Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 39 Dane Boedigheimer- Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: June 27, 2014

Dane Boedigheimer, the creator of one of, if not the, biggest YouTube to TV crossover series of all time, “The Annoying Orange,” sits down with Rhett & Link this week to talk about his experience growing up in middle-of-nowhere North Dakota, navigating around inappropriate photos while working at a one-hour-photo shop, witnessing meth heads rolling around in his front lawn, and of course how he made "The Annoying Orange" into what it is today. 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 is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits. I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. It's time for another conversation with somebody interesting from the internet. And this week, the person that's joining us at the round table of dim lighting is Dane Bodegheimer. Dimmed lighting. Known to fans as Danebo. Known to us as Dane. lighting known to fans as dane bow known to us as dane he's the creator of probably the largest or most successful crossover series of all time moving from the internet to tv you may have heard of it's called the annoying orange that's right it it's an orange with a mouth superimposed on

well dane's mouth superimposed on right as well as dane's eyes superimposed on it. Well, Dane's mouth superimposed on it. Right. As well as Dane's eyes superimposed on it. I think technically it's one of his eyes superimposed twice. It's the same eye. Yeah. Doubled. Which may be part of the key to the success, along with, well, all the other factors, which we talked to Dane about.

It premiered as a one-off video in October 2009 and now has over 152 million views. I'm talking about just that first episode of The Annoying Orange. Here's a clip. Hey, Apple. What? You look fruity. Yeah, that was hilarious. Hey, hey, Apple. What? Can you do 10 push-ups in 10 seconds? What kind of question is that? I don't even have arms. How am I going to do one push-up? Hey. What?

Hey, Apple. What? Can you do this? No, no, no, no, no, no. No. Try it. No, stop it. Okay, with that initial success of that video,

Dane got the bright idea to start a channel that was wholly devoted to the Annoying Orange. It's called Real Annoying Orange. That was a good decision because that channel has since racked up two billion, that's billion with a B, that's like almost a third of the world's population views. And in 2012,

Cartoon Network picked up the series and adapted it for television with Dane still running the behind-the-scenes production operation The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange. He's orange. He has a lot of friends. We live together on a fruit stand. They have adventures all across the land and even play in a rock and roll band. He's orange. Annoying orange. He's orange. Annoying orange. He's orange. Since then, that television show has had two seasons, 60 episodes,

but Dane hasn't stopped on the internet. He's still cranking out weekly episodes of The Annoying Orange. And also making videos on his own channel, Danebo. Yeah, he's still got at least two active YouTube channels with a lot of content. We had a great conversation with Dane. He's got a lot of interesting life experiences that he shared with us, one of which was how to deal with inappropriate pictures while working at a one-hour photo lab. It's touch and go with that.

Also, how he worked in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota, where he grew up, and then his move to Bakersfield, California, where he found meth heads rolling around in his front lawn. Quite a shock. Never happened to me. No. But I'm glad it happened to him so he could tell us about it. And obviously we talked about the many creative iterations

that eventually led to creating the internet and TV phenomenon that is the Annoying Orange. So here it is, our Ear Biscuit with Dane. I watched the video you did where you listen to yourself on delay

and I tried it oh my god yes do you fall victim to it? oh yeah because there are some people who don't really?

you know on the mythical show we have the fine brothers the fine brothers were on there and neither one of them are susceptible to it like they they had no problem at all whereas

we get on there and and it's just... Hi, I'm the... Yep, that's totally what it is. So, you try this in, like, your spare time? Well, what happens is we do... Every Monday morning, we have a Google Hangout with my whole crew, because some of the guys work remotely.

And for whatever reason you know sometimes like video hangout yeah video hangout but for whatever reason there's you know feedback yeah and then you're talking and you can hear yourself talking and then pretty soon you're like I can't hear what okay now I can talk you know yeah headphones off yep so yeah I. Yeah, I mean, there's, I don't know what it says about the Fine Brothers, but there's something about the, you're just letting go and just talking

and knowing that you sound like a complete idiot. Yeah, I'm the worst when it comes to that. So, yeah. Now, going to your studio was, I think I said this when we were there and we were doing our guest spot for the Annoying Orange. It was kind of like a dream come true. It was like, well, or like a field trip. Like you watch this show and your friends are getting to go on the field trip.

When do I get to go on the field trip? And it's like, what is it going to be like when I get there? Are there going to be paddle boats? Yeah. The best field trip we went on in grade school was to Pullen Park and there were paddle boats. And that was the only disappointment, I got to say. You didn't have paddle boats.

That's next on the list. But it was a very cool experience being guest on Annoying Orange, especially because we got to be rappers. Yeah. Yeah. You get to be the wrapping fries. Yeah.

Chris Cut and Cut Chris. Cut Chris. Yeah. Well, and, you know, I had made assumptions about how the process would work or whatever. The one thing that I had not thought of was how still our heads had to be right yeah so you sit us down in the stool you sit right down in the stool first i'm like let go first because if this is gonna hurt i want to know i didn't know yep you can see how it goes so you sit down in the stool and i think you told him to put his head back if you want to put your

head back you can but it was basically the i saw you set up the camera, just film his mouth. And I mean, you've got this down to a science. Right. By this point. It's been five years. Five years. Has this staying, because the first thing that happened was

I sat down and I wanted to move my mouth to express myself, especially when you're kind of- Move your whole head. Yeah, move your whole head when you're adopting a character. Has this affected the way that you communicate in life? Do you find yourself like keeping your head still now? Not consciously.

I bet you, I have to wonder actually. I mean, if somebody, you know, if they did a study of me, like, you know, starting five years ago to now, because I can't tell. I had motion study. You did? No, I'm just saying if they did- study of me, like, you know, starting five years ago to now, because I can't tell. I had motion study. You did? No, I'm just saying if they did, it would be a head motion study and you could be able to track. Now your head moves. I can tell your head's not moving that much when you're talking.

You might be right, actually. Well, I was going to say that I think his head is moving a normal amount. Normal, it is. I think you got normal head movement while talking. Right. It's kind of funny because you learn how to keep your head extremely still and emote as much as possible, but still move the rest of your body, like using

your hand to gesture, things like that when you're saying something angry, like, I hate this very much, but you can keep your whole body very still. What character was that? That was my dad. Really? That was my dad. Really? That was my father.

No, I'm just kidding. So, you know, I feel like it was a success. I haven't seen our criss-cross guest yet. It hasn't come out yet as of this taping. But it was a grand experience. Oh, yeah. And you said five years of getting this thing down to a science. I want to thank you for the experience.

It was like paddle boating. Paddle boating. You guys were naturals. There's a lot of people, and no disrespect to anyone that comes in and sits down, because it's a little, I don't know, it's hard to sit down in a chair, and then you've got these lights shining at you. They're like two feet away, and you've got a giant camera in your face and somebody's saying, keep your head completely still.

Don't move at all, but be excited and say your lines with a lot of emotion. It's hard to do it all. And a lot of people come in and get a little freaked out. And so they're very kind of timid and they don't really get into the character. But you guys came in, sat down, and rocked it out. So it was fun. You've had some high-profile guests on that thing. I mean, from the start, it was you've always incorporated YouTubers.

