Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’? or HAWP for short is an YouTube based comedy series created by sibling, the titular Ashly Burch, and Anthony Burch. It also stars David Burch aka Papa Burch, the patriarch of the Burch clan and Anthony’s ex-wife Leigh Davis who originally starred as an extra, with her role increasing until her divorce from Anthony. Anyways, Hawp has approximately 159 episodes, broken up into 5 seasons and special episodes. During its first year of production HAWP was hosted by Destructoid, and syndicated on GameTrailers until 2013, and now the show is independently distributed. HAWP is framed around both siblings passion for gaming and the gaming industry, and it blends surreal humour and comic portrayals of the family unit, mixed with satire and genuine and profound analysis of gaming culture.
1. Taken to School (Finale Part 2)
Poorly performed musical number or not, this was always going to take the top spot. Without fail, every single time I watch this episode I’m humming the song for weeks. Not only is it great because of the musical and, funny because the characters are just funny, but it also resolves an ongoing story arch in such an anti-climatic way as well.
2. This War of Mine
I like this partly because I just really enjoy the game but mainly seeing Ashly, often the wildcard of the HAWP show, being so sweet and then so dark with her younger cousin really made this episode. Also for a kid the cousin had decent acting chops.
3. Professor Layton
Was one of the first episodes of HAWP i saw and both encapsulates the characters of both Ashly and Anthony really well and pokes fun at the Professor Layton games.
4. Text Adventures
Really gives you a chance to see the characters of the show, it’s funny and just a little bit mad, and even though it’s fairly low budget it’s impressive in its execution, with a hilarious if extreme closer.
5. Rock Band
I like the direct to camera presentation, and the English accent from Ashly is super funny, and it’s truly amazing how much they managed to fit in to roughly 1 minute and 15 seconds.
6. E3 2012: Jesus Christ 64
I enjoyed all the HAWP trips to E3 but this one if probably my favourite because it had a chance for Ashly and Papa Burch to hang out and be weird and fun in their own unique ways, and I’m super excited for Jesus Christ 64 to come out on Origin.
7. Driver: San Francisco
As the Roadrunner of the HAWP relationship Ashly usually wins, whereas as the Wiley Coyote or Anthony as he likes to be known can try his best but always ends up worse off. However in this case, Ashly spins off on her own adventure and ends up suffering as a result of her own actions rather than Anthony being her unwitting target.
8. Saints Row the Third
Fun game, ever more fun video. Also interesting facts, there is actually a DLC package for Saints Row IV of the Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’ where can have them as homies. Also in Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell Ashly voice Kiki DeWynter, taking over the role from Megan Hollingshead. Anyway, this episode has a surreal time jump and laser dildos, so is well worth a watch.
9. Scene It?
We find out that Papa Burch is scary knowledgeable about Twilight, like Cathy Ward is shaking in her boots. It’s actually an all around fun episode.
10. Yoshi’s Cookie
Has us discovering that Ashly cannot control herself, she’s at the mercy of her ingrained gamer knowledge, and also for a fairly petite girl, she managed to pack away a whole bunch of cookies, and a dog or three.
Honourable mentions go to The HAWP Before Christmas, Nintendoland and Minecraft which I also really enjoyed but didn’t quite make the top 10 list.
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