Eddsworld

Eddsworld is an independent British comedic flash cartoon production company that was created by Edd Gould in 2003. Eddsworld was also part of the CakeBomb network from 2006-2008, when it dissolved. Eddsworld currently consists of over thirty-five episodes (called eddisodes), over 150 comics, flash games, and various art work distributed on the home website, YouTube, Albino Blacksheep, Newgrounds, DeviantArt, and the BBC. The episodes are the focal point of the organization, which star Edd, Tom, Matt, and previously Tord, and run anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Before his death, animations were created solely by Edd Gould and co-written by himself and colleagues Thomas Ridgewell, Matthew Hargreaves, Thomas Bown, and Tord Larsson. Following Gould's passing in 2012, the series was continued by Ridgewell, with all proceeds from ad revenue and merchandise sales going towards charity. Eddsworld is created using Adobe Flash, a computer animation program.
Characters
Eddsworld centres around the main character Edd and his friends Matt, Tom, and formerly Tord. In most episodes, all are voiced by their real life counterparts, with minor characters being voiced by Gould, or guest YouTubers. The main characters all live in the same house in an unspecified suburban town in the UK (addressed as 27 Dirdum Lane, brought up in Hammer and Fail) where most of the episodes take place.
Main characters
The main characters are loosely based on their real life counterparts. This, with exaggerated addictions being a constant theme for each character, along with catchphrases, sets the dynamics between the characters.
* Edd is the main character of Eddsworld. He wears a green hoodie and/or a T-shirt referencing the British sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf (it says "smeg head" on it), has brown hair and enjoys Coca-Cola, bacon, and making puns; much to the annoyance of the other characters. Throughout, Edd is shown to be an optimist and the natural leader of the group. Originally voiced by Edd Gould, his voice was replaced by Tim Hautekiet following Gould's passing in 2012.
* Tom (voiced by Thomas Ridgewell) is one of Edd’s friends and wears a blue hoodie or a T-shirt featuring a character from asdf (which is Tom Ridgewell's own YouTube series). He also has dirty blonde spiky hair, which he refers to as "Steve", and is known for being an alcoholic: his favourite beverage being Smirnoff. Tom is recognised for having no discernible eyes, but empty black circles (formerly black unibrow and full white circles from Zombeh Attack) in place of them, which does not affect his sight (a reference to lead singer 2D from Gorillaz). A running joke is that Tom will regain his eyes, yet somehow lose them before the end of the episode, preferably by some sort of laser. He has a deep hatred of the holiday Christmas, causing him to be an anti-hero or antagonist in holiday specials. Tom is known for exclaiming "Holy ‘Noun’ on a ‘Noun’" when surprised (with noun representing two unrelated, but usually alliterative objects), and is shown to deeply love his bass guitar, which he names Susan. Tom is crazy for kitten shopping and, due to him being half-gibberish, says a lot of crazy things.
* Matt (voiced by Matt Hargreaves) is Edd’s other friend and wears a purple hoodie (originally black) with a green overcoat, or a black T-shirt. He has ginger hair and a square chin, yet he is known for being an egomaniac and is obsessed with his own looks (sometimes going as far as being sexually attracted to his own appearance) his catchphrase "Not the face!" is yelled when something threatens him (the catchphrase even saves his, Edd's, and Tom's lives in Space Face Part 2). Matt is often shown to be the least intelligent of the group, and tries to compensate with his other catchphrase: "indubitably" and is allergic to explosions (it is said in the eddisode "Fan Service" that Matt is fatally allergic to dogs, but he is not, as said in the credits,"No Matt is not really allergic to dogs...").
* Tord (voiced by Tord Larrson) is a former member of the group who wore a black jacket in the first episodes and later wore a red hoodie or a black tank top. His hair color has changed from a dark brown to a very light brown in his time on the show. He was known for being the most violent character, often the first to pull out firearms when threatened. A running joke was his hatred of the song "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" by Lesley Gore. He was the only non-British character, as he hailed from Norway, but has not been in an Eddsworld episode since 2008's episode 25 Ft. Under the Seat after leaving the series, only being mentioned in Zanta Claws II and being in a flashback in WTFuture. However he started to have little to no lines after an eddisode titled Ruined. It is suggested in the series that he has an initial dislike for Tom, and is willing to fight if he feels someone is being unjust.
