S1: #27 - How To Keep A YouTube Channel Alive for Almost 15 Years w/ Ryan Higa

Summary

Podcast Summary: Smosh Mouth S1: #27 - How To Keep A YouTube Channel Alive for Almost 15 Years w/ Ryan Higa

Introduction

In this compelling episode of Smosh Mouth, hosts Shayne Topp (short), Amanda Lehan-Canto (tall), and guest Ryan Higa delve deep into the intricacies of maintaining a successful YouTube channel over nearly 15 years. Ryan, a pioneering YouTuber known for his channel NigaHiga, shares invaluable insights, personal anecdotes, and strategies that have contributed to his longevity on the platform.

Challenges of Sustaining a Long-Term YouTube Channel

Ryan opens up about the immense competition on YouTube and the hurdles creators face in maintaining visibility. He emphasizes the importance of collaboration in today's saturated environment.

Ryan Higa [01:39]: "If I were to like restart, like, everything, I know for a fact that nobody would see it without some kind of collab or some kind of help. There's just too much out there."

Ryan reflects on how YouTube's evolving landscape has made it increasingly difficult for individual creators to thrive without external support or partnerships.

Comparing Creative Approaches: Ryan vs. Ian

The discussion shifts to the different creative methodologies employed by Ryan and co-host Ian Hecox. While Ian favors collaboration and relinquishing some creative control to keep the content fresh and dynamic, Ryan prefers maintaining full creative authority to preserve his unique voice.

Ryan Higa [24:46]: "I have help for the writing stuff? Yeah, I do other writing."

Ian Hecox [23:22]: "I feel like Ryan and I have done so. We've sort of, like, gone down different paths."

This contrast highlights how personal preference in content creation strategies can impact a channel's sustainability and adaptability.

Evolution of YouTube and Algorithm Changes

Ryan and Ian discuss the significant shifts in YouTube’s algorithms and policies, particularly the so-called "Adpocalypse," which has altered monetization and content visibility. They lament the platform’s move towards more corporate, TV-like content, making it harder for unique, individual creators to stand out.

Ryan Higa [28:20]: "What I mean is that I didn't... I was not open to changing that."

Ian Hecox [28:27]: "Currently YouTube is the most lucrative place for, for social media people to be."

They explore how these changes necessitate adaptations in content strategy, often favoring quantity over quality to appease the algorithm.

Personal Anecdotes and Living in LA vs. Vegas

Ryan shares his personal experiences living in Las Vegas and his struggles with the city's heat and crowds, contrasting it with his upbringing in the more laid-back environment of Hawaii.

Ryan Higa [06:34]: "But like it's been the same or less. I feel like every summer."

Ian adds his own stories, including dealing with unexpected local wildlife and the challenges of maintaining privacy in a bustling city.

Privacy and Personal Life Management

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around how Ryan and Ian manage their personal lives in the public eye. Ryan reveals his preference for keeping personal relationships private to protect both himself and his loved ones from unwanted attention.

Ryan Higa [55:18]: "I would say yes, because I don't have to worry about that."

Ian Hecox [56:22]: "Cause I feel like you and I are kind of on the same page in regards to privacy."

Their strategies include minimal public sharing and setting clear boundaries to maintain a healthy work-life balance amidst their online personas.

Dealing with Burnout and Content Creation Stress

Ryan candidly discusses his experiences with burnout, emphasizing the mental toll of constantly striving to outdo previous work in a platform driven by view counts and engagement metrics.

Ryan Higa [64:13]: "Yeah. And it was. The thing is, I didn't mind the burnout, like, for a long time because it was exhausting and I felt that."

Ian Hecox [66:12]: "You need to just trust in the content you're making."

They highlight the importance of prioritizing mental health and finding sustainable content creation practices over chasing algorithmic favor.

Adpocalypse and Content Moderation

The hosts touch upon the impact of YouTube's stringent content policies and demonetization issues, sharing experiences of how these changes have forced them to adapt their content to remain advertiser-friendly.

Ryan Higa [17:00]: "But it's really just creating a soup that's getting dirty."

Ian Hecox [71:16]: "But YouTube is obviously, they're pressed with this problem of."

They discuss maintaining quality and adhering to guidelines while still striving to produce engaging and authentic content.

Future Projects and Ventures

Ryan introduces his latest venture, an energy drink named "Ninja Milk," detailing the challenges and triumphs of launching a product outside the typical YouTube content sphere.

Ryan Higa [74:38]: "I created an energy drink called Ninja Milk."

Mari Takahashi [75:39]: "It's delicious."

This segment showcases Ryan's entrepreneurial side and how successful creators can diversify their brand beyond digital content.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Towards the end of the episode, Ryan and Ian reflect on the future of YouTube and their own content strategies. They emphasize the importance of staying true to one's creative vision and adapting to the platform's changes without compromising personal integrity.

Ryan Higa [67:44]: "I wouldn't have discovered that if I kept doing it."

Ian Hecox [73:28]: "YouTube is a wonderful tool, and I feel very grateful."

They reiterate the value of YouTube as a platform for creative expression while acknowledging its limitations and the need for continuous adaptation.

Closing Remarks

The episode wraps up with lighthearted banter about future collaborations and maintaining personal connections, leaving listeners with a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect among seasoned YouTubers.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Ryan Higa [01:39]: "If I were to like restart, like, everything, I know for a fact that nobody would see it without some kind of collab or some kind of help. There's just too much out there."

• Ryan Higa [24:46]: "I have help for the writing stuff? Yeah, I do other writing."

• Ian Hecox [23:22]: "I feel like Ryan and I have done so. We've sort of, like, gone down different paths."

• Ryan Higa [28:20]: "What I mean is that I didn't... I was not open to changing that."

• Ian Hecox [28:27]: "Currently YouTube is the most lucrative place for, for social media people to be."

• Ryan Higa [55:18]: "I would say yes, because I don't have to worry about that."

• Ryan Higa [64:13]: "Yeah. And it was. The thing is, I didn't mind the burnout, like, for a long time because it was exhausting and I felt that."

• Ryan Higa [74:38]: "I created an energy drink called Ninja Milk."

These highlights encapsulate the core themes of the episode, offering listeners a glimpse into the sustainability strategies of top YouTubers and the evolving dynamics of content creation on digital platforms.

Transcript

[Ryan Higa]

Hello, it is Ryan. And I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com I.

[Ian Hecox]

Looked over the person sitting next to.

[Ryan Higa]

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[Ian Hecox]

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[Ryan Higa]

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[Ian Hecox]

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[Ryan Higa]

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[Mari Takahashi]

How did Ella bake her way to the top? It all started with one smart decision. She test drove a certified used truck from her local Ford dealer. It was inspected, backed by a Ford warranty, and fit her budget. A Carfax report was the cherry on top. Soon a pinch of confidence became a truckload of ambition. Cupcakes became customers. Customers became regulars.

[Ian Hecox]

Hola.

[Mari Takahashi]

Turns out Ella's next great investment was herself. Ford Blue Advantage used car buying that's built for you. See dealer for full program and limited warranty. Details ramble.

[Ian Hecox]

Hey guys. So this is a very special episode. So I got the chance to interview Ryan Higa of Niga Higafame. I consider him a good friend, a great guy, and an awesome YouTuber. And I got to interview him right before we went to vidcon, which was about a month ago. And yeah, enjoy. And by the way, shout out to upstart.com for sponsoring this episode. Let's get to it. Literally every girl, YouTuber or influencer that I've talked to has had serious stalker problems. People that are messaging them constantly. Some people get hundreds of emails a day from the same person.

[Ryan Higa]

If I were to like restart, like, everything, if I started today, I know for a fact that nobody would see it without some kind of collab or some kind of help. There's just too much out there.

[Mari Takahashi]

The vocabulary is, oh, we never announced it. Like, as if you have to announce, it's like, what do you announce usually engagement and wedding. Right. You don't have to be like, I'm announcing to the world, this is my girlfriend. And it's weird that that's a position that a lot of people find themselves in.

[Ian Hecox]

Angry Birds is pretty good movie.

[Ryan Higa]

That's.

[Mari Takahashi]

I was like, oh, yeah, it's a sequel.

[Ian Hecox]

I know. Which I was not invited back to.

[Ryan Higa]

Really?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. But Anthony was.

[Ryan Higa]

Wow. Wow. Angry Birds.

[Ian Hecox]

Recorded like Four summer games.

[Ryan Higa]

Is that where you guys go somewhere and then just shoot a bunch of stuff?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, we went out to Barstow.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's our summer camp.

[Ryan Higa]

Why Barstow?

[Ian Hecox]

It was apocalypse themed, so we just found out. Very out in the middle of nowhere.

[Mari Takahashi]

Probably the only reason why you go to Barstow.

[Ryan Higa]

It does look like that.

[Mari Takahashi]

To go die.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Hey, guys. Welcome to the smoshcast. We have a very super special boy here today, Mari Takahashi.

[Mari Takahashi]

Oh, hi. Thanks for having me.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, thank you, thank you. Oh, oh, and I guess Ryan. Ryan.

[Ryan Higa]

I'm also here. Thank you. Thank you for being here, Mari. Yes, it's an honor.

[Ian Hecox]

No, but really though, Ryan Higa is here. This is. This is very. This feels very special and was not something that was really planned very last minute. Yeah, like. Well, so this yesterday, right? Yeah, yesterday. I guess I should disclaimer. We recorded this right before VidCon. So we've recorded this about a month and a half ago or so. We just couldn't put this podcast out yet. Cause we had a bunch of smosh them again stuff. So this comes out way late. So I apologize if anybody we mention now is dead. We didn't know. I'm sorry.

[Ryan Higa]

It's possible though, that's the thing.

[Mari Takahashi]

Dead or canceled.

[Ian Hecox]

Betty White, I hope you're still with us.

[Ryan Higa]

She will always be with us.

[Ian Hecox]

I think so.

[Ryan Higa]

I don't know how she does it. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

At least she'll be in our hearts. I know we wanted to get you on the podcast and I hit you up and I was like, hey, like, come. Come by in like August. Cause that's when we're going to be recording and you're like, I'm actually in LA today.

[Ryan Higa]

But I didn't. I didn't know if you were going to be free or not. Because I just don't know in August. I don't plan that far ahead. Like you.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, well, but I didn't want to do it at some point.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, well, I know. Cause yeah, I went. I went over. I visited you in Vegas and did. Did your podcast and that was a lot of fun. I was like, yeah, I'd love to have you on, but like getting. Getting your ass out of Vegas is so hard, Ryan.

