Give Us Your Money, PLEASE!

Primary Topic

This episode delves into the challenges and ethics of monetizing content that was previously free, sparked by the hosts' decision to launch a subscription-based platform.

Episode Summary

In "Give Us Your Money, PLEASE!", hosts Seán McLoughlin and Ethan Nestor humorously discuss their decision to move their "Brain Leak" podcast to a subscription model. Initially, the episode humorously critiques the common practice in digital content creation of putting previously free content behind a paywall. The hosts joke about offering "less content" for a monthly fee, a reflection of their critique on monetization practices in the industry. They explore the broader implications of such decisions, touching on fan reactions and the balance between creator sustainability and audience accessibility. Their conversation also veers into a critique of pop culture, notably discussing Taylor Swift's lyricism and creative process.

Main Takeaways

  1. The risks and ethical considerations of transitioning free content to a subscription model.
  2. Insights into audience reactions and expectations when content they used to get for free is put behind a paywall.
  3. The impact of monetization strategies on creator-audience relationships.
  4. A broader commentary on the state of digital content creation and its sustainability.
  5. Reflections on personal growth, creative freedom, and the pressures of pleasing an audience in the digital age.

Episode Chapters

1: Introduction to the Subscription Model

The hosts introduce their new subscription model, humorously suggesting it offers less for more. This satirical take serves to set up the episode's deeper exploration of monetization in digital content creation. Seán McLoughlin: "It's actually gonna be less content. We're editing it down further. Yes."

2: Impact on Audience

Discussion on how such monetization impacts audiences who have long accessed content for free, highlighting the potential disconnect it creates between creators and their community. Ethan Nestor: "We hope to see you there. It's gonna be really good. May thy knife chip and chatter."

3: Reflections on Digital Content Sustainability

The hosts reflect on the sustainability of digital content, the necessity of financial support for creators, and the ethical considerations of monetizing previously free content. Seán McLoughlin: "This house of cards that I have built, it's gonna come crumbling down."

4: Broader Implications and Industry Critique

A critique of industry practices, with broader implications for how digital content is consumed and valued in the modern age. Ethan Nestor: "Brain leak. I'm currently on a road trip across the United States with my father, driving from Maine to California."

Actionable Advice

  1. Evaluate the value of content before transitioning to a paid model to ensure it justifies the cost for the audience.
  2. Communicate transparently with your audience about any changes to content accessibility.
  3. Consider maintaining a balance between paid and free content to keep the community engaged.
  4. Regularly gauge audience feedback to adapt strategies in real-time.
  5. Stay ethical and fair in content monetization to maintain trust and support from your audience.

About This Episode

This week on an all new Brain Leak, Ethan and Sean dive into their favorite music, what makes them successful and…all that Watcher stuff. Listen and enjoy!

People

Seán McLoughlin, Ethan Nestor

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Transcript

Seán McLoughlin
Heinrich, I hold in my hand the gum. Jabbar.

No, you didn't. Let me say that. If you move, you die. Crap. I gotta be upfront about it.

Ethan Nestor
May thy knife chip and chatter.

Seán McLoughlin
May thy knife, chip and shatter. Boom. Shit. Shit. The same wasn't on Gurney.

Ethan Nestor
Can we have guns? I don't know if we can. I don't know if we can nervously. Leave it in, but blur it out so they'll never know. Yeah, the audio listeners get everything, but the video listeners.

Seán McLoughlin
Watchers, even. Oh, speaking of. We'll talk about that. That was my segue to the watcher situation. Welcome back, everybody, to brain leak podcast.

Ethan Nestor
I hope you're leaking out your pores and your eyes and your nose and your ears. Hope your brain has exited the building. Cause we're about to let rip. Yeah, we just. We have a big announcement, and, you know, we've been.

We've been doing this for over a year now, and we think that it's. It's time that we spread our wings a little bit more. So we've created our own platform. It's just gonna be $20 a month, and I think that that's fine. And it's gonna be all the same content that you have been getting for years for free.

Seán McLoughlin
It's actually gonna be less content. We're editing it down further. Yes.

Ethan Nestor
So we hope to see you there. It's gonna be really good. May thy knife chip and chatter.

Pay thy wallet. Chip and chatter.

Seán McLoughlin
I wanna end every cover with that instead of, like, all right, see you later. Just be like, may thy knife chip and shatter. Just walk out of the room. Hold up a bread knife. Oh, God, I.

Ethan Nestor
Man, we talk about dune all the time, but I did get the dune book that has all the photography and stuff from Joshy bro. Yeah, he did the poetry and the words in it, and then. Is it good poetry, though, or are we just talking, like. Cause anyone can write poetry. It is good.

I mean, it's.

Some of them are kind of weird, but it's all, like, based on the set. Literally every poetry conversation ever. Is it good? Well, yeah, but also no. And you just have to be there.

It's cool, though. There's a bunch of photography from on set and stuff. And then Josh Brolin writes some things about some stuff. See, I want to think that that's cool, but part of me can't help but think about how cringe it is. There's definitely some.

Some passages in there that are a little cringe, but because it's like, if. The moment strikes you and you have, like, a good soliloquy that you want to get across to the audience. Sure. But if you're just writing poetry for the sake of writing poetry because you're on set and you're bored and being on set is boring as fuck. Mm hmm.

Some of them are just passages. Some of them are, like, actual poetry now, but it's a nice little coffee table book. You could drop anybody into this conversation at this point and just tell them that it's. We're talking about Taylor Swift's new album. Where it's like, oh, man, we could.

Seán McLoughlin
She's just waxing lyrical over and over and be like, is it good? Well, see, if. If you're 30 and. And you like Taylor Swift, then maybe I'd have to listen to it again, because some of those lyrics on that new album, I admittedly, I don't know Taylor Swift. I don't really know much of the deep lore.

I'm pretty up to date, but I'm just gonna put this out there instead of getting put up against the wall and shot by her community. I would like to point out that I don't really care either way, but I've seen a lot of the lines that have come out of the album and out of context are hilarious, where it's like, you ate seven chocolate bars. Like, how do you put that in a song? Wait, is that real? Yeah, it's supposed to be like, talking about Matt Healy and him smoking weed.

Ethan Nestor
Oh, baby. But again, I'm getting all of my information from secondhand sources, so I don't know. I think there would be fun. Taylor Swift. What's the new album called?

Seán McLoughlin
Torture. Poet society department. Yeah. Tortellini poet department. Big man's poet time.

Taylor's big poetry time.

Cuz there's some that. Oh, my God, it's a fucking 31 song album. Which, fair play, if you're able to write that much, then fair play. I did see some reviews that were, like. She said that she had to write to get through some stuff, and she was writing when she was on tour.

And I get that, like, creative outlets and all that. Clearly, making music and writing is her creative outlet. But a lot of the reviews are like, just because you had to write to get through this stuff doesn't mean we had to hear it. Hey, question about, uh, you know, making songs to get through a thing or expressing an emotion or whatever. Isn't that every song ever?

Yeah. Isn't that. The songwriting process is. You're like, I have a feeling that I want to express. I'm going to make a song about it.

Yeah, but this is about breakups. You don't get it. Oh, hasn't been done before. Cause she says stuff like, my boy only breaks his favorite toys. Toys.

Oh, I'm queen of sandcastles. He destroys o o. So, like, that stuff's not too bad. See, I wish I knew the ones off the top of my head. Once I fix me, he's gonna miss me.

That's kind of fucking. That kind of hits. Kind of hits hard. Which is the lesson to take away. It's like, maybe work on the inside is more important than trying to make everybody else align to what I think.

So some soul searching. How long is the album? It's 31 songs. How many? About six and a half weeks, I think.

