Smosh Mouth - S1: #5 - “Black Smosh” Almost Happened?! w/ MatPat

Episode Date: March 20, 2019

Ian, Courtney, and first guest ever (!) MatPat talk all things Defy, why “Black Smosh” almost happened, the toxicity of the internet, and their opinions on live-action Aladdin.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Ben MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Ramble. One of their dream projects was to create Black Smosh. I don't know if I want

to have kids. I see like the financial burden and I'm like, dude, I might break the baby. Because of how fast the internet goes, there is no sense of let's look back and analyze what the reality was and what it meant. Yeah, I want some hairs to be in there when I put deodorant on being like, man, the shields. What? What? I'm going to start this little timer right here

gadoosh all right now it's going hey everyone welcome back to this I don't want to say welcome back man also you just started with a sigh over here too like he starts talking and she immediately sighs you know this is this is episode five we still haven't gotten all the kinks worked out. Hello, everyone. I am your host, Ian Hecox. Who am I with today? Oh, I'm Courtney Miller. Are you asking that because I'm supposed to introduce myself? Yes, please.

Oh, hi. Yes, I'm Matthew Patrick, better known online as MatPat, the biggest nerd on YouTube. Oh, wow. That's some lofty claims. Maybe that's a kink we need to get out. Maybe we should introduce our guests when we have a guest for them. You know, I just don't want to talk for them. Yeah.

It actually means he doesn't want to do the research in advance. He forgot your name. He forgot your name. Yeah, that's what it was. Matthew Patrick? Matty Pat? I don't want to assume anything, all right? I appreciate that. Yeah.

Some of you people might know his channel, Game Theory. Also, there's GT Live and Movie Theory. See, this is why he has to have the guest actually introduce. You know, because I have three channels. Like, how difficult is that to remember? Yeah. Do you know all our channels? Right?

SmoshMain. Movies? Yeah. Okay. Great. Good job, guys. Welcome back. Welcome to the show, SmoshCast.

There it is. Maybe we should interview Ian about the stuff that he actually is supposed to be doing. Yeah, quiz him on his own. Right? Yeah, so I have The Game Theorists. The Game Theorists, yeah. I have GT Live, which is our live stream channel, and then we have The Film Theorists. Film.

Film. Game. I like that one. Film. Yeah. But then, so does it ever bother you that your channel's called The Game Theorists, but your show is Game Theory, right? It is, that's correct. I don't know. I feel like, because that's like, Game Theorists is who you guys are. Okay. But your show is game theory, right? It is.

That's correct. I don't know. I feel like because that's like game theorists is who you guys are. Right. And then the show is game theory. Yeah. The whole concept of it was. But when you started it, were there more than one person?

No. But when YouTube allowed you the opportunity to kind of choose your own moniker or like do the kind of the custom URLs for channels. We had partner shows on the channel and really the channel's whole premise was this idea of being able to spotlight multiple critical thinkers about the genres that we were covering, right?

So because we were fortunate enough to get a large audience fairly early on, we were built on this idea of hey, let's give like-minded creators who are doing edutainment style content that is critically thinking about all your favorite franchises a platform to get more views, earn more money, things like that. Hence the idea of not just naming it game theory or film theory, but the theorists. Because it's a group of collective thinkers. It's a community.

Okay. Okay. It's a people. It's also impossible to spell. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not a good speller uh confessions with eons strangely uh when we met you were working for the same company that we were under this is true um and it was really strange because I had seen Game Theory before and then I didn't find out until like much later

when you were still working there. I was like, wait, hold on. What? The dude from the Game Theory works at our job? This doesn't make any sense. What did you do exactly? What was your title there? I was stealthily undercover spying on you the whole time.

I was like an insert spy there. Nice. And then taking it back for my own betterment. You probably could have chosen a better channel. He was the agent. I don't know. I felt like we were basically doing the exact same thing. Okay.

You guys were singing Pokemon parodies, and I was talking about Pokemon being racist at the time. Oh, heck yeah. Exactly the same thing. It just fit right in. Right? Which Pokemon are racist? Jinx, obviously. Oh.

Oh, yeah. And then they had to redesign her skin to make it purple. Did they really do that? Right? Yeah. Wait, it's a her? I do remember seeing the art. I mean, all Pokemon are kind of in a questionable gender territory.

Oh, I was thinking Mr. Mime for some reason. I got Mr. Mime and Jinx mixed up. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Jinx. Ooh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm thinking about it now. The levels of realization that are happening right now are pretty stellar. Just images in the head. Because you have the skin, you have the lips, you have all sorts of stuff. And the funny thing is, Jinx was never meant to be racist. Like, it was a parody of this trend called ganguro, which was a very popular kind of female style for people in a very specific part of Japan at the time, who bleached their hair very, like, bright yellow or white, kept it long, who did a lot of excessive tanning to make their skin look darker, and who would do big designs, big bold lips.

Sounds like an Orange County mom. Yeah, or a clown. One and the same. One and the same. Because, I mean, obviously blackface isn't something that Japanese people really – it wasn't like a part of their culture. Like they wouldn't have really known about it. Right. And so, you know, to the outside world

seeing this character, they're like, oh my gosh, this is reminiscent of all this terrible stuff from the past. But to Japan, it's like, no, this is just a commentary on this fashion trend that was recently popular. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Smoshcast, where in the first five minutes, we've talked about racism.

And I think we solved it. We did. Congratulations, guys. Good job, everyone. We solved racism. Sorry, I had a left-hand handshake. That was gross. That was weird.

That was comfortable. I'm left-handed, and that was gross. I'm sorry. Let me do the reach-overs. Okay, thank you. There you go. For the listeners that aren't watching on video, we had a really bad handshake, but we fixed it. Good job.

Way to use those context clues, listeners. The Smosh cast really making you work for the visuals that are going on. Right. Yes, so anyway, I worked at your company. Yeah, and you consulted us a few times on our channel. I did, yeah, so basically in the early days

of YouTube, not only was I kind of using my own channel in the background and learning and kind of growing on YouTube that way, but I was also a digital video expert. I was an analytics guy. I was using the learnings that I was coming up with off of my own work on YouTube to help other channel creators grow their businesses, understand their analytics, and basically try to grow faster. Right. Was I there? Were you working there in 20...

How long were you working there for? I was there for... So I was in kind of that MCN space for about two and a half years. And that was... Because I started working at DeFi in 2015. Right. Were you there? No, but I was part of the conversations

that were leading up to, wait, in 2015, actually 2015, you might have been coming in right as I was kind of like wrapping things up, but I was a big part of the conversations about the whole Smosh rebrand and about, you know, how do you bring in, how do you bring in new characters

and personalities and is that a good idea? Can the bring in new characters and personalities? And is that a good idea? Can the channel survive without Ian and Anthony? How did you feel about that? How did you feel about them wanting to bring in new people and changing stuff? I really want to know. I mean, it was one of those things that, like, the ability to succeed was slim. Yeah.

Making changes like that is wild. Yeah, and you have tons of examples in the past on YouTube of channels who had tried it and it never worked, right? Like Ray William Johnson. That's probably the best example out there where, you know, he tried to hand off hosting duties of equals three and none of the hosts ever really caught on. And so the smart thing that you guys did and the thing that I think all of us internally who are talking about it were recommending was you have to make it a very slow, gradual, extended process. And the thing is, like, we wanted to make it a slower thing. We wanted to make it a more natural thing. Like, we get to know Shane, Courtney, Olivia, Noah, Keith. We wanted to get to know them better

before putting them in more content. But Defy was so adamant about like, no, you guys need to put them in all the videos immediately. And we're like, well, that's not how YouTube works. Like we need to make this a real thing. We actually need to forge real friendships with these people before we start putting them in all the videos.

So, you know, I think the transition would have made a lot more sense to the viewers if we would have been given the real time, but Defy, obviously, they're like, well, we're paying them money, so we need to have them in every video. Right, and not just forming friendships with you guys as a cast, but also like- Us with the fans.

Yeah, exactly, forming friendships with the community around the channel, you know, the audience, because so much of YouTube is built on this idea of like, I know who these people are. I have an established relationship with them because I'm seeing them week after week after week. And I know their likes, their dislikes, their personalities,

what, you know, what they find funny. And so for all of a sudden there to be like, and we're the new guys on the blog. Hey, look at us. We're fun and quirky and don't you love us oh my gosh and it's crazy

every like there's so many TV shows I'll use Chuck as an example weirdly no one's gonna understand this but it's like sometimes like TV shows

will be like uh oh here's these new younger like in Chuck it was like there was these secret agents

right and then the CIA or whoever they're working for brings in these new hip younger secret agents and they're seen as like the bad because it's like ew new gross get them out of here and like they brought in a new chuck they brought yeah pretty much too there's like here's our new young agents and they were and they was like totally like butting heads like enemies

and it's like it makes sense that like that's the instant reaction for a fan when they see like all of a sudden this new team of people. And like the content was we were kind of separated sometimes. So it was like definitely I'm sure the reaction. It felt like it probably felt like an invasion to some people to, you know, for myself, it was something that needed to happen because in order for our content to evolve, it couldn't just be, it couldn't just always be myself and Anthony. Like two guys hanging out in a house together. Like we did that sketch. We did a sketch starting with Anthony and I sitting on a couch probably 200 times.

