Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series (often abbreviated to Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged or simply "YGOTAS") is a popular fan parody of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime created by Martin Billany, better known by his screen name, LittleKuriboh.

Overview
As the name suggests, Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series is a dramatically shortened down version of the original series, cutting each episode down from its original twenty minutes and parodying them. This includes episodes in two or more parts. During the first two seasons, all characters in the series were voiced by LittleKuriboh, even the female ones, adding to the comical effect of the parody. A notable exception of this were the characters of Rebecca Hawkins in the regular series and Gary Stu in the Other Abridged Movie, which were voiced by LittleKuriboh's now ex-wife, Abigail, mostly referred to by her screen-name Safty. However, with the introduction of Noah and The Big Five in Season 3, a number of other YouTube voice actors, mainly from the group Team Four Star, have become part of the main cast.

The series is focused on making fun of the eccentricities of the series, most prominently the fact that Duel Monsters is a children's card game, yet is played by teens and adults with unfaltering seriousness and unreal consequences. This leads to frequent commentaries about the role of the game in the series and the plot of such. It also lampoons the changes made to the series in the English dub, and greatly exaggerates the characters' personalities from that version, to comic effect. There are also jokes that break the "fourth wall".

The humor of the series has constantly varied and expanded from its original premise. Rather than just making fun at the original series, other elements have been added throughout time to the parody.

All episodes would end with a scene from the anime juxtaposed with audio from another source. For example, the end of episode 2 featured Téa and Yami Marik as Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, respectively, in a scene from the Superman Returns trailer.

Recently as of Episode 40, LittleKuriboh has been using tracks from the English dub along with other music he usually finds for episodes. They give the series a bit more of that "Yu-Gi-Oh!-feel" to them.

Season 3, renamed Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Cancelled Series, began on May 25, 2010.

'Attention Duelists! My hair is telling you that there are: Plot Endings and/or Spoilers Below'

'Attention Duelists! My mullet is agreeing with you'

Billany also created an abridged series based on the first anime series. In this series, Yami is much more malevolent than in the original abridged series, Kaiba is much kinder, and Mokuba is now evil.

Conception
The concept behind Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series was inspired by many short parodies on the internet that used the premise of a film of TV show to lampoon the film or show it came from. After seeing 'Curtdogg's' "'Yu-Gi-Oh!' in a Nutshell", a parody of the first season of the second series, LittleKuriboh sought to flesh out his concept, parodying a single episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!, while also seeking to make it appeal to people who had never seen the series before.

LittleKuriboh initially intended to only abridge the first episode, but after a very positive reaction, he continued to abridge the following episodes. By the time Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series exploded in popularity, he had committed to abridging every episode of the series.

