Cyanide and Happiness
Encyclopedia
Cyanide and Happiness is a webcomic
hosted on Explosm.net and written by four authors with occasional contributions from guests. It was founded on December 9th 2004 and has hosted almost daily comics since January 26th 2005. It appears frequently on social networking sites (such as Myspace
and LiveJournal
), Facebook, web forums, and blogs as it openly allows and encourages fans to hotlink
images, a behavior that many webcomics frown upon. The comic's authors attribute the comic's success to its often controversial nature.
The site has claimed over a million daily visitors (as of November 20, 2006) and is ranked 2,777th among the most viewed websites and 1,338th in the US alone, according to Alexa.com. The creators also have made comics and television advertisements for Orange Mobile's Orange Wednesdays, which have appeared in The Sun
newspaper.
In the past, Explosm has featured Guest Weeks, where readers submit entries to the administrators and the best are featured as daily comics over the course of the week.
In a news post on the site on October 14, 2007 Rob announced that there was a project about to go underway to translate every comic in the archive into various languages. Based on the response, in a subsequent post Rob said that the response had been phenomenal with 1300 replies offering to translate into over 20 different languages.
, terrorism
, rape
, cancer
, murder
, necrophilia
, pedophilia
, sexual deviancy, sexually transmitted disease
s, suicide
, eating disorders
, abortion
and vehicular manslaughter. These topics are usually introduced in an unexpected or shocking way that is jarringly different from the natural "obvious" reading on the strip thus far. However this is not always the case, and some family friendly jokes do exist among the offensive material. The comic does not always have a definite punchline in each strip, or may have several panels of "awkward silence" after (or instead of) the punchline, with characters simply staring at each other.
There are some recurring characters (some include Charles & his girlfriend, the Purple-Shirted Eye Stabber, Dr. Baby, Trelaf the Wise, Obese Maurice, superheroes like Seizure Man and Super Jerk, Dan the Downer, and Tall Justin) and otherwise there is a lack of characterisation. Characters often act irrationally or nonsensically. The lack of characterization is supported by the primitive drawing style, of which the writers often make jokes about. Characters rarely have names and are usually only distinguishable by the colors of their shirts (although they might not exactly be shirts as in the comic published on September 6th 2009, the green character opens his clothing like if it was a coat). This naturally precludes most character-driven humor. The male characters almost always have no hair, which became a joke in itself. Female characters are distinguishable by their long hair and chest size, often used to comedic effect. The strip also features many pop culture references such as Nike
and Star Wars
and famous people or celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan
, George W. Bush
, Richard Nixon
, Steven Tyler
, Metallica
, The Beatles
, Queen
,, Barack Obama
, Chad Kroeger
of Nickelback
, Hinder
, Soulja Boy Tell 'Em
, Chris Martin
of Coldplay
, and Billie Joe Armstrong
of Green Day
. Jesus
also makes numerous appearances, often with the comic containing religious pun
s.
All four artists also occasionally break fourth wall
, using the borders of each comic panel as part of the comic itself, allowing the characters within to interact with them in some form or another. The comics frequently make use of metafiction
(or breaking the fourth wall), with characters acknowledging their status as cartoons in a webcomic and discussing what is expected of them as a consequence.
On at least nine occasions, Cyanide and Happiness has used animation in an otherwise static comic.
Aside from purely comedic strips, Cyanide & Happiness has Depressing Comic Weeks. During that week, instead of any kind of humor, the authors write depressing and/or upsetting comics, sort of the opposite of the usual comedy.
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
hosted on Explosm.net and written by four authors with occasional contributions from guests. It was founded on December 9th 2004 and has hosted almost daily comics since January 26th 2005. It appears frequently on social networking sites (such as Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
and LiveJournal
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
), Facebook, web forums, and blogs as it openly allows and encourages fans to hotlink
HOTLink
HOTLink Receivers and transmitters are point-to-point communications building blocks that transfer data over serial links . The main purpose is to replace parallel transmissions over longer distances with serial links. Example applications include workstations, servers, mass storage, and...
images, a behavior that many webcomics frown upon. The comic's authors attribute the comic's success to its often controversial nature.
