Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the round
table of dim lighting, we're going to be talking
about our big 2020 initiative. Let's make it sound as
corporate as possible. The big 2020 initiative
from Rhett and Link is vlogging on the long term fallow Rhett and Link channel. You know what fallow means? I thought you were
gonna say something else when you started saying fallow. Long term fallow. I don't know what I was gonna say. I'll take a long fallow. Long is even worse. Yeah we're gonna talk about-- Fallow is when you don't
plant anything in the field. Right, it has been fallow. There's been nothin' planted on the-- Not barren but fallow
because barren would be-- Intentionally left--
That it never produced anything but it produced a lot of things. Yeah and so you leave it. Fallow, it's called crop rotation. Well, no, crop rotation's
when you plant something different.
Well but is it-- And then it restores
nutrients to the soil. Isn't nothing something? Weeds, like weeds grow up in a field and stuff like that.
For those of you who are confused, we're
talking about the fact that we are launching, very soon, vlogs on the Rhett and Link channel, what we call the main channel forever. Every Saturday, we're gonna be doin' that. We're gonna be talking
about what went into that decision and what you can expect. It is a little bit odd to
start the year talking about why we're making a particular decision. But it's such a, you know what? That's what 2020's about,
it's about making decisions. I think one, we're very
excited about it but two, I think it was a big decision so it's, and nothing's out yet
so it still seems like, oh, what's gonna be over
there, why are you doing this? It's kind of our only
New Year's resolution. I don't have any other
resolutions besides that. We're just gonna talk about
our intention to have-- Yeah, I think it's a big deal. To have them. It's not just doing
something on that channel but deciding to do vlog,
deciding to shoot it in the way we're gonna shooted it. Yeah we're gonna shooted it. I don't know everything that
we're gonna talk about-- Yeah we'll get into it.
But I think because there's so much
involved that went into the decision and there's so
much excitement from us and hopefully from a lot
of mythical beasts that is worth talking about,
I will say next week we'll be talking about our holidays. Yeah.
Our separate but equal. Well.
I don't know if they're equal.
Speak for yourself. Our different but definitely
need to update each other on what happened over our
holiday so that'll be next week. But this week it's more just
like, the creative juices are, they're electrified,
it's like we're on the precipice of a new thing. Mine are just flowing. I'm not, my juices are
flowing but I'm not adding electrical charge to them because I think it's dangerous at that
point, when you start putting electricity into water, which is a good way to make it boil. I tuned out for one second,
I have no clue what you're talking about.
It doesn't matter. You know what, before we get
into the why's and the how's and the what's of-- You gonna do an ad?
The vlog of 2020. You're not about to do an ad. I'm not, I gonna do a-- I feel like people already
hit the skip button when you said, "But before we," you know, that's the
moment people are like hittin' that 15 second forward button. Nobody does that. For us, nobody does that
for us 'cause they know-- And if you did, you
feel stupid now because now you just realized this
is not an ad and I'm telling you a story that you
actually do wanna hear. I like our ads, I like to listen to 'em. I have a--
They're valuable. I've had an interaction with my neighbor. That I thought since--
Okay. This is a thing that we do
now, we update each other with our interactions with our neighbors. I thought I would do that. So tree neighbor? No, different. Different? This is a neighbor I didn't
know I had. Let me explain. I haven't thought about how
I'm gonna tell the story but I realize now.
You're thinking about it now. This is a better delivery.
No, just take a beat. I got it.
And think about how you wanna tell your story.
There was one thing that I needed to change.
I'm just gonna stare at ya. Well, I'm not figuring it
out, I'm just gonna continue telling the story.
Okay. So you know how I'm gonna make my pool slash
backyard area better than yours? That's what I'm doing in 2020. Yeah 'cause it hasn't been for-- Right, yeah. A number of years. Yeah. I'm in the process of doing
that, before I make it better than Link's, what I have
to do is I have to make it worse than it is because I
have to demolish it, right? You have to make it
unenjoyable, totally unlivable. Currently, it is in a
completely deconstructed state. They just tore everything
down and basically piled it in a corner, the guys have
gone into the pool and like, jack hammered off the
surface so it just kinda looks like a post apocalyptic scene. I bet you like that. In my yard area. And of course I'm still making
decisions about some of the final design points and where
things are gonna go and so I just went out there yesterday and I'm just like, I mean, I
was probably just out there just standing and kinda just
looking, standing in one place and looking at different
things and just thinking. Visualizing the future.
For five to seven minutes. All of a sudden, I hear, "You got a mess down there." And then I was like, God, is that you? I was like, "You're right." Was it that echo-y and boomy? It came from on high. Okay. It came from above me
which freaked me out a lot. 'Cause I've lived in
this house for four years and this has never happened.
Yeah. So I look to the skies. You looked up. And I didn't see the clouds
part, what I saw is a man standing, now this is what
I was about to say, but now I was able to tell the
story in a funny way, now I'm gonna tell you, I'm
gonna orient you in a way that you'll understand where
this voice was coming from. So as is typical when
you kinda live on a hill, sometimes, like so I live
at this spot on the hill and then like, my backyard is
basically almost a vertical wall of earth that goes up
and then other people's yards start, their backyards are
all looking the same way and-- Terraced above you. Yeah and so there are
people who live up there and I've like driven on the road
that runs parallel to my road and I can like, I don't know these people, we've never had any interactions. Yeah. Except for one older
couple on the other side, right when we moved in
they were up there kind of looking off into the distance
and we talked to them but this guy's like--
Did they think you were Satan when you looked up at 'em and said, got a mess up there, they
looked down thinking you were-- Nope, I just said--
Beelzebub? I just said, "Oh hey." 'Cause basically at the
top of the wall of dirt or plantage of sorts, there's
like people's fences, right? Yeah. And so right in the middle
of my lot, there is, two people's houses, like,
there lot's gonna come together so that their lots meet and
split kinda where my lot is so I can see two people's yards up there. So one of the yards, this
guy's standing in the corner. You got two gods. And he is like-- Got a mess down there.
I was like, "Oh hey," he was like, "I'm Ken." I was like, "I'm Rhett." Okay.