Running gags

 * 4Kids Entertainment is often used as a joke because they make fun of the Shadow Realm and that they hate Disney. They are also a major antagonist in the series. Ironically, LittleKuriboh subscribed to 4Kids on YouTube.
 * Naruto: The Abridged Series and Dragon Ball Z: The Abridged Series are constantly referred to and/or made fun of.
 * Most characters have recurring catchphrases.
 * Characters assume that Ryo Bakura is made fun of due to his British nationality and is constantly referred to as gay (despite his claim of, "I'm not gay, I'm British") as well as the fact he is a minor character until the last season. He also has a "gaydar" installed in the Millennium Ring to locate gay people.
 * Joey Wheeler's Brooklyn accent is constantly lampooned. Many jokes are made about Joey being a furry who he has claimed to be one, denied being one when called such by Kaiba.
 * When Marik Ishtar, his father, or Dartz say "f***" it is censored, a loud "eff" sound (itself a sound bite taken from Perfect Hair Forever) is heard instead of a bleep.
 * Seto Kaiba constantly mentions how rich he is and loves to flaunt it in the face of other characters. His line from the first episode of "Screw the rules, I have money!" has since become an internet meme. Other episodes have Kaiba paraphrasing the line in various ways. ("Screw the rules, I have green hair!", "Screw the money, I have rules! Wait let me try that again.", "My affluence makes a nonsense of the regulations!") Additionally, his lust for power is occasionally treated as a fetish, to the point that he becomes aroused whenever an Egyptian God card is summoned. Also, many characters refer to his enormous ego, and he approves of this himself. He is more obsessed with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and admits that he has looked in to marrying it. He is also obsessed with internet memes. He also seemed to be more open to truth behind his ancient past than in the original series, when he said "So I was an ancient priest and me and Yami are destined to duel forever (Ishizu says yes)? BEST DESTINY EVER!"
 * Nobody, not even Seto, respects Mokuba Kaiba, and most characters simply respond to anything he says with "Shut up, Mokuba." Mokuba is also kidnapped repeatedly, to the point that the characters (Mokuba included) treat it as a common occurrence and show no concern for him. Even Mokuba himself has become quite used to it and has even claimed that elements of it were fun. For instance he claimed that Pegasus took him on a picnic and Marik ordered pizza, when complaining about Noah's kidnapping.
 * Mako Tsunami is called a "freaky fish guy" and throws harpoons at people. He is in love with the ocean, but their relationship has problems as she rarely speaks to him. They have recently reconciled.
 * Kemo begins almost every sentence with "Attention duelists!", even when not speaking to duelists, and constantly makes reference to his hair when doing anything. He also claims to have taken "child-grabbing classes".
 * Grandpa wants to die and has frequent heart attacks which never actually kill him. He also is hinted to carry on a sexual relationship with a "Black Luster Soldier" poster. Yugi has also mentioned that his grandpa "lives in his basement and eats all his food."
 * Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" plays whenever Duke Devlin talks, but he doesn't seem aware of it. He also likes Joey's sister, Serenity, and openly competes with Tristan for her affection (which actually happens in the real anime). Everything he says has something to do with sex. He also has a disease that causes him to die if he wasn't surrounded by half naked girls.
 * Shadi is Borat. Other characters constantly point out that his role in the series is useless because he only explains things after they have already happened. Shadi also talks just like Borat and is an anti-semite. He embraces his anti-semitism to such an extreme that he actually believes that the word "jew" itself is a synonym for the word "bad," revealed when he said "This boy saved my life! perhaps he is not as Jewish as I thought!" The joke is that Borat was a Jew.
 * Maximillion Pegasus is thought to be gay, and the revelation that he had a wife and is straight is treated as a plot twist. He has since been implied to be a pedophile, and is still considered gay by other characters.He recently brought his dead wife back to life as a zombie at one of Marik's evil meetings with the help of Rebecca Hawkins' evil teddy; however, is was only Bakura's dream. It turned out that Abridged-verse Pegasus is indeed straight and Bakura's gaydar was actually pointing at his right-hand man Croquet.
 * Mai Valentine's purpose of only being there to provide fanservice is lampooned by most characters, who only notice her breasts. Mai herself is very proud of them, claims them not to be fake (which the other characters object to), and frequently talks about them.
 * Yami Yugi moves between outright proclaiming that he is gay to blatantly hitting on the female characters. He is also known for "killing a gay clown."
 * Various elements of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's , and Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL interconnect through their abridged counterparts.
 * The use of various modern slang in GX is often pointed out, having the characters refer to the series as a spin-off show called Yu-Gi-Oh! DMX, and having the GX opening with DMX's "X Gon Give it To Ya" playing over it. Kaiba also contemplates the idea of an "academy that will teach people how to play a children's card game," but then dismisses the idea, calling it "stupid". Ishizu also tells him of his construction of Duel Academy, causing Kaiba to say she is "full of crap". At one point, the characters are shown a "vision of the future (the English opening to GX)", and they are universally horrified.
 * The concept of "card games on motorcycles" in 5D's is often laughed at by characters from YGOTAS and YGXTAS. Whenever motorcycles are in the show, 5D's is almost always referenced in some way, shape, or form. In the 10th Anniversary Abridged Trailer, the characters claim that they "came" when hearing of the concept of card games on motorcycles in 3D. It should also be noted that Jack Atlas speaks in a heavy, brain-damaged type of way, often not even in complete sentences (possibly due to the creator's mediocre opinion on Jack's English VA). Yugi refers to this manner of speech as a "stereotypical australian accent".
 * ZEXAL, in a similar fashion, is refered to as "Card Games in Space!" as well as constant remarks of the series being "EXTREME!" due to the "X" of "ZEXAL" (Yuma is also voiced with a stereotypical "90's kid" voice and does many "EXTREME!" activities).
 * Everybody refers to Duel Monsters simply as "a children's card game." Despite this, in real life the game is a fairly complex one and may not be comprehendable to the delicate children's mind. Card games are referenced constantly as the most important thing in the world, and are the way in which all problems are solved. However, it is considered ridiculous for a child to be good at it (as suggested with the introduction of Rebecca Hawkins).
 * All of Marik's henchmen are named Steve, as the Millennium Rod can only control people named "Steve". When Marik wishes to control people not named Steve, he must first trick them into legally changing their names to it.
