Its Just Some Random Guy - Marvel/DC Parodies

Marvel/DC Parodies

Agrusso first wrote the scripts for four videos, using two characters, Spider-Man (Marvel) and Superman (DC), as their companies' representatives. He and Li filmed action figures in real time against a white sheet using the iSight camera on Agrusso's Mac notebook. They filmed the first video in an hour, and did the editing and voice work in another hour. On March 6, 2007, he created the ItsJustSomeRandomGuy channel on YouTube, and posted the first video. After posting the first two videos throughout March 2007, Agrusso posted six more videos in the subsequent months, also introducing other Marvel and DC characters, as well as original characters Lance (the bartender), Lars (a.k.a. Lance 2.0) and an unnamed referee.

Fearing the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format would get old and repetitive, Agrusso and Li introduced a Heroes' Bar setting for their characters in their sixth and eighth Marvel vs. DC videos. They later abandoned the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format altogether and started a new video series: After Hours. The first three After Hours episodes allowed Agrusso to expand his cast with characters from other comic book movie adaptations. The ending of After Hours #3 revealed a plot and set up the rest of the 7-part series as a complex and serious storyline in which Lex Luthor attempts to prevent Stan Lee from creating the Marvel Universe. Each subsequent episode became longer in playing time. The last two of After Hours had to be cut up into two parts and posted separately. The saga also explored new settings, most notably the wood-themed Villains Hangout.

Between After Hours #4 and #5, Agrusso informed fans that he was attending Comic Con 2007. There, representatives from Marvel.com approached him and Li and interviewed them. Afterwards, on August 14, Marvel.com posted the videotaped interview on their website. Concurrently, Agent M, an official Marvel.com blogger, also interviewed Agrusso and posted the channel's first video along with the interview transcript onto his blog. Since then, Agent_M has posted six other videos from Agrusso's channel. Also, in the interim period between After Hours #5 and #6, Agrusso created a new spin-off for the Green Goblin character. Titled Goblin Bloggin, it parodies Internet bloggers, as the Green Goblin rants about his life and relationships, and responds to emails. Agrusso set up a real hotmail account specifically for fans to write emails to the fake blog: goblinbloggin@hotmail.com. He posted Goblin Bloggin' #2 between After Hours #6 and #7 on October 7, 2007, and Goblin Bloggin' #3 between Happy Hour #1 and #2 on July 6, 2008.

On December 2, 2007, the channel posted a holiday-themed video that strayed from the humorous tone of their videos with a theme of giving and receiving gifts. Based on Clement Clark Moore's poem, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," Agrusso originally wrote it as a Christmas present to Li in December 2006. The video was featured on YouTube's main page for weeks.

More than two months after the last After Hours episode, which hinted at a second season with the Joker, Agrusso posted a promo video on January 27, 2008 for Happy Hour, the channel's second video series with a storyline. The promo has nothing to do with the real Happy Hour storyline. Three months later, on April 19, 2008, Happy Hour #1 debuted at the 2008 New York Comic Con and was posted on the channel hours later. Then the series would go on a five-month hiatus, as the summer of 2008 began. A month after the Happy Hour promo was released, Agrusso released news on the channel on February 19, 2008, that he was hired by the New York Comic Con to make promotional videos for their event in April 2008. However, he could not post them unless he got the rights from Marvel and DC. Two days later, he posted his first of three Marvel-centric promotional videos, indicating that Marvel supported and permitted him to post his videos with their characters. He posted the other two videos during the next two months before the event. On April 11, 2008, a week before the convention, Agrusso released more news that NYCC scheduled a live panel for him to premiere his first episode Happy Hour and talk with fans. The panel on April 19, 2008, called "ItsJustSomeRandomPanel", began with an opening montage, which compiled clips from his videos. (This video was posted on the channel later that night.) Agrusso officially started with a confession that he forgot to buy a second airline ticket for Li. Instead, he showed a video of her greeting to the fans, in which Li explains her important role in making the videos and guilt-tripped Agrusso in the process. This, too, was posted on the channel that night. Agrusso continued the presentation with the DC-centric promo videos he made for the convention. At the request of DC, he was not allowed to post them on the channel, and for the most part, the Internet public has not seen them. He then described Happy Hour as a series with actual sets, special effects and bigger storylines, but retaining the same humor. Then he showed the two-part Happy Hour #1. He later posted these videos as well, posting an unprecedented total 4 videos in one night.

