The Best One Yet - 🧝‍♀️ “Zelda does Hollywood” — Nintendo’s creativity hack. Peak Credit Cards debt. Stephen Colbert’s Google threat.

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

Following the success of the Mario movie, Nintendo confirmed it’s making a Zelda movie next — So we looked into how Mario scales creativity.Americans’ credit card debt just passed $1 Trillion �� We explain why credit card debt is the worst kind of debt.And a random line on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show was actually a threat to Google — Because Gen Z doesn’t “google” for something, they “tiktok” it.$NTDOY $GOOG $AMEX $MC $VSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, November 9th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It is a tea boy. Good to pot again with you in person. Great to pod with you. Jack, can I ask a social manners question quickly for the Yeti's episode?

Social manners. Okay, last night at dinner, we ordered the exact same thing. Is that okay? Is that permissible? Yeah. I think so. I agree. I agree.

Same. Yeah. I'll have the same as him. The Bombay Curry Shaman Bowl. At Great White. Which was fantastic. We both got him. It was delicious.

And we have nothing to apologize. for. Who's talking about an apology? Okay, I just wanted to get ahead of the story, Jack. First story for today's show, what do we got? Nintendo stock jumped yesterday as it confirmed it's turning Zelda into a movie. Yeties, the secret to scaling creativity is more creativity. For our second story, American credit card balances just passed a whopping one trillion dollars. One trillion dollars. Yeties, there is good debt and there is bad debt. And this is the worst kind of debt. And our third and final story, One random line from the Stephen Colbert late night show is making Google nervous. And that line is about Google's competition and Gen Z.

But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, yesterday's show is so much fun, but today's show is just fantastic. Nick and I are still in Los Angeles. I'm flying back to the East Coast tomorrow. Do not sit in seat 17A. Seat 17A should be destroyed. niche, we do not like it. Yeties, it's a quick trip.

Nick and I actually had a speaking event in Beverly Hills. Eh, T-Boy 9-210. But since we're in California, Nick and I want to talk about something uniquely Los Angeles. We wanted to talk about something uniquely Los Angelino? No, Los Anglican. Los Angeles. And that thing is the drive-thru. The drive-through, because the drive-thru came with age in L.A. 80 years ago.

Yeah, because if you want to go somewhere in L.A., you weren't going to have to drive to wherever that where is. We've been persecuted for walking. We walked half a mile and people did not believe us. Los Angeles was the first city to let diners grab fries without getting out of the car. Jack, if you're going to get in that chassis, you're going to want fries with that. Drive-thrus. It's what L.A. does. You're not on the 405 unless you got a fried chicken in your lap. And the New York Times just did a deep dive on the drive-thru industry, which is thriving in America right now.

Get this. Drive-through sales are up 30% since 2019. Yeah, 30% more Americans are driving their big denou. through the drive-thru. Taco Bell's newest drive-thru, it has four lanes. It's like an interstate highway. Chick-fil-A's newest drive-thru. It's two-story tall. It's like a skyscraper.

Yeties, Jack and I saw that, and we just had to know. Who invented the two-way microphone that lets you talk with the cashier? Because we all know that the most important part of the drive-thru is the two-way microphone that you're trying to get an order in. No, I ask for three number twos. We're not two-number-toes or three-number-toes over there. No, a junior bacon cheeseburger. No, a liter of cola.

I just had a double liter of cola over there. Yeties, we have all had an intense interaction with a microphone. You have to enunciate into the drive-through microphone. But our question for you, which fast food chain invented the two-way drive-thru microphone? Which chain created the drive-thru microphone that everyone uses today? Here's the hint. The fast food chain is headquartered in California. And here's the answer.

We'll tell you at the end of today's show. It's the best fact yet. Yes, it is. In the meantime, Jack, let's hit on three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip.

Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show. For our first story, Nintendo just announced a Zelda movie is coming out. But here was the real highlight. Nintendo told us how they scale creativity. And we'll tell you in the takeaway.

But first, Jack, can we talk about the big complaint that everyone's complaining about about Nintendo? Investors complain that Nintendo is too focused on video games. Which is like an awkward complaint. It's like when we get DMs that say we're doing too much podcast. Yeah, it's like we, that's what we do. Like Nintendo's a video game company. They are one of the top two video game companies in the world alongside Sony.

But here's the interesting thing yet is the complaint about Nintendo doing too much video games, it's actually a financial complaint. Investors are worried that 90% of Nintendo's revenues come from video games and video game consoles. 90% of the company is depending just on video games. Investors would prefer some kind of a backup revenue plan. Well, Jack, we just got the earnings from Nintendo. What kind of numbers are we seen, man? In the first half of the year, they made 800 billion yen in revenue.

Jack, can we get a foreign exchange translation on that, please? That's $5 billion of video game revenue. billion dollars because yetis 20 million people bought the latest Zelda video game boosting Nintendo's overall sales by 21%. 3 million units of Mario Kart 8 deluxe were sold. Revenge of the Green Shell. But 93% of the revenue was still video games. Oh, it was still video games.

Investors are still complaining. But Yeties, Nintendo just announced a plan to appease those pesky investors with some more non-video game sales. And here is the super-nobes. non-secret Nintendo plan. One movie per year. Yeah, not two, not three, not zero. One Nintendo movie every single year. Because Yeties, the Barbie movie got all the headlines this year.

But the Super Mario movie that also came out this year, didn't it? Super Mario, I watched the movie. It was great. And it made just about the same box office revenues as Barbie did. So Nintendo now says, hey, we've been a video game company. People are complaining about all our video games. Why don't we basically become a movie company? Yeah, Nintendo wants to make more movies just like the Mario movie.

And they're starting with Zelda. Nintendo just confirmed they're making a Zelda movie. And they further committed to release one new movie every year based on their video games. Pokemon, they're getting a movie. Super Smash Brothers Till. Kirby is even getting a movie. You think Duck Hunt could get a movie? I think Duck Hunt could get a movie.

I mean, Jack, I heard Donkey Kong just signed with the United Palin Agency. They got an agent. Oh, by the way, who do you think is going to play Princess Peach? In a live action movie? Absolutely live action. What do you think, man? Maybe the girl who serves ice cream from Stranger Things. It's Rachel McAdams all the way. Maybe it's Rachel.

Maybe it's Ethan Hawke's daughter. Money is on Rachel McAdams. Yeties, Nintendo says that one movie a year is their aim to put smiles on everyone's faces. That's a direct quote from the CEO. We love that sentiment. But it's also an aim to satisfy those investors who want Nintendo to diversify. You want them smiling as well. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy, Rachel McAdams, and all of you?

All of Nintendo. To scale creativity. The secret ingredient is more creativity. Yeah, it's the original creativity. Yetis, you might think that growing non-video game revenue should be easy for Nintendo. Nintendo owns Zelda, a beloved video game. Can't they just hand the IP rights to some Hollywood studio? Piece of cake, Blockbuster movie?

Well, that would be wrong. Because 30 years ago, Nintendo tried that. It was a huge mistake. The first Mario movie in the 90s, was a huge failure. Yet is Nintendo's first Mario movie? It was a bust 30 years ago. So this time, they're doing something different.

Nintendo took control of the creative. Yes. With the original creative team that created Mario. Nintendo assigned their top creative, Shigaro Miyamoto, the guy who invented Mario to work on this Mario movie. This is Nintendo's creative A-team that was behind this year's Mario movie, and that made it a huge success.

And guess what? They're replicating it again. Now Mr. Miyamoto is deeply involved in the Zelda movie production, who he also invented. This one man invented both the Mario character and the Zelda character. He is the creative because he created the characters, and now he's the one focused on both movies. He's the most precious resource at Nintendo, and they're dedicating him to these movies. Because the truth is, to scale creativity, you need more creativity. For our second story, Americans' credit card balances just rose to a record high

of $1 trillion. But like that, there's good debts and there's bad debts. And that's what we want to talk about. Jack, one thing we have not talked about, though, is it's funflation, right? Funflation. Funflation. Pent up demand for fun this summer had us all splurging. It's kind of fun to say, too, because our GDP rose to a shocking 5% this summer.

That's one of the fastest economic growth quarters in 20 years. And that was driven by consumer spending on travel, on concerts. on just good old having fun. It was funflation, and it happened in this past summer. You went to six flags, you bought an $18 popcorn, and then you vomited it up, didn't you, Jack?

Is that funflation? It was fun when you were eating the popcorn. But here's the key that we want to ask. How did Americans pay for that funflation this summer? Well, Yeties, we've got the answer. It wasn't stimulus checks, and it wasn't paychecks. It was credit cards.

Get this. The United States government tallies up all the credit card balances of every American each quarter. I mean, that sounds kind of freaky. It feels like a little bit of a privacy violation. It's a big number. They add up American Express, MasterCard, and Visa,

and the amount of plastic debt that Americans had hit a record $1.08 trillion last quarter. Sit down, stand up, and sign on the bottom line. $1.08 trillion, could you sprinkle on some context, Jack? That is the number one, followed by 12 zeros. There's four commas. There's four commas. We've never seen credit card debt of Americans at $1 trillion. And that $1 trillion is up 40% in just two years.

It's kind of alarming. Now, Jack, if we're going to continue this story, we're going to need to sprinkle on some clarification, too. That $1 trillion, it's not the amount you spent swiping your credit card and then paid off. No, Yeties, that $1 trillion is the amount you didn't pay off. It's the amount you rolled for month to month and had to pay interest on. Okay. Okay, and now we've got to talk about this part, Jack.

The interest rate that the credit card company charges us on that $1 trillion in credit card debt? Because of high interest rates overall, credit card interest rates are at an all-time high. Yetis, the average credit card interest rate is over 20%. So this is bad news. The $1 trillion Americans having credit card debt is charged 20% interest. And on the scale of debts, Yetis, there is no worse debt than credit card debt. Student loans, car loans, mortgages, they all have way lower interest rates than credit cards. Credit cards is the worst.

Although there is mafia debt. Mafia debt is a bad kind of debt, right? You don't want to mess with Johnny Fiama kind of debt, right? If you have mafia debt, you're not paying interest in money. You're paying interest in fingers. True. That's the worst kind of debt. You don't want Gabagool kind of debt.

Loan shark debt, bookie debt is worse than credit card debt. But credit card debt is a... very bad debt. The worst besides the mafia and bookies. I'm glad we pointed that out. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who may have credit card debt? Like fats, there are good debts and there are bad debts. Yeties, if you've got a low interest mortgage, that is a type of debt, that actually looks like a very good debt right now. With a low interest mortgage, you can live in your home as you pay off the debt and just pay a low interest rate every month. So, for example, a 2.85% mortgage rate, that's a low interest rate debt, right?

It's like an avocado. That's the good fat right there. You want to hang on to that 2.85% mortgage rate as long as you can, it's a good debt like an avow. But on the other hand, there's credit card debt, and that is bad debt. That is your trans fatty kind of debt. At 20% interest, interest payments can rack up faster than you're able to pay it down. So besties, if you have credit card debt, which is a bad debt, your financial priority should be to pay off that debt.

The financial downside of credit card debt is bigger than any upside of any other investment you can make. Sorry, Jack, that's a powerful line. Can you just repeat that line for us because we should all absorb that line? The financial downside of credit card debt, which is 20% interest, is bigger than any upside of any alternative investment. Because yet he's not all debts are bad, but credit card debt is bad. It's the worst. Like Gabba Ghul. For our third and final story. Last week on the Stephen Colbert late night show, a single line was said that scared Google. It was about TikTok, which is the greatest threat to Google's online search dominance.

Jack, let's turn on the TVs over here. Taylor Tomlinson, the comedian, appeared on Stephen Colbert's late night TV show. It was a funny episode. Stephen Colbert is a funny guy. It was a classic Colbert, right? He asked her about her new job, you know, what she's promoting right now. They were schmoozing and schmoozing away. It was really fun.

But then she said one line that was important. Yes. Here's what she said. She wanted to learn how to nail a job interview. She was telling a story. Okay, but then what was the key part of her explanation? In her story, she didn't Google how to nail a job interview. She TikToked it.

She searched for a video on TikTok about how to do her job interview. Taylor Tomlinson is 30 years old. And the solution to the question she has wasn't reading websites she found on Google. No, the solution apparently was watching a two-me-year-old. video on TikTok. This is troublesome information for Google. Yes, it is. Even worse was how she summed it up.

She said TikTok is Google for kids. Yetis, let's turn to the data. Jack, let's whip up the data, please. Millennials, Gen X and Boomers, when we want to figure something out, we Google it. We Google it. It's a verb. We Google something when we need it. We Google something two minutes ago, Jack.

But for everyone born after 1997, they don't Google it. Right. They TikTok it. They've turned TikTok into their source. Search verb. Young people are the future, so this future looks concerning for Google. Get these numbers, Yetis. According to Google's own internal data, 40% of Gen Z prefers to search on TikTok or Instagram than to search on Google.

