Potter Puppet Pals - Neil Cicierega's enduring creation - Rewind Time

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In 2007, a new kind of YouTube video isuploaded in the midst of fandom mania
with record breaking book sales fansites, plenty of fan fiction, and a
successful billion dollar film franchise.
A landmark fan work would emerge becomingan early viral video that would enrapture
one of the biggest fandoms in the world.
What is that mysterious, ticking noise?

(00:21):
Welcome to Rewind time.
This episode is about Neil Cga,the creator of Potter Puppet pals.
Yo, it's rewind time.
Ow.
Welcome to Rewind time.
Lucy.
How are you today?

(00:43):
I am honestly look a littleclammy, a little sweaty.
Yeah.
It's meant to be autumn,but Sydney really?
You know, last days of summer vibes.
Uh, yeah.
We sweating.
I.
It's a little, it's a little sweatyhere for our video listeners.
Max, uh, does have an ice pack located
that's, oh, well I have this pillow.
It was gonna be my littlesecret, you know, but yeah, I do.

(01:06):
I'm running an ice packunder the laptop today.
No secrets between us and the listeners.
Fair enough.
It's like water cooling.
I'm like a computer, anextension of the laptop.
Um,
my little Android boy.
Yeah.
Today from the intro asyou picked up, Neil Cga.
Lucy, were you a fan of Neil Cga?
Yes, I was.

(01:26):
Okay.
Yeah.
Big fan.
And I think even in some ways Ididn't even really realize, but
revisiting Neil Cga and revisitinghis work, it just, yeah, it was
a very enjoyable episode for me.
How about you?
Were you familiar with Neil?
Look, well.
I had seen mysterious ticking noise.

(01:48):
What I think
spoilers,
um, sorry for those.
Not aware.
Yeah.
Probably the most famouspot of puppet powers video.
Certainly the most viewed.
Um, so I did know about thatseries of videos, but I did
not know anything about Neil.
Neil Cga.
I didn't.
If you were like, who createdPotter Puppet powers, I was

(02:10):
not gonna be like Neil Cga.
Right?
I
would have virtually no idea.
And I've never seen anything else onthe channel or heard of it at all.
But in your really limited YouTubeviewing, you saw pot of puppet pals.
Do you like rememberseeing it around the time?
I don't wanna preempt our discussionof pot of puppet pals, but I

(02:30):
remember some of my more annoyingclassmates, like big potter heads.
Mm. Uh, crossover with kidsthat liked music, would sing the
song from Potter puppet pals.
I mean, you know, without thosedisparaging elements, um, I
would say that's pretty accurate.
Uh, also, I probably was a memberof that group of people that you

(02:53):
found annoying, but it's fine.
You didn't know me yet.
Yeah, let's touch on that in detail inthe pot of puppet power segment because
before he made, you know, presumablymillions doing Harry Potter fan works.
So Neil had a YouTube accountin the mid two thousands.
Yeah.
But he was active online for some years.
Prior to that, he was posting on NewGrounds, which was a sort of flash

(03:18):
centric animation games portal.
Mm-hmm.
Do you have much experiencewith New Grounds?
I,
not a bunch, but I, I amfamiliar with slash did know
of New Grounds around the time.
Mm.
Yeah.
So, because there's a few other YouTuberswhich we will eventually cover, who also
have their start on new grounds, it's apretty, pretty common origin story for a

(03:40):
lot of YouTubers around this time period.
'cause Neil was also in, you know, thegroup of YouTubers we've been covering
who were like 2005, 2006 starting point,which is really, really, really early.
YouTube.
Yeah.
Well, if you are a creative persononline and YouTube doesn't exist.
There isn't many portals that will letyou just post or post content for free.

(04:01):
Mm. So, yeah, I think it makes alot of sense for people of his age.
And he's a similar age too, theother creators that we've looked at.
Mm-hmm.
That they were active online andnew grounds was the place to be.
So Neil was posting his original videos,his animations and music on new grounds.
And it's tough to quantify it justusing Wikipedia, but they're of such

(04:26):
influence that he has a, this is crazyWikipedia article about Annie mutation.
Yeah.
Which is the style ofanimation that he pioneered.
And to give you a brief example,it's sort of like a. Hybrid between,
there's a lot of Japanese music mm-hmm.
As a basis for the tracks, and then that'slike juxtaposed with a lot of pop art.

(04:51):
Primarily I would sayAmerican pop cultural imagery.
Mm-hmm.
There's some stuff from Canada as well.
Yeah.
But like the main sort ofearly breakthrough here is
something called the pokey rap.
Another Pokemon video.
I just, there's something about it.
It's like either Pokemon or Mariohas to be included for, it's like the
early YouTube virus success formula.

(05:12):
Yeah.
Like the cultural dominanceof Japan in the nineties.
Mm-hmm.
Like all these boys, likelove this Japanese stuff.
They are nerds, but I mean, we'll getinto it, but I feel like Neil, you
know, not that it's the Nerd Olympics.
Okay.
I am not saying that the other, ourother creators we've talked about
so far have stolen nerd valor.
You know, I think Mosh and RyanHeger, like, I think they truly

(05:34):
were into nerdy things, but Neil.
And we'll talk a bit about his likebackground and the vibe of his videos,
but I'm like, I think he's, wouldyou agree that he's kind of like on
the next level of like nerdiness,
he has the mosh Anthony hair, likethe very long, like un layered, like
fringe straight hair at the time.
Mm-hmm.
But he also accessorizes with a fedora.

(05:57):
It's like one or two videos.
It's not, it's not always the fedora.
Yeah.
But he,
he owned one.
There was one in the house.
Yeah, that's very true.
Very, very true.
Um, but
yeah, no, I, he doesgive homeschooled energy,
which he is homeschooled by the way.
Yeah.
I, I think it's important to distinguish.
It's kind of like the, um, what is it?
Are you jobless?
What is it?
The, that meme?
The jobless or unemployed, sorry, energy.

(06:20):
I actually believe that's likea Mike's mic, origin meme.
Mm. Where it's like to be joblessis not the same as to be unemployed,
where it's like to have ahomeschooled energy is not the same
as necessarily being homeschooled.
Like it's a Venn diagram.
You know what I mean?
You can have a homeschooledenergy but not be homeschooled.
Sadly,
I'm just very jobbed up, so No,I don't really, no, I understand

(06:40):
in principle what you mean.
I actually think that the homeschooling,if you look at his ability at that age, I
think it's kind of a rare, uh, endorsementof the positives of homeschooling.
No, I think so many, andactually I think we'll see a lot
of creators are homeschooled.
Um, or you see it quite frequentlyand I think it does speak to like.

(07:02):
I guess having that spare time, or Iguess maybe like that social element,
like if you're not in a class oflike 30 people, then yeah, maybe you
would be more inclined to go onlineand seek out community at like 15.
I'm
also thinking your cringe, uh, yourability to self cringe doesn't develop
because you're under socialized,so you are brave enough to post no.

(07:23):
These things online, but,
but he's, do you think thoseearly works are cringe though?
Because I don't know ifthey are the pokey wrap.
No, no, no.
Sorry, I I don't mean thathis videos are cringe.
Like I Justine's, I mean Oh, the inherentcringe factor of putting yourself
out publicly doing any creative work.
Oh,
right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(07:43):
You don't have that like yeah.
You
need a level of self belief.
I don't want people at schoolto find out about this.
Exactly.
Because it's like
there's no people at school to findout about your secret YouTube account.
Yeah, no, that's fair.
But I would say, yeah, those earlyvideos on new grounds and when, you
know, typically, obviously the show we.
Do YouTube history, but I think it'simportant because those did get uploaded
to YouTube, but they got taken down, Ithink for copyright because he Samples.

(08:06):
Yeah.
Some of them music,
some of them, yeah.
For co, primarily for copyright,um, claims, the most well known one.
Most well known one is the UltimateShowdown of Ultimate Destiny.
Yeah.
Which I think a quite a fewpeople would be familiar with
because Neil does original musicto the majority of his videos.

(08:27):
Mm-hmm.
And this one is, I would say evenlike at this very early stage, and
we've covered quite a bit of originalmusic in the series so far, you can
tell that he has musical abilitythat our other creators, uh, do not,
it's not that they don't have it,but I would say his has progressed.

(08:48):
Or he has like a natural talent.
Uh, he lists.
So we did find in a little bit aboutbackground research on this episode,
an article where he was interviewed,I think in 2004 or 2005, where they
were just like, this child onlineis making these extremely viral
animations and he makes his own music.
And they asked him about his, um,like his music influence and he

(09:09):
said, Oingo Boingo, which is likethe Danny Elman band canceled.
But, uh, I, I think you can seethat so clearly in his influence.
'cause I, I don't wanna say it'slike, it's just like wacky, but
it is kind of, it's, it's wacky.
Well, I just wanted,
I wanna say the hooks were catchyand the lyrics are written in a

(09:30):
way that they're quite of interest.
Yeah.
Like the video it details, it'slike a, you know, an a ready player,
one crossover of pop, cultural,you know, characters from different
quote unquote universes, uh, whichis something that is very popular.
Nowadays with, you know, theMCU and things, but you know,
in 2005 it was a bit more novel.

(09:52):
It's
just like Chuck Norris.
Yeah.
Like optimist,
prime fight, scandal, that type of thing.
Yeah.
Like, it's nothing groundbreaking,but if you are someone on YouTube
that was like in 2005, you'relike, this the coolest thing ever.
I
think, I think you're right in that it'sa very, if I was online in 2005 and I
was a nerd, or just generally into popculture, I would think it's very cool.

