LoadingReadyRun

LoadingReadyRun
Type of site
 Comedy
Headquarters Victoria, BC
Created by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders
Website http://www.loadingreadyrun.com
Launched 13 October 2003

LoadingReadyRun, often abbreviated to LRR, is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe and video production team, based in Victoria, British Columbia, founded by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders. Starting from its launch in October 2003, a new piece of sketch comedy was posted to the site every week, without fail; all of them were written, performed and edited by members of the "LoadingReadyRun crew", consisting of Graham, Paul, their friends and guests. On December 30, 2014, the final sketch in the long-running series was posted. Since then, LoadingReadyRun has continued other video series, including CommodoreHUSTLE, Checkpoint, Friday Nights, Feed Dump, and more. While LoadingReadyRun has produced content independently, they have also produced content in conjunction with other people and sites under the name Bionic Trousers Media.

The group was heavily influenced by video games, even basing the theme of their website off the Commodore 64.[1] Much of their comedy is influenced by features of video game, nerd, internet and popular culture. Some of their videos have been featured in film festivals such as the Comic-Con International Film [2] in San Diego, and shown on major television networks, including G4 Canada[3] and CNN.[1][4] From January 2010 to April 2015[5] their weekly content was hosted on The Escapist Magazine. In September 2013 LRR launched their "Last Season of Sketches" Kickstarter campaign to fund their final season of weekly sketches, which were becoming too difficult and time-consuming to produce. Following the conclusion of this season in December 2014, the group focused on producing other types of content, including podcasts, talk shows and livestreaming via Twitch.tv in addition to non-weekly sketch-based comedy.

Cast

Current Work

Friday Nights

Friday Nights was originally a four-episode commodoreHUSTLE spin-off miniseries, detailing the crew's growing obsession with Magic: The Gathering, created in association with Wizards of the Coast.[6][7][8]

The series has since returned as part of a regular monthly installment. Additionally, LRR has hosted a number of other Magic related videos, including visual spoilers for new Magic cards and special "pre-prerelease" livestreams,[9] all in association with Wizards of the Coast.

commodoreHUSTLE

commodoreHUSTLE is a series of videos created by the crew dramatizing their personal lives, officially described as "A web series about the creators of a web series".[10] In these videos, Paul Saunders is often portrayed as a technical genius without common sense; Graham Stark is abusive to his roommate Matt Wiggins; and Morgan VanHumbeck is an egotistical buffoon. The series had its own channel on YouTube, but now publishes its videos on their YouTube channel. A running theme in the series is the group's dysfunctional nature and infighting. The series continues to follow the crew in Moonbase Delta, but has changed drastically, with Jeremy Petter, Matt Wiggins, Morgan Vanhumbeck, and others having left, but also adding people such as Ian Horner in recent episodes.

CheckPoint

On 9 May 2011, LoadingReadyRun premiered CheckPoint, a successor to ENN, on Penny-Arcade's PATV.[11] The show is similar in format to ENN, with Graham Stark and Kathleen De Vere as news presenters discussing the previous week's video gaming news.[12]

On 6 December 2013, Penny Arcade announced that due to some restructuring they would no longer host 3rd party content on their PATV site.[13] Shortly thereafter Graham announced that due to time constraints the show would be put on indefinite hiatus and LRR would invest the effort which was committed to the show for other projects.[14] However, shortly after, Checkpoint Plus was added to the new LoadingReadyRun livestreaming schedule on twitchTV.[15]

Crapshots

Crapshots is a series of short, usually less than a minute, comedic blurbs. The episodes are labelled with miscellaneous redundant words relating to the video. Crapshots was started in April 2009, and can be found on YouTube. The first "season" of about 100 episodes was largely the work of Graham, Alex, and Kathleen, filmed in their home at the time. The second season, created as a stretch goal during LRR's 2014 Kickstarter, is a joint effort of the entire crew.

