History of PWN

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The PWN Channel has had a long and illustrious history, dating back as far as 2007. This history is comprehensive, describing almost all major ascpects of PWN in excrutiating detail. Furthermore, every single video uploaded to the main channel, PaulWesNick, is explained and described. The history is segmented into several eras, groupings of videos united by similar circumstance and like tone.

PWN Predecessors[edit | edit source]

Timeline of PWN.png

The history of PWN can be traced well beyond the channel's creation in 2014, with its connection to Kidsmakemovies2 Studios, created in 2011 by Nick Geoghegan, Chris Smith, and Kyle Smith. However, traces and seedlings for the creation of the company began as far back as 2007, with Nick's growing interest in film, and his eventual ownership of a camera.

Early Beginings (Seventh Grade)[edit | edit source]

Nick had been making smaller videos with his brothers in the years leading up to seventh, the last of these being shot just before the end of sixth grade. Despite the lack of new content, Nick never lost interest in film. Early into Seventh Grade, Chris was taking a speech class, and the final project of the quarter was to create a short film. Naturally, he came to Nick for assistance. Nick readily accepted, and the two, aided by Chris' fellow group member Braiden Hook, set about writing a simple script for the project. In November of 2013, they filmed Dare, with additional help from Quentin DeVeirman and Kyle Smith. Nick directed and edited the project.

Around that same time, Nick was becoming friends with Paul Gaurano, whom he and Quentin shared a science class with. Initially just friends by virtue, they soon realized they had a shared love for movies. They formulated a plan for a YouTube channel, on which they would post small comedic sketches. Paul's own video for the speech class, which involved him dealing with a ghost in his house, was an inspiration for the channel.

In April of 2014, Nick officially began the PWN Channel, then called "Paul and Nick". However, it was not until May that the channel was put to use. Now in the same speech class which Dare had been made for, Nick partnered with Nik Hoffman to write a short video called "Twerking Bad". Eventually renamed to Dancing Bad, it was filmed in a single afternoon and was largely improvised despite having a script. The video was posted to the channel on June 10th, 2014, marking the beginning of the channel. To this day, it is June 10th that is refered to as the anniversary of PWN as opposed to the April birthdate of the channel.

A frame from Dancing Bad, the first PWN video.

Simultaneously with the production of Dancing Bad, Paul and Nick wrote a simple outline for a short film they called "Alone", which would have starred Chris, Kyle, Braiden, Quentin, and Paul. Only a single scene of the project was shot during seventh grade. However, the project collapsed, with Paul instead proposing an idea called "The Sequence". Around that same time, Nick met Wesley Davies through a P.E. class (an introduction which was largely accidental), who he also learned had a profound interest in film.

The Birth of PWN (Eighth Grade)[edit | edit source]

Not much happened in terms of PWN until Eighth Grade. Early in the school year, Paul reintroduced the idea of creating a YouTube comedy channel. His version of the channel was heavily inspired by Key and Peele. However, Wes and Nick agreed the channel should be a Colleghumor style sketch show. It was Wesley who proposed the idea of a movie podcast, which Paul suggested they call PWN (standing of course for "Paul Wes Nick"). This idea stuck, and they began to determine a gameplan for the PWN show.

Leading up to the first PWN, Nick began uploading to the channel. He began first with Dare, which was posted October fourteenth alongside the accompanying Dare Trailer. This was followed the day after with The Game, and on the eighteenth with The Pikachu.

The First PWN

A frame from the first episode of PWN, showing Paul reciting his famous "Batman!" line.

Filming for the first PWN took place on October 10, after school from 3:00 to 4:30 in the Drama classroom (called the Tech Room, as it was a disused computer lab). The topic, watching the recently released Interstellar Official Trailer 3, was proposed by either Wes or Nick. As it was the first episode filmed, with little preparation, it is apparent that the trio has little idea what they are doing. Nick edited the video over the following week. The initial version was five and a half minutes, which he cut down to 4:36.

The channel was renamed PWN around October 20, and on October 25 at 8:55 AM, Interstellar: PWN #1 was posted. As the channel was still quite small, it took a couple days to garner attention to the video. However, by the end of its second week, the video was already nearing one hundred views. To this day, it remains the most viewed PWN by over 130 views. Many of the core inside jokes for PWN were spawned in the first episode. These include Paul's famous "Batman!" quip, The Girl Gets Old, and the Minecraft Joke. It is also the first PWN to feature Unity by Kevin MacLeod as the intro song, Wesley's Name Joke, and the closing fistbump.

The Handshake, one of the first PWN sketches.

First Golden Age of PWN

The Golden Age is considered to begin with the posting of PWN #1. Often forgotten, even by those who are part of PWN, is Fingerboarding, a short video featuring Paul performing tricks on his Tech-Deck. Monster Movies: PWN #2 was uploaded on November 2, as a late Halloween episode. Filmed during a lunch period in a mere 28 minutes, it was the quickest filmed PWN ever. It is also notable for being both the first video where the end card was shot at the begining, and the first PWN where the PWN hand signs are used in place of the fistbump.

