TheOdd1sOut reportedly lays off entire animation team without warning

Popular YouTube channel TheOdd1sOut laid off its entire animation team without warning on Thursday, the affected artists say. The channel, created by James Rallison in 2014, is known for animated storytime videos featuring cute marshmallowy characters and has more than 20 million subscribers.

Videos about lousy roommates, the awkwardness of calling wrong numbers, and Rallison’s experiences working at Subway have each drawn over 100 million views. Artists who say they were let go include RushLight Invader, David Toons, Ant Fart and Viscuvania. In a thread on X, Viscuvania wrote that the team was left without explanation and asked that fans not blame the artists for Rallison’s decision: "We were not given any heads-up about [Rallison’s] decision and neither was anything alluding towards it other than maybe lulls in work." TheOdd1sOut has expanded beyond YouTube with a 2022 animated Netflix series and five books published between 2018 and 2023, but viewership has fallen in recent years from tens of millions per video to single millions.

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