Rooster Teeth Podcast - Yuletide Chat - #782

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

Go to http://roosterteeth.com/signup to get FIRST for $5.99 a month or $4.99 a month on a yearly plan! Armando chats with his very best friends in all of America; Blaine and Chris. Together, they discuss the holidays and the process of making an all new puppet kids show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is the RT podcast. And joining me today are two very special guests. We have 190 pounds of pure muscle and talent. Blame Gibson. This is a trap. This is a trap. I just realized when you said that I was like, I've been trapped.

And how many pounds? Soaking wet 15 pounds, we have Christopher. We have Christopher. But 15 pounds of pure talent. Pure unadulterated talent. What does an adulterated mean? It means that there's no adults to tell you that you can't do it to the man.

Raw. Yeah. Okay. Like, raw. No, I guess because adulterated would be raw, but like unadulterated would be protected. Protected talent? I'm the protected. I don't need to. See, I hear that all the time. Everyone uses it.

I don't think anyone truly knows what it means though. I don't think you need to. Yeah. I think it just, uh, it means what it, yeah, what it needs to mean. You're, wow. That's the English language, baby. That's messed up. Yeah.

Ha, ha, ha, ha. Is it adult, adulterated then comes from diluted? Is there, is there some way? I think it's because when you become an adult, you become diluted with so much bullshit. When you're a child, like if it was a child like, you would just be pure. Yeah, pure and happy and unadulterated.

That makes sense. I'm looking for root words, like this is the SAT, and I'm trying to get to the bottom of what, yeah. So is adult, you say it like it's a crime that's got, I'm trying to get to the bottom of this unadulterated. Hello boys. Oh, boy. Hello, boys. Hello, how are you?

Good. Yeah. Tired. Really? Yeah. Well, it's Christmas. It's Christmas. Well, it's technically.

No, no, no, no. Is that a Christmas song? Chris does kind of give a haunting Christmas boy vibe. Like a mix of it, like a tiny tim, but a little bit of evidence, you're screwed. You look like you draw on your facial hair to trick us into keeping your initials. I want them to know I'm not an adulterated.

It's all charaded. What's the vibe for Christmas? I like Christmas. I think it's cool. I don't really do anything special. I think when I was a kid, I would go like open presents and stuff. I had one of those sick ass divorced parents. So I would get leveled Christmas.

Yeah, but they were poor, so it was like half a Christmas total. I don't know. I think Christmas is cool. I never really did the big family thing. All my family was too spread out. And I really just as an adult have used Christmas as an excuse to go see like my mom and hang out. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody gives time off and stuff. Yeah. To deal with the holiday traffic. But I have parts of my family are so poor

that I remember they used to do this thing where they would tell their kids and their youth that Christmas was on the 27th, because they would go out on the 25th and buy presents that had discounted. And then they would wrap them in 27th, they'd sell a great Christmas. Christmas, not during Christmas

is the best Christmas year over half. Not during Christmas. Christmas. Christmas, not during Christmas is the best Christmas you'll ever have. Not during Christmas. Christmas. Christmas. If you celebrate the holidays, like off date, it's so much better because you're able to like, it's easier to schedule, it's easier to fly in and out. It's not busy.

Do you have a specific date? You're not. You just do like a week before or a week after. Okay. So you like off-shoot it all of a all sudden it's way more like easier to sked. It's easier going. Yeah. I would argue that week after is the move. Week before actually feels more stressful and expensive.

Well, it could be. I don't know. But the benefit of it also is that people have like partners and stuff and they have to split Christmas. You know, like, oh, they can't come Christmas. Like, I can always go the week before. The week after I also feel like you lose that spirit. What, like, the worst day of the holiday season for me is Christmas, because at that point, the Veef and everything and like-

The next day. But the high, yeah. No, because then you get there, you're in your fucking Xbox, there's no expectation. You're still from school. You either be playing. 25th, though, it's like you open out your presence, you don't get to enjoy them

because you got all the other traditions you got to hit. Okay, nothing's fucking open. You're starting to go hang out with your friends. Yeah. It's because you have stupid traditions. Yeah, all right. Well, you have had to worry about going to school tomorrow in 40 years.

So I don't know what you're talking about. Secondly, I don't know. I think I don't know if you guys do this. It sounds like you don't, but I kind of loop in the whole like two week period of any holiday is just that holiday. Like two weeks, half of it before half of it after Halloween.

For me, that's just Halloween. Thanksgiving, same thing. Christmas especially is just like sort of a season. And I want to be clear, I fucking hate like Christmas songs. Like I hate that the whole world celebrates like a Christmas together. I just mean that like for two weeks, I don't do shit. I go visit my mom, we watch TV and movies, and then like make a bunch of food. I love Christmas music because I used to enjoy it because I was like, yeah, it's Holy Spirit.

And I'm super into this and all this stuff. Now I like it because I feel like every time a Christmas song is on my radio, I'm so fucking stressed out. And there's just something about the emotions and the thing I'm experiencing while listening to it's cinematic. It's cinematic.

Yeah, it's like the antithesis. I feel like if you've ever worked in retail, you fucking hate it. You fucking, not in Maroon 5. No, no, but I also worked in an ice cream store. So like, that's a slow time. That's when you're just chill. Oh, Chris, this time it's slow time.

Yeah, yeah. I just screamed. It's cold. Yeah, you just chill and like make waffles. Yeah, I you working's the ice cream store. It's cold. Yeah. You just chill and like make a waffle go on. Yeah. You working at ice cream stores, maybe the most fitting job of a first-time entire life. I used to work at a fucking toy store.

It was KB Toys back there. That's where it went bankrupt. That's where it went bankrupt. Dude, that was the worst Christmas time. Yeah, I worked two Christmas' as a KB and my god, like... It was just the worst part of humanity. I worked at a Jimmy John's and Christmas was just kind of normal. Actually, no real difference, no big change.

They have that seasonal, like Thanksgiving turkey one, though. Did they not? I don't think so. Oh, okay. They might have, but not really. I think that might have been like a different sandwich place. We, um, we did have, uh, pumpkin spice Italian subs, which is when I would yeah, yeah, it's not real. Oh, yeah, it's when I would make it Italian sandwich and then

pour a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte over it. Um, like a, like a French dip. Oh, yeah, good. No, it tastes terrible. What's the broth of a friendship? Is it just beef broth? Yeah, it's beef broth. Hey, you know what I have for my salad dressing? Beef juice? Not, yeah, actually, kind of. No chicken juice. Chicken stock is like a salad dressing? Unaccident. That sounds healthy.

What do you mean on accident? So I went and got a salad. I didn't have much time for lunch the other day. I went to HEB and I walked and got a salad. But I pre, you know, they don't come with dressing. But I bought a thing of dressing to leave with the day. I went to HEB and I walked and got a salad. But I pre, you know, they don't come with dressing. But I bought a thing of dressing to leave with the office. I came, I came, walked all the way to stage four. I know dressing.

They cleaned out the fridge, including dressing. Yeah, they made a big deal about doing that too, by the way. Well, because a lot of people had been leaving food in there for months. Yes. Dressing? No, I'm just saying there's a lot of food in there. D in there for months. Yes. Dressing? No, I'm just saying there's a lot of food in there. Dressing? Oh, I'm sorry, I look at it.

I actually, you know what, I am on Chris's side. There's stuff like dressing, mustard, et cetera, like stuff that you just have in the fridge. Like condiments? Yeah. They should have touched checked the expiration dates, but I'm sorry. I think I know exactly what happened here,

but go on. Anyway, they cleaned it out and I was like,, all that stinks, but I wasn't like. That's why they threw it out. It's cause of fucking stank, dude. Yeah, it was just like, it was like some vinaigrettes, man. Those like never go bad. Anyway, so I was like, dang.

So then I was like, and I didn't have time to go back and get dressing. And so I was like, maybe there's something, stage two, there wasn't, but you know what, there was in stage two. Chicken stock. Well, I had some leftover, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, soup. No.

And I just poured the, the broth into the soup and I gave it a shake, shake, shake. Honestly, not bad. Chris, there's a reason they call it soup or salad. You're not allowed to do both. How was it? It, wasn't that bad? Because if it was refrigerated, it was refrigerated. That's not bad. Yeah. It's kind of like a healthy, like a chicken noodle. It was a ramen. Okay. Okay. Less, like not noodle ramen. Well, all noodle. Like ramen that you buy at a ramen place,

like out. Yeah, I get what you're saying. It's not like top ramen. ramen that you buy at a ramen place, like out. Yeah, I get what you're saying. It's not like top ramen. It's like ramen from a ramen spot. Yeah, so it was like good broth. I assumed, but hold on. I assumed that was the case. I think everyone assumed that was the case.

I think it would be weirder if you made ramen on a stove and then said, you know what? this 89 cents has to go in the fridge because I gotta eat this later. Okay, and it was pork ramen, they was chicken ramen, it was good. It was good. Did you put the noodles in there too or just the broth? I dumped everything.