[Ryan Higa]

I know, I know it's so hard. It's just. I'm just not the biggest fan of la. I know there's so many people here and actually have more friends here than in Vegas, but I just am not the biggest fan.

[Ian Hecox]

I think you just haven't found the right spot maybe.

[Ryan Higa]

But I Don't, like. Like, just even, like, living, like, coming here, right?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

It took, like, I don't know, like, 25 minutes and I'm, like, really close. I don't know.

[Mari Takahashi]

You're like, across the street.

[Ryan Higa]

I grew up in Hawaii, so, you know, it's like, very. I'm not used to having to deal with crowds in general. And that's the one thing LA is known for, right?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. I mean, there's a couple people here. Yeah, there's a few.

[Ryan Higa]

Mm.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. But you lived here in LA for like, a year and a half.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, about two years in North Hollywood.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

And every single time I'd have to leave there, it was the same thing. I would never leave. So there's no point in being here. I would just be in my, like, apartment.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, no, I understand that. That can be kind of, like, isolating. And. Yeah, Vegas, definitely, you get around places.

[Ryan Higa]

You don't have to worry about parking. Valet's usually free, but if you want.

[Ian Hecox]

To see your friends, you gotta fly to la.

[Ryan Higa]

There's no state income tax, so, I mean, if you guys want.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah, man.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, so you're all about the money.

[Ryan Higa]

It's all about the money.

[Mari Takahashi]

Actually, Pete and I considered moving to. Moving half of our, like, operations to Vegas. And I think we were talking about this, like, a month ago because of that. Yeah, I mean, honestly, there's a lot of creators now out in Vegas as well. It's not just Ryan. There's more people going out there.

[Ryan Higa]

Yep.

[Mari Takahashi]

So this is the intervention, Ian. We're moving, right? We're moving.

[Ryan Higa]

It could expand. I mean, like, you could have this set up anywhere, right? Mm. That's not true. I'm just trying to. I'm just trying to pitch right now.

[Ian Hecox]

Also, we like to. Sometimes we like to shoot outside. And Vegas. I don't know, like, if it's changed or anything, but I'm pretty sure it's a desert.

[Ryan Higa]

You know what's interesting, though? I was telling people, and I might just be making this up, I'm probably gonna cause controversy for saying this, but ever since, like, I've been there for, like, about nine, 11 years. And over the course of those 11 years, every single summer has been getting less hot. And we've been. It's like, it's. I don't know what it is. Global warming is the opposite in Vegas. I feel like it's been raining more. And, like, it used to get hot in, like, June. It was only in, like, the 90s.

[Mari Takahashi]

Well, global warming is all about, like, extreme things. Happening, right? So like climate change.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. Not warmin.

[Mari Takahashi]

So like.

[Ryan Higa]

So maybe it's good for Vegas.

[Mari Takahashi]

It snowed in Vegas, right? That was weird.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, I know. But like it's been so much cooler. I was like, oh, it's like July and it's not over 110.

[Ian Hecox]

I guess you could say cause of climate change, hell is freezing over.

[Ryan Higa]

Perhaps. Perhaps. I don't know. But it was very odd. Cause I was like, if it gets hotter here, no one's gonna want to live here. It's been like the same or less. I feel like every summer. I also could be making stuff up. It could just be in my head. But I remember it being a lot hotter.

[Mari Takahashi]

You're just getting colder. Perhaps you're becoming a lizard.

[Ryan Higa]

Perhaps.

[Mari Takahashi]

I don't know if this is still topical since this is like a month and a half later, but we felt earthquakes in Los Angeles this past week. Did you feel them in Vegas?

[Ryan Higa]

So the first one, right. Was like a 6. 4. 6.4. I was actually driving from. It was last week. Well, last. A month and three weeks ago I was driving. So we didn't feel it from here to Vegas actually. And then the last one, the seven point something, that's the one I felt.

[Ian Hecox]

Really all the way out in Vegas.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Damn.

[Ryan Higa]

It just felt like a little like I was on my bed, so it was like rolling. Felt like a little waterbed or something.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, nice.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Except it was all the ground below you.

[Ryan Higa]

Yep.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Turned into a waterbed.

[Ryan Higa]

I also, I mean, I don't know if you felt it when you were at my house, but they're blowing up the mountain. So I feel earthquakes all the time. So it wasn't like I knew it was an earthquake because of what happened earlier and how long it was lasting. But normally my house shakes all the time. Cause they're blowing up the mountain, dude.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay, I wanna know when you got that place. Cause you're in this kind of area, they're developing. Did they warn you that they would be blowing up mountains around your house?

[Ryan Higa]

They did, after. I mean, it was like a few explosions until I realized, okay, these aren't earthquakes. I even tweeted it the first couple times it happened. I was like, did anyone else feel that earthquake? And nobody, no one related to it. I was like, what's going on? Cause it was like my whole house shaking. It was pretty. It was like, it was pretty intense.

[Mari Takahashi]

Do you have any idea when it's gonna stop?

[Ryan Higa]

I guess when they're done developing, we're like at the Very edge of Vegas. Like, on the mountains.

[Mari Takahashi]

So they're, like, making more Vegas.

[Ryan Higa]

I think so.

[Mari Takahashi]

That's incredible.

[Ian Hecox]

They're like, what are these dumb mountains? It's supposed to be flat, like a desert. Just, like, flat. Get rid of these mountains.

[Ryan Higa]

But there's a lot of interesting stuff because we are at the edge. Like, I've seen, like, rams and, like, tarantulas and scorpions.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

It's interesting. Not necessarily good, but I'm not pitching Vegas very well.

[Ian Hecox]

I see coyotes in my neighborhood.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Which is, like, weird because you think you're in a city so you're not going to see any wildlife. And I always see coyotes just kind of, like, walking around. And there's a lot of lost dog. Lost small dog posters around my neighborhood.

[Mari Takahashi]

Oh, that's a bummer.

[Ian Hecox]

Yep. Coyote.

[Ryan Higa]

Did you already tell your story about the cats? Do you know what to get into that?

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know. I don't know if I ever did, because I told you about the. All the cats. Yeah, yeah. I. There was. I had a neighbor that I never really met. I would just kind of see, like, just, like, little, like, bits, like, little, like, wisps of her, like, kind of, like walking around. Older lady. And there was, like, there was always cats around, like, and I couldn't get a count of how many, but there was many. One day I finally met, like, her niece, who lives in a different part of the house. It's a very strange house. She was like, oh, yeah. She had dementia. And she told me she was taking care of these cats. Turns out she wasn't taking care of the cats. And none of them were fixed and.

[Mari Takahashi]

No.

[Ian Hecox]

And so, like, for. For like, three. For, like, three years, I just heard just, like, cat orgies all the time.

[Mari Takahashi]

I just watched that south park episode. The cat orgy.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. That's basically outside my house.

[Ryan Higa]

And that was why you have, like. That's, like, prime food for them.

[Ian Hecox]

You would think so. But I think cats, since they can climb up trees, they probably stay safe. So, yeah. The coyotes clearly aren't doing their job well enough because the niece finally got a cat rescue to come and capture the cats, fix them, and then release them back out. Cause they're pretty much feral. And they caught 16 cats.

[Mari Takahashi]

Oh, my goodness. That's the 16 cats in one house.

[Ian Hecox]

It was. Well, so she left a window open that the cats could freely run in and out of the house. I think that's probably also why the coyotes didn't eat them, because they could always just run inside the House now they're all fixed. They kind of like. They snip like the top of one ear so they're marked that they've been fixed.

[Ryan Higa]

They snip their ear?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, they cut a little corner off the top of their ear. So you would see them in the wild and know that they've been fixed so you don't have to capture.

[Ryan Higa]

There's probably a better way. No.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah. I imagine the cats are like, gonna be privy to it and they're like, let me just take a bite out of your ear, man. That's how you don't get your balls. Not like you want your ears or you want your balls.

[Ryan Higa]

Interesting.

[Ian Hecox]

That's the choice my mom gave me.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah, that's why your ears sniff.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. You chose the ears.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, it was a hard. It was a hard choice, but yeah. So now I just. Now there's just always a cat party outside my house. Like, no more orgies. I hear some fights sometimes, but none of the.

[Mari Takahashi]

That's the horny cat sound.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, it's like the horny cat sound.

[Mari Takahashi]

That's not good.

[Ryan Higa]

You know that?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

You actually know that.

[Ian Hecox]

I live that. I've heard way too many. I've heard more cat sex than I really have ever needed to hear in a lifetime. So, Ryan, you've been. You've been on YouTube about as long as. As I have. You've been making YouTube videos for like 13 years, something like that.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, almost like.06.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Damn.

[Ryan Higa]

I think I actually started making videos. Yeah.06.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Like that. It's privated. So it's all lip syncs.

[Ian Hecox]

That's why. Right, so it's like you privated those?

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, because I don't want to get in trouble. Well, it was a long time ago when I privated them.

[Ian Hecox]

Did you private. I remember you had like a. A school project video. It was like a serious, like three.

[Ryan Higa]

Of them, dramatic video about not drinking and driving.

[Ian Hecox]

I think that's what it was.

[Ryan Higa]

It was. I have all those probably somewhere. Yeah, there was like a video productions class that me and Sean were in and actually, it was actually film. Like we were supposed to learn about film. But our teacher, he did not know anything. Like, we knew more and we didn't know anything either. But he was like learning on the spot. He would learn from the book that day and then teach us stuff and then just give us assignments. Yeah, we did a bunch of those. Like, we did that super serious anti PSA drinking. I think it was a drinking thing. Like don't drink and drive Thing.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

And then we had to do one that was like toying with Stop Motion, which I just had like a toy Power Ranger basically just move on its own. And I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I didn't know what Stop Motion was at the time, but. Yeah. So there's. There's. There's a few school projects that were up. They're all privated.

[Ian Hecox]

You should make them public.

[Ryan Higa]

They all have music in them.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, I didn't know the whole thing.

[Ryan Higa]

That wasn't. Yeah. Is that what. Does that actually work?

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know.

[Mari Takahashi]

I don't know. Maybe if it's slow enough.

[Ian Hecox]

Probably not.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, it doesn't work.

[Mari Takahashi]

Let's try. Let's. Let's try to get you demonetized.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. I mean, I had to stop making I dare use because they're age restricted and inappropriate.

[Ian Hecox]

Really?

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. You know, just a disclaimer, but, you know, I guess people will do it. I don't know. Strange youtuber just picks and chooses what they want to or who they want to demonetize. Right?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. I mean, it's pretty arbitrary. Yeah, I know. Because, yeah, Anthony and I, we went on. We didn't I dare you with you. And I licked the bottom of one of your shoes, like from. I believe it was from top to bottom. I think it went from, like, the heel all the way up to the toe. That was.

