Shut Up! Cartoons was a YouTube animation channel project created by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox of Smosh and by Barry Blumberg, featuring various animated videos. Shut Up! Cartoons launched on April 30, 2012, with Do's and Don'ts, and ended with the termination of the series Smosh Babies on June 23, 2017.
Ownership and production The channel was launched as part of YouTube's $100 million "original channel initiative" by Smosh co-creators Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, as well as Barry Blumberg. Blumberg served as the president of the Smosh YouTube channel, as well as Shut Up! Cartoons. Previously, Blumberg served as the executive vice president of Harvey Entertainment, as well as Disney Television Animation chief. At the time of Shut Up! Cartoon's launch, Blumberg was the Head of Content for Alloy Digital, which would become Defy Media via its 2013 merger with Break Media. As such, Defy Media owned Shut Up! Cartoons.
At the channel's launch, Lenora Hume served as its production lead. Later, TeamTO co-founder Corinne Kouper served as head of production on Shut Up! Cartoons.
Content The initial teaser trailer featured clips from 11 different shows, with Padilla and Hecox later informing their viewers that there were 18 planned shows in total. The first three cartoons launched by the network included Do's and Don'ts: A Children's Guide to Social Survival, Zombies vs. Ninjas, and Pubertina, a show about an 11-year-old girl going through puberty. In May 2012, Smosh launched Krogzilla, a show created by and starring Cory Edwards featuring John O'Hurley, about a shrunken sea monster seeking employment. Snowjacked soon followed, broadcasting on Tuesdays to mixed reception.
At the end of the first three cartoons' 10-episode run, they were replaced by Nature Break, Weasel Town, and Oishi High School Battle. Oishi High School Battle was a 10-episode live-action animated series created by Daniel Dominguez and Joe Gressis, which followed a anime teenage demon hunter, Oishi Kawaii, attending an American high school following the termination of her father Ryuzu's job due to incompetence. The series was directed by Brett Weiner and animation directed by M.C. Griffin. Lauder Robinson and Peter Lundquist produced the series, with Dena Hysell-Cornejo and Melody Rutherford serving as executive producers alongside Padilla, Hecox and Blumberg. Marina Viscun and Jake Hartley served as associate producers."Our Team: Co-Producer – Marina Viscún", Big Voice, August 22, 2011. The theme song was performed by Blood on the Dance Floor. The series ran from July 13, 2012 to September 14, 2012. Another show was added replacing Krogzilla, called Samurai! Daycare. In September 2012, they also launched Politicats to replace Snowjacked. The show that replaced Nature Break was Planets, a reality show about the ten celestial bodies of the Solar System (the eight planets, Pluto, and the Sun).
Weasel Town'''s replacement, entitled Really Freaking Embarrassing, was created by Peter Hannan (Nickelodeon's CatDog). The series had its first trailer removed by YouTube for "shocking and disturbing content". A new trailer was added, with fewer disturbing scenes. In September 2012, the channel launched Oishi Origins, a three-episode prequel to Oishi High School Battle. The show replacing Samurai! Daycare was Icons of Teen, which features both fictional characters (such as Batman and Spock) and real celebrities (such as Oprah Winfrey) as teenagers. Also that week, Oishi Origins was replaced by Teleporting Fat Guy, which was based on a character from previous Smosh videos, who explains how he became the Teleporting Fat Guy.
On November 20, 2012, Politicats was replaced by Sub: 3, following a Speed Racer-like character that delivers pizza on a tight time limit, met by mixed reviews. On November 28, 2012, the trailer for With Zombies, created by Matt Clark (the creator of Planets), was released. On February 17, 2013, Oishi High School Battle was nominated for Best Animated Series at the 3rd Streamy Awards, but lost to Electric City. On June 12, 2013, the paper series Paper Cuts premiered on the channel. The ten episodes featured shot-by-shot re-creations of famous movie scenes and trailers made entirely out of construction paper. On June 23, 2013, the Canadian stop motion series Life's a Zoo premiered on the channel. On June 26, 2013, Oishi High School Battle was renewed for a second season, with episodes being directed by Joe Gressis. Adam Deyoe and Loren "Enzo" Semmens joined production as live-action director and producers, the latter through his company Bronco Showdown, and Hilary Miller was hired as a script editor for the episodes. Jeffrey Peters served as director of photography for the season, and Lucas Smith did second unit camera work. On November 15, 2013, Do's and Don'ts and Krogzilla received IAWTV nominations for Best Animated Web Series. In January 2014, Oishi High School Battle was renewed for a third and final season. The second seasons for Do's and Don'ts and Pubertina premiered in April 2014.
On June 23, 2017, the channel posted their final video, which was the series finale of Smosh Babies, and ceased operations following Padilla's departure from Smosh. Defy Media later removed all the episodes of Oishi High School Battle from Smosh's website and the channel, and sold the rights to Verizon's streaming service go90, commissioning a 20-episode sequel series named Oishi: Demon Hunter. The series was directed by Joe Gressis and produced by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland. The series was produced in 2017–2018. Actors Cathy Shim, Kyoko Mase, Shawn Pearlman, Greg Watanabe, Anthony Burch and Kevin Joy and Gressis himself reprised their roles from the original series, while new actors and actresses were cast for the production. Mark Viloria handled plate shooting for green screen use, and Andrew Garwig served as a production assistant. Animation production was handled by SmashBits Animation. The series was edited by Michael Stratigakis, Barrett J. Amato, Don Fisco, and Kenny Kiesecker. Oishi: Demon Hunter was set to air in March 2019. However, production was halted when go90 shut down on July 31, 2018, and Defy Media also shut down on November 6 of that same year.
