Funhaus was an American YouTube channel owned by Rooster Teeth based in Los Angeles, California, run by a group of Gamers. The content mostly consisted of gameplay videos, as well as podcasts and Q&As.
About[]
The team of Funhaus were previously known as Inside Gaming, a channel owned by Machinima. In January 2015, the crew announced their departure from the company. The guys of Inside Gaming were acquired by Rooster Teeth, and the new channel Funhaus debuted on February 5, 2015. Within 12 hours of their first video being uploaded, the channel had passed 100,000 subscribers.
Most of the content that Funhaus uploads consists of gameplay videos. The trio of Adam, Bruce and James are known for playing hilariously bad games and finding humor in them. Adam is mostly the one at the mouse and keyboard, while Bruce and James provide comedic commentary over the games. They also create podcasts and Q&As and the team, as now essential parts of the Rooster Teeth family, appear in a lot of videos on other channels, such as Rooster Teeth, LetsPlay, and The Know.
On March 6, 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of Rooster Teeth, announced that the latter would shut down. [1] As a result, Funhaus uploaded the final videos on April 26, 2024.
Members[]
The "team" of Funhaus are often referred to as Hausmates by the Funhaus community.
Founding Hausmates[]
- Adam Kovic (2015–Oct 2020)
- Bruce Greene (2015–Sep 2019)
- James Willems (2015–2024)
- Lawrence Sontagg (2015–Dec 2019)
- Joel Rubin (2015–Apr 2016)
- Sean "Spoole" Poole (2015–Feb 2016)
- Matt "Pe/\ke" Peake (2015–2024)
Sean Poole, or Spoole, announced in February, 2016 via a Reddit post that he was leaving Funhaus, as he had missed his family and friends in Seattle, and wanted to pursue his personal dreams. While he has left Funhaus, he still continues to stream with passion. Joel Rubin announced his departure in April, 2016. He worked as the Director of Programming on Funhaus, and in his announcement post he said that the team had a lot of experience and knowledge of how to run a YouTube channel, and that it was time for him to move on to "another challenge". In September of 2019 Bruce announced he would be leaving Funhaus and RT. In a post, his reason was a personal desire to build his own brand and become a streamer, which he now does full time. Lawrence left in December of 2019 but did not mention a specific reason for the decision. He also streams full time. Adam was let go by RT in October of 2020. Although RT and Kovic himself have not been clear on an exact reason why, it is speculated the action was done in part due to the personal leaks of Kovics that emerged around the same time
New Hausmates[]
- Elyse Willems (James' wife) (Nov 2015–2024)
- Omar "Omarcito" de Armas (Feb 2016–2024)
- Alanah Pearce (2018-2020)
Both Elyse and Omar previously worked at GameTrailers, which was shut down in February, 2016. Alanah previously worked at IGN before joining the Funhaus crew in 2018 after appearing in several videos. In 2020, Alanah announced she would be leaving the channel.
Shows[]
Funhaus upload videos daily, and most of them are weekly episodes of popular shows. Every once in a while they will upload gameplay videos of miscellanious games, or make shorts, skits and more. Most gameplay videos have video recordings of the crew in a corner of the screen.
Demo Disk[]
Perhaps Funhaus' most popular show, Demo Disk started when a fan of Funhaus gave the guys a collection of old demo disks in a disk binder. In each video, James picks out a disk from the binder and hands it to Adam, who installs and plays the game demos on the disk. Most of these games are terrible and/or broken, giving James and Bruce the opportunity to make jokes and commentate over the gameplay.
The life of every disk they try ends with Bruce snapping it to pieces. Videos also include occasional visits of the "Rule 34" pages of whatever character, movie, game or show is brought up in conversation.
Open Haus[]
Open Haus is the weekly Q&A show by Funhaus. Very similar in style to the Q&A series they had on Inside Gaming, every episode has the crew answering 6-7 questions submitted on Reddit threads.
