Why We All Quit Anime YouTube (ft. @supereyepatchwolf3007 ) | Trash Taste #171
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Trash Taste. I am once again joined by the boys and we have another special guest with us. Do you want to introduce yourself to the crowd? Hi, I'm John.

I sometimes go by Super Eyepatch Wolf also. Did you just wake up? You gotta eat the mic, Joe. You gotta eat the mic, okay. Yeah, so it's gotta be like very, very close. Wait, that's an awkward height for you now. You know, it's, well, I'll manage. It's okay. It's fine. My phone is vibrating. One second. Let me be a good host here.

Alright. There we go. You good? Yeah, I've turned it off. Alright, yeah, do you want to introduce yourself and what you do to our audience? Hi, my name is John. I run the channel Super Eyepatch Wolf, and I've been making video essays about...

whatever the fuck for seven years the best i can describe you started off with anime and like over the past couple years you've kind of transitioned into just whatever rabbit hole you've managed to find yeah yeah i don't know sometimes i describe my career as a series of poor decisions that led places so i don't know for a while as well it's been how many years have we all known each other now it's ages oh my god yeah quite a while it's been

Because I remember distinctly the first time I met you two and you. We met at Anime Expo like 2017, 2018. Oh, was that the Anituba meetup? Yes. Yeah, I remember that. And I remember you specifically, Joey, because you came up to me and you were like, Hi!

you're like really hot and I still stand by that to this day so yeah we've all been friends for quite a while because I would say we are some of the OGs now of the anime YouTube community I know you hate being called a nanny tuber now I don't care

I just... whatever. I think at this point I've just given up on trying to define anything. It's just like, whatever. Yeah, and I remember back then, John just didn't show his face at all, right? And I think it might have been the first time I'd seen your face, and I'm like, no AniTuber should be this hot. What the fuck? Because I remember at that AniTube meetup, it was pretty sizable, maybe around 40, 50 people kind of showed up, but it was really funny because...

I'd say the majority of the people who were there were just like, "Alright, which one's super hype actual?" "I have to see his face." And everyone was like, "Yo! He's mad hot!" "That's crazy!" See, like, I didn't know that that was going to be a thing at all. Like, I've been with my girlfriend and her wife, Michelle, for 18 years. Never even really, like, dated around or anything. And so I talk about doing, like, a face reveal to my friends, and they're like, "It's gonna be so funny." And I'm like,

what do you mean? And so then like, I remember I put a face reveal video up and I hit refresh and there was immediately 70 comments. And the first one was, oh, no, he's hot. And the second one was all capital letters, old. And I was like, I was like, oh, this is

- Maybe this was a mistake. - Damn. - But yeah, I mean, you got your start, I guess. - No, don't shout. I did not sign any form consenting to this. - Oh God. - God damn. - I remember seeing this and I was like, - How did your jawline get better? What the fuck? How does that happen?

Yeah, it's great because I look at you, John, and I'm like, all right, I have hope. I have hope. I have hope for my life, you know? You hit your 30s and you can still look fucking bad at it. Pretty much like the son of guts, somebody said. Is that a good thing? Oh,

I don't know how we wandered into this. I'm so sorry. It's okay. You started anime YouTube for a pretty interesting reason, right? Because you did it out of spite, if I remember correctly. Oh yeah, completely. My entire career is built on hatred. Basically, I was listening to Wooly Versus and he was talking on a podcast about

starts talking about Hunter x Hunter which for me top three anime of all time absolutely fucking love it right Joe and hey I've read it now so now I know now I understand the hype good stuff and he's like he's not like

just talking shit he's going in like he's like i can't deal with this tedious shonen horseshit and i'm like i'm sitting there like your average video game podcast listener just fucking seething and i'm just like how can you say that about the anime i like

And I feel like the healthy thing to do would have just been to let it go. Yeah, of course. That is not what I did for a long time. I held on to it for a year.

and then made a video called why you should watch hunter hunter not about how he was wrong because i thought that might be kind of shitty but just about how i thought it was good yeah and then and also how he was wrong i mean loki did you mention him at all in the video sorry did you mention him at all no yeah right i thought so no um and um so that was the whole plan

You know, that was the whole plan. I'm going to make this video and then I'm going to go back to my actual life. I can walk away from this. Yeah. And then...

And then that didn't happen. Right. And mainly just because, like, I really just fucking loved making videos. Yeah, I remember watching this video when it came out. Yeah, really. I think I was around when I binged Hunter x Hunter, so it was, like, kind of perfect timing. Yeah, it was kind of crazy as well, because you almost just, like, came out of nowhere, and then I feel in a very short span of time, your name was just kind of floating around in the attitude. Like, whoa. Where it's just like, there's this, like, new guy who made this, like, Hunter x Hunter video, and it's like...

really fucking good and no one knows where he came from he just like suddenly popped up yeah and I think a part of it was like I wasn't on any like forums or part of any community or stuff like that because people would be asking me like what's your mal list and all any of that kind of stuff what's your mal list oh no it was a big thing back then oh you

like anime give me your mouth and but i just i fucking loved making videos you know just clicked in a way that nothing else had and like i had tried so much shit up to that point you know i had i like i'd been part of an electronica band i tried to be an illustrator i tried to be a storyboard artist i spent six months training as a wrestler all this kind of stuff and like it always felt like

pushing a boulder uphill. And then when I started YouTube, I was like, "Oh, there's something about this that I get that I don't get about other things." You know, that kind of way. One thing, so I think when I discovered your content wasn't actually the Hunter x Hunter.

It was actually the bleach video that you did. Ah, yes. And I gotta ask because... You have to walk me through this. Sorry? You have to walk me through this because I've never watched a bleach video. Okay, so John did a video basically detailing, I guess...

I think the original was like the fall of Bleach, correctly? Yep. How did the Bleach fandom react to that? Because I wanna ask about what fandoms you've pissed off. This video is just you saying that it just fell off. Yeah, pretty much. So originally, actually really positive

Right. And I had like kind of like bleach YouTubers being like, oh, it's cool to see such an interesting like look and breakdown. But unfortunately, what I didn't know over time is like basically I was basing it all on the Shonen Jump chapter index. Long story short. Yeah. No one fucking knows what's going on.

There's no like so I basically read on a website I think it works like this and then said in my video it works like this and that earned me the ire of the bleach fandom for ever after Yeah, and the video like it sucked because like I was really happy of with like a

the how that video came together and like how it told a story it just happens that the story it was telling was wrong and I feel like I have tried to correct that in various ways over the years and never been successful so at some point I'm like okay

Good luck, everyone. Because I noticed you... Is this real? Are these fans still mad at Super Eyepatch? I've never seen that! I can answer quite confidently, yes. Because I feel like... The top comment is, they're proud, damaged people, retaliating at anything out of survival. Okay, so look, here's the thing that pisses me off, right? Right.

I fucking love Bleach. Bleach is awesome. Like, yeah, personally, I think it goes downhill over time. I will take Bleach over Demon Slayer, over Hero Academia, over so much shit. It's fucking great. And the only reason I talk about it is because...

- Because I give a shit. - But like, look, I did get it wrong and that did piss people off. So I don't want to be dismissive of that. - 'Cause I feel like a right of passage with like anyone who does anime content on YouTube, or at least when it like we talk about anime series, it's like, we at least piss off one fandom

within our journey. Oh, of course. I think I've nailed about eight or nine. You played Shenmue 3? Oh, shit. Yeah, I wanted to ask, what was, like, the fandom you pissed off the most? And we can share, I guess. So I would say, actually, probably Dragon Ball Z.

Really? But I've just never... I've never made, like, a negative video about Dragon Ball Z. Those guys are just mad. They're angry about a lot of things. They have a lot of anger problems. Honestly, probably the Bleach fandom, which, I mean, fair. I mean, if they're still making Reddit posts in 2022 about...

Why they're still mad they're trying to collectively figure it out. Yeah, why are we still mad? I think I learned early on when I started doing the like the whole Sebastian thing I noticed that like people assumed because I was making videos on it that I understood a lot

about the show but I didn't and I realized very quickly that people care about the show way more than I ever could and I am never ever going to attempt to get to their level I'm just going to be the he he funny videos that don't even try to touch it or the themes because I remember people would be like oh this character wouldn't say this and I'm like I don't care

But you see, this is the thing where like, I feel like when I started making videos and definitely like when, when like you started making videos, Garnt, like you could make a video about Yu Yu Hakusho and it would be the video on Yu Yu Hakusho. Yeah. Now you have channels that are

entirely about One Piece, channels that are entirely about Bleach, Dragon Ball Z and like it's these guys whole lives like reading this manga and making content out of it. Like fair play to them like that's it's an interesting way and there's a lot of good videos that come from that but I think then the problem is when you try and make a video about it then there is infinitely more knowledge about it and people who might like know the series more in depth and have more understanding but then the problem that it comes into then is like

a lot of, like, I guess more casual people are looking for videos where it's kind of, it's entertaining, you know? And it comes into this thing where it's like, you have an audience that wants a really deep understanding and then you want a bigger audience that just want to be entertained. And I think the disparity between those two can lead to, I would say, like a bit of bitterness with creators. And like, I get it to a degree. Yeah.

But it's a tricky one. Yeah, I mean, one of my most interesting things that I've noticed with some of my own content, so a fandom that I've pissed off is the Fate fandom, or I would say the... The only guy who talks about it. Why are they doing it?

And it was very interesting because like I made like a skit just like basically based around my experiences whenever I would have a conversation about the Fate rabbit hole and just like how how like just one sentence could just start an entire war in terms like watch order and stuff like that. And when I released that video, it was like received very, very positively. Everyone fucking loved it.

and then it really started getting spread around and it started getting spread around outside just the fake community uh and that's when i started to see people not exactly mad about the video but mad about people's perception because of that video that is the exact same thing it was with me like i even went on some calls with some some bleach guys and it always ended up ultimately yeah i was like okay let's hear him out and it always ended up like well i'm not mad at you

"I'm just mad at the people who agree with you." And I was like, "Oh, okay." Your mindset became... Oh my god. Yeah, because it's so interesting now because, like you said back then, because the anime community was much smaller, much more, as I would say, like, inclusive? No, inclusive is the wrong word, but much more manageable in terms of what fandoms are what. Now, because there are so many different factions, so many different fandoms,

a lot of fans get very protective about this one IP. Oh, for sure. Especially, like, anime fan is like too broad an umbrella now that just didn't exist before. I feel like when you're an anime fan before, that kind of encapsulated so much of the community. And now there are just people who just solely watch One Piece, for example, or solely watch Attack on Titan or the Shonens. I have a fun question.

If you were to do the fall of another anime today, which one would you do? The fall of another anime? So like an anime that fell off. The real answer is probably I would not do that. But in terms of another anime that falls, it's fallen off. One that you felt like you kind of fell out of. Do you think any anime has fallen off?

no, I do not. I think all anime is great. Would you like to hear top 10 facts about One Piece? I'm just, you're like, man, this sucked for years. They hate me. I'm like, do it again.

Honestly, like genuinely like I can tell you ones that like I I fell off one piece but that's not because I think one piece got worse it's because I

I got real busy and didn't have time to read. And like, I'm going to catch up with it someday. And I, I bet it's still good. That's what they all say. Yeah. I mean, I kind of, I never fall out of one piece. I just, it just comes in like waves. There's a wave where I read a hundred chapters and then I don't read it for two years. And I'm like, I, I forget I'm a one piece fan sometimes. And I read it again. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm definitely a one piece fan. Totally. Yeah. Do you guys feel like you're at the point where like even very milquetoast opinions are

get like these crazy reactions. Like someone will ask me like, what do you think about Demon Slayer? And I'm like, I don't know.