But you've had some mainstream celebrities in there too over time, right? So back in the day, I got a cold call email. And this company wanted James Condoby on the show to help promote whatever they were trying to promote. And so I got to go to his house and meet him, and it was just me with a camera, sat down, filmed him. You were like, he knew you were just going to film my mouth. Right, yep. I mean, he kind of knew.

I mean, he kind of knew what was going on, but at the same time really didn't. It was a lot of fun, actually. He was a really, you know, gregarious guy. He just told a lot of really weird stories, and he would go off on tangents in the middle of a line. It was, you know, he really... Yeah, it was fun. Could he keep his head still?

Yeah, he actually did a really good job. He was a good head stiller. Yes. And what part did he play he played jalapeno okay very sexy jalapeno was was justine one of the first guests or yeah yeah she was the first guest before that it was like bob jen's was he helping you out at the time no bobby wasn't really helping i mean he was he was one of my buddies, you know, good friend at that time. And he was kind of watching this whole thing grow.

But he was actually in the same episode that Justine was in. So that was the first episode with other people. Right. Well, let's go back to the beginning of you before we go back to the beginning of Orange. So where did you grow up? North Dakota. Wow. Oh, did you grow up? North Dakota. Wow. Oh, there's people there. There is. All of like 20.

What was the situation? The situation was, it's a little town right outside of Fargo, North Dakota called Harwood. Growing up, I was, well, in college, I was known as the Harwood Hustler because I hustled the hard streets of Harwood. Like playing pool or what? Nothing. Selling drugs? Just because it started with an H. Exactly.

It had alliteration. Because you were compensating for something. I don't know what. Being from Harwood. I put faces on food. What can i say the um the movie fargo how do you deal with that when you grow up so close to fargo it's funny you know that was what i i love that movie by the way but many people from that area do not because you know

they'll you know people will ask them oh have you seen the movie Fargo? Oh, we don't sound like that. And they absolutely do. Everyone has that accent back there. Oh, we're going to the bar. You know, that accent. Yeah, it's, people don't think that they have it. What did your parents do there? Well, my mom works.

Was a pregnant sheriff or whatever. I wish, I wish. Well, my dad was a roofer. My mom worked all kinds of different jobs. She would work factory jobs. She worked a lot of night shift kind of things. But right now, she works with developmentally disabled. Excuse me, I can't talk.

She's a true hero. Yes, yes. My dad's not around anymore. He passed a few years ago. But my mom's still around. My brother's back there still. He's going to school. Now, you were doing an impression of your dad earlier.

Yes. Was that, this is how he talked? Yeah, when he was angry, yeah. Did he get angry at you occasionally? Yeah, yeah, he got angry at all of us. You and your, I know you have a brother. Yeah. Luke, right? And then who else is in the family? That's it. Me, my brother, my mom. Okay, two brothers. In the immediate family anyways. Right.

I got tons of cousins and aunts and uncles and all kinds of things. I mean, so what do you, what do you do in North Dakota for fun as a kid? Nothing. There's not much to do. And that was the whole thing. Like, you know, obviously you, you know, hang out with your friends, get in trouble, um, go tip cows, that kind of thing. No, that's not possible.

We've tried it. Yeah. Yeah. We have. No, I'm joking. We're from another North. No, that's not possible. We've tried it. Yeah, we have. No, I'm joking. We're from another North. No, but we have tried it. So, I mean, that's what we did for Fun in North Carolina,

attempt to. Yeah, there's just, you know, that was the thing. There wasn't a ton to do, so you just kind of had to use your imagination. And one of the things, you know, when I was 12, my parents got a camcorder for the family. And as soon as they got that camera i hijacked it and it became mine and uh i used it to make all sorts of you know short

videos with my brother was this thing full vhs or or or mini vhs it was uh uh eight millimeter oh like a what is it super no it's not super eight 8. It's a- Digital 8? Yeah, Digital 8. Oh, okay. So the smaller tape-based thing, but you could digitize the footage. Yep, exactly. You weren't editing on VCRs. I was in the beginning, yes. Okay.

Yeah. Well, Digital 8 came out afterwards. High 8. Yeah. That's what you're talking about. Yeah, it's High 8. Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah, because Digital 8 was a little too recent.

Yeah, exactly. So you would shoot, you would make shorts, but would you edit in camera? Yes. Like, shoot this scene, and then the next scene is this, so I've got to shoot it now so that it can be laid on the tape right after the... Yep, exactly. But it was obviously never a perfect science because there was like a one or two second delay

from when you clicked the record button. So you'd have to say action, but then tell the person, don't say your line until two seconds after I hit record. Right. Because I'm not going to edit this. That's happening right now. Exactly. So you get a lot of cutoff lines. You get a lot of people standing there for a second and then moving and saying their line. So you immediately started doing scripted content with the camcorder. Yep. And then, you know, playing around, you know, we had a VCR in one room and then a VCR in another room. And so I grabbed those, put them together and then, you know, tape to tape. Take out those gaps.

Yeah, exactly. Put in some sound effects even. Oh, wow. I had a, what was it? It was a tape player that I hooked the RCA cables up to the back of the VCR, and then I could put fart sounds and stuff in the videos. And so when you did that. So these are fart movies? No, when you do that. What kind of movies do you think I made? Because this is how I remember editing. You know, Link and I would shoot something,

and then I would take the VHSC tape. I would put it inside the VHS holder, put it in the VCR. I would go to my dad's office at the law school, and I would take two VCR carts that they used in classes and put them side by side and then take the cables from Radio Shack and do the editing. from Radio Shack and do the editing. But I don't remember being able to run, like to overdub audio at the same time. You eventually figured it out. And I said, this is good.

That was my role. I was like, good job. But didn't we have to do it all? You had to do it all at the same time, right? Yes, exactly. So it's like while you were recording video, from one tape to the other tape. You were sitting there ready with the tape player and then you would hit the, in hope to God that the fart sound came at the same time. Yeah, exactly. There was a lot of hit and miss.

It's so amazing that that was a thing that happened and it all depends on how old you are. Well, in fairness, the fart sound, there's a little leeway with when the fart comes. Sure. Like if you lean, and then it's a few seconds before the fart comes, well, that's normal. Yeah, we've all had that. But if it comes immediately,

that's also normal. The science of farts. If you're filming the butthole, then you've got to be very precise. I never did that. What kind of movies were you making? Fart movies. the same as you. Fart movies, yes.

Right? I assume you're a fan of Dumb and Dumber. Yes. Knowing you. Yes. What does that mean? Have you seen the new trailer? It looks amazing.

Well, the trailer, he names the cat Butthole, and he says, why do you call him that? And he holds up and names the the cat butthole and he says why do you call him that and he holds up and shows the cat's butthole yes I've seen the trailer so I mean

I watched that today so they do show cat butthole and he has to say it like that butthole and it's in a trailer a trailer is

you know anybody can see that so that's yeah so I mean you know the world is changing guys it's different so how did you go from fart movies to Anybody can see that. So that's, yeah. So I mean, you know. The world is changing, guys.