I would love to know the exact amount. Yeah. Well, somebody can go in and research it. That's a film. Yeah, you can go for it. That other channel that you don't know about or watch. Wait, so did you? Movie theory, right?

Yeah, movie. Movie theorists. Yeah, right, right, right. Movie dreams. Ooh, beautiful. So did you have a hand in the strategy at all? Or when we brought in, I just want to know in depth a little bit more my secret role behind the scenes

I know you're the agent Cody Banks of Defy sorry I'm bringing in the weirdest oldest most obscure references these pop culture references are gold right now yeah no I mean it's and it's funny to hear Ian talk about like Defy like the higher ups at Defy

wanting to fast forward that process and kind of like. Just jam it down their throats. Yeah. Shoehorn it in as quickly as possible because this was the same group of people who are also promoting the idea of doing black smosh. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. Like unironically wanting to do black smosh. Yep.

Which I wasn't sure. Like, had you had those conversations with the team clearly based on your reaction yeah there was somebody there was somebody higher up i'm not gonna say their name for me for many years for many years one of their story one of their dream projects was to create black smosh which what they wanted to do was cast a group of black people to create, shall we say, urban comedy. They were like, well, you know, there's this whole other audience out there. So we just need to create black Smosh. Yeah.

I mean, basically, the thought process of this person in the meetings that we were having was, well, we have this back catalog of funny scripts. So if we just, you know, change out the two white dudes for different demographics, we have tons of new verticals and basically you reuse the same scripts, but just kind of like mix it up a little bit. And it was, his first spinoff was always going to be black Smosh followed by, you know, female Smosh, gay Smosh. It was bad.

Yeah, that's rough. That separation is so rough. That is truly spilling the tea. Every time they brought it up, and that's really funny. I've never mentioned the whole black Smosh thing. Probably smart of you to not mention it. But every time they brought it up, it was just like, no, no. And here's another weird freaking reference.

Hairspray, how there's like Negro Day on the dancing show. Oh, my gosh. And I'm sorry, that's rough. But it's just that I get that vibe when I hear about what they were trying to do. Well, and the thing was, you know, the first time, because again, I'm this young guy who, you know, has only been working at this company for about a year, but I'm like the guy who understands YouTube. I'm the guy who's been able to build up my own channel in the background. Like I was the representative of like the digital video ecosystem and optimization, right? And so

I'm in these rooms with all these traditional media guys who had been working in TV for years and had, you know, decent levels of success there. You know, suddenly now, like, let's figure out ways to capitalize off of these brands that we have and this and that. And he tosses out this idea. And at first, like, everyone, you know, me and a couple other people in the room are like, ha ha, that's, you know, that's an idea. But really, but really. But they were so serious about it was the thing. They legitimately thought that there was no problem with it and that it was totally fine. And of course, at that point, the conversation fundamentally shifts to like, oh, no, you're taking it.

Like, absolutely not. Do not do this. This is horrific for so many reasons. Were they wanting to call it that? Like actually? Well, that was always just the sort of title. Yeah.

The working title. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with, you know, two, two black dudes doing comedy. Obviously key and peel was probably one of the greatest sketch shows ever made,

but it's, it wasn't for the sake of representation. It was for the sake of representation. It was for the sake of like, let's just get this other thing going to appeal to this other group because we don't believe that two white guys are going to be enjoyed by black people. This is actually why I'm shocked to hear that you also know this. Because to me, when that was brought up in the room, I'm like, this is unbelievable. I can't believe that someone would actually legitimately think of this as an idea. And so now to hear that it was also brought up to you and you also had to shoot it down.

Yeah, multiple times. It's unbelievable to me. Yeah. Unbelievable to me. It kind of became a running joke about this person because it's just ludicrous. Right? It doesn't make any sense. Amazing. That's wild. So there you go.

I do remember the other joke that he would toss out when it came to like some of the other verticals and obviously bring up like gay smosh, LGBT smosh. That's a whole new community. The joke was though that they already had gay smosh because you and Anthony were already hosts. Anthony, baby. Did they toss that joke your way? Probably. Okay. There was like another. Just so we

have full transparency here of what was being said behind the scenes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I mean, you gotta keep those fan fictions going. Sure. Oh, they never stop. They haven't stopped. You know, my gosh. I mean, you gotta keep those fan fictions going. Sure. Oh, they never stop. They haven't stopped. You know, it's unfortunate. Like, you guys

had all your relationships. All my fan fictions are me adopting children. Aww. Yeah, it's actually really sweet. Whoa. Until you get to the part

where my wife ends up dying a horrific death in almost every single one. Oh, my God, they always do that. They always do that. Okay, I've dipped into the fan fiction sites and I've seen some of it because I'm just curious.

And we have the videos where we actually take them, script them out, and act them out for videos. And there always is like a drama, like there was like a shortening one where it's like, okay, whatever,

the romance, me and Shane, the romance happens and then I get cancer. And it's like, the story could have just ended. Like, dude. No.

The head. That was generally the theme with a lot of the fan fictions, where Anthony and I, they wrote our girlfriends in there, and then one of our girlfriends would die, and then he would come, like, let's say his girlfriend died. Anthony would come to me and I would comfort him and then we

our embrace would hold a little bit longer oh no and then hand would move up and we'd brush our cheeks against each other no

calm down and then yeah then it'd always get hot and heavy oh man that's intense so yeah death is a common theme

with romantic fan fictions that's so uncomfortable to read that about yourself man that's a little weird I think it's beautiful so would the fan so would the fan Death is a common theme with romantic fan fictions. That's so uncomfortable to read that about yourself, man. That's a little weird. I think it's beautiful. So would the fan be the child that you adopted? Yes.

That they wrote? Yes. Usually they were in some, you know, some equivalent of an orphanage. Okay. At which point, you know, kind of Annie style. Yeah. Costing out classic references here. Annie the musical, you know.

And I would come in and save the day. Like either I wasn't able to have kids or I just wanted to adopt a child. Wow. And sometimes Stephanie would die before I adopted the child. Sometimes she would die after. Like it would vary. Sometimes I was adopting the child because of the sadness that I felt over the loss of Stephanie. And so I needed a child in my life.

But yeah, and then the two of us would go off on adventures together and I would teach them science, basically. That's so cute. And then usually I would boil down. And then Matthew and I would go off to the museum and learn about science. That's adorable. Yeah. So like, but after the mourning period, you guys definitely boned, right? It's a child, Ian.

Oh, it's a child? Adopted child, right? It's a child, Ian. Oh, it's a child? Adopted child. Welcome to the podcast, Ian. Well, I figured he raised them and then I don't know. There's worse fan fictions out there, trust me.

A lot of my fan fictions stood incomplete or were in the early stages of completion. So I, you know, I don't know where they would go from there. Welcome to Smoshcast, ladies and gentlemen, where we have covered racism. And now we're covering, you know, a very topical Michael Jackson style. Child Predators. This is great.

Let's not get into Michael Jackson again. Please. I will say it's very weird. Obviously, we have scripts that are written where we're as ourselves, so we see that normally. But when you see fan fiction about yourself, one time there was one that they said I smelled like vanilla. And I literally at the time was wearing vanilla lotion. Not right now. What do I got on? I got like, don't smell my armpit.

You smell like. Hairspray? No, like secret, secret deodorant. Weird, because I wear Old Spice. Really? Interesting. You're not so much spicy as you are like lilac. Male or female Old Spice?

Male. Nice. Just, it's the only thing to keep up with my sweaty pits, man. I know. I know, dude. Hashtag not spot. Well, you saw my armpits yesterday. Yeah, dude.

I got some hairy pits, you know? I didn't know that guys needed to trim it. Yeah, I trim my armpit hair. Your armpit hair. Because like, there's so much hair. Like, I don't think I've trimmed my armpit hair in like two months or so. And it's really long. It's longer than your normal hair on your head.

Pretty close, man. Yeah, you might be right. Yeah, your hair is really short now. You don't have that bowl cut anymore. Yeah, that's true. And when you have all that hair, it doesn't aid the coverage of the deodorant. Yeah, it blocks it. It's a shield.

I'm amazed by this. So what is the appropriate length of armpit hair? Well... Because I have armpit hair, but I have never trimmed because I've never thought of it as excessively long, but now...

Well, some people... I don't grow pit hair on my right side at all, and my left side's like a few hairs. Like, I don't know what's wrong with me. You won the genetic lottery.

stole all the hair. Like, can I have some maybe? Because I would like. Please. Please. Would you like armpit hair? Yeah, I want some hairs to be in there when I put deodorant on being like, man the shields, keeping the deodorant off your face.

What? That's what I see. Like little troops in your army fighting against pit sweat. Sometimes I feel lonely. And hairs on your body are the only thing that are going to keep you company? in your army fighting against pit sweat. Sometimes I feel lonely. And I just... And hairs on your body are the only thing that are gonna keep you company. Do we need to talk? Maybe. I feel like

I feel like this is a fan fiction rating to happen. Oh no. No, but for real, people, the person guessed my correct smell at the time. It was weird. Because I did smell like vanilla. Wow. You're like, man, they know. They know. They know me. But then they're like, man, they know. They know. They know me. But then they're like, and then she kissed Noah's ear.

