Max John Gilardi[2] (/dʒɪˈlɑːrdi/ jil-AR-dee; born January 28, 1988),[3][4] also known as Max G or his Internet pseudonym HotDiggedyDemon, is an American internet personality, YouTuber, cartoonist, animator, and voice actor. He is best known for his PONY.MOV web series, a parody of the popular children's animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, other viral videos, and his media analysis series known as Brain Dump.
| Max Gilardi | ||||||||||
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 Gilardi in 2014 | ||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||
| Born | Max John Gilardi January 28, 1988 Massachusetts, U.S. | |||||||||
| Other names |
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| Website | hotdiggedydemon | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Channel | ||||||||||
| Years active | 2003–present | |||||||||
| Genre | Comedy | |||||||||
| Subscribers | 2 million[1] | |||||||||
| Total views | 436 million[1] | |||||||||
| Associated acts |
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Last updated: 11 Mar 2024 | ||||||||||
Early life and education
editGilardi was born in Massachusetts in 1988.[4][5] He is of Italian descent and has an older sister. He attended the Art Institute of Boston briefly before dropping out after one of four years in an animation major.[6]
Career
editGilardi, under the name "HotDiggedyDemon", first started creating Flash animations in the mid 2000s on Newgrounds as a teenager. Among shorts, he would experiment in launching his own original cartoon. These early efforts included Adam Android, about a superpowered robot boy, and Spookyville USA, about a town of monsters.[5] In 2007, he began uploading his work to his YouTube channel. That year, he created the Jerry series, a collection of web animations detailing the terrible and mundane life of a man named Jerry, and people related to him.[4]
In 2010, he created the Wacky Game Jokez, 4 Kidz! series, also known as WGJ4K, starring a fictional criminal named Mickey the Dick who is kidnapped by a corporation specializing in video-game parody content. In addition to creating animations, he co-hosted the Wisenheimers podcast with fellow animator Yotam Perel, also known as LazyPillow or LazyMuffin, from 2010 to 2012.[7][better source needed]
In 2011, Gilardi was contacted by Nickelodeon asking if he would be interested in pitching an animated series to the television network. Gilardi traveled to the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, California to pitch a cartoon featuring his original character "Fishworth", however, plans for this and other concepts ultimately fell through and a show would not be picked up. He would return to Nickelodeon for a short period of freelance work on SpongeBob SquarePants. In an interview with YouTuber Dovendraw in August 2023, Gilardi stated that in retrospect, having a TV show was a "crazy upheaval" he wasn't sure he was capable of.[8]
From 2011 to 2013, he gained notoriety for releasing his six-part video parody of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, PONY.MOV, an adult animated dark comedy web series in the art style of John Kricfalusi and Spümcø's The Ren & Stimpy Show.[9][10] The series obtained a spin-off in the form of a Tumblr webcomic, Ask Jappleack, and each video highlights a different character from the main cast of the television series.
He also gained notability for his comedic parodies of video games like Five Nights at Freddy's, Cuphead, and Animal Crossing, due to their dark nature and subversive themes. The Animal Crossing parody has Isabelle, an innocent character in the game, worshiping Karl Marx.[11][12]
Gilardi has over two million subscribers on YouTube.[13] The majority of his videos are self-made: written, animated, and voiced[6] by himself. In his more recent projects, he has experimented with 3D animation in conjuction with his 2D work.[6][14] On September 2, 2016, Gilardi launched a new YouTube series titled Brain Dump in which he reviews movies and other media, often satirically.[15] The series has since become the main focus of Gilardi's channel, with an overarching narrative exploring his career, and the show's three main characters. Brain Dump stars Gilardi himself, a ghost named Goofball, and a living television named Burnbot.[citation needed][needs update]
On November 6, 2023, Gilardi started a series of live streams called Relax with Max through his YouTube channel, previously on Twitch, where he plays video games and interacts with his audience in real time.[16] On May 3, 2024, Gilardi revealed that he had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia during one of his live streams, which had affected the scope of his animated work. He also announced there are no current plans for future episodes of Brain Dump, putting the series on indefinite hiatus while he continues his focus on Relax With Max.
