WEBVTT - Skibidi Toilet: Inside the Internet Phenomenon's Hollywood Plans 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.800 Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.160 which we speak with some of the brightest minds working 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:17.480 in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety. 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.240 Have you heard of skibbety toilet? If you're a card 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.119 carrying member of Generation Alpha, of course you have. But 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:30.880 to anyone older, that absurd sounding phrase may mean absolutely nothing. Well, 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.960 get ready for that to change. This strange internet phenomenon 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.159 is about to go mainstream if everything goes according to 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.160 the best laid plans of my next guest, who knows 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:45.400 a thing or two about building big franchises. He's Adam Goodman, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:49.400 a film industry veteran who has shepherded intellectual property like 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.519 The Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to global success. 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.720 Skibbety toilet presents him a whole different challenge, which we'll 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:12.280 talk to him about right after this, and we're back 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.680 with Adam Goodman, co founder of Invisible Narratives, a company 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.920 that melds the best practices of the creator economy with 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.560 traditional entertainment, which he knows well from his days at 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.760 Top Jobs, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks. SKG. Thanks for coming in, Adam. 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.440 Thank you so much for having me. So, you know, 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.280 because the median age of Mike podcast is probably slightly 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.240 higher than fourteen years old, we got to do some 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.600 level setting on Skimbity Toilet. We got to explain this 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.120 phenomenon before we get into your best laid plans. As 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.440 I said, what is this ip? 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.560 Skimmity Toilet is IP, and that's the best way to 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.720 describe it. It started as a meme. Our creator. We 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.760 have a visionary creator, a filmmaker named Boom, and Boom 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.960 was making for many years Transformers pre Viz videos that 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.200 he was posting to his YouTube account and he was 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.000 encouraged to start posting something original of his own, and 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:19.760 he started with this crazy, wild, very random meme that 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:24.280 really started with a viral song and a guy whose 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.919 head popped out of a toilet. This was February of 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.360 twenty twenty three. Boom had about a million subscribers on 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:37.320 his channel. Cut to June of twenty twenty four, and 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.640 we're looking at almost forty three million subscribers on this 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.960 franchise right now. So it started as a really wacky, crazy, 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:49.120 fun inspired thing and is now turned into something that 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.040 has episodes and lore and Cliffhangers and about twenty other 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:57.880 channels that are making daily content in the skibbity toilet multiverse. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.560 Now that's a great here, but we've got to unpack 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.960 this on a number of fronts. First of all, when 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:08.079 you're talking about forty three million subscribers, you know, at 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:12.440 our Variety Intelligence Platform unit, we did some number crunching. 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:14.919 We looked at the data. I mean, first of all, 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:20.360 forty three million subscribers, we're talking about seventeen billion views. 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:24.839 That's like second only to mister Beast. I think it's 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:29.040 like quadruple what Marvel is doing. I mean from a 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:34.359 data perspective, we're talking about elite at least on YouTube, 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.320 and we're also talking about this is something that's a 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.839 gaming phenomenon. This is top of the level. 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.839 Of what you can expect from a digital creator, right, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.200 So this is unprecedented. I mean, you can't plan for this. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.760 The fact of the matter is years ago I worked 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.920 on a cartoon about a sponge named Bob, and if 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.040 somebody had pitched me that idea, I obviously didn't create SpongeBob, 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:58.440 but I was lucky enough to work on it. I 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.560 would have thought that was a crazy sill the idea 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.720 or turtles that were mutants and ninjas and teenagers. So 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:08.200 these things when you see them, they don't make sense 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.640 until you do see them, and then when you squint, 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:12.400 the whole world sort of opens. 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.960 Up to you. Also, what's remarkable is, you know you 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.800 referred to this as a meme and in the beginning 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.640 at least, and you know, memes come and go, and 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.760 at first, this thing, you know, I'm gonna actually have 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:32.560 our podcast listeners take a listen to this audio. And 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.480 I do this with some hesitation, because, dear listeners, once 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.520 I play this, this may this may destroy your brain 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.560 and never leave your head ever again. But with that warning, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:44.279 take a listen. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:58.240 What is going on on stimyt, what is going on on. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:10.200 St okay For those with functioning brains, Welcome back to 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:15.960 the podcast. You know memes Hawk to a Girl is 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:20.440 a meme, right, but this is like this meme became 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:25.880 a dense, mythologically driven series. This is like Hawk to 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:30.840 a Girl turned into like a six season HBO series. 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:35.159 How on Earth did what was once a silly song 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:40.279 becomes something that is so much richer and taken very 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.800 very seriously among its fan base. Well, it starts with 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:44.640 our creator. 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.359 Boom is someone who is a massive student of cinema 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:54.240 and television and animation and franchise, and we encouraged him, 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:58.240 and the encouragement comes from his, you know, massive, massive 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.000 audience to tell stories and to look at this as 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.800 though he's building something that could be the next Transformers 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.839 or could be a Marvel's universe. There are so many 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:14.080 channels that started doing this, and initially it was referred 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.200 to as brain rot and a lot of kids kind 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.000 of looked at this, and there's a real kind of 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.200 separation in dichotomy between those who get it and those 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.040 who have turned off on it. And our mission has 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:31.520 been to convert the unconverted, to really kind of surprise 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.440 them and to defy and to subvert their expectations that 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.479 they're storytelling. And there's characters and there's myth, and there's law, 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.880 and there's a building blocks to a massive business that's 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.279 being put in place here, all laid on the foundation 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.560 of storytelling, and we really have just started to scratch 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.920 the surface of it. Where this franchise goes is nobody's 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.359 this guy's the limit for it at this point, but 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.080 we believe it could be something that's generational and that's 0:06:58.080 --> 0:06:59.080 what's so excited amount it. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.360 And yet at the same time that I'm trying to 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.000 convey that people take this, the fans, young fans take 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.880 this deeply seriously, Like I still have to convey how 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:15.160 deeply absurd the animation is. I mean, on the one hand, 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:21.040 you have like a alien race with toilets for bodies 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.240 with heads coming out of them, fighting a race with 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.880 you know, TVs and cameras and speakers for heads, these 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.040 you know, dueling sets of appliances, and a violent war 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.240 for I don't know, shelf space at cost go. I 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.960 don't know what they're fighting about. It's completely absurd. So 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.560 you know you have been around IP of all kinds. 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:48.080 What is it about this that is resonating because I 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:48.880 have no idea. 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.400 Well, I think it's hard to know exactly. And I'm 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:54.760 not going to sit here and tell you that I 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.560 am the key demo for this, or or or I 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:02.400 built this by design. My business partner in this venture 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.360 is Boom, the creator and the filmmaker Michael Bay. We've 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.680 heard of him, and years ago, when I was at DreamWorks, 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.280 we bought the rights to Transformers, and everybody thought that 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:14.680 that was a really silly idea to make a movie 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:16.840 about a toy from the eighties. In fact, I think 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:18.800 there were articles that came out that said, what's next 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.840 a movie about Legos, which turned out Okay. I think 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:24.760 this is the same kind of thing. I think if 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.280 you look at this and you try to and you 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.760 try to assess this through our point of view, it 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.120 doesn't make any sense when you look at it through 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.200 the lens of something that's fresh, that resonates with an 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.120 audience that's not built on your parents or your grandparents' ip. 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.240 This is something that Jen Alfa feels like they found. 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.440 They discovered, it's something that they take a lot. 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:47.160 Of ownership in. 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.960 And for us, we look at this and we say, okay, 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.200 if you squint, yes, there's a toilet in it. But 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.840 the reality is is that what do we spend more 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:02.880 time looking at television's cameras? Toilets we don't look at, 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:07.480 but we obviously have our interaction with them. So these 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.040 are things that we are interacting with on an every 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.120 single day basis. The fact that the creator has turned 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.400 these into kind of mechanized warriors is something that is 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.040 just awesome and you've never seen it before, and that's 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.960 what makes it so great. And it's weird and peculiar 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.960 and it's fresh, and they get it and we don't, 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:27.360 and that's what makes it super cool. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:33.920 So you keep mentioning Boom, we should mention Boom's real 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:38.640 name is Alexi Jersimov. He is from Georgia, that is 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:44.240 the from overseas, Georgia, not Atlanta, Georgia. Twenty six years old. 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.079 How did you get to him? 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:49.120 What? 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:49.400 You know? 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:49.920 Who is? 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.840 He had talk to me about the process of, you know, 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:54.800 hooking up with this guy. 0:09:55.040 --> 0:10:00.199 He's an animator. He works on an animation platform that 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.000 is very primitive actually compared to unreal owned some of 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.120 the engines that other animators are working on. 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.520 But he's a beast. 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:13.520 This kid can imagine things and execute on things on 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.959 a level that is unheard of before. He is doing 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.520 shots that make Michael's headspin. Michael and he have a 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.720 terrific collaboration and work very closely with each other, talking 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.400 about episodes, talking about art, talking about action, talking about 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:34.880 sound design, talking about where this franchise goes. Wow, He's 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.000 very capable to hold his own in conversation with Michael, 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.200 and then some and Michael and I are students to him. 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:44.080 I mean, we're not trying to go in and teach 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:45.920 him what the movie business is. This is a whole 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.120 new medium for us as well, and we're really trying 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:53.239 to define what I always refer to as our tradigital strategy, 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.000 which is taking the best of traditional in terms of 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.240 the business practices which have all been but perfected over 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.960 one hundred and some years of filmmaking, but the nimbleness 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.040 of UGC and the opportunity for a filmmaker or a 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.760 designer or an animator like him to make something, to 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.520 post it to an audience, to get an immediate feedback 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.960 loop from that audience to know what's working, and even 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:21.680 more interesting, allowing that IP to be shared and so 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.960 that other creators can take advantage of it. And that's 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.440 one of the things that is really different than anything 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.120 that we've worked with before. Typically, we issue takedowns and 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.240 we're ready to, you know, kind of make sure that 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.880 nobody is messing with something that we know that we 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.800 want to control. In this case, we've taken a very 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.000 different approach to this. We want creators to play with 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.480 our IP. We want to make sure that people are 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.439 doing things obviously within reason, so long as it kind 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.320 of follows a certain guideline for us. But it is 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.920 something that we believe is kind of the internets, and 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:54.880 we want to make sure that people have the ability 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.079 to play with that and to enjoy it, which is 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:58.080 what it's really exciting. 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:03.040 So talk about that change in approach, because I mean, 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.000 that is very counter to the way it used to be, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.920 and there does seem to be a lot of copycatting 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:14.520 out there. Aren't you afraid to let this lose complete control, 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.520 especially in the age of AI where this could really 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:18.520 get out of control. 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.200 Well, yeah, I mean, look, there's thankfully we have great 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.480 protections in terms of copyrights and trademarks, which gives us 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:26.320 a lot of you know, a lot of leverage in 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.280 terms of who we allow to work on this property 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.560 and who we don't. There are probably about twenty channels 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:37.439 that are doing really quality episodes of skivity toilet channels 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.199 on YouTube, channels on YouTube, and of those, there may 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.960 be even like sixty or seventy that are doing less 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.679 frequent updates and content. The less frequent we're fine with. 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.760 We don't, you know, we don't really pay attention to 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.160 we celebrate them. But the twenty that are doing really 0:12:55.360 --> 0:13:01.760 credible content, we consider them part of our alliance. It's 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.480 the toilets versus the alliance. The alliance are the good guys, 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.480 and the alliance is what we're building into this network 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.760 of other channels that are making content for us. Boom 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.280 is able to look at those scripts beforehand. Boom is 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.719 able to address any creative concerns to make sure it's 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.520 following the same kind of narrative that we're looking after. 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:21.959 But we want to help those channels. We want to 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:23.760 help those channels build, and we want to help those 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.480 channels be able to continue doing what we're doing because 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:31.280 he can't post every single day and YouTube. The algorithm posts, 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.880 you know, and the more people that are posting, the 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.360 more that it helps, the discovery for it, the more 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.200 people that are introduced to it, and so that alliance 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.120 is something that we've been building. Again, it's super counterintuitive 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.200 to anything I've been involved with before, but it's been 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.720 working because we're living in a world where the content 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.720 is now free, So it's all the other businesses that 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.800 we're able to monetize around it. So knowing that the 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.960 content is free, the business is around it for whether 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.080 it's roadblocks or consumer products or life lissing. Those are 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.440 businesses that we're really trying to encourage to, you know, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:06.319 to make sure that that content is serving up those 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:07.079 other businesses. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.720 Well, now let's talk about those other businesses, because I 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:14.760 think what got a lot of people's eyebrows up was 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:20.400 you know, obviously, people see that main YouTube business, They 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:25.960 see this tremendous traffic, and people wonder like, okay, maybe 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:30.440 he's just you know, building a business entirely on YouTube, 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.800 and he's you know, keeping the control there. Maybe he's 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.480 going to move off platform at some point, who knows. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.960 Then the deal with Bonkers gets announced, the deal with 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:46.120 your company and Michael Bay. Okay, the merchandise piece of 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.720 this comes into view. But then we see Michael Bay 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.640 and your name, and we're starting to think, okay, movies, TV, 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.760 other things got to be coming. So what business is 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.360 starting with merchandise? Starting with you know, Comic CON's coming, 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:06.440 Halloween is coming. We feel like there's movement towards the 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.640 mainstream here, So explain the other businesses and what we 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:12.120 could see coming down the pipe. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.920 Well, to be clear, this is the mainstream. True YouTube 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.239 is about his mainstream as it gets. 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.040 The conventional old school. 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:27.200 Yeah, well so traditional, we'll call it. Sure, this lends 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:31.360 itself very well. I will say that Michael and Jeffrey Becroft, 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.400 who's his longtime production designer and a colleague of his 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:36.320 that's worked with him on all of his movies, have 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:40.840 been working very closely with Alexi to design art, to 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.520 start to really professionalize the kind of back engine of this, 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.080 to make sure that if we ever decide to go 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.720 film or television, that this is kind of lifted beyond 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:55.560 just the resources that creators have on the Internet. We 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.560 are absolutely in talks right now both on the television 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.520 side and the earliest comer stations right now on the 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:05.560 film side. But it's not a be all, end all 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.480 for us, you know. We want to make sure that 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.000 we are able to support all the other businesses that 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.200 have been built in this fly flywheel that Invisible Narratives 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.360 has helped to create for Boom and the other ip 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.440 that we work with. But film and television is a flex. 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:22.760 It looks cool. It helps to kind of fuel the 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.800 consumer product business, which is obviously a really important thing. 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.680 It helps buyers at Walmart or Target to know that 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.480 there's going to be media and ads spent against this thing. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.400 But we're pretty successful just on YouTube as it is 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:39.840 right now. So if we stay in this world, we're okay. 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.000 And if we move into more traditional then that would 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.880 just be for Michael and I pretty awesome and for Boom, 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.160 our creator kind of a lifelong dream of his. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:53.920 Okay. Before we revisit that, though, how important is this 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:59.080 merchandise piece, because that feels like the first piece of 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.920 these business this is and it feels like that's what's 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:03.480 coming this fall. 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.880 Yeah, I mean, there's two thesiss that my company has. 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.080 One is that we believe that IP is not going 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.800 to come from rebooting The Fall Guy or looking at 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.199 television shows that were frankly old when I was a kid, right. 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.159 IP is going to come from TikTok and YouTube for 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.440 where the audience is actually at right now. So our 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.720 business is solely focused on trying to find those things, 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:30.040 discover those things, nurture those things, and bring traditional resources, 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:34.120 creative resources, or business resources to those creators so that 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.919 we can essentially build out the next generation of blockbusters 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.879 that are organic to young people in their lives. The 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.399 second is that kids don't want to pay for content. 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.520 They want to pay for stuff, and stuff is something 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.840 that is really important for them and Bonkers what we've 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.480 seen and we looked at all the traditional toy companies 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:57.080 and new toy companies, Bonkers gets it. They understand that 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.879 when kids are walking through the aisles of or target 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.600 right now, the toys that stick out to them are 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:08.840 not things that were their parents or their grandparents' favorites. 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.800 They're things that they actually recognize. So YouTube, whether it's 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.520 Lanky Box or af Mau or Ryan's World or whatever 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.480 it is, these are the things that kids are really 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:21.959 leaning into. And so the toy program that launches this 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.480 fall with Bonkers is going to be sick and what 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.320 comes over the next twelve months, even after this, the 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.080 design of where this is going is something that we 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.160 believe can be as robust as some of the toy 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.000 businesses that Michael was involved with prior to Skivity Toilet 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.639 and could be something years from now. That's pretty significant. 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:40.480 So could you tell us what kind of toys we 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:41.120 could expect? 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:45.960 Well, everything now from mystery packs to role play to 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:47.400 vehicles to. 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:49.520 You know, you name it. 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.159 There's really not a category anything that you would expect 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.600 to see for Transformers or a Marvel toy or anything 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.040 like that. Obviously, not everything comes online in the fall, 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.840 but all the designs at this point because the franchise 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.800 has everything. It has weapons, it has role play, it 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.719 has characters, it has action figures, it has puzzles, it 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:08.920 has games, it has publishing. 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:10.399 It really has all the. 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.240 Things that you're looking for in a mega hit so far. 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:15.639 And that's a testament to the imagination of our creator. 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:23.080 Yes, however, then I wonder whether, especially given the title, 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.080 given the I don't know if you call it the protagonist, 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:31.719 but the toilet main character, is that all that going 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:38.240 to fly at Walmart? Is the violence gonna fly? I 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:41.520 just wonder, especially when you're you know, you're looking at 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.320 some of the press this has gotten, especially globally when 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:49.879 there's talk about, you know, the moral panic, and you know, 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:54.280 there's been headlines about like where they've actually talked about 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:59.040 a skibbity toilet syndrome where kids, I mean, it's hard 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:01.560 to take this stuff, si, I know where you know, 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.800 kids have trouble potty training because of skibbity toilet and 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:08.320 they're afraid, you know, heads are going to pop out 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.359 of toilets, Like, could this stuff actually create a problem 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:17.560 for introducing this to a mass market? It's beloved so clearly. 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.040 I you know, I am not a retail expert that 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:23.159 you know, we'll see the proof when you know, it 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:27.240 starts rolling out at this point. But what I what 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:32.000 I believe is we are seeing a very significant audience 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.879 from episode to episode that's not growing significantly at this 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.760 point just simply because it's so significant, But it's not dipping. 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.920 We are seeing like real consistency in terms of who 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.520 this audience is. And I think again, part of the 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:48.720 you know, part of the thing that you and I 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.640 or all of my friends or any of my kids, 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.640 even in my own house look at sometimes and think 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.480 this is weird and obscure is exactly the thing that 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.800 makes it awesome. It's the thing that makes it unique 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.280 and interesting and cool. And yeah, there's a toilet, but 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.879 the toilet is the toilets are a small part of 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.879 this franchise. And if you, as I said earlier, if 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:12.480 you take the toilets out of it and you look 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.520 at it, it's no different than Optimists and Bumblebee and Megatron. 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:21.919 These are giant mechanized warriors that are having gigantic, dynamic 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.160 battles and you know, terrific action. 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.240 We'll be right back with Adam Goodman and more on 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:40.680 skibbity toilet, and we are back with Adam Goodman. Stephen 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:45.919 Colbert had a little fun with Joe Biden and imagining 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.879 what it might be like to well have a listen 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:54.080 to what he did with this internet craze and the 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:55.520 current president. 0:21:55.560 --> 0:22:00.800 And of course for the very online skibbity Biden Biden. 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:05.800 Give me, give me evined, guit evided, give me these, 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.760 give me evin that hiders like what tron. 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:13.520 Trump Trump is, use Hitler's Likewhitler's like what Trump is? 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:16.359 Useless language, giv d give. 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:28.439 Me Now, if you don't understand that video, your grandchildren 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.280 will explain it and you still won't understand. 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.040 So, Adam, when you hear something like that, does that 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.560 sort of uh give you a sense that it's kind 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:46.240 of like priming the older audience for accepting what could 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:49.840 be a household name for even people who are not 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:53.359 in the target audience, that will give them a sense 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:56.760 of what could be something that their kids or grandkids 0:22:56.760 --> 0:22:58.880 are soon going to be asking for. 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:02.640 Or does that No, we have such a long way 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:05.800 to get from where we are right now with our 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:08.520 audience to Stephen Colbert's audience at this point. 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:09.840 But that's okay. 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:12.679 There's a lot of audience that there's younger audience that 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:15.960 we need to accept in, and there's slightly older audience 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:19.239 that we need to convert to being less wary of 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:23.159 the brain rot and more aware of the episodes, the 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:25.800 storytelling and the narrative that's being leaned into this at 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:26.280 this point. 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:29.040 So you said that, you know, there's sort of the 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:34.720 earliest conversations going on about taking this property to film 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:41.000 or TV. Why isn't it essential? I mean, can you 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:45.560 really make the same amount of money on digital platforms 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:52.000 on just YouTube? What about also the other digital platforms. 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:55.520 I mean, it's certainly got a presence on TikTok. What 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:59.280 is your general approach here in terms of monetization, because 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.320 I would have, oh no, you gotta have the you know, 0:24:02.359 --> 0:24:04.000