The humorously bitter video series You Suck at Photoshop will return June 27 after a fan backlash erupted following the show’s abrupt ending earlier this year.
Show co-creators Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch will revisit their deliriously demented video tutorials, which feature miserable office drone (and photo-editing expert) Donnie Hoyle delivering caustic, bite-size lessons in layering effects, clone stamping and the quickest route to getting fired.
"Once fans began to realize this was the end of Donnie Hoyle, there was a sudden outcry of anger and confusion," said Hitch, who voices the tutorials, in a phone interview. "People were sending hate mail … posting [threatening] comments and generally doing everything in their individual web 2.0 power to get us to bring Donnie back."
"It was truly the will of the people that took us down this path," added Bledsoe, who said the duo was motivated to bring the show back after seeing "hundreds of people submitting Photoshop tributes" in Donnie’s memory. Tallying more than 9 million pageviews over the 10-episode run and picking up two Webby wins (for "Best How-to" and "Best Comedy Series — People’s Voice") didn’t hurt either.
Bledsoe and Hitch, partners at ad agency Big Fat Institute, said they think You Suck at Photoshop‘s desperately dorky and spastic lead character resonated so strongly with viewers because it wasn’t immediately evident that Donnie was fictional.
"Donnie can out-Photoshop 90 percent of the population, but that’s the only thing he has going for him," said Hitch. "So [he] was born of a lot of people we’ve met working in advertising, people like him with chips on their shoulders."
"We used eBay auctions, Facebook accounts and fake websites to dimensionalize Donnie," said Bledsoe. "And hundreds of people could call in and talk to [Donnie’s hardcore World of Warcraft guildmate] Sn4tchbuckl3r on his Skype account. It all went way past the typical viewing experience."
Die-hard Donnie fans will be pleased to discover that his sudden disappearance after an eerily calm meltdown during his 10th Photoshop lesson (embedded) was more metaphorical than physical. Future tutorials won’t take place in a mental hospital or behind bars, as the SWAT team bursting in during the show’s final episode might suggest.
The question remaining for fans is, where did Donnie go?
"That answer lies in Peopleburg," said Hitch, referring to the online role-playing game at the center of Sn4tchbuckl3r’s Second Chance, a You Suck at Photoshop spinoff about Donnie’s gamer friend.
In the spinoff, Sn4tchbuckl3r flees to an online rehabilitation game to deal with his addiction to MMORPGs.
"Look to episode 5 [of Sn4tchbuckl3r’s Second Chance, which airs this week]," said Hitch. "That is really going to catalyze what’s going to happen with Donnie. It’s no coincidence that Snatch got a mysterious invitation to join Peopleburg right when Donnie disappeared."
Though Bledsoe and Hitch aren’t revealing too much about the next 10 episodes of You Suck at Photoshop, they say the fans are the biggest compass pointing toward the show’s future.
"We are always looking at the show comments to decide what’s next," said Hitch. "The audience around Donnie is the strongest influence on the show, so as long as fans are there, we’re going to carry on."
Season 2 of You Suck at Photoshop launches June 27 on My Damn Channel. New episodes will be released every other Friday.
Photo of Matt Bledsoe, left, and Troy Hitch courtesy My Damn Channel
See also:
Underwire 2.0: Jenna Wortham’s Del.icio.us feeds ; The Underwire on Twitter and Facebook.
