Special thanks to Dollar Shave Club for choosing to support the channel! Take a look at them here ➱ www.dollarshaveclub.com/qreview Been a big fan of the individual projects of Neil for years, and after I found out how much of these were made by him I realised that it was a topic worth discussing. Hope you guys enjoy!

*Honorable mention:* He ALMOST made the Gravity Falls opening song, his version can be found on KZfaq.

Neil Cicierega's career can basically be summed up in "He did THAT?"

The David Bowie of the internet - you know his work better than you think.

Neil "He made _that_ ?" Cilantro

he also made the legendary ‘ariel needs legs’ comic

Nice shirt

Neil Ciceriglycerin was also the genius behind animutations, "Ariel Needs Legs", the songs Goosebumps and Two Trucks, New Kids On the Rock (at least, part of it), Splendorman, Year of the Snake, and countless other assorted KZfaq videos. He has 10 non-mashup albums; 7 under Lemon Demon (as well as 2 EPs, Nature Tapes and I Am Become Christmas, plus all of his unreleased music), and 3 under Deporitaz (originally "Trapezoid"). This guy is an absolute legend. I mean, he had an article written about him at age 14 titled "All Hail Neil Cicierega". Not to mention, he looks like a 17 year old at the age of 33. I'm convinced he created the entire internet. Go give his albums a listen! (Pro Tip: start with Spirit Phone. You'll thank me later.) -sincerely, a man who has no life.

Not going to talk about spirit phone? Ok

There's no proof that Neil Cicierega isn't the originator of ALL memes.

The inconsistencies with the stickiness of the picture of Neil on the wall and the pronunciations of "Lemon Demon" and "Cicierega" adds yet another layer of enjoyment to this video tbh

Neil's sister, Emmy Cicierega, is also an accomplished storyboard artist! One of her most noteworthy contributions is to the storyboarding of Gravity Falls

Bro how could you forget Two Trucks and the Ariel comic?

Neil has always been my main inspiration for everything creative. He's not in your face, nor does he lower himself with clickbait or any of that crap. Neil has made his success solely on his content alone, and you can't help but respect him for that.

Nah I don't think I've ever seen anything by this guy... "Ultimate Showdown" Oh "Potter Puppet Pals" OH "Brodyquest" O H "Bustin'" OH COME ON

Ready Player One has nothing on the Ultimate Showdown.

This dude and his sister also made Splendorman. He really has created every single internet meme.

Neil Cicierega is a god among men. We don't deserve him.

"The UnFallen Titan" *picture falls*

the two gods of the internet who everyone always says "oh wait they did that?" about are neil and all three of the mcelroy brothers

He also made the “eight legs seven vagaínas” comic

Usually with these kinds of videos I just go "Yeah, I know. I know this guy did this. Everyone does." This video though, my jaw actually dropped because I knew all these internet phenomenons, but I'd never realized they all came from the same person. That's actually incredible.

He's also invented the Content-Aware Scaling memes. Yep. Yknow those scrambled meme face gifs? That's him.

Do not cite the deep magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written.

One of my favorite tracks by Neil is the one that got me into his music in the first place, “Wndrwll”.

Neil has been a huge inspiration to me. Not in the way that I based my content on his, but his creativity and humor has always just pushed me to work on something and pursue my projects. I respect him as a person and as an artist. Really enjoyed this discussion about him. Also, d"It just screams: "I'm marching along, I'm doing it proudly, it's leading me somewhere, hope it's not off a cliff..." is very, very apt.

wow, i never knew that the guy who made ultimate showdown also made brodyquest...AND is also a "soundclown" masher this guy is freaking amazing lol

this guy is well known for way more than I ever could've imagined, holy shit. I just really liked his Lemon Demon music.

he also made AC/VC. this man is the originator of every music based meme in existence.

When I first found out that Neil Cicierega, the maker of Potter Puppet Pals, had also made The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, and that furthermore he also made All Star remixes, I realized that this was the most amazing man on the internet.

Finally, my boy Neil getting some love. Seriously, check out some of his non-parody lemon demon albums, when he uses his powers for good he writes some damn fine music.

he is literally just the dad of the internet, he literally made a song where he yells at you and expressly forbids things as your father

Neil is a figure I “rediscover” every two years or so, and I’m always renewed in my admiration. It’s also important to keep in mind that he was born in August 1986, which means he just recently (in November 2019, as I write this comment) turned 33. This means he was under 20 when fanimution was being developed. He was 17, freshly 17, when the first Potter Puppet Pals was released. You don’t even really touch on fanimution in this video-which I understand-its a deep dive into Albino Blacksheep, and it really takes a lot of analysis about media and playing on how we interpret things (ie purposefully misinterpreting foreign songs with English lyrics). I truly think that his media styles could be shown in schools. I went to film school, and fanimution and his mouth trilogy especially have thematic and stylistic consistencies that I think qualifily it as an experimental genre of media, and I’d be excited to see what experimental media classes 20/30 years from now look like, because I truly believe he deserves a place in them.