The site has claimed over a million daily visitors (as of November 20, 2006) and is ranked 2,777th among the most viewed websites and 1,338th in the US alone, according to Alexa.com. The creators also have made comics and television advertisements for Orange Mobile's Orange Wednesdays, which have appeared in The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
newspaper.
Explosm
Cyanide and Happiness began as a small series of comics drawn by Kris Wilson at the age of 16. One day while at his home suffering from strep throat, Kris entertained himself by drawing comics by hand, and would later move on to drawing them on his computer. Kris created his own website called Comicazi, that allowed him to showcase his comics to others. Kris shared his comics with the forum of Stickdeath.com. The webmasters of Sticksuicide (Matt Melvin, Rob DenBleyker and Dave McElfatrick) eventually gave up on StickSuicide and started Explosm.net, a new site less focused on Flash Stick Death animation and more on art in general. They saw potential in Kris' comics, so they invited him to continue the comic daily with their help. Explosm is currently run by Matt, Rob, Dave, and Kris. The entire Explosm team now makes comics on a regular basis. The current name "Cyanide and Happiness" comes from a strip in which one character is selling cotton candy made of cyanide and happiness. The other character replies: "Happyness!?!? [sic] Hot damn! I'll take 4"In the past, Explosm has featured Guest Weeks, where readers submit entries to the administrators and the best are featured as daily comics over the course of the week.
In a news post on the site on October 14, 2007 Rob announced that there was a project about to go underway to translate every comic in the archive into various languages. Based on the response, in a subsequent post Rob said that the response had been phenomenal with 1300 replies offering to translate into over 20 different languages.
"Let Dave Into America" Campaign
In 2010, author Dave McElfatrick, a Northern Ireland native, started a petition for a visa into the United States, in order to be with the other writers to produce more animated shorts. Since Dave posted the petition on the Explosm.net forums on July 28, the petition has garnered over 132,000 signatures in less than three weeks.[8] On September 1, 2010 it was officially announced that Dave qualified for the visa that would allow him to enter the United States to work on more comics and animated shorts with Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, and Matt Melvin.Style
The style of Cyanide and Happiness is often described as dark, cynical and often offensive, is sometimes interpreted as irreverent. Frequent topics of humor include disabilitiesDisability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
, terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, necrophilia
Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia or necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses,It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from the ancient Greek words: νεκρός and φιλία...
, pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
, sexual deviancy, sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
s, suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, eating disorders
Eating disorder
Eating disorders refer to a group of conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual's physical and mental health. Bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are the most common specific...
, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and vehicular manslaughter. These topics are usually introduced in an unexpected or shocking way that is jarringly different from the natural "obvious" reading on the strip thus far. However this is not always the case, and some family friendly jokes do exist among the offensive material. The comic does not always have a definite punchline in each strip, or may have several panels of "awkward silence" after (or instead of) the punchline, with characters simply staring at each other.
There are some recurring characters (some include Charles & his girlfriend, the Purple-Shirted Eye Stabber, Dr. Baby, Trelaf the Wise, Obese Maurice, superheroes like Seizure Man and Super Jerk, Dan the Downer, and Tall Justin) and otherwise there is a lack of characterisation. Characters often act irrationally or nonsensically. The lack of characterization is supported by the primitive drawing style, of which the writers often make jokes about. Characters rarely have names and are usually only distinguishable by the colors of their shirts (although they might not exactly be shirts as in the comic published on September 6th 2009, the green character opens his clothing like if it was a coat). This naturally precludes most character-driven humor. The male characters almost always have no hair, which became a joke in itself. Female characters are distinguishable by their long hair and chest size, often used to comedic effect. The strip also features many pop culture references such as Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
and Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
and famous people or celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...