The following video, The Handshake, is regarded as the first truly PWN sketch. It features Nick and Paul engaging in an elaborate secret handshake. Again, it is famous for introducing the now classic PWN line, "Girl, you don't know a thing about anacondas". The Handshake was uploaded November 6, after being filmed in tandem with Marvel: PWN #3, which was uploaded two days later. The Marvel episode was notable for being the first appearance (albeit behind the camera) of Jeffery Leibfried.

Not long after uploading PWN #3, Kyle and Nick discussed the possibility of creating a sketch based on an inside joke they shared, comenting on the overtly sexual nature of Pepsi commercials. Written, shot, and edited in the course of an afternoon, PWN's most polarizing video, Pepsi, was uploaded on November 8, 2014. Surprisingly enough, it quickly became the most viewed video on the channel, and in early 2017, became the first PWN video to surpass 500 views.

A picture taken during the filming of PWN #4.

The Smiling Man was shot earlier in November than Pepsi, but was held back until November 16 due to issues with editing. It marked Chris and Kyle's' last appearance on the channel for an extended period of time.

On November 20, what was set to be the fourth PWN was filmed in the tech room, the final full length PWN to do so. Featuring a guest appearance from Joey Cianfrani, as well as Jeffery, Our Fandoms: PWN #4 was intended to be the best PWN yet. However, with all the stuff that went wrong in the video, Nick's inability to edit a coherent video with the given footage, and aome missing data files, the video was scrapped, and remains unfinished and unreleased to this day. It is this failed video which Nick considers to be the beginning of the end for the Golden Age.

End of an Era

Throughout the end of summer and all of September, and October, Nick and Wes had been working on writing a script based on Paul's idea for The Sequence. When the script was finally completed in November, casting began. Joey, Jeffery, Paul, Kyle, and Wesley would star in the film. Filming was set to begin in late November.

Also in November, Ford Fairon approached Nick during a fire drill, as the camous evacuated to the fields. He said he had seen the PWN channel and was glad to see Nick making movies again. He proposed a concept for a gaming segment on PWN, simply called "That Gaming Segment". Nick had no intention of making a gaming channel at first, but kept the idea in mind. Ford was also offered a role in The Sequence, for a character that was later cut from the film.

Filming began on The Sequence that November, just after PWN #4 was filmed. Much of the film had been shot when it was determined filming interfered with the regular PWN schedule. PWN 3.5 was quickly put together and posted on December 13. The video is simply an announcement, saying PWN will return bigger than ever in the new year, and some early footage from The Sequence is released. PWN 3.5 would not only be the last video uploaded in 2014, but would also be Paul's last appearance on the channel.

A frame from The Sequence.

As Christmas Break was rapidly approaching, The Sequence was rushed into full swing, with nearly 90% done by the time school ended. At the same time, Nick proposed a way to introduce TGS as a series to Ford, in the form of a short film he called "The Hostage". Nick spoke with Mikey Davis about the idea, and decided filming would begin after The Sequence was done.

The last day of production for The Sequence was also the last day of school before break, where four scenes were shot in rapid succession, with the final climactic scene recieving assistance from Jordan Forcher. Editing began, and Nick quickly realized that the film had some major issues.

Meanwhile, on December 31, Chris, Kyle, Nick, and Ford went to Mikey's house to film The Hostage. Filming took much longer than originally intended, and ended up taking all the way to January 2. Great detail went into the production of The Hostage, and it remains one of Nick's favorite videos to have filmed. The Hostage was completed just before school started again, as was The Sequence (minus minor scenes which were still missing). With the new year arrived, and with one great short completed, PWN was ready to resume.

The Dark Age of PWN[edit | edit source]

One of the last shots of Paul in his final PWN.

When filming began on Best of 2014: PWN #4, Paul was already loosing enthusiasm for PWN. The Fandom video evidenced this most, as he barely focused on the video while shooting. Additionally, Nick's refusal to release The Sequence or the fourth PWN, combined with his growing animosity with Ford, Paul was already antsy by the new year. What would have been Paul's final PWN was shot in early January. With the Tech Room now unavailable, filming relocated to the Cage Room, a tiny instrument closet off the side of the orchestra room. It's remote location on campus made it a difficult place to film, as the school wifi was inaccessible, and cellular reception was poor. Additionally, the room (ironically enough) had fairly poor acoustics. What's more, no table was available, so the three sit in simple folding chairs around a lectern.

The video itself was also plagued with issues. Paul's phone constantly went off, interupting trains of thought. He left twice during the episode, and with no end card filmed, they had no option but to finish without him. Soon, Ford had to leave as well. The video is also noticeably lacking in any comedic content, as Nick was insistent that they finish. Nick made no attempt to even edit the video, perhaps breaking the final straw for Paul, who unofficially quit soon after. No announcement was made of Paul's leaving, with Wes and Nick silently hoping he may return.

