NZXT PODCAST - #086 - Mike Atniel

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

This week on the podcast, we are joined by Simpsons Animator: Mike Atniel! Mike and the crew discuss The Simpsons, The Simpsons, and Call of Duty Follow Mike on Instagram: instagram.com/idrawhomer Listen live to the NZXT 💜 CLUB CAST on our Discord server at discord.gg/nzxt every Thursday at 10AM PT and submit your questions to [e-mail]! Thanks to Mike for the artwork!

I love that they included the saxophone in this remix. It really adds a lot of flavor to it. So much. So much flavor. Hello, everybody. And welcome to episode 86 of the NZC Clubcast, the official podcast of the NZ60 community. This podcast is recorded live every Thursday at 10 a 10m,

Pacific Center in time, the official N6C Discord server, except for today and sometimes switch. And is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. So grab yourself a sprinkled donut, sit on your couch, and enjoy the warm glow of this lovely podcast. My name is Dennis. With me, as always, is Ivan.

How are you doing? Good. You are incredibly loud all of a sudden. I'm sorry, man. I just moved my microphone. So, so. Well, we didn't do no sound check or anything today, so it's a little weird. Well, so pro tip, when I tell you the sound is fine, you don't move your microphone after the fact because I don't know what it sounds like when you start talking.

Should we do the sound check right now? Yes, okay, let's do sound check. Ivan, can you... The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. All right, the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Mike, do you want to go ahead and... I repeat that as I can announce you. I don't know what you guys said, but this is my sound check right here.

That's how we do it, guys. Live. We're always doing it live. Today is a very, very special episode because I think this is probably the first and last time, depending on how this podcast goes, ever going to have someone, like this. We have a Mike. Okay, now I do this on purpose because I like to embarrass myself. Is it Atneal?

Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Mike Atneal, who is a animator on the Simpsons television show. The Simpsons animated television show on Fox. Well, Disney now. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I forgot that Fox bought Disney or Disney bought Fox. that's a how's that honestly at our level we don't really notice it but it's pretty much business as usual for us you'll notice it when they ask you to draw Yoda or something like that

yeah hey listen so this this this this uh this this this uh this old simpsons thing it's all Star Wars now you guys are going to um but yeah I was telling so well first of all this is this is a weird podcast because we never

record it live during this time. That's number one. But anyway, during the pre-show, as I'd like to call it, we were speaking with Mike. And instead of doing a sound check, we were just talking Simpson stuff. And I was telling him, you know, like, this is episode number 87. And it's probably like literally the only time where I've been nervous slash excited to talk to anyone. Because I'm a huge, huge Simpsons, not just fan.

I'm like a Simpsons nerd, man. I go way back with The Simpsons. And to put that in perspective, like the first time I ever watch the Simpsons, I remember this very vividly because it was the day that I moved from L.A. to Anaheim. And it was August, it was August 1986. And we were, you know, we were moving our stuff over. And it was like middle of the night and it turned on the TV because we had. I looked up the TV. I turned on the TV and the Tracy Olin show came on. And it was the Simpsons.

You know, it was like before the Simpsons were the Simpsons, they were on the Tracy Olman show. And the reason why I related so much to the Simpsons and why I loved it so much from the beginning was because my family is the exact copy paste of the Simpsons. It's, I'm the oldest, I'm a boy and I have two younger sisters. And I prank them and I treat him like crap. and I'm always trying to, like, you know, one-up them and all that. So as soon as I saw The Simpsons, I was instantly hooked. And, you know, fast forward, like, you know, what, 35 years later or whatever it is. I'm still watching The Simpsons. I'm still loving every episode.

I just watched the Quillaby episode, which I was laughing like crazy because I'm also a huge Morrissey-S-Smith. And, yeah, man, like, I was like, when the opportunity came up of having you on the podcast, I almost didn't believe it. I was just like, wow, really going to have someone from The Simpsons on here? That's amazing. Yeah, very excited. I'm honored to be here, guys. Yeah.

Thanks for having me. No worries. Yeah. I mean, I have a very similar history, too. Like, you know, I grew up watching the show. I remember being really young and, like, feeling like it was, like, forbidden, you know? It's like, oh, man, I don't think I'm supposed to watch it because the show is, like, not, it's not a cartoon for kids, right? I mean, kids can watch it, right?

but there's definitely a lot of stuff there that definitely will resonate with, like, adults. So, yeah, it's really great to have you on here. Yeah. Well, that's a beauty of it, because if you watch it as a kid and you watch it as an adult, there's stuff that didn't click with you as a kid, but as an adult, it just makes sense and you get it now. It's like, well, I remember hearing that line, but I never thought anything of it. You know, it's funny you say that because, like, last week or two weeks ago, when we found out that you were going to be on the podcast.

And I was telling Dennis, like, oh, that's cool, man. Like the Simpsons, they just did this hilarious, like, Morrissey episode. And then Dennis said, you know, I wish they would make, like, more current event type of things. And I didn't want to tell him during that conversation what I wanted to say right now. I was like, I'm going to say this for the podcast. But what I wanted to say back then was, like, little do you know, Dennis, that this is actually a current event. because Morrissey right now is actually going through this weird moment in his, I guess, history where he's making all these sorts of crazy statements out there.

And yeah, like, not everyone is going to get the references for sure. Like, I'm sure, you know, like, the average viewer is not going to understand that Morrissey episode. But for someone like me who's been watching The Simpsons since, you know, the early 80s or mid-80s or whatever, I get that reference and it makes me laugh like crazy because I'm an old man and I understand it you know and that's the beauty of the Simpsons for me is that

you know like depending on how old you are you're going to get something different out of it you know if you're a parent you're going to see like jokes that your kids aren't going to see and vice versa so I've always loved that about The Simpsons because when I was a kid my parents they would tell me like you can't watch this show

because it's not for kids I wouldn't understand like why it's not for kids just a cartoon. And then now that I'm an adult, and I see these old episodes that I used to watch as a kid, I'm like, this isn't for kids. I would let my daughter watch this.

So I'm like, I have a question for you. It's a very serious question. Your Twitter and your Instagram handle are I draw Homer. Do you only draw Homer or do you draw everybody else? Because I see he has the screen drawing some of the stuff. Like, wait, are you allowed to do that? So this is a story behind that name. When I first started this,

This was all done on an iPad. So I was going along that form of, like, iPhone, iPad. And this was supposed to be I, like, draw homework because I was doing it all, like, mobile devices. So people confuse that for making it seem like, like, I'm doing it. Like, I'm the only one. It's just me. And it's totally not the case. But the only reason I haven't changed it is because that name has just stuck.

And if I change it now, I feel like it's just going to ruin it. It is a perfect name. So it was a play on like iPhone products, like Apple products. Yeah, if you go back in time, I recommend that you change it to ICIM. Yeah, I'll have to get a, I'll get a toaster and go back to time. So, so Mike, let's let's kind of roll it back a little bit. So do you do animation for The Simpsons? What does that mean?

So like, what does your day-to-day look like? So my team is in charge of taking the audio. from the show, like the actors record the audio. We get the audio. The audio is then given to a storyboard artist. And that's taken. And basically they do like the first kind of layout where they do like, let's say,

if they're at the dinner table, they're going to show us what that shot looks like. If it's, you know, if it's from Homer's view, from Marge's view, or it's like we're like on the table. And we take that and we basically separate all the characters. and we listen to the audio and then we animate each character accordingly. That sounds like a really complicated thing you do.

Yeah. I'm just trying to imagine it in my head. I'm like, wow, it's hard. Yeah, so the board artist just comes up with the shots for us and then we take that and bring it to life, basically. Is that how they've always done, like not just Simpsons, but animation?

Yeah, yeah, it's always those steps. Sometimes the voice comes out. after when we do retakes. So retakes is something that's changed after the fact that they've recorded the voices. So we have to animate to like attempt voice or something and then they go in and put their voice on the... But it's always the other way, though, most of the time. Wow. That sounds hard, but also like very fun.

I mean, we are basically actors, but we are acting with our drawings instead of, you know, us on camera. that's an interesting way of looking at I never thought of it that way so you you basically draw I guess every character not just Homer yeah whoever is assigned to us in our little section of the show

how many people are on your team every animation team is about I want to say about five to six artists on average and then as like you know the show goes on and then like let's say

time's running out, and they need more people. They'll just put more people, like, they'll take them off with different episodes and put them on one to get it done. That sounds crazy. Yeah. That happens a lot, trust me. Yeah. And what sort of, like, computer are using for this stuff?

Well, right now we're using IMAX. I use a PC because I just prefer... Let's go. The way Windows runs. But I do go back and forth, depending. because like some of the stuff that we have scripts for, I only run on the Mac. So I have to like take my file,

put it through there and put it through their tools. But for the most part, PC. What kind of PCD do you have? Actually, I just ordered an NGXT. What? Yeah, two weeks ago. Oh, man. So I'm super excited to get that.

Sorry for the wait. You guys hurry that up, please. Yeah. I've been checking my email every single. single morning when I wake up hoping I see a tracking order on there. Yeah, I hope that you probably could have just like told Jeff Royal that you wanted a computer. I probably would have spent it up. Oh, I spent a pretty penny, but it'll be worth it. Well, thank you. Thank you for your support, man. Yeah, totally. Like now when I watch the Simpsons, I'm going to be like, damn, that was drawn with

the NXT computer. I've had the cracking for a while. And it's funny because I always tell people Homer Simpson's running my computer. Because I have the X-Files episode. Yeah, Homer's running around and a circle on the floor. I used to have the same gif on my cracking when I was back in the office. Well, I have that one. But I use the one from where he's on the treadmill all wired up. So that's looping in that little gif.

And I tell people that he's running my computer. Like, that's him on the treadmill. So as I'll let everyone know real quick, who's listening live, I managed to get the display feed from our call here on Twitch. So if you guys want to watch them draw or just doodle as a chat and go for it, Twitch.tv slash NZT for not listening live, then it really isn't for you. He's going to have to, I guess, watch the VOT or something later on. But Mike, how did you, so how did you get into animation the first place?

Like, when did you decide? This is one of those things I knew I wanted to do since I was a kid. Okay. As soon as I found out that people do this for a living, everything else went out the door for me. Like, I know coming from a family who, like, values education, you know, at first they were like, no. You know, you should look into like, obviously, like doctor, lawyer. Like, all parents want that for their kids.

But I was really set on this. And after high school, I got an internship. I was lucky enough to get, well, actually I kind of faked college credit. That was the only way I can get in. But I got in through there. I kept bugging the animators for giving me tips. So during my internship, on the side, I was really practicing to take their animation test. So by the time my internship was done, I was able to take it.

You know, it scored really well with the staff. and I got hired the next year. Man, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome that you can just, you know, set your sights on a goal and just be like, you know what? I know my parents, my family, whoever, the whole world wants me to do this other thing, but I'm going to take a different route because I feel it in my heart.

Yeah. And you did, man. Awesome. In school, all I did was drawn my homework and tests and everything. So it's like if this didn't work, I would have been screwed. I think Dennis and I did the same thing, but we basically got kicked out of school. Well, I didn't get kicked out. I decided I was going to stop going because it was expensive.

I'm like, this is a lot of money. And they're literally telling me, oh, you want to work in gaming? Yeah, we don't know how to do that. So I'm like, okay, well, what am I paying you people for? It's a reason to mean anything. When did you join the Simpsons? What year was that? That was 2004.

Okay. It was official on the show. Almost, that's almost 20 years ago. Can you believe that? Yeah, actually, I left and I did work in commercials and gaming for a few years. 2012, I went back to school. I went to Nomen in Hollywood, and I wanted to learn 3D animation. And then after that, I worked at this company that worked with 2K sports.

So I got to work out like NBA 2K, Mafia 3. I was part of their facial animation team. that was a really good experience and then 2016 I went back to the Simpsons because I really just missed that family and just drawing by hand not moving stuff around on the computer

yeah it seems like it would be a fun a fun environment to be working in to be honest I know it's a cartoon and all but like you know not all cartoons that I see are the same like I've seen some cartoons where you know they just don't look as fun as a Simpsons

And I feel like the Simpsons is just like so slapstick over the top. A lot of inside jokes that it's like, it was a little bit of everything for everyone. So I can only imagine how fun it must be to just be in that environment where you're just working with a bunch of people. Yeah, we're all just a bunch of old teenagers pretty much. That's awesome. Yeah. If you're in the need for some social media people, me and Dennis are available. For sure.

Um, so actually, I was, I was about to ask that. So like, um, do you guys have much, much input on like the writing of the show or is it just pure animation? Uh, so we are one of the, I don't know how many studios are like this actually, but we're, our studio is like animations only at our studio. Writing is somewhere else and then the voice acting is somewhere else. So have you, we're not all in one house. So usually it's the writers, you know, they're away from us. they do their thing, and then they sent the stuff to us. So we usually don't have anything to do with the writing.

Have you ever gotten a script and has been like, what the heck did they want me to animate? Well, I mean, that's what the story where artist does. They basically translate the script into shots for us. So with something like, for example, like this, this Morrissey episode that just passed like a week or two ago. I wasn't on that team. Okay.

I have no idea about that episode. Okay, well, that's just one thing. I guess recent examples. It doesn't matter the episode, but I guess my question is, like, are there ever episodes where you have no idea what the heck they're talking about? Or you just don't understand the jokes or the references and you're still just drawing? I'm trying to think. It put me on the spot.

Not that I can recall. Usually I get the other references. Yeah, because I would imagine that would be very challenging. Like if I don't know who Morrissey is and my job is to like, okay, you got to draw Morrissey dancing or whatever. Like it's very specific, right? Like if you don't know how Morrissey dance. I mean, that's where YouTube comes in.

Ah, I see. So you have to do a little bit of research. Yeah. So if there's actually one thing the writers do that's helpful, if they have a specific action they need, they usually send a YouTube link. So we know exactly what kind of like movement or like dance they're talking about.

Like we had to, what was a couple of years ago, we had to do the floss dance. So we had to research that one because most of us didn't know how to do it. So we had to analyze it, break it apart so we can animate it. Dennis and I do that on the regular, by the way.

Pretty much, yeah. I'm always flossing. Happened to that kid, man, that a minute of that dance, the backpack kid. You just kind of fell off, huh? I have no idea. Yeah, pretty famous, I think. It was like a... He was huge.

He was like in SNL. He was like in music videos. He was everywhere. And then he just like, I don't know what the heck happened to him. Was he the same kid as the Orange Justice kid? I'm not sure. Not sure, actually. But, yeah, he disappeared.

I don't know. I haven't seen him in a couple years. All those turned into the Fortnite dances. anyway, right? That's true. Yeah, and I think he actually tried suing to Fortnite, but they, he didn't win. So speaking to suing, I heard Morrissey tried to sue the Simpsons last week. Did he really?

Yeah, it got thrown out of court because the judge said, don't you understand that the Simpsons are satire? Parity. You can't get sued for charity. Yeah, he tried, though. And, you know, knowing, like, I don't, I mean, I don't know Morrissey, but knowing him just from, like, you know, being a fan of his, like, I could totally understand him. getting upset at something like that because as I was watching it I was just like man

Morrissey's going to be very mad if he ever sees this yeah sure enough like the next day pitchfork dot com I was reading some article saying like Morris he was really mad and he was trying to like you know sue and the judge was just telling him like you can't sue for someone that's just making fun of you it's like it doesn't work that way it's like you should be honored you were on our show anyway So Mike, what's the, what's the, what's your favorite part about doing animation? I mean, it doesn't feel like work. I mean, sometimes it does.

Don't get me wrong. But like most of the time, like, I see the kind of mental and physical stress people deal with with work. And I'm sitting here drawing cartoons. So I always take a blessing from that and knowing that, you know, I got really lucky. And I never take that for granted. So that's probably the best part of my job. Okay, what's your least favorite part about the Crowds?

Crowds. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Let's just say a couple of months ago, I had a scene where everybody gets up from the church pews and rushes out the window. I mean, not the windows, right, rushes out the door. So that's about 50 people I had to animate doing that. How long would that take?

That took me two weeks. Jesus. And it lasted about, six seconds. Wow. That's crazy, man. That's, so that's the not so fun part.

So do you, like, so, this is going to sound really, really, really, really, really mean,

but because I know, because I know a lot of people listening are going to be like, how dare he say this? Especially Dennis. But as an animator, do you just think, like,

anime is just, like, you know, not as good as what you're doing. Because for me, like, I love animated cartoons.

Like, I love The Simpsons. I mean, it's all the Hill. Personal taste. But one thing I know is anime has a different, like, aesthetic,

period. So it's like, it's like, the aesthetic is one thing, but it's also like, I don't know, like, I just,

for whatever reason. There we go. I was about such slandering. Like, I, I'm not interested in, like, the storylines.

I don't care about the characters. Like, for me, when I watch anime, I just like, I don't get it. Like, for me, it isn't click. But I watch The Simpsons or King of the Hill or Family Guy. Well, I guess that makes two of us. There we go. So he's on my side, Dennis. I'm sorry.

I don't know. I didn't even know why you're trying to start a fight on this. Oh, I'm not trying to sort of fight, but I know that. It was fight words. I mean, that being said, I can appreciate it, you know. But it's something I watch. there's one anime that I can appreciate that I enjoy and that's neon genesis Evangelian but besides that like every other anime I've ever tried watching I'm just like

hey this is that good it's like it's like whatever you know but but like vice versa there's like so many different like just like animated shows like The Simpsons you know like I just named the handful of them but there's tons of them like those types of shows I don't know what it is about it man but I can like watch them endlessly Because they're relatable. And I don't know. I don't know what it is. Like you watch a show like King of the Hill, which in my opinion is like one of the best shows I've ever created, right?

It's it's very topical, right? But it's still very relevant today. You know, and it's about like America and like the American experience. And that's probably why it resonates with you. Whereas if you're watching a magical show about like a anime girl with the, you know, who like transforms, you probably don't understand why that would be interesting, you know? Listen, Evan, just say you're uncultured. and let's just move on to the next part of the conversation.

Yeah, I don't know. I know I'm definitely in the minority on this Discord server here. Little fun fact on King of the Hill, I was an intern there first. Oh, really? Because it was done at the same studio as the Simpsons. Were you the original Bob? So they kind of bounced year-round shows. It was either original Bobby, no.

So when you were an intern, did you get to work with and meet Mike Judge? No, he was actually never at the studio Okay So you just go in there and like just draw I guess every day Yeah well it was like Before it before it was It was called film Roman

So this company was an animation studio That was hired by company So Fox hired it Disney Which was who just bought out Marvel at the time Was using it We did X-Men Evolution at that studio too, if you guys remember that cartoon.

I do remember that cartoon. I'm trying to think Bobby's World was done there. The mass cartoon was done there. I remember that one. World Combat cartoon was done there. Oh, God, that show. There was a lot of shows. I forgot about Bobby's World, man.

Bobby's a good one. That was a good one. That's definitely one of the ones I grew up on. Yeah. Was there... Wasn't, yeah. I was in so like wasn't like a famous name attached to that show. There's like a few.

There's like a few of them, right? There's that one. I think like Life with Louis was one of them as well. Oh yeah. That's great. And it's like every character was just him. Just being voiced by him. Like a different pitch.

Yeah. It's funny though because like as all these other shows came out, I always in the back of my mind, I was like they're trying to be like The Simpsons. You know, even like South Park and all these like shows that kind of took it up on. notch and like took it to the next level. I was just like, this would not exist or the Simpsons didn't do it first.

And even South Park acknowledged it, right? Like, didn't they have that whole like show like the Simpsons did it first? And it's true, man, because I remember, like, I swear, I vividly remember like life before the Simpsons and life after the Simpsons. And, you know, before the Simpsons, it wasn't just animated shows. It was also shows like married with children, for example. I think maybe Trillard might have came out first before. Yeah, I did.

But it was around the same time. But I honestly do feel like the Simpsons kind of supported that show in many ways. Because if I remember correctly, I think they came on right before that show at one point. And it was very similar in terms of like the type of writing, the jokes and all that stuff. and, you know, not just for kids. It's like adult humor, adult comedy, but kids can watch it too. And I feel like if it wasn't for The Simpsons,

there'd be like a lot of shows that would not have existed or been created, to be honest. A lot of it, and not just animated shows, like even, you know, sitcoms. So it's interesting to me, like, looking at a show, like, for example, like, I don't know, like a South Park, let's say. yes, it's like edgy. Yes, it's funny. Yes, it's, you know, in a lot of ways, you know, a lot

crazier than The Simpsons. But it doesn't really have like that same influence that the Simpsons did when it first came out. Because I really do think it changed the world, man. Like, I'm not even exaggerating. I mean, I grew up on it. So it's, it's kind of weird that I was raised by the show and now working on the show. It's like, I can't, it's, it's, it's, it's escape it. Pretty weird, actually. This is like kind of your life now at this point, right? Yeah, definitely.

I think I'll get, I'll have to get a tattoo someday. I think it's earned it. I'm surprised you haven't at this point. Like, like, would you, so if you were to get this into some tattoo, would you, would you draw it yourself? Would you have someone else draw it? I definitely draw myself. Was it the top of the tender?

Would it be like character or like a... You should get a Homer tattoo, but like the homer that looked like the janky-looking Homer, like the original Homer. Look on the shorts. Yeah. Like me out of the funny boys. I don't think I could live with that. That'd be funny, though, man. Actually, we'll be a pretty cool tattoo, and I'm going to link it to Ivan and in the, on the Discord chat.

But the Flying Hellfish from the one episode with the grandpa, that would like a really cool tattoo is like a reference, right? actually I recommend a page called The Simpsons Tattoo Oh yeah I see that I think that's what's called It's something it's just Simpson tattoos right Instagram page Yeah it's the really awesome stuff there like some guys are like Shading these characters like they're 3D and it's really cool It's uh the Simpsons tattoo

I've seen that it's hilarious man there's some really good ones I'm looking through it right now I'll link you right now in the chat. Yeah, I'm going through it. I could probably scroll through it for those who are watching live on Twitch. Yeah, no, there are, I think a show like this, there's, like, so many different ways you can, you can, like, just turn this into, to the two. So I'm just scrolling through these, these are ridiculous.

This is an awesome radio, by the way. I have a giant back piece of, like, Homer with the writing three-eyed fish and, like, yeah. I should probably delete that, because. because Marge, I think, is not wearing clothes on the couch. I like the Flanders one where he's like, the nothing at all. It's such a classic. Nothing at all, nothing at all. He's such a classic.

Oh, man. It's always weird when I run into those posts or drawings with them, you know, and not suitable for work style. Yeah, some people, like, really go super hard. really on the Simpsons. Like, I know Ivan, I know Ivan, like, it's almost like seeing your family.

Yeah. You're seeing your mom like on someone's back on a tattoo and you're like, Mom, what are you doing? What's your favorite Simpsons character? I mean, definitely a homework because I relate to him the most. Really? Yeah.

You're a father of three children? Well, I'm not a father, but I do love Codda. I am. becoming overweight, I'm balding. No, but he is my favorite. You know, when I was a kid, it was Bart, but as an adult, it's definitely Homer as well. Like I said earlier, when I was a kid, I can relate because I'm the big brother. I had two younger sisters, and I was always messing with them.

But now that I have, I have one daughter. So I don't, I, I screwed up the Simpsons. It's alive. Yeah, the Simpsons vibe there. but I do actually like now that I'm getting older like I'm going to turn 40 this year I am starting to feel a little bit more like Homer like now I understand why you know he he goes to Mo's tavern afterward and you know why he's always trying to strangle Bart and all that like I get it now it's definitely a different vibe now that I'm older I also I also still relate to um to uh Ralph Ralph Wiggum a little bit. So one thing that I wanted to ask you about, Mike, because we were going through your Instagram,

and you have a lot of different, like, variations on like the Homer character, right? So, example, I'm scrolling through you here on Instagram. You have, my favorite one is the Wolverine one. That one's so good. Is this something that you do as almost like an exercise, or is it just like, I'm doing it for fun or like, do you like gain things for my game?

I mean, I love, I've been drawing these characters for so long that it just become almost like I've adopted it as my style. Like I enjoy drawing these even like off work. And the main reason I do so many variations is because we can't, like as a rule, we can't post any kind of production work on there. But I still want to draw the symptoms. So I have to do like my own style. Yeah, like there's the, there's the bean from Fall Guys as like Homer. Oh, yeah. I think it's really cool seeing these like different like takes.

Exxon the character. And I think that's why I love the poochie so much because it's Homer, but he's in the poochy form, right? And I feel like it could be in the show in like some random episode, you know? Going through some of these. Do you ever got any trouble for drawing anything that you shouldn't have drawn? No. I mean, I'd like to keep my job.

Are there any like guidelines? like, for example, like, you can't post this, you can't post that. Because I'm like, some of these are, like, pretty crazy. So production work. Production work, I can't show. So anything that's been on the show, like, behind the scenes, kind of, like, if it's aired, I could show, like, what I worked on as a finished product that's been aired. But any, like, pre-production stuff, I can't show.

And, like, what about when you do these, like, different takes on Homer, right? Like, example, I know the Wolverine one's fine, but, like, is there any kind of like way of drawing these characters that you're just like not allowed to do? Are there any like? Well obviously don't draw anything, you know. Like offensive, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Nothing offensive. Nothing like X-rated. Right. People do be doing that. Yeah, they do. Just on their own time. He's like, they got that covered. That's called.

That's called anime, right? That was a joke, Dennis. laugh. I was laughing. Laugh at me. That's the joke, right? That's the joke. Yeah.

Is it harder to work on the show now that you're out, like, working remotely? Not harder, but there is a lot of distractions at home, like video games. So it's hard not to just jump over, you know, and start gaming. but usually I use it as a reward system. So if I finish my work, finish my scenes for the day, I get to play. What are you playing right now?

I've been playing a lot of C. eth thieves. Well, since it came out, I've been playing a lot of C.at Thebes. But it's become my main kind of game. But if not that, then I'm just, you know, like mindlessly shooting in Call Duty.

I can tell you I'm playing C at These because I was going through your Instagram. A lot of a lot of pirate insolades Spirited stuff and a lot of just screenshots from the game. So I related to that game right away because ever since I was a kid, I had a fascination with pirates. So

like since watching Peter Pan as a kid, I always wanted to see more of the pirates. And like Hook in the 90s. Like I was so really into that movie. And then Goonies, of course. I think CF thieves, it's a cool game.

I've played it before. It also has a very unique animation style compared to other ridiculous. It's very like, cartoony feel to it. Yeah, it's cartoony, right? It's very cartooning. And the water looks super

like photorealistic. Yeah, it's interesting. It's like two different art styles in one game, basically. Right. I like it. It's cool. That's a good game.

How you ever played Super Mega Baseball? Oh my God. Yeah, I have. Oh, yeah. What do you think about the animation style of that game? It's fun.

It's a good idea. arcadey like I was really hoping because MLB announced that they were going to do like cross platforms yeah I was really disappointed that yeah I was really disappointed that they didn't make it for PC like I thought that was like a for sure thing I'm like actively trying to buy a PS5 right now just for that reason just I'll play that sticky video games that's the only reason why I have a PlayStation Xbox so yeah but that's actually one of the reasons why I like super mega baseball is because number one, it's a great baseball simulator, first of all. Like, just the gameplay on it, it's awesome.

But for me, I love those animations, man. Like, I love how those characters look, like, they just look so goofy to me. And with their stupid names, like, hammer long ballo, and the guy has like a giant head, you know? Like, to me, it's almost like the Simpsons, you know. It's like, you know, goofy-looking characters with funny names. And very, very interesting that, like, that there's, I don't know,

I guess there's games that kind of correlate with the type of cartoons we're watching, right? Right. Right here. So I don't want to hold you up for too long, Mike. Because no, you got a lot of Call of Duty and see-a-thieves to go through. So I want to get to some of our community questions before we were in the time. So from the real Jake, what is your most awkward drawing of Homer that you've ever had to draw? I think that's how he wanted to word that.

Hmm. There was one actually. I had to do a run cycle of the camera that was like at his feet level. So drawing him at that kind of perspective and trying to animate him was really awkward for me because that was the first time I was doing that. But if you understand like perspective and like how things work, you can get it. But yeah, that took me a while to do because those characters aren't really drawn from that kind of angle.

All right. Money wants to know, have you ever drawn those cursed, stretched frames for movements? Yes. How hard does it do? Not really hard. And they don't even have to be on model, to be honest, because they're on the, those kind of frames are only there for one frame, which is one 24th of a second. So as long as they just look okay, they pretty much cross. If it's in the ballpark, it's going to look good. Okay. Because it reminds you of like, of like, um, of like, um, of like, like, um, of like, like, like, seeing these like quality anime, uh, screenshots where like, they're like screenshoting like right

in the middle of an animation and looks super wonky and stretched and like, oh, look how, you know, look how bad the show looks. I was like, well, no, duh, it's not, you know. It's one of those frames. A. Candy wants to know, uh, what's your favorite moment on the show, either animating or watching? So let's say, what was your favorite thing to animate on the show so far? Favorite thing to animate?

One of the things I remember that was from season 17. It was Ned Flanders that turned a church into a haunted house. And I did the scene where he got to transform into the devil, like with the smoke and everything. So that was really fun to work on. And memorable, as far as watching, it had to be the Homer's Mom episode. Oh, man. She has to leave again.

Yeah. She abandoned him. It's very sad. Yeah. So I didn't want to call out Ivan, but I had to because Ivan actually got what I said totally wrong in the beginning of the show, which is I am actually not the biggest fan of the super topical shows because I feel like that's already been done like a million times. I've actually always really been a fan of the more like timeless kind of episodes, right?

Like I'm talking like super, super early seasons, right? We're like, you know, for example, you know, a homo is trying to, you know, earn money for his family so he can buy Christmas presents, right? Like to me, those episodes in my opinion, right, in my opinion, are the best because no matter what year you watch them, it's always going to hit, you know? And especially as a kid, it's like, okay, you know, cool, they got a dog.

And then as an adult, I'm like, bro, I remember what it's like to be broke and you can't afford anything and you're trying to take any job that you can just to make a buck. So to me, I think I'm kind of like the horse one too, and at least it gets a pony. Yeah. Night shifts at the cookie mart. Or like, what's that one?

The one where Bart steals a video game. Oh, I love that one too. Do you remember the name of the video game? I don't. I don't. Bones storm. It's Bones storm. Yeah.

Don't storm. Yeah. Was that the Thrill House? Mille House's name while he was playing was Thrill House. Yeah. So Thrill House. He couldn't finish it. Remember it was just Thrill Ho.

It was Thrill Ho. Then he's like, yeah, thrill house. And he's like, did you show Thrill Ho on there? Oh, man. Let's see here. some of the questions are there okay this is for many

are there instances where animation sequences are animation sequences are recycled and reused across multiple episodes or characters like Hannah Barbarra's no car not not with this show because we have different camera angles and it wouldn't really

match we could reference them and like kind of imitate them but we never actually take recycled animation I mean unless like it's a clip show and they're going back to like you know an older episode. It would be kind of weird if you had to redraw all episodes. Yeah.

But yeah, everything is done from scratch. Unless, you know, we reference it, but we never actually reuse. Right. Real Jake wants to know, how did you manage to get Mike on the podcast? It's because we're the best, baby. It's actually very random. Yeah. It was, um, Jeff just emailed us.

he's like, hey, would you guys like, what you said, I think his exact words were, would you guys be interested on having a Simpsons animator on your podcast? And our immediate reaction was like, uh, yes, of course. That's freaking awesome. Like, heck yeah, hook it up. That was literally it. And I don't know how Jeff got in touch with you. I don't know how Jeff knows you.

Well, I emailed them because your guys is, like the creator PC was always sold out every time. So I reached out to a friend who knew Jeff. And I'm like, dude, these guys are always sold out. Is there any way to just kind of like reserve one? So I just emailed them. I'm like, I explained, you know, what I do, like why I need it. It's basically for the 3090 because we do our, we have to render, we have to render all our animations. It's like kind of slow with the ones I got now.

So that's like the card for like animation these days. Today, today I actually went to the office. because they gave me a laptop. And as I was picking it up, there was a fresh delivery of 3090s coming in. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't. But that is super, super cool, man. Like, what made you want to get an NGST computer in the first place?

Besides the 390, was it anything else? I mean, I do like that case. I would have probably bought that case, my next build. I forgot what model it is, but it's the one that comes with the creator. Okay. It's a set, uh,

the 7th, no, the 510 elite. I think so. It's the one that's a little longer. The creator proceeds 510 elite. Yep, it is.

Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's definitely our, our most popular best selling case, but yeah, I will go to my group saying it's not our best case. The bittersweet thing about ordering that is because I love to build my own.

And this is like the first one I'm not going to build. How many computers have you built? The one I have right now is like my third one. But I really enjoy building the computers. Yeah, me too, man. There's something satisfying about like finally getting the, this pressing that button hoping for the best and you get it to start. Yeah, there's something about it, man.

Like even me, for example, myself, like I have a really old computer. So backtracking a little bit, the reason I got a laptop today. My computer, I literally built this computer when I first joined NZXT, and I built it inside of a Manta prototype, which is like my favorite case that we ever made. And all the hardware inside of my computer is from like 2014, like super old and barely run Zoom and all this. And, you know, people, people always tell me, like, in meetings, like, man, you should get a new computer because you can't even, like, you know, change your background or whatever. But I refuse to for the longest time just because, like, what are the reasons you said right now.

Like, it definitely holds a special piece in my heart. Like, I built this with my own hands. I don't want to, like, just tell someone like, okay, give me a computer that works. It's not the same feeling, you know. It's like there's something about just building something with your own hand. Yeah. Especially, I think, if it's something like a computer. computer that it's like super advanced and technological.

Right. And then bonus points if you're using it for your job, and especially if your job is fun, like, you know, drawing Homer Simpson, for example. Like, yeah, like I would not want to trade it for anything in the world. But I got to the point where I was like, okay, I could barely run Google Me. I need a new computer. Right. So yeah, I got a last hop today. My computer now will serve better as my streaming pieces. So now I can

Because I'm pretty sure That thing's going to be a beast for gaming too So you also stream then, huh? Yeah Okay On Twitch? Yes, sir Is it Twitch.com?

I am Homer? No, he's still on Mixer. It's actually deepsea Homer Because I do a lot of See a thief stuff. I thought you're going to say like, it's actually I'm ninja He's a ninja double systems

An animator when he gets bored It's a Twitch. TV slash ninja Oh, man. All right. So next community question here is, what is the scariest slash grossest thing you've ever animated? I'm trying to think. I don't think I've ever animated anything scary or gross.

There's your answer. Minnie wants to know. What is the approximate total length of time it takes to illustrate slash anime an entire episode? So when it comes to our studio, it takes about six months For one episode? As an episode as a whole, including recording and scripts, it's like about nine months. Oh, boy. Six months for one episode?

Yeah. Wow. So that's why we have team. So every team is working on one like simultaneously. So that's how they come out every week after week. Dude, I never in a million years would have said six months. I would have said like a month stops. That's crazy, man.

Oh, yeah. Wow. That's amazing. That's really amazing because, like, as I'm watching The Simpsons, I don't think about that stuff. I just assume, you know, every week that you guys are turning out episodes or whatever. And damn, six months. That's, that's amazing, man.

Yeah, I remember I was watching a video talking about Evangelion, Ivan, but need to bring it up in that the last, episodes to the reasons why they look so weird. And if anyone's ever seen Evangelian, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The last two episodes look really weird. And they're like animated in such a weird style because one, they ran them at the time. And the studio that was like playing or the television station who was who was playing had no idea what was on those last two episodes. It was like last minute, hey, we just got it done. You know, turning in my homework super late. Here's the last two episodes of the show. And they just like went up like that.

and like do you hear that a lot across the industry especially in the anime where like the production schedules are super super super just like super crunchy and um i'm curious like i guess since you guys are taking like six months it's probably not like that right you guys probably have like a really like streamlined schedule especially for a show like that we're like you guys are doing like a million you know episodes like a year now yeah ours is yeah we're pretty streamlined like if we i don't think we ever had anything come out late I can imagine. I mean, especially that's working for the mouse, right? So this is like a personal question because I'm very fascinated with the way that like companies function, especially like successful companies. What sort of processes are you guys using to manage this workflow? Are you using tools like Trello or Giro or how are you managing all these different projects and tasks? we use something called box as far as uploading and downloading files like communicating each other

but are you talking about like tracking work yeah like for example like let's say episode number 1000 like is there like a task board that where like you see a card that says episode 1,000 and you click on it and it just says oh and it brings up designs and everything yeah like my my cast to draw this thing by this date etc yeah how do you guys manage all that work I forgot what program they use, because we have nothing to do with that. But that's the production side. But there is something yet that they use that has every episode, who's doing what, what's assigned to who. See, that even makes me even more interested now because you just said, I have no idea what they use.

So to me, it's like, I don't know why I recently became fascinated with this whole idea of, like, processes for businesses. but I haven't read a book once about one thing and now I can't tell thinking about it. I'm just very fascinated how businesses work, man, because yeah, a lot of businesses, like in The Simpsons of the business, I feel like they focus a lot on trying to optimize the employee, right?

Trying to make sure that this guy that I'm paying X amount of money, like I want them to draw faster, I want them to draw better, all these things. But in reality, what may be, that person, that employee work better, it's the processes, the systems that are put in place by that business in order to like make sure that, you know, in the example of The Simpsons, that an episode comes out every week, you know? And it's super interesting to me that the, you just said like, I don't know what, I don't know what tools they use, but they just tell me

what it animate or whatever, you know, it's like. That's the way to do it, right? At our level, they're just like, hey, you got these scenes due end of the week. Go to go to town. That's what I should do with you, Dennis. I should just tell you like, hey, man, make me a viral meme before Saturday. Done. One viral meme coming up. Thank you.

That's all it took, dude. Do you need to ask? Yeah, she's speaking a viral meme, dude. Okay, I got a few more questions here. Here's a good one. who are your favorite who is your favorite one-off character from The Simpsons?

I'm going to say mine real quick already Hank Scorpio the guy killed it literally Yeah, I would have to agree with that But also He's not really a one-off But he's no longer on the show Is a why

I can't remember the name of the lawyer now Oh Hutz, there we go Oh, Lionel Hutz, yeah Yeah He's not necessarily a one-off But I really like that was like just sleazy he was Oh, you know who else reminds you of?

Troy McClure as well. I mean, I know quite a longer in the show, but, like, man, like that, that guy, every time he came on, right, you knew you were going to get a good bit. You knew you were going to be a good joke and you're ready for it. So Hank Scorpio is definitely one of my favorite characters. And I believe that season, that year, whatever year that was, I forget the number. But I think that season has probably the world record for the funniest episodes, man. I think that same season had.

Was it grinds on that one, too? Yeah, grinds. and also the 21 short stories about Springfield. I think they were the same year. Like, man, and that was when I was, I believe I was in junior high when that came out. I think it was season 11. Have I remember correctly? Season 8.

It's season 8. Season 8. Season 8, there you go. I'm going through right now. But man, like, yeah, like that season, every, every show was a hit. Like, it was amazing. That's the Bush episode too Where it's like Dennis to Venice

Yes I forgot about that Wow I think that was called two bad neighbors Or something like that Yeah man I gotta go back and watch these episodes It's on Disney Plus man It's a Disney Plus you gotta get on that

I'm a password if you want it No Funny thing about Disney is like I grew up watching Disney And like now that I'm a parent I don't want to show my daughter Disney movies because, like, as I'm watching them as an adult, I'm like, these movies are not for kids.

Like, they're not, like, for real. Especially, like, the older ones, like, for example. Super depressing ones. Like, like, Dumbo is straight up racist, in my opinion, like, number one. But then there's other movies, like, Snow White, where it's, like, within the first five minutes, um, Snow White's evil, evil, mean stepmother. tells the huntsman

go kill Snow White in the woods and bringing back her heart in this box and I'm just like man this is not for kids you know and then like

at the end of the movie Snow White's like in his glass coffin and the dwarves are like surrounding her like in some like satanic circle or whatever like worshiping her

I don't know what that's going on but yeah these these old animated shows they're really weird man like they're definitely like I could tell like whoever was drawing these

was not thinking about kids at all. Definitely a product of their time, for sure. Yeah, like Snow White came out in the 30s, 1938. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, and it was like the first animated movie, right? So I'm sure.

I think that's before child labor laws too. I'm sure, yeah, that's another thing. But I'm sure like when Walt Disney was, you know, inventing Disneyland or whatever and like trying to bring animation to the masses, I don't think he was thinking about kids. I really don't. I think he was trying to target adults. and the stories and all this is like,

like literally like, you know, crazy stuff, man, that it's not for kids. It's really interesting to watch as an old man. Super interesting, yeah. Yeah, there's, there's those, it's like you were saying, Evan, there's like a lot of questionable stuff too and some of those older movies. You're like, really?

Like, this is something that, yeah, I guess people really thought like that back of the day, huh? And honestly, I never thought about that until recently, until I had a kid and I'm watching them again. I'm just like, what the heck am I watching? Why am I showing my daughter, you know, like Snow White's mom trying to kill her or whatever? And they don't hide it. That's the thing.

