Team Unicorn

Team Unicorn

Team Unicorn in The Saturday Action Fun Hour!
Background information
Origin Los Angeles, California
Genres Pop, parody, comedy, nerd music
Instruments Vocals
Years active 2010–present
Website www.teamunicornftw.com
Members
Past members Michele Boyd

Team Unicorn is a multimedia production team formed in Los Angeles, California in 2010. Its current members are American actresses Clare Grant (Walk the Line), Rileah Vanderbilt (Hatchet), Milynn Sarley, and Alison Haislip (Attack of the Show!) who replaced Michele Boyd in 2014. The group is known for producing parody song videos such as "G33k & G4m3r Girls", a spoof of Katy Perry's "California Gurls", and "All About that Base", a Star Wars parody of Meghan Trainor's song "All About That Bass". The videos have established the group among nerd music as well as attracting celebrity appearances. The group had a show on Adult Swim called The Team Unicorn Saturday Action Fun Hour, and have attended numerous science fiction and comic conventions.

History

Team Unicorn, dressed as pop culture characters for their video "Geek and Gamer Girls" in 2010. Left to right: Rileah Vanderbilt, Milynn Sarley, Michele Boyd, Clare Grant

Vanderbilt is largely given credit to bringing the four women of Team Unicorn together.[1] She & Grant became friends in 2005 and began producing geek videos together, even winning two awards at the 2009 Star Wars Fan Film Awards[2] for their short "Saber".[3] Vanderbilt became friends with Sarley in 2009, introducing her to Boyd in January 2010,[4] whom she'd met the same year, and the two became fast friends. All four women became friends when Vanderbilt, Sarley & Boyd decided to cosplay together as Sailor Moon characters at Comic-Con 2010, and asked Grant join them as Sailor Moon. Shortly after, while hanging out with Boyd, Sarley came up with the idea for "G33k and G4M3R Girls", and together they wrote the original lyrics, bringing Vanderbilt and Grant on board to finish the lyrics and produce the video. After the overwhelming response to the first video, more ideas quickly came and "Team Unicorn" was officially born. In 2011, the women became friends with Alison Haislip, who replaced Boyd as Blue Unicorn in 2014.

The group released its debut parody song "G33k & G4m3r Girls"[5] online in September 2010. The music video, spoofing Katy Perry's "California Gurls",[6] is filled with geek cultural references[7][8][9] and pays tribute to women who love gaming, manga, and science fiction.[10][11] The video reached 1 million views in its first week online[12] and stirred controversy over its sexy portrayal of geek girls.[13]

Team Unicorn has since released the spoof 1950s industrial "A Very Zombie Holiday"; a comedic eHarmony parody commercial entitled "superHarmony"; a '50s Beach Blanket Bingo parody with an alien invasion twist called Alien Beach Crashers; a parody of the Starship Troopers promo called "The UniCorps Wants YOU!"; an original song set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with geeky references called "For the Win"; and its biggest hit to date, a Star Wars/Meghan Trainor parody called "All About that Base".[14]

Team Unicorn is well known for incorporating cameos from existing popular figures in genre culture, including Seth Green, Katee Sackhoff, Stan Lee, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Aisha Tyler, Grant Imahara, Magda Apanowicz (Caprica), Derek Mears, Rachael Leigh Cook, James Gunn and Ashley Holliday. They often utilize directors and writers involved in the geek and genre community, including Sean Becker from The Guild, Zeb Wells from Robot Chicken and Marvel Comics, and Colton Dunn from MADtv. Popular culture references to the group include rare unicorns in the "Whimsyshire" level of Blizzard Entertainment's video game Diablo III, named "Killaire", "Miss Hell", "Maulin Sorely", and "R'lyeh".

In 2013, Adult Swim announced a development agreement with the creators of Robot Chicken for a Team Unicorn live action/animation hybrid pilot called The Team Unicorn Saturday Action Fun Hour![15] which introduces Alison Haislip as the new Blue Unicorn, and stars Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Tara Strong and Kevin Shinick.[16][17]

Filmography

Videos

List of Team Unicorn videos
Year Title Director Notes Refs
2010 "G33k & G4m3r Girls" Dave Yarvo Music video parody of "California Gurls" [18]
2010 A Very Zombie Holiday Sean Becker [19][20][21]
2011 superHarmony Sean Becker eHarmony parody with superheroes [22][23]
2011 Alien Beach Crashers Sean Becker [24]
2013 "For the Win!" (feat. "Weird Al" Yankovic) Dave Yarvo Music video by Stage5 [25]
2014 The Team Unicorn Saturday Action Fun Hour! Seth Green Television pilot for Adult Swim [26][16]
2014 "All About That Base" Sean Becker Music video parody of "All About That Bass" and Star Wars [27]