[Ryan Higa]

It's not too bad. We've done some really nasty things on that show.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

And the thing is, we don't fake it. Like, it's. It's real. It's disgusting.

[Mari Takahashi]

What was the worst one out of your memory?

[Ryan Higa]

So once, Greg, he had to lick the. What is it called? The basin of, like, a toilet bowl. And it was after a party. So, like, if guys, you know, guys are pissing and, like. Yeah. So underneath the. It's the basin right underneath the lid and the seat. You lift the seat up and there's, like, dried.

[Ian Hecox]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Ryan Higa]

This is getting demonetized. No, he did. He had to. He licked the entire rim and he just goes. It's so salty. So now there's so much taste. That's how you know that's that umami. It's up there. I've also seen one of our guys eat earwax. Like straight Sean's earwax.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, that's not that bad. That's not that bad.

[Ryan Higa]

It's not as bad.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's not a toilet bowl. He didn't get sick?

[Ryan Higa]

No, no.

[Mari Takahashi]

Wow. Human bodies are.

[Ryan Higa]

If you think about it, though, there's probably dirtier things than, like, piss.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, that's true, but it is.

[Ryan Higa]

A lot of people's different. Piss. What is in there?

[Ian Hecox]

You know, it's like. You ever play King's cup, that drinking game where you all pour into the same cup and then the loser has to drink it? It's like that. It's like the King's cup of toilet seat piss.

[Ryan Higa]

Yep. Did you ever think about when you played. You guys played beer pong? I'm sure, like, growing up. Growing up, like, in college or something, like last week, but I don't. Did you guys ever do the thing, like, do you put water in there? Do you put actual beer in there?

[Ian Hecox]

See, we were dumb and we didn't. We didn't realize this hack of filling the cups with water and then just having a cup of beer on the side.

[Ryan Higa]

No one did that. Yeah, now we do. Like, if. Not that, we play it a lot, but if we were to do it, you don't think about that stuff, right?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

And that stuff is dirty, man. The ball is, like, hitting the ground and, like, people's. If you think about it, they're walking in piss. So we're probably taking in piss all the time. That's true.

[Ian Hecox]

That's true. I mean.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, wow.

[Mari Takahashi]

I didn't even think about that.

[Ian Hecox]

I definitely ingested worse because we. We played in our garage, and that's. We parked our cars there, and then when. When we had, like, a party, we would pull our cars out of the garage and put the table there and play beer pong in the garage where, like, so the balls were rolling on, like, where our tires had been.

[Ryan Higa]

And the tires have been on roadkill and a bunch of. Who knows? Piss, probably.

[Ian Hecox]

People.

[Mari Takahashi]

Oil. Yeah, oil. Stomach.

[Ryan Higa]

And for some reason, you're fine.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

The most part, sure. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

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[Ryan Higa]

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[Ryan Higa]

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[Ryan Higa]

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[Ian Hecox]

For some reason, our garage was carpeted because I think the people before Us were running, like, an illegal daycare out of. Out of that garage. So it was just probably definitely not clean. And, yeah, we would just. The whole thing with, like, beer pong is you have your cups full of beer, and then you have your cup on the side full of water. That is like the washing cup that you know when the ball goes rolling across the oil and pee and roadkill, you just dip the ball in the water and you're like, oh, now it's clean.

[Ryan Higa]

But it's really just creating a soup that's getting dirty. And you gotta think about, not only that, it's just you're also getting everyone's hands.

[Mari Takahashi]

Oh, yeah. All the DNA, the dead skin cells, and. Ha.

[Ryan Higa]

Yep. It's a very dirty game.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's a dirty conversation.

[Ryan Higa]

So the whole point is a little pee never hurt anyone. There's worse things that you've taken in. We've all taken in worse.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Look at Bear Grylls. I mean, that guy's drinking piss all.

[Ryan Higa]

The time and he survives.

[Ian Hecox]

I think it's probably. I would. And somebody. I mean, scientists back me up on this, but it's probably. It's probably more dangerous to. To lick pee on a toilet seat? No. Pee on a toilet bowl rim. Probably more dangerous to lick a belly button than it is to lick that.

[Ryan Higa]

I don't know if that's true. Are you making that up or did you hear that?

[Ian Hecox]

I heard that the belly button has more bacteria in it than a toilet seat.

[Ryan Higa]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'd rather lick a belly button.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, you think about your belly button, like, it's, like, collecting stuff. I have hair around my belly button, and it acts like a. You know, in Star wars, the Sarlacc pit in. Was that episode two? Was it three? Episode three. The thing. The big, like, teethy ma that Boba Fett gets kicked into my belly button is like that for lint. And so, like, because I have this hair all around my belly button that is all in the direction of my belly button, it just acts as this, like, Sarlacc pit for lint.

[Mari Takahashi]

So this is information 900.

[Ryan Higa]

Keep going, dude. I want to hear. Stop interrupting.

[Mari Takahashi]

To all the listeners who are eating at the moment, this podcast is brought to you by Ian's lint hair in his belly button.

[Ryan Higa]

Yep. We're just trying to keep it real, you know, like, yeah, a little piss never hurt anyone, but a little lint might.

[Ian Hecox]

It might.

[Ryan Higa]

According to Ian.

[Ian Hecox]

It's fun. It's like a little like, treasure thing, you know, and if I'm wearing, like, several different shirts throughout the day, I'll get, like. I'll get, like, a multicolored, like, lint in my belly button.

[Ryan Higa]

You know, it's weird. I don't get belly button lint.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, but do you have hair around your belly button?

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, but I don't. I don't. I don't ever have, like, a, like a, like, lint. Like, I've seen, like, even, like. So, like, will. He gets it as well. But maybe it's the shape of belly buttons for, like, different ethnicities.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

I don't get one white. And like, me and like, Derek and like, all the Asian dudes we have, they ain't got, like, any belly button lint conspiracy do that. Ask a scientist.

[Ian Hecox]

I think we're on to something.

[Ryan Higa]

We might be.

[Ian Hecox]

I think this needs to be added to 23andMe, like, where they say, like, you have, like, a propensity to have, like, hard earwax or whatever based on your ethnicity, they should say if you're more likely to get belly button lint.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. I'm actually curious about that, actually, because I used to hear. I mean, obviously everyone knows what belly button lint is, but I was always curious, like, oh, how does that even happen? Because it never happens.

[Ian Hecox]

For real.

[Ryan Higa]

It never happens to me. So, like, I was like, oh, okay. Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

I wonder if it's an ethnicity thing. I don't know. I mean, I don't have hair around my belly button, so I don't know. But I don't. I also don't get any belly button.

[Ryan Higa]

You don't have hair?

[Mari Takahashi]

No, I wax all of my very thick stomach hair.

[Ryan Higa]

So strange.

[Ian Hecox]

We also did that. You also did that laser thing, right?

[Mari Takahashi]

Oh, yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

That's like a life changer.

[Ryan Higa]

It is last, though. You have to keep doing it.

[Mari Takahashi]

Let's see. It's lasted, like, gosh, the first time I got it done was probably like eight years ago. And it lasted and then I re upped maybe three years ago.

[Ryan Higa]

Okay.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah. For like, it does change everything because.

[Ryan Higa]

You just a hairy person.

[Mari Takahashi]

Not too hairy, but it's like, as a girl, it's like sometimes it's just inconvenient and then just upkeep. Like, you don't have to think about it ever. So it's kind of nice.

[Ian Hecox]

Now you know what it's like to be. Be a traditional guy but a hairless one. Well, yeah, but I know what it's.

[Mari Takahashi]

Like to be a Kendall, but you.

[Ian Hecox]

Don'T have to like, you know, Because I know typically a lot of girls are like, oh. Like, they take a shower. They're like, well, now I got to shave my legs and do all this other stuff. I'm like, oh, peace. Like, I'm just going out the door.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah. I take like 10 minute showers now just because there's no upkeep.

[Ian Hecox]

See, that's what it's like to be a dude.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Or be hairless.

[Mari Takahashi]

Or be hairless. Dolphin life. Ian, you mentioned a little bit earlier, before our belly button conversation, how long Ryan's been on YouTube and how long you've been on YouTube. And like, for me, coming in, as somebody who perpetually watched YouTube, especially Ryan's stuff, before I was ever on it, it's like, I see you guys as like, you guys are like the grandfathers of YouTube. Like, you guys. Yes. And wise though, you know, Asian cultures have that parallel. So I'm gonna give that to you guys. No, but I mean, you guys have been around for so long, it's like you have constructed the history of what we know of YouTube. I have a question. What's your secret sauce? Like, how do you make it last for this time?

[Ian Hecox]

Don't say sauce. That's weird.

[Mari Takahashi]

What's your secret sauce?

[Ryan Higa]

What's your secret post?

[Mari Takahashi]

What's your Szechuan sauce?

[Ian Hecox]

I feel like Ryan and I have done so. We've sort of, like, gone down different paths. Like, we sort of started in the same place and then. And then we sort of went down kind of like separate paths and both paths, like, there's no path. That's like the wrong path. Right. Because I've. I've always been more to collaborate with the people I work with and release some of my creative control on things. And for me, that keeps me sane. And for me, my thought is I don't think I know the most out of everyone, and I don't think that my ideas are always the best. So I'm always more willing to kind of like, release some of that control. Whereas Ryan, like, you've helmed this ship, like, since, I mean, basically the beginning. I have help.

[Ryan Higa]

You have help for the writing stuff? Yeah, I do other writing.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. You. I mean, like, creatively, you have like 100% control. Right. I mean, you're. You're kind of there from, like, the very beginning to the very end, involved in, like, every process, essentially. Right.

[Ryan Higa]

For the most part, yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Why is that?

[Ryan Higa]

Like I said, it's. It's. I mean, I guess you were asking what longevity wise. I mean, I think it's just a preference what you want out of it. And for me it was kind of like I just like creating cool things, like things that I didn't know how to do. So things that I want to, like, I haven't done. And I mean I could have, I could have I guess released that control, but it was just like I had such a specific voice that I wanted to, I guess, give to people. And I mean I did try even looking for some writers at one point and it just, it was more work to take what they did and try and explain why it wouldn't work for me. But it's a good idea. It's not like, I'm not saying my ideas are better, it's just from my channel. And for me it was, I was not open to changing that. Yeah, basically it's preference. I mean, like you said, there's no right or wrong way and like it would be a smart, smarter business decision to do what you did. I think in terms of like longevity and like, like being able to upload as frequently as you guys do, you know, like, I think that wasn't on my part. It wasn't the smartest thing financially. It's just my personal preference of what I wanted to do.

