Esports Legend NickMercs, Tennessee Wins The Natty, And Fyre Fest Of The Week

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Did you know 39% of teen drivers admit to texting while driving? Even scarier, those who text are more likely to speed and run red lights. Shockingly, 94% know it's dangerous, but do it anyway.
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On today's part of my take, we have a huge, the number one twitch streamer ever i'm gonna is that true ever our favorite our favorite of all time nick mercs who it's his first podcast he's ever done if you don't know who he is give it a listen because he explains the twitch universe uh being a professional video game player, and he's just a fucking cool ass dude. So awesome interview coming up with Nick Merx.
We have Fyre Fest of the Week. We have Tennessee National Championship.
We have Three Identical Strangers documentary review. A packed Friday show for you.
We're going to get right back to the show. Did you know 39% of teen drivers

admit to texting while driving?

Even scarier, those who text are more likely to speed

and run red lights.

Shockingly, 94% know it's dangerous, but do it anyway.

As a parent, you can't always be in the car,

but you can stay connected to their safety

with Greenlight Infinity's driving reports.

Monitor their driving habits,

see if they're using their phone, speeding, and more.

These reports provide real data for meaningful conversations about safety. Plus, with weekly updates, you can track their progress over time.
Help keep your teens safe. Sign up for Greenlight Infinity at greenlight.com slash podcast.
All right, back to part of my take. Okay, let's go.
Boys! Boys! Now in the street there is violence And then a lot of stuff work can be done No place to hang out or wash in And then I can't blame all of the stuff Oh. We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.

And then we'll pick it higher.

Oh, we're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.

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The Tennessee volunteers are national champions. I'm losing my voice because I smoked a cigar and I should never smoke a cigar.
The haters say that it couldn't be done. The haters said, why are you going to the SEC? Look at Hank when you say that.
The haters said that your thumbs weren't fast enough tonight. I'm happy for you.
PFT and Billy, thank you so much. You guys were integral parts of my coaching staff.
PFT, you also kicked your heart out. I did.
You know what? A lot of people were saying it was the wrong call to go for two when you were up by seven points in the second quarter. As a player, you love to see that out of a coach.
Step on their necks. Yeah.
I like that because it showed me that you wanted to win the game and that you accurately knew that i was going to melt in a big moment it was uh it was six years coming six years uh of of playing the game not six actual years but six years in dynasty mode start in toledo florida state usc texas tech tennessee uh it's been a hell of a finally climbed the mountain. 156,000 people were watching us tonight on the Pardon My Take Twitch channel.
That's more people than can fit in Tennessee Stadium, right? Yeah. That's more people than can fit in any stadium.
Yeah. Maybe there's like one of those soccer stadiums.
Stadio Azteca? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The one that Landon Donovan pissed on.
Yeah, the one that they build the chain link fence around to make sure no fans climb onto it. So it was fun.
Thank you everyone for tuning in. It's not over yet.
I'm going to keep going until sports come back because there's nothing else going on. Well, Big Cat, as a member of the media, I feel obligated to ask you, are you going to be leaving Tennessee? Because I feel like your owner or your agent is the happiest guy in town right now.
He's probably getting offers thrown at him left and right. You're a Wisconsin alum.
A lot of people are saying that you would leave right now to Wisconsin. I'm the coach of the Tennessee Volunteers until Sunday night.
But we shall see. I went to Tennessee and I said I'm going to win a national title.
It took me two years. It took embarrassment last year.
But mission accomplished. So question then comes you know have i done everything i need to do with tennessee can i move on well for the record peyton manning national championships at tennessee zero big cat one right and also i beat florida once there you go he never beat florida people forget tenant pay manning never beat florida i'm starting to fall i don't want to do this, though, because Vol Nation is my people now.
I actually am going to start rooting for Tennessee in real life because their fans have been so fucking awesome. It feels like 98 was trending on Twitter.
So I take back my Peyton Manning never beat Florida, even though that's a fact. But it's a fact.
You can't take back a fact. Well, I did and took back a fact.
I'm also starting to fall in love with the Tennessee Orange. Yes.
I used to say that the Tennessee Orange looked better on a girl and the burnt orange at Texas looked better on guys. Right now, the orange is popping.
And Rocky Top is an unbelievable song. Just Rocky Top is a cool place to say.
Like, yeah, let's go to Rocky Top. Hell yeah.
That's like an old, dusty book that you open and you're like, Rocky Top. So how are you going to celebrate? The thing is...
I smoked a cigar and I shouldn't have because cigars stink. I don't understand cigars.
You don't even inhale them. I inhale them just because if I'm smoking something, I might as well do it.
Right. It's hard for me not to.
But every time I smoke a cigar, maybe, I think it's just an acquired taste. I think there, some people just love cigars and I just am not one of those people.
But every time I smoke one, I'm like, why did I just lick the bottom of an ashtray? Yeah, it's a weird thing to enjoy since you can't actually pull the... It's like taking a spoonful of ice cream and not swallowing it.
Do you think it's because we've never smoked good cigars? No, I've smoked good cigars before, and good cigars are bad. Oh, they're even worse? I like bad cigars better.
I like black and mild more than I like a nice Cuban. Yeah.
But yeah, it was fun. It was a good time.
How are you feeling, Billy? I'm feeling great. I just wanted to comment.
I bought you this special Winston Churchill cigar. Okay.
From the cigar shop. Oh, no.
He's... No, we don't.
You know what? No, dude. Come on.
But you know what? Winston Churchill's not... What? They covered up his statue.