While the focus of the show was originally to answer gaming-related questions that fans had, more recent episodes showcase Funhaus answering funny, silly, sometimes hypothetical questions. They even make fun of that every fact, sometimes joking about the nature of comments or how unfunny Open Haus is.
In earlier episodes, Adam, Bruce and James would answer questions with another member, such as Lawrence or Joel. But improvements in office space has allowed them to feature the entire crew in every episode.
In 2019 Open Haus became more like the Comment show, with the cast specifically using comments of any sort and not specifically questions. The show has not run for the majority of 2020.
Dude Soup[]
Dude Soup is the weekly podcast run by Funhaus. Lawrence was the main producer of Dude Soup, then Alanah took over after his departure and now it is seemingly run by the Willems. The video recordings of the hosts are paired with gameplay footage, usually relevant to the topic(s) being discussed. Subjects usually revolve around video game news, game development or journalism, and sometimes movies, or internet drama.
Every episode starts off with an intro by the host, following the structure "Welcome, everyone, to a [small description] [adjective] bowl of Dude Soup". Dude Soup is also livestreamed weekly for Rooster Teeth Sponsors on roosterteeth.com.
'Dude Soup' was one of the names that the team were considering for their new channel, back in February, 2015. They claim it was between 'Funhaus' and 'Dude Soup', and they decided on the former. Then, when trying to think of a title for the podcast, they felt 'Dude Soup' was too good a name to pass up.
GTA 5 Gameplay[]
One of the more "regular" gameplays, a group of 3-4 go into GTA Online custom matches and compete with fans. Often displaying how unskilled all of them are at Grand Theft Auto 5. In the game lobbies they also try to talk the fans that have headset microphones. The GTA 5 gameplays are frequently streamed live on their YouTube channel, several days before the fully edited videos get uploaded to YouTube.
One popular GTA 5 series on Funhaus is the Funheists, where 4 guys go on cooperative heist missions online. It debuted in the early days of Funhaus, disappeared for a year, and came back in April, 2016.
Funhaus Comments[]
This show, which was originally part of podcast episodes, consists of the guys picking and printing out comments submitted by fans, and responding to them appropriately. It's common for these comments to be negative or disagreeing of a particular Hausmate's opinions, and Funhaus Comments gives the crew an opportunity to publicly address them.
Fan Show (Sponsor-Only)[]
Previously known as Fan Art and Art Haus, Funhaus find and showcase the best of the Funhaus community in any given week. Majority of these videos revolve around putting pieces of Funhaus fan art in the spotlight.
Several videos were made back when Funhaus started, but the show disappeared for a while, due to the time it took to make them and the amount of views that the videos were getting. Nowadays weekly 30-minute Fan Show episodes are available to Rooster Teeth Sponsors on roosterteeth.com. Fan Show is livestream- ed before the start of every Dude Soup episode.
Other[]
Funhaus Shorts[]
Live-action skits. "Funhaus Tourism Bureau" is one of the mini-series of Funhaus Shorts.
Funhaus Cartoons[]
Monthly videos where the funniest and most memorable moments in Funhaus videos are animated with 3D cartoony characters.
FAQ Podcast (Cancelled)[]
FAQ, or "Funhaus Answers Questions", where Funhaus have 5 to 10-minute Skype calls with fans, who ask them questions regarding a particular topic in gaming. Production of the FAQ Podcast is non-existent at the moment.
Inside Gaming was started up again by Funhaus and was predominately a gaming news show. It was run mainly by Lawrence and then Alanah. The show soon became its own channel as another RT production.
Subscriber Milestones[]
- 1 million subscribers: August 18, 2016.
Video View Milestones[]
- 1 billion views: February 8, 2019.
Trivia[]
Hausmates[]
Adam Kovic[]
- Often seen as sad, depressed and lifeless. He claims that it's just how his face is.
- The creator of the phrase "Skyrim with Guns", used to describe the Far Cry series.
- Sometimes regarded as the leader of Funhaus, for no real reason other than that he's been around longest.