Series Show Title Creator(s) Debut Ended Do's and Don'ts F. Ryan Naumann April 30, 2012 (Season 1) July 2, 2012 (Season 1) February 4, 2013 (Season 2) April 8, 2013 (Season 2) Pubertina Emily Brundige May 2, 2012 (Season 1) July 4, 2012 (Season 1) February 20, 2013 (Season 2) May 22, 2013 (Season 2) Zombies vs. Ninjas Michael Granberry May 4, 2012 (Season 1) July 6, 2012 (Season 1) March 22, 2013 (Season 2) June 28, 2013 (Season 2) Krogzilla Cory Edwards May 31, 2012 August 2, 2012 Snowjacked Kelsy Abbott and John Olsen June 26, 2012 August 28, 2012 Nature Break Mike Hollingsworth July 9, 2012 September 10, 2012 Weasel Town Eric Filipkowski and Nathan Hamill July 11, 2012 September 12, 2012Oishi High School Battle Daniel Dominguez and Joe Gressis July 13, 2012 (Season 1) September 14, 2012 (Season 1) December 6, 2013 (Season 2) February 7, 2014 (Season 2) June 20, 2014 (Season 3) August 22, 2014 (Season 3) Samurai! Daycare Mike Blum August 9, 2012 October 11, 2012 Politicats SunnyBoy September 4, 2012 November 6, 2012 Planets Matt Clark September 17, 2012 (Season 1) November 19, 2012 (Season 1) May 27, 2013 (Season 2) July 29, 2013 (Season 2) October 28, 2013 (Season 3) December 30, 2013 (Season 3) Really Freaking Embarrassing Peter Hannan September 19, 2012 November 21, 2012 Oishi OriginsDaniel Dominguez and Joe Gressis September 28, 2012 October 12, 2012 Icons of Teen Brian Wysol October 18, 2012 December 20, 2012 Teleporting Fat Guy Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox October 19, 2012 (Season 1) December 21, 2012 (Season 1) April 4, 2014 (Season 2) June 6, 2014 (Season 2) October 31, 2014 (Season 3) January 2, 2015 (Season 3) Sub: 3 Prudence Fenton and Peter Hastings November 20, 2012 January 22, 2013 With Zombies Matt Clark December 5, 2012 February 6, 2013 Paper Cuts Travis Betz June 12, 2013 October 16, 2013 Life's a Zoo Andrew Horne June 23, 2013 November 3, 2013 Just Shut Up Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox July 13, 2013 November 23, 2013 Smosh Babies August 12, 2013 (season 1) October 14, 2013 (season 1) January 13, 2014 (season 2) March 21, 2014 (season 2) January 23, 2015 (season 3) June 26, 2015 (season 3) January 22, 2016 (season 4) June 24, 2016 (season 4) January 20, 2017 (season 5) June 23, 2017 (season 5) Munroe Brian Wysol November 13, 2013 January 15, 2014 Otaku Taco Truck SunnyBoy February 17, 2014 April 21, 2014 16-Bit High Brett Weiner March 8, 2014 August 3, 2014 Alfred and Poe Chris Bennett May 5, 2014 July 7, 2014 Money & Cash Joel H. Cohen August 4, 2014 October 6, 2014 Überdude Jeremy Diamond February 13, 2015 June 5, 2015 Maganzo Brian Wysol June 19, 2015 July 17, 2015 Super Smosh Chris Bennett July 24, 2015 (season 1) November 25, 2015 (season 1) July 22, 2016 (season 2) December 23, 2016 (season 2) Staff of Gelroth Brian Wysol July 31, 2015 August 14, 2015 Crazy Cabbies September 2, 2015 October 21, 2015 Scream Engine IV Harriss and Matt October 5, 2015 December 14, 2015God SquadNicholas KemptNovember 4, 2015December 16, 2015An Okay Place to EatAndrew RachoDecember 21, 2015January 4, 2016ABC wid da MobDecember 30, 2015February 17, 2016Blood RedFebruary 24, 2016April 13, 2016
Legacy Several creators who worked with Shut Up! Cartoons have gone on to create their own series or worked on other successful shows, including Mike Hollingsworth (creator of Nature Break, who went on to become the supervising director for BoJack Horseman and served as an executive producer for Inside Job), Brian Wysol (creator of Icons of Teen, Munroe, Maganzo and Staff of Gelroth, who went on to create Hot Streets), Emily Brundige (creator of Pubertina, who went on to develop Harvey Street Kids and served as a writer for various animated shows like Unikitty! and Amphibia) and Daniel Dominguez (co-creator of Oishi High School Battle, who went on to work as a writer for various shows like The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants'').
Notes a.Attributed to multiple references: b.Actors cast for the series included Sasha Gary, Evan Strand, Motown Maurice, Sascha Knopf, Angela de Silva, Sky Liam Patterson, Tanner Risner, Galen Howard, Jaime Moyer, Kathryn Feeney, Amanda Klein, Chris Blevins, Justin Giddings, Ryan David Manuel, Reba Buhr, Malcolm Kelner, and Frank Gerrish. c.Animators and artists working on the series included Audrey Hopkins, Alvie Jackson, Katrina J. Tumasz, Lynn Walsh, Ramiro Olmos, Juliah Rueckert, Trilina Mai, Joseph Hurley, Victor Zavala, Evie Hollings, Ilyssa Ona, Nicole Rene Miller, Kensei Morita, Tiffany Brower, Carlos Rivera, Ryan Brown, and Brett Ackley. d.Originally created by Cuppa Coffee Studios in 2008 for Teletoon in Canada. Shut Up! Cartoons obtained the rights to the series, but it has been deleted from the YouTube channel. e.Originally created by Harriss and Matt in 2008 and published to Super Deluxe. Shut Up! Cartoons gained the rights to the series following the revival of Super Deluxe in 2015.
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