[Ian Hecox]

Looking at some of your videos, it's pretty, it's pretty obvious that it can't be done creatively without the complete control of one person. I don't know because it cuz like looking at like I think you did it like two years ago. Your, your. You had like a conspiracy video.

[Ryan Higa]

I've done a couple of those.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Yeah. And just like you're, you're like chained from like one thing to the next. It's like so, it's so complex and like I just like there's a lot of videos that I just watch. I'm like, how the hell did you get here? But it's, I think it comes from like, it's, it's just coming from your brain. And I think that's, that's, that is something that I guess, you know, I don't think a collaboration could quite get there because it has to come from like one very specific kind of mindset. So there's definitely strengths and weaknesses to both.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's dope because from an outsider's perspective, like all of us knowing that there is no handbook for like how to YouTube, it just sounds like it's like following your voice and like continuously doing that regardless how many years you've been doing it. And then just like I don't know, like, honing your craft and then. And there was like, another point that I thought of, but it's like, it's interesting. It's just raw talent is what it sounds like. Like, where you guys found YouTube as an outlet, but at the same time, you guys already had this inherent thing. It wasn't like, learned off of other YouTubers or things like that. Like, it just was already there, which is like, what a cool, magical recipe. It's incredible.

[Ryan Higa]

And it's a different time, you know, like back in the day when we first started, I guess. I don't know. I don't know when it happened, the partnership program, but, like, we. We did it literally. There was no money. Nobody thought there was going to be money. At least I didn't. I don't know if you guys knew that.

[Ian Hecox]

No, we had, like, a small, like, merch thing going on. Yeah, but it wasn't. It wasn't like. It didn't feel like it was. It was like real substantial amount of money until. Until YouTube partnership program, which was like the ads running on videos. I think the reason why we have the sort of, like, voices that we do is because when we were. When we were starting to find our voices, there, there weren't trends on YouTube. There wasn't like a specific rule book, and you were kind of touching on that. There wasn't like a rule book and people to follow.

[Mari Takahashi]

There weren't challenges.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Like, nowadays it's like. It's like a lot of people. A lot of people are seeing, like. And it's always with one trend or the next. But currently it's like a lot of people are seeing Mr. Beast and they're like, oh, I just have to make those kinds of videos. So there's a lot of people that are following. They're just. They're getting views by following a specific trend that somebody else started. But there were no trends for us to follow. Like, sketch comedy was like kind of a. Kind of a thing back then when we started. So I guess you could say we kind of went in that trend, but we couldn't really see a specific way to get popular on YouTube. It was just. We were just doing our thing.

[Mari Takahashi]

So then how do you see. Or how. Yeah, how do you see YouTube the way it's going now? Now that people are doing it, not just for. Just to make videos, but to actually become YouTubers and become famous and things like that?

[Ryan Higa]

I mean, it is what it is. Like, it's. You got to adjust to a certain degree. It's Just tough. Like even if you. If I were to like restart like everything, if I started today, I know for a fact that nobody would see it. I'm prep very sure without some kind of collab or some kind of help, there's just too much out there. And yeah, I'm very sure it wouldn't. I wouldn't have been able to learn what I've learned because I wouldn't have probably continued. And most people start off and don't make it unless they have some kind of help these days. I think. I don't know if that's true or not. I'm sure there's some diamonds in the rough, right that get found. They have one viral video and they know how to milk it. But a lot of times it's just one offs and they don't know how to. It's just too instant. They haven't learned how to deal with that or capitalize on it.

[Ian Hecox]

Currently YouTube is the most lucrative place for, for social media people to be. But I think a lot of people are getting their start maybe on other platforms and then, and then moving over to YouTube to sort of build their career.

[Mari Takahashi]

When, when I was like first watching you on YouTube, you hit this niche of Asian Americans being in the, in the spotlight in a very, very different way from what we would normally see like on television and movies. And that is the reason why like I was drawn to yout than watching stuff on TV and stuff. But did you ever think that you would be in that position of being inspirational to people who are watching you in that sense or did you ever want that?

[Ryan Higa]

So I was always getting pushed a lot from like once it started to get more traction to it. Like I said, I grew up in Hawaii, so there's a ton of Asians there. Like specifically a lot of Japanese people. And I never felt the same way A lot of other people who even my friends now cause they grew up in California or whatever. I've never felt the exact same type of. I got bullied but not in the same way. Like I didn't feel that same kind of like, oh, I'm a minority. I understand. Like, you know, there wasn't many Asian people to watch on TV and look up to and stuff like that. I get that. But for me, constantly getting pushed by like the Asian community to like push Asian content and they were like, I mean it was in a nice way. Not like they were like so thankful and I didn't understand why. I get it now. I get it. But at the time I never tried to cater my content towards, like, I didn't want to be just making Asian content, like, just jokes for just Asian beauty. I just wanted to create stuff I thought was funny or interesting. And then, you know, I just so happened to be Asian. And it's not like, written for, like, Asian jokes or Asian. You know, I have some videos like that, but yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Which I think. I think that's better. Like, I think that helps normalize it more than creating content just for the Asian community. Because, I mean, what. A lot of the problems that I had with. I think what held a lot of, like, minority groups back in, like, media was you would have people, like, back in the day of, like, mad tv, like, Bobby Lee always had to play, like, the sort of, like, the Asian guy doing Asian people things, you know, And I feel like that that's damaging for normalizing sort of Asians in media. So the fact that you weren't catering your content, I think helps.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, But I was also, like, I said, I was unaware that I was doing that because I was just like, I see what I like on TV and I'm gonna do that. I don't care if it's, you know, if they don't want me as an actor because I'm Asian, that's fine. I'm just gonna do it myself. So that it was more that attitude versus, like, I'm gonna do this for the. You know, there's nothing wrong with that because I, like, I loved Wong Fu's content, you know, I'm sure you kind of were drawn to them as well. Yeah, but, like, their content was so focused on. And it's a good thing for the Asian community, but so focused on, like, promoting Asian Americans and talking about specifically that culture. I guess. I guess for me, naturally, I. I knew the smart thing would be, like, to kind of ride that, but I just, like I said, my upbringing was different from a lot of people.

[Mari Takahashi]

I feel like yours is kind of, like, paralleled to, like, Rami Malek on iRobot and iRobot. Mr. Robot.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, the singer? The guy. The Freddie Mercury.

[Ian Hecox]

Yes.

[Ryan Higa]

Okay.

[Mari Takahashi]

So when he was cast as Mr. Robot, I think his character's name is, like, a very, like, Caucasian name. It's like Matthew Anderson or something like that. And they kept that same name, but he's a person of color, and it's never, like, distinguished like that. It's a weird thing at all. He's just a hacker guy. This is what he looks like. This is his name, and you just take it for what it is and I think that's exactly what you're saying, Ian. It's like, in order to normalize it, you don't have to. He doesn't have to play into the fact that he is Egyptian. Right? He's just a guy who hacks. And that's just his character. He's, you know, an Egyptian American or whatever it is. But I think that's more of the path that you took. And, yeah, I definitely saw that from your content, too. Like, you. It wasn't like you had to cater a certain way. You didn't have to pander a certain way. You were just you. And I think that's exactly what was so cool about YouTube is that you got to see different types of people in a completely different light than, like, the box that you're put in when you're looking at more Hollywood things.

[Ian Hecox]

And I think sort of the focus of your content, the typical kind of things you would see other people doing, where it's like. It was about, like, friendship and just being silly. I mean, that's something that, like, Anthony and I did in the beginning where it's just like. It's just. It's relatable because it's like two friends just making, like, dumb videos. And that's relatable to everyone, like, regardless of, like, your sort of background. Like, everybody has a friend that you want to just, like, make dumb videos with.

[Ryan Higa]

Not everybody has a friend. It's insane. Ryan Seacrest here.

[Ian Hecox]

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[Mari Takahashi]

I have a question. If YouTube never, like, took off the way it did and nothing came out of it, what do you think you'd be doing right now? As a job?

[Ryan Higa]

I probably would have. So I had to make a decision in 08 or 09, when I was in college, basically at UNLV, to either drop out and continue YouTube or to stay in college. And I was doing nuclear medicine at the time, so probably that. I don't know. I don't know if I would have made it, but what.

[Ian Hecox]

I know what that is.

[Ryan Higa]

It's like the next, like, one level, like, after X ray. Right. It's kind of like that Nukemed is like radio. There's something injected to you. That's what it's called.

[Ian Hecox]

Like Spider Man.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, basically. Okay. Let's just say I would have done X ray. I would have been an X ray tech. Probably a glorified X ray tech.

[Mari Takahashi]

Okay, that's cool.

[Ryan Higa]

But I didn't like it. I just like, oh, this is not too much school. It's not like a doctor, and it doesn't cost that much, but it makes decent money.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay.

[Ryan Higa]

That's the reason why. That was my reasoning. That was my whole, like, that was the dream growing up, you know, like, I gotta get good grades so I can get to an average college.

[Mari Takahashi]

Just pass.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. They had this program with Hawaii specifically. Like, I don't know why so many people go there.

[Ian Hecox]

I was going to ask you because didn't you say that, like, the most Hawaiians that live out of Hawaii live in Las Vegas or something like that?

[Ryan Higa]

I don't know if that's true, but we call it the ninth island. There's eight. We call it the ninth island because there's so many there. Right.

[Ian Hecox]

Why is it just.

[Ryan Higa]

I don't know. Maybe it's a scholarship program. It's called a WUI scholarship. I don't know if they still have it, but it's basically, you pay in state tuition. So that's the reason why I went there. What? Yeah. People thought, like, oh, why do you go to. Like, everyone thought I was going because it's a party school, right? It's. I didn't have that many. I didn't go to that many parties. It was like a normal school with a lot of Hawaii people. I think because now there's so many Hawaii people. A lot of them still go there because it's, like, comfortable. There's Hawaiian food everywhere. Like, it's. Now it makes sense why people go there.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

I guess it's just like. Yeah. You grew up around all the humidity. So it's just. People want to get out of that. So they go to the driest place on earth. Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, That's.

[Ian Hecox]

That's.

[Ryan Higa]

I will say I had to learn how to use, like, chapstick and stuff because in Hawaii you don't need that stuff or lotion. And I just have. You need it there.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah. The hair just sucks you dry.

[Ryan Higa]

I've had moments where, like, I'll just wake up, go to brush my teeth and my lip will just start bleeding. It'll just tear because it's so dry. It happens. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Because humans aren't meant to live in the desert.

[Ryan Higa]

I'm really not selling Vegas very well to you guys. That's just the. Just get a humidifier and some chapstick and you're good.

[Mari Takahashi]

Just keep talking about the zero state income tax.

[Ryan Higa]

And you know what? Right here, whatever you're paying for, wherever you're living, you can get a mansion, I guarantee you.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I've seen your place, Ryan. Okay.

[Ryan Higa]

No, I'm. But if it doesn't mean this expensive. It's cheap. That's my point.

[Ian Hecox]

No, I know, I know, it's. It's ridiculously cheap there.

[Ryan Higa]

It's so expensive here, it's ridiculous.

[Mari Takahashi]

I almost cried when our friend Jacob Fu told me how much he pays for his apartment, which is like pretty much like the same apartment as me and my husband. Like teary eyed cause he's like, oh, I spend like this much. I'm like, that's like a quarter of what I pay.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, that's just how it is. Vegas is just a great place to live.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, it's not a place that a human can live without a lot of.

[Ryan Higa]

We've talked about this before. If things were to go. You can't swear in here, right?

[Ian Hecox]

No, you can.

[Ryan Higa]

If shit were to go down and we were talking about this with the guys, if just the AC went out, I think we'd all die. Like literally. Like, how could you live right in during the summer?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

If the AC went out, I think you'd see like half of Vegas dead. I could be. I mean, maybe there's another way. I don't know. But think about it. Like, what do you do?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I mean, go to your car and turn on the ac.

[Ryan Higa]

Like people most people be worried about, like, oh, there's gonna be riots, looting, like get your guns or whatever, you know, like protect yourself, zombie apocalypse, whatever. But really it's just. They just gotta get rid of the AC and everyone's dead.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah, everyone's sitting down on the sidewalk.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. What do you do at that point?

[Ian Hecox]

That's true. You're just hot. And you can't really do anything about being hot.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

Those resort pools are already pretty populated and gross.

[Ryan Higa]

Everyone in Vegas, I don't know if people know this, but I'm still ragging on Vegas. But at the clubs, those pools during day parties, they're one of the filthiest things because people are pissing in them. And like now we know piss is not that Bad. But the beer and all kinds of stuff is getting in that.

[Ian Hecox]

Would you rather lick the toilet bowl rim or would you rather drink a cup of a day club pool water?

[Ryan Higa]

I know it's worse, but I'd probably drink the cup just for the thought. Probably wouldn't tease the. I know there's piss in there.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Because it's diluted. But there's also, like. No, people were really getting sick because I think of the sunscreen in it. We're not sick, but like rashes and stuff. Because everyone's sunscreen was like, going into the pool water and. Yeah, that was an issue for a bit. I don't know how they fixed it. They probably didn't.

[Ian Hecox]

They probably didn't.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

They just put more chlorine in it.

[Ryan Higa]

But yeah. Come to Vegas. Spend your money as if Vegas really needs it.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. I had a good time visiting you in Vegas. You let me stay at your place. Your mom also lives with you half of the year. Okay. And she's. She's so lovely. I love your mom. She made some awesome food. We had partied a little bit the night that I was there, and then I stayed over. And then in the morning, she made us all loco mocos, which I have never had before.

[Ryan Higa]

Really?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Ma'am. California.

[Mari Takahashi]

You've been to Hawaii?

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. And there's so, like. There's loco mocos. Like, loco mocos everywhere now.

[Ian Hecox]

I know. I just don't. Anyway.

[Ryan Higa]

Okay. Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's uncultured.

[Ian Hecox]

I have discovered that it is probably one of the best hangover foods in the world because of. It's rice, a hamburger patty, gravy, egg, and just smothered in gravy. And it's so good.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's the best hangover food because you eat it and then you're like, oh, I immediately need to go to sleep again.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. It's so good. And your mom. Yeah. Well, actually, even when I got to your house, like, your mom had made all this food and she's like, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat.

[Ryan Higa]

She does that especially when people are coming.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Like, normally, like if I. If she wasn't there and there was like a shoot, I'll have to remind myself, oh, I gotta put some stuff out, like some snacks. But I don't make food. I don't know how, but yeah, it's nice when she's there. Cause there's actual crafty.

[Ian Hecox]

So what do you do when she's not there half the year?

[Ryan Higa]

We just starve. Oh, yeah, that's just snacks. I don't know things that don't need to be cooked. I have Hot Pockets and stuff in the freezer. I'm like, just grab one. You know how to make it.

[Ian Hecox]

But when she's there, it's like, you bulk up for the winter, you know.

[Ryan Higa]

When she's there, I definitely gain weight during that time when she's gone, I slim down instantly.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, I'm sure.

[Ryan Higa]

And I'm actually encouraged to, like, diet because I'm like, I don't need to. I'm not even hungry a lot of times. Just the problem about having someone who cooks is, like, you're not gonna say no, right? If there's good food there, but, like, you're not necessarily hungry. Yeah, and that's why I gain weight.

[Ian Hecox]

She made enough food for like 20 people and there was maybe five of us there.

[Ryan Higa]

Yep. Happens.

[Ian Hecox]

It was great. And. And so your mom. Your mom, like, is your. I mean, she's like, kind of like your business manager or kinda like. What would you. What would you consider her, like, in the. In.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, I would say that.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. I mean, she handles a lot of my. I mean, I have an accountant, but she, like, works. She. She was an accountant, so she, like, helps me with all that stuff. We used to have managers. I had managers here and there, and I don't know, just. I mean, there's nobody you can trust more. Right. And you have to. If someone's looking after your business, you want them to be very trustworthy. So. Yeah, it was always easier to just have her there.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

And then she retired, so it was, like, easy for her.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay. So she didn't. So she. She was already going to retire, and then she was like, oh, I could.

[Ryan Higa]

But even when she was working, she was still. When I was like, in high school, she was still, like, helping with that kind of stuff because we didn't know. And she didn't know what she was doing either. You know, we were like. We used to take crazy deals. I did a movie. Awful. Because I can illegally say that it was bad. I don't know if I'm not supposed to say it was bad, actually. I don't remember the contract. But we made this movie independent, very independent.

[Ian Hecox]

And Ryan and Sean's Excellent Adventure.

[Ryan Higa]

I'm not saying it is that there's a bunch of movies that could have been made.

[Ian Hecox]

That's true. I'm just gonna say it was Ryan and Sean's Excellent Adventure. But you don't have to confirm nor deny that it's that movie.

[Ryan Higa]

I can say the truth about that is that we were excited. Sean and I were excited that it was a movie. Yeah, of course. And we're from Hawaii. Right. We're like.

[Ian Hecox]

And this is like 2007 or 2008.

[Ryan Higa]

It was around. Yeah, 2008, I would say. So we were just excited. Right. And normally this is the first time we're gonna do a script that I'm not writing. Not that I knew how to write actual scripts back then, but when we got it, we were just memorizing versus actually reading. Cause I didn't understand half the jokes. And like, I didn't. They were all movie references to, like, things. Sean and I weren't born when it, like, came out. So we just had no idea about the creative. My mom and I. And of course Sean and his parents didn't know what they were doing either. So we did it. Things that we know better now. But I made a lot of mistakes along the way.

[Ian Hecox]

I think we all. I think we all did. I mean, I'm certainly not gonna say that. Let's talk about that company Smosh the movie. I'm not gonna say that. Smosh the movie was a masterpiece. It was for us. It was like we took the opportunity to do something that was beyond ourselves.

[Ryan Higa]

Right.

[Ian Hecox]

And. And for us, like, how often are you going to get that opportunity? So whether or not it was perfect, I don't. I don't regret doing it.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

And I think there's a lot of people that definitely enjoyed it. And there's a lot of people that definitely didn't enjoy it. That's fine.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Like, I had a. I had a good time. I met people that, like, I. I'm still friends with, like the makeup artist that, that I. That worked on the shoot. Yeah, I had a good time.

[Mari Takahashi]

I'm not saying I use her all the time now.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, sorry, the costumer. Yeah, Angela. Yeah, she's great.

[Ryan Higa]

Shout out Angela.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

I've never met her, but she sounds great.

[Ian Hecox]

It was just a. It was a wild experience and they. Experience and they threw like this like crazy premiere. Like they. They rented out like this. This theater that I've been to for legit movie premieres. They like, closed down the road. They had a red carpet. They paid a lot of money for that.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

And that was not out of our. That was not out of our wallets.

[Ryan Higa]

Does that mean you lost a lot of control, though? Because they paid for it.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, so. Yeah, so it was like co produced between. Between Defy media and awesomeness. So we had. We had some. We had a Lot of say in the writing of it, but we didn't have the actual. We didn't have like true, true control. We could give notes and stuff, but we didn't have like absolute control. And it was also. I don't know how many movies are made this way, but we were basically given a deadline for the movie to be finished before we had a movie. Do you know what I mean? Like even before we had a script.

[Ryan Higa]

Right.

[Ian Hecox]

They were basically like, this movie has to be done at this point. And we're like, we don't have a.

[Ryan Higa]

I think that's normal though, right?

[Ian Hecox]

Is that normal?

[Ryan Higa]

I think so.

[Ian Hecox]

For a movie.

[Ryan Higa]

When I did my book, it was like that. It was not ready to be. Like, it wasn't. It could have used more work, but it was like, this is the date. Yeah, you signed up for this. So.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, it was just kind of funny to be given, given the opportunity to do a movie without ever having to talk about it.

[Ryan Higa]

That was a huge opportunity though. Like you guys got like a crazy budget. Like you said you had the premiere thing. Like that's.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean it wasn't a crazy budget.

[Ryan Higa]

For a movie compared to other people. Independent, like compared to. That's like your first real movie, right?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

For your first movie. That's a crazy budget, I would say.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I mean we have.

[Ryan Higa]

Can you say what the budget was?

[Ian Hecox]

I mean it was like a million dollars.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, I thought it was more than that.

[Ian Hecox]

No.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, well that's still a lot, but I thought it was more than that.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, we had to film the premiere.

[Ryan Higa]

Like that's expensive.

[Ian Hecox]

That was a separate. That was a separate budget, I guess. And I mean we. I mean, I think the movie. I think the movie made. It made its money back because of a. I mean, I shouldn't get too deep into the details because I don't know what, I really can't say. But yeah, it was, it was a fun experience. We had to shoot the whole movie in 15 days. That was the crazy. That was the crazy part.

[Ryan Higa]

That's pretty crazy.