And-- So he said, "Got a mess down
there," you said, "Oh okay." I was like--
And then you said, "Oh Ken." No, I was like, "Yeah, got a
lot of work to do down here, just gettin' started," or whatever, you know, just typical BS. I would've said, get
down here, get to work. And it was a little unsettling because, let me tell you why this was unsettling. Okay. Because I know I just was
like, talking like this but then we proceeded to have
a conversation at this volume. Talking this loud, I wasn't
yelling at him, I was on the other side of my, like, across
the pool from him and he's all the way up there and
we're just talking at this volume right here, what did
that immediately make me think? That, I have no clue, that like you have super human hearing and he can't hear you? And I don't know if
this, I don't if you've thought this but it made me think that-- Oh, I know, that he's heard every conversation you've had in your backyard. Yes. Yes. And I had this sense of absolute privacy in my backyard because-- Oh you've been saying
some private stuff, huh? Well--
I've been back there for some private stuff. Well I'm just sayin'. I mean conversations. It made me think that, some neighbors kind of off on one, the way the houses come
together is very odd 'cause we're all on this hill and
so, you know, on one side of my pool I've got like
that giant ivy wall. That's actually what I was
looking at, there's this giant, there's a fence and then like
an ivy wall but we've taken down the awning, the roof
part and now I can kinda like see through parts of the ivy
and I can see, oh there's a house right there and their
backyard comes up to right here and like, they have a little
area that they can sit and they were sitting right there
while I was in my hot tub like having a conversation
with my friends about whatever. They could just sit
out there and listen to the whole thing.
They could just listen. Effortlessly. Them even more so but then Ken, he could just come to the corner, I would never see Ken in the corner. Or Ken could put out
like a recording device and he'd just have it all. What if he has a Whisper 2000? Sounds like he doesn't need one. But if he did, he could
point it right at me. Yeah, Whisper 2000. Hey Ken, you got a Whisper 2000 up there? Do they still have Whisper 2000? I barely know what that is.
Jenna could you look that up?
That's like a megaphone you aim at stuff so you
can hear the conversations. I always wanted one. It's like a spy device. My family and I used to
joke about the Whisper 2000. So often, it's the kind of thing that my dad would really latch onto. Yeah, he was really into that. Making jokes about the Whisper 2000 because it had a name, Whisper 2000. Is it still a thing? It looks like-- She's not finding that it's still a thing. Well, let me see--
Whisper 2000's not a thing? Anyway.
So what, you're talking to Ken,
you're thinking this at the time or you reflected upon this? No, I was thinking at
the time, I was like-- I'm not having to raise my voice at all. Not only that but like, you know, anything that I've said, even the things I've said in my house, like with the windows
open, you know, sometimes the windows are open which at that point I'm basically even with
him in the second story and you know, the times that
we've gotten in fights, the times I've told my kids to, you know, my kids' rooms are on
the back and the times I've gotten frustrated
with them and told them to, whatever I've told them. Oh goodness. But you just start thinking-- I'm a rip your arms off! I haven't said that. Close that window! But you just start
thinking to yourself that there's an illusion of privacy and I mean if you live in an
apartment or you live in a, a lot of people live in homes that they're right next to their neighbor. In California, there's
many, many homes where your wall on the side of
your house is, you know, a matter of feet from the
wall of the next house and so anything going out of
your house, you know, in terms of audio can go into
their house and vice versa but I, because my lot seems so-- Yeah you've been speaking too freely. Seems so private and I don't-- Did he seem like he knew stuff about you as he was talking about you? I just started thinking, what have I said? You know, when I'm in the hot tub, especially--
Oh yeah, it's hot. You're delirious, almost. Things get so loose, I
mean everything gets loose. You know what I'm saying,
it's just like that water just heats you up and
your guard gets down and you got, you know, there's, I mean-- It makes you stupid too. I've had lots of friends in that hot tub. We've had great late night
discussions and something about late at night, you don't
need a Whisper 2000 'cause the sound just travels and
I'm like, these people, you know, again, I couldn't
think of anything that I've said that I would be like,
there's nothing I've said in my hot tub or in my house
that I would be necessarily embarrassed or ashamed to
have the world know but-- But there is, I'm sure. At the same time there are things that, there's things that, it
was stuff between friends, stuff in your family. I think you need to have
a heart to heart with Ken. You know, you'll be like,
hey man, just listen, I know you know stuff about me but you could also say, but
I know stuff about you. And you don't wanna mess with me, man. Here's the thing, I don't
know anything about Ken. Yeah, you'd be lying, you'd
be lying at that point. I didn't know he existed. Yeah. You'd be lying. I think it has to do with
the fact that where he's at-- He's got the high ground, man. He's got the high ground
and so his voice just shoots over the top, it shoots--
You might as well surrender. Shoots over the top of my house. I think you're gonna have to
build a roof over your yard with like some sort of
soundproofing so you can continue to speak the way that you
always do in your hot tub. Well you're talking about a
cone of silence but the cone of silence is like a decorative roof. Yeah it could be tent shaped. I wonder if anybody manufactures
a giant cone of silence. House sized cone of silence. I mean it's not like you're protecting that much information. You gotta tighten up in
that hot tub a little bit. But here's the thing,
here's the thing that you, for some reason hasn't
registered with you. God is always listening. Here's what hasn't registered with you. Your house is even worse. Well I've got, my backyard, I'm like Ken to my neighbor. But you, the angle is different. And he's further down, I
can't hear what they're saying down there but no one
above me can hear what I'm saying because my back
yard doesn't back against. Your side neighbors can.
My side neighbor can, yeah. The neighbor in question. They hang out in their back yard. My neighbor, I've been
looking out my window. And we sit there at your
little table and eat. You know, we've had many meals out there. Yeah. And that's, I mean-- They put a little
sitting table right there behind the bush, too. Yeah, they got close to
you, they set up a table. They put a table in close proximity.
It is in their yard. To your table so they could
Whisper 2000 us over there. Yeah I'll put up a cone
of, I have a pergola, I can just like add some
soundproofing to it. Maybe we should just lower our volume. A pergola of silence. Maybe we should speak pig Latin. You know, this is the-- My kids started doing that
and I'm like, you know what, I'm too old to learn anything.
