ToeJam & Earl is a 1991 action video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega for the Genesis console.

It centers on ToeJam and Earl—alien rappers who have crash-landed on Earth—as they attempt to escape the planet, players assume the role of either character and collect pieces of their wrecked spacecraft.

[4] The game was positively received by critics, who praised its originality, soundtrack, humor and two-player cooperative mode.

A fourth title, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove, was released on March 1, 2019 without Sega's involvement, using funds from Kickstarter.

ToeJam & Earl has been called a surreal, comic satire[5] and a "daringly misanthropic commentary on Earthly life".

[7] ToeJam wears a large gold medallion and a backwards baseball cap, while Earl is marked by high-tops and oversized sunglasses; both outfits are "over-the-top appropriations" of 1990s urban culture.

[5] In the game's opening sequence, ToeJam explains that Earl's erratic piloting abilities have resulted in a crash-landing on planet Earth.

[5] Should the player succeed, the final sequence depicts ToeJam and Earl escaping the planet in their reconstructed spacecraft.

[8] Each island is populated by antagonistic "Earthlings", such as phantom ice-cream trucks, aggressive packs of "nerds", giant hamsters, Bogeymen, man-eating mailboxes, and chickens armed with mortars that shoot tomatoes.

[5] The game has been described as "largely non-violent",[15] as the protagonists can only attack enemies with thrown tomatoes—one of many temporary, randomly generated power-ups.

[16] Their status as commercial game designers allowed them to meet with Sega of America, and they used cards covered in landscape drawings to demonstrate their idea of randomly generated levels.

[18] The team's goal was to make a humorous game that was "original, easy to understand and offered an immediate response to the player's actions".

[16] In a 1992 interview with Sega Visions, Johnson stated that the characters ToeJam and Earl evolved as reflections of his and Voorsanger's personalities.

[19] ToeJam & Earl received positive reviews,[16] which Bill Paris of UGO described as "almost unanimous critical acclaim".

The game built a cult following through word of mouth,[16] and it was further aided by the Sega Genesis's Christmas 1991 sales spike, caused by the release of Sonic the Hedgehog.

[16] In the words of historian Ken Horowitz "In all, the game sold 350,000 copies for Sega, a remarkable feat for such an unconventional title on a fledgling console.

[28] Jeff Csatari of Boys' Life called it "another hot game" for the Sega Genesis, alongside Sonic the Hedgehog.

[30] A review published in both the Chicago Tribune and Rome News-Tribune likened ToeJam and Earl to "an outer-space, rap version of Abbott and Costello".

[12] Jeremy Parish of 1UP found the game's two-player co-operative mode more enjoyable than its single-player and described the graphics and sound as "oddly primitive".

[7] IGN called the game's visuals a "mixed bag" and derided the slow pace, but praised its unpredictability and believed that its sound design was "one thing you absolutely can't fault".

[38] The characters appeared in a spin-off light gun game, Ready, Aim, Tomatoes, developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions as one of six mini-games for the Menacer 6-game cartridge.

[5] In early 1992, the developers began work on a sequel to ToeJam & Earl and spent three months expanding on the original game's concept by adding indoor areas and more terrain types.

[5][16] The game, titled ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, was highly anticipated, and it was a commercial and critical success when it released in 1993.

[12][36] While ToeJam & Earl's success did not match that of the Sega Genesis's other popular titles, it has been considered a "classic",[6][12] and a "cult" game.