Ethan Nestor
Oh, two, three business days on that album. I want to find the chocolate lyric, but I don't know what song it's from. This is where you gotta credit your sources. I have not listened to the album. Taylor Swift isn't for me, and I'm very happy for everybody that's real pumped about the album.

You got a lot of learning to do. This is your. With 31 tracks, too. This is your. It's almost one for every year she's been alive.

Seán McLoughlin
This is your super bowl. This is like your roman empire is when this stuff comes out. I wish I was that into an artist anymore. That look, when the Brandon Sanderson fifth Stormlight book comes out at the end of the year, I'm gonna be right there with you, swifties. I wanna be waxing lyrical about how the stormlight enters Kaladin's veins.

Ethan Nestor
I was asked this question the other day of just the simple question of, like, who's your favorite musical artist? And I was like, oh, I don't. I don't know. Even, like, what's one of your favorite? I'm like, I don't know.

I like a lot of different bands at different times. I don't, like. Have a current favorite, Shawn? Yes. Do you have a current favorite?

Seán McLoughlin
Yes, I have. Answer. Mine is hosier. Cause I was thinking. I was thinking coffee in the bed.

You're too sweet for coffee, so I take mine black. No milk, please. No more mil. Would you like it oat or almond? Oh, skimmed, please.

What? What about him? Is it because he's irish? Is it because of his long. You guys currently look similar.

Ethan Nestor
You have a lot of similarities right now. Is it by coincidence or because I looked at Hosier once and went, that's man. That's man. People have the vitruvian man by da Vinci. I have Hosier from Ireland.

Where is he from in Ireland? Obviously. I don't actually know. Hmm. Yeah.

You guys both have your long, beautiful locks. You both have facial hair. You're both Irish. I was gonna say he's from Wexford, but he's actually from Wicklow. I knew he was from a W county, but I didn't get the dub on that one.

I think the only difference between the two of you is he's, like, 12ft tall. Yeah. He's also incredibly talented and handsome, has a great voice and can write good lyrics. Hey, hey. You're incredibly talented and handsome.

Seán McLoughlin
Prove it. I bet it. And I bet if you point to one talent. What do you mean, point to one talent? The empire that you've made over the years.

Oh, this house is. You just released a comic book. This house of cards that I have built, it's gonna come crumbling down. Hey, listen, if I wanted to get your comic book, you. Thank you for the plug.

Ethan Nestor
Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Dude, no comic books came out issue one because we did issue zero before. Now it's issue one.

Seán McLoughlin
Put them together, get all of them. You have four comic books. If you get all the covers. You have so many covers. Whoa.

Ethan Nestor
That's sick, dude. Anyway, are you excited about it? Are you feeling. I am. I'm very excited about it.

Seán McLoughlin
People should buy my comic books for no other reason. I don't know where my gun went. Where? Oh, it's right here. Comic book.

Don't hold it like that. Look, at least he had trigger discipline. Yeah, but he held it upside down.

Ethan Nestor
Brain leak. I'm currently on a road trip across the United States with my father, driving from Maine to California. And I am constantly using publicly accessed Wi Fi. And I need to make sure that I am protected from cyber threats and cyber people trying to get all my information. They could be accessing my bank account details, private information.

I don't want them to have access to any of that. So, with the help of NordVPN, I make sure that I am staying safe and secure. They keep all of my information safe, away from the hands of the creepy, creepy criminals. And they keep my Internet fast. They do not slow you down like some other VPN's do.

Also, I'm staying at a bunch of hotels, and I'm also switching on and off between driving with my dad. And sometimes I need some stuff to watch. So if I want to watch some of my favorite shows that don't happen to be on us, Netflix or something like that. I can just change my location, be in a whole new place, and access the tv that I want. Nordvpn is awesome.

It lets me watch the shows that I want to watch, and it keeps me and my information safe. They are great in cyber security. So if you want to join me in staying safe out there, you can go to nordvpn.com brain, and you can get four bonus months for free when you sign up again. That's nordvpn.com brain. Brainly, I think.

Seán McLoughlin
Ugh. Look, I like saying things that are, like, funny, but sometimes people take it seriously, and I. I don't want to get attacked by people. Look, everybody. All God's children, everyone's beautiful.

Taylor Swift are billionaires. She shouldn't care what I think. And her whole album, apparently, is about. The audience shouldn't care about what she does because she's a grown fucking woman. She's the same age as me.

I think Hosier's lyrics are what people think Taylor Swift's lyrics are. Is that what you like about Hosier? You like the lyrics? I think Hosier clearly shows that he reads a lot of poetry and the way he writes, not all his songs. Some songs are literally just like, I like fucking in the evening.

And I'm like, hosier, that's fine. That is poetry. What do you mean? That's like, down by the fire with my titties out. Down by the fire with my titties out.

Dude, my irish nipples are singing in the wind. Do you think posier takes his shirt off and he stands in the wind? His nipples make sound. They just go like, who is here?

Ethan Nestor
Does that mean something in Irish? It's just his surname. Oh. Didn't know. Had no idea.

Seán McLoughlin
Andrew John Hosier burn is his name. Damn. He was born in bray. Do you ever think about your name? And I was.

Ethan Nestor
I was thinking about this the other day where some people's names just sound successful and, like, famous and stuff. It's like when you see some people. And they're so pretty, you're like, I kind of know what you do. Like, I know that you're successful because you're gorgeous and you look expensive. Like, that person looks expensive.

Some people have stage names, so, like, it's a little bit more like, oh, this is. You know, it's a stage name, but some people's names are just like, oh, like, you sound successful. Yeah, hosier. Like, you got gifted that, and it sounds like a stage name. Like Timothy Chalamet.

Seán McLoughlin
Yeah, fuck you. Timothy, not only that, but you speak French and you're handsome. That's not fair. When you go into, like, when you're starting fallout or something, and it gives you, like, the stats that you're allowed to put into stuff. Some people clearly got more stats.

We're two of them.

We have a podcast that we just talk shit and people are like, cool. Well, keep it coming. Oh, boy. I do want to say that last week's episode with Matpat was very, very fun. If you haven't listened to that, definitely go listen to it.

Yeah, it's not up yet, so we don't know if people even like it. Yeah, it's going up tomorrow. And we didn't even. I did it for the episode and it never came up, which. Why would it?

Ethan Nestor
Because the episode was about Matpat. But I randomly decided. I was like, oh, I should shave today. So I shaved everything but the mustache. And I was like, I'll just keep it for today.

Seán McLoughlin
Okay, I want to give context to this, because you had facial hair, and then you decided to shave and you left the mustache. But first of all, it didn't look bad. I genuinely thought it looked great and you should have kept it, you fucking pussy.

But you facetimed me an hour before and you were like, what do you think? Expecting me to, like, make fun of it or something? Which I kind of did. Cause I thought it looked kind of. Like find $20 on the ground and not pick it up, you know?

Yeah, but it looked good. And you were like, oh, I have to point out how stupid it is in case somebody else does it first. Nuh uh uh. We're not doing that anymore. We're not wearing our insecurities as pieces of armor anymore.

Cause it turns out that armor's made out of wet paper bag. Yeah. We're not wearing these insecurities as armor. We're wearing it as facial hair that's on our face. Yeah.

We're just not aware that we're showcasing it all the time anymore. And then people point it out, and then you go, well, there's a new one. That's a new insecurity that I didn't realize I have. Like, me hanging out with. Oh.

Me hanging out with people. And then somebody went, like, always a joke, huh? And I went, oh, man, that's all I know how to do. Always. Analogy, huh?

Yeah. I did interviews for my comic book yesterday. I think I said, like, four analogies. Ooh, what was that like? It was fun.

