Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 32 Smosh - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: May 9, 2014

Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, the comedy duo better-known as “Smosh,” sit down with Rhett & Link to discuss how they went from essentially two guys lip syncing cartoon theme songs in front of a web cam to having the second most subscribed personality-fronted channel on YouTube with over 17.5 million subscribers and 3 billion views in just under a decade. The guys talk about everything from nervous bathroom habits before live performances to the ever-growing pressure that they experience on a daily basis to entertain their fans, maintain their artistic integrity, and remain on top. *NOTE: This conversation contains adult themes and language. 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. Welcome to Ear Biscuits. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. It's time for another conversation with someone interesting from the internet, like we do every single week, people, at the round table of dim lighting this week. It is Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, the comedy duo better known as Smosh. I've heard of them. I've heard of them. A few times.

I've actually met them. Well, you know, we're friends, but they're very busy guys. So after we were both guests on an upcoming epic rap battle of history, we both shot all day, and then we got here at the round table at Dim Light and have a conversation. Now, you probably know that Smosh is the second most subscribed personality-fronted channel

on YouTube. Over 17.5 million subscribers and 3 billion views. I might have to break out the word powerhouse, powerhouse, like powerhouse squared. You like bringing that out sometimes. Well, you know, this is one of the situations where probably everyone who's listening already knows who Smosh is. And if you just happen to be one of the few people who don't know who they are, you probably have seen one of their videos. By accident, you've seen one of their videos. I mean, they've got a view for almost half of the world's population, you know.

But it isn't just their main channel. Those 3 billion views, they've added to that. They've got Smosh Games, a channel with over 4 million subscribers. They've got an animation-based channel, Shut Up Cartoons, over a million and a half subscribers. And I'm not making this up, Link. They have a Spanish-dubbed channel. Never watched it, I can't say. El Smosh. El Smosh, with over a half subscribers and i'm not making this up link they have a spanish dubbed channel never never watched it i can't say el smosh el smosh with over a million subscribers and they have their own magazine they've got a magazine like a magazine you can go into a magazine store like a physical magazine smosh magazine and buy i yeah i was in walgreens and i i perused it

you perused it i didn't purchase it i'm didn't purchase it. I'm going to be honest. I mean, I don't purchase magazines. I just look at them there while my wife is like getting other stuff. And I'm over here like a tween looking at a Smosh magazine. Look at that 35-year-old guy. He's in the Smosh magazine. Forbes called them

a new purely digital breed of celebrity and they've been ranked in the Hollywood 30 under 30 two years in a row by Forbes magazine. celebrity, and they've been ranked in Hollywood 30 under 30 two years in a row by Forbes magazine. Okay, so they've been putting out weekly sketch-based comedy for many years. Of their 3 billion views, 100 million of those views

comes from their most popular video called Beef and Go. Hi, I'm Anthony Padilla. Are you the kind of person that just loves meat but is always on the go? Well, I know I am. For years, I've searched for an easy way to eat steak and other meat products with my on-the-go lifestyle. But products like Quickie Steak were too inconvenient, while other products like Meatball Necklace

were just plain messy. That is, until I found Beef and Go. They're also known for their video game-themed music videos like their Legend of Zelda rap, which is approaching 50 million views. Yeah, my name is Link Bane. I'm more well-known than Lil Wayne. Oh, you thought my name was Zelda?

That's a f***ing gross name. I saved the world like 15 times. I saved the princess from demise. And I do it all alone with no help and no advice. Hey, look, listen. Hey, look, listen. I'm an annoying fairy. I'd rather be forced to listen to cunts than Katy Perry. I think it's time I got some recognition, don't you think?

Legend of Zelda? True that. Legend of Link? From the L to the I to the M to the K. You wear tights every day, don't give a damn what you say. You got bigger balls than even Evel Knievel. And he ain't gonna stop till the world is free of evil. Okay, so being a comedy duo ourselves and talking to the most successful comedy duo in the history of the internet,

and I don't think that's any exaggeration. No. I was really interested in talking to them about their friendship off camera you know in the ways that we relate to each other there's conflict there's um there's lots of coordination when there's two of us you got to be on the same page that's not always going to happen i was curious how they dealt with that i think at a certain point, this Ear Biscuit approached a counseling session. Yeah, it does get into counseling at one point.

I don't know who was being counseled. I think it might have been us. It went both ways. I think it went both ways. But yeah, we've got this, what we feel like is some insight into what it's like to be a comedy duo. So we ask a lot of questions, have lot of conversation just about uh what that dynamic is including what is it like to you know have a this big brand that is this thing that people understand as smosh that's also a real friendship how does that relate to their lives as individuals

the fact that they live in different cities we talk about a lot of stuff related to that this is a this is a duo interviewing a duo and And they have relationships that they have on the internet with their girlfriends differently. To different degrees. To different degrees, yeah. Also to different girls. Yeah. That's good. We've always maintained that.

Always have a relationship with a different girl, each person in the duo. Right. I mean, we get into a lot of things here. So see if you can learn something new about Smosh. Like I said, we're glad to call them friends. Also, collaborators. They were guests on one of the very first episodes of our half-hour show, The Mythical Show, of last year, 2013. And we're happy to have them on Ear Biscuit. Here's our Ear Biscuit with Smosh. Fomh. Famosh. Famosh. You're water there.

Yeah. And this is the new water? Mm-hmm. And do you feel the need to be more hydrated? Well, I came in with this water. I didn't know you guys were going to be supplying. Personally, whenever there's more than one water bottle in front of me, I'm like, I better drink like that one so I only have one. Maybe I'll double fist

it. Yeah. No, you need to conserve it. Link is obsessed with being hydrated. No, seriously. That explains your wonderful skin. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Is it the hydration or the urination? I think my constant urination is what

explains my obsession with hydration. Hydration leads to urination. But you know that if you are properly hydrated, like if you flood your body with water... You'll die? You can die from a water overdose. Have you done that?

He's died before, yeah. From water intake. Your body adjusts to before, yeah. It wasn't fun. From a water intake. Your body adjusts to it, though. Somebody did that. That's real. Actually, there's a radio contest in our city, Sacramento. Somebody died. It was a hold your wee for a wee.

That was my aunt. I bet they don't still do that. That's not funny. I'm looking at you, trying to read your face like, is he serious? I hate to make a lot of water deaths. That happened in Sacramento because I have heard about it. Yeah, all the radio DJs got fired.

Yep. And they don't do the contesting. No, I don't think they do. Was that before or after we went on that radio show? Was there a pod in there? What? You said we went on the show. We would like to play.

That was the only other time that we really went on a radio show and held mics up to our face like this. This is our first podcast. Wow. We are honored, guys. We're breaking the seal. Taking that podcast virginity and let me tell you, it sounds sexy. Now they have to listen to it.

You should have never given us headphones to hear what we sound like because it's way too much power. I mean, I can turn it off here. No. No, I need listen to it. You should have never given us headphones to hear what we sound like because we're way too much power. I can turn it off here. No, I need to hear it. No, I sit around and just talk. I do this when Link's not here. Sometimes I just come in here and just talk to myself

because I sound so much cooler. You do. You do. To myself. In person, you're just like, hey guys, what's up? Hey guys, my name is Rhett. I'm seven feet tall.

