Cyanide & Happiness (C&H) is a webcomic created by Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin, and Dave McElfatrick.

The comic has been running since 2005 and is published on the website explosm.net along with animated shorts and longer episodes in the same style, often with a shocking or offensive tone.

The comic and animations use stick figure art to present graphic, dark, and often surreal humor which has been described as "seem[ing] to have no taste boundaries whatsoever",[citation needed] covering topics such as abortion, suicide, violence, and necrophilia.

The comic was called one of the ten best webcomics by a columnist for The Telegraph in 2009, and by 2012 the website was receiving over a million views each day.

[3] In around 2001, DenBleyker created the website StickSuicide, which hosted animations and games depicting the violent deaths of stick figures.

[3] Wilson started drawing stick figures while he was home sick from high school with strep throat,[1] and was posting comics on the StickSuicide forums.

[citation needed] Another potential name for the project was "BestWhileHigh.com", an idea Wilson disliked, as he thought it sounded too much like teen zine or 9gag.

[2] In 2010, McElfatrick started a petition for a visa into the United States, in order to be with the other writers to produce more animated shorts.

The petition garnered over 146,000 signatures and in September 2010 it was announced that Dave qualified for the visa that would allow him to work in the United States.

"[13][14][15][16] Melvin later said in an AMA that the other creators forced him to leave through "a clause in our contract that, in the opinion of myself and all the lawyers I spoke to, was grossly misused" and that he was now forbidden to draw C&H characters.

[17] According to explosm.net, Melvin preferred "to focus his talents in web design and project management [and] very rarely worked on the animations.

"[18] Other creators have contributed to the comic and to the animated shorts, such as Chase Suddarth, Joel Watson, Connor Murphy, Zach Prescott, Bill Jones, Mike Salcedo and Shawn Coss.

[b] The comic regularly makes jokes on controversial topics including abortion, mental illness, suicide, AIDS, disabilities, and necrophilia.

[1] Wilson mentioned Don Hertzfeldt, Bill Hicks, White Ninja Comics, Monty Python, and David Wong as influences.

[9] In a 2010 interview, the creators reported that based on surveys and conventions their audience was split equally between men and women.

"[25] Writing for CBR in 2010, reviewer Brigid Alverson said, "The Cyanide & Happiness formula is pretty simple: Stick men (and women) do shocking things to one another.

There are four different artists, but the style and humor are fairly uniform; a situation is set up in the first panel and resolved, by stabbing, boob-grabbing, or shouting "You have cancer!

in the last....Fortunately, the creators pace themselves, mixing different types of humor (including some clever wordplay and visual puns that aren't at all bloody) so that when someone gets stabbed in the forehead, it actually does come as a surprise.

"[1] A writer for student newspaper Yale Daily News said in 2012 that the comic was "known for its unusual, graphic and insensitive jokes".

[3] In response to the question regarding controversial topics, DenBleyker said that the authors have not received a huge amount of serious negative feedback and do not intend to tone down the edginess of their comics.

[28] The book collection Cyanide & Happiness: Stab Factory was nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best Humor Publication category in 2016.

[41] In June 2019, another Kickstarter campaign for a card game project was launched, developed in collaboration with Skybound Entertainment, titled Trial by Trolley.

[48][49][50][51][52] The game's title was announced in March 2020 to be Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse Part 1 – Hall Pass to Hell.

[53] In March 2022, Explosm began Gamefound for a new Cyanide & Happiness card game titled Master Dater.

[59] Merchandise sold by Cyanide and Happiness includes T-shirts, figurines, housewares, school supplies, signed prints, and a beer.

[60][61] DenBleyker made his first animated series called Joe Zombie, which lasted six episodes, and left fans to anticipate a seventh, where he stated "will come out eventually".

[citation needed] After leaving the Cyanide and Happiness team, Melvin started a new webcomic, titled The Last Nerds on Earth.