Naruto: Subscribes to it?
Joe-Kage: I mean, uh, 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. Nobody even knows why they're making a bridge anymore. They just want people to cross it. They don't care where they're going. The first guy is like: "I'm gonna go to conventions to promote my bridge." It's like... it's just a bridge. It's not a big deal. Get over it.
Naruto: What's he talking about?
David Bowie: Apparently, bridges.
— Naruto The Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show
“For some reason playing a card game has caused me to become severely injured!”
…pointing out how the rules of the card game in the show don’t actually make any sense…
“Ah! Exodia! It’s not possible! No one’s ever been able to summon him!” “Really? Is that because he’s so rare?” “No, it’s because this game makes no sense; nobody can figure out how to do it.”
…and how badly censored the show was in the United States by its American licenser 4Kids.
“Don’t move a muscle or we’ll shoot you with our invisible guns!”
The show was a massive success, and has since become extremely popular among both anime fans and certain sections of the internet, giving rise to such famous memes as “Brooklyn Rage!”, “You’re not even wearing a flag on your head!”, and “Screw the rules, I have money!”.
Its success has since spawned a whole range of imitations, virtually creating an entire new genre of fan-made content. Although initially most Abridged Series were based on anime, over time they have expanded to Western cartoons, movies, and video games. Apart from their basic premise taken from LittleKuriboh’s show, the vast majority of them share certain traits: they make fun of their respective work while also celebrating it, most characters’ personalities are highly exaggerated for comedic effect, the characters are often aware of the fact they are fictional characters and frequently break the fourth wall, and the show makes continual references to other media. As fan works, these show vary widely in quality, and there are far too many of them to ever list. However, the following ones are funny enough to be worth your time.
As I said, there are literally hundreds of fan-made abridged series, so no matter what anime you might be a fan of there is probably an abridged series of it somewhere. I can’t speak to the quality of all of them, but the best abridged series are funny enough that you can enjoy them even without having seen the original show. No matter what your taste is, there’s an abridged series for you.