And I'm like, no. You're not an ear kisser? Not Noah. Oh. Not my coworker. You're fine with ears, just not coworkers. Yeah, heck yeah. I get that.

Give ears kisses. This is so weird. I'm going to go. No, please stay. Based on the professions of loneliness that you just had, it sounds like this is the only human contact you have for today. Maybe that's why I read the fan fiction. I was going to say, please stay in the company of our armpit hair. But we haven't gotten to the core of the issue here, which is what is the appropriate length of armpit hair?

Oh, yes, yes, yes. Ian, so where is your – on your person, show me the length of your hair normally, and then let's get a sense of, like, where you trim it down to because presumably you're trimming it down to the appropriate length, right? Right, yeah. So I use clippers. Okay. And I just go down to the skin. Oh, so you take it all the way down. Right, but I go to the direction of the hair.

So on the upper part of my armpit, With the grain. The grain goes upwards, and on the lower part of my armpit, the grain goes downwards. So for the upper part, I have to shave up, and then on the lower part, I have to shave down. You have electric trimmers.

You don't use scissors? What? I thought you meant clippers. You don't use scissors? When you said clippers, I thought you meant like snip, snip, snip. Woman, are you mad? You don't use a tree trimmer? Right.

The first time I heard the term clippers, I was very confused. It's very confusing if you're not familiar with the idea that clippers is just like a glorified razor. Yeah, I guess so. An electric razor. Yeah, I guess so. An electric razor. Yeah, when I think clipper, I think of a scissor or a shear of some form. You use shears, man? Well, clearly you guys don't frequent hairdressing salons

enough. Yeah, clearly not. You don't know the lexicon of a salon. I learned it. I learned it at a certain point. Trust me, I'm a frequenter of sports clips yeah but yeah

I got a lot of body hair as I grow older it starts sprouting up in weird ass places I feel like since I started working here your tummy has gotten much more hair you never know how I know this stuff we see each other like half naked quite a lot.

Yeah. Never fully though. Just want to put it out there. Just going to let that one sit. Never seen each other. It's mostly him. Full blown. He walks around in a diaper.

Wow. You weren't supposed to totally ruin about that. It's all right. No shame. It's okay. I have a person in my life who walks around in a diaper too these days. That's true. But it's a little bit more acceptable for that because you have a little teeny tiny baby.

Oh yeah. That is true. How is the babby? Oh my gosh, it's cool. It's very cool to have a babby. It's wild. A little potato. It's unbelievable how difficult it is for the first three to four months and it's still hard after that, certainly.

But it's just fascinating to watch how much personality they have weeks after being born. Like, it's immediate. Like, you can tell how independent he is. You can tell that he doesn't like to cuddle so much, but he does, you know, but he's very eager to learn and teach himself. He loves books. He likes to eat them. He's eight months at this point. Oh, my gosh. Does he just kind of chew on the pages? No, it's wild. and teach himself. He loves books. He likes to eat them.

He's eight months at this point. Oh my gosh. Does he just kind of chew on the pages? No, it's wild. So like, it's part of our nightly routine to like read him a story or two before he goes to bed. But like,

we'll take him out in the afternoon or something to like a story time or where, like play with tambourines, you know, do some basic like, wave the scarf around.

But as soon as it, and he has fun with those, but as soon as like the book comes out and the person at the front of the room starts reading, like he will actively like crawl to the front of the room and just be like locked in. It's very clear that he's in the early stages of being a teacher's pet and I could not be more proud of him. Nerd. Absolutely.

You birthed a freaking nerd, dude. Thank goodness. Did you always want kids or was this just like a, was this a revelation you had when Absolutely. You birthed a freaking nerd, dude. Thank goodness. Ugh. Yeah. Did you always want kids? Or was this just like a, was this a revelation you had when you met your lovely wife, Stephanie? Wow. Yeah, no, I've always, I've always wanted kids. Aww.

I've always wanted a kid. I don't know if I've ever wanted to because both Steph and I are only children. And I'm like, you know what? That's a good amount. I had a good upbringing. I was going to say, because usually only childs turn out to be little shits. How did I turn out, Ian? Moving on. Wow.

Hey, it was him, right? I had six siblings growing up. She had way too many siblings. Where did you fall in the line of six? I'm number five, so I have two little brothers. Wow. Okay. So I know that in like a family of three, right?

Three kids. Because my mom was in a family of three and she was the middle child. The oldest child is like most responsible and gets a lot of attention because they're number one. Number two is like the forgotten child who feels kind of left out because they're sandwiched between the other two. The first one and the third one who ends up being the baby of the family, right? Yeah.

So the middle child's kind of forgotten and like has to feel like they have to prove themselves or whatever. Yeah, man. In six, what is the dynamic like?

So there's seven of us total and there was like only a couple years a gap in a lot of those. So like I don't really, I don't really know. Like I was, so there was the top two cammy and casey the top two the top two oh say all their names by the way yeah wait wait unless you don't want to unless you don't want to share that on the podcast do you

really you want to put names out there first names are i mean it's is that bad what do you think have i crossed it i love that we've talked about everything from like pedophilia and racism, but it's like, ooh, names. It's not hard to find them, you know, on my Instagram. I'll just say their first names. Sure. So it goes Kami, Casey, Kathy, Carrie, Courtney, Clark, Connor. Oh my gosh.

They're the Kardashians. I know. But they're K's and C's. Okay. So we did it like different and first. So... Did you do it first? I don't know.

Kami, I think we did it first. In terms of age, first? I don't know. Kami, I think we did it first. In terms of age, actually, I don't know. Are you calling out the Kardashians right now as stealing your bit? Copycat. C-K. Or wait. C-C. Oh, God.

You remember when I said we can't spell? I really should go. I should go. But okay, so there was only a couple years gaps in a bunch of them. Cammie and Casey, it was like a couple year or two. And then there's a couple years, like a larger gap.

And then it was Kathy and Carrie. It's like literally less than a year or a year. And then there's five years. And then me. And then like three plus years. And then Clark and Connor who were like a year or two apart. So there was a gap. And I was kind of a loner a lot of the time.

Carrie was technically the middle child. And she definitely like we I think at some point we all played every role because I was like because my parents were divorced. So a lot of times like in joint custody, it would be like me and my younger brothers at my mom's house. So I was the oldest, but I was also the youngest for a while and I was treated

like the middle child. So it's like, I really, I really don't know like what the full dynamic was. And as like some went off to college or whatever, then other people became

the oldest of the house or the youngest. My oldest siblings like raised me me a lot. It just all tapered down. I think Connor, as each kid popped out, we had to kind of raise ourselves a little bit more because there was just too many freaking kids, man.

Connor, I don't know how he made it. I don't know how he did it. There was too many of us. We're all dealing with ourselves. He definitely had to like struggle and like learn by watching us i've heard with like large families if you if you factor in like the dinner table kind of thing it's just a it's just a battle royale for food it can be like we just grab whatever you possibly can or else you won't eat yeah there was times where we had to like be like hey there was

that was my role like Like, stuff like that. But now my dad has a habit. He also works at a fire station, so he's used to cooking for large groups. He always has. So, like, he always cooks way too much food now when it's, like, only a few of us over for dinner. Aww. Yeah. How often are all of you together at this point?

So rarely. Like, maybe a couple times a year. Like, all of us because some people are on the East Coast. Right, sure. Yeah, so it's pretty rare. So rarely, like maybe a couple times a year. Like all of us, because some people are on the East Coast. Right, sure. Yeah, so it's pretty rare. Do you feel close to every single, like how close do you feel to, like when there is such a huge gap in ages, do you feel really close to all your brothers and sisters? Growing up, there was definitely like buddying up.

And with a lot of siblings, things get clicky. But especially in these recent years, since we're all kind of becoming adults and we're more on an equal plane. It's so weird. And I feel like I didn't realize until recently how it's really this dynamic that I grew up with is something a lot of people have no idea what it's like. Because like my my brothers that are younger than me are now like all adults like clark just turned 21 and like now we can go on like outings together like it's like we all it's a party now when we hang out it's not so much like them it's like we're all we all feel like equals there is something weird about like the larger families for some reason the youngest child never goes beyond i like for me it's hard

to wrap my head around not seeing them as like a small child yeah i still call them my little brother yeah because like they'll never be like quite like an adult to you like i like i had a family friends they had um three kids and the youngest always like despite him being i don't know 28 now he's still just like the little one. Yeah, yeah. I'll never be able to get that out of my head. Yeah, it's nuts. And I don't know if I want to have kids.

The way that I've seen how much, because there were so many of us and we were pretty poor, not too bad, but growing up, it was so many kids to provide for. And so I see the financial burden and I'm like, dude, I might break the baby. I don't know. I'm scared, man. You need something to pour your love into, though.

Yeah, I mean, I did have... She's a very affectionate person. I'm a companion person. You need like a rock. Or just more armpit hair. Oh, yeah. To pour your love into. That's all I need. I just need something. I'm a companion person. You need like a rock. Or just more armpit hair. Oh yeah. That's all I need. I just want to braid it. A baby or armpit hair.

One of the two. Yeah. They're pretty much the same thing. Yeah, basically. Same amount of care, same financial burden. Just slather some antiperspirant on. So you've always wanted to have a kid. I don't understand what that feels like.