"Oh yeah, it's alright." And I'll be like, "Ohhh!" Why don't you ask Joey about his Jujutsu Kaisen opinion? I think we did initially, because obviously it was all new, but I think now people are so used to us just saying dumb shit, they'll just write us off. They'll be like, "Oh, Joey said it." Or "Connor said it." Well, I mean, the other day when they announced the title for the new season of Attack on Titan, I quote retweeted it, and all I said was, "This title's really stupid."

God, the comments were just like, how fucking dare you? I can't believe you would say that. How dare you ruin the sanctity of the final season part three, part two. You don't even watch anime anymore. You have no opinion on this. And I'm just like, guys, I just thought it was dumb. But yeah, like, that's why if I don't really like something, I...

try not to like say my like opinion even if i just say it's all right like even like you can't even say it's all right it's even saying like it's all right it's like fandoms will jump on you for just saying you don't think it's really really good or really really great right joey right yeah totally yeah i think uh one one infamous trash chase clip was when joey said judith skyston was like all right

Did you use the word mid? I can't remember. Did you say mid? I said mid just to piss off the Jesus Christ fans. Okay, that was the issue. I'm at this point now where it's like, you know, I obviously try to avoid, you know, giving any like, I guess, controversial opinions on like certain shows. But at the same time, it's really funny to piss off anime fans. That's the problem is that I think people are like, they hate that.

Yeah, I know, but I love it. Also, mid is such a lazy criticism of a show. I agree. I don't like the term mid just because I feel like it is a coward term. I would rather someone say it's shit or say it's awesome. Say it's shit so you have to actually say an opinion. Explain what you don't like. I'm happy to explain why I don't like a show. It might be fucking stupid is the problem and people sometimes recognize that of me and I'm guilty of that. But I think sometimes like

especially when people are watching you a lot and people really think they relate to you, they really want to connect with you on whatever they can. Yeah. And then it's really disappointing when they can't. Like, I remember it was basically a rite of passage in my Discord for a couple of years for someone new to come in and be like, "Can't wait for the 'Why You Should Watch Hero Academia' video." And I'd just be like, "I don't like that show." And they'd be like, "Oh!"

And then like the other Discord members would be like, yeah, yeah, we all thought he was going to make content. Well, it's weird because like, I know the feeling where it's just like, you just want to make content on stuff you like and you shouldn't, you know, healthily, you shouldn't put your opinions on someone else's opinion. You should kind of like healthily form your own. But there is a certain sense of satisfaction you get when you watch a creator you respect say that they like

a thing that you like like when when i saw like charlie finally get into one piece i was like

We did it. Boys, we did it. We did it. We prevailed. And I knew I shouldn't have felt that much sense of pride, but I kind of did. Yeah, totally. It's like getting your mate into a show or series you really, really like. Have you ever showed a mate a first episode of something and you're just intently watching them? I don't do that anymore.

You don't do that anymore? I can't do it. It's too much. It's like when you play music to someone and it's the longest four minutes of your life. Because you're like, yeah, it's good, right? And suddenly it starts to sound worse. This bit's really good. Yeah, yeah. And suddenly it all starts to sound a little more uncomfortable and you're like, no, I just...

It just doesn't sound like this when I listen to it alone. It's kind of like that. So I normally, I'm like, please watch one episode if you like it, maybe we watch it together or something. I'm like, I'm so done forcing people to watch shows. A 30 second meme suddenly becomes a three hour meme. Oh my God. When you're just like, okay. The jokes build up in this clip that I remember. Yeah, what's the one they ask? How long is this again? Oh God.

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I want to do some other stuff as well. Or was that like always kind of like something you wanted to do? So within the first year I was, I made like a video about Silent Hill 2, which was a big break. And I think if you go back and watch that video, I'm nearly like apologizing in it where I'm like, guys, I'm so, I swear to fucking God, I'm going to talk about Mob Psycho 100 too, you know? And I liked it and it was fun. Like, I remember views wise, the video did bad, but I was kind of like, it's

It's kind of fun though, you know? And then, um, then the big one for me is I made a video about pro wrestling and specifically, I think it was called, I think it was originally called professional wrestling is fascinating. And I changed the name or something. I think it's called, uh, pro wrestling is dumb and beautiful and I'd love it or something. And, um, that was like my favorite video I'd ever made. I was like, this is so much fun. And like, I got to tell this big story about Kenny Omega and the golden lovers and all this kind of stuff. And that was the moment where I was like, Oh, I think I just got a,

"Just gotta do what I want here." You know? Yeah, 'cause I remember when... I think it was maybe like the first or maybe even the second time I met with you IRL and we were in Dublin with Aki and I remember we were at dinner and you were like, "So Joey, I need your opinion on something. I'm making this video about The Simpsons."

And I'm really scared to upload it because I feel like my audience is going to hate it. And you gave me kind of the breakdown of it. And I was like, no, Ricky, you should go for it. And then you did upload it. And now it's like your most viewed video. Oh, that is my most viewed video still. Until...

the Garfield video surpasses it, which is going to be any day now, which is deeply fucking horrifying. Stupid cat takes everything from me. No, I mean, I think... There's 8 million views? Holy fuck. Holy shit. Oh my God. That's crazy. That's insane. No, I think, because like, I think one of the reasons I fucking love your content, you know, as a fan and also as a mate, is just like your ability to sell me on everything.

any single fucking topic at all and get me invested in it. I'll be real with you. I never had any interest in wrestling. And after your video, I still have not much interest in wrestling, but it was...

Like, you got me invested in wrestling when I should never have gotten invested in wrestling in the first place. I feel like it is, from my own experience as well, from making a wrestling video, it is really hard to sell wrestling to people who do not have any interest in wrestling. I don't know why. It was something that my audience, I've never seen the response to it. It wasn't negative, but it was just very unusual.

I've never had anything like that. If you turn on wrestling, if you turn on the average wrestling show, you're going to see two sweaty guys in a ring. And the actual storytelling is not apparent. Like the actual cool things about it. And then like the deeper you get into it and all the great like I would say getting Michelle into wrestling was a long term project with me for a long time. And about two years ago, she said something that I was just like, I did it.

it she just goes um there's this wrestler called brian danielson but when he went to the wwe vince mcmahon changed his name to daniel brian and michelle just goes

what is wrong with Vince McMahon? And I was like, I got her. I got her. Bring back the old name. So I don't know, you trained in wrestling before he did YouTube. Yep. What sparked your interest in wrestling from the beginning? Was it something you were just always into? So I don't remember a point in my life when I wasn't into wrestling. Like when I was little, I loved like Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan, much less...

Eventually, for many reasons. He's had a few scandals. More than a few. That guy sucks in about 12 different ways. So then anyway, I...

I actually worked this job that I really, really liked and I got fired and it was like devastating. It was like just, this was pre-YouTube and it fucking sucked. And I was like, okay, I thought I was like kind of following all the right paths and doing all the right things like professionally. And now I kind of have nothing. And especially like I knew my confidence was super low and I was like, okay, fuck it. Pie in the sky. What do you want to pursue? Like, what do you want to go after? And I was like,

Maybe I could be a wrestler? Try it out. And so I looked it up and there was actually this wrestling school within like three miles of my place. What? And so I just started training there for like six months. And the only reason I stopped is like, A, I'm not a wrestler.

That shit is so hard. And I say that as someone who has done, like, contact martial arts pretty much my whole life. Professional wrestling was, like, the toughest training I've ever done. Damn. Because, like, with martial arts, the object is to... Or the objective is to not get your head kicked in. This was like, no, you're gonna get fucking destroyed. And so I did that. And the only reason I stopped is because, like...

YouTube started to kind of become a thing and I was like, I gotta put my whole ass into one of these things, you know? You can't just put yourself in it. So, like, that's a badass origin story. Imagine Train needs to be a wrestler and then, yeah, I'm gonna make anime videos. I don't know if badass is the word. I mean, compared to anyone else I know in the anime community, I'm like, yeah. Just imagine you throwing some dude around the ring thinking of being pissed off by Hunter Hunter. Yeah.

Like I'm gonna make a fucking video about this. Would you do any like, you know, YouTuber like kind of like sporting or boxing events are like becoming a thing now. Would you ever consider doing that? Especially with your totally kind of like, you know, I would be very afraid of your opponent. I feel like you are, you have the drive that is terrifying. Yeah.

If you could make a video like that about Garfield, what could you do if you actually had to fight someone? What could I do to the human body? I just don't want to know. Do you have like a dream entrance you would make if you ever did a sporting event like that? Because, you know, you love your wrestling. I think the problem is I've had a couple over the years. I think, you know what?

Rather than going for like a big heavy theme song. I think it'd be kind of badass to walk into Guts theme. Just like slow song. Like real Undertaker slow song. That would be so badass. That's pretty fucking cool. Yeah. Because like you obviously made a video, you know, about Berserk as well. Would you say like, do you have like, I know this is...

A fucking question every anime youtuber hates. But you're on a podcast, I gotta ask it. Do you have like a top five or like things that like anime that mean the most to you? Oh, so I think Berserk is like the best story ever. Yeah. Like, fucking, period. Oh, hands down. Yeah. And I read books.

Real boss! I think Berserk is legit, like, the best thing we as a species have done. I fucking love it so much. But in terms of, like, say, anime, I could probably do a top five. I think my top three are, like...

Evangelion hunter hunter you you hack show cowboy bebop number four and I could probably pick something Yeah, that'd be kind of the rough one for me. Hell. Yeah, good choice table list. Yeah, very very respectable list I forgot what I was gonna say. I said I gotta ask how the fuck did you go into Garfield? What was all that about? How did that happen? Um, I don't know cuz I

As I explained in that video, I never had any int... Okay, no, actually, it was when I think I was, like...

someone was telling me that there was a lot of weird Garfield shit online. And like, I love fandom. I love people taking this license and doing cool shit with it. Like, I'm just fascinated by that process. I love fan art. I like love anything that's kind of transformative like that. And someone sent me or slash I'm sorry, John. And I was like, oh, weird. And I was like, I should, I should, my thought at the time was like, I should do like a little 20 minute video about this. What is, what is, what do you expect that is? Or slash I'm sorry, John is like a subreddit of Garfield.

the most fucked up fan art you can imagine of Garfield. Is this one of them? Oh God, what is that? Yeah. So yeah, it's that. There's another one called or slash I'm really sorry, John. Oh my God. Really don't advise people look at that. Oh God. And so like, I just became fascinated with like, how did,

we get to this. And then like, I remember I was kind of, my mom was asking me what I'm working on. I was like, I'm playing around with this idea of Garfield and like, you know, this weird fandom around it. And she was like, Oh no. Oh, it's been banned from Reddit. Oh, it's been banned from Reddit. As someone who spent a little time on there, rightfully so. But I said to my mom and she was like, oh yeah, because you used to have your little Garfield teddy. And I was like, no, I,

What? No, I didn't. Oh, no. And then she was like, yeah, you did. And I was like, I think you're thinking of, like, my cousin. And then she was like, no, no, you did. And then I was like, I fucking didn't. And then she sends me a photo of as a kid holding this Garfield. And I'm like, what the fuck? At that point, it kind of triggered the idea that, like, Garfield is this...

kind of eldritch being, really. And it just became such a fun narrative to make, you know? Hell yeah. Yeah, because do you have, like, a process in terms of, like, how you come up with video ideas? Because, you know, it started off with anime, and now it's just, like, fucking anything, you know? Like, is it just kind of, like, where you can find, like, an interesting story? Or is there something that draws you? It's just...

