Fear of Girls is a series of short mockumentaries created by Dangerously Adorable Productions and written and directed by Ryan Wood. They detail the lives of two heavy Dungeons & Dragons players and LARPers, Doug Douglason and Raymond Ractburger. The first episode became popular due to the filmmakers' use of viral marketing.
History
Fear of Girls was initially released in February 2006 on Google Video, since YouTube was in its early stages and only allowed for five-minute videos. The episode became incredibly popular and led to Disney optioning the characters from director Ryan Wood for its on web productions. However, due to the requirement for exclusivity of the property by Disney, the deal fell through.
Episode one
The two main characters are stereotypical D&D/LARPing "dorks". Raymond wears an oversized T-shirt with a picture of a dragon on it, they re-enact medieval fantasy battle scenes in their living room in full barbarian and wizard costumes, and they are socially inept. Although Raymond likes girls and has an unrequited crush on the pizza delivery girl, Doug is less enthusiastic and there are scenes of homoerotic tension between the two. They also claim to be "platonic life partners", or "P.L.P.s". There is a short middle segment in which Doug dresses like a Druid and has an antagonistic relationship with his sister-in-law. The humor is heightened by the fact that both Doug's brother, and his sister-in-law are fundamentalist Christians. Fear of Girlsepisode 1 was the #1 blogged site in the world at one time according to Daypop.com, and was Slashdotted January 29, 2006. Additionally, during the week of February 3, it was the top link on blog trackers and resulted in the filmmaker being contacted by MTV.
Episode two
Episode 2 departs somewhat from the original formula, but is a follow-up of the first episode. In it, Doug and Raymond have become somewhat famous for appearing in the first episode and briefly discuss the odd people they've met as a result. Eventually, they decide to use their new fame to start a special game and invite three girls to participate. The first girl to show up is a self-professed psychic and admirer of Doug. The second is an overdramatic method actress who is trying to use Doug and Raymond to promote herself. The third is an actual female gamer who becomes involved in the adventure and manipulates Raymond so that she can kill off his character. Her character is prevented form this by Doug intervening in the game.
Episode three
In episode 3, Doug and Raymond describe a new RPG they have created and attempt to find $10,000 to produce it. Raymond is shown at his mother's house, surrounded by her sizable collection of dolls. His sales pitch to her is an abject failure, with him reading directly from a prepared script and accidentally knocking over his whiteboard, only to finally blurt out "Can I have $10,000?" Next, Doug attempts to present his idea to his brother and hostile sister in law, who eventually agree to fund the game's creation if Doug will attend an "event" with them. The event, planned by the sister in law, is an "extreme exorcism" hosted by a professional wrestler with bulging muscles. When the exorcist attempts to exorcise Doug by placing him in a headlock, Doug shouts that he has been "hate crimed" as he is a "registered druid". The result is that the wrestler is taken to jail and Doug's family refuses to give him the money. Eventually, Doug and Raymond obtain their money by shilling for a spam website that sells erectile dysfunction pills and mortgages.
Episode four and future
In the fall of 2013 Ryan Wood, director of Fear of Girls, launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund episode 4 with the possibility of extending the series into a full thirteen-episode arch. In September 2013 the campaign was successfully funded, obtaining $10,758 of their $7,500 goal. Filming began in January 2014 with the episode being released to backers in May 2014. The episode has since been released to the general public on Sep 17, 2014.