It's like, at least with the Simpsons or King of the Hill or Family Guy, all these like modern cartoon shows. I do think they throw in jokes for the adults, but only adults get it, right? Like if you're not an adult, you're not going to understand what they're not going to understand. the heck's going on. But if you're a kid watching Snow White and then you all of a sudden hear Snow White's evil stepmother saying something like, go kill her and bring me her heart in this box and all this stuff, that's crazy. That's not for, that's just like, you know, that's something that I, no one, not even adultered here, you know, especially a kid. It's just, it's crazy how, how back in the day when like animated shows and cartoons and all that's, you know,

first started coming out, like I don't, I don't know, I don't know what the thinking process was, basically. I think, again, I think it was just a product of their time.

Like, that kind of stuff was just acceptable back then. Or normal, I should say, really acceptable. Yeah, there really wasn't a concept of, like,

child psychology and, like, you know, what they shouldn't, shouldn't be exposed to, for sure. I made the, I made the mistake

of showing my daughter ET the other day. Did she, did she cry? Yeah. Well, so the first half of, ET, it's very like PG, you know, there's not a lot of like

crazy things going on. The second half of ET, it's insane. It's like E.T.'s like basically melting and you know, and his skin color changes and all this stuff. And my daughter for the last week has been waking up in the middle of the night saying that E.T.'s in her bedroom. Jesus Christ.

Yeah, and my wife's like, why did you show her that movie? I was like, I don't know, I thought it was like a safe movie. Like, like, I look at the ratings that says PG and I assume, okay, parental guidance, I'm a parent, I'm guiding my daughter watching this show or whatever was this movie. Like, I don't think about it, but I can see things differently for sure. Like my daughter's like, I think ET screwed her up a little bit. You're scarter for life. I feel like you don't really have a childhood though. I want to see.

I like that one movie of your show. they're like really freaked you out. For me as a kid. Mine was Jaws. Mine was Jaws. Mine was child's play. Yeah. I saw that as shark.

Mine was child's play and Tales of the Crypt. I think I think that show might have played on like Sundays or something. And I think it might have been like right after the Simpsons too when I was a kid. I forget. But I remember like I'd be watching Fox like super late at night or like, well, late for a kid. And then I would hear that theme from from that show turn on. And I would run and be like, I'm out of here. Like, it doesn't exist.

If I don't see it, I'm going to the other room. It's too spooky. All right. Two more questions. First one is the real Jake is what drawing pad do you use, Mike? I'm using a Wakeoms and teak. There you go. And then the, actually, you got one.

Okay, I got two more, actually. I lied, two more. Someone wants to know about disenchantment. That's not the same studio, right? You guys are complete separate, or is it the same? No, that's Netflix. Yeah, that's what I figured. It's Matt Graney created, but it's not our studio.

We don't do it. All right. That's what I figured, but why not ask? And then TIPA wants to know, can you throw in an NZC Easter Egg in one of the episodes? He wants to know. I mean, again, I like my job. There you go. I don't want to get fired.

Did you just hear that they have a very streamlined process, TIPA? Come on. They're going to find out. You know, if it happens. magically throw in like an NZXT H510 Elite into one of the episodes

you know not saying it's going to happen but if he ever did he'd probably get in trouble so he definitely should not do it like Bart just playing like Fortnite on an NZC computer or something

there was like there was a show there was an episode where he was like streaming or something right yeah there's been a couple episodes where he's playing video games it was like a League of Legends type game

yeah no it was Warcraft World of Warcraft Oh, that one too, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's a lot older, actually. That was season 19 or something. Okay. Way too many seasons.

There's a lot of seasons, man. Yeah, I know, I know. I need to get back on it. But yeah, Ivan, if you want that Disney Plus, man, just let me know. Let me know. I'll get you on that Simpsons grind. I think I'm good. All right, then.

Then never mind. I think if my daughter get a little older, man, because... Just watch it one. Like, I'm serious. Just watch it for you. Don't watch it for her. Watch it for you. These old movies, these old animated movies are definitely not for kids.

I'm saying so you can watch Simpsons. Not so you can watch Snow White. It's on Disney Plus. I'll show my daughter to The Simpsons. To show the episode where Bart cuts off Jebedai's Head. It keeps in the bag. It's such a good episode. Okay.

I think that's pretty much it. I'm looking at the rest of the questions here. I think that's it. All right, cool then. Mike, you have any questions for us? You're going to ask us anything? Well, how do you guys like working with the NGXT? Like, what has your experience been like?

Yeah, it's like. That's good. So I've been here almost two years now, actually. It'll be two years next week. Let me see. Yeah, it'd be about two years next week, I think. And it's been, you know, I mean, we've seen such a crazy amount of growth that it's like never kind of stopped, you know? Like, I don't think for me.

I mean, I'm sure, especially during COVID, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it's something that like we've spoken on a couple times, like the demand for technology, especially gaming tech. Yeah. Especially now is just like absolutely insane. Everybody's playing video games. Everybody wants to know to have something to do.

People who, you know, want to stream or streaming and want to watch streamers and play with streamers and so on and so. forth. It's just, it's been crazy. So, you know, like I said, we've been incredibly blessed to be working in an industry that's like, I'm not going to say like recession proof, but like, you know, there's like a demand even when things are kind of tough, right? Yeah. Which is like crazy to think about, you know, like, oh, I got a stimulus. Let me spend that on the computer. It's like, no, dude, like, buy food. Like, the heck? But you eat. Well, see, I mean, that's, that's kind of the bittersweet moment of it. Yeah. Every time there's like a crisis, people are in need of entertainment, like to get away. Yeah.

Even animation, like cartoons, like entertainment is the way to escape, you know, real life. So we're kind of looking at that sense. Yeah, I think that happened during the Great Depression, too. Like movie ticket sales went up in like theaters because people wanted something to do because there's like nothing happening, you know? So it's like, you know, as long as you can enjoy it at a decent price, people will pay for it no matter what's happening in the world. It's kind of nuts to think about.

And for me personally working at N60 has also been a good experience. I worked here for a little bit longer than Dennis. I've been here for six years. And for me, the cool thing is that like when I first started, you know, we didn't have a podcast. We didn't have a Twitter account. We didn't have a Discord server. We had nothing, you know, it was like Facebook basically. And barely anyone followed that, right?

And for me, the cool thing over the years has been to see, like, as our community has grown, like, our business has kind of, like, followed along or vice versa even, like, you know, as a business has grown, our community has followed along, I guess. And it's been really interesting to see just, like, just meeting, like, all, you know, new people and, like, getting to know the types of people that are using our products. Like, for example, like, even, I never in a million years would have guessed. someone that was working on the Simpsons using NTC computer, for example. To me, that's like the craziest thing in the world because, like, you know, six years ago when I first started, we didn't even make computers. We just made cases and we're trying to get into the cooler game, you know, and it's awesome to me.

I love it, you know. And thankfully, our founder slash CEO, Johnny, he's been very just like willing. to let us try new things like podcast, for example. And, you know, it's cool, man. Like, I've really loved working at NXT these last, this last, what, six years or whatever it's been. It's been cool. I would quit today, though, if I got a job with the substance.