Word Disassociation is perhaps Neil's most brilliant, yet underrated work.

met him last summer at boston comic con. his wife, ming doyle, is a fantastic comic author and artist so he goes every year to watch her table when she has panels or leave for whatever reason. he's a chill dude, and really nice. oh he also was the main writer and composer of most of the music featured in gravity falls. that's a big deal that you failed to mention.

"They help me dream" Neil: *wakes up in cold sweat in the middle of the night* "that's it!"

And he started this career AS A CHILD! His mashups came to my attention just a few years ago, so I asked Jesse Walker if he'd ever heard of Neil Cicierega, and the reporter said he'd reported on him as a phenomenon many years earlier in an article that I'd read and had simply forgotten.

WE’RE GOING STRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT TO THE WOW WOW WEST

This was a good summary and analyzation of Neil Cicierega's work. He was definitely one of the people who shaped the early internet. 👍

3:01 "and then someone ripped it and uploaded it to youtube and it did even better Cicierega picture: *wallows in misery*

quinton: His work helps me dream neil just last night: releases mouth dreams

Another thing he accomplished was being mistaken for a cute butch

I never realized how much of my childhood was made from this guy

I saw Neil in the title first thing I thought of was " LEMON DEMON!!!"

"Goosebumps", "Vivid Memories", and "As your father I expressly forbid it" are some good entry points to his music. He has a lot of songs which evoke or capitalize on childhood nostalgia in a new and interesting way, rather than just being memes. A lot of his original songs have a lot of thought put into them, and often if you listen closely you can learn about their obscure, interesting, and occasionally unsettling real-life inspirations. "Spiral of Ants", based on ant mills "Redesign Your Logo", based on the bizarre (and publicly available) design process documents behind Pepsi's hundred-million-dollar logo redesign. "Reaganomics", based on, well... One of my favorite things about his songs is, when listening through a track for the sixth or seventh time over as many weeks, I'll suddenly realize what the song was about the whole time. Spirit Phone in particular is amazing, and delves into the supernatural in a corny, ufology-is-real, grainy-90s-bigfoot-video sort of way. And yet, when you finally figure out their inspiration, they suddenly become less silly and more... sinister.

Neil is great, I fucking love his music! His sister’s art is also awesome and has been long time inspo for me

I still watch brodyquest religiously.

Obviously the objectively best Niel Cicierga's song is "When He Died"

Niel was just a one hit wonder like a thousand times

absolutely ecstatic that neil is getting some recognition. guy is unbelievably talented, and so many people know some of his work but not enough know about him himself.

I've always looked at "Bustin'" as "Ghostbusters" with a pretty bad concussion.

You're killing me not mentioning Emily Cicierega - I followed her before I followed her brother, and she's a huuuuuge part of all of Potter Puppet Pals, as well as later cartoons like "Ariel Needs Legs." She's a spectacular artist and deserves her credit. Anyway thanks for mentioning the perfection that is Bustin'.

Remember the comic “Ariel wants Legs?” That was Niel’s sibling.

No love for spirit phone?

I first heard of Neil way back. Like WAY back in 2001 when he was still doing these bizarre music videos set to Japanese Pokemon songs like Animutation. He was barely even a teenager back then, and it was some real art house mindfuck material that was somewhere between Monty Python and an acid trip. The highest quality example of this was Earth Vs. Funk, the final work of this genre.

... Even as someone who has already had many "Wait Neil did THAT?" moments, you gave me more of them.

4:15 When the Rons come in it becomes Harry Potter Puppet Pals choir. Brilliant

What's stunning is that you've barely scratched the surface. Before Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny he was creating animutations, which were a gigantic meme pre-KZfaq.

You skipped over a whole huge part of Neil’s early viral recognition - hyakugojuichii and animutations

Neil is a epic nerd and I respect him for that

Me: oh hey this lemon demon stuff is pretty good Me, after my friend enlightens me:OH HE DID THAT TOO?

"IN THE BEGINNING" > starts with like, Neil's *third* big hit, lol. Potter puppet pals predates ultimate showdown by two years, and both of them came after his first megahit, Animutations, which you didn't even bring up. Also you left out Windows 95 Tips and Tricks, What's Dylan Grillin?, The two video games he made, Ariel's legs, his more recent video project Guaranteed Video...You barely scratched the surface.

oh, this is cool! I've ALWAYS wanted to do a similar sort of project of basically making songs with similar chord progressions and musical motives and just slamming them up against each other to hear how they warp and change.

are we not gonna talk about Spirit Phone?

sometimes i remember popular songs wrong because ive listened to the mouth trilogy more times than i can count. notably i always expect "love shack" to be mixed with the psycho theme

DAMN. Anthony Fantano gave Mouth Moods a 9 but you gave Niel and UNFALLEN? Step up your game Quinthony

I always thought his name was a Greek curse. Glad this video cleared that up

Mashing “You Oughta Know”; a breakup song written about Uncle Joey from Full House; with the Full House theme is one of the many chefs kiss songs Neil has done.

i found him from recommendations for his album Spirit Phone (which is amazing you should listen to it) and after i found it he basically laid the foundation for my childhood internet escapades ive been in love ever since LMAO

I have never seen someone make a retrospective on Neil before, despite him being involved with so much content over the years! So happy this video exists now

It's honestly really amazing how Cicierega managed to jump from trend to trend over the course of KZfaq history, all without seeming like he was trying too hard to stay relevant. And (having not had access to Internet that wasn't dial-up until about 2011), I can't begin to comprehend how much he's modified and influenced the KZfaq content landscape. Great short essay!