There wasn't much noodles left. I kind of saved the broth for my own, I meant, like, do you guys save broth? Um, it depends. I typically, I was raised to finish my plate, so I very rarely take home leftovers. Well, so I, I eaten all, most of the noodles out of it is mostly just some broth, and I was like, two things.

One, I'm gonna go home and cook my own noodles in this broth. It's just like, it's like new ramen, you throw an egg in there, maybe some vegetables. Yeah. And then you save that broth, and then you do it again. Yes, yes, yes. It is infinite ramen. I've got kidding you.

I've, there's made ramen in like four times. How do you know more? Have you heard about this? There's like some places that they have like 120 year old soup because they just have this, they have a pot and it's the same broth and they've just been adding to it. As they take it out, they add more to it.

And it's just fine to eat. Apparently. Like it's been going on since like, I've been middle-aged. Yes. Check, come to my house. I don't want your, I got a different issue. I got a soup in there that's been in my fridge for 25 years.

I feel like there's a place in like Boston or something on the East Coast that they have one of these places. Japan definitely has a few of them, but it's just like they just constantly refresh and then they'll transfer it over and then they'll clean the pot. So like that's still clean, but like... Is it like tiered, do you think? Like because the different bottoms.

Like the bottom is all like, can you go in there and get me go like, uh, let me get some of that Reagan bra. They go, they go, they go, but what happens? They bring out the Reagan ladle. It's well-plated. Well, at that point, they put the pot up top and it trickles down.

Oh, yeah. So they have to knock it down. So sorry. That's great. That's good. That's good. Can I tell you guys about one of the dumbest things speaking of HB and chicken? I did an Instacart Order of the other day because I do this thing where when I record like cult podcast, the other show that I do, I'll like order. Page Wesley. Yeah, with page Wesley. I'll order groceries from InstaCart so that while I'm recording the grocery shopping

he's getting done and then I feel good about ordering it because then I'm getting two things done at once. What are we gonna do? Yeah. Yeah, it's fine. It makes me feel better, whatever. There's a meme online which is that dudes are the worst shoppers ever, because I think

dudes, even for themselves when they're not Instagram shoppers, are just fucking terrible. Yeah. That's what I hate grocery shopping. Yeah. A bad at it. I don't know. If I can't find something, I'd just replace it with the closest thing ever. Like, I was supposed to, when I was in New York, I was shopping with my partner and, well,

actually, my partner sent me shopping for dinner and I was supposed to get bell peppers I couldn't find them and I just got cayenne pepper like ground. Yeah. Yeah I failed I got everything else right anyway This is a similar version of it where Recently Andrew Rosas put me on to HB's rotisserie chicken the lemon lemon pepper, like rotisserie chicken. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Which is so good. It's so cheap, rotisserie chicken, great thing. Yeah. I ordered it. They didn't have it. They were sold out of rotisserie chickens. Do you want to guess? I was going to say, can we play a game with this?

What they want to guess? What they want to guess, what they replace the rotisserie chicken. I love when they do this, because it's always like, how did they end up here? I want to say that they gave you deli meat chicken, like the refrigerated rotisserie. Interesting. I bet they deli canned chicken. canned chicken, interesting. Blaine Gibson you are correct.

What they did was they went to the deli and made them slice turkey, not chicken, turkey. So I got a package of, I got two pounds. That's a lot of me. Are you kidding me? Telly turkey, no. So I guess what I'm asking here is, do you want some turkey? Cause I have so much fucking turkey. You wanna put that in your soup?

That would be good. It's true though. Anytime you find out that your Instacart guy is a guy, then it's like expect the most out of left field replacements for things that are missing. None of it makes sense. That's why it's like, I'll get any shopper I'm fine with and then you like it pops up and it's like,

Randy and you're like, oh fuck. God damn it, okay. Well I guess I'm going to HB again. Yeah. Fortunately we have one rip of the office so it's Okay. Well, I guess I'm going to HB again. Yeah. Fortunately, we have one rip of the office, so it's not the hardest, but man, I feel like during the holidays, once November hits, that place is like a madhouse.

Oh yeah. And I don't even like going over there. I was just talking with Sammy from BFT. I feel like I keep name dropping, but names that don't matter. Ah! Ah! Ah!

That's not on Sammy, that's everyone. That's a blanket insult. I was talking with Sammy about, Sammy likes going to malls, like to like public places to go hang out and shop. Just to hang out and shop. I hate shopping. I fucking hate shopping too.

It's the worst. I hate going to places where people are buying stuff. I feel like I get residual stress from them doing stuff. I hate trying on clothes. I also, I like it, but here's the thing. I've never, or since high school onward, I have not been able to buy clothing from like regular retail stores

because it needs to be tall. Everything I need needs to be tall size. Otherwise, it's just too short. So I can't go to malls because the shopping doesn't matter. I don't do that. I don't like any, I don't like buying things that aren't utilitarian.

Like I love clothing because I can wear it but like collectibles toys, et cetera. Not a really big fan of it. Music in books is different, but again, utilitarian, I can wear it, but like collectibles toys, et cetera, not a really big fan of it. Music in books is different, but again, utilitarian, I can use it. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like he doesn't have like technology from the 90s.

Yeah, no, that's cool. No, I know, I'm not criticizing that, but like, yeah, I'm utilitarian. Well, no, no, I collect like, I collect like cassette players and retro TVs and retro radiators. Like, you're your TV made the call sign for this podcast You know that right you tillitarian You tillitarian when at the beginning of this podcast when it's the the rooster teeth logo comes in on his like CRT

Andrew roses Made that in after effects really quickly and then went to your house and filmed it on your CRT TV Yeah, but on my C.R.T. and then did some funky house and filmed it on your CRT TV. Yeah, I put it on my CRT. And then did some funky editing with it. Now that's our call. Yeah, executive produced by Blingipson. Well, so, but I don't like, like, I don't like Funko Bops. I don't like that kind of shit.

Yeah. Like, I have action figures, but they were like when I bought them in Japan, because like, they had like cool action figures. Sure. But like, do you like collectibles that are actually well collect? I collect things that I wanted in my youth, but couldn't get.

I feel like everything that you collect has a story attached to it, rather than just wanting to collect things because you're a fan of XYZ. Yeah, yes and no. Because this watch is the watch that Arnold Warrz and Predator. So typically I have a reason behind it. I don't just write it

That's also utilitarian. That's what I'm saying I would say anything that you have that isn't utilitarian like all that other stuff and even like the CRT cameras the tape cassettes and stuff Like you make that part of your setup. You use it, you know, you incorporate it into what my office fucking rocks Like I just like I've always wanted like a cool little nerdy like cyberpunk man cave shit and it's I love my office. It's got like old tape shit everywhere. You don't you don't really have a lot of collectibles at home. I've been to your house.

A lot of flush lights. Yeah. You tell it to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I like I have a lot of like, it to me it's like stuff that I like. I mean have a ton of stuff on like little you're telling me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. I like, I have a lot of, like, do you mean it's like stuff that I like? I mean, I have a ton of stuff on, like, little toys and stuff. They're all just like,

we'll knick knack things that I think are cool. And I just, I have them on shelves and stuff. I have some, but I've never bought any. Does that make sense? Yeah, I've been gifted, yeah. Stuff that I, that I then will keep, but I very rarely will buy anything that is just for the sake of looking at it.

I hate like, Chachke's like shit, like not to disparage any brands, but like a like a loot sending thing where they send you like a Funko pop and some branded chopsticks or something. It's just like, I don't want any of this stuff and it's just now I'm just gonna pile up in my own eye. You said we junk.

You said we junk for the future. But also, that's to be like to piggyback what you were saying, that's just us. Like if you like it, the more power to you, 100%. Oh, 100%. Yeah, I have so much, I have endless amounts of vinyl and CDs and I like physical media. Yeah.

You probably have like a ton of movies I would wager. Pretty good amount of blue raising duties, yeah. Yeah. And like some VHS and cassettes. And you could make the argument that like that stuff's really stupid when you can stream everything. The reason we keep it is because like, you know, you never know when shit's gonna go obsolete.

Sony just released a thing where I think that they had, it was like an older streaming platform there's, and then they just said, hey, if you ever bought anything or rented anything, it's gone. It's just like, they have the right to do that because it's not physical media, and they at the front of when you buy this, they're like, oh, you're not owning it,

like we can take this away. Yeah. So physical media is important because it's like, you actually get it, you get to keep it. So it's also very strange to me that like even owning something on a blue ray, like eventually that blue ray is gonna fuck up and die, you know what I mean? Like eventually, because the internet connected blue ray ones

or like, I just mean like it's a physical item. Oh yeah, yeah. The blue ray will eventually cease to work. Probably not for a really long time, but it eventually will. I was listening to this really great video essay recently Jacob Geller, another name drop. Oh yeah.