40% of young people prefer to TikTok or Instagram may search instead of Googling it. And that's Google's own data. It's just a huge cultural divide. We needed to find a restaurant last night, so we Googled tacos in Beverly Hills. That's what we do for all the information we need to find. We Google top taco recommendations by infatuation in Los Angeles. That's what we did. But the 23-year-old at the table next to us probably opened up TikTok instead

and searched for tacos in Beverly Hills and swiped some videos. What we did to them was shocking, and what they did, we think is shocking. They can't believe we Googled it. Yeti's Google is becoming Grand Pod Google. By the way, the restaurant was Gracious Madre. Thank you to all the Yetis who DM'd us. that recommendation. Fantastic.

And to all the other recommendations. We have a list now. And we didn't use Ask Jeeves. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Google? Direct competition isn't necessarily the correct competition. That is, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. The threat to Google isn't Bing or DuckDuck Go, two search engines. Those are the direct competitors to Google.

The greatest threat to Google is apparently Instagram and TikTok, two social media. social media companies. Those are the indirect competitors to Google. And another threat to Google? It's AI chatbots, isn't it, Jack? Another indirect competitor to Google. Yet his Google has a monopoly on our minds. 90% of the world is using Google search. And yet the biggest risk to that domination is a social media app originally built for dance and karaoke video. Besties, it's a reminder that direct competition isn't necessarily the correct competition. Jack, can And you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday. Nintendo just confirmed that they're making a Zelda movie and one video game movie each year after that.

To scale creativity, Nintendo is giving more creativity. For our second story, Americans credit card debt just hit an all-time high $1 trillion. Yeah, it's debt. It's like fat. There's a good debt and there's a bad debt. And credit card debt, it's the worst debt. Except for mafia debt. And our third and final story is a comment on the Steve. and Corbara show that was scary news for Google.

Because Google's direct competition Bing isn't the correct competition. TikTok. We know because we TikTok. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the actors union has reached a tentative agreement with the Hollywood Studios. If the deal gets ratified, the Hollywood strike will be over.

We'll get more movies and more shows finally. The last time we were in L.A., didn't the writer strike end? Yeah, and this time we're in L.A., the actor's strike ended. Like, yeah, we don't want to take credit here, but like every time we're in L.A., we're the strike busters. We solved it. And second, Rivian dropped its exclusive deal with Amazon to make them electric delivery vans. And that is actually good news for Rivian. It means Rivian will continue selling vans to Amazon, but they can also sell the FedEx and UPS too.

And finally, Disney, its stock jumped after announcing more cost cuts. in its earnings. The most magical place on earth is getting its budget cut. And investors are a fan of it. Yeah, they're big fans of less magic. We do not need a 48th Marvel movie, apparently. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me from lovely Los Angeles. Who invented the drive-thrues two-way speaker? Earlier in the pot at the beginning, we were telling you all about the drive-thrus being iconic in Los Angeles. And drive-thrus are hitting a record high right now. The two-way drive-thru microphone was invented. invented in 1946.

And the chain that invented the microphone back then, Jack? In and Out Burger. In an Out Burger. They invented that... They invented the two-way microphone. Basically a glorified walkie. I'm sorry, can you repeat that, please? A glorified walking.

I'm sorry, can you repeat that, please? Two large coax. We'll see up front. That's really good. Somebody's getting a raise over there. I'm sorry, repeat that, please. You look fantastic out there. And Jack, if you're like...

loving the show, what should you be doing right now? Follow us or subscribe. Click to follow us on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you're listening to this podcast. You'll get us every day. It'll be the best one yet, we guarantee you. If you know, you know. Before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Routimi Williams over in Lagos, Nigeria. She's also celebrating getting a master's degree in FinTech and moving to London.

Not too shabby. And a happy birthday to Brittany Bond, a four-year Yeti celebrating a 32nd birthday, in Montclair, New Jersey. Happy birthday to Marcia Flinchum in La Palma, California. And Daniel Nardelli is turning 10 years old over in lovely Las Vegas. And happy birthday to Lulu Guil in San Jose, California. And Jesse Delfonso is singing the T-Boy jingle and celebrating a birthday over in Atlanta, Georgia. Happy birthday to Brian Lane, who's celebrating with his dink wife in their new home in Escondido.

And Dave ensued, a long-time Yeti, is celebrating a 27th birthday, in Medellin, Colombia. And happy birthday to Brandon Brock, getting his third birthday shout-out on the show. That's a record. He's turning 30 in Jonesboro, Arkansas. And apparently he was 30 the last couple times we gave him a shout-out, Jack.

Is that right? Yeah. Somebody fact-checked Brandon Brock. Happy birthday, Brandon. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Shallerbroite. The Rons.

This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Disney. Dude, you did a terrific job on... On not something... We're finishing each other sentences too This is classic Nick