WEBVTT - TechList: An Interview with the Creators of Homestar Runner 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:09.600 Hey there, it's Jonathan Strickland, and I'm here to introduce 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:14.560 a playlist of ten episodes of my podcast tech Stuff 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:20.000 that are all about entertainment and entertainment related fields, from 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:25.720 video games to television series, two films to internet videos 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:30.440 from yesteryear. So I hope you guys enjoy these episodes. 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.440 You can go to the tech Stuff podcast page and 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.000 subscribe to listen to all sorts of episodes about tech 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:42.240 from all realms, and hopefully this will provide a little 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.040 bit of entertainment, a little bit of education, and probably 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.000 more than a few puns, because that's kind of how 0:00:49.080 --> 0:01:06.240 I roll. Enjoy this playlist. Welcome to tech Stuff, a 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:13.440 production from my Heart Radio eight there, and welcome to 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.400 tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:18.000 producer with I Heart Radio and a love of all 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.200 things tech, and we thought we would bring to you 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.440 a playlist of some fun episodes for Stuff to listen 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.960 to while we all try to get through these trying times. 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.800 And the first one I think is a real doozy. 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.200 We really knock it out with a funny pair of people, 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:40.000 the Brothers Chaps, the creators of Homestar, Runner. My former 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.560 super producer Ramsey ended up landing me an interview with 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:45.760 these two gents. They came into the studio and we 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.840 had a great conversation and stick around to the very 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.440 end because a special guest gave me a very special 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.640 sign off for that episode. Hope you enjoy. I am 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.080 overjoyed to be joined in the studio by Matt and 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.840 Mike Chapman, also known as the Brothers Chaps, the creators 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:07.080 of Homestar Runner as well as many other projects. And uh, 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.440 it's a bit of a fanning out, geek out moment 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.200 for me. I've been a fan of Homestar Runner since 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.720 before I was working at How Stuff Works. And really 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:21.239 it's great to have two people here who they there 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:26.040 were preceded the age of YouTube web series because YouTube 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:31.079 didn't exist when you guys launched Homestar Runner. And anyone 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:32.760 who has been on the Internet for any length of 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.679 time has at least encountered Homestar Runner references if they're 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:41.880 not deeply familiar with the incredible lore and mythology, the 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:46.680 the the deep legends of Homestar Runner that have found 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.280 their way into all sorts of other mythos. I mean 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:54.840 you're part of the Buffy verse, guys. Ye know, somehow 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.960 we're responsible for the Doje meme, even though we didn't 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.480 really have anything to do with that. Yeah. Uh, well, 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.680 and you have a You have an incredible couple of 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.440 bonus tracks on Guitar Hero two which have confounded me 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.200 on numerous occasions. So I mean you're the influence just 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.720 keeps on going. But for people who have never seen 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:20.960 a Homestar Runner cartoon, they're not familiar with it. I 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:25.840 can't wait to bother at this point, you missed the boat. Sorry, guys. 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.640 Just go go to know your Meme dot com and 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.160 you'll find stuff. No. I want to hear from you, guys, 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.360 because I'm really curious to hear your elevator pitch for 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:41.880 what is Homestar Runner. Homestar Runner I like the Matt 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.600 s ferred brower right now. It struggles with this. There's 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:53.000 a series of animated shorts following the exploits of non humanoid, 0:03:53.640 --> 0:04:02.760 ageless UH organisms that have UH that interact with one 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:08.280 another in meaningful and humorous ways to the delight of 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:14.920 several of literally dozens of people. That's the elevator pitch, 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:16.960 and that's why we just did this ourselves, that's never 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.960 had any I mean, I'm starting to get get a 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:24.680 glean of the the marketing brilliant exactly that has been 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.760 part of Home Start Runners since the very beginning. So 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.320 I know you guys have talked about this in other interviews, 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.280 but I would love it if you could kind of 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.160 walk people through the origin of where this all came from, 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.000 because it's all I mean, I know, it's kind of 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.720 a mishmash story because Home Star Runner itself ends up 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.599 being a reference to a weird joke that kind of 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:51.240 came up of a local Atlanta ad spot. Right, Yeah, 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.120 So our friend Jamie Huggins was nicking a Kroger or 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.880 Win Dixie ad that Mark Lemke was on and probably 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.239 nine or something. Jamie doesn't know a lot about sports, 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:03.560 so instead of saying all Star second basement for the Braves, 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.800 Mark Lmpie, he was trying to parody this commercial and said, 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.760 and now homestar running for the Braves, Mark Lampie. And 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.040 we're also just like Jamie, what is the homestar runner? 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.080 And so then a couple of years later, um, we 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.320 kept using that phrase and decided to use it as 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.520 a you know, the name of a character when we 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:24.480 were born one day and made a story involving the 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.360 homestar Runner. This is great because you know, it's it's 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.279 the sort of thing. I think it's an inspirational story, honestly, 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.120 because I know I've got lots of friends. We goof 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.159 off and we make you know, you make a joke, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.400 and every now and then a joke is just it's sticky. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.680 It's something that that for some reason resonates beyond just 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:48.200 the moment of making an offhand, absurd reference, and then 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.719 it kind of snowballs from there and it can grow. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.479 And to me, that's sort of what hopes our runner 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.120 sounds like it was something that begans just sort of 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.640 this one off little goof but it ended up inspiring 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:05.440 uh a huge number of shorts. So after the the 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.400 little joking about a local ad spot. And by the way, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.560 if you ever really need to mind for comedy gold, 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.480 you just have to find some some great Atlanta local 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:22.239 Atlanta UH commercials. I've seen so many amazing ones, including 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.479 people I know have showed up in them, like Chris 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:30.839 Blair of Dad's Garage character. But if you guys, UH 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.160 then went on and started looking at things like a 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.680 children's books and seeing how terrible children's books can be, 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.640 and thought we can do a terrible children's book. Uh, 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:45.360 and Homestar Runner had a spot in that. But beyond that, 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.799 we get into the you know, late nineties, early two thousand's, 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:54.440 and the Worldwide Web was really just starting to get 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.320 some really serious traction at that point. Right, we're sits 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.360 seeing kind of the the in phase of what people 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.720 later on would call the web one point oh era, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.840 where everything was very static, nothing was interactive. You would 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.880 probably have a web page and it wouldn't change from 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.080 one month to the next, so there's no reason to 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.240 ever go back. You could go once and that's it. 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.160 You made a new web page. You didn't update your webpage. Right, 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.920 here's my new webpage. L You started something out and 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.960 you would have to have the little under construction at 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:27.720 the very top, right, because it's never finished, except for 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.240 the fact that it's always kind of finished. So you 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.960 got interested in in uh, in flash animation and flash 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.640 in general. And UH this is interesting to me because 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.760 it gave an opportunity to have a more dynamic experience 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.440 on the web, something that was totally new at that time. Today, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.160 we take it. For granted, you know, every website is 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.000 dynamic in some way or another, or it has some 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.480 sort of dynamic element worked into it. But at that time, 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.160 it was pretty new, and the concept of creating ing 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:06.400 uh episodic content that you could very easily see, you know, 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.520 the next episode, that was new as well. There weren't 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.360 a whole lot of examples of that before you get 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.600 into say the mid two thousand's, when uh stuff like 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:20.680 YouTube started to show up. So from what I understand, 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.440 is it true that essentially the reason why a Homestar 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:25.800 Runner exists as a cartoon is that it was kind 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.480 of a way to uh, to practice with Flash. Like 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.720 you were, you needed to animate something, so why not 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:36.960 use this character? We're really learning web development stuff like 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.680 that's why we were learning Flash and graphic design and 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.120 stuff like that was like for job type stuff, and 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.680 we just used the Homestar characters as like, how are 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.240 we going to learn this new software Flash? And well 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.800 and more so than we need to animate something, it 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:51.520 was like we need to make something. I mean, I 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:57.720 graduated from film school and moved back to Atlanta from Tallahassee, Florida, 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.520 and uh, you know, they weren't shooting Avenger just movies 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.760 and or whenever that would have been. Um, they weren't 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:10.600 really shooting much of anything other than fantastic local uh, 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:12.440 and so I you know, there wasn't a whole lot 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:14.600 to do, and like there was you were not ever 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:16.880 going to try and put video on the web at 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:18.560 that point, Like there was just I mean, lots of 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.600 people still had dial upe modems. It was just not 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.560 um something that you could afford the bandwidth for either. So, 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:26.600 I mean, we just wanted to make stuff. Mike moved 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.680 back from he dropped out of grad school and moved 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:32.760 back and anytime we've always we've been together from when 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.000 we were kids, we've made stuff together. And so we're like, 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.440 all right, well what are we making? And Flash was 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.240 away that was like, oh wait, we don't need you know, 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:42.000 a budget, we don't need a crew, we don't need 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.000 you know, to go rent to camera, we don't need 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.480 film stock or whatever. We can start making content um. 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.040 And so it was like, all right, well, I guess 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.200 we're gonna learn how to animate because and we had 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.320 done stop motion stuff we were kids, and we're fans 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:58.600 of animation obviously. Yeah, Mario pained for the Supernintendo, but 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.360 we never u that wasn't what either of us were 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.559 like schooled in UM. We were always artists and creators 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.880 of something, but never specifically animation. So we didn't look 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.400 at it initially. I was like, oh, we are we 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:13.440 can't wait to start animating. It was more like, this 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.120 is a way to tell stories, So what is the 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.640 best thing we have for that medium? And it was like, oh, 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:20.719 what if we turned that homestar Runner character and his 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.760 friends into a cartoon? UM? And so that was kind 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:25.920 of what it was born out of UM and the 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.760 same reason that we would, you know, leave each other 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.760 dumb answering machine messages, voicemail messages. It was like, oh, wait, 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.400 here's some content. I have a medium to produce something 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.280 on It's the thirty seconds before the beat happens. Here, Mike, 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.120 here's my little narrative I'm gonna give you when I'm 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.240 asking you if you you know, remember to get some 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.680 high life at the publix or whatever. So anyways, so 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.280 Flash was kind of the next one of those, you know, 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.360 was the next. And Flash was also easy. I mean 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.920 it was easy enough for people that weren't animators to 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.920 you know, stumble their way through and produce something that 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.760 was you know, halfway de sente. So two guys in 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.120 their apartment with like a couple of keyboards could like 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.240 make something that sounded you know, as good as the like. 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:10.600 At that time, you know, they're were these studios making 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:12.520 flash things that had like you'd watched the credits of 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.280 a thirty second flash cartoon and it had like thirty 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:19.720 people involved, um, one for each second of the cartoon, right, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.040 And this is so interesting to me because it parallels 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:28.480 so nicely with the rise of computer games. I did 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:32.600 a an episode recently about Sierra Games, which I know 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.000 you guys love. Yeah, I got to talk to Ken 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:39.560 Williams and he actually came on. He tried to get Roberta. Now, 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.400 he tried to, but she she was busy trying to 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.840 figure out how to work their cable box. So yeah, 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.440 all of that is actually in the episode two. So 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.840 it's great, but uh, and I was very thankful for 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.720 him to participate. But it was so interesting because the 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.600 whole reason why Sierra Games got started was that he 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:04.240 was programming. Roberta had started to encounter games, and a 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.320 lot of those games were being written by people who 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.200 were teaching themselves how to code. So games were great 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.079 because it was something that had structure, right, you had 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.400 an idea, you didn't had to learn how to bring 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.839 that idea to fruition. And so the game was really 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.880 the the tool they were using in order to educate 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.480 themselves on how to code. And then eventually the whole 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.760 industry kind of grew out of that. And it's very 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.200 similar to what you guys are saying, like necessity is 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.680 the mother of invention. You had this this tool there, 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:37.960 you need to learn how to use the tool. You 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.120 had certain limitations placed on you, but those limitations ended 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.040 up just shaping the direction, didn't hold you back necessarily. 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:47.439 Um And in fact, I could argue that without those 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.679 limitations you could end up being paralyzed by choice. Right, 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:52.480 you have so many options open to you don't even 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.880 know what to tackle next. That's why Homestar cartoons are 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.840 still five fifty four hundred because that was the default, 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.000 and flash and still animated at twelve frames a second. 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:05.280 Linotations are still seventeen years later. Wow. Yeah, And it's 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.400 it's interesting now because we're in an era that sort 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.200 of the post flash era as well, where we're starting 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.360 to see Flash being you know, pushed further and further away, 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.280 and there's not really any development development on that, and 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.320 I know that has posed something of a challenge or 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.920 Homestar Runner as well, because you know, that whole archive 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.880 it's all in flash, so I'm sure there's the the 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:30.600 some of it has been poured it over to YouTube obviously, 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.800 which is great because you know, that's a fantastic way 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.000 for people to find it. Although I think you guys 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.559 ended up following a strategy that I've heard several creators 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.720 say is uh incredibly important for you, it was necessary, 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.200 which was that you created your own space where stuff 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:52.240 would go and live, and that Homestar runners own domain. Uh. 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.880 The Bernie Burns of Rooster Teeth has talked about the 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.560 same thing, that you need to have a space that's 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.400 your own, because if you start depending upon some else's 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:04.160 platform and that platform changes, you're at their mercy. So 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.600 you are actually ahead of the game. But only because really, 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:12.079 because that was that was the only way to go forward, pioneers, 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:16.559 because what else was there to do. But it ended 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.560 up being again like that that inspired Bernie Burns over 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:21.560 at rooster Teeth to do the same sort of thing 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.320 he he knew he didn't want to put everything just 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.920 on another platform like at that time it would have 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.720 been like my Space or YouTube. Um, so it's it's 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:36.240 something that has since gone to inspire others. So you 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.760 go in, you start making this cartoon and uh, you're 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.200 having a good time. At what at what point during 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.560 the process did you start to feel like this was 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.840 gonna be something bigger than just a fun project to 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:53.400 do occasionally, uh, and become something a little more serious 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:57.240 than that. So we're we're what early two thousand's here, 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:58.840 We've been doing it for a couple of years, maybe 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.360 two thousand, two thousand one was sort of when we 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.320 were just that was the sort of early years. And 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:06.680 I think it was sometime in two thousand and one 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:11.680 when we started doing strong bad emails every yeah, every week. Yeah. 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:13.880 I think that was a turning point. Um. And it 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.760 certainly didn't feel like it at the time, but I 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.680 think looking back, having giving the fans a week like 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:21.560 something to look forward to every week, and knowing, Okay, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.440 I'm gonna check back on Monday morning. I'm gonna check 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:27.480 back on Monday morning, that sort of snowballed into sort 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.040 of where we I don't know. Yeah, and then we 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.120 sort of think of the point where we realize like, 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:35.480 oh wait, I think lots of people are watching this, 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:39.600 and more than maybe maybe we thought. Was when for 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.160 the first couple of years we were just on like 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.840 a Yahoo shared hosting account. It was supposed to be 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.400 like thirty bucks a month, and you've got like five 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.240 gigs of bandwidth or something. And I don't know how 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.240 many cartoons would have been on the website at that point, 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.880 but um, I remember printing out this thing, and I 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:56.600 think we got kind of a tip off right from 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:58.960 somebody at Yahoo that was just like, hey, I'm a 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:00.720 fan of what you guys are doing. You're gonna have 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:02.960 to find another solution. And he was like, I've been 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.080 looking the other way for a while now. And so 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:08.760 I get on our account and download the like, you 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:12.600 know whatever, just bandwidth chart thing, and we've done like 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.680 thirteen terabytes of transfer or something on our thirty or 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:20.000 five games whatever. So there's we always just pictured this 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.960 UM server in the back of some Yahoo data centers, 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:27.920 like smoking sparking in the back. Yeah, and that's when it, uh, 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:29.760 we got shut down at some point, right, that's when 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:31.640 where the system is down. So the site was actually 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.240 down for a day or two. Yeah, um and uh, 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:37.280 but that was kind of when we were like, oh, wow, okay, 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:38.920 you know, we've gotten some emails and people. We knew 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:40.480 that there were some, you know, but we just sort 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.320 of assumed it was like, oh, these few people that 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.560 know about flash Animation on the web have found our 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.800 stuff and that's awesome, and we thought that was great. Um. 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:48.600 I think that was when that was kind of the 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:50.400 moment we were like, oh, wait, maybe this is something 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.520 we could do, we could continue to do and because 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.080 at the time we still had regular day jobs. Um. 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.440 And I think that was probably about the same time 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.400 we decided to sell some merch and and and a 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.440 year or so into that was when our dad, who 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.800 was was a c p a UM like basically told 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.720 his too screw up artists sons to quit their jobs. 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:12.160 He was like, this is dumb. You quit your jobs 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:14.600 and make these cartoons for living, would you? Which is 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:16.960 we've always feel like it's the probably the best moment 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:18.960 you could you could ask for from a father's son. 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.840 Oh yeah, when you got a churm public accountant saying hey, guys, no, 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.919 you know that that regular steady gig. You have quit it? 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.840 What that's amazing? Make cartoons with your brother in the basement, 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.880 good griefs. It's like, yeah, dream come true moment right there, 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.639 Tons and tons of shorts that you guys have made, 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.760 lots of wonderful characters, not to mention all the alternate 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.120 versions of those characters. It was always the most fun 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.360 was to sort of world build and do other Yeah, yeah, 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.600 I was enjoyed. I love the old timey ones. Always 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.360 like people that like, that's that's my favorite too. Well, 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.200 there's a sort of polarizing it's no to me. It's 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:09.880 just the level of absurdity coupled with the Transatlantic accent 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.919 my favorite. There's a there's a video that that we 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.639 did here and how stuff works about the Transatlantic accent. 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:19.239 They got me to be the one to do it, 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:23.399 and I have to say, like, there's certain certain influences 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:27.600 that went into the absolute nonsense that I was spouting 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.240 off randomly at the end of the video, just to 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.679 kind of give examples of trans Atlantic accent and the 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:36.679 old timey homestar runner ones were way up there. It's like, 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.080 I know what I'm saying has no meaning, but it 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.920 doesn't matter. So and also it's just fun to do 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.480 until somebody really tells you to knock it off, and 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:46.560 then that it's actually fun to do for about another 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.800 five minutes. Yeah, you gotta Yeah, you gotta get past 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.639 that point. Right. It's the whole thing where you you 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:53.440 tell a joke until it stops being funny, and you 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.840 keep telling it gets funny again. Yeah, all human repetition 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:02.000 got louder to remember the I always think of the 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.040 sideshow Bob stepping on the Rakes and the Simpsons. It's 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:07.920 like it's like, wait, he's gonna do it again. It's 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:10.280 like happened so many times that it's like, whoa, we 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.280 did it one more time. And so it was Wow, 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:14.440 I didn't you know. I thought they were going to 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:19.440 draw the line of nineteen Uh. Well, out of all 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.840 that massive amount of stuff that you guys have done, 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.159 are there anythings that just stand out in particular in 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.920 your in your minds as things like when you came 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.640 up with it or when you first animated it. Uh. 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:34.359 It brought you, guys just just genuine joy, and whether 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.520 whether or not it went on to have a life 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.359 of its own afterward. I'm always interested to hear the 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:41.439 kind of stuff that when someone writes it and I 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.520 know this gets self indulgent, but when you write it 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.720 and you just think that's great, that's just a great 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.439 little moment there. You know, even if even if you 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.119 have to associate yourself with it a little bit, is 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.560 there anything like that stands out in your mind? For me? 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:55.800 And it made me. I don't know if it's the 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.200 same for Matt. You mentioned Sierra Games. We did a 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.160 Peasant's Quest, which was a riff on King's Quest sort 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.640 of in the trog Door universe, and to me, making 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.639 that whole game was probably the most fun thing we 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.240 ever did. And Homestar related, um, just making the graphics 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.800 for it, making the puzzles, do I mean just an 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:15.879 implement it may being able to make a game that 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.440 was not only it wasn't a parody of those games. 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.399 It was an homage to those games, and it was 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.920 those games, you know, like it was functional, it wasn't 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:30.920 just a joke. Yeah, I feel like when we made 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:37.720 there's a emails one eighteen What's virus or one nineteen 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.600 where he gets a computer virus and all this kind 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:42.399 of crazy stuff happens and it gets a little like 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.800 meta and uh, and it ends up with him getting 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:47.040 a new computer in the next one because he asked 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.400 to sacrifice his computer. But I remember that was one 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.480 where we stayed up all night we did. Uh. Is 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:54.600 that another one where we messed with the frame. Yeah, 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:58.680 we re sized the size of the movie, but the 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:00.760 viewer wouldn't know because we still always had this black 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:02.600 border around it. But then at some point in it 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:04.679 that like border moves and so they're like kind of 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.640 messes with your head in the cartoon. And then we 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:10.080 there's a part where pop up ads started showing up 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:11.800 in the cartoon and then we made a real pop 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.000 up ad like we did some like I forget what 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.119 it was action script like made one cap and in 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.520 your browser too, So this broke broke the fourth wall, 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:22.160 you know, outside of your normal computer realm. And um, 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:24.320 I just remember finishing that one up, like I'm pretty 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:26.440 sure we stayed up all night for that one and uh. 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.919 And then the next day, Um, we went to what 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:31.560 Steak and Shake because I want we would always like 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:33.320 we'd like finish it up and be like, yeah, that's good, 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:34.760 it's kind of good feeling. And we didn't even like 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:36.960 go look because we tried not to be. We always 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:38.879 want to know, stay in touch with the fans, but 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.360 never like tried to you know, we didn't like dissect 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:44.280 every comment or every at the time, it would have 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:46.199 been like a live journal page or something like. There 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:49.440 weren't just like message boards, uh or comments sections like 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.480