Minor characters
*Paul is a minor character who appears as a cameo of animator Paul ter Voorde. In his cartoon appearances, Paul is usually seen as either a background character or a character with one speaking line. He has been seen in the series working as a pilot, army guard, and a power plant worker.
*Laurel is a female character who appeared as the lone female actress in "Movie Makers." She was accepted to be part of production of Tom's film Space Cats, only because Tom's shoe fell in love with her pair of shoes. After Edd, Matt, Tom and Laurel made the movie, she was killed by Tom's shoe, likely to get her shoes.
*Eduardo, Mark and Jon are the neighbours and doppelgängers of Edd, Matt and Tom. They are usually the main antagonists of the episodes they appear in, if not having cameos. The leader of the trio, Eduardo holds contempt towards Edd, simply because Edd won an art contest and Eduardo was teased for being second place. While there isn't much known about Mark, Jon is usually ridiculed or threatened by Eduardo.
*Kim and Katya are the former neighbours of Edd, Matt, Tom and formerly Tord. They made their first appearance in "The Dudette Next Door." They are a lesbian couple, but in their debut episode, Edd and Tord had a crush on Kim. They reappeared as zombies in "Zombeh Attack 2."
Episodes

The original web series created and animated by Edd Gould began from December 2004, with episodes and other related animations released on sites such as Newgrounds, SheezyArt, and YouTube. Following Gould's passing in 2012, the series was continued by Thomas Ridgewell's TurboPunch company, with different animators animating the series from "Space Face Part 2" onwards. The final planned episode, "The End" will be released in two parts on March 9, 2016 and March 16, 2016 respectively.
Comics
Before his death, Gould had created over 170 comics that appeared on a weekly basis. They are normally four panels long and follow the same plot structure as the episodes with comedy focusing much more on puns and word play. The characters in the comics are almost exclusively Edd, Matt, Tom, and in the earliest comics Tord. Eighty of these comics were collected in a book called Toaster Brains, which also features guest comics by colleagues and friends of Gould. There are currently almost 200 comics. After Edd Gould's death, Paul Ter Voorde took over making the comics which were supposed to have been released on DeviantArt every Sunday. However, the Eddsworld Comics were discontinued shortly after for an unknown reason. A Toaster Brains sequel was one of the perks in their Eddsworld: Legacy fundraiser, which was 100 U.S. Dollars.
Tord's Departure
The character Tord officially left the series in the beginning of the episode "25 Feet Under The Seat" in 2008, but no statement was made by his voice actor, Tord Larsson. This caused many rumours to originate from fans about his disappearance and is still a point of discussion for many. Impersonators posing as Tord Larsson or as a friend of Tord also arose from this on social networking sites (such as Facebook) and blogs in attempts to troll or mislead fans. Most speculations over the reason for Tord’s departure include that he and Tom became too angered with each other, as they would often fight (as revealed in an earlier episode), leading to Tord quitting the group, and running over Tom in "25 Feet Under the Seat". In a video on Tom's personal channel (TomSka) called Ritalin'd, starring Tom and his friend Chris Bingham (Bing or slomozovo), he was seen wearing a shirt saying "I NEVER LIKED TORD ANYWAY." In reality, Tord Larsson left Eddsworld to pursue his own artistic career and to distance himself from the franchise, requesting that his likeness also be removed from future episodes. Gould has voiced his displeasure in not explaining Tord’s departure in more detail, but he had no plans to bring the subject up in future work.
In response to Edd Gould's death, Tord posted a video on YouTube (from the former channel KalashniCock, now unavailable) entitled "Tord explains why he left Eddsworld (RIP Edd Gould)" on 30 March 2012 giving his reasons for leaving the series, discussed his relationships with the other cast members, and touched on the many frauds claiming to be him on various Internet accounts. In this video he also explained that the stress of school and his poor relationship with Tom had little to no effect on him leaving the series, pointing out that taking his name from the series and building his own persona, independently of Eddsworld, was his main focus. At the end of the video he gave his respects to Edd and his family, saying "To Edd" and then drinking from a bottle of Coca-Cola. He has since closed his YouTube account, making all videos uploaded from that account unavailable, due to many curious fans rudely questioning his reasons, as they were explained in his video.