 * Odion Ishtar seems to have great interest in children's things, particularly the gummy bears (who he used as cards in a duel once. He also called Marik an asshole when he threatened to take his gummy bears away).
 * "Obnoxious Celtic Guardian" is referred to by a different adjective every time it is summoned, such as "disgruntled", "bamboozled", "frustrated" and "agnostic".
 * Jinzo's special ability in the Abridged is to negate internet references (parodying Jinzo's infamous ability in real life to negate trap cards), which apparently make up the majority of the decks of Joey, Kaiba, and possibly other duelists.
 * The Egyptian Gods have each a joke along: "Slifer the Sky Dragon" is called "Slifer the Executive Producer", a jab at Slifer's English name being derived from 4Kids executive Roger Slifer. "The Winged Dragon of Ra" is called "Mega Ultra Chicken", which is a reference to Aqua Teen Hunger Force. A sound clip of Joey and Tristan saying the word "torment" is played anytime that "Obelisk the Tormentor" attacks.
 * Yami Marik is named Melvin, and rather then being Marik's alter-ego, he is Marik's imaginary friend. He loves to give people "hugs", which he uses as euphemism for murder. Melvin has a habit of calling people Binky-boy, a tendency shared by Mr. Ishtar and Marik. Next to 4kids, he seems to be the closest thing the Abridged has to an actual villain, but even he rarely behaves like one.
 * Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor are Beavis and Butthead respectively.
 * Bandit Keith ends every sentence with "In America" and constantly references America even though he is actually Canadian (and waves a Canadian mini-flag in Episode 50).
 * Zorc loves to destroy things and is frequently proclaiming that he will destroy the world. Whenever he mentions this, a laugh track is played. He seems to say it like its a typical job, indicating that he's "destroyed the world" multiple times even though the world seemed relatively unscathed. Like he'll say something like "Hunny I'm back home from destroying the world."
 * Rebecca Hawkins's bear is depicted as possessed by a demonic spirit, speaking in a guttural voice about Hell, Satan and death.
 * Yugi once said, "Every time Kaiba smiles, a puppy dies." This would be referenced later (four times so far), with "+1 Dead Puppies", "+100 Dead Puppies", "+9001 Dead Puppies", and "+10000000000 Dead Puppies" accompanying every Kaiba smile.
 * Captions reading "Actual 4Kids Dialogue" crop up during some of the more absurd lines, indicating that the some of the dialogue wasn't something LittleKuriboh made up, for example Ryo Bakura saying "Check his pulse, Yugi!" and Mokuba calling Kaiba's Duel Robot a "digital dummy."
 * Bonz is constantly being referred to as "Zombie Boy" and he only says the word "brains", which he constantly does when talking. Subtitles were added, that help the viewer and the characters understand what he's trying to say. When Marik kicked him out of the Evil Council, he defected to Dartz' team. He rarely speaks properly.
 * Roland and Kaiba's other suit are Nazi German stereotypes with high pitched voices and heavy German accents. They refer to Kaiba as "Der Führer". In episode 39, they introduce themselves as Gruber and Hans, which is a reference to the the German terrorist Hans Gruber in the movie 'Die hard'.
 * Tea flirts with Yugi and Yami at any chance she gets. She drools over Marik too. She constantly gives friendship speeches and is considered slutty and annoying.
 * Dartz's thick accent makes it difficult for even his henchmen to understand him (the words "do" and "duel" are frequently confused, much to his henchmen's chagrin) and his hair is constantly changing color. He is a reference to the character Coiffio from Perfect Hair Forever.
 * Serenity Wheeler's voice is high pitched and sounds like Jar Jar Binks and seem to love Tristan Taylor, where as in the anime it never reveals if she does or not. Also, she has apparently had sex with Duke.
 * Alister voice sounds like he is cracking and according to Rafael he is always comparing things to Harry Potter, like birds, trains and underage school girls.
 * Rare Hunters are all named "Steve" by Marik.
 * "Season 0" is sometimes made fun of because it was "super violent" and only released in Japan.
 * At some points of the series, some henchmen have "Invisible Guns" as a joke to how most scenes where people had guns were censored in the 4kids dub. This joke was also used when Yami Bakura was dueling Bonz in the battle city tournament where a scene was taken and made it so Bakura shot Bonz in the head with an invisible gun.
 * They often make jokes about "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody". Tristan claims that they are his conscience. A parody called "The Suite Life of Zork and Cody" was also featured in one episode, the plot leading to Zork killing everyone quite quickly.
 * Yugi never notices the clocks on screen (such as episode 28 and the BBT abridged movie) so he always asks if anyone knows what time it is.
 * None of the abridged characters behave anything like the original characters. Both Yugi, Yami, and Joey behaved more obnoxious in this series, and Bakura (both Ryou Bakura and Yami Bakura) is always either being picked on or not being acknowledged as a main character, when actually (Yami) Bakura is one of the most recurring and significant characters and in the original series.
 * Since people in the Abridged series see all the wholes in the plotlines that the characters in the real series don't, they question a lot of the stuff Ishizu says, so whenever that happens, she simply says "Because shut up," because she can't actually give a logical explanation.
 * Just as Rex and Weevil constantly parody Beavis and Butt-Head, Luna and Umbrus do the same with a recurring pair of antagonizing moon people in Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
 * The evil manifestation within Marik was called Melvin in the Abridged series for unknown reasons.
 * Apparently in the Abridged Series, Paradox was the great great grandson of Dartz.
 * The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past is the only recurring character in the Abridged Series to sound almost identical (and could possibly be the same voice) to his original counterpart (in this case the one from Aqua Teen Hunger Force).
 * Like in most spoofs, the moral allignments of good and bad have lost their meaning. Heroes like Yami, Yugi, Tea, and Joey become more obnoxious and less heroic and villains like Melvin, Marik, Bakura, and Dartz become more annoying and less malevolent.
 * Apparently Yami Bakura's real name was Florence and he claims that's why he became "bad" because how ridiculous it was for his parents to do that to him.
 * Marik's father is apparently named Hank Ishtar and sounds like Super Mario.
 * Akiza (from 5D's) is the only main female character who actually sounds like a actual woman in the Abridged series. Mai sounds like a man impersonating a woman, Ishizu sounds like something in between Bakura and Marik, Serenity sounds like an alien with an intensely high (like helium high) voice, and Tea and Alexis sound like Mickey Mouse.
 * People in the series always seem to look down upon Season 4, complaining that its the most boring and least popular season. This is probably true as it exaggerates the power of card games beyond belief and deserves all the bad reputation it receives.