So how did you go from fart movies to making The Annoying Orange? I'm sure you can answer that in two sentences. Take as much time as you need. So I went from making fart movies to, you know, just I kept making them. Were there screenings? No. I mean, there was for my family. That was the whole thing.

Like, I loved making videos with like all my cousins and stuff. And then we'd all crowd in a big room and watch them together and laugh. You remember being particularly proud of anyone? Oh, man. Okay, so I made this series called Demon Shadow. And it was about this demon. Like, it was a ritual for us. Every 4th of July, my family would come out, and we'd all get together for a 4th of July gathering,

but at the same time, we would film one of these demon shadows. Because you had a large cast. Yes, exactly. And they were completely nonsensical. I grew up on horror movies and comedies pretty much, so those were my inspiration Very cheesy But it was just about this demon that would haunt us

And every year it would come back to life It's kind of like Freddy Krueger You can't be stopped And we would in the end defeat him And then he'd come back the next year So this became a ritual And I always just loved doing it And the kids loved doing it

So yeah So would you like kill off a cousin every year or something? So this became a ritual and I always just love doing it and the kids love doing it. So yeah, that became... So would you like kill off a cousin every year or something? Like you can come back next year, but you can't be in the movie because you died two years ago. Well, they gotta kill Demon Shadow. Right? But Demon Shadow's gotta kill cousins first. Oh, yeah. Well, there's always, you know, there's always the danger of that.

But no, none of the cousins ever got killed. One of our buddies got killed in one of them and then became a zombie who came back to life and saved us. And did any of these people fart or was that you got rid of that? This was post-fart movie. Okay, good for you. I moved on. How do you kill a demon shadow? You can do it many ways. Flashlight?

Very often it was with fireworks since it was fourth of july so we would use the props at your yeah exactly disposal i think we did that at least three or four times it became a reoccurring thing it was like okay production value we're gonna do this ending again all right what are the what are the fireworks laws in north dakota because i assume there's none i assume like there's cannons they're Yeah, I mean, it's pretty much no holds barred. But for whatever reason, a few years back, they banned bottle rockets. You can fire off the most insane artillery shell explosion. It doesn't matter, but you can't have bottle rockets.

Because you can hold them. Apparently. Kids just want to hold them. Yeah, too many kids. They just look like that stick looks like a handle. It does. It does. Kids just want to hold them. Yeah, too many kids. They just look like, it's like that stick looks like a handle. It does. It does.

It is a tight thing. It is, isn't it? It's irresistible. We had many a bottle rocket fight. So, yes. So, is it like I'm going to film school? No. In fact, it was, you know,

me just kind of doing this thing and then you know i got to the age of i don't know 15 16 where i was like oh okay i can get a job now to get extra money so i started off working this really you know it it was fun but i would never do anything like it again we worked out in these uh corn fields and we were it was like cross pollinating different corn stalks. You would sex corn. Yes, exactly. With itself, which is a little disturbing. But yeah, anyways, that was a job for a couple summers.

But then I saw on the paper one, you know, it was the next summer that they were looking for a cameraman for the local Prairie Public Television or PBS. That's what Prairie Public Television is. Prairie Public Television? Yes. That's what it's called back in Fargo.

Right. But I saw an ad for that and I was like, okay, maybe I'll give it a shot. That's better than mating corn. Exactly. So I applied and I got the job. Oh, wow. And it was awesome. That's better than mating corn. Exactly. So I, I, you know, I applied and they, I got the job. Oh wow. And it was awesome. It was so much fun.

Didn't get paid very much, but you got all the free Mountain Dew and popcorn you wanted. So at the, at the ripe age of 16, I was like, heck yeah. 16 years old. You were like traveling around the state shooting like public television stuff?

No, it was studio. It was all studio based. Like they would do the, you know, every season they do the drives to raise money television stuff it was all studio based like they would do the you know every season they do the drives to raise money and it was we would just shoot those film people answering phones exactly which sounds boring but it was so much fun because you just you got your cans on and you're just you know you're you're jabbing with the other guys and making fun of each other making fun of the people answering the phones which is terrible but

if you do if you do that job you can't you can't think that nobody's you know and making fun of each other, making fun of the people answering the phones, which is terrible. That's cool. If you do that job, you can't think that nobody's making some jokes. Did that lead to the next thing? Kind of, yeah. It was when I was there that I was talking to one of the other girls who worked there,

and she said, oh, you do film, and you really like this stuff. You should go to Minnesota State, or at the time it was called morehead state university uh which borders fargo and they have a you know they had the beginnings of a film department and i was that was when it first hit me i was like holy crap i could actually do this for a living all right i like this's, you know, I kind of left there with that in mind.

And I made a meeting with the, you know, the head over there. And, you know, he was awesome, said, you know, talked me into it basically. But he didn't really have to. He just gave me the spiel. I was like, you sold me at, hey, how are you doing? Right. And that's, you know, kind of where it started. Went to film school there.

And what was the film program like? And you started to say Minnesota State. Is that what it's called now? Yeah, it's called Minnesota State University of Moorhead. Okay. Yes. And how many students in the film program? Man, you know, in our kind of cohort, it was like, I think like 16, something like that.

It wasn't a ton. So now it's much, much bigger over the few last few years it's really grown but you know when i was there we had one 16 millimeter camera nobody knew how to operate it we had this other this guy that wasn't even affiliated with the school that would come in and help us uh run it but nobody knew how to run it didn't matter anyway no it didn't i know at the time we were all like i wish we knew how to we could do that too because it would be really helpful no it doesn't matter so was there like demon shadow the college years or i wish uh well i kept making them

in my own time you know yeah that was that was my thing you know like do you still have demon shadow on tape i do i do i've always wanted to upload to YouTube, but I'm a little hesitant because they all have copyrighted music. So I figured maybe I'll just put them up and not, you know, obviously not monetize them. Or you just need to create the channel Demon Shadow. Yeah. And then just you know, just take whatever happens. Right. Well,

if we get done with this podcast and people are like, we want to see Demon Shadow. Alright, then I'll do it. Okay, well that's going to happen. So, at Dane Bowe on Twitter, hashtag Demon Shadow. My cousins will be very happy. They'll be like, oh, man, I've always wanted to be featured. But not quite in that way.

I didn't know they were going to bring out Demon Shadow. So, you were getting the proper schooling, but you had the thing that was even more important, and that was a drive to create. Yes. Yeah, and it was funny. A couple of my good buddies, we would always say, we saw some of the other guys in the department,

and again, nothing against anybody else, but they would just do the required projects, and that was it. Whereas would just do the required projects, and that was it. Whereas I would do the required projects, and I would get down with them, and I'm like, I want to do more. So I would go out and do my own stuff. And I just, for whatever reason,

just constantly wanted to keep learning new things, got a computer. One of the very first iMacs that came out, you know those colored ones? They came in all the different... I got one of those so I could use iMovie, which is the most amazing thing in the world to me. I didn't even know it was called iMovie.

iMovie shipped with the first one of those awful looking things that was in public libraries. Awful, what? Well, now. Beautiful. At the time, it was like, wow. It was a thing of beauty at the time. It was like, what? This was a thing of beauty at the time. Yeah, it was amazing. It was like, what? This isn't a computer.

This is a lunchbox. It just was amazing. With a tube in it. With a television tube that you could see in the back. Yeah, right. Yep, exactly. So I saved up my money from doing those other jobs, bought a computer, and, you know, just, I, I did, uh, while I was in college,

I did a internship at a, uh, claymation film or, uh, this guy, I, I think he was in Grand Forks, which was like probably 45 minutes away out in this, just out in his farm, way out in the middle of nowhere was making this claymation movie and he wanted someone to help him. And my, you know, uh, the head of the department came to me and was like, Hey, this guy wants help. You like animation. So you want to do it? I was like, heck yeah, I'll do it. So I went out there every day, drove out there, uh, there and back and just help this guy. And he, he, he, I can't remember his name. I think it was Peter, but I can't remember his last name, but he, he's the

one that kind of showed me after effects for the first time and kind of how to use it in a very general fashion like nothing really in depth but it was at that point that I was like oh my gosh what were his characters were they it was no no it was uh it was they were knights it was like a knight's tale I think that was actually the name of it. Since been taken by someone else. Yeah. Something like that. Turned into a movie. Yeah.

So that's kind of where I got my first, you know, dip my hand in the water, my toes in the water with After Effects. And that just, you know, from there I was like, I love this so much. There was still probably about, I mean, we're talking at least four more years before the advent of YouTube, even from this point.

So what was in that four years? Did you get married? No. I met my wife to be in college. And we, from there, you know, graduated,

moved to Minneapolis. She's an archaeologist, so she was working for some of the firms. Teresa's an archaeologist? Yeah. How come I didn't know this? No, you do. Well, I mean... Can you call her? Because we'd like for her to replace you at this point.

How could that have been... You guys have two... Skipped right over that. But two very fascinating careers. That's interesting. Yeah. She specializes in stone tools, so she can take, she knows how to flint knaps, so she can take rocks and she hits them with other rocks and turns them into weapons.

Does she travel to remote locations and dig stone tools up? Mm-hmm. See, I've only ever seen this on television or movies, and I thought that it might be a completely made up profession. No. But now it's been confirmed. I know one. Yes. She doesn't look like Harrison Ford, does she? No, I've seen her. I told her when she gets her PhD, she's getting a fedora and a whip. There's no, like she doesn't get to talk. Yeah, there's no. Or you'll let her take it out in public. Yeah, exactly. So you moved for her archaeologist job.

Yeah, she got a job out there. And then I wanted to go out there too because Minneapolis, there's a bit more going on as far as filmmaking. So I was like, maybe I can break into something. But man, I had no luck. There's just, there's not, at the time, there really wasn't a lot going out there. And I did everything. Like I'm, I was shameless.

I would just show up at businesses with a, you know, a resume in hand and say, hey, I'm looking for work. You got anything? And I ended up getting a couple of things, but they were, you know, they weren't, they didn't pay at all, but I got to stand there in the cold and help out a little bit. But that was about it. And what kind of stuff

was that? Um, wrangling talent, uh, for, um, just, I think it was a commercial shoot. And then I can't even remember what the other one was, but it was something similar. So it wasn't anything crazy. It was just like a one-day shoot got to do it a couple times in the meantime i worked at uh one hour photo labs that was my oh that was my thing wow so you've seen you've seen photos oh yes it's like archaeology of a of a different kind it kind of is actually especially when you know because people one hour photo labs there's just stacks and stacks of photos and people bring stuff in but then you know they don't come back for it. So you'll have packages there for years. And peeling those open and looking inside, it's crazy. You see some crazy stuff.

If people take photos of things that are inappropriate, you're not supposed to develop those. No, no. In fact, I mean, we ended up, it's one of those things where you can't really stop it from being developed because you develop the whole role at a time. You just have to keep it. But you don't put it in the, you don't put it in the pack.

Yep. Why not? You put it on the wall in the office. You put it up that wall. It was, the procedure was too, like you were, it was mandatory that when that happened, you had to actually tell the person, like, hey, we found some naughty photos in there

and we couldn't put them in. And of course. But they were developed. That's what I don't get. And what were the categories that you couldn't put in there? Are you talking nudity? Yeah. I mean, that was basically...

Like illegal activity, I get that. Sure. But why personal photo nudity? It's North Dakota. But I think that maybe it isn't anymore. And of course, I don't know who's taking these type of photos and getting them developed these days, but... Right.

Yeah, I think that was like the law. But it does raise a great question because the person who took them has seen it. Now the person who developed them has seen it. Who are we trying to protect at this point? Yeah, I shouldn't say it's just North Dakota. It's everywhere. Right, I remember in North Carolina too.

But you would have to tell the person, hey, that photo that you took, I don't know if that's your girlfriend or if that's your mom. That's an uncomfortable scenario to have to say to someone, oh, we found some nudies. And what do people say?

Are they like, oh, for real? Yeah, it's either one of two scenarios. The first is they're like, kind of get that bashful look on their face and like, oh, okay, sorry. Or it's like, what? What? That's my photo Or it's like, what? What? That's my photo.

You printed it, right? And then you have to say like, well, yeah, but we can't give it to you. Well, just give it to me. It is crazy. It is. So do you have any on you? Let me see your wallet.

You will never see my wallet. So you and Teresa, you were dating or you were married? Yeah, we were dating. Okay, so she's like being archaeologist extraordinaire, and you're like trying to piece it together. I mean, is that, was that frustrating? You're like, oh, she's not going to marry me if I don't get out of this photo lab. No, there was really no worry

about that. I mean, we, neither of us were really in any rush to get married or anything like that. But it was frustrating at the same time,

of course, you know, to really be hungry for it and want it. But at the same time, kind of not knowing what you want, but just being hungry for it. You know? Because like, I didn't know at the same time, kind of not knowing what you want, but just being hungry for it,

you know? Cause like, I didn't know at the time, like, do I want to do animation? Do I want to direct? Do I want to do this? I mean, at the, at the end of the day, all I kept thinking in the back of my brain is, you know, I want to, I don't want to, I'd want to direct movies. That's all I want to do. So when was, where was the breakthrough?

Um, I don't know. Well, I guess it was YouTube, really. That was the big breakthrough. From Minneapolis, Teresa got into a master's program in Bakersfield, California. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Right on our back doorstep. You drive an hour and a half, you get to Bakersfield.

The meth capital of the world. Birthplace of Merle Haggard. Exactly. So we ended up moving there. It's a great introduction to California. It is. Lots of cows and dust and meth, I guess you would say? Yeah.

Okay. It's funny. The first day that we moved in, because we didn't get a chance to actually come out and find a place before we moved out. So we got our place online, moved out, get there with our moving truck, pull up, and we're like, oh, God, this is sketchy. We start moving our stuff. What did it look like?

For lack of a better word, very ghetto-y. Like unsafe? Yes. Yes. A lot of unsavory types hanging out. Guys rolling around on lawns, obviously, on something. There was a guy that was there. He would roll around on the lawn and chase cars.

You mean like as if he were on fire? Like a person... At first I thought you meant like driving a car on lawns, but you mean like bodily rolling on grass. Like a log. Right. A log that snorts and yells. And then he would chase cars like a dog yeah so like a log chase cars like a dog it rhymes there you go um so yeah we were moving our boxes in and you know getting

getting settled and all of a sudden we hear from from like the walls were just paper thin so uh in the apartment next to us we hear you and then i was like okay and then we we hear whoa you and we're like okay and it just it starts to escalate i've seen that was a woman and a man yes you, f*** you You want it, you want it And then you start hearing this And Teresa and I were like What? Welcome to Bakersfield That was our first introduction to Bakersfield But for a moment you thought there was going to be like gunfire

Through the wall Well, yeah, I mean that was always A worry actually It sounds, you know, completely overdramatic But it was a worry When we sounds it sounds you know completely overdramatic but it was a worry when we moved away from that place um it was the very next week we uh they were doing uh we were watching the news and somebody got arrested for pulling a gun at that apartment complex at the pool and they were they were trying to shoot somebody but the the gun wouldn't go off. It got jammed. And we were like,

so we actually broke our lease after three months because we couldn't take it. Right. So for whatever reason, we made the people next to us really angry because we'd complain about the noise because Teresa, she's in school trying to do her studies. Meanwhile, people are blasting their music and so we would complain. I came home one day, went inside, came back out,

dude pissed on my, on the wheel of my car. It was like, because they were, you know, they were tired of us. We got to get that archaeologist and her husband out of here.

Think about it. There's archaeology next door. I didn't expect to go down this road, but it was a weird situation. Wow, I mean, that's pretty hardcore. Peeing on a tire? Does that mean he now owns the car? Well, yeah, he's marking his territory.

What do I do at that point? You have to pee on all four tires, and then you own it. Oh, is that right? He's like, glad you drove away when you did. Quit getting the car. he's on number three yeah if you can make it to the spare you definitely got it so you got out of the apartment did you get out of bakersfield or yeah eventually eventually we did um so one of the reasons i moved to bakersfield uh besides the fact that Teresa got into a master's program,

was I was able to get a job on Pimp My Ride, thanks to a couple buddies that I went to college with. Really? Yeah. And they shoot up there in Bakersfield? No, they actually shoot it in LA in Inglewood. So I would commute from Bakersfield to inglewood oh wow probably twice a week but i would stay with them during the week they were gracious

enough to let me crash on the couch and what so what was your what was your job there uh production assistant okay sweeping floors at first so you were in the studio you weren't like on location with exhibit like hey i'm here at this car and i'm about to pimp it you were in the studio. You weren't on location with exhibit like, Hey, I'm here at this car, and I'm about to pimp it. You were back at the studio hearing footage of him say, Hey, I'm at this car. I'm going to pee on all four wheels. It was kind of in the middle, actually. I mostly did not work at MTV Studios.

What I did was I worked at the garage where they would do all the work. Oh, really? That's the best part. Me and my buddy Spencer, who actually has been with me from the beginning with Orange. It was me and him. That's what we did, man. We hung out at the garage all day long where they were literally pimping the rides exactly we it was pimpage 24 7 baby did you pick up any body work

or uh you know surprisingly no it was terrifying the first day you walk in because these are you know these are rough and tough dudes that work there. But it's standard procedure that you got to rough up the new guy a little bit. Give him a good ribbing. So everybody was, you know, like guys would, I would ask guys questions and they'd just look at me. Whatever. And they'd turn around and walk away. And then I'd see them way off in the distance. They'd be like, you know, talking to their buddies and they'd just be laughing and laughing and laughing.

I was like, ah, man. So in the beginning, it was scary. And I remember my first week, I hated it. I was like, I, everyone hates me, you know, whatever. But then after a little bit, it's totally one of those things like, you know, you're around them enough. They start talking to you.

Pretty soon, everybody gets along and they're just, they're awesome dudes. It was a lot of fun, actually, to be down in the garage with these guys. Tiny, skinny, white guy amongst all these rough and tough guys. And so did YouTube start to bubble up at this point? Or was it, did you move to other jobs? It was close. So it was right around that time I think towards the end of when I was working on Pay My Ride

that YouTube started to become a thing I remember sitting in we had a trailer out back I remember sitting in the trailer making a MySpace page

and it was yeah it wasn't short or too long after that and when did you and Teresa get married? two years ago okay so that was more recent

yeah okay we had been been together for 10 years almost 10 years yeah you guys have been together

a decade yeah okay so as you began to work on Pet My Ride making that MySpace page yeah making that MySpace page what was the

what was the thought at that time? Because, you know, I mean, the traditional model, so a lot of people who follow this, it's like, oh, I'm going to get a job as a PA on a TV show. I'm going to work my way up to whatever, and then, you know, I'm going to be in the business. Yep. Was that the strategy at the time? Kind of, yeah.

I mean, that was, you know, me and my buddies and everybody that was on the show, that was kind of the, you know, the way that things were done if you were in that position. You just got to work your way up. And I kind of did. From PA, I was able to actually parlay that and work on a creative team with a little help from Spencer. Actually, he helped me get a position on a creative team where I got to actually shoot and do some writing, write some of the bits on the show, things like that. So that was a lot of fun. But, you know, at the end of the day, things didn't quite work out. And after I was done with

it, I just, you know, I was, it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth because I was just like, this isn't quite what I want to be doing. It just doesn't feel right. So I was like, I don't think I want to do TV. But while I was working at Pin My Ride and we were working our butts off, we would come home at night and we would just make stupid videos

like we'd always done back in college and whatever. And it began with, we made our own website called gagfilms.com where we were just uploading our stuff there and it was a lot of like old college buddies that would just go on the site and leave comments and watch it and stuff like that um and that was kind of our our vision was like hey what if we created this site where everybody could put videos you know um and then it wasn't shortly, too long after that, that YouTube popped out of nowhere.

So you almost made YouTube. Almost. Yeah, just that close. I should have called it GagTube. I don't know what that would have been. There is a GagTube. It sounds like it might not be it. You don't want to go there.

Yeah. I actually had a lot of people ask me when I said, oh, we have the site, gagfilms.com. I'm like, oh, is that porn? What do you guys do? Yarn Van Eyes. Right. Did somebody steal a video from gagfilms.com and put it on YouTube,

or did you post it on YouTube yourself? No, I think we just made a YouTube page and just started uploading stuff there. Because, ironically, our first video on YouTube was stolen from our website where we were hosting our QuickTime videos. We had a parody of Pimp My Ride with our kids called Pimp My Stroller. Oh, my gosh. How have I never seen this? We built, because it used, it's not a line.

Copyrighted music and it was taken down. But we pimped out a double stroller we actually engineered this thing it kind of looked like the batmobile and we put my daughter lily and his son lock in it and we like play these characters we were making fun of my ride yeah it was like yo we pimped out your stroller and then it was crazy it was spinning rims and ground effects and everything and we like did the voices of our kids. But you know, somebody- Somebody stole it and put it on YouTube.

But when we moved from North Carolina, that pimped out stroller, double stroller, is out there somewhere. Yeah, we auctioned it off three and a half years ago to a fan who came to our studio. So yeah, that video was taken from our website, posted on YouTube, and it got a lot of views. So we were like, we should start a YouTube channel.

Were you guys doing the same exact thing? Like, hey, let's make a site and put some videos on it. Yeah, it was called retinly.com. You weren't smart enough to think, let's get other people to put videos up there. But it's funny because, you know, just because we're similar in age and had the same type of aspirations, it's funny how there's so many parallels it's like if you wanted to be in some sort of entertainment that involved you making videos you edited on two vcrs you shot with a certain type of camera then you started your own website then youtube came along and either you were smart enough to put your videos up there in our case somebody put them up there for you and so when you put them up there uh on youtube was early days i guess 2006 is that when it right when it started basically uh what was the what

were some of the first videos that you put up uh the first videos were stuff that i did back in college uh the very first video that i have on my Danebo channel, which is my main channel, is a short called The Yanni Show. And it's like a kid's show slash game show starring Yanni. He teaches about green light touches and red light touches. And it goes south very quickly. And needless to say, I've gotten many hate comments from people that love Yanni

that I am a horrible person. For whatever reason, back in college, we just, we loved, you know, poking fun at Yanni. I don't know. The guy didn't do anything to us. Well, he was an easy target.

He was Yanni I saw him on PBS the other night And I was like This is unbelievable Yanni live Like he's still doing his thing Still at it Yep

So then What popped? Because I know Before Orange There were talking eggs Yes Yep That was probably the first thing that popped.

It was? And we introduced those eggs. I remember this very well. On the CW. CW. Online Nation. Yep. I don't know what the intro was.

I'm sure it was a really cheesy line that had been written for us. It's like, you know what, Link? I'm in the mood for eggs. Oh, yeah, Rhett? An omelet? Well, here you go. How about some eggs with personality? Really?

You know, roll the clip. I'm sure it was something that bad. Yep, I remember this very, very well. So that was on YouTube. It was you open the fridge and the eggs. That was like one of my, well, the very first talking food video that I did. What happens? You open the fridge.

Yep, open the fridge and there's some unsuspecting, very cute, kind of slightly annoying eggs that are, you know, kind of bewildered and like, what is going on? And then they get taken out of the fridge and put on the counter. And the whole time they're like, I don't know what's going on. What's happening? And you see the frying pan get put on the stove and the burner goes on. And the whole time they're still talking, what's going on? And then all of a sudden Steve gets grabbed and he gets cracked over the edge of the frying pan and everybody freaks out. Yeah. It's always Steve. I don't know

why, but it's always Steve. And so it started with eggs and then moved on to what? Well, it started off with eggs because I did that video for a film contest. It was bolt.com. It was this old kind of networking sites, kind of like MySpace. It's now defunct. It's not around anymore. But at the time, they were doing this contest where

you make a minute-long video, submit it. If you win, you get $5,000. So I did it, and I actually won, and I used that $5,000 to buy a new camera and some new equipment and, you know... But why talking eggs? It's a great

question. It's a great question. I mean, it's one of those things like you... You know, I always grew up, you know, anthropomorphizing things. We all do as kids, you know, you make the rocks talk or whatever sticks, trees, you know, you give them personalities and, you know, learning After Effects early on and realizing that I could actually do that in my videos just blew my mind and that's why i just totally gravitated towards that like okay i can bring anything to life now it's amazing to think that that stop motion guy that you drove ever how far every day yep to help him out for presumably nothing right taught you after effects and that changed everything it

totally changed everything. Yep. So, that was, yeah, that's definitely one of those moments. You won five grand and you bought

a better camera. Yeah, DVX100. Oh, yeah. You guys had one of those? A or B? You had an A?

I had a B. Okay, we had an A. We had an A and then we had a B. That's nice. So, wow.

Did you just put eyes and mouths on things after the eggs or did you do other things other things yeah it did a mix of everything right so you know i'd like i said make cats talk i had you know and it was always like humans interacting with other things that you know uh don't normally come alive but they did in the videos but was it always an inanimate object or something that doesn't talk talking no i mean well he's like quite often yes quite often we'll put yeah because the eggs really

worked it totally worked and it's funny like looking back at it now you know i think about it i'm like oh man i didn't you know i wonder why I didn't just gravitate towards that right away. Because it really worked, and it just popped, and people loved it. Like, in other words, do a sequel to The Eggs. Yeah, exactly. And I did, actually. Probably a year later or something like that. But it was just one of those things like, I want to do all kinds of things.

I want to try things out. I want to make explosions. I want to make giant demon monsters whatever yeah so and there was a good three years between joining youtube in 06 to that first annoying orange in 09 yep uh and so in in that three-year period of course you know if you're talking 06 07 08 you're not no partner program really there's not a lot of money or any in youtube it's still sort of for the hot the hobbyist yep um so what were you doing to make money in that period of time so after i made that talking egg video um you know i was continuing to do other things and then all of a sudden i got an email from

jibjab.com. I don't know if you guys know. Oh yeah, definitely animation site where you could actually interact with the website and upload your photos

and they would make those talk. Yes. At some point. Yep. And they would also do political satire, music videos

that were two-dimensional animations but they would all have like moving mouths. Yep. So they saw your egg thing, and they're like, uh-uh, we're going to get this guy on board, and we're going to assassinate him.

Yeah, they called me up, and they're like, hey, we love this, and we want you to come in and make a whole slew of them. And so I went in and talked with them, and that's what happened. I ended up making, I think, like 10 of them at least, different variations of kind of this egg structure. So, you know, and it was all for different holidays because they were doing this, you know, kind of holiday greeting card, e-card kind of

thing. So, you know, for the Superbowl, a bunch of avocados got turned into guacamole and uh for uh for christmas a bunch of cranberries got strung up on you know a string and hung up on the the christmas tree and stuff like that executed yes and it was all horrific but funny at the same time a lot of animated violence so it played really well and it it did really well for their site and you know I had a lot of a lot of fun doing it and I actually got to like work with a legitimate crew have a cameraman things like that so there was a good learning process there too and those guys hands down some of the best dudes Evan and Greg over there they are one of the reasons why I'm at where I'm at like those guys really nurtured me so but you didn't make the orange for them.

Nope. I didn't. Nope. Thank goodness for that. Yeah. It was shortly after that I had done all those jib jab videos. I was still doing my thing. Every once in a while I do a talk and food video and that was really it. It was just going to be, I came up with this idea, know i was lying in bed one night and just you know because i you know before i fall asleep just come up with ideas and that just popped into my head like oh would it be hilarious if this you know uh if this apple was annoying this orange and then it got knifed and uh you know and just kind of that that escalation of being annoyed to death.

What, did you switch it? Yes. Because you just said that, oh. Yeah, in the beginning, it was going to be the other way around. But then when I started animating it, I still hadn't like really, really perfected the animation process,

even though I had done tons of these. So as I was animating, I was like, the face on the orange looks so much better. I'm going to make it the annoying orange. So I swapped it. Wow, so it was almost the annoying apple. Yes, it was almost, but it was good that I didn't go that way because then, you know, orange could say, you're an apple. And you know, there's that, you know, kind of thing going on. The, uh, it's, you know, up to over 150 million views now. It was, it was one of those videos

that everybody passed around, uh, back then and continues to get a million views now. It was one of those videos that everybody passed around back then and continues to get a lot of views. Having just watched it today to kind of just to refresh, as a refresher on it, I'm just reminded at how much the violence at the end is really the hook. You know, it's like, it's funny throughout. I mean, it's just a hilarious video, that first iteration of the Annoying Orange.

You're laughing throughout, and then, of course, just this unexpected, like, oh, this is going to happen. And that was kind of, that was sort of the plot line with everything at that point, right? I would add that it was obviously the great ending was the knife, and then slicing an apple is, I think, more satisfying than slicing an orange, too. So I think you won on that one. But then it was that the button of, then it pans over to the payer.

Yep. And you got that extra big laugh at the end. It was just perfect. But it set up another one. I don't even know if the second one after that was a pair. No. It wasn't, but you kind of get this, oh, now he's going to talk to this pair. What else is this orange going to talk to?

Yep. I'm going to keep watching. And I could be five years old, or I could be 55, I could be 105, and I'm going to watch the next one. Because I'm annoyed by this orange in a very delightful way. Did it blow up instantly? It took a few weeks, but after a few weeks it hit a million, and then slowly just started getting more and more millions.

Was there someone who talked about it at that early stage that was like, helped it blow up? Or was it just everybody? It was, yeah. I mean, it really was organic. You know, I don't remember anyone ever, you know, talking about it or featuring it or anything like that. It was just, it started to get a lot of traction. And then suddenly I was getting tons of emails from kids saying, make more. We love this.

And so luckily I left the character alive at the end so I could make some more. Because it was never intended to be more than just one video. But at that point were you like all in, orange, orange, orange? No, not, orange. No, not even then. It wasn't until the fourth episode that I uploaded and I was like, holy crap. Cause I, it was right before Christmas. I uploaded that video and the next day it had a million views, which at that time was that's gangbusters.

So I was like, there is something going on here. So at the time I was doing client work and YouTube at the same time. I was off on vacation for Christmas. I got home, I made an annoying orange YouTube dedicated page and just decided right then and there, like, hey, this is what I'm doing. I'm going to try and make this work because now's the time. Right. So from there, I just, you know, I kind of dedicated myself to, okay, now I'm on a schedule. Every week I'm going to do another one of these. Because that was kind of the schedule at the time for everybody is like, just do a video a week. And, you know, get on a schedule. So Friday became the day.

So every Friday was a new Annoying Orange video. Was it difficult to maintain that schedule? Oh, yeah. Because of the work that went into it. The writing, the shooting, the editing, the compositing. Yeah. I mean, I would not have been able to do it without Spencer. I did the first couple episodes, and then by the third episode, I was already starting to get stumped a little bit as far as coming up with puns. Oh, in terms of writing.

Yeah. So I hit him up because he's the master of puns. in terms of writing yeah so i i hit him up because he's he's the master of puns it's ridiculous so and then in terms of like the the keyboard work was that time consuming too i mean was it did like the animating yeah yeah that it took so long i mean it was we would basically the structure became spencer and i would talk on sunday for hour or two, come up with, okay, what's this next video going to be? He would script it and have the script done usually by Monday. And we'd maybe do some revisions. It'd be very quick revisions.

And then we'd have it locked by Monday night. And then Tuesday would record all the mouths and then spend the next two days animating it and upload on Friday. And that was the structure for many, many, many, many weeks. That was your life. Your life for a while. But it was rewarding because it was blowing up and it was working and it was working. Totally. It was fun.

It was so much fun. Totally. It was fun. It was so much fun. After everything you had done, I mean, hearing your story, it had to have been satisfying. Wow, this is really happening. Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy. And to go on YouTube and see the videos featured everywhere, you know, at the time they would actually feature videos all over the site. And just seeing it featured and, you know, seeing – like I would upload a video and within an hour, it would have thousands and thousands and thousands of likes and favorites and comments and whatever, and people were so engaged

and there was no negativity whatsoever. It was crazy. Fred was kind of the other annoying character at the time, and I always felt really bad because you go to his videos and look at the comments, and they were just nasty. People say some nasty things. But there really wasn't any of that with Orange, and any time anybody did say anything bad,

the rest of the community would stand up and say, hey, don't you make fun of Orange. He's funny. What are you thinking? Usually when you go back to something monstrously successful on youtube when you look back at the first one it's like oh yeah that one actually wasn't even that good you know that's the thing that was when i was i was very pleasantly surprised to re-watch the first one that it was very much intact i think a testimony to a process of well it wasn't an

orange but you had mastered a lot of other things that everything came together in a way that you never could have imagined or planned. Right, exactly. Even that, I mean, you can't point to any one thing, but it's kind of a confluence of everything. Yep. The writing, the, I mean, everything. Mm-hmm. But it's very cool that even in that first one, it's like, oh, this is a template. This is not something that could be great.

It was. Thank you. And so you start making these videos every single week, and you're getting this amazing popularity. And, of course, we know part of the rest of the story is moving on and having it adapted into a television show. But wasn't it before that it became bigger than YouTube? I mean, all of a sudden, there was merchandising involved. I can't remember what year it was, but I started seeing Annoying Orange key change and then pajamas and then all this merchandise.

That was before the television show. Yeah, well, it started before then, especially. There was a lot of T-shirts and things like that. But, like, I think, oh, man, maybe the toys actually were before. Yeah, the toys were before the TV show, too. So, yeah, there was a lot that was out there before the TV show.

I felt so cool going into Toys R Us that Christmas, like I guess that was 30 years ago. It was so surreal. And it was like at the cashier, you know, the impulse buy stuff, like half of it was orange. And I was like, oh yeah, I know that orange. Obviously, I'm sure you... I'm like screaming in Toys R Us, I know that orange!

I do know the guy. I think I have his phone number in, like, my phone. Anybody wants to call him? I know that mouth. So you're seeing this thing blow up like this, and I know it's one of those things where you're in conversations with people, and you're like, oh, yeah, let's do this merchandising thing,

and they're all going to make keychains or pajamas or t-shirts or whatever it might be. But how does it feel? Do you remember the first time you saw it on a shelf? Yes, it was Hot Topic. There was actually a bunch of YouTubers that had gotten stuff in Hot Topic. I don't know, were you guys in there too? We were not part of that wave.

Okay. Like Shane Dawson was one of them. I think Charlie the Unicorn. There was a bunch of people. So it was cool to actually go there and not just see my stuff, but a whole wall of YouTubers. That was, it was at that point where I was like,

oh, that makes me proud right there. Those are my boys. And then it gets on television, but it's a different iteration i mean is there what what's the perspective on okay this is what you did here and it worked here but for this to be a television show it does have to be something different um well yeah that was always i mean everyone always came to us and they were like you know when we'd go and pitch and stuff and talk about it, everyone would always say like, how do you trans, you know, translate two minute video online to, you know, a TV show? It's not, you go from just this witty dialogue, quick things that happen and then, you know, the knife moment, whatever, because that's what the web show was to now, hey, we can actually explore all of these personalities and how they work together and, you know, that kind of thing, really diving into those personalities and finding out that Marshmallow is this cute character that loves everything but kind of has a dark side that comes out every once in a while.