(10:13):
Um, he clearly has quite a, a grasp onpop culture for like seeming, I think
he's like 16 or something when he makesthis, and he, I'm like, you're a nerd.
Like, not in a, not in a derogatoryway, but I'm like, you know, like
so many franchises and properties.
How could you, you know, beacross all of these at age 16?
I'm not sure, but I just would likepersonal, uh, editorial note that

(10:34):
I was not a big fan of this one.
I'm not, I, I, I understand it'simportance, but this is like not
quite, I feel like this was made.
Maybe more to please the masses.
Mm. Maybe, maybe that's I agree.
Yeah.
It's a,
it's a bit like internet humor, tm.
But then I think, and we'll talkabout it, but like, I think he, Neil's

(10:55):
personal humor is like way more obscure.
Mm. Um, which we'll get into.
But yeah.
We also, once Neil comes to YouTube,we have the continuation of the style
of like, um, Japanese inspired visualabsurdist little comedy pieces.

(11:18):
Mm. But we also branch out a bit,and you can tell that digital home.
Camera technology has improved.
'cause he's starting to film home videosmuch like other creators of the time.
And so we start gettinglike, comedy videos.
They're not sketch, there's not reallymuch character work at this point.
It's more, I'll give you an example.
Uh, the finger trap, which islike about 10 seconds long and

(11:44):
he does faces on his fingers.
Mm. And it's like a characterpiece, like you have a puppet show.
Um, and so you can see how he is,um, reacting to the improvements in
technology and doing some broaderapplication of his like com, his
comedic style on this YouTube channel.

(12:04):
But it's still very much like in the veinof what we were seeing on new ground.
He, I mean, ROP Flash at this point.
I also, have you evermade a flash animation?
I have.
At school?
Yes.
Yeah.
They're very time consuming.
And it's like to make, I think it'sjust interesting that, 'cause I think.
He makes these really intensive flashanimations that are like minutes long

(12:25):
would take you hours and hours of work.
Like obviously they're quite simpleI guess, but still that doesn't mean
that they're not time consuming.
But then he's, now he, his comedyisn't just limited to flash animations.
Like this is the first we're seeingof him doing like little like videos.
I mean, as you said.
Um, but, and these
videos, I think both of us speak for bothof us in that we found them both because

(12:49):
they were all very concise and focusedin what, like the premise and joke is.
We found them a lot more watchableand we watched a lot more in
succession than we did with some ofour other creators work in that time.
Yeah, I mean a lot of them, especiallythe early, early ones, are like a
minute or less, like 30 seconds orless, which again, a lot of early
YouTube videos are really short, butthese, I don't know, the laugh rate on

(13:13):
this was pretty high, at least for me.
I was laughing.
The finger trap one again, I feel likewe spent more time explaining it than
the length of the actual video, but likeI, I had a good giggle at that video.
It's 10 seconds long.
It's very funny, the umbrella videowhere it's like the tiny paper umbrellas.
Mm.
Uh and I was sort of like, I'm notreally sure where, you know, you're,
he's kind of going through, he'slike arranging them and I'm like, not

(13:36):
really sure where the gag is going.
But then the payoff is sending theumbrellas to like tiny, the place with
like the tiny island or something.
And I'm like, that's very the,
like the nation of Tiny umbrellas.
Yeah.
Something like that.
It's very, very cute,
very funny.
And even if like the joke isn't somethingwe find particularly funny, he has such
a grasp on the, say the soundtrack orlike the visual landscape of the videos

(14:02):
compared to, you know, other stuff we'vewatched where even if we're not finding
it like laugh per minute type of things,like it's still always quite interesting.
I also would say thata lot of his humor is.
Very, I don't wanna say it's likeSNL 'cause like, I feel like that's
not quite the right comparison.
I guess sketch comedy more broadlyis the better comparison, but

(14:24):
it's like the ideas don't age.
I don't feel like in any particular way.
No.
I think they're just funny
over time.
Like tiny umbrellas are always gonnakind of exist and always be funny.
I mean, check back on in a decade.
There is like a,
um, an absurd element to the stuff hecreates where it almost sits outside

(14:45):
of the, like, contemporary references.
It's of the time, it's all
contec, it's all, it's not all directlyconnected to pop culture or a celebrity
or news at the time or anything like that.
Yeah.
It's all just exists in the void.
Yeah.
Like, I'll use an example of Neil Kart 64.
Yeah.
Which is a, you click on it andyou're expecting like a Mario Kart

(15:07):
parody and it kind of is that, butwhat it is, is you, you see POV Neil.
Lying on the floor and he sort ofscoots around their house and your
perspective is him looking down overhis feet and it's clearly shot at some
sort of family event or Christmas.
'cause there's a bunch of family aroundand he sort of zooms around all of them.

(15:31):
Like he's probably what, like, you know,he's a late teenager at this point.
Yeah.
So he is like a, a large ganglyboy zooming around and then he
gets up and everyone's like, okay.
And then the credits is like everysingle one of his family members, even
though they did nothing in the video.
And even that, uh, I think T killed does.
And compared to some of the moredirect parodies, especially like

(15:53):
gaming IP we've seen so far.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, there's no way youcould show this to someone.
And as long as theyhave a understanding of.
What it is to drive a car.
Car.
Yeah.
It's a racing game.
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, and the credits joke, theydon't even need to understand
that to think That's funny.
Yeah,
it's really funny.
I also thought Neil, he did some dancing.

(16:13):
Oh, content.
Oh my.
You really liked this.
I think it was the best dancingcontent we have seen so far.
He did it, so he shot it and thenplayed it back in fast motion.
So he's moving really quickly.
But also it's in time to the music.
Yeah.
So it's quite difficult 'causeyou'd have to presumably dance to,
it's like a TikTok.

(16:34):
Yeah.
No, but he didn't have cap cut.
Yeah.
No, no, no, no.
But
I'm just, I think it's funny 'causeit's like now something that people
do all the time, which is like, youknow, recording something in half,
like recording something slow to thenplay it at normal speed or vice versa.
Um, he's playing, he would beplaying the music at half speed.
Yeah.
And dancing to it all in half speedwith the vision that it's going to be.
Full speed.

(16:55):
Um, I also wanna say that I, hereally gives, to me, he looks like
a persona character 'cause he iswearing the fedora and he's doing
these very like stylized moves.
Um, this I think is the most homeschooledany of the videos get there is
probably an alternate reality wherehe only uploads videos like this and
not any of the other comedy stuff.

(17:15):
Mm.
And that would be weird, butin the context of all his other
stuff, I'm like, he's a savant.
But if I just saw these videosalone, I'd be like, okay.
Like swag, I guess.
But he, he would've remained,I think, a very niche creator.
Yes.
Maybe like respected amongstlike, you know, yeah.
Later YouTubers for originality.
But yeah, it wouldn't have become,no, the, he wouldn't have a

(17:39):
Wikipedia article potentially.
But besides the point there isone thing I wanna touch before we
get to the big series, and it'sthe Neil Saves Christmas video.
Which at the time the credits come upand it says, it was made in collaboration
with Ryan Murphy and Kevin James.
And we were like, okay, that's a gag.

(18:00):
'cause they're bothobviously celebrity creators.
You know?
I mean,
we were immediately on Wikipediabeing like, 'cause this was 2007,
I think this video was uploaded.
So we were immediately like,is Ryan Murphy famous in 2007?
Like we all know Notorious industrymenace, love, heart, uh, Ryan Murphy.
Ryan Murphy
is the creator of Glee.

(18:20):
He's the, the showrunnerof, is it the politician?
That's what he currently does.
Uh,
uh, other stuff I would say he'sdoing that Kim k uh, sitcom thing.
The drama series where she'sa loyal, what's it called?
Dunno.
Oh dunno.
It has been announced clearly.
Very highly interest.
Shout out to my,
yeah, shout out to my fansof Kim Kardashian and Whale.

(18:41):
Uh, and No, but Kevin James is,you know, the king of Queens?
Uh, Paul Blot, more cop famously, but no.
So I don't know ifthey're using stage names.
No, I don't think
they are.
Okay.
So he's two friends are justcoincidentally known as, sorry.
Their names are Ryan Murphy.
Murphy and Kevin, Kevin James, Kevin.
And they start in this videowhere Neil, uh, confronts Superman

(19:05):
about the absence of Santa.
And then, but like the Santa Claus Neil,by putting on the hat becomes Santa.
But it's like a body horror sequence.
It's so disturbing.
It's a Tim
Burton like transformation, oractually it's kind of kronenberg,
like, it's, it's scary.
He's like, it seems like very painful.
Yeah, it's awful.
Um, not like, it's awful, but likeit's, Aw, I don't like body horror.

(19:28):
Okay.
Substance was a toughwatch for me personally.
Yeah.
And this begins a collaboration with.
Ryan and Kevin, that is still ongoingto this day we did not watch a lot of
their stuff because it is primarilyshort films and it does feel like it is
not sort of a, a mainline Neil creation.

(19:48):
Yeah.
It's Although they arehosted on his channel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean of course if you, of thethree, I was about to make a Destiny's
Child allegory, but I don't know ifthat's necessarily fair, but it's
like if I'm in Destiny's Child andwe release a new track, I'm gonna
get Beyonce to put it on her channel.
Is that
Yes.
I mean,
probably not.
Well, no, I understand that.

(20:09):
Yeah.
Rewind time is not on Lucy Liven,so we are not all like that.
But um, yeah, they still areposting on, uh, Neil's channel.
Um, but Neil will continue todo his own work on the channel,
but also Potter puppet pals.
So I'm gonna give us each.

(20:29):
A max of one minute to give our HarryPotter bonafides because it is obviously
a somewhat contentious topic and Idon't want us to get bogged down in
discussion of Harry Potter or the author.
So Lucy, are you a fan of Harry Potter?
I have read all the books.

(20:49):
I was a big fan ofHarry Potter as a child.
I was haine for multipleHalloweens in a row.
Very low effort Halloween costumeif you were a child with brown hair.
Um, both my parents were quiteinto Harry Potter as well.
It was like a family bonding activity.
Um, but I do think that j Rowling is aturf and it has, uh, put me off a lot
of the content in my adulthood, butI still appreciate the work for what

(21:14):
it is and did for me in my childhood.
Your turn,
I have read the books and seen the films.
Mm-hmm.
I think that the.
Movies are pretty mixed.
I don't have a specialaffinity fair of any of them.
I enjoy the first four books quite a lot.

