LoadingReadyRun

LoadingReadyRun, often abbreviated to LRR, is a Canadian entertainment group that produces video and audio comedy. It often covers video games, internet trends, and popular culture.

LoadingReadyRun
Type of site
Comedy
HeadquartersVictoria, BC
Created byGraham Stark, Paul Saunders
URLhttp://www.loadingreadyrun.com
Launched13 October 2003
LoadingReadyRun
Personal information
NationalityCanadian
Websiteloadingreadyrun.com
Twitch information
Channel
Years active2011-present
GenreGaming
Followers94,170 (February 3, 2021)
Total views10,679,158
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2006–present
GenreComedy
Subscribers146,000
(December 24, 2020)
Total views108,437,356
(December 24, 2020)
Follower and view counts updated as of December 24, 2020.


Founded in October 2003 by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders and based in Victoria, British Columbia, the group's output has included sketch comedy, video game streams, panel shows, game shows, podcasts, and reality TV shows. LoadingReadyRun have also run the fundraiser Desert Bus For Hope since 2007. LoadingReadyRun produces videos and podcasts independently, and has also worked under contract with other companies, under the legal name Bionic Trousers Media.

History

LoadingReadyRun was founded by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders in October 2003. It began producing a weekly sketch video which it uploaded onto its own website. LRR never missed that weekly deadline, even while traveling. LRR's graphic design for its title cards, credits and website were based on the Commodore 64.[1]

In 2007, LoadingReadyRun broadcast Desert Bus For Hope, a fundraiser to raise money for the charity Child's Play. LRR have repeated this event every year since.

In December 2008 Graham and Paul tied for first place in The Escapist's Second Annual Film Festival with Unskippable, a Mystery Science Theater 3000 style take of the introduction cinematic to the video game Lost Planet.[2][3] For winning the contest they were rewarded with a contract to produce a weekly video for The Escapist. Unskippable was LRR's second series after the sketches, and would be followed by further series produced for The Escapist including Escapist News Network, Feed Dump, and Daily Drop. The sketches were also hosted on The Escapist during this time.

Some of LRR's videos have been featured in film festivals such as the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival[4] in San Diego, and shown on major television networks, including G4 Canada[5] and CNN.[1][6]

In 2013, LoadingReadyRun announced that the sketches were becoming too labor- and time-intensive to produce on a weekly basis without impacting other projects. It ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund one final year before retiring the videos in 2015. The Kickstarter also provided funding to start live streaming.

On 25 March 2015, Stark announced on their blog that they would be leaving The Escapist and subsequently ending Unskippable.[7] Unskippable could not be continued as The Escapist owned the property. Feed Dump was continued by LoadingReadyRun independently.

LoadingReadyRun has produced paid video content for other companies. LRR produces Friday Nights, a scripted comedy about Magic: The Gathering, under contract from Wizards of the Coast. LRR also produced content for Penny Arcade's PATV, including the reality TV show Strip Search, and made Tabletop Deathmatch for Cards Against Humanity. Today, LRR's income comes primarily from direct donations, which it receives from viewers through Patreon, Twitch, and YouTube. A number of its members work full time for LoadingReadyRun.

Members

The main crew of LoadingReadyRun consists of members who have regular shows on their Twitch channel, and/or are frequently involved with production. Some former crew members will still occasionally appear in videos, streams, or podcasts.[1]

Work

Scripted comedy

LoadingReadyRun began as a series of short one- to two-minute short films, posted to the LRR website each week. The sketch series ran from 2003 to 2015. Sketches with notable success included:

  • How to Talk like a Pirate – Part of a fictional 1970s-style language-learning series, this video teaches the nuances of pirate speech.[9] 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".[10] 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.[11] With the launch of the PlayStation 4 in 2013, Paul recorded another video, in which he now claims to have four PlayStation 4 consoles, and did so again in 2020 with the launch of the PlayStation 5, claiming to own five PlayStation 5 consoles. Otherwise, the theme and tone are the same in all 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.[12] The video was one of LoadingReadyRun's most popular videos for several years.[13]

In 2013, LoadingReadyRun 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. Instead of the weekly comedy sketches, LRR produces shorter sketch videos called Crapshots[14] as well as Magic: The Gathering-themed short sketches called Sick Rips.

LRR also produces commodoreHUSTLE, a plotted series dramatizing the personal lives of the crew, officially described as "A web series about the creators of a web series".[15] The crew play exaggerated versions of themselves – 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 – and a running theme in the series is the group's dysfunctional nature and infighting. commodoreHUSTLE is now produced as part of LRR's Loading Ready Live shows.

LRR was commissioned by Wizards of the Coast to produce a four-episode commodoreHUSTLE spin-off miniseries called Friday Nights, detailing the crew's growing obsession with Magic: The Gathering.[16][17][18] The series then became an ongoing commission to produce Friday Nights about once a month for the Wizards of the Coast YouTube channel.