It's over.

He did have a great quote, though, which you can steal.

They said...

What'd he do?

The haters said...

What didn't he do, Billy?

The haters said that if Big Cat went to the SEC, he would get his neck rung like a chicken.

Yeah.

Some chicken, some neck.

Yeah.

Boom.

Got him.

Goosebumps.

Try again. I'm just really happy to be here.
Alright, cool.

Hank, number one hater.

Hank, aka Poopy Stinks.

I'm a glass half full guy, so I'm happy for you.

You're either going to be happy or

I was going to be happy because

you didn't have a national championship

and people were going to be that much hungrier.

I'm happy for you. Listen, the hunger will start

anew somewhere else. Not saying I'm leaving Tennessee.
It sounds like you've got one foot out the door. I'm not saying that.
Also, you haven't won a national championship by yourself. I'm just going to say that.
Suitcase Duggs. I have a fucking coaching staff.
What coach has ever won a national championship without a coaching staff? I'm sure lots of Madden players. We're talking about video games here.
Listen, Hank. I'm happy for you, though.
I'm happy for you. You really sounded.
Tonight was a coronation, not only of Big Cat as a coach, but of Big Cat as a delegate. I'm just saying there's room to grow.
I was two and two, and I was a mess, and I brought someone in to help me. I brought multiple people in to help me, and they did.
They brought back Composure Cat. You know what else tonight showed me is how big of assholes Major League Baseball is, how badly they fucked this up.
I mean, to be fair, it was very entertaining watching you play these video games. It's an awesome, awesome event that people get around.
But if there was any sort of baseball game going on, people would be tuning into that. It'd be the only game in town.
That would Top Chef. When and where.
When and where. That's what they're saying.
The baseball players, it's ridiculous that we're still like doing doing this because i i saw i think it was wednesday night maybe or tuesday night busher only was like looks like there's a deal in place and then the next day like nope just kidding it's still the same bullshit that the owners don't want to pay anyone uh until there's 50 games and credit to the players because they're genius. The players have played this so perfectly because the when and where tag that they all were tweeting just puts it all on the owners.
They're ready. They're ready to play.
You cannot blame them. I think the only one who's blaming them is Mad Dog Russo, and that's it.
Well, you have to have somebody on the contrarian side. He said his job is harder than Trevor Bowers.
I can't remember. He had an all-time ram.
Yes, I actually agree with that take. Getting there.
Well, no, getting on the air and talking about baseball when there's no baseball is harder than playing baseball. That's true, but being a Major League Baseball pitcher is pretty damn hard.
Yeah, it's not easy to do. But there was a takequake out there.
I wish I had it in front of me, but there was a writer who suggested that they bring George W. Bush back to be the commissioner of baseball, which I think should have been his job from the get-go.
He should have never gotten a problem. He would have dominated being being a commissioner of baseball there would have been no fucking tie in a all-star game there would

have been no lockout if george w bush was committed but now that people are like going to that i say

just let bob costas put his money where his mouth is and become commissioner baseball i love that

i love that just save baseball bob costas and uh george will yeah together co-commissioners yes

co-commissioners so yeah baseball still doing the thing epl is back i watched some epl this week

I don't know. baseball bob casas and and uh george will yeah together co-commissioners yes co-commissioners so yeah baseball's still doing the thing epl is back i watched some epl this week horse racing is back i've been watching i've been basically betting the ponies every single day so that's that's what we got for sports and well and fauci is back the boogeyman in the closet which i'm not saying he's not he's wrong because i actually do think we're kind of screwed uh but i also would wish...
You know what we need? We need the sensitive material warning you have on Instagram. When Fauci says there's not going to be football, there needs to be a sensitive material warning so I don't have to read those words.
Yeah, it's spooky to hear. And the U.S.
has kind of shifted into fuck it mode recently yeah we're full sent which is just we've we've been abiding that by these rules for a couple months now and so a lot of people are just like myself included i'm not washing my hands as much as i used to hand up on that one i probably should be touching my mustache right now we yeah we do we do need to take a step back because i think university of texas had like 13 football positive. See, sensitive warning material.
Don't do that. I didn't opt in.
But in classic offseason on the field news, you can set your watch to this one. Jamal Adams is upset with his contract.
Yeah. What is it? A day that ends in Y? Yes.
Yeah. He's I mean, maybe they should just figure out a way.
They're the crazy couple. That's like, OK, guys, every time we go to a bar, it ends in a fight.
We need to sit down and let's just decide to split up. Oh, yeah, it's a relationship that's lasted probably two years too long at this point.
Right. He just needs to find a new – he's Schrodinger's defensive back because he's a Jet and not a Jet, and he's been like that for the last couple years.
And the thing is, he i actually liked his uh his uh list of acceptable teams that he would go to it was the classic pete prisco here are the teams that made the off season last year and i'm gonna add one extra in right those are my teams right they're playing right so uh this is sports this is what we got video games and not much else video games and jamal adams not playing soccer yep this this Yep. This is actually, now that I'm thinking about it, we're being tortured.

Soccer is the only sport.

And you know what?

How did that happen?

And I don't hate soccer, but soccer is the only sport. Yeah, golf's back.

Are they golfing today?

Do they golf today?

I don't know.

Okay.

It's purgatory.

Wait, did they go golfing or did they play golf today?

There's a difference.

Ooh.

I think next week is a major.

No.

No.

No chance.

If next week's a major, I'm pumped.

Oh, they golf today.

It's not the Masters.

It's not the US Open.

It's not the Australian Open.

It's not the British Open.

It's not the French Open.

All right, it's not a major.

It's a big one.

It's not Wimbledon.

What is it?