Following the videos, there was a short Q&A session. The following is a summary of what Agrusso said:

• Agrusso made no money from the videos because that "opens up a legal can of worms".
• He did get paid for doing the promos for NYCC.
• He was open to doing ads for action figure companies and going outside the Marvel and DC lines
• As to whether he's been asked to write any comic books, he would not comment.
• All of his videos are done on his Mac computer.
• He does all the male characters' voices himself.
• He uses a ThorBuster Iron Man because "it was the best-looking Iron Man figure at the used toy store I shop at." He did not know it was Thorbuster armor. He told fans to wait for an upgraded Iron Man, once the movie-based figures are on sale.
• Happy Hour is the future of his video production efforts, again citing his fear of a revisited "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format getting stale.
• His Green Goblin video blog, "Goblin Bloggin'" will also continue.
• As to how the videos are made, Agrusso used a movie analogy: "I'd be like a writer/director" (and voice actor). Li does everything else: cinematography, props, and costumes; deserving more credit than fans might realize.
• Batman and Spider-Man make a great, unlikely comic duo: his Spider-Man is geeky, while Batman is everything Spidey hopes to be: "cool, rich and driving cars." Green Goblin and Lex Luthor have a similar dynamic.
• As for ItsJustSomeRandomGuy leaving YouTube to start his own site: "I'd love to do the same thing with banner ads and get paid for this." However, it exposes him to legal issues if he makes a profit.

In the summer of 2008, five superhero movie blockbusters opened: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Hancock, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and The Dark Knight. In response, Agrusso created a second "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series, this time with Iron Man (Marvel), the Hulk (Marvel), Batman (DC) and Hellboy (Dark Horse) instead of Spider-Man and Superman. The series spanned across the duration of the summer as the new superhero movies opened.

On October 3, 2008, over five months since the debut of Happy Hour #1, Agrusso posted Happy Hour #2. The reason for the time gap was that Agrusso and Li went back to the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format during the 2008 summer movie season, making seven videos in that time. On November 5, 2008, Agrusso posted Happy Hour #3. On January 15, 2009, Agrusso posted Happy Hour #4. In the video information section, he posted this message: "To Be Concluded at the New York Comic Con on February 7 at 4:00 on ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's Panel! Premiering online afterwards!" On February 8, 2009, Happy Hour #5 debuted at the 2009 New York Comic Con and was posted on the channel hours later. This concluded the Happy Hour storyline.

Agrusso was again hired by the New York Comic Con to make promotional videos for their event in February 2009. On December 18, 2008, December 31, 2008, January 13, 2009, January 21, 2009, and January 28, 2009, he posted five more Marvel-centric promotional videos, the second of which parodies the MasterCard "priceless" television commercials. In addition to the promotional videos, NYCC again scheduled a panel for Agrusso and Li, this time to premiere the season finale of Happy Hour, more new videos, and hold a question and answer session.

In February 2009, Agrusso and Li took several intentional steps to connect with fans of ItsJustSomeRandomGuy. They created a Twitter account so that fans could be more easily updated about their activities, they collaborated with another parody video maker, The Fine Brothers, by voicing Batman in their Lost parody series, and on February 24, 2009, they hosted a live Q&A session on blogTV to answer questions from fans who could not be at New York Comic Con 2009. On February 24, 2009, immediately after their live Q&A session via blogTV, Agrusso and Li recorded a 10-minute video on blogTV, allowing for anyone who missed the session to view a sampling of it. As of March 28, 2009, the video has been viewed over 11,830 times. On February 26, 2009, Agrusso submitted a request to YouTube that ItsJustSomeRandomGuy be a YouTube partner channel, and it was promptly accepted. As a partner, Agrusso and Li now receive a share in revenue for advertisements seen during their videos, and they also have partner privileges, such as the automatic play of a video, the ability to post more than three playlists on their channel, and the distribution of their videos to "the largest worldwide online video community" via YouTube and its syndication partners. On March 26, 2009, Agrusso posted a short video announcing that he and Li would begin broadcasting weekly live chat sessions on blogTV, every Tuesday night starting on March 31, 2009.

2009 saw the opening of Watchmen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In response, Agrusso started a third "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series with Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Cyclops, and Gambit representing Marvel and Rorschach, Doctor Manhattan, The Comedian and Nite Owl representing DC. The first video was posted on March 4, 2009, the second was posted on March 13, 2009, and the third was posted on March 23, 2009. Also in 2009, Agrusso began spoofing the major summer blockbusters with his the Marvel/DC characters since no comic book movies from Marvel and DC were being released.

In 2010, Marvel released Iron Man 2 and DC released Jonah Hex. Argusso created a fourth "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series to coincide with the film's releases. He uses Iron Man to represent Marvel and Jonah Hex to represent DC. The first video released on May 5, 2010 and the second released on May 24, 2010. The video that premiered on May 24 was ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's 100th upload.