Feed Dump

Feed Dump, Originally on The Escapist, premiered 25 May 2011.[16] The show is hosted by either Graham or Kathleen, and consists of a host and a group of co-hosts, typically two, riffing on various bizarre and/or humorous but true recent news stories. It is a spiritual successor to "The Phailhaüs",[16] an irregularly updated series of bonus videos that had been running on the LRR site since 2008. The Phailhaüs in turn was based on Morgan vanHumbeck's 2006-2007[17] series "The Whatever Thing". As mentioned on "The Whatever Thing" DVD, that, in turn, was inspired by the show with zefrank.

LoadingReadyLIVE

A bi-weekly live variety show broadcast on Twitch.tv. Described initially as a hybrid comedy/talent/panel show, LoadingReadyLIVE begins with a cold open, and then continues with a selection of short game-show segments, prerecorded events filmed on the day of broadcast, and an AskLRR viewer-mail panel. LoadingReadyLIVE's tagline is 'This is/it's live, so something's gonna happen!'.

TapTapConcede

A Magic: The Gathering Podcast. Hosted by various members of the crew This is a series that the team speaks on the high and low points of Magic: The Gathering. Featuring new set release reviews, crack a pack (where one of the hosts or co-hosts, rolls a large 20 sided dice and opens a Magic The Gathering Booster pack and they talk about the cards), and also features different Magic: The Gathering News Headlines.

SideWalk Slam

A Wrestling Podcast, dealing mainly with the WWE and its Pay-Per Views. Hosted by Graham and Adam Savidan.

Qwerpline

A parody of a typical 'morning radio' show, recorded by Graham, Alex, Beej, Ian, and Kathleen. Set in the fictional town of Nsburg, Qwerpline is largely unscripted; similar in concept to shows such as Reno 911, each episode is written with only a rough outline, recorded live and then edited for broadcast. Each episode opens and closes with a promotional spot for that week's 'Qwerpline sponsor', which is conceived and performed by Beej.

Available in Video and Podcast formats.

AnoAni

A podcast revolving around Anime. Hosted by Beej, Heather, Ian, and Cori.

Magnum Rewatch

A Podcast by Graham and Kathleen, discussing episodes of Magnum P.I..

Let's Play Content

In addition to livestreaming gameplay footage, several members of the crew also produce "Let's Play" style videos. These videos feature gameplay alongside of humorous commentary.

Loading Time

Documentary-style videos that illustrate the creative and production processes undergone by LoadingReadyRun. In the past, these Loading Time videos would feature behind the scenes footage for the creation of a specific sketch. After the launch of their Patreon in 2014, LoadingReadyRun offered a "Loading Time digest" featuring insider footage of "everything that goes on in a month of LRR" provided a milestone was reached.[18] After reaching that milestone, Loading Time videos shifted focus from specific sketches or types of content to a summarization of the work the team does on a monthly basis.

Prior Work

LoadingReadyRun Sketches

Loading Ready Run began as a series of short one- to two-minute short films, posted to the LRR website on a weekly basis; the Crew has never been known to miss that weekly deadline, even while traveling. In 2013, Loading Ready Run announced that the Weekly Videos were becoming too labor- and time-intensive to produce on a weekly basis without impacting other projects, and began a Kickstarter campaign to fund one final year before retiring the videos in 2015.

How to Talk like a Pirate

Part of a fictional 1970s-style language-learning series, this video teaches the nuances of pirate speech.[19] It was released for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, 2006. Subsequent Talk Like a Pirate Days have led to the video being recirculated once a year.

Three PS3s

Posted around the release of the comparatively scarce and expensive PlayStation 3, this video features Paul brazenly claiming to own "three PS3s".[20] The video spread quickly when it was posted to YouTube, with viewers (many of whom didn't recognize the intended ironic tone) posting death threats and incensed comments as well as video parody responses. In truth, the entire crew owned zero PS3s; they borrowed two of them and the third was a hollow display model.[21] With the launch of the PlayStation 4 in 2013, Paul recorded another video, in which he now claims to have four PlayStation 4 consoles. Otherwise, the theme and tone are the same in both videos.

