Category:The Abridged Series

"First one guy makes a bridge. And everybody uses it, they're like, "Ooh, look, a bridge. That's new." So, like, these other two guys make another bridge. And it's kinda like the first one, but people use it anyway because the first guy is like "Oh, their bridge is pretty cool too, check it out." And then these three other guys are like, "Oh, we're going to make the best bridge ever, we're going to combine our talents and be like, 'Oh, look at our bridge, it's totally amazing, ooh.'" and it's like, it turns out really good, and it's the best out of all the other bridges... Everybody crosses it. Because it's a bridge. Yeah. And before you know it everybody and their mother is making a bridge! So there's a bridge. Everywhere... The first guy is like, "I'm going to go to conventions to promote my bridge!" It's like, it's just a bridge. It's not a big deal. Get over it." —Joekage, Naruto the Abridged Comedy Spoof Series Show

A Sub-Trope of Gag Dub, that deals specifically with shortening works of fiction, and making fun of it. The first of these was Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series (albeit the idea of abridging works for fun started way earlier). This started out as Follow the Leader, but has become so common now, it's a genre in itself. Most recently, a sort-of "MENT" subgenre is emerging that essentially combines your standard Abridging with a YouTube Poop. And also dance music.

It used to be thought that the key to making a good Abridged Series was to take something So Bad It's Good, or something that takes itself way too seriously, and add copious amounts of professionally created bad peppered with deep fandom understanding, which makes everything better. However, the existence of Abridged Series based on works that are either horribly bad or actually good shows that the techniques can be applied to just about any film or TV series.

Most are on YouTube, but some can be found elsewhere, like Dailymotion Also be aware that different episodes of certain abridged series may be scattered across different users. Of course Sturgeon's Law still applies here, not just in the writing, but in audio quality as well. Be prepared to adjust the volume on the fly if surfing these. The unprofessional quality of these series leaves most of them incomplete.

Bit of a side note: until recently, the existence of most of these fell into a sort of legal grey area, at least as far as US law is concerned. While all of them are generally parodies, which are legal as per the Supreme Court decision in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., the use of copyrighted material puts it at odds with the DMCA.^[1] Whether that will stop YouTube from pulling Abridged Series down remains to be seen (although considering their actions against OPA Studios, and more recently^[when?] Sailor Moon Abridged and Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series (for the eighth time), signs point to no).

Compare Fan Vid and Remix Comic

Also see Abridged Series Tropes.

Oh, I get it, it's... A bridge!