I mean, that's why I quit college, so I don't blame you. Hey, me too. Let's go. Yeah. Okay. also another good episode where Homer goes back to college Is that the one where he tries to turn it into like

Animal House or something right? Yeah, yeah. Running Gangerfield, like that Running Danielfield movie, whatever it's called. Back to school, I think it's called. Yeah, something like that, right? Yeah. All right.

So I think that's it. Kimmy round up. I don't think really much has happened. Like nothing new has been popping up. Let me just go through the announcements because I'm probably wrong. Germany's doing a giveaway. So N-60 with Twitter.com slash N-Z-T-U-D-E

for the Germany giveaway. I'm looking at that throughout here. What else you got going? They're still doing their game night. Their movie nights. It's really pretty much here. There really isn't a whole lot that we've been doing. But things are coming, you know.

As always, we're working on stuff on the back end. But don't ask me about it because I don't know anymore. Yeah. We've been a little quiet recently, but... That's because good things are coming up. It's quiet because this is the calm before the storm. You guys are not ready for what's about to happen. Yeah.

Like I said, I don't know anything about that. You take six months for a Simpsons episode. That's basically like us. It takes six months for like big stuff to happen too over here. Derek is actually right. Nettela and Cleon got promoted to moderator. So yes, there we go. Congratulations to Nettella, who's met Ivan.

And Ivan's met his mom, which is always a funny phrase to say. Yeah. I love him to his mom. She was cool. And Cleon got promoted to a moderator. So congrats to you guys. Don't forget to apply for moderator, you know. Where's, where's, where's, where's, where's, where's, where's, where's,

ego with all the links? Usually he's not here at the regular. It's probably like 4 o'clock in the morning. Yeah. It's probably, yeah. It's played for him. Also, I just want to throw out, I think AI Candy in the chat is using a Bridget. profile picture and if you are, let me know because I'm pretty sure that's from guilty gear.

Anyway, yeah, so just looking for moderators. So still looking for Pucci's pals. Still looking for Pucci's picks. And if you want to be a pick, just be a good person. Y'all know what the situation is. Double from Skull Girls. Oh, never mind that. I thought it was Bridget.

Rip. Bridget's better. Yeah, I shouldn't think what else we do. It's a lot of stuff. I'm blanking. It's super late. we never record episodes at this point in time. So, like, my brain is way worse than it normally is, which is already not saying a whole lot.

That's pretty bad. Yeah, super bad. My brain has been melted by Monster Hunter. It's all I've been doing. I didn't have Internet for four days. And the only thing I could think to do that was, like, moderately entertaining that didn't require data was play Monster Hunter in my Switch. So that's all I did.

It did look up your Switch hours, by the way. Did you? You have, like, you have, like, 60 hours in that game. There's something else to do. Well, also, here's the thing, though, like, the cool thing I'm about to switch is that the battery life lasts forever. Like, I leave that thing on the entire day, and, like, I just walk away from it. And when I get back, it's still, like, almost 100%. Or, like, I just set it to sleep or something.

But, like, it's so awesome. I don't know how Nintendo does it every single time. Every single one of their products has, like, the most ridiculous, like, life, time, time, battery, time life. I can't. Again, guys, it's late. Normally it's like this is the start of our work date, but now we're doing this podcast at the end of our workday, and it's a completely different dynamic.

It does not feel the same at all. It definitely feels weird, and I got in trouble with my wife over this. Oh, yeah? How so? Because, so when I, when, when I'm, so I work from the same room that I sleep in, basically. Well, it is, not basically, it is the same room. I literally roll up, roll over and I start working every morning. So I'm in the same room from 9 to 5 in the morning.

And then at five at night, those are the hours I sleep, right? And the hours of work. And yesterday I told her, hey, by the way, I'm going to, I'm not going to record the podcast until 6 o'clock tomorrow. And she's like, all right, cool. So today at lunch, I told her, or reminder, friendly reminder, lovely wife, I'm going to start recording the podcast at 6 and I'll be done around 8. And she's like, what? You didn't tell me that yesterday? And I said, no, I did.

And she's like, she's like, well, I'm going to go to my parents. house tonight then since you won't be able to take care of our daughter i was like okay i guess have fun yeah she got she got a little upset because i think there was some miscommunication about the times um but this yeah i apologize that's my fault no that's all good it's okay i i told her it's for homer and she understood it's like you don't understand mike's coming on oh mike okay never mind you understand I know like I should be cooking dinner right now. I'm actually pretty hungry. I'm starting to get a little hungry, Ivan.

I'm going to start fighting someone. I'm going to start throwing hands. Okay. Other than that, I think it's really pretty much it. Don't forget to follow Mike literally everywhere. He's on Instagram at Instagram.com slash I draw Homer. Twitter.com slash I draw Homer. Literally just how it is, all one word.

Twitch.tv.tv slash deep sea homer. They're on new little curveball there. And anything else that you're up to, Mike, on the internet? Or are those pretty much it? No, that's pretty much it. Other than that, I'm always working. Mood. Big mood.

All right, guys. And with that, thank you very much. I pulled up my document here. Thank you for joining us, Mike. Once again, really pleased you. Yeah, it was a pleasure, guys. That's awesome. Super fun.

should hang out again soon. Hit me up on that, on that, uh, I was about to say deep souls. What am I talking about, dude? And also, I wanted to thank you for drawing the, oh yeah, yeah. It's like the coolest thing you've ever seen in my life. I don't want to get sued by the Simpsons, but if we can, like, print these out or give them away, I don't know what we can do with them. I mean, as long as you guys don't sell it, you guys are good. no you buy a free if you buy a $3,000 computer we'll give you one of these a sticker that's how it works right yeah we'll definitely do something with it man I don't know what yet but I'm sure we're going to come with the giveaway or something but thank you so much

for drawing that it's awesome yeah no worries guys and also for drawing during the podcast you know like I hope that we can save this recording and do something with it as well thank you yeah yeah All right, and thank you to everybody who tuned in. Let me actually hear a little let me let me do this next level production move here. You guys ready for this? I'm about to blow your minds. Here it comes.

Oh, it's not smooth? That sick transition. Thank you to everybody who tuned in. Remember to tune in next week, hopefully at 10 a Pacific standard time of the official NZC Discord server and follow at NZC on all relevant and irrelevant social media.

And if you want to ask a question off the air, send an email to Clubcast at Inzincol.com. The only emails they get are like spam emails now. So please send an email, guys, ask a question off the air. If you're walking around the street, if you're playing a Monster Hunter, if you're watching The Simpsons and you have a question, you have to ask us. But the podcast is not live because it's not 10 a.m. Pacific Center time on Thursdays.

Then send an email, clubcast.com. That is c-l-u-b-c-a-S-S-T-com. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcast. podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. If you do as a big old, super huge favor, listen up close, guys. Come in real close. Leave us a positive review on your platform choice if you like what you hear. But especially if you don't, because you know we love the haters.

With that, thank you very much. We'll see you next time. Thanks again, Mike. Thanks, Ivan. Thank you, guys. Yep. You're welcome. And bye.