Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 99: 4 Insane Loopholes And The People Who Found Them ft. Kevin | Ear Biscuits Ep. 99

Episode Date: June 19, 2017

A conversation on gaming the system of youtube, the man who bought the moon, special guest Kevin and more on this week's episode of Ear Biscuits. SUBSCRIBE to This Is Mythical: https://goo.gl/UMXvuW Listen & subscribe at: Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/29PTWTM Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2oIaAwp Art19: https://art19.com/shows/ear-biscuits SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/earbiscuits Follow This Is Mythical: Facebook: http://facebook.com/ThisIsMythical Instagram: http://instagram.com/ThisIsMythical Twitter: http://twitter.com/ThisIsMythical Other Mythical Channels: Good Mythical Morning: https://www.youtube.com/user/rhettandlink2 Good Mythical MORE: https://youtube.com/user/rhettandlink3 Rhett & Link: https://youtube.com/rhettandlink Credits: Hosted By: Rhett & Link Executive Producer: Stevie Wynne Levine Managing Producer: Cody D'Ambrosio Technical Director / Editor: Kiko Suura Graphics: Matthew Dwyer Set Design/Construction: Cassie Cobb Content Manager: Becca Canote Logo Design: Carra Sykes Featuring: Kevin Kostelnik 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

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checkout. That's B-O-U-Q-S dot com, code BISCUIT at checkout for 15% off. 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 once again have Kevin, who we have commissioned, commissioned with a K, not really, commissioned with a C. He's gone out into the world,

it's Kevin that starts with a K. Yeah, right. You ever seen Kevin spell with a C? Yeah, seven. That's what they call it when you spell it with a C. There's probably, you know there's a dude out there, Kevin with a C. Kevin's probably, you know there's a dude out there, Kevin with a C. Kevin with a C at the end.

At the end? Kevince. Kevince. How can I convince you that my name is? That's not a bad name, it's Vince and Kevin put together. Kevince. Sounds like convince, so I'm not convinced. No, it's Kevince.

So he went out into the wide world, and you know what? He's back today. Well, the World Wide Web. To bring us the most fantastic stories of humans who have... Period. That's it. That's the new theme for Ear Biscuits. Who have the most fantastic stories of humans. No, Rhett. These humans, more specifically, have been masterful gamers of systems. They have found loopholes to take full advantage

and improve their lives sometime, I believe, in ultra dramatic ways. Ultra dramatic. So he's gonna take us through, he's gonna take us on multiple journeys of gaming the system. Yes, it's a good conversation. It inspired me, raised some moral questions.

You're going to love it. Now, we want to let you know that this Saturday, June 24th, we are going to be on the main stage, the arena stage at VidCon. So if you're going, you should be there and you should see us because we're going to record the 100th Ear Biscuit live on the stage. And if you can't be there, just wait, we'll give it to you. It'll come straight to your ears.

Yeah, so this isn't, I mean, we are doing some other things at VidCon, but that you have to, I don't know, there's other ways to get into those things. You probably already know whether or not you're attending them. But this is one that everyone can go to. So come to that 11 a.m.

Unless you're not a VidCon, then you can't come to it. Yeah, yeah. And then you'll listen to it later, that's all I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, you can get access to it. But first, you know, in talking about gaming systems. Gaming systems. We actually use the term a lot when we've talked about our job over the year. To clarify, gaming the system, not gaming systems. We actually use the term a lot when we've talked about our job over the years.

To clarify, gaming the system, not gaming systems. Yeah. Really, because that's like consoles. That's true. Which we know very little about. But we talk about them all the time. Yeah. I mean, we've been around through a lot of them.

Yeah. Atari, Sega. We've been there for Atari, right? I was there for Atari. The Nintendo. We've been there for Atari, the Nintendo. We've been there for a lot of them. And then the Sega Genesis. But yeah.

But gaming the system, taking advantage of something. And this is something that. And that system for us is YouTube. Right, and it is, you know, it's interesting because we, sometimes you kind of try to explain to someone from traditional media about how what we do is different and the way that I've explained it,

just one aspect of it, I'd be like, it's like a person who makes a movie. When Wes Anderson, I assume, when Wes Anderson makes a movie, I'm assuming that he spends a good amount of time thinking about the poster, or what's gonna go on the poster. Maybe, he may not think about it at all.

I would not be surprised if he didn't. But beyond that, like anything else beyond marketing. If you go back 15 years, 10 years, when Blockbuster Video existed and you went into the physical store and you made decisions about what DVD you were gonna pick up and it's based on the DVD cover. He probably gave input into that.

It's like a director being almost as concerned about the content of the movie, I mean almost as concerned about the DVD cover as they are the content of the movie because that's the decision point. So I'm making the point that we think about the thumbnail. You're making an analogy to the thumbnail. But before we get back to thumbnails, I'll add to that. But what Wes Anderson doesn't do is he doesn't start thinking about what theaters are gonna show this, and then when people exit the theater,

how are they gonna be able to give feedback? Is there a way that they can like, give their feedback in a comment box? And what can I do with my movie in the way that I put it out there that would get more people to talk about it or care about it? Ooh, I can come on the screen at the end of the movie, Wes Anderson has never said. Thanks for watching my movie.

If you would like to watch more of my movies, you can go to the local Blockbuster and click on, you know, that's the way we think about things. Well it's not just how we think about things, we think about what we're creating. You have to. But then we also have to think about the system within which it's being distributed because,

I mean, the system distributes it, but it's really, it only distributes as well as you can work the system. Right. So you can't just be an artist, but you also have to be, it feels like being an engineer, like studying and deciphering how YouTube works. It's also being a salesman of your own product. Yep. Right, which we have to do. And I think that...

So there's the marketing, there's the functionality. And I think for two reasons I don't like it. Number one, it feels icky to have to convince people, when you say like, comment, and subscribe or whatever, it feels a little icky because you're having to say I'm telling you to like something that you could otherwise just make a decision whether or not you like it, right? So that feels a little bit weird.

But yet, we've gotten to a place where we say it every single episode of Good Mythical Morning, thank you for liking, commenting, and subscribing. You know what time it is. But yeah, we'll get back to how we apply it, but the second reason I don't like it is because it requires an unexpectedly high amount of energy and thought that goes into

how you're thinking about packaging the videos that we create as opposed to spending all that time on just thinking about the videos that we create. Right, so. You have to think about all the. Everything else. That is not the thing. Yeah, yeah. It's everything. It's around it. How do you get the thing?

What do you do with the thing? What makes you decide to click on the thing? Because to be clear, I mean, liking and commenting on a video feeds in in ways that we've only guessed over the years and it's changed month by month how the algorithm, how the machine of YouTube inhumanely discriminates.

