Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 186: Are We Our True Selves on Screen? | Ear Biscuits Ep. 186

Episode Date: March 25, 2019

R&L come clean as they discuss their "characters" on the show and reveal whether they truly are who they seem to be or if it's all a creation for your entertainment. Find out on this episode of Ear Biscuits! Sponsored by:LinkedIn: Post a job today at LinkedIn.com/EAR and get fifty dollars off your first job post.Turbo Tax: Go to turbotax.com where CPAs and EAs on demand to answer your questions, guide you through the process, and maximize your refund before you file.Stamps.com: Go to Stamps.com, click on the Microphone at the TOP of the homepage and type in EAR to get a special offer that includes a 4-week trial PLUS free postage AND a digital scale without any long-term commitment. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Before we get started today, we just wanna let you know that Ear Biscuits is supported by LinkedIn. When it's time to make a hire for your small business, naturally you wanna find the best person for the job. Odds are that person is on LinkedIn. Now, do you get paid more than me for the sponsorship?

I hope so. Because my name is in it? Is that how it works? This is the extent of my association with LinkedIn at this point. Okay. I'm gonna work in it. Is that how it works? This is the extent of my association with LinkedIn at this point. Okay. I'm gonna work on it. LinkedIn Jobs makes it easy to get matched

with quality candidates who make the most sense for your role. Uses knowledge of both hard skills and soft skills to match you with the people who fit your role best. People come to LinkedIn every day to learn and advance their careers, so LinkedIn understands what they're interested in and looking for, which means when you use LinkedIn jobs

to hire someone, your matches are based on so much more than a resume. Your LinkedIn jobs matches are based on skills and background but also interests, activities, and passions. Passions. Your passions will be matched. Matching lets you quickly get a group of the most relevant quality candidates for your role.

That way you can focus on the candidates you want to spend time talking to and make a quality hire you're excited about. Customers rate LinkedIn jobs as number one in delivering quality hires. Post a job today at linkedin.com slash ear and get $50 off your first job post. That's linkedin.com slash ear.

Terms and conditions apply. Now on with the biscuit. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we are exploring the question, are we our true selves on screen? Is the Rhett and Link that you're seeing

and hearing or hearing right now. The real Rhett and Link or some creation designed for your entertainment? Much less on GMM or like any other screen that you may see us on. Yeah, I think it's gonna be some psychoanalysis going on here perhaps. I've got some juicy questions

for the two of us to get into. And this conversation is inspired by a video that we made where we were asking each other questions recently, we'll get into the details later, but I'm not gonna say we had a disagreement afterward, but we had a, there's a few times where we'll do a video or have a conversation on camera and then off camera we'll talk about it and I just thought that that

conversation that we didn't monetize we should monetize. It's basically. Oh the off camera conversation. The off camera analysis of the on camera conversation has led to this conversation. I'll give all the background when we get to it, but let's start in a lighter place. Anywhere you wanna go, I don't know.

So I was. Not that that's gonna be heavy. I got a text from my friend Ralph. Good old Ralph. I told the story of our skiing misadventures and how he had led me to the top of the mountain and then I had Left you for dead basically.

Trouble getting down. I don't know, just listen to whatever episode that was, one of the recent ones. And it was funny because, well and just as a sidebar, you can say what Blondeine had to say. I was telling Rhett, I saw Blondeine, who was my Spartan race partner for the first time

since the race this morning, because we go to the gym at different times and we're not training for Spartan race anymore. And Christy had shared the podcast with her and so she said, I will never hear my name the same again after your friend kept saying it. And I was like. Blondine.

It's like. I ruined her own name for her. And another guy was there and I was like, he was listening and I was like, yeah, it was like when Rhett heard that her name was Blondine, he like made me feel weird about saying, oh, Blondeine. Well, it's literally my favorite name I've ever heard. I love it.

But anyway, and then Ralph texts me. She enjoyed the podcast, by the way. Sharing ear biscuits with her friends and family. That is the interesting thing. We talk about people so that we can increase our listenership. Okay, that's one way to say it. One person at a time, one victim at a time.

But there is this interesting dynamic of when someone is talked about, okay, another example of this is we recently told the story of the pooping in the Tupperware. Oh yeah. And then our boys who were present for that started a text thread and they're like, oh here we go again, every time you guys tell this story

we have to relive it and also tell you guys all the details that you get wrong. Yeah, and the ones that you're getting right that you used to get wrong and the ones that you got right that now you're getting wrong. Which is just the psychological concept of revisiting a memory and rewriting it every time. It's just the way humans work.

But they did clarify one thing that I'll clarify now and that is that Greg wasn't even there. How did he get there? I think we've always said that Greg was there. I don't even know. And somehow Greg wasn't there. So sorry Greg for being thrown under the bus all these years and pooping in that Tupperware that you didn't poop in. But as is the case with Ralph, when he texted me,

he was just laughing about how he listened to the thing and he texted in quotes, Ralph! With an exclamation point because there's a moment in the story where I yell out his name. Yeah. And then his son had taken that moment and cut it into this just basically. He made a super cut of Ralph's?

It was just me saying Ralph, Ralph, Ralph. Video or just the audio? Video, video. Oh yeah, nice. And so Ralph sent that to me. So every time we talk about somebody, there is, if they listen, then you have to kinda deal with whatever they think and the super cuts

of you saying their name. Yeah, our friendship matrix is crumbling, I think is another way to put it. Which leads me to the story that I wanna tell you because Ralph did also text me, said, what about the waiter story? I was like, oh crap. You didn't tell the waiter story.

I didn't tell anything about the waiter. Okay, so we were in Mammoth like I said and we had been to Mammoth with this exact same family before, the year before, Ralph, his wife and kids. And so last year we went to, well, I'm trying to think of the best way to tell this story. Okay. That's something you could do before we do a podcast.

No I like to just pull it out of my butt as I go. That's fine, yeah. So, there's two parts to it and I don't know which part's better, but I think it's better to start with part two and then tell you how it relates to part one. You know what, just do it and then Ralph's son will edit it in the best way later and send it to his dad.

So, here's what, so we're eating at this restaurant, relatively new restaurant in Mammoth, and we're all sitting, and it's a big group. There's four of us in our family, there's five of them, that makes nine. And so we're all sitting at this table, and you know the situation where you're in the middle of a conversation and a waiter approaches the table,

and they're kind of hovering? There's a little bit of a conversation and a waiter approaches the table and. They're kinda hovering. There's a little bit of a power play that happens and some waiters are better at managing the situation than others and there's also people, interestingly, I think this might even play into our conversations of who's, what we're like in real life. As an example, if you're in the middle of saying something

in real life and a waiter comes up, chances that you stop for the waiter are pretty small. If I in real life and a waiter comes up, chances that you stop for the waiter are pretty small. If I'm telling something and a waiter comes up, chances are pretty high that I'm going to stop. That's just, that's a little, you may think that's the opposite of the way it would be, but in real life, that's actually, it might be because you don't notice,

but you're also wanting to be like, I'm gonna get this thought out and then there'll be a break and this guy can say. But so somebody else was talking and didn't see this waiter standing there and he stood there and he just started going. Ew. Like making a mouth noise.

Was he chewing something? Was like this is his warning system. It was awkward. And eventually the conversation came to a close and he stood there, made one last mouth smacking noise and then paused. It was weird and uncomfortable. And then said, hello folks, how are you today?

And then proceeded to do the normal waiter things but in a way that his energy made me feel and everyone else feel uncomfortable. It was just like. It was an animosity? No, no, it was not an animosity at all. It was just a weirdness. It was a social weirdness that just made us feel strange.

And like, just pausing at certain times and then like staying in one place and then not leaving early enough after you finish a sentence. It was like everything was a little bit off time in a way that just makes you feel uncomfortable and uneasy. So he has this interaction with us and then he leaves and everybody's like that was kinda weird. And then I was like, hold on a second.

I'm gonna change his name because I legitimately don't want this guy to listen to this podcast. Call him Justin. Justin. What if his name was Justin and I suggested it and you were like, let's not call him Justin. I was like, our waiter's name is Justin. What, okay.

You just said what the waiter's name, you knew the waiter's real name which isn't Justin and you said it. Last year at a different restaurant, we had this exact same experience and exact same conversation. Did they remember it? And everybody started being like, oh you're right,

that is the same guy, the same haircut and the mustache and like it's the same guy, it's Justin. And he proceeds to do exactly the same thing that he did the first time, which we got such a kick out of it the first time around, this guy was so awkward in the way he would pause and the way he would sit at your table, stay at your table and then, like imagine just you're taking somebody's order

and then as you get done you're like is there anything else you need? And you're like nope and then he's just like. It's like a robot downloading his next line. Makes you feel weird like what is going on? And then he did it again, his technique, new restaurant, same technique. And.

You think he got fired from the other place for his pauses and whatnot? No because first of all, I was like, he came back and I was like, Justin right? He was like yeah, I was like. I remember you weird waitering from last year. You were our waiter last year at blah blah blah restaurant in Mammoth and he said,

oh yeah I don't miss that place. And I was like okay, I don't know what happened, I'm not gonna ask any questions, but it was just, it was a, it was just one of those moments that like this guy left this indelible mark on us and then he did it again and we realized deja vu way it was happening at the same time and then we're like no, it's just the same guy happening at a different restaurant.

And this is what he does. And the moral of the story, no there doesn't have to be a moral but here's the freaky thing. It reminds me of a story I didn't tell you but from Cabo which is very short and it's not much of a story. You had a weird waiter?

Well you know, as I explained, I went back to the same, we went back to the same resort that we had gone to like a couple of years. Actually, it may have been three years early the more I thought about it, okay? And there's a restaurant at the Cape and the first night we were there, both times we made a reservation here

because it was really nice, It's a really good restaurant. And we went there and we sat, we were gonna see this and I was like, can you see this outside? Because I'm thinking, it was great, it's what we did last time. We go, we sit outside and then all of a sudden, the waiter comes up and he's like asking us have we been here, we're like yes and we like,

you know, we get our waters. He goes away and I'm like Christy, that is the same waiter from three years ago. Same guy. And then he comes back up and we're like, we're looking at him and before we say anything, he was like, you've been here before. And he remembered us, but he wasn't weird at all.

He just gained some weight. So he looked different. I'm gonna keep this going because your story reminds me of another small story from my recent trip to Cabo. What? Yes. What?

Can we do, hey, this is a whole new way to do a whole podcast. That reminds me of a story that's not that great that I'm gonna tell. No, this one's good. Okay. But before you tell it, I will just say that like, we felt a special connection with this guy.

Like our first night in Cabo, our first time, it was like, it kind of made the evening that like, oh and he said, I remember you because it was my first day. What? Of working here. Even better. And like, so we were special to him, he was special to us.

The food was special, the whole thing was special. And he was like, and this is my last day. No, that didn't happen? No, we were like, when are you off the clock? You wanna hang? We invited him up to our room, we all got in the bathtub together. Oh cool. It was very special.

I don't know why I didn't mention it before. Yeah, right. Very special. Okay, we'll skip that last part. So, full service there at the resort. Oh. I go to a restaurant at the resort on the first night and it's the restaurant at the main restaurant.

And we get this waiter and I mean he's a good waiter. He's not weird, nothing particularly notable about him. But we order, each order a cocktail, then we order two appetizers, and then we each order an entree, then we order, you know, two, like each order a cocktail, then we order two appetizers, and then we each order an entree, then we order two desserts, okay? This is a pretty complex order. We stay at the resort for three days.

The last night, we go back to the restaurant, and we get the same waiter. He says, oh, you're back! Like yeah, I mean, this is the resort, this is the restaurant at the resort. Yeah, full circle. And then he's. We're kinda trapped here.

He said, how's your stay or whatever? He was like I can tell you what you ordered the other night and he went through every single item and was right. And you were like I'll take none of that because I've already had it? And I said well we wanna get completely different things this time. Hold on, but hold on. There's a through line with all these stories.

It's like it's interesting. It is interesting when it's happening but then when you retell it, I'm just gonna be honest, like the more I thought about it. No, no, no. You went to a place in Mammoth, you were served by a waiter, you went to another place, he moved restaurants.

I went to a place three years later, it's not unheard of that a waiter would still be working at a place three years later. And it's not unheard of that a waiter would still be working at a place three years later. And it's not unheard of a few days later that even a big order, he would remember. Did you make him go through it? Yes, I think it's a party trick. He was like, I can tell you what you had

and he went through everything, cocktails. Well maybe that's the more impressive of the three stories. It's one thing to be one of those waiters who remembers your order and doesn't write it down, which always makes me nervous, by the way. But this guy remembered the order from three days before. He's got multiple customers a night. Yeah.

That's crazy. That's, well, that's. He should be like on a math team. That's pretty impressive. Like a memory team. He shouldn't be a waiter. That justifies the rabbit trail we've just gone down. I'll say that.

Okay, we're not gonna talk about waiters anymore. But hold on, I just remembered. We did experience another waiter that remembered us one time when we went somewhere. Remember he remembered us when we were with Stevie? We were like traveling, we were like traveling and we were freaking out. Well, so the way we're gonna end this is.

When a waiter remembers you. This is a fourth story that doesn't really amount to anything. It freaks you out. But then when you tell it, it's kinda like, ugh. I think all our stories were great until that last one. You had to be there kinda thing. That's a great podcast. I'm gonna tell you stories that you'd really have to be there

to appreciate. We're gonna talk about whether that you'd really have to be there to appreciate. We're gonna talk about whether or not we are our true selves on screen, but first we wanna let you know that Ear Biscuits is supported by TurboTax. Spring is the season of love, rebirth, and flowers, but also taxes. Tax season can be daunting, but with TurboTax Live,

a real licensed tax professional is invested in your success. Their CPAs and EAs on demand bring years of experience to your tax returns. Just the other day, we were having a little get together at your house and one of our good friends was like, can't come, doing my taxes. We should have recommended TurboTax to him. Well of course we did and we are now, it's not too late.

But he was already in the middle of it and I didn't want, I'd still be like, next year, man. Next year you could be at this party if you would just use TurboTax. Because in addition to answering your tax questions, guiding you through the process and maximizing your refund, their tax pros at TurboTax can review your return before you file.

TurboTax Live with CPAs and EAs on demand. See details at TurboTax.com. Ear Biscuits is also supported by Stamps.com. No one really has time to go to the post office. Who's got time for the traffic, the parking, and lugging all that mail? You got so much mail and packages, it's a hassle and potential back injury.

And that's why you need stamps.com, one of the most popular time-saving tools for small businesses. Stamps.com eliminates trips to the post office and saves you money with discounts that you can't even get at the post office. Stamps.com brings all the amazing services of the US Postal Service right to your computer.

Whether you're a small office sending invoices, an online seller shipping out products, or even a warehouse sending thousands of packages a day, stamps.com can handle it all with ease. Simply use your computer to print out official US postage 24 seven for any letter, any package, any class of mail, anywhere you wanna send it.

You can basically do any kind of mail that you wanna do. Once your mail is ready, just hand it to your mail carrier or drop it in a mailbox, it is really that simple. With stamps.com, you get five cents off every first class stamp and up to 40% off priority mail. Not to mention it's a fraction of the cost of those expensive postage meters. It's a no brainer saving you time and money

and no wonder over 700,000 small businesses are already using stamps.com and right now you can get a special offer that includes a four week trial plus free postage and a digital scale, a digital freaking scale. You gonna feel like you're high tech without any long term commitment. Just go to stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in ear. That's stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in ear.

That's stamps.com, enter ear. And now back to the biscuit. Okay so here's how I want to set this up. If you don't know, we got this thing called the Mythical Society, it is a secret society. Mythicalsociety.com, check it out. We're doing vlogs over there, one a month, exclusive. We're talking directly to the society members

but one of the things that we did was we got questions, suggestions for questions submitted that we would ask each other. And one of those questions that was asked for you to ask me just led to an, I haven't watched the vlog back, I mean you can watch it yourself but, and we'll unpack it a little bit but it kinda led to an, I haven't watched the vlog back, I mean you can watch it yourself but, and we'll unpack it a little bit but it kinda led

to a conversation that led to a post conversation, meaning a second conversation off camera after that conversation. Where we, you know, I just thought there were, so there were some emotions that bubbled to the surface that I just thought it would be interesting for us to talk about. So here was the question.

They asked Rhett, Rhett can you ask Link, can you ask Cotton Candy Randy to be nicer to Link? Right. And that was the question that, hold on, that you asked me, right? I will. No, no, I asked you that question. And then you started to answer it, and then I was like, and you were like,

what do you think about it? I think that's how it went. Well, regardless, I can't remember who asked who the question, but it was, a fan wanted Cotton Candy Randy to be nicer to Link. And I don't know whether that person was just asking a joke question or if they were serious. But I don't, so that specific person,

I don't know what they were going for but for me, that made me think about the fact that I do see, first of all, we already know that like the, Cotton Candy Randy is very polarizing. Because he's a negative energy, there's just some people who are into that. And so there's a lot of people who don't like him and then there's people who really, really like him.

In fact, there are lots of people who, of all the things that we've ever done comedically in the world of Good Mythical Morning, Cotton Candy Randy is their favorite thing because it's the most subversive thing that, well, one of the most subversive things that we've done and it kinda goes against type that we've established on GMM in a lot of ways.

So a lot of people just, that's their thing and they really like it. Yeah he's a twisted and demented character whose head and facial hair is made out of cotton candy and when kids eat too much candy, he's gonna show up and whisper sweet nothings in their ear, meaning he is going to terrorize them throughout their sleep cycle.

And he's like an anti-tooth fairy. And he, one notable thing about him is he really dislikes you. Yeah. The bit is. He really likes you. Well, he likes to whisper things to me and I, regardless of how demented they are, always seem to enjoy it, right?

You really enjoy it, yeah. And then you, he always says very mean things to you and apparently he wants you dead. I mean, that's, I think that's cotton candy Randy in a nutshell. And I thought this was an opportunity, like what I was doing at the time is I was like, you know, this is inside conversation,

mythical society, that's one of the things it's about is like let's have a conversation that we wouldn't necessarily have elsewhere. Probably on Ear Biscuits maybe but anyway. So I said what I was trying to do is I was trying to set you up so that you could say what I want to hear because you know me, I'm the, I of course love Cotton Candy Randy, I like subversive things.

That kind of comedy really appeals to me and I get legitimately annoyed with people who have a problem with him. Now I don't expect, there's nothing wrong with you if you don't like him and I know, and comedy is incredibly polarizing and I don't expect everybody to like him and in fact, one of the reasons I do like him is because I know if you don't like him and I know, and comedy is incredibly polarizing and I don't expect everybody to like him and in fact, one of the reasons I do like him

is because I know that people don't like him. That's how my brain works. But there may be something, so there's nothing wrong with respecting someone else's comedic opinion of Cotton Candy Randy but there may be something wrong and there may be another thing that you're taking issue with which is a misunderstanding of what's going on.

The thing that you did was you asked me the question, you kind of threw the ball to me, you were like, so what would you say to that, Link? Do you think that's a good idea or whatever? And I was like, well, I think that would be silly to ask Cotton Candy Randy to be nice to me because Cotton Candy Randy is a character. Right.

And the reason why we didn't, we interpreted that way that someone was asking it sincerely is because there are a lot of seemingly sincere comments online. I think you see them a lot more than I do because they maybe, I don't know why, if you're looking for them or if they at you but not me or something or maybe I just don't read them. But because another way to interpret it was

it would be a funny bit if you asked Cotton Candy Randy to be nice to Link, which that may be a good choice, that may be a good suggestion, but I'm pretty sure that's not what was behind the question. And what it kinda led to for me was, okay, obviously there is a certain dynamic between the two of us and we kind of, and this is why we're having this conversation

because it plays into the greater question that we're asking today which is, are we our true selves on camera? There's a, in the comedic duo of who we are, there is a certain dynamic where you kind of play this role where you are of play this role where you are, if we're gonna do a bit that's on brand or according to type, then if the show is doing a prank,

it's probably gonna be done on you, right? Like if we're gonna have a pill that makes you lose the ability to taste spicy foods like we did that one episode. Well, it's probably gonna be the most true to type if I'm in the know and you don't know and we're playing the prank on you, right? And so that's just, now first, obviously we can do it the opposite way and it goes against type

and it's funny for a different reason. But also, if we have a character like Cotton Candy Randy, and this wasn't a discussion, nobody ever discussed this, like Jordan invented Cotton Candy Randy. Yeah, we never said he's gonna like Rhett, he's gonna hate Link. But as he entered into the dynamic of Rhett and Link, his natural sort of comedic inclination was that

wouldn't it be funny if I just hated Link and whispered weird things to Rhett. And so there's enough of that kind of thing that has happened over the years that there is a segment of the Mythical Beasts who are like why you gotta be picking on Link? Why is Link the butt of so many jokes? Right.

And so what I was asking you to do as from a comedy standpoint is to basically say, hey guys, that's part of our comedy and you shouldn't feel sorry for me. Right, so as a side note, I think that the spicy pill prank that was played on me was a bad example and we should come back to it. So let's not forget to come back to that

because I think that that doesn't work. But it's a good analysis. It doesn't work in this context? It doesn't prove your point once we analyze it later. But the cotton candy or anything, there's a guy, I mean it's obviously Jordan or if you don't know Jordan, somebody who's, it's not a dude, it's a fake beard made out of cotton candy.

It is a character. Yeah, he's not a real person. So we've entered this mode where it's not scripted, it's totally improv, but it's, we're not being ourselves. We're just playing, we're playing things for comedic effect entirely. So, but the thing that I found interesting was, even though I gave the right answer,

it wasn't, it was a little bit different than what you were looking for. And that's fine, but I think it's fascinating. So that's the only reason I wanna talk about it. Cause I said, my answer was, well, if you ask Cotton Candy Randy to be nice to me, I think that's a silly request because obviously, the comedy is in, and this is me talking then,

the comedy is in him being mean to me. That's just, it's funny. And me acting as if my feelings are hurt is part of the comedy too, like that sells it, right? So, and I'm like, I wanted to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I didn't wanna, you know, it doesn't get to me as much as it does to you, so then at that point, I didn't tap into any frustration,

I was just like, I wanna give them the benefit of the doubt and say, now I don't have to tell you that he's a character and that we just made that choice, but I do think there's people out there who are issuing complaints and who think that. But you know, and then you went into this bit about, well, but do you like the sympathy? I think what was behind that is you get more frustrated

than I do and I respect that because it's like, well, maybe you should articulate it. Well, I think. What about it frustrates you because I think it's a valid frustration. Well, I mean, I think there's a lot of things that fall under this umbrella. It's somebody not getting the joke always frustrates me.

somebody not getting the joke always frustrates me. Somebody saying, again, this is a. I think when you become, when you don't get the joke, it's kind of like oh, I'm a comedian and it didn't work. But then when the byproduct is you're the bad guy. It's kind of frustrating when people like, I mean, the Mythical Beasts aren't that rude, but they feel like they need to take up from me and they direct it at you.

I feel like, and again, I'm probably generalizing, right? And I know, even though we know a lot of Mythical Beasts like by name and like by Twitter handle and that kind of thing, like I don't, no individuals come to mind, so it's not like I have any grudges against anybody. But it seems to me, in my mind, what I've constructed in my mind is that

there's a certain fan who's, what they like about us is just what they perceive as the genuine Rhett and Link, but when it comes to our comedy, actually like when we're trying to be comedians and making comedic choices, like thoughtful comedic choices that are more of an artistic approach, they're kinda like, I don't like that.

Like they don't like our local commercials. Like there's a whole segment of people, in fact one of the reasons we stopped making our local commercials is because we just couldn't deal with so many people misunderstanding what we were trying to do comedically. Interestingly, when we hang out with legitimate comedians, professional comedians,

a lot of times the only point of reference they have from us is our local commercials. And so in our minds, from a comedic from us is our local commercials. And so in our minds from a comedic standpoint is those local commercials that we made. That's a craft. It's potentially the best work we've ever done but there's not an insignificant percentage of Mythical Beasts who are like,

that's the stupidest thing that you guys have ever done. And so that, I can't come up with an analogy but it's almost just like if you consider yourself to be an artist and you're like my best work is this thing and then this thing that I kinda do incidentally, that's the thing that you're all connecting with and you're not connecting with this thing that actually was really, really thoughtful

and like is my best effort and then I think it carries over to again, I think it's this taking us so seriously as people that it's just like, well sometimes the bit between us as a duo is that my character is going to make fun of you and say mean things or some other character in our universe like Cotton Candy Renny's gonna say mean things and then I get tweets and I see comments about

why is it gonna be so mean to Link and I'm like, guys, it's a freaking joke. And I think here on Ear Biscuits. And that just frustrates me. Yeah, I think you can anticipate that Ear Biscuits is a much more real version of who we are, so I'm not holding anything that you don't already know. So in this environment, I think that I definitely

make fun of you a lot more here in the real you than I do on the show. But we both know that there's comedy in that here because we're not just totally talking, we're making fun of each other because it's funny. But in the context of GMM, so much of the strength of the show rides on the impromptu honesty of the moments. Like there's so many things that happen

that by design we don't know. I think we've talked about this before. But there are times when we go into comedy bits and there's, and that balance shifts from moment to moment. Like, there are entire episodes that are planned, like when you go into a conspiracy thing about how Finland doesn't exist. Okay, bombshell, can you please come clean about what you think about Finland? When you go into a conspiracy thing about how Finland doesn't exist, okay,

bombshell, can you please come clean about what you think about Finland? You mean the country that doesn't exist? He has a choice to make here. Do you really believe it? Yeah and that. Can you say it? Again, I think that most people probably, like I would say that 90, there's definitely 1% of the people watching who think that I legitimately believe

the conspiracy theories. And there's nothing I'm ever gonna be able to do. You don't believe what? I believe that Finland is a real country. Oh, he did it, that was a big milestone. No it's not because, and you kinda know, you've suspended your disbelief and we're going into this bit and we like to do it.

Does it get the most views? No but it's a comedic choice. And I'm actually making. It's more craft work. And I'm actually. Like the band. I'm actually very unlikely to believe conspiracy theories in real life.

Yeah you're making fun, yeah. I'm an extreme. You probably should have changed your name. I'm an extreme. You probably should've changed your name. I'm an extreme skeptic, right? And so I actually find conspiracy theorists to be funny. Like I find them funny. Well I mean. And so I think that they're.

But in terms of a mode, you look at the Colbert rapport. Not the show now but, and the transition's fascinating because like, that was brilliant, I mean there's a reason why I think it won Emmys or should have and he did because it was absolutely brilliant what he did. Right but. And it worked on a number of levels. But.

So we aspire to things like that. What is the Venn diagram of the people who don't like Cotton Candy Randy who also don't like Stephen Colbert. I would say there is a very high crossover. I know so I think what you're getting at is, I think the frustration is that there's people in our GMM audience who they,

and I think I understand why they're like that. They wanna take everything at face value because we present it that way. You know, I think that the reason why I wanted to have this conversation is if some of those people are listening or watching that we can kind of educate where we're coming from to free them up to enjoy more of the entire breadth of what GMM is

and also to kind of alleviate your frustration a little bit. I think that's kind of my ulterior motive in this thing. You know, there's also this complaint about the show being scripted, which again is a different thing, but I think it's related a little bit. And again, we go in and out of scripted moments. We shouldn't have to, I think people are so attached

to the impromptu honesty of the show that if there's anything that's planned, like I can tell that they have thought about that joke ahead of time. It's like well, we could be better at delivering some jokes sometimes but in the top of the show, we plan out what we're gonna say so that we can get into it quicker

so we can just be more succinct. You know, they're just different modes in the show that I think, I think it's an opportunity to make it more fun to say, okay, I don't know exactly what the, I can't, you know, it's all about sensing what mode we're working in and then saying, you know, sometimes it kinda, it's blurry and it kinda shifts and I think that's a fun aspect sensing what mode we're working in and then saying,

sometimes it's blurry and it kind of shifts and I think that's a fun aspect of the show. So I get frustrated when people criticize when we're not just acting in the 100% impromptu mode, the entire 100% unplanned mode. I won't say honest, I'll say unplanned because I do think there's a difference. Right and I probably personally received the brunt of that complaint more

simply because we did like fact-based games on GMM. We did it back and forth for a really long time. But those of you who've sort of observed the patterns of GMM probably learned that, okay, if we're gonna play a fact-based game, I host it and you play it. That's just what we've arrived at. Right.

And it's because we each fit those roles better than the other, right? And so it's like you not having any clue as to what I'm going to ask and what you're gonna say sets you up to say really funny things. Funnier things than I would be saying if I was just thinking of things off the top of my head. But I'm pretty good at saying jokes

that I've thought about ahead of time. So yeah, and I think that, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I definitely, I don't sit around thinking about this a lot, but there is this sort of underlying thing that I just kind of understand that there is some percentage, and I don't know what it is, of people who kind of perceive the there is some percentage, and I don't know what it is, of people who kind of perceive the show in that way, and then a lot of that is kind of focused at me

because I'm the one that's the source of those things. I might be the source of more of the scripted jokes, I might be a source of more of the negative, like the negative energy when it comes to the humor. And so people who are like, I don't like that, I don't like anything that's negative, I don't like anything that's scripted, it's just like, okay, well,

I don't like what Rhett brings to the show. So I think that when I talk about those things, I end up kind of, that's where the frustration comes from. And I think that we have such a wide range in age that watches the show. There's a level of maturity required to start to parse the different modes that we work in and get to the point that I'm asking for,

which is that it becomes something that you appreciate and enjoy, you know, the question mark of did that just, you know, I do think that's, you know there's certain things like when we're blindfolded or when we're playing a game and we're not supposed to know stuff, I'll just go on record and say that we don't cheat. I know Stevie cheated that one time as a joke on us and you played the joke on me with the pill

which again I'll get back to later but we don't cheat when it comes to games and things like that. Yeah, things where the idea is that we're not in on it, then we're not in on it, like on purpose. Like we keep things from ourselves so that we can have authentic reactions to the things that we need to. But I wanna tell you a story of a conversation I had

with Lando which helped me, I just came to a realization about how he perceived me, how he perceived the show and then I ended up talking to Lily and Christy about it. I was, I invited him on the show to kick me in the balls when we were doing the, testing the jock straps because the plan was you were gonna get Shep to kick you in the balls, Lando was gonna kick me. And if you watched that episode,

Shep ended up kicking both of us in the balls, because as I explained, Lando said he didn't wanna do it. And then in Good Mythical More, he did come on and he said a little bit more about it, but that night, I was tucking him in bed and I got in bed with him and I was just hanging out beside him so we could have more of a conversation.

It was one of those things where it's like, it's not your bedtime yet but go ahead and get ready for bed that way it's not because I wanna go to bed earlier too. So we had a few minutes to have a longer conversation than normal. And we were laying there and he said, do you still hurt from getting hit this morning?

Meaning when Shepherd hit me in the balls. Now I mean he kicked me in the balls, I don't even know if all the times he kicked me in the balls made the edit. Cause he would kinda, we had to cut out the times when he would kinda miss but like he kicked me in the balls made the edit. Because he would kind of, we had to cut out the times when he would kind of miss, but like he gave me two direct hits. And I like crumple over on the ground and I'm like,

I mean I gave anything on America's Funniest Home Videos a run for their money. Because it was a direct hit. My crotch is lower to the ground than yours. I don't think he took that into account. What are you trying to say? You're taller than me. And I'm more of a man than yours. I don't think he took that into account. What are you trying to say? You're taller than me and I'm more of a man than you. Oh, that's what you're saying.

My crotch hangs lower. Okay. It was all crumpled up in a cup. Yeah, it was protected. But then the cup hitting the sides of your, what is that called? It's not the taint because it's on the right and left side. The raint and the laint, right and left taint.

I don't think we need. That's where the ball, where the cup hits. I don't think we need an explanation. I think everybody understands. So I mean, it was like the most sincere, tender question, no pun intended. Do you still hurt from when you got hit today? And I was like, well it did hurt,

but not as bad as I made it seem. You know, I wanted to tell him that because I could tell how concerned he was for me. It was like super cute. It was also honest, it did hurt, but not as bad as I made it seem. And he said, well why would you make it hurt more than it did?

And I said, to be funny. And he didn't laugh, he got this puzzled look on his face and he was just kinda like, he could not, he could not make sense of it and I said, I did it to make the show funny. And he said, do you know what Bitcoin is? And I was like, I'm not gonna sit here and explain to you what Bitcoin is, it's your bedtime.

Like, you're not, I'm not gonna fall for this trick. And I was like, so do you know what it means? Do you know what Bitcoin is? And he said no, I was like, he was like, do you know what Bitcoin is? I I'm like okay, I guess I am falling for this. I'm like, I'm like, I thought for a second, I was like well, no, not really. Well, I mean it's cryptocurrency.

And he was like oh so you do know what Bitcoin means? And I was like well yeah, I do. He was like well then why on your show did you keep guessing Bitcoin for the answer to the question? And I remembered, we played a game where we had to fill in the blank on something and he was watching at home, he wasn't there that day.

And I kept writing in Bitcoin as the answer. Yeah, I don't know what the game was, I remember it. And I remembered that when he asked me why did I, if I knew what Bitcoin was, why would I keep giving it as the answer for other questions? And I was like, to be funny. And. You're teaching him comedy?

I could see the wheels turning and I could tell, I was like, oh wow, my own son is realizing that his dad is not as stupid as he thought he was. That's hilarious. And I was like, if he would have understood this yesterday, he'd have kicked me in the balls this morning. So that's what I should have explained to him. You think he would have? I yesterday, he'd have kicked me in the balls this morning. So that's what I should have explained to him. You think he would have?

I think so, yeah. Now, so for the record, it did hurt. It really hurt. But I also took full advantage of the comedic opportunity presented to me to convey the fact that it was shockingly painful. Jacob just pointed out that was on. He was in that episode.

It was the holiday list. He was there. He does watch the show if he's not in it but he was physically present there and that's why he remembered the Bitcoin thing and he'd been puzzling on it for all this time. So yeah I'm like dang, you must think I'm kinda stupid. I'm not, yeah I'm not as stupid.

But then I went out and I went, I tucked him in and I was like, so he went to sleep and then I went into Lily's room to tell her goodnight and I ended up telling her what I just told you. Probably in a truncated version. There were no sponsors involved. And she was laughing and I was like, I mean, do you think I'm stupid?

This is funny. And I'm like, and I mean, I kinda really wanted to know, I was like, well, at what age do my kids like start realizing I'm not stupid? And I ended up talking to her and Christy about it and it wasn't an easy answer I ended up talking to her and Christy about it and it wasn't an easy answer. Because one of the things they brought up was, well you know, Dad, remember when we watched that video,

Link struggling for seven minutes straight. From You're So Loud? You're So Loud, mate. That I tweeted because I thought it was so funny, like we're all laughing our heads off and like I think I tweeted that like Christy was like, welcome to every day of my life kind of thing. And I think their point was that we discussed was that

in some ways you might be as stupid as you are on the show. And this is coming from the people that love me the most and I guess felt safe enough to tell me. And they knew watching that cut down and living with me, like Christy said, welcome to my life, that it's not like that all the time, but it's definitely like that some of the time. I mean, and I was like, well, I got a little defensive

and I was like, well, it's not that I'm stupid, it's just that I can suspend my intelligence. Wow, that's good. I think that's what I do. Well, I. You know how, if you're watching a movie or something, you suspend your disbelief, I suspend my intelligence.

I can disconnect the things that would stop me from saying things that I just say on instinct or wielding sharp objects in a way that no one has business doing. I can just turn that off and say, you know what, this is the mode that I operate in. Well, but I think that stupid is the wrong word for those things. If you're gonna come up with a harsher word.

No, I mean I think that like okay, the thing that Christy probably deals with is she would probably call you absent-minded. Wait, yeah. You know what I'm saying? I ask her where stuff is that's in my pocket all the time. Right, which is not stupid. I mean like Einstein was probably absent-minded.

The absent-minded professor, it's not stupid. But then things like the, like when you put the cat, I don't remember what happened when you spit, you drank water. I drank the cat poop water. You drank cat water through a thing and then you put your mouth back on the thing. Yeah.

Like that's not an. I suspended, my intelligence was suspended. That's what you're saying for that? I don't think that that's stupid. I just think that that is like an accident prone. Cautiously impulsive? Yeah, I don't know what the word is, but I just think it's,

it is, you are more likely to injure yourself with a knife than I am. But you're not gonna injure, it isn't. I have in real life. You have in real life. The stories that I tell are true stories. It isn't like you can't actually ever hold a knife. It's just that no, because Link is the one

who's more likely to do something with a knife, it's a funny bit that every time he has a sharp object, I'm going to take it from him because that's taking something that isn't untrue but then, which I think is kinda getting to the bigger question that we're asking, is taking something that is based in truth and exaggerating it for the sake of comedy. And that is, I mean, incidentally,

that's what we do whenever we script something. Like that's what, We even go further. The second season of Buddy System. Yeah, it was like three notches above that. Like it isn't like, In a thought exercise alternate universe, we never knew each other kind of way.

Right, and it's just like, it was extreme caricatures, right? Your character was an extreme caricature of you in a way that people may not even be able to follow the logic to get to that point, to understand why we ended up, maybe even more so with my character and the weird hippie stuff and the man bun

and all this stuff, but all that kinda came out of, well, I am the one that kind of gets into some new idea or philosophy and like learns a lot about and adopts it and suddenly starts trying to tell you about it and that kind of thing. And so if I were to do that unhinged, unimpeded, I might eventually get to a place where I was this weird dude who wore all these weird clothes

and adopted this weird religion. What's your question to my, is Link as stupid in real life as he is on the show? Like I elected to frame it in that harsh way. I'll let you come up with your own, but what's your version of that question? Is Rhett as blank in real life as he is on the show? Yeah, we're probably smart.

Oh God. Okay, pivot that. Is Rhett as self-absorbed? I don't think that that comes across in the show. I'm not gonna. No, it's like, no, it's like. Try again. I don't think that's it.

But no, but one of the. Because I don't think that comes across in the show. Well, but let me. I do have something in mind. But let me explain though. Like, like a know-it-all quality of like being confident and cocky about being able to do something.

Like that's an element of my character, but it's also an element of my personality. That comes from who I am, but no, I am not that way in my interpersonal interactions with normal everyday people. I'm that way when I'm in my comedic element. I don't think that comes across on the show. I think it could come across in real life at times but that's not what we're talking about.

I think it's more of, here's my pitch. Is Rhett just as mean, I think that's the criticism, again, is Rhett as mean in real life as he is on the show? Link is stupid and Rhett is mean. You know, it's like, that's what you're saying, that you get the criticism that why are you so mean to Link, you know, it's like.

Yeah. I would. And I don't, maybe that's not the right one either. Well, I mean, okay, if we go down that path, I would say that, I would think that no one that knows me, I would say that if people who are my best friends were to list my top 10 negative attributes, I would be willing to bet a significant amount of money

that one of those top 10 would not be that I'm mean. I think that that is a, I am not a mean person. Like that's not, I'm actually, I'm actually in my estimation too nice of a person. I've talked about this before that I'm a people pleaser and I laugh at people's jokes when they're not funny and I try to accommodate people who are being awkward and stuff like that.

So I'm not a mean person, but I think in the context of our characters and in the context of our characters and just our, and also the context of us as. Maybe it's just intensity. Cause I don't think that mean is, I think that's a criticism that's leveled against you, but I don't think that's a character trait. That's a misinterpretation of what we've already,

the comedic bits that we've already talked about. But like an intensity, it's like the furrowed brow and the, and you're not grumpy on the show either so it's like, maybe you're just stupid too. Just go with that. Are you as stupid in real life as I am in this show? I mean what is your estimation of it? Because I haven't thought about this specifically.

I think a lot about the fact that if people were to just look at the two of us and how we present ourselves on the internet, that they would be like, Rhett seems like he would, I guess mean is not the word that I would use but let's just go with that. Rhett seems like he would be mean, Link seems like he would, I guess mean is not the word that I would use but let's just go with that. Rhett seems like he would be mean. Link seems like he would be really nice. I, yeah.

And then of course my argument is that, well, that's not true. I also think, here's what I think it is. I think you are much closer to your true self on the show than I am. I think that there's more of a heightened thing with me, with my character on the show. I think that's maybe more my opinion about it.

Yeah, I think that. And then when you go against type, that's funny. But I think that most of the people who would characterize me as mean on the show would probably characterize me as mean in real life. Right, that's what I'm saying, because they misinterpret just being intense. There are some people who don't respond well

to intensity at all. And like me and you deal with that. Right. Like I get passionate and intense about things and then people who have more sensitive personality types tend to take intensity personally. Yeah. And so me and you have had to work through that

as we discuss things, it's just like. And you tend to be more focused on the rightness of something or like the correctness of something than the, it's like whether it's right or wrong versus the way it's presented. And it's more like, are we having a philosophical conversation or are we having a personal conversation?

Right. And so, and this is not, again, this is just part of my personality makeup. This is part of the personality makeup that I'm addressing in therapy to one degree because I'm very, very much in my head and spend a lot of time up here thinking about things and then I don't translate those things into feelings and they end up

kind of coming out sideways in certain ways. But I think that people, I think, well I'll speak about you first and then I'll speak about myself, but I think that you harness the, you know, people resonate and might be more of a fan of you than me if the ideas and the, the ideas resonate more. You know, it's like I'm not gonna give a lot of,

not as much of ideas in the way that you are. I think that, again, when the comedy comes mostly from your head, it's gonna have a certain flavor to it that I think mine comes from a different place. That's why I stopped hosting the episodes, the fact-based episodes because we find how our makeup leads into our comedic strengths. So we're able to say in a room, you know,

you know what, it would be better if I never hosted another one of those because Rhett, you're so much better at it and it's better for me not to know what, it would be better if I never hosted another one of those, because Rhett, you're so much better at it, and it's better for me not to know what's happening, and with this freewheeling response, we're hoping to capture something, right? And that's the best that we have both of those things that contribute.

And I don't know if I've said this on a podcast before, but I remember that, you know, it kind of felt like it hurt at the moment where I'm like, it felt like it was admitting, yeah, I can't do that. So that's one less thing I can do. I kind of suck at that. You know, it's like, you know, as opposed to,

and then I had to go through a process of coming to grips with and being secure in the strengths that I did have to offer and saying this is the perfect way to allow for that. Well, and to, and to, For both of us, I guess. To platform you, like I said, like I, first of all, once we get going

in certain modes, like both of us being like reactive and in the moment really works. Yeah, yeah. But, It's not that I never have ideas and it's not that you never have hilarious reactions. But if we have to push ourselves into a corner and say okay, well one of you,

if we're gonna create a situation and where one person knows what's happening and is operating according to a plan and one person doesn't know what's happening, who's going to flourish in those? Who's gonna know about the pill and who's not? Right and Link is going to be funnier and again, that's kinda why I thought that that was an example. It's not an Right and Link is going to be funnier and again, that's kind of why I thought

that that was an example. It's not an example, I know what you're saying, it's not an example of you playing a character. We were not choosing comedic sides. You are going to. I didn't choose anything. It was a legitimate prank and I fell for it. You are going to, the things that you're going to say

in that moment where you're trying to convince yourself that this thing works, it's gonna be funnier than what I'm gonna say. Like 10 out of 10 times. I also don't think that the chances of successfully convincing you of that were very low and the chances of convincing me of it were also very high.

Right, there's a high chance that in the midst of that, I would be like, this is a prank. And there's two reasons. Well, I think it's ultimately just one reason. I think it's because if I begin to suspect that it's a prank, I'm probably gonna point it out. Even if you did begin to suspect it was a prank, you would suspend your intelligence.

Yes. And go with this bit and continue to carry it out, whereas that's just, I don't have that in me. So for the record, I did not do that. Right, we got you. We really got you. And that's when it's funniest. I still haven't watched that one back.

I would watch that one back. And because it's not as funny when you have to do it intentionally. It's funnier when you're being authentic. And that would be a hard thing to do anyway. But I do feel like people feel sorry for me and that's the thing that I do want to address. Well but before we get to that because I do think this,

just to play into the question, I knew that it would be funny in the context of the show but if there wasn't a camera there and I was just like I'm gonna prank, we don't prank each other. Like again, this is a little bit what's on screen and what's in real life. We don't prank each other.

We've never pranked each other. Like it isn't in our makeup to be like, I'm gonna take time just for the hell of it to just prank you at work just to see what the reaction is. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that so much of what we do is a product that people can see and so if we're gonna take the time to do something like that, to engineer something,

well you can bet that it's going to be online. But it's also just like, that's just not, that's not our personalities. It's not our personalities to like find some way to like mess with each other like that. And also, if I were to do that, if I were to for some way to mess with each other like that and also if I were to do that, if I were to for some reason decide that I was gonna prank you, your reaction to a prank that wasn't being filmed

would be like 10% as entertaining as your reaction to a prank if you were being filmed and you knew it. And it isn't because you're acting, it's just that when you're on and when the camera's on. I just don't have that much energy. You're in a mode where you're like, I'm reacting, I'm processing things out loud, and that is a recipe for entertainment.

And you know what? Whereas if you're just by yourself, you just, we're both rather boring. I mean, if you were to put a hidden camera in our office and just see what happens on a daily basis, the way that we work through creative problems, the conversations that we had, you'd be like, I feel like I'm looking at a professor's office hours. Ha, I got you, I got you.

I've had a camera in our office for like two years. You can release it, it'll be very boring. And it's so boring, I got you man. You know, the thing is, I feel like, I've been, I don't know, I've been thinking more about this. Like, it's funny, you do 1500 episodes of a show and you feel like there's nothing you can learn and you're just on autopilot.

But I don't think that's the case at all. I think that these are things that, I remember we used to get in fights, man. Like in Fuqua when we first started doing Chia Lincoln, like we'd be telling stories and we wouldn't like, I wouldn't like a way that you said something or you wouldn't like how I cut you off and didn't let you finish a story or we would just, you know, we had so much to learn

but the thing that I'm learning now is I'm actually seeing, and maybe this plays into people feeling sorry for me because I don't want people to feel sorry for me and say oh, Link's the butt of the joke or everybody thinks he's stupid or maybe he is stupid and I feel sorry for him. You know, I don't want any of that because I think I've actually,

you know, the game show thing is a good example but in pretty much every episode, I'm finding out how more of my true instincts can be harnessed for comedy. And so the more honest I am, it's kinda, I mean, and I think I've been thinking about it more since we talked about the Instagram thing. When you talked about, dude, if you just do

what you wanna do on Instagram, you planning out something is, you're short-circuiting your own comedic process. So dance like nobody's watching. Anyway, I actually think that in the exercise of doing that within the context of GMM and understanding what I'm trying to do, that I'm just trying to, like thinking of it as suspending my intelligence

and knowing that like okay, I'm not an idiot, I'm actually smart for being able to harness just raw instinct in this way. I actually feel better about it. But then a step further, I actually feel better about it. But then a step further, I actually feel like that the show me is kind of a gateway to me introducing some of that back into my real life. Like I've taken as an exercise to just say,

you know what, I'm going to, taken as an exercise to just say, you know what, I'm going to, I'm gonna go on instinct, I'm gonna be experiencing this moment, I'm not gonna overthink it, I'm not going to be so serious or give in to my anxiety or whatever may be the, what is instinctively in my normal life

the first concern that would enter my mind, but then saying, you know what, this is what it's like to have fun. You know, I think the exercise of doing the show builds the muscle of being able to let loose a little bit. And then, so in the way that I play with the kids or hang out with Christy or like when I get home from work and like

we're all hanging out in the kitchen and it's like oh we're playing music and you know what I'm just gonna, you know what? Let's dance, you know it's like we funneled so much of that energy you know to your point of like we're boring into our work that from a practical standpoint, maybe it's all drained, I felt like it's all been drained out of me. So I don't know, maybe I'm getting a little too,

you know, I'm just trying to, I'm actually trying to harness that in my everyday life to just become generally stupider. Well I think what I was saying was that people might expect that if I were to just watch Rhett and Link having a conversation with each other, then it would be hilarious and as entertaining as an ear biscuit.

Right. When in reality, it would probably be as entertaining as an Ear Biscuit. Right. When in reality, it would probably be as entertaining as like the last half hour of this Ear Biscuit. You know what I'm saying? Which is it might be, you might be like, oh this is the good stuff, they got very real. But you probably didn't laugh a whole lot in the past 30 minutes.

I'm just saying that that's how we kind of talk to each other. I'm not necessarily that that's how we kinda talk to each other. I'm not, like for me, for me, I, I mean I feel like I, I feel like I'm, well I feel like for me it's not a question of, I don't have enough personality left over for my family. A lot of times it's just an energy question or a time question because I gotta work on this thing

even though I'm at home, I gotta finish this thing and that's a problem. But that's not a, that's a different problem, that's like a time management problem. I wasn't directing any of it at you but I will, I think that the moments where we just embrace the sheer joy of what happens on the show and we heighten it, I think is a skill that I was like, okay, how can this cycle back ironically and the life could imitate art and I could benefit from it?

It was just, so it was an interesting thought exercise. Well, along the same lines, I don't even know if you were in this conversation with some of our close friends we were talking about. Like I'm trying to figure out some things in therapy like we've been talking about with being able to understand what my emotions are and deal with feelings and that kind of thing.

But I think part of that is like we have, we've got a friend group and there's a very high emotional intelligence in our friend group. Like significantly higher than I have sort of been close to for the majority of my life. Not judging you. Just saying this in terms of just like greater friendships or whatever.

And, I mean they're all legitimately just intelligent people but they're also emotionally intelligent. And what I mean by that is you get into, like somebody's going through something or somebody shares something and they just have just a level of insight and perspective that I'm kind of used to being, like I like kind of being the guy

who knows things in the room, right? You know that and it annoys you and I understand that. But like in a lot of places, I am the guy who knows things in the room, right? I'm not an expert on anything, but I know a lot about a lot of things. And so I tend to feel like I've got something to contribute. But a lot of times with the group

that we've gotten really close with, they're so emotionally intelligent that I start to kind of feel like an idiot. And I'm like, I don't know how to comfort this person. I don't know what to say in this situation because that's not how my brain works. I haven't figured that out yet. And so I'm just gonna kind of be quiet.

And I've also done like a second level of analysis. Again, we've hinted at the Enneagram and we will do an episode about it at some point. But again, it's the personality evaluation where there's nine different personality types. I'm a three on the Enneagram, which means I'm a performer, an achiever. And one of the things that the threes do

is that if they are not good at something, they don't play the game. And so engaging on an emotional level with somebody is something I'm not good at so I just don't do it. Because I do the things that I can win at. And that is a, and I didn't really understand that's how my personality worked until I started reading more in depth about the way threes are and it's like,

if they don't have a good chance of winning the game, they do not participate. And they can actually be incredibly successful because they are good at a lot of things and they also only do the things they're good at so you see them and you're like, man, they're good at all the things that they do until you put them in an environment

where they have to behave differently. So the way this translates to the difference between me on the show and me in real life is that when I get into those situations where I feel like it's a more intimate atmosphere, I become the quiet one. Where on the show, there's no opportunity to be the quiet one, neither one of us is the quiet one. We both could talk 100 miles an hour.

We talk over each other constantly because we both want to be the ones to get the last word in. Like I think we both suffer from that and that's one of the things that contributes to why we do what we do and we do it well. And so the thing I told our friends when I was talking is like I actually think that my true self is more represented

in the context of what I do as an entertainer than it is when I'm just in real life. Like when I am my more, you know, happy-go-lucky, in the moment, reacting, laughing, trying to make people laugh thing that I do on the show, and even in the context of this, I'm still on a little bit. Yeah. My on is actually.

Letting something out. A truer connection with who I am. It isn't putting something on. In fact, the mask and the facade is the quiet, reserved Rhett who is afraid to enter into a certain situation for fear of not being able to win that situation because I frame it in the wrong way.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. I think within, yeah, within the context of the show, you can experience legitimate emotion within a subset of emotions, right? That are like elation as an example. Well and I think it goes to show you that it, Surprise. Unbelievably.

Pain. And thankfully. Happiness. We've created an environment on the show where we can be so comfortable, because again, this is the thing that we didn't get when we did, like if you go back and watch the old Online Nation clips, right?

You look at that and you're like, we were not comfortable. Oh no. Right? It was the peak of the evidence that there is out there of us not being comfortable in an entertainment setting. Yeah. But this show and GMM also represent these environments that we've created and we've been able to completely shape the environment

so that we can just be our true selves. So it is ironic that it seems like, oh, you're on and you're acting, but my theory, and I hear you saying the same thing, is that well, actually, that's who I am. And when I go out and I navigate the real world, I turn that, it isn't that I turn it on when I'm on the show it's that I turn it off when I'm in real life.

Yeah and I don't wanna, you know, I do wanna bring this full circle but I don't want this to seem like a mini intervention but I think, yeah, I think that we've, I think my question to the listener or to the mythical beast watching GMM who complains about things that maybe they're just missing the comedy

or they're misinterpreting the comedic choice as an honest moment and then being disappointed and then being critical of it, I'm asking them to expand the way they view our performance in the show to not shift but to include those things. I think that's what I'm asking of them and I know that it frustrates you

a little more than it does to me because it kind of, as we've discussed, it goes to you. But I think the, for you, maybe there's an opportunity to see, I think you just described the beauty of what the show, the opportunity it gives you as a person and me as a person to experience things that can then inspire who we are in our normal lives and those are the things that people,

if they latch, those true moments, if they latch onto them so hard and make them so precious that they can't take the other comedic bits, you know, it's like you can't fault them for it because it's also a very, it's kind of the heart and soul of our show. Because we've created an environment where we're authentic and so then to get upset with them for being,

for doing a character or doing a bit and having a problem with it is, yeah. Yeah, so it's kind of a meeting in the middle. I just wanna have my cake and eat it too. Yeah, taking that criticism as an, and you can invert it as a compliment that like the thing that attracts them to the show is the heart and soul of the show

and it's our true selves coming through and they can't even take it when we make a choice that deviates from it. So maybe that'll just help you process it. Well, and also we talked about this a little bit is I think that unfortunately, the people who have an issue with these types of things are also for whatever reason, the personality profile

is they're more likely to engage online. And so the people who might actually appreciate like. And I think ultimately we're different people and I think better people because of fielding that. As painful or frustrating as it may be sometimes too so I'll even go that far. You need to be thankful for it. I don't disagree with that.

I'm just saying that one of the things that makes it difficult is that I know that there are people out there who appreciate but you're more likely to get a comment about something that they don't like than they do like. Like we get so many, like when we meet fans in meet and greet lines at shows, I'm always surprised with how many people

have Cotton Candy Randy t-shirts on and say, I love Cotton Candy Randy. And I'm like, well, why don't you say something on the internet about it? You know what I'm saying? It's like, and so. Well, do you want to comment or do you want him to buy a shirt?

Well, how about both? No, but you're right. And again, I also don't want to make it seem like, I mean, I'm talking about these things because you asked these questions. So, and I talked about it the other day because it was in the context of the conversation that we were having.

I don't spend a significant portion of my time, like not even a, I don't even spend an insignificant portion of my time, like I spend barely any time thinking about this particular thing and being frustrated about it. I spend. Yeah, we didn't talk about it after that moment. Yeah, I spend the vast majority of my time just trying to come up with something to entertain.

And that's pretty much probably to a fault. That's what I do with almost all of my time. So I'm not sitting around stewing about any of this stuff. It's just if you bring it up and make me start talking about it, I get a little frustrated about it. But I don't like sit around frustrated on a regular basis about it so I don't want anybody to think that. So no need to apologize to me if you've said things

and you're like, oh I feel bad, I told Rhett he was mean, I need to apologize to him. I don't need your apologies and I'm gonna be okay. All right guys, thank you for hanging out with us and allowing us to psychoanalyze ourselves and each other. Let us know, hashtag Ear Biscuits. Whatever you wanna let us know. Weigh in on the conversation, we appreciate that.

Tell people about this podcast so they can listen to it too. How would you describe it? Let us know, hashtag Ear Biscuits. Describe it to a friend and then tell us how you described it and tell us what they said about it. Well that's good, that's good. Speak at you next week.