Search For a New "P"

Ford's first appearance on PWN.

When it was soon realised that Paul had no interest in returning to PWN, the show was put on hiatus. The Hostage was continually delayed for other reasons, leading to a nearly three month dead zone in PWN history, lasting well into March. At some point near the end of February, the first episode of TGS was filmed, but again never released due to editing issues. It was, however, Ford's enthusiasm towards PWN that made him a prime candidate to replace "Paul".

When Wes became insistant on a new PWN, the search began for someone to take Paul's place. Several candidates were considered. After Nick rejected the idea of a two-person show, Joey was considered, then Jeffery. Kyle was also considered but he turned down, stating "I don't know nothing 'bout movies, m'kay?" Finally, Ford offered to fill the role, and Nick and Wes readily accepted. A waiting list was created in case Ford also quit, with Joey being placed on top.

Nick piled together a quick trailer to announce PWN's return, called PWN Returns!. Strangely, none of the videos featured in the trailer were ever actually posted (with the sole exception of The Hostage, which was released nearly two years later. The first PWN of the Dark Age was Our Mission Impossibles: PWN #4, which was the longest PWN yet, and was the first to feature animation, which Nick did frame by frame using Pixlemator. Released on March 27, it was set to be the first PWN of a new era. PWN #4 was considered to be quite good, and with a sketch intended to come out that same week, things looked good for PWN. Yet more troubles arrose, and the sketch was never posted. It took another month for Force Awakens Trailer: PWN #5 to be released, and after that, Ford too grew tired of PWN. That, combined with upcoming finals, caused PWN to once again die down.

Two sketches were filmed that May, however, one being That Jump, and the other being an unreleased Wes and Tyler. The concept of Wes and Tyler was inspired by Joey's insistence that PWN should start a Jaik and Amir syle sketch series. Wes agreed, as long as Tyler Hollander agreed to write the sketches with him, which he did. That Jump was intended to be a pilot episode, and despite the fact it was well received, no other Wes and Tyler was ever posted. With the exception of the one year anniversary video which went up on June 12, That Jump was the last PWN video of eighth grade. No videos were shot that summer, despite Wes and Nick both wanting to. It seemed for months after that PWN had officially died.

Rebirth of the Channel (Ninth Grade)[edit | edit source]

Early in eighth grade, Wes and Nick were working on a short film called Man in the Mask, and one day while working on it in math class, Nick's desk neighbor, Ari Froehlich, took interest in what he was doing. After explaining the concept, Ari offered to help out, as he and Wesley were already acquaintances. Thus, Ari informally joined PWN as a "creative consultant". He remained faithful to the group, and even encouraged new PWNs, despite Ford's reluctance to do so. Ford did loose interest in PWNs, but not in the channel. He made an appearance in the lost episode of Wes and Tyler, and was set to play a main character in MITM. However, Ari suggested that he could fill in for Ford on the PWN show, though both Nick and Wes rejected due to a lost interest.

The full cast of An Egg-Celent Cake!

Nick and Ari were once again united in ninth grade, when they shared an Honors Biology class. One of the first projects of the year was to create a cooking video in the style of "Good Eats". Ari and Nick, already members of PWN, quickly joined together, as did Henry Chambers and Kelvin Hui. The video, filmed at Ari's house, also featured Finlay Brown, whom had previously been a huge fan of PWN, and was the one who introduced it to Ford. Another unexpected appearance was from Jacob Colacino, whom had not really been friends with Nick since around sixth grade.

Wesley, despite being in a seperate period, made a prominent appearance in the cooking video as The Egg. The video, titled An Egg-Celent Cake!, was intended to be filmed like an over the top sitcom. Filming took two days, and with eight actors, it was the largest PWN project at the time. At the same time, Wes filmed his own Honors project, Bowl of Nays: CdM Eats. These two projects temporarily reignited an interest in PWN, though no other videos were filmed or uploaded that year. This era is refered to be Nick as the Transition Era.

Begining of the New Wave of PWN

Ari's first appearance on PWN.

Nick wrote the official PWN Contract in April of 2016, and Ari and Wes signed it that same month. It was not until June however that PWN would officially make a comeback. After one more school project for APHG posted on June 3, 2016, Ari officially replaced Ford on PWN with the filming of Movie Tropes: PWN #6 in early June. Uploaded on the last day of ninth grade (June 23), PWN #6 marked an actual new era for PWN. With PWN well out of the Dark Ages and the Transition Era drawing to a close, the New Wave began.