Inhumanely? Yeah, there's no human, if there's no human. Not sure if that's the correct use of the term, but I think I understand what you mean. Inhumanly? Yeah, unhumanly serves up my video, your video, our video, or somebody else's videos. So we try to game the system by gently prompting you

Gently. To comment, to engage because engagement has to be part of the algorithm. And it's a part of the job that I don't really like because I like the work to just stand on its own but because of the environment that we're in and because we actually have control over all those variables, it puts us in a position

where we necessarily have to be willing to game the system in order to be successful. However, I do think that there are lines that we draw. We've never really talked about this. It's sort of an instinct thing. But I think that, okay, as in. You wanna talk about thumbnails? Yeah, so this is sort of the first ever way

that you could game the system is back before you could upload custom thumbnails and it would just take three options. It would give you three choices. And you know, one of them was right in the middle of the video, like the center frame. Yeah, people figured that out where the frames were, at least the middle one. And so people would come up with a really great thumbnail that may or may not have been representative of the video that you were clicking on. And they would insert a flash frame in there that almost subliminally would come up

and you would barely see it, but then they could select that frame and then use that to sell the video. And they'd be really mad when it got off by a frame. Right. And so then there's this weird shot of like boobs, we never did this, that shows up in your video, yet it wasn't the thumbnail and you didn't find out

until it went up and you weren't gonna take the video down. I got, there's a boobs frame but didn't even get to take advantage of a boobs thumbnail. But you get that subliminal message which, Yeah, get a little boobs, unexpected boobs. Who's gonna complain about that? I'm sure people will. But we decided that we, I think we never,

we did we ever do that? I don't think we ever once did that. But then once they said, okay, we'll let you create a custom thumbnail. And of course, risk all the ways that you can exploit that. And then of course, people did exploit it. But then we start playing the game and find where our line is to where it's like,

well we're gonna game the system but only to a certain extent. But there's certain people who like, I'm an artist, I'm really, my thumbnails aren't gonna draw people in, they're just gonna look cool. I'm not gonna put a thumbnail on this at all. Like there's people that I respect

who make cool or funny videos back in the day who would never manipulate a thumbnail at all. And I've always envied those people. There's a part of me that's like, that's the pure way to do it. And when I look at the thumbnails that we put on everything that we do now. Because by definition, it's manipulative.

Yeah, when I look at the thumbnails. So it feels icky. That are on everything that we do, I get an icky feeling sometimes, not because we're misleading, I mean, okay, would there have been times where we've been misleading? Sure, but it's never completely unrelated to what the subject matter is.

In other words, we want to draw you in with a sensationalized thumbnail, but then when you click on it, we want the video that you get to, the thumbnail was representative of that. We're very careful about that. Yeah, because it'll bite you in the butt later. But there's, people go even further than that.

So pretty much every YouTuber is manipulating thumbnails, some more than others, there's a line kind of figured out. But other things people do are subscriber giveaways. We've never done that. That felt like kind of creating like a other things people do are, you know, subscriber giveaways. We've never done that. That felt like kind of creating like a lottery system amongst your subscribers. Don't describe for the content, describe to win something.

Describe? Did I say describe? Twice, subscribe. I'm a little tired. Don't describe to the content, describe to win. I could have gotten away with it the first time. I don't even know how I feel about that.

We haven't done it, I don't plan on doing it. Again, because every step towards that is something that I don't feel good about. I just want what we do to stand on its own, but we're in a world where there's not a marketing engine behind the work that you do besides anything that you do yourself. It's a lot of work.

I mean, looking at the thumbnails on Good Mythical Morning, if something's not reaching certain milestones, then we have conversations about changing the thumbnails. That's part of our system. Part of our system is looking at things. And titles, we didn't even talk about titles, but if you could just be a world where it was Good Mythical Morning episode 1200

or Ear Biscuits episode 100. Right. And you were like, you're clicking on it because you just want, but that's not how people think. People are making a decision about, well I wanna know what it is that I'm clicking on because I don't watch all your videos. There's a minority of people who actually watch everything regardless of what it is that I'm clicking on because I don't watch all your videos. There's a minority of people who actually watch everything

regardless of what it is and then the vast majority of people make a decision every single day to say I'm going to click on this video and I have to be compelled to do it. Yeah, as opposed to other videos because it's in a sea of other choices that they're constantly making and everyone else. A sea that's getting much larger by the minute.

Yeah, that competition, so to speak, is they're manipulating their photos and their titles. Well, and not to go on a tangent, but it is very much relevant to the way that news works now. And this is one of the reasons that we've had a huge just fallout with fake news. It's a result of the clickbait culture

and it's actually affecting the way that we consume information because we're like, I'm not going to think anything's important unless you dress it up in a way that makes me think it's important. And it causes people to begin to do things to game the system. And then all that matters is if it sells,

it doesn't matter if it's true. If they got you to the page, they won. If they get you to the page, they win. The advertiser wins, which means they win. Yeah. So the litmus test is not how well written or how true is this, but it's how many people saw it. How many people saw the ad next to it?

Yeah. Or over it or before it? Now for us, I mean it's our livelihood for people to support our sponsors or to be exposed to ads in conjunction with what we're doing but our goal is to get you to watch the thing, obviously. Yeah. I mean it's like, but when you're like just relaying news,

I mean I guess for a journalist, they want, if they're a reputable journalist, they want to be the source that you go to. Well and it's a tough situation because there's a part of me that would just say, if I knew that there were enough people out there who would just say I am going to pay for you guys' content, for your guys' content, and that's the only,

and then we just, there's no sponsorship at all, it's just, you guys do exactly what you do and I'm just gonna pay for it. There would be a purity to that, but then there would be a whole lot of people who are not in a purity to that, but then there would be a whole lot of people who are not in a position to pay, but are in a position to withstand or experience, advertise, you know, tolerate advertising.

Right, there'd be a lot of mythical beasts that we wouldn't ever get to see the show. Yeah, we wouldn't be able to reach. Much less people who've never even seen the show who are like, I'm not gonna pay for an unknown product. Right, be exposed to. So the advertiser model is absolutely necessary and it's gonna continue, which is, again,

we're going on a tangent on a tangent, but which is one of the reasons that I've always just been completely, you know, I think one of the most hypocritical things you can do is watch YouTube with Adblock on because you're making the decision to enjoy the content but you're also simultaneously making the decision to not support the creators.

And maybe if you've got Adblock on and then you pay people's Patreon if they have those things but I think for it to be a pure decision, you would have to have Adblock on and only watch people who you are then supporting through some sort of other means, which in our case, we don't have that means for support. It's all advertising based.

You can also buy our made by Mythical product lines. Yeah, okay, you're like okay, but again. But that ain't gonna cut it. That's not a one to one thing because the advertisers who are basically financing the platform of something like YouTube, I think that if they're, in some way they should be, you should, that's how the creators are making a living,

they should be rewarded in that way. So we're gonna talk to Kevin about not this type of industry related and YouTube related gaming of systems, but how other humans have done it to alarming and amazing and at certain points unbelievable success in a second. But first, we want to show some love to our sponsors. Now, while we've been shooting Buddy System, I have been shaving religiously

every morning at 5 a.m. I mean, I typically, in my normal life, I'll skip a day here or there, you know? But I've got to be religious with the shaving because I've got to have a consistent face. My face has to be consistent. It's called continuity, Link. For continuity. So because of that, I've really started to appreciate the importance of a nice razor and fresh blades, which confirms the smarter choice that I have made of

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After that, razors are just a few bucks a month. There are no hidden fees and no commitments, y'all, so you can cancel at any time you like and get this offer exclusively at dollarshaveclub.com slash biscuits. That's dollarshaveclub.com slash biscuits. Hey, Mythical Beasts, did you know that Ear Biscuits, this podcast that you're listening to right now, is on Spotify? Maybe you're not currently listening to it on Spotify, but you do listen to other stuff on Spotify. Well, we just wanna let you know that you can have a seamless Spotify and Ear Biscuits experience

because Ear Biscuits is on Spotify. You can find us in the podcast section within the Browse tab when you're using Spotify on mobile or just by searching for Ear Biscuits. And while you're there, click to follow us to have our new episodes delivered right into your Spotify library. Head to Spotify.com slash podcast to find us. And you know what? Now let's bring Kevin in and let's make the rest of this biscuit. Kevin, you're back. Hi, guys. I'm back. Don't act surprised. We asked him to're back.

Hi, guys, I'm back. Don't act surprised we asked him to come back. You know what I did? After we commissioned him for a second trip around the world to collect information. Right. Because that's how this works. I was like, now I'm going to intentionally forget it.

So it'll be a surprise when he shows up. That's why I said, Kevin, you're back. What a surprise, Kevin. Only thing I'm surprised about is after all that talk about khakis, you're still not wearing khaki. It's like, how much do we have to drop a hint? I thought about it. I own no khaki.

You thought about going out. You own no khaki? Zero. Not even pants? Not even pants. I actually, I don't have khaki pants anymore either. Like that was like something my mom made me have. Maybe now that I, I mean, do you, I have a pair.

I just don't have them, I'm not attacking you. I mean, I think I got one thing that's khaki, but it's not khakis, they're the big crotch, the drop crotch. So what you got for us today. Do you have a teaser? I do have a teaser. All right, hit it.

I'm gonna talk to you guys about people who have gamed the system, okay? I'm gonna give a few stories, great stories, and in these stories, we're gonna be talking about pudding. Link like that. Check. Airline miles. Got those.

Airlines. Don't worry, it's good. Okay. We'll be talking about malfunctioning ATM machines. Never had that happen. Best kind. Fancy restaurants, private jets. Kanye West will make a slight appearance in this podcast.

These are a few of my favorite things. He's gonna be calling in? He won't be calling in, but I'll be calling him in momentarily. The United Nations Outer Space Treaty. You ever heard of this? Sounds fake. It's not.

The galactic government and the richest man in the solar system. Oh, snap. That's right. And a crow. No crows. You gotta work in a crow. Can you? I probably could when we get to the last.

It's either khakis or a crow. What are you gonna do? The crow. Yes. I promise to work in a crow. I'll get the crow in there. We're gonna jump right off the bat with a guy named David Phillips. Is there personal application for us,

either with David Phillips or just with any of these cases? Because you're presenting multiple cases. Yes. There's personal application for us. I think in particular the last story. Oh yeah. I think with all of them, it will help us game the systems of our lives. Yeah, you don't wanna fast forward to the last story. Oh yeah. So I think with all of them, it will help us game the systems of our lives.

Yeah, you don't wanna fast forward to the last story. I mean, any piece of information can be applicable to your life. Yeah, and just to explain a little, gaming the system means when somebody, it's like they don't cheat the system, they figure out a loophole cleverly to make it work for themselves.

Yeah. Yeah, it's clever. We're gonna hear some clever stories here. Totally defensible. Yes. Technically legal. Yes, it's a fine line though. You think that's why people listen to this podcast?

For lessons? For morals? I'm trying to figure out why I'm listening. Well, that's because- I trust you, I just wanna- Because this is what we do, man. It's your job. And you got me here, man.

But I'm engaged, I care about this because it's gonna make me a better gamer of systems. Well, you should let Christy know. Who is this guy? This guy, David Phillips. You're gonna like this guy because I like this guy. He's known as the pudding guy. Remember I teased pudding earlier?

No Bill Cosby jokes, Link. Yeah, don't talk about Bill Cosby. We'll talk about David. He was a civil engineer at UC Davis. Okay, now he's the kind of guy that likes to read the fine print, you know? And he's also really good at counting cards. He said he would have been a professional card player

had it not been for the cigarette smoke in casinos. Good numbers guy. Good numbers guy. Civil engineer likes pudding? Okay. Well, we'll get to the pudding. Okay, so in 1999, there was a healthy choice promotion. You know healthy choice products? Yeah.

They have frozen meals and all kinds of stuff. So they're kind of like Weight Watchers, but they're not. They're just a healthy choice for everybody. You don't have to lose weight. Exactly. Here's their promotion in 1999. Every 10 barcodes of their product would get you 500 airline miles. So you buy 10 products, you cut out the barcodes, you send it in, you get 500 airline miles.

They had an airline? Healthy choice airlines. Yeah, they were tied in with an airline. What makes it a healthy choice? Biodegradable planes. There was an early bird stipulation that if you send it in the first month, you'd get double. Oh, gosh.

Okay, so here's what David did. David scoured all the local supermarkets in the area. Made a lot of healthy choices. He made a lot of healthy choices looking for healthy choice products. He found a discount grocery chain. I don't know the name of it, but he found a chain. Probably Piggly Wiggly. Piggly Wiggly, yes.

Like an Aldi. He noticed that on pudding, they had individual barcodes on every cup. Hold on, so you can make a healthy choice in pudding? Apparently you can, I mean healthy choice says you can. I don't know about that. I made the healthy choice to stop eating pudding a long time ago, didn't know I had an option.

I just make the excellent choice to eat pudding indiscriminately. You still got pudding in the house? No, but I never turn it down when someone offers it. When was the last time they offered you pudding on something that wasn't our show? They being just the people who offer pudding. That was a really good question.

Now I'm sad because the answer's not often. I'll get you some. Well, he didn't eat the pudding, but I'll tell you what he did with it. He went to every store in this chain and bought every last cup, which you can imagine he's walking through the stores with grocery carts full of pudding.

People were looking at him kind of weird. You know what his excuse was? It's 1999. His excuse is Y2K. Gotta have that pudding. Makes sense. Yeah, individual long expiration. Yeah, lasts for a long time. We filled a whole refrigerator with pudding

one time. Remember that? Yeah, we did for what your refrigerator says about you. But it was butterscotch flavored, so you shouldn't eat any of it. I know. I didn't like it. I don't like butterscotch either. I think he got mostly chocolate, but, I mean, he probably got whatever was on the shelves. Yeah, right.

So what he did next was he realized he had this big daunting task. He got over 12,000 cups of pudding. Good gosh. Whoa. He had to get the barcodes off every one, and he had a month to do it because he wanted to get in on that early bird stipulation. So he asked his wife and children to help him cut these barcodes off. Well, that's what you have those for.

Exactly. Help on the farm or help with the code. GPC cottage. So he realized early in that it was gonna take them a lot longer than a month to get this done. So cleverly, David went to a Salvation Army, a local one, and he asked the people there, he said, I've got all this pudding.

If you donate volunteers to cut off all the barcodes, I'll give you all the pudding. And they did it. And here's the cool thing. They did it? They did it. They said, sure, we'll do it. We'll take the pudding.

They got people to help them do it. But when you cut the barcode off, I thought it exposed the pudding. No, no, it's on the thing that holds them all together. Yeah. It's on the cardboard that holds the pudding together. It's not on the pudding cups. Wow, then.

They're not for individual resale. That's weird that there would be six UPCs on one of those then and not the individual container. Hey, man. It is what it is. It's a Piggly Wiggly, you know? Salvation Army got involved.

So then he was able to, because it was a big donation, he was able to write that off on his taxes at the end of the year. So he got $800 back for making this choice. That's another loophole. He spent $3,000 on the pudding. So in reality, $2,200 of the year. So he got 800 bucks back for making this choice. It's another loophole. He spent 3000 bucks on the pudding. So in reality, 2200 bucks on the pudding. Okay. Doesn't seem like a lot,

but he was able to get it done in the month, send it in. And he also had some cans of soup. Like he did this before the pudding, before he got in on the good game and they were like 90 cents a can. So all in all, he sent in all of his barcodes and got back 1,280,000 frequent flyer miles from doing this. One million.

One million. This was- 1.3 million. Yes. They said in dollar value, it's about, at the time, I guess, $150,000. $150,000. $150,000. So after he did this,

it automatically gave him lifelong access to the American, oh, it was American Airlines. Yes. American Airlines Advantage Gold Club, I guess is what it's called. Because if you get like a million miles or whatever, you automatically become- He was a high roller, man.

High roller, all kinds of perks for life for him and his family when they traveled. He got into that door that you don't notice at the airport. The cockpit door? Your friend, no, not to the plane. In the airport. Yeah, it's like the one at Disneyland.

The secret access to the lounge door that you don't notice until your friend tells you if you get this credit card along with me, we can go into these together. And then he spends the next 20 minutes trying to talk me into getting the card along with me, we can go into these together. And then he spends the next 20 minutes trying to talk me into getting the card along with him so we can cavort in these crystal encased lounges. Well they're not that nice.

I've been in there. But they do have bathrooms that have closeted commodes. Nice, you need that in the airport sometimes. That's worth any amount of money. You could sleep in there. But I got a beef with American Airlines. I had a Twitter beef with them. Really?

I had like a three or four tweet back and forth with American Airlines. Did it involve pudding? You know, a couple months ago. What was it about? It was about the shape of the seats and how my wife and I, coming back from Mexico, got onto the plane and noticed that,

she was like, why is my head so far forward? I was like, like, why is my head so far forward? I was like, well why is my head so far forward? Like, I can't lean back, this is super uncomfortable. I started looking around and everybody looked uncomfortable. I was like, I'm six seven, you're five three, we're both uncomfortable, something's gotta be done about this. And you're opposite ends of the spectrum.

I was like, if we're both uncomfortable, is it somebody who's a Goldilocks right in the middle, it feels good? I don't know, everybody looks uncomfortable. I tweeted at them about how they needed to do something about their seat design and they tweeted back at me. Really? And then they asked me for like design, you know, direction.

They wanted you to redesign it? And I panicked a little bit and I said hamburger button. You went comedic. I think I may have said cheeseburger button. And they were like, okay, we'll work on it. And I was like, well first let's work on the other thing. And then I kinda backed off a little bit. Anyway, I still think they gotta fix that.

Did you hear that Alex tweeted at Delta? Did he tell you this story? I heard, I saw his tweet. I don't wanna go off too much on a tangent, but he was going to his brother's wedding, and his dad booked the wrong flight for him. And so he was like, and then he looked, and they were sold out to get there.

So he tweeted at Delta. I'm gonna miss my brother's wedding? Yeah. Help? Yeah, and other people tweeted it for him, and they wrote him, gave him a number to call, he called it, and they hooked him up. Yeah! No! Yes!

Mythical Beasts helped Alex get to his brother's freaking wedding? Yes, he made it and they hooked him up. Yes! Mythical Beast helped Alex get to his brother's freaking wedding? Yes, he made it happen. I didn't hear the story, that's awesome. It was a lot longer, I gave you the short version, I should've let him tell you, but sorry Alex. We don't talk to Alex.

Yeah, I don't either anymore. Yeah, it's all in Alex. I overheard the story. Alex is great, he's great to talk to. Okay, 1.2 something million. Yeah, 1.2 something million. So he's been since then. Which, first of all.

Is a lot of miles. Yeah, so 130,000 minus the 2,200. I'm doing math here. 150,000. 150, you're not doing math well. 150, I mean, he's at like 147, $148,000 profit. Yeah. Unless he paid his wife and kids or the volunteers at the,

which he did. Which he did. They're volunteers. They got paid in pudding. Dude made bank. Yeah. And he got the hookup at the lounge. Yes.

And he got free flights. Yes, free flights. Not only that, he's continued. The free flights was the equivalent of the money. Yeah, but since then he's been, he always keeps an eye out for frequent flyer because apparently these people get obsessed with frequent flyers.

There's like a whole cult for it. Yeah. And he kept an eye out for other promotions and he's capitalized. I think he earns more because he's gold status. Anyways.

Yeah. The dude. Compound effect. Yes. He has, right now they say he has over 4 million miles in various accounts.

He's flown to over 20 countries, taken numerous vacations, and he never has to pay for a flight ever again the rest of his life. Wow, so the moral of the story is you make a healthy choice, even if it's for pudding, you could be a high roller. And you know what, he should be, there's no questioning to this one, this guy should be celebrated.

Good for you, Chris. Jim? Bobby? Jim. Bobby Jim. David Phillips. David? David, Bobby, Chris, whatever.

Common name. This next guy. Takes a lot of work, though. That's a lot of leg work. It is. Now, we could celebrate that guy. I don't know if we could celebrate this guy, because he wasn't as clever as David.

He was more lucky. So let me tell you about Dan. That's part of it. It is part of it. Part of life. Sometimes you fall through the loophole. You do. He did. Especially if it's a manhole. Yes. Dan Sanders, this guy is from Australia. He was

living in a small town called Wongaratta or something like that. At the time, this is 2011. He's 29 years old. He's a barman, which I learned is Australian for bartender. I did have to look that up. Wild guess. Sexist though, sexist. Yeah.

They need to change it down there. They should change it down there. Okay, he's out drinking with his friends one night. He goes to the ATM because he's low on funds. He opens up his account. Tipping some stubbies. Yes. Is that what it was?

That slang. Yeah. He goes to his account. Tipping some stubbies. Yes. Is that what it was? That slang. Yeah. He goes to withdraw money. Dude only has $3 in his savings account. So he- What a jerk. Yeah. He goes into his credit card to transfer money into his savings,

which I didn't know you could do. Cash advance, they call that. Yeah, that's what he did. That's trouble. You basically have to pay interest on borrowing against your credit card. Don't do it, kids. It's a horrible idea. I've never done it. I thought it was an Australian thing, but, you know, I learned.

So, he sent over 200 bucks into his savings account. And when he did it, it said the transaction was canceled. But the 200 bucks showed up in his savings account. And he couldn't see his balance for his credit card. So he thought, oh, it worked.

So he went, hung out with his friends some more. He made a second trip back to the ATM later that night and did another 200 bucks and it worked again. It said declined, but then the money showed up. Yeah, it said like it was some type of malfunction, but the money still showed up. It shouldn't have gone over, but it did. And so the night carried on. This dude, he he was a bartender he made 700 bucks a week so yeah he made a third trip

back to the atm that night and he went to he maxed it to the 2000 to see if it would work and it went through put the money in his wallet went home woke up the next day he thought he had been dreaming opens up his wall and sure enough there's a $2,000. Two grand. Yeah, he should have stopped there probably. Like ethically speaking he should have stopped there. Well okay, ethically speaking he should have done more than stop. Now let me ask the question, speaking of ethics. So now on the surface of this, I wouldn't do it

because I wouldn't even have to get to the moral question because I would be like, you don't get away with this kind of stuff. There's computers in there, there's a camera. You're gonna be caught, so just don't be stupid. But let me pose the question. If you knew that unequivocally, you would not be caught for it,

when would you have stopped? And, for it, when would you have stopped? And, and, and, would you have stopped, would you have reported the initial $200? Just moral question. I feel like I might have gone as far as he went. Really? Yeah, maybe, man. I mean, what's my Jean Valjean situation?

I mean, am I, am I? You're a man that has $3 in his savings account. I'm a man that's got? I mean, am I? You're a man that has $3 in his savings account. I'm a man that's got $3 in my savings account. Yeah, yes. But I'm yucking it up with my buddies for the brewskis. But I'm judging him now. But I am him, so I'm judging myself. Yeah, you gotta be him to be in this situation.

He's down and out, man. Three bucks, all he needs is a little time with his friends, a little more time. Given these circumstances, I would have. He's not right though. I would have never done it, no, because I would have been too scared. But I know, like when I got my first ATM card

and went to an ATM machine to withdraw money, I remember having a fantasy of like, man, that'd be cool if I could just keep on taking money out and it never declines my account. Right. That's what this, you got to live out and it never declines my account. Right. That's what this, you got to live out. But it wasn't a dream. No.

I think the thing is about the ethical side of this thing is that there are really no decisions that are made in a ethical vacuum, right? So my question is probably even, it's an impossible scenario. But the question you posed is the answer I gave in buddy system which I can't quite remember which is something like just because somebody

doesn't see you does it, just, I can't say it. Just because somebody didn't see you do it doesn't mean that it's okay that you did it. Yeah that's called integrity. Is it? It's called integrity, Link. It's called integrity. But I'm saying that.

Don't trap me with a hypothetical. Pure integrity is actually an impossible situation because really you're always dealing in a world of real consequences. Right, point taken. So just steal the money. That's what Rhett's saying. Let me tell you what this guy did

because this guy had some fun. Oh my goodness. He maxed it out. He had 2,500 bucks. Yeah, he was sitting pretty. He kept going back. So after a first week, maybe a little longer, he got $20,000 in his account.

Oh, gosh. Was it his account or was it a particular ATM that was screwing up? No, it was a big ATM out there. I think they call them NAB, I think is it. But it's a big one out there. But not a physical location. All of them. Any of them.

Anywhere he went, as long as they had this ATM, which took his card, it was a big one out there. But not a physical location. Any of them. Any of them. Anywhere he went, as long as they had this ATM, which took his card, it was a malfunction. And it couldn't be the only person that was benefiting from this. Right, other people could have done it too, but he was the one that figured it out accidentally. The only one. The only one. Okay, so what he did then next was he started gambling,

right, as you would do. Might as well. He's already made a lot of good decisions. Well, he's already been real lucky. Yeah, right. But here's the thing. You know, if you're lucky a little, as you would do. Might as well, he's already made a lot of good decisions. Well, he's already been real lucky. Yeah, right. But here's the thing. You know, if you're lucky a little, you get lucky more. Yeah.

He was gambling, they have a gambling system there, it's like a machine, you can gamble on horses, and he was doing it in his own bar. So, and he was doing it in amounts of money that people around in this small town. Red flags. Yes, red flags were going up, so he got fired from his job.

And I think it was because they thought he was into something shady and they were worried about causing some trouble at their establishment. So they let him go. His girlfriend caught wind of this and she dumped him via text message. Now, I think his luck is turning. His luck is turning. So he says, as this is all happening now, he's out of a job and out of a girlfriend. He wrote, on one hand, you've lost your girlfriend, lost your job. But on the other hand,

hey, you've got unlimited funds. Let's smash it up for a bit. Let's sort things out. This is what he says. Let's sort things out. So he continues his withdrawals every day. If you told me that he literally started smashing things up, I'd believe you at this point with this guy. Well I'll tell you what he did. I think it was a euphemism. He started going to all the fanciest restaurants

he can go to alone. No he was going with escorts. Okay. Escorts, hmm. Yep, can't go alone. Can't go alone. Need to be escorted. Yeah, gotta be safe. You gotta be safe, you gotta be safe. That's what escorts are, hmm. Yep. Can't go alone. Can't go alone. Need to be escorted. Yeah, gotta be safe.

Gotta be safe, gotta be safe. That's what escorts are, kids. Yes, he was going places in private jets on vacation. Oh gosh. Him and that pudding guy. Him and that pudding guy in the fanciest hotel rooms he could buy. He said, this is a quote just to kind of give you

an idea where he was at. "'I've never felt more alive than when I was charging on my credit card. With the NAB card, I could be anyone I wanted to be, go anywhere I wanted to go, do anything as long as I had the card in my back pocket. I felt like a king. I felt like a rock star. Probably looked like a fat, white Kanye West, but you felt like you were Kanye West. Is that when Kanye West is showing up? Is that it? That was the Kanye West. We mentioned when Kanye West is showing up, was that it?

That was the Kanye West moment. Who mentioned him? Hey, you gotta have a good tease, man. You didn't say the white Kanye West was gonna show up in an analogy. Teases are supposed to be misleading. Right, yes. Just not too misleading because we gotta have

the teases always work. That quote that you just read of him. Makes no sense. No, I think it would be a perfect commercial for the NAB bank. NAB, now you're calling it NAB. Read the part that could be a commercial. When you wanna feel like a white Kanye West?

No, before that. Yeah, yeah, that. It could be, I've never felt more alive than when I was charging on my credit card. With the NAB card, I could be anyone I wanted to be. With the NAB card. Anywhere I wanted to go. I could be anyone I wanted to be,

including a white Kanye West. I like that. I like that. Be white Kanye West with a nap card. Somebody needs to do a bold campaign like that. They should have done it, man. So he went back to Melbourne where he's from because he was getting a little bit of heat

in that current town. When he met new friends and he had all this money, he would tell people he was either a poker player or a surgeon or an investment banker. So he had all this money, he would tell people he was either a poker player or a surgeon or an investment banker. So he had all these aliases. And then there was even a point. Those are occupations, Kevin. Those aren't aliases.

Yeah. There was even a point. What's your name? Surgeon. Yeah. Sorry. There was a point where he actually figured out another way to hack the ATM. Dang.

Yeah. And I couldn't wrap my brain around this one, but it was something about a trick, the ATM. Dang. Yeah, and I couldn't wrap my brain around this one, but it was something about a trick the ATM, he could double his money by transferring money from the ATM's credit account option to his MasterCard, even though he only had one credit card. He explained it in this interview, and I didn't really fully understand it, but it was- I can't, I'm surprised that no one else is able to-

Somebody else had to be doing this. Yeah, it's possible.. Maybe they just didn't do what he did. Yeah, well maybe what we're talking about there is he had a way of transferring the balance to a different card and then you could go and use that card. Yes, I think that's what he did. It's like paying against that card.

Yeah. So this is even more effective because now you're not carrying around a bunch of cash, you're just using a credit card and paying off the balance with this crazy ATM trick. I believe that's exactly what it was. Free money, man. Free money coming out the machines.

Free money that totaled the amount in four and a half months of $1.6 million. Ah, dang. He was just. He was alive, man. So the beauty of that is you don't have to convert it to flyer miles. He was spinning at like a white Kanye West frequency.

What is a white, that's so racist by the, what does that even mean? I don't even wanna. I don't know. What does it even mean? I just threw it out there. Well he is white and he thought Kanye, he felt like he was living a lifestyle like Kanye West. Yeah, yeah, but just white. But just white. Okay, he's white. And he thought Kanye, he felt like he was living a lifestyle like Kanye West.

Yeah, yeah. But just white. But just white. Okay, he is white. He's white. So it's not racist. Yeah. Okay, so he was,

he started feeling guilty. After $1.6 million, he started feeling guilty. It caught up with him. He went and saw a psychologist. And after seeing a psychologist, he stopped making the transfers and then he eventually reported himself. Oh.

So his conscience caught up with him. The bank told him that the police were under, there was an investigation going on. It took three and a half years before they finally charged him, but they did charge him. So for three and a half years. So they knew something was going on because they keep track. They do.

We're losing. We've lost $1.6 million somehow. Took them three and a half years to figure it out, but they did, he got sentenced to, there was 111 offenses relating to fraud and theft, sentenced to one year in prison, and when he got out, he had 18 months of community service and then he had to pay back $250,000 compensation to the bank.

Man, so he stole a million, he only went to jail for, prison for a year and then he said. Well, it is, okay, in his defense, this is the kind of thing that he did not go to the ATM saying I'm gonna scam this ATM. It was an error on the part of the bank that led to an opportunity that he then took advantage of. So I could see how the sentence would be somewhat lenient.

You know, it's not like stealing $1.6 million premeditated. It's like somebody, you know, leaves a french fry behind. A million dollar french fry. A million dollar french fry and you're like, I'm hungry, I'm gonna eat it. I mean it's like if you go to a store and you give them a large bill and they give you back a whole lot more money than you ever paid, they give you the change wrong.

That's happened to me and I have always given it back. But I have gotten the extra cheeseburger. I've gotten like an extra cheeseburger in my combo. Yeah well, if you give that back, they're gonna throw it away. And I hate it when that happens. I hate it when it happens when I give something back that I didn't want.

You hate it when you get an extra cheeseburger? No, let me finish. The thing that I hate is when I give something back that I don't even like, and then I see him throw that in the trash can. I was like, man, I probably could've liked part of it. Give me the thing that I like that I meant to order, but also let me keep the thing I didn't order

so I can eat the parts of it that I bet I could like. Like when you say, I didn't order the mashed potatoes, but they're there. Yeah. And then they take your, especially when they take your whole plate that has your, no, no, no, don't take my whole plate, man. Just let me eat these taters that I didn't order,

but give me the thing I ordered. Yeah, what are you gonna do with these taters? Give me some free taters for your error. Well, the last thing this guy said that I read about him was it was never about the actual money, it was just about the journey. I believe that. I kinda believe it too.

He just wanted the thrill? He just wanted the thrill. It was about the money too. Yeah, about the money based on the way he spent it. Okay, now I got two more for you, and I really want to get to the last one, but I'm going to give you this third one here. It's a little bit shorter, but I think you'll like this one.

Yeah, don't hold back. I'm not going to hold back. So this is a guy named Brian Bauman, and he's the owner of a bar called The Rock. This is in Maplewood, Minnesota. And back in 2000s, The Rock is a hard rock, heavy metal bar. That's great. Sounds like my kind of place. Yeah. And back in 2000, The Rock is a hard rock heavy metal bar. That's great. Sounds like my kind of place.

Yeah. So in 2000. A lot of leather and black t-shirts. Loud music and fried food. Leather pants, black t-shirts. So in 2007, 2008, Minnesota introduced a new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other night spots. I think a lot of states did this.

Yeah, that started, what year did you say? 2007. Oh, yeah, right. It was earlier in North Carolina. Was it? Which is surprising, don't you think? I don't know the date, honestly. I don't know, but I mean, 10 years ago,

that feels right to me. I don't know. Yeah, so he had to have all of his customers stop smoking and it resulted in a 30% decline in revenue for him. So it was bad business for him. Good health, but bad business. So he read the fine print, just like our first fellow. And in the band,

there was one rare exception to smoking indoors and it was smoking in theatrical productions was allowed indoors. Right, because you got to have your actors smoke. If you're on stage and you're playing a smoker because you've got to have your actors smoke. If you're on stage and you're playing a smoker, smoker got to smoke, yo. Yes, exactly.

So what Brian did was he created Theater Night at the bar. Every night is Theater Night. Y'all acting, right? Everybody's acting. That's exactly what it was. He literally called his patrons actors on theater night. They're acting like they're in a metal bar. Yes.

But they were acting, they were playing themselves before October 1st, which is when the band took place back then. So he said, you know. You didn't even have to act like somebody different. No, you got to be yourself. It was called, his play was called Before the Band. That's what the production was called. And it never stopped.

It never stopped. It was an ongoing production. Listen, I gotta give this guy some credit. Right? I gotta give this guy some credit. Because first of all, I'll just go out, come out and say, I don't know what I think about the smoking ban.

Just from a political, from a, I don't know, from a legal standpoint. What do you think about smoking? Oh, I don't know, from a legal standpoint. What do you think about smoking? Oh, I don't, yeah, I think smoking is stupid. Okay. You know, you're not necessarily stupid if you smoke, but I think the choice to smoke is a stupid choice. Obviously, you shouldn't smoke, I don't smoke,

I don't promote smoking. Right. But if somebody who owns a restaurant says, at my restaurant, I'm gonna make the choice that if you want to come in here and smoke, then shouldn't that restaurant owner have the ability to make that choice because then if I don't like smoking like most people, then I just don't go to that restaurant.

If there's a bunch of people who wanna get together and smoke in a bar, then shouldn't they just, if it's not impacting anybody else outside of the people who made that decision, can't they just make the decision to go in there and be stupid if they want to? Do we really need to tell people you can't, like you can't go to a place where they smoke? Really?

I agree with you on this one. I think there is an element of protecting the public if you have a place that's not 100% smoking. Like they had this, they they had non-smoking sections and then people were, the public was endangered through secondhand smoke, so that's what clouds. The public should just make the decision to not go to that restaurant.

And then people would be like, okay, more people want me to not offer smoking, but shouldn't there be some enclaves where people who really insist on smoking can go and smoke? I mean, it's gonna be the minority, it's gonna be just a few, right? Well, it started a trend and there was like 30 other bars that did this. Right.

Yes, but why, just to put a capper on this, it's just not that, my response is, well, the analogy is like how Chipotle treats their chickens and their porks and their cows, pigs. No, I don't, okay. You know, that like, okay, then there'd be more restaurants that are making things in like a humane way if that's what you care about,

or in a way that's better for you. It's like, well, the market forces don't, they're not that effective. I'm just saying, I believe that the best way to combat problems is with truth. And the truth is, smoking is bad for you, causes lung cancer, it increases all kinds of illnesses, it's horrible for you, you shouldn't do it.

That means putting a cigarette warning, like one of those horrible cigarette warnings that covers the whole door to every smoking bar. A cigarette warning. Sure, that's fine. But you can also go in there and know, oh, smells like smoking here, I'm leaving because I don't believe in smoking

and I don't support places that smoke. I'm just saying. Where do you put the truth? You got to put it on the product. Let the people make the decision. Well, it was good business for him because it brought his revenue back up. The thing I like about what he did

was that it was creative and it was fun. Yes. And everyone's acting like, hey, guess who I am today? A me from a few months ago. Yeah, exactly. They had like a curtain on the front door that said like stage door entrance

and they had a thing that said props and underneath the props was ashtrays. And so it was spread around a bunch of bars did it became a pretty popular thing, but the state cracked down on it. And they said that this is you can't exploit this loophole, we'll fine you for $10,000. If you're doing this. They kept on anyways, but then as soon as a few of the bar owners had to go to court and they lose, pretty much it shut everybody down. So, because the other thing I'll say is, if that's the law, which it was,

then this obviously is not sustainable. This is obviously not consistent with the spirit of the law, which is people not smoking inside of restaurants. We can't just say it's a play, because then I could be like, well it's illegal to murder people, but you know what, you can murder people in movies. You know.

Yeah I don't wanna go to a bar where I could die. Well sadly that bar went out of business. The bar died. So that was the end for The Rock. Yeah, and many bars like it. Now those people are just staying at home listening to heavy metal music. That's right. Smoking. Saving money. Yeah. Okay those people are just staying at home listening to heavy metal music. That's right.

Smoking. Saving money. Yeah. Okay, now we're gonna go on to the last and my favorite story. This is about a man named Dennis Hope who claims to be the richest man in the solar system. He's also known as the Moon Man.

You guys are gonna love this. I had to check so many times. Is this really real? So many times. I couldn't believe it. You went to Snopes? I went to Snopes. I went everywhere, man. The richest man in the universe?

The richest man in the solar system. The solar system is still pretty big. It is big, and here's why. Okay, as far as he's concerned, Dennis Hope, he owns most of it. Hmm, okay. And they explain why. In the early 1980s, Dennis was unemployed for about a year,

and he thought he'd be a good property owner, and he'd make a good living in real estate. So he looked out his window, and he saw what looked like a pretty big piece of property that nobody owned, which was the moon. The moon. Yes. You know what? Hmm.

A lot of real estate up there. A lot of opportunity. He remembered he had taken a political science course in college, back in his college days. That's all it takes. You take one, you think you know everything. He remembered that, remember I mentioned to you guys the United Nations Outer Space Treaty?

Yeah. This is a 1967 treaty that said no country could own the moon, but it said nothing about individuals. So he thought, there's my loophole. So he jumped in that loophole. He wrote a letter to the United Nations saying the moon was his. He didn't even ask for permission.

He declared it. He declared the moon his, and he asked them, the government, To send him a plaque. Pretty much. He said, you need to provide me with a legal reason why an individual could not claim ownership of the moon, and he never heard back.

That was all he needed. Yeah. I'm with him on this. Here's his quote. I sent the United Nations a declaration of ownership detailing my intent to subdivide and sell the moon and have never heard back. He's going to make subdivisions up there.

He is going to. He did, man. All the lunar estates. You're actually not far off. There's a loophole in the treaty. It does not apply to individuals. So he started a business called the Lunar Embassy.

I have to show you this website, man. He is the CEO. Lunar Embassy. He's the CEO, which is not Chief Executive Officer. It's the Celestial Executive Officer. Yeah, of course it is. The President of the Galactic Government, aka the Head Cheese of the Lunar Embassy. There's a website for government, a.k.a. the head cheese of the Lunar Embassy.

There's a website for this, man. Dang, boy. So he's still active. He's still active. This is going to blow your mind. Here's what it says when you go to the website. It's a pretty good website, too. Welcome to the computer center of the Lunar Embassy,

the leaders in extraterrestrial real estate and the only company in the world to be recognized to possess a legal basis for selling and registering extraterrestrial properties. Well who's he recognized by? Well hold on, let's break this down. First of all, the first three words, welcome to what?

The computer center of the lunar embassy. Okay, the computer center. He doesn't understand how websites work. That's a website. How's he supposed to know anything about real estate if he doesn't know what a website is? Well maybe that's what they call it on the moon. You don't know.

The computer center. Computer center could, website could have, maybe it won out, but maybe computer center was the next best thing. What kind of thing? Think of something better than website. That's not computer center. I can't, man.

Internet. Internet spot. Spot. Yeah, computer center, man. It gets better, guys. If you are looking for an extraterrestrial property, you have come to the right place. This really is the cheapest real estate in the universe, and if you think this must be a really good joke,

please know that it is not. For more info, go to the What's It All About section. He sells it by the acre? What does he do? He sells it. There's a buy section on this. Right here, buy now. He has moon property, Mars property, Venus property.

He's got Mercury property. He's got. So he moved on to every planet in the solar system. Yes. Now does he say he owns all of it and he's subdividing it or does he give a little for the scientists? He does actually. Yeah he does give a little for the scientists? He does actually.

Yeah, he does give a little. Yeah, he has spaces set aside just for them. Scientists centers. Yes, set aside just for those guys. What's the price? Okay, so today's price is $24.99 for an acre. Holy crap. That sounds cheap.

This is like getting in on the freaking old west, man. Like this is like going into Texas like 200 years ago and buying 10,000 acres and then being a baron. We could be barons right now. It's pretty baron. I wonder if anyone has given this guy money. Yeah, I mean what's this guy's revenue?

I'm about to blow your guys' minds here in a second. You know what, listen, okay. This dude has created an opportunity for stupid people to give him money. That is what they call business, man. Yes. You know, that's just another way to say business. Yes.

To date, and this is, I think this article I read is a little bit old, so it's probably more than this. He sold more than 600 million acres of land. No! Yes. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, He sold more than 600 million acres of land. No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 600 million acres? 600 million acres of land. But you know who's buying it?

On the moon. That guy with the ATM card. Yeah, that's. This seems, this can't be real. You know who else, I'm gonna tell you three of his customers are former presidents of the United States. George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. What?

No. This can't. No. How? No. It's real, man. How do you know this is real? I have looked up deep into this guy, and everything I'm finding of him is real.

I think they made a documentary on this guy or other people that were related to the moon, and he talks about it. You can see it on his website. There's an ad. You can go to his website buy an acre and add it to a cart you can add well an acre of moon to a cart on his website but how do we know that this because so when you are so when you went to snopes yeah what what did they say snopes comes up with another couple that was trying to do the same thing

similar but they but their their story wasn't true. This guy's story, everything, okay, you Google this guy, and it comes up on, like, let me see. Is he the one that said it was 600 million acres? Because that means this guy is one of the richest people in the world. He's got, like, made over $9 million doing this. Now that sounds somewhat reasonable. Yeah.

But not really, but okay. So he- That he's made $9 million? You're right. Now the $600 million doesn't make sense. Acres. That would be, unless it was back to what you said

about giving chunks of it away. He may have given people a different deal. But when you look him up, he comes up on all kinds of articles, US News, Vice did an article, New York Times, like he's on every mainstream article they can find about this guy. And they say the nine million figure.

Yeah, I think it was maybe Vice I read that from. Nine million dollars this guy's made. What? It's crazy, man. Where does he live? Which planet? He's got space on the moon, that's for sure. So he once said that he sold a country-sized plot of land,

2.6 million acres for $250,000. And he said that the largest property for sale is a continent-sized piece of property, 5 million acres, which costs $13 million. He hasn't sold that yet or any of those yet. Okay, so if you've got $250,000 to spend, doesn't mean you're necessarily smart, but it means that you're not real dumb, right? So.

It's one of those things that like, in the future when we're colonizing other planets, well let's go past that. Once planets are colonized, if you then, like I went there to visit and you introduced me to someone and said this is, and what's the guy's name? His name is Dennis Hope. Dennis Hope.

He's the guy who owns most of this. No, he's the guy who owns a big plot on a lot of different places. It's not all of it, but I could see how this guy would be able to finagle his way into, whenever that does happen in the future, somehow because of these exercises now, it does pay off.

But I'm very suspicious that anything's paid off right now. He'll be dead, probably. No, no, no, the cryogenic technology. Because that's real as well. Here's the as well. Here's the Vice article. So they asked him, how much land have you sold for?

He said, well, this is the only job I've had since 1995, which is when I started doing this full time. We've sold 611 million acres of land on the moon, 325 million acres on Mars, and a combined 125 million acres on Venus and Mercury. And he also said- You can't live on Venus and Mercury. I know, I don't know.

I mean you can't live any of these places. No you can't. But I mean Mars and the moon are slightly better candidates. He thinks he's gonna prove you wrong. He's banking on people, literally, who think they're gonna prove you wrong. But logistically, the way that it will work, right? So countries will claim,

and what is the status of the moon right now in terms of, I mean I know we put an American flag up there. Well the UN thing applies to that. Everyone agreed in the United Nations that countries can't own it. Yes, and there was a representative. So the world owns it. Yeah, a representative from International Institute of Space Law

at the United Nations. They said the United Nations never responded because the treaty applies to both countries and its citizens, and they basically said what he's doing is just selling them pieces of paper. Yeah, well, definitely. Yeah, and they didn't want to give him credence

with a response. Well, this is like those. No, you won't. This is like those sovereign citizen response. Well this is like those. No you won't. This is like those sovereign citizen people. Right. No you won't. There's a lot of them. You know about this?

Yeah. They're like the law doesn't apply to me because I'm a sovereign citizen. Google sovereign citizens owned by police. You will be entertained because if you are in that particular country and you're violating the law, you will still suffer the consequences of violating the law regardless of what your perspective is.

Which is what's gonna happen to this guy. What do you mean owned by police? Like people doing something, being pulled over and saying, the cop asks them for their license and registration, they say I don't have to give that to you. I'm not subject to the laws of this country, I'm a sovereign citizen. And then basically the cops are like,

well you're subject to the effect of this taser. You know. Okay. I just misunderstood what you meant by owned. Pwned, I should have used pwnwn, but it's 2017 so I didn't. I thought you were saying you want me to find out about sovereign lands that policemen own. Yeah.

That's also gonna be very interesting for me later. But I mean, I haven't thought about this at all. I just know that like, you know, Elon Musk is well on his way to having something on Mars, right, I mean, which, I don't even know how I feel about it, but I think eventually, like a thousand years from now, whatever, it's inevitable, right, that there'll be some sort of presence on.

It seems inevitable, and I will bet you a lot of Bitcoin that that guy will be one of them. Somehow he'll be on there. No, you know how he'll be honored? They will like somebody who, maybe somebody who listened to this Ear Biscuit who becomes some sort of scientist and then writes it down somewhere.

That's the only way somebody's gonna find out about it. Somebody's gonna as an homage to this guy, is gonna name something after him. But that is his best hope. That is his best hope. Best possible scenario for this guy. I think his best hope is that he's made a lot of money now. Get rich now.

It's like he tapped into the greatest gag gift of all time. If it's true, what they're saying, what he says he's made off of this, if it's true. I mean, I kind of got handed to the guy. Yeah, yeah. $25 an acre? Yeah. I mean, a lot of people would buy it just to say they did it.

Right. Like, I mean, I bought you that grove of, you know, redwood trees for your birthday, and that was legitimate to help a cause, but it was also fun. Yeah, and I named a star after you. Remember that? That's right. I have a star. That's also pointless. Well, I I named a star after you. Remember that? That's right, I have a star.

That's also pointless. Well, I think about it often when you bring it up. You're gonna visit that star one day? So I think he might be getting a lot of money just out of the entertainment value. Well my first thought when I saw it was this might be a good suggestion for one of your guys' birthday gifts.

Right, yeah. He did it, man. Come October, I know what you're getting, Rhett. Well, I know. A plot on the moon. Yeah, I mean, exactly. It's a, yeah, it's a great gift. Does he send a certificate?

He does, yeah. Does it have gold foil or anything on it? I think you can put your name on there and there is a lunar tax from what I read also. So you pay a little more than the 24.99. Oh yeah, he's got a, he's getting more money for the, so can I just buy a certificate? An acre?

Yeah, probably. I think, this is what I think is going on with this guy. I think he's, I'm gonna give him a little credit. I think he's super smart. I think he knows exactly what he's doing. And I think he knew that people would go along with it, even people like us who were like, this is bull crap but we're gonna do it anyway

because it's fun. And he was like, if I come out and say that I'm, I don't believe this, then it's not as cool to be a part of. And me and you were like, look at this cool comedy idea. You can buy the moon. Nobody would do it. You gotta feel like the joke of you owning part of the moon is also on him.

Right. You know? Yeah, he's a genius. He's a genius. Yeah. They're all geniuses in their own way. The moon man. You started off, well I'm gonna give him a little credit.

Now he's a genius. Yeah, he's a genius. Dang. Did you know Rhett was gonna name this guy a genius? It doesn't take much, man. I didn't, but he did. Well, he can't. Rhett doesn't have the authority to name someone a genius.

Well, the United Nations said that countries can't do that, but individuals can. And I did it first, so you are whatever I name you first. He is an individual. Genius. Thank you, and he just named me a genius. Thank you, I am a genius. This is some genius research that went into this. I think that, you know, always look for the loophole.

That's right. Yeah, you gotta look for the loophole. But then listen to your conscience. Right. Before you jump through it. Don't take advantage of people. Take advantage of loopholes. Yes. They can't feel anything. That loop may tighten around your waist.

Uh-oh. Or it may tighten around your neck. Depending, slim you down or snuff you out. Or it may just stay open forever. Like a Stargate. There you have it, our Ear Biscuit with Kevin about loopholes. We jumped through lots of loopholes.

Loophole, loophole, and then we came out the other side. Yeah. Full circle. It's got me thinking... Full loop. Full loophole. Mm-hmm. It's got me thinking I should be looking for more loopholes.

You know? You just need to. It takes work. That's the thing. It's like, whenever... The one that sticks with me the most is the pudding one because I... You like pudding. I default thought to pudding. But you would never, ever in a million years do something like that, tedious. Even though you're really tedious about certain things,

you would never collect coupons. I don't have time to do any of that. Like the coupon clipping thing that, Christy had friends, I know Jessie had friends who really got into that. Her mom got into it. And then they wanted, they thought they were gonna get into that way back when we first got married.

Yeah, because you had like a coupon notebook. That like, the things we used to collect baseball cards in, that was a whole lot of work. And it fizzled out very quickly because. Saved a lot of money though. Well, the cost of time. Time. The cost of time.

Time is money, man. Time is what you can't buy back. There are some people who never get that and they spend a lot of time doing something to save money not realizing that if they were putting that energy and time into something else, they may be able to make more money than they're saving. We wanna thank you, Mythical Beasts,

for lending your time to us. You know what, and we'll never pay it back, it's gone. You know, you lost all the time that you spent listening to us, but we wanna thank you and hopefully you did gain something. Well yeah, this is not a one-way thing, right? Well it could be, but I hope not. Hopefully you gained something.

Hopefully if you're one of those people out there right now with a NAB card in Australia and you're taking. You got a hot tip. You're taking advantage of that loophole. Hopefully you will turn yourself in. I'm sure they closed it. You'll go to prison just for how long? Just a year?

Just a year. Hey, live it up now, but you gotta pay the piper? What does it work? Don't do it. Maybe when you get that cul-de-sac prime location in Mars, you can do it there, live it up there. But for now, just let us know using hashtag Ear Biscuits.

What you think? Let's make this a convo, y'all. We wanna hear from you. And review on iTunes is also helpful. Yeah, we gotta exploit that iTunes loophole. Get the reviews, get the ratings. Game that system. Help us game the system. That's what we're about here.

All right, we'll talk at you next week.