The Legend of Neil

The Legend of Neil is a comedy web series distributed by Comedy Central’s partner Atom.com and is a parody of the Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda. Sandeep Parikh of The Guild fame directs the series. Tony Janning writes for the series, and acts as the title character Neil. Felicia Day and Mike Rose, who have worked with Parikh on the set of The Guild, appear as recurring characters.

The series follows Neil, who is sucked into the world of The Legend of Zelda while playing the game. As he travels Hyrule he is mistaken for the hero of the game, Link. The series is “full of self degrading, foul humor”, such as when Neil is being sucked into the game he is masturbating and strangled himself with his NES controller.

The series began as a four-minute YouTube video posted in 2007. The video went viral, receiving several million views. Its popularity led to Atom.com financing a web series based around the video.

The first season was released in 2008. According to Fox Business before the premiere of the second season, “With nearly one million plays, the hit Web series by creator Sandeep Parikh built one of the Web’s most enthusiastic fan bases in 2008.” In the run-up to the August 2009 premiere of the second season, MTV2 planned to air the complete first season. The series was also nominated for multiple Streamys at the 1st Streamy Awards in 2009.