(21:36):
I think that I have a lot ofissues with Voldemort and the
latter half of the series.
It's just very, um, the Good v evildynamic is a very children's bookie.
Yeah.
Uh, but yeah, I yeah.
Agree with your wider, um, concernsregarding the franchise and its creator.

(21:58):
Okay.
On the
fun stuff,
you don't wanna talkabout Fantastic Beasts?
No.
So I actually forgot it existed.
I love you.
Eddie Red Main, um, Eddie RedMain stands in this household.
So Neil Free, my boy Cga
on New Grounds had a series calledPotter Puppet Pals, where he did flash
animation of Harry Potter characters

(22:21):
basically, he would recreatesome of these on YouTube.
This time, rather than flashanimation, he had actual puppets
of the Harry Potter characters.
And if you are unaware, what part ofPuppet Pals is, is it's a series of.
You know, either original songs orcomedy bits featuring maybe five

(22:45):
or six of the Harry Potter cast.
I mean, I guess it's in the name.
It's quite literally like, I guess it'sa simple concept, but I suppose if you've
never seen it, then we need to explain it.
But this is, I think, the most viral videowe've talked about so far on the pod.
I think previously the most viewedvideos we've talked about had
about a hundred million views.

(23:05):
Mysterious ticking noises, sittingat 200 million on the original
video, not including anotherre-upload to the later developed.
Exclusive pot of Papa Pal's channel.
Originally everythinglived on Neil's channel.
So I think, I mean, please letus know in the comments, uh, of
the YouTube version of this pod.

(23:25):
If you had never heardof Pot of Papa Pal's.
'cause I, I'd like to know, but I feellike this was a pretty, pretty viral thing
among like, I don't wanna say children,but like young fans of Harry Potter,
because as we said in the opening ofthe show, you have even seen this video.
Is this so far in all of our researchfor the pod, is this the only video

(23:47):
you've actually seen prior to usstarting, like watching things?
I think so, yes.
Wow.
So kind of speaks to its,uh, cultural cut through.
Even someone who didn't watch YouTubewas, I feel like you would maybe say you
were like subjugated having to watch this.
Did you enjoy it at the time?
I dunno
if I even watched it or if I just.
Was through like cultural osmosisos exposed to what the premise is.

(24:12):
But I assume I watched it at somepoint or someone showed it to me.
Mm yes.
I would like to say that I believe thatthis was my introduction to YouTube.
So bit of a, well, okay.
I think for anyone watching,I think technically my first
YouTube video was shoes.
'cause I remember watching shoes.

(24:32):
But I believe this was my firstidea of like YouTube as a platform.
Not sure 'cause I think I got anew YouTube account, but I think
this could have been technicallylike my first subscription.
Maybe a hard to fact check.
But I remember going through Neil'schannel and watching all the pot of Papa
Pal's, and I remember as they came outin like 2007, 2008, 2009, it would be

(24:55):
like an event for me and my friends.
We'd be like, a new pot of Papa Pal's cameout and we'd all like watch it together.
Um, and I think maybe in a littlebit of a disturbing aspect, I knew
so many of these off my heart.
I believe I downloaded themonto my iPod, my iPod nano.
So I had them, I figured out howto do like a YouTube downloaded,
which is actually quite advancedas I would've been like 12.

(25:17):
Mm-hmm.
Um, in 2007.
So I downloaded all of them, putthem on my iPod nano and like
would watch them, uh, well aftermy mom turned the wifi modem off.
So
that is so crazy to admit.
So I, I actually held back a littlebit, obviously while we were watching
them for your benefit, but I do know alot of these, like, it awoke something

(25:40):
in me where I was like, it was likelay dormant, like a part of my brain.
I just don't
think there's a lot of re-watch ability.
Like, what do you mean?
I can't imagine watching them?
'cause you know, the jokes
go back in time.
Way less content available to meas like a middle school child.
It's not like I'd figuredout how to do like.
Internet piracy yet.
I mean, you did PirateNeil's videos on YouTube.

(26:03):
I mean, it's for private and personal use.
I just put them on my iPod,but I, no, look, I, I don't
think Neil Mines,
yeah, I don't think, I feellike, yeah, we'll get into that.
But we have decided that we thinkNeil is an absolute G. Um, but yeah,
love the mysterious ticking noise.
Very familiar with a lot of them.
Should we go through like acouple of the highlights in
the Potter Puppet PALS series?

(26:23):
Yeah.
I think you really should beleading this, given your intimate
knowledge with Potter puppet pals.
I think I've only seen themysterious ticking noise.
Really?
My YouTube account saidI had seen the Ginny one.
I think like I'd watched it through, Ihave no recollection of that, but I think
that would've maybe been us, like atsome point discussing this pod like.

(26:47):
Or discussing maybe.
Yeah,
yeah, yeah.
But I, I couldn't tellyou anything about it.
So, um, but yeah, we have the firstone, which is just potions class,
which I think maybe I had seen.
I sort of, I just knew Snape was involved.
Yeah.
And he probably is.
Is he your favorite popup pal's character?
No, I don't think Snap's my favorite.

(27:08):
Okay.
I do think, I mean, there is one,and I do, I have feel like I could
accidentally conflate a few of the videos'cause there's like kind of running
gags or like character gags, I guess.
Like Snape is very surly and you know,like from Harry Potter Snape does
those, like, I can teach you how tobottle wisdom in snare the senses.
Like Yeah.
Like Alan Rickman has a

(27:28):
very iconic perform performance.
Performance.
Mm-hmm.
And so the snake character inthis very much mirrors that.
Mm-hmm.
Unlike some of the other characters.
Do you have, do you havea favorite character?
I, I think that.
Probably just by virtue of himgetting the most screen time.
But the way that Harry is portrayedas especially like the chosen one.

(27:52):
Yeah.
And his sense of everythingmust be about Harry Potter.
Yeah.
That is obviously one of my primaryissues with the series in that like
Harry Potter is basically the book.
Jesus, you mean Jesus Christ book.
Like the actual Yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like it's so the chosen oneelement is like, it grates on me
so hard compared to the things Ilike about Harry, Harry Potter.

(28:12):
So time
where they actually poke fun at thatin the like text of the books where,
you know, do you remember it's in likethe fourth one or the fifth one where
her's like, you know, she just likesyou 'cause you're the chosen one and
Harry's like, I am the chosen one.
That's like the one time they makefun of it in like the entire like,
oh, isn't that in the movie?
I feel like, is it a movie inclusion?

(28:34):
I feel like that's a movie line.
Okay.
I'm sure, I mean, I have my, mychildhood, uh, friends who are,
and you know who you are if you'rewatching, who are Big Harry Potter fans.
I'm sure they can fact check that for us.
Yeah.
But I, yeah, they don't really acknowledgeit much within the actual, like text.
So having an entire series wherethey acknowledge that Harry's

(28:54):
kind of like a narcissistic, likesociopath is like really funny.
Um, Hermione sort of like, she's kindof just like a nerd or like a, a do good
kind of character, which I guess is fine.
I like Ron a lot.
Ron's voice, which is just, theyjust like bully him for being like,
he's just a loser.
He's just, well, it's sort of like theyjust portray him as like a beta Yeah.

(29:16):
To Harry's alpha.
Yeah.
And his voice.
Well, look, that's so funny to the
real media.
So like they're right on about that.
But Ron just having thathighish, like, I'm so sorry.
Harry is so like the beautiful voice.
Very funny.
Um, Neville.
Is a squash slash potato.
Everyone else is a puppetwhen they introduce Neville.

(29:36):
Who?
Neville.
As we were discussing as we watchedthis, Neville kind of, I mean, yeah,
like obviously we know the story,but like Neville kind of, you were
saying he's a what's it a pick me.
You said Neville was a pickme in the actual like text.
'cause they are tryingto sneak out of the Oh.
And he's like, I'm gonna tell,
I don't know if I said he was a pick me.
No, you
definitely did.

(29:57):
But I do remember, yeah.
I was like, oh, he's a bit annoying.
Hey.
And having as a, as a like a squashslash potato where they've just like
drawn on him in Sharpie is funny.
Um, but do you, do you thinkyou have a favorite video?
I think you liked Wizard Swears the most.
No, no, no, no.
Really?
The one, the Vortex is the best one.
Okay.
Yeah.
Um,
because it's where we get introduced to.
Cool.
Ron, which is Ron.

(30:18):
It's Ronaldo now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He, he wears a leather jacket.
He gets a good song.
He says he's Ronaldo like.
That was funny.
I like that.
This has,
this one I think has the best song.
So like Underrated Pot of PapaPower potentially, because it has
the song, which is like a BeachBoys sort of parody, which is
like the, my name is Harry Potter.

(30:40):
I'm the king of the school andhas my favorite line, which was, I
defeated Voldemort when I was a baby.
I was even awesome when I was a baby.
Mm. But my parents died when I was a baby.
I grew up abused without any love.
And then they go like, shouldwe do what kind of a banger?
Like, and I think when we we'reseeing like the Neil, anytime
there's like a musical element,Neil is like, it just it, it rocks.

(31:04):
Mm. But yeah, I was a big pot ofPapa Pal's fan in middle school,
so a lot of this, this was justlike a fun nostalgia trip for me.
Did you remember subscribing to theRiga channel, or do you recall it
being the pot of Puppet pal's channel?
Because for context, he doeseventually split his main channel.
To from, sorry, a separate, hecreates a separate Potter puppet

(31:27):
Powers channel where the rest ofthe Papa puppet powers videos go.
I
remember the announcement videowhere he's like announcing it.
It's actually announced by Harry,like the puppet being like,
we're gonna have our own channel.
Um, and it's sort of like done in a metaway, which is quite playful and fun.
Um, but I remember thatannouncement coming and then
subscribing to the new channel.

