ItsJustSomeRandomGuy

ItsJustSomeRandomGuy is the alias of Michael Agrusso, an American voice acting teacher, writer, and performer working and living in Los Angeles, California. The channel is the source of the YouTube video parody series "Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC", which spoofs Apple's "Get a Mac" television commercials, known for their opening lines, "Hello, I'm a Mac..." "...And I'm a PC."
Background.
In late February/early March 2007, Agrusso read the Internet news that the films based on the DC Comics characters The Flash and Wonder Woman both lost their directors due to creative differences with Warner Brothers on the same day. In contrast, several future films based on Marvel Comics characters were in production. He later saw a "Get a Mac" commercial, which inspired him to parody the contrasting levels of success between Marvel and DC film productions.
Marvel/DC parodies.
Agrusso first wrote the scripts for four videos, using two characters, Spider-Man (Marvel) and Superman (DC), as their companies' representatives. He and his girlfriend Brinna Li filmed action figures in real time against a white sheet using the iSight camera on Agrusso's Mac notebook. They filmed the first video in an hour, and did the editing and voice work in another hour. On March 6, 2007, he created the ItsJustSomeRandomGuy channel on YouTube, and posted the first video. After posting the first two videos throughout March 2007, Agrusso posted six more videos in the subsequent months, also introducing other Marvel and DC characters, as well as original characters Lance (the bartender), Lars (a.k.a. Lance 2.0) and an unnamed referee.
Fearing the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format would get old and repetitive, Agrusso and Li introduced a Heroes' Bar setting for their characters in their sixth and eighth Marvel vs. DC videos. They later abandoned the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format altogether and started a new video series: "After Hours". The first three "After Hours" episodes allowed Agrusso to expand his cast with characters from other comic book movie adaptations. The ending of "After Hours #3" revealed a plot and set up the rest of the 7-part series as a complex and serious storyline in which Lex Luthor attempts to prevent Stan Lee from creating the Marvel Universe. Each subsequent episode became longer in playing time. The last two of "After Hours" had to be cut up into two parts and posted separately. The saga also explored new settings, most notably the wood-themed Villains Hangout.
Between "After Hours #4" and "#5", Agrusso informed fans that he was attending Comic Con 2007. There, representatives from Marvel.com approached him and Li and interviewed them. Afterwards, on August 14, Marvel.com posted the videotaped interview on their website. Concurrently, Agent M, an official Marvel.com blogger, also interviewed Agrusso and posted the channel's first video along with the interview transcript onto his blog. Since then, Agent_M has posted six other videos from Agrusso's channel. Also, in the interim period between "After Hours #5" and "#6", Agrusso created a new spin-off for the Green Goblin character. Titled "Goblin Bloggin", it parodies Internet bloggers, as the Green Goblin rants about his life and relationships, and responds to emails. Agrusso set up a real hotmail account specifically for fans to write emails to the fake blog: goblinbloggin@hotmail.com. He posted "Goblin Bloggin' #2" between "After Hours #6" and "#7" on October 7, 2007, and "Goblin Bloggin' #3" between "Happy Hour #1" and "#2" on July 6, 2008.
On December 2, 2007, the channel posted a holiday-themed video that strayed from the humorous tone of their videos with a theme of giving and receiving gifts. Based on Clement Clark Moore's poem, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," Agrusso originally wrote it as a Christmas present to Li in December 2006. The video was featured on YouTube's main page for weeks.
More than two months after the last "After Hours" episode, which hinted at a second season with the Joker, Agrusso posted a promo video on January 27, 2008 for "Happy Hour", the channel's second video series with a storyline. The promo has nothing to do with the real "Happy Hour" storyline. Three months later, on April 19, 2008, "Happy Hour #1" debuted at the 2008 New York Comic Con and was posted on the channel hours later. Then the series would go on a five-month hiatus, as the summer of 2008 began. A month after the "Happy Hour" promo was released, Agrusso released news on the channel on February 19, 2008, that he was hired by the New York Comic Con to make promotional videos for their event in April 2008. However, he could not post them unless he got the rights from Marvel and DC. Two days later, he posted his first of three Marvel-centric promotional videos, indicating that Marvel supported and permitted him to post his videos with their characters. He posted the other two videos during the next two months before the event. On April 11, 2008, a week before the convention, Agrusso released more news that NYCC scheduled a live panel for him to premiere his first episode "Happy Hour" and talk with fans. The panel on April 19, 2008, called "ItsJustSomeRandomPanel", began with an opening montage, which compiled clips from his videos. (This video was posted on the channel later that night.) Agrusso officially started with a confession that he forgot to buy a second airline ticket for Li. Instead, he showed a video of her greeting to the fans, in which Li explains her important role in making the videos and guilt-tripped Agrusso in the process. This, too, was posted on the channel that night. Agrusso continued the presentation with the DC-centric promo videos he made for the convention. At the request of DC, he was not allowed to post them on the channel, and for the most part, the Internet public has not seen them. He then described "Happy Hour" as a series with actual sets, special effects and bigger storylines, but retaining the same humor. Then he showed the two-part "Happy Hour #1". He later posted these videos as well, posting an unprecedented total 4 videos in one night.
Following the videos, there was a short Q&A session. The following is a summary of what Agrusso said:
In the summer of 2008, five superhero movie blockbusters opened: "Iron Man", "The Incredible Hulk", "Hancock", "", and "The Dark Knight". In response, Agrusso created a second "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series, this time with Iron Man (Marvel), the Hulk (Marvel), Batman (DC) and Hellboy (Dark Horse) instead of Spider-Man and Superman. The series spanned across the duration of the summer as the new superhero movies opened.
On October 3, 2008, over five months since the debut of "Happy Hour #1", Agrusso posted "Happy Hour #2". The reason for the time gap was that Agrusso and Li went back to the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format during the 2008 summer movie season, making seven videos in that time. On November 5, 2008, Agrusso posted "Happy Hour #3". On January 15, 2009, Agrusso posted "Happy Hour #4". In the video information section, he posted this message: "To Be Concluded at the New York Comic Con on February 7 at 4:00 on ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's Panel! Premiering online afterwards!" On February 8, 2009, "Happy Hour #5" debuted at the 2009 New York Comic Con and was posted on the channel hours later. This concluded the "Happy Hour" storyline.
Agrusso was again hired by the New York Comic Con to make promotional videos for their event in February 2009. On December 18, 2008, December 31, 2008, January 13, 2009, January 21, 2009, and January 28, 2009, he posted five more Marvel-centric promotional videos, the second of which parodies the MasterCard "priceless" television commercials. In addition to the promotional videos, NYCC again scheduled a panel for Agrusso and Li, this time to premiere the season finale of "Happy Hour", more new videos, and hold a question and answer session.
In February 2009, Agrusso and Li took several intentional steps to connect with fans of ItsJustSomeRandomGuy. They created a Twitter account so that fans could be more easily updated about their activities, they collaborated with another parody video maker, The Fine Brothers, by voicing Batman in their Lost parody series, and on February 24, 2009, they hosted a live Q&A session on blogTV to answer questions from fans who could not be at New York Comic Con 2009. On February 24, 2009, immediately after their live Q&A session via blogTV, Agrusso and Li recorded a 10-minute video on blogTV, allowing for anyone who missed the session to view a sampling of it. As of March 28, 2009, the video has been viewed over 11,830 times. On February 26, 2009, Agrusso submitted a request to YouTube that ItsJustSomeRandomGuy be a YouTube partner channel, and it was promptly accepted. As a partner, Agrusso and Li now receive a share in revenue for advertisements seen during their videos, and they also have partner privileges, such as the automatic play of a video, the ability to post more than three playlists on their channel, and the distribution of their videos to "the largest worldwide online video community" via YouTube and its syndication partners. On March 26, 2009, Agrusso posted a short video announcing that he and Li would begin broadcasting weekly live chat sessions on blogTV, every Tuesday night starting on March 31, 2009.
