I only actively started watching them after they stopped doing as much music and scripted content. I’ve grown to like that plenty, but I wasn’t the right age or temperament to be pulled in by that. But their relationship to each other in the background of a talk show? Hell yeah. It’s just as any TV show or movie, their setting is just people who host a “morning” show. Not everyone who watches 30 Rock or The Larry Sanders Show cares about the TGS sketches or desk segments even when they’re good. I’ve described it to a lot of people as Conan in the late 90′s/early 00s because I don’t know what else to make of it. I watched that every night and half the time I skipped the guest interview because as far as I was concerned the show was over after the sketches and banter.
It’s funny they don’t even realize most people finding and sticking with them now tend to do so probably in similar ways.
1) This breaks my heart. Rhett saying “I’m trying to create things that give me self worth” and yet if he can’t seem to accept that we’re really here to watch them interact. Maybe someday soon that self worth will translate to his own self. I hope it does. It should. The amount of people they help, please, let us return the favor.
It really speaks to him doing the work and trying to loosen the control he’s exerted over trying to be The Best in order to earn love. When he doesn’t need to change a thing to be just as valued and loveable. Like how he recently mentioned how he was so amazed at how Bo Burnham was able to portray vulnerability so well in Inside, which is true, but like. This whole quote, half of Ear Biscuits post-2019, and damn near any time there’s prolonged intimacy between them, what exactly do they think they’re doing? Show me non-scripted shows displaying this kind of long-term male-male intimacy. It’s a handful of things if any and most aren’t as consistent as this by a long shot.
I’ve shown people who’ve never heard a word out of their mouths prior the clip of him getting so worked up reading crime stats that he starts crying. Mostly because that’s something that happens to me (and many people) when they feel overwhelmed by their point not getting across in an argument or conversation. Every. Single. Person. is floored by it, sans any further context for who he is. They connect with the emotion he’s sharing first and foremost. I’m sure there’s a TV/film equivalent depicting a similar reaction, but I’m serious when I say it’s usually women shown doing this IRL and made to look weak. Seeing this big, tough dude with a beard do it? Having his lifelong best friend stand by, letting him process it slowly without rushing, supporting him and reaffirming his thoughts? What is more vulnerable and unique than that? Revolutionary. I love Bo Burnham, but the themes and comedy he performs are usually aggressively individualistic and primarily a monologue, not a dialogue. ‘Cause he’s one guy! That’s what works for him. Rhett and Link show you how to cope with those emotions, with others, or at least how they try to.
It’s a different style of “comedy” or confessional media altogether and comparing yourself to it is a losing game, so no wonder he always seems to think he’s failing. He’s arguably better at it than most comedians I’ve followed (no one should compare themselves to Bo, a true outlier in many ways) and they make a living at it. It’s just not scripted and artistic in some grandiose way that he expects people want it to be. But it doesn’t have to be that, to resonate, though! Sharing your experience with loss? Love? Disappointment? Success? Failure? Heartbreak? Shame? Those are common emotions that a lot of people want to watch two plain-spoken guys from a completely ordinary small town discuss. It’s not a humble superstar spilling his guts. It’s two people you honestly feel like you could know and be friends with, from high school or college. They’ve done all of that gracefully and while finding humor and levity where you can in any topic. Not everyone has to be a spectacle to get the point across. That’s the point. He knows this is true when reaching people who need to hear him speak, I wish he’d realize how rare it is to see, though. They’re just living their lives like this is all normal and it’s not.
If they explored some of the topics they do in Ear Biscuits paired with documentaries? I’m extremely serious that they have a lightning in the bottle-style situation. Think about how often an episode is good, but then the behind the scenes drops and a whole new version unlocks. Their lives are so innately romantic, whether they say it’s with each other or not, filming that paired with the vulnerability of revisiting old wounds or current insecurities? I’m honestly lost at how that’s any less impactful than the peers they judge themselves against.
2) It’s mind-boggling to me that both are so obsessed with reality TV and can’t see the same parallels in their own appeal. They no doubt landed Commercial Kings and became famous in the first place because the producers could see this! But they think of themselves more as actors and performers in the traditional sense, so often, I think they devalue how unique it is. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that despite there only being a dozen or so vlogs with variably successful view counts, they are widely considered some of the most rewatchable/appealing things they’ve done. It’s just two guys buying onions, painting a room, showering, and plenty of us have watched them a handful of times a piece, I’m sure.
3) No matter how you shake it, they started all this making a documentary. Since the first was so big and conceptual and personal, I assume they figure they don’t have anything else worth documenting. Which is laughable since the documentaries/live content they release almost as afterthoughts (Lionel, Bleak Creek, any of the Behind the Mythicality stuff, Buddy System BTS, etc.) but only served to make people want to actually engage with the final product more. With rewatches, they tend to outlive the original purpose anyway.
If they just… did documentaries without the promotional content needed, like vlogs but longer and a little less fly-by-night, for their sake, they would be amazing (and these are the kinds of things you can submit for short-form or documentary awards 👀 if prestige is still what they’re after). Imagine if they they made a documentary about being on tour while they’re touring? For like an entire leg? Or going back to their dorm and haunts from their time at NC State? Or their first jobs? Or what they did when they moved to LA? They’ve already discussed it enough to have a base of interest from the core fans and I guarantee the appeal is there for anyone who wants to watch two men who love each other just… exist. That’s really why we’re all here. We love them. We love that they love each other.
I wish they could love themselves even half as much, sometimes. 💔
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