Charlie the Unicorn

2005

Date: 10 December 2005 · Place: Newgrounds, then YouTube. FilmCow, Orlando, Florida · Figures: Jason Steele, FilmCow animator and writer · Brian Goodwin and Adam Sliger, voice actors · Tags: Flash, Absurdist, Newgrounds 01. A Trip to Candy Mountain Jason Steele, 19, uploads Charlie the Unicorn to Newgrounds on 10 December 2005 under his FilmCow handle. Two pink unicorns wake the grumpy Charlie and drag him on a singing journey to Candy Mountain. They abandon him. They steal his kidney. The Banana King liopleurodon makes a guest appearance. The dialogue is a wall of squeaky non-sequiturs. The animation is deliberately stiff. The runtime is under four minutes and contains no slack. 02. The Quote Storm Within months the script is committed to memory by every middle-schooler with broadband. Shun the non-believer. SHUUUUUN. Candy mountain Charlie. It's a magical leopleurodon. The video crosses to YouTube and clears 50 million views by 2008. Charlie the Unicorn is the first Flash short whose quotes outlive the video on multiple platforms simultaneously. Steele turns FilmCow into a sustainable studio on the strength of one cynical unicorn and a kidney joke. Sources • Newgrounds, Charlie the Unicorn (10 December 2005) • FilmCow official site, history • KnowYourMeme, Charlie the Unicorn