Jonathan "Jonti" Picking (born 17 May 1975), otherwise known as Weebl or Mr. Weebl, is a British Internet personality and flash animator and is the creator of Weebl's Stuff.
His movies are known for repetitive melodies and surreal dialogue; The majority feature a catchy tune with silly lyrics, which is paired with a looping flash animation. He does most of the voices in his animations himself, and several feature himself in live action, including "Haricots Verts", "Chutney", "Boogie", "CAMRA", "Stockmarket", "We Are Mature", "Tangerine" the Weebl and Bob episodes "DJ" and "Safety", the fourth On The Moon episode, and "Jazzmas". He has also worked with other animators on YouTube, such as Edd Gould in the video "Nuts [Weebl]".
Picking is a trained sound engineer and artist, and has also worked on 3D visual effects for the movie Resident Evil. In 2003, he made several advertisements for Anchor Butter in the style of his Weebl and Bob animations, but featuring cows. These were broadcast in the UK. The television program Totally Viral on UKTV G2, consisting of video clips and cartoons from the internet, has an animated title sequence and links made by Jonti. Jonti set up his own production company called Sumo Dojo, which he has since left to set up Weebl's Stuff Limited, also known as Weebl Ltd. Picking married Sarah Darling (a radio presenter on the station Xfm) on 31 March 2007.[1] On 23 December 2008, Picking announced his wife's pregnancy on the official Weebl's Stuff forums. On 13 July 2009, Picking's wife gave birth to a baby girl.
In 2009, Picking produced several radio and television adverts based on the tune of the first "Magical Trevor" for the 118 24 7 service of Yell.com. It appeared on the ITV television channel,[2] amongst others. It was voted 6th Most Irritating Ad of 2009 by Marketing Magazine.[3] He is also an admitted fan of Wesley Willis and he used his music in the cartoon "Merry Christmas".[4]
Weebl's Stuff is Weebl's personal website. Whilst initially starting with his own creations (The show "Weebl and Bob" was previously hosted on a different site before moving to Weebl's Stuff), it has since grown to incorporate numerous series and numerous staff. As well as providing the site with animations, usually at least twice a week, Weebl's Stuff also provides animation services to companies. Clients have included E4, Yellow Pages, and Anchor.
Savlonic
Savlonic[5] is a synthpop/synthwave virtual band consisting of singer Roscoe Thunderpants (voiced by Jonti Picking), singer/keyboardist Evangeline D'isco (voiced by Sarah Darling), backing vocalist/drummer Kandi Flaus (voiced by Katt Wade[6]), and guitarist Kaspar Funk (Daniel Dobbs).
As of April 2017, eight Savlonic songs have been made into music videos: "Electro Gypsy" (2008), "Tiny Japanese Girl" (2010), "Wandering Eye" (2011), "The Driver" (2012), "Computer Guy" (2013), "Spelunker" (2014), "Broken" (2016), and "Hi-Lights" (2017). All of these songs' videos were animated by Picking, Peabo, and Kr3id.
The band has released three full-length albums; "Red" on 18 August 2014, "Neon" on 19 September 2016, and cover album "Emulat0r" on 21 September 2017. They have also released a five-song EP named after the band's animated frontman Rosco, and multiple tracks released as singles ("Sweet" and "00:00:00").[7] Both "Red" and "Neon" albums were funded by the fans of Weebl and Savlonic through the crowd-funding website Kickstarter[8][9] The campaign for "Red" raised £34,768 from 1,320 backers, and the campaign for "Neon" raised £40,778 from 1,276 backers.
Albums
Picking has produced several mini-albums, most of which feature extended versions of songs featured in his flash animations. Many are available for purchase or free download on the music streaming site Bandcamp.[10]
A Right Festive Northern Christmas (14 December 2017)[21]
HuHa
As of 2012 Picking has begun contributing to the YouTube comedy channel HuHa under the name of Jelly Penguin. They have produced several shorts, including Evil Guy (a parody of super-villains from comic books and Saturday morning cartoons), Beef House (a parody of the A-Team in which the protagonists are butchers) and BAD Advice (a parody of public information films from the 1970s and 1980s). As of 2014, no further works for HuHa are being produced, either by Picking or others.
In 2013, Picking teamed up with Queen guitarist and animal rights activist Brian May and actor Brian Blessed, along with a number of animal rights organisations including the RSPCA, to form "Team Badger", a coalition against the British Government's proposed badger cull.[22] Picking, May and Blessed recorded a single, Save The Badger Badger Badger, a mashup of 2003's Badgers, and Queen's Flash, featuring vocals by Blessed. Picking also animated the music video, which parodied elements of the original "Badger" animation, as well as a scene from the 1980 film Flash Gordon, in which Blessed played Prince Vultan, and for which Queen provided the soundtrack. On 1 September 2013, Save The Badger Badger Badger charted at #79 on the UK Singles Chart, #39 on the UK iTunes chart[23] and #1 on the iTunes Rock chart.[24]
See also
Weebl's cartoons (discusses Magical Trevor, Kenya, Patrick Moore Plays the Xylophone, Breadfish, Chutney, Scampi, Strawberry Pancake, etc.)
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