Having watched a few of his mashups the last couple days, I wasn't sure how much I'd actually be surprised by. The MOMENT he starts singing "The Ultimate Showdown," I went "Wait - HE did that?" Out loud. Just like Quentin said I would.

Nobody gonna talk about Wow Wow? Its seriously magnificent honestly. I MF LOVE IT

The crazy thing is that this only even gets Neil Cicierega's KZfaq phase. Even before that he had a massive impact on flash animations in like 2001 and basically pioneered the dumb 'animutation' style of flash videos that were basically the standard from 02-05. Nine out of Ten sociopaths agree, you've gotta see HYAKUGOJYUUICHI.

Forget Dollar Shave Club. Try getting Scotch or 3M as sponsors in exchange for a life-long supply of decent poster strips.

"Wndrwll" is the best piece of artistic expression ever conceived of by any species in existence and nothing will ever change my mind about that.

Oh my god, that mix of You Oughta Know and the Full House kills me knowing that song may have been written about Dave Coulier. Savage af. 😂

This video dropped 3 days ago and since I've been bingeing Neil Cicierega's content. 10/10, the dude is a freaking genius.

long live neil, the often unsung face of the internet

I love this man, I really liked They Might Be Giants and after listening to all of their best songs, I wanted more and then I found Neil and Lemon Demon, and he's essentially the modern version of TMBG

Neil is basically the human embodiment of the words "He DID that?"

I was hoping you'd also talk about his less popular comedy sketches. They deserve more love, as does his fiends who are regular collaborators in those sketches. He's done a lot of different stuff over the years, and recently came out with a text based nostalgia game called monsterbreeder which is super fun.

Anyway here's Wndrwll

If there was a bunch of famous people at the end of the world and you had to pick a team to trust with your life, I would pick Neil Cicierega in a heartbeat and our team would win. Everyone would be preoccupied with how amazing he is that we could easily defeat them in their distraction. Neil will become the king of the earth

Can't believe you didn't show Crocodile Chop. It was such a classic.

Knew of all his work except Ultimate Showdown. I was so confident I wasn’t gonna be a “oh shit that was him?” person. I’ve been a Neil fan for a while so I felt a little superior. Then Ultimate Showdown started playing and I thought “Oh shit that was him??” You’ve humbled me, QuintonReviews.

1:41 say the line, bart! Quinton: old godzilla was hoppin around, tokyo city like a big playground me: [cheers]

Heck, you're right. I never knew about this dude, but I remember all this stuff he did. huh

I love Neil's work, I grew up watching all his videos with my mom. He is one of my favorite musicians, he makes wonderful comedy sketches, and potter puppet pals was one of my favorite things to watch in childhood even though I didn't like Harry Potter. I still follow him, and while he doesn't post often, he never fails to make my day better.

Mouth Moods was the best album I heard in 2017.

"I'm marching along I'm doing it proudly It's leading me somewhere I hope it's not off a cliff" Honestly, some up-and-coming music artist needs to make a song with that as the chorus

Bustin' makes me feel good.

About a year ago my friend introduced me to some stuff Neil did. I started listening to more of his stuff and then a couple of months ago I found out that my cousin is friends with Neil and they live in the same town, which is honestly one of the coolest things I've ever learned

Ah, Newgrounds. The good old days. I've watched Neil much back in the day, he was truly a legend, at least to me.

No mention of Trapezoid/Deporitaz, his New Kids on the Rock days, animutation, or his sketches (mainly Slumber Party). This man has done everything.

Neil Cicierega is the best person on the internet.

Having met Neil several times, he is an adorable cinnamon bun of a human being whom I always want to carry in my arms to safety. Or just taxi him wherever needs.

4:07 Rare footage of a Venetian choir performing mass during the Renaissance(1538, colorized)

hey! ive never watched you until now. a good friend of mine who knew me for being completely infatuated with neil let me know about this video and i actually PRAISE you for giving neil this spotlight. i LOVE to know that people know him beyond wow wow, ultimate showdown, or ppp. hes such a talented guy and hes had a big impact on me ever since i was just 9 years old. seriously, viewers, if you havent already PLEASE check out lemon demon's discography (its a masterpiece!!) and all of the mashup work hes done. his impact on the internet is fucking insane and just the idea of who he is amazes me. hes a big inspiration and im so glad im alive the same time he is.

"I'll be the last to admit that these albums are an acquired taste." isn't that the exact opposite of what you meant to say?