(31:47):
But I had previously I think, beensubscribed to Neil's channel as well.
Um, which, yeah, I admittedlyas a child I didn't quite have
as much interest in Neil's othervery obscure works, which have a
comparatively much lower view count.
It sort of seemed like his channelpopped off and was very like
Potter Pub pals was the main thing.
Um, so it was nice to revisitsome of his other work as well.

(32:08):
'cause I think it's actually really good.
But
they still, I feel, sit around75,000 to 200,000 views.
Yeah.
So he's still popping off, I think.
Because he is not a frequent uploader.
Yeah.
So I do think there's somededicated audience that will
watch most stuff that he puts out,
but I think it made sense for him to splitPotter Papa Pal's into his own channel

(32:29):
because I, I actually remember it, it'skind of reminding me, seeing the uploads
and I'd be like, oh, a new upload fromNeil Potter, puff Pal's my favorite.
And then it'll be something likeinsane and like very cursed.
And I, I think at the time Ididn't quite appreciate the more
absurdist stuff that was not relatedto a franchise I already knew.

(32:50):
So I think splitting off into the newchannel, uh, and then subsequently
uploading not that many more videospast, like the existing ones.
I think they maybe didno, four or five more.
Yep.
Um,
you would expect it if it, like you'redoing a new channel, he was gonna be
like, I'm gonna upload hundreds of pot ofpuppet powers and really take this, you

(33:11):
know, cash in on this mainstream success.
But I did wanna shout out Harry'snightmares, which I think is where
you, you really get the sense thatNeil is like, I'm going to see how
far we can take this concept becauseit features, uh, Harry in like a
dream sequence giving birth to Ron.
Yeah.

(33:32):
Which is so like we, we've come sofar from, uh, the mysterious ticking
noise, but that visual was somethinglike straight out of a mainline
Neil video, so I quite enjoyed that.
Yeah.
It also has, the Hermione got a, I'mgonna try and do it in the hurry,
was like, Hermione was addicted tomethamphetamines and then she tried
to kill us with a hammer, like, and Iremember again like all these lines,

(33:54):
like tried to kill us with a hammer.
I'm like, I remember all of us being like,he, he, he cut around the school laptop.
I was a really cool kid.
Yeah.
At the time, pot of puppetpowers is a huge sensation.
He wins.
YouTube awards for this.
Mm-hmm.
Which is a fan vote and he follows upwith it by posting a 10 minute video of

(34:17):
him caressing the award to his channel.
He's
wearing like a fake mustache as well.
Yeah.
It's very, very cute.
Um, very, very charming.
But there are like toursof the puppet pals.
They do.
What's a Yule Ball event?
What do you mean?
What's a Yu Ball event?
Explain.
Well,
you know what the Yuel Ball is.
Yeah.
But I don't know what, whatit is in the real world.

(34:39):
It would be
like a holiday party withlike a Harry Potter theme.
So it would depend on scale.
Have you not heard, you know howlike now they do like bridgeton balls
reluctantly?
Yes.
Yeah.
So you understand the concept.
They're like fan versions of existingparties and balls and things from fantasy.
Not I You are looking So sorry
guys.
Uh, it's not Harry Potter.

(35:00):
I have a distaste for fan culture.
Yeah, it
actually, I say a song with apodcast, but that's different.
No, I, yeah, we actually have had genuinearguments about this because like I
was very much involved in fan culture.
I think we just had differentinternet experiences.
Um, I had like my, I would say it'sactually a pretty mild fan girl area, but

(35:20):
like I was on Tumblr, I was, you know,I saw all that, like fandom, Tumblr, um,
I read Fan Fix and things like that aslike a middle schooler, high schooler.
Um, and you just weren'tacross like fan art.
Like I thought fan art was so cool.
Like people are so talented and interYeah, we have differing opinions on, or
different experiences with fan culture.

(35:41):
I used to go to conventions.
I cosplayed a littlebit when I was younger.
Kind of wanna do it again,kind of cosplay's, really fun.
But yeah,
I just
find
fandom very much similar to IJustine and standing a company.
Mm. I feel it overwhelminglyis focused on.
Being a fan of a corporation'sproduct, like an intellectual property.

(36:05):
And it's very different to say,I am, I enjoy this artist's work.
Like, I like the films of this director.
It's like a fan is someone who'slike, I like the characters of Harry
Potter and I am just not like that.
Yeah, I, I understand that.
I think that there is a lot of,I think a lot of young people

(36:26):
that is the Harry Potterpolice that come to get me.
I think a lot of young,oh lord, it's the fandom.
It's actually the fandom.
Police come in to get you becausethey're very, you know, vigilantly
protective over their own.
It's the auras,
that's Harry Potter, right?
That's like the, thepolice of Harry Potter.
But yeah, I think, and you can seeit with Potter Papa Pals, but using

(36:47):
like a very popular fandom, likeit's creative shorthand to a degree,
and you can feel any type of wayabout that, but it means that like.
We can go into that.
We know who Harry is, we knowwho Haman is, we know who Ron is.
We get like the concept.
So then if you are like someone who'slike a young creative who's wanting to

(37:08):
do, whether it's like, you know, likepot pop pals, like a Com comedic video
or alternatively like a fan artist orwhatever, it's a way for them to, I
guess practice that creativity and thenthey go on to do other original works.
Like the amount of, and spare me ifanyone else is not like a Tumblr user
from like the two thousands, 2010s preYahoo acquisition or like slightly post.

(37:31):
But seeing like a lot of fanartists, they would make this
like really beautiful fan art.
And again, it's like the timespent creating a character and
stuff like that is time consuming.
Um, and they would do reallybeautiful fan art and you would
then go to this artist's page andbe like, wow, they're so talented.
Like they've done these beautifulpaintings or digital drawings or whatever.
And then you would go onand see their own original.

(37:54):
Characters and original worksand same with like fanfic
writers and things like that.
I don't know, I feel a bit protectiveor like, I guess, I guess I'm more
empathetic to fan culture and how alot of people use it as one channel
to, you know, output their creativityand also get people in the door.
You know?
How many people like Harry Potter?

(38:15):
How many people do you think who likedHarry Potter then went on to become
fans of Neil Cesa Riga, outside of thePotter, Papa Pals, I think quite a few.
I would count myself among them.
I followed Neil and we shouldmention his sister Emmy.
Also worked on Potter Papa Pals aswell as a couple of his other friends.
So then I believe, and especially whenthey were on Tumblr, 'cause Neil and

(38:36):
Emmy both had Tumblrs, I believe I wenton to follow their tumblers as well.
So I would argue, I don't know,it's like a, it's like a top
of funnel marketing technique.
Do you think.
Maybe.
Yeah.
Look, I'm gonna leave it.
I'm a, I'm not gonna go too hard on theconcept, uh, at this time, but I want,

(38:58):
speaking of Neil's other projects, yeah.
Look, I want to segue into this musicalstuff, which we did see in the Pot
of Puppet Powers videos, but he isseparate to his YouTube career, a
musician with releasing music underseveral different names and projects.
But in terms of ones, we wanted to shoutout, because they're on the YouTube

(39:19):
channel, he does a series of albums,which are all mashups focused by Smash
Mouth's, Allstar, which is the, Hey,now you're an Allstar song from Shrek.
So
that was like a viral disease inmeme culture, especially on like

(39:40):
Tumblr and stuff like Shrek memes.
I kind of feel like nowShrek memes are like.
I don't wanna say they give me the ick,but Shrek memes have been around, or like
the idea of like Shrek or All Star wasvery like 2010s, like early 2010s vibes.
Yeah.
And now I'm seeing like people goinglike Shrek Rave and stuff like that.
I'm like, maybe it's my own self cringe.
But I'm like, it's, it's,it's like millennial meme.

(40:02):
I'm almost like, I justthink it's secular.
Like we, Shrek is currentlydown, people are hating that.
Like Shrek five announcement.
Yeah.
But TikTok had the Shrek trendagain and it's like, yeah.
Shrek memes have now been a mainstayof, you know, meme culture for
like a decade
plus.
Yeah.
Crazy.

(40:23):
Like basically the whole, andnone of them rely on any of the
latest Shrek films it seems.
It's like you only need tosee Shrek one and Shrek two.
Yeah.
No one knows what happened in Shrek four.
Um, so it'll be very interesting to see.
And also, sorry, the Shrek andAnnouncement video this week had him.

(40:43):
Reacting to Shrek memes.
The memes.
Yeah.
Crazy.
Which is crazy.
And that's like the first shot of theactual film that, you know, Dreamworks
wanna make a billion dollars on.
Yeah, they do.
Like they're doing the likesexy dancing Shrek meme.
Yes.
Which is, yeah.
Crazy.
But the, the reception to all thesemashup albums and they feature all star
to like a decreasing degree because hestill released one, say, five years ago,

(41:08):
which from what I've read only includessmash mouth in a very like, subtle way.
And they use a lot of other twothousands and 2010s pop music to uh,
like form the basis of the album.
Mm-hmm.
But it has a very like positivereception so people respect what
he's doing in the mashup space.
There's also the Lenny Kravitzlyric video, which is, uh.

(41:33):
You are.
I wanna, you made a note thatyou, you cried at this video.
It was so funny.
Well, for anyone watching on YouTubewith the visual component, we'll just
include the screenshot of the openinglike scene, which is like a default
Windows movie maker, like title setup.
I don't, I don't know how to describe it.

(41:54):
And this was when, I think, whenI was watching this, I was like,
I think Neil Neil's style ofhumor is so like early Tumblr.
And I'm not saying that like Neil's humoris early Tumblr, but like early Tumblr is
like influenced by like that Neil styleof like just absurdist comedy because.
A Windows movie makertitle screen isn't funny.

(42:16):
Mm. Well I feel like an audience, if youare thinking, what does this look like?
Think if you are in the 2010sand you click a video that
was uploaded in like 2008.
'cause you wanna hear a song onYouTube, you're showing your friend,
and it has that title where it'sliterally just plain color, has a
font that like fades in and it's justlike, Lenny Kravitz, I wanna fly.