I get an idea in my head and I can't get rid of it. And I think at the point where my friends are like, would you fucking stop talking about this? That's when it's like, I should probably make a video about this. Oh my God. Yeah. That's actually kind of sick though. That's kind of sick. Oh, a lot of it's really sick. Like a lot of it's so, so cool. That's so sick. Because you did one on Garfield. You did one on Sonic as well, if I remember correctly. Oh yeah. Yeah. That was a fun one. Yeah. Remember the day...

I remember I was like looking up all parts of Sonic and there's basically a day I basically had to go on Pornhub and be like, let's see what's on Pornhub, how much Sonic porn there is on Pornhub, right? We don't need to search it up. I'm like looking at all this stuff and I get a phone call from my dad. Yeah. And like my dad will usually call me when like it's something kind of serious. Like he's the one who'll be like, okay. He's like, John, listen.

there's this global pandemic starting and uh i think we're all probably gonna have to stay inside for a little while and just so you know don't go outside and it was a really harrowing phone call right and then like i'm like okay cheers that i appreciate it and i turn it i hang up the phone and i turn back to my monitor and there's rouge the bat sucking shadow the hedgehog

And I'm just like, no, I understand. My job's fucking weird. Don't call me dad. I'm working. Oh my God. I wonder if I've ever had that real. I'm trying to think back now, if I've ever just ever had that realization about how weird my job is. I've never had that moment where I'm just, I mean, you, you,

do some weird fandoms. One video I found super fascinating is when you go into like real life kind of like the, you know, kind of like the fake martial arts. That was like one of my favorite ones as well. Just because I was, I also grew up watching like a lot of martial arts films and stuff like that. And just seeing how many, like how deep this rabbit hole went. Yeah.

it's so weirdly prolific. And the weird thing is like, you would think, so for people who don't know, it's like basically these people think they have magical powers. They got through martial arts and they were like the no contact KOs and all this kind of stuff. But the weird thing, it's still pot

There's people who still really believe that stuff. How'd you go about researching a video like that? Because that's such a new fucking topic. Where do you start? So it originally started on this Instagram called McDojo. And the term McDojo is kind of like, there was a lot of strip mall karate dojos in the 80s who would just teach whatever the fuck. And the big trick is the sensei, the master, would always be like,

now I can never fight you because I would kill you. You know, and it's like, okay. And so like I had done martial arts, I'm black belt in Taekwondo, did it for about 10 years. And then I took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I just love martial arts. I love fighting. It's fun. And,

I started watching these videos and I was like, I was just kind of obsessed with those, like, this is fucking insane. And I remember I heard one of these instructors give this, like, speech to his students about how it's very important that I never fight.

because that would be like bringing a gun, you know? And then I thought of it. I'd been doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu a little while at this point, and I thought about how many times my instructor has just beat the shit out of me. So I was like, well, this doesn't really add up. And it was an interesting video. I remember I got...

I got an email after that video from, I don't want to say which martial art it is because then I'll get a bunch of comments about it, but someone claiming to be a master in a certain martial art. And he was like, here's how a fight between me and you would go. And he explained step by step everything I do and that he'd do. And it was like four paragraphs. And then I messaged him back being like, okay, where do you want to fight?

Nothing. That's so fucking funny. Give me a time and a place. Time and a place. Yeah, because there was like the martial arts and then there was the psychics as well, right? Oh, the psychics. Oh, I love that video. Yeah. That was actually...

That was depressing to make because it just... I thought it was... Well, I just take advantage of people who are in... Yeah, like, at the start, I was like, this is so silly. And then after a while, I was like, this is, like, really preying on, like, some of the most sad and hurt people. And so I really wanted to... Then I thought, okay, this video is actually, like, I should definitely make this because it was just...

Really shitty, you know, but I feel like that's what happens with a lot of internet stuff like that the fake martial arts and the influencer video They're all like the same scam, you know It's all finding these people who really want something and they don't really have a good grasp on what's missing from their own lives Yeah, and then taking advantage of it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that's kind of how a lot of cults prey on like, you know vulnerable individuals who are missing something in their lives and

Because I did actually, because I did watch your, so John made a

a video kind of like going, doing a deep dive into influencer training courses, right? - Yes. - Where you did a bunch of influence courses and you kind of like tested how effective they were. And I'm okay. I'm really interested in that because did you see anything that as a YouTuber yourself, you thought was like worthwhile advice or was it mostly just kind of like surface level bullshit? - Ninja told me to dye my hair.

Like no like

- You can't possibly give someone the specific advice they would need in such a generic way. There's no way. - Yeah. - So, see, I think the problem is like a lot of these guys, they are incentivized to make you believe something. And if you do not get those results,

that's proof that their shit doesn't work. But then, like, so then they develop, you know, like, the grind set. Like, oh, it might not happen straight away, but, you know, you keep at it and you keep buying these courses. And it's, like, it's a very insidious thing, I think I feel like. In terms of, like, actual advice I got from it, I mean, I thought it was all garbage, but I do understand, like, I'm kind of an outlier with a lot of YouTube stuff. Like, I think if...

If you were to give general advice on YouTube, I'd probably do none of it and succeed in spite of myself. You know? I mean, you can only really give generic advice to a mass audience. You can't really give... Of course. I feel like everyone's journey and everyone's way of approaching it is so different. Yeah. But there actually was a really interesting video by, I think it was Ludwig.

And he was like, can I create a viral video from nothing? So not using any of his clout or any of his... And he actually did it. And so there is a kind of counterpoint to something like that. But what I'd say to that is like... Is it the one where he sent it to... Yes. But what I'd say is like...

That's Ludwig that is one of the most like creative and intelligent people in terms of making content He figured out that streamers would watch videos if it's talking about them Yeah, so he paid a streamer a bunch of money to get it in front of him and of course he's gonna watch it cuz it's like this is why the stream is a genius yeah, which is smart because he realizes that all streamers have he goes which is true I think it's interesting because I do think there is

genuine advice that you can give to like be more successful on YouTube kind of like we proved it and I remember I've seen a video recently of someone who like tried to make a video to prove him wrong only for that video to like blow up So like by taking his advice So, you know it generally you do can do things to like put things in your core the problem with courses is that by the time a course is finished and

and like done, it's like a lot of the information is probably out of date, you know? Because YouTube is like constantly changing and what is relevant and what works today is not going to work like, I think,

six months down the line. It's like there's not stuff you can't do to improve your chances. Like, you know, yeah, develop a good thumbnail, develop like a compelling title, structure your video well so that people want to keep watching it. Yeah. Like, it's not the concept I had a problem with. It's the industry that built up around it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like seeing some of the videos like self-help books as well. It's the same kind of material. You know, it's like you can do it. Sorry. No, no, no. Did

Did you have another point? No, that was it. Okay. Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think it's just like the way it was marked, like especially some of the influencers I saw in your video, the way it was marketed to be like, you do this, you will be guaranteed to make $10,000 or you can, you know, and especially seeing some of the ways that the cost breakdown was like,

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I feel like, ultimately, like, the test of that video that none of them ever took me up on was just, like, "Okay, release your actual success rates. Don't, like, cherry-pick one person out of, like, a thousand. Show, like, the actual rate." And I said, "If it's over 50%, I'll delete the video." And I would.

100% would. No one ever took it up. Of course. I'd be amazed if it was over like 1%. Yeah, completely. Yeah, because like the thing about being a successful YouTuber, I think it's not just having like one video that blows up. It's being able to like consistently do that. And that's like the fucking hardest thing. That is the hardest part. I genuinely believe most people have one viral video. Oh, I genuinely believe that as well. Because everyone has that thing they love that they probably have a really interesting insight on. Or hate, you know.

I think for me, and I'm probably I can assume you guys as well, the most help I've ever gotten is from those camera dudes on YouTube or lighting people who just give you, they're like, actually just do this, put these settings on your camera. I was like, that is so much more helpful than anything else I've been told. Because I can, you know, I feel like storytelling and that kind of stuff, yes, you can be told how to do it, but you really need to actually do

do it and kind of see what they mean, like where you hear all this stuff. Try it out and like kind of experiment with it. Yeah, you make videos and you kind of get a feel for that yourself. But like actual technical knowledge that is very helpful and then like a deep dive into softwares or stuff that actually just breaks it down. It's all free and available on YouTube. And the best part is, is that we live in an age where if you have a very, very specific problem, you can just type in that exact problem and you will get a five minute walkthrough explaining how to do it. And that was so much more helpful than anything I'd ever saw of

Make videos you like. Be positive. Promote yourself. It's always the channels with like 10 subscribers and a foreign accent, you know? Oh, yeah. They're like the most helpful. It's like, oh, thank God. You mean like the, what, Indian tutorials on math that they, like online? Yeah. Oh, those are goaded. Those are goaded. Khan Academy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's the best. Yeah, somehow, like, an Indian tutorial about explaining some, like, complex engineering concept was way better than any of the lectures I got. Dude, I don't know how they do it. I was paying thousands of pounds for that, and some guy on India did it for free. Yeah. One thing I want to ask is, every time we hang out, especially if Sydney is here as well, you guys always bond over, like, horror movies and horror media. Yeah. And...

I like, so I want to ask you, what do you find the appealing in like horror movies? Because,

I've been someone who's never been into horror movies and I've never understood Sidney's fascination with it. So I thought I'd ask you instead. Okay, so there's a couple of things. Once you've seen enough of any genre or medium, you start to understand the subtleties to it and you start to appreciate the little differences between it. So there is that side of it, but a broader side of it, there's two things with horror. I think horror out of any genre is about...

breaking rules and taking down boundaries. So something like Halloween, it's like this whole society that is set up to protect you, it can't against this one dude. It is like this nightmare scenario where like you're fucked, you know? And like, there's, there's something to that. Like, I don't know, like just the kind of like the break of normality. But then another part of it is like when a horror movie is really well done and really like scares the shit out of me. Yeah.

It doesn't matter what's going wrong in my personal life or the work I'm stressed out about or like, you know, this issue I have with some person or whatever, because in that moment, I'm like, this dude's fucking family has been kidnapped and they're going to die. Like it replaces whatever anxieties you might be feeling in normal life. You know what I mean?

And so I like that. There's like a relief to horror. Right. What would you say then is like the best? Cause I'm kind of the same way with Gone. I'm a massive pussy. What do you think I like some, I guess like if, if you were to try and get someone into horror, what would be some like, yeah,

movies or shows or media you would recommend? Yeah, what's the best horror movie for non-horror movie watchers? So I think if you haven't watched a lot of horror movies, I think slasher movies are generally a good way to go because they're kind of like...

They're kind of like the the death no who? You can show them to someone normal and they'll get it the rules are simple and like so something like So starting them off with something like I think Halloween the original Halloween still actually kind of rules right scream The original scream is still a really good time Yeah And from there it's like it depends like you know what that person reacts to the original like nightmare on Elm Street like there's a lot of those kind of old like

mega blockbuster ones that are great yeah because i wouldn't necessarily start someone off with like the shining because like the shining is just a film that's trying to you up the entire way and like it can be kind of upsetting in that it's like it's like someone who's not used to spicy food nearly you know

That's actually a brilliant answer. That's exactly what I am. Every time Cindy puts on a horror movie, I'm like, "Cindy, this is way too spicy." I said that and I was like, "Well, that's a stupid fucking analogy." I wish I could get into horror. I'm not afraid of it at all. I just don't... I don't know. I never feel compelled by anything in horror movies. Do you not get scared? No, not at all. I never feel... I never really care. What about with, like, horror games?

Because that's like kind of a little bit different right because it's all you're a little more engaged in it Yeah, I do find a bit more engaged. Yeah, because I sometimes fucking terrified you count fear and hunger as a horror game. I

I think that's just an anxiety game. I mean, I think the first time I ever came to the Chrome, I shit my britches pretty bad. It's probably the most scared I've been playing a game in a long time. But we can talk about that for like 10 hours. I mean, I can, so. Yeah, because I think you got Connor into Fear and Hunger. You broke me. Your video fucked me up, man. I'm so addicted to that game now. Yeah, no, I saw your video.

And there's a lot of videos that I watch of yours where I will watch the first two minutes and I'll be like, okay, I don't want to watch the rest. I want to experience this thing. And sometimes I actually forget to go and experience it. So it really sucks for the YouTube algorithm. You're really fucking up his watch. YouTubers think like, man, this guy hates this video. Whereas the Garfield one, I'm like, I am never going to get into Garfield, so I'm going to watch this whole thing. But like the Fear and Hunger one, it was like two minutes in. I was like, okay.

I had a stream that day and I had I had something else planned and I was like, you know what? No, fuck it. I'm just gonna I'm gonna bite the bullet and to play this game and

And I remember when I was told in the viewers, I was like, "Okay, guys, we're gonna play this game." John made a video about it, and it seemed fucked up. And everyone was like, "Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God." But then some-- There was only, like, four people, 'cause no one else knew what it was. I saw that. I watched part of that stream, and I saw you being like, "Wait, there's dicks in it?" Yeah, I was like, "Wait, I didn't see that in John's video." And two minutes of that. And so I was originally gonna play it uncensored until people were like-- The people who had played it were like, "Please play this censored, please."

And I realized, okay, well, I'm gonna make this into a YouTube video, so I should probably play the censored version. And immediately I was terrified, just right away, because it was just like, I just immediately, I was like, oh my god.

This is fucking horrifying. What do I do? I'm getting fucked by everything and I don't know where to go and the sounds are... The sounds in that game are just the worst. And this is kind of... There's this track that plays initially and the first time it plays, I feel like it terrifies everyone. And everyone I've watched play the game has the exact same response. It's the one where that dooming noise, the booming, like, kind of...

uh it's like a bass that kind of gets louder and louder and yeah and initially you feel like something's about to happen and it never does but it keeps looping and it's it's horrifying and not to mention the there's these dogs that chase you initially and they're the also he needs to fucking balance the audio on these dogs because it's so loud these dogs and it's the most violent crunchy dog sounds it is horrifying right uh and then you just get you lose to a coin flip and then you're like if

How did you first find Fear and Hunger? So the first time I ever saw it was like, I think it was like some guy doing like monster lore videos on TikTok. You told me this. I couldn't believe this is how you got into it. What? And he, I can't even remember which monster he did it on, but I was like...

"That game seems kind of fucked up." And then, like, a couple of weeks later, there's this YouTuber I really like called Majelar, and Majelar does, like, a lot of old and weird games. He did a video on RPG Maker games, and he had, like, a little section on "Fear and Hunger," and he's literally, like, in it. I just want to say,

fuck the people who made this game like he liked it but like he was doing a bit where he was like what the fuck is wrong with this game you know and then I was like oh this sounds like my game say less and then so then like I played a little bit and then then like I kind of played about I think 10 hours and I was like yeah this seems pretty cool and then like there was another video I think by a guy called Oldman TV that went a little deeper on it and that kind of convinced me to like get into it

properly and then I was just obsessed and then I just made the I just made the video because I was like well here's a fun way to spend a month playing this game what blew my mind most about that game is that it came out in 2018

It's fucking crazy, isn't it? And it's so terrifying to think that it took five years for this game to really start getting some serious traction. For sure. To think about how many amazing gems out there have just been lost. Oh, yeah. And that we will never, ever hear about. I feel especially in the RPG mega world as well. There's probably so many games. You have to imagine, there are games out there that would have done like what Undertale did that we just don't even know about. Yeah, that just no one's ever played or five people have played. Yeah.

And just because the because I guess sometimes you just need the right person to see it to start that chain reaction right sure and it's tough, but I Watch too much tick-tock. Yeah, but it's like the fascinating thing about that game is that I

you play the game and like I said, you get 10 hours and you have an experience with it and you think, wow, okay, I've played this game. And then you watch a video and you're like, I did not play this game. I had a very different experience. And then you play it again and you watch a lot of lore and you think you understand everything. And then suddenly you find more information out and it can, every just, everything keeps changing.

changing your complete understanding of the game. And it's really, I was saying to you the other day that I think it's really fortunate that the second game is already out because I felt that it added a lot of really cool layers of story to the world that is already fascinating. And we didn't have to have that whole thing of, when is he making a second one? When's another one coming out? I mean, fair play to that dude who was like, believed in his game enough that even though like it never blew up huge, he had a second one ready. So then when the first one did blow up,

Yeah, it's crazy. I loved your... The one thing that you said that sold me on it was that it was only popular in Russia. That's how you know it's fucked up. Yeah, I was like, oh, it must be messed up. Because they only like fucked up shit. And yeah, I think Undertale meets Berserk was a great way of explaining it to some people. I mean, it wears its inspirations very heavily on its sleeve, which some people criticise.

I just think it sometimes can be valid. I mean, I think it's that thing though, like, you know when something is really like reference heavy and like some people love that and sometimes it's like, who fucking cares? Like, I get that a little bit. Well, you played the second one, there's a lot more references in the second game than the first game. Yeah. And when you say references, there is, they're just, it's just Jotaro. Yeah, Jotaro is just in the game. What? I'll show you a picture. I'll show you a picture of this, uh,

Just like the model of Jotaro's in the game? Like, is he a playable character or what? Okay, let me... This guy. This is Marco from... Oh my fucking god, that's Jotaro. And he uses his fists only. This is him. Oh my god. And there's also another character who...

It's a goat and he oh, and then there's you can type in fear and hunger Levi and You can see He looks a little bit like Leo Joe Joe is the obvious one no, but this one's kind of given the vibe Yeah, but like you know the second game is set in the Termina Fest of a festival that has a moon that comes closer and

To the earth. Really? It's crazy because it does have all this stuff. It doesn't feel crazy though. It doesn't feel like anything else. Right. Like it actually does feel pretty cohesive when you're playing. It's super weird. Yeah. Because yeah, like that. And then there's also like the herbs. You mix red and blue herbs to make healing potions like in Resident Evil. And there's so many things that feel slightly familiar, but it somehow makes it feel so fitting and it doesn't.

It doesn't feel that way at all. And man, my God, does that have just some of the coolest fucking lore of any game I've ever played. Oh yeah, totally. Super cool. Is there any other like horror movies or things that have like stood out to you that you've watched recently? Recently, oh man, I watched a film called, I think it's Soft and Quiet recently. And it was like, even by my standards, it was like,

Probably shouldn't have watched that. I guess if you like extreme horror, it's one of them. I don't even want to get into it. But yeah, even I have my limits. I felt bad because I was like, Michelle, do you want to watch it? And she's learned to... It's really fucked up and it deals with some pretty awful shit. But it's an interesting...

Well, I'd never seen that before, put it that way. The light to dislike Christian. What do you, because, you know, a lot of, there are a lot of horror movies, because I've seen these YouTube videos that are like top 10 most extreme horror movies, like horror movies that maybe go a bit too far. How do you, as a, like, what do you think makes a horror movie that, like,

How do you kind of dance that line? I would say I think the idea of extreme horror movies gets like... It's a good way to get clicks and stuff. But what I'd say is I've been watching horror movies a long, long time. And to me, I don't really give a shit if a movie is extreme. I care if it's doing interesting things. Because you can make stuff that's not that gory and not that bloody or anything. The Shining doesn't even really have any violence in it.

There's no point where anyone hurts another person in The Shining, you know? There's a lot of fucking weird stuff and like that's the kind of stuff I really love. Yeah, I mean, I think the only one I've enjoyed recently, I don't even know if this counts as a horror. I think it might be more a thriller, but what's it called again? It's like The Chef or The Table. Oh, The Menu.

The menu, that's it. The chef. The chef. The table. The table. He's got something cooking. Let him cook. Who let this man cook? Do you guys want to write this movie when we're done? Yeah, the chef. Just recreating the table. Chef gone.

There is a movie called Shredder. That's probably why I thought of that. It's not a horror movie. Yeah, I mean, I just thought it was a really interesting concept and it's kind of like a satire on like the fine dining culture. And it was just very well acted. Yeah, it was fun. I've noticed that it's been on every single plane I've ever been on.

The menu is on every single viewable device in the demand. I don't know why. I think people are just watching it from there. It was really good. I mean, I liked it. For me, that didn't feel like horror, though, in a weird way, I suppose. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it definitely, I don't know if it was a horror or a thriller. Maybe because it wasn't very gory, you know? That's to me. That's to me. It's still like... Not a fan of gore.

It still, like, unnerved me, which is what I like with the types of horror movies I like, when it's, like, unnerving. Like, same thing I was going to say, where it's like, if it's interesting, it's interesting. But, like, I wouldn't just be like, what happened, son? You know? Recent horror movie I watched, I guess, or maybe it's more of a thriller, was the new Ari Aster film, The Bow is Afraid. I haven't seen that yet. It's...

fucking weird. That is like the only thing I've heard about it. It's weird and it's like three hours? Yeah, it's like two and a half hours. It's one of the weirdest films I've ever seen but like it's almost...

It's one of those films where it's like it completely depends on the mood where it's like you can watch it and be like this is just nonsense horse shit or it could be this is absolute masterpiece. Yeah, I've always preferred horror when it's more of kind of human element to it and more of kind of relationships and how that could be construed into horror. Like the psychological aspect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. I think I'm like...

Yeah, I'm trying to think of some examples, but I can't off the top of my head. But yeah, I much prefer that as opposed to fucking ghost that haunts you and turns you into a zombie sometimes. What if there was a ghost with a gun? Yeah. Basically, you like the ones where it's like, and humans were the real monsters all along. I just like it. Damn it again. I mean, I just like it when it's like unintentional. Like it's like, you know, it's just horrific because it's kind of like, wow, it's...

yeah, we are kind of fucked up, aren't we? We do kind of occasional fucked up stuff. Like the more like believable shit you mean, right? Like the invisible man I thought was pretty good in terms of like the possessiveness of an ex-boyfriend who is fucking psychotic and how that could, obviously you use the invisible way as a kind of tool to kind of push it forward, but like you can kind of understand that it's still pretty scary if he's not invisible. Yeah, he was terrifying when he was invisible and the idea and the thought of, and I just loved how

It's this whole thing of, "Yeah, he's invisible," but obviously the horror behind it is that he's just so fucking creepy. - Yeah, well, I mean, that's the thing about horror. No matter how fucking zany it can be, like someone being invisible, you can ground it in something real and that resonates, you know? - Yeah, I mean, I think one of... I have this soft spot for, it's not just horror, but just low budget films where they have to make films with a constraint, but this one happens to be a horror. I think Sydney showed me "The Invitation," I think,

where it kind of, without spoiling, it kind of details a, you know, a guy who got an invitation from a long-lost friend who, yeah, this one, who basically, is this the one? This might not be the one, actually. I don't know. Maybe I got the fucking name wrong again. Fuck! It's probably something like the letter or something like that.

I mean, it came out like two years ago. A year ago, sorry. So it probably is. Okay, so I'm not sure if this is the exact one, but it details... Oh, two stars. Okay. Okay, yeah. This looks like it's the one, actually. It deals with a more psychological aspect of you get an invitation from someone that you hadn't heard from for a long time, and you can tell that something is off, and you can tell that something is wrong.

And then there will be this point where the tension builds up and then like something snaps and then shit hits the fan. And I fucking love that. So there's another film called, I think it's called All My Friends Hate Me. And it's that kind of same thing, but it's basically like the same setup. Yeah.

And it's like this guy shows up to a mansion with, fuck, I hope we're not talking about the same movie and I haven't got the name wrong. Yeah, that's the one. And this guy shows up to a mansion and there's just something off about the way his friends are treating him. And it's basically like the way one of my friends described it was like, it's like a social anxiety horror movie. Right.

That's what I love actually. Dude, you should check it out. It's so good. So much more interesting. Then you would love Bo as a Frey because that is exactly what that movie is. There's this bit where this other guy shows, it's like the most unnerving shit I've seen in the longest time. This other guy shows up at the mansion and he's like, well, who's this guy? He was never friends with us.

and he says some and the main character says something about his sister and he just sees like this new guy take out a little notepad and write it down and then put the notepad away and it's like what the it's great it's really good do you often find that horror sometimes struggles to land an ending because it's something i always found that i didn't enjoy with horror films that often halfway through i thought they often lose steam

when the initial interesting concept has to be explored more. Yeah. And it kind of is like... Yeah, I do find that a lot, and I feel like it clashes with this thing in storytelling where we want explanations, and I think a lot of times horror is weaker because of explanations. Yeah. Because the thing about horror is a lot of it's like, what if this fucking crazy thing came into your life and you had to deal with it? And if at the end it's like, and then you deal with it. It nearly stops being horror, you know? Yeah, sure, sure. I think one of the best endings to any...

horror media i've consumed at least was probably soma uh it's a video game yeah i'm playing so everyone talks about oh my god that's that you talked about this on the podcast once as well i think yeah that's ending like fuck me up it was kind of like it was you know it kind of alluded to something happening and then it kind of like flipped it on its head and and it kind of like that was that ending is like stuck to me to this day that's yeah i know what you're talking about and it is some

Wild shit. Basically, if you haven't played SOMA, I hate horror. I hate horror media, but SOMA is 100% something I would recommend you guys play. But yeah, I guess moving on from horror...

So, like, you seem to have, like, a very wide... One thing I've always liked about your content is that you've never really focused on one thing. You've always had, like, a wide, like, intro... I don't even know what your tastes are. Like, sometimes I try to, like, narrow down your tastes and I look at, like, some of the stuff...

that, you know, John does this, like, kind of series where he likes things I've liked in summer or winter, and I'm like, this has no fucking correlation at all. It's the most random assault in the shit. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a certain, like, taste or interest that you can boil it down to, or is it just kind of like... No. No, like, I like...

Art, man. You know, I just... I like things that I think are interesting. But I like being that way as well. You know, because, like, I do feel like there is correlations between things. Like, I've learned a lot about storytelling through, like, professional wrestling. You know, I've learned a lot about, like...

I guess, how to structure things from martial arts. And you can take a lot of different things from a lot of different things. But yeah, I think it's one of the ways my channel is kind of weird. And it's one of the ways that I should probably never have survived on YouTube. You know what I mean? I don't agree with that. I think people just like having a consistent voice that they can come back to. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hear like a delivery on something. It doesn't always have to be the same thing. I think people just like having...

someone informed them because i like just learning about stuff that i do not care about yeah and i think there's as well like with your channel there's always that like element of surprise of like okay what's the next one hour video on garfield from anywhere else you know what i mean yeah like what's the next topic going to be and then when they see something that they just weren't expecting well they're like well i mean john made it and it's two hours long it must be interesting right and and that's how people get hooked you know

Yeah, we had this conversation a few weeks ago on the podcast about martial arts movies. So I thought I'd ask you about this.

So, like, I feel that there were, like, way more kind of, like, the prestige of, like, especially Hong Kong martial arts film existed back in the day. And I feel like they've kind of fallen off. And we had this theory that UFC kind of maybe ruined the mystique of, like, martial arts. Do you think there's, like, credit to that? Oh, I would say there's definitely...

There's definitely an element to that. Like, I think UFC, and it was really interesting because professional wrestling had to deal with this problem as well. It was like, oh, that's what a fight actually looks like. And it's not beautiful and it's not pretty. And 80% of it, 80% of it is two sweaty guys rolling.

And so like, yeah, I absolutely think there's something to that. But I also would say in that there is the capacity for martial arts movies to become the next thing. And they haven't yet. Right. But like, I do think you see it peek through with stuff like The Raid or John Wick 4 was a fucking incredible movie. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was

- Gun Fu. - Gun Fu. - Gun Cutter. - Oh yeah. - Oh, was that Equilibrium? - Yeah, Equilibrium. - The gun cut, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a great film as well. - That was fun. That was really fun. - How do you feel like martial art film could evolve into like the modern era? 'Cause I think it's not just UFC. Like sometimes I just get recommended of like, you know, videos where it's just like martial artists tries to defend against like a knife attack and like showing like the reality of how many times they would actually get hit. And then you realize there are just some things that you just can't defend.

- So like in a weird way, I think that actually like social media has become a huge part of martial arts. 'Cause you get like a lot of amateur fighters now who have like, you know, they're posting their TikToks and their daily routines and all that kind of stuff. I'd love to see a movie kind of based around that.

But like, it's a weird one as well. I also think like, with all the shit that's happening with like, influencer boxing, that has kind of become the narrative of modern martial arts, you know? Yeah, that's true. I mean, okay, we've done enough influencer boxing. I want to see more influencer wrestling now though. I think influencer wrestling is very hard. I think wrestling is just

super technical. Yeah, it is. Even just trying it for like one hour, it was like, try not to hurt yourself challenge. Did you do your first back bump and you're like, this is what these guys go through? Yeah, they told me it was soft for them. And I was like, this is not soft. I winded myself when I fell.

And I was like, fuck. But you would know that it would just be a treasure trove of memes. Just like, Mr. Beast coming in with the people's elbow. It's like, that shit be so gold. You've done wrestling training before. What goes into that?

So like it's it is you are working with another person doing all these like high impact moves. But the thing that like scared me was the idea I didn't want to fuck up and hurt the other person. Right. You know, that to me became way scarier than fucking.

fighting another person, you know, because I was like, oh, fuck, like, I don't want to be responsible for this person's injury. But it's like it's a lot of stuff. Like when people get up, it's like you always grab the person's left hand. So you have to be very conscious of like when I get up, my left hand has to be here and I have to be like telegraphing this so they know to do that. I never got far enough with it to like speak on it with any kind of authority. So I don't want to. But yeah, like it's like Connor was saying, it's this massively technical thing. Right.

Because I've noticed, I've seen some of your posts and you've done some wrestling events, right? Yes. Or you come to England for some wrestling events. Are you on like some like evil persona or something? Yeah, yeah. Leslie Bestington, yeah. I work with a company called Coliseum Wrestling and it's fun, dude. Like it is so... You look like you're having the time of your fucking life. I really am. Like the thing is like...

you can like actually getting to piss off the crowd especially kids because kids kids can't they like you know the way kids have that thing where they can't tell what's real and what isn't you can piss them off so much and they will look at you with the purest hatred you've ever seen but like i'd go i'd like i i go up to their parents and i'll be like um

I'm going to have to ask you to calm your child down. It's like everyone's bored. It's so fun as well, because like I got to do a meet and greet the last time. And so I was like, okay, what would Leslie Bestington do for a meet and greet? So I wrote autographs, 400 pounds, and I just put it there. And so like these kids came up to the table and like, I was like, okay, what's your name? What's your name? And I signed three autographs. And then I looked at the dad and I was like, 1200 pounds, please.

And like, it's just, it's a lot of fun. Yeah. So what is the character that you play? Just kind of like... So if you've seen my influencer video, it's the guy I do at the start of that, Leslie Best. Social media artist.

Yeah. And his whole thing is that he doesn't understand professional wrestling. He thinks it's silly. So the first time I ever did it, I basically came out and I was like, I don't really get wrestling. I'm more a boxing man myself. And I respect all the greats.

Jake Paul, Logan, and the crowd melted down. They got so mad and I was like, I got him. I got him. Oh, man. Look at that. That's so sick. That looks so fun. How many followers do you people have? Let me guess. Six, four, one. Definitely one. Definitely, definitely one. What have you done? Buddy, you did what you always do. Nothing.

That's so dumb. It's great. It's fun. Did this come from like, how did this start? Did this come from like the social media video or did you? Yeah, I just done that and they got in contact with me and were like, do you want to do some something? And I was like, yes, I do. I would love to. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. It's so interesting when you see YouTube's kind of just

Go into a whole nother realm, but obviously you have history in it, but it's kind of cool seeing it and then seeing you do it Yeah, it's been fun. It's it's definitely interesting going into like a wrestling locker room and you kind of think you're in shape and

You go in you're like, oh I'm like a little boy Yeah, I did a video with Takeshita who's like insane now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's he's done so well It's so funny because I when I met up with him He was just casually telling me about how he's gonna go to America for a few months and I was cool cool cool cool They didn't think anything of it but he was so funny and so good on camera when I was working with him and

And then, yeah, shortly after, every now and then I'll get tweets being like, yeah, Takeshi's crushing it. Yeah, yeah. He's not quite main event level yet, but he's getting there. It's crazy, yeah. It's insane. Your video was a little more interesting than my experience because I did a Faraki's video where she went up. You just got beat up, right? I mean, they beat me up too. I put on a luchador mask and a ladybeard clothesline me.

And that was not fun. I have said this so many times, but I didn't understand that they actually hit each other. And so when they slapped me with the chop, which the chop is just like slapping someone's chest. It's a bit different. But they're hitting your chest, and they do it for real. I didn't realize this, because in American ones, they do do this, but in Japan, they love doing this. In Japan, they have a thing called strong style, which just means we're going to actually beat the shit out of each other.