You really get to play with those sorts of things a lot more. And then you had the opportunity to work with some pretty amazing veterans in the animation business when you started developing the show. Yeah, it was. I mean, with development, Tom Shepard came in, and he had worked on so many things, like Pinky and the Brain, one of my favorite cartoons.

So having guys like him come on, and then Conrad Vernon of Madagascar fame, a bunch of other stuff too uh working with those guys it was amazing and then you know having a whole studio filled with people just working on putting faces on fruit was very very surreal and a lot of fun um and you've had two seasons up to this point and that went really well i mean what was the experience for you uh amazing great experience it was beyond amazing i mean at the time it sucks because at the time i was so busy you know because we were trying to do the web show at the same time because my whole philosophy was you know going into it which was also kind of hard to get across to a lot of people was like you can't cut off the web show at the same time, because my whole philosophy was, you know, going into it, which was also kind of hard

to get across to a lot of people, was like, you can't cut off the web show because the web show was where it was all born. That's where the audience is now. You got to use that to push the audience to this new, bigger thing, you know? And they cross promote each other and they work together.

Just like two strains of corn. You're still doing the same thing after all these years. They pollinate each other, yep, exactly. But you were working yourself like crazy because you had to do both. You had to keep the web series going every week. Yep, exactly. So it was constantly running back and forth from that to the web show and then back and forth and back and forth from that to the web show and then back and forth and back and forth.

So it was hard to really sit down and take it all in and really enjoy it. But I say that, but I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy it because I really, really did. But at the time, looking back, I'm like, gosh, I wish I would have just sat around more and just took it all in a little bit. What's your focus at this point? I know that on the Orange channel, you've got your own channel, the Danebo channel, which there's things happening there. And then even within the Orange channel on YouTube,

there seems to be a lot of different things that are happening there. So what's the strategy and what's your focus, be it television, Danebo, Orange, or the Orange series, or other things on the Orange channel? It's all of those things, actually. We're continuing to do stuff on the Danebo channel here and there. We're always doing stuff on the Annoying Orange channel every Friday still. And now we do stuff every Monday. It's usually like gameplay videos because obviously

everyone loves gameplay on YouTube. And then Wednesday, we've kind of held for new IP. You know, we did our first new show about a half year back called The Misfortune of Me Being Ned, excuse me. And it was an animated show cartoon. It was a lot of fun to do. And it kind of taught me the whole process of making a cartoon. And it is a much more daunting task than I ever would have thought. So, but yeah, kind of just exploring and experimenting with the whole medium. Because really, it used to be you uploaded once a week. And that was kind of the model. But now it's become much more normal for people to upload multiple times a week, if not multiple times a day.

It's kind of what the algorithm is geared towards. So we're just kind of playing with that. And with having five years of orange, that's what you said, right? There's five years of orange under your belt. I would imagine there's a challenge to keeping it relevant, keeping it top of mind. I mean, you can't expect to do the same thing and get the same results, right? Exactly, exactly. So how does that work? I mean, is it frustrating?

Views aren't the same that they used to be in one sense. No, no. And it's tough because you don't want to go down that road where you're just a slave to the views. But it's so hard not to be. You know, because when it starts getting down that road, you start enjoying it a lot less and you start worrying, okay, I worked so hard on this video,

but it didn't make its money back. And so now what am I going to do? So it's tough in that way, but ultimately we try and do something new with every single episode, whether it's a 3D shot or, you know, something that we haven't tried before just to keep it fresh. And then always, you know, trying to bring new people on like you guys and, you know, um, new people that are getting popular on YouTube.

Uh, I still find it amazing. We had a Chester, Chester C come in a while ago and he came in and he was you know he's been blowing up and so i was worried that he wouldn't even want to be on the show like you know our dinky show whatever uh but he came in he's like are you kidding me man i totally want to be on this show it's like you know it's a rite of passage it's a youtube rite of passage you got to be killed uh so it's i'm continually amazed by passage you gotta be killed so it's I'm continually amazed by the YouTube culture and you know

everybody working together still you know it's a good thing to fall back on especially when you get frustrated you know it's a big family

and that's a very comforting thing well we're glad to now be considered part of the ranks the dead ranks and to hang out with you and hear your story. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks for coming in. Yeah, thank you guys. And now we're going to kill you. Oh, gosh. Knife. I'm going to do what you told me to do. I was sitting there in the booth, and you were like,

okay, now just yell, ah! And I was like, oh, this is it. I'm dying now. So I just encourage you to yell like you're dying. okay, now just yell, ah! And I was like, oh, this is it. I'm dying now. So I just encourage you to yell like you're dying. Okay, here we go. Ah!

A little Tarzan in there. Yeah, that was excellent. That's a good cut. Sign the table, sir. and there it was our conversation with dane bodekheimer i really had a good time talking with dane i think that there's this dynamic when um we talked to someone on an ear biscuit that's a similar age to us that's found a way to be successful on YouTube, there's a similar path because there was many years of development before YouTube came about where you were making videos. I mean, if you track with us, it's the whole editing videos on two VCRs as a kid and finding

a way even in the college years to make videos and find an outlet still before YouTube was invented. Well, and one of the interesting phenomenons when that's your story is that you have something that you made that no one knows about unless you tell them about it. Like for him, it's demon shadow. You know, for us, it's gutless wonders. Yeah. You have that thing that you began or you made that you showed the family members that you don't want the internet to see. Although Dane did say he was possibly willing to put it on the internet at some point. I'd like to see Demon Shadow. Yeah, and he got married before the whole YouTube thing happened.

Not true. He met his wife. He met his wife. He met his wife, who is now his wife. But yeah, he's been... But they were a long-time couple kind of thing. Right. Yeah, so it's just a different thing.

Than what you see today with YouTube. It's these kids who, you know, I don't know. They don't know who they're dating next or what they're doing or what video is coming out. It's just a different dynamic. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just it's good to connect with somebody who's got sort just a different dynamic. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just, it's good to connect with somebody who's got sort of a similar background.

But not old. We're not old. Oh, no. No, no, it's not, I'm not saying that. 50 is the new 30. The sad thing is there's somebody who just said, whoa, Radley are 50? What? It won't be too long, brother. Tweet at Daneboe. Not Danboe.

I accidentally left the first E out, and it's just some other dude. I don't know who it is. It's somebody. You know what? You should tweet at Danboe and say, dude, come on now. It's too close to Daneboe. But not really. Tweet at Daneboe and let him know what you thought of his ear biscuit.

We certainly appreciate the time that we spent together. We also appreciate you reviewing ear biscuits on iTunes. So give it some ratings. Also, comment on SoundCloud. We appreciate all of this as a way to support ear biscuits. And mostly, we just appreciate your ears ingesting our ear biscuits. That's true. So just bring your ears back next week and we'll bring the biscuits.

It's a beautiful arrangement. We promise.