Is your philosophy to pee before you do something important or to hold it because I always find that I really have to pee right before I do something I just realized I just realized

we hosted the video game awards at South by Southwest and I realized that I am a nervous shitter like right before I go that I am a nervous sh**ter like yeah I like right before I go on I suddenly have to go yeah and I trace that back to like every time we've done a live thing at VidCon that I've I've I thought maybe I just ate something bad but like literally

every every time I do like a live thing I get way nervous you know I'm kind of similar I like psych myself out I'm like do I have to pee I better go pee right now. And then for some reason, I always convince myself that I'm cold and that I need to really make sure my hands are warm. I think that's some kind of... And you pee on them? I don't know what to say. I keep them in my pockets and I'm like, they're okay.

I don't know. I think it's some kind of a mental disorder. Well, but no, it's natural to evacuate before you do something important. I mean, that's just a biological reality. It's like flying, just lessen the weight kind of thing. Well, it goes back to your ancestors that needed to run after animals on the plains

for long periods of time. It was like, listen, I'm going to be chasing this gazelle for the next two days. I better take a big old deuce right now. So I could... I'm serious, man. I always try to evacuate as much as possible before I did

a running sort of race. The worst for me was my first day of school every year. I don't know why. I always felt like I was so nervous. I don't know why. At the school? Or before? You don't want to go at school.

You're highlighting two differences between me and Rhett. I'm kind of curious where you guys fall on this. One is, Rhett and I always get in an argument about this whole pee thing

because we're about, like if we do something live on a stage, I'm like, ah, I'll be right back. I gotta go pee again. And he's like,

no, hold it. Harness that. Harness that. Use that, use that tension for performance. No, because then the whole time all you're thinking about is how you have to pee. No.

And then if he has to pee, the whole time all I'm thinking about is how he has to pee. And then it can be contagious, too. But the second thing, you mentioned being really nervous before your first day of school and having to evacuate. I have always been that way too. I pristinely remember every school year just being a nervous wreck before the first day of school. Whereas Rhett, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, I know we've talked about it that the first day of school is always like your best day ever. Like you cannot wait to get there.

Really? So excited. Did you get like the new school clothes and everything you're like i gotta show this off but there was no anxiety so you're saying you like that was always a nervous thing for you the worst day of my life every every year was that first day of school like kind of kind of an irrational it's just this yeah a new beginning the unknown it's weird because i like wasn't even really scared i just was like oh crap literally like right i was never nervous about my classes i was just like when when you first go into the class and everybody chooses what what seat they want to sit in

nobody ever like chose a seat next to me me too i was always stoked whenever they had those preset seats but that's also carried over which now i'm like grateful for it nobody wants to sit next to me on a plane. You think you just give off that vibe? I guess so. And I guess I gave that vibe off in school too. You do give off that vibe. So now it's actually paid off.

So I don't know if I'm just really boss at selecting airplane seats, but literally the entire plane will fill up and I will be the one with the last remaining empty seat next to me. What's the look on your face? I don't give anybody a look. I'm just doing my thing. How do you do it? You look forward like a serial killer.

You're doing something. You just don't know it. How do you do it? Oh, I mean, sometimes I'm, you know, stabbing a doll. Right. A doll that looks like just your average airline passenger. Yeah. That'll do it.

Sometimes I'm just, you know, I get nervous, so I just evacuate right there. Okay. Yeah, yeah. The evacuation, that probably creates a radius around you. That guy has grabbed his pants. And he's stabbing a dog. I'm not sitting next to him. I bet his girlfriend is going to be here any second now.

How many people are going to start trying that now? A few. It's not worth it. Trust me. There's a downside. To Ian, it's very worth it. I'd rather sit next to a stranger. It depends on the duration of the flight.

It might be worth it to crap your pants. You might have a little bit of extra leg room and arm room, but you've just crapped your pants. Well, you've lost some room in your pants. But you're not the type. Are you also the type to get anxious before some sort of live gig? I mean, the whole YouTube thing.

I just, I'm not good at it. We're in so much control that then when you have to go into this live format, first time I saw you guys live was at YouTube Live. You know, you had, you guys had to introduce something on stage. Oh man, that was only like a three second spot and I was so nervous.

Yeah. Because it's live and you can't edit it before it goes up. I'm really terrible with just being in the spotlight. I don't really like it. So like, you know, even in class,

when you had to go around and say who you were, some classes you say who you were and what you like to do. My heart would be beating 10 people away. They go down the line. I'm 10 people away, and I'm like, what am I going to say? You're practicing your name under your breath. Then it gets to me. I'm like, I'm Ian, and I like snow.

I think a lot of people can relate to that, but you know what I just realized is the fact that everyone is so nervous, they're not even listening to what anyone else is saying, so you're nervous for no reason. No, there are a few people who aren't nervous. That's what I'm saying about Rhett. Rhett was the guy like, man.

It's just the Rhett that's listening, that's it. Rhett's like, he likes snow? What's his problem? That's weird. Well, I was nervous, that's it Rhett's like he likes snow what's his problem that's weird well I I don't say I was nervous and I do get nervous when we do

when we do live stuff definitely but I wasn't thinking about I was thinking about I gotta say the right thing so they'll think the right thing about me the rest of the year

that's what I was thinking I was like this is this is the chance right now you gotta say I can't say I like snow because

maybe there's some other snow fans there yeah right well hold on This is the chance right now. You got to say, I can't say I like snow because... Maybe there's some other snow fans there. Yeah, right. Well, hold on. For the record, who doesn't like snow? Yeah, come on. If you live in Sacramento. I mean, it's...

Yeah, you like snow when you don't live in it. It's like a novelty. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Okay, so we're talking about class. I think this is as good a segue as any into how you guys met. I think this is as good a segue as any into how you guys met. So I assume that there's kind of this normal story you tell.

Yeah, have you read the story? Because it seems like you kind of are on the right track. But you can give us, I knew that it's kind of a middle school that you guys met, right? Close, sixth grade. Sixth grade. Okay, so that's the first year of middle school in my mind. For some people. Oh, maybe it is now. I think it's more common now.

But where we grew up, it was sixth grade was was uh elementary you were the big kids in the elementary school so that's what i assume yeah i have i've read the smosh lore uh so i i guess this is the form for you to to say what you actually remember not what's been written in a wikipedia well all we remember now is what's been written right trust. Trust me. You tell a story enough times, that's all you remember. It could slowly change. I'm like, so I was raised as a girl. I love snow. You don't even like snow.

No, I probably don't. Right, because if that's what your wiki says, that's what you believe. But you do, I guess you do find yourself telling this part of the story. So I want you to tell it in a fresh way. Okay. What's a fresh way in a high-pitched voice?

Maybe in Japanese? I'm just acknowledging. I was going to start, but then that would have just been incredibly racist. I'm just acknowledging this may be the thing that you have to say a lot. And then people are like, okay, we got it. Yeah. We'll quote how many views you get and subscribers you have, and then that'll be the thing.

But take us back there. What year is this? Sixth grade. It was a nice sunny day. What was that? In 1998? I'm guessing it was eight. Something like that.

I just moved to that town. He was a big-ass loser because he was a new kid. I was a new kid. Moving from where? From basically just a different side of the town because my parents didn't want me to go to – It's actually where the Smosh house is now. Yeah. I grew up in an area that was – it was okay.

But the high school, they had gang problems and stuff, so my parents didn't want me going there and becoming a crip or a blood. They didn't have a snow-liking gang that you could be a part of. Sure, I never checked. You had to get out. Maybe I should have gone. So, yeah, we moved on to the other side of the city where they had this decent high school for me and my sister to go to.