The Buick 5000? What's that one tournament that Arnold Palmer played for the last time? The John Deere Open Invitational? What's going on? Waste Management. Yeah.
Waste Management is a cool one. But yeah, the Continental, the Marriott Hotel.
The Travelers. Oh, the Travelers.
That is a big one. Oh, that is a big one.
Yeah, that is a big one. It's not a major, but it's big.
You're thinking of the NBA playoffs. By the way, by the way, the big, big news is that we totally forgot to do it.
We're going to get to Fyre Fest in a second. Nick Merckx, which is an awesome interview you should listen to.
The big, big news is we have officially a bowl game for mayonnaise. Yes.
Did you see the Mayo Bowl? Yes, the Duke's Mayo Bowl. The Duke's Mayo Bowl.
Formerly the Belk Bowl. Now the Duke's Mayo Bowl.
I'm so excited. We should do a live watch party for this bowl game and see how many bottles of mayonnaise Billy can eat.
You know what? As a mayo boy, as a self-admitted mayo boy, I'm going to put my hand up. I love mayo.
Yeah, I'm going to say that Luke Keekly caught a lot of undeserved flack for his tomato sandwich. A good tomato sandwich in the summertime with salt, pepper, and mayonnaise.
Put a little bacon on that. I don't know.
I don't understand eating a sandwich that doesn't have meat in it. Mayo's gotten such a lot of beefsteak tomato.
But I understand. But that's like when they fucking give you a roasted carrot at one of those farm-to-table restaurants, which I'm still mad at, that I went to like four years ago.
If you are eating a meal, there has to be meat. Billy? Hey, guys.
I would love to eat stuff on camera for you guys, but there's too much soy in mayo. Oh, you don't want to be a soy boy? No, I'm not eating mayo.
There's too much soy. You don't want to be a soy boy? No, I don't want to be a soy boy.
Yeah. Well, your thoughts on Winston Churchill show that you're not a soy boy.
Nice. Mm-hmm.
All right. I just think you need to have meat.
If you're eating a meal, there has to be meat. Every now and then, maybe a little like, what do they call it, cereal? Yeah, I was going to say breakfast.
You can get by with some Lucky Charms. But still, breakfast is better with a couple sausage links.
I'm also going to say with breakfast cereal, you need a meat replacement, whether that's marshmallows. I consider marshmallows to be a meat equivalent when it's in a cereal bowl.
I'm trying to think of what meal I would eat without meat. Like maybe a pasta dish.
Ooh, yeah. Cacio e pepe pasta.
Mac and cheese. But it still would be better with meat.
Mac and cheese, I think, is better without meat. I like bacon.
Oh, I know. It's just like a good sausage.
Bacon. Crumble in there.
There's every single meal is better with meat. I can't think of what meal would you eat.
There's got to be something, right? Ice cream. Ice cream, yeah.
Well, that's not a meal. Dessert.
I make it a meal on Saturdays. Has anybody ever made dessert meat? Donuts? Donuts.
I eat donuts on Saturday, too. I now have people saying, like, it's 7 a.m., do the donut tweet.
And guess what? I like where I put myself. I box myself into a pretty nice corner that I have to eat donuts every Saturday.
A candy pork belly would be really, really good. There's something.
Come on. Someone has something.
It's dessert. The answer is dessert.
No, lasagna needs meat, too. Way better with meat.
Bad take, Hank. I hate lasagna.
I'm just throwing stuff out there. Dude, honestly, dairy products, meat, there's nothing.
There are certain things that are better, like chips and queso. I like queso better without meat.
No, that's not a meal, that's not a meal i'm not talking about i'm not talking about like appetizers like a pretzel is great but like a wrap meat you eat a wrap without meat in it i don't know pita is so mad at this segment uh what is the best meal without meat? Are we just missing something obvious?

Or is it obvious that everything is better with meat?

Pizza.

Pizza.

Pepperoni.

No.

Cheese pizza.

Come on.

But I think that might be the best.

That is the best.

It's either pizza or it's mac and cheese.

Yeah.

Cheese pizza is the best.

But I still would rather have pepperoni on it.

I just realized that cheese pizza and mac and cheese are essentially the exact same thing. Correct.
The dough is just given to you differently. Cooked harder.
Yeah. We're going to get right back to the show.
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All right, back to part of my take. Okay, Firefest of the week.
Hank, you begin. Billy.
Okay, Billy, you begin. So, we were playing the SEC championship game, and I was reaching for...
Me? No, he's on the coaching staff. You aren't, Hank.
PFT is on the team and coaching staff. Billy's on the coaching staff.
Muj is on the coaching staff. I'm on the coaching staff to the coaching staff.
Roan, Brandon Walker on the coaching staff. Hank, you are a hater.
So, Billy, wait. While you were in the SEC championship game, what happened? We were playing.
I was reaching for something on the floor, and then I was reaching for my spitter, and I ended up spilling dip spit all over myself on a live stream. Yeah, but then I poured water all over you later, so it washed off.
was no that was after i switched my shirt and then you poured water on me and then i had to get another shirt also uh my my fire fest that didn't happen was pft was like hey billy go get some water to pour on big cat after he wins and you went and got a bottle of pink whitney a bucket of pink whitney which makes no sense. You're just going to pour a delicious, might I add, liquor on me.
You're just going to waste a bunch of Pink Whitney. With a shitload of technology around me.
My computer, my phone, my controller, like the cameras, everything. You're just going to go full sentence.
So your fire fest was two days ago. You spilled dip spit on yourself.
Tough life. I actually think that's, you're at the perfect age to be walking around with a few stray stains here and there.
Like if you're 23 years old, I would expect that you would have some just random stains on you. Yeah.
I'm not living if you're 21. Yeah.
But I'd say if you're 23, I would expect that too. It's like 21 through 26 is that's prime stain.
I think I'm back in stain territory, by the way.