- His mother was an undercover cop, who was often disguised as a prostitute.
- Nephew of Ron Kovic, author of Born on the Fourth of July.
- Big fan of Batman, the Metal Gear Solid series, Bioshock and more.
Bruce Greene[]
- Known for his loud and uncontrollable farts.
- Never burps.
- Claims to be related to Pocahontas.
- Biggest Star Wars and Battlefield fan at Funhaus.
- He and James had a beachball team called Santa Barbara SeaWolves.
James Willems[]
- Considered to be the funniest guy of the bunch.
- Often makes politically incorrect jokes and comments.
- Very passionate about fitness and staying healthy. Loves squats.
- Psychonauts is his favorite game. The wide support and uproar of the Funhaus community, knowing his love for the game, led to Double Fine giving him a voice acting role in the sequel, Psychonauts 2.
- He and his wife have Bensen, the dog.
Lawrence Sontagg[]
- Has the saltiest humor in the group.
- Considered the anime otaku/weeaboo of the group.
- Often jokes about being an alcoholic.
- At a New Year's Eve party, he crashed at Bruce's apartment. Later in the middle of the night, while sleepwalking, went into Bruce's room and pissed in his closet.
Joel Rubin[]
- He's the different one. He provided neither on-screen personality nor editing team during his time at Funhaus, and he was terrible in just about every game they had him play.
- Loves MOBAs, MMOs. Talented in music, dancing, drawing.
- Known for the long and witty descriptions he would write for videos.
Sean "Spoole" Poole[]
- Almost never see him without a cap on.
- Jokingly regarded as being the editing slave for the crew.
- Looks like he's always high.
Matt "Pe/\ke" Peake[]
- He's the quiet one who never wants to be in videos. Very sweet, kind and wise.
- Has an online cult following, known as the "Cult of Pe/\ke". The signature gesture is raising both arms into a triangle, which is where the "/\" part comes from, and saying "PEEEAAAKEEEE".
- Always has the best answers for Open Haus questions.
Elyse Willems[]
- As a callback to a comment in Funhaus Comments, she's sometimes referred to as James' sister.
- Canadian.
- Long-running joke that she and Barbara Dunkelman (Rooster Teeth) are clones of one another.
- Her impression of Spoole is a signature move of hers.
Omar "Omarcito" de Armas[]
- Primarily editing talent, rarely does or says anything in videos.
- In Open Haus episodes, during loud discussions by the rest of the crew, the video will sometimes cut to "The Omar Cam", with Omar staring into his screen while editing, and the voices of everyone else muffled out.
Achievement Hunter[]
From the day Funhaus began, a rivalry was born between it and Rooster Teeth's other gaming channel, Achievement Hunter. Jokes at how lazy Achievement Hunter are are very common to see in Funhaus videos.
- When Jon Risinger had designed the Funhaus logo, they had several options that they could go with in terms of color. One of the reasons they landed on orange was because it is a great opposite color to Achievement Hunter's green.
- Funhaus and Achievement Hunter have battled it out several times in videos, in games such as Rainbow Six: Siege, Smite, GTA 5 and more.
- There is currently a race between the two channels for whoever can reach 1,000,000 subscribers first.
Sex Swing[]
The official non-official rock band of Funhaus: Sex Swing.
Origin[]
In Open Haus #9, Funhaus was asked to think of names for a 80s rock band and its members. Thus, 'Sex Swing' was born.
Members include:
- Tommy Steale (Bruce Greene)
- Spunkie Bruester (Joel Rubin)
- Tha Schling (Adam Kovic)
- Jamez The Ripher (James Willems)
Sex Swing Lives[]
Sex Swing got its own merchandise on the Rooster Teeth store.
Later two Funhaus Shorts were made about Sex Swing, sponsored by the video game Rock Band 4.
On July 1st, 2016 at RTX 2016, it was announced that Sex Swing The Animated Series was in production. The show premiered in 2017. As of 2020, members of Funhaus do not believe it will receive a second series.