2009 saw the opening of "Watchmen" and "". In response, Agrusso started a third "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series with Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Cyclops, and Gambit representing Marvel and Rorschach, Doctor Manhattan, The Comedian and Nite Owl representing DC. The first video was posted on March 4, 2009, the second was posted on March 13, 2009, and the third was posted on March 23, 2009. Also in 2009, Agrusso began spoofing the major summer blockbusters with the Marvel/DC characters since no comic book movies from Marvel and DC were being released.
In 2010, Marvel released Iron Man 2 and DC released Jonah Hex. Argusso created a fourth "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series to coincide with the film's releases. He uses Iron Man to represent Marvel and Jonah Hex to represent DC. The first video released on May 5, 2010 and the second released on May 24, 2010. The video that premiered on May 24 was ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's 100th upload.
Characters.
The characters within these parodies are mostly based on characters from DC or Marvel Comics.
Villains.
Marvel.
Characters from other companies make occasional appearances, such as Hellboy (Dark Horse Comics), Woody from "Toy Story" (Disney/Pixar), Spawn (Image Comics), Kick-Ass (Icon), The Losers (Vertigo), and Constantine (Vertigo).
Real-Life people are also used in episodes. Bob Kane, Stan Lee, Bill Finger, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko are all shown
Ontario PGA Golf Merchandise Show.
On October 16, 2008, Agrusso posted this message on the ItsJustSomeRandomGuy channel:
"We got hired to make a video for the Ontario PGA Golf Merchandise Show! Check it out in my favorites!"
He then added a video to the "Favorites" section on the channel, which promotes the aforementioned event. Although the video was posted by the ONTPGA YouTube channel on August 27, 2008, the video is clearly Agrusso's and Li's work, as it is in the same format as his other videos (live-action figurines voiced by Agrusso). While he does not use any Marvel or DC action figures, there is a cameo appearance by Agrusso's original character, Lance M. Donovan.
Reception and popularity.
As of November 25, 2012, 165,528 YouTube users were subscribed to the channel and its videos had been viewed more than 79 million times; the channel's first video has been viewed over 4.8 million times. An official press release by New York Comic Con via Comic Book Resources called Agrusso "a genuine Internet superstar." In July 2008, q4music.com ranked one of the channel's videos as one of the top ten YouTube videos of the month.
Several online magazines such as Wonderland Stream magazine, Comic Book Resources, Newsarama, Comic Mix, and SpoutBlog have posted interviews with Agrusso, the channel's creator. Several others have reviewed, researched, and written articles about the channel, giving it even wider exposure. In fact, the channel has become so popular that Joe Leo, a columnist for the Apple's advertising strategic partner, PowerBook Central, took note and wrote an article in his column about it.
Although Agrusso does not work for Marvel, Marvel.com has a featured blog that shows the videos and posts their interviews with him. In March 2008, Marvel gave him the rights to use their characters in promotional videos for New York Comic Con 2008. The channel re-invents the personalities of several comic book characters, including the Green Goblin. On October 1, 2008, Iron Man director Jon Favreau mentioned ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's work in a Los Angeles Times live chat: "I LOVE the Marvel/DC YouTube bits on Iron Man and Dark Knight. Awesome. The Marvel guys love them too."
The channel primarily discusses comic book films from the two major comic book companies (Marvel and DC) using humor. Agrusso writes, performs, and shoots his videos at home.
Since the channel's first video in March 2007, several other successful Marvel/DC video series have been created, as well as promotional videos for a major comic book convention, which also gave Agrusso his own discussion panel to talk about the channel. Several external websites have posted its videos on their own webpages.
In 2012, Agrusso voiced Superman in an episode of the popular web series, "Death Battle", by ScrewAttack, and also helped promote the video with his own skits. It was the most highly requested episode in which Superman would fight Goku from Dragon Ball Z, and has received 38 million views to this day. Agrusso reprised his role for a second episode in 2015.
Videography.
The Comic Book Movie Championships!
In February 2013, RandomGuy announced "Marvel Vs. DC: The Comic Book Movie Championships!", where all Marvel and DC's theatrically released movies are put in a tournament bracket, with the matches earning each a video characters debating, and votes being cast on the comments section. The winners of each matchup are bolded.
Music.
Agrusso uses the GarageBand program on his computer to create much of the background music for his videos. He has composed a few pieces of music: