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Animation, once the domain of the obsessive hobbyist and major studios was infused with a new lease of life after the double-combo whammy of Macromedia’s (now Adobe) Flash software and the Internet. Suddenly, the ability to not only create your own animations but share them with a worldwide audience was accessible to almost everybody. The inevitable result – a slew of stickmen, sprite-movies, outright trash – and amongst that some of the most witty and original cartoon shorts even made. Genius works of comedy that otherwise would never have seen the light of day! In this article I have drawn on shorts that are showcased on newgrounds.com, from my profile’s long list of ‘favourite flashes’.

TOOTHBRUSH LAND

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/278668

Smart and crisp, ‘Toothbrush Land’ delivers with the accelerator down full and the humour turned way up. Effortlessly random, this gem sparkles with the clean lines of the animation contrasting nicely with the relentlessly bizarre content and enthusiastic delivery. All this and a killer final line!

BAD GUYS (NSFW)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/267776

First things first: Bad Guys has no real story, nothing you could actually call a joke and the animation and artwork are ordinary at best. So why watch it – and why was it such an instant hit? The answer, my friends, is Chris Nosal’s voice. Thanks to his talent for vocal-acting, Bad Guys is raised from a mediocre experience to a side-splittingly hilarious gift. It’s all in the dialogue, which kind of makes Nosal a Flash Tarantino. Several sequels were made, but nothing quite matches the original.

THE MAXWELL EDISON STORY (NSFW)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/239712

Although a fan of the Beatles, I’d always considered Maxwell’s Silver Hammer one of their poorer offerings. It seemed trite and suffering from over-whimsy, or at least it did until I saw this animation. The cute anime-influenced characters and sickly soundtrack sat in shocking juxtaposition to some understated and genuinely disturbing cartoon violence. I can’t imagine, with any kind of budget, any animated treatment of this song being done better than this. You’ll never listen to it in the same way again.

THE TOUCHTONE GENIUS

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/278299

songstowearpantsto.com is a popular site where the founder, Andrew Pants, asks visitors to submit an idea for a song which he then performs as close as he can to their specification – in this case, a innocent man in the night being subjected to the febrile music of a composer who plays his telephone keypad. It became one of the best animations of the year, sparklingly with originality and doing full justice to Mr. Pant’s original soundtrack. A real treat that even your grandmother can enjoy.

CHARLIE THE UNICORN

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/280260

Yes, you may well have first seen it on YouTube but Newgrounds.com is where it first appeared, many months before the video debut, and that’s still the best place to view it today! This insane tale, of a gruff-voiced unicorn being tormented by his pink and blue peers and their promise of the land of ‘Candy Mountain’ is still difficult to beat, what with the massive array of quotable dialogue, the infuriating (but still hilarious) antics of pink and blue and possibly the finest and funniest ending of anything ever, Charlie reigns supreme. The sequels failed to match this comedy masterpiece – just bask in the glory of Charlie’s original adventure.