After PWN 6 came the first true trailer episode since Interstellar, with Doctor Strange: PWN #7. Nick had begun a new style of editing with PWN 6, focusing on a balance of content and comedy,preferably at the same time. This eventually became achallenge, with episodes getting longer and editing growing harder. Average episode length jumped up from five minutes to seven, and only continued to grow. Soon also came the first New Wave sketch, Unboxing. The video had been filmed as an experiment, part of three videos, with each being a solo sketch for their respective actors. Ari's was Unboxing, Nick's was Nick Reviews: Batman v Superman (which for one reason or another was delayed until December), and Wesley's was the yet unreleased "Gay Viagra Video".

The Best Year for PWN (Tenth Grade)[edit | edit source]

The New Wave Continues

On the same day as PWN 7, an unaired eighth episode about the Wonder Woman and Lego Batman trailers was filmed, but scrapped due to bad lighting and lack of content. Instead, PWN 8 ended up being Disappointing Movies: PWN #8, posted in late September. PWN #8 was, in Nick's opinion, one of the worse PWNs, though still better than the Dark Age videos. This was then followed by the first short film in a long time, Press Triangle to Wake Up: A Telltale Short, uploaded in November.

Ari and Nick in PWN #10 after Wesley becomes a tomato.

A project for Wesley's Honors Chemistry class, The Chem Office, was uploaded December 6. The next day, Nick's BvS review was also uploaded. This mass dump of content lead to perhaps the mpst highly active month in PWN history. Another classic New Wave sketch, Wine Not?, was uploaded December 14. Wine Not? notably features the first appearance of a female character in any PWN video, with the possible exception of The Hostage, which features Chris in a wig and lipstick.

An idea for a big episode of PWN revolving around the "scourge of Hollywood" had been floating around since as far back as the Dark Age. However, it was not until December of 2016 that the idea was finally realized. After a failed ninth episode, Hollywood is Dead: PWN #10 was released in two parts. Perhaps one of the most ambitious episodes of PWN to date, the episode was split into two parts, with a combined length of 26 minutes. It was divided into five "chapters", each one focusing on a different aspect of the "Death of Hollywood". It is to date the only episode of PWN to conclude without all three members.

Ford examining Chris in The Hostage.

Kiersten Muse was brought into PWN in early September, and was intended to be introduced in a canceled Halloween Short. Her first appearance was then moved to a Christmas Special, which was then scrapped. At the release of Rogue One, Nick offered the idea of a Star Wars PWN special for the Christmas season. In one day, the group, joined by Kiersten, watched both Rogue One and the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, and then reviewed them on PWN. Though Nick is not too favorable towards the episode itself, he describes The Star Wars Holiday Special: PWN #11 as having the greatest intro to any PWN yet. The year was finished out with the long awaited upload of The Hostage.

The Grand Hiatus

After the huge ammount of content released at the tail end of 2016, the start of 2017 saw noticeably less uploads than the rest of the year. The first upload of 2017, a Film Studies project completed by Ari and Nick, and featuring Tamara Kabab and Payton Thompson, was Human Trafficking PSA. Soon after, a video capitalizing on the slowly waning "blank but blank" trend was released: It's PWN 10, but every time there is a bwum, it gets 50% faster, poking fun at the number of times the Inception horn noise was used in the episode.

The period from January to June of 2017 is refered to as "The Grand Hiatus", not because no content was released, but because the low ammount of content immediately followed the one of the most active periods in PWN history. Two private videos, a school project on the Vietnam War (featuring Ari, Wes, Nick, Payton, and Amanda Lara) and an Honors Chemistry project (featuring Nick, Arman, Celeste, and Ethan) were also posted, but are inaccessible from the rest of the channel. A single PWN was posted during this period: Best of 2016: PWN #12. The video, uploaded on February 24, was the first PWN to feature Ari's new haircut. It was the last PWN of Tenth Grade.

The Second Golden Age of PWN

Wesley, Kyle, Blake, and Ari in A Hot Lead

In April, work began on PWN's first feature film, "A Hot lead", and took up the majority of May. Also a film studies project, it focuses on the story of a Guild of Detectives in the city of Greenridge, as they frantically try to solve the case of the Fatal Femmes. It was the largest cast of any PWN production, including Ari, Wes, Joey, Lucan Stargiotti, Blake Weise, Kiersten, Kyle, Chris, Mira Wallace, Tamara, Payton, and Nick. The project was completed on June 4, and a trailer was uploaded June 12, the same day as Ari and Weskey's AP History video project, Tudor TV. A Hot Lead was uploaded to the cannel on June 22, marking the beginning of the Second Golden Age of PWN.

The first video to follow A Hot Lead was a simple sketch called The Hottest Lead, starring Ari, released July 12. The following day, A Very Hot Lead: PWN #13 was posted. Notably the longest episode at the time of its release, clocking in at 22:16, PWN #13 is nearly five times longer than the first episode of PWN. It was the first PWN to break twenty minutes.

Nick and Ari with Chloe Smith in "The Great Kidnap".

