The Spoony Experiment

The Spoony Experiment
Title Screen (2008-2010)
Also known as	TSE
Genre	Reviewer
Created by	Noah Antwiler
Creative director(s)	Noah Antwiler
Starring	Noah Antwiler
Theme music composer	The Irresponsibles (Opening theme) Sad Panda (Ending theme)
Opening theme	Varies (2007-8) Break Me (2008-present)
Ending theme	Varies (2007-11) Long Live The Spoony One (2011-present)
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
Production
Location(s)	Mesa, AZ, United States
Running time	Varies
Broadcast
Original channel	YouTube (2007-2009) Blip.tv (2007-present)
Picture format	FLV, H.264
Original run	January 24, 2007 – present
External links
Website

The Spoony Experiment (TSE) is a website run by Noah Antwiler (born December 27, 1980) aka "The Spoony One" or just "Spoony".

The primary format of the site is a series of video reviews on video games and movies. From 2010, it has also incorporated some video game journalism at trade shows such as the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Some supporting material, such as Vlogs and announcements, are broadcast on the site in a similar manner. Early movie reviews are text based with picture complements. The mascot of the site is "Burton the Robot", a robot made by Antwiler.

History

The pseudonym "The Spoony One" or "Spoony" grew as an in-joke among Antwiler's friends. At the time Antwiler was playing a bard character in Dungeons and Dragons called Tandem. While playing Final Fantasy IV, he encountered the infamous line "You spoony bard!" leading to this becoming a joke with his other Dungeons and Dragons-playing friends. The name evolved from the original "Tandem the Spoony" to simply "The Spoony One".^[1]

The first iteration of The Spoony Experiment was "Tandem's Movie Rants" which focused primarily on written movie rants, "with a viewpoint always controversial", at the same time writing for the Gamer's Rant section of the Knights of the Dinner Table magazine.^[2] Gamer's Rant was discontinued as of issue #150 (April 29, 2009). The section ranked lowest in a reader poll and attracted a large amount of hate mail.^[2]

The initial iteration of The Spoony Experiment was dropped due to a "generally 'meh' public response"; however, it was later continued and this time also reviewed videogames and at a more frequent rate, thus reviving The Spoony Experiment into a new, improved, more popular version. This new popularity helped spawn The Spoony Experiment's own forum and online store.^{[citation needed]}

Later, "Burton the Robot" was added as a co-star, having been pointed out in the background of earlier reviews.^{[citation needed]} The puppet was designed for an aborted attempt at a Mystery Science Theater 3000-style series. Like Mystery Science Theater, three robots were planned: Burton, Sorbo and Morgan. However, only Burton was completed before the project was abandoned.^[1]

In the latter half of 2008, a standardised opening sequence was implemented into all new episodes. A montage of scenes from the series is shown over the series' theme tune, "Break Me". The song was produced by The Irresponsibles, an Australian rock band, and licensed to Antwiler for The Spoony Experiment.^[1]

In terms of games journalism, Antwiler attended both the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in 2010 on press passes and subsequently broadcast episodes with game previews and interviews with creators.^[3][4] Antwiler also attended PAX East and E3 in 2011.

Style

The Spoony Experiment was first created by Noah Antwiler as a homage to Mystery Science Theater 3000.^{[citation needed]} In addition to reviews, which include the sub-series "FMV Hell", The series contains "Riffs" and "Let's Play" episodes. Antwiler's film reviews include such films as movies starring B-Movie actor Reb Brown. His game reviews include a series about Final Fantasy VIII in which Antwiler voices his various frustrations about it. The "FMV Hell" series reviews older games featuring Full Motion Video, often for personal computers and the Sega CD, such as Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh, Microcosm, and Ripper.

Antwiler also collaborates with That Guy With The Glasses; frequently with Linkara (Lewis Lovhaug), who hosts another series on the site called "Atop the Fourth Wall", a majority of these collaborations are cameos.^[5] Antwiler plays other characters within his reviews; most notably Doctor Insano, a bumbling and stereotypical mad scientist who concocts various plans to take over the world.^[6] Doctor Insano was the subject of a major subplot in the website's two-year anniversary special, the action/war movie spoof Kickassia.

Awards and acclaim

Video game journalist and internet personality Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw mentioned "Noah Antwiler of Spoony Experiment" as his favourite Internet reviewer, with particular mention of his review of The Thing, in a 2008 interview with Gamespot.^[7] In 2009, Noah Antwiler won the award for "Funniest Person to Follow" in the Open Web Awards.^[8] In 2010, Antwiler was one of the finalists for the "Must-Follow Personality" category of the renamed Mashable Awards but did not win.^[9]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Antwiler, Noah. "About". The Spoony Experiment. http://spoonyexperiment.com/about/. Retrieved 17 March 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Antwiler, Noah (June 17, 2008). "The balcony is closed on the Gamer's Rant". The Spoony Experiment blog. http://spoonyexperiment.blogspot.com/2008/06/balcony-is-closed-on-gamers-rant.html. Retrieved 26 February 2010. 
3. ^ E3 coverage begins with "PAX Coverage – Back to the Future". The Spoony Experiment. June 18, 2010. http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/09/08/pax-coverage-back-to-the-future/. Retrieved November 3, 2010. 
4. ^ PAX coverage begins with "E3 Day 1". The Spoony Experiment. September 8, 2010. http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/06/18/e3-2010-coverage-day-1/. Retrieved November 3, 2010. 
5. ^ Collaborations include, but are not limited to, Atop the Fourth Wall episodes "Uncanny X-Men #424" and "Adamantium Rage"; The Nostalgia Critic episodes "Team Brawl" and "Alone In The Dark"; the web video "Spooning with Spoony"; and the six-part "Kickassia".
6. ^ Character named in opening credits.
7. ^ Orland, Kyle (March 22, 2008). "PressSpotting: Ramblin' with Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw". Gamespot. http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6235040.html. Retrieved 9 December 2010. 
8. ^ "Mashable's 3rd Annual Open Web Awards". Mashable Open Web Awards. Mashable & Motorola. December 15, 2009. http://mashable.com/owa/pages/winners. Retrieved 3 February 2010. 
9. ^ Lavrusik, Vadim (December 1, 2010). "Mashable Awards: Announcing The Full List of Finalists". Mashable. Mashable & Motorola. http://mashable.com/2010/12/01/mashable-awards-announcing-the-full-list-of-finalists/. Retrieved 3 December 2010. 

External links

• Official website
• The Spoony Experiment at the Internet Movie Database
• Noah Antwiler at the Internet Movie Database