I went there, sixth grade, met Anthony. Well, actually, the first time we met was in this class. So did we merge classes? Because it was our science class. Were we in the same class? And then we, I don't know, it was weird. We had to go to a different room. I just realized that our teacher kind of looked like Seth MacFarlane.

Yeah, he was a creeper. He was a creep. But it was a guy. Yeah, yeah. It was a guy. Yeah, but we went to this different room to be with a different teacher to learn science. It was kind of weird. Yeah.

But it was this woman teacher. I don't remember her name. I can't say I remember her name. I don't remember anything. That's what I'm saying, that I'll believe anything I read on our wiki. I don't remember her name. I can't say I remember her name. I don't remember anything. That's why I'm saying that.

I'll believe anything I read on our wiki. And was it the type of, was it, okay, we are lab partners, and now we're best friends type thing? Or was it just an acquaintance? Like, okay, I met you along with everybody else. Yeah, we were paired up, and it was the first time I ever really talked to him because he's just the new kid. Yep.

And we were paired up, and they were like, all right, you're going to be drawing a dump. A landfill. I don't know why, but that's where we met. It was all about landfills and stuff. For some reason, we thought it was the funniest thing ever to draw. Gas masks and flies

and poop. It kind of goes back to the conversation we all had at the beginning of this. It's interesting that we met, of course it was first grade, our Wikipedia dictates to us that, no, I'm just trying to connect. Okay, I get it. You guys are better. I see.

I'm not saying that. And it was well before 1999 or whatever that was. But when we met, we were held in from recess and being punished and we had to color pictures. So we were both drawing pictures of mythical beasts. But not the same picture.

And you were both in trouble? Yeah. But it was a landfill. Yeah, you guys look like some serious... We were the only two. The only two held in. You were the only kids in trouble. Yeah, that day. Wow. Did you guys beat each other up? No, we were like... Or did you just beat kids up so bad that they didn't... What'd you get in trouble for?

Profanity. On the desks. You guys? Profanity? Right in front of us, we have a desk that we can draw on right here. Yeah, but you can't write profanity on this. Are we gonna get in trouble? Are we gonna have to draw mythical creatures again? Yeah, we'll put you under attention.

So were you drawing the same picture? Yeah, it was one paper and we were both drawing over each other. I wish I had that piece of paper. Think about that. What could you eBay that for? I think he was joking. They were separate landfills. No, we really were drawing on the same paper. It was the same paper, yeah.

With the same poop that we were both drawing. Tag team drawing. That's pretty sweet. It was a spiral poopy. Basically, the way we did it was I held Anthony's hand and we drew it together. Like a Ouija board. You just like, where do we go now? We even closed our eyes.

Are you drawing the poop? No, it's not me. So do you remember thinking, boy, I like the way that guy draws a gas mask. I respect him creatively. I remember I was the one that drew the gas mask and you were the one drawing the flies. I don't know why. But we laughed until we cried. It seems like something that's not funny at all, and it's not.

But for some reason, as sixth graders, it was the funniest thing. Maybe we drew really hilarious gas masks and flies. Well, that could happen. I can still remember it for some reason. I can't. I can still remember it for some reason. I can't. I can still remember it. What do you remember, though?

Was this a beginning of a wonderful friendship? you know, it's like, you know, when you, when you go to prison, you know?

Oh, we all know about it. You guys are the troublemakers. You guys know all about it. It's a survival thing, you know? So you gotta, you gotta get in there

and, and, you know, stake your claim and, you know, try to find people get in there and and you know you gotta take your claim and you know try to find i was your claim yeah i guess your claim i guess i was you were his affiliation uh school affiliation hey i have a friend now i joined a like basically a gang i didn't even know it i was your bitch that's pretty much what was happening yeah yeah so then yeah it was just like a group of a group of friends

and then I took you we initiated you into our group of yeah four loser friends like one of one of them like hated me up until like up until like

which one was that freshman year which one was that Ryan Ryan hated you he said he didn't even like me until like a couple years later I don't think Ryan liked either of us

I don't know but but yeah so we just we just stayed friends until, you know, just hung out, played GoldenEye, played Perfect Dark, played Halo. I mean, we're- Working through the video game years. Pretty good. That's how I define like the years in our friendship is what games we played together.

Yeah, we were pretty good friends, but never super close until high school, and I got my driver's license and a car before Ian, and he needed a ride home, and it just so happened he was kind of on the way home, so he bummed rides off me. Carpool, huh? Yeah. It was totally for carpool reasons, right, Ian? No, he bummed rides. His amazing Ford Probe.

89 Ford Probe. Anal Probe. 89 Ford Probe. Anal Probe. So, okay, so you're in a group of friends. Yeah. And did it quickly become like,

okay, yeah, we're in this group of friends, but you know, the two of us, we're besties. We're best friends or we're just two guys

in a group of friends. Like, how was that shaping up? There was, I mean, hmm. I'd say that we were just two guys

in a group of friends. Yeah, there's definitely times that it seemed like we weren't included on some cool kid things. Mm-hmm. Because we weren't.

We were kind of losers in high school. Yeah. So sometimes our friends would do some stuff with people that were kind of too cool for us. Yeah. I don't know if do some stuff with people that were kind of too cool for us. I don't know if we necessarily weren't invited, but we were like, all right, let's do this.

Maybe I wasn't listening when they invited me. I was just in my own zone. Yeah. Who knows? But, yeah, so, I mean, Anthony started the website Smosh.com sophomore year of high school. So that was all of our friends. All of our friends were kind of participating in the forum on that.

Back in 2002. That's all the... Smosh.com was for your group of friends. I made a forum for my group of friends, yeah. To discuss what? Probably girls. Girls. I don't know.

I really don't know, honestly. We were just like, oh, what are we doing this weekend? We're doing this. Oh, man, it'd be funny if we did this. Just talk about random stuff. What games were you guys playing? Yeah.

It was weird. And why Smosh? Smosh, well, that was something that our friend. That's another story we tell a lot. That was something that our friend Ryan, the one that hated me. Supposedly didn't like didn't like either i really hate you have you confirmed that recently he told me that he was like he was like i hated you for like when i first knew you okay thanks for letting me know why would he tell you

ryan would always yeah that's very honest guy uh very honest so basically he he went to a blink 182 concert back when that was a thing and uh he he was bragging about how he was in a mosh pit, right? And he accidentally said smosh pit. Yep. Ryan was talking to me. He was like, I was in the smosh pit. It was freaking, it was insane. I was like, did you just say smosh pit?

He's like, I said mosh pit. And I'm like, no, I'm pretty sure you said smosh pit. So it was he and I walking over to a group of friends. And I was like, Ryan said smosh pit. I don't know why we thought that was funny, but we did. So it was an inside joke for all your friends and it became the name of the forum. Well, yeah, and then I was this super nerd that

basically built websites all the time. So then I was like, man, I don't have any websites to work on. I want to work on something. I was in this web design class. I was like, oh man, I should make this site called what am I going to call it? Call it Smosh. It's for me and my friends. That was a good idea.

It kind of panned out. Five-letter word. Like, you can't get a five-letter word URL anymore. So how did that progress to you guys making videos? Well, first it started out, we were into, like, before YouTube, there was this place called Newgrounds, and it was this, they hosted Flash animation. Okay, that site's still around, actually. Yeah, it's not as popular.

