The Paradox

Hey everybody, it's Alden and Seth.

Happy Max Fun Drive!

It's week two!

Yes, it is the second and final week of the Max Fun Drive, and we are back for a couple reasons.

First off, we want to sincerely thank the hundreds and hundreds of people who have signed up to support us since we announced the Young Old Dirf Chronicles.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

And for everyone else, we are here this week to entertain you and also to convince you to join them.

Yeah.

So the goal is that by the end of this episode, you will be a supporter of Mission to Zix, a supporter of the young old Derf Chronicles.

Now, statistically speaking, we will fail in that goal.

Majority of the people listening to my voice right now will not do that.

I guarantee it.

I will bet you any amount of money.

But...

Don't be a statistic.

I'm not talking about the other people listening to this who aren't doing it.

I'm talking about you, you.

Look in the mirror.

You, Jeff,

Jeff, Susan.

And of course, your name.

And in this episode, we are going to announce something that one very lucky supporter, maybe you,

will get.

So before we get to the fun stuff, before we get to funny excerpts of bonus content, before we reveal the aforementioned prize, Alden, I just want to, uh, can I take a second and talk through this paradox that I've been thinking about?

Yeah.

Okay.

So here are some facts.

One, we can't make this show without the help of listeners.

That's a simple fact.

It's essentially our only source of resources to make it.

But equally true,

you know

that you don't need to support it and you'll still get to hear it.

It is going to be on this feed for free later this year, whether you support it or not.

Not only do you know that,

every single person knows that.

But...

What a paradox.

We haven't gotten to the paradox yet.

Oh, oh, okay.

Sorry.

The paradox is.

If everyone acted on that knowledge in the same way and didn't support, the show will not exist.

Wow.

So.

Where does that leave us, Alden?

Uh,

boy, wow.

I'll tell you.

Oh.

Sorry, I didn't know if it was rhetorical.

It wasn't going to be rhetorical, but you didn't have anything to say, so it became rhetorical.

That's a paradox.

What am I supposed to say?

It's true, it's true.

So,

not to get too grandiose, but this leaves you,

the listener,

in the position of asking yourself,

who am I?

Am I someone who supports the thing I want to exist?

If you're someone who's genuinely excited for this thing that's coming out, and we've gone out on a limb and started making it at cost with the faith that you and listeners like you will pitch in, what are you going to do in this moment when you have to decide, am I supporting it, or am I going to sit back and listen to it, it having been made with the support of others?

Well, see everyone later.

Okay, I'll just mention one web address, maximumfun.org/slash join.

And then fun times ahead, Alden, can you start to tell us about some of the bonus content?

Yeah, as you can hear, we're here standing on the bridge of the Bargerian Jade.

Ah, yes.

And this Bargie Ambience is one of the many things, one of the dozens of things you can get as Boco

for supporting our show.

Because when you support the Young Old Derf Chronicles, which is coming up later this year, obviously, you also get our entire back catalog of Boca including but not limited to this very ambience of Bargie's bridge which is I think a full hour of Bargie ambience isn't it is it's it's an hour long and I just want as a thought experiment I want you to imagine being a supporter and being able to just sit on the bridge of Bargie whenever you want

and now it's now it's just us talking Oh wow, that's way worse.

Boring.

Lame.

Yeah.

Oh, and now it's back and it's so soothing.

I remember when we released this, and there were a few listeners who were like, I never noticed it.

Yeah.

But honestly, you think you didn't notice it.

Yeah.

But actually, it permeates your mind when you're listening to the show and is one of the coolest things that Shane invented.

And I think it has like...

14 different layers of sound in it or something.

Yeah, exactly.

But you mentioned, you said dozens and dozens of pieces of content.

Yeah.

I logged into Max Funt.

Why'd you take the ambience?

Oh, should I keep it?

I'm just trying to give people an idea of

what they're missing.

Yeah, yeah, good point.

Yeah.

You got to pay for that ambi.

Yeah.

If you want to steal this ambi, you got to do it between the breadths of these lines.

Maybe you can cobble something together.

I logged on to maximumfun.org.

Slash joint.

I had already joined, so I didn't need to join.

And I looked at the amount of bonus content that is sitting there.

Not to mention all the stuff we'll be making new in the lead up to and during the Young Old Dirf Chronicles, but just the sheer volume sitting there.

Alden,

list some of this stuff off.

Yeah, we've got six, count them, six live episodes never available to the public.

We've got three mailbag episodes also hidden away in Boco.

So that's nine episodes.

Six were performed live with guests in front of audiences and sound designed and improvised live.

Yeah.

And to kind of

wet the whistles.

Is that what you say when you're giving someone an excerpt?

I don't know if you'd wet multiple whistles.

That seems going to be too loud.

Egregious.

Too many whistles.

Too many whistles.

Well, to give you all a little sample, here's an excerpt from a live show that we did with fan favorite, cast favorite guest, Zach Cherry, who you probably have ringing in your ears if you're a Severance watcher.

He plays Dylan on Severance, and this was a live show he did with us way back during season two.

