Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 222: Can Vlogging Strengthen Our Friendship? | Ear Biscuits Ep. 222

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

Guys who are only getting older do their best to maintain their childhood friendship." It's a new year on an old channel with new tricks. Listen to R&L talk about the comeback of the long-silent Rhett and Link YouTube channel and their new journey into the vlogging world on this episode of Ear Biscuits! (00:14) - Our new 2020 initiative (3:59) - The neighbor Rhett never knew he had (9:32) - Privacy in our backyards (19:59) - The end of LTAT (23:25) - BTS on the Mythical Society (27:52) - What led up to us wanting to vlog (36:30) - Vlogging and YouTube (39:50) - Our first vlog (43:00) - Our 2019 experimentations (45:55) - Why the Rhett and Link channel (56:43) - Going in with a generation gap (01:03:17) - Trying something new (01:05:12) - Rhett's rec in effect - "My Favorite Shapes" by Julio Torres 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. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance.

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card of up to $200 on select phone activations with major carriers. Visit your nearest Best Buy store today. Terms and conditions apply. 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. 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 think long fallow. Lyons even worse. Yeah we're gonna talk about.

Fallow is when you leave, you don't plant anything in a field. Right, it has been fallow. There's been nothing 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. Yeah, well no, crop rotation is when you plant something different. Well. And then it like restores nutrients to the soil. Isn't nothing something? Weeds, like weeds grow up in a field.

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 doing that. We're gonna be talking about what went into that decision, what you can expect. You know, it is a little bit odd to start the year

talking about why we're making a particular decision. But it's such a, but you know what, that's what 2020 is 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. So we're just gonna talk about our intention to have. I think it's a big deal. To have them. It's not just doing something on that channel but deciding to do vlogs, deciding to shoot it in the way we're gonna shoot it. Yeah, we're gonna shoot it.

I don't know everything that we'll end up talking about. Yeah, we'll get into it. 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. Oh, I don't know if they're equal. Speak for yourself. Are different but definitely need to update each other on what happened over our holidays. 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 adding, my juices are flowing but I don't, I'm not adding electrical charge to them because that gets dangerous at that point. When you start putting electricity into water, which is a good way to make it boil. I actually, I tuned out for one second,

I have no clue what you're talking about. Doesn't matter. You know what, before we get into the whys and the hows and the whats of the vlogs in 2020. You're not about to do an ad. I'm not, I'm gonna do a. I feel like people are already already try to hit the skip button when you say, but before we,

that's the moment people are hitting that 15 second forward button. Nobody does that for us. Nobody does that for us, because they know. And if you did, you feel stupid now because now you just realize 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 them. I have a, I've had an interaction with my neighbor that I thought since 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 do that. So tree neighbor? No, different. Different?

This is a neighbor I didn't know I had. Let me explain. What? So you know how my house, well you know what? I'll tell the story. 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. You know what, just take a beat. I got it. And think about how you wanna tell your story. There was one thing that I need to change. I'm just gonna stare at you while you figure it out. Well I'm not figuring it out And think about how you wanna tell your story. There was one thing that I need to change. While you figure it out. 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, because it hasn't been for a number of years. Yeah. So 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. There's everything, they just tore everything down and basically piled it in a corner. The guys have gone into the pool

and like jackhammered off the surface. So it just kind of looks like a post-apocalyptic scene. Bet you like that. In my like yard area. And of course, I'm still making decisions about some of the final like 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. And 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 echoey and boomy? It came from on high. Okay. It came from on high. Okay. It came from above me, which freaked me out a lot. Because I lived in this house for four years and this has never happened. Yeah.

So I looked 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 kind of live on a hill, sometimes, so I live this spot on the hill and then 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. 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, oh I don't know these people, we've never had any interactions. Yeah. Except for one older couple on the other side, like right when we moved in, they were up there

kinda 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 him and said, got a mess up there? They looked down thinking you were. Nope, I just said. Beelzebub. I just said, oh hey,

because 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 their lots kind of come together so that their lots meet and split kind of 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, I was like, oh hey, he was like, I'm Ken. I was like, I'm Rhett. Okay. So he said, got a mess down there, you said, And I was like, I'm Rhett. Okay. And. So he said, got a mess down there, you said, oh, okay.

I was like, oh. And then he said, I'm Ken. No, I was like, yeah, got a lot of work to do down here, just getting started, 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 in this volume right here. What did that immediately make me think? That, I have no clue what you're saying,

that like you have superhuman hearing and he can't hear you? And I don't know 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 have this sense of absolute privacy in my backyard.

Oh, so you've been saying some private stuff, huh? Well. I've been back there for some private stuff. Well, I'm just saying. I mean, conversation. It made me think that, so I've got some neighbors kind of off on, the way the houses come together is very odd

because we're all on this hill. And so, you know, on one side of my pool, I've got like that giant like 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 like the awning, like the roof parts, and now I can kind of 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 like a little area that they can sit, and like, if they were house right there and their backyard comes up to right here and they have a little area that they can sit and if they were sitting right there while I was in my hot tub having a conversation with my friends about whatever. They could just sit out there and listen. They could just listen. Effortlessly.

And them even more so but then Ken, he could just come to the corner. I would never see Ken at the corner. Or Ken could put out a recording device and he could just come to the corner. I would never see Ken at the corner. Or Ken could put out like a recording device. He could 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. 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 like 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. Whisper 2000's not a thing? It looks like. She's not finding that it's still a thing. Whisper 2000 is not a thing? Anyway. So you're talking to Ken, you're thinking this at a time or you reflected upon this? I know, I was thinking at the time, I was like,

I'm not having to raise my voice at all. I mean, not only that, but like, you know, anything that I've said, even things I've said in my house, like with the windows open, sometimes the windows are open, which at that point, I'm basically even with him in the second story. Now I've got the times that we've gotten in fights, the times I've told my kids to,

my kids' rooms are on the back, and the times I've gotten frustrated with them and told them that whatever I've told them. Oh goodness. But you just start thinking. I'm gonna rip your arms off. Well I haven't said that. Close that window.

But you just, you start thinking to yourself that there's an illusion, there's an illusion of privacy. And I mean if you like live in an apartment or you live in, a lot of people live in homes that they're right next to their neighbor. And 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 could go into their house and vice versa. But that hasn't been the feeling that I've had because my lot seems so- Yeah, you've been speaking too freely. Seems so private and I don't have- Did he seem like he knew stuff about you

as he was talking about it? I just started thinking, what if 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. Everything gets loose. You know what I'm saying?

It's just like that water does heat you up and your guard gets down and you got, you know. It makes you stupid too. I mean, 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 because just 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 there is. But at the same time, there are things that, there's things that, it was stuff between friends.

Well I think. Stuff in your family. I think you need to have a heart to heart with Ken. You know, you'd be like, hey man, 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. I don't know anything about you. 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.

He 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 like 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 size cone of silence. I mean, it's not like you're protecting that much information. You just get a little, you gotta tighten up in that hot tub a little bit. But here's the thing.

You gotta tighten up? 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 overlooking, I'm like kin to my neighbor.

But you, the angle is different. And he's further down. You can be. I can't hear what they're saying down there. But no one above me can hear what I'm saying because my backyard doesn't back against. Your side neighbors can. My side neighbor can, yeah.

The neighbor in question. Yeah, my neighbor I've been looking at out my window. And we sit there at your little table and eat. 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 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 to your table so they could whisper 2000 us over there. Yeah, I'll put up a connoisseur. I have a pergola. I can just add some soundproofing to it. Maybe we should just lower our volume.

A pergola of silence. Maybe we should speak pig Latin. This is the original. My kids started doing that and I'm like, you know what, I'm too old to learn anything. This is the original. My kids started doing that and I'm like, you know what? I'm too old to learn. 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. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm going to guess for some of you, that thing is... Anime! Hi, I'm Nick Friedman.

I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. With the best celebrity guests. And hot takes galore. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel.

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. But I do think it's worth addressing the fact that Yeah. But 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 a void of content. You know, it's funny, we hadn't put stuff out on the weekends for years and years and years and then we started doing it and then the moment we were like, and we can talk about some of the whys that we decided not to do LTAT anymore, we were immediately like, well what are we gonna put there?

As opposed to, we could've been nothing. And we said, and it can be nothing, but the wheels started turning. We started thinking about a lot of things that led to the decision we made. Well let's talk about why we stopped doing LTAT because 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. Well no, but we have a tendency to. I like apologize for something. Apologize for decisions that we make made. Well no, but we have a tendency to. I like apologize. 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 what, 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. That 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 something 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 LTAP 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 like what we tried to do last this past summer, where all of a sudden, if you were a Mythical Society member, you may remember that all of a sudden there was all these like experimental shows. Yeah, like original content. What we kind of found is that it seems like that wasn't something that people were interested in

and that most people were members of the society when it came to content, 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. But I think the reason for 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.

If judging, writing down how he's going to bring you and all of your loved ones down. So, 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, 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 lot of 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 and 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,

everything 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 am 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. So it's like, and 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 I'm, 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. Davin did a great job. As busy as anybody at Mythical. But it ended up being, you know, she was producing it and she was hosting it.

It ends up being a lot of work. 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 I don't,

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. For me, I of see three things. I see number one, the decision to go back to Buies Creek and shoot those three special episodes for Bleak Creek, for the Bleak Creek conversations.

Two, oh, I remember the third one, I just forgot the second one. The decision to do that, second, kind of observing what's happening on YouTube and seeing people do a particular thing and kind of thinking, man, we could do 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 kind of 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 kind of 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 to, you know, we're used to being on YouTube. They work 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. You're talking about a television series. Or a movie, whatever. Movie, 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 want to try something new

and invigorating creatively, something that we could be excited about. Yeah, so to kind of go back through those, I think for the first one, we replayed the experience and the assessment of when we went back to Buies Creek and shot that docu follow stuff, like basically making our own little 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, and this wasn't necessarily, we were 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, because I was talking about your birthday day. Yeah, yeah. And 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 Buies Creek documentary, when we were just filming ourselves on our phones and there was like nobody else there, it kind of 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.

I mean 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're 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 will 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'll 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 like 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 of the excitement from that idea and saying let's film ourselves. Let's just keep it as small as possible. Also think that's a reaction to,

and again, it's not a negative reaction to the fact that we have a big team that 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 kind of just go back to our roots. So it's not saying anything negative about the team, all of that, 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 like 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, Kyle. 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 were gonna start doing what we do,

which is they were gonna make a sort of produced daily show that kind of 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 they're going to end up having a little bit more of a polished and refined quality to them. Like GMM kind of 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 has large, like the heart of GMM is still very much just us

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 are maybe

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 have a- If it didn't, it would never be, it would have quit, we would have 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, it's been happening since the onset of YouTube, but has kind of taken on a new life and it is people who are kind of documenting themselves. Now a lot of people are doing it like,

if you take a look at David Dobrik, 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 it ends up kind of 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 it an interesting show. And it becomes this thing that like, he's sort of the prime example of like that genre really working and 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 what I'll, I mean, I guess I'll call it an episode, whatever. 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, you know, under hours

and the proper team member supervision. But it's, so it's more like a Jenna Marbles video. I mean, all of her videos at our house, I'm not saying all of our videos are gonna be at one of our homes. It's not, nothing's gonna be on the set and it could very well be at our homes or out and about. But it's whatever the idea that we're excited about doing

that dictates we're gonna do it. She sets out to do one thing. She's like I'm gonna do this one thing in this video. Like I'm gonna try to get my dog to finally sit down on a wooden floor was like one of her videos because one of her dogs just wouldn't, was 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 so, and people just connected with it because it's, again, it's so personal, right? And I think that there can be, to things that are sort of group produced, there can be this impersonal quality to it.

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 like, oh yeah, I 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 happens with Jenna. She's been around forever but this is kind of 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. So 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 as one of the factors that it's like it's gonna work on YouTube. I mean, we can just share the first video that what we're thinking will be the first video, what we're gonna do because it came from this show. And 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 this 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? And I think there's- Because we did the Buies 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, I can't, 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 who's kind of 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, and it's a general principle, is that once people kind of 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 people try to do multiple shows on channels and there are exceptions and we've been able to do things like launch Josh's channel via shows on the weekends on GMM. In general people. Subscribe to Mythical Kitchen, click that bell. In general people kind of interpret channels as this is a show and it has a kind of a certain format that I can kind of expect.

Anything different is confusing. And you also don't, if it underperforms for reasons like, who knows how the algorithm treats those things that underperform 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.

So it's, that was one part of it. Another thing was, we did try a few out of the office episodes. And over the years, we've done many. 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 backup 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 didn't, you know, we were excited about them, but they didn't perform as well. We did like, we did catapult. 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 just a reallocation of resources, like all that businessy 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,

and 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 a multiple of your typical views.

And what we found is is that not only did it not get a multiple of the typical views, it got significantly less. So like putting cheese wheels on a car or 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 kind of feels like what this is asking for is to be put in its own place. Yeah. And then of course 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, just for the sake of being complete about the GMM discussion, I will say that, and 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 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. 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 just look at how YouTube behaves and you start to come to these conclusions. 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, it's produced more like a reality show segment 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 so yeah, so I mean we started to talk about the Rhett and Link channel and we, 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, 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 precious 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. 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 like high production value. So it's like big music videos, polished sketches, you know, we wouldn't put vlog-ish type stuff on there.

We started our second channel with vlogs which and eventually put Good Mother's Morning in. As a way to separate it. Yeah, I just wanted to be precious about what it has meant for our careers and also what people expect from the channel. Well, you're kind of answering a question, you're answering another question as well,

which is, oh man, you know, some people might think, hi, 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, Great question. And the simple answer to that is,

the creative energy and efforts that go into that kind of 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 chances 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, 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 kind of content,

it just, 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 music, on the Rhett and Link channel.

But as of right now, there's just not a world for that. So what that leaves is. Well, and so 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 because 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 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 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 a 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 of small cameras.

I think it's. But I still have such high hopes for the final product. We're very excited and engaged creatively in what these vlogs are gonna be and what we're gonna learn and how it's gonna evolve as we're doing them. And we could have 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, 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 have, we feel very strongly that. And Mythical Kitchen isn't completely from scratch. No, it's not either. But, and when we know we don't have, we're not saving the Rhett and Link channel for something else.

We don't have a vision for it. So we're excited we're not saving the Rhett and Link channel for something else. We don't have a vision for it. So we're excited about this. It is Rhett and Link. I mean, it's the, you can. That's the simplest thing for me. So let's just, let's just go for it. It's called the Rhett and Link channel and what is the most authentically Rhett and Link content

that we're contemplating right now? It's the ones that we just, 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 getting 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. I think and then having that experience plays right into me being excited about this.

I just think that 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. Like 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, like the most raw, honest version of, I just wanna, 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. 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? Coming over to my house and taking a shower, it sounds fun. Yeah, that sounds real fun. But it's, you know, 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've 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, we're like, okay, why are we doing that? And what's the primary focus, what's the secondary focus? And then, because 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, some, we'll get it. Growing pains? Well, I'm sure we'll get into it about what the damn thumbnail should be. 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 will have to deal with and work with the team on and that they'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. And I think we do that a lot with GMM

and it's almost, 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 concept that we built. You create an idea that delivers on that. Yeah, that optimization, we found a way to make it work for ourselves.

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 it's 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 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 a, you've got like,

and I think this kind of plays into the, there is a generation gap. We are coming into this as kind of the old guys trying it, right? Yeah. You know, as guys who are into their 40s, have wives and children, got kids getting 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, complex than we could have 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 Dobrik 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 to 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 42 year old head of a company

isn't really not that exciting. So we basically tricked our team in order to, 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 underneath the stairs in Syme dorm. Well, what are 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 see what it's, 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 would be, it's a fun thing to justify. It'd be 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. Christy's thinking, or taking a nap by yourself because we don't know where you are. Right. Is what she just added. But now we have this 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. Aren't you excited? Just like this podcast. And you talk about being old guy, you know, I'm just trying to, you know,

dance like nobody's watching, but I do hope you watch. But when I told the kids, told Lily and Lincoln, I was like, yeah, we're gonna start vlogging. We're filming it ourselves, we're doing it on the Rhett and Link channel. And I was quiet. And they got this look on their eye, and they were quiet.

And I think it was. Am I gonna be in it? No, I think it was, you trying to be like David Dobrik? I think is really what, they're 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. 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 are two, 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 feeling exactly the same 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 sense of. 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 that you kind of 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 coming up with a logline? No, I'm just throwing a bunch of stuff. 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 that is what it is. 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 evolve.

We're gonna learn as we go and we're not trying to have this 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 were like, we're gonna be the internet's answer to Marc Maron's WTF podcast, more or less.

Let's do profiles and 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, this isn't start, there is no master plan. It's kind of 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.

You know, 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's, 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 every day and so that really sealed the deal. It's like, it had nothing to do with it because we 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 them that because it doesn't matter. Okay, yeah, it's fine. But it's, for us, it's entirely new. Yeah. And that's where we, where we get the most engaged when it's like,

I don't have, 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. So 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, this is 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 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 an 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, Redditors.

Yeah, 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. Well, you've already built it up too much. This is something that has been out since the middle of 2019. Old stuff, okay.

I don't think that it got enough recognition and enough appreciation for how innovative it was. Just a 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 wreck 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 wreck 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 standup 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. Huh. In the premises, My Favorite Shapes. Okay. And I just really, really, really liked it. Don't build it up too much. So I think it's on HBO. If it's not, you'll find it. Just search My Favorite Shapes with Elio Torres

and go and enjoy something incredibly, wonderfully weird. There you have it. We've kicked off 2020. We got one, we got a notch on our belt. We got an 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.

Who's gonna get to the toilet first? Hashtag Ear Biscuits, 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, couple of 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? Hashtag your biscuits. We'll talk at you next week about our holidays. Mm-hmm.