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The Sunshine Crew

I HATE PIMP >:U —TheSoulMan

One day during either August 2006, or late July 2006 at the earliest, I was browsing Newgrounds when I stumbled upon the Flash movie Mega Hitler Ep. (SWF file) (which, in a disappointing act of censorship, has since been removed from Newgrounds by its moderators, despite having been uploaded purely for comedic purposes). At the time, I was still young enough that I was not fully aware of the history behind Hitler, though to some extent I could still recognize his face. Upon watching the movie, I was not at all offended (for it was clear that the intent of the thing was humor), but rather amused, and very fascinated over why five Hitler heads were dancing in front of an animated sun while the pleasant song Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows was playing. I noticed that the users ButtFuckingChrist and TheSoulMan were listed as the authors of the Flash, and so I decided to view each of their profile pages, upon which I discovered that they had each uploaded several other Flash movies.

It was when I began watching the rest of their Flashes that I realized that Mega Hitler Ep. was merely one out of an entire set of animations that all shared some common and readily apparent attributes: they were all Flash loops that featured an animated sun (which could be moved with the left mouse button) over a spinning pinwheel background, a humorous line of text that would appear a few seconds into the movie, a simply drawn landscape (optionally having additional objects and/or characters upon it) which would briefly display another funny line of text when the mouse cursor was moved over it, and the song Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows; where some specific Flashes deviated from this exact formula, they still retained enough of the other core elements that it was still very obvious that they were of the same class of animations. Soon I learned of the existence of the Sunshine Crew, which was a small group of Flash animators that formed around June 2006 and was most active during that year. As I watched these movies, I quickly understood that all of these Flashes had been put together as a joke—they were essentially the same looped animation that, in each case, had been modified slightly to fit some particular theme or subject—and found the entire thing, as well as the Sunshine Crew, to be hilarious.

Besides Mega Hitler Ep., which I distinctly remember was the first Sunshine Crew movie I viewed, I also very clearly remember discovering and then watching, during that same day and in chronological order, every single episode of TheSoulMan's 22-part GAY SHIT series (see the list below), in which he made a Sunshine Crew–style animation centered around each of the first 22 levels of Newgrounds' old level system (that is, back when it had 30 levels instead of 60), and very much enjoying the whole experience—it was the thing which finally cemented my love of the Sunshine Crew. Although at first the movies of this series seem pretty predictable, he introduces fun twists and surprises later on that, I would argue, make every episode worth watching.

The Sunshine Crew and their Flashes are virtually unknown outside of Newgrounds, and even on that site it was a minor group that today has been almost completely forgotten. I was obsessed with the Sunshine Crew for around a few days to a week in late July/August 2006, but thereafter mostly forgot about them, though (I am able to recall with some haziness) I might have returned once or twice to viewing their Flashes later on in 2006 or sometime in 2007. Today I remember them and their Flashes as an entertaining discovery of mine on Newgrounds during my summer break from school back in 2006; despite their obscurity to most other people, they form a major part of my memories of the site, and even today, whenever I hear Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, invariably I am reminded of their Flash animations. I will never forget that first glorious summer of their existence, when, with an attitude of not taking Newgrounds seriously, they entertained themselves by filling the site with joke Flash movie uploads and dancing Hitler heads.

Listed below are those Sunshine Crew Flashes which I remember watching back in 2006 and 2007.

All written materials on this Web site are my own, and all are released under the Do What the Fuck You Want to Public License Version 2.

This page last modified on 26 March 2021.