On 13 June 2012, Ridgewell vlogged from his YouTube account DarkSquidge about Eddsworld, explaining that Tord "Was shown driving away at the beginning of an eddisode... opening a Pandora's Box of crazy fans that never left him alone to the extent that he can't even use his real name. Please leave him alone." as well as referencing Tord's own video mentioned above. Ridgewell has also stated that while Larsson may return to the show for a cameo in the future, he will never return to the show permanently, while the character's possible return is currently uncertain.
There have been hints on Tord's return to the series as he has been appearing in the backgrounds of some Eddisodes, and while not many of them were confirmed to be him, there are a few hints towards the fact it is him. For example;
* In, "The Snogre" On the plane on one of the doors, it says NOR5K1, which is Tord's numberplate on his car in "25 Feet Under The Seat".
* Also in "The Snogre" On the plane's tail, a red spray painted portrait of Tord's hair can be seen.
* In the above-mentioned episode, there are only two people seen on the plane, but when it crashes, there are three people in parachutes seen.
* In the episode "Fun Dead", a silhouette of Tord can be seen on the television when it showed soldiers fighting away Zombehs.
* Tord appears in a flashback scene in the Eddisode "PowerEdd" when in a class of children, Tord can be seen just behind Edd.
* Tord is reportedly going to appear in the future Eddisode "Saloonatics"
* The current artist for Eddsworld, Paul ter Voorde, hinted at Tord's return as Paul drew a picture of Tord.
Death of Edd Gould
On 25 March 2012, Gould died at the age of 23 after a six-year-long battle with Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that he was originally diagnosed with in 2006. Ridgewell later announced on a live stream that Edd had asked him to take over the series in the event of his death. Under Ridgewell's direction, the series will continue with Paul ter Voorde as the new lead animator and a new voice actor replacing Edd, being Ridgewell's friend Tim Hautekiet. After Gould's passing, new developer TurboPunch started the ' fundraiser on Indiegogo, which is intended to help raise funds for another season of Eddsworld. Under Ridgewell's direction, profits made from the Eddsworld series are now intended to go towards charities that focus on non-medical care for adult cancer patients (after initial expenses are paid).
In a December 2015 update video, Tom released information about the next 3 Eddisodes, entitled "Saloonatics", "The End, Part 1" and "The End, Part 2" along with an untitled Christmas short. In the update video, he announced that "The End" double-header would be Paul ter Voorde's last episode animating as well as his last episode as showrunner, after which he'll step down and the future of the show will be handled by Edd's other friends.
"Edd may be gone, but his world will keep on spinning.", as Tom said at the end of the Tribute video to Edd's death.
Cast
;Current cast
*Matthew Hargreaves - Matt (2003-present)
*Thomas Ridgewell - Tom (2004-present)
*Tim Hautekiet - Edd (2012-present)
*Brock Baker - Eduardo (2015-present)
*Eddie Bowley - Jon (2010-present)
*Ben Rudman - Mark (2010-present)
;Former cast
*Edd Gould - Edd (2003-2012)
*Tord Larsson - Tord (2004-2008)
*Alex Labbe - Tord & Tom (2004-2005)
*Chris O'neill - Eduardo (2010-2011)
Reception
Eddsworld first became popular with young British viewers, as well as mid-American teens. Episodes typically receive between one and four million views on YouTube, the most popular of these videos being WTFuture with approximately 6,500,000 views. His YouTube channel currently has over 950,000 subscribers, with total video views of 163.416.885. At the time of his death, his channel had the most subscribers in the comedian category in the United Kingdom and was the fourth most viewed comedian of the United Kingdom. Eddsworld was noticed by the organizers of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference who requested the creation of an episode about climate change, which was used in the opening ceremony of the conference. That video is available on the channel tveInspringChange.

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