The first full length sketch of the Second Golden Age was The Great Kidnap of '43, featuring Wesley, Ari, Nick, and Chloe Smith, posted on July 19. The following week was Double Sleeper Agent, the idea for which dated back to ninth grade. The video is among Wes and Nick's favorites, and features one of the more recent PWN inside jokes, "[[Hello Dave!]" Another old PWN idea, VShower, was released the following week. Based on ideas created by Wes and Nick in eighth grade, VShower is the first of what is expected to be multiple VSauce parody videos. The most recent video on the channel, Deadly Choices, is the first sketch to feature Joey Cianfrani, and was entirely improvised on set. It is a paordy of Fatal Decision, a Collegehumor video. Perhaps it can be seen as an homage to PWN's original inspiration.

After the release of The Emoji Movie in late July, Nick and Lucan made a 20-minute video, where they prepare themselves to watch only half of the movie, and take guesses on how the rest of it would have been. The video, called Nick and Lucan Watch: The Emoji Movie, features a cameo appearance from Blake Weise, who watched Dunkirk with them later on, and participated in the discussion, despite having not seen The Emjoi Movie. The video is the first true film review on the channel, and Nick and Wes have hinted at a possible review series to come.

Back on Track (Eleventh Grade)[edit | edit source]

The new school year was ushered in by a particularly unique episode of PWN, which featured a very interesting break from the norm. Series That Need to Die: PWN #14, uploaded on September 1, 2017, was partially edited by Ari. Nick, fearing the raw footage would not be usable, refused to edit the PWN if it was going to be bad. Ari offered to do so instead, under the condition that Nick do the animated segments, which he agreed to. Similarly, the following episode, Summer of '17 - PWN #15 was largely edited by Wes.

The first sketch of the school year, Chess to the Death, is among the favorites of its creators. Another departure from the established PWN system, the video was entirely directed by Ari, who dictated to Nickwhat he wanted filmed. The entire video was improvised as they went, and took only forty-five minutes to edit. It is a return to the former comedic style of PWN, a sort of self-aware, absurd comedy.

Just the Worst Movies - PWN #16 was edited solely by Nick, and was the second episode to break the twenty minute mark, just barely pushing past PWN #13 to be the longest PWN by a mere twenty seconds. The episode makes the topical reference to the then upcoming vote on Net Neutrality. Uploaded on the anniversary of PWN #10, the episode covers a very similar topic, and features a segment reminiscent of its predecessor, where Nick discusses box office figures for films like The Emoji Movie, Gods of Egypt, and The Boss Baby.

Wes, Ari, and Nick in Star Wars Abridged.

The following week, on Christmas Eve, The Last Jedi Review - PWN #17 was uploaded, the second PWN to feature a guest star, this time Lucan Stargiotti. Like the previous Christmas special, the topic was a discussion of a Star Wars film, again preceeded by a short prologue, with a cameo appearance by Stephen Weinstock. Midway through the video, the group switches locations for about seven minutes. Even longer than its predecessor, it (intentionally) misses the thirty minute mark by one second.

The same day that PWN #17 was filmed, the sketch Star Wars Abridged was also recorded, with Lucan joining in. Very similar in ways to Deadly Choices, it is sloppily filmed, sarcastically acted, and heavily self-aware. The group spoofs all ten live action Star Wars films up to that point. Uploaded on the 27th, it was the last PWN video of 2017.

Entering the new year, Nick was clearing out old files on his computer when he stumbled across an unfinished sketch, which had been included in the end-card of a previous PWN. Pleasantly entertained by the sketch, and unsure why it was never finished, Nick went about polishing and completing Bear Grylls Detective, which was uploaded on January 17, 2018. Wes, having seen the short a week before its upload, remarked it was among PWN's finest videos, within "the top five videos on the channel". Being the first video of 2018, it marks the first ever January upload that was not a school project. The video's popularity gave good hopes to the PWN trio on the upcoming year.

The Adpocalypse: The Second Dark Age of PWN[edit | edit source]

Nick seen speaking to the camera in "Things are Changing"

Though PWN had rarely ever been publicly involved with the goings-on of YouTube, the channel was forcibly dragged into the drama after an incredibly controversial video was uploaded by YouTuber Logan Paul on December 31, 2017. The video, which features Logan vlogging while insulting Japanese culture and filming the corpse of a dead Japanese man in Aokigahara, the infamous "Suicide Forest" of Japan, became hugely controversial and lead to a massive wave of negative attention towards YouTube's policy system.

Despite claims from Paul that the video was never monetized, YouTube's response to the incident, in addition to pulling down Logan Paul's video, was to create incredibly harsh content policies and revise the Partner Program prerequisites. Increasing the requirements from a mere 10,000 views to 4,000 hours of yearly watch time (or 240,000 minutes, at over 620 minutes per day) and 1,000 subscribers. Upon learning of this fact from Lucan, Nick frantically called Wes to alert him of the issue. That night, he filmed and uploaded the very personal Things are Changing, PWN's first true "vlog". In it, Nick makes the viewers aware of the policy changes and how they will be affecting the channel, saying that he and Wes are unsure of what will be happening in the coming months.