, George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'", due to his high screams...
, Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
,, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, Chad Kroeger
Chad Kroeger
Chad Robert Kroeger is aCanadian songwriter, singer, and guitarist best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Canadian rock band Nickelback...
of Nickelback
Nickelback
Nickelback is a Canadian rock band from Hanna, Alberta. Since 1995 the band has included guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist and back-up vocalist Ryan Peake and bassist Mike Kroeger.. The band's current drummer and percussionist is Daniel Adair who has been with the band since 2005....
, Hinder
Hinder
Hinder is an American rock band from Oklahoma that was formed in 2001 by drummer Cody Hanson, guitarist Joe Garvey, and singer Austin Winkler. The band was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2007.-Formation and early history:...
, Soulja Boy Tell 'Em
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em
DeAndre Cortez Way , better known by his stage name Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, or simply Soulja Boy, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, entrepreneur, and internet personality....
, Chris Martin
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin is an English song-writer, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.-Early life:...
of Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
, and Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong is an American rock musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, main songwriter and lead guitarist for the American punk rock band Green Day...
of Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
. Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
also makes numerous appearances, often with the comic containing religious pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s.
All four artists also occasionally break fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
, using the borders of each comic panel as part of the comic itself, allowing the characters within to interact with them in some form or another. The comics frequently make use of metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
(or breaking the fourth wall), with characters acknowledging their status as cartoons in a webcomic and discussing what is expected of them as a consequence.
On at least nine occasions, Cyanide and Happiness has used animation in an otherwise static comic.
Aside from purely comedic strips, Cyanide & Happiness has Depressing Comic Weeks. During that week, instead of any kind of humor, the authors write depressing and/or upsetting comics, sort of the opposite of the usual comedy.
Other Explosm content
- Since 2006, there have been a total of 32 FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
"shorts" done by the site administrators, the newest being named "Dogs". They follow the same theme as the Cyanide and Happiness comics and are drawn in the same style. The characters are, in most instances, voiced by the webmasters themselves. Chase Suddarth contributes occasionally to the shorts. - The site additionally hosts Joe Zombie, a Flash series by Rob. He recently stated he will not be releasing the sequel Joe Zombie 7, however he edited the post stating that it was a joke. It is not currently known if Rob has plans to release it or not. Flash work by Dave is also featured on the site, and also 16 videos being the last "Ted Bear".
- Humor articles by all four administrators are regularly featured on the site, with work by Kris, Matt, and Dave featured heavily. The newest being "Die Romantic- A Look At Aiden" by Dave, who scathingly critiques goth punk band Aiden.
- Explosm also has a merchandise store, from which fans can purchase a variety of Cyanide and Happiness T-shirt designs, plushies, posters, and comic prints.
- Two books have been released by Rob, Kris, Matt, and Dave containing the first and second volumes of Cyanide and Happiness comics, each one contains 120 of their favorite comics, and 30 new comics.
- On the forums there was an interactive story where users got to suggest what the main character did. This was created in 2007, with the first comic about a man finding two warring societies inside Mt. Everest. However, due to a site crash, the story (as well as three others) was deleted. A new one was created in late 2007. This was called "Working on the space station: Day 1," and was created by Rob. This turned out to be very successful in the eyes of the Explosm team and future "Interactive Stories" are planned.
- Cyanide and Happiness has released an iPhone and iPod Touch app that allows caching of viewed images for offline viewing, as well as a random button. The app is $0.99 and can be obtained through the App Store, and is currently at version 1.2.
- Cyanide and Happiness also released a 'lite' version of the iPhone and iPod app. It only allows users to view the most previous 30 comics and shorts (although, all the comics and shorts are still in the library, just inaccessible). It can be obtained at the App Store at no cost, and is currently at version 1.0.
- Cyanide and Happiness have also released apps on the Android Market and Windows Phone Marketplace, with the same features as the iPhone and iPod app.