No, this is the original purpose of pig Latin is
to confuse the unschooled but I think everyone knows pig Latin now. It also complicates deep conversations. Yeah. I don't know what I'm gonna do, Ken, if you're listening,
you're always listening. But I think I'm gonna just talk quieter. Just start confessing to Ken. I mean it is very appropriate
that we're talking about this neighbor shenanigans
stuff because it plays directly into what we're gonna put on
the Rhett and Link channel, we can talk about that more
but first an actual ad. This is the part that they're skipping, is that what you're saying? Yeah but I mean in the
video version, look, it's just me pointing
to my chest and saying, hey you wanna purchase this? This is a nice, refined,
pinstriped, mythical shirt. All types of mythical
stuff at mythical.com. And while this shirt does what
they call the moray effect because the camera mechanism
cannot reconcile the close lines, that doesn't
happen with the human eye so while Link looks literally
electrified right now, that won't happen in real life. You're looking at a
monitor where there's like a focus thing.
Unless you want it to. That's focus assist. Oh no but that'll still happen though. No, I'm just talkin' about this part. The moray? I'm talking about the moray.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mythical.com, get yourself
somethin' that will moray! Get your somethin' for yourself! Moray on video, that's a selling point. Okay, it's 2020. We made it through the ads,
we're still doing ads in 2020. We're not gonna apologize for it. Maybe doing more. You know it's like we gotta, we gotta keep pushin' the products so that we can pay the bills,
you know how this works. Why don't we-- And then you can listen to this for free. Yeah, yeah, don't complain about the ads, you get it for free. They're not complaining. You are. Our ads are good. Don't complain about the
ads, you get it for free. You get to listen back to
this podcast for free, Link. I know I do. Let's talk about the process
that got us to this point and I feel like there's a
number of sort of independent events that led to where
we're at right now. Yeah. I do think it's worth addressing the fact that one of the big
sort of key factors here was deciding to stop doing LTAT, Let's Talk About That on Saturdays. Which then created a void of content. You know, it's funny, like
we haven't put stuff out on the weekends for like years
and years and years and then we started doing it and
then the moment we're like, and we can talk about some
of the why's, that we decided not to do LTAT anymore,
we were immediately like, well what are we gonna
put there as opposed to, we coulda been nothing, and we said, it can be nothing but the
wheels started turning. We started thinking about
a lot of things that led to the decision we made but-- Well let's talk about why we
stopped doing LTAT because-- Yeah.
I don't wanna spend a lot of time talking about
this and I'm not gonna talk about it in a defensive
way, if anything Link-- What you just said seemed defensive. 2020 is the year of not
being defensive about decisions that we've made. Okay.
Well, no but we have a tendency to-- Like apologize for--
Apologize for decisions that we make because people
get attached to something and people say, oh I was
starting to like this more than this and now you're taking it away. Yeah. You know, again, I'm not
gonna apologize for it. Like I said, we have
our reasons for doing it but I think the main reason-- You know, I'll apologize
for it, I'm sorry. The main reason that-- That's why there's two of us. We're doing the-- I'm so sorry. We're not doing LTAT anymore, the biggest reason for it is what we had realized is that
LTAT had become very much a sort of behind the scenes
show where we would talk about like an extra round from a game that we didn't include on the
main GMM episode for time or whatever reason or somethin'
that happened at the office or like, oh well there's
the, it became this more behind the scenes thing
and at the same time as LTAT became more and more about that, something else was happening
on the Mythical Society and that is we're starting
to realize after kind of experimenting with different
things on the society, especially with what we
tried to do this past summer where all of a sudden, if
you're a Mythical Society member you may have remembered that
all of a sudden there was all these like experimental shows-- Yeah like original content.
With some of our Mythical crew, what we kinda found is that it seems like that wasn't something that people were interested in, in that most people were
members of the Society, when it came to content--
They were looking for-- They want access.
Access. They want, you know, it's like-- Which is, that's not, access to us, access to the experience
that's behind the experience. Just getting closer to the action. Like saying behind the
scenes is kinda like, kinda cheapens I think what
people want over there. Well but I think the reason for-- But it is a way to say it. The Society, is to create a
place where people can get as close to the action as
we are comfortable with you getting without you being
Ken up in the yard above me. Meaning that-- Constantly monitoring,
judging, writing down how he's going to bring you and all of your loved ones down.
Starting his own YouTube channel but the idea of, you know, if you wanna
know about something that's happening at Mythical, why it's happening, the people who work here,
you know, things that we're thinking and doing, et cetera,
we're just realizing that that's really the purpose
of the Mythical Society. It's people who want more
than what they can get from all the free stuff that
we put out on the internet and into the world and that's
what the Mythical Society is and so it was like the content
that we're conceptualizing for LTAT, especially as we think
about the Society for 2020, it's like, the best home for
this stuff is the Society. Now that, don't misunderstand that, that doesn't mean that LTAT
is going to be a show on the Society but it means that
some of the things that would have been featured on LTAT,
us reacting to things, et cetera, rounds from games
that we took out for time. That stuff is gonna live on
the Society along with a lotta other stuff we're gonna continually be rolling stuff out over there. So that was the decision with LTAT which left this vacuum on Saturday. And I will add that the original conceit was like, okay, just as the Talking Dead
is to the Walking Dead, Let's Talk About That will be to GMM, yet we got to a point where
there wasn't enough referential stuff, we started
having to create things that were just for, like
original things for LTAT that were, you know, required a
decent amount of investment of time and talent and
resources, yet it was so inward focused and self-referential that by design, LTAT was something
that was supposed to be an experience for existing
fans but not to reach out but then when you find
yourself investing a lot of resources in trying to make
that happen, it's hard to justify that but when
that's what's wanted on the Society, it's much easier to justify an investment of resources in
creativity at a place where people are paying for it
and we wanna give them value for it and so that ecosystem works from a business standpoint. Well stated another way,
every thing that we put out for free on the internet is
more or less designed to be something that a first time
viewer or listener could step into and get it and appreciate
it and wanna be a part of what we're doing.
Yeah. But if you have actually bought into it and you're like, no I am a Mythical Beast, this is a part of my life,
I'm gonna support you guys in what you're doing, well
now we have an avenue for that and it's really a, well,
those people are willing to pay for it and we have to
provide a service that's worthy of being paid for, you know, so it's like, it's a totally different business model and so yeah, once you find
that you're creating something outside for everybody to
come and watch and it really makes sense to be something
that's really for a committed fan, well, that stuff is
moving more and more to be a part of the Mythical Society. So that means-- I'm very proud of what
LTAT was and you know, we weren't critical of
the product as much as everything we've already said, it's kind of a different assessment. It was a lot of work for
Stevie, I will say that. A lot of work for Stevie. Stevie's already--
She did a great job. Daven did a great job. As busy as anybody at Mythical but it ended up being, you know,
it's like she was producing it and she was hosting it, it ends up being a lot of work.
There's a lot, yeah. It was a lot so once we
started talking about making that move, like I
said, we didn't have to fill Saturdays with anything
but we started to think but what if we did, what
would that look like and I mean, we went through
a number of things like the start of ideas but
there was never like another idea that we, or two
more ideas that we were like really deliberating between,
we really, the brainstorming process led to the point of us vlogging. And I think that came from-- And then the second decision
which we can talk about, was like the fact that we
didn't even put it on the Good Mythical Morning channel, we can talk about that secondarily. I think there's a number of things that kinda led to this point and for me I kinda see three things. I see number one, the decision
to go back to Bowie's Creek and shoot those three special
episodes for Bleak Creek, for the Bleak Creek conversations, two, I remember the third one and
I just forgot the second one. The decision to do that, second, the kind of observing
what's happening on YouTube and seeing people do a particular
thing and kinda thinking, man, we could do that, that
for me that was a motivating factor, like seeing people
really connecting with an audience in a certain way
and knowing that we would be good at it just kinda
naturally makes me wanna do it but then I think the third
point is in the midst of trying to get a lot of, you know, a lot of people are like,
what do you guys do when you're not doing GMM
and I think many of you now kinda understand, well a lot. And one of the things that
we're always trying to do is we're trying to get these,
what you might call, traditional projects off
the ground so things that require a different model of
financing where you have to go pitch something, you
have to talk to people, you have to develop ideas
with people, things move really, really slowly in
that traditional world where you're used, you know,
we're used to being on YouTube. It worked really slowly and then odds are it'll never happen. Right.
And no one will ever see it. Yeah so you--
But that's part of it. Yeah and so that's something
we wanna continue to do because there are certain
ideas and certain things we aspire to that can only be
accomplished with that business model, some of the biggest and
best ideas we have can only be brought to fruition using that traditional business model. Yeah, I mean, you're talking
about a television series or multiple, a movie.
A movie, whatever. I mean--
So we're gonna keep trying to make those things
happen and they will happen but because they can be
frustratingly slow and like Link said, they can have small
chances of actually happening, we kinda just get creatively antsy. Yeah.
And I think that this decision to do these
vlogs is really an answer to, one, to try something new
and invigorating creatively, something that we can be excited about. Yeah so to kinda go back through those, I think for the first one, we replayed the experience
in the assessment of when we went back to Bowie's
Creek and shot that like, docu-follow stuff, like
basically making our own mini-documentary and
deciding to put it within Good Mythical Morning and
it was such a fun experience to be in that mode
again where it was like, we're out of the studio,
we're being ourselves, we're excited about something,
about doing something and it's being documented and
we just had this faith that, okay, without trying too hard to make it into something,
let's just honestly pursue this goal and have this hope
that that will just come across in the edit and
that people will enjoy it and you did and that really happened and it was really encouraging. So yeah I think it did spark that creative itch to do that again. And if you go look at
some of the comments, this wasn't necessarily, we
already thinking this but if you look at some of the
comments on those videos you will see people say things
like, I would love to see you guys do like a vlog of your lives and so it's just like,
okay people are making the connection that this feels
like that kind of content which has become a genre in and of itself. Right, I think the other point and again we talked about it at the end of the year with our top 10s 'cause
I was talking about the birthday, your birthday day. Yeah, yeah.
And there's, there's two aspects of that, there's like, there's the cultivating
our friendship and sharing that experience which I think
I'd like to come back to that but then just the other aspect
of, we were just filming Instagram stories and it
was a lot of fun so like, I think as opposed to the
Bowie's Creek documentary when we were just filming
ourselves on our phones and there was like nobody else
there, it kinda made it even more exciting
because it was all on us. Yeah. And it was the most honest
version of ourselves when we were doing
everything, just documenting what we were doing so I think we very quickly got to, let's film ourselves. Yeah. Let's film each other. We were tossing around an idea. We were driving somewhere
and we started talking about what if we, this was before
we came up with this idea, we were talking about
doing like a little mini scripted thing where we play
characters who are filming themselves and each other on
their phones but it's very character based and like it
would be totally scripted. We got excited about
that on that one drive. Maybe we'll do that in the future. We might do that.
Maybe that'd be something on Instagram, I
mean I don't know, we're not actively pursuing that
right now but whenever we're driving somewhere which we
rarely do but if you gotta drive across town, we end up
talking about things like this where we'll hatch an
idea and then we'll just put it on the shelf so
maybe it'll come back down off the shelf but I do
think when we revisited the brainstorming that
led to this, we were kinda sideways accessing the feeling,
the excitement from that idea in saying let's film ourselves, let's just keep it as small as possible. Also, I think that's a reaction to and again, it's not a negative
reaction to the fact that we have a big team that every, you know, specializes in so many different
things and does so many things much better than we
can and works within a system that's been created to
produce a bunch of content to get it all out there. It's exciting to just kinda
go back to our roots so it's not saying anything
negative about the team. All that's positive and the
fact that we can brainstorm these ideas where we can go off and shoot something ourselves is kind of a, it's to their
credit but it's exciting to do something that was polar
opposite from that. Well I think more specifically,
it's more in line with the spirit of the internet, so, you know-- So to your second point. Yeah, well and also when you think about Good Mythical Morning, you know, years ago, once
we started making GMM, our assumption was as soon
as GMM started working, what we thought was
going to happen is that all these people were gonna
just, like, we're gonna start doing what we do which is then
we're gonna make a sort of produced daily show that kinda feels like the internet's answer to a talk show. Now, yes some people tried it and there are some
iterations of it out there but I think what most people
quickly realize is that, man, this is really hard,
it's really, really hard to do and do it for a long period
of time and to do it well for a long period of time and
the only reason we can do it is because of the team that
we've built around us that now, like you said, makes it
where it's a possibility but one of the things that comes
along with really efficient processes being in place
for creating things like Good Mythical Morning is that, you know, they're going to end up
having a little bit more of a polished and refined
quality to them like, GMM kinda feels like, like I said, YouTube's answer to a television show, right? And it is what it is and it
really works and it's worked for a long time and it is
really, it's, you know, has large, like, the heart of
GMM is still very much just as just being friends together and interacting with something. Right. But it doesn't have this DIY
feel to it because we had to lose the DIY feel in
order to do anything else. So now it has this, like,
oh a studio makes this show. This show's coming from a group of people. Yeah, those guys who host it
seem like they may be in charge or they created it or whatever but it has this group effort feel to it and I think that one of the things that, there's a part of it that people-- If it didn't it would never be, it would, we would've stopped years ago. Yeah that's what I'm trying to say. If it didn't have that feel
to it, that group effort feel, it would not exist so that is what it is but at the same time, there's
this thing that's been happening, that's been happening
since the onset of YouTube but has kinda taken on a new
life and it is people who are kinda documenting themselves,
now a lot of people are doing it like, if you take a look at
David Dobrick, who's probably the most successful example
of this, this is a guy living an incredible life and
documenting it constantly and then putting together the best four
minutes and 20 seconds every week, I guess or however often he does it. I think so, yeah. And you're along for the
ride and I think that, you know, it ends up kinda
feeding on itself in a way. It's just like, now
that my life is my show, my life is going to be
produced in a way that's gonna make an interesting show
and it becomes this thing that like, he's sort of
the prime example of like, that genre really working
in building an audience. Now that is not what we
are going to be doing. Right.
Because there's also another version and I'd say
if we're drawing inspiration, it's more from this other
version that is more isolated. We're not constantly gonna
be filming ourselves, much less our families
and our personal lives. Yeah. But our idea is to have
specific ideas for, I guess I'll call it an episode. I'll call it a video, it's not an episode. We'll have a particular idea
for a video and then we'll execute that idea, we'll film
it ourselves and then we'll get, we'll bring it here and
it will be edited with our, under ours and the proper
team member's supervision. So it's more like a Jenna Marbles video. I mean all of her videos at
her house, I'm not saying all of our videos are gonna
be at one of our homes, nothing's gonna be on the
set and it could very well be at our homes or out and about but it's-- Right. It's whatever the idea that
we're excited about doing-- But she sets out--
That particular week dictates, we're gonna do it and it's gonna be about that thing.
She sets out to do one thing she's like's--
Yeah the one thing. I'm gonna do this one thing in this video. I'm gonna try to get my dog to finally sit down on a wooden
floor was like one of her videos--
Yeah. One of her dogs just wouldn't, it's afraid to sit on, I think
he's either afraid to sit on wood or afraid to sit on
carpet, I think it was on wood. And people just connected
with it, 'cause it's, again, it's so personal,
right, and I think that there can be, do things that are
sort of group produced, there can be this impersonal
quality to it that, I think we get the personal
with GMM but it has the packaging of an impersonal
show and so I think people are kind of, they're wanting
that, oh yeah I just wanna see you try to get your dog
to sit on a wooden floor and if you have a good personality
and you're funny in the process, then this could
be something that actually catches on which is what,
you know, happens with Jenna. She's been around forever
but this is kinda how, her latest sort of reinvention
of herself is really that. I'm gonna do a thing and
you're gonna watch me do it. Thank you, Jenna, we're
definitely taking inspiration from you on this one but
that's kind of the genre we're working in because it is
working and we wanna invest in something that's gonna work
as, I mean it's one of the factors, that it's like,
it's gonna work on YouTube. We can just share the
first video that we're, what we're thinking
will be the first video, what we're gonna do because
it came from this show and it, we started writing down ideas
of examples of things we might do and one of the first ones was what if I got Rhett to
come over to my house and take a shower in my shower because I've been bragging about it on a show and he's been giving me all
types of advice about what to do when I see my neighbor going to work. And then let's see what it,
Rhett can take a shower in my shower, I can see what it feels
like to be my neighbor when Rhett is being me taking
the advice that he gave me. So that was the idea. So I do think a lot of the
things that we might talk about on Ear Biscuits, which
tend to be more personal about things that are
happening in our lives. They will spark ideas for
things that we wanna kinda delve into in a different
genre, in a video form. And you might say, well okay, why not do that on Good Mythical Morning? 'Cause we did the
Bowie's Creek documentary on there and everyone loved it. I think the simplest answer
to that question is that while that really worked,
for sure that really worked, especially the first
two episodes, I think, maybe the third, one of
those episodes didn't get as much traction as the
other which may have been the third, I can't remember
but in general it worked and people responded to it
but it can be, again, when you're thinking about this
person's who's kinda checking in on something for the first
time, it can be a little bit confusing if it's like, I don't
really know what I'm going to get and what we have found,
it's a general principle, is that once people
kinda buy into a show-- A channel, really. A channel, because really,
on YouTube channels, are shows, like people try to
do multiple shows on channels and there are exceptions and
we've been able launch Josh's channel via shows on the weekends on GMM. In general, people-- Subscribe to Mythical
Kitchen, click that bell. In general, people will kind
of interpret channels as, this is a show and it has
kind of a certain format that I can kind of expect. Anything different is
confusing and you also don't, if it under performs for
reasons like, who knows how the algorithm treats those things
that under perform just because they didn't meet the
expectations of the channel. Not because they didn't
meet expectations of quality or entertainment, or you didn't like it. Yeah.
You know, so it's, that was one part of it,
another things was, we did try a few out of the office episodes and over the years we've done many, like, and I'm not saying that we're never gonna do out of the office episodes. Honestly, especially if there's
like a sponsor involved, that's a lot of the justification
for us doing that type of stuff in the past, like the Back Up Plan was sponsored by Geico but I mean we did a couple of
things that were, at the end of last year, that were
different and they, you know, we were excited about
'em but they didn't perform as well, we did-- Cheese wheels.
Cheese wheels on a car, catapulting a hot dog into a bun and even when we did the deep dish, turning the car into a
deep dish pizza, it's like, I mean it requires a retooling and a, just a reallocation of resources,
like all that business-y stuff I was already talking about. Well it requires so much
from us and our team that in order to justify doing
something that literally takes us, it takes our team multiple,
multiple days to get ready for those things and execute
those things and to build them and then it takes us a full
day, at least, to shoot them. What ends up happening is
you need to get, just from a business standpoint, the
return on that investment needs to be, you know, a
multiple of your typical views and what we found is that not
only did it not get a multiple of the typical views, it
got significantly less. So like--
Right. Putting cheese wheels
on a car or you know, catapulting a hot dog
didn't get as much traction as if we just stay at
the desk and do the kinds of things that we do on GMM
so at that point we're like, okay if we have aspirations
to do something that is outside of the office, then it
kinda feels like what this is asking for is to be put in its own place. Yeah. And then of course, we're
like, are we really gonna have this conversation, are we
really gonna talk about putting this on the Rhett and Link channel? And before we do, I, just for the sake of being complete about the GMM discussion I will say that it's not that we're not
gonna continue to innovate on Good Mythical Morning,
we are, trust me, we are constantly talking
about ways to innovate but doing that within the
confines, I mean the physical confines mostly and the
production confines of how we make Good Mythical Morning,
trying to figure out, trying new formats, we're
gonna be trying lots of things from month to month, I'll say. And it doesn't mean that
occasionally we're not gonna change it up.
But if it feels, if it feels totally
different, I mean, this idea, as an idea felt totally
different and especially once we had tried the other things and you know, you just look at how YouTube behaves and you start to come
to these conclusions. And well, I think that the
fact that we've decided to not do it in the way that
we do the GMM episodes which is we bring the whole
crew out and they shoot it and they--
Right. It's produced more like
a reality show segment. Yeah.
When we go out and do something, whereas
what we're talking about is very much produced like
two dudes who are shooting their own thing.
As honest as possible. But then, so yeah, so, I mean we started to talk about
the Rhett and Link channel and you know, that channel, which we used to call the main channel, it would come up in
conversations every so often. Whenever there was something new or if we had to figure out
where things on the internet needed a home, like, even when
we moved the video version of Ear Biscuits somewhere
else, we were talking about the Rhett and Link channel for a
second but every single time, I know I would give this knee
jerk reaction that was like, I just felt very apprecious
about it, you know, it's like, I don't wanna, even if there's
not been anything up there for years, it's kind of a,
it's an archive of where our careers started, it's a whole
strata, if you're digging down through the history of how
we got to where we are, I mean there's multiple strata,
I'm trying to speak your rock language so you'll
stay interested here, Rhett. I love geology. But you know what I'm saying that everything that we tried that failed and succeeded is there and everything that we put there
by and large was through this filter of high production value. So it's like big music
videos, polished sketches, you know, we wouldn't put
vloggish type stuff on there. We started our second channel with vlogs which, and eventually put
Good Mythical Morning up. As a way to separate it. Yeah 'cause, you know, I just
wanna be apprecious about what it has meant for our
careers and also what people expect from the channel,
it's like people think we're gonna make music videos. You're answering another question as well. Which is, oh man, you know,
some people might think, if you guys are gonna
start making videos on the Rhett and Link channel again, why not do sketches and music videos? Right. Great question and the simple answer to that is the creative energy and
efforts that go into that kinda content, music videos and sketches, so we'll just call that scripted content. We're putting a lot of
effort into that but, again, it's going into what
we talked about earlier which is we're trying to get
those kinds of projects to have the greatest chance of
success because they're in the right financial model for
themselves and at least right now that is not an ad driven model,
I know we're getting into the weeds and talking details
but you guys are smart and understand this, basically,
you can't put a bunch of resources into a music video
which takes a lot of time, it takes our personal time
both creatively but then the time it takes to execute it,
the time it takes, the money it takes to actually make it
and we made a lot of those videos back in the day and
we did it with the help of sponsors, sometimes we just
went in the hole, a lot of videos we just lost money
on because we were kind of investing in people's kind
of perception of what we were doing but at this point with
so many things going on, the amount of time that it
would take to make that kinda content, there's no world
in which we can justify that type of effort, at least for
now while we're doing all these other things, maybe there's
a world in the distant future where we've stopped doing a
bunch of other things and we decide, hey let's make some
good old fashioned music videos on the Rhett and Link
channel but as of right now, there's just not a world for
that so what that leaves is-- The scripted content
is a big creative itch. We're investing a lot in
scratching it in places where the money makes sense--
Yeah. So that it could actually
be made and we're not just retreading ground on that,
doing the same stuff we were doing on that channel 'cause
it would just be the same stuff, it's like, we wanna build. Yeah. But you were saying. Yeah so the idea of, I
mean there is this precious quality to it that you're
talking about which is like, you took all this time and you
know, the things that you put the most effort into in your entire career when you talk about a single piece of content so like, effort per minute-- Yeah.
Was the highest ratio, the highest ratio ever lived
in those Rhett and Link videos. Why then do something that
maybe the effort per minute or the creative input per
minute is a little bit different when it comes to vlog and I think my answer to that question is, yeah but first of all I
think that that's selling our ideas for this channel,
for these videos short because I do think that
they are gonna be a creative expression, now they're not
gonna be like, they don't have scripts or anything like
that and we were shooting with a couple small cameras.
It's totally different. I mean, I think it's--
But I still have, I have such high hopes
for the final product. We're very excited and
engaged creatively in what these vlgos are gonna be
and what we're gonna learn, how it's gonna evolve as we're doing 'em when we coulda just started
a new channel and stayed precious with the Rhett
and Link channel but and I think you convinced
me of this, it was, hey, it can just be a
new era of that channel. We got all these
subscribers, I mean, that's, those numbers are real,
you know, you can't just, you gotta come to grips
with that, I mean, if we're launching an entirely new
channel from scratch, we're already doing that with
Mythical Kitchen, do we wanna do that with two channels
totally from scratch? When we can mitigate it and
we feel very strongly that-- And Mythical Kitchen isn't
completely from scratch. No, it's not either but--
Yeah. And when we know we don't,
we're not saving the Rhett and Link channel for
somethin' else, we don't have a vision for it so we're
excited about this, it is Rhett and Link, I mean-- That's the simplest thing for me. So let's just--
It's called the Rhett and Link channel and--
Let's just go for it. What is the most authentically
Rhett and Link content that we're contemplating right now? It's the ones that we make. Which then brings me to, I think the biggest reason that we made the decision and I think it's what
I already talked about, about the experience, like the friendship
experience I described on your birthday, when it's
like we're hanging out, we're having a good time
and then we found ourselves wanting to do Instagram
stories about gettin' a McRib just to, I felt like the
motive was the purest it could be in terms of wanting
to share something on the internet like we're
actually having a good time, this is funny, we'll have
even more fun if we film it and share it and then
having that experience plays right into me
being excited about this. I just think that it's, it's about us cultivating our friendship. Coming up with things that
we wanna make videos about that we're just gonna have fun doing it. Again, it's not like everything
else we do isn't that but it's, everything else is different in all the projects we're
working on, they don't have this, the most raw, honest version
of, I wanna do this to have fun, you can watch it if
you want to, I actually, I feel very refreshed that
I'm not trying to create something that's really
gonna work, that's gonna take the internet by storm, I
don't feel like we have some external assignment to
make this a success for anybody else.
Yeah. I think I'm very excited because I feel like it's gonna be fun for us to do the stuff that
we wanna do, you know? Comin' over to my house to
take a shower, it sounds fun. Yeah, oh that sounds real fun. I'm definitely not about
adding something to our plate that we have to do every week,
that it starts to feel like something we have to do,
you know, we talked about why Ear Biscuits is such an outlet and I'm seeing this in the same way and I just wanna say it because I think that's kind of a
litmus test as we start doing these vlogs of like, okay, why are we doing that and
what's the primary focus, what's the secondary focus and then, 'cause we are very much gonna
be focused on the creative exercise of making these things
as entertaining as possible and I'm sure there'll be some like-- Growing pains? I'm sure we'll get into it about what the damn thumbnail should be. Well yeah.
You know, it's like, and it's frustrating but if we keep it as a secondary motivation and the primary motivation is we're gonna have fun together
doing the things that we're excited about doing, take it or leave it. Then I think those secondary
things which we'll have to deal with and work with
the team on and that, it'll take care of itself in that order. It will be, the word that we're, the process that you're
talking about is optimization, so, right?
Yeah. So the ideas will be
optimized, meaning that the title and the thumbnail
for whatever we decide to do will be optimized so as to
generate the most interest but there is a point in
which optimization can become your goal, like you
actually are starting with a title and a thumbnail and then building an idea out from that. I think we do that a lot
with GMM and it's almost a, the joke is that we've
conceptualized these ridiculous things and then we, because
of the way that it works, we absolutely, it's easy for
us to have fun within that-- Yeah, you--
Concept that we built. But I just don't think--
You create an idea that delivers on that.
Yeah that optimization, we found a way to make it
work for ourselves for GMM. But I think this is coming
from a different place. Right. It's coming from a different
place which is, like you said and I think that the reason is
so appropriate to talk about it on Ear Biscuits, is because
I think it comes from the same place, not just, okay,
Ear Biscuits has become a place where we catch up and talk and
maybe have conversations that we get so busy that we might
not be able to justify just stopping and having these conversations. Yeah. In the midst of a week but we do it, we were forced to do it
through Ear Biscuits. But in the same way--
So our vlogs will force us to have fun together? Well, no, but seriously like, you know, there's this, there's a, you've got like, and I think this kinda plays into the, there is a generation gap,
we are coming into this as kinda the old guys trying it, right? Yeah.
You know as guys who are into their 40s,
have wives and children, they got kids gettin'
ready to go to college and not too far from now. Yeah. Running a business that has gotten bigger and more unwieldy
than we ever anticipated. Our lives are regimented
and systemized and just more complicated and complex than
we could've ever imagined. Whereas if you take
somebody who's just like, hey, I'm 20 years old and I
don't really have anybody to answer to except myself and
me and my friends live in a house together and we're
constantly doing stupid shit and filming it.
Yeah. Well, you are naturally,
that's fertile ground for these vlogs that feel super
connecting but for us, it's like, if we were to
decide to like, hey we're gonna do what David Dobrick does
and we're gonna carry around this camera with us at
all times, you'd be like, well now they're in a meeting
and then they left that meeting and went into another
meeting and then they took their kid to this recital and
now there's another meeting. Like, it wouldn't be that
exciting, the life of a-- The life of a 42 year
old head of a company is really not that exciting. So we basically tricked
our team in order to just, scheduling time for us to leave the office and have fun together. Exactly.
Yes! That's what I'm saying,
I'm saying that like, where these Ear Biscuit
conversations create this platform for us to catch up and have
the kinds of conversations that friends should be having
but when friends get busy, adult friends a lot of times don't have-- Yeah.
The conversations that we would've had in college
sitting out, you know, underneath the stairs in Simon Dorm.
Right. Well one of the kinds of
things that we may have decided to do when we were in college
or single before we got married, it'd be like, hey,
why don't you come and take a shower in my shower and I'm
gonna see what it's like to be me from my neighbor's perspective,
that's a dumb ass idea. But it's a great idea for, it's a fun thing to justify. It'd be hard to justify--
It's hard to justify. You coming over in the
middle of my Saturday when I'm hanging out with
my family or whatever. And so, exactly, so now we have this outlet to--
Chrissy's thinkin' or taking a nap by yourself because we don't know where you are. Right.
It's what she just added. But now we have this--
Whatever. Outlet to be like we're
gonna do the things that a couple of guys without
any responsibilities might choose to do.
It's gonna be so much fun, man.
But we have to do it in a responsible way which
means we have to monetize it. Just like this podcast. And you talk about being an old guy, you I'm just trying to, you know, dance like nobody's watchin'
but I do hope you watch. But when I told the kids, told
Lily and Lincoln, I was like, yeah we're gonna start
vloggin', we're filming it ourselves, we're doing it on
the Rhett and Link channel and I was quiet and they got this look in their eye and they were quiet. I think it was--
Am I gonna be in it? No, I think it was, you trying
to be like David Dobrick? I think is really what, they
were like, come on, dad. Aren't you too old for this? They didn't say it and maybe that's just my insecurity but I don't care. Well I think we are too old for that. Yes yeah yeah like you said.
I mean to be completely honest, we are too old, I mean, Jason Nash buddies around-- With David and I think he's
made some different choices than us that probably
allow him to do that. I don't know. But the fact is, is we
are coming into this as, we are two dads, we are. We're two lifelong best
friends who are dads, who are husbands, who do
have very busy lifestyles but I think that's part of
what we're bringing to it, honestly, you know, I feel like, you're always looking for,
you know, industry term is what's the white space, you know? What's the open space in this
particular thing that you're trying to get into?
Right. You don't wanna get into
something or try to do something and you're filling exactly
the space or you're competing for the same space that
somebody already has and while in a sense you can't help
that when you're doing YouTube in general, I do
think that we gotta bring something a little bit different, right? Obviously, we bring a slightly different-- Middle aged men showering, check. There's a little something
different about our sense of humor that maybe if
you're a fan of this or GMM then you'll kinda be like,
okay well I can't get that anywhere else but at least
to the best of my knowledge, I do think that guys who
are only getting older-- Trying to maintain an
experience of friendship that's fun and maintains a youthful feel. Are we comin' up with log line? No, I'm just--
Guys who are only getting older--
That's not exciting. Do their best to maintain their childhood friendship via filming each other. But I do think that is what
it is and we don't have an entourage, I mean our entourage is our wives and kids and
they're probably not gonna be making a whole lot of appearances. Yeah. They might be making some
appearances from time to time as the idea requires it, maybe,
I don't know but we're definitely not making
any promises about that. I don't know how it's gonna be in general. We're not making promises
about anything because I don't know, once we really get into it, I anticipate that it'll-- It'll evolve.
It'll evolve. We're gonna do it, we're
gonna learn as we go and we're not trying to
have this like, master plan as to what this is supposed
to accomplish,, it really is and the way, once we made
the switch, you know, we started Ear Biscuits,
it was very intentional, we're like, we're gonna be
the internet's answer to Marc Maron's WTF podcast more or less. Let's do profiles on people who the internet finds interesting. The show has now through
several iterations evolved to what it is now, which is just
the two of us catching up and talking with each other
about things that interest us. And I think that that willingness
to evolve is the reason that Ear Biscuits continues to
exist and I think that we're starting this just like,
hey, there is no master plan. It's kinda starting in the
place that Ear Biscuits has ended up which is like, what's
the video answer to what we've sort of established on this podcast. And I do think that's the
final piece that we haven't talked about is just trying something new. I also have this, a little
insecurity that's like, people are gonna think,
like what I put on my kids, I put on other people, it's
like, they're gonna think that we're just trying
to get on the bandwagon. Oh you know, well Markiplier
and his friends started doing it everyday and so
that really sealed the deal. It's like, I had nothing to do with 'cause we had decided before-- We had made the decision
and then we saw that and we're like, oh okay.
But we don't have to tell 'em that 'cause it doesn't matter. Okay, yeah, yeah, it's fine. For us, it's entirely new. Yeah. That's where we get the
most engaged when it's like, I don't know how this is gonna turn out. I don't know how this is gonna feel. I don't know anything about this. That's exciting. Yeah so, you know what? We hope you enjoy it. Subscribe to the Rhett and Link channel. Click the bell. Don't ask any questions. Yeah, I mean we're gonna, you're along for the ride. Like I said, it's such a new idea. You're gonna be a part of
what it becomes so thank you in advance for being along for the ride. Yeah and there's a, there's a Reddit thread, there's a Rhett and Link
Reddit thread which is like, what do you talk about on the
Rhett and Link Reddit thread? Whenever I go over there, I'm
like, people trying to figure it out, it's like, there's a
Good Mythical Morning thread. There's a Ear Biscuits thread. I think I saw that there's a thread dedicated only to Stevie. That makes sense. Anyways. Spice up that Rhett and Link
thread over there, Rhetters. Yeah, well you just revealed
the real reason for all this, Link, is to give the Rhett and Link Reddit thread something to talk about. Okay with that, I'm
going to end with a rec. Ooh, 2020, rec, this better be good. Kick off the year. You've already built it up too much. This is something that has
been out since the middle of 2019 but I don't-- Old stuff, okay. I don't think that it
got enough recognition and enough appreciation
for how innovative it was. This the new posture for
making a recommendation? Yeah, just in case there's an earthquake. It's called "My Favorite
Shapes," with Julio Torres. Julio Torres is a guy
who is a writer on SNL. He's also on that Los
Espookys with Fred Armisen which I still haven't watched, that I've heard many, many great things about. Well don't rec it if
you haven't rocked it. I'm not recommending that even though I can only imagine it's great-- Don't knock it 'till you try it and don't rec it 'till you rock it. He has the most innovative, now listen, I'm gonna be honest with you, some of you will absolutely
hate it because it is just weird as hell and some of
you who like things that are weird as hell, will love it, like me and all I'm gonna say is, his
whole stand up special is him standing in front of
a conveyor belt that is just bringing things around
that he then talks about. Oh. And the premise is my favorite shapes. Okay. I just really, really--
Don't build it up too much. Really liked it, so I think it's on HBO. If it's not, you'll find it
just search "My Favorite Shapes" with Julio Torres and go and enjoy something incredibly, wonderfully weird. There you have it, we've kicked off 2020. We got a notch on our belt,
we got a Ear Biscuit notch. I need to take a notch out of my belt, I've had to urinate for
at least 35 minutes. I could pee as well. Well who's gonna get to the toilet first?
#EarBiscuits, let us know-- Are we gonna cross streams? This is the place and
I guess in the comments of that first video when it
comes out a couple Saturdays from now, let us know
what you think about our thought process in this new endeavor. Are you in, are you out? Are you up, are you down? #EarBiscuits, we'll talk at ya
next week about our holidays. To watch more Ear Biscuits, click on the playlist on the right. To watch the previous
episode of Ear Biscuits, click on the playlist to the left. And don't forget to click on the circular icon to subscribe. If you prefer to listen to this podcast, it's available on all your
favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for being your mythical best.
New log line for Ear Biscuits: Two men whose prostates are only getting larger talk about how badly they need to urinate