The voting has ended and Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins have officially join Lady Gaga, Robert Pattinson, and Ashton Kutcher in Time magazine's 2010 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Sure, the annual Time 100 isn't much more than a popularity contest, but it's good to see a couple champions of video game culture make a list dominated by movie stars, television actors, and recording artists. Mike and Jerry are rightly listed under the 'Artist' category in Time's feature, where they mingle with the likes of Elton John, Prince, and of course, Lady Gaga.
As ridiculous as that all sounds, Time did manage to successfully nail down one of the main reason fans love the dynamic duo of webcomics.
Krahulik and Holkins have become the tastemakers, and conscience, of an industry the size of Hollywood. But for all their success, they are almost compulsively self-deprecating, and they give all the credit to their fans. You can't put a label on them. Labels smack of hype, and Penny Arcade doesn't do hype. "We don't think about it," Holkins says. "We specifically don't try to figure out what we are." Krahulik adds, deadpan: "Except rad."
Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik [The 2010 Time 100]