Ethan Nestor
Are you allowed to speak on it? Yeah. One of them, well, I didn't do the interview for them, but we got an article in IGN, which I think is pretty cool. Like, yeah, that's sweet. A lot of people don't really care about IGN anymore and they've meme them and for the video game stuff, everyone's like, oh, seven out of ten, not enough water.

Seán McLoughlin
And that's fair. I don't think every journalism spot is without criticism, but I, as someone who grew up going to IGN all the time for, like, reviews for games years ago, when I was a teenager, it's pretty cool to see something I did. It's like feeding my inner child. And I think that's cool. That's awesome.

We also did one with Forbes, which they like at the start of it, they do like the thing where it's like Sean McLaughlin, who does YouTube with 30 million subscribers, and I'm like, yeah, this many views. I'm like, oh. And then like, he also does coffee and comic books and he has a podcast and he does this and that, and he's been in a lot of video games with voices. And I'm like, oh, I forgot about all of them. And then it's like, tell us a little about yourself.

And I'm like, I don't want to. He can't do it. I'm uncomfortable now because my brain is just like, you did an accomplishment. Never remember it. Always be sad.

Abs. Yeah, that's what my brain's always saying. Abs, ab workout. Always be. Always be.

It is. I think that's good, and it's good for you. I know. And, you know, pat on the back for me and everything, but when they, when they do it, I'm like, the Irish in me is like, you're not allowed accept praise. I was talking to Sam Lake about it.

Shout out, name drop. But I was like, is Finland like Sweden where you're not allowed, like, boast about things and there is a term for it? And he was like, yeah, it's like, it's almost like, don't make a big name for yourself in case you bring shame upon yourself kind of thing. And I was like, I guess Ireland's kind of the same where it's like no one's allowed step beyond their boundaries because everyone will make fun of them. Maybe that's where I get it from.

Ethan Nestor
My little irish heritage. Yeah. Goes all the way. You actually just got the depression side of being irish, which is like, a lot of small towns, lot of drinking. Oh, Paddy got a name for himself, and now he's better than all of us.

Seán McLoughlin
No, he's not. Fuck him. We always talk. Analogy time. Ding, ding, ding.

I need a bell, guys. Huge. Huge. Oh, wait, huge. Analogy time.

Ethan Nestor
Small bell. Analogy time. Analogy time. It's like Americans would see somebody's house on top of a hill that's really expensive and go, that's going to be me someday. Climb the capitalist ladder.

Seán McLoughlin
My bitcoin is going to hit huge. But irish people would see the house and go like, who does your man think he is, fucking sitting on top of his fancy house? Probably shites gold. And then every Americans is all about, like, how do I become the one so I can shit on everyone else? The american dream, baby.

And Ireland's like, well, let's pull everyone down to our level because fuck those guys.

That is kind of funny. Very true. Where it's like, nah, everybody's fucking shit coming back down here. And I think. I think I have that sometimes where I'll get upset about something.

Cause somebody did something amazing, and I'm like, why do I suck? No, the thing they did must suck. Time to pull. Here you go. Letting all the air out of your tires.

Magic man. But I try not to do that. But I'm like, that's in my upbringing. That's like, my knee jerk reaction sometimes was to be, like, judgmental. And I'm like, no, no.

Who taught you that? It's a learned trait. Yeah. Mm hmm. Pass down from generation to generation.

Ethan Nestor
Here we are. But at least my dad gave me huge testicles. Thanks, pa. Hell, yeah, dude. Thanks, dad.

Appreciate that one. He's looking down at me right now with my giant balls. He's like, that's my boy.

Seán McLoughlin
Anyway. But it did feel good, though, doing the interviews. You were able to give yourself a moment to say, hey, that's nice. It is very nice. I mean, it's the thing that, did.

Ethan Nestor
You get to go somewhere cool, or did you just do it at your house? I just did it like this. I think I was wearing the same outfit. Haven't changed my clothes for ten days. Well, the Forbes one, they, like, started with the cameras on, and I'm like, oh, this is a.

Seán McLoughlin
Because they're not always, like, video. And then sometimes it's just like, you. You're on the call, and they transcribe what you've said, which sometimes I'm like, journalist, please. If somebody in an interview has a lot of stutter and ums and ahs and saying and things like that and things and stuff, don't put that in. Make them sound cool.

Ethan Nestor
Oh, did they put it in. Well, I don't know, but I have had interviews like that before where I see the interview afterwards and I'm like, did I really say that that much? And I'm like, I'm all for transparency. That's what journalism probably should be. But come on.

Seán McLoughlin
Come on, guys. Make me look a little bit better. Yeah, just do it for me. Tee one up for daddy. Give one up for the big dog.

Ethan Nestor
Love of God, the big dog. But here you are talking about news. We should talk about those who watch us. Who watches the watchmen? Which I forgot that they were called the watcher.

Seán McLoughlin
I always just knew them as Shane and Ryan. Yeah, same here. Because I guess because we come from like, a tumblr era, earlier in our careers, before Tumblr kind of died. What is it? Mystery unsolved?

Yeah, I think something like that used to be Buzzfeed. Yeah. So I I would like to start this off by saying I think that. I don't think they're bad dudes. I think they just made a decision that was like, ah, yeah, that was probably not good.

Ethan Nestor
You probably could have predicted the outcome. It's very fine bros of this. Yeah. God, I completely forgot when they tried to copyright. Copyright react.

Wow. Yeah. But it felt kind of like that. They put out a statement saying, well, I think context is needed for what it is because a lot of people in their audience, they're huge. Like, their, their channel has like, almost 3 million subs.

Seán McLoughlin
But whenever the tumblr, like, uh, yearly thing would come out of, like, who's trending the most? They were always, like, really near the top. So they were always, like, punching way above their size and their audience is super engaged way more than most channels. And they put out a thing being like, we have a countdown for a big thing that's coming super exciting. And everyone was like, oh, new merch, new series, new characters, new something.

And then they came out and were like, surprise, it's us leaving YouTube and we're gonna make you pay for our content on a site that we made, which is not. You don't really hype that up out of nowhere and then just drop that on your audience. Making content that was originally free paid is an awful idea for anybody. Yeah.

Ethan Nestor
Especially in their situation, because they already have other subscription things. Like, they have a wildly successful Patreon. Yeah. Which I don't. It's hard to know because unless it tells you.

Seán McLoughlin
Does it tell you how much they're making on their Patreon on their page? Because you can hide that sometimes. Let's find out right now there is. A join free option and I'm not really sure if Patreon shows those people as numbers. So people saying, like, they have a really successful Patreon because they have x amount of members.

I don't know if the free ones count towards that because it could be that. So like five K people paying for it, which is still really successful. Minimum, you can see how many members they have, which is which. I'm assuming this has dropped a bit since their announcement. So it's 13.6k.

Ethan Nestor
Let's call that 14,000. Their lowest $5 a month. I think it's gone up since the announcement. People were like, oh, I didn't know you had this. I could be wrong.

Seán McLoughlin
Go ahead. Oh, interesting. But anyway, their lowest tier is $5 a month and then $10.25 and then $100 a month. So you can't see who is aware of those 14,000 people. But minimum, they're bringing in seventy k a month just from the Patreon.

Ethan Nestor
Assuming that all of those are paid way, way more than that. Yeah, yeah. They're probably, they're probably bringing in like a hundred. Yeah. Month.

Seán McLoughlin
And all of their, all of their episodes that I've seen. Obviously not everything on the YouTube channel does as well. But a lot of the, like, main videos that people show up for that they get close to, if not over a million views, minimum. I say I saw most of the recent ones were all like nine hundred k. Eight hundred k a million.

