Indie Spotlight: ‘Dan The Man’ Returns To Parody Video Game Logic

Welcome to Indie Spotlight, a new feature on Tubefilter. We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now. 

In 2010, StudioJoho released Dan the Man, a clever video that imagines what happens after our intrepid hero has rescued the princess from the castle. It was a sharp, witty satire of the inherent goofiness of video games and gained a big audience, scoring over seven million views. Now, three years later, StudioJoho is turning Dan the Man into a full-on web series.

Three more “levels” have been released in the past month, each one exploring another knot of video game logic. The second one asks what happens when bonus levels end miles up in the air, the third wonders why video game badasses never have any second thoughts about the enemies they murder, and the fourth pokes fun at the fact that characters must learn every little move before moving on in the game

Dan the Man is the creation of Joe Brumm, who has also worked for CollegeHumor. Despite the general lowbrow quality of his humor, Brumm is a sneaky good storyteller. The fact that he tells such a funny tale without any real dialogue is quite remarkable. As one commenter suggests, I hope he makes a lot of money, but not enough to stop making these videos.

OTHER RECENT DEBUTS TO CHECK OUT:

• My Friends Think I’m Funny. Professional comedians challenge everyday people to vouch for friends who they think are funny. Then they all tell some jokes.
• Coco And Wee Wee. A pair of Italian sisters from New York take their lives (and their accents) to Tennessee.
• Hitting Rock Bottom. Real-life recovering addicts detail their struggles while actors play out their previous lives.
• American Detours. A series about classic cars, with the first episode taking us through Louisiana’s Creole Nature Trail.

Got a series you’d like to see featured in the Indie Spotlight? Be sure to contact us here.