(42:39):
Yeah.
But it's like, I dunno how to describe it.
It's like if someone made it as fast aspossible with as little car as possible,
like Lenny Kravitz, I Wanna Fly.
It's like some of the words are likeon different lines, like they haven't
even bothered to go in and enter it.
So it's like spaced outevenly and stuff like that.
The
copyright thing also.
Oh yeah, it's,
I can't, I need to tell you, I was like,I had tears in my eyes and maybe that

(43:02):
says something about my sense of humorand that it's like irreparably broken
or just forged in this kind of internet.
Humor, but it says like,copyright 2014, no copyright
intended, or something like that.
Which that's also really funny 'causeit's like, it's, it's so that early style
of like, people not knowing how to usecomputers, people just like, just chucking

(43:26):
things in and like hitting export, notactually like spending any time on it.
I don't know.
But the actual, it's so funny contentof the video and the song is that Neil
has rearranged the Lenny Kravitz song,I Wanna Fly so that the, uh, the lyrics
basically take on alternative meaning.

(43:47):
But because of the way the videois uploaded and initially presents
itself, I think the idea is youcould be an unsuspecting viewer
looking up this song and then betricked, quote unquote, into clicking
this one where, uh, you'd be like.
Am I hallucinating?
Like, sorry, Lenny Kravitz is saying what?

(44:07):
Yeah.
Do you know what this remindedme of when we were watching it?
Yeah.
The karaoke circumcision channel.
Yeah, a
hundred percent.
For those of you, sorry, this is avery slight tangent, apart from Neil,
but there is this karaoke channel.
I dunno how I found it.
I can't remember.
I found it.
You found it?
I read about it online.

(44:28):
Okay.
Max read about it online allegedly.
Are you sure?
Okay, I'll, I'll take your word for it.
But essentially it is a YouTubechannel that is like presented
like many, like a karaoke channel.
I feel like everyone hasseen one of those before.
Again, you type in, you know,blah, blah, blah, whatever song
it is, karaoke like Justin Bieber,as long as you love me karaoke.

(44:49):
And this is one of the things,and there's nothing about
this, it looks very innocuous.
It's just like a a, a lyric karaokechannel, but it's like the karaoke tracks.
But they have the lyrics.
To be increasingly around, um, a storylineof someone's child getting circumcised.
Yeah.
I dunno, the

(45:09):
perspective of the senior is that theywish they could prevent this circumcision.
Yeah.
Or save their child now thatthey've been circumcised because
they've been divorced from their
ex-partner.
Yeah.
There's like law that I, um, this isone that I frequently, I was gonna
say, I bring this out at parties.
You can only really do it once, but like,I have friends who like doing karaoke,

(45:32):
so I'll be like, guys, let's do karaoke.
And there's one that's like TotosAfrica and it starts out pretty normal,
but then it starts transitioninginto like, you know, oh, something,
something full skin away from you.
So it's kind of a banger.
Anyway, sorry guys.
Just need to talk about that.
'cause that is one of myfavorite niche YouTube channels.
Could we have done an episode on that?

(45:53):
Probably not.
I feel like that's the extent of the,
you're not dragging medown the circumcision.
Uh.
Timeline.
Uh, speaking of finally Music Bustin,which is his Ghostbusters theme.
So good remix.
So good.
Which as I'm sure you can tell by thetitle, there is a lot of play on the

(46:13):
fact that Bustin makes me feel goodis inherently just a crazy lyric.
Um, but very funny in that he, he spinsthe end of the song to be primarily
about I Ain't Afraid Of No Bed.
Mm.
And it's about gettinga good night's sleep.
Yeah.

(46:33):
And he does like little edits ofthem to have like honk shoe stuff,
which we are, we are, we love theHonk shoe meme in this household.
Um, it's very good.
It just, everything is so good.
Like we didn't, again,watch all of Neil's videos.
We just kind of clicked through andpicked ones that looked of interest to us.
But it's like every single videowe were like, yeah, that was good.

(46:55):
That was also funny.
But, uh, I feel like you had a favoritemusic video, which actually didn't
have any lyrics really at all, andwould you like to talk about it?
Are you talking about Brody Quest?
Yeah.
Or Rugrats Acid remix?
Uh, Brody Quest.
Brody Quest is the probably second mostwell known Neil Riga production after

(47:20):
the Pot of Puppet pals, in that it hasbeen discussed on the Colbert Show.
Mm-hmm.
The song has been sold in rock band.
To give you an explanation of whatthe video is, it's like a return
to Neil's animation and a mutationstyle from his earlier work.

(47:41):
And it basically involves.
The actor Adrian Brody, whohopefully is one best actor
Oscar by the time this releases.
We'll see, really, he basically,him a still of him, slides
across various backgrounds.
It's like him going across New YorkCity, various earthly backgrounds, but he
eventually transcends into space, and thenit, the background's become increasingly

(48:07):
sort of psychedelic until you get like theappearance that like Adrian Brody is God.
Meanwhile, like the Neil Originalmusic plays in the background.
And this became sortof a meme at the time.
People did their own spins onBrody Quest featuring like other
creators or other celebrities.
And Neil encouraged this, like hereleased the audio for people to use.

(48:29):
But it is very funny to me thatAdrian Brody himself has been
asked basically about Brody Quest.
What, what are yourthoughts on Brody Quest?
I, I liked it.
I don't know.
I, I'm not like, I don't think I'veseen a lot of Adrian Brody work, so I
think if there was You've seen him on
SNL?
Yeah.

(48:50):
Yeah.
You're just laughing.
For those of the viewers, well, ERswho don't know Adrian Brody Wars
banned from being on SNL for goingoff script in terms of like, he went
against the plan and agreed plan.
It's obviously SNL is live.
Um, and he does like, yeah, a very, I
think he's in blackface.

(49:11):
Yeah, he's in blackface and doeslike a ian like type of impression,
which is just quite offensive.
Uh, it's, it's funny that he like,it's, it's not funny, but it's like
funny that he did that because it'slike an insane thing to do, I feel
is the way I would phrase that.
But yeah, I'm not likea big Adrian Brody head.

(49:31):
I don't think I've seen a lot ofAdrian Brody work, so I feel like
this more so than other things.
I was a bit like any subtext of it beingAdrian Brody I think was lost on me a bit.
But maybe he doesn'tmean it isn't much really
like, okay.
The only thing would be heis quite a serious actor.
Okay.
In
terms of like role selection.
But he's not a serious man

(49:53):
like to do that on snl.
That's not a serious person.
Yeah.
But yeah, he, but he's like,yeah, he takes serious roles.
So I guess that's the thing.
It's probably the same asdoing like Daniel Day Lewis.
Yeah.
Adrian.
A bit more contemporary.
Sure.
But you get where we're going.
What I mentioned before, theRugrats acid remix, this horrific

(50:15):
bite I did kind of scare you.
Yeah, you did try and getme to name the Rugrats.
I could only say one of them, I think.
Did I get one Stewie?
Uh, no,
he's not a Rugrat.
That's
from Family Guy.
Stew is the dad.
Oh yeah.
Look.
Okay.
So I got none of the Rugrats.
If you put Chucky infront of me, I could have.

(50:36):
It would've come to me.
But
you didn't watch Rugrats as a child?
I've seen the Rugrats movie.
Okay.
I did watch Rugrats as a child,and I think it's really cursed.
I don't know if anyone else agrees,but I think Rugrats Cow and Chicken
Courage, the Cowardly Dog, any likeCartoon Network or like Nickelodeon
cartoons, they just have this vibeto them, which is so like, just grim.

(50:58):
I don't know what to say.
Like they're just very, there'slike a darkness to them.
Like a lot of the, I mean, not tobe like these childhood cartoons
were actually seriously fucked up.
Like not to be like that.
But there is like, you know,adult themes in these and they're
meant for like young children.
I don't know, guys, I'll take your word
for it.
Also, the Rugrats movieis like traumatizing.

(51:18):
Are you thinking of theone where they go to Paris?
Yeah.
Or the, oh, have you not seen the onewhere they're like in the forest crying
and there's like a monkey and stuff?
Like I don't think Think so.
No.
Okay.
That the original Rugrats movieis like, you think Tommy is going
to kill his brother at one point?
Anyway, don't worry about it.
We can talk about it.
Honestly,
I actually don't knowif I've seen the movie.

(51:40):
I think I've just got on the Ridea Dream World and watched bits of
the movie in the line of the ride.
Anyway,
all to say Rugrats is kind of, thisis like a horror piece, I would say.
It's very scary.
Um, it's like quite psychedelic.
It has like, the noses of thetwo dads, like emerging together.

(52:00):
Tommy's head grows like spider legsand like crawls towards the screen.
Uh, they also cut it with like footagefrom like horrific world events.
Like they cut in like nine11 and stuff like that into
this like Rugrats, uh, thing.
It's also like the Rugrats themeis quite psychedelic, but again,
you're not really familiar.
It, it's like a play.
I know.
It's like, yeah.

(52:23):
Yeah.
But like the, the visuals as wellare like psychedelic colors and
building blocks and things, so
I just like this 'causeit's like pregnant Elsa.
Anytime you take like childhood media and.
Do spooky stuff, do itand put it on YouTube.
Yeah.
I imagine children watchingit and being freaked out.
But the thing is, yeah, I feel like thedifference with that though is like Elsa

(52:44):
Gate, which I do actually think I haveit in our, you know, episode planning doc
that will at some point cover Elsa Gate.
'cause it's like just sobizarre and was like a YouTube
phenomenon for a period of time.
But like Rugrats does lend itself to bekind of scary and dark, whereas I don't
think like Frozen does in the same way.
But anyway, it was bad vibes,but it was a good piece of art.

(53:06):
But it was scary to me to Disney
v Nickelodeon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't know it good.
Oh, talking about children's media?
Yeah.
Yes.
So Neil does still do some sort ofsketch short comedy slash genre films.
Um, and they do feature his system, uh,sorry, his sister quite prominently.