I think it's just one of those things where, like, I had such a positive family experience. I always have gravitated toward, like, teaching and wanting to, you know, inspire or help out kids. Like, even back when I was much younger in, like like middle school and high school, I taught swim lessons, you know, and that idea of just like interacting and having fun with younger kids and being able to like show them the world and teach them things and watch them learn and grow and experience stuff

is something that I've always felt passionate about. And so the idea of being able to teach, you know, a son or daughter of my own about the world and, you know, hey, here's the good stuff to know, here's the bad stuff, and, like, here's, you know, the things that I would – that I learned from personal experience. Like, I wish I had known moving – you know, when I had done it. Yeah. I think that's just a really cool thing to be a part of someone's life and watch them grow. I will say as my life went on

and as we got closer to that decision, there was that thought of is there enough time in life to make this happen? Because we all understand we are busy all the time. Running our own business, creating content.

Like, L.A. is this hustle bustle of nonstop. You have your hustle and you have your side hustle. Like, people are going round the clock. Yeah. And I did have, you know, this period of time where, you know, I had to self-reflect around, do I still, like, yes, this is something that I grew up wanting. And yes, this is something I thought would be really good for, you know, for me and for a kid. And I think I would make a good father. But with my life where it is now, can I still prioritize a child in the way that I would

want to and do this right? Because the thing is, like, the worst possible thing you can do is to do it the wrong way and now all of a sudden like you resent the child for slowing you down in life or you're upset about you know you live with regrets of like i could have been somebody but then i had a kid and then it slowed me you know all this stuff of you know there's a lot wrapped up into it and if you're having a child and bringing a life into the world who is dependent on you, it's your responsibility to make sure that that kid is doing as best as he possibly can.

Right. And so, you know, as we got closer to kind of like, hey, are we doing this or not? Like there was that moment of like, hey, is this the right time? You know, can we fit it in? But I think that sort of reflection is important oh yeah if you're kind of jumping into it but but yeah at the end of the day thinking about that it's already like yeah i mean yeah and you certainly have more the luxury of deciding that and and getting the time to decide that a lot of and and honestly like nobody has the time right for to to have kids it's just

kind of it just happens and happens and then you make it work, right? Well, if it's not planned. Right. Well, even if it is planned, you still... It's a big commitment. You just make it work. And I know you guys will obviously make it work. And that's really cool that it's almost... You should

have kid theory. You get to try all your theories on child development on this living thing and you can see what it becomes. As a baby shower gift, someone actually got me

a book that is experimenting on your baby. Oh, God. What? Which is, and that sounds, I hope it doesn't have a German name on the author.

Yeah, by Franz Schnau. Yeah, that's great. It dates back to like World War II era, funny enough. Schnau. Yeah, that's great. Dates back to like World War II era. Oh, strange. Yeah, it's odd. No, but basically what it's, it's very cool. It's a compilation of famous historical studies done in completely safe ways on babies to learn about their development, how they process the world and, you know, where they hit certain milestones, all based on like actual scientific research, right?

So one of the simplest and earliest ones you can do, which is really fascinating, is this idea of putting three dots into like a triangular formation onto a piece of paper, right? And you show the baby those three dots, like from birth, it's like from month one, and you show them the three dots, if they're two dots on top and one dot below, similar to the eyes and mouth or eyes and nose of a face, they will watch it and like look at it and process it longer than if you actually flip the dots upside down and show them one dot on top and two on the bottom. Because humans, like, we're very inefficient. Like having a baby has taught me how very inefficient. We're dumb.

Yeah, we are very inefficient. Like, it is a terrible design, quite honestly. It is, you know. How would you design a human, Matt? For one, I would make sure that, like, the teeth aren't coming in, like, eight months into their life. So that way it's like, oh, my gosh, I'm just learning how to eat things. Oh, my gosh, there's tremendous pain in my mouth. There's my gosh, I'm just learning how to eat things. Oh my gosh,

there's tremendous pain in my mouth as these things that probably should have been there to begin with suddenly jut out through my mouth hole. The fact that I can't run

as soon as I'm out of a vagina, I'm frankly mad. I mean, giraffes can do it. Why can't we? Get good, humanity. It is very bad

how the baby can't even support their head when they're out. That's rough. If we were to be, if everything, I don't even support their head when they're out. Like, that's rough. Like, if we were to be, if everything, I don't know. I wish I was a giraffe. Well, even stuff like when babies first start learning how to use their hands, and I'm doing this gesture of, like, twitching and stuff because that's what it looks like,

they can't get sleep for that period of, like, a month, month and a half because they're constantly, like, waking themselves up by smacking themselves in the head. Oh, because, like, the muscles are... Yeah, they're also, like, overstimulated, over-twitchy. And so, you know, that's why that, like, first three-month, four-month period is so hard, because they're learning all this stuff.

And to the baby's credit, they're like, I'm excited to learn these things and get control over my life. He's, at eight months, he's getting really good at crawling and also getting good at like supporting himself on his legs and walking and doing like walking motions. It's really awesome. But again, his sleep is being interrupted because he's like, I'm so excited about this new skill.

I want to practice it and, you know, get up on my knees and sit up on my own. And this, but it, it keeps waking him up. So I would, I would probably design away stuff like that. Okay. But it's wild to see just how cool and rewarding it is as a process. Like once they start like developing their likes and dislikes and having agency over their life and you start like, you know, at this point I can have a conversation with him where he's learning different like vocalizations

and so he'll be like and I'll be like and he'll be like he'll see it and recognize it and he'll be like and I'm like and he's like like it's actually this back and forth

it's wild. So you birthed a dolphin? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Can I just say like like, the leadership and, like, father figure, like, I don't know, it's not complex, but I think that's really cool. It's like you kind of have the perfect profession for that because, like, you technically have, like, millions of children that kind of depend on you in a way. And, like, that's – it's, like, almost too perfect because, like, you are able to utilize that influence and need to, like, help other people learn and stuff every day. Like, that's really cool and perfect, I think.

It sounds – that's very sweet of you. Thank you. Actually, you know, it's – I don't know. It sounds cheesy to say this, but it is, you know, and it sounds like, oh, this is a good PR line or whatever. But like when I was younger, right, I saw the impact that like your everyday actions could have on the world around you. I had a friend who almost committed suicide and was on the verge of committing suicide. He was new into the high school and I was just kind of like this bubbly kid who like talked too much to everyone. And so, you know, he would come into like choir practice and I'd be like, hey, good morning. Welcome.

You know, welcome. And we would sit up and talk or whatever. I fast forward like three years later and he like confesses to me like those conversations were the thing that prevented me from taking my own life. Like I was coming into high school because ready to commit suicide because I, you know, I had a really hard time in middle school. Everyone made fun of me. I was this awkward kid. And you actually, like, treating me like a human made such a huge amount of difference and actually saved my life. And that was, like, such a huge moment for me because it's like, to me, that was just any other conversation.

Like it was, it was literally the base level of like, hey, here's another person in the room. We are in the room together alone at the same, like you talk to them, like you just, you know, you, you're nice. You share pleasantries. And it, you know, it really convinced me of that idea of like, you pay it forward. You, the butterfly effect, you do something nice for someone and it pays off down the line. Right. And so my goal has always been, yeah, you know, back then when they're like, what do you want to do when you grow up? And what are you looking to do? I want

to be an actor. But at the end of the day, like my goal in a lot of cases was, you know, I know I'm not going to cure cancer. I know I'm not going to do, you know, something that is revolutionary on the side of, you know, solving some big world problem. But what I but right. But what I can do is at least like be nice and kind and supportive of the people in my immediate vicinity. And hopefully that, you know, butterflies affect butterfly effects outward and, you know, makes the world a better place. I want the world to be slightly better because I was a part of it. And at this point, like you said, I, you know, I'm in this incredibly fortunate and honorable position of being able to do that at such a massive scale. And so if I can use the platform that I've been lucky enough to find myself in to get kids excited about education or get them exposed to new ideas that they wouldn't have been privy to before.

Or, you know, hey, I was fortunate enough to have really good teachers in my life. If I can get someone else to, you know, who doesn't have good teachers to be like, oh, I get this concept now. That's huge. And think critically about the world around them and ask questions and like or just, you know, have a better day if they're having a crappy day, like something as simple as that. And so that's that's really been kind of the guiding principle around a lot of what we do. And now I get to do it at a very personal level on a very concentrated basis with with this this little potato, which is pretty awesome. Yeah. I mean, yeah, with some of those people, you don't know what the one thing is going to be that could steer them one way or the other.

So it's really just about trying to make a positive impact wherever you can because you don't know if there is that person that's looking for that one thing. And it's interesting too, and it's a bit scary, right? Like the internet's in this really weird period right now where the stuff that is, you know, negative and dramatic and, you know, definitely like not the positive news stories are the things that get the most visibility.