However, recovery at the time was quick, with The Mugging being the first PWN sketch of the year, in early February. Two days later, The Great Recap of 2017: PWN 18 - Part One was released, featuring an unplaned guest appearance from Chloe Smith. Part two of the PWN was released the following Friday. Shortly after, Wesley and Nick announced the opening of the poll for the First Annual PWNER Awards, releasing Important Announcement on February 28, 2018. The video, while itself unspectacular, is notable for being filmed at Location Two, the first since 2015.

Stephen Weinstock and others during the PWNER Awards.

Following the 90th Academy Awards, The Academy Awards: PWN #19 was released on March 9, again edited by Wesley. The PWN was the first full episode to be shot intentionally and solely in the garage set. During the course of discussion, the group unanimously decided that Baby Driver was their favorite film of the previous year. Five days later, a brief sketch starring Wes and Ari, NEW CHANNEL ANNOUNCEMENT!!1!1!!1!, was uploaded.

On March 16, The 2017 PWNIE Awards - PWN 20 was released, with the announcement of the winners for the Third Annual PWNIE Awards. The following day, The First Annual PWNER Awards was released, featuring over ten major and minor actors from other PWN videos. The video was the first appearance for Violette Remington, the first on-screen speaking role for Stephen Weinstock, and the first appearance of Jack Geoghegan since 2014. Winning videos include "Bear Grylls Detective", "Chess to the Death", and "PWN #13"

The PWNERS, like others in the Second Dark Age, is considered quite good by Nick, but they are classified as such due to the unfocused nature, unprofessionalism, and the dark events which sureounded their releases. Following the PWNERs, a brief hiatus was taken, until the end of April. Following April, the general level of quality went up for both PWNs and sketches.

End of Junior Year and the Summer of 2018

Production began on April 13 for a new PWN feature film, Don of the Damned, then reffered to by its working title "Kroeger Club". Production for the film was set to end in early June, but due to scheduling conflicts and a series of ACT Tests and AP exams, the film would not finish principle production until August. The film featured every current member of PWN, as well as many newcomers to the channel. In total, over fifty actors appear in the film, many in smaller parts and cameos.

Meanwhile, May and early June presented a sudden rush of videos, primarily school projects. At the very start of May, Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe Good? - PWN 21 was released, featuring an uncharacteristically insightful discussion of the merits and legitimacy of cinematic universes. Five days later, Inspiration was posted, the result of a rushed together drama project made with obvious overwhelming sarcasm.

On May 12, PWN finally reached 100 subscribers, and the previously unreleased PWN #4 was uploaded to celebrate. The video was intentionally edited to include more bloopers and comedic moments from Paul than actual content, resulting in what effectively ammounts to an eighteen minute blooper reel. It was the first video to feature Paul in any capacity since 2016, and the first new footage of Paul since his departure from PWN in 2015.

Brittany, Nick, David, and Ben as seen in their APUSH music video.

June saw a second burst of school projects, the result of a final project in APUSH involving music videos. Each member of the trio made their own video, as each was in a different period. While the videos are generally considered good, they too are listed among those in the Second Dark Age as they do not mark a return to regular content production. Only days after the three music videos were released, Wes uploaded an AP Chemistry project, SOAPSTONE Commercial, made under the same teacher who oversaw the Egg Video and the Bowl of Nays video. On June 10, the four year anniversary of PWN, a video made primarily by Lucan was uploaded in celebration, called Four Years of PWN, with Lucan Alto Stargiotti. The video featured clips from every PWN prior, and two sketches, as well as original content by Lucan.

On June 13, Just an Average Tuesday was released, after being filmed when a scheduled shoot day for Don of the Damned had to be canceled. The video was the second to feature Josh Flores, after his own drama project with Lucan and Kiersten, Two is Company, had been posted two months prior. The video is similar to Deadly Choices in its absurdist comedic style, and was the first video to feature Chris and Kyle since A Hot Lead.

Over the summer, as a result of busy schedules and all free time spent filming Don of the Damned, only two videos were uploaded, though many were planned. The videos, released first in August then in September, are entitled Nick and Lucan: Six Sketches in Sixty Minutes, and features the duo making improvised sketches with a time limit, similar to their Emoji Movie review the year prior.

Don of the Damn wrapped principle production on August 21st, with a premiere-turned-cast-party hosted by Violette Remington in celebration. Many of the cast members attended, though the film could not be played due to formatting issues. The production had been plagued with problems from the begining, with scheduling conflicts, cast infighting, reshoots, and rewrites being the primary reasons for the excessive production schedule.

