Welcome to “Ear Biscuits”, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I’m Rhett. And I’m Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting we’re talking about all the stuff that’s happened to us over the past, a little over a week. Life. I celebrated an anniversary. I celebrated an anniversary. I had a delayed celebration of my birthday. Of course, I’m celebrating that all month. And then, yeah, me and Christy’s anniversary. Did I already say that? Yeah, 23 years for you, 22 years for me. I’ve been trying to catch up but you keep beating me. I keep going. Did you just wish that my marriage would end? Well, it did sound like that, didn’t it? That would be the only way that I can beat you, so yeah. Don’t do that. Yeah, yeah. Well, what if it just pauses? Okay, can you guys get separated for a year just so I can catch up? No, get separated for two years so I can be in the league. And then be happier than ever. Well, you don’t know. You don’t know. You don’t know how it’s gonna work if you get separated. Well, first of all, no. ‘Cause you don’t know any different. We’re not gonna get separated. Does your wife listen to this podcast? That’s not on the table. Sometimes she does. I think she reads the comments to decide if she needs to listen. Okay, all right. Well, scratch all that. So we are not getting separated. It’s not in our vocabulary. Okay and I was only suggesting it for the sake of me being in the lead in our number of years that we celebrate. Right, is there something you could do to just accelerate your marriage? Hmm, can you do a two for one? What do you mean? How’d you get two years in one year. No, marry another person? No, no definitely don’t wanna do that. One is enough. I don’t know, I think maybe I’m stuck. I think you are. One year behind. Yeah, I think we’re gonna have to be waiting until the departure of one of us and I’m talking about death. So you’ll catch up if one of us dies before either one of you die, which of course isn’t gonna happen ’cause, as you’ve said many times, tall people die earlier because I guess the blood has been working too hard to get to everything. I don’t know how it works, but it is statistically true. So you’ll never catch us. So you have a really easy way of remembering your anniversary. Yep. Slightly easier than mine. Like, you just look at the year that it is and that’s the year that you’re celebrating. And thank God for that because that’s the only way. I never, you know, any number that I have to like pluck from my brain and then shoot outta my mouth, there’s this membrane that all numbers go through from my brain to my mouth and it’s a belief that I’m not gonna be right about it because I’ve been so wrong about numbers. But this is the interesting thing because I didn’t realize how easy it was to remember my anniversary and also my wife’s age until she explained it to me. She was born in 2000? She was born in 1980. So she was basically like, yeah, whatever year it is, is the year, in that December, is the year that she’s turning. Plus 20. This is already too complicated. Yeah, yeah, plus 20, yeah, right, yeah. So the year that in December of the year you add 20 and that’s how old she is. But that’s only true for a month. Not even a month, her birthday is December 23rd. No, December 18th. December 18th. If I’m thinking about it though. You got like a week to use this mnemonic. I could be wrong. She explained this to me and I was like I’ve never thought about this ’cause we were celebrating our 22nd anniversary. Can I ask? I was like 20, oh yeah, whatever year it is, we just take one off and that’s our anniversary and I never use that math. And the interesting thing about yours it’s so much easier ’cause it’s just the year. So much easier. Yeah, that’s why we did it, plus we really wanted to have sex. I can’t tell you. And be married. The number of times I’ve seen someone ask you how long you’ve been married and you don’t know. Well that’s ’cause I’m trying to figure out what year it is. You haven’t been using this method? I haven’t been using this method. No, I use the method, 23 years. Why are you so slow to answer the question? I told you ’cause I have a membrane. Any number. You don’t know what year it is? No, I’m like that guy. So if you get a concussion asking you what year it is. You can’t test me for a concussion, it’s not valid. You can’t ask me who the president is. Well, yeah, I think you can right now. But like it takes, it takes a good year. I mean it’s like, it takes until, I would say April until I’m really solid on the year. And that was really because I don’t write checks anymore. That’s how you know what year it is, is how you write checks. Well that’s what trained me. That’s like New Year, write that on your check. Yeah, I remember those. You know, what else do you date? The only other thing I date is business documents. I just kind of feel like I’m bombarded with it. Starts with the glasses on New Year’s Eve. The glasses? You know, the year glasses that everybody wears. That’s how I register what year it is. Okay, yeah, it’s like, I mean, we both sound really stupid right now. Well, one of us sounds stupider. And I know you’re talking about me. See, I’m not that stupid. I had a thing happen this morning on the way in that really just made me happy that I live where I live. And let me tell you because where else can this happen? I mean, I guess it could technically happen anywhere, but it’s much more likely to happen here in beautiful Los Angeles, California. I need this story ’cause nothing good happened to me on the way in. I was behind a car and I looked at the license plate and they had one of those license plate holders that has something written on it and it said, tell me if you ever seen this. I’m against those by the way, but I’ll put a pin in that. Well, you wouldn’t be against this one. “I won this car on The Price is Right.” Huh, what? “I won this car on The Price is Right.” “On The Price is Right” and I don’t think you can get that at just any store. I believe it to be true. I believe it might be illegal to put that on your car if you didn’t actually win the car on “The Price is Right”. Why, before we get into what really matters, why did you say that you love living in this town? What about this town has to do with driving a car that you won on “The Price is Right”? You could live anywhere. Because the percentage of people who are on game shows that are in this town are much higher, because these shows are shot in this town. How many of these license plate borders have you seen? One. Oh, okay. And I’ve been to a lot of towns. Only in this town. So, anecdotally. This is a great town to live in. You know why? ‘Cause you might. When I was it I was like hey, that person. Yeah, that show is shot in this town. I mean, we have an employee who went on the “Wheel of Fortune” and won a vacation and then turned it down because of the tax implications. I mean, where else can that happen? That would be David. That’s not happening in Omaha. Nothing against Omaha, it’s beautiful. Been there once. I think, I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out if it’s just as likely to. It’s definitely not just as likely to happen anywhere else. Just because there’s more people that participate in “The Prices is Right” locally. Yeah, and also it might be somebody who works on the show and it’s like, I’m gonna get one of those for my car because that seems fun ’cause it’s probably not illegal. So did you try to get up beside ’em? Get ’em to roll the window down, congratulations! I wanted to see who they were. Congratulations! Well, that’s what they’re looking for obviously if they’re gonna put it in the back of the car. Unless, actually to go back to your earlier point, which you don’t like these things. They put these on your car when you buy them. That’s what I don’t like. And here’s the difference between me and you. It’s advertisement. You take it off and I’m just like, well, it’s on there, I’m not gonna take it off. And so when you get one from “The Price is Right” they obviously put that on the car and you don’t take it off. Let me be more specific. I don’t like the dealership putting their advertisement on the back of my car. I wouldn’t ask for it. But like I’d rather be fishing, golfing, rock climbing, vacuuming, napping. Those are all great. You don’t have that, you have nothing. I have nothing. Right, and nothing, it doesn’t look as good as a border, even if the border says the dealership on it. I have one of those custom California tags that’s got the black background and I kind of feel like it does look okay. Are you saying that I need a border? Oh, I’ve thought it many times. Well, oh really? Yeah. Well I’ll get a blank one. See now you’re putting in effort that’s unnecessary. I don’t like it to say, if it’s gonna say something I need to believe it, like “I won this car on The Price is Right”. But you did get the car from the dealership. That’s why I don’t feel bad about it. Yeah, but that’s free advertising. I feel like I should have gotten a discount for that. How many people are gonna look at that and then decide, I just don’t see it. I mean, I know it is advertising, but. What else could it be? I guess I don’t care because they did a service for me. Now, as I’ve established before, I do not agree if somebody’s working on your house. They didn’t do a service. They sold you a car. That’s a product. Right but yeah, they sold you the car. I mean like, you decided to buy it from them. You chose them. So you have one of those? On all my cars because I don’t take ’em off. If you give me a car that’s got something on it, in fact, when I got my FJ worked on at the 4X4 place, they just put like a 4X4 thing on my license plate. I didn’t take that off. I’m like I don’t care and I have to get a screwdriver out. Well, they did provide a service. I had to get a screwdriver out and take that thing off. And why am I gonna do that? Now, this is different than somebody putting a sign in your front yard if they like just did your roof. It’s the same, it’s the same. No, because a sign in your yard. Yeah, okay. That feels intrusive because not everybody has a sign in their yard. You know what I mean? That’s true. I also, listen, I’m not against the American flag, but there’s a guy who goes around my neighborhood and I believe he goes around many Los Angeles neighborhoods who’s a realtor, and he puts Little American flags. Yeah, with his business card underneath it? On each side of your driveway. Oh, two of ’em? I think I got one from that guy one time. I felt a little bit bad when I just picked them up and threw them both in the trashcan. Right. Because he wants you to feel bad about throwing away the American flag. It’s manipulative. That’s manipulative. I don’t feel that way about the license plate. But the thing underneath it is an advertisement for him, for his business. Yeah, but I didn’t, he don’t know what my relationship to the United States is. You know, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know how to feel about that. He’s making a lot of assumptions. Well, judging you by your actions, it sounds like you don’t like the American flag. I love the American flag. But, interestingly, when we were kids having like the American flag like flying in front of your house, like was like almost everybody did it and now it’s become a little bit of like a. It’s sad. It’s a weird statement now, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, it’s unfortunate. It’s become this like act of aggression almost. And when a realtor puts it in your front yard, it is an act of aggression. Like, I think that should be illegal. I think it should be illegal to put a flag in someone else’s yard. Right. So I’m gonna be campaigning for that. What about putting a flag on the moon? You know, that’s what us Americans did too. I mean, that was, we got there first. We got there first, we put a flag on it. Yeah, we did. But I don’t think that, I mean, does it mean that, does it mean anything besides we got there first? ‘Cause typically if you put a flag in something, it means that you’re like colonizing it. Well no, I believe that Neil Armstrong was a realtor. Oh, he was a realtor? He was advertising his, it was a little business card. If you look closely. And actually, I don’t know if he’s the one who put the American flag out. That might have been Buzz. I don’t know who did the flag. One small step for man, one giant leap for real estate. Free real estate. It’s on the moon. It’s free real estate. You remember that? Oh yeah, I bought a square foot or something, I think, at some point. Of the moon? I’m talking about the Tim Heidecker meme. Oh. It’s free real estate. It’s free real estate. But yeah, I don’t believe in people putting advertisements on my properties without my permission. If you ask me. Yeah, you should ask me. I’ll probably still say no. No, thank you. You gonna give a discount? When I got my Toyota pickup back in, I guess it was the year 1999, I no longer have it. The dealership had put, they’d gone a step further and they had put a sticker on the, what’s the thing on the back of? The tailgate? The tailgate. You should never own a truck again. And then, you know, and I probably won’t. You just disqualified yourself. Tailgate. And it was just stuck on there. And it said like “Sanford Toyota.” A sticker, it wasn’t even a magnet? It was a sticker. It was the letters. Yikes. Stuck to the upper right-hand corner. Yikes Sanford Toyota. And my father-in-law said, ’cause I was complaining about it, brand new truck got a sticker that says Sanford, I don’t live in Sanford. The longest city in America. He said, “Well if you take a blow dryer to it, heat that thing up, and just peel it right off.” You know. Sounds like a TikTok hack. He’s like that guy on TikTok who does everything with the WD-40. Next. I love that guy. He’s what keeps me on TikTok. I’ve learned quite a bit from him. I’ve learned so much from him. I haven’t done any of it, but I’ve learned quite a bit. Oh. I use the WD-40 to clean my windows. You know what, I’ll get back to that ’cause that’s something that I actually wanna talk about today. Not what I’m currently talking about. Okay. Yeah, I took a blow dryer to that tailgate and I peeled that thing off without messing up my paint job and I was very pleased with myself. And that’s what led me on the journey to remove all of my license plates ’cause if I can sit there with a hot. Once you’ve got the blow dryer. A hot air blower back there, a heat gun. I’ve never blowed my car before. It’s a lot easier to Phillips-head that border out from around your thing and you don’t need it. People think, well, my license plate’s gonna fall off if I remove this. False, it won’t. The only thing that will fall off is your advertising for somebody else against your own will. Take the power back! Remove the border from your license plate if it advertises a place that you don’t wanna advertise. But you chose that place. Or if you don’t wanna advertise any place. But you chose it. It’s like the back of your car is not a pre-roll ad. They just give you something for free. For the person behind you in traffic. They just gave it to you for free, I mean. You should take it. It’s not! Now I will say there’s a little bit of a problem with my border on my license. And that is, the registration sticker doesn’t quite totally fit underneath it. Yep and then the freaking sticker! Oh, hold on. Doesn’t live. It doesn’t go in the right place because of the border! But I was gonna say, I don’t really care because the corner is a little bit like. And if you don’t really care. Sticking up. You need to wake up. Well, and the thing is, is that I kind of like the corner sticking up because I get a clearer view of the cross section of how many stickers I put on there. That’s cool. I love that cross section. That’s cool. See, it’s cool so it’s better. That is cool. That’s something to think about. We’ve got other things to talk about, including. A banned episode of GMM is that what we’re talking about? Yeah, a banned episode of GMM. You know, we have a tradition ever since we had to remove an episode of GMM from Good Mythical Morning the channel, because we did some things that YouTube was not too happy about. Yeah, turns out you can’t eat a mattress on YouTube. And you can’t really curse on YouTube and, you know, still remain in the, you know, get the same sort of, whatever, monetization. I don’t know how it works. We have a great team who tells us these things. We just know that we can’t. The reason we don’t curse on GMM is because it puts it into a different category. So if we want to curse on GMM and really curse, you know what I’m saying, like really curse. Like for instance, do an episode that’s a shuffleboard episode, that’s the 1,000 years of curse words. Well, we have to make that a banned episode and we give it to you on the Mythical Society. And you don’t have to pay. This is for free. Yeah, all you have to do is you create a Mythical Society account as an initiate for total freeness and then you can watch this banned episode. If you wanna watch the banned Good Mythical MORE where we learn bad words in other languages, well then you need to be first degree. First degree and up, mythicalsociety.com. Go watch that banned episode. M-hm. “Ear Biscuits” is supported by Thrive Market. We’re big fans of Thrive Market. They make healthy living easy. So, you know, this is one of the things we turned to during the pandemic is being able to have groceries delivered, which is awesome. You can make those choices online. Well what are those groceries? But the thing about Thrive Market is it’s, they make it easier to make better choices, right? Because they’ve got very high quality, lots of healthy, healthy options and they do this for really reasonable prices. Yeah, Thrive has all your go-tos for groceries and household essentials. Several of your favorite brands quickly shipped to your doorstep. Like Annie’s for cheese and fruit snacks, Seventh Generation for cleaning, Primal Kitchen for all those good sauces. Yeah, and you can save money on every single order. As a member, on average, you can save over 30% each time. There’s also a deals page that changes daily, giving you cashback on a lot of brands and price match guarantee. I like the sound of saving money. I did a little math on my last order. I think I saved about $40 versus if I had gone in the store. And when you join Thrive Market, you are also helping a family in need with their one-for-one membership matching program. Super cool. You join, they give. Join Thrive Market today and get 30% off your first order plus a free $60 gift. Go to thrivemarket.com/ear for 30% off your first order, plus a free $60 gift. That’s T-H-R-I-V-E market.com/ear. Thrivemarket.com/ear. “Ear Biscuits” is brought to you by BetterHelp. You deserve some me time. I deserve some me time. And I, you know what, and you don’t need to be embarrassed to say it. For me, me time, a lot of times is therapy time. Like, that’s how I view therapy. Oh yeah, and therapy can give you the tools to find more balance in your life so you can keep supporting others. You know, you can have some you time too, some others time, so you get that me time without leaving yourself behind. We talk about therapy a lot on this show, so you know that we believe in the benefits of it and we love the idea of it being accessible in different formats. So you have options. Yeah, if you’re thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It’s entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Find more balance with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/ear today to get 10% off your first month. That’s BetterHelp H-E-L-P.com/ear. So yeah, we both got another year of marriage under our belts. I did a little weekend getaway and I know then the following weekend you did a little weekend getaway for your wedding anniversary. Christy and I ended up going back to Santa Monica and we like to stay at the Proper. You know, there’s a lot going on in in our household right now, mainly gearing up for Lincoln to graduate. Like there’s so much going on, like get ready for that. We’re having a family/close friend party tonight, which you are a part of. I am ready for it. Celebrating Lincoln’s graduation and also Mike’s daughter, Mike and Jenny’s daughter, Madison’s graduation. We’re gonna eat some Italian food. Oh, okay. Some presents. Locke’s in town, right? So it’s Locke and Shepherd are coming over? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, I have no control over ’em at this point. Well make sure they’re coming over, dude ’cause you know Lily’s home. Oh, I’m sure that, listen, they’re gonna be there. I’m just letting you know. My mom’s here. I also have no control over them, but I’m pretty sure they’re gonna be there. Well just tell ’em. Oh, I’m sure they’ve been told. I know, but tell ’em that. You just need to understand, I’ve stopped fathering. Okay. Well, okay. Okay? I’ve checked out. They shall be there, okay? I’ve checked out. All right? Okay, yep. So, you know, a little weekend away before, it’s like the calm before that graduation storm because like Lincoln has like a friend party at the house. We’re trying to have a big blowout this weekend. Uh-oh, okay. Yeah. You gonna nail everything down? ‘Cause kids steal a lot. Except for the tacos. Kids have been stealing things now. Really? Yeah, yeah. Has something been stolen from your house? It’s a cool thing now. You go to a party and steal? Steal something, oh yeah. Oh, especially if they catch wind of the internet fame in this house, like is this some sort of an internet relic? This guy’s been around a while. I got Itags on everything in my house, everything. Somebody walking out dragging a rug behind ’em. Little candles, each match. People be trying to eBay things too. I’m just saying, you gotta put Itags, you gotta nail it all down. Did something happen to you? Booby traps, you need to set some. Is this why you don’t father? Booby traps. Yeah, I’ve kind of, I’ve stopped fathering and I’ve just moved on to like trying to prosecute teens, catch teens doing things. I’m kind of, you know, it’s a little bit of an unofficial law enforcement thing that I’m doing. Cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You’re saying so many cool things. Thank you, that’s what we almost called this podcast. The only thing that I’ll report on from my romantic weekend away that’s for public consumption, huh, is, you know, we went to this nice restaurant on the beach and they had a pork chop on the menu. You know what, I think I’m gonna go the rest of my life and I’m never gonna order a steak at a restaurant again. I’m just not a steak guy and I just need to come to grips with it. Okay. I’m just not a steak guy. It’s not that I don’t like steak, it’s just that. You’re just not a steak guy. I’m just not a steak guy. It’s not that you don’t like it, you actually love it. You’re just not a steak guy. I just wish. When I get a steak, it just doesn’t make me feel good when I’m done. And I’ve noticed that about myself. But a pork chop does. But a pork chop will make me feel okay. Now what do you think it is? The farce that it’s white meat. You like the color of it? It’s a little lighter to me. In color? Yep and in feel in my tummy. Okay. And I think I might like the taste better. Is it something to do, I love a great pork chop. It’s funny, I have a pork chop story from my trip too which is weird. Can I tell you, we both have a pork chop story. Yeah. We now have the title of this episode. Pork Chop Stories, line up. There’s so many people who wanna listen to this that they can’t listen at once. It’s like trying to get on the freeway in California, there’s a traffic light. It’s one car per green. I ain’t never been nowhere else in the world and seen one car per green. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that kinda sucks. Yeah, I mean that kind of balances out “I won this on The Price is Right”. Well that’s where I saw the Price is Right car. It was one car per green and then they went and I couldn’t catch up with them. Driving that car fast, getting every bit of it out of it. So I ordered the pork chop. Well when you don’t pay for it, you don’t treat it right. You abuse it, it’s like a rental car. Floor it everywhere you go. It’s like if you got a rug from your friend’s parents’ house, you’re not gonna treat that rug well. No one’s stolen a rug, if that’s what you’re implying, yet. But I’m ready when they do. I went with the pork chop. Track them down. And I was like, I think I’m gonna get the pork chop. And then I read below it and I was like I have to do this if for no other reason so that I can tell Rhett I finally did it. Listen, I’m not bragging. This was a $72 pork chop, I’m gonna be real, okay? Whoa. I would never, I was like, this is ridiculous. That’s the second thing I saw. And that’s when I decided I wasn’t gonna get the pork chop. And then when I read underneath it and I was like, well I gotta get a pork chop so I can tell Rhett that I got the pork chop. I think he’d be happy. Are you writing this off ’cause now you’re talking about it? Good point, yes. It it was an Iberico pig, Iberico ham. It was a pork chop made from Iberico ham? Yes, it was a acorn, exclusively acorn-fed pig. Wow. Pork chop. Isn’t that what Iberico ham is? I’m no expert. Well, don’t act like it or, you know what, do act like it. I think that’s your sweet spot. I’m gonna tell you that I don’t. It said on the menu! It said acorn-fed. And it might have said exclusively acorn fed. Okay and maybe it’s acorn-fed. And it said the word Iberico! Okay, I’m just saying this, I don’t know a lot about this so I definitely could be wrong, but based on my experience with the ham. Don’t burst my bubble. Don’t blow a bubble. I’m blowing a bubble, don’t burst it. Now, first of all, you’re getting a pork chop from a different part of the pig so obviously it’s not the ham. So maybe this is true, I’ve never had this. But the ham is so expensive. It wasn’t called a ham, it was called a Iberico pork chop. That per pound you got a deal, 72 bucks. I mean, you got a deal if that’s true. I guess it’s totally true, they gotta do something else with the other parts of the pig. You know. You know what? Maybe it’s not true. I also had a side of acorns. Yeah, you’re not supposed to do that, the pig’s ghost will come back. I gotta tell you man, I’m not gonna let you totally burst my bubble even, you know. It was good, right? It was the best. I was like, lo and behold, Christy, I think I’m eating the best pork chop I’ve ever had in my life. Huh? Which restaurant? Shutters on the Beach. Oh yeah. I don’t, I’m not a fan of the place. It’s kinda like. It’s on the beach. Well, it’s on the beach and that’s nice. I did Mother’s Day brunch there last year, for Jessie, not for me. It’s like a country club. I mean, it feels like a country club, like a golf course, fancy dinner. It’s a bit dated. I don’t disagree with that. But the food was so good! If you ever have a chance to get an acorn chop, get you one. It’s so good. Break your piggy bank for it. Okay. That’s why it’s a piggy bank, to spend on a pork chop. Let me tell you my pork chop story. That was not the highlight of my. I gotta say it’s better than your story. Romantic getaway. Okay, I’m just gonna say. But it was the highlight that I’m gonna give you. Actually, my story is worse than yours, which makes it potentially more entertaining. Okay. Jessie and I went to a restaurant. So we decided to stay in Malibu. The thing about living in Los Angeles is that, especially when you live quite a ways from the beach like we do, going to the other side of town. An hour. Going to Santa Monica, going to Malibu, it’s like a vacation. It feels like a vacation. Right. You’re still in your same town, but you’re going to this place that you hardly ever go. Which is so funny because I remember I was talking to Jessie about this story when we were hanging out in Malibu, a place that we don’t go often, that when we were working on our first ever television show in 2007, David Hurwitz, the producer, along with Paul Cockerill. Yeah. Was talking to us about, you know, like he kind of knew these guys from North Carolina who’ve, you know, probably never left the country, are here in Los Angeles, they’re working on this television show and they are probably overwhelmed because we were. Yeah, he could see it on our faces. Right, everywhere we looked we’re like, our tongues are like hanging out of our mouths everywhere we looked in Los Angeles and I think he could sort of feel the country come to town vibe. Yeah. And I remember him saying, he was like, once the show got picked up, you know, we did the pilot, but then the show got picked up, subsequently canceled very quickly and harshly. But in that little window of time between it being picked up and it being canceled, we were living so high on the hog and thinking that we were gonna have this incredible future in Los Angeles. And I remember him saying, “Yeah, you’re gonna be in Malibu. Your wife’s gonna have the stroller, pushing the stroller down the street in Malibu.” And I remember thinking like, oh, that must be what happens. What are you laughing at, Jenna? He believed in us. I was like, oh, that’s how this works. You get a television show and then you get a home in Malibu, having zero idea what any of this means. You know, I saw the sign coming into Malibu, population 13,000, just to put that into perspective. Oh wow, that’s not a lot. Not a lot of people. Like that’s a small town anywhere in America, you know? Well, okay, medium size town, whatever. Buies Creek had 1,000 people. That’s where we’re from. But Fuquay when we left had over like 70,000, I think. So like, you know, Lillington’s probably got that many people, right? And it was just like the way, nobody lives in Malibu except apparently Michael Bolton who I saw driving a car in Malibu. Driving a car? That was my highlight. Wow, he’s got a license? I think it was him, you know, he had a little license plate that said “I won this car on The Price is Right”, which is the main thing that I was focusing on the whole time. He was driving through Malibu, that place you told me to go the, there’s not a lot in Malibu. Malibu Farm. The market area. I walked by the Harley Davidson store. I told you to do that. The guy was like, “Rhett!” Yep. I was like, “Oh yeah” He was like, “Link came in here.” I was like, “Yeah, he told me all about it. The electric bike and the bike from Long Way Up!” Yeah, did you get on it? He said “Link got on it” and so I was like, “Well I won’t.” It would’ve been so easy for you to get on. It would’ve been but I mean, I kind of know, I have an idea what it would feel like. I don’t need to feel it between my legs. Well, your loss. Back to the pork chop though, because we had dinner. We did not really leave a very small radius right there next to the pier, which is where the hotel was and we went out to dinner. Surfrider beach, very famous beach. Top 10 most famous beaches in the world probably. Right there at it. Lot of surfers, riding waves. And I, Jessie, Jessie got the porch chop. Okay. And I was like, “How’s the bolognese?” The spaghetti, you know? He was like, and this is not like a nice restaurant, it’s just a restaurant across the street from the hotel. He’s like, “That’s what Gordon Ramsey orders every time he comes in here.” Okay. And then he was like, “Actually, it’s what he and his entire family order. It’s kind of strange.” Huh? So apparently he orders, everybody in the family orders this dish. Just spaghetti? The spaghetti was great. It was great. And it turns out I made the right choice. What? I never order spaghetti at a restaurant. If I’m in a pasta mood, sometimes I’m like. I’m not a pasta guy I don’t think. I’m more of a pork guy. You don’t like pasta? Your wife loves pasta. I like pasta, I’m just not a pasta guy. Sometimes you just want it, sometimes like a good meat sauce, man. Oo and it was so good. Well, tonight. It had sausage and beef in it, you know, in the sauce and it was like all mixed in. So it was really built up and it still met those expectations. Oh, it was excellent. It was excellent spaghetti. And yeah, it was spaghetti but I’m not trying to be fancy, I’m just trying to have a good time. And Jessie gets a pork chop and it’s a thick pork chop. It’s one of those pork chops that like, it’s got two bones coming out of it. Like it’s got like two ribs coming out of the end. And she, you know, a well-cooked pork chop is a little bit pink in the middle, a little bit pink. Like there’s like oh I think that’s a little pink, let me see it in the light. Like that’s how you cook a thick pork chop, right? Yeah. And so she like takes the first bite and it’s a little bit pink, first bite. Already? And I’m like, oh, it’s fine. And then she like takes it and she like cuts a little bit deeper, and it basically looked like a rare steak. Gross! You know? And I’m like, okay, okay, okay, well let’s, all right, stop. We don’t need trichinosis to complicate our 22nd anniversary, even though it’s highly uncommon to get trichonosis in America, just so you know, you’re probably not gonna get it. But still, it’s kind of gross to eat it ’cause it just comes across way different than beef when it’s rare. So she gives it back to the waiter, he’s like, “Oh I’m sorry”, you know, apologetic. Good. And it was a pork chop that had like a mushroom sauce on it. And then he comes back and like there’s a lot more sauce on it. I’m like, okay, that’s interesting. She cuts into it, still rare and then it’s sort of like, well you know when somebody’s talking to you and you don’t understand what they’ve said and you’ve said what twice now? And then you’re like, am I gonna just say okay and nod my head this time? But no, because like she’s gotta eat this thing so the guy comes back and I’m not mad at the waiter, you know, I don’t do that. I’m not mad at the waiter. I’m like, “Hey, it’s still rare.” Like it’s basically feels like it’s exactly the same. Now there’s more sauce on it. He’s like, “Okay, I’m sorry. Let me take it back.” Takes it back again. He’s turning trichonosis. It’s gone for a good seven minutes. Okay. By this time. They’re cooking it. I’ve eaten all the spaghetti. It’s tough to slow me down. I’m fast anyway. You don’t want it to get cold. I mean, this is Gordon Ramsey’s favorite dish, gives it to every member of his family. Did she tell you go ahead? She just expected it. Oh, okay. And he brings it back, she cuts into it. Still rare. Was it, could you tell that it had been warmed? It did not. It had more sauce on it. They kept adding. They kept thinking you were wanting more sauce. The sauce was hot. I think maybe they think that the sauce cooks it. Oh. I don’t really know what’s happening. I think they thought you were asking for more sauce. And so what I ended up doing is I, at that point, I just kind of took her plate, I cut the steak completely in half. Opened it up to just confirm that this is what’s happening. And then he walks back by and Jessie’s like, she’s like, “I don’t know what’s going on. It doesn’t seem like they’re cooking it.” And he was like, “They’re cooking it. I watched it, I saw it in the pan.” And then I was thinking like, well maybe it’s like a cook-proof pork chop. I don’t know what’s happening. It’s those acorns. But then Jessie’s like, before he came back, she was like “I’m not hungry for it anymore.” Not hungry for it. You know, like we’re going on round four at this point. So we were like “Could you just bring the dessert menu?” Oh wow, defeat. You know, to their credit, they didn’t charge us for the pork and they gave us the dessert for free. So I, you know, I’ll give it to ’em for that but we had like a cook-proof steak, a cook-proof pork chop, which I mean it wasn’t $72 and actually it was $0. There you go. You got what you paid for. That was not better than my story. That was quite a downer. I wanna know if you experienced the same thing. Again, we don’t go to what we call the Westside, like Santa Monica is the Westside, Malibu’s not really, it is west of us, but it’s Malibu. Yep, different town. Not just a different town in terms of Westside and Malibu, but it’s different people, right? This is common in major cities where like different areas of town have different people and they kind of look different. But there is something that I observed in every restaurant that we went to, pretty much everywhere that we went, that I’m gonna call Malibeauty. Uh-huh. That’s the word that I’m using for it. Yeah. I feel like what has happened with this group of people who live there, is that they have all together, you know, like if you’re all doing the same thing and you’re like all moving in one direction and all lose perspective? Yeah, Malibu goggles. And this may not surprise you, but it struck me in a new way, the severity of the plastic surgery. Yeah. And I was like talking to Jessie about it ’cause it was like. The lips are not only big, but it’s like the mouths won’t close anymore. Yes! There was a woman. It’s like the lips don’t go together. No, no it wasn’t that. It went up. It had been turned up. It’s like curled up, yeah. And there was just a consistency to the skin. It’s like a middle schooler that just got braces and they can’t get their lips over their teeth. You know, you gotta figure out how to like get your lips over your teeth. But I have a theory. So your lips’ll touch. I have a theory that, first of all yes, they’ve lost perspective because if your friend is doing it and their friend’s friend is doing it, you know, you always kinda lose perspective. Right. But I almost think that it’s just a status symbol. I think it’s like, I can afford to do this to my face. Can you? Oh really? You know what I’m saying? But they do think it looks good. They wouldn’t think it looks bad in a status symbol. But I think the philosophy, you would think that the philosophy of plastic surgery is you can’t tell that you got it, right? It seems like the sort of, the standard would be you look younger but we can’t tell that you got work done. Like, it’s not obvious. We don’t want it to be obvious that you got work done. Maybe that’s changing. Maybe it’s changing with like the Kardashians being really popular and stuff. So it’s like, okay, yes, everyone can look. They haven’t had any work done. No, they haven’t, of course not. But like when you can see the before and after, you can see what somebody looked like at 20 and then you see what they look like at 30 and you’re like, well that’s not, you don’t go through like a second puberty sometime. No. Between 20 and 30 where things happen like that. Maybe it’s just become more culturally acceptable. It’s an interesting theory, but yeah, definitely like the insularity of it kind of feeds itself and just props itself up and yeah, it’s probably a status symbol. My theory about it is it’s all about the photos. Like, I think there needs to be a better mechanism and maybe it’s called video where it’s like people, you know, you wanna be able to like, people pick themselves apart in their photos and compare themselves to other people’s Instagram photos. And then it’s like, well I wanna be able to have a better post. I wanna be able to take a better picture. What about filters? And then. Well, then the thing is their face doesn’t move anymore or it moves in weird ways. The face doesn’t behave the way that it normally does, but that’s not how it’s being measured. It’s like, can I take a still photo where I look like I wanna look? But then if you have an interaction with the person in that photo, their face doesn’t behave right anymore. Like, oh, it’s not just that she’s like surprised or like whistling in all of her photos. I had a conversation with this person and it turns out she can’t make her lips touch anymore, you know? And so it’s like this, there needs to be this kind of like video in motion assessment of it. Yeah, but I don’t believe in your theory. Maybe your theory would’ve been right 10 years ago but with filters. Okay, have you seen. What about other people taking your picture? The retouch? Have you seen the retouch thing on TikTok now? Well, I mean, I see the thing, I just see people saying like this is not my face. Well you’re talking about the bold glamour filter is what probably you’re talking about. And there’s so many different ones apparently. And I don’t know, I see that when you go on TikTok and there’s just like this retouch thing that’s either on or off and it suddenly like makes you like, it just like evens your skin tone out. Okay. But then I saw somebody was, I don’t know how this stuff works, I don’t really keep up keep up with it. But I guess it was another filter, but they were essentially like isolating all these different aspects of their face and changing all these different things, right? Like the spacing of your eyes? The plumpness of your lips, the makeup on your face. Yeah. Not the spacing, these weren’t like morphing things. Okay. This was like do you want to improve, improve, you know, according to certain cultural standards, these features on your face? And it’s so, here’s the thing, you can see so easily how this could become so widespread. In fact, I saw a woman talking about it and I was actually, okay, this is a different perspective, this makes me think differently about it. She has a pretty gnarly scar on her forehead, right? Okay. And she’s like, let me show you how. You’re allergic to conversations about this? Yes. This a three sneeze? We’ll wait. I’ll keep eating my spaghetti. Okay. She said “This is what I usually do.” I could do without the commentary next time. The makeup. And she’s like, “See, like I’m gonna take what, half an hour to put this makeup on to blend it in.” She says, “Look, I pressed this button and now I can just get outta bed and I can make this TikTok video like I’ve got makeup on.” Okay. And of course, you know, when we’re recording this, they’ve just announced this, the new Apple Vision. Vision. Whatever it’s called, Pro Vision. Vision goggle. And I guess eventually it will be cheaper than $3,500. Good gracious. It’s an Iberico headset. It’s made of only acorn. But basically when you have a video conversation with somebody, what it’s doing is like, so when you buy this thing, you like show it your face and it creates a model of your face. And so then when you have a video conversation with somebody, it tracks your eyes and hears your voice and it creates a three-dimensional composite of you talking. So I’m looking at a video of you talking but really you’ve got a headset on, but it looks like you’re just in your living room. Now, I saw Marques talk about it on his video and he said that it looks a little bit weird and it looks a little fake, but obviously it will get better. Yeah, sure. But the point I’m making is that we’re moving to a place where if you’re not gonna go outside, right? Yeah. You have all the digital tools to make you look exactly how you want to look. And if you can do it, aren’t you gonna do it right? It’s like, oh, I can look a little bit better. And then people are gonna be like, well, I can look a little bit better with this filter and you won’t know that I’ve done anything, right, which I think is what most people are trying to do. It’s like, oh, I actually look like this. I put this makeup on today and I look great, whatever. Or I don’t have this, you know, this blemish on my face that I’m embarrassed by. So I think that, in one sense, maybe all these people who’ve gotten really intense plastic surgery for real-life stuff might be like, oh man, I should have held back and just used a filter for this. Can’t use a filter on a restaurant though. No. No, you can’t. Yet. I’m not against any of this. I’m just fascinated by it. And when I say you need to have a video check, even if you’re just looking in a mirror and you’re like holding a pose, you gotta be able to test does your face still move in the way you want it to move? You gotta be able to express. In the way that you want it to move. You know, it’s all I’m saying. I mean, I’m wearing makeup right now and why can’t we just put a filter on, ’cause after this is over, I’m gonna wash the makeup off. Just, you know, just take the shine off, even things out a little bit. And why is it that, why do we think. It’s no different. That a little bit of shine on our face is a bad thing, right, right. Why is like a little bit sweaty a bad thing? I mean, I’ve got its powder on as well. You know, we put it on if we’re gonna get on camera, it’s not like a thick layer of makeup but it’s like oily skin, take the sheen off a little bit. Yeah, it just makes you look a little. Like you’re trying too hard? Or desperate or like sweaty. Sweaty. Like nervous. Makes you look uncomfortable. Makes you look uncomfortable if you’re not. So it’s just like, it can be distracting. You also, sometimes you can like see things in it like a mirror. You see yourself in someone’s forehead. You don’t want that. See like another set of eyes, which interestingly, which I didn’t understand this. You’ve seen the ads for that Apple headset. Vision. And you see like the people’s eyes through there. Yeah. Well you would think that you’re seeing the people’s eyes. You’re not. You’re not? It’s a screen. What? That’s projecting an image of what the camera is seeing of their eyes because it’s completely opaque now. Are you serious? Yeah, so when you see through it and you’re in AR mode, so you can, there’s a toggle, there’s a switch. If you’re wearing them, you can look out and you can see everything. But you’re not looking through them, you’re looking at a screen that is using the cameras to gather the environment. Okay. And the same thing is happening in reverse. For everybody else to be able to see your face through it? No. Well, yes, but here’s the utility of it and it’s actually kind of cool but also a bit creepy if you think about it. When you look at somebody with this Apple headset on and they’re in AR mode, they can see you. Yes. They’re in VR mode, they can’t see you, but if they’re in AR mode, augmented reality, they can see you. And what we’re trying to, Apple, I’m not a representative for Apple, I don’t know why I said we’re. What they’re trying to do is they wanna make it obvious if someone’s in AR mode, so like Marques talked about it, like if you’re on a plane and you’re watching, you’re doing some work on a plane in your headset and the flight attendant comes up and asks you if you want something to drink and you look up at them, they need to see your eyes so that they know you can see them. Yes. But they’re just seeing a screen that has your eyes on it. Right. But that actually shifts, like it has a parallax. Like if I turn like this, you’ll see a parallax image because the cameras will be shifting the image which camera is sending is creating like this composite, it’s kind of crazy, and it’s like dimly lit. So what’s gonna happen is, the whole thing about filters that you were just talking about is, I mean, you just need to have not just one over your eyes as goggles, you just need to have a whole face like a bubble that you put your whole head in and then there’s like a video-generated version of your face that people think is really you under there but, I mean, you could be a lizard person. But that is essentially what’s happening if you’re interacting with somebody online. But then you could just be walking around. Then you’re like, what are you breathing gas or something? You can breathe anything you want. That’s another advantage of it. Like strawberry air? Yeah! Oh, breathing strawberry air and there’s a little strawberry in the face. So bring it on down Apple, make it a complete bubble and then you never have to worry about what you look like under there. It’s like, make it big enough, I want it big enough so that my hair is part of the presentation. So I want a big bubble. Yeah, I don’t know if this is gonna sell well. And then I can have the experience I want and I can give people on the outside the experience of me that I wanna give them ’cause I want you to think. Jasper, Jasper. What you gonna do, Jasper? This is a recording. Oh, he’s like rr. He hears people talking. They do need to be quiet. People talking is, I mean. Jasper, come here. Good boy, you’re protecting us. This doesn’t feel like the right thing to reinforce. Just, I mean, I don’t wanna tell you how to raise your dog but. Good boy, he’s doing good. We got his teeth cleaned. Look at those teeth. Had to be put to sleep for that? Yeah, he did. He woke up, I’m glad. What was I saying? You were saying, you were talking about a feature that Apple’s. A big old bubble! Never gonna listen to. No, it will happen. Well, most people are saying that. Some people are saying, okay, this is, now that Apple’s in this game, this is the beginning of everyone being okay with this, right? And then some people are saying, no one’s ever gonna get used to having something on your head. Yeah, that’s the first thing I said. It’s still this headset. It’s pushing your hair down. It’s the reason why people don’t wear helmets. It’s not pushing your hair down. It’s a band. It’s a band. Yeah, it pushes the hair down in the back. Yeah, but it’s not like pushing down the top, which that would be even worse. Well, it puts a band around your head and you’re wearing goggles. I mean, we just gotta get rid of that. Well, we got a long ways to go. You’re saying just make it Google Glass again? That worked well. No, I want it to be a necklace that then projects everything up in front of me. Yeah, okay. And then projects what I want people to see of me out there. That sounds healthy, right? Speaking of healthy, how about I bring it down even further and talk about a raw pork chop. You got a negative story? I’m gonna bring it down even further, it’s not really a negative story. I have a positive story. I’m prepared to bring it back up. Okay. One of the things I noticed, we’ve been talking a little bit about this, but for me, and it wasn’t really a vacation, you know, it was a like a weekend celebration of our anniversary but, you know, I’m not in work mode, right? Yeah. And one of the ways that I can kind of register my anxiety levels is by going on, like, getting outta work mode, right? Yeah. ‘Cause if I’m in work mode, I think that there’s this unspoken belief that, like, anxiety it’s just kind of the fuel that, you know, it’s just the fuel for the fire. You know what I mean? Like feeling like you gotta figure something out or feeling like you gotta solve a problem. It’s kind of part and parcel with our job in some way. So it doesn’t ever really register with me very much, but when you’re like, oh, I’m at the beach, you know, I’m in Malibu, everybody’s got plastic surgery. Yeah. And you’re supposed to be relaxing, but then you keep registering this anxiety. You know, I’ve tried to get to the bottom of it, and well, say there’s two things that are happening. The first thing is, and I’m sure you may not be experiencing this in an acute way right now but you probably have noticed, as your kids get older, like as my kids get older it gets easier to parent in a practical way but I get more worried about them, right? So when I see kids, like everybody who’s got kids here at Mythical besides us, they got these little babies can barely talk, walk, spit up on themselves, shitting everywhere, whatever, you know? Like, I don’t want that anymore. Not everywhere. Well if you don’t put a diaper on ’em, they will. Think our employees know how to use diapers. You know, you don’t get great sleep. It’s tough being a parent of a newborn and a toddler. This is a more physically and mentally and emotionally demanding stage, typically, for speaking in general, you know? Yeah. And I’ve always said it’s gonna get easier when I talk to somebody. I’m like, it’s gonna get easier. At some point soon you won’t even know where they’re at. You know what I’m saying? But one of the things that I’ve noticed is that, but as they are getting older, it feels like the stakes are increased. When they’re three they might fall down and hurt themselves, when they’re teenagers or on the precipice of their 20s, it’s just like this is an adult. And like, I don’t know, I found myself like registering a new type of worry about my kids, right? Not necessarily about anything that’s happening as much as it’s just like, oh, they’re in this. The potential. Yeah. And so that’s one thing that’s sort of like the baseline anxiety’s sort of raised a little bit. And then the other piece of it is from a professional standpoint, you know, the positive, there’s a lot of positive, the positive related to what we’re doing creatively right now. Which, you know, we’ve talked about it fairly extensively on this podcast of like, our shift in strategy and mentality and approach to, instead of trying to package ourselves for some pitch meeting across town and come up with some project that’s gonna check the boxes that the traditional system wants us to check, we’re saying we’re not doing that right now, and we’re trying to create in an unfiltered way and just put things on YouTube and see what our audience and maybe a new audience will think about the things that we’re doing. And, in almost every way, it’s great, right? Like, it’s fulfilling, it’s fun. But the thing that I kind of forgot and I was telling you earlier, was it’s so much like the early days of our career in which we were like grinding to find something. The intersection of what we want to do and what could work. Right, because again. And in this landscape we’re doing an exercise that we used to do a lot, when every video was it’s own thing, totally separate. And you live and die by every single video. But now it’s a new environment. And we’ve got all this other stuff going on. Like, you know, we’ve got GMM and we’ve got the company and all the things that are happening and things continue to go well and #blessed. However, when it comes to this little sliver, which in our hearts and minds is much more than a sliver, it’s like, it’s kind of the biggest piece of the pie for us emotionally right now, right? For me, emotionally right now. Yeah, creatively. And I’m saying creatively and I’m tacking on emotionally, that’s the thing that I’m sort of picking up on. Yeah. In myself. Is that putting a lot of energy and focus into wanting to crack this thing open. I believe so strongly in us following our creative vision and what it could mean and where it could lead, and how people are gonna respond to it, you know? And the thing is that like right out of the gate, we make this video that I feel like is a real great representation of what we wanna do creatively. Not specifically, we don’t wanna make every video like the medium-sized hole video, but like, it had a lot of us in it, right? It’s like, it was such a Rhett and Link video. It’s us being ourselves doing something stupid in a smart way, or maybe even something stupid in a stupid way. A little bit of sketch here, a little bit of song here, you know? Yeah. Very us. Feeling great. Again, like we said from the beginning, you never wanna tie your happiness, your fulfillment, your satisfaction, to an external reaction that you cannot control. That is the reception of this thing by an audience. But it’s kind of hard not to do that. So then we can do the second video, the exorcist D&D video. Yeah. And of course, you know, the overwhelming response to that was, there’s a lot of people who loved it, but there’s a lot of people who were like, this guy that you guys featured in this video makes me feel uncomfortable. He ruined the video, whatever. And it was apparently enough of an effect to cause it to really suffer in performance, right? So to me it was a little bit of like, okay, all right, revaluation, right? Because we don’t create things in a vacuum, we create things in the context of this audience. And we’re not gonna be like, well, you know what? You don’t like that. Well, guess what, we’re doing it again. Like, that’s just not how we, you know, we find satisfaction in doing something that we’re excited about that then a bunch of people get excited about. Yeah. And so, you know, and then, you know, a third video is kind of like, okay, well, better response in some way. I realized while I was attempting to and I think successfully so celebrating 22 years of marriage with my wife, there was these two streams of unsettledness. One is this like worry about my kids and one is this sort of like, well, what is it gonna take? Like what is it gonna take to really break through, right? Like, how many videos are we gonna make on the Rhett and Link channel in 2023? And like, are any of ’em really gonna break out beyond our audience? And I start thinking about it, and then I go into this place where every waking second is just trying to write down ideas. I get into this head space where I’m just like, I like look at something and I think is there an idea in this thing that I’m looking at? How many ideas can you come up with looking at this pier? Yeah, yeah. You know? And so, because I try to treat the anxiety like self-sooth by being like, well, if I can come up with a bank of ideas and then Link and I can get excited about a couple of them and believe that these things will work, then I will, I won’t be anxious anymore. Now, you know, there is this, this is where it’s tough for me because I get in this place where I’m like, well, you know what? Every time in the past when your back’s been up against the wall, like, you think about those things that we made in the early days that defined, that basically allowed us to do what we do now, think about GMM. So many different things, so many like pivotal points. We were in this little bit like, what are we gonna do now? Like GMM is a great example because we were in a place where a show had been canceled. We were living in Los Angeles, we were suddenly paying rent that was seven times as high as my mortgage in North Carolina and running outta money real fast. And then we gotta do something to connect, right? Yeah. And then it was just like, oh, and they’re really rewarding these longer videos and these daily videos. Yeah, yeah. So there’s a part of me, and so I fall into this place that like, well, it’s good, it’s good to feel this way because you’ll shit out a good idea in this desperate state of mind. But then there’s this other part of me that’s like, yeah, but is this healthy? And so I’m not saying I have a solution, I am talking about it in therapy. But that was something that sort of came to the surface while I was not in work mode, so to speak. Yeah, and you know that’s why like last week we shut down the studio and let everybody have a break ’cause I think you step away, you can get some clarity. And sometimes that clarity is that, oh, there’s all this underneath the surface that like, I’m not distracted by just going in and grinding away at my obligations at work. I can now feel it and maybe begin to address it more head-on, right? Like you say, you’re talking about it in therapy, I mean, that’s definitely my experience too. It’s like, you know, just feeling like, well we signed up, we signed ourselves up, we created this creative initiative. And then the newness wears off and you’re like, okay. This is work. Yeah, you gotta really apply yourself. Yeah. To figure this out. And it’s very engaging. But, you know, there’s lots of points when I find myself very dejected. It’s not easy. Because it’s really hard. We’ve kind of forgotten. Yeah. Forgotten. How hard it is. How hard it is to innovate. Yeah and how there’s an emotional rollercoaster associated with it. And like, so yeah, and I have a lot of challenges just fixating on the negatives or the troughs. And I’m really trying to, you know, I gave a speech to the team yesterday about what I was trying to do. Take it or leave it for them but for me it was like, can I embrace every aspect of the process as part of why I did this? So it’s not about, you know, something breaking through, as you call it. I don’t even know what that means. So it’s chasing something that is pretty nebulous instead of chasing every step of the process as something to engage in, to experience, to learn from, you know. You experience the highs and the lows. It all kind of together defines what we wanted to do and you just can’t. I try to remind myself of that to give myself permission to be down when it’s down, but also not to stay there, you know. You know, I’m kind of in that place right now. I think that one of the things that I’ve done, and this is how I’m gonna bring it back up, is, I teased to this, is I said, you know what? I need a project where I can just, a home project where I can just kind of zone out, tune into something else. And, for me, the perfect thing was washing the windows. Wow. It’s that time of year, Christy was like, “You know, we got this graduation party. You can’t even see out a couple of these windows.” And I’m like, “Yeah, you’re right. This is good. I’m gonna go out there, I’m gonna wash these windows.” I think I was washing windows for like three hours. Not because I have an extraordinary amount of windows, but because I have an extraordinary standard for how clean they need to be. And boy. Did you use WD-40, you did the technique? I used WD-40 on the screens. You take the screen down, you wipe, you put WD-40 all over the wipe and then you wipe down the metal screen. And then you light it on fire? And then you light it on fire and it burns off. Yeah. Burns all the dust off. That’s one of the things he taught me. And I was like, I’m gonna do that. I got this special, do you remember I told you it was a few years ago, I got this special window washing squeegee. Oh yeah, quite a bit. Bucket. Yeah and that thing’s been staring at me in the garage for a couple, probably been a couple of years. And then I’m like it’s time to break that baby out again. And she worked just like new ’cause she’s just a squeegee. Of course I guess there could be dry rot on a squeegee. Yeah. It was still supple enough. You wanna have a supple squeegee, man. And now I just walk around my house and I look out my windows. I mean, I would, it’s a multi-step process, you know, and I have my, my AirPods in, I’m listening to my music bur-bur-bur-bur-do just zoning out, forgetting all of my worries and everything that’s tough. Singing that type of song to myself. Yeah, you WD-40 those screens, set them to the side, you take a hose, you hose everything down to get like the dirt and, you know. It rains so little here, even though it’s raining a lot more than normal, a lot of stuff gets stuck and sludged up. You gotta do all that before, you gotta pre-wash the window and the sills before you can actually wash the windows. Hmm. And then you go back with your special squeegee soap and your squeegee and you scrub it and you squeegee it. I meant to look on TikTok for the best way to squeegee ’cause I remember seeing those. I was on a tear awhile for, it’s like, well if you start in this corner, well you start down here, then you go up and you go over, they can do it all in one. It’s not like hee, squeegee, wipe, squeegee-wipe. It’s squeegee and circle and curve and squeegee. And now I’m at the bottom and boom, it was one motion. But I was so excited about getting going and I had so many steps that I forgot to do that part. But I tried to invent it for myself. So you didn’t put the WD-40 on the window because that’s what he did in one of the TikToks I saw, but he did it on the shower. He did on the shower. On the calcium stains. Yeah, I didn’t have to do it ’cause I had the other soap. So I didn’t do that. And then after I was done with the squeegee, I had a razor blade and this is where it gets really good. Anything that’s still stuck down, I’m like getting to the side, getting to the other side. You gotta get angles, you gotta get angles. And then you’re taking that razor blade and you’re ee-ee-ee-ee-ee, taking off the things that are like stuck. And if you really get lazy, you can just take that razor blade and you can just drag it over the whole window and you can feel when it’s getting stuff. You don’t even need to use your eyes. Wow, and this is fun for you? So much fun. So much fun. And it’s, you know, it just, it got my energy out, it got me in my body. It got me outta my head. You know, it’s like, so I just need a little respite from, yeah sometimes it’s those spiraling thoughts. Like, I noticed that like when we hung out for my birthday and we’re like watching. My rec. Your rec. Your rec today or your rec last time? My rec. Yeah, you recommended it and then we’re like, hey, let’s watch. I didn’t recommend it, did I? “I Think You Should Leave”. Did I recommend that last time? Oh. You’re gonna recommend it today? That’s my rec, the new season. All right, recommend it right now ’cause we watched it. I’ll come back to it. It was hilarious but like I did notice that you just couldn’t stop thinking about this idea you had. I could tell that you wanted me to engage with the idea so that then you could say, yes, this is a good idea, we are on the same page about it, and now I can feel better. Oh, that’s clearly what was happening. Right? And then I was like, you know what? I’m just not, I’m not in the head space. At a certain point, I told you to give you what you want here. I mean, I can’t engage in this idea. I can’t work right now. We’re watching this show and I could tell that you were struggling. Yeah. Which is what you described that weekend too. Maybe you didn’t even know it yet ’cause that was before the weekend. Well the thing that makes it extra difficult for me is that when you describe how much you get off washing windows, like. Don’t make it gross. I, you know, it’s like, this is what’s tough about it because it is my work, but it isn’t work at the same time. You know what I’m saying? And that’s what makes it so complicated for me. Well coming up with ideas can be fun but you’re not describing in a way that you’re enjoying it. Well yeah, but I mean, I guess what I’m saying is that like that’s not my goal. It’s never been my goal and I’m not saying I’m right. I’m just telling you how my brain works. Your goal is to achieve. Well. Right? Isn’t that what you boil it down to? That’s part of it. To achieve the idea. Well that’s part of it. But I think that’s an oversimplification and kind of robs it because it is my greatest joy to create. Now, I don’t think that if you look at any artist who’s creating and who’s like in like creative flow, like I don’t necessarily, they might have a similar look on their face to whatever the look on your face is when you’re washing windows. You know what I’m saying? It’s kinda like I can’t touch my lips together. So, ultimately what I’m saying is that like it’s, yeah, it’s kind of like there’s the stage that we’re at right now which is just like cracking like opportunity. It’s almost like the fact that the parameters and the constraints are so little, it’s like this just open space, make any video that you want. Like we’re not responding to a brief, we’re not responding to an assignment. It can be as long or as short, it can be scripted, it can be unscripted. It’s so wide open that it’s like does something to my brain where I’m just like create something. And so it’s like simultaneously very like intoxicating, the process, like I’m addicted to the process, but when it’s not flowing, like when it’s not oh ch, like when you’re in that like trying to get the train moving. Yeah. The look on your face might be one of just frustration and like the mood that I might be anxious. And then one of the reasons that I’m gonna like try to like get you on board with the idea ’cause it’s just like that’s, I mean, that’s kind of our creative process. Sure, yeah. Once we get in sync, then the thing starts moving forward and I’m like chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, this is, we’re doing it, right? Yeah. And because we’re not doing that right now. Like we got a couple of things that are the next things we’re working on. But like we don’t, there’s still a lot of open, there’s still so many sort of ideas floating out there and so. Well we have the next idea. Yeah, yeah. But we don’t have the idea after that. Right and I’m not saying, again, I’m not defending myself or saying this is healthy. I’m just describing the process and like the state of mind that I was in. So, I mean, I apologize that I put you in that place that was like let’s make this into work time. No, I don’t. I don’t think it warrants an apology. I mean, I told you and then it was just like. I don’t think you should apologize for us not being on the same page. So I think you responded when I told you, for the most part I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You did. I’m just like, you know, another part of it is this, like, there was a time before we had what we’ve built with Mythical. This was a constant feeling. Pretty much every day we’re just like well, but also just like you show up at that basement in Lillington and we just sat there all day trying to figure out what we were gonna do. That’s true, that’s true, that’s true. We don’t get a lot of that time, we don’t do that. You know, we have meetings, we have podcasts, we have GMM, we have all the shit that we have to do. Right, it’s harder now than it was then in that way. And we’re sitting there watching this sketch show which, you know, is not, it’s not what we do. We don’t do what Tim Robinson does, but we love what Tim Robinson does. And anytime, you know, and like I told you, I was like, I remember. He does scare me. I’m always scared for the first, like the first 20% of every sketch. It’s just like oh my God, I just have this. And I’m just so like excited. Impending. What is he gonna do? What’s gonna happen? Confusion of doom. This is not gonna be predictable. But, you know, like when I was telling you about Sturgill Simpson talking about listening to Jason Isbell’s “Southeastern” album and how he listened to the first song and he stopped. He was like, “I’m never listening to this album because I feel like it will overly influence me because it’s so good.” And, I mean, I’m sure I know for a fact that Tim Robinson just probably just annoys the hell outta a lot of people and he’s very polarizing, I get it. I love it. I love everything about it. And I just love how I never know what’s gonna happen. And it’s just like he’s so unabashedly silly. We’re not trying to do what he’s trying to do, but it’s inspirational, you know, it’s tangentially inspirational and so it’s just like I can’t sit there and watch it, especially when I’m in a place where I feel like we’re trying to crack a code. I can’t watch it without being like and what are we going to do? You know, it’s like the time we sat there in that hotel room in 2002. Yeah. And stumbled across this HBO special by these two. Kiwis. “Flight of the Concords” and I was like, these motherfuckers. I was so mad at ’em ’cause they were so funny and I was like we’ll never be that funny, we’ll never be that funny, you know? And again, yes, there is this like competitive achievement wanting to like achieve, achieve, achieve. That’s always this stream that I have to kind of like. But there’s also this just like, I know what it feels like when we create something and we’re like this is the best that we can do. Here it is. This is the best that we can do. And the more that we get into that place where it’s like here it is again, the best that we can do. Here it is again, the best that we can do. It may not be as good as fill in the blank, but it’s the best that we can do. And when I feel like we’re not doing that consistently, I get anxious. So again, it’s like I don’t, I don’t know how to process it because I don’t want the fire to go out. Yeah. Also, I don’t think the fire’s gonna go out. I think I could throw it under the Golden Gate Bridge and it would not go out, but like. Yeah, right. Trying to deal with it in a way that doesn’t impact my state of mind in relationships, et cetera. But you have the tool of therapy. And why I talk about it, we talked about it last night. And then they can give you more tools. I mean, maybe you need to up your frequency right now until you come up with an idea and then you feel better about yourself. It was interesting because just last night like talking about it, sometimes just simply saying like, I’m going to talk about this with a professional. I’m going to talk about the things I’m worried about related to my children. I’m gonna talk about the things I’m worried about related to my professional life and I’m gonna get some good perspective on that from someone who can help break that open, give me some tools. And it was actually, in one sense, simply getting it out there and recognizing that it’s a pattern, that it’s a pattern that I fall into, then you kind of see yourself falling into a pattern and when you can step outside of yourself and be like, okay, you’re doing the thing right now. Like, it’s one thing to be like creative and to ideate, but it’s another thing to think that if you can come up with an idea, you’ll be okay. Fine, come up with ideas, but don’t come up with ideas so you’ll feel okay. You know what I’m saying? That’s an unhealthy thing. So, and breathe. I go through periods of time where I’m like doing the very simple like breathing exercises of just like it gets you into your body and like you stop, you breathe, you do some box breathing, whatever you wanna call it. And suddenly you feel like it’s transformational and it’s so easy but yet I won’t do it. Well I’m gonna do that when this is over. Oh yeah, we can breathe right now. No, I don’t wanna do it right now. Don’t be that guy. Let’s breathe together. But that is my rec. Right now, sometimes I’m that guy. “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson”. If you know, you know. Or, as I call it, I Think You Should Leave Now is what I call it. And man, you know. Give it a shot. Well, you know yeah, or don’t. Like, if you hate the first one. Don’t keep watching. Don’t keep watching. You’re gonna hate all of it. But if you love the first one, keep watching. We watched the entire season in one sitting, just the two of us sitting here. And he didn’t come up with anything. Loving every single second of it. Even the parts where it seems like his whole point is to make you cringe. He’s like, I’m going to make you feel really uncomfortable right now. Like I told you, I was like, this is like the horror movie version of a cringe fest like a couple of times. Where it’s just like, and you know how I feel about horror movies like feeling uncomfortable and feeling scared, I kind of like it. And so when somebody is doing their best to make me feel really uncomfortable with comedy, there’s so much respect, I take a great joy. There’s a whole lot of conversation here ’cause it makes me think of stuff that we’ve done and we’re doing, but we can come back to that. All right, so make your rec. Did you make it? It’s on Netflix. Okay. Third season’s out. #Earbiscuits. Be a part of the conversation and please leave us a voicemail with how you’re responding to our conversation. 1-888-EARPOD1 EARPOD1. Thank you for calling us and thank you for hanging out with us through the highs and lows. You got this. Hey guys, listening to your new podcast talking about libraries. Link Neal, I am disappointed in you, young man. Libraries are very, very, very important. I just want you to know that and rethink it. You guys are goofballs. Love you, bye. To watch more “Ear Biscuits”, click on the playlist on the right. 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