LRR also produces Qwerpline, a podcast that parodies a typical 'morning radio' show, recorded by Graham, Alex, Beej, Ian, and Kathleen. Set in the fictional town of Nsburg, Qwerpline is mostly improvised and then edited; 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.

Streaming and live shows

LoadingReadyRun streams mainly Let's Play-style shows on Twitch, where hosts play through a video game and comment on it. Other streams have included playing through board games or running role-playing games, or streams of crafts and construction.

LRR's streaming includes LoadingReadyLIVE, a monthly live variety show. Described initially as a hybrid comedy/talent/panel show, LoadingReadyLIVE's structure has varied but can include short game-show segments, prerecorded events filmed on the day of broadcast, highlights from other streamed shows, an "AskLRR" viewer-mail panel, and an episode of commodoreHUSTLE. LoadingReadyLIVE's tagline is 'This is/it's live, so something's gonna happen!'.

LoadingReadyRun is contracted by Wizards of the Coast to run Magic Preprereleases, day-long streams where members of LRR along with special guests play the latest set before it is released publicly.

Panel shows and news shows

LoadingReadyRun have had a variety of shows riffing on news. The Whatever Thing was followed by Phailhaüs, then by Feed Dump, each featuring jokes about comical news stories.

LoadingReadyRun have also had multiple shows riffing specifically on video game news. Escapist News Network was created specifically for The Escapist. When LRR left The Escapist, it created a similar show called CheckPoint which it produced for Penny Arcade TV. In December 2013, Penny Arcade announced that due to some restructuring they would no longer host 3rd party content on their PATV site.[19] LRR later began to produce CheckPoint independently, streaming CheckPoint Plus, a live stream of CheckPoint and its creation.

In 2018 LRR began The Panalysts, a panel show where panelists are presented with hypothetical situations and reason how to get the best out of them. For the first season, the show was primarily hosted by Kathleen De Vere. Since the second season premiered in May 2019 the show has been hosted by Molly Lewis.

LRR produced Strip Search for PATV. Strip Search was a reality TV show where cartoonists competed for an internship at Penny Arcade. It ran for one season. Similarly, LoadingReadyRun produced Tabletop Deathmatch, a show hosted by Cards Against Humanity whose goal was to find exceptional unpublished boardgames who could win funding for a first printing. Two seasons were produced.

Podcasts

LoadingReadyRun have a number of current and completed podcasts. These include podcasts on Magic: the Gathering (Tap Tap Concede, North 100), reviews of media (SideWalk Slam, AnoAni, Countdown to Infinity, Magnum Rewatch, Fight the Future), plays of role-playing games (Temple of the Lava Bears, Dice Friends) and talking about the video creation process (LRRCast) among others. Some videos are also released as podcasts, such as Qwerpline.

Miscellaneous

Unskippable was LoadingReadyRun's second series other than its original sketch series, and its first work produced under contract for another website. Unskippable played opening cutscenes to video games and mocked them in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000. In December 2008 Graham and Paul tied for first place in The Escapist's Second Annual Film with a pilot episode of Unskippable, mocking the game Lost Planet.[2][3] For winning the contest they were rewarded with a contract to produce a weekly video for The Escapist. The series aired every Monday and satirized cinematics to games like Eternal Sonata, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and The Darkness. It 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.[20] They 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, could not be continued as The Escapist owns 'Unskippable' property. Their second show on The Escapist, Feed Dump, continued on LoadingReadyRun's own YouTube channel.

LoadingReadyRun's Loading Time series documents 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 its Patreon in 2014, 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.

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. LoadingReadyLIVE has also featured eating challenges.

Daily Drop was a feature on The Escapist, made by LoadingReadyRun. It was filmed in the basement of the Victoria Event Centre.[21] 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.[22]

Desert Bus for Hope

LoadingReadyRun is perhaps best known for its annual Desert Bus For Hope event. On 23 November 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.[23][24][25]

On 18 November 2008, LoadingReadyRun officially announced that it planned a second marathon run of Desert Bus which began on 28 November.[26] The second Desert Bus lasted slightly more than five days and raised over $70,000.[27] 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.[28]

On 25 August 2009, the third marathon run was announced, set to start on 20 November 2009.[29] 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.[30] 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.[31] 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.[30]

Desert Bus 6 began Friday, 16 November 2012, and breached one million US dollars in lifetime donations on 19 November at 6:46pm[32][33][34] Each subsequent fundraiser has raised more than the previous (with the exception of Desert Bus 2017), and accumulated four million in 2017, five million in 2018, six million in 2019, and seven million in 2020. The tenth year of Desert Bus was the subject of a documentary called "We Are Desert Bus" that was released in 2019.

Desert Bus 2020, the 14th year of the event, was held remotely across multiple locations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is notable as the first year to, due to this restriction, not use actual Sega CD hardware, but instead a cloud-hosted emulator that could be passed between hosts using a web browser.