Sure. That get the, you know, that get the reshares, that get the retweets, that get people talking. Right. And to me, it creates this kind of self-perpetuating cycle of this thing got numbers, numbers matter. So I need to do more of this thing to get more numbers. Like when you boil it down, right? That's why the news doesn't cover the happy-go-lucky stories of like, woman saves dog, you know,

or like neighbors helped each other. But instead it's like, so-and-so killed such-and-such. And it's like, you know. Yeah, woman saves dog. Somebody was telling me about this woman was like playing with her dogs and the dog just snapped

and they ripped her arm off. Oh yeah, the two boxers. She also died. That's a rough story. That's the story that you hear. You don't hear like woman saves a group of puppies. Yay! No. Dogs flipped

out and killed their owner. And this is why you shouldn't have a boxers. Oh, come on. Right. And then there's the push of like, all boxers are violent. And so all boxers must be purged from the world. And, you know, because everything has to be such an extreme these days to get the headline clicks,

to get the reshares, whatever. Now all of a sudden it has to be the best or the worst ever. Even stupid stuff too, like movies. You know, even with movies, it's like this broke box. It's like every movie that gets released nowadays breaks a box office record. It's like, did they really?

You know, is that true? But it's like every new movie, but it's one of those things where it's like, I think it's all about how you frame what you're comparing it against, like box office record against whatever. The internet for the longest time was like, we need to create algorithms that keep people using our platform, right? We need to create a system where people are encouraged to like watch videos on our service or, you know, watch news on Twitter and talk about news on Twitter or like post their personal photos on

Facebook or whatever. And they were successful at it. Congratulations, internet, you did it. You know, there's like five giant companies now and people use, like are addicted to their phones. You know, no one thought about the ramifications of what that would do to how humans interact, how they behave, how they perceive the world. I would wake up and I would, my routine was I would wake up, I'd grab my phone, turn off my alarm, go to Twitter, go to Twitter moments, and then just scroll through all the news. And like, I started finding, and this probably happened like right after the 2016 election. I would find that, you know, I'd open up Twitter and just like, it would just, I started like getting anxiety in the morning. I would wake up and I'd just read all this shit news. And it was not really the kind of thing you'd really want to wake up to. And I realized, I think maybe a year ago, I stopped doing that. And then I went to open up my phone this morning and I was like, oh, no,

no, not going to do that. It does. It makes a big difference. And I know, like I said, it relates to the internet. And certainly the Internet has made and phones and stuff have made it exactly that. Like I reach for my phone in the morning and I'm immediately put into a bad negative mood about the state of the world because of whatever the news story is. news stories versus the way international coverage happens, they could be covering completely different things and you would not know it, right? Like in America, it's like, you know, massive outrage in Egypt as people, you know, charge the capital in order to like get governmental change. We were in Egypt around time of like a big government upheaval. Actually, it was it was our honeymoon, Stephanie's honeymoon. And it was the first time that it really hit home for us.

So that's how this situation was being covered in the US. Like, you know, crowds rallying against the government and protesting and like they're angry in the streets. We literally go to Egypt and it was like one square block that contained like people who were upset. And then like a couple of protesters holding signs with like a hot dog stand across from like the Capitol building. Yeah. And but, you know, the way America frames it, it's like city on fire when it's when

it's not. They're like on fire for their like red hot hot dog next door. You know, like that's it was just wild. It is. It is nice, though. Whenever I whenever I go home and I stay at my parents place in Sacramento, they still get the newspaper. And it's so and it's so like it's so lovely just reading local news. Oh, my gosh. Because it's not all it's not all like garbage.

It's like it's like, oh, they're building a road here or whatever and it's just so nice to like not just read like oh these people died and like this government's being overthrown and blah blah blah it's just like here's a here's a thing going on in the neighborhood that's the thing though like the internet has brought in like oh it's not like'm sure, like, a lot of things have gotten worse over time. But it's, like, also we are just seeing it all a lot more. Like, before we had the internet and it was just press and stuff, a lot of stuff wasn't as covered and a lot of, like, you just didn't know as much about what was happening. Sure. So it's, like, now the world can seem like it's so much worse.

And it is. There's a lot of bad stuff. There is. But it can feel a lot worse because we're seeing it all so much worse. And it is. There's a lot of bad stuff. There is. But it can feel a lot worse because we're seeing it all happen at once. I totally agree. I honestly don't think that the world is any worse than it was 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 20 years ago. It's just the fact that we are so attuned to every bad thing that happens like i mean gosh like can you imagine if we had if we had the kind of press that we do now back in like world war ii oh my

gosh when like atrocities were being committed everywhere it wasn't just in right wasn't just in germany like there were terrible things happening everywhere yeah but it was also funny because like Japan, they had this theory that they could put these bombs on balloons and then, and then the airstream would take the jet stream, whatever would take the balloons over to the U S and the bombs would then drop on cities in the U S. So they did one test.

I think, I think I saw this in the hunger games. I think the hunger games Part 3 did this. So they flew these balloons, and it was not that successful, but some bombs did land in the forests in Oregon or something. I think it hit maybe one house or something. I don't think anybody died. I think some kid died because they found unexploded ordnance. They walked up to it and it exploded or something. Either way, think anybody died. I think some kid died because they found an unexploded ordinance. They walked up to it and it

exploded or something. Either way, it wasn't that successful, but because the government at that time had such a grip on the press, they actually squashed the stories because they said, like, oh, this will be bad for our country if we put this story out. So they actually squashed all the stories.

Japan never heard any news about it, so they just considered it a complete failure. So they never did it again. Well, and again, going back to like the whole, you know, going back to me and like why I do the channels and this idea of like making the world a better place and stuff. One of the things that I'm always really passionate about and why the whole theory thing is so important to me is, you know, like you just said, that news never got out. That story didn't come out until just recently.

Right. And I think a lot of people take what they're presented with by the world, by press, by news media, whatever, at face value. Sure. And don't actually question why are we being told this? What is the agenda necessarily behind it? And like who stands to profit off of these stories? Like, I think a lot of us have this, like, idea of, like, we want other people to just be naturally helpful.

Be naturally, like, informative and, hey, your job is to deliver me information and you will deliver it as effectively and, you know, neutrally, I guess, as possible. But it's one of those things that that's not true in the slightest. Right. And so for us, like we're doing it on a very minor basis as far as like, is your favorite hero a villain? Yes. Even though like, you know, you're cherry picking ideas just like the, you know, but it's that idea of look at it from a different perspective.

Ask the question of not just like this guy's the hero, but are they actually behaving like the hero? And I was fortunate enough to have a dad who, oh man, we're going back to father. This is great. Look, there's a through line in this. I was fortunate enough to have a father who inspired that sort of curiosity in me. And this idea of, you know,

do the research for yourself. Yes, take what people are telling you, but also look beyond that and like, look at, you know, who's telling the story, why, what are the actual facts behind things rather than, you know, someone else putting their perspective on it. I think critical thinking is something that they really need to teach more in schools. Because especially in this day and age, like it's so easy to just believe something that somebody is just putting out there without considering their agenda. Like I at the gym I work out at, it's this really fun thing where they have three channels on the TV. One's ESPN.

Yep. And then the other two are Fox News and CNN right next to each other. Yeah. And it's fun because I'll just be on the treadmill and be like, all right, what are the agendas today? Okay, so CNN's just talking about Trump and Fox News is talking about Hillary still? It's really funny because you see they both clearly have agendas.

There is still news there, but you need to fish through that agenda and parse out what true information there is. Right. It's funny that you have those playing at your gym. It's infuriating. At my gym, it's only Food Network. Oh. No exaggeration.

Oh, wow. We have one that's just general sports. You have one that is general news. What? And then you have one that is actual food network. That's evil. And so it's, like, chopped or, you know, recipes. I wonder if that makes them work out harder.

Right? So I'm working out Saturday morning and watching, like, you know, the pioneer woman in her kitchen, you know, frying up some butter. And I'm like, yes, yes, please. Wow. That's so evil. Yeah. I just think it's so like TV phones. It's just images going at your face.

Like when you're scrolling through Twitter, you see something. Usually just a lot of people just believe it and move on. I think I saw a video on Twitter the other day where people were like, oh, Trump forgot he didn't have his toupee on at this thing. And so he like, it's a video where he takes off his hat and he goes, my hair is a mess. And he goes like this and he's completely bald. Oh, that's cool.

But I'm pretty sure it was shot. Right. I believe that. You could see his hand like go into the bald head. Like it was, it was a little bit poorly done. But people like hundreds of thousands of people. Sure. Millions of views, hundreds of thousands of people sure millions of views hundreds of

thousands of likes and they're commenting like oh my god he's i can't believe that's so dumb and they will move on never knowing the truth um and this is this is a little touchy remember the the kids with the with the maga hats and the the native americans who came up yeah a lot of which by the way fox news is still talking about that. Of course. The original story. Gets clicked. The original story was that these kids were, they came up to the Native Americans and got into the Native Americans' face. But there's actually then later footage of the Native Americans coming up to the kids and, like, doing the music in front of them. Like, it was, like, a complete flip of what the story was. Yeah. It was some, it wasn't that guy, but it was some like, it was like a couple other guys

that might've been in some group related or something. I think the kids were like on a school trip and were like waiting for their bus. It was like something weird like that. And the kids were like super confused. But it's just two sides and you can see that and you can witness that on the CNN Fox News thing. Yeah. If you're at that gym and you see it side by side.

