reference. Common conventions in fan circles include reciting lines from Metal Gear Awesome ("SNAAAKE!"), swapping in clips of Hanson's exaggerated shouting for reaction-image purposes, and citing Game Grumps moments as shorthand in gaming subreddits and Discords6.

Frequently Asked Questions