Year Name Raised (USD)
2007 Desert Bus for Hope $22,805.00[35]
2008 Desert Bus for Hope 2: Bus Harder $70,423.79[36][37]
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[38][39]
2012 Desert Bus for Hope 6: Desert Bus 3 in America $443,165.29
2013 Desert Bus for Hope 007 $521,450.00[40]
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[41]
2018 Desert Bus 2018 $730,289.37[42]
2019 Desert Bus 2019: Untitled Bus Fundraiser $864,415.01[43]
2020 Desert Bus 2020 $1,052,902.40[44]
Running total$7,106,039.79

Selected awards
VideoOrganisationAward
The PairVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2015People's choice[45]
The Secret of the SauceVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2010Best writing[46]
Right to the SourceVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2009Best writing
Eyewitness AccountsVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2008Best writing
How to Talk Like a PirateVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2007Best writing
Suspend Your DisbeliefVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2006Audience Choice[45]
Best Male Performance (Andrew Cownden)
University of Victoria Student Film 2005 Audience Choice[47]
30 Minutes or LessVancouver Island Short Film Festival 2006Best writing

References
  1. LoadingReadyRun. "About". Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  2. Susan Arendt (19 November 2008). "Announcing The Escapist Film Winners!". Archived from the original on 2 January 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
  3. 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.
  4. "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.
  5. Torrent TV. "Episode One - Video 3 (Loading Ready Run)". G4Tech TV. Archived from the original on 12 December 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
  6. joeparedes. "LRR in the News". Youtube. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  7. "LoadingReadyRun Blog – Leaving The Escapist". loadingreadyrun.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  8. "Bill Watt 1983-2016". Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  9. LoadingReadyRun. "How to Talk Like a Pirate". Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  10. LoadingReadyRun (13 February 2009). "Three PS3s". YouTube. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  11. LoadingReadyWiki. "Three PS3s on LoadingReadyWiki". Archived from the original on 24 February 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
  12. LoadingReadyRun. "Halo: The Future of Gaming". Archived from the original on 12 September 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  13. "Halo: The Future of Gaming". LoadingReadyWiki. 16 June 2012. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  14. "What if the Doctor was from the West Country?". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 7 June 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  15. "commodoreHUSTLE". YouTube. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  16. LoadingReadyRun. "It's Magic". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  17. Wizards of the Coast. "Community Cup Lineup". Archived from the original on 24 June 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  18. LoadingReadyRun. "Friday Nights". YouTube. Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  19. Brahe, Tycho (6 December 2013). "Changes". Penny Arcade. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  20. Croshaw, Ben (1 April 2009). "Halo Wars". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  21. Stark, Graham (28 May 2011). "Daily Drop: Behind the Scenes". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  22. LoadingReadyRun. "Daily Drop". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  23. Graham Stark (28 November 2007). "The Finale". Desertbus.org. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  24. Rob Shaw (25 November 2007). "Magicians conjure up cash for deadly fundraiser". Victoria Times Colonist. Archived from the original on 30 November 2007.
  25. Graham Stark (28 November 2007). "Twenty Thousand Dollars". Desertbus.org. Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  26. Matt Wiggins (18 November 2008). "Desert Bus for Hope 2: Bus Harder". Archived from the original on 1 December 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  27. Graham Stark (8 December 2008). "We did it! $70,000!". Archived from the original on 29 April 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  28. LoadingReadyRun (7 December 2008). "Desert Bus Killed the Internet Star". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  29. "Desert Bus for Hope". Archived from the original on 30 August 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2009. 2009 Desert Bus announcement
  30. "Desert Bus for Hope". Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  31. Paul Saunders (4 May 2010). "Mark your calendars!". Archived from the original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
  32. DesertBusForHope (16 May 2012). "Daddy Ashton: Beware The Moon". YouTube. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  33. Heilke, Tally (16 May 2012). "Desert Bus 6 Announcements!". Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  34. Desert Bus for Hope (17 May 2012). "Announcement time!". Facebook. Archived from the original on 21 November 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  35. Stark, Graham (28 November 2007). "The Finale". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  36. "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.
  37. 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.
  38. "Desert Bus 5 Poster". LoadingReadyRun. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  39. "Desert Bus". Desert Bus. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  40. https://desertbus.org/graphs/#years Archived 3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  41. "Desert Bus for Hope :: Blog". Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  42. "Desert Bus for Hope pulls in with a record $700,000 raised". Polygon. Archived from the original on 18 November 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  43. "THANK YOU ALL SO, SO MUCH!!". Desert Bus For Hope. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  44. Matthews (16 January 2021). "From A Goal of $5,000 To Raising Over $1,000,000". Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  45. "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.
  46. "Vancouver Island Short Film Festival Award Winners". Vancouver Short Film. Archived from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  47. "University of Victoria Short Film Awards". University of Victoria Student Film. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
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