And it is. It's one of those things that, like, you brought up a lot of stuff, which is scary. Because first off, you know, the camera is a selective frame, right? And you can decide what to include or not include and what you keep outside of the guidelines, what you cut out, what you edit, you know? And I think that's one thing that, first off, people just don't think about that. Here in Hollywood,

the Oscars are held at this beautiful venue, super rich, super luxurious. It's happening in front of a sunglass hut. It's a cheesy, rundown strip mall. It's happening in the worst place in LA that you do not want to go to. It smells like piss. There's a dirty Spider it smells like piss. Yeah.

There's a dirty Spider-Man hanging out outside trying to get your money. Not Tom Holland. It's not Tom Holland. No, a dirty Spider-Man. No, but it is. But again, because the camera shows this part of the frame and not this part of the frame, they're just showing you what you want to see.

And I think that that idea of the storyteller is subjective is, again, to that idea of like we need to teach people the essence of what it is to consume media. Like what is being kept in, what is not, what's being edited out. And then add to that the complicating factor of exactly what you said, CGI and the ability to replicate faces. Yeah, Shane got us into that conspiracy video on that. Right. And that technology exists. This idea of being able to take so many different images of a person's face and replicate that person talking and saying stuff because we're in this culture of there's so much footage of, you know,

especially public figures out there and footage of them saying every word possible that you can cobble together these really lifelike facsimiles. So not only are humans just bad at being able to process this stuff, add to it you have people who are really good at being able to kind of like

seed out false information. And then the capstone of it all, right, is the idea that because of how fast the internet goes and how quickly we're on to the next news story, the next big trend, what's the trend today? You know, what's the new meme, whatever. There is no sense of let's look back at what we were told and analyze what the reality was and what it meant. Right. And it's always we need to we need to be the first to get the headline. We need to be the first to get the headline, move on to the next thing, next thing, next thing. There's never this

idea of like, wait, what did we believe versus what was real and what came like what was the impact of that? And is that something that we should be incentivizing or, you know, like, hey, maybe this is a bad idea moving forward. You never have that retrospective analysis. And so as a result, a lot of these problems just continue to perpetuate and don't get solved. Well, because if you take any time to think, hey, should I post this? Well, then you're too late. Somebody else beat you to the punch. And that's the thing, people, with what you're saying earlier about negativity being so much more eye-catching and tasty

for news people to touch on. It's like, that's why it sucks. Like the word feminism is like seen by a lot of people as a negative thing because there is an abuser of every movement that will do a terrible thing and claim they're a part of this group and then then everyone's like oh that group's terrible because the because that's all that they've seen

from that group or whatever and so they and then they move on and they don't do the research or question everything like I think I learned from the internet like luckily I was exposed to the right stuff at the right time that I was taught to question everything and not just let, like, like you said, face value and move on. You know, with all the stuff that went down with, uh, mostly our parents using Facebook, uh, I think, I think there probably will be classes taught on, on ways to break down information that you're seeing on social media because it's it is a huge huge problem and it's it's i mean it's propaganda it's getting people to think a certain way and it's it's the new it's the new sort of like war yeah it's and it's and it's tough too because a lot of times the truth behind a situation doesn't fit into 140 characters.

It doesn't fit into, or what, 240? 240 now. 240 at this point. Wow, 2008. Right, I know. But it's not tweetable. It's not the best. It's not the worst.

It's a complicated situation that has many nuanced sides. And you're going to have to stop and read and think critically about how, and that just doesn't work in this day and age of, let me hit the retweet button. Let me write in all caps and say how offended I am. You go to a Twitter moment and you read the tweet, and then they have a tweet to the actual article and nobody clicks the article. They just want to read what everyone's saying at face value, what is basically going on, and it could be accurate or not. Right. And that's the thing, right?

It's like, and we see it all the time in small scale with our videos, right? If I make a factual inaccuracy, you know, and say something wrong in one of my videos, and sometimes that happens. It happens, yeah. When you're covering the 60-year history of Mario or whatever. And I'm sure someone in the comments here will be like, it's not actually 60 years of Mario. But it's one of those things where, like, if you make a mistake,

that's out there. And no amount of me in the comments being like, you know, fixing it. No one's going to see that. Yeah, exactly. And even, like, people are just going to get their the comments being like, you know, fixing it. No one's going to see that. Yeah, exactly. And even like people are just going to get their information from like, oh, he purposely included this in or whatever. You know, for instance, we had a video where we talked about the tragic death of one of our editors. And, you know, we purposely kept that demonetized in honor of him. It's not something that you should be making money off of

sure but you know youtube naturally has to run banner and like that is just one of the things that you cannot turn off but it was one of those things where people are like oh you're trying to capitalize monetize this this horrific event it's like like one that is so hurtful like to have people think that because i would never want to do that but then two it's like no amount of me telling that story out there is going to translate to people because to a lot of people, like, they made up their mind or they think they have the story right. And it's one of those things where, like, it just self-perpetuates and it's tough.

It's a weird, weird time. The internet's in this weird inflection point. It's kind of scary. Yeah. They'll leave a comment of something like, you did that thing wrong. I can't believe you did that. And then they leave. Some of them don't even go back and check their replies if they're actually being corrected.

And they'll go on living and maybe telling other people. You never know. I got a little taste of that talking about Michael Jackson in the last podcast. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah. The comments are very split on that. Yeah. Well, actually, on YouTube, it was a lot of people saying, yeah, yeah, he did it. And then I went to my Twitter mentions,

and some people with Michael Jackson avatars were railing on me pretty hard. And I was like, yeah, I expected that. Look at how controversial you are, Ian. And you have this, like, devil may care. You're like, bring it on. Well, I mean, well, it's because Keith is a huge Michael Jackson fan. And, like, look, I'm not trying to change anyone's minds.

And I just wanted to have a conversation about it because he's a big Michael Jackson fan. And, yeah, I don't know. I felt like it was a good thing to talk about. But that's it right there. And see that, again, like that's the thing that I think a lot of people are afraid of or just resistant to do these days is have a conversation. Well, because no one don't have all the facts. Or just different opinions. The facts relating to Michael Jackson are so muddled.

Of course. And then twisted by both sides to fit their narrative. So wherever people are getting information, people keep reposting this meme of like all the facts of Michael Jackson. I'm like, OK, but I can't I can't take, you know, two days to research every single fact on here to make sure it's right. So either I'm going to accept it at face value or ignore it, you know? Well, I think that's again, like that's why conversations are so important because people

are resistant to do it because if all of a sudden I admit that I'm wrong or like it exposes me to either being wrong or being misinformed or under informed. with enough people, it's like, okay, I have a general understanding now of all these different perspectives, all these different like sources of facts from people who, you know, maybe didn't read the two days worth of information on it, but at least like no bits and pieces. And you can put that together into like, hey, I have a much better informed position on this as a result. The thing to take away from it is uh don't touch kids like whether whether or not whether or not he did it like let's let's talk like let's have a conversation about about about like grooming children and and abusing children and and like what that is like whether he did it or not we're

having the conversation now and we're we're we, we're, we know the signs and you know, one of the big things that they talk about in the documentary, I don't want to go too far, but like is the child abuse. It's not necessarily like the things that, that those, those victims had to wrestle with in their minds was like, I still love him. So I don't know. So it's like, everyone thinks like, Oh, it's something where they're like they're abused and they're and they're, you know, it was a violent thing. It's like not necessarily, but it's still not OK. Right. Yeah.

That all that they're wrecked for life. Yeah. When that isn't the case. Right. Because it's happening at such an early age. The signs are different than what like you would assume or what the media portrays, right? Like, you know, it's not someone who's, like, broken or has mental issues. I mean, sometimes they are and sometimes they do.

But, you know, a lot of times it is. It's, I have this complicated relationship with this person and I don't know how to process it. And, you know, to the outside world, you might not think that this happened to me, but it very likely could have. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I think the important thing is when you're having those conversations, say the Michael Jackson thing, it's like we will never know the exact truth. We'll never know. But I think people have to like sort out their priorities when they're in those arguments or discussions of it's like okay what's the real issue here and what why does this matter yeah and like because it's not it's not about like who's right and who's wrong it shouldn't be about that it should be

like big picture like what really matters like why are we arguing about this and what's more important and what can we take from it yeah i think the bigger argument, though, is do you think Aladdin's going to be good? Here he goes. Here he goes. Well, you know, I do have a channel dedicated to film. So I am aware of this sort of thing. No. I got to say, I think it's going to be good.

I do. I think it's going to be better than the Lion King movie, quite honestly. Yeah. No, I don't think that's a bad opinion be better than the Lion King movie, quite honestly. Yeah. No, I don't think that's a bad opinion. Is that a controversial opinion? Is that my hot take? I think so, because I'm more apt

to watch something with humans talking than like weird kind of live action. Yeah. Well, I haven't quite seen, they haven't shown

like the lions talking yet, because I think it's going to be really freaking weird. I think there's a reason you haven't seen the lions. Oh, totally. Just like we're saying, we're choosing what we see. it because I think it's going to be really freaking weird. I think there's a reason you haven't seen the lion. Oh, totally. Just like we're saying. Yeah, right.

We're choosing what we see. Yep. I think that, so here's my take on Aladdin first off is I think I'm bummed out about Jafar. I think that they miscast Jafar. He's so sexy.