(53:27):
Mm-hmm.
Jumanji in real life is one we watched.
You are a fan of Jumanji.
I love, yeah,
so I watched Jumanji a lot as a child.
Um, one of my parents was a big RobinWilliams fan, so I watched a lot of
like Robin Williams movies as a kid.
Saw Jumanji several times.
Um, that movie also is kind oflike crazy, but you haven't seen

(53:49):
the Robin Williams No movie.
But essentially this sketch is themlike doing kind of like, okay, we
have Jumanji, which if you guys dunno,Jumanji is like a enchanted board game.
That's kind of thing.
And it's kind of like to death note,not really, but it's like you do
things in the board game and thenthey happen in the real world.
So if you're playing in your familyhome and you know, you land on the

(54:10):
tiger square, then like a tigerappears and it like crawls down.
Yeah, no, I haven't seen yet.
You are like,
I thought they were in a video game.
No, the Rock
is like a teenager.
No, no,
no.
That's all the Jumanji I've seen.
No.
So, yeah, but the original thing islike, you're playing the board game and
it's, it's kind of like a Ouija board.
Like, it's like you shouldn't playJumanji because then like you're trapped
in the house and you become enteredinto the jungle and whatever else.

(54:33):
So in this video, they're playingJumanji and like they're landing on the
Tiger square and like there's no tiger.
Like, nothing's happening.
And they, they do this cut, which is likeso funny to me where they do this cut
to, like, looking at a Robin Williams,
it's, it's like the, the shotis established of the kids
playing the game and then out offocus on the wall behind them.

(54:56):
During the course of the shot,the focus shifts to the back wall
and there is a portrait of RobinWilliams doing like his most like.
Smiling dead poets.
I'm an inspirational figure.
Look.
And you found that very funny.
Well, yeah, because like it's, it's like,it's a family portrait in your family.
It's, it's so silly.

(55:16):
Um, and then they address it like theyknow him personally and then they take
offense when the game isn't working.
Like they're like, thisisn't like the movie at all.
So then I think they burn, they burnRobin's portrait in like the fire to be
like, screw you, Robin Jumanji isn't real.
And then spoilers the payoff of thevideo is that, sorry, I shouldn't

(55:37):
laugh, but like they're, they openthe newspaper and it's like Robert
Williams died in a fire and they'relike, oh my god, Jumanji is real.
And that's, that's a op.
And they killed Roman Williams.
It's so,
it's so evil and stupid.
Was he already dead atthe time of this video?
I don't
believe he was dead.
No.
I don't think they would do it.
Okay.
If he was actually dead.
Mm. Yeah.
You'd hope.
Well you, yeah.

(55:58):
Not sure anyway, but itwas a really good video.
IRP Robert Williams, RRP Williams.
Actually, I'm always
saying that.
Comedians are like thephilosophers of our time.
You have never said that.
And we lost a great philosopher whenRobin died and he was inspirational
to me, to many in my generation.
What's your
favorite Robin Williams movie?

(56:18):
Dead Poet Society.
What's your second favorite?
Robin Williams movie.
Alad Third favorite
Flubber.
Nah, you gotta Stan Fern Gully.
Uh, yeah.
Have you
seen that?
No.
Australian themed.
Animated movie.
Big Studio conflict.
'cause Robin Williams was thegenie and they're like, you
can't go work for not Disney.

(56:39):
But he was like, but I wannabe baddy in Fern Gully.
And then he has a songwhere he's like, I'm bad.
Nope.
Okay.
Well one of us had a more enrichedchildhood that was outdoors and one
of us went to Blockbuster a lot more.
I. It was me.
Oh.
I was like, is Fern Gully real?
One of, did I, one of us,

(56:59):
one of us had divorcedparents and one of us did not.
I think is the case.
I
think you're just moreculturally Australian.
Like, I've never heard of Fern.
I didn't even live
here for my childhood.
Look.
Yeah.
We'll, we'll have this, we'llfinish this fight off camera.
Off, off, off the record.
The final video I wanted totalk about is the why I haven't
been uploading video from Neil.

(57:21):
Common video from YouTubers,they establish an audience.
The audience is like, where are my treats?
Where's my content?
And the creator decides to basicallyfront up and be like, this is
why I haven't been doing videos.
I think typically itcomes from like over time.
The creator increases theirproduction value and puts more

(57:44):
stock into making YouTube videos.
It's not a hobby anymore, it's their job.
And they also are like maybemore personally invested in
the quality of the videos.
And then the videos get better andeveryone loves the videos, but then
they expect for them to be makingthose videos in the same frequency.
Mm-hmm.
But it's like you can't makea masterpiece every week.
I would say like there's an ex, I thinkit's an unfair expectation, but equally

(58:06):
it's like how do you, you know, how doyou serve your audience and make them
happy while also maintaining the levelof, I mean, depends on the creator.
I think a lot of the ones we've watchedso far, you know, mosh, Ryan Heger,
are making like sketch videos, whichinvolve scripting and ideation and

(58:28):
like creative concepts, which is verydifferent to something like vlogging,
which is like you're going about,you know, your daily life, et cetera.
So I think
you're being a very charitable.
I think a lot of creators have a, maybe
I have a sense of empathy becauseit is hard to come up with videos
of times They like come out
of the blocks, they're firing, they'repassionate, and then over time they
become increasingly interested in otherpursuits or you know, the reality of life.

(58:53):
They have a job.
Things like that.
Like gets in the way.
You can also
become disillusioned.
Like Yeah, exactly.
You get
become burnt out.
It could all, yeah, it's burnout.
What if like, I think, you know, a lotof ex creators experience, like you
work really hard in a video that youthink is gonna do really well, that
is your new, you know, I'm doing a newseries, it's gonna be my new thing.
Everyone's gonna love thisway more than my old stuff and
everyone's gonna like know.
We just want the old stuff.

(59:14):
And then that can becreatively unsatisfying
and a lot of creators, you know, it'svery easy to come up with big ideas,
but the execution of those takes a lotof hard work and editing and they can
be found lacking in that department.
So yeah.
But that's not to say that Neil islike this, because while he does talk
about how he hasn't been uploading.

(59:35):
It quickly becomes apparent thatthis video is an excuse to depict
him being eaten by a skull and thenhe becomes a skull and the video
finishes with him as a talking skull.
And do you, I think we're quite tickledby the skeleton humor as someone who
is a fan of skeleton based jokes.

(59:58):
Is that correct?
You are so confused.
'cause I actually had to explain, Ifeel like I have to explain this every
like three to six months when skeletonhumor comes up, that I think skeletons,
you're looking at me like I'm deranged.
I think skeletons are really funny.
There's this really specialsubsect of what I would call
like absurdist to skeleton humor.

(01:00:19):
Anyone who knows skull trumpet, I thinkskull trumpet is a comedy masterpiece.
I think skull trumpet is really funny.
I also think whenever I justthink of the concept of, um.
He skeleton army, which is justthe skeleton army, but they've
spel, like misspelled the, areyou aware of like, I have no idea
what you're talking about,

(01:00:39):
but just the idea of like he skeletonarmy, which is very like, yeah.
Again, like 2014 Tumblr.
This is like all very, he is touching onwhat I would describe as like formative
humor points to me that I found reallyfunny when I was 15, and obviously by
the fact that I'm struggling to getthrough talking about this segment.
I still think skeletons orskulls as a concept are really

(01:01:02):
funny when they're funny.
Otherwise I think they're scary, but likeI don't wanna go to like the catacombs.
I think that would be scary.
I don't wanna see like actual skulls.
I don't want body horror.
I don't want like actual spookystuff, but the concept of like a
like spooky scary skeletons, youget that spooky scary skeletons.
I was a huge fan of spooky scaryskeletons to like a disturbed and

(01:01:23):
unfunny degree that it's like, itwasn't that funny, but I made it
my personality for like two months.
I am glad you already love me.
I feel like this would be,
I think it's pretty harmless actually.
I, I'm just bemused'cause like, I don't know.
It's not, it's so, they're just so silly.
It's just not a, it's
not like, you know, some peoplelike, I like standup comedy.
I like cringe comedy.

(01:01:45):
And you're like, I like skeleton comedy.
I'm like, wow.
It's slim pickings out here.
They're skeleton comedy fans.
But
it good.
It's good.
He gets his arm eaten upby the little skeleton.
I agree.
Then he becomes the skeleton, theskeletons talking is so funny.
It's the
best why I haven't beenuploading video yet.
It's quite actually similar towhen creators started to do sort

(01:02:07):
of absurd takes on their 4 millionor so subscriber milestone videos.
Yeah.
Um, it's like a, it's like a staplevideo, but you do a unique spin on it
and actually makes it more watchable.
Mm-hmm.
And we all know that, you know.
Content is king on YouTube, and if youcan make ad revenue from your why I
haven't been uploading video, then yeah.

(01:02:29):
You know, sure.
There's an ulterior motivehere to make it watchable.
Okay.
Neil, in the present day, heis, I would say inactive to
a sense on his main channel.
That's not to say he's not in content.
He creates content with our friends thatwe mentioned, Ryan Murphy and Kevin James.

(01:02:49):
It is a bit, um, sporadic.
They did a live stream recently.
They do both Neil and as a collective.
The three boys have Patreons with I wouldsay very, very modest paid followings.
Mm-hmm.
And it does seem that Neil whogot married somewhat recently and
had, uh, his first child Oh, ispotentially, I didn't know that.

(01:03:11):
Oh, spoilers.
Oh, he's potentially, um, and hiswife is a, an illustrator I believe.
Yeah.
She
makes like graphic novels,um, which is really cool.
Yeah, I think being a graphic novelistis like one of the coolest jobs.
I'm in awe of artists'cause I can't draw anyway.
I just think artists areso, I have such Art envy.
Art envy.
Yeah.
Look, you might have, uh, parentalenvy of Neil because it seems he

(01:03:36):
is being a dad to his children.
Wow.
And YouTube has taken a step back.
Maybe I just have dad envy,
but in terms of legacy, we made a note.
Neil seems based so of course likehe is, he's pioneered and a mutation.
He's been very influential interms of his style of content.

(01:04:00):
Yeah.
He created like a Mega smash fan workthat is one of, includes one of the most
viewed YouTube videos of all time, but.
There is two specific videos that wepicked as a Neil Seems based example.
Yeah.
The first being he made a videotargeting Shane Dawson and Ray.

(01:04:22):
Ray, William Johnson.
Yeah.
In
the early 2010s.
Do you remember this video?
I don't know.
Can't remember what it's called, butI remember us watching it and I was
very surprised because we've seen othercreators thus far, like referencing
other big YouTubers, but in like a,like an admiring way in being like

(01:04:42):
a, you know, doing a tribute to thembeing like, shout out to this person.
Or being like, you know,taking elements from their, you
know, I guess like mannerisms.
He just
called it, and it was in 2010 Tribute toShane Dawson TV and Ray William Johnson.
Oh
my gosh.
Um, and so this video is like, I wouldsay it's like a, a musical slideshow.

(01:05:02):
Of their thumbnails, which if you haven'tseen Shane Dawson and Ray William Johnson
thumbnails, they were very of the timeof YouTube, which I think was in, this
was like 2008, 2009, 2010 maybe, whereit's usually like a YA bright yellow or
bright red background, which is funny'cause we do bright red thumbnails,
but it's a bit of a different vibe.

(01:05:23):
And it would usually be them makinglike a, a YouTube face, which,
you know, is like doing like asoy face, like, you know, kind
of, you know, an exclamation vibe.
And then it would usually have apicture of someone with large boobs
or some type of like sexualized image.
Um.
And they would try and find a way toshoehorn that into the content, even if

(01:05:45):
that wasn't like what the video was about.
Um, and even like Mosh,were guilty of doing this.
And yeah, mosh
loved sexy thumbnail.
Yeah, the, the, the hot babe in thumbnailtrope, which is definitely a bit of a
hallmark of, you know, early YouTube.
So this video is just aslideshow of Shane Dawson and
Ray William Johnson's thumbnails.

(01:06:06):
And he, like, because of the faces they'redoing, they often have like open mouth, so
he makes like a different musical, like aoh, or like, uh, and it, he turns it into
like a, a classical music sort of song.
Um,
very effective musical disc track.
Yeah.
It's actually kind of sleigh, becauseI saw this initially and I was like,
this seems bizarre that like, Iwas genuinely was like, this is an

(01:06:29):
actual tribute to these YouTubers.
Like he, it doesn't seem like, youknow, I mean para socially, I don't know
Neil, but I was like, this seems odd.
Um, but he literally wasbasically being like.
You guys make bad content.
It sucks.
Can I also just say, I would like tomake a note, uh, in thinking about this,
I don't think any of Neil's contentleans on misogyny as a comedic crutch.

(01:06:52):
Um, you are probably correct.
We didn't vet everything.
Yeah.
What if we're canceling him?
You know, there is a fair amount of,uh, fat phobia in pot or puppet pals.
Well, but isn't, but is ITTdepiction or is it endorsement?
You know, well, because
Harry is shown to be a pretty like,terrible person, there are some
points where Harry makes jokes aboutRon being fat, but like Harry is

(01:07:15):
shown to be like, basically crushed.
I,
I think it's funny,
but I
Your mileage may vary.
Yeah.
But, but like, I guess there's no, Iguess, what's the term I'm looking for?
He's not like, uh, punching down.
In really any of his comedy or
I don't know.
Yeah, he doesn't, but it's notreally first person, so it's, it's

(01:07:36):
a bit tough of a standard to appear.
But I would say what you mean is Neil,his comedy, while it can skew like adult
in themes 'cause like people get murderedand stuff, like there's a theme of death.
He doesn't have uh, sort of anysort of the unsavory of some of
the creators of the time in termsof the targets of their humor.

(01:08:00):
Yeah.
Again, not that YouTube is limitedto smash or to Heger, but to his
like, I guess peers at the timeand also ones that you are now
familiar with having seen them.
But like both Smosh and Ryan makevideos where there are like women
being really ditzy and that isportrayed as the joke, like that they
are, you know, dumb hot women and.

(01:08:23):
I think there's only one video wherethat I have seen on Neil's channel
where he starts to play into thislike dumb, like valley girl trope.
But that is immediately subverted.
It's the, um, the Zach Efron video.
Oh yeah, the Troy Bolton
video.
The slumber party.
Yeah.
It's like a slumber party.
So they're depicted as like, you know,dumb teenage slumber party, but then
it's immediately subverted becauseit's like not, do you know what I mean?

(01:08:45):
Like the, the joke isn't that their
No.
And also that is like a, a play up of.
The depiction of the slumber party.
Yeah.
Like screen or like Sasha.
Yeah.
Horror stuff.
So I dunno, I just wanted to, so thatwas just, I just wanted to add to that
because we're talking about, we thinkNeil is based the theory that Neil Yeah.
Is sleigh.
Well, and
yeah,
he did do this video, which is called1 2 3 4 5 6 Pokemon, which starts

(01:09:10):
out as if it's just another originalNeil like Pokemon song, obviously the
Pokey rap everyone loved at the time.
And he did some more Pokemonthemed content mm-hmm.
Throughout the years.
Mm-hmm.
But the song is justvery normal Neil stuff.
But then it just dramatically out ofnowhere, he just basically says that he
is endorsing Obama in the US electionand then it goes back to Pokemon stuff.

(01:09:34):
But then he'll just be like,vote for Obama in the election.
Yeah.
So it's like a stealth end endorsement.
I think the lyrics are literallyjust 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Pokemon
vote for Obama in the election.
So like that, yeah.
Yeah.
Something like that.
It's pretty like.
Straight up and again, funny 'causewe've talked multiple times now across
episodes of people, you know, wherethey start to, especially when they

(01:09:56):
get a little bit older, like, you know,they, they're in their mid twenties or
early thirties, they start to engage inpolitics publicly on the YouTube channel.
But it's always like, in a lot ofcases, a very, like, initially, like
they're just talking about politicsas a concept or like making fun of
presidents as a concept, but they'renever endorsing except for obviously
our Queen I, Justine, who goes on toendorse Hillary the 2012 election.

(01:10:19):
Oh,
I definitely think Neilwould be politically
Bernie
active.
No, no, no.
I'm, I'm not gonna say like, yeah,we just think that given, um, what
we know of him, I think that he wouldnot be afraid to voice his political
opinions, uh, post this election.
Yeah.
But I think, again, it seems that.
He's That's 2008, right?

(01:10:42):
Yeah.
Or 2012 was the Obama.
I believe it, it could have been, yeah.
It was one of the Obamas.
Yeah.
But he does that when so manyother YouTubers like just won't
endorse a candidate for fear ofobviously losing some of their
audience, which, you know, valid.
But yeah, it's just interestingthat he just doesn't seem to care.
When I was looking up Neil, afterthis video, I, I came across a Twitter

(01:11:07):
exchange between him and Jon Tron.
Do you know who Jon Tron is?
I, I don't know who he is.
I just know that he's bad.
Like I just know there's negative vibes.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's, but I can't actually rememberwhat he did specifically, but I
wanted to do a little role play.
And you are gonna be John Tron.
Oh, okay.
And I'm gonna be Neil.

(01:11:27):
Mm-hmm.
So this is John Tron tweeting at Neil.
Okay.
At Neil.
Seriously, man, you area real talented guy.
Been watching you for years.
Keep it up
at John Tran's Show.
Thanks.
All I know about you is that you werea dick to that guy who really politely
asked you to not say the R word.

(01:11:49):
And now this, so it seems thathis eye against certain creators
doesn't just extend to RayWilliam Johnson and Shane Dawson.
Yeah.
Uh, but it is very funny to be like,you are one of my idols and your
idol to be like, all I know aboutyou is that you suck and that's it.

(01:12:12):
It's just, yeah, he justseems, I would say unbothered
is a good way to describe it.
He just seems very cool to me personally.
Um, also, I wanna note aswe're kind of nearing the.
Kind of conclusion of this episode,we've talked a lot about Neil, but
I did bring up Emmy Riga becauseshe is his younger sister and she's
a big part of pot of Papa Palace.

(01:12:32):
She does a lot of the voices, Ithink, or she, I mean they have
multiple arms doing the puppets.
Um, but Emmy, like I said, I did sortof loosely follow Neil and Emmy's
careers, like across Tumblr and stuff.
But Emmy was a storyboard artist,I believe, and I think also maybe
an animator or illustrator for theTV show, gravity Falls, which I was

(01:12:55):
a big fan of when it was airing.
Um, I used to watch it with myyounger brother, so Darcy, who's
probably listening to the pod, um,love You Best Brother ever, siblings.
Um, but that was like a very, Idon't know, I really liked Gravity
Falls and I would say Alex Hirsch,who's the creative of Gravity Falls,
has a very similar sense of humor.

(01:13:17):
Obviously it's like adapted a bit 'causeit's like a Disney property, but it's
a very like sense of that obscure.
Humor in animation.
I don't know.
I just, there's something therein that, like, I wouldn't be
surprised if Alex Hirsch was afan of Neil Riga and that is how,
well Neil did do some songsMm. For Gravity Falls.

(01:13:38):
Mm-hmm.
And I think only one wasincluded in the show.
Mm. But yeah, I think it's fairto say those two Get along.
Yeah.
And sorry, um, Alex Hirsh is insome of Neil's recent content,
he guests on that livestream.
Livestream, which yeah, he like
calls in as like a ghost
as long as, as well as weird Al Yankovic.
Yeah.
I think Neil, you know,Neil has less than a million

(01:14:01):
subscribers on YouTube currently.
Um, so compared to other YouTubersthat we talk about, like he has
less of, I guess a YouTube presence.
Like you'd be like, I mean obviouslyit's like 700 or 800,000 subscribers.
Nothing to sniff at at all.
That's still like a reallyestablished YouTuber.
It kind of speaks to like, it doesn'tmatter if you're not like the biggest
YouTuber, it's like of you couldhave like a hundred thousand people

(01:14:24):
watching his early, you know, videos.
And of those, you know, it couldbe Alex Hirsch, we kovich like
a bunch of, I would say, quiteinfluential people in pop culture.
Who fans.
It's a velvet
underground of, uh, YouTubers.
Sure.
I don't know if I get that reference.
But I think.

(01:14:45):
When I first was introducedto it, I was in middle school.
I loved Porta Papa Pals.
I thought it was like the funniest thing.
Me and my friends used to watch it,but revisiting now and watching some
of his other comedy stuff, I can so seehow wide his influence was in terms of
his sense of humor, his terms of thetype of gags that, you know, kind of

(01:15:06):
developed, I guess, internet humor inlike the mid two thousands, early 2010s.
Um, and kind of as a result, not to getlike too, you know, personal journey
about this episode, but like my senseof humor, I feel like it was really
weird watching some of these beinglike, this is something that I have

(01:15:26):
found funny and seeing that it hasbeen there on Neil's channel all along.
And like to me I'm like, is,is Neil my father of humor?
I don't, maybe that's toolike, you know, too intense.
But yeah, I think Neil has had like amassive impact on internet culture and.
Of which I have partakenin quite a large part of.

(01:15:48):
What about you?
Any, any final thoughts on Neil?
I would just say, yeah, I enjoy Neil andhis videos to a great degree more than
the other creators we've watched so far.
It was almost like a little treat gettingvideos that I enjoyed for the most part.
I wanted to give you a treat.
You've Yeah.

(01:16:09):
You've,
I don't think they'll be able to hear
it.
That's the, that's the YouTube
police.
Yeah.
Coming to get you first
speaking crimes againstits kings and queens.
Um, but yeah, so like I am.
Honestly, a fan of Neil and I actuallysubscribed to his channel Wow.
After we finished watchingthese videos this week, so, wow.
Okay.

(01:16:29):
If that's not an endorsement,is this the first
person so far?
Yes.
That we've covered yet?
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Okay.
Alright.
I don't know, maybe yousubscribe to Lonely Girl 15.
Can you imagine
if you just saw me just watching?
I, Justine just, you wake up andI'm like, don't look, don't look.
It's just I, Justine buying theiPhone 11, iPhone like 19 or whatever.
I,
I also need to say that because forthese videos I often do the research

(01:16:51):
on my like, personal YouTube account.
I have messed up my YouTube algorithm,so now, even though I'm not subscribed
to I, Justine, I get like postnotifications when I, Justine posts
a video, like they're like, wethought you'd be interested in this.
You know, those ones from YouTubebeing like, watch I, Justine Unbox
the iTune iPhone 18 E or whatever.

(01:17:11):
And I'm like, I don't wanna watch thispeacefully to my queen Justine, respect,
but also like I know when I'm not.
Part of a particular demographic.
I'm literally an Android user anyway.
It's fine.
It's fine.
Okay.
No hate for our Queen I, Justine,the the Tech Barbie, uh, Lucy, what

(01:17:32):
are you subscribing to this week?
This week I am subscribing to the TVshow Younger, um, which, if you guys
don't know younger is a show starringSutton Foster and Hillary Duff.
So random.
So the show was created and I believeshow run by Darren Star, who created

(01:17:52):
Sex in the City, and of coursethe iconic show, Emily in Paris.
Uh, and you know, speaking of the topicof this video, you know, Darren Star
walked so that Ryan Murphy could run.
Um, but it is, I feel like, sortof well known, but sort of not
because, but the concept of theshow is Sutton Foster, our musical

(01:18:13):
theater queen, rumored new girlfriendof Australian icon, Hugh Jackman.
Um, we saw her live actually, and shewas really amazing, very talented, slay,
but she plays a woman who's trying toget back into the publishing industry.
She's in her early forties and so shepretends to be younger than she is.
She says she's like 26, so shepretends to be like 15 years younger

(01:18:34):
in order to get a job in the publishingindustry and then fun times in
Sue, and it's a very lighthearted.
Comedy show, it kind of, if you'veever seen the bowl type and you enjoyed
the bowl type, it's similar to that.
Similar again to Emily inParis or sex in the city.
But it's just really light, easy viewing.
Um, I've had a couple of busy stressfulweeks and I just feel like I can

(01:18:57):
just turn my brain off and watchthis in little 20 minute chunks.
I've seen you watchingit over my shoulder.
No, over your shoulder.
Yeah.
Sorry.
It points in recent weeks.
Uh, so I can only really say the castingis crazy 'cause sudden foster respect.
She does not look like a 20something year old woman,

(01:19:18):
but she could pass forit if someone looked.
I don't know.
I think that's the point of the show, but
there are, it's more just like, Ithink there are more actresses that.
Could play 20 at 40, doesn'tmatter, and asked to name them.
Doesn't matter.
Sudden, maybe not one.
Yeah, look.
But that's, that's 'causeI haven't watched the show.
I've just seen it from a,the premise is, you know,

(01:19:39):
makes for, I was kind of skeptical 'causeI don't, you know, that type of premise.
I was like, how far can they take it?
But it's quite well-paced.
There's like some really fun likelove triangle stuff in there.
It's very light.
Okay.
I don't think it'sgroundbreaking television.
I'm not gonna be like, it'sactually better than succession.
It's not, but it's fun andsometimes that's what you need.
So that's what I'msubscribing to this week.
How about you Max?
What are you subscribing to this week?
Something that is better thansuccession is the YouTube recaps of

(01:20:05):
married at First Sight Australia.
No
way.
So, no way.
I don't know.
For our international viewers, marriedat first sight called Maths Here commonly
is a show where they take strangers.
And they marry them in a a ceremony.
Obviously it's for tv, but the ideais that then the contestants that

(01:20:27):
are married then spend the next fewweeks living together and they have to
overcome all of the typical relationshipdrama that you do in a marriage.
Right?
So it's very silly, but it's like aninstitution in reality TV in Australia,
it's like one of the most popular shows.
It's kind of controversial also.
Can I ask Max, have you everseen a full episode of maths?
No.
No?
No.
I would.

(01:20:48):
Okay.
I would never watch maths.
'cause it's like the episode islike an hour long and there's
multiple ones a week I think So interms of a time investment, no way.
But something caught my eye becauseof news coverage of the current
season and I wanted to get a feelof what's everyone talking about.
You know, I want to be in thezeitgeist with my colleagues and

(01:21:09):
the YouTube channel for mathspublishes like three to four minute.
Full recaps of each episode.
And we have watched probably 20 of these.
And I can attest to the fact that youactually don't need to watch maps the
show because all of the plot criticalstuff is in these four minute episodes.

(01:21:30):
So you could just be fully acrossall the maps you need to know.
And it's like they cutout all of the filler.
And so I really quite enjoyed being ableto follow along the maths discussion
this season while spending, you know,four minutes an episode rather than 40.
Uh, getting to grips withwhat everyone's talking about.

(01:21:52):
Yeah.
Everyone else sits down multiple nightsa week for like an hour to watch maths.
Uh, once a week we sit down for20 minutes and we're caught up
and we actually got worried thatthey canceled the recaps 'cause they
didn't upload for like two weeks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And we were like, oh, arewe gonna like watch maths?
And we were both like, no.
So I guess we won't know what happens.

(01:22:12):
Then it was like the intern came backfrom school holidays and like all of
the Maths Recap episodes, they caughtup and posted like 20 in one day.
Yeah.
And you were like, look and lookat the YouTube sub box and it's
like, we have all these mathsepisodes that I get to catch up on.
So that's what I'msubscribing to this week.
Wow.
Yeah.
Very, very valid.

(01:22:33):
I thought you were gonnasay something more erudite.
Wow.
Okay.
Dunno how to take that.
Anyway, that's it for thisepisode of Rewind Time.
Let's, uh, you know, I think wegave it a good shot on Neil Riga.
I'm feeling very sweaty, you know?
Yeah, we are sweating.
Um, I'm very hungry.
I think it's gonna be lunchtime soon.

(01:22:54):
You, but, um, Lucy, thankyou for joining me this week.
Thank you to everyone who has commentedor left feedback on our recent episodes.
I had some very interesting discussionwith friend of the Cha Fran about.
What Ryan Heger would think of themovie, better Man, otherwise known

(01:23:15):
as the Robbie Williams Monkey movie.
So thank you for that, Fran.
And if you would like to leave us acomment or send us an email at rewind time
pod@gmail.com, we would appreciate that.
Lucy, should people leave us reviewson their podcast app of choice?
Look, you know, I feel like we're a fewepisodes in at this point, so if you

(01:23:36):
have been enjoying your journey withrewind time thus far, it would be a big
support to the podcast and to the channel.
If you could leave a review onSpotify or Apple Podcasts, you
know, give it what you feel.
If you're feeling five,you should maybe do that.
I mean, look, if you've been enjoyingyour rewind time journey thus far, I

(01:23:59):
feel we would both really appreciate it.
If you leave a star review on ApplePodcasts or Spotify, uh, to help other
people who, you know, really need thecultural knowledge of old school YouTube
to get that, you know, up in the charts.
Um, do leave a review if, if yourheart desires, that would be give it a

(01:24:19):
like on YouTube.
Oh,
look at you.
Go subscribe, look at you.
Go subscribe to the
channel.
We'll make a YouTuber out of you yet.
Yeah.
Watch
Lucy Liven.
Share my gosh.
Click share copy link three times.
Make
a video response.
Oh, yeah.
Oh yes.
The video response.
RIP.
. But yeah, no, thank you to everyone whohas subscribed thus far or been listening.
Um, we really appreciateyour support and, uh.

(01:24:42):
Yeah.
Hope that we can continue todeliver on unhinged YouTube history.
Cool.
Okay.
Until next week.
Thanks for rewinding time.
Alright.
Bye everyone.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Potter Puppet Pals - Neil Cicierega's enduring creation