Teen series The Normal MFer follows Backrooms by growing audience on YouTube

The Normal MFer follows a video game player’s desire to grow up

Animated series for teens The Normal MFer has gained a following on YouTube after the release of its 10-episode first season, with its creators comparing it to recent YouTube-to-cinema success story Backrooms.

The Normal MFer comes from creators Lawl (aka Joe McNaney) and Alex Orrelle (Space Jam: A New Legacy) and CC0 Studios and Amit Russell Gicelter’s The Hive Studio.

Written by Jennifer Skelly (The Lion Guard), the series centres on a video game-obsessed man’s desire to grow up against the forces that keep him from leaving home, including social anxieties, a disappointed father and a mother who treats him like he’s 11.

CC0 and The Hive Studio partnered with the AI audience simulation platform Chronicle Media to help expand the reach of the show on its YouTube channel.

Chronicle identified previously underserved audience segments, including 13- to 34-year-old male audiences and viewers of leading animation, horror and dark-fantasy channels such as Adult Swim, Solar Opposites and Rick & Morty to bring the show to viewers on connected TVs.

It comes after Kane Parsons’ YouTube series Backrooms, which boasts more than 200 million views, was turned into a horror film with A24, becoming a box office success.

McNaney and Orrelle said in a joint statement: “The Normal MFer shares similar origins with Backrooms: a kernel of an idea that began as a meme on 4chan and quickly found meaningful audiences on YouTube.

“Today’s creators now have the freedom to build and establish passionate fandoms across social media, representing a new model and pathway to mainstream success.

“With The Normal MFer, Chronicle’s tech helped a project that began as a meme-driven, irreverent take on teen angst and online subculture find its audience and emerge as a breakout success on YouTube.”