[Ian Hecox]

So everything low budget? Yeah, everything that you guys, that you guys see in that movie was shot in 15 frickin days.

[Ryan Higa]

That's what we did for the movie. We did. Yeah, it was like two weeks.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, it's wild.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

I remember seeing a trailer for, for Ryan Sean's. And we're not saying that this is the movie you're talking about.

[Ryan Higa]

This is not. It's something else.

[Ian Hecox]

It's something else. I just remember just being very confused.

[Ryan Higa]

I also remember Being confused while reading the script. Yeah, Yeah. I was confused for a lot of it, but I was like, free trip.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Barely got paid, but free trip.

[Ian Hecox]

It's. It's just those kind of things that you, like, look back and you're like, that's so fucking crazy that that happen.

[Ryan Higa]

I know.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, but it's an opportunity that.

[Ryan Higa]

It was a learning experience.

[Ian Hecox]

And I think, like, regardless of whether or not you think it's good now, like, I think your viewers are still excited about the fact that you got to make a movie, whether or not they saw it or whether or not.

[Ryan Higa]

I hope not. I hope us talking about it doesn't make people go see it.

[Mari Takahashi]

With that said, let's do a lot. A watch party.

[Ryan Higa]

It's one of those. It should be one of those things, you know, One of those. The cult classic, cult classics were so bad.

[Ian Hecox]

The room.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, it could be that.

[Ian Hecox]

It's great. I mean, when we talked before, I was saying, I want to get a watch party for that movie. And in turn, maybe for one of the terrible things that I was involved in.

[Ryan Higa]

You want to get a what, an intern?

[Ian Hecox]

No, no, get, like a watch party going.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, a watch party. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Of maybe that movie. And then I did. I voiced, like, a really. A really bad animated movie.

[Mari Takahashi]

Is this a secret movie that you didn't talk about? What is this?

[Ian Hecox]

No, I. I had a. I promoted it, but bad movie. I mean, I'm.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, it's probably animated movie. What did he not Angry.

[Ian Hecox]

Angry Birds is pretty good.

[Ryan Higa]

It's a pretty good movie.

[Mari Takahashi]

I was like, oh, yeah, Sequel.

[Ian Hecox]

I know. Which I was not invited back to.

[Ryan Higa]

Really?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. But Anthony was.

[Ryan Higa]

Wow. Wow. Angry Birds.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Now I'm an angry Bird.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, you should be.

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know. They didn't. They didn't hit me, like, your voice. That might have been it. I feel like maybe I didn't find.

[Ryan Higa]

You don't really have a voice. You're more of a cat voice anyway.

[Ian Hecox]

Cat voice? Yeah. You think so? All right, Angry cats. Hit me up.

[Mari Takahashi]

Angry Cats.

[Ryan Higa]

When you did your cat impression, I was like, oh, that's loud. But also very good. That was a very good impression.

[Mari Takahashi]

That was your audition?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

You're hired.

[Ian Hecox]

For the cat orgy?

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. I. I don't know. I hit up one of the producers. I DMed him, and I was like. I sent him. I wrote an obituary for my. For my bird and sent it to him as a joke.

[Ryan Higa]

Wait, you actually did?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, I thought you were making a joke now.

[Ian Hecox]

No, no, I DM'd him. I DM'd him an obituary. When. Because I saw. I saw Anthony recorded for it and I was like. I was like, what the hell? Why anyone hit me up.

[Ryan Higa]

You don't see Anthony anymore because he lives down. Well, I shouldn't say where. He lives downtown.

[Mari Takahashi]

This is his address.

[Ian Hecox]

He used to live downtown la. He doesn't live downtown.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, okay. Yeah, go downtown. Cause that's where he lives. Yeah, exactly. Do you still hang out at all?

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, not that much. I mean, we haven't talked in a little while. I think that he's been really busy. I've been really busy. Yeah, we don't talk a whole lot.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

But might seem at VidCon, though.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, yeah, dude. Yeah. Because when. When he left. When he left. Smosh. That was. That was right before the last VidCon. So that was. That was kind of weird because it was, like, fresh. And I think some of the people going to VidCon didn't even know that we had, like, split. So there was, like. I think there was like, maybe like, one person. One or two people, like, in the meet and greet that were like, where's Anthony? Like, ooh.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

But yeah, it was just.

[Ryan Higa]

You guys had already, like, that was your public announcement, but you guys already have talked. Probably way before that, I would assume.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, Yeah. I had to keep it a secret, though, right? For quite a while.

[Ryan Higa]

That was a year ago.

[Ian Hecox]

A little over a year ago.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. So where is Anthony? Just kidding. Sorry.

[Ian Hecox]

I'll tell you exactly where he is. He's behind this curtain.

[Ryan Higa]

Could you imagine? Viral. Instant viral.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay, well, speaking of secrets, you kept your girlfriend secret for three years? Two years.

[Mari Takahashi]

Mmm.

[Ryan Higa]

About three. Yeah, about three years.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

It wasn't really a secret. It just wasn't announced. Like, if people really wanted to, like, people knew, but if they really cared to know, they could find.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, it had to have been.

[Ryan Higa]

A secret because I just didn't announce it.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, you didn't post a lot of, like, photos with her, right?

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, that's true.

[Ian Hecox]

It was kind of like, hey, let's not, like, put, like, our arms around each other.

[Ryan Higa]

Initially. Yeah, initially. But then after about a year. I mean, I don't post those kind of pictures anyway. Yeah, I barely post. I need to start posting more. I start taking pictures. I never remember to take pictures when I do things.

[Ian Hecox]

Dude, I'm so bad with Instagram.

[Ryan Higa]

I'm the opposite of what people say, like, oh, go enjoy the thing. But, like, I really need to stop enjoying Things. When I go to work, I need to think about my business. Yeah. Like, I go to places that are actually really cool. And I forget to, like. And I regret it. I forget to take the picture. And once I leave, I'm like, damn it, I should have done something. Or even us hanging out. I probably would have forgot. Have we not? I probably will still forget to take a picture with you guys, but I should. And we should.

[Ian Hecox]

We got that picture of us eating udon.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, yeah. We did the.

[Ian Hecox]

We did the lady and tramp thing with udon in Vegas.

[Ryan Higa]

That was really interesting.

[Mari Takahashi]

That's a photo moment. You got to get that.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. So how about you? Any movies you want to make? Did you make a movie yet?

[Ian Hecox]

Did you just change the subject? Oh, are you keeping your girlfriend secret?

[Ryan Higa]

No, I was. I was gonna ask.

[Mari Takahashi]

That was a hard turn anyway.

[Ryan Higa]

Well, anyway, it's not. It's. Yeah, it was. It was a secret for in the beginning. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Was the worry just that the viewers were gonna get like, too crazy about, like, get too involved about?

[Ryan Higa]

Not really. It was just more for us initially. Cause it started off really, like, casual and we didn't want to announce something. And then like, oh, we're not together anymore.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

You know, and then like, oh, we gotta make another thing. It happens.

[Mari Takahashi]

But just the fact that the vocabulary is. Oh, we never announced it. Like, as if you have to announce a relationship is a really interesting thing. Cause it's like, what do you announce usually? Engagement and wedding. Right. You don't have to be like, this is. I'm announcing to the world, this is my girlfriend. And it's weird that that's a position that, I don't know, a lot of people find themselves in.

[Ryan Higa]

It's. Cause people. We put our lives out there, right. So, like, if we're not putting such an important part of our life, it kind of feels like you're lying a little bit. And I did feel a little bit of that. But, like, that's why I never said if someone asked me if we were dating in person, I would tell them the truth. Like, fans have asked before and you.

[Ian Hecox]

Just told them to get up.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. Cause we'd be together, they'd see us together. Right. And then they would some post pictures and stuff. And I never told them to take it down. So, like, if you really wanted to find it, you could. But we're not just gonna go announce it.

[Ian Hecox]

Step into the world of power, loyalty, and luck.

[Ryan Higa]

I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.

[Ian Hecox]

With family cannolis and spins mean everything.

[Ryan Higa]

Now you want to get mixed up.

[Ian Hecox]

In the family business. Introducing the [e-mail] test your luck in the shadowy world of the Godfather slots. Someday I will call upon you to do a service for me. Play the Godfather.

[Ryan Higa]

Now a Chumpa Casino.

[Ian Hecox]

Casino.com.

[Ryan Higa]

Welcome to the family. No purchase necessary. VGW Group void. We're prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply.

[Ian Hecox]

How private are you about. About your sort of, like, personal life? Like, and did. Has that changed throughout the years, or have you always been like this? Sort of, like, you've always kind of followed the same sort of, like, guidelines of, like, what you reveal about your personal life?

[Ryan Higa]

I'm pretty private, I would say. Yeah, for the most part. I've always been like that, though, from even when I was like, I'm just not. I don't know. I'm just. I've always been private.

[Ian Hecox]

I guess I feel like I've become a little less private as a result of the podcast.

[Ryan Higa]

Oh, same. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, it's like. It's. It's funny, but it's. It's. But I feel like this is. Is a better sort of, like, invasion of privacy than. Than if I were to be daily vlogging or whatever, because that's a lot of the daily vlogging stuff is. Is a lie. It's like, this is my daily life, but it's not really. And with podcasts, we're just kind of, like, talking about the things that happen in our life. And, you know, it's. I don't know. I think it's a different kind of invasion of privacy that I'm a little bit more okay with. I'm not showing people my, you know, inside of my house every day and, like, my daily routines.

[Ryan Higa]

Right.

[Ian Hecox]

Cause I feel like you and I are kind of on the same page in regards to privacy. Of, like, I don't want everyone to know everything about me or, like, project this sort of, like, fake image of my daily life because that's. That's none of their business. Because it's weird when a stranger knows everything about you or when they think they know everything about you, but they don't. So I think we've always. I think we've always kind of been on the same page. What about. What about you, Mari?

[Mari Takahashi]

I mean, I think I've, you know, I follow suit with, like, watching you and Anthony like, that. You guys were my first like, inlet into this world. And so I think I really took to heart, like, how you Guys do things. But with that said, you know, I mean, I was open with. With the audience about me and Pete since the very beginning. You know, I mean, I think that's. That's partly me being really naive about, like, where all of this was gonna go. Like, I never imagined that I'd be sitting here nine years later. Also, it was just kind of like establishing from the very beginning, like, who I was. Like, I wasn't gonna be like a thirst trap or something. So I'm not gonna, like, make myself look like I'm single for all these years.

[Ian Hecox]

But Mari said we were talking about how stalkers are a real big problem on YouTube, especially for women. Literally every girl YouTuber or influencer that I've talked to has had serious stalker problems. People that are messaging them, constantly emailing them. Some people get hundreds of emails a day from the same person. Just really terrible stuff.

[Ryan Higa]

Or worse, like showing up, finding their locations, their house and stuff like that.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's crazy that it happens. It's very scary. It's a real thing.

[Ian Hecox]

And you don't even have to be a big influencer to get a stalker either, because I've seen pages of people with like 5,000 followers on Twitter and they've talked about having stalkers.

[Mari Takahashi]

I think one thing that I've been good at from the beginning that you guys taught me is to not feed into people, you know, like negative people or whatever. Because in the beginning, as we all know, there was a lot. But I think it's just like, I just don't respond. I respond to all the people who are saying cool things and nice things.

[Ryan Higa]

So that's kind of what a stalker is, though. They're like, so in love. Right?

[Mari Takahashi]

Those are all the Stans. Right?

[Ian Hecox]

It can differ. Like, there's some pretty violent stalkers out there. That.

[Ryan Higa]

That's true. That is true.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

I would say all the people who ever, like, found my place, all the different homes that I like, moved from. Yeah, they found all of them, but, like, it's always been the ones. I've seen some girls, but it's always been guys, like, coming to, like, really, really other houses. Have you been to the other one before? Where I live now?

[Ian Hecox]

I think so.

[Ryan Higa]

It's like the three story, but it's like very small. Like, not small, but it's like tall.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, I don't think so.

[Ryan Higa]

Would that one. Because there's multiple floors, I felt safer. I was never on the bottom floor, but I have cameras set up and I could always see, like, kids coming up to the door and trying to take pictures in the windows and stuff.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

So even part of that is, like, normally people don't have to worry about keeping their shades down and stuff. Right. But if kids are coming and take pictures inside your house, who knows what you're doing at the time? So I always. My house was always dark.

[Ian Hecox]

I'd say those people are less stalkers than they are clueless or disrespectful.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, they weren't stalkers, but generally, the people who would actually come up to the house were guys I found more than. More often than not.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Back in the day, when people found out where the Smosh house was, it was mostly girls.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. And then some parents. The parents are the worst because it's like, you. You should have.

[Ryan Higa]

Should know better.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, you should definitely freaking know better.

[Mari Takahashi]

Parents would come with their kids.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

What is that Jake Paul house or. Oh, yeah, they were bringing their.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, they advertise that house, though.

[Ryan Higa]

Actually, I don't really fall. I don't know that. I didn't really follow that. I just heard that was an issue.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I mean, they. They made that house, like, very obviously known that that was their place, and they filmed outside it. Not that I'm saying that they deserved all those people being outside their house, but they made it very publicly known where they lived. And I think they also used that as a publicity vehicle to show, like, look how many people know about us and look how famous we are. Like, it's. It's kind of like a. It's a way to legitimize themselves as well.

[Mari Takahashi]

There's also a sense of security when there's, like, multiple people living at your house as opposed to your actual private house.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's like if they're using that as a tool and everybody there knows that it's for production, then there's a. There's a little bit more security, knowing that there's more people, but it's a very different situation. Don't go to people's houses.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Don't. Skit versus sketch.

[Ryan Higa]

Huh?

[Ian Hecox]

Skit versus sketch.

[Ryan Higa]

I'm not 100% sure what that means.

[Ian Hecox]

Is it a skit or is it a sketch? What do you make, skits or sketches?

[Ryan Higa]

I don't know.

[Ian Hecox]

Would you call what you do a skit or would you call what you do a skit?

[Mari Takahashi]

Is this a skit?

[Ryan Higa]

I know. Is this part of it?

[Mari Takahashi]

So this looks like a skit. This sounds like a skit, actually.

[Ryan Higa]

Is there a difference? Cause I don't really know what that means. I don't know what a sketch is, actually. What is a skit?

[Ian Hecox]

You always call it a skit.

[Ryan Higa]

I think I do say skit.

[Ian Hecox]

Interesting.

[Mari Takahashi]

I actually don't know the difference either.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. What does sketch mean?

[Ian Hecox]

I don't think there's a difference.

[Ryan Higa]

I don't think we're playing a game just now. That's how I was trying to figure out what you're doing.

[Ian Hecox]

No, because I always call it a sketch.

[Mari Takahashi]

I think of a skit as like. Like something that you do at, like a. Like. Like a camp talent show or something. Like, isn't that, like, a skit?

[Ryan Higa]

I've never been to a camp talent show.

[Mari Takahashi]

I haven't either, but I've seen it in the movies. I never got to.

[Ryan Higa]

I know what you're saying, though. I know what you're saying. Yeah. I mean, what sketch, then?

[Ian Hecox]

I always refer to what we do as a sketch.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, I just.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, yeah, I'm a sketch.

[Mari Takahashi]

This is when you just start to unravel because you're like, what is it that I do? Who am I?

[Ryan Higa]

We might be talking. It might be the same thing for all we know.

[Ian Hecox]

I think it is.

[Ryan Higa]

I don't know what made you ask that, though. I'm curious.

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know. We wrote it down. Cause, like, some people call them skits, some people call them sketches. We just didn't.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, that isn't. I mean, I never. I don't think I've ever said sketch. Yeah, I think I have, but I didn't know what it meant. Yeah, I thought it was, like, the same thing.

[Ian Hecox]

You're posting your podcast on your main channel now. It seems like there's less skits you're creating. Is that. Was that intentional, or did you not see, like, the focus shifting like that, or was that planned?

[Ryan Higa]

I still wanted to do. I still wanted to leave it open that I was gonna. I could do other things, and we are working on different things. But for me, I was at that point where I was like, I need to either take a break or change stuff up. Well, either take a break or stop completely or change things up. Because I was just, like, kind of. I was like. It's not that I was over it. It was. I like making the bigger videos. It's just because it takes so much longer. And like I said, I always want to top myself. So it's gonna take. It's gonna get crazier and crazier. We weren't able to do that without, like, taking off a lot of time. If you take off that time, you know, by the time your video comes out, you have no, like, push to it. Like, you have no. You're not feeding the algorithm right.

[Ian Hecox]

I think, I think frequency is less important on YouTube now.

[Ryan Higa]

It's. Yeah, but I mean, what I mean is that I didn't. I was. I had to change something. Either I was gonna stop doing it or I had to do something else.

[Mari Takahashi]

Were you feeling burnout for sure?

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. And it was. The thing is, I didn't mind the burnout, like, for a long time because it was exhausting and I felt that. But back, like, even a few years ago, even though you were doing it, you would still see the results from it. Like, if you put in all this work, you know you're gonna get some kind of, like, reward, right? Yeah, you'll get the viewership, but because of the way YouTube is now, you don't get that reward. So there's no point. It was like very demoralizing to work so hard on something that you could have just made like five vlogs and got like five times the views, you know, like, it's very demoral. It's just the way YouTube is. But you have to feed the system. Right. It's hard to do and then not have any type of reward.

[Ian Hecox]

I think that also comes down to putting your value on the views rather than trusting in your own content and knowing that if you stay doing what you're passionate about, your viewers are gonna respect that and your viewers will understand if you need to take more time to make videos as long as those videos. I mean, like, because you've created such consistent, quality content, like from, from the beginning, like, you've been so consistent with, with your writing and just the, the kind of crazy shit that you've done there. There's such a massive amount of respect that I've seen from your viewers, like in your comments and everything. Like whenever you do put out a skit or a sketch, like, you see that in the comments, they're like, like, they're like, Ryan is the only person on here that's still of quality. Do you know what I mean? So it's like, yeah, so it's like.

[Ryan Higa]

When we do those types.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah, so I definitely understand, like, it's, it's really easy to look at, you know, another YouTuber and say, well, I mean, they, they put in way less or like, or I can put in less, less effort and get the same amount of views. But I think longevity wise, you gotta just trust in the content. You're making.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. And I think for me, it's not that I wanted to stop doing that. It's just like, it's either I was gonna completely take that break or just find something else, or I gotta fill this time with other things that will keep this channel alive and be able to keep paying my guys basically until we can do these bigger things. And for me, it was just, literally, I call it my break. Even though we're still making things, it's a break for me because I'm not, like, stressing every single day about, like, man, this is, like, I'm always writing, but it's never, like, if I can't find something that's, like, topping what I did or something I've already done, then it's, like, really stressful because you could spend, like, 10 hours writing straight and have nothing. Right. It's like, if you're doing a stop motion, you do 10 hours of stop motion, at least you see some progress. But you could be writing for 10 hours straight and be like, this is all crap. So it's just, like, not having that stress has been nice.

[Ian Hecox]

So you've noticed. Do you feel like you're mentally in a better place right now than you've been for the past couple years?

[Ryan Higa]

I would say yes, because I don't have to worry about that. Not that I don't want to do it anymore, but I got to the point where I didn't want to do it anymore. So I think now I'm starting to itch to do crazier things again. But I need that feeling. Like, I always tell people, like, they always say, oh, what do you want to do next? And I would always say, well, I need to get bored to figure that out. Like, what. What's next for you? And, like, I don't have time to be bored, but now I have some time to be bored. So it's like, you know, it's kind of nice to have that itch to want to do more again when, like, it was becoming a chore.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

And it just, Like, I could. I felt like I was just putting out things that I've done in the past that worked versus, like, what I was saying, why I started and, like, trying to top myself. It was. It's nice to, like, see it from this perspective, because I wouldn't have. If I kept doing it. I don't think I would have discovered that.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I mean, the YouTube algorithm doesn't exactly reward, you know, taking a step, taking a step back, taking time and putting out Something big.

[Ryan Higa]

That's why I missed the homepage. Remember when it was like, most liked, most favorited?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, but that was also when there was like 10 of us uploading on YouTube.

[Ryan Higa]

That's true. We used to like, fight over spots, basically.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, no, like, straight up, it was, it was a very different place. There was. And, But I mean, like, you took.

[Mari Takahashi]

It for granted back then. I don't see it.

[Ryan Higa]

But it was such a good system because you knew, like, now if you click trending, half of those videos aren't trending really. Like, I don't know how they get there. You guys might know more than I do. But I was just like, this video has 10,000 views and it's. I click on it because maybe it's really good. It's not. And just like. But why is it here? I don't understand it.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, YouTube finally admitted that there is some human intervention in that landing page. They finally.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's not just the machines learning.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I mean, there is a part of that. There is definitely a part of that. But, but they do, I think, you know, YouTube's direction has always been towards TV. They want to be. They want to be the next tv. So they have to promote things that are going to reflect that better. So promoting Jimmy Fallon or the next big music video is more in that direction than promoting the things that get a lot of views. Like, you know, the first person to eat this cup of shit wins.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah. It's safe for them. And as they've gotten bigger, it's become more corporate and it's like from an outsider's perspective, you understand? But then at the same time, it's like, you know what YouTube is capable of and you, you know the communities it's capable of. And it's.

[Ryan Higa]

It was bound to happen. I mean, it was bound to happen once money gets involved. And at the same time, you can't really complain.

[Ian Hecox]

I wouldn't do. If I was in charge of YouTube, I don't know what I would do differently, aside aside from fix the claiming issues. And I think they just rolled out something yesterday. Now this will be a month or so ago. They just rolled out some fixes to the claiming issues. Now people that will copyright claim your video have to prove where on the timeline they infringed. And now you can actually remove the audio out of that section.

[Ryan Higa]

All right. Right.

[Ian Hecox]

So they're actually, they've, they're, they're, they're getting better, but YouTube is obviously, they're pressed with this problem of. Now everybody wants to be a YouTuber. And now there's billions of hours of video being uploaded to YouTube a year or whatever. So I don't know how you make, how you make that fair.

[Mari Takahashi]

Right.

[Ian Hecox]

For the quote unquote creators. So they're.

[Mari Takahashi]

Well, and it's also important to remember that it is a free platform that people have like, huge opportunities to. To make something of themselves. Like, literally anyone can post on it.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

And it's like, it's. It's a good reminder that, that at any point, like, they could shut it down. There could be zero YouTube from now, so.

[Ian Hecox]

And we have always kept our stuff PG13 because you were looking at the things on YouTube. Of course the adpocalypse happened. It had to happen at some point because we saw videos and we're like, oh, man, at some point, some Coca Cola representative is gonna go on this video that has a Coke ad and it's gonna be like back in the day, old Shane Dawson content, where he's making all these period jokes, crazy about.

[Ryan Higa]

How, how he developed his career.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

So crazy.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, if you want to talk about, like, making movies. Did you.

[Ryan Higa]

Did you see. I saw clips of like the. The watermelon bit and like. Are you talking about Shane's thing?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Not cool.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, I didn't see the full movie. I just saw a lot of clips from it.

[Ian Hecox]

There's a, there's a. There's a part where a guy is eating shit and. And then also a part where a guy smashes his penis against a window. And we saw. I saw it. We went to a theater screening of it, and it's full frame penis against the window. So you're looking at this like, three story high dick just smearing against a window. And I'm like, all right. But I think that was kind of like the turning point for Shane. Like, after that he. I think he started. Well, no, he did like the podcast, which he's still kind of paying for now because of all the crazy shit he said on there. But it is kind of nuts, like how he's, how he's been able to pivot.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. It's awesome.

[Mari Takahashi]

People grow up. People grow up. And then it's also like, again, there's no roadmap for YouTube. And it's like people are figuring it out. And sometimes it takes people like 10 years to be like, oh, I shouldn't make that anymore. Let's pivot.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

And sometimes people inherently know. It's like you just. You just don't know.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. YouTube had to grow up at some point, and. And the problem is there's growing pains. I'm not going to excuse everything YouTube's done, but I understand a lot of it.

[Ryan Higa]

I get it.

[Ian Hecox]

Like. And look, like creators will complain all they want. I think also, like, a lot of creators think they're. They're bigger than they really are. Like, YouTube doesn't need any of us.

[Ryan Higa]

Of course. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Like, they do just fine without. Without the top 100 channels, there'd be another 5,000 channels. They're eager to replace them. So I realize my place in the universe for me. For me, YouTube in the Google verse.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

For me, YouTube is a wonderful tool, and I feel very grateful for the sort of, like, opportunities that they've given us, but at the end of the day, it is a tool. They're looking to make money, and I'm looking to, you know, grow my business, and, you know, I'd love to work with them as much as I possibly can. They're not perfect, but neither are we.

[Ryan Higa]

They just need a competitor. That's what they need.

[Ian Hecox]

I know that's. That's been the. Everyone for them, because they. They don't have. There's nobody. Like, people have tried. Like, you had the vessel, remember that came through and, like, tried to bankroll a bunch of YouTubers being on their platform.

[Ryan Higa]

Right.

[Ian Hecox]

That lasted for six months. Yeah. It's. It's just all. It's crazy. It's crazy. Any final thoughts, Ryan?

[Ryan Higa]

Final thoughts?

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know. I don't know what you expected walking in here.

[Mari Takahashi]

Wait, I have a final thought.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, what's that?

[Mari Takahashi]

Ninja Milk.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was actually gonna bring. Because I still have some at my house. I was gonna bring some, and I forgot.

[Ryan Higa]

I can send you more, Please, for the simple price.

[Ian Hecox]

No, go ahead, do your pitch.

[Ryan Higa]

No, I mean, I'm. I created a energy drink called Ninja Milk. And you got. Well, you guys were both at the. You guys were both at the opening thing.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. That was a launch party.

[Mari Takahashi]

It was awesome.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. Yeah. It's something I've been working on for, like, a long time.

[Ian Hecox]

Like three years.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. It was just. It was tough because we couldn't. It was such a different thing because there's a little bit of dairy in it. A small amount, because, you know, a lot of Asians specifically get really afraid of that.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

A lot of lactose intolerant.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. But, like, my. We've tested it on a lot of people. I'm not saying that you're not gonna have a reaction, but a lot of people are fine because it's so small, but because there's a little bit of dairy and it's an energy drink and it doesn't sound like it goes together. And also there's no place in the US that basically allows that. Like literally no production places do that. So we have. We had to make it like in the Netherlands. That took forever. And yeah, it's finally launched and I'm happy with it.

[Mari Takahashi]

And it's delicious.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, it's good.

[Ryan Higa]

I didn't pay them to say that.

[Ian Hecox]

It's good.

[Ryan Higa]

Thanks guys.

[Ian Hecox]

I love that, that you. At your launch party, you. You guys hired like a mixologist and figured out like alcoholic ways. Like ways to make it like an alcoholic drink. That was fun.

[Ryan Higa]

I'll be honest though, I didn't. I don't like sweet drinks. Yeah, like, I know.

[Ian Hecox]

It's not too sweet though.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, I wasn't. I'm not a big fan. I like it by itself, but when you start mixing with things. I wasn't a big fan of those drinks.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh yeah.

[Ryan Higa]

Other people liked it, but I didn't personally.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's a fun thing to be able to do. Like, I don't think most people would think about it unless it was already done.

[Ryan Higa]

I was told it's good with Soju. Actually, I haven't tried it yet, but I should.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, I'm a fan. I think. I think that's so cool that you're able to do this thing that's like, like outside of what you normally do.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

And just try something different. What can we, what can we expect from. From the channel in the next year or so?

[Ryan Higa]

So we just. Well, the reason why I'm here is because we just launched our LA podcast because I found it was.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, what?

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah, it's. It's basically the same thing, but right now, temporarily, it's at David's house. Okay. So it's not all fancy like this and we need. We. Like, I shouldn't say we. We got free mics. You guys, you guys got good equipment. But yeah, we. We had a set up here because we found like, nobody wants to. Other than Ian wants to come out to Vegas to do a podcast.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Are you surprised by that, Ryan?

[Ryan Higa]

I mean, like, I was doing my sales pitch when people come up like, you know how cheap this place is and you know how little taxes we pay. No, but I. Yeah, everybody is here, so we had to do a setup here as well.

[Mari Takahashi]

I like to think that you're getting a referral from like, like a referral Kickback from, like, the city of Las Vegas.

[Ryan Higa]

I've pitched very well. I've gotten. Okay. Only one other YouTuber out there, but my sales pitch was on point through a dm, so.

[Ian Hecox]

Nice.

[Ryan Higa]

I'm still thinking, you guys, at some point, you know, you could have a podcast out there.

[Mari Takahashi]

Wait, you move yours to LA and we move ours to Vegas?

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. Because the community is just gonna build out there, you know, like, there's just gonna be more and more YouTubers when they find out how great it is.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Until they run out of water.

[Ryan Higa]

We have water.

[Ian Hecox]

Or ac.

[Ryan Higa]

Yeah. If we run out of ac, then we're screwed.

[Mari Takahashi]

We're so worried about the apocalypse.

[Ian Hecox]

I know. I'm a prepper. No.

[Ryan Higa]

Are you really?

[Ian Hecox]

No. Yeah. No. Yeah. I got my vault in New Zealand. I'm gonna take my private jet there when the apocalypse happens. Yeah.

[Mari Takahashi]

It's a long jet ride.

[Ian Hecox]

You know, there's like, a lot of people doing that. Sorry. That's good. That's a whole nother topic that we don't have time to.

[Ryan Higa]

That's a real thing, though. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Ryan. Damn. I did not think that we would get you here in la.

[Ryan Higa]

This is now. I will be here more.

[Ian Hecox]

I hope so. I love getting Korean barbecue with you.

[Ryan Higa]

Let's do that more. I know, I know.

[Ian Hecox]

It's fun.

[Ryan Higa]

We'll mix some soji with ninja milk and see if that's true or not.

[Ian Hecox]

Let's do it. Well, thank you so much, Mari. Thank you also for being on here.

[Mari Takahashi]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Wow. This has been great. I hope I didn't.

[Ryan Higa]

You don't sound.

[Ian Hecox]

No, I'm.

[Ryan Higa]

This has been great.

[Ian Hecox]

This is.

[Mari Takahashi]

This is his wind down.

[Ian Hecox]

This is my earnest. This is my earnest voice. This is when I'm calming down. I'm coming off the high of having this lovely podcast with you, Ryan Higa. Mari Takahashi.

[Mari Takahashi]

This is where he falls asleep.

[Ian Hecox]

Thank you so much for being on this podcast. Also still have our shirts in store. Smosh store. We got some awesome stuff. I don't know what we're selling right now because this is happening a month in advance. Do we possibly still have some summer game shirts that are left over? I don't know. Maybe not. Ryan Higa. Thank you so much. If you guys haven't checked those YouTube channel, Nigahiga. It's making awesome stuff. Go check it out, please.

[Ryan Higa]

Thanks for having me.

[Ian Hecox]

Thank you for subscribing to this podcast. If you're not yet subscribed on itunes or any of the other podcast apps, please do so also. YouTube smoshcast subscribe on there. Punch that notification bell. Thank you guys so much.

[Mari Takahashi]

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[Ryan Higa]

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[Ryan Higa]

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[Ryan Higa]

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[Ryan Higa]

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