He's sexy, but he doesn't, like if you're thinking Jafar, like you, and who's such like an iconic, cartoonish Disney villain. Yeah. I think, say what you will about the casting, and he might be great in the role, just vocally.

Yeah. He doesn't have the, like, vocal, like, seductive, deep, you know, like, I want to get wrapped up in his voice. Yeah. That Jafar as a character who is, like, seducing everyone around him and kind of mind controlling him has. So like that's my one ding on Aladdin. But if you look at, you know, all the spectacle that they've shown of it. I think Will Smith, like he's in a thankless role of having to, you know, remake just an iconic, like one of the best performances period in a movie like it was just such a perfect matching of character to

personality when it was Robin Williams. Yeah. I think Will Smith is one of the best people to do kind of like a new fresh a fresh take on the journey or on the genie. So I think he'll be good and it's it's basically and I was worried because I'm like oh

they're just recreating the movie but it seems like the genie is more like it's it's basically and i was worried because i'm like oh they're just recreating the movie but it seems like the genie is more like it's it's hitch it looks like hitch dude that's what we that's what we were saying it's it's totally it's literally it is where in hitch basically will smith is like the romance consultant who's like hey you know lame white dude i'm gonna teach you how to get the girl and here it seems like it's Aladdin, but hitch where it's the genie being like, Hey, Aladdin street rat. Let me show you how to get the girl,

which, you know, it's a different take. I don't think it's a bad one. I think it's, I think it's interesting. I like that. I feel like Will Smith put in his contract that he can't be blue the entire

time because, because when he did suicide squad, his character dead shot has like a full on mask. And then in Suicide Squad, like it doesn't have the mask. He's like, no, no, I just want the eye thing. And that's it, right? It doesn't have like a little, I didn't watch that movie.

I also wonder if, because again, think about who's telling the story. Think about how these things happen, right? I think things get leaked out. If you're a movie studio and things get leaked out onto the internet, you see how the audience responds, the stuff that you're kind of questioning, and you double back and you're like,

okay, well, let's rework this before we release the big trailer. And so here, I think there probably was a world where the genie might have been blue the entire time. But it's an easy CGI thing to fix, right? And so now all of a sudden, if the internet's making fun of Will Smith for being kind of like comedically blue the entire time, and then all of a sudden it's like,

oh, look, here's a trailer where he's not blue the whole time. Like now all of a sudden you've gotten people to be like, okay, I'm not as afraid of this anymore. I think it's the same reason why the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, you haven't seen Sonic's face yet. And then when you saw Sonic's face, because it did leak out. I haven't seen it. Yeah.

But right. So it leaked out. It's not great. Leaked. And it's not great. And the Internet's been kind of like, and so I'm wondering if this, like, if it had been great, I bet you would have seen a Sonic trailer like shortly thereafter. I'm less, I'm less worried about his face and more worried about his legs.

Like there's something really weird. There's something really weird about Sonic's legs. Being so hairy. It's uncomfortable. I just love that poster where it's like, he like took the shot. He's like man spreading on top of the bridge. And then like, and then if you zoom in,

if you zoom in on the bridge, like right in between his crotch, like he wrote Sonic was here. It's so bad. Like with W-U-Z. It's really rough. It's 1996. It's like, damn, okay.

It's period appropriate. True, true. But yeah, I think, so like a great example of this, I think, is Venom, right? Where Venom had this leak of the like moment of Venom like this is Venom and his tongue and people are like oh look at the leak how's he look and the internet loved it right the internet was like I approve it this is what my

Venom should look like great awesome the response was positive and then like within like 24-48 hours you have a trailer for Venom right I would assume that if things the internet was like, oh, his tongue's too stupid or like this looks too

you know, this isn't the Venom I'm looking for. I want a more traditional whatever. I think you would have probably seen a delay there and they might have gone back and reworked things to make it happen. Again, that's just a conspiracy theory. I love it. I love it. But Lion King, yeah, I think that the reason why you're

seeing such iconic moments from the film, but also like the animals not talking. It's just vignettes. I think they're... I also wouldn't be surprised if that's the reason why Aladdin is coming out this year. Because it's weird for them to have two live-action remakes of such two

hugely iconic franchises for them coming out months apart and yeah say what you will about like it's months apart I mean they're both

coming out this year whoa which is right that's weird which I didn't realize until like I saw you know both trailers

and they're both coming out so close together like I could see them doing one a year but these are coming out it kind of seems like they're blowing their wad

like yeah totally it's like is that a is that a weird eu, but these are blowing their wad. Like, yeah, totally. It's like, is that a, is that a weird euphemism? I think that's different. Wad is blowing through money.

Oh, okay. All right. Well, I don't know. I don't know my euphemisms then. They're blowing something. It seems like they're just kind of like, cause they only have,

they only have so many things to remake and live action. And it seems to me like to me, Lion King was probably the best animated movie they ever made. But maybe that's just because I grew up in the 90s. But just a 90s kid. What can I say? And you're not the type to respond to princesses. Exactly. Yeah, I don't want to see women get empowered.

Like, screw that. I want to see lions fuck each other up. Yeah. And see, now we can cut that line out of this podcast. get empowered like screw that I wanna see lions fuck each other up yeah see now now we can cut that line out of this podcast and there it is Ian Ian from Smosh

says yeah I will say when when I saw the the shot of the wildebeest like going into the gorge I was like

oh my gosh like I like it oh oh yeah yeah yeah I felt it man see for the Aladdin the Aladdin trailer like when I saw the leaked images of Genie or whatever, I was like, oh, no.

I'm worried. But then the trailer came out, and it's like the first half I wasn't super interested. I mean, but then when Will Smith comes in, he's, like, being funny and stuff. Yeah. But then when the music picked up, I got chills. Like, because you forget, like, an an animated movie it has a vision of what like image you have and then in your memory you see that world that universe but when live action like they really filled it all in with like beautiful imagery and the shots of like the chase

and everything you're like oh my gosh there's so much I didn't imagine in my head that is going to be there I haven't seen any of the live action Disney movies yet. Cause I just don't care. Well, Maleficent was incredible. Maleficent is surprisingly good. Okay. But the,

yeah, I was surprised by that. I'm like, whoa, I didn't realize that they were actually doing it. Right. I thought the story seems fairly complete at this point. I don't know what they're doing with that.

Is it a prequel? I don't know. I don't know. Anyway. Yeah. But with, but with Aladdin, it was interesting that they, this point. I don't know what they're doing with that. Is it a prequel? I don't know. I don't know. Anyway. But with Aladdin, it was interesting that

the songs that Aladdin and Jasmine are singing don't sound any different from the original, but then you know they're going to have to do something different with Will Smith. Because he's like, you ain't never had a friend like me! Threw a little Fresh Prince in there.

I'm like, okay. Like, like, cause obviously you're not going to do like Robin Williams. Like, yeah. Also, I didn't know.

Okay. Am I just stupid for not realizing that, um, like in the lion King, I thought the kids were the ones like, like the Simba. I thought he, yeah.

Simba and Nala. I thought that they were the ones that were actually singing the songs. I didn't realize that they had like other singers do their songs for them. Oh yeah.

I just assumed like Jonathan Taylor Thomas just had a great voice. I was like wow good for him. Right. So maybe I'm just an idiot. Again I don't

I don't think you're dumb. No I do. Thank you. Because why would you know? Why would you why would you it's not like the movie's beating you over the head with like, this is a new person. It's being portrayed as all one character. It's all about the framing. And we weren't, I feel like back then it wasn't like a common knowledge of behind the scenes stuff.

Like it wasn't like everybody knew about like that. Like, cause I feel like nowadays, like you kind of hear a more of, like, what goes on in production behind the scenes. Like, we instantly see the images of Beauty and the Beast when they show the graphics of, like, how they made Beast with the suit and everything. Like, I feel like that stuff wasn't accessible back then when the Lion King was out. Sure, yeah. Tell you what, though. Like, I'm all aboard that practice, quite honestly. Interesting.

Like, I love the idea of actually getting, like, in my ideal world, you just get someone who's good for the role and all that that role entails coming from the theater world. Yeah. You know, there's so many talented, like, Broadway actors and, like, you know, little known personalities who would be perfect for these roles. I guess that's what they did with Frozen. Like they got, as we call her, Adele Dazeem.

Yeah, Adele Dazeem. Absolutely. Who is one of the best singers. But nobody knows who, she wasn't selling the movie because nobody knows who she is. Right. She just is a phenomenal performer who has a legit background in vocal performance and theatrical acting who can crush it in a character. Like, that's the thing. And that's the thing that kills me about all of these remakes is, like, and that's the reason why I really didn't like the Beauty and the Beast is because, you know, I love Emma Watson.

Great. Fantastic. Camera died? Maybe. What's that? Is that your timer? That's my timer. Every time.

He doesn't know where the timer's coming from. I forgot. I'm sorry. No, you're great. I just think it's funny. I'm sorry. That totally interrupted you. It's okay.

We can keep talking. But anyway, so like I wasn't a big fan of Beauty and the Beast. Yeah, we love Emma Watson. Yeah, I love Emma Watson. Great, fantastic. But the thing is, like, she can't sing the role like someone who has actually been trained and doing it for years to sing the role. And sure, she might help put butts in seats, maybe. But it's one of those things that, like, if you just have good performers doing a good job and just like kicking butt, like it's going to be great.