The Expansion of PWN (Twelfth Grade)[edit | edit source]

The year started slow for PWN. In the wake of Don of the Damned, the group would take a while before things could really restart. As a result of the film, Joey once again became invested in PWN projects, though he was often more interested in the long term features at first. With Don of the Damned nearly finished, Nick was somewhat reluctant to spend any more time on a film he saw as nearly usable. Wes convinced him to finish the film before September ended, so that production could begin on their subsequent feature, which had been worked on the previous summer, even to the extent of shooting roughly twelve minutes of footage. Rewrites began on that script, while other major changes occurred on PWN. With much of Nick's free time being spent on fixing the many issues in the film, little time was left to film sketches, resulting in a surplus of PWNs in the following months.

On September 28, the first episode of senior year, Summer of '18 - PWN #22, was posted. The episode was shot in a new location, a study room at the school library, and edited in six hours by Wesley. It was also the first PWN to feature the new logo. The logo was created on Ari's terms in retaliation for Nick's attempts to get him to approve the presence of Joey in at least two episode of PWN in his place. Ari relented after insisting that the logo, which he had long complained about, be replaced. His main concern was the color gradient in the background, but Nick redesigned the logo from scratch anyway.

Closely after the episode came Gnome More Gnome Movies - PWN #23, which revolved around a discussion of Gnome Alone, which was prior mentioned in PWN #16. This episode, along with the subsequent Done With the Damned? - PWN #24, were again filmed at Location Five, albeit at a different angle than usual, with the trio sitting to the right of the bed instead of on it as in previous episodes. In between these episodes, on the four year anniversary of the first episode of PWN, Don of the Damned - Official Trailer was released. The trailer, which was the first footage of the film seen on the channel, ends with a non-specific release date of 2019. Unlike the A Hot Lead trailer before it, was less saturated with plot details, moreso acting as a sneak-peek at the action of the film. PWN #24, which came the day after the trailer's release date, was an attempt by Nick and Wesley to clarify details about the lack of information surrounding Don of the Damned and its unknown release date. This episode was itself closely followed by Gangster Movies - PWN #25, which featured Joey as a guest star, in a discussion of the films watched during the Kroeger Club marathon the summer prior.

The first school project of the year, Fortnite Addiction PSA, was released on November 14, 2018. The comedic sketch is a PSA parody, featuring Nick and Kyle, as well as a few newcomers to the channel. The following Friday, Teen Movie Marathon - PWN #26 was released, Joey's first PWN. The episode was shot in the blue room, and features a discussion of four teenage coming-of-age comedies.

December proved to be a very busy month for the channel, with eight videos uploaded. The first of these was Harry Potter and the Pretty Good Movies - PWN #27, a conversation about the ongoing Fantastic Beasts pentology, and what separates it from similar cinematic endevours such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A few days later, Kangaroo was posted, a computer science project animated by Wesley, with very little accompanying context. The Odd Couple was the first non-school project sketch since Just an Average Tuesday, uploaded December thirteenth. The sketch features Wesley and Lucan as two polar opposites with clashing personalities, who awaken handcuffed together in the New York wildrness. The video was entirely improvised, and filmed after a very long day of filiming for Don of the Damned four months earlier.

The Untitled PWN was a unique PWN, which features a game show style competition between Ari and Wes, who compete to predict the plots of unnamed IMDb entries, hosted and moderated by Nick. The episode is among Nick's favorite, and the first with extensive animation since The Last Jedi Review. A week after, Joey's second solo PWN was posted, Netflix Originals: PWN #29. Each of the three members selected a Netflix produced film from the past year, with the majority of the episode being a discussion of the film "The Package". The last PWN of the year and the third annual Christmas special, The Dark Knight - PWN #30, was the first episode of PWN to feature two guests at the table, as well as numerous other cameo appearances in the episodes five minute long prologue. The episode was recorded with Wes, Nick, Ari, Joey, and Lucan, the last three of whom were unfamiliar with the film The Dark Knight, though all three had seen The Dark Knight Rises. All five came out of the screening with positive opinions of the film. The accompanying sketch, Timmy Two Times, was the brainchild of Nick and Joey, who came up with the idea after watching Goodfellas. The entire episode was improvised by the actors, with only the names predetermined.

The largest video of the year, and the very last video uploaded in 2018, was Mr. Salami Reviews A Hot Lead. The review, a parody of the Mr. Plinkett reviews by RedLetterMedia, was written and edited by Nick, and with Lucan Stargiotti voicing the epononymous character, Johnny No-Shoes Salami. The forty-eight minute video is an indepth reevaluation of A Hot Lead, which was first envisioned ten months prior, with the intention to upload on the one year anniversary of the film's release. The final video was recorded in four nonconsecutive hours, and edited in nineteen hours across three days. Besides A Hot Lead, the review features commentary on many of the earlier PWN videos, such as Dancing Bad, Dare, The Pikachu, and An Egg-Celent Cake!