Fuck is that? That's the fuck is that? That's the fuck is that? Anyone who watches YouTube on their lunch break is freaking out right now. Yeah. But there is this idea of like how do you save stuff like video games and shit, you know, when like you can, the majority of older games are stored on devices that break down like Game

Boy cartridges are known for just like once the battery dies out, your Pokemon's just fucking gone. Yeah. So like so many old games because we can't because it's sort of illegal to like port or emulate them into modern technologies. Some of that code and some of those games and other games too that like anything pre 2002 because the only way to play is with the physical media that requires different things like a PS2 or stuff like even like cassettes, you know, like you would have to keep your cassette player, keep it top notch, like able to work and then make sure that you're storing your cassettes properly so that you can have them. I just think it's interesting that like we keep this physical

media, but eventually, you know, it'll die out too. But it'll die out of the slower rate than if you have an I digital library. Yeah, then if you have it on Sony. White bit. Um, I actually have this, uh, thing, cause I have this the whole kick on retro stuff. K, uh, Griff always claims that I'm a time traveler and I just time traveled from the 80s and now I'm just enjoying all of the, whatever. Um, but there's this thing called a, uh, uh, analog pocket and it's basically like a

souped up game boy. And you can put on emulators and play like basically any game boy game from history on it. And I've been doing that because like, I do have a bunch of game boy games that I saved, but the batteries are all dead. And I don't know how to solder and stuff. So I'm just like, now I'm just gonna get this thing.

Oh really? Yeah. I can teach you. That's something I can actually teach you. Yeah. I would love to do that in welding. I welding, I don't know, but solderingering I had to learn when I worked at Lego. We had to really Lego.

You don't know. He's a master builder. Yeah, I was a master. I don't know what that means. So I my job was to build buildings and stuff out of Lego for like Lego lands across the world. Wow. Thank you.

Fucking with no. That was so disged. No, world. Wow. Thank you. Fucking with no. That was so disingenial. No, that was genuine. I think that seems like one of those jobs where it's like, why would you ever leave? But I'm sure there's some very valid reasons for why you left. I don't know the legality of whether or not,

like what I can mention. But what I can say is that what I think is very funny is that I worked for Lego land, not for Lego. I worked for Lego land, which is owned by a British company called Merlin Magic Making. I was a master model builder. I got the job purely because I think people who are really good with Lego are really bad at talking to people. And I was like decent at Lego and also had a pretty good portfolio as like an artist. And I am like this straight up, this isn't like an exaggeration. If I get an interview for a job, I'm getting that job.

I've never not interviewed and gotten a job offer. Oh, okay. I'm very personable and very likable. Yeah. In that setting, especially when I only have to be there for like 15 minutes, if you get 15 minutes with Armando Torres, you leave going like, I like that guy. That guy, he's okay with me. If you get like two years like Blaine got with Armando Torres, I'm like, I never want to go with that guy again. Did you have to like speed Lego? So yeah, and I sucked at it.

There was a when I went to the interview process, it was a group interview where they were like 30 people, right? And they asked you to build something that showed your personality. And this guy was like, oh, I'm gonna build the rocket that won me the Lego building competition of 2014 down in St. Louis. And I was like, that's when I graduated high school. Fuck. You know, like, I'm, he's building this rocket. Other people are building transformers.

The guy that's in the same like mini group within our group is like a 52 year old dude from Denmark with an engineering degree. And I'm just sitting here. I'm 19. I'm a little high right now going like, oh fuck, I may have, I may have been. I'm in your deep mouth.

You're building like I said. I built, I built a plate of spaghetti because that's what I found. I built a blue plate and then I found a bunch of the like the beige like strips of different lengths. And I put them down and then I built a, like, a thing of red and that. And the meatballs.

Yeah, and I just built that because I was like, fuck it, I'm not winning. I might as well get a laugh out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I was like, I built this playlist spaghetti because I'm like 80% spaghetti at any given time. I'm 5% a meatball by volume. And they loved it.

And the reason they told me they liked it is because like everyone builds something that like shows how impressive your building is. But it's actually more important to build something that like is fun or tells a story. Yeah. Yeah. Then it is to do any of that other stuff. They did say build something that shows your personality and you you delivered. You did and you didn't and your personality isn't the rock. It might be the rocket. My personality is this giant phallic thing. Hey, you know how you do it, man. That just what happens when you become a billionaire. You want to build a giant dick and go to the space. Yeah. Memorial. Yeah, so I worked there for a really long time.

My job eventually though, because I was such a slow builder. I'm not, I don't want you to think I was good at the job or anything. I was actually. Oh, I'm checking. I don't. Thank you. And so my job mostly became working with like,

I would do press stuff. I would go do the, like, make a wish stuff. And I would like, just kind of be one of the face people for building stuff. They probably needed that because they probably just didn't have any like camera trained folks that were like.

They had a few of them. The other thing that sucked is that like, people would get, okay, I understand why they would get mad, but like part of what would happen is they wanted it to seem like any master model builder was just synonymous with the job. So like if you were talking about something that was built by your office, you would have to in front of the public talk like you built the whole thing. So that it seems more magical to the children, right? But then people who actually work at the office feel like you're taking fucking credit for it.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so because it's, you know, these things are giant fucking monstrosities that are that take. Multi-person teams too, probably, right? Oh, person teams to probably like we built I just imagine the people at Lego office to steal taking credit for their mother sick kids they're staring through a window a Lego window at Armano saying so when I build the dinosaur head yeah and I would look I would turn and look at them in the eye

and go when I built that there's a, we built, and I, I'm still doing it because I actually really had very little to do with it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Katie, you said she's still doing it. I'm still taking credit for it. When we quote unquote, they, when they built the, the Burj Khalifa, which is, you know, the tallest building in the world, they were trying to, to build like the tallest Lego structure in the world is a replica of the Burj Khalifa.

One of my favorite little bits of information is that like, that's in Dubai. Like, we sent that to Dubai. It's a giant creature. Yeah, you built it. And then, like, took it apart. So we built it in sectors. Yeah, like, then you'll do anything. And then you install it, yeah, like, yeah, true. Like, it it apart. So we build it, build it in sectors. Do you, yeah, like, then you'll do anything.

And then you install it. Yeah, like, yeah, true. Like, it is building. So, so do you like glue on when you do it? Or you just add it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that they, it's not, it's not glue. It's actually a mixture of like this weird acidic solution

and the ABS plastic that the Legos are built out of. So kind of like like it molds it. Essentially, it's not glue. It melts enough of the Lego that when it dries, it just actually becomes one giant piece of Lego. And at the point, we see piper's on the one. But we also put like metal piping within it when we're installing it.

What a frame it. So there was a, I'm sorry, there is a rule that if a child can kick it, they will fucking destroy it. So we make those things as sturdy as humanly possible. There is like metal rebar and shit in there. We really like reinforce it towards the bottom. To hurt the child is much more possible than to try to kick. That is the job of the legged.

That's why they hurt to step on. So then once it's built, then those legoes, you can't like recover those, right? They're like stuck as that thing. They are stuck as that thing. And like sometimes while I was working there, we had to renovate the Southern California Legoland, the White House.

They actually took it out of the park and brought it in. And we had to like take parts. So you renovated the White House? Yeah. Yeah. That's what we get to tell your kids. And the cool thing brought it in and we had to like take parts to the lighthouse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, until your kids. And the cool thing about it is it's like a one-for-one recreation. So I actually know the escape routes like where Joe's got where by this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, any given time. Do like perfect shots. What's the scale that they build that?

I don't know. I don't know, but it's not one for one. That's kind of the fuck that thing. Well, yeah, obviously you didn't build the, like, whatever, the Burst Khalifa one for one. Yeah, one for one. If I didn't take a gift at all. I feel like 16 to one is a standard size.

That seems like right. That sounds about right. No, 16 to one would still be like the size of this room. The, the, the, the the person like the Lego people, the mini landers, as they call them, which is different than a mini figure, many figure is like the, the tiny Lego dudes, a mini lander is the one where it's like made out of multiple Lego pieces. And they're about this tall. So a person is this tall

versus however tall regular person is, if that makes sense, that's the scale, the scale. That's the scale the scale Okay, so that's like tall is that's not if they're this tall It's also that's like six inches the person the mini landers are actually bigger than the buildings Like if you that's one of the funky parts is like if you actually look at it the mini landers are too big for like the cars and the cars are too small for the buildings. And like it's all, it's like, you fuck around with it. That's like one to 12 then, one to 12 to one to 16.

Cause there's six inches and like say like an average person. It's not, but six foot then. I would say if one to 12, if the White House, if the building that we did, if it had started at this table, it was about this high. You should lower your hand down because that's a weird gesture that you, no, no, no, no.

Don't talk about the White House back. Joseph Biden. Yeah, it was a fun job, but I forgot how we got into this. I didn't know that such a job existed. I don't know, I fucking love LEGOs though. I'm getting back into them. Like, it's they have like the old people's sets.

Yeah, no, I beg you to because you're like, I just wanted everything I could have as a kid. And you're like, here's my LEGO. Well, it sucks though, cause like, once I build, I just wanna build it. I don't wanna display it. I don't wanna house-filled a LEGO shit. I have friends that have that and that's fine.

That's just like not my aesthetic. So I just like, I break them apart and I throw them in a closet. That's what I mean my partner we're talking about is like, we want to build the Lego. But after that, yeah, I don't want it anymore. I don't want it. I might just start being the cool uncle

and just giving it to my niece and nephew. Yeah, why don't you do that? I don't even go fuck. Like I did. All of my childhood legos are with my niece and nephew. Oh, okay. So like, and I'm starting from scratch and eventually it's gonna get critical mass,

I'm gonna need to move, and then I'm just gonna be like, get the fuck, get, get, here's some Legos kids, you know, like, I don't know. I actually, this is a pretty good segue into some of the stuff that I wanted to talk about. Speaking of like, you want to talk about Legos? Using your creativity and mixing it with your childhood,

you both just made a show about puppets. That's right. With puppets, our puppets. Entirely of puppets. Yeah, I both just made a show about puppets. That's right. With puppets. Or entirely of puppets. Yeah. I guess it's technically not about puppets. It's about the adventures of a Dungeons and Dragons crew as they sort of traverse the strange world

and it's brought to life through puppets. Incomplete together, we don't even really call attention to the fact that they are puppets. Not even once. No, in their world they're just people. They just are people. They just are people. They just are people.

I will say that there was a funny story where Chris and I were like sitting down to work through an episode one day and- When we were writing it. Yeah, and you brought up a video from your childhood and then I went into my closet and I fished out a VHS. We both used to make videos basically what we're doing now, but like with action figures and stuff. To the same scale, just not as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Chris was using the fucking Unity 1 to like make the background work. That's actually a reference to the fact that you guys were using some of the like Mandalorian techniques of like having the background be like video games. Yeah, we even got like unreal engine like we go in and legit with it because before we were using like just stock images and something throw up on the screen but like we actually like made digital settings and environments and then extended them into physical sets and built the sets to match the digital ones that blend it because you can't yeah some some a lot of our sets are like entirely built,

but a lot of them, yeah, you can't build all the skies. Sure. And so like, yeah, like our main village in the show is, yeah, we found an unreal environment and then had the houses built to match that environment so that it blended very quickly. Originally, we were thinking about doing Lego, but.

But you couldn't make it to one 16th. No, you just wouldn't work. I guess let's start at the beginning. So in case you're unfamiliar, I don't know how you are as an audience viewer, but you both work on a show, a D&D Real Play podcast called Tales from the Stinky Dragon, right? You're wearing a shirt of it right now.

And you are wearing venture brothers? Yeah, it's a Warner property. I thought about that this morning when I was gonna wear it. It is a Warner property. I wanna support venture brothers. But more than my puppet show. Oh, come down. Zaz loves not watching anymore.

It's fine. He canceled it, so. What? And we're right behind it. So yeah, y'all made this, this, this, this real play, D&D podcast where you, it's you, you, Barbara and John Reisinger are the players and Gus is the DM. That's all. Yeah. And then the story is written with, or by Micah Rysinger, right?

And then DM'd by Gus. And then Micah sort of makes the entire score and like sort of the, what you call it, the fully work and makes it feel like a real audio drama. Sort of. Yeah. And then there's a lot of the NPCs that are really voiced by Gus are then re-recorded with actual voice actors like you. Like myself, yeah. Those are all people that we brought back to the show too.

That is true. So, your character doesn't make an appearance, but we give you a different character. You did do that. Does my, the big character that I voiced well, isn't in the show yet? Not yet. So to kind of like, the podcast is, you know, it's over 100 hours, right?

That storyline. And we were, we initially made videos with the puppets, like little just snippets, one minute, like kind of essentially animated best of clips, but using puppets. Sure. And after those did, well, the most common comment is, man, I wish I could watch the whole podcast like this. And I was like, that was like a top comment all the time.

Man, where can I watch the whole show? That's not possible. It's not possible. First, you go one to one adaptation. We'd still be on episode one right now. Yeah. It's that were the case. But we were like, well, we could adapt this story in the same way that a movie or a show is based off

of a book or something. And so we took the characters in the world and then made it in a new series with new story line. I mean, it's using the same characters in the same kind of plot point, but we basically, it's using the same characters and the same kind of plot point, but we basically it's an adaptation. Yeah, we call it sticky dragon adventures because they're off on different adventures. Sure. I actually really like that. One of the things that I wanted sort of praise you guys for is that the show itself stinc- tails from the stinky dragon has always

sort of been more focused on being a show than other sort of real play podcasts that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this,

I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing this, I think that the way that I've been doing not that it's necessarily a novel or completely unique thing to your show. Not even to our like us because we did good morning from hell. Exactly. Like that whole entire premise. Yeah, but it sort of, I don't know, it elevates it to a new level where it does feel like, I guess it feels like what it, listening to your show feels like what D&D feels like when I'm playing it with my friends. Like in my head, the imagination, like, yeah, that character, sure, my DM can't do a fucking

Scottish accent to save his fucking life, but in my head, he's fucking nailing it, you know? So like I really applaud that your show really goes above and beyond. And then, this show is such a fun, creative way to do it. Like, I guess, doing it with puppets instead of just doing it, because you also do an animated version of the show. Tails from the CD Dragon animated, right? Yeah, because we were like, at one point, we were going to divide and conquer and be like,

okay, we'll do puppets and the other person does animated and then we'll just kinda off and on do that. And then puppets just took off and we were having so much fun puppets where we're just like, we'll just do puppets. So then we're gonna have to make the full show. We're like, well, in the meantime, we still wanna release content.

So let's do some animated stuff. So our animation team started doing those and we're like, yeah, puppets, this is great. The animation started like doubling the views that our puppet videos were. And I was like, shit, maybe we should have done it a little time. It looks stressed out. But yeah, our animated stuff is awesome. And that's all our animation team.

They do like RTA and stuff. Oh, yeah. They do an incredible job of, I mean, I just, we got done, you know, making new episode, or we are in the process, I should say, of making more episodes of Camp Camp right now, which is a show that I got to work on, and I actually got to see an episode that I helped write on be animated.

Like I saw it go from an animatic to, you know, like early animation, and then recently, I was talking with Ariel, again, another name drop. And watching the episode, the first one that means anything now. animation and then recently I was talking with Ariel again another name drop and watching the episode the first one that means anything though. Watching the episode fully come to life and be like really a great animated project. I don't know. It's just so watching those people work is incredible. Yeah. It's awesome. They're very good at what they do. So why puppets for for Tales from the Seeky Dragon?

I mean, it doesn't really have anything to do with the end of the... Technically they aren't puppets. Yeah, they were... So, I mean, the story happened at all. You know, John and Micah or brothers, both work on the show. And their mom, Patty, yeah, Patty for fun.

And just like, you know, to support yeah, Patty, for fun, and just like, to support them, made dolls of the characters. So the whole family's a bunch of fucking nerds. Yeah, interesting. And then, sent them to us, and they was like, oh, these are awesome.

Well, she started with Mud's doll, or John's doll, which is mud, and he's on the far left. And then she was like, well, I just might as well make the whole crew, and then yes, she sent them as gifts. So we all. And then yes, she's sent to him as gifts. So we all got him in the office and Gus as well. And it was like, that was cool.

And then I think we were talking about ways to promote the show and get it out there. Because it was one of the things we knew the show was like really good. But it's just like getting it discovered was always is always the challenge. Oh, yeah. And and We had those dolls. I think it was Barbara who who was a fan of like Potter Puppets. Puppet, Puppet Pal, yeah, Potter Pals. Puppet Pal, yeah, and then Mention like oh, we should do like we do like that. Well, she started she made one and then she hated it She she like made like there was like a curtain and everything and she tried puppeting it and it was very like minimalist like no set builds, no fancy camera work and

she's like, I fucking hate this. But then, I mean, playing with our film degrees, we're gonna, we're gonna plus this stuff, we're gonna make these kids stars. And, you know, we just shot it like a movie. We started shooting them like, like, you know, as cinematically as possible. And, and, and, and, doing, adapting into the, a full show, we like, up to even more. Oh yeah.

Like, we were like, well, we got to make it good. It's weird how it went full circle too, because the team that works on RTAAA did the animations because the puppet videos were doing so well and we could do that stuff. But back when I was in intern, I made a puppet video with bobble heads that we were selling in the store. And like, I was like, Brian and you and Brian and we're like, we need to sell bobble heads. Can you come up with a way to like make a video for these dumbass intern?

And I was like, okay, sure. So I made an RTAAA, but with puppets. And then now it's like going full circle, they're making, I don't know, anyways, I thought that was like animated okay, sure. So I made an RTAA, but with puppets, and then now it's like going full circle, they're making anime, I don't know. Anyways, I thought that was like animated out of the puppets. Yeah, kinda, I don't know. It was like a weird, how it started that way. But I think that what's fun about it to me is,

I, from a just like storytelling, it's like you can kind of tell whatever story you want because it's also such a small scale and you can make it as big an epic as you want. And it's writing-wide you can kind of do whatever. Yeah, well within some, but like you're a lot more freedom than you might just if you're gonna shoot a lot of action. Yeah, but you can't say like, oh, this character does like a fistfight takes place because the fist fights them just going, no, but a fist fight. We've done fist fights.

It's I think that there's let's just say that there's an element of we have to think about how the puppets can be puppeted when we're writing a scene. Like I think that there's like limitations in the way that we physically portray some of the action. But yeah. I think it's interesting, yeah, that like you said, because one of the key components of D&D is a game is the combat, you know, and you really can't do combat, combat can't be the central focus of your show, or it can, it just has to be interesting

the way that you display it. It's the first episode, it's the first episode. It's very good. Well, the first episode, half that there was a good like four, five minute combat acting sequence. Yeah, but that took forever to film and shoot and that it like you couldn't do all of it like that. And it was very, had to be very like kind of, it was just hard to challenge it. Right. It was funny though, because once you release that episode, I think so one of the comments was like, I like how they treated this as if it was a combat situation in D&D because each character has their own individual like turn and I was like That's the way that has to go. Yeah, yeah, well that's so I mean that's really cool and all it does kind of shut down my idea for

Puppet Jason Bourne I really want wanna see that. Yeah. This episode of RTP is brought to you by Rooster Chief. First, it's not a question, it's the answer. See, this weird RTP really, really benefit from you supporting us at first. So we can be little stinkers. We can be little rascals, rap scallions.

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Learn more at Canada.ca slash childhood vaccines. A message from the government of Canada. When you were making the show, the puppet show obviously, do you feel like you had to, because the tales from the stinky dragon itself is not necessarily like a super explicit adult oriented show all the time. I feel like there's some adult jokes within it, but you're not seeing fuck every other word. No, not like this show. Yeah, I think it's like,

to me, it's like you can make it some, we keep it family friendly, you know? Is this the podcast or the podcast? Oh, yeah. But it's like, there'll be jokes that to my head, like even as like washing stuff as a kid that would come like cartoons and stuff, there'd be adult jokes in those that you didn't realize as a kid that was like for adults,

but you just didn't, as long as it's not explicit, if it's like subtext, then it's like, oh, okay, a kid could watch this and not know that they were missing a joke, but the adult would, they'd catch you up, but they wouldn't feel like they're exposing their child to something gross. Yeah, it's not like explicit.

We take pride in the fact that our stinky dragon, tailstone stinky dragon and stinky dragon adventures are enjoyed by families, and we get that little comment often where it's like people are like, oh, we loved this episode of Shoot To My Kids and stuff like that. I think that that's really fun that you can watch this with, you know, younger generations and stuff.

But for me, whenever we started doing tails from a stinky dragon, there was a couple of like cuss words that got slipped into like one or two episodes. We've got, since gone back and I think like taking those out. But there was a comment from this dad who's pissed and he's like, bro, I wanted to listen to the show with my kid and you keep dropping F-bombs. Like what the fuck dude? And I was like, that's truck a quarter with me and I felt so bad. So from then on, I was like, I just don't want to cuss.

I mean, there's, I don't know. And anytime anyone brings that up, I'm reminded of a story that, no, the name top, Chad James told me about watching Genlock with his kids, and then doing season two and being like, well, you can't do that. You can't watch Daddy's cartoon anymore because Daddy's penis shows. Well, the kids seen that.

You know, no, I'm just know, you're like a kid. You know, what? Not like it didn't have to be, you know, like dads will shower with their little kid, you know, like in like what? Living past that. You're making it or it's for yourself. I understand what you're saying. You understand what you're saying. Like you're a kid, you know, like, yeah, I do at you're saying. You understand what I'm saying, like we're a kid, you know, like, yeah. I do at a certain point. Blame is turning down his his head phone. I'm dying right now.

I do remember, sorry, this is a quick aside. You see your dad. Do you remember your dad's car? No, no, shut up. We're moving past that. I do remember when Chad left that recording, he was white in the face. And I was like, how did it go? Because we were super stoked because we both had very minor characters and we were

promised bigger parts since season two. And he told me, I don't like, he had his dick out. He had his sex scene. He had to record sex noises. He's like, I had to. Well, you had a similar situation you were told me about. What do you mean? When you had to record sex scene with sensual noises, oh, I sent you a kissing scene with someone named Chris.

And Chris, you've had sex before, right? Yeah. Yeah. And when you're having sex, sometimes you like, you have to, you know, you have to mone your partner's name. So that means that Blaine Gibson had to mone his best friends. There's, I don't know if you watched season two, but there's a moment where the,

my character's boyfriend is named Chris. And Chris is in danger, moral danger. And I go, Chris! I remember reading that as like someone's fucking with me. Oh my God. At least you kept your penis in your pants. Yeah, yeah, I'm like, I recently was having a conversation with my partner about how a lot of the art that I enjoy is really dark and upsetting. I like things that are really upsetting. I don't know if you guys have

been watching the curse Nathan Fielders new scripted show. No, but I want to. I love Nathan to learn. So this show felt like it was made for me. And I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way. But it's created and written by Benny Safty, half of the Safty brothers who created uncut gems. They make some dark shit.

Yeah, they make really upsetting shit. And then the other half is Nathan Fielder, who also makes really dark and upsetting shit. Yeah, they make really upsetting shit And then the other half is Nathan Fielder who also makes really dark and upsetting shit Like most recently the rehearsal which a lot of people were like does this cross the fucking super divisive and I felt like it did Disagree with it, but only because I Doesn't matter point is is that like the curse is a scripted show in Instead of being Nathan Fieler's classic unscripted in this of it. But it is a meta absurdist take on white savior complexes, especially pertaining to like

reality TV shows. And like the need that people have to sort of like help the community and the way that it does that is by emphasizing the cringiness of all of this stuff by sort of all of the humor of that show comes through the cringiness. And it is filmed in a way that is extremely voyeuristic. Like when you're watching the show, it feels like you're tailing somebody. It feels like you're, yeah, there's like a couple times where it feels like the camera's in a van across the street super zoomed in.

There's a shot in the pilot where you're watching somebody through like a people of a door. Like it feels gross. And also, there's multiple moments where the scenes feel like they should end. Like you're almost praying. Like please cut to the next scenes, keep going.

And a character will go, and another thing, and then dig the fucking hole deeper. I love that show. I have to be in the right headspace for it. There's been a couple times where I've started an episode and go, actually I have too much anxiety from the real world to actually enjoy this right now, so I have to press fucking pause.

I like stuff that hurts to watch. My mother called Uncut Gems the best movie that she never wants to see again. It felt like a two hour long panic attack. And I loved it. I loved every second of it. I felt completely engaged and there in the moment the whole time. I love art that is hard to love because I think those moments are just, I think when you're in fight or flight, when you're in panic, there's something so like truly human. Does that make sense? So like, I love art that hurts. And a lot of other people really like things that are fun, you know? like, I remember my grandmother was like, why would I pay, why would I go see uncut gems? Why would I pay $23 to be upset? And I said like, okay, well, sometimes art is upsetting.

Maybe you just go back to watching 30 Rock for the fifth time in a row. My grandmother did not like that. But to be honest, like people like that kind of stuff, people like like fun stuff. And I think it's really interesting that like, I have a hard time finding things that aren't troubling, upsetting, super emphasis on dramatic. I have a hard time feeling like they're like very art art, you know what I mean? But I watch your show, and watch you guys make this show, which is essentially a puppet family show

about a D&D podcast, and I go, this is fucking art, this is incredible. And so I guess one of my questions to you guys is this, how do you feel about sort of taking such a silly goofy premise, especially one that started with like TikToks and like turning it into what I would truly call like sort of elevated art? Like you made a show. I think like we both approached it in a way that we're treating the characters very seriously.

And I think that that's something that we've done with the show as a whole. It's like you had these ridiculously cute silly looking puppets, but we want to make them like human and have like real stories. So like each episode, there's four episodes of season that all are character based and they're like explorations into a person's past and like the traumas that they've gone through and just like, you know, like a lot of soul searching and stuff like that. And they're like really dramatic episodes that I think people don't expect. But I think that's way more fun than just like silly goofy adventure. Like, yeah, I mean, I think there's so much comedy

to be in mind from drawing. Yeah, you know, like, and if you don't have any, then it's like, then, I mean, you can, something can be funny, but it's like, you get a lot, you can get a lot more out of something that you're also like, ooh, wow, they're sure. That kind of hurts a lot. I guess what I'm gonna say, yeah.

I mean, like the episode that, of hurts a lot. I guess I would say, yeah. I mean, well, like the episode that you're, you have a big part in the episode that actually just came out. If this is Christmas, they just came out. We can't prior episode seven. The, um, it's the kind of word. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Uh, which actually is really funny that you mentioned.

So Andrew Rosas constantly says that the that I think in our Mando's world the funniest thing is tragedy. And I think that's true. When we used to make our our sketches at the beginning of the episodes, you can tell when something was written by me because it would involve a character that was basically pushed to the farthest turmoil. Yeah. Like about to either either like, they have to kill or they are going to be killed. It is upsetting, it's awful. I think that's so funny.

And the Kaiborg episode, or the character that I played, the big part is like there's a, you know, like a death scene in it, or maybe not like a death scene necessarily, but like a really touching dramatic scene where like somebody desi necessarily, but like a really touching dramatic scene where like somebody is feeling something, blame and you actually you both were there when I was recording it, I couldn't stop laughing every time I would deliver this really heartbreaking heart-wrenching line of like, I give myself the answer. There is something funny and tragic.

Well, I mean, you're also, you're doing a silly voice. You know what this is going to ultimately look like. Sure, but I mean, that's the silly voice while dying is what makes that so funny. It is the economy of the split of like, this is one, if you take this at face value, this is a person going out and sacrificing themselves and doing this thing, the ultimate sacrifice,

and then their voice is like, I hope you always show that for me. I don't know. I mean, my goal is to make some people cry. Sure. I've actually teared up a couple of times while reviewing seven and other elements of the other episodes where I'm like, man, this is touching stuff. It's really fun.

But like, I mean, there's an episode before that's based on Flour for Aldro. Yeah, yeah. It's like, oh. There's a whole little monologue that gum, he's like the silliest dumbest character in the show and he gives like the most serious monologue. It's like very like existential

and you're like, oh Jesus Christ. I didn't expect this from a puppet show. I mean, that's what I mean about it where like very existential when you're like, oh, Jesus Christ. I didn't expect this from a puppet show. I mean, that's what I mean about it where it is a puppet show. It is goofy, it is extremely silly. But you guys aren't afraid to make people, as stupid as the sounds, feel something. And I know that sounds like I'm being facetious. Like you did earlier with your wow.

I'm like, Lego job gonna let go of that. But I genuinely mean it. Like it's, you know, your basing stuff of a flowers for out-you-not for Fox six. Yeah, I have a firm belief that like, I appreciate when people consider my time when I'm consuming content or watching something. And I wanna be considered of people's time

when they're watching our stuff. So like, I to take this seriously. And I want to make this look good and elevated and stuff like that. Even though it's a silly puppet show, it's basically a live action cartoon. It's my goal is to make it look like, yeah, we're not goofing around, we're not here to waste your time.

We don't want to tell you a touching, cool story. Sure. I mean, recently, we had Jeff Ramsey on the podcast to talk about. Is that a name drop? It is. It would have been in 2006, but Jeff Ramsey on, you can laugh at that.

We had Jeff on, who, you know, Jeff really likes making podcasts, and I think he's good at it. Jeff said that in a perfect world, he would be the new Howard Stern, which I feel like makes the most sense. Yeah. He's very, having a conversation with him is really good. It flows really well.

He's got a lot of insights and stories. You know, you don't look like that without picking up a few interesting life stories. Like Howard Stern or Jeff. But I had mentioned it in that episode of like, I have no real interest in fully making podcasts like Forever. I think the podcast medium is an interesting one. But what I really love about, like we talked about earlier, like Meta Absurdism, But what I really love about, like we talked about earlier, like Meta absurdism, is one of the techniques that Nathan Fielder uses when he's making shows is understanding the rules of the show that the show format that he's making and flipping those around and turning them on a tat, where like first project from you to bullies

that I ever listened to or was a part of or was made aware of was good morning from Hell, which was essentially an interview podcast, but one that took a strange approach where you were playing a man sent to Hell and your punishment was to create a podcast where you would interview every person in hell. Every guest that you had on would then take on

the role of a character, and you would never drop the bit, you know, it was. Yeah, it was interviewing these people as if they were truly those people. And I think the interesting part of an interview podcast is that you get to learn about something. But you forego that and what you get instead is this incredible like piece of improv and comedy

where everyone's playing a bit, everyone's playing a character. You're still using the rules and the format of what the thing that you're, you know, parodying, but you forego its intended purpose for making comedy. And I always thought, I don't know. It's always really neat to see what you boys do because you take formats and play with them.

And I think that's really interesting. Yeah, I'm gonna get more from hell. You're a real machine. Yeah, yeah. That was like all pandemic. That was like our project that we weren't done. I wish it hadn't. I do wish we'd done more in person

because it's so fun to record. I wish we could have done more live stuff because we had an RTX panel where it was Sunday church service but it was for good morning from Hellsweatherthing. Again, it was like flip on its head. I remember the gospel portion we made, we made everyone sing highway to Hell. Yeah.

But like, yeah, that was such a fun show and that was where we met a ton of people like you in page and like we made so many connections through that show. Such a blast man. But yeah no like good morning from hell is a lot of fun but I think that we're both having a lot of fun on. Sure. Do you ever think about like what's next? After this? Yeah I mean mean, I'm, I, you know, I think you always gotta be working on something new, right? I, I guess I'm, you know, you're, you mentioned like podcasting versus like you don't consider yourself, oh, I'm a podcaster of her life. I just consider it's more like storytelling, right? And it can do whatever format and medium that it, that the opportunity allows.

Sure. And I like to, in an environment where you can't have an infinite budget and you're just trying to, if you just want to get something made, I always look at like, what do I have available to me and what can I do with that? That's kind of, so to me it's like, oh, good morning from from hell that came out of

well I want to I want to tell like bigger story like larger than life stories and it's like well I can do that on a podcast. Yeah because you don't have the burden of the you know the visual. Yeah you can just do whatever as long as you have a talented audio format editor. And again, like that, we made those into like, like the last like three episodes of that are like, like there's like a fight and a bunch of other stuff, like a war and like we like made it a full movie. And play like who worked so hard on that edit

to make it sound like they're in the middle of a battlefield and stuff. And it was just like, it was like, yeah, it's the pandemic, we couldn't go and film anything. So we're just like, let's just, if you close your eyes, this sounds like you're in the middle of a movie. Sure. Yeah.

We took a lot of inspiration from you both when we started doing the podcast. You know, when we took over our T.P. we were told that we should make it into its own thing and that we were like supposed to be spearheading this change in the way that the company was making stuff. We pitched a bunch of shows. I mean, you boys too were in, for brief amount of time,

we're in a pro-Dev with us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we were pitching out all those shows, unfortunately, we were told that every show that we pitched would be really good as a podcast segment, so we should just do that. But yeah, we took this show that, you know, to be completely candid at a certain point,

you know, people just want to stop doing. Like, I think that what happened with RTP is a lot of people ran out of stories to tell, ran out of things to do. And they wanted it to, you know, sort of have a refresh or allow itself to be taken over by new blood, so that old blood could go live and then come back and tell new stories about this stuff.

But what we wanted to do is we wanted to make a whole new show thinking that one of the issues with shows like RTP is that the RTP is one of the longest running podcasts I think ever, right? Yeah. It's insane how fucking long it is. But you have this thing where like when it started, it was, hey, come hang out with the guys who made red versus blue.

And then it became like, hey, come hang out with the crew of Rooster Teeth, the people that make your favorite stuff. But now, in the way that podcasts work, you can't really do that because one, who the fuck are we, you know? And then two. Well, you've been named dropping some pretty big names. Yeah, yeah, yeah, internally. Yeah.

But if you, you know, if you don't know who the three of us are, then we have to create a show that appeals to you from an outside perspective. So we took that idea and sort of ran with it, incorporating these different shows that we wanted to make incorporating these different sketches that we wanted to make. And then slowly got them stripped away as,

the company decides, this isn't working, we'll do this, we'll move this over there. I don't know. We have always tried to use what we have at our availability to make this stuff. When we made the show, we did the first cold open. It was a rip off parody of Goodfellas, which is something that I had always wanted to do. It was just funny, because opening my thick goodfellas is like, as long as I've always wanted to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game.

I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game.

I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm not going to be a game. I'm. You guys filmed a sketch. That's awesome. We can do that every so often. Then we did that every week week. Um, they were good sketches. They were. The Blade Runner one is one of my favorites. And I like learned, I don't know. That was so fucking hard learning. I learned after effects for that sketch to put in the fucking Blade Runner eyes. A detail for no. I appreciate it. I know, and I appreciate that. I just, you know, it's really funny when you do like, there's so many little things in that sketch where like I spent an hour making a realistic cracked screen for a joke.

It's a visual joke that applies to no, the bit being, we did the Void Compt test, but we called it the Vato Comptant Test to tell if Andrew was Mexican or not. Because he is Mexican, but he's white. And so that was the bit. And there's so many little dog whistles where like he drives a 98 Honda.

He has a cracked iPhone 3. He's dating a girl with a septic, like there's all these little things. And so like I spent an hour photoshopping a realistic cracked iPhone screen picture so that he could put it on his phone and it could be seen again a Visual bit for half a second. It's all you get going going back to what I was saying though It's like you take something deadly serious and you put a ton of effort into it and like that quality shines through and I think that people appreciate that like yeah, like

Again puppets. We're spending hours on one stupid shot where something dumb happens. Like, there's value in that. I think that that's all right. I think watching what you guys do inspires me to try to make better stuff because I see what you're, well, shit the fuck up, both of you. I see what you do in like what you're able to,

I see what you're given and what you're able to, I see what you're given and what you're able to make out of what you're given and what you use is you use every piece of the animal to, you know, every part of the budget. You are fucking scraping pennies from the bottom of the jar. You're putting ramen in from five days ago. You got 120-year-old cartoon TikTok. And yeah, it's, but you're using your like incredible skill

and power of both storytelling and like know how of how to like make compelling stuff. Yeah. And it's just so fun to watch. I mean, the show is so fun to listen to. Because like I said, it takes itself so seriously. But in a way that isn't dumb or stupid. In a way that you roll your eyes at it

because you're like, okay, all right, let's chill out. It's both completely self-aware of what it is. It's a fucking puppet show for D&D. But within that, it is, I don't know. It's very similar to the show's like a adventure time. That was, when I, like, I was like, I was like, I came to play and I was like, hey, I think we should adapt it.

And I think it should be like this format. Before we even were writing Chris invited me over his place and he was like, let's just watch cartoons. And like we watch adventure times. Yeah, we were like, hey, let's watch the kind of shows that we want to make this. Like, yeah. I feel like adventure time is such a great,

yeah, it's such a good comparison because it's a show that starts off completely funny, goofy, childish, et cetera. It's a a great, yeah, it's such a good comparison because it's a show that starts off completely. Funny, goofy, childish, et cetera. It's a cartoon's cartoon. And then the more you watch it, the more you realize that all these pieces fit together. And also the fact that like, have you both ever read the show bible, like from before they started

making episodes? For a venture time? Yeah, no, no. I'll send it to you if you want. It's highly regarded as one of the best showbibles because you can see that from the very beginning, all of this stuff was planned. Yeah.

You can see parts of it that make sense. One of my favorite parts is the Lich King. Because he got me into adventure time, I'm in the thick of season four right now. Please do not spoil anything. Because I love that show so much. Do you know who the liches are? Yeah, I know who the liches are.

Okay, this is not a spoiler at all. Okay. But the show Bible is colorful, it's bright, it's like reading a children's book, it's really fun. And then you turn the page and the lich king, it's a white page. It is scribbled on, it looks like somebody drew the list. And in a mad fervor. Like it's so upsetting. It has no color. And

it just the first words on it is the Lich King is not fun. The Lich King is not funny, goofy. There's nothing good about it. It is death incarnate. It is inevitable. It will happen. It cannot be stopped. That's fucking it. It's the whole rest of the book is such a fun, colorful thing. And you have one page where it goes, death is inevitable and it will happen to you and everyone you love and there's nothing

that you can do to stop it. Best you can do is delay it, but eventually it will come for you and everyone you know. And then you turn the page and it's like, print it out of the game. Oh, I think that's such like, I don't know, I think it's fucking awesome. Yeah.

It's incredible. And it shows the fourth thought that goes into shows like. We watched a lot of adventure time. We watched regular show, which is like, yeah, Mordekin rigged me. I fucking love this. Ginger Quintel, it's shit. He loved his style. And then Steven Universe is another big inspiration as well.

Yeah. Steven Universe is one of those shows where it's like, oh, this is fun. It's a team of like power ranger type people that are based off of these magical gyms, and then you get into a shit where it's like parents and interpersonal relationships and friendships starting into relationships and it's just like, oh my god, this show's so heavy.

Like that show made me cry. Yeah. It messed me up. So I think it's an incredible show. I remember God speaking of D&D shows, when I worked at Fun House, I helped launch a show called Must Be Dice that was supposed to be a, you know,

a like one-off season mini series. Basically, the idea was to do, actually, what's really funny is Chris and I independently came up with the same idea of doing something that I won't say in case we want to keep making it. Yeah, but I pitched I was like, hey, I'm not a what do we think of this this pitch this idea that have and you're like, are you messing with me? Yeah, I was like, what are you talking about? I was like, I pitched that I pitched pitched almost the exact same like a year ago. Well, that's that means you guys got a collaborator.

Yeah, that's what we said. Yeah. But yeah, I had come up with an idea that tied the seasons together, but it didn't, you know, I was told that it was too grandiose, too much of an idea that maybe couldn't be pulled off. I remember a couple of years ago, I went to, when I was at Funhouse, I went to Omar, and I said, I wanna do a three-part,

horror, Halloween-themed, like, tabletop game. And I pitched an idea where it was like three different stories that were sort of connected, but took place over different generations of time. And then the Fear Street fucking Goosebumps movie came out on Netflix that year, and I went, can you never mind actually? That is the worst when you see something like that happen. Yeah. I've got three ideas cooking the back of my mind for like movies that I want to make. And every time I see a trailer where it's like, you know, it's group of teens use this

magical thing. Fuck. Like I was, I could have written that two years ago and I didn't and then now someone else made it. It feels so fucking stupid. So I switched it. When I used to, I was like in this program with Nickelodeon, like learning how to do cartoon stuff. And I had written a concept that I liked so much

that I actually scrapped it from turning it into like the Nick people so that I pitched something completely different because I was like, this is actually a really good. You just wanna just bake on that a little bit. Yeah, I don't want them to have it. Also, I think it's a little more adult. And so I had written the show, which

the easiest way to explain it is like, stranger things, animated stranger things in the 90s. It was like the easiest way to explain it. It was very different, though. It didn't have the same plot structure, whatever. And I did an episode that I wrote from that as the three part thing. We did a, we used a system called Dread, which I really liked, which is instead of rolling dice, you have a giant, a giant jenga tower.

And every time you have to do something, you, that your character wouldn't just normally be able to do. Or if you're doing it under pressure, you have to pull up Jenga block. That's great. And like if it's extra bad, you have to pull like two jenga blocks and you went you know When you tell people this like when I told fun house they went okay. Yeah, Jenga sure like that's okay Whatever, but then you get into it and you're like I have to jump over a branch this tower is about to fall Fuck and if the tower falls your character just dies. That's the end of your care

I think that's a brilliant because it's like it's a dice roll, you know, how many times have you made a dice roll? I was like, this is something I'm perfectly competent at. And then your dice roll fails and you're like, I guess I also like any one anytime you can always fail at something. I think it's like that. It's like that, that chance, like you need those stakes. You can't never be so good that you can't fit. Totally, and I understand that. And valid, but I also feel like the jinga thing is like there's like, it takes physical skill and there is something more involved. Like you're more in touch with that process.

Sure. It would be just a dice. There's also like, within it, you're supposed to list things that your character would be both proficient and at like advanced that. And I'm supposed to, as the take that into like consideration. So like if your character would be good at this thing, I actually don't need you to roll. It's not like, oh, you do something with advantage. I go, yeah, you would, yeah,

yeah, you do. You do that. Wouldn't. And I don't know. I think it's so tense because there's a visual like, oh fuck, this is getting worse. And so like, I did that. It was really fun. And then I did must be dice the show that like expanded on the universe and did other stuff and was actually based on the show itself. But I changed things to do stuff. Anyway, making that show is so fun because it was a show that we made with story in mind. You know, like comedy was always going to be a part of it because it's fun house and those people are unbelievably funny. Yeah, funny people, yeah. But the story elements of it were always the part that I cared the most about.

And I don't know, I think there's something so great about like, I watched so much ex files. I watched so much ex files. I watch so much like horror movies I Rewatched both versions of it because it has like a huge sort of similarities in it Tim Curry one as well. Yeah, it was like made for TV, right? Yeah, it was a mini-series. Yeah Which I think is great. I love that. Yeah, so much Anyway, yeah, I think there's something like my favorite part of working on any project is the intake section in like before pre-production when you're watching everything

that's ever been done within the same genre or vibe as your show. That's like your base of the mountain looking up at the peak and how much work you have ahead of you. But it is also one of the things where like the sky's the limit and like there are so many things. Yeah, you haven't. There's all these unadulterated ideas. Some of these unfiltered ideas that you can like everything's, you know, there's so much potential.

And I'm going to adulterate them. I'm going to adulterate these ideas. And then you end up dead on Everest. Yeah, yeah. You're ready. But that's your rival. and then you end up dead on Everest. Yeah, yeah. You're ready to go, Trevor. I also think that's another thing that is so interesting is I watched an interview

with Neil Gaiman recently. Yeah. Somebody asked him, how different does your first draft look from your last draft? Oh, I saw that in a minute. Yeah, and he says, well, your first draft is just throwing shit at the wall and figuring it out and making it work. And then your last draft is going back and making it look

like you knew what you were doing the whole time. Because when you start out a story, you have where you think it's going to go and then you start figuring stuff out. And you find out that this piece works with this piece and this can actually go over here. And boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and you work that together and then you have your art.