Halo: The Future of Gaming

In preparation for the release of Halo 3, LoadingReadyRun produced Halo: The Future of Gaming, providing a "look back" at the impact of the Halo video game series, and extrapolating into the future.[22] The video was one of LoadingReadyRun's most popular videos for several years.[23]

Unskippable

In December 2008 Graham and Paul tied for first place in The Escapist's Second Annual Film with Unskippable, a Mystery Science Theater 3000 style take of the introduction cinematic to Lost Planet.[24][25] For winning the contest they were rewarded with a contract to produce a weekly video for The Escapist. The series airs every Monday and has satirized cinematics to games like Eternal Sonata, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and The Darkness. It has received heavy promotion on the site, including crossovers with Zero Punctuation where Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw joined the Star Ocean: The Last Hope episode and Graham produced a ZP-style review of X-Blades, which soon switched over to Yahtzee's review of Halo Wars.[26] The ending credits included the message: "People confused about Graham Stark's appearance at the start of this video obviously don't watch Unskippable and for that I pity them." They have also broadcast a one-off live special of Unskippable on The Escapist where they did a "Let's Play" of Legaia 2 in the humorous and critical style of the show. The two also appeared in episode 21 of Arcade as themselves. On 25 March 2015, Stark announced on their blog that they would be leaving The Escapist and subsequently ending Unskippable. Unskippable, with a tenure of six years, will not and could not be continued, as The Escapist owns 'Unskippable' property. Their second show on The Escapist, Feed Dump, continues on their personal YouTube channel.

Daily Drop

Daily Drop was a feature on The Escapist, made by the LoadingReadyRun crew. It was filmed in the basement of the Victoria Event Centre.[27] It consists of approximately 2-minute-long clips of objects falling in, as recorded by a high-speed camera, and impacting the test area floor. A new installment was released every weekday between 7 October 2010 and 25 May 2011.[28]

Phailhaus

The predecessor to Feed Dump, Phailhaus likewise focused on reporting 'offbeat' news events, but also featured recurring segments involving rarely-used or obscure words, viewer-submitted photographs, or unusual things to celebrate on a given day. Unlike Feed Dump, which is filmed in a studio, Phailhaus was usually filmed on-location, whenever and wherever the crew and host happened to have a camera handy.

Iron Stomach Challenge

Iron Stomach Challenge was a cooking show, in which the Crew would blend together random ingredients (usually suggested by their viewers), and attempt to eat or drink the usually-putrid concoction. Viewer suggestions were governed by several rules: it had to be safe to eat (i.e., it couldn't be poisonous or otherwise inedible), it had to be a genuine food item (i.e., not something that is safe to eat but otherwise not considered 'food'), and it had to be relatively easy to obtain in a typical North American city.

Temple Of The Lava Bears

A DnD 5e Campaign created and DM'd by Jer.

Escapist News Network

In September 2009 the LoadingReadyRun crew began a second series, Escapist News Network (ENN), for The Escapist, which was a parody newscast about video games similar to This Hour Has 22 Minutes. ENN was written and produced by Kathleen De Vere, Jeremy Petter, Paul Saunders, and Graham Stark, who also form the backbone of its cast. On 13 February 2011 the site announced that it would no longer be producing new episodes of ENN.

LoadingReadyRun Streams

A series of various streams from the crew, streamed on Twitch.tv

  • CheckPoint+
  • Tinker Tailor Solder Fry
  • Matters of Import
  • New Day Tuesday
  • Let's NOPE
  • Watch + Play
  • Crossing The Streams
  • 18 Games And Counting
  • LRRMTG
  • Talking Simuator
  • The Crapshoot
  • AFK
  • Adam's Gamehaus
  • LoadingReadyLIVE
  • Rhythm Cafe

Desert Bus For Hope

Loading Ready Run is perhaps best known for its Annual "Desert Bus For Hope" event. On November 23, 2007, the group started a marathon game session of Desert Bus (a minigame from 'Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors') called Desert Bus for Hope to raise money for the charity Child's Play. The four-man team took turns playing the game continuously, with more hours added as more donations were made. The event was broadcast live via webcam, and garnered attention both from the media, and Penn & Teller, who called in, sent pizza, and made donations. By the end of the event, $22,805 had been raised, including donations from Penn and Teller themselves.[29][30][31]

On 18 November 2008, LoadingReadyRun officially announced that it planned a second marathon run of Desert Bus which began on 28 November.[32] The second Desert Bus lasted slightly more than five days and raised over $70,000.[33] The crew later produced a music video entitled Desert Bus Killed the Internet Star (a parody of Video Killed the Radio Star) describing the events of the marathon.[34]

On 25 August 2009, the third marathon run was announced, set to start on 20 November 2009.[35] At 18:42 GMT-0 on 26 November 2009 the marathon completed, raising over $140,000 (after all e-cheques had cleared) for Child's Play.[36] One notable donor, going by the alias "Octopimp", donated nearly $10,000 alone, becoming a mascot of sorts in the event's live chatroom and in turn inspiring many other high-number donations and auction bids.

The fourth marathon run was announced on 4 May 2010, and began on 19 November 2010 at 6:00 p.m. PST.[37] Penn & Teller auctioned off an "Ultimate Desert Bus Experience Pack" which included a bus ticket and sand from the Las Vegas desert, signed by Penn & Teller themselves. The fourth run concluded after 5 days and 21 hours, with $208,249.82 raised. A fifth marathon run began on 18 November 2011 and went for six days and six hours, raising a total of $383,075.10.[36]

Desert Bus 6 began Friday, 16 November 2012, and breached One Million dollars in lifetime donations on November 19 at 6:46pm[38][39][40]

Annual totals

Year Name Raised
2007 Desert Bus for Hope $22,805.00[41]
2008 Desert Bus for Hope 2: Bus Harder $70,423.79[42][43]
2009 Desert Bus for Hope 3: It's Desert Bus 6 in Japan $140,449.68
2010 Desert Bus for Hope 4: A New Hope $208,250.00
2011 Desert Bus for Hope 5: De5ert Bus $383,125.10[44][45]
2012 Desert Bus for Hope 6: Desert Bus 3 in America $443,165.29
2013 Desert Bus for Hope 007 $521,450.00[46]
2014 Desert Bus for Hope 8 $643,242.58
2015 Desert Bus for Hope 9: The Joy of Bussing $680,119.00
2016 Desert Bus X $695,152.57
2017 Desert Bus 2017 $650,250.00[47]
Running Total:$4,458,388.01

Selected awards

Selected Awards
VideoOrganisationAward
The PairVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2015People's choice[48]
The Secret of the SauceVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2010Best writing[49]
Right to the SourceVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2009Best writing[50]
Eyewitness AccountsVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2008Best writing[51]
How to Talk Like a PirateVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2007Best writing[52]
Suspend Your DisbeliefVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2006Audience Choice[48]
Best Male Performance (Andrew Cownden)[53]
University of Victoria Student Film 2005 Audience Choice[54]
30 Minutes or LessVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2006Best writing[55]

References

  1. 1 2 3 LoadingReadyRun. "About". Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  2. ↑ "Friday, July 27 – Humor/Parody (How to talk like a pirate)". CCI:IFF 2007 Film Schedule. Comic-con.org. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  3. ↑ Torrent TV. "Episode One - Video 3 (Loading Ready Run)". G4Tech TV. Archived from the original on 12 December 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
  4. ↑ joeparedes. "LRR in the News". Youtube. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  5. ↑ "LoadingReadyRun Blog – Leaving The Escapist". loadingreadyrun.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  6. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "It's Magic". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  7. ↑ Wizards of the Coast. "Community Cup Lineup". Archived from the original on 24 June 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  8. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "Friday Nights". YouTube. Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  9. ↑ "LoadingReadyRun Blog – The Shadows Over Innistrad Pre-Prerelease". loadingreadyrun.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  10. ↑ "commodoreHUSTLE". YouTube. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  11. ↑ Stark, Graham (9 May 2011). "Announcing: CheckPoint on PATV". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  12. ↑ "CheckPoint". PATV. Archived from the original on 22 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  13. ↑ Brahe, Tycho (6 December 2013). "Changes". Penny Arcade. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  14. ↑ stark, Graham (8 December 2013). "CheckPoint cleared". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  15. ↑ De Vere, Kathleen (2 January 2014). "Introducing the YRR of LRR Livestream Schedule/". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  16. 1 2 Stark, Graham (25 May 2011). "Announcing Feed Dump @ The Escapist". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  17. ↑ "The Whatever Thing". YouTube. Archived from the original on 11 October 2008. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  18. ↑ "LoadingReadyRun is creating Funny Videos, Podcasts, and Streams | Patreon". Patreon. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  19. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "How to Talk Like a Pirate". Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  20. ↑ LoadingReadyRun (13 February 2009). "Three PS3s". YouTube. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  21. ↑ LoadingReadyWiki. "Three PS3s on LoadingReadyWiki". Archived from the original on 24 February 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
  22. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "Halo: The Future of Gaming". Archived from the original on 12 September 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  23. ↑ "Halo: The Future of Gaming". LoadingReadyWiki. 16 June 2012. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  24. ↑ Susan Arendt (19 November 2008). "Announcing The Escapist Film Winners!". Archived from the original on 2 January 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
  25. ↑ Stark, Graham (19 November 2008). "First Place: Unskippable 01 - Lost Planet". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  26. ↑ Croshaw, Ben (1 April 2009). "Halo Wars". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  27. ↑ Stark, Graham (28 May 2011). "Daily Drop: Behind the Scenes". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  28. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "Daily Drop". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  29. ↑ Graham Stark (28 November 2007). "The Finale". Desertbus.org. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  30. ↑ Rob Shaw (25 November 2007). "Magicians conjure up cash for deadly fundraiser". Victoria Times Colonist. Archived from the original on 30 November 2007.
  31. ↑ Graham Stark (28 November 2007). "Twenty Thousand Dollars". Desertbus.org. Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  32. ↑ Matt Wiggins (18 November 2008). "Desert Bus for Hope 2: Bus Harder". Archived from the original on 1 December 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  33. ↑ Graham Stark (8 December 2008). "We did it! $70,000!". Archived from the original on 29 April 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  34. ↑ LoadingReadyRun (7 December 2008). "Desert Bus Killed the Internet Star". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  35. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 August 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2009. 2009 Desert Bus announcement
  36. 1 2 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  37. ↑ Paul Saunders (4 May 2010). "Mark your calendars!". Archived from the original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
  38. ↑ DesertBusForHope (16 May 2012). "Daddy Ashton: Beware The Moon". YouTube. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  39. ↑ Heilke, Tally (16 May 2012). "Desert Bus 6 Announcements!". Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  40. ↑ Desert Bus for Hope (17 May 2012). "Announcement time!". Facebook. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  41. ↑ Stark, Graham (28 November 2007). "The Finale". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  42. ↑ "Literal Charity Drive Involves Penn & Teller Title Desert Bus". GamePolitics.com. 25 November 2009. Archived from the original on 17 December 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  43. ↑ Good, Owen (28 November 2008). "Desert Bus Rides Again, Already Raking in the Dough". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 24 May 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  44. ↑ "Desert Bus 5 Poster". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  45. ↑ "Desert Bus". Desert Bus. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  46. ↑ https://desertbus.org/graphs/#years Archived 3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  47. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  48. 1 2 "10th annual Vancouver Island Short Film Festival a huge success". Vancouver Short Film. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  49. ↑ "Vancouver Island Short Film Festival Award Winners". Vancouver Short Film. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  50. ↑
  51. ↑
  52. ↑
  53. ↑
  54. ↑ "University of Victoria Short Film Awards". University of Victoria Student Film. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  55. ↑
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