Those are sizable views. Yeah. So they. Let's see. Let's do a little.

Ethan Nestor
A little dive. Did you watch their. Because they since have released an apology. Yeah, I did not watch the apology. Yeah, it was, it was decent.

Seán McLoughlin
It was a bit like, it is a bit weird that you're like, you didn't really expect people to be this upset about it and saying stuff like, oh, like $6. Like, everybody has that, which I'm like, I mean, everybody at some point has $6, but it's like expecting people to give you their $6 that could go towards, like, food and anything else, which is like, crazy expensive these days. And everyone's hurting for like, every dollar. Yeah. Especially when we live in the world that we do right now, which is every fucking thing is a subscription.

Yeah. And so it's like, yeah, it's not that much money if you're the only thing that you're subscribing to. But everyone else has tons and tons of subscriptions. It's like the tone deaf thing of like, oh, so you can afford to go out and get coffee, but you can't afford this. It's kind of like that invader v lady that we talked about before where it's like, everybody has $5.

You're coming in here watching for free. It's like, yeah, because it's allowed. And it's the same with them. Like, expecting people to pay $6 for something that they were getting for free already is like, it's never worked. That's just bad business for anybody in our field.

And I get there's a lot to it because I get that you have a big company, you have like 25 employees. They said in their apology and, or maybe in the original one that they didn't want to let anybody go, which is commendable because a lot of times it's like just downscale. Like, clearly you can't afford the staff you have. You can't afford the productions you have. So downscale stuff, so you can afford it with everyone's salaries, but it is commendable to find money elsewhere to make sure people don't get affected, that they don't lose their jobs because everyone's losing their jobs these days.

But yeah, I feel like there's just better ways to go about it instead of, like, expecting people to pay that much money monthly to pay for your stuff when. I know it just feels really icky to me because they also say, like, how much they spend on their, like, their production, but we don't really have hard numbers on that either. So it's hard to trust where the money's going, how much is being made. Like, if you want to enter a good faith argument that, like, we don't want to let people go, our stuff costs a shit ton of money to make. I feel like you need to be a bit more transparent about how much stuff actually costs.

How much? Like, maybe you don't need to say how much people's salaries cost, but how much you're spending on staff. How much? I don't know. I feel like I would like a bit more transparency on that for people to feel like, okay, I get it, you want to make something huge.

Ethan Nestor
Yeah. But especially in their case, when they weren't adding, they were taking away. Yeah, because if they were, they don't need to be transparent necessarily. If they're like, hey, we're doing this other thing. Everything's staying the same here, but we're going to have bonus stuff here, which I'm assuming their Patreon is, but if you're like, hey, the thing that you were getting for free, we're not doing that anymore.

We're putting it all over here behind a paywall. Yeah, that's true. Then you need to be transparent about it. Yeah. Which is interesting that you don't just double down on the Patreon and say, hey, our stuff is costing a fuck ton of money.

Seán McLoughlin
It's costing way more than we thought. We can't afford to keep doing it the way we are. So please sub to our Patreon so we can keep doing what we're doing. So then it's like you get bonus content, but then everybody who was enjoying on YouTube still gets to enjoy on YouTube, which they have rescinded. And in their apology talked about that they're still putting the stuff on YouTube.

They're just doing it later, which is like that. Isn't that the Patreon? Or at least that's usually what people do on Patreon. So I don't know. I guess it's trying to fight for better ad rates.

No, you wouldn't even be fighting for ad rates because you're doing it. I'm very curious because I saw Charlie's video about it as well. He pointed out that twelve out of the last 19 videos had sponsors in them. And he said that, like, clearly they're not hurting for advertisers, which they said they were. They were hurting for advertisers.

And, like, the ever changing algorithm and stuff on YouTube makes it hard to kind of do, and they want to be themselves while not risking ad space, which I get, but they don't really do anything that does risk ad space unless they want to completely change the content. But I would be curious if they went ahead and it was the $6 and everyone was going through their website and everything, and everything went well, would they not do sponsorships anymore? That's the thing that I was thinking about, too, because I feel like they still would. I. I don't know.

Ethan Nestor
Maybe. I was about to say maybe on YouTube they would keep the ad reads there, but that wasn't the plan. The plan was to stick away everything from YouTube. So there's still a lot of questions in regards to it and how it would have gone ahead, and they're still going ahead with that, I believe. But taking stuff to YouTube later so people can have the best of both worlds.

Seán McLoughlin
But now you kind of, like, you've kind of, like, pissed in people's cornflakes and a lot of people will use this as like, a, you showed your true colors moment. Yeah. It'll be really interesting to see how they do from now on, whenever they release their next video, how that does. But I honestly don't think that they're going to be impacted all that much because, like you were saying before, their fan base is like, so die hard and so invested in their stuff that everyone was disappointed. I've never seen a more unified comment section before and relatively, like, respectful.

Ethan Nestor
From what I was reading, most of the comments were very respectful and just like, valid criticism, being like, hey, guys, this is a bad idea. Please don't do that. Yeah. A lot of people saying, like, they can't afford it and it's like, you're my comfort to watch and, like, I can't afford to watch you. Then if you do that, which is a fucked up thing to think about, and the fact that you don't think about that before you put up that kind of statement, it just kind of feels like.

Seán McLoughlin
Like spitting in the fans faces a little bit whenever you do this kind of thing. And then you ask people to pay for what you do. Like, I get it. They do bigger production stuff than you or I would do. Like, as our regular content.

It is hard to maintain wages. It is hard to maintain production. Keep stuff the way you want it, keep building it, making things bigger and better all the time. But I just don't think this is the way you go about it. Maybe kickstart a season of a show or something like that.

I don't know. There's. But just asking your audience to pay for it and then take it all away is not the right move. No, not at all. And like, that is sad.

Ethan Nestor
I didn't really think about that where it's like, you know, their audience is really dedicated and so somebody being like, yeah, I used to watch you, but I couldn't afford to anymore. Like, I would. I would like to watch you, but I can't afford it. Yeah, getting bored of content is one thing, but being too poor to be able to watch something. Yeah.

Just like, no, I'm not. Or just like, not being willing to give the five or $6 every month, it's just like, yeah, well, I used to get this for free and now I, I can't justify doing that. Doesn't make sense. To their credit, in their apology, they did upfront immediately say sorry. They took accountability.

Seán McLoughlin
They addressed the concerns that people brought up. Like, as far as apologies go, pretty much is exactly what you're supposed to do. Or supposed to do. Yeah. What people want you to do.

So I. We'll see how it goes. I don't know. I'm not that, like, I don't know their content all that much. I did think they were just cool dudes.

I was like, I'd love to get to meet you at some point and hang out and chat. I mean, I still would. Yeah. But, yeah, it just seems like a really, it just seems tone deaf for their audience. It feels like, like some, it feels like something some other creator would do who doesn't care about their audience, but they seemed like they genuinely cared about their community and what they do.

And their community is their community being so feverish about their content is the reason they get to do what they do. Yeah. And it's not like, because I think about it a lot with, like, there's projects that I want to do or, like, if I wanted to do an animated show or a tv show or something, like, I'm willing to put in money of my own to do it, but it's also just still crazy expensive to do these things. So it's like, do you kick start something? Do you ask sponsorships to come in?

Do you ask publishers to pay for half of it? Like, all those conversations always happen whenever you're doing a bigger production. But I would never just outright take something away from the audience and then ask them to pay for it. Like, it would always have to be something new. It would have to be something that was warranted for the price.

I think if they came out and were like, we want to do a season something of our show, and we need x amount of money to do it, I think people would have gladly been like, absolutely, here we people who can afford it will, but you shouldn't be asking the people who can't afford it to still front the money. It's the same with anything. Like, thank miss. Like, I'm always like, please donate as much as you can. But I'm kind of hoping the people who can afford it come in instead of asking all the people who can't give money to fund that bill.

Ethan Nestor
At the end of the day, it just kind of seems like this wasn't very thought out at all. It seems like they got really excited and they were like, oh, that would be really cool, let's do that. And didn't think about it at all. Which is a bit weird because it doesn't happen overnight. Like, you have to build a website.

Yeah. No, so it seems odd because they're well versed in the Internet. It seems really weird that they wouldn't have that immediate thought of, like, people are probably gonna be pretty upset about. This, that, or they, they think some people are gonna be upset about this, but the majority of people will be fine and then miscalculated. I do love the top comment on the video is just, oh, Icarus.

Seán McLoughlin
Wow. How can you say so much with two words? The video has 1.9 million views, 37,000 likes, and 242,000 dislikes. Oh, boy. And 81,000 comments.

Yeah, but I mean, damn, that's what happens. You put something out. It's up to you if you want to take the valid criticism, move on, be better about it, or you want to just be like, hey, fuck you, we're doing it anyway, and it doesn't matter. People will pay regardless. And it seems like they're doing the former rather than being greedy about it.

So we'll see what happens with them. Hopefully they don't. We will see. Hopefully they didn't kill their darling, their beautiful thing that they made that everyone was so excited about. And people will be a bit sour on it for a while if they manage to get past it, but hopefully it doesn't, like, taint people's perceptions forever.

Ethan Nestor
Yeah, no, I don't think it will. And honestly, again, I haven't watched the actual apology video, but the first thing that I noticed, going to their channel, seeing that the apology video is only three minutes long is like a green flag in my mind because I'm like, okay, you didn't just pad this out by trying to overly apologize. You probably just sat there and said what happened and said what you needed to say, and that's it. You didn't need to make a 45 minutes long apology. Yeah.

Seán McLoughlin
And I think youtuber apologies are a thing that people meme all the time, and they do kind of live in a bubble, because the apology is one thing. You can have a great apology and a pr team that works on it with you, but it's kind of like how you act after the apology that'll actually show if you care or not or if you're actually going to make changes or if you realize you fucked up. And I don't know. Everyone deserves second chances. Yeah, no, they're not bad dudes.

Unless they fucked up once before, and then you're not allowed a third one. Never. Three strike rule, baby. Never. Third chance, ever.

Ethan Nestor
Never. To the shackles with you. To the gates of hell. Mm hmm. So we're warning you, watcher, the brain leak podcast are on patrol.

We're keeping our eyes on you, and. That'S not just funny wordplay. We mean it. Yeah. We're gonna uphold the, uh, justice.

Yes. Fold your arms, Internet. Fold your arms. Look hard.

I'm hard right now. Look hard. Hold on. I gotta rub it. Hold on.

Just give me a second. I haven't been thinking about things like that. God, chill the cock out already. Ah. Now you have me thinking about dicks.

Thinking about it now. Uh, speaking of content things, uh, I'm about to come back to the old YouTube. The old thunderdome. Yep. How does this work?

I'm making some changes. Good. I have fun announcements. I'm gonna be taking my channel and doing a subscription model on a different platform that I've made. I really hope that people like it.

I don't know. I don't think there's a world where it could go poorly. No. Everyone's gonna be supportive, and people have money. Yeah.

Seán McLoughlin
They can watch for free. They can watch for fee. Yeah. You can watch for free. You can watch for fee.

Ethan Nestor
That's the new motto of damn. That was straight off the dome, baby. Hell, yeah. That's improv for you. That's what we do.

Seán McLoughlin
That's what we do. I'm excited, though. I feel much more refreshed. I feel like the changes that I'm gonna make are going to be less stressful for me, even though it's not really gonna change much on how, like, I work every day. But see, this is the thing.

When you announce changes, or you announce, like, whenever people are like, update vlog, it's like, don't do that. No one cares. And you're not gonna get views on something like that. You gotta call it something else. You gotta call it.

Ethan Nestor
This year, I'll die unless something. I uploaded the comic book thing on my second channel because I was like, I don't know if people will watch this on the main channel. And it was just like, it's just me talking about a comic book. So I was like, finally being honest. And it's like one of those youtuber faces where you're kind of sad, and I was like, oh, you freaked me out.

Seán McLoughlin
I'm like, okay, good, good. But if this was a real big, like, crazy change, don't you think that I would put it on my main channel? Not this channel. When have you posted on that channel? Ever?

Yeah, I used to do shorts on it. Oh, wait, which channel? Spa. Dicey. Hmm, let's find out.

I even had someone hired that was doing it for a long time. Oh, spadicy. Here he is. Video. Finally being honest.

Oh, yeah. There you are. Would you click it? Look at you. Yeah, I did.

Ethan Nestor
Just right now, just then let's see what the top comments are. I wanna. I want the comic book to do well. Being threatened by jacksepticeye with a gun is not something I was expecting to happen today, but here we are. Haha.

Jack with a Glock is something I never knew I had to see. Knowing firearms are illegal in the UK proves it to us that Jack has a permit to carry a firearm. Oh, yeah. Cause that's. That's what you take away, is that this is a real gun.

Seán McLoughlin
And I pulled it out on camera. What am I, Charlie? I was about to say the same thing. I don't even know if that's a real gun. But he's from Florida, so probably.

Ethan Nestor
Probably. Honestly, you can do anything you want there. I have no idea. I guess by the time that this episode comes out, things will have happened anyway. But I am also starting another channel to make.

Seán McLoughlin
What are you calling the second channel? It's called EIF. That's good. Yeah. With a period on it.

Because everyone always has to have another thing. It's the name that everyone calls you is kind of like the. The standard now for everyone's second channel. So it's like everyone used to say, spadicey because of Jesus on Felix's video. Yeah.

Everyone calls you Eif. Evelyn's doing one with puzzles and she's calling it Goobus. I'm like, there you go, Goobus. My, uh, it's just ef period is the name. The channel banner is, uh, me with my Bob Ross face.

Ethan Nestor
And there's just text that says whatever video whenever I want. I like that. That's a good slogan. Yeah. So it's just going to be like, the main channel stuff will be the main channel stuff.

But I just wanted a place to just put stuff up that is just whatever, and there's no consequences. That is nice because a lot of people are like, you could just do that on your main channel, but unless you've had a main channel that you've uploaded stuff to that has, like, underperformed and you're like, oh, man, I was really excited about that. And it's like, it's hard not to care because it's just part of the job. But having a second channel where you can just brain dump, I think, is really fun. Yeah.

And so I'm gonna just post once a week on the main channel. That'd be like the quote unquote higher production stuff. Yeah. And then the other channel will have multiple videos going up a week, probably, but it'll just be whatever. I feel like.

That's like, I went to the Ren Faire a couple days ago, and I have this old Sony, like, mini Dv camera. And so I just, like, filmed a bunch of random stuff and so, like, that'll go up and it's just like a fun, random video at the Ren Faire that would probably not do very well on the main channel, but it doesn't matter because it's going up on the second channel and it was fun to film, and it'll be a fun little whatever. Yeah. So I'm excited about that. It doesn't really change anything about, like, my day to day, but it takes pressure off, and it'll make the main channel look better because, like you said, sometimes stuff will just underperform.

Seán McLoughlin
Well, that's kind of, I was gonna say, like, years ago when the algorithm wasn't as strict as it is now, that you could just do that on your main channel and everything was fine, but now you have people making, like, gaming channels react channels, or like, game theory made, like, style and fashion, the same thing. Food. And it's like, if one thing for, like, branding. Yes, but it's also, like, because they want to stick in those algorithms and they don't want to fuck it up. And there's like, an unspoken thing that if you upload something that's not your main algorithm, like, my algorithm is gaming, and you have to, like, try for a while to shift your algorithm, and then you don't know if it's gonna work.

And it's just kind of annoying that that's such a prevalent thought now is that you have to think about that stuff instead of, like, algorithms are the death of creativity. And I feel like having a second channel where you can just do whatever you want fills that creative well a bit more. I can already see the comments now of people who, like, don't really watch my channel anyway, but they just want to come in and leave a shitty comment and then bounce of, like, like, if you really, like, cared, you just post everything on your main channel and do what you want, and it's like, that's not how this works. When you do it for your job, that's not how the algorithm works. It's actually because you care about your channel that you're not doing it.

Ethan Nestor
Yeah. Also, who cares? Fuck em. Fuck em. Fuck em, dude.

Seán McLoughlin
And not like, oh, fuck audiences, but, like, those are the types of people that are just trying to drag you down. For you trying to have fun with yourself. So. Just trying to drag me down, man. You gotta let me spread my wings and fly.

This is your space. This is your area. This is your area, dude. Ever seen that? The comedian that does that joke?

Ethan Nestor
Yeah. You can't let her talk to you like that, dude. This is your space. This is your area. So good.

Though. Yeah, yeah, I think it'll be good. And I think also, like, because you do have to think about these things when you do it for your job. It's like my channel has been around for almost twelve years now, and so creating a new channel that will, you know, it's not going to do crazy well, but it'll do better than 99.999% of brand new channels on YouTube. Yeah.

So I think that will probably help just whatever. Yeah. Because there's also this thing, like, well, we don't even know if it's real. That if you upload stuff, God. God is definitely real and he's an algorithm.

Seán McLoughlin
Because look at the fucking shit stains you created. I think there's a thing with like, if you upload stuff on your channel that does poorly, then it's kind of has like a knock on effect. And if you continuously upload stuff that does poorly and people aren't watching it, then it doesn't get served to their sub feeds, it doesn't get suggested, it doesn't go to browse features. It doesn't. Yep.

It has like, this awful knock on effect. It's almost like poison that kills your channels. And that's why you see so many people do extra channels, because they want to do creative things. But the way YouTube is right now is that you can't be as creative as you want on your channel. That's why you see so many channels double down on one type of content.

You have people who do horror content, all they're doing is horror content because they're like, this hits. There's a plethora of them. It's in my algorithm. It always gets suggested. I'm gonna keep doing that.

People who do like only fortnite content, I'm sure they don't always want to just do fortnite content. Everyone would love to be able to do lots of different things, but you can't do that anymore because you get locked in. Locked in syndrome. Yep. It's just the way that the platform is.

It's just the way algorithms work. Like, the stronger algorithms get, the worse that kind of stuff is gonna get. Everything gets very homogenous. Or as MatPat said siloed. Everything's in its own bubbles.

Ethan Nestor
Everything's in its own little bubble. I was talking to my therapist about it the other day, though, where I'm just like, yeah, I just don't really care. Although, I mean, like, there's parts of me that care, obviously, what audiences have to say. But I was thinking about just, like, the comments that people make where they'll just kind of shit on you for XYZ thing, and it's like, okay, like, you know what it is like as a viewer of things, but you don't know what it's like on this side of things. And you actually don't know how this works because you are not a creator that does this for their job unless you are a creator that does this for your job and you are throwing up valid criticism.

But most people, it's like, okay, some of your advice is good and valid, but a lot of the times, it's just like, you don't know what it's like doing it on this end and how the algorithm works and how all this shit works. So you have to unfortunately pander to the algorithm. Yeah, it's kind of like a, I think after. Oh, go ahead. I was gonna say after I, like, rebranded and stuff.

I think both the algorithm and my viewers don't really know what to expect from my channel because it's just a bunch of different stuff. And so it'll make it more, more streamlined, frictionless as Cody. Cool. I was gonna say it's kind of like a 50 50 thing because our job is kind of to, like, do these things without the audience having to really know about it or hear about it, or you can, like, share as much as you want or need at the time. So it's like, sometimes it's like audiences say stuff and I'm like, I get it because you don't really understand how I operate.

Seán McLoughlin
You don't really understand where my brain is at. So the only way you can react is the way you're reacting. And I don't really like the video I did about my retirement and, like, when I would do it and things like that. A lot of people in the comments were just really, really nice, but somebody clipped a section talking about depression and stuff and then uploaded that to TikTok, which is totally fine. People do that all the time.

But all the comments there were like, oh, boo hoo, he's a millionaire who plays games for a living, and he's crying about it. And I'm like, yeah, I think a while ago that would have bothered. Bothered me. But I'm like, I get it. Because to you, you probably are struggling with money, because everyone's struggling with money these days.

It's a completely fair thing. I luckily don't have to struggle with money anymore. So our. Where we're coming from with our mentalities is completely different. And I completely get, like, from your perspective, that is how this looks.

And I can't really fault anybody for that. Like, I know it's not true, and I know there is part of me that's, like, I do have a really good job, and I get paid way too much for it, and I should, like, I need to remind myself constantly that, like, this is more fun than it seems because algorithms get in your head. Conversations with other people get in your head. I don't have any friends in day to day life that I hang out with. We have PJ and Sophie, but we don't see them, like, every day.

Like, I don't have people that I hang out with constantly, so I don't have, like, a sounding board for anything.

I don't know. It's just human nature, isn't it? Yeah. I think that people sometimes forget that that is the most basic thing about human life, is that everyone is living a different life that has different stuff going on. So sometimes it's kind of unfair to be like, they have this and this.

Ethan Nestor
They have to be happy. It's like, yeah, that's not how that works. It's like, I think that's where the, like, money doesn't buy happiness kind of thing, which I I kind of hate that phrase, because money definitely affords a lot of things that can make you happy in the moment. And fleeting happiness is better than no happiness. Yeah.

Seán McLoughlin
But also, it's like, I think people just need. I think think back on humans as tribes. We just. I'm going full Joe Rogan now. When we were apes.

I think people just need friction. They need a struggle. They need, like, some sort of friction in their life to give it purpose and meaning. You need something overbearing to work against, to feel like you need, like, a struggle to feel like you're accomplishing stuff. If everything's great and everything's going well, it's kind of hard to know as a human to what to do.

It's like, if your financial problems are all solved, it's like you still have all your emotional baggage that you need to deal with. And now it's like, yeah, now I'm lucky enough that I have the money that I can afford to get help to figure that out. Or, like, if you have bad teeth, it's like, money definitely buys happiness in terms of, like, fixing your teeth. And, like, money can buy happiness for therapy. It can buy medical stuff.

Ethan Nestor
It's a. It's a scale kind of thing. Like, if. If you have, like, financial problems that are weighing a bunch of stuff down, and the other stuff won't seem as big of an issue, but if you suddenly remove that thing, then everything else is gonna shift. Applies to, like, everything.

Seán McLoughlin
But I remember hearing that, like, money doesn't buy happiness stuff back when I was living in a cabin and I was poor and depressed, and I'm like, things are way better now than they ever were back then. Like, this is literally the best version of my life, and a lot of it is because of money. I get to live in a cool house. I get to paint miniatures. I get to, like, take time off and not have to worry about work all the time.

So, yeah, I understand it when people say that kind of stuff. I'm like, yeah, I get it. I would probably feel similarly if I was in that situation. Look at us having personal growth and stuff. Yeah.

Ethan Nestor
And that crazy. I know. I just don't like when youtubers make the audience their problem. It's like, oh, stuff isn't going well. It's like, oh, it's my audience is the problem.

Seán McLoughlin
And I don't know the audience is why you get to do what you do. They're why you're here. You don't know every. You don't owe everything to them, but definitely owe a lot to them. Without the audience, there's no one there watching.

Who watches the watchmen? Who watches the watchmen? If there's. Who watches watchmen? If somebody tells a joke in a forest and a tree falls down, is that funny?

Ethan Nestor
I guess it depends. If a youtuber stops uploading. Did he even exist? If a youtuber goes in the forest. Get out of there.

Seán McLoughlin
Oh, God. Youtuber goes in the forest. We have a big issue coming in about two months. Yeah, we have an apology. We have an apology train.

Well, not only that, but it's so weird, I think of people getting cancelled as, like, a whale fall. You know how, like, when a whale dies, it falls to the bottom, and then it's like, a whale fall is technically an ecosystem that so many other things thrive off. So it's like a YouTuber dies, and then so many other channels are like, content for me. Me greedy, me get. Yeah, we're all like, little.

Ethan Nestor
We're all like, little crabs. Yeah, just going around. That's a hard line to walk because I want to talk about current things, like the watcher thing. But then it's also like, I don't want to add to a problem, though. It's like, how do you talk about drama without adding to drama?

Seán McLoughlin
Yeah, you pull out a gun and threaten people. Threaten. Are you afraid to hold it realistically because you're afraid we'll get in trouble?

Oh, God. Oh God. Anyway, who watches the watchman? We'll never know who mails $6.99 to find out. God.

Ethan Nestor
Fuck. Sorry. Do you have 1689? Of course you do, mister second channel. Probably only doing it because you want the dough balls.

Exactly. Want a higher rpm. You want to put sponsors on there. You want to do this and that and the other thing and all this. You fuck.

Seán McLoughlin
I just. I just want to be able to swear on my channel again without, like, second guessing myself. I went through like a two year period where every time I swore I was like, you could kind of see me, like, clam up and hold back because I'm like, did that just fuck me up? And then I'm like, in my head about it. You could.

If you could see, like, me on a trampoline in here. And then whenever I upload on a second channel, or like, lately, I'm like, I just want to do what I want to do and not really worry about it and whatever. So now I'm like swearing a lot more and not because I'm like, haha, fuck duty. It's funny, but not because you're eleven. And you just learned what swears are.

Yeah, but it's just part of my lexicon. I used to do it all the time and I hate that the algorithm kind of like drove it out of me. And I'm like, I wanna. I wanna find who me is again. I wanna.

Ethan Nestor
I wanna fucking be fucking me, dude. Shit ass fucking bitch. Kids. There's a couple that I won't say, cuz that will instantly get you demonetized. Yeah, but it's like, I don't like that.

Seán McLoughlin
I don't even care about getting demonetized. I'm like, if the video doesn't earn money, I'm like, fine, I have plenty of others that are earning. I have earners out there. My fucking pimp channel. I've got earners, dude.

Ethan Nestor
I've got my earners out in that pasture. But it's. It's when it takes it out of sub feeds and it takes it out of suggestions and people can't even see the video. I don't like that. It kills traffic.

I love seeing comments that are like, whoa, I just stumbled upon your video. I didn't know you were uploading anymore. Yeah. And it's like, yep, I'm. I'm still here.

Seán McLoughlin
I met somebody. Just don't see anything. I went to get coffee the other day, and somebody behind the counter, lovely guy, crazy cool tattoos, really cool looking dude. And he was like, oh, man, I used to watch you all the time as a kid, and I was like, I was like, you're a grown adult. And then he was like, I used to watch you all the time when I was, like, ten, and I'm, like, 20 now.

And I was like.

Ethan Nestor
God. It was just that Matt Damon meme where he grows immediately. I went to the Ren faire the other day, like I said, and it was really nice to meet a bunch of people. I was getting stopped constantly, which was very nice, but I was, like, a little sad because every time I got stopped, and I understand, and I am very glad. This thing was so impactful.

Every single person only said, like, I loved unus honest, and it made me a little sad where it was like, oh, that's cool that you like, I'm very glad that you enjoyed the thing that I did, but I kind of feel like nobody watches me anymore. It's better to be known for something than nothing. Yeah, you made an impact somehow, and that's all any of us in this career want to do because I get those comments all the time now where it's like, I used to watch you all the time, and they used to bother me for a while, but now I'm like, yeah, that's fine. I like, yeah, I had an impact on your life, and I was like, your comfort, like, other things were for me. Everyone wants relevance, and everyone wants to be, like, as relevant as possible all the time.

Seán McLoughlin
But, I mean, I rode that wave, man, and I beat myself up about it all the time, about not enjoying things more. And I keep coming back to that quote that that drummer said in the Drumeo video, which is like, I'd have more fun if I wasn't so hard on myself. And I'm like, yeah, that's. That's my life. I need to get outside of my own bubble.

I need to burst my bubble. I don't want to be bubble boy anymore. I want to catch diseases and infections. Yeah, no, like, I don't know. I.

Ethan Nestor
A part of me is like, I am very glad that it was so impactful, but there is the other thing that's like, ah, I wish that someone would be like, oh, I love your videos now. But I also get what you're saying. Yeah, that is true. Well, people also say that to me, like. Like, I watched you a long time ago, and I'm like, that was when I was putting in my most effort.

Seán McLoughlin
Like, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna pretend that I'm still putting in the same amount of effort as I used to back then. So obviously people are gonna fall away and not watch as much. And I'm doing things that I want to do more so than just, like, playing absolutely everything that comes out. So.

Makes sense. Yeah. Like, and it's the same with you. Like, you're doing stuff that you want to do now. You're not uploading every day.

Like, unus honest was. You're not. You're not making a spectacle out of it as much as you did when you did that. So it's understandable. But people are still there.

Hey, people still care. They're still out there. Look, all those people out there. All those, hey, all you beautiful people out there. Oh, fuck.

Hello. I still got it. It's still in there. I don't know who that guy was. It's like, it's a little mat patty.

It's really Matt Patty, actually, now that he said it. Hello, Internet. Oh, I was Matpat before Matpat.

Actually, he might have been doing that stuff back then. I don't know. He said he was doing YouTube longer than I was. So. Yeah, teen years or something.

It's also now, like, venom. Spider man and Spider man two. I keep thinking about that, like, every time he showed up and he was like, he's gonna wish he never came to New York. And I was like, that's the only way I can do Yuri Lowenthal is by being matpat. Don't.

But tell me how many calories I can have, bitch. It is very similar. It's crazy, but it's just. I didn't realize how much my. My origin story was steeped in Matpat, although it was solid snake at first.

Ethan Nestor
Yeah. Oh, war has changed. Our war never changes depending on what game you're playing. Do you watch the fallout tv show? I started the first episode the other night.

Seán McLoughlin
I really like it. And I don't even really care about fallout. I like it a lot. So far, apparently, since the release of the show, steam sales for fallout four have increased by 7000%. They're like, hit peak players for Fallout 76.

Yeah, that's wild. Which is not a surprise. But seeing even just the first episode did make me go, like, I just kind of want to play that opening sequence in Fallout four. I literally did that. After I watched the first episode, I did that, and then I went into the town afterwards and I was like, I forgot that I don't really want to play this game.

Yeah. I was like, I forgot that I have to, like, look at my map and go into every building and, like, check everything. And that's cool. Like, the first time. But I'm like, that's not what I want to do right now.

Ethan Nestor
Yeah, I do kind of wish that there was more in. I mean, I don't know how the rest of the show goes, so maybe they flashback to it. I have no idea. I'm assuming they don't, but more of, like, everyone, like, getting into the vault and stuff like that. That is my favorite thing in media, is when you have an apocalyptic event and then you have a whole episode, or the whole opening sequence is dedicated to the downfall.

Seán McLoughlin
The downfall of humanity is my favorite, like, media trope in an apocalyptic setting. That's why I'm very excited to see the new quiet place movie. Did you watch the start of part two? Bet you didn't. No.

Bet you forgot. Not. You should put a reminder in your phone. I should. Fucking epic.

Ethan Nestor
Fucking epic. I should. I should just watch that whole movie. Yeah, that's true. But I'm like, eh, people don't always have attention for a full movie.

Oh, you know what I did start doing the other day, though? Joking and. No, sort of that ages ago. It's increased tenfold. I do have a story about jelking that I could tell.

Seán McLoughlin
Keep going. Okay. Really threw me for a loop there. No, I started. I watched Rise of the Planet of the apes the other day and watch all those movies again before the new one comes out.

Hell yeah. Evelyn and I did that last year. We watched all three of them in the cinema room. Oh, apes together. Strong, bro.

Ethan Nestor
So excited for the new one. The whole time I was just sitting there clenching my butt, waiting for him to just go. No. Yeah. And then Draco's like, so good.

Seán McLoughlin
I love. First half of that movie is not very good, but the second half is really awesome. I love that movie. That's. That's like a comfort movie for me.

I, um. I think they're great. I think the new one's probably gonna. Be, eh, but, yeah, we'll see. CG is always really good.

Ethan Nestor
CG is always very good. The first one, the CG, gets markedly better in the second half when Caesar is just at the ape sanctuary because everything is just, like, controlled. Well, it's also easier to see CG around CG when you see just him in a house surrounded by real people. It's like, and at the time, how did we accomplish this fidelity? And now you're watching, it's like, I know how.

Seán McLoughlin
It looks like Pixar. It still. It holds up pretty well. The second half holds up very, very well. The Maurice the orangutan looks fucking real.

Yeah, he does. He just looks real. He looks the best of all of them. He's just a real fucking monkey. It must be easier to do when it's, like, covered in hair so you're not, like, seeing skin and textures.

And it's though. I thought that hair was the hardest thing. No, skin is usually the hardest thing to do in CG and games and stuff, because you have to do, like, translucency. You have to do subsurface scattering. You have to do, there's, like, there's so many layers to skin, and everyone's is different and, like, the consistency and the density of your skin and because your skin is slightly see through, so.

Yeah, but the second movie, CG in that movie fucking rules. Mm hmm. That's my favorite one out of them all. I love that movie leading up to that. Oh, and dude, I'm so excited about movies.

Ethan Nestor
Wolverine and Deadpool. Oh, yeah, I'm excited. I want. I want to. I want to, you know, to that premiere, I want to.

I want to poke my. My manager and go, hey, you get me in there. I desperately want to do something with Ryan Reynolds for that. I'm like, can we please get together again? Even if it's just to show up on you to tell me to fuck off.

Seán McLoughlin
That's a good TikTok. But I so cool. And it would be so cool. I mean, I'm not trying to downplay Ryan Reynolds at all. I really love Ryan Reynolds a lot.

Ethan Nestor
But if you're doing promo for the movie, also be really cool to meet Hugh Jackman. You do like Wolverine. So I can see Wolverine is my favorite superhero. Yeah. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I did reply to Ryan's story about the trailer, and I said, dude, it looks so fucking cool.

Seán McLoughlin
I can't wait. And he wrote back, it's my favorite one yet. Thanks, pal. And I'm like, if he thinks it's his favorite one, then it's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be so fucking cool.

Ethan Nestor
Because that wasn't public. He could say anything in the DM's. Well, he wouldn't say that. It sucks. Well, yeah, but, you know, I'm excited.

Seán McLoughlin
I really want to do something for that movie. It's gonna be so cool. Give him a little poke and say, hey, it's not up to him. It's up to everybody else. Last time was with Sony, maybe no 20th Century fox, and I had dealings with them, but I don't really have a contact at Marvel for anything, so see what happens.

Ethan Nestor
It's gonna be cool. I'm excited. It's gonna be great. I love Wolverine. Yeah, I'm very excited.

Seán McLoughlin
There's so many references in the trailer already, and sometimes it's like, sometimes too many references are like, eh, but for Deadpool, I'm like, you're gonna nail it. I love, at the end of the trailer, it was like, cocaine is the one thing feige said that we can't do. And then it's like, do you want to build a snowman? He's like, yes, but I can't. It's so awesome.

So I hope it's gonna be so fun. I hope there's a ton of jokes like that in it. Oh, I'm sure there will be, because it's Deadpool. Yeah, it's gonna be great. I'm pumped to see Hugh back in the.

Ethan Nestor
Back in the old saddle. Yeah. It's a little sad that it's like, oh, the Logan one ended, and everyone was like, farewell, and now it's like, now you're back. So it kind of sullies it a little bit, but I think they'll handle it well, and I think it'll still be well. It seems like it's, like every Marvel movie as of late, a little multiversy.

Seán McLoughlin
Oh, yeah. They're, like, jumping through a thing and stuff. They have the TVA from Loki, so it's all, like, fixing timelines. But I love that that makes the fun time jump thing at the end of Deadpool two where he shoots himself in the head. I love that that is now technically canon, and they'll probably work around that to be like, that's how he finds Logan at one point, or, like, a version of him.

Ethan Nestor
I did love that line where he's like, unless you want to take a breath through your forehead. Yeah, so good. I think that's Ryan Reynolds strong suit is sitting in a room and coming up with one liner quips like that. He's like, oh, his claws of whiskey dick. I have never heard that term before, and I'm sure it's said plenty in some places, but that's a great one.

Oh, you've never heard of whiskey dick? No. Oh, yes. Great. Oh, it's gonna be fun, Ryan.

Come on the podcast, Ryan. Have Sean come and do a thing. And Sean, you can. You could dress up like Wolverine and you could say, let's. I do have a deadpool mask.

Seán McLoughlin
I could bring it with me and be like, guess who? Haha. And then just take off the eye parts. Just staring through the eyes. Oh.

If I can do the whole interview like that, or just like, pretend that it doesn't exist, I'm gonna pitch that to people and make it happen. Manifest. I can't say manifest destiny because I. Forgot that that's not what that is. It sounds like that's what it should be, and I think technically that's what it is.

But it was used horribly. So I. Won'T say that, but manifest. I thought that it was very, very funny, you saying that, because you're not from America and they've been America. That obviously that was a.

Ethan Nestor
That's a big deal. But why would you know anything about that? We have a big history of colonizing in Europe. But we didn't. We haven't used that term.

Huh? Yeah, colonization in Europe, UK, Netherlands. Back to back champions, baby. Do you mean to tell me that England has colonized other places? Hey, what language are you speaking?

Seán McLoughlin
No, it's like, whatever about Louis Ck. Cause he got shit on in public and everything. And I don't know much about that situation, but I remember watching one of his things. He's like, he talking about which religion won? And he's like, which religion won?

What year is it?

I'm like, that's the best way of describing that. That's such a good joke. It's pretty good. Well, anyway, should we wrap this bitch up, put a little bow on it, send it off to our subscription site? Send his bitch off the pasture?

Sure thing. Me go? Hell yeah. Well, everyone, don't forget, um, you know, go and sign up for our subscription. You won't be hearing from us here anymore.

Ethan Nestor
Um, we're leaving. Yeah, so. And if you don't follow us there, then you don't care about us. Yep, we don't care about you, and that's why we're doing it. Adios.

Seán McLoughlin
Adios.