Impact
Many people have also started to make their own "Abridged Series" of the same kind as LittleKuriboh. Some of the more successful ones include Naruto and Dragonball Z. LittleKuriboh encourages this, and has made guest appearances on both of those shows, and even created a friendly parody of the Naruto abridged series, titled "Naruto The Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show" and is a part of Team Four Star, the creators of one of the more popular Dragon Ball Z abridged series. He also regularly makes fun of both his series in the other, particularly his abridged Naruto series and the Team Four Star Dragon Ball Z abridged, in which he once references the "Naruto The Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show" as having no fanbase. By this point, Abridging has more or less become a genre unto itself.

Voice actors for Yu-Gi-Oh's American dub are aware of the Abridged series and have actually quoted lines from episodes as per fan requests at conventions. Examples of this include Wayne Grayson saying 'Nyeh' and 'Brooklyn Rage!!' in his Joey voice, and Frank Frankson saying 'My voice gives me super-strength' in his Tristan voice.

Impostors
In light of the popularity of "The Abridged Series", several fake accounts have cropped up, most actually insulting LittleKuriboh and his work. The rise of fake LittleKuriboh videos is later parodied in episode 18, when Yami summons LittleKuriboh impostors, which prevents Pegasus from finding the real LittleKuriboh, and thus prevents him from watching the Abridged series (as well as making Yami the winner of the duel).

Copyright infringement charges on YouTube
On the week of March 8, 2007, the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series was removed from YouTube by site administration, citing copyright infringement as the reason for the removal. LittleKuriboh reportedly heard nothing from the administration regarding this removal or if the the other episodes are in danger of being removed as well. In response to this, LittleKuriboh posted Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series Episode 1 (Live Performance), which was a video of him performing the voice over part of episode 1 on the street, without using footage from the anime. Soon after this, episode 2 was also removed for the same reason.

On March 12, 2007, LittleKuriboh posted a live video announcing several new sites that his videos would be available on. In the video, LittleKuriboh is in a Kaiba cosplay outfit and impersonates Kaiba (Which was later removed by Youtube). The three new sites presented were http://www.jentsproductions.com/littlekuriboh/, http://www.dailymotion.com/littlekuriboh/, and http://www.littlekuriboh.head-desk.org/. However, http://www.littlekuriboh.head-desk.org/ is no longer available due to bandwidth issues.

On June 19, just one day after release, all parts of The Abridged Movie were removed from YouTube (parts 1, 2, and 3 were removed by YouTube while part 4 is removed by LK) along with episode 20, 21 and 22. However, DailyMotion.com has started removing videos as well. LittleKuriboh later reported on his LiveJournal that he removed the movie, but would re-upload it to remove a brief jab at Upper Deck Entertainment.