And um, you know, I for the video I really wanted to even though I have like a blood condition I I was like, oh I won't tell them I just don't I don't like because I don't want them to worry and I knew I'd be fine I was like, I actually wanted to get in I wanted them to like kind of just do it on me So I was like well fuck it. I I should try and do this I also feel like if you're gonna fucking do a video somewhere you should fucking get involved like you should actually like try and do it for as much as you can so I when I used to train in wrestling I like got in trouble

because one of the people there she was like like a 14 year old girl yeah and we were doing like the chop circle which means like you have to chop the person next year yeah and i was like because like she was tiny and she was like do it do it and i was like

And like, I couldn't do it. And then my trainer pulled me aside and he was like, listen, mate, you have to do it. Yeah, exactly. And like afterwards, I apologized to her. But like, it was kind of shitty of me because she's there because she's cool with that. But I think it was just years of social conditioning where it's like, I have to hit a woman. Yeah, when they hit me, my God, it's like that scene from One Punch Man where Saitama...

like Geno sees Saitama punching him and he like the fucking the giant I felt that I felt death because he hit me and I was winded and I was like holy shit and he's like okay now I'm going to do it three more times in a row and I was like what next day my chest was all purple yeah they fucked me up it was really bad yeah

Jump on this thing and it was fine, but it was when they made me jump I didn't even jumping It's literally just falling on your back and it's still really fucking hurt But bless them they were so good. They really like had me like that was terrible You know I tried my best

But they really fucking put me to work. It was really fun. I'll never forget it. As someone who only knows wrestling through your videos, what's the difference between different countries and different leagues of wrestling? There's a lot of different types. American tends to be like... Well, now you have WWE and AEW and like...

But it tends to be like a little more showy, a little more like thinking about people who aren't into wrestling. Like a lot of the times WWE will try and keep its matches quite kind of short and snappy. AEW is a bit more for hardcore wrestling. Japanese wrestling is like tends to be

There's not a lot of gimmicks or storylines in Japanese wrestling other than these two men want to be better than each other. There is exceptions to that, but that is actually, to me, the most compelling wrestling. That's just bonky, isn't it? It is. It legit is. How long is... Because...

How long is a normal wrestling match then for like WWE and AEW? What's like average? I'd say anywhere between 7 and 15 minutes. See, I was watching a 15 minute fight and I felt like that was very long. I felt like that was just like... So what I'd say, it's like an episode of anything. If it's good, it'll fly by. True, true. Right, right. What do you recommend to get someone into wrestling then? Where do you recommend someone would start? Right.

watch my videos so like i actually hate saying that but my answer is like watch my videos and if you see a wrestler you like in those videos go track down more of their matches and watch their stuff because like wrestling at the end they it's a story about characters and it's a story about like their long-term journey over many years and how that like combines with their real life and

That's genuinely the advice I give. Yeah, because one thing I found interesting that you mentioned was kind of like the separation of when someone's playing a character and when someone is like... How do you balance the character you're playing and the person that the wrestler actually is? Which is a really interesting part of the culture of that. Would you say that...

Would you say that wrestling is on the same level as a fictional story, or does part of the appeal come from not knowing where the separation is? I mean, like...

If you're really into wrestling, the people who really, really love it, you are paying attention to the fiction and the reality. But the problem, like what's so interesting about it is like where one starts, you can never fucking tell. You know, and like you have people who think like, everything's a work, we're being set up, you know, but then it's like, no, I think this dude actually just sucks.

But that's what's kind of fascinating about it. Since you've been into wrestling for a long time, did you ever have in school or something where it's just like, oh, you know, wrestling's fake. No, it's fake. I remember going on a walk with my dad and being like, dad, is wrestling fake? And he just goes, ah, it is, John, yeah. And I remember just pausing and going...

No, I don't think it is.

I used to be into it when I was a kid and I think that's when I kind of realized it was fake I kind of felt like betrayed almost as a kid. Yeah, because I was so into it. It's like finding out Santa's not really It's worse. Yeah, it's just it felt so real and then I realized as I got older now I've only really come to appreciate this in the past year or two is that

no it's i mean for the physical aspect alone it's so impressive and the feet they're pulling off and then the stories as well yeah it's like okay you're little and you're watching it and it's like okay sean michaels and bret hart hate each other and they're gonna fight yeah and then you learn it's not real and you're like oh okay sean michaels and bret hart are working together to put on what is basically a very painful choreographed dance okay yeah but then you get to layer three and it's like

No, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart do hate each other and they have to work together to put on this choreographed dance. That is wrestling. You know, like that's what's fucking interesting about it. Like, I'm not going to get into it. Look up the Montreal Screwjob. Most insane thing to ever happen. Crazy.

Well, I want to know. You got to tell me about it. Okay, give us the end of the picture. So basically, I'm sorry to everyone who likes wrestling who's heard this a million times. Bret Hart is the champion. He's about to leave the company and he's refusing to lose to Shawn Michaels. He's like, I'm not going to do this because I fucking hate this guy so much. Mm-hmm.

They have to put on this main event show together. And so they arrange the whole match. Bret Hart's going to win or it's going to be a draw or something. And there's going to be a bit where Shawn Michaels puts Bret Hart in his own finishing move, the sharpshooter. And to Bret Hart, he's going to reverse it and tap Shawn Michaels out. And that's going to be the end of the match. However, before that happens, they ring the bell to make it look like Bret Hart tapped out.

And you can see he's like, what the fuck? That wasn't how this is meant to go. He spits on the owner of the company. It's this giant, like, disgrace and, like, basically backstage goes insane and it's just this weird, like...

blending of reality and like you know so there's people who would be like that was all that was all set up i don't think it was and god damn that's that that's pretty cool yeah that's really fucking interesting you can hear more about it in my video villains of wrestling i don't think i even said the right video it's one of the way you made like three i think so yeah yeah yeah

But you not only have done wrestling on YouTube now, you've branched out into merch as well. It's really cool hearing you kind of talk about this. Like, two years ago or a year and a half ago? Yeah. We had a call and you were like, I'm really excited about this merch stuff. And I was like, dude, it sounds sick. You tell me about you building like a whole world around it. I was like, that's...

man we just put a logo on stuff well i mean like i did that as well before um but yeah i so like with the merch stuff like i'd have to give like a lot of credit to otaku versus who kind of like he sort of talks me because i basically like i wanted to do merch stuff and i was like i don't know what the fuck to do you know yeah and i got talking to him and like hearing like his like explanation of everything and like what it kind of was it really um

It really opens me up to like, man, okay. So I basically like, I think like a lot of people when I was like younger, I had this like story or like I wanted to make and at different times it was like a comic book, a series of videos, a video game. And I was like, okay, yeah, you know, I want to, I want to do this thing. And then eventually I was like, okay, what am I going to do with this? Where it's like, what if I made like a fake thing?

and pretended it was real and made merch out of that. And it pretty much just started from there. Which is such a sick concept, by the way. Yeah, there's been other stuff, like Gorillaz is kind of similar-ish, you know? So, like, I don't want to take, like, credit for that necessarily, but... And, like, I was working on it and then, like, I was...

just explained it to one of my friends, Rebecca Brobecks on Twitter. And she was like, yeah, I'll give you a hand with that. And she started doing concept art for it. And like the day I sent her the descriptions for the characters and she sent me back the concept for the characters, I was just like, oh, fuck.

like this could actually be something and it was it was so fun to work on and like it's done well and people are into it and like you know financially it's been like viable which is great and all that kind of stuff but I think it's actually something that really kind of

It made me kind of fall back in love with like content creation and doing stuff like that because it added this whole other thing to it. And it's been really, really fun. And like right now I'm working on the third run of it, which is like every run is like a new arc in this fake anime. And this is like the arc where like

the villain gets introduced and like I'm so fucking you know I never know how it's gonna go but like I've been so excited about it so to explain your concept in case you guys aren't familiar you kind of like telling a story through your merch right as you've built an entire world around it with characters how long okay I gotta ask how long did it take you from like

You said you had an idea of like stories you wanted to tell. How long did it take you to actually flesh out a world and a story that you wanted to tell? So from the point where like I started doing it, I think to like the point where it's like it actually, we have a T-shirt design. I think that was about nine months. And like a lot of, we basically, every, with the runs we do like a kind of...

we do like a little zine of all the concept work and all the shit that never even makes it into the actual merch, you know, like the kind of supplementary characters and like the world and how it all works. And so we basically just spent like nine months building all that stuff up. Like whenever I do, whenever I think up a new character or something like that, I write down who the character is, what their place in the story is, and then their relationship to every other character. And that's all shit that like, that's never going to make it into a t-shirt. Right.

Or sometimes it does in weird ways, but it's the kind of thing where like, I always feel like when you're watching a show, you can always get a sense for when someone has thought about like every part of this world. And when someone is like...

Kind of making it up as they go along and I really wanted to feel like the former yeah because sometimes you know you it's that's why I like well building because sometimes you watch a show and it feels like the world is built around this one character and The ones the stories I feel are truly magical is when this is when you know you turn off the episode or you Close the book and you feel like the world is still taking place. The story is still continuing on right?

Yeah, yeah. It's still continuing on even if you're like, you are not actively taking a part in it. And the fact that you've just put that into your merch is like insane. Well, I think it's like, it's that kind of thing earlier where I was saying like,

having like a lot of interests really can feed into different things in different ways because like one of the biggest inspirations from it was the York New City arc from Hunter Hunter which is just this fucking insane just like chain reactions of events to the point you get to the end of it and it's like what happened and it's like

I don't fucking know. You know? And like, it's so chaotic and insane and it has like insane anti-climaxes and everything. But because Takashi has like thought about these characters so much, it all works and it's so compelling. And I love that idea. You know? And I was like,

I want to make a t-shirt out of that, you know? Yeah. Like, that's kind of like, some of my favorite moments, like One Piece, isn't like the actual arc. It's when like the arc ends and then it like, kind of like, you get a hint about what else has been going on in the world. It's the meanwhile.

Meanwhile, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Meanwhile. And then you realize, holy shit, people are fighting fucking wars and Luffy is just like chilling on this island. There's one particular part and it's when I think they get back from the Sky Islands. Right. And it just, there's like an episode or two, which is just all the chain reactions that have been happening. And I remember seeing that for the first time and being like,

oh shit this is insane yeah for sure it's it's it's like you know you kind of realize oh maybe luffy isn't the main character for like a moment right yeah yeah that's like one piece is like fucking 30 main characters and uh everyone's just like doing their own things that's just that's just what i love about one piece i guess absolutely so whenever you guys mention me on this podcast yeah i get

a flood of messages. It's always interesting because, and I remember one of the ones, Grant, was your story about someone thinking we're the same person or thinking one of my videos was your videos and you getting into it like an argument on that behalf. But I always think it's really funny when that happens. And there was one story I had that I just loved. And I think I might've told you guys this before. Right. Yeah.

But it was a guy at MAGFest and it was just a regular meet and greet. And, you know, he'd been queuing up for like an hour or something. And then he's like, I really loved your videos on Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Did I tell you this? I remember this story. I've never heard this story. Did I tell you, Connor? No, I haven't heard this story. Okay, so I'm like, oh, okay.

I don't think that was me. And he's real adamant. He's like, no, no, it was. And I was like, I...

It's not because I've never watched that show. And so like, he's doubling down. But then I say that and I just see him like collapse. And he's like, oh no, oh no, no, no. And like, that's what he starts saying. Like, he's really, I'm like, who? It's not a big deal. Like, who cares? And then he's like, I'm so sorry. And I have to be like, no, mate, it's all right. It's fine. It's fine. Like, it really, it doesn't matter, you know? And so eventually he recovers and he just goes, okay, I just want to say,

I really love your What's in an OP series. Which is also not for you. No, that is Jeff 2, Mother's Basement. Mother's Basement, another AniTuber. And so I'm just standing there and I just go, thanks, man. I think I would do the same. That was the correct answer. My favorite part of the whole thing is later on, he spots me at the con and he brings his friend over and he's like,

This is the guy. And I'm like, hey, Jeff Fu. Nice to meet you. Have you guys ever had stuff like that? Oh, all the time. Like, every other day. So, um... Me and Joey get, like...

People like confuse us all the fucking time. Really? Yes. So many times. In fact, it most recently happens at Gamescom when I was filming an official video for like a new Hoyoverse game. And the guy running the booth comes up to me and goes, oh yeah, are you working with us today? I'm like, yeah. I was like, oh, I love your stuff, the anime man. LAUGHTER

It sounds like such an unnatural way to like, I got no reason. I love you full screen. Yeah. I was like, Oh, are you, are you the anime man? Are you here to work with us? And I'm just like, Oh, I'm not the anime man, but I am here to work with you. Yeah. My other favorite one with, uh, Gant and I was, uh, in Singapore, uh, AFA, which was like back in like 2017 or something. And I w I was guesting there. And because, you know, Gant at the time was still living in Thailand. He was just like, Oh yeah, I'll pop over and, you know, come hang out with you guys.

So Garnt and I were just walking around at the convention. This dude far off in the convention just like eyes me directly. And I'm like, okay.

That's probably a fan. So I'm waiting for him to come over. He comes over to me and just has the biggest fucking happy face. And he just goes, oh my God, I love you, Giga. Meanwhile, Garnt is standing right here, right next to me. It's impressive how confident people will be about this stuff. It's crazy. I just felt so bad just being like,

This weird thing that happens when you show your face a lot online when people Recognize you and they can they can recognize you but they can never tell you like where they recognize you from yeah And that one's always the weird one But I've also heard that I started doing this because I heard some other people were doing this too Where someone be like I'm a huge fan, and then you you would proceed to go name one of my videos or name something

Oh, you're a fan? Name five sea dog videos. I was curious one time, and I was like, oh yeah, which one? And they named one of Joey's videos. Oh!

What's scary about this is this is probably actually really common and we just never asked Because you've probably never asked people and they've already been like I'm a huge fan and they probably they pretty just I mean it's it's listen I don't need someone to justify being a huge fan to come to say hi approach Connor you better have your Don't say I'm don't simply say I am a huge fan I'm not gonna ask most the time like yeah, whatever I'd say like

You only ever tell the weird stories, right? Because like 99% of people are so lovely. Even I remember like the first fan I ever met was still one of the strangest interactions I had. I can't remember if I've told you this. You guys have not? This was like very shortly after like my face reveal. A guy came up to me and he was like, Super Eyepatch Wolf. And I was like,

"Oh, that is the name of my YouTube channel." I had no flow or I had no idea how to handle this interaction. And then he goes, "Oh man, love your videos." And then he kind of goes, "Just so you know, I'm straight." Which, immediately I was like, And then he just goes, and he says it so casually, he just goes, "But I'll suck your dick."

And I was just like, he said it in a way that was really just like, this is not a weird thing to say at all. And so I just kind of went like,

Well, good to know. I'm cool. But thank you for watching my videos. I just like... You have some of the wildest stories of some fans, considering you do just video essays, you know? I've seen, obviously, you know...

with some people who show their face a lot and do kind of like maybe content like ours where you get like a relationship or like a parasocial relationship. But you just fucking started talking about anime and making like cool, interesting stuff. And you have some wild stories sometimes, which is why I was very surprised when you went to AX this year, you did not like, you just went, you just did like a meet and greet in public. So it had been...

like pre pandemic since the last time I'd done that. And I thought like, this will go fine. Yeah. And it was fucking not, we got moved immediately and then immediately. And then it was a fire hazard. Immediately. It was, I felt so bad. Cause I was like, I said, but I think the lesson there is don't fucking do that. Yeah. Because I remember like we had our wake up call in MCM, uh,

Oh, yeah, yeah. Because you never want to, like, admit that you gotta be like, no, I need people to manage, like... Yes. We don't need security. Yeah, I don't need, like, I don't need security. I don't need people to manage my fans. That's, like, I'm one of them, you know? You never want to admit that you've gotten to the point where you're like, oh, shit, this is beyond my control now. Yeah, and, like, I think even on my way to that meetup, I was like...

something doesn't feel right here like this is this might be a bad idea how many people showed up so like i i don't know because the first one was shut down immediately i didn't even get there and so then we had to move it to a second place and people started showing up and it wasn't even that many people but like one of the con workers were like what the is this and then i just moved and then had to move to a third and like by that point there weren't that many people because it was just like

I think... I mean, you've moved it three times. Exactly. It's just a treasure hunt at that point to find you. Yeah. I've noticed you've been showing your face more often as well. Yeah, I kind of just... There's more you can do and there's more jokes you can make. Like, sometimes I write a joke and I'm like, this will be funnier if you can see my face. Yeah. But I think part of that is just like, I just... I like trying new shit. Yeah. You know, and I like just kind of... It's respectful. If I...

But if I don't do that, I'll get bored. And I've always felt like the biggest danger to my channel, like it's not YouTube or it's not like, you know, just weird shit you can't control. It's me losing interest. And so I have to do my best to keep it interesting for me, which is why the topics I do tend to kind of vary so much. Yeah. It's that fear of like getting into a routine, right? That's like, that's why I stopped making the why you should watch videos that I used to make. Because I was like...

It got to a point where it felt like I could pull some levers and shit out of video. And I hated that. You know what I mean? Everything's got to be a struggle. Yeah. If I'm not in some amount of pain, I'm not doing it right. What do you think about this new current trend of just video essays? Okay, so you've made some long video essays before, right? I can't imagine how much work they take. But I've noticed a trend where...

Video essays have just gotten longer and longer to the point where it's just like now we have like a four hour video essay. Yeah. And... What do you mean? There's like eight hour. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, it's a lot. Dude, I watched the six and a half hour Tokimeki Memorial breakdown video. Which is like one of the best. Which is one of the... It was amazing. It was so good. Incredible. Incredible.

I don't even know what that is, but I'm willing to give it six and a half hours because if someone is that passionate about a topic that they're willing to do six and a half hours of editing, then I will watch it. It's by Action Button and that's the guy makes that's called Tim Rogers and he's been a journalist for like ever. So like he really knows his shit and he is really knowledgeable and he's the perfect kind of person to make a video like that. He's also just really fucking funny. I hate that guy. I watch his videos and I'm like, God, fucking

In terms of like the larger trend, to be honest with you, like...

I'm never gonna make an eight-hour video, but hell, if someone can do it and keep it compelling, more power to them. Like, I'm sure there's a lot of... I didn't know someone could make a two-hour Garfield video, so... But I mean, like, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of bad eight-hour videos. I'm sure there's a lot of one-hour, bad one-hour videos. I've probably made some of them, you know? It's like... Bleach fans be like, oh, well, actually...

Yeah. But I think it's very easy with YouTube to get caught up on what other people are doing. And I think ultimately, like, the healthiest thing is if there are just lots of different videos being made in lots of different ways and lengths and styles. And, like, they're not all going to be for you, but they don't have to be. It used to be that, like you mentioned earlier, like, if you made a bleach video or you made an anime video, you were normally the one video. And it's kind of getting...

it kind of used to be like that generally about a topic, but now when there's like a kind of a cult game or a cult kind of piece of media, everyone's kind of scrambling to, to make a long form essay video about it. Does that thing you ever like have to consider or if someone else makes a video, you're like, Oh, I can't make my video. No, because I feel like if I really make a video, right, no one else would have made that video the way I would have made it. Yeah. You know? Cause like, I'm never going to do like, uh,

review of Starfield because I don't fucking care. It's like, I'm never going to make a video. I don't really give a shit about it. And if I really give a shit about something, it's not going to be like anyone else's. And that's not unique to me. That's like anyone who's really going to put their own individual take on a video. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, sometimes you've made a video and I'm like, fuck,

John can do it better than any, like, than I ever could. Fuck, I can never make it. Yeah, your Baki video? I'm like, well, fuck, I can never make a Baki video again. I would fucking kill for a gig of Baki video. What are you talking about? That's insane. You did it so well.

Yeah, but like I did it well because you're watching the end product of what I did if that went through your pipeline and your Dude that video would be fucking hilarious. What are you talking? Make a Baki video? No, I just want to see you make a Baki video

that's why he's the goat man that's why he's the goat has there ever been someone in who is in your community who has just been extremely persistent emailing you to make a video about one topic and has not given up oh constantly yeah and on i like there's one guy and i think it's it's like this this lego thing i think it's called zoids

I've been getting emails from him for about six years. And I'm like... Dude, a Zoids video from you would be fucking awesome. I don't know anything about it and I just look it up and I'm like...

what the fuck? But like the thing I always say is, do you know who should make a video about that? Him. And it would probably rule. You know, if he took a fraction of the time he spends writing me emails and made a video about it, it'd probably be class.

You know, you brought up a very interesting point with how you started YouTube, which is if we've said anything to piss you off in our videos, let it cook and then just do a John and just make a video. Make a video. And then make a career out of it. Yeah, man, make a career out of it. End up on an extremely successful podcast for reasons you're not quite sure of. Do you ever miss, like, old AniTube? No. No.

- Me too, me too, me too. - I feel like AniTube there is, 'cause our audience is so new and so different. I feel like it doesn't hold the same weight, I think, to you that it might have to the audience. - I mean, AniTube for a time was actually a genuinely, I think, really special, interesting thing. And a lot of great videos came out about that. And it did really deepen a lot of my understanding about anime and just how to appreciate media in general. It's also just a lot of bullshit.

A lot of petty bullshit. Yeah, definitely. And it's just a lot of like, well, I think this. And it's like, okay, that's cool. And then it's like, well, no, argue with me. The whole space has matured, right? Yeah, I think so. When people start making their livelihood on it, you're like, actually, now I don't want to ruin someone's job or get in fights with people. I feel like I just want to work. And it does get to the point as well, though, where it is hard to deal with any kind of like...

conflict in a fair way because I don't know if you ever have that thing where like someone will like I don't know say something dumb on Twitter and then you'll be like you'll you tweet back and you're like listen mate you're being silly

And then 40 people who follow you are like, yeah, he's right. You're being silly and you should fucking die. And it's like, well, no, I didn't say that. You're really paraphrasing what I just said. No, yeah. That's why sometimes you get a comment and you're like, I want to respond to you. Maybe that's why some people have alt accounts. Because the alt account is weak. It's weak to have an alt account.

Yeah, but sometimes I just want this person to know that I disagree with him without millions of like my like... It almost feels like when I have like followers that back me up, I'm like, guys, I don't need your help. I got this, okay? I got this, okay? Don't worry. There's always going to be that your platform and size behind it there regardless if it's an ultimate or not. But

I have responded to people a bunch of times and more than I should have. And every time I always think it's going to feel great, it always feels just bad. Yeah, that's why you just don't. You just sit there and you let it stew. But there's that instinct, you know, where you just see a really shit take and you can just feel the vein in your forehead thickening. It's just like, God, I just want to destroy it. And out of that fury comes a clever comment. It's like, I just thought of a great dog.

Those five minutes where you've drafted the tweet, but you don't post it, are the most powerful, powerful mental fortes you can have. There's actually a wrestler who I think has found this really beautiful solution to this. Whenever anyone talks shit to him on Twitter, he goes on their profile, he finds a picture of them, he copy and paste the picture and just replies with that. That's so cruel.

This year? It's often the people who have, like, the most weirdest fetish porn shit on their account that talk the maddest shit. Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah, I remember a guy tweeted something at me that was rather insulting, and I was like, who the fuck is this guy? I clicked on his profile, and it was like inflation porn only. And I was like, what the fuck?

It's kind of you're dealing with a man who has nothing to lose. How am I supposed to combat this? I'm like, what the fuck is this? I can't, what the hell am I supposed to do? Yeah, I was done. Yeah, I mean, it's a meme, but it is always the anime profile pictures as well. It's the Kyoto Animation profile pictures. Oh, it's... You know that's all too well, John? I'm getting fucking war flashbacks.

Never understood the like overlap there. Just these really positive anime about these girls learning to play music and befriend each other. It's just the fucking most insane people you will ever meet. Yeah, I love it. And, you know, you can always tell when you piss off like a fandom because, you know, I just there's just some sort of irony in here where it's just...

person criticizing you for you know talking about bleach or something and it's just like the most obvious bleach fan accounts who just like goes home sleeps worships Kubo. Yeah, I remember one time the best The best example of this I've ever gotten was someone got really mad at my Shenmue 3 video. Yeah and

I think so. And... I thought the critical consensus was that it's bad. Yeah. Yeah, but, you know, what are the critics? Look, if someone... Someone is not, like, delegitimate for liking that game. I'm not saying that. But this person, they had Shenmue in the title of their thumbnail, but I responded back to them just being like, okay, person with Shenmue in their tag. But then when I looked at their profile picture...

It was them with, um, the, it was them with Yu Suzuki, the maker of Shenmue. So this person, I think it's Yu Suzuki, maybe I'm fucking that up. No, it is. Um, it was so like, actually, yeah, like it was them at a fan meet and greet with that person. And, um,

Look, that guy loves Shenmue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're never going to change that man's mind. Yeah. No. Was there ever a video you started making and thought, no, I just can't, I can't, I can't finish this one? Or that you just didn't, you scrapped it for whatever reason? So my second video ever, and that's the only time it's happened, I done the Hunter x Hunter video and I was like, okay, now I'll make, and I didn't really talk about Killua in the Hunter x Hunter video, even though I fucking love that character. And I was like, okay, cool. I'll,

make a clue a video because you know i've already recently you know reread and rewatched a bunch of hunter hunter hunter and like it'll you know everyone who already likes hunter hunter will watch this video then like that'll work yeah yeah and then i was like but i don't want to and then i was like and i also i don't want to be like the hunter hunter guy yeah and i was like i think i'm more excited to make a different video and then i made a different video and that's kind of

been my whole career. What's the video you've spent the most time on? Because I like, even for me, doing a half hour video is just, I dread it sometimes. Just like, even the half hour runtime, I'm like, this is so much fucking work. Have you done like, hour, two hour videos before? I would say probably the two hour video. So I had,

two two-hour videos one was the unreality of pro wrestling which was relatively recent right and or maybe that was an hour and a half i can't remember but the probably the biggest one was why you should still read berserk which was an absolute fucking journey to make that video yeah yeah because there are there are some shows where i want to make a video on but i just like i i sit down just like try and start writing the script i'm like

"I don't know if I can do this justice." You know? Like, you know, I'm sure people will think I do it justice, but I, you know, proving it to myself that I can make my- But if you aren't a little bit afraid

like i i have to be i have to feel that to make a video you know like i i like that like fuck i don't know if i can pull this off like that that that will make me make a video because you just you just gotta ride the fear gun yeah i've done that a few times but it's just like it's been one of those videos where i've started i write a sentence and then it's like a year-long process of me like psyching myself up to do this and then i do it and then i'm like okay that was great and then i'm like

but I gotta do it again, baby. Do it all over again. That's me with this fucking Oyasumi Punpun video I've been trying to write for like four years. And I just like, I just can't, every time I rewrite or reread the script, I'm just like, it's not good enough. Yeah. And I think it's just because like, it's such an important series for me. And like a difficult one to write about. A difficult one to write about too, especially without like giving away spoilers and stuff like that, you know? So it's just like, I've just been sitting on this video for like four years. I still get people coming up to me every now and then being like,

So that poom poom video, where's it at? I hate talking about stuff I'm working on. Yeah. Because sometimes, you know, something just happens and something doesn't pan out. Yeah. And people are really excited about it. And I'm like, fuck, I shouldn't have said it. Yeah. Or I could just pleasantly surprise them when it comes out. That's why I've stopped doing that as well. It'll come out when it will come out. And if we've got to cook, we've got to cook. I don't even tell them it exists. Yeah. It comes out, it comes out. Totally. It doesn't, you know. So...

On that topic, is there anything you want to do that you haven't been able to do on YouTube yet? Or anything like any dreams that you want to do? So, yeah, there's some stuff. I really want to do a video on the movie Jingle All The Way, which is the Arnold Schwarzenegger Christmas movie and legitimately one of the greatest movies of all time.

I love the lengths they go to in that film to get a fucking toy. It is a good movie. Fucking brilliant. Actually, I think I've rewatched that recently. Yeah, I've rewatched it recently every year for 30 years. Oh no! No, don't, don't, don't. Okay, we can't put that on there. We can't put that on there. Talk shit, find out. Wow, yeah, he really does have Shenmue in his name. Yeah, yeah.

That is an amazing film. And then I also made, I think probably the most unhinged video I ever made was called Space Jam 2 is a lie. Oh my God. I love that. And I have a video that is a sequel to that video. But when you click on the video, you won't know it's a sequel to the Space Jam 2 video until like 40 minutes in. And that to me would be

so fucking weird and it makes me so excited to do it but it's like it's kind of yeah it would be and I'd love that because I know a certain percentage of my audience would fucking hate it

That always makes me pretty excited. You're just like, at some point, I think you're like the most eloquent fucking anime SAS or fucking just video SAS on the fucking YouTube. And sometimes I just think you're a massive troll and I can't decide which side of the fence you are. I don't know. I have a question. Where did you get your narrating style from?

It's a really boring story. But like, so I started doing YouTube and I just didn't know how to talk. And so it's just, it's just real monotone. But then I started getting comments from people who were,

English wasn't their first language and particularly people who... English wasn't their first language who had learnt English in like America. Right. And they were saying that like, I can't really understand you a lot of the time. Could you slow down? And so I started slowing down. But then like when I started talking slower, my voice kind of dropped an octave. And then that kind of became like this. And it just naturally went that way. And it's weird because like...

Sometimes like whenever I see like one of my videos pierce like outside my bubble. Yeah, I get so many I see so many people being like Why does he talk like that? Like Joey I saw you recently or not recently but I got sent the clip of you saying that I talked too slowly in videos and You speed up my- But, but, but, the thing is- No, no, no, no

No, okay. Because sometimes I'm just like, alright, I really want to know what Jon's going to say on this topic, but I know the speed at which Super Apex 5 talks. And sometimes I don't have two hours to kill. So I'm just like, sorry, Jon. I'm going to up it, just...

A tiny little bit. You see, Joey, I know that you do that now, so I have been narrating all my videos at .75 speed. To even slow up. So that you are watching at the correct speed. God damn it. I think, like, ultimately, at the end of the day, it's the way I, like...

to narrate videos and like I get it's not for everyone that's cool but like I don't know if you guys can tell from my videos I stopped trying to please everyone a long fucking time ago and I just like making them the way I like making them if people want to watch that's cool if people don't I just love the Jerry call out oh I've had that cook in the entire podcast

Do you feel that it's do you care if anyone watches it like 1.25 or 1.5 or is it just not really like fuck life's hard to Know the creative integrity the timing it's not every video I do that

It's only the long ones. But no, I mean, like, look, if my videos provide any fucking enjoyment to someone, enjoy them however you want. Hey, I still watch them all the way through, okay? So you gotta give me credit for that. I'm like, this guy, yeah, exactly. First two minutes and exit's out. It was the one, you know which one, I distinctly remember which one it was. It was the one where you talked about a horror manga with a girl or something and someone dies. She know what that's you? Yeah, and I was like, this sounds fucking sick. I'm gonna read it. And I just did.

And every single time I think about reading it, and I'm like, man, I can't keep clicking on this video and clicking off it. This is psychotic. YouTube's going to think I hate this video. So yeah, I'm going to read it. I will. It's a fantastic manga. You should read it. It's very good. I want to talk about human horror. Yeah, that's why you really sold me on the concept of it. And for some reason, I just haven't read it.

I guess the next time you come on the show, I will make sure I've read it. I promise. Yeah.

I just have to click on and off your videos. I'm going to try and not do that as much. Yeah, you're killing me here, Connor. YouTube, though, will automatically put, and I don't know why it does this for me, it'll keep replaying your goddamn liminal space video for me. I will leave my YouTube on on the side, and then two hours later, whenever I've left it for some reason, I'm back and I'm an hour into the liminal space. I'm like, man...

They really want me to watch Sean's videos. I mean, if it helps, like, I have, like, a personal account on YouTube. You just replay it. It constantly recommends me my own videos. And my reaction is always like, oh, fucking God! I hate this guy. I just don't understand why it keeps recommending me this one video. Like, I'm obsessed with... I don't even watch anything about liminal spaces. I've never watched it.

Well, how would you know if you don't like it? If you haven't watched it? No, I've seen it, but I clearly don't search out for it or click on many of the videos. For some reason, your goddamn video keeps getting autoplayed for me. I click off two minutes in. I keep telling it, this video's not for me. But I did that for someone else as well, and it kept replaying the like...

Hbomberguy Roblox video. I don't know why I would finish a video and it would auto play that video and even though I watched it great video, but it was um, no, that's that's me like I think I've talked about this briefly before that's me and like I should look out for this I swear it does this I swear YouTube does this it'll keep recommending it'll keep auto playing one video and

Yeah, so I fall asleep to like certain videos. Me too. And like recently it's been like the history of the universe where it's kind of like I've told us about this before. I don't think I've finished a single video because they're about an hour long. I get 20 minutes in and then I'm asleep. You get so much mileage out of one video. Yeah. Because I fall asleep four separate times. I'm like, all right, this time, this time I'll get further. I get like 25 minutes.

And then I'm like, I don't remember anything about the rest of the video. So one time I'm going to like finish a video and know what the end of the story is. But until then, it's great. It's very, very interesting content, but also it's just so good to sleep to. Yeah. So calming, right? Yeah. It's so calming. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, John, thank you very much for coming on Trash Taste today. Strong guy, it's a pleasure. Genuinely. He flew in from Ireland just to come here to our studio today. No, no, it's a big deal. When you come to Japan, you can come on again. Happily. No, that'd be great. Yeah, thank you very much for coming to our show as well. Anything you want to shout out? Um,

Sure. You can find me on Super Eyepatch Wolf. I also do have all my streams on regular Eyepatch Wolf and eyepatchwolves.com for merch and show. If you're interested in a weird concept that barely makes sense on a t-shirt. What a pitch. But yeah, thanks so much, guys. This has been awesome. It's been a long time coming. We've all been close friends for a very long time.

And I'm glad I got to gush about OG Anitube for a while before it's completely lost in the dust. But hey, look at all these patrons though, John. Do you see all these patrons on screen? Point to your favorite one. It's got to be this one. What a scamp. Seems like a good looking bunch. This is Shenmue fan actually. Is it the

guy from earlier well that's a bleach fan actually yeah i'm sorry god damn but hey if you want to support the show then head on over to our patreon patreon.com slash trash taste also follow us on twitter send us some memes on the subreddit and if you hate our face listen to us on spotify and uh yeah obviously go check out john's stuff links in the description below and thanks for coming out we'll see you guys next week bye

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