The eight PWNs from #22 to #29 are seen by Nick as the "Experimental Age" of PWN. Unlike prior episodes, which had some consistency with length, location, and actors, these alternated all three traits with no regularity. Of the eight PWNs, three feature Joey, and three new locations are introduced. The Dark Knight episode is not included, as it is a return to form for PWN, and is not as unique or easily distinguishable from the eight episodes prior.

Platinum Age of PWN[edit | edit source]

The Platinum era gets its name from the fact that while platinum is technically more valuable and finer than gold, it is not as impressive or visually interesting. Likewise, the videos uploaded in this era came with frequency, and while technically good, Nick felt that they lacked a certain quality that earlier videos had, particularly those in the Second Golden Age.

The Platinum Era was foreshadowed by the release of the Mr. Salami Review, and could be construed to include the last three videos of December, though its official star date comes with Welcome to PWN, a sort of channel trailer and announcement video. The video declared that big things were coming up for PWN. The following week, the first content of the new year was released, with Spectre Spookers - The Haunted Warehouse, posted on January 16, 2019. The video featured Nick, Chris Smith, Wade Wilson, and Phoebe Moreno as a ghost-hunting crew exploring a warehouse in Northern Kansas, where they are plagued by scary sounds and spooky occurrences. The video is intentionally low quality, and is notable for being the first and as of yet only video on the channel edited using Adobe Premiere.

The following day, a school project was released, with Supreme Court Smackdown, featuring Nick and Brittany Weinstock, and a special cameo by Ben Blackstone (thus featuring three of the four main group members from the Jeffersonian Democracy music video). The video featured an ESPN-style presentation of 32 landmark Supreme Court cases placed in a March Madness bracket. That Friday, the first PWN of 2019 was released, titled A Sneak Peek at 2019 - PWN #31. In it, the trio cover upcoming movies, as well as discussion of Marvel and Star Wars fatigue throughout. Nick notes that the video is among the more lighthearted PWNs, with a notable energy emanating from all three participants.

Following the release of the first part of the Nick and Lucan: Sh*tty Movie Marathon series, a number of PWNs were released in the ensuing months. Oscar Bait - PWN #32 and Seeing What Sticks - PWN #33 were posted in late January and early February respectively. In episode #33, no particular topic was chosen, but instead a number of talking points were discussed, including the Super Bowl and The Playmobil Movie. Later in February, Best of 2018 - PWN #34 was uploaded, being the first episode since December to be shot at Ari's counter. The channel's next video, PWNIES by the Fire - PWN #35, went up on March 8th, 2019. This would be the first episode of PWN to be filmed outside, and featured the trio sitting by the fire to announce the winners of the Fourth Annual PWNIE Awards. Two days later, Nick Reviews the 2019 Academy Awards!!! was posted, where Nick reviewed all eight nominees for Best Picture at that year's Academy Awards. This was the first appearance of Scientist Man since the nineteenth episode of PWN.

The following week, the announcement video for the year's PWNER Awards was released. Evan Ramirez and Violette Remington would replace Stephen Weinstock as the host of the show. The actual awards show was uploaded on . It was the most expansive cast to feature in a non-feature production up to that point. The video is considered to be one of Nick's favorites, as it is largely improvised and includes a number of non-sequiturs and cutaway gags. It would be nearly two months before the next video would go up, however, with Avengers: Endgame - PWN #36 being the video to break the almost fifty day dry spell of PWN content. The PWN was Wesley's first solo edit of the year, and the final episode to ever be filmed in the Blue Room of the high school. It is also notable for being the first sub-ten minute episode of PWN in three years, the last being PWN #8.

The final video of the school year was Teresa Telenovela Ending, a group project created for Nick's AP Spanish class. It is the only video on the channel filmed entirely in another language, in this case Spanish.

The Summer of PWN[edit | edit source]

At the dusk of the Platinum Era of PWN, the PWN cast and crew became very aware that their days of making videos for the channel were numbered. July and August in particular would see an influx of videos as the channel approached its final days. This period would kick off strong with one of the most exciting events in PWN history – the commencement of a road trip, which would see six members of PWN travel across California to talk about movies.

The Great PWN Road Trip[edit | edit source]

Main Article: The Great PWN Road Trip

Despite being in the works for over three years at that point, practically no mention of a road trip appeared on PWN before the actual start of the journey in early July of 2019.

The Future of PWN[edit | edit source]

The future of PWN is uncertain. There is always a massive amount of content at the beginning of the year, before a huge drop in the second semester of school. Perhaps PWN will be able to prosper this time, or maybe it will fall again. Especially going into senior year, with colleges and grades becoming all too important. But only time will tell.

See Also[edit | edit source]

Eras of PWN History
See Also: List of PWN Videos
Early Days of PWN · First Golden Age · First Dark Age · New Wave of PWN · The Grand Hiatus · Second Golden Age · Second Dark Age · Experimental Era · Platinum Era of PWN