Appearances

List of Team Unicorn appearances
Year Title Notes Refs
2011 "F.E.A.R. 3 Comes to Life" Promotional video by Fearnet for the video game F.E.A.R. 3 [28]
2012 The Jace Hall Show [29]
2012 Top 100 Video Games of All Time Guest on G4TV show [30]
2013 Robot Combat League SyFy promotional clip where the group visits the show set [31]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Title of work Result
2010 LA Weekly's Best of 2010 Best Online Video[32] Team Unicorn: G33K & G4M3R Girls Won
2011 Dragon Con 2011 Film Festival Awards Best Music Video Team Unicorn: G33K & G4M3R Girls Nominated
2012 International Academy of Web Television Awards Best Variety Series Team Unicorn Nominated

References

  1. ↑  Posted by FcoD at 2:02 pm. "The RadNerd Show:Episode 3.4 with Team Unicorn". Meltcomics.com. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  2. ↑ "Official Star Wars Fan Film Challenge Web Site"
  3. ↑ "IMDB Page for SABER"
  4. ↑ Bagged and Boarded 83: For The Win Archived March 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ Break Media (2010-09-10). "G33k & G4m3r Girls Song". Break.com. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  6. ↑ Fox 5: Meet the Geek Girls Archived September 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ "MTV Splash Page: Katy Perry's 'California Gurls' Parodied In Awesome 'Geek And Gamer Girls' Video". Splashpage.mtv.com. 2010-09-15. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  8. ↑ "Star Wars Shout Outs in "G33k & G4M3R Girls" Music Video | Star Wars Blog". Starwarsblog.starwars.com. 2010-09-10. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  9. ↑ Wallace, Lewis (2013-03-28). "Spot the Geek Refs in 'Geek and Gamer Girls' Song". Wired. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  10. ↑ Winda Benedetti (2010-09-11). "MSNBC.com: Look, a unicorn! Music video pays tribute to geeky gals and gamer girls". Technolog.msnbc.msn.com. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  11. ↑ Flick, Action (2010-09-17). "Team Unicorn Interview". Actionflickchick.com. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  12. ↑ Flick, Action (2010-09-17). "Interview: G33K & G4M3R GIRLS (Geek and Gamer Girls Video) 1 Week, 1 Million Views". Actionflickchick.com. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  13. ↑ Flick, Action (2010-09-22). "G33K & G4M3R GIRLS Fangirl Furor: Should Geek and Gamer Girls Go Sexy, Sexless, Something Else?". Actionflickchick.com. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  14. ↑ O'Neil, Lorena. "'Star Wars' Parody of 'All About That Bass' Is Out of This Galaxy". www.hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  15. ↑ ANDREEVA, NELLIE. "Adult Swim Announces New Series & Pilots". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  16. 1 2 The Deadline Team. "Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk Among Cast Set For Adult Swim's 'Team Unicorn' Pilot From Robot Chicken Duo". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  17. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley. "Adult Swim Sets Cast for 'Team Unicorn' Pilot". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "Geek and Gamer Girls Anthem". Break. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  19. ↑ "Team Unicorn Presents: A Very Zombie Holiday". Nerd Appropriate. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  20. ↑ "A VERY ZOMBIE HOLIDAY - Weekly World News". weeklyworldnews.com. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  21. ↑ "The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2: 2000-2010". google.com. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  22. ↑ "Adult Swim Reveals the Team Unicorn Saturday Action Fun Hour!". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  23. ↑ "SuperHarmony, the Dating Site for Heroes and Villains". themarysue.com. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  24. ↑ "Who Will Save Us from the Alien Beach Crashers?". Dread Central. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  25. ↑ Kristen. "Team Unicorn: For The Win". The Geekie Awards. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  26. ↑ ANDREEVA, NELLIE. "Adult Swim Announces New Series & Pilots". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Is it time to stop pretending 'Team Unicorn' is about Girl Power?". HitFix. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  28. ↑ Watch 'F.E.A.R. 3' Come to Glorious, Sexy Life with the Ladies of Team Unicorn. 22 June 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2016 – via YouTube.
  29. ↑ "Jace Hall on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  30. ↑ "TEAM UNICORN ON G4'S "TOP 100 VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME" @ Rileah Vanderbilt". rileahvanderbilt.com. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  31. ↑ Team Unicorn vs. Robot Combat League. 26 February 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2016 – via YouTube.
  32. ↑ Ohanesian, Liz. "Best Online Video: "Geek and Gamer Girls Song," by Team Unicorn". LA Weekly. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
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