I have some really terrible animations on there. Yeah, so we were both really interested in Flash animation. Oh, you kind of sound like Jenna Marbles for a second. What? Flash. I think she'd say Flash. I don't think she would. I think she would say the word Flash like that. Maybe. Let's bring her in. What? Flash. Flash. I think she'd say flash. I don't think she would. I think she would say

the word flash like that. Maybe. Let's bring her in. Jenna? But, yeah, so like we were just into

that kind of stuff and so he started hosting Flash animations on our website, on his website. And you helped pay $2 a month on the server fees.

All of the friends pitched in $2 a month to pay for the server. Early investors. Yeah, exactly. And so after high school. The gimmick was I got to keep all the ad revenue of the $20 a month. Oh, lucky. And so when we graduated from high school, all of our friends were going off to college and Anthony and I were,

were, uh, going to, we're going to go to community college just in, in our city. And, uh, and we were just like bored one day,

decided to, I don't know. We were listening to like the Power Rangers theme song. We were like, that'd be really funny if we made some stupid video of us lip syncing it. okay. Yeah. That was before YouTube stupid video of us lip syncing it. Okay. Yeah, that was before YouTube. That was before we'd even heard of it.

So we hosted it on. On Smosh.com. Yeah, on our. With our own bandwidth. Yeah. So then we displayed it on our MySpace page when that was a thing. And I thought of this genius idea. I was like, well, okay, I'll put the video playing on my page.

And then I'll put a box below it that lets you copy paste that video to put on your page. But the thing is, whenever you copy paste to that and video playing on my page, and then I'll put a box below it that lets you copy-paste that video to put on your page. But the thing is, whenever you copy-paste that and put it on your page, there'd be another box that would say copy-paste this. And that was like an early form of viral sharing, I guess. So it was coding that you developed. That showed like the HTML. Exactly.

That was the great thing about MySpace. You could put whatever the hell you want. So then we made a Mortal Kombat theme song, lip sync thing. So the Power Ranger one did well. Some people watched it. Our friends liked it. Our friends on MySpace. Our hundred friends.

And then because we had the Flash animation on our website, there was a few people on the website that saw it as well. That's right. So it got out to a few other people that weren't just our close friends. So you followed it up with Mortal Kombat. And then somebody stole that video and put it on YouTube before

we knew what YouTube was. And somebody was like, hey, did somebody tell us or did you just search it? I was bored searching on Google. I was like, oh man, wouldn't that be so cool if someone had been talking about our video or something? So I did a Google search, and I found it on this site, YouTube. You couldn't remember what the name was.

It had like 100 views or 1,000 views or something like that, which was really huge back then. Yeah. Yeah, we couldn't remember what the website name was because we were like, oh, man, what was that site? We should go back to it. And we couldn't remember. A few days later, I thought it was iTunes. TubeU was because we were like, oh man, what was that site? We should go back to it. And we couldn't remember a few days later. I thought it was iTunes. TubeU?

I thought it was iTunes. iTunes, man. Can't find that iTunes anymore. I will interject at this point because people may be making this connection out there, listeners of ours. So interesting, obviously, one parallel is we're both duos who met when we were younger bonded over drawing

and then got into YouTube because someone else took one of our this must be the way all YouTube duos come together we start asking around oh yeah same thing happened video got stolen put on YouTube and then got all these views and that was when you're like oh yeah we should

be doing this on purpose it was called pimp My Stroller. Guys, that's a good video. You didn't include your kids in your video parodying an MTV television show with a stroller. Your kids were in that? Yeah. Where did you guys put that video? On our website.

We had a website. Yeah, we had a rentandlink.com. Oh, that's another parallel. You guys had a URL or website before? It wasn't a forum oh yeah what was on there it was just hey let's put

our videos on there quick time videos of some of the videos that we had out there okay so it was like the same exact yeah but were they spreading around

or was it just was it your friends that watched it or what yeah they were definitely not spreading around oh okay

but that one got a lot of views just like what you're saying it's like oh I got a thousand views on this Mortal Kombat thing yeah so then you decided now let's do Pokemon?

Yeah. That was the next one? That was the next one. Well, I mean, we uploaded. We asked the guy to remove the video, and we uploaded our Power Rangers and Mortal Kombat videos to YouTube. And at that time, you could ask people to, like, people could basically suggest videos

to be put on the homepage. There was a button on the bottom of every video that said suggest for homepage. So we asked the small following that we had to hit that button for us. Well, it was more like on our aim, instant messaging profiles. It was on my away message.

But yeah, so I hosted a poll on MySpace. I said, what would you guys like us to see as McNicks? And then Pokemon won by landslide. There was like really stupid. There was like Captain Planet and Inspector Gadget theme songs, but Pokemon blew everything away. And you were just lip syncing these. Yeah.

I mean, we spiced it up a little bit because it wasn't just lip syncing. It was a little bit more than what people were doing at the time because a lot of people were doing lip sync things. Right. The Chinese Backstreet Boys. Do you remember those days? That's way back. I did not see that one. Yes, I do remember that. They were wearing the basketball jerseys? Yeah.

Yeah. You're like, we gotta do a little better than those guys. That was our competition. They were the the basketball jerseys? Yeah. Yeah. Right. You're like, we got to do a little better than those guys. That was our competition. They were the benchmark for us. Right. They were huge, and we were like, if only, if only. So what was the second turning point? I mean, if the Pokemon thing was like, oh, we have an audience.

Second turning point is definitely when YouTube said, hey, we could pay you some money to do this. And how far down the road was that? Was that a year later or just months later? That was like 2008. It was a year and a half later. I think it was beginning of 2007. So a year and a half, it was just you continued the same pattern, gained popularity, but it was still just like goofing off hobby,

and you were still in school. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was just something that we thought. We partnered with this little tiny website that paid us a little bit so we had enough money to pay for props and stuff like that.

We weren't losing money making the videos but we definitely weren't making anything. That turning point is what... YouTube contacted you directly. That's how they did with the first tier of partners. Yeah, it was like 10 people. It was like Lisa Nova, us, Ryan. What the Buck, Ryan Higa probably.

I don't remember. Yeah, probably Ryan, yeah. And they were like, hey, we'll give you a cut of the ad revenue. Yeah. So how did, you know, I'm thinking about the way that we worked once we started thinking about having this, and this is kind of the way that we always were, is we would have these like strategy meetings, right,

regardless of what it was that we were trying to do together or trying to accomplish. We'd kind of come together and be like, all right, we got to figure this out. It seems like there was a point at which you guys had this goal that you kind of came together and said let's let's accomplish something together i mean do you remember what that process was like because you know going from being friends two guys that are just hanging out trying things for fun to two guys who are like, hold on, this is like a thing. We are a thing trying to accomplish something.

Do you remember that process? Yeah, we were a brand. We are Smosh. It's a thing. Yeah, we were just two guys just making videos whenever we felt like it, once every two to four weeks, just kind of hanging out, not planning any growth. We were just like, let's just keep doing the same thing

for the rest of our lives. And then we met up with Barry, who's the president of our company now, and he's like, you guys should think on a big scale. Make more videos. And how'd you meet him, and where'd he come from? It's funny. He emailed us. Yeah, he emailed us.

He was the former... The ex-president of... Was he president or vice president? Ex-vice president of Disney Animation, I think it was. Yeah, Disney Television Animation. Sorry, Television Animation. Yeah. Yeah, so the funny story.

Should I... Yeah, go for it. He was like, hey, I really like you guys. I really like... You know, he said, hey, I'm ex-blah, blah, blah, Disney, blah, blah. I really like your guys' voice, and I think we should meet up and have a discussion. And then I was like, he likes our voice?

He wants to do voices for animation. I didn't realize that he meant he liked comedic tone. Our comedic tone. Yes. We learned very soon after. Like in the meeting. Yeah. Wait, no cartoon? We're not gonna be the next voice yes we learned very soon after yeah like in the meeting yeah you came with like seven different you know he's blames me though for he's like he's like Anthony

thought it meant that yeah I'm like I like, you were there with me in the room. Maybe he's right. Maybe he does like our voice. Just stay quiet and let him say the stupidest. But why did he say voice? Singular. Trying to figure that one out. He meant one of us.

But I mean, if I were in your shoes, having that meeting with Barry, I would be very, I mean mean i guess we had meetings like that where it was someone saying okay i want to team up with you guys i want to partner with you guys to make you a bigger success we'd be very skeptical and uh have a lot of trust issues with that oh we definitely were you know it's it's the type of thing, I mean, someone's got the right credentials. Obviously, I think we can look at your work and I think infer that once you're involved, maybe it's Barry, maybe there's even more people from there, that there was a turn, a corner that Smosh turned.

It was like, okay, all of a sudden, it's not just limited by two guys, but there's a lot going on. There's multiple channels. There's all these things. But at that moment, it must have been a huge business decision. It was. All of a sudden, you're not just two guys making funny videos, but you have to be businessmen. And you just can't, you know, it's not like you can just turn around to your parents and say, hey, what do you think I should do?

Right. Especially at the time, no one had ever done anything like that. Right. Yeah. You have no one that could be a mentor. Well, the thing is, he worked for free for us for a long time and kind of,

I don't know if it was on purpose, but he really proved himself. And we just- Earned your trust. Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, he got us thinking on a level

that we weren't thinking of at that point because we were just, we were just two dudes and all we cared about was just making a dumb video every once in a while. And, you know, uh, didn't really think about longterm and that kind of stuff. So he got us thinking bigger,

like, you know, growing out the website, um, you know, producing more content, convince us to get a camera guy. Yeah.

Convince us. Yeah. That was, that was the thing. It's like when you, why are you trying to do everything when you should try to focus on the creative stuff and have, you know, people do. Basically all the things that we could teach someone, we should teach someone.

And all the things that are like super, you know, whatever, creative or whatever that only we could do is the only thing that we should be focusing on so what what specifically did you decide to focus on and then leave everything else to somebody else that you're going to entrust through barry what were those things that you that you decided to hold on to writing and acting. And we did a lot of the directing. We did almost all of that back then. We handed off things like... But not editing?

Actually, yeah, I did all the editing. You kept editing, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. That still sounds like... It was a lot. I mean, this is the process that we're talking about.

It took years for us to let go we're very slow at evolving getting props and you know making the props

and you know casting certain people a producer to cast people get all the props and make sure we have locations

what about fast forward to now how does it work now I think I'm I think we're fascinated. We have a very well-oiled machine going on. I mean, you guys live in different towns. I'm fascinated from a professional standpoint. What do you guys focus on, and then what do you entrust to other people?

How do you guys kind of divide up the labor? What are your strengths? Well, now it's like between the two of you. It's a lot better process now. Cause before like Anthony was, was doing the brunt of the editing and, Ian was doing the brunts of all the writing.

Yeah. So, so luckily like we've, we've taken the, the editing. I mean, we still like, you should see the notes that, especially like Anthony gives, like, we've taken the editing. I mean, we still, like, you should see the notes that especially, like, Anthony gives. Because we have an editor and we send him a bunch of notes.

I give a novel of notes. But he's been editing for us for three years now. So he's kind of almost learned how our brain works. And he'll, like, just go there now. But now it's, like, Anthony and I can really focus on, like, writing together. The writing and brainstorms. And it's just a lot better there now. But now it's like Anthony and I can really focus on writing together. The writing and brainstorms. And it's just a lot better process now. Every week we're on probably 10, 12 hours of writing and brainstorm calls

just with each other to flesh out the next video. Yeah. Yeah. So your release schedule is one major video a week. We have a crazy release schedule if you really break it down because we have the one major release a week. Then we have the bloopers and behind the scenes which we also

still have a big part in giving all the notes on that and stuff too. That's just for main channel. And then we have our second channel which is we're only in one video a week on there now which is either our lunch vlogs or just a random type thing that we do together,

which is still called Ian is bored. Even though it's been both of us on there for the past three years. It was like, like three years ago we were like, well, maybe you're like, maybe I should be in these videos too. I was like,

okay. And then I was like, we should call it Smosh's board. And it's like, okay. Yeah. We'll get around to that later. I never changed it.

I never changed. It's all Ian's board, but yeah. If you trace it back, never changed. It's all Ian is bored, but... Yeah. If you trace it back, you'll find maybe three years ago, it was actual videos where it was just me. And you were actually bored. I was actually probably bored, yeah.

For the first three, maybe. And then, yeah. But on the subject of videos we make, it's the second channel, then also... Two videos on our gaming channel. Smosh Games, which we oversee a lot of those videos, give notes on those videos.

Five videos a week, basically. But you live... Ian, you still live in Sacramento. Correct. And you live here. I live down here, yeah. So it's crazy because every two weeks I fly up

and we shoot in Sacramento we shoot a batch of our sketch videos and then we have some of the vlogs that we sometimes shoot every once in a while whenever I come up there for that every other week yes and then yeah and then Ian flies down here

every two to four weeks and we shoot a bunch of gaming videos, and then we appear on things like this and guest spots on other YouTubers' stuff. So how did you make that decision? I mean, how did you make the decision, and was it an easy decision? And has it been difficult?

Oh, for the move? For the move, yeah. It was a difficult decision for sure. I really want to live down here. Ian really wants to live in Sacramento. One day Anthony was like, I think I'm going to move down to LA. I was like, okay, we'll make it work. And then like an hour later I was like,

what are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? But we figured it all out. A little over a year ago, and the? But we, but you know, we, we figured it all out a little over a year ago and the process has been getting better and better. We figured it all out. But that, but that was the initial conversation was you saying to Ian,

yeah, I think I'm going to move to LA. It was like an announcement. It was pretty much. Yeah. I mean, I was hanging out, I was hanging out at his house.

I was, we were finishing editing on a video. I felt like if I'd asked him, he would have just been like no so what went into that decision um i i really like it down here and i don't know i just feel like i wasn't growing in sacramento i don't know it's a really small town so it wasn't like love or something? I mean, you know, I have my girlfriend or fiancé. I always call her girlfriend. I feel like fiancé is such a

douchebaggy word. Yeah, it means you're gonna marry her. You just upset all the fiancés in the world. It's just because it's like... Not to mention yours. No, we both agree to call each other girlfriend, boyfriend. It's just weird saying fiancé. I feel like I have to say it with a French accent or something. That was something that was not french okay how would you say it let's not get on a

rabbit trail so um you move was she living here no she lived down here when we met and then she moved up to sacramento to be with me for a while and then she really likes it down here and i mean that helped in the decision but most of the decision was me. Like, I felt like even if I wasn't with her at the time, I would have wanted to move down here. Well, it's interesting. It's okay if she's the reason. You can say that.

No, no, I mean, she's definitely part of the reason. It'll win you some extra points. Just saying. She's totally the reason. There's an interesting dynamic to this, you know. Link and I, when we decide, like, where we're going to, like, right now we're still renting, but hopefully buying houses, you know, Link and I, when we decide where we're going to, like right now we're still renting but hopefully buying houses, you know,

at some point. There's a conversation that's just like, well, okay, whoever buys the house first is kind of telling the other guy where he's going to live in town. Dictating where the other guy lives. Right, because L.A.'s a big place. Compton. Exactly.

Rhett, I bought a house in Compton right so I've also sold a lucrative record deal with death row records so I'm you know that would be very that would be a very difficult thing as I think about how we we would relate what's the nature of the conflict you have? Is there creative conflict? Is there also interpersonal conflict? Like, do you have a fight over the idea about it's funny to fall off the bike? Do you also have an idea, you know? No, we don't really ever fight.

It's always, I mean, sometimes it's like. There's usually a reason for one person to be the correct one. Yeah, they will get, I mean, that's why we don't argue. How do you decipher? We both lay out. Explain for a long period of time. We both lay out our discussion and one person's eventually like, all right, I mean,

either it's not a battle worth having or I agree with you. We certainly, a lot of our arguments end in whoever's voice raises the highest. Yeah. I don't know, like we keep it under control. It's not his idea must be... He must have more reasons.

It's he must feel more strongly about this because his voice is louder than mine. I don't think I could be in a creative partnership with Rhett because just stature-wise, he would just scare the hell out of me. I didn't say tallness. I'm intimidating. He's like, he's not falling off the bike.

That's not funny. And he'd just tower over and say, okay. Okay, off the bike. That's not funny. And he just tower over. He's like, okay. Okay, Red, just don't squash me. I mean, but we do it like, Link and I will sometimes get into an argument that if there's someone else, like some of our staff are in the room. They leave?

They just kind of just sit there with this look on their face like, all right, okay. Like they'll start sweating. How long is this going to last? You know what? What we do a lot is sometimes, a lot of times when we're writing, we'll have our buddy Ryan on there with us. He's our writing friend.

He'll help to throw ideas off of just so we get a new voice in the room. He's a middle man. Basically. So we're like, we'll have this back and forth for like five minutes. We'll be like, you know what, Ryan, what do you think? And then he'll give us his honest opinion. So that helps out a lot. Do you guys get pissed at each other personally?

I mean, Rhett and I, in a lot of ways, we spend so much time together for so many years that we even describe our own friendship more as like an old married couple. Of course, yeah. I mean, we just get mad at each other. Like, Reg gets mad at me because I'm so sensitive about things.

Like, I get mad at him because not of what he says, but how he says it to me. And he's like, why are we arguing about this? You know, there's those type of arguments that have nothing to do with a video idea. They just have to do with how are we getting along should we get counsel does that does that happen with you guys it's a it's a weird dynamic because i think ian is very like i said reserved you know he'll he'll just keep his feelings in i don't even

know what he's feeling at the time he'll just be quiet yeah and i'm like feeling right now but then does it do you bottle up and then you let it out and you're like shut up i feel like there's probably like 20 years of of stuff that he hasn't told me about i haven't blown up on it i don't know i i'll kind of tell my feelings right away yeah and and you just won't i'll just sit there and just kind of nod and be like yeah but you can tell he's upset oh yeah but but then it just is like i don't want to keep nagging him to get it out of him i'll just be like all right he'll tell me when he's ready nope never gonna tell never never it just goes away there's

definitely been things that he has never told me that he was mad about that he just was like okay quietness and what's your approach i mean what is it does it does it dissolve in the depths? I don't know. I think he, I think he secretly hates me because he's never told me about all these things that I'm about to get it out of him. If I do, then I'm not going to tell you, right? Cause that's how this goes. That's true. So I could just be harboring these murderous rage feelings and you never know. Well, that's why I'm asking. Um, do I harbor murderous rage feelings and you never know. Well, that's why I'm asking. Do I harbor murderous rage for Anthony? Sure.

I don't think so. So it dissolves. It's not the type of thing that I've never been... Ian's getting uncomfortable right now, I can tell because he doesn't like to talk about his feelings.

I've never been angry at... Welcome to Ear Biscuits. I've never been like... I've just like Biscuits. I've never been like... I've just like... It's probably like in... I get really easily butthurt over acting direction because... You do? I would never know.

I never knew that. For instance. Well, just because Anthony and I are really specific about a certain way lines should be delivered and stuff, and we totally tell it to other actors that come on our set. But then it's like when he gives me a direction like, you should do that better.

Or something. Maybe he doesn't say that. I don't say just do that better. Something like that. I definitely get butthurt over it and then I realize afterwards why did I get angry about that? I'm just trying to make our video better or get an alternate take

I just need to do that better for a while I don't know if I ever told you but I was a little mad because I would always give you a lot of direction and have you do like 20 different takes and you would always be like yeah I think it's good

to my takes and I'd be like I want you to get the best out of me that I could get I'm like I'm just doing these weird stale takes and you have all these crazy takes that I'd be like, I want you to get the best out of me that I could get. I'm just doing these weird stale takes and you have all these crazy takes that I got out of you.

Our producer Ryan said that when I die he's going to put on my tombstone the quote, whatever. Because that's my common response. He's like, what do you think about this shot? I'm like, whatever. Or he'll be like, do you think we should shoot it like this or do you think we should shoot it like this? I'm like, whatever. Or he'll be like, he'll be like, do you think we should shoot it like this? Or do you think we should shoot it like this?

I'm like, whatever. Like whatever you think is better, man. I'm, I'm definitely more of the go with the flow path of least resistance type guy. Ian's more into the, the writing and comedy aspect of it.

Yeah, but you did most, most of the writing at first. It sounds like you guys are like balancing that. I mean, it was, it's hard to say. Cause I mean like sometimes,

you know, Anthony would come, come up with an idea. Sometimes I would come up with an idea. But there was a time that Anthony was taking the brunt of the editing. So I was taking a brunt of the outlining. And you're just an overall funnier person. Aw, thank you, Anthony. I always said that. I always said that.

So nice. But were you very opinionated about the script, but then when it came to the other things, you were like, whatever. And then, like, yeah, since I wrote the outline, and then Anthony would tell me things he didn't like, I guess I get butthurt over that, too. You get butthurt easily, but you never tell me. It's just a creative thing.

You take ownership over something, and then when somebody tells you that it's not good, you're like, what do you mean? right i mean yeah well a problem with for a while is ian would get stuck in writing us everything a certain type of way and there was no evolution it was just all a very safe certain type of way and i'd be like we need to grow when you do things different definitely right well and you know we deal with this all the time with coming up with ideas and presenting ideas to one another. And, you know,

we kind of developed this philosophy. And we don't do it. We try to do it, but we don't always do it. But, like, hold your ideas out here and those who are listening, I'm holding it next to me instead of in front of me.

So when somebody hates on your idea, they're not hating you, the individual. Right. And so you kind of learn, okay, I'm holding it next to me instead of in front of me. So when somebody hates on your idea, they're not hating you, the individual, right? And so you kind of learn a little, okay. I think the analogy is when somebody shoots down your idea, it doesn't hit you with a bullet. So you learn to take criticism. But I mean, it's tough. I think one of the dynamics is maybe the fact that you guys are in different cities,

you know, that actually may be something that, I think the reason that Link and I are like, okay, we have to get our feelings out there and we have to deal with this. Like every once in a while, it's like, all right, we're going to have a conversation. It's going to be a two hour conversation, but it's not about ideas.

This is about our relationship with each other, guys. So we have to be a two-hour conversation, but it's not about ideas. This is about our relationship with each other, guys. So we have to... Well, they're around each other so much. Yeah, but this is a like a 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every single weekday, right?

Plus the commute. You're not counting a carpool. Oh, you guys carpool on the other? Yeah, and because we are committed to this thing

being an indefinite endeavor. It's like marriage counseling. Oh, definitely. That's amazing. No, we've actually talked about that. We're like, well, do you think we could... Are you going to an actual counselor? No, let me preface this by saying that

I think we have a really good friendship because we talk about our friendship. It's like that's because we kind of deal with on that level but we had a guy come into the office to kind of like evaluate the team like as a as a almost like a fun team building exercise but he also helps you understand the different dynamic personalities and how who can work together and what where there might be conflict and then we never did it but we were like i wonder what it would be like for us just to sit down with this guy and say, all right, you know how we're different.

You see our personality profiles. How can we work together better? Yeah. So I would not say, oh, we need to go to counseling. But, you know, I think it's... My idea was to Turn Ear Biscuits Into Recorded counseling

I That's what's happening right now I wanted to have Counseling sessions Yeah Legitimate counseling sessions Couples therapy For the two of us

And then Only if we could monetize it Yeah We needed a sponsor Well then Well I mean those counselors Are expensive Yeah they are

And then you realize that it's been broadcasted to you know 100,000 people or whatever so you can't take anything back

we didn't do it but back to counseling you guys but I think I think like part of the part of the the way that we

kind of fixed that that creative hurdle that we were that we were in was that now that we're both collaborating together we're building collaborating together, we're building those ideas together.

Now instead of us talking about an idea, I write something and I come to Anthony and then he tells me what's s***. We have a much better process because before we, when we weren't collaborating together, we'd get down to the end of a script and it would be so far gone. I was like, I can't

just tear your idea to shreds. But now I won't let an idea go unless I'm really happy with it. I won't let it get turned into a video. What about the kind of division of characters? Oh, right.

I'm kind of curious how you guys would describe the on-camera versions of yourselves. I was going to say each other, but I think it's safer and fairer to describe yourself. I'll let Ian go first. Your on-camera persona. Because you write for that.

Yeah. Right. We kind of... Yeah, I mean, I think we were... I think somehow we were my character was more fleshed out than Anthony's was like Anthony we were

basically like for a long time I was kind of like the idiot and Anthony was more the straight character that was playing off of the of my idiot-ness idiocy I guess you could say and like you know

about a year ago Anthony was like hey like we should probably try to figure out a way to make me more interesting I was like look at every interesting can you make me more stupid is that what you're asking no I'm like look at every interesting duo in a movie look at super bad like those two have a great dynamic like you could see one would be on screen hilarious one the other one be on screen by themselves hilarious but ian and ian was hilarious and then i'm just like no stop being dumb like always that's my character so um so i guess that goes on to my character was just the straight guy that kept the story moving forward but but now i'm trying to evolve it a little bit

because i was always jealous i was like ian has all the funny lines yeah i mean until we got to like unless we did like a thing where we played characters right i'm playing characters and stuff we we try to divide try to divide like whenever we do like if movies are real or anything like that we look at all the all the characters and we're like okay let's like evenly yeah right I would kind of hate playing myself because I would just always be the my here's what I would say why are you doing that stop that that's my voice in every single video pretty much saying the same exact thing well did you in how did you guys address that um who brought it up I was so jealous of Ian's good lines and me just being that what are

you doing guy yeah i mean anthony's more of more he he looks ahead to try to figure out how we can make things better and then i'm i'm more complacent like i just whatever yeah exactly whatever so it's it's kind of it's kind of an interesting an interesting thing because um yeah we haven't exactly found a remedy for my character situation because we still want Ian's character to be similar to how it was because it's really good and then mine I'm like how can I

how can I evolve this you know am I a smart ass do I am I overly confident with everything even though I'm you know not necessarily the smartest person. Yeah. That's kind of the way we're going right now. Barry tried to explain it. He compared it to some old-ass TV show that we'd never heard of because he's older.

And he said it was like, there's a character that's an idiot, but thinks he's... A character that's dumb but thinks he's smart, and then the other person is dumb but thinks the other one is smart that makes sense right well i think it would be encouraging for anybody who's trying to do anything creative to know that guys who have been doing this as long as you guys have with the

success that you've seen are still trying to figure out something that could be considered that fundamental yeah and let me tell you right now, we totally relate to that. We have fundamental level conversations about our comedy and what is it we're trying to do and who are you supposed to be in this. And after eight, nine years of doing it, you're trying to figure out what to do next with it. Right.

And sometimes it's what are you trying to do next week with it? Yeah. I mean, there's the added pressure of doing something every week be next with it. Right. And sometimes it's, what are you trying to do next week with it? Yeah. I mean, there's the added pressure of doing something every week with really an expectation

of never taking a break. Really. I mean, you can, but that's not the expectation. It's not like traditional media in terms of seasons

or anything. Are you guys, do you experience more pressure at this point in your careers being, you guys, do you experience more pressure at this point in your careers being at the top after all these years? Is the pressure even greater now? And what's the biggest fear? I'd say the pressure is like almost a snowball effect.

It's just more and more and more every year for me, at least. To me, I think, you know, we've, we've, the main focus for years has been, has been trying to get us on a good schedule.

So like, we're not killing ourselves every single week. Like, like, Oh crap. What's, what's next week. Oh,

you know? So I think in that regards, like we're, we've, we've like hammered out a really good schedule. So we're not, we're not going crazy. I mean, when's the last time we pulled an all-nighter?

We haven't pulled an all-nighter in like three years. We used to pull an all-nighter almost every week. I don't really mean, I guess, the pressure to deliver on a schedule as much as the pressure to remain successful and more successful. I mean, it's lonely at the top is how the saying goes.

How do you stay there? I don't feel the pressure to be successful. For some reason, I feel pressure to have the audience like what we're still doing. Have anyone that's watching it not be like, wow, this sucks compared to whenever. I want them to always be like, oh, you're growing, evolving,

and I love this. So you're afraid that you're not going to be relevant? I mean, I guess that's somewhat there, but to me it's always been, I don't know, for some reason comments and the way that people react to videos has always been something that I take really close to heart. I mean, we haven't really worried. I mean, we just want to just try to grow our brand and just create good content.

And if, you know, we're not really worried about quote unquote success, but, you know, we just want to grow the brand. And as long as we keep creating content that people enjoy, then the success will hopefully follow. that people enjoy, then the success will hopefully follow. And obviously guys like you have been approached probably numerous times by different traditional media companies who want the Smosh TV show, who want the Smosh movie. How are you guys thinking about moving forward into the future and all the things that you have?

I mean, you guys launched a freaking magazine. It's like you're kind of in a position where you can do what it is you want, and you're the ones who make those decisions. I mean, how do you look into the next decade? I mean, I think it's just about picking the right things. We have all these things that we want to try, but then it always falls back to we can't stop doing YouTube on the schedule that we're on.

Yeah. I mean, we just want to keep doing what we're doing right now with what we're doing. What have you said no to? I mean, on a yearly basis, on a monthly basis, you guys have to be saying no. No, we don't want a television show

on this channel. No, we don't want to sign this type of development deal for this type of television. Most of the things that we've said no to have only been because of the creative differences. That or the timing

because they'd be like, hey, you guys tried doing a TV show. If it gets picked up, you're going to be shooting for X amount of weeks every year. And we're like, we can't sacrifice that much time because we've got to keep doing so much on YouTube and on our websites and stuff. Right.

I mean, you were there the night when we were in Miami, and we talked about this earlier. That was amazing. Well, we got the word that, hey, our television show got picked up. We got 10 episodes on IFC. And, you know, even in our minds, it was like, is this a good thing? And it sounds like you guys made a decision that you certainly had those

opportunities. And if that was you instead of us, it sounds like you did say, no, I'm not even going to pilot something because we can't leave this space. Right. I mean, if we have the time and if we have it all planned out, we're totally open to do. Well, something like a TV show, though, you have to do recurring

if it's going to be successful. But if it's something like a movie, which we're both interested in doing at some point, you could block out 20 days, and you're like, we just got to get really ahead beforehand. So what are you going to do? Is it a movie? Have you written the script?

We might in the future. We're really interested in it. But the overall plan for Smosh isn't just about ene and i so our main focus isn't let's go do a movie let's go be a huge hollywood hot shots or whatever let's let's grow the brand and keep our comedy alive in as many different forms as we can we have our gaming channel we have a cartoon channel um we're trying to introduce new personalities that totally get our humor that we think our audience will like um you know like they love all the smosh games guys now and uh they love mari so those have been some personalities that we've introduced that

i totally get it so so more of that type of thing too other other smosh properties yeah other people that we really love that we know that our audience will totally get. Yeah, because I mean, like, we can't create 50 shows ourselves, but we can create other shows that other people make that our audience can enjoy just as much as they enjoy watching our shows. And I think that's

cool. Is there anything somebody coming along and saying, here boys, here's $20 million each to go live on an island and just wake up and have a drink every day and spend time with your loved ones. Is there anything at this point that would stop you from continuing to pursue this?

There's a part of me that would really like to do that. Because I know how hard you guys work. Yeah. An island can get kind of boring. I mean, just insert whatever it is. Let's just call it an isthmus. Well, yeah, whatever it is, it's still attached to land in some way. But what is it that,

if anything, that we kind of say, oh, you know what? We don't have to keep pushing so hard. I guess if I ran for president, I'd probably stop. No, I really love making the videos, and I really love just the reaction of the audience. And like I said, going back to comments, I love when people say they love what we made

or what we had a part in. Yeah, I mean, like Anthony and I have had this conversation like a million times. We're like, what the hell are we going to do after this? And because, I mean, like Anthony and I have had this conversation like a million times. We're like, what the hell are we going to do after this? Because, I mean, we love the whole process and we love, you know, just making people laugh and having people enjoy the content. So, I mean, we want to keep doing what we're doing and then also, you know, expanding that so we don't have to have the same sort of workload when we're 40. I'm not going to lie, though. It gets tough, and there's times where I really do, where I would take that offer for a certain

amount of time. But I go on vacation somewhere for a week, and it's the most needed thing ever. And after I'm done, I get back home, and I'm like, all right, let's do this again. Yeah. I just love it so much. But I just feel like I, let's do this again. Yeah. I just love it so much. But I just feel like I need breaks in there. I'm sure you guys can

relate to that. Well guys, thanks for coming in. It was good to get to know you and now you've got to sign this table. You can grasp each other's hand and do the Ouija board technique. Should we draw the flying gas mask? Yes, we should.

That's our Ear Biscuit with Smosh. Tweet at them and let them know you appreciated the Ear Biscuit at Smosh Ian and at Smosh Anthony are their personal Twitters. Hashtag Ear Biscuit at Smosh Ian and at Smosh Anthony are their personal Twitters. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. That's simple.

That's good. That was smart. Thoughtful. Yeah. Let them know that you're glad they came on. We appreciated that and their friendship as well.

The $20 million question that you asked them. The $20 million question. Specifically, meaning the question about $20 million. Would you take the money and run? I'll put it back on you since you asked them. Well, but it specifically involved an island.

Oh. So your answer was in the question. You're like, if I could take $20 million, I'd buy an island and ditch this red and linking. Obviously, the nature of the question was, if you could just be totally set and have all the money that you need, the security that you want to, have the relationships with loved ones, and have peace and quiet, would you take all that to leave the career that you're doing? That was a question that I essentially presented to them.

So putting that back on me. Boy, here's what would happen. I'd take the money, the $20 million, and then I would immediately think, man, we could do something pretty awesome with this $20 million. We could come up with a really awesome idea to make happen.

So I think the answer is- Like a really big robot. I wasn't thinking a robot, but I was thinking something a little more creative. Think about how big the robot would be for $20 million. It'd be pretty awesome. Okay, $5 million towards an awesome robot, $15 million towards another idea.

But then you're like nickel and diamond. I mean, if I was, well, another million, he'll be like another six foot taller. And then all of a sudden you got a $20 million, 130 foot robot. And then what does he do? Does he then make money? I think he's probably a movie star.

I don't know. He's very lifelike. He's a movie star robot. Like he's got human flesh on him and stuff. I think it's going to take more than 20 mil. Yeah, probably so. I'll take 60 mil, maybe 80. I mean, freaking.

I mean, that puts things in perspective right there. The stealth bomber is like a billion dollars, man. Yeah, that's what sucks about it. You think you're rich, and then all of a sudden you've built a fleshy foot of a robot. And you're like, I'm out. It's like those houses we used to encounter back in Harnett County that would be half built. Oh, that would be a nice house if somebody completed it. I think the honest answer is that I don't think there's any amount of money

Or any particular thing Relaxation or not That I would be like You know yeah I don't want to keep I don't want to keep creating I get tired of certain things right Doing the same thing over and over again or whatever

But I don't get tired of But not the job The job Yeah we have a job A dream job I think that what I would do with the money, I would give the correct answer here, and I would say I would start an endowment for other people

to have the freedom to follow in our footsteps. Oh, that's nice of you, Link. No strings attached. That's very nice of you. And advance the cause of entertainment. Well, the problem is you don't get the money unless you take it and go to the island. That's my stipulation.

Or you can't build a robot with it either, so forget that. Oh. Okay. Your only requirement to get the 20 mil from our endowment is to listen to all Ear Biscuits. And look, you're already doing that. So you're well on your way, and we thank you. Hold on.

I think you just made a legal promise to lots of people about $20 million just for listening to every episode of Ear Biscuits. So as Link's unofficial legal counsel, I will say he retracts that statement. And we really do want you to listen to every Ear Biscuit, but you will not be receiving any money for doing so. Thanks for leaving a review on iTunes. If you do that, you're back in the running for the $20 million endowment. Okay, you can be in the running for the non-existent 20 million dollar endowment.

Yes. And if you use hashtag AirBiscuits to let us know, give us feedback on the show across all social media, you're in the top 10 for the 20 million dollar endowment. Well, okay.

That's how much. He would like to retract that statement. There is no top 10. There is no endowment. But there is a 100-foot flesh-covered robot. Oh, my goodness. That will come to your house and present you with a check for $10 from us. Footnote, all of this is imaginary, including the robot, the flesh-covering, and the check, and the endowment,

and everything Link has said during the past five minutes. All imaginary, non-existent, end quote. See you on the island.