You guys created a story together because that's what D&D is. Same with like, must be guys. Flabberg story. Yeah, same with any D&D show is the DM has a story in a way that it should go and then you have these shit ass stupid fucking players with their stupid dumbass decisions and choices. And it's about adapting on the fly and I am joking. I don't think that you guys are stupid. I don't think any player is stupid.

I just think that it's one of those things where like you truly cannot control the story. It is a collaborative story. I think that there's validity in calling me in Chris Stupid because when you look at all of our D&D podcasts, our two characters are the ones that get the most like, A la la la la. But a lot of fun comes from that though. I think that those are necessary Story points, but anyways, yeah Go on. No, no, no, I just think that it's so interesting of like you guys What you get within stinky dragon adventures is the ability to sort of this is your last pass

You know what I mean? Like your first pass was doing the D&D show. The podcast show, yeah. And now you have the ability to go back and go like, yeah, well, this was a good story, but we don't need these three episodes of us sort of fucking around. The store. Yeah.

Interesting. That could actually just be five seconds, it turns out. That's incredible. Huh. Interesting. I don't know. I think that's really cool. How do you guys feel about that? That could actually just be five seconds, it turns out. That's incredible. Interesting. I don't know. I think that's really cool.

How do you guys feel about that? Well, I mean, I think it's because it is different from the podcast in some ways, but it's a different medium. And it's like, you're trying to get the most out of a medium. It's like, all right, well, it's a visual storytelling. What can you do visually? What's the most interesting way to tell the story?

Yeah, it's show don't tell, which is like a big rule when you're... Yeah, and... It's very much like, well, how do we adapt this? How do we get it started? And the podcast starts, you know, like, works great for a podcast in D&D. It starts, you know, kind of like a wagon, you know, kind of Skyrim, right? Where they're a group of people traveling, right? But that's not the most interesting way to tell that story on a visual medium. Like, how do they meet, you know? It's like, so we, it's just like different things like that. Like, what's the better vert? What's the best

version of this thing? Or how do you just sit down? Or something that became an important plot point in the podcast. How do you, what's the best way of telling that? Seating that idea. Yeah, it's like, oh, it might have been an item that got purchased just at a store, right? But what would be the most interesting way

of that becoming an important part of a character? Yeah, we have a character that it becomes the person's, not a pet, it's like their... Sorry about that. Yeah, it adopts like an animal and it becomes a big... Yeah, it's a thing in D&D. I think you're familiar or something like that. Well, it's not a familiar, but yeah, just a pet. Anyways, in the show, John just buys him at a pet store,

but then this pet becomes a very emotional component of that character and he becomes like integral to that person's story. So then Chris and I were like, what's a better version of that? That's a good way. It's not better for this format. Sure, yeah, I would say.

What's a way that we can make this more emotionally? Because you want to incorporate that important part of the character. How do you make it part of that character? Yeah. So it's like, let's tell a story about those two fighting. Sure. I'd say adapting.

And there was a lot of stuff that we came up with from scratch, but drawing from a wealth of information and story and something that was super helpful. I think this is a fun writing process for me. Because it's just like, we already had a blueprint, a rough blueprint, but then we could just really deviate and just be like, well, I want to renovate the bathroom. Sure, I like this.

That's what I've done with, I mean, when we were working for Prodive, pitching out the shows, one of the things that I pitched, it was an animated version of Must Be Dice's Paradise. Just because it's like, yeah, it is, I have the blueprint for it. I see where the story goes, but now I can do it the way that it should have been like incorporating the choices that the players made into the story and the story that they made the outcome become, but also like I can go back and you know, like, I agree with what you're

saying. What choice is not necessarily better, but a better for the adaptation that you're making for the new medium that you're making. But my argument would be that like because it is collaborative storytelling, everyone's working on the fly and you're doing what works in the moment, this is your chance to have a second pass to go over it and go, this worked and it was good. And I'm glad that we did it. But how can we get their faster, tighter, more efficient?

Yeah, fine. And that's all I mean, again, it's not a change of better because it worked because you're right. It works for that format, a real play D&D podcast. It works for that format. It's perfect for that format. I guess like things like, I think one of the first things I pitched to playing was like, because his character in the D&D

show is lost in arm and has like a robotic arm, yeah, and I was like, I need an archer. And I was like, I don't think he should have his arm. I fought so hard on this. I was like, well, I mean, that's like that's part of his character. So if he did, okay, maybe we go in episode without it because I think that there's something there, but like he should get it by like episode three or something like that. Chris is like pushing, he's like, no, no, no, he should get the whole season without an arm. So it's like, not until seven, well, I don't know, you can say that, I guess, it's spoilers. I mean, he's in the trailer, he has an arm.

He eventually gets an arm, but it's like, it is a uphill journey, and I think it makes that character way more interesting. Yeah, especially because he couldn't jerk off. Yeah. Jesus Christ. I've had a good talk really quick. I just realized when you were talking about your idea of like having them or the way that

it worked of like starting like a sky room like they started in the wagon in the wagon in the travel. I was like, huh, I don't really love that like trope of starting things. And then I remembered that one of the last things I worked on when I was at Funhouse was I was writing a cyberpunk one-off season of Must Be Dice. And I realized that I had the most cyberpunk introduction into the story, which was the like... Were they all in pods or something?

No. So basically what happens is the way that the story starts is like, you get these introduction to these characters and then one by one, they sort of get like knocked out. And the way that they all meet each other and the story starts is they come back into consciousness and EMP is hit. These they're in the middle of a job that they don't remember taking. And they were hit with something that like EMP broke the chip in them. And throughout the story they find out that the chip was basically allowing their bodies to be remote controlled like robots. And so the whole

story is them trying to figure out who did it. And the way that I wrote the series was each episode was a self-contained adventure that through completing the quest they would receive a lead on the next thing that they had. So they could slowly put the pieces to the puzzle together. It was also just like, I learned from doing must-be dice paradise path, which was just one continuous story. Like, we leave off here, next episode. We pick up here.

The show that I wanted to have it was like, we leave off here where they have their new lead. Okay, next episode, like, now they're in the desert. This character has like a sniper, like we start in the action,. Yeah. I think is a better way for that story to go. But yeah, like the cyberpunk version of waking up in in the wagon and you're holding a gun going, which I think is perfect. We do have to wrap up here. I've had such a fun time with you, boys. Next time we were able to hang out, I'll schedule up here. I've had such a fun time with you boys. Next time we were able to hang out, I'll schedule another podcast.

Yeah, I brought you a gift. Did you really? It's ramen. Is it? Merry Christmas. Oh, thank you. I'm trying to guess. What, what is it?

I want to take a guess, thanks. It's, it's, is this a, this is like a toilet flusher? I see. Well, kinda, but not all. The handle for a toilet? Is this a door knob?

It looks like a door knob for a car door. Is this one of your many door knobs? This is the car door handle from your, your Hyundai and that. It fell off. Is this the one that I broke? Oh, you broke one? No.

Oh, God. Is that why I'm like, did you really? Well, it stays on the set forever. So I think my car is a fire. Yes, which is great because the last time you had a car it got set on fucking fire. That was you, right? It was out right.

It got melted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It melted. God, Jesus Christ. You are a fire hazard. Boy, it's been so nice hanging out with you. If you, the audience are wanting to hang out with Blaine and Chris Moore.

You should go watch Stinky Dragon Adventures and you should go listen to Tales from the Stinky Dragon. Both are incredibly good. And you have any closing arguments. Web site would be StinkyDragonPod.com. If you can find all that stuff. No closing arguments. I submit my five minutes to Chris. Okay.

Seeds is time. Ah, well, I'm gonna start a garden with all those seeds. Okay. Anyway, yeah. Okay. Thank you. For my son, this is a lot of fun. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you for joining me. I hope that you had a Merry Christmas. Thank you for joining us here. If you want to help support the show, you can go to the RT podcast.com You can also go to the RT podcast.com slash first, which helps us immensely. Going through first allows us to keep making the show that you love and keep making the other content. All those other shows that I talked about that used to be segments, we're making them in shows, baby. So if you want to help us do that, that is the best way to do it. You also get a bunch of fun stuff like Discord Hangouts,

where we've played Jackbox with you guys. We do RTTV streams. These are exclusive for first members. It's super fun. And again, discount on merch. Discount on merch. If you become a yearly member, you get $10 off at the store,

which you can combine with all of these crazy deals that we had. For Black Friday, we had fucking buy one, get one on everything, which is insanity. So go ahead and check us out. Over there, there's a bunch of fun deals going on and it helps us immensely. I can't say that enough. And thank you. I guess we'll see you next week.

I've been Armando Torres. Hail Clayton. And Chris Dominguez. OK. All right. We'll see you next week, everybody. Bye. Bye.