Zach, of course, plays bounty hunter Peter3Fab, and in this episode, he plays father and son,

who are

very at odds and very different from each other and sound identical.

This is the episode where Zach really got to show off his range.

Look, Peter want, we don't need to do this, okay?

I'm happy here.

What do you mean you're happy here?

I mean, this is where I belong, okay?

I'm nothing like you, Dad.

You're a bounty hunter, and I think I'm a hostage taker.

I don't think you're a hostage taker.

I think you're a bounty hunter.

When I was young, I didn't want to be a bounty hunter.

And then Peter 1, who at the time was my dad,

to you he would be Peter 2,

pulled me aside.

And he was like,

this is in our blood.

This is our family tradition.

I don't care if it's in our blood, Dad.

Look, I want to live here with my mom and my dad who are married, okay?

We're not.

Because

you and Rebecca split up, and I need a mom and dad who are married and who are in a loving, married relationship.

We're not.

I mean, that's what I need right now.

Are you not going to pay me as

the hostage, the ransom?

Pay you to take care of your own son.

And as we said, you'll get that entire live episode plus five more.

Yeah, then we've got four ringtone packs, each of which have maybe a dozen ringtones.

We're talking, you know, the classic

we've got

hailing text tones.

We've got Bargy Sand stuff.

I'm asleep.

Catchphrases.

We've got.

I know about the sex gun.

Their ringtone packs volumes one, two, three, and be no no.

Yeah, that's true.

I would say

too many ringtones.

Everybody's on vibrate these days, but you know what?

It is really fun to listen through.

I mean, here's one.

It could be a ringtone.

It could just be your favorite summer jam.

This old chestnut, we're in the croons.

One, two, three, four.

Look like we're in the croons.

One, two, three, four.

Looks like we're in the croons.

Okay,

we can't give the whole thing away for you.

I'm looking at our numbers.

We just lost supporters.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

Oh, no.

You don't have to download it.

You don't have to download it.

You don't have to listen to it.

In addition, there are wallpaper packs, wallpapers for

your phones, Bargie wallpapers, Bino wallpapers, and two music packs.

Right, there's Peeny Gorno songs, the Beano and Bargie song.

There's songs by the Plints.

There's, I believe, a little album called Bermaful Nelodies, no big deal.

Sure.

Sure.

And you know, it's not just Mission to Zix.

It's also the entire catalog of Boco across the entire network of Max Fun going back years.

So it's a great treasure trove of new stuff to hear if you've never been a supporter before.

Speaking of new stuff,

we're making new stuff, which is, of course, the reason we're here asking for your much-needed support to make that new stuff happen, which is the young old Derf Chronicles.

But we're also making new bonus episodes featuring Derf himself, one of which has already been released.

The first episode of the Derf Cast.

So, The Derf Cast, you may be wondering what happens on the Derf Cast.

It is a podcast where I answer burning questions from your brains.

And these were solicited, obviously, through the space, but a lot of them were tied to a brick and thrown through a window here at the pet store.

So, thank you for those.

Let's get to our first question.

This is from Alex Yopalex.

Very fun.

Is that a given name?

I don't answer.

Hey, Derf, what's a stroid smell like?

Oh, yes.

As you all know, I spent some amount of time on the stroid with my stroid bride and stroid kids and left them pretty quickly.

But they're cool.

We chilled it out.

Everyone is cool about that.

What does a stroid smell like?

There's an odor, a sort of a stroid scent.

You know, you ever have a blanket that you like have?

So that's just a taste of the first episode of the Derfcast.

The genre of the Derfcast will change every time, perhaps in parallel with the episodes we are releasing in the main feed leading up to Young Derf.

Yeah, the list goes goes on and maybe these uh this back catalog of boco

is not what's spurring your interest in supporting the show and that's fine because ultimately it's about making the young old derf chronicles happen that's right you know it's interesting about the paradox because it occurs to me that there are people who are listening to this right now

who

you know, maybe came to the show a little bit late or maybe started listening after the show ended.

If you were ever on the outside of this show, if you were a person who didn't support but did listen to the show,

almost 140 episodes of this show that are on the public feed for anyone to download right now for free,

that body of work only exists because then, back then,

someone like you, a bunch of someone like you decided this is worth a little bit of my money to help continue to make happen.

And it did.

And it finished.

And we landed the plane and the show's over and it's a whole clean arc from beginning to end that we're all really proud of we did it and that's like a miracle right like it's amazing that show only exists because people like you decided at the time to help us right

and so now

now is your chance to be able to say a year from now when this thing is Out there and people are enjoying it whether they supported it or not, I can look back at this show and say, this is the one that I chipped in on and it exists and it's good.

It's as good as it is

because

I contributed to that.

That's totally right.

And I think not only that,

by the end of Mission to Zix, we had five years

of building the base of support who were paying for it.

And that grew over those entire five years.

And then we just turned that off.

And now we're back to square one and rebuilding that, trying to rebuild that quickly in order to fund this project that's coming up.

And this is the second and last week of the Max Fund drive.

And so we're kind of like, desperate's too strong of a word, but it's, it's the word that's accurate.

