Fun fact: Favorite YouTube vlogger, blogger, gamer, and bubbly personality, iJustine cyberstalked Annoying Orange creator Dane Boe for a part on the comedic web series. Not that it's a rule of thumb or anything, but it definitely worked and landed her the ongoing role of Passion Fruit.
Since truly taking off about a year and a half ago, the quirky online show has received major success, most notably having made the transition to network television. In doing that, Dane was adamant about not abandoning his online audience and creative control. Instead of just shopping the idea and selling it for a small percentage, Dane and his team made the show themselves so that they could fully own it and license it to a network.
"That's a very new way of doing things," Dane noted during our interview with him at VidCon (imagine comicon but with YouTube stars). "Most networks are not doing that because they want to own everything." Eventually, he found Cartoon Network as a receptive and supportive collaborator.
"It's the same sensibility; it's just on a bigger scale," Dane said of the TV show. Still, he finds the web series part most important, because that's where you build your audience and your show concept. The web series also gives him more freedom to write topical shows on a weekly basis (which he still continues to do) and use his weapons of choice for killing and maiming fruit. (No knives allowed on Cartoon Network.)
Now with jokes circulating about the possibility of an Annoying Orange movie, no one could've predicted the success of the series, which started as just a simple short.
"I am not surprised," iJustine said. "The first episode I saw, I'm like, 'This is the funniest thing I've ever seen'... I think it has the perfect appeal for this generation."
A-peel that is. Fruit humor.
For more fun times, check out The Annoying Orange, iJustine, and Dane Boe on YouTube, and follow @iJustine and Dane Boe on Twitter!