Once you become a dad, you can have miscellaneous.

Well, it's I would love to blame my son for it, but it is absolutely my fault because

I just look down on my shirt and I just be like, whoa, where'd this come from?

I would say the years that you should not have stains are where it's like socially unacceptable

to have stains would be 28 through 34.

Nice cut off. Yeah.
And then then again 40 to 53 okay uh also like and then 53 and up it's like who cares also like 15 to 18 because then it's really embarrassing yeah true yeah you gotta run a clean game yeah you can't talk to girls right those stains you just everyone's like oh they're stained kid they just assume it's jizz which it probably is most. Most likely is.
Hank, your Fyre Fest. My Fyre Fest, speaking of age, was my birthday on Saturday.
Oh, happy birthday, Hank. Corona.
Happy birthday, 27. You never really, I didn't really know what to do.
My girlfriend was like, what do you want to do? I was like, I don't really know. And I was like, let's go to a driving range.
I tried to think of something for an activity. And I rented a car for the month.
We drove all the way out to Long Island, went to a driving range, and then we walked... In Long Island? On Long Island, and we walked up, and they're like, you idiot, we're not renting clubs because of corona.
If you don't have your own clubs, you can't drive. Yeah, did you say it was your birthday? I didn't say it was my birthday.
What did you say? I just walked away with my putt in my hand. Did you say, who do you know who I am? Yeah.
I didn't. I didn't do that.
Is that part of my take? Ever heard of I, I did one of those, like, that makes a lot of sense. I'm an idiot.
Let's turn around and go home. Ah, you should have dropped a birthday on him.
Yeah. I was, I was more like, I was so embarrassed in that moment of like, you know, when you're like, of course, like, duh.
Why didn't I think of that? Where did that conversation go? Like when you, when you told Rhea that we can't go. She was right next to me.
Yeah. That, that look that you get.
Well, she didn't want to go anyway. So she was like, okay.
Yeah. But if, if you're on a date and you get that look from the person that you're taking on the day of just like I can't go.
She was right next to me. Yeah.
That look that you get. Well, she didn't want to go anyway, so she was like, okay.
Yeah, but if you're on a date and you get that look from the person that you're taking on the date of just like, I can't believe that I'm with somebody this incompetent. I've had that look many times before.
Well, she was in the position where it was like, I'm going to a driving range and it's my birthday, so she can't say she wants nothing to do with going to a driving range. Right, and then she got credit for it.
Yes, correct. She got full credit for going, even though, yeah, that's actually a huge win for her.
Right. So you guys took a nice drive, basically.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Coronavirus.
There was traffic, too, so it wasn't even... Took a drive in New York City.
Now that things are starting to open up... On New York City.
It's weird. I don't know if you guys have had the meeting someone yet, like meeting someone new, because I moved into a new building.
I'm meeting people, and you can't shake hands. So no matter what, the conversation starts in an awkward spot.
You know what? I actually don't mind this new normal because one, it eliminates the possibility of the awkward white guy dap, which is huge for me. Wow.
And two, you don't have to worry about getting caught in between like a handshake and like a pat on the back, that whole thing. The idea of saying like, hey i'm dan like hey i'm this person and and you're just standing like seven feet away from each other and you're like okay cool but in that moment you're both sharing the idea of like we're hey look at us together we're in this together we're both in fear for our lives you don't want to start it it just sucks i'm actually in that situation in the office now it's like but i kind of don't have permission to touch anyone ever.
I don't touch anybody, but I'm like, oh, are you a hand? I've seen you shake hands with multiple people. You can't.
If coronavirus is cured tomorrow, you still can't touch people in the office. Bill, your favorite emoji is the handshake emoji.
You're going around just pressing flesh with everything. So, I mean, are you a handshake? Are you down with handshakes? And then whatever they say, like, oh, me too.
And then it's a thing in common. It's a real-life meme, handshake emoji.
Oh, you do handshakes now? And they're like, yeah, I do a handshake. Oh, cool.
When you see someone, be like, I'm not allowed to touch you. Just say that.
And everyone else in the office, this goes for you guys. If Billy tries to shake your hand, notify us immediately.
Yes. Notify your authority.
See something, say something with Billy Football. We'll cut your hands off, Billy.
Yeah, just say, too, even if you give me consent, I am not allowed to touch you. All right, PFT, what's yours? My FireFest of the week is I don't own an Aura Titanium ring, and everybody in the NBA is getting one.
And now I didn't know what this thing was until about, I don't know, 30 minutes ago. Now, why the fuck don't I have my own or a titanium? Why doesn't everybody have a titanium ring that will tell you three days in advance if you're going to get the Rona? Wait, what is this? I didn't see any of this.
It's a ring they're making everyone wear in the NBA bubble and it tells you with 90% accuracy if you have symptoms of coronavirus three days before you'll start showing symptoms.