I wouldn't say it's a blind panic.

A one-eye patch panic.

We're running at it headlong and incurring the costs while hoping that the support will be there.

And early signs are good from the first week of the drive, but we have to keep it moving.

And so we're here asking for two things.

One, if you happen to still be a Max Fun supporter, add Mission to Zix back into your selections.

But also, if you have discovered the show since it ended, if you wanted to support and never got the chance, if you could now afford to support but you couldn't before,

or if you simply are dwelling on the paradox and you're thinking, you know what?

I think I'm not a dick.

Then all you need to do is go to maximumfun.org/slash join, choose the level you can afford and the stuff that you want, select mission to zix,

and you're making the show with us.

Right.

We also have something exciting we want to say, which is:

if we are successful in convincing you to support,

you will be entered

to possibly win

what, Alden.

We have procured two, I would say, mystical items that one lucky supporter will receive.

What are they?

A genuine

Zemonite robe

monogrammed to order.

When you win, you can give us whatever initials or name you want embroidered on the robe.

With probably a character limit.

Yeah, well, let's, yeah, keep it, you know, keep it tight.

But we will embroider it with a name or initials of your choosing, and

Seth will go out and harvest.

I would say he will allow the space to choose for him

a woodsaber of the absolute highest quality.

I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't already seen some woodsabers out there.

A real woodsaber and an actual, this is true, an actual vintage.

Monk's rope.

I don't know how much to say about it.

Everyone who supports Mission to Zix during this max fun Drive, which ends on Friday the 28th, will have a chance to be the one to receive this robe, this Woodsaber.

There is no second prize.

Yeah.

No second chances.

This drawing is governed by

the laws of the space.

One thing I've been thinking about is that it's so exciting and heartening that

one way you can make something

is

you can have the core group of people who really care about it fund it for everyone.

You don't have to have an audience of millions or even hundreds of thousands or to get some giant entertainment company to care about you.

If you can get a thousand,

two thousand people who care enough enough about it to support it, it can be a real thing and it can be made with the level of ambition and devotion as something that is made by,

you know,

this show couldn't be better than it is if it were, if it were made by Universal Studios.

Like it's, it's, it's like the only thing that has limited this show has been our actual capacities.

And we've been able to put everything we can into it and make it exactly how we wanted

because it's just funded by by people who care about it and that's just

i love that i love that we're not at the mercy of the size of the audience we're not at the mercy of anything we just have to make something that is interesting enough that a core group of people are passionate about it Yeah.

The vast majority of everything you read and see and watch and hear is made by

an enormous group of people making a bunch of different calculations about what makes it worth making and what makes it worth listening to and what makes it worth the network it's on or the IP it's being adapted from.

The fact that we get to make something to the best of our abilities, regardless of what big studios are interested in it or know about it, that's incredibly rare.

And the fact that you are listening to a show that you love, that is made possible purely by people like you and you, if you support it, and that because of that, we're able to make it at the top of our ambition is miraculous.

We'll never be able to do anything like that ever again.

We're so lucky to be involved in a project where the only limiting factor is our own creativity and your capacity to help us do it.

That's true.

And I also want to say it's genuinely both exciting and kind of surprising that we get to still do this prequel spin-off with Maximum Fun.

We kind of assumed that we wouldn't be able to because it's a limited series and Maximum Fun has this year-round support system.

And then we got on calls with them and figured out how to do it in a way that where it can still make sense, we're making this year of content, both public feed episodes leading up to it and bonus episodes leading up to it, and then the show itself, that we can be folded back into the Max Fun drive.

It's so nice to feel that there's this community of other artists and support around us, and that in asking for your support, we are not just promoting Mission to Zix, that some of your contribution goes to Maximum Fun itself.

Maximum Fun is a worker-owned co-op.

The employees there are all owners of that company, and I don't know anywhere else like that.

Yeah.

Like media companies are either going out of business or they're being purchased by a big company that's trying to leverage them for profit.

No one else has said, you know what, we're going to do?

We're going to be worker-owned.

And just for you to know that when you support the show, you're also supporting that.

If you share some of those values or feel excited about that business model as entertainment crumbles around us, know that your support is helping to keep that going.

Yeah.

They're the network that makes all of this possible.

It's something that prioritizes artists getting to make the thing that they love to make.

And that is

so incredibly rare.

Thank you, Maximum Fund, for that.

Speaking of Maximum Fun, the place to go is maximumfun.org slash join.

That's right.

Choose Mission to Zix.

Select the amount that you can afford to give per month.

Or you can give an entire year's worth of support up front so you can not think about it again for the rest of the year.

Yeah.

We truly do need your support.

And

I'm confident that we succeeded in convincing you.

Really?

We got everybody.

No, no, no.

I'm not talking about the other people.

I'm talking about the person.

We got Jeff.

We got Jeff and Susan.

Jeff and Susan.

Thanks so much for listening to this.

Thanks so much for listening to the show.

Thanks for believing in us.

And we will see you very soon in the coming weeks with more ridiculous content.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, but most importantly,

get that robe.

Happy Maximum Funda.