However, while YouTube has claimed copyright infringement is displayed on the videos, there has never been a claim by 4Kids themselves to have the videos removed. This has further supported the theory adopted by LittleKuriboh's fans that other users themselves are flagging the videos. Due to the enormous number of videos on YouTube, administrators appear to not have the time to review the material in question and promptly delete it without a second thought. Several users have left messages on LittleKuriboh's message board saying they were the ones who flagged the videos. LittleKuriboh's fans respond in kind by blocking the users and flagging their videos to have their accounts closed. In response to the flagging, LittleKuriboh had Kaiba, while sitting at the computer, say "I'm busy flagging YouTube videos to compensate for the fact that I have an extremely small penis."

On June 22, 2007, LittleKuriboh began offering direct downloads of every episode in WMV format, plus episode 1 of Cr@psule Monsters, the Christmas Special, and the Abridged Movie, through a website with the domain http://www.yugiohtheabridgedseries.com/ so as to avoid the risk of removal by YouTube and DailyMotion. The full site formally launched on July 16, 2007. As of July 20, 2007 the site has added a bittorrent tracker. Season 1, Cr@psule Monsters, the Christmas Special, and the Abridged Movie are currently available in two torrents: One containing the videos in WMV format, and the other in MP4 format. Recently, the official website has began hosting their videos on the site REVVER, which, though including ads at the end of every video, helps Little Kuriboh pay for the sites server load, which is excessive due to the episodes extreme popularity. On October 5, 2007, LittleKuriboh's site was accidentally crashed by the admins in an attempt to add a friends list function.

On July 10, 2007, LittleKuriboh's account was suspended on YouTube, likely due to repeated flagging by other users. However, the account was re-opened again three days later on July 13, as well as LittleKuriboh being awarded status in the Most Subscribed and Most Viewed league tables, which some fans believe he should have been in previously. On August 13, 2007, LittleKuriboh's YouTube account was suspended yet again. The last video he posted was a video of LittleKuriboh himself proposing to his girlfriend. The video was disguised as "Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series Episode 2X". Disguising videos by the thumbnail is indeed a violation of Youtube's terms of service, and may have played a part in the second suspension. This created another uproar from his fans demanding for LittleKuriboh's account to be returned once again with no response from YouTube's administrators. Many fans of LittleKuriboh continue to upload his videos onto YouTube.

CardGamesFTW
LittleKuriboh created a second account on YouTube, the same account that was featured at the end of Marik's Evil Council of Doom #1, CardGamesFTW, and has uploaded all Episodes of Season 1 & 2 of The Abridged Series, the 2nd Christmas special, and the Movie, as well as other comedic material.

On April 13, 2009, LittleKuriboh uploaded a redux version of Episode 1 with better quality video and audio. This episode was formatted like later episodes with the Season 1 intro, logo and quote at the end. A bonus ending was also added with a little variation of the "Screw the rules" joke. On April 29, 2009, LittleKuriboh uploaded older episodes of the series. All episodes of Seasons 1 & 2 have been uploaded.

On December 16, 2009, LittleKuriboh's channel won an award in Mashable's 3rd Annual Open Web Awards for the Funniest YouTube Channel. On January 8, 2010, LittleKuriboh was chosen to attend an interview with Kanashimi at 91.8 the Fan. He accepted. On January 30, 2010, LittleKuriboh's channel became the #1 most subscribed channel in Japan. To celebrate, he created a Magibon-esque video, referencing the former #1 channel.

Littlekuriboh's first and second accounts were subject to suspension from YouTube on grounds of copyright infringement, although it was later reinstated; the most recent period of suspension was from March to April 2011, bringing the total number of consecutive suspensions to four.

In June 2011, CardGamesFTW was banned from Youtube due to copyright claims from several Japanese sources, but reopened one week later.

In February 2012 CardGamesFTW was banned again, but was reinstated in March of that same year.

LittleKuriboh has said in one of his Card Games For Charity videos that his channel being taken down was automated although fans did not listen and there have been more videos posted to YouTube of fans getting mad at 4Kids Entertainment.

On June 26, 2012 CardGamesFTW was suspended and unsuspended on July 15.

On July 29, 2012 CardGamesFTW was been terminated. LittleKuriboh had posted a video saying this might happen and that he would continue to post new episodes on his new account Little Kuriboh. On August 7, CardGamesFTW returned, minus episode 56.

Music
Most episodes have background music conveniently placed to fit the perfect moments.

Bonus videos
Besides the normal videos LittleKuriboh also made bonus videos. These include: