Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 36 Joe Bereta - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: June 6, 2014

Joe Bereta, half of famed comedy duo "Barats and Bereta" and head writer and host for Philip DeFranco's "Sourcefed," joins Rhett & Link this week to discuss how being an online pioneer led to an NBC pilot deal, why his unique nickname came from a starring role in a KFC commercial, and whether or not his two distinct on-camera personas have led him to an identity crisis off-camera. 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 Link. And I'm Rhett. It's time for another conversation with someone interesting from the internet. And this week the person who joins us at the round table of dim lighting is Joe Beretta. Now you probably know Joe in one of two ways or maybe... Or two of two ways, right? Maybe both. You might know him for both. A lot of people probably do. He's one half of the comedy duo Barats and Beretta, and he's also the head writer and

the host of YouTube channel Sourcefed. Now, he and Luke Barats formed the dynamic duo of Barats and Beretta way back at the dawn of internet civilization, which was December 2005. dawn of internet civilization, which was December 2005. And their first big viral video, which he talks about, is Mother's Day. Okay, come in closer.

You're not in the frame. You're not in the frame. I swear to God, you're like halfway out of the picture right now. F, Tucker, why do you want me so close to you anyways? I want you in the picture so Mom can see you. Oh, oh. Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Tucker wants me humping his shoulder. God.

Freaking. I certainly remember watching that video at the time. And being intimidated. This is amazing. They continue to grow a cult following of sketch videos until early 2013. And then he moved on in 2012 or added to his repertoire, being a host and a head writer at SourceFed, a really popular spinoff show from Philip DeFranco,

which has just been incredibly popular, and probably, I'd say, my number one news source when I'm talking about YouTube news. I do go to other sources for news, but when I want news on YouTube, I go to SourceFed. Hey guys, welcome to SourceFed, I'm Joe Beretta. A new classification of planets has emerged, changing the space game, y'all. 560

light years away, orbiting a star in the Draco constellation is Kepler-10c, a new type of planet known as a super Earth. And they have all types of news too, right? You're saying you don't use them as a regular news source? No, I'm saying I do. You do. That's what you're saying. I'm saying, but they are my main YouTube

news source, but I'm telling people they're not my only news source. I thought you were do. You do. That's what you're saying. I'm saying, but they are my main YouTube news source, but I'm telling people they're not my only news source. I thought you were saying news about YouTube, but what you were saying was news on YouTube. Right. Yeah. Okay. That makes more sense.

I like the way they do news at SourceFed, and a big reason is because of the way that Joe thinks about things. But their news is not limited to YouTube news. It's all kinds of news. It's all kinds of news. That's my point. You knew that. I about things. But their news is not limited to YouTube news. It's all kinds of news. It's all kinds of news. That's my point. You knew that, I knew that,

and you listening also know that. So I'm clearing up confusion that no one had. Yeah, it was just all in your own brain. And I'm sincerely sorry for that. You don't have to apologize. I remember the first time we met Joe was on the way to the YouTube Live event in San Francisco in 2008.

Otherwise known as 2008. Now, this is the first time a bunch of YouTubers were getting together. I think we've talked about this on earlier Ear Biscuits, but I remember nudging you and you're like, hey, there's that guy from Baratza Beretta. We were at the airport before we went down to baggage claim. I was like, that's the guy from, that guy from Baratza and Beretta. We were at the airport. Yeah. Before we went down to baggage claim. I was like, that's the guy from, that's either Baratza or Beretta. We didn't know who was who.

And because, I mean, they were huge. Them and Smosh were like the huge comedic duos on the internet. And then there's us, aspiring comedic duo on YouTube. So it's like, ah, should we introduce ourselves? Well, we had a chip on our shoulder. I'll be perfectly honest with you. We've talked to Smosh, and now we've talked to Joe, but going back at that time,

these guys were killing it as a duo. So obviously, as a duo who was trying to make it on YouTube, they were the standard. It was like, how do you get to be as popular as these guys are, and how do you get to be as funny and to do these things? So there was definitely a chip on my shoulder. But you certainly don't go up and introduce yourself.

That's not part of becoming one of them. No, because I was afraid he would be like, well, I got no idea who you guys are. Right. So, you know, I didn't want to go there. That's really the fear. But then what happened was we're hanging around the hotel, and I'm pretty sure Joe introduced himself. Or no, it was we're hanging around the hotel and i'm pretty sure joe introduced

himself or no it was we had our picture taken with him when we performed at like the outer stage kind of thing yeah and it turns out he he didn't know who we were and we were very flattered and uh we took an epic photo involving holding out coffee still have the photo deep in my photo stream but it turns out that joe is one of the coolest guys. That's what I thought then. It's like, oh, this is a great guy. You know, someone that funny on the internet can actually be a nice person too.

I didn't know that could happen. Yeah, he's become a good friend of ours and I'm not just saying this. He's one of my favorite people on YouTube that I've had the privilege to meet doing this job. And we had a great conversation with him. We got into talking about one of my favorite things about Joe is the fact that he was in a double-down commercial for KFC. And we got into that, what it was like and how it led to a nickname.

We also talked about his deep-seated fear of Chucky from Child's Play and how he met Lou. Of course, we go into the whole backstory of creating the dynamic duo that actually quickly led to an NBC pilot. And we talk about his transition into what he's doing now with SourceFed and whether or not he sees himself as an internet news guy or a comedian. Yeah. Is there an identity crisis going on there? I don't know.

Let's find out, Link. Okay. Here it is. Our Ear Biscuit with Joe Barretta. It's interesting when you have to build something for a baby, and you get to that point where, okay, I'm doing step number three,

and I feel like something might break. Yeah. Because not only now are you in danger of destroying something you've purchased, but there's always this question of if I damage it, is it going to, like, stab my kid three weeks from now? My baby needs to sleep tonight, so I'm going to finish it from where I'm at, but is he going to wake up?

Right. It's a sobering feeling. The first time I built a crib i didn't i'm not buying a crib for jackson uh we did pack and play with hayden for the longest time but i did buy a crib for hayden and my least favorite memory of having a daughter was building that thing it was the worst the only picture that heather has of me there's two there's one of me trying to assemble it and because i was doing it by myself and the second picture was just back to the camera, flipping the bird from behind.

Just like, stop taking pictures. Oh, yeah. The worst thing about assembling things for your kids is because your wife and probably your kids are watching. Yeah. Really, it's embarrassing, but you don't want to admit it. It's second by second embarrassment. Yeah. Testing every part of your manhood as you go.

When you do things like that, the thing I notice when I'm doing something that feels very like stereotypical dad, like building something for a baby, I have this moment

where I stop and think, I'm such a dad right now. Uh-huh. You know, like I could be, this could be a sitcom. Like I'm assuming, I am so assuming that role right now. Uh-huh. You know, like, I could be, this could be a sitcom. Like, I am so assuming that role right now. I mean, you can't escape it.

It isn't like you, I should then stop and be like, hold on, I don't want to be boxed in. Just stereotype me. You put this crib together. You know, I'm not saying that, but there's just these moments where you just, I'm a dad. I own a minivan. I want a minivan how gross

is that heather doesn't want one i'm like i've given up let's get the mini how awesome would a minivan be they got a little bit of get up and go honey let's do it oh they got some power he's got everything he wants can you turn this light every time i look at you it's like looking into the sun yeah it was supposed to create a halo effect is what I was trying to do for you you just did the perfect minivan commercial

that's amazing seriously hey I'm not kidding this new Link drives the old Honda Odyssey the new one even my 10 year old

knows he's like dad the new Honda Odyssey has a vacuum built into it really and that's enough to get me thinking about it that's so smart Honda Odyssey has a vacuum built into it. Really?

And that's enough to get me thinking about it. That's so smart. Yeah, yeah. It's got a vacuum built into it. It's amazing. There's nothing you would want more than that. Yeah, think about how often you would use that. It's nuts.

I knew that I grew up or became a dad. I can't remember which one came first. But it was when I was walking through Sears, and then one day it just clicked. I didn't want to look at anything but appliances. It was never like that before. But it was, you know, in commercials, when you're about 23, 24, you're that guy in the beer commercial that everything slows down. The music goes, and you look to your left, and there's hot girls walking by. And it's just, yeah, slow head tilt.

That happened to me, but it was like a stackable washer and dryer. I was like, yeah. Well, the ironic thing is you've done the slow head tilt and not slow-mo in a beer commercial. Legitimately, right? I'm a beer commercial guy. I think I'm about three or four years away from being truck guy.

If I keep doing commercials, I'll just get truck commercials. Which one was that? You're already truck guy. If I keep doing commercials, I'll just get truck commercials. Which one was that? You're already truck guy. You're really vine for that. Yes, I'm the resident vine truck guy that knows nothing about trucks. But what commercial is it that you turn to the camera

and you make eye contact and nod slowly? That was my second beer commercial after the contract on the first beer commercial ran out and I was allowed to do more beer commercials because that's all I could cast for. They were just waiting. Yeah.

We got to get that guy. That was Bud Light. And that was, oh, my team scored. Now I'm just going to turn to the camera and just mug. Like, look right down the lens. I was talking to somebody about it. I don't even know if the director wanted me to do that, but I was like, you're getting me looking down the lens,

and that's all you're going to get. Then he had to use it. And before that, it was natural ice. That was a whole other thing. I put them up on my website. I think like three weeks ago, I just did a, if you guys are looking for those little bits of my soul, here they are. Yeah, that's good.

And it was like four commercials that I've done. And I finally, I think for the first time, tweeted out this Chevy's Mexican restaurant commercial that I did. What? It was the first one that I landed when I moved. I was still thinking trucks. Uh-uh. A Mexican restaurant in the back of a truck? That's amazing!

Could you imagine? That's better than a vacuum in a minivan. So yeah, I did that. And it's just a ridiculous over-the-top. I'm just screaming at Mexican food and I'm like look at those tortillas they're amazing that's all I'm doing when did you do that one?

it was like 5 years ago when I moved to LA it was the first thing I did and are we going to talk about the double down? yeah we are the KFC double down yeah it's back you were in the original commercial I was in the original commercial eating a sandwich made the bread was replaced by-

There's no bread, son. It was replaced by two fried fillets of fried- Chicken breast. Chicken breast, and they're not small. You know how most commercials- I've eaten one. Yeah, they're big. After I saw you eat one on television, I was like, I gotta get one.

And it was- Amazing. Delicious. Surprisingly delicious. It was kind of overwhelming. It is. 100%. So are you back for the sequel?

I'm not. It's too bad because commercial money is stupid money. The cool thing about working on a commercial for a new product is you find out about this amazing thing way before the public knows about it. And you got to be sworn to secrecy about it. When it's a double down. How did you keep your mouth shut, Joe? Because it was full. It's the most amazing fast food creation,

top 10 most amazing. One of the worst things ever created. I don't think we've ever, I don't even, for those of you that don't know what a double down is, because we haven't totally described it yet, as Link started, it's two deep fried chicken breasts

that replace the buns of the chicken sandwich. And then the insides are bacon, cheese, and a concoction called the kernel sauce. Which I think is just a honey mustard when it comes down to it mixed with the kernel sweat and ashes. And it's so disgusting. Deliciously disgusting, like a lifetime's amount of salt. Yeah. It's so bad that you eat it.

I'm thirsty just thinking about it. You eat it wrapped in, it's like a wet, not a wet towel, but just like plastic wrap. That's how they serve it. That's why they invented bread. So you can hold the thing.

Yeah, it's so bad. Hold the chicken. What did you do in the commercial? The commercial commercial I think I mean I was I was just super excited about the double down

because we didn't like bread I can't remember my lines but I do know that the director wasn't thinking because he gave the line give me more chicken

to the big black guy and he screamed it and I was like you can't and that's in the final cut yeah and the thing is like and he screamed it and i was like you can't and that's in the final cut yeah and the thing is like and you were right there you could have totally safely said i'm just looking like anybody could have said that line sir but you gave it to that guy and now the other

thing is that if you listen to the commercial gosh this is what we're talking about the double down i got a lot of stories about it you guys i got another one after this i love it uh the you hear our voices are super high pitched. It's like, I love the double down. And you would think that they did that in post, but they didn't do it in post.

They didn't just like up the pitch. They made us suck down, which I'm pretty sure is illegal, copious amounts of helium before every single take. You are joking.

I'm not joking. Like they would hand us the balloons and the director would like kind of like look over his shoulder. Like I'm doing, I'm moving my hand.

Is the OSHA here or something? Yeah, right? Like, okay, does anybody know? I'd suck this balloon down and we would suck down two, three, four. I literally was lightheaded and felt the potential to pass out during the commercial.

That is amazing. Right? As if eating the Double Down wasn't bad enough for your health. Did you guys know we're in a massive helium shortage? Do you know we're about to run out of helium? Yeah, we're going to run out.

Did you guys know? We're using it in Double Down commercials. We have like finite amounts of helium and we're sucking it down for Double Down. If anything better captures the state of the world right now is that a director somewhere is feeding helium to people to advertise sandwiches that consist only of two fried chicken breasts. You know, I mean.

That's the world as we know it. So, yeah, that's the story of the double down. And then it kind of went a little bit farther in my life because where I moved to when I first moved to L.A., which is kind of where you guys are, that big park there is where I used to play basketball all the time. And it was with the local ruffians. And everybody had a nickname, but I never had a nickname. And I never had a nickname but i never had a nickname and i never had a nickname growing up or anything just in the part of the world where we grew up it wasn't like new york where you called somebody like hey short round or anything like that but just hey beretta

was my nickname if i got one um a lot of the basketball players one day were just like you're the dude from the double down commercial and double down became my basketball name it was great i think it's appropriate and i am i'm super happy with the fact that people called me Double Down. Well, it has an interesting sports connotation, almost. I don't exactly know what is that mean they're going to double team you every time you get the ball? Because that's a good name. Because I'm awesome? Double Down on Double Down!

That could just be a... That dude's got a mean hook! Or something. Yeah, I don't know if that worked as well. He ain't got the bread! I don't know. Joe, I appreciate you coming at this late as well. He ain't got the bread! I don't know. Joe, I appreciate you coming at this late hour. I'm trying to figure out what... I mean, it's not that late.

It's like 7.30. But what's your bedtime? Because with SourceFed, you guys get up at the butt crack of dawn because you're doing news type stuff, but you're West Coast in it. So you gotta... I'm up at 5.

You get up at 5 a.m. Yeah, and then I'm at – I'm almost 100% the first person there because I'm the best employee. I'm there at 6, and then whatever, I'm out anywhere between 2 and 5. That is not a Los Angeles schedule. You beat the traffic, though. Yeah, that's the reason I go that early, or the reason I push for it. It saves me probably an hour and a half of drive time a day.

So what time do you go to bed overnight? That's where I'm a bad person, because it's 12. Oh, wow. Sometimes one. You know, you don't want your life to be work. You don't want your life to be just work, hang out with the kids, put them to bed, go to bed. I mean, you want to hang out with the wife,

you want to watch some TV um you want to troll the alleys of la and look for um you know whatever kind of fights you can get into knife gun yeah um back alley wrestling matches and it's double down get it it's double down run uh so yeah i mean average five hours of sleep someday that's going to come back and get me probably soon it probably will

probably really soon but you're one of those guys that can can be normal with five hours normal-ish I don't know if you guys watch SourceFed

we do it's not I wouldn't say normal it's a how do we describe it it's like SourceFed is I've described it as and this is too much of a compliment for what we do. It's the Jon Stewart show had intercourse, made sweet love to E! Entertainment.

They had a baby and then they handed us that baby and we dropped it on its head. That's kind of what I think SourceFed is. But it's still living. Yeah, I mean, it's getting by. It's just, it's different. Yeah, yeah. So let's go back to... Baby Beretta? Yeah. Speaking of a baby that was dropped on its head multiple times. Where were you born? I was born in Whitefish, Montana, but I grew up in Columbia Falls, Montana, which are around

Kalispell, Montana, which is basically the front door of Glacier National Park in the northwest corner of Montana. So when you grow up on the front doorstep of a national park, does that make you automatically like really granola? Like you'd pop out of the womb with like one of those hiking sticks? Does that make you automatically really granola? You'd pop out of the womb with one of those hiking sticks? I would say for some, yes. For me, it didn't quite get me like that.

I did a lot of outdoor stuff, a lot of camping, hiking, and whatnot. The bug didn't infect me as much as it did other people. Because the misconception about Montana is that it's either, not either, but a lot of people think hick, cowboy, bull riding, that type of culture, and there is that there. But especially in the Northwest, it's more of that, like outdoorsy North Face, granola-y, as you said. And there's a lot of that, but I kind of like rode the thin line. I was more of a jock growing up, did a lot of sports.

But Glacier Park is something that I did with the family a lot. I did more getting into high school but didn't totally appreciate until, of course, I was gone. But now every time I go back, that's where I like to hang out. What's your family situation? You got, like, younger siblings, right? I've got an older brother and a younger brother and sister that are twins. Twins? Yeah.

And they're only a year behind me, so it's kind of the three of us. Wow. A cluster. Yeah. I don't know how my parents did it. I couldn't even, I mean, you guys never had twins? No. Could you imagine having twins?

No. No, don't play on it either. I would give one back. I'd leave right. No. Donate it. I'd pick the better looking one. No, man.

It's like, look, I got a spare. That's great. That's another way of seeing it i raised this one and he went and grew up to be a politician and the other one i dropped on its head and it became source fed yeah right there you go so i remember hearing this story i think this was on a table talk where you told about man i guess it was your worst fear the one about going in the haunted house. Oh, yeah. Because your younger twin siblings loved the haunted house, even though you were older, you were deathly afraid of it. Yeah.

And so you insisted on going in with your mom? Yes. My brother and sister, I was probably seven, let let's say so they were six and to me and this is this is my way of getting at the psychological profile of joe as a kid is kind of what i'm after here well the reason i was so deathly afraid of things to even backtrack a little bit more is because my parents made a mistake and i don't even know how it ended up happening but i saw child's play when i was really young chucky oh yeah one of the most frightening things ever, and I became, I had night terrors for like four years after that. Wow. A lot of sleepwalking,

like, would wake up in the middle of the night. Because of child's play. Because of child's play. It just messed me up mentally. It was a, it was a doll that killed people! And befriended the little boy, and earned his trust, and then he turned on him. So it wasn't even just the killing, it was a betrayal of trust. Uh-huh. That freaking doll.

Anyways, I would have night terrors. It legitimately messed you up. It messed me betrayal of trust. That freaking doll. Anyways, I would have nightmares. But it legitimately messed you up for years? Yeah, I have very vivid memories of some of the nightmares that I had about that damn doll. Wow. But I was so messed up in my sleep state that I would, in the middle of the night, sleepwalk downstairs. And you guys have kids. Have you ever seen them sleepwalking? No.

Sleep talking a lot, but no walking. So Hayden has sleptwalked once. Hayden's my daughter and the other the other one jesus jackson is too young to for that to have happened but she's slept walk once and she's talked in her sleep a lot when they talk in their sleep it's creepy it's not cute ever you think it's the cutest thing but i'm like you don't know you're a different person right now and i don't know you i don't know if i should wake you up because that would mess you up. It is scary, yeah. It's weird. It's creepy.

But when they're walking and doing, it's even creepier. But I would like have this blank look on my face, I guess, and I would just casually walk down the stairs in my sleep, turn to my father, and then like take a sprint at him, jump on his lap, grab his shirt and scream, I don't want you to die in his face. Now, imagine your kids doing that to you. That's what that movie did to me. Now I love it. I'm a horror nut now.

It's weird. Yeah, like my teenage years, it kind of clicked, and I was like, oh, wait. Okay, now it's... I should just accept this. Yeah, it's a subconscious love. It's my favorite genre without me even realizing. Have you dealt with this with your parents?

Like, hey. I think I asked them. They don't remember. You don't know how you got accidentally an accidental viewing i don't know if it was just on tv he's four you can handle this i don't know how i don't i honestly don't know what happened it might have been a babysitter because i watched horror movies with my mom but it wasn't that it you know i watched hellraiser probably when i was in middle school you can maybe handle that's pretty good that's some heavy stuff for even middle

school yeah right yeah that stuff's messed up but i wasn't like you know five i was very influential in the mind spot still growing and making connections with my synapses so that explains why you had you you had to go in the haunted house because your younger siblings did it yeah but you had to get your mom to hold your hand yeah so they did it all the time and I never wanted to go into the haunted house. But this time I just said, you know what? I want to grow as a person. It's time to learn some new skills like going through haunted houses with my mother. Because they would always come out laughing and having – like as if they had the best time of their lives.

So I was like, I'm going, but you have to hold my hand, mom. She's like, fine. So my little brother and sister go in first, and then my mom and I walk in. And you guys have been to those fair haunted houses. They're not real haunted houses. They're on the back of a truck. They get driven around, and you step on something, and they make a sound. So we stepped on the first thing.

They're mechanically haunted, not actually haunted. Yeah, right. They're programmed to be haunted. We stepped on one of the little pads, and it makes that sound, and I freak out. And the first thing I do is I just instinctively bite my mom on the butt. I open my mouth, and I go, eee! thing I do is I just instinctively bite my mom on the butt. I open my mouth and I go, and I'm making that sound

and I didn't let go of the clench until we made it all the way out on the other side. So imagine, and I was, it wasn't like a light clench.

It was like, she probably had to be tested. Where were your hands? I don't know. I mean, I was probably grabbing. Probably somewhere else. I mean, right. So she's slapping my face, trying to get me off.

More things are jumping. I'm clenching harder, and we finally get out. And I don't think she ever went haunted. That woman got bitten in the haunted house. That's a scary haunted house, y'all. That woman's butt is bloody. Wow. So yeah, that's the story of me biting my mom's butt for an extended 10 minutes.

So were you an introverted child or was it just you were just afraid of Chucky? I think I was always a silly child. I liked to have fun and I was rambunctious, but I've always, and I still kind of am, slightly introverted in the sense of when I meet new people, I'm kind of quiet until I get to know somebody. Not like rudely quiet, like that's a weird guy quiet, but I've never been the first to go up to a girl and talk to her for the first time or be the first one to make jokes in a crowd. talk to her for the first time or be the first one to make jokes in a crowd. I need a little bit of one-on-one time. I like to feel people out because I'll probably say something where my foot should be long in my mouth, and I need to know that I'm around the type of people where they don't mind that type of humor.

So when did the performer bug start to bite? The performer bug? My senior year in high school, we found a camera and some editing equipment. We started making videos. Before the world of YouTube and stuff like that, there was a class. I think I wasn't taking it, but my friends were. It was just one of those bull crap classes called, I think it was pop culture is literally what it was called. And they talked about- Like a high school elective.

Yeah. That's exactly what it was. Pop culture. Still in Montana. Yep. And one of the assignments in that was go make some commercials or something like that. So we got a camera, got the editing equipment, early, early final cut, you know, when that was first coming out. Yeah.

And we just made a bunch of just dumb videos. I mean, it was the type of stuff that we probably would have made and put on YouTube if YouTube was around at the time. But it wasn't. So that's kind of when it started. And then I went off to college and because we didn't have drama in high school in Columbia Falls at the time and something that I was always interested in, but couldn't do it. So go just do a bunch of sports. That's all I did like five a year and five a year. Yeah. Football, wrestling, basketball, track, baseball, and that was it.

Yeah, that's the five. Okay, so you didn't count cheerleading as a sport. I didn't cheerlead in high school. Okay. Oh, oh. I went to college. Dot, dot, dot. Without any plans, I just went to Gonzaga.

And how did you choose Gonzaga? Gonzaga, I chose because they gave me money. My college search was pathetic. I found that filling out, and nobody should do what I'm about to say, I didn't like filling out all the essays and stuff. I was like, this is more homework. This is like homework for my future. I don't want to do that.

Stupid decision. Didn't look around enough. I had a couple colleges offer me. I had one football scholarship. I had a track scholarship. Small schools, one in North Dakota and one in Montana. And then Gonzaga I knew was a good school. I knew about Gonzaga because of their basketball team.

And they were – everybody in the Northwest was like, Gonzaga's the best. Turns out it was a good school, and I liked that. They gave me good money. Not good enough, as it turns out. School debt's not always fun. But you got a partial academic scholarship. I got a good scholarship, yeah. So you weren't just a jock.

You were smart, too. You made good grades. Yeah, I graduated second in my class. Okay, well, you're an overachiever. I knew Joe was smart. Don't act surprised. Oh, I don't play the smart. He was smart, but applied school smart is a there is a is a

different facet of smartness you see him in that bud light commercial that dude is smart he told me to turn to the camera and i did on cue uh so i went to gonzaga for whatever reason and it turned out was a great choice i loved it and the thing that i was most into watching on tv at the time I loved it. And the thing that I was most into watching on TV at the time was – whose line is it anyways? I loved it. I thought it was amazing. Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles were comedy gods to me.

I didn't know improv was a thing that people could do. And it turns out there was an improv troupe at Gonzaga, and I was a resident assistant. Again, to save money, I was a horrible resident assistant. Good Lord, I was the worst RA. The worst as in the best. I let my guys do whatever they wanted. It was so bad. As a freshman? As a sophomore.

As a sophomore, right. Yeah, and then one of my residents was part of it. I did that thing where you talk about it in hopes that maybe they invite you. Oh, you do that improv thing, huh? That's pretty cool. How did you get into it? Because not that I want to. And then he invited me. I went to it. And then I got into improv. And that's pretty cool how does like did how'd you how'd you get into it because like not that i want to and then he invited me i went to it and then i got into improv and that's kind of how everything started um that got me performing i started doing plays i did pippin i did uh dead

man walking i was matthew poncelet and that and i guess suppose the moment that the rest of the future started to get paved at that moment was that's where i met luke baratz and that's when we started making videos. What about the cheerleading? The cheerleading was... We want to know about the cheerleading. Went to Gonzaga, again, without much of a plan. I was thinking maybe teaching, maybe being a physical therapist.

I didn't research things. I didn't know what my path was going to be. I went there as a blank slate, open to anything. And then my RA at the time was this massive black guy from Hawaii. His name was Lamont. Huge. He was like, I wanted to connect with my RA. I was like, I've never met anybody like you.

I'm like, hey, man, I see that you do the cheer team over there. That's pretty cool. You've never met a black person before i'm from montana i mean is that is that really what's going on i didn't grow up with really there was a couple filipino people in our town but we had one uh black guy in columbia falls when i was growing up uh and his name was Ray and I remember he worked at the local mill and I'm pretty sure he was referred to

as Ray the black guy. Not in like a racist sense or anything like that. As a designation. He was just, that was the one that we had in the town. Incredibly nice guy.

I think his son ended up being like a record-breaking runner. Derek, really good guy. But you got to know Lamont I got to your RA so oh gosh this guy's fascinating it's like seven tangents um in high school I did cheerlead once it they sometimes they recruit like football players to go do a halftime show at like

a basketball game or something and you're wearing makeup no just like through the girls like not safe at all just like hey will you come through our teenage girls for a while? Like, yeah, we'll go do that. It'll be fun. So we did that. And then I walked up to him like, so you do that cheerleader thing. I was like, I did cheerleading in high school for a halftime show once. And he's like, you should come try out. We're looking for people.

And I was like, okay, well, what the heck? I'll go do it. He suggested it. I went there. I did the tryouts just to see what it was like. Not even the tryouts. I went to go check it out for one day just to see what it was all about. And then we did it. I was like, okay, this isn't really my bag. And then I left and then it turned out he made me

come on the one night that was the last night of tryouts. And the reason he was asking people to go is because they didn't have enough people. And I was the last guy that filled the, filled the team. So I was the eighth guy that would have been the eighth for the eighth girl. So they guilted you onto the team. That was later. So I'm sitting there playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater in my dorm room with all of the kids on my level of the dorm. We're just hanging out in my room. And we're like, hey, we're getting to know each other.

We're broing out. I'm like, I'm Joe. I'm Justin. My name's Ty. And we're hanging out and having a good time. And then all of a sudden, boom, flies open there's confetti there's silly string there's streamers and they all yell they're in their cheerleader uniforms and they go you're a cheerleader i turn i'm like oh no so i just ran out with them and then i was on the team

because at that point i did feel I would have felt so bad just ditching this poor girl that all she wanted to do was be a cheerleader. And I will say that it's one of the most not miserable. I didn't like it at all. It was not fun. I continued with it because Gonzaga was supposed to go really far in the

NCAA tournament and I was going to get to go everywhere for free. Yeah, great seats. Sweet! Front row tickets to the Final Four. Dan Dicka is our point guard. He's All-American. We're going to go really far in the NCAA tournament, and I was going to get to go everywhere for free. Yeah, great seats. Sweet. Front row tickets to the Final Four. Dan Dickow is our point guard. He's All-American. We're going to go so far. We lose to Wyoming in the first round.

Ooh. In Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's like the biggest letdown ever. Met a bunch of good guys on the team. I wouldn't change it for that. I got a girlfriend out of it. The girl that you were picking up? No, it was a different one.

Well, how does that work, it was a different one. I was touching on one butt. Let's talk about that because you pick the woman up by the rear. Well, you pick her up by the hips if you want to get technical. But then she sits on the rear. Just tell me about it. What's going through your mind when that happens? Don't drop her. That's it. That whole

masculine perverted side of it all is thrown out the window the first time you throw a human being in the air. And you're like, oh, I got to catch you. This is what this is about. This is about survival. This isn't about an advance of some kind. Actually, the best thing that probably came out of it, other than a couple friends whose weddings I've went to and whatnot and I keep in touch with, is that I went to college with an earring. And it was just a single earring.

I was one of those guys. I was like, I'm going to get it only in one because this is how I'm just going to, I'm going to stand out and do something different. So I did that and it was so stupid and it was infected and constantly looked dumb and I had it. And then in one of the practices, one of the girls was following that we're supposed to catch, and her hand grabbed the earring and ripped it out. So it was meant to be. It made a better decision for my life than I could make for myself, cheerleading. Right. Of course you'll lose an earring.

So there was that. That trajectory fizzled out. But you met Luke. I met Luke in improv, in Guts, Gonzaga University Theater Sports. And is this the type of thing that you guys were, like, you guys were instant best friends type thing? Or what was the situation? With Luke and I, we, he was a freshman and I was a sophomore.

And I didn't start until the end of my sophomore year, but I remember we both were just kind of like, I like how that guy does funny. And vice versa, we both were thinking about that, about each other. And then the next year I became, that's when kind of like, I like how that guy does funny and vice versa. We both were thinking about that about each other. And then the next year I became, that's when I was like, what am I going to do with my life? I'll be a broadcasting major. And then one of the things that I needed to do in broadcasting was create television shows. It was mostly news.

Journalism is kind of what the program focused on, but you could do other things. And me and this other guy, Ben Malachan, who also did a comedy website for a while, really funny guy, were the only two that wanted to do the comedy show while the other 40 people in the program went and did just the news stuff, which I had no interest in. And we just need to make videos. So I was like, Luke, let's go make some videos. And then we made some videos. So most of the early Barats and Beretta stuff that's on our site, Ninja Rap, the Mormon Missionaries, Aaron Patino, that one's been lost to time. Like the first five, six, seven videos, Gonzaga RAs, some other stuff that we've taken out, those were videos that I got graded on, and we just threw up on our early website, which was just a place where we hosted QuickTime videos because, again, it was before YouTube. We got a little bit of a following there, and then YouTube came, and we were like, oh, great. This is cool.

Our parents can watch our stuff now because they can't figure out how to do anything else online. Threw it on YouTube, made Mother's Day, and Mother's Day blew up. So Mother's Day was a class assignment still? Mother's Day was the first video after I graduated, I think. I was working at a commercial production company in Spokane. Luke was still in school. We made that video, and we threw it up on YouTube, and that's the one that blew up. But we had this back catalog of videos.

So it was, oh, wait, these guys made a really funny video that's climbing the YouTube charts, but they've got all this other stuff, and I think that's what helped us out. So, yeah, because you were kind of an entity. You were a brand. You guys had done all of these videos. Quantify this thing blowing up. I mean, at the time. Blowing up back in the day was a little bit different than blowing up these days.

I mean, what's considered blowing up now? Is a million hits on a video even good anymore? I don't know. I don't think it's blowing up. Yeah. I mean, you's considered blowing up now? Is a million hits on a video even good anymore? I don't know. I don't think it's blowing up. Yeah. I mean, you know. Which is crazy to think. Yeah, it's probably like 10 million, really.

Yeah. So we would monitor our stats on our crappy little homepage, bratsandbretta.com, and we would probably get 200, if a good day, 2,000 hits a day. We woke up on Mother's Day or the day before or something like that. I think we posted it the week before Mother's Day. And we had 40,000 hits on our website. We're like, what happened? And that was even before you realized that YouTube could get you traction. And what happened is that our video got featured on the front page of YouTube. And this was back when the front page.

Well, someone made an editorial decision to put you there. And it was one video. The front page on YouTube back in the day was you'd go to YouTube.com and what would come up, I think, is the logo and then a featured video. And that was it. And that was our video. So Bratz and Bretta.com, we were smart enough to put our website at the end of it, started branding for us, and that's how it kind of blew up.

And we were like, what's happening? Figured it out. it out and like this is this is good and then we started getting phone calls and it was crazy when they had this this back catalog of videos

which is a that's a this is a different story than you know you hear from a lot of people which is we made a video it blew up and we immediately thought

oh what are we going to do let's start making more videos so what was the if there was no business plan so to speak. So what was the, if there was no business plan, so to speak, in that, what was the thought? Oh, we've got all these videos. Did you guys want to go around and do live comedy shows? What did you hope this translated into?

I don't think we knew. I don't think anybody knew back then. Yeah. Because, again, I was working at a commercial production company. I was editing. I was an editor. I would occasionally write a commercial, I was working at a commercial production company. I was editing. I was an editor. I would occasionally write a commercial. I would occasionally direct a commercial. That was kind of what I was doing at the time. And all we knew is that we liked making videos. So we kept making videos. And really, it wasn't even just about videos. It was about comedy.

So I joined Comedy Sports in Spokane, which was the professional company there for improv. And I still do that here in LA., which was the professional company there for improv. And I still do that here in LA. It's one of my favorite things to do. And then he continued doing theater and comedy at Gonzaga. And then even during that time, we created a stand-up comedy show. We won a stand-up comedy competition. So we were always doing comedy together. And the videos were just another outlet for that.

So it wasn't like, this is so huge, we got to keep doing it. It was just like, this is so cool, let's keep making videos in our free time because that's what we like to do. And you weren't making money off of the video. Nobody was. There was no partner program. Oh, God, we were so stupid about that. When the partner program started, we were like,

nobody's ever going to buy into this. I think we didn't join the partner program until like two years after it was done. What a waste. Good Lord. Good God. So stupid. Anyway, like no foresight whatsoever. So dumb.

So we kept making videos. And then Luke graduated. And he ended up working at the company with me. And in our downtime at the company, we'd still make videos. We ended up making Cubicle Wars. It was actually, it was a legit commercial that we did for a company,

Windward Reports, that just gave us a little bit of cash, allowed us to do what we want, like the smartest type of sponsor. Here's money, put our name at the end.

That's it. We got to make Cubicle Wars and we went to- Which, by the way, I think that was the first video ever favorited on our channel. Oh, really? I remember that video way back in the day. So it must have been, oh, here's a new button.

It's called Favorite. Yeah, right. And that's the video. I mean, that's one of the first YouTube videos I remember watching. And, I mean, we were trying to do our thing. We had videos on our website and eventually on YouTube too. I can't remember exactly how it worked out. But, I mean, we would watch you guys and it would be like threat.

Or these guys are great. This is the goal. This is the goal. I think it was very much a uh i remember looking at your channel and seeing 65 000 subscribers which at the time i i can't think of anyone who had i mean that was the top you know there was maybe somebody had 70 or whatever peak was i think we were the third most subscribed in the early the early run-ins right i just remember looking at the number and thinking not in in comedy, overall. Yeah.

I was just like, how does that happen? How do you get that many people interested in your content? We didn't even know, again, we didn't realize what was going... We would have capitalized on everything, I think, a lot better.

If we knew then what we know now. I think it was like brookers was number one yeah and then like geriatric that guy that just died uh and then us and then smosh was right behind us bohem yeah old school stuff so yeah and you guys had a number of videos that were you you were played mormon missionaries or there was like a Bible thing. So I guess early on I assumed, okay, this is a Mormon comedy duo because they know this stuff.

Yeah. And that's kind of where they're coming from. What was the perspective there? Was it, is this coming from like your background, people you grew up with or did Luke have experience with? The religious knowledge definitely came from Luke.

I can't speak for him saying if he was like super religious growing up or not, but he just had the knowledge. Luke's one of the smartest guys that I know or have ever met, hands down. And he just knew that stuff. The Bible in a minute, he just showed up one day and he was like, Hey, I wrote this rhyming rap about the Bible in five minutes last night. You want to do it? Yes, let's do it.

It's amazing. And so you didn't, from the whole spiritual side of things or like the biblical or if it was the Mormon thing, you're like, okay, that's not my bag. This is a good idea. It's going to be funny. I'm going along with it. What was your point of reference? Yeah, because I don't think we ever made fun. We never made fun of religion.

We just kind of utilized it as a vehicle. We never like, I don't think we ever pointed fingers and said you're stupid for believing something or you're funny for believing something. We just kind of used it. We did the Wesley Christ, which was Jesus's partying brother. We did the Mormon missionaries.

I think I just was like, hey, Luke, I got this idea. I want to just improv in front of a door that keeps opening up. And that's how that video came to be. And most, I mean, none of that, like not none of it, but a lot of it wasn't written. It was just us messing around with the camera, open a door, say some things.

Yeah, I mean, everything was free game for us, but I don't think we were ever malicious with our comedy, which I think made it palatable for most people. And you thought we were Mormon, like a Mormon comedy duo. So it was either that, are you guys Mormons, are you guys brothers, or are you guys, you know, together? Because it's got to be one of the three. We had a t-shirt when we first started out. It was the male

symbol for the bathroom. The white guy just standing there. We had two of them standing next to each other in a box that said brothers under it. Then there was another box with the same two bathroom symbols just holding hands.

Lovers. So it was brothers are lovers. BratzandBretta.com. You might as well embrace it. Yeah, we embraced it. So it was good. I mean, yeah. YouTube was really good to us at the start.

The Mother's Day was featured, and then our Completely Uncalled For video was featured, and then I think the Wesley video was featured, and so was Windward Reports. I think those were our four, and that helped us keep getting a fan base. Yeah, so when did Hollywood start calling? After Mother's Day. It was pretty quick. Mother's Day came out, and maybe let's say a month later or whatever, after releasing a couple more videos, we got a call from a manager in Hollywood that was like, hey, I'm a manager in Hollywood. But his voice was like this, right?

Yeah. No, he's really young. He's a real go-getter. I want to manage you guys. And we're like, you're in Hollywood. What are you going to do for us? We're in Spokane, Washington. He's like, I'll make things work.

And he did. He worked really hard for us. What was his name? Dan Farah. And he's actually Tony Danza's manager now which is interesting yeah

so yeah so he called us and we're like cool you can be our manager didn't expect to hear anything because we figured if he's going to find

any work for us it was going to be in LA and he's not going to find any work for two Spokane possible Mormon comedy duo boys and a week after that

CAA in LA, which is one of the big agencies down here, they wrote us an email and were like, we want to rep you. We're like, what's a CAA? And then somebody informed us, they're like, you have to. Alright, they're not going to find us any work, it doesn't

matter. And then we luckily had a manager and an agency on our team, because a week after that, NBC sent us an email. It was literally one line that was like, hey, we're NBC. We want you guys to do a pilot. Like, okay.

Okay, NBC, fake account guys. But they did, and that's how it happened. Then we had the team in place. They got us a good deal, and we wrote a sketch comedy pilot and got to shoot it and direct it and edit it and called This is Cul-de-sac. It was really fun. Learned a lot. So it was a 22-minute pilot. Yeah. Maybe a little and called This Is Cul-de-sac. It was really fun. Learned a lot.

So it was a 22-minute pilot. Yeah. Maybe a little longer. This Is Cul-de-sac. And you guys were the stars? Yeah, we did everything. You did everything. The only thing that we did not do was press record on the camera.

They got us a really good DP. Okay. His name was Greg. He was amazing. And there was a development deal associated with that, right? So was it we're paying you guys to make a pilot or we're paying you guys to kind of lock you up to whatever it is we want to work with you guys? I don't think we got the lockup deal. What is that called?

I forget. Oh, no. First look or – Yeah, people will do that. I know Jimmy Fallon was like locked up with NBC for the longest time. Like he couldn't go do other pilots because they were like if you're gonna do something we're gonna give you a lot of money and someday you'll do it for us i forget what it's called um no they paid us to they wanted to make uh an edgy hip uh alternative comedy hour

uh is what mbc wanted to do at the time so it it was us, and they planned on combining us. The second half an hour was supposed to be improv everywhere. Yeah. You guys remember them? Yeah. Charlie Todd. Yeah, so we were going to do our sketch thing, and they were going to do the live comedy stuff out in the real world.

And I can't remember if they got a show or not. They didn't on NBC. I think they did somewhere else. Maybe IFC? I don't remember. I don't know if it ever became a TV show. But anyway, so we got to,

they said, do whatever you want and we're like, well, we know how to make sketch comedy. So we made sketch comedy and the show,

like I said, was called This is Cul-de-sac and it was about two guys that lived in a town and we played all the quirky characters

in the town. So we brought the Mormon missionaries into the show. They rapped. And we released a couple of these, Mailman versus Milkman, which is on our channel. That was part of it. Yeah, it was just this daily look inside of this town called Caldusack,

and you would see the construction workers do something, and then the mailman and the milkman, and then the missionaries. And it would have been different characters every single episode played by us, hopefully guest stars as it went on I think the concept is actually pretty good and I think there's a show called Little Britain

that kind of did something similar over in England and but it was all on location and when it comes to sketch comedy

that doesn't make a lot of sense so it would have been an expensive show and I don't think you take a chance on somebody especially when

on a show like that, which is Sketch, which would have existed on the same network that already has the pinnacle of Sketch shows, which is Saturday Night Live. Right. And I mean, The Lonely Island had their version of the same thing, which I think was after you guys called Awesome Town. Awesome Town, yeah. Which was kind of, they posted it on their YouTube channel.

Yeah, I'm trying to remember. I just remember the opening because it was great. Come along with us. Is that how they do it? No, no, no. It was a very cheesy Sesame Street-ish kind of a thing. But they posted their whole pilot. I mean, once the thing kind of didn't happen,

you took some of the clips and put them on your channel. Yeah, I think the Lonely Island was smart and made a deal where they were like, well, we have an online following. the thing kind of didn't happen you took some of the clips and put them on your channel yeah i think i think the lonely island was smart and made a deal where they were like well we have an online following if it doesn't happen can we put it on there or maybe they financed the whole thing and they got to put it on there no matter what so what happened with that with you guys did that was that in retrospect what was it some money in your pocket the whole experience yeah was it a diversion from creating on youtube yes i would say that or myspace there was a little bit of that too we it was a definite version because we were we were on the uptick like i said we were in the top

10 three three for a while but like we were up there for the longest time and then we again we didn't know the youtube game. Nobody did back then, but consistent content was important back then. And we stopped doing consistent content because we were off doing a pilot. And I think we didn't post an original video for eight months or something like that where we're running around. And I think that kind of stunted our growth and it didn't stop us from doing videos, but I think it, it hindered us a little bit as far as, you know, staying in the upper ranks, but we've always had a very devote, uh, following devout following. Um, so that wasn't a huge problem. And then the MySpace deal came

around and that was great. Cause that was, we're going to pay you a lot of money to post one video a month on MySpace and we're like well can we put in there that we get to keep the rights to all of our videos and they're like sure and we're like

do you mind if we try to also put those videos on YouTube three weeks after we put them on MySpace and they're like sure like this is the best deal ever so we got paid

pretty good money to do the MySpace deal and it was right before MySpace died we killed MySpace and and that was right before MySpace died. We killed MySpace. And I think they were trying to save themselves and by doing that, they were making outrageous deals with content creators and we were one of them, thank God. And again, that was another thing where we were still producing for YouTube. But then – even then, the YouTube world was forming itself and one of the things was you don't go off of YouTube even if you're going to put videos on YouTube.

We're going to be really angry at you. So we even lost I think a little bit of the fan base for going to MySpace first and then putting the videos on YouTube. So I don't think we ever played the YouTube game correctly, but YouTube has always been great to us. And so it was such a weird way to put it. We've never put a good business plan in practice for YouTube because making videos for us was always, it was always the extra thing we did. We always had another job or, or it was just a free time thing in the start at the beginning.

And yeah, I mean, we've never been a consistent poster on the site, but we've always had a really good following, which you can't really complain. It'd be interesting to see what would happen if we found a business plan or a life plan at this point, because that's the age group we're in. Right.

At what point did you move here in this process? And then I'm curious, like, when the SourceFed thing kind of came in kind of from left field, I don't know how you would characterize that. It was the middle of the MySpace era. Moved to LA. Yeah, so we were getting a good enough paycheck from MySpace where we could up and move. And we upped and moved and got our minds blown about how expensive this city is.

It's outrageous. And the MySpace money kept us afloat for quite a while. And then that ran out and it was just odd for me because I have a family. It became odd jobs after that. It's like, we're still doing videos, Luke and I, whenever we can, but I have to go be a bartender here. And then it became, I need to be a waiter.

And then I was like, I was serving pancakes to Jeff Goldblum and friends for, God, it was probably a year and a half or two. You literally served pancakes to Jeff Goldblum? Literally served pancakes to Jeff Goldblum and his random, super young, different girl that he brought in every day. Oh, it was his hangout. Which restaurant was this? The Griddle Cafe.

Were you like on a first name basis with him no but he did say i looked like aaron eckert and i was like cool thanks jeff goldblum love jurassic park and what did he say uh he said get me my oatmeal um no brown sugar ian zearing would show up every once in a while i can can see that. 9-2-1-0. Yeah, yeah. Good looking guy. Very. Still looks like Ian's earring. It still does. And about this time

is when kind of the source fed opportunity happened. Yeah, so I'm serving pancakes but I'm also at my wit's end.

The place was very good to me. I've got no qualms about it. It's a good job and made me good enough money for what I needed to do at the time while we were making Bratz and Brady videos sporadically. But I needed, what was going through my mind when the SourceFed opportunity came about was I need to take a life risk.

I need to do something different. Otherwise, what am I doing? And then I heard about SourceFed and I just, I went and auditioned for it. I went, you know, I was like, this is going to be something different. I feel a little weird about it because it's in the YouTube realm, but I need to take a risk. I need to take a chance, and then thankfully it worked out. You felt weird about it because it's in the YouTube realm. What do you mean?

Well, you feel loyal to the thing that you're doing on the platform that you're doing it. So Barats and Beretta is the thing I was like, well, should I do this because I I'm Baratts and Beretta. If I'm on YouTube, that's what I'm doing. But again, Baratts and Beretta wasn't my job. It's always been like the thing that if it could make us money, great, I would do it.

But at the time, it's either I do Baratts and Beretta and serve pancakes or I do Baratts and Beretta and I do SourceFed, which is in the realm of the things that I'm doing. And was there a perception, I mean, as a, as a comedian, as a sketch comedian, with the background that you had, what, what reservations did you have about getting involved with a format, a news format? You knew, you knew you were going to get to be funny. It wasn't like, oh, this is unfunny straight laced news but did you have

reservations about the format if so what were they i don't think i did i i wanted to try something different because what i was doing wasn't working i was a i was a married man or i wasn't quite married yet but we're essentially i was an essentially a married man with a kid and i was serving pancakes at 28. And I didn't want to be that guy anymore. So I was willing to try anything new. And I knew it was in the realm of YouTube, and it was something that I could – hopefully if it was successful, I could build my own brand as well as help build the Barretta brand as well as just trying new different things at the same time.

So I didn't mind the format, but even going into it, I don't think the format was really nailed down and we got to kind of create that with our voices which was nice me and elliot and and lee and i think we created something kind of fun and different which was nice right now going into it what was your did you know phil and what was your perception of him and and how has that changed since working for him? Phil and I were, I think we just kind of, we always just knew of each other's existence. Like he, we met each other, I think, for the first time at, the first time I met you guys. It was in San Francisco. YouTube Live.

That's right. I'm so disappointed there hasn't been another YouTube Live because I had a blast. It was a big old waste of money, but I had a blast yeah it was a big old waste of money but I had a blast yeah it was good it was fun I met MC Hammer

it was amazing how many seven years 2006 I still have the hat eight years yeah dang

that's crazy it was such a good time we saw Katy Perry before she was Katy Perry yeah we did that's right she molested Bo Burnham on stage

it was great he was like 15 she was Katy Perry. Yeah, we did. That's right. She molested Bo Burnham on stage. It was great. He was like 15. So yeah, no. I knew of what Phil, I knew Phil and I knew what he did and I think vice versa. And I think he heard that I wanted to do SourceFed and he was like, cool. I know what Joe does and wanted to bring me on, and it kind of worked out in that sense. And then – What's your title over there?

I'm the head writer. What does that mean? That means I listen to scripts. Are you like dad over there? I've heard you're like – Joe's like the dad. He's in charge, really. He's in charge of SourceFed. he's in charge of SourceFed we've had different

timelines of what my level of power is there but yeah as the head writer I help choose the stories or they basically pitch them to me and if it sounds like it's a stinker I'll say we should probably

find something else that's it but everybody has free voice they'll read me their script and if I have a joke that I can help punch them up I'll say we should probably find something else. That's it. But everybody has free voice. They'll read me their script, and if I have a joke that I can help punch them up, I'll do it. And five months ago to a year back, a year prior to that, I would also watch down final edits. But we've since brought on a producer that now does the final watchdowns for videos and stuff, so I don't have to worry about that. And so Elliot's gone, and I know Meg's gone. the final watchdowns for videos and stuff. So I don't have to worry about that. So. Yeah. And so Elliot's gone and I know Meg's gone. There's other people coming in.

There's a lot of fresh faces type of thing. Are you moving more kind of behind the scenes or are you doing the same amount of videos? I was just curious. No, it's pretty much the same. We have a couple part-timers now, Matt, Will, and Raina. They've kind of come in and are picking up some of the slack after Meg and Elliot went off to go do their own thing. But I would say my workload is still the same.

Was that a good decision for them, for Elliot, for Meg? What was the deal there? I think they both just were ready to go try something new. Before joining SourceFed, I needed to take a risk to find inspiration and passion again. And I think for them, they needed to just try something different.

I mean, we've been doing it for two and a half years now. It's a long time to do anything in the realm of YouTube, let alone entertainment. And it seems like you've got kind of a, you coming from a background of having something that everybody knew about on YouTube

with Bratz and Bretta, and then that kind of losing momentum in a certain way where you had to have a second job, moving into something that now is also a really popular entity. You're part of something different. It's a different story than what they have, where they really, nobody knew who they were from YouTube.

Now they've kind of built a career, and they can kind of maybe go try something on their own. For you having had that, and now having what you have with SourceFed, being a part of something like this, do you have less of that desire to be like, yeah, maybe someday I do want to go back and try to make the Brads and Beretta thing

or the Joe Beretta thing happen in a big way? Or how do you feel about where you're at right now? Yeah, I'm super passionate about all three things. I've got a lot of pride for SourceFed because I do feel like a lot of it is something that I created out of or helped create out of my hard work and passion and my vision. And I only want to see it succeed and I want to be there as it succeeds. But there's also the creator, independent Joe, that's inside of what I'm doing right now that for the first time

where I'm now starting to figure out maybe what I want to do with my own personal brand because all of my endeavors have been with somebody else or connected to somebody else. And now I want to find the time to also build the Joe Beretta vision, whatever that is. I can't say what it is, but I'm finally taking steps to make that happen while continuing to do SourceFed. So I started JoeBeretta.com where I'm doing a little bit of writing and stuff and posting all the daily or weekly happenings of things that I do on the internet or in Hollywood. And then I started my own YouTube channel finally with nothing on it except for my Vine compilations right now because that's just a time thing. And then Bratz and Brita is definitely something that I want to put more time and effort into. time and effort into. And once I have that opportunity, it's something that I would love to build just because I don't think there, I have yet to see something where two guys are doing what

Luke and I did. I feel like I can go back and watch our videos and they still make me laugh. And sometimes I forget that we did some funny stuff. I'll get, I'll get caught up watching the videos with my daughter and I'll be like, damn it. Damn it. I should like a lot of the reason what we didn't capitalize on is just because I did have to have a job and do other things. And if I had that opportunity to put more time and effort into it, I think we could do some pretty cool stuff. So where's Luke at on this?

If he's just as down to want to do it. No, no, definitely me. It's 100% me. So you're the problem. I'm the problem. I mean, your commitment to SourceFed is so involved. My commitment to just like needing to feed my family sure yeah uh but the source fed does take a lot of time up but i don't think that's an excuse for not continuing to make content over on bradson

bretta that was just uh you know you're up at five in the morning you're home at four you're tired yeah gotta spend the weekends a little bit. And we, like we have made a couple of videos here and there, but again, never consistently enough to parlay that into something bigger. So do you guys, uh,

do you guys talk about that? I mean, like how, how does that work? What's the dynamic as you talk about the status of Brass and Brut in the future? That's the other thing about the way we've always worked is that it's always just kind of, there was never, we would never just sit down and create. It'd be like, I got an idea.

I got an idea. We would email them back and forth and stuff, and then we'd get together and make it. Like, it was our system of creation never really had us in the same place at the same time having those type of conversations. But we, when, when we did get together, we would make live shows that were like 45 minute live shows that we've, we've done tours for comedy at colleges and stuff. Like we make good stuff together. It just comes down to what is the reality where you both can make a living while making content. And that reality is getting harder and harder to grasp as we're getting older, especially with me having two kids. And what is he doing? He writes for a bunch of channels.

And if he's not writing for other people, he's writing for himself. He's got a channel, too, that's really good. He's done a lot of funny stuff on it, Barat's Productions. And then he's constantly writing pilots and movies. I mean, he's constantly on just the edge of, I feel, blowing up. He just needs that one exec to read one script, and he'll have a TV show or a movie or whatever. He's probably got stacks upon stacks upon stacks he's a writing savant he stays busy he does he keeps the bent

the pen down again if he's not writing for somebody else he's writing for himself and again he's just getting better and better and better so do you do you see yourself ironically as some what of a news guy now i mean not certainly not completely i mean i i hear kind of the heart behind what you want to where you want to be in terms of creating things but none of us your your public profile is kind of a news guy now none of us can sit none i i don't think i'm stepping out of bounds by saying everybody on source fed i don't think i am i can't think of somebody that would disagree with this, thinks that they're a journalist or thinks that they're a news guy.

We all consider ourselves entertainers that are creating on a news aggregate. We research and read other people's actual journalism that go out in the actual field and interview actual human beings and we take that information and we turn it into something that is informational and hopefully entertaining and we are we are a connector to journalism i feel like we open up the doors to events in the world to people that don't want to watch CNN or MSNBC and stuff like that. I hate CNN and too many Ns. It's the worst. What's their problem?

Why did they name it that? I don't know. So I think we're more of, we open doors to that world, but I don't consider myself a news person. And anybody that says to me, you're the only person I get my news from, I go, that's a horrible decision and you should probably get some other sources. I go, that's a horrible decision, and you should probably get some other sources. And because you should do that anyways, you shouldn't just be going to CNN and NNN or MSN and NBC.

You know, you got to bounce around and formulate your own opinion. I don't know, Joe. I feel like that kind of sounds like a cop-out. Sure. Because— You think that's like Jonart saying he's not a real journalist yeah i think to me i think like i certainly don't look down my nose if it when asking the question do you consider yourself a news guy a newsman or whatever um i mean there's certainly it's an interesting opportunity a position that you're in if people are getting their news from you it it there's a there's this there's an implied level of responsibility that if i were you i guess i wouldn't be that

comfortable with i agree with what you're saying because wow they're only going to listen to me and which is why i tell them to not yeah but i do i i do look at john stewart look at the look at that dude he'd give you the same answer that I just gave you, and he's done it a lot. The interesting dynamic, though, and even though GMM is not a news show, we don't have someone here on staff who is going out and getting to the bottom of something.

We're reading blogs. We're reading news sites, right? We're finding articles that have been posted. Yeah. And so in that sense, you don't have that at SourceFed either. You're presenting the news in an entertaining way. I do at times feel,

not like being irresponsible, but more like, ah, yeah, there's somebody out there actually got this story. I don't know how that person, I don't know how it works. I don't know how that person got the story, but we're taking that. I don't think it's fair to actual journalists to consider ourselves journalists. I would say we're, if you want to attach the word news, let's say we're news personalities. And if that's the case, they need to know what they're listening to, which is why I say you need to listen to other people because I'm just giving you – well, you guys want an unbiased take on the news. Well, I'm not researching this. I'm reading somebody else's take, which is probably off of somebody an entertaining way, which is how I feel SourceFed is the number one thing is entertainment than informational.

But a lot of people do see it the other way, informational than entertainment-wise. And just this week, I redid a story. It was one of the first times that I ever did it because I was about this lady that hit and killed. Sued the family of the boy that she actually killed. So she hit a kid with her car late night. Kid died. And then it turns out all the news reports were saying she was suing the family and the dead kid for money. And I was like, that's bullshit. And then I made a video where I was just, it was just rage.

I just didn't, it was incredible. They used the word biased, but it was just a reaction is what it was. And I was like, this is how this made me feel. And then got a lot of blowback for it in the sense of, oh, this is incredibly biased. You didn't read this and this and this, and you didn't take this lady's side into consideration. It's like, well, we're not journalists where we need to be 100% unbiased all the time. Again, we are reacting to other people's hard work. So anyways, I went back and I watched the video and I didn't like

how I did it. It was reactionary. It was, again, it was almost like blind rage. I used, It was reactionary. It was, again, it was almost like blind rage. I used, I just described the woman in very, very vivid terms in a very negative light. I was like, well, okay, well, I think this story probably deserves a little bit more of both sides. So I went back and I made a second video where I discussed both sides a little bit more, gave the devil's advocate of both situations. And then I was like, here's my opinion. And that's really probably how a lot of things should be done in that realm.

But in the realm of making five videos a day with a lot of turnaround, we can't put that much time and research and energy into every single video, like a real journalist. I get it. And the interesting thing is, you're also, you're not just a news personality, you're an internet personality, which carries with it people want to know you. They want to know your opinion.

They want to know you as a person. That's the success of SourceFed. That's why SourceFed works in ways that these other news personalities don't because Phil knew people like personalities, so he was like, I'm going to get people that people will like to do this. And so that's why ultimately a guy like elliot can go and try to do something on his own because everybody knows him and likes him now you know again personalities and entertainers first that happen to be doing a new show

and i'm interested you know when you look at something like table talk as a series i was curious if you found yourself sharing more of the real Joe because of the off-the-cuff nature of table talk. I mean, you're a sketch comedy guy who's found himself in a news environment, news entertainer, we'll say. We'll apply that label. as close as maybe you never thought you'd get so close to being a vlogger that you're sharing personal experiences. Like biting your mom's butt. Yeah. So I was curious if you found yourself sharing more of yourself.

Probably. Because I've always had the impression that you're kind of a guarded guy, but my theory is that with table talk, you find yourself talking and sharing more of yourself than you instinctively would share as joe i think uh i'll always be a storyteller in the sense when we're sitting here together shooting the the crap is that uh that no i've never i've never had a filter in that sense but i do have a filter in there are a bunch of things in my life that nobody needs to know and I don't like I know when to talk about

things and when not to talk about things so if I have a funny story or something that I feel like will educate somebody or give some perspective I'll tell that but I've never vlogged because I don't feel like everything about my family is anybody's business but my own and that, but I've never vlogged because I don't feel like everything about my family is anybody's business, but my own. And that's why I've never been much about, you know, picking up the camera and putting every bit of my life online for everybody to see, because I don't want my life to become a reality show. And I kind of want some of that just for me, you know? Yeah. Yeah. kind of want some of that just for me you know yeah um yeah i don't know i i there's i will tell almost anything and everything but there's always going to be a line for me we started as sketch comedians and entertainers online and i feel like we've always enjoyed the fourth wall the fourth

wall has always been an important thing to us. But over time, SourceFed and me just realizing the nature of YouTube and the audience on YouTube, you have to break down that fourth wall a little bit because it isn't television. YouTube is creating that community and building that community. And I'm way more okay with that now than I was 10 years ago when it all started. But I don't think I'll ever be that vlogger guy. 10 years ago when it all started. But I'll never, I don't think I'll ever be that vlogger guy. I think for me, and I could be wrong because I'm not the audience. Entertainer, comedian, fourth wall Joe will always, for me,

be more entertaining than just what I do during my everyday life. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I should have been. I've been wrong about YouTube all the time. Partner program, That's stupid. Nobody's going to do that. The audience will just recoil and stop watching. Well, I've certainly enjoyed the candid side of Joe here and taking a trip down memory lane.

I have. I appreciate that. Thanks, guys. Yeah. Well, you know, you say- A lot of rambling. You haven't figured out YouTube, but you're doing something right. YouTube been good to me.

Very, very good. You're doing something right, or else we wouldn to me. Very, very good. You're doing something right, or else we wouldn't have you at the round table of dim lighting. Where's that Phil signature? Yes, we would. I mean, we're friends. We'd have him just because we're friends,

but that's not why we had you. The first time we ever hung out was at a bar just down the road from here. It was. British Pub. It's called British Pub. All right, man, sign up. I will.

All right, Phil, say goodbye to your signature, buddy. Oh, he's barking right through it. Right on. There it goes. And there it was, our Joe Beretta ear biscuit. You know, he's one of the only examples I could think of of someone who

has essentially reinvented himself on YouTube. I mean, yeah, there from the very beginning, top three most subscribed channel with Beretta and Beretta. But then, you know, it's fascinating to hear the story that kind of led to being a shaping force in the whole format of SourceFed. I mean, getting it on the ground, loving us and inventing how that SourceFed was going to work and continues to work to this day, even with a lot of new hosts, a lot of credit goes to Joe and reinventing

himself as a part of that. Yeah, I can't think of another example. There may be on YouTube, but YouTube hasn't been around that long for enough people to reinvent themselves yet. So he's a pioneer in that way, I would say. It's tough enough to just... Do one thing. To figure out what you're doing, the one thing that you're doing, right?

And I think it's cool that there's people who would just know, oh, Joe, yeah, from SourceFed. Oh, you mean he's also part of a comedy duo that has this history and this huge success and had these opportunities. Yeah, that would be surprising that thing you know but i just i think it just goes to show you that he's got that he's got that skill set and i and i do think uh i will not be uh surprised at all when i hear that uh joe is got something else cooking is uh i mean maybe that's a barats and bretta thing maybe that's

just a joe beretta thing but he's a smart guy he's a talented guy uh and he's a great family man you know he's got that motivation he's got a lot of motivation you know a lot of respect for joe and you know high hopes for uh everything that he's going to do and yeah i mean i'm excited to hear about he and luke continuing to work yeah, I mean, I'm excited to hear about he and Luke continuing to work together. You know, I was kind of afraid to hear that he might tell us, oh, Barats and Beretta, it's basically over, guys.

You know? But I was encouraged to hear that that's not the case. That, you know, there could be some more. And I hope there will be. Well, it's too good of a name. I mean, you know, Barats and Beretta. Even right. Asking to be comedically dualized forever.

You got to pair those names up. I mean, one is a name of a gun. You know, I don't know what Barats is. The other one is Barats. Yeah. They sound good together. They both got a B. End of story.

Well, when you abbreviate them, B and B, it's like bed and breakfast. You know what? They could just have a bed and breakfast. Barats and bread, a bed and breakfast. I'd be into that. I like a bed and breakfast. You like a bed and breakfast. I love it.

I think you might even like a bed and breakfast more than I do. I don't particularly like eating breakfast with strangers is the one reason, is the main downfall of the bed and breakfast. But if Joe and Luke are there, I'm like, well, it's great. Then it's not strangers, right? It's just like, yeah, you guys are here every day. You didn't have to make this for me. Gosh.

Tomorrow I'll make something for you. We should have told him about that. Do you like your sausage mixed in with your scrambled eggs? Because that's one of my favorite things to eat. I could learn how to make it. My wife makes it. I like an about that. Do you like your sausage mixed in with your scrambled eggs? Because that's one of my favorite things to eat. I could learn how to make it. My wife makes it. I like an omelet. I like an omelet stationed in a bed and breakfast.

Surely they can figure that out. One of them can. I like a pancake with an apple slice in it. What? That happens? At a bed and breakfast, I got one of those one time. Is it a circular apple slice? Like it's a circle cut?

No, just like some cross sections of apple and a pancake. Let's take care of that on our own time. Let's wrap up this ear biscuit. I'm interested. We should have called this thing, we should have called this podcast Apple Pancakes. Apple and a pancake? Apple Pancakes.

But it's ear biscuits and we can't change it now. Dang, Link, you got some good ideas. You just came up with this on your own? No, I ate it at bed and breakfast many years ago. And they offered it to you. At the Outer Banks. They said, do you want an apple in your pancake? No, they didn't even ask.

They just gave it to me. Wow. Okay, well, that's rocked my world. Well, again, guys, thank you for being with us for this episode of Apple and a Pancake. You're special. Apple pancakes. It's gotta be plural.

Be sure to let Joe Beretta know on Twitter what you think of his ear biscuit. Also hashtag Ear Biscuits It Up to share the love. And let us know on iTunes what you think about the podcast. Remember, leaving a review, hitting that little star button. The more stars, the better. That helps out a lot.

And you can leave a comment on SoundCloud. And we will do this again next week because you can count on us. And I know we can count on you because I know you. You think we can get one of those apple pancakes right now? I'm not going to make it if that's what you're asking.

Okay. Well, maybe next week.