Gilardi has cited Craig McCracken, Matt Groening, John Kricfalusi, Jhonen Vasquez, Danny Antonucci, Genndy Tartakovsky, United Productions of America, Hanna-Barbera, Junji Ito, Akira Toriyama, Bill Watterson, and early Charles Schulz as influences on his art and animation.[17][18]
Filmography
editTelevision
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | SpongeBob SquarePants | Storyboard Artist ("Boss for a Day") |
Web
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003–2005 | Adam Android | Creator | |
| 2006–2008 | Spookyville USA | Sal J. Beauregarde, Jake O'Brien | Creator |
| 2007–2009 | Jerry | Jason, Junior | Creator |
| 2010 | Wacky Game Jokez, 4 Kidz! | Mickey the Dick, June, Eric, The Boss | Creator |
| Eddsworld | The Delivery Guy | Episode: Hammer & Fail (Part 1) | |
| NiN10Doh!: To the 64th Power! | Ness' Dad | Voice role | |
| 2010–2012 | Wisenheimers | Self | Podcast, co-host, 48 episodes |
| 2011 | The Northern Incident | Animator | |
| 2011–2013 | PONY.MOV | Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, various | Creator |
| 2014 | Luigi's Day Out | Mario, Luigi, Waluigi | Animator |
| Skeff's Saturday | The Dog | Voice role | |
| 2015 | Fazbear & Friends | Freddy Fazbear, Foxy the Pirate | Animator |
| 2016 | Isabelle Ruins Everything | Mayor, various | Animator |
| 2016–2022 | Brain Dump | Max G (voice), Goofball, various | Creator |
| 2017 | A Cuphead Cartoon | Cuphead, Mugman | Animator |
Sourced from Gilardi's IMDb page and YouTube channel.[19]
References
edit- ^ a b "About hotdiggedydemon". YouTube.
- ^ "Hotdiggedydemon Tumblr". Tumblr. Retrieved August 4, 2024.
- ^ Max G [@hotdiggedydemon] (January 29, 2016). "Thanks for all the birthday drawings ..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 5, 2017. Retrieved May 21, 2016 – via Twitter.
- ^ a b c "Gilardi Animates Jerry's Daily Grind". Cold Hard Flash. June 27, 2007. Archived from the original on June 30, 2007. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
- ^ a b McCloud, Skye (May 5, 2004). "[ NG Mag ]- Max Gilardi". Newgrounds. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012.
- ^ a b c "Hotdiggedydemon • Frequently Asked Questions!". Hotdiggedydemon.com. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
- ^ "Wisenheimers by Wisenheimers on iTunes". iTunes. April 26, 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
- ^ "20 Years of BRAIN DUMP (Interview w/@hotdiggedydemon)". Dovendraw. August 20, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023 – via YouTube.
- ^ Woerner, Meredith (June 26, 2012). "Incredibly messed-up short gives My Little Ponys's Pinkie Pie a sex tape". io9. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
- ^ Stohs-Krause, Hilary (December 26, 2013). "BEST OF 2013: 'Brony' fandom carves out space for young men to enjoy friendship ... and cartoon ponies". Netnebraska.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
- ^ "A Cuphead fan has made his own cartoon". Hypertext. November 20, 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
- ^ "Isabelle Has Some Revolutionary Ideas For Running Your Animal Crossing Town". Kotaku. January 25, 2016. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
- ^ "hotdiggedydemon YouTube Stats, Channel Statistics". Social Blade. Socialblade.com. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
- ^ Person, Chris (August 19, 2013). "King of the Hill, In Eye-Popping 3D". Kotaku. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
- ^ Max G [@hotdiggedydemon] (September 2, 2016). "Please watch my new clickbate / movie review show, BRAIN DUMP! ..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2016 – via Twitter.
- ^ RELAX WITH MAX | Finding kingdom of Jericho??, November 6, 2023, retrieved March 17, 2024
- ^ "Hotdiggedydemon Tumblr". Tumblr. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
- ^ "Hotdiggedydemon Tumblr". Tumblr. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
- ^ "Max Gilardi". IMDb. Retrieved September 29, 2024.