And so for me, the thing that kills all of these live action remakes is when all of a sudden like, great, I'm immersed in this world. I love what's going on. And then like their vocal performance hits and it's like, oh, yeah, stretch for those notes are like clearly auto-tuned or anything like that. And so I'd rather, you know, I'd rather them dub over someone else who actually can sing like they did with The Lion King in the early days. Or, you know, like I said, in the ideal world, just cast a no-name actor. Give them a chance to shine. I feel like they'll be happy that they did at the end of the day. Yeah, of course. It'll make a better product, but it doesn't sell the product.

But doesn't it? Because here all of a sudden, if you're casting right, again, like you get a chance to see the person perform. It's not like, okay, you're on the movie set. Hopefully this guy is good. No, you've presumably seen them read for the role, interact with everyone. That is the casting process, you know, and sure. It's probably easier with an animated movie because you're not seeing that person. You're not like, who the hell is this?

Right. Like, I don't even realize half the people in animated movies. I was like, wait, that was that major celebrity? Like, I don't care really. Right.

Like, occasionally I'll be like, oh, cool, like that person. But then they have a cast of like 20 celebrities. Right. I'm like, wait, Keegan-Michael Key was in this?

Like, what? Right, exactly. Brad Pitt? What? But it is. It's one of those things that to me, you know, yeah, they might not help put butts in seats. So maybe have stunt casting for like one person there or whatever. Like, oh, I can't believe The Rock because it's always The Rock.

Can't believe The Rock's in there. It's always The Rock and he'll be glad to do it. He'll cash that paycheck in days long. But the thing is, fill it with a bunch of other people who are great and the movie sells itself. Did these original stories

become so popular because they were stunt casted? No, it's because they tell really emotional tales that are well told, the music is great and they're well performed. And so, you know,

would I rather see, you know, Aladdin starring, you know, someone that I recognize or Aladdin just being performed the heck out of people who are glad to be there, are excited to do it and can fill the role. And like to me, like that's, I just love good stories. Yeah. And if you're telling me the best story possible and great, if that person is the best for that role, awesome, I'm all aboard

I guess it's when they advertise those movies and they want to sell those movies, it's at face value where you see oh, big famous person that's how they're trying to get the money right now not in the long run, what was a better decision yeah

you see those rolling lists of animated movie credits, like, at the end of the trailer. Like, you said, King and Michael Key. And it's like, Zendaya's Mechie. It almost makes me roll my eyes because it's like, clearly you don't have enough faith in the trailer that you created and in the story that you're telling to sell me on just the premise alone. And so instead you're trying to impress me with all the star power. And it's like, Beyonce's in it.

And it's like, I don't care if Beyonce's in it. Well, animated movies, I was reading something. They were saying animated movies are some of the only places where you can still tell an original story and get people to actually get their butts in movie theater seats. Because nowadays it's just about franchises and reboots and people will go and see those. But to see an original movie in the theater is very rare unless it's an animated movie. Or get, like, I think again, like look at what Blumhouse has been able to do. Blumhouse. But those are all horrors. I mean, they're horror. And they're low budget.

They're very low budget. Good. Tell a good story with a low budget. Like you don't need everything to be a CGI masterpiece. Good story. Like theater is built on this idea of telling good stories, right? And, you know, with lower budgets than movies, certainly. And film, really, just stick a camera around it.

Like, yeah, there's more cost because you've got to set up lights and this and that. I think a lot. I think, here's my other hot take, I think the movie industry just wastes egregious amounts of money on, like, needless excess. Like, don't even get me started on that. But it is one of those things where the idea of, like, telling a good story,, like no matter what your budget is, no matter what your genre, those exist. Certain genres are going to cost more, superhero, action movies, certainly.

But like if you're telling a drama or a, you know, like get out. Yeah, you're right. Horror is kind of maybe has an easier opportunity to do it. I don't know. I'm a firm believer of a lot of times good content will just disseminate out there because

you have to start somewhere and it creates a groundswell. And now because of the success of Get Out which started slow and then built people are super excited for us. I am. Of course. And I'm going to be right there. I hate horror movies. Right. I'm going to be right there. And I hate horror movies.

Right. I'm going to see that. We're seeing it opening night. Yeah, our whole office group is going to go see it together. We're getting the whole Smosh fam. We're all going to go see it. I hate scary movies. It's super fun.

Yeah. I'm just going to have someone next to me. I'm like, just so you know, I'm going to break your arm. I'm scared. Yeah, I'm pretty spooked for that movie. Spooked and stoked? Yeah. Spoked. Spoked. Yo, bro, I'm pretty spooked for that movie. Spooked and stoked? Yeah. Spoked.

Spoked. Yo, bro, I'm freaking spoked. Shoot, dude. Spoked. Shoot, dude. Sorry. We're trying to make this. No, we're not.

Or maybe I'm trying to make this. It's a thing. It's a thing. Ian randomly started, like, he said it one day, and I was like, oh, that's from something, right? And he's like, no, I just said it. He goes, shoot, dude. I don't know. Sounds like something that would come out of, like, no, I just said it. He goes, shoot, dude. I don't know. Sounds like something that would come out of like...

Sounds like a meme. Dude, where's my car? Right? Like, shoot, dude. Shoot, dude. I like that we, you know, bookended with comedy. Like in the middle, we got really hot and heavy with the discussions.

All right, we were pretty heavy from the get-go. That is true, actually. I might be misremembering the beginning of this whole thing. Well, before we go, is there anything you want to tell people about? Anything you're doing? Anything you want to shout out? Oh, I didn be misremembering the beginning of this whole thing. Well, before we go, is there anything you want to tell people about? Anything you're doing? Anything you want to shout out?

Oh, I didn't even mention it. You're our first ever guest. Really? I mean, you have only had five episodes of this podcast. It would have been hard for me to have squeezed myself into those first four while you're establishing the format. And still trying to. Yeah, first ever guest. Thanks, guys. Yeah, awesome.

Oh, wait. I'm not your first ever guest guest, though. Guest guest. Oh, here I am being a smart aleck about it. I'm your first guest ever, period? Ever, period. It's all been Smosh family. I guess I had... Oh, I'm so... I feel so bad that I was making fun of you then.

I thought you were saying like, congratulations, Matt. This is your first time on the Smosh cast. I'm like, yeah, no doubt, you guys. You've had five episodes. No, you are a very first guest. Ah, first guest. Oh, that's awesome. That is a huge honor.

Well, I thought you might be a good first person. I appreciate it. Did we cover the topics that you wanted to cover? It doesn't matter. That is a clear no. It really doesn't. Shoot. There's no topics. I have this kind of list of things to possibly talk about. Sometimes we won't touch on any. But I don't

throw all of this away so Ian can create the show that he envisioned. I don't want to let you down as your first guest. No, no, no. This is great. It's all about having a good time and chatting with your buddies. That is right. Is that the tagline? Smoshcast. Having a good time and chatting with your buddies.

Shoot, dude. Shoot, dude. Have that good time. Well, thank you so much, Matt Pat. Thank you. And give my best to Stephanie. I will, absolutely. And the baby potato.

And the baby potato, yeah. He will be glad to receive. You know, next time. Maybe next time, yeah. This one the baby potato, yeah. He will be glad to receive. You know, next time. Maybe next time, yeah. This one's for you, buddy. That was a good one. I can't go that high. That's, nope.

I don't want to end this podcast with a... No, he likes to end it with smacking noises instead. Smacking noises. It's so gross. I think we should make that, bud. I'm kind of grossed out by just the phrase smacking noises instead. Smacking noises? It's so gross. I think we shouldn't have that. I'm kind of grossed out by just the phrase smacking noises. Yeah. What sort of –

With his mouth. Like lip smacks? Yeah, lip smacking. You know that people – Please. I've got to get some water. You know that people have like a built-in aversion to this, right? Yeah.

I don't care. I just need to please – I have a built-in aversion to that. Yeah. I'm sorry. in aversion to that. Yeah. Sorry. I think it's great. I don't want lip smacking sounds in

this podcast anymore. What's that? What's that? It's called like something starts with an A something phobia. Something like that.

Stephanie has it. People got upset about the Domino's video because we added chewing sounds. We added a lot. A lot of people were very upset.

We should. Yeah. Make sure you guys subscribe to the pod on all the podcast things that are available. Any listening apps, right? Spotify, iTunes. There's a whole bunch of other.

What's another one? SoundCloud. I don't think we're on SoundCloud. We should. Don't do it. This is why you don't have the guests. Save the closing line. Be sure to check us out on the YouTube

if you're not watching us on the Smoshcast YouTube. Smoshcast. We upload on Fridays. The pod comes out on the Wednesdays, uncensored. And on YouTube, when I say fuck, you're just going to hear a bleep, so I'm sorry. You're censoring me right now. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I censored the whole thing. I love you guys so much. Cool, man. Smooth exit. Smooth exit. Thank you. Yeah, I'm sorry. Censored the whole thing. I love you guys so much. Cool, man. Smooth exit. Smooth exit. Thank you. Thanks again for coming. My pleasure, guys.

I love you. Thank you so much. Thank you for the lip smacks. Tell me again. Goodbye. Goodbye.