It essentially confirms what we all knew but didn't fully know that rich people just have medicine and technology that the rest of us can't have access to that will keep them alive forever. What I think this ring is is just somebody decided to make a wearable technology that didn't really have any sort of advanced ideas about how to detect coronavirus it just probably senses whether or not you cough and if it senses that you cough you like take you like upload the data onto your cell phone or whatever it's like oh shit i'm gonna get coronavirus but it's really just measuring if your body shakes who's gonna get have the first injury ring injury Ooh, injury like getting it caught on a rim getting it caught on a ping pong something this seems like could you imagine if that is what no i'm i'm not saying i'm not saying that i mean i have just saying god forbid if lebron broke his finger no it's not before the playoffs because of this corona ring god forbid it is 100 ja 100% JaVale McGee.
Yeah. Without a doubt.
He probably already hurt himself. Just trying to put it on.
But yeah, this ring is definitely one of those moments where you're like, God damn it. I knew it.
I knew it. These guys are just taking drugs that we don't know about.
They have technology we don't know about. They're all going to live to a billion years old.
This sucks. I saw the picture of the ring, and it looks sweet.
It's titanium on the outside. It's got infrared-looking stuff on the inside.
It actually does look like Lord of the Rings ring. Can I pause for a second? I've got to get to my fire press.
But this app that's making everyone look female, it's funny for the coaches.

A couple of our coworkers, like Dana just tweeted a picture of himself and he, like, I want to fuck him. What is going on? Let me see.
That's weird. Like, this is, I was like, who is that? It's also like.
It's a hot ass chick. You know, I feel like you can only say this so many times before people just have to figure it out themselves.
But it's also like, it's definitely not a good thing that people are outwardly putting out pictures of themselves looking like a girl. Like that's going to end up, it's not going to end up in the right thing.
It's going straight to China. All the space technology apps.
Right. Without a doubt.
We've learned this lesson. It basically is every six months we have to relearn this lesson.
I've also noticed that most people who are uploading pictures of them looking like a woman are the same people that made fun of me for in a dress.

Interesting.

Oh.

But a lot of these pictures, people are posting it like it's their thirst trap.

Yeah, I mean, Billy wants to fuck Vibs.

Billy's showing us a picture of Vibs like, damn.

Like, Dana posted this picture.

Does she work here? To show people how hot he is as a girl.

Yes.

This is not okay.

As I got turned on by Dana right there.

And actually, you know what?

I have no problem with it.

All right, my Fyre Fest is shoes.

So I finally sprung and bought a pair of shoes that I had my eyes on for a very long time,

very expensive.

I texted Hank, who loves shoes, and I also knew that he would love these pair of shoes.

And he just texted me back, and he said, oh, yeah, Rhea got those for valentine's day and i just had been too scared to wear them and then what'd he do the next day he wore them before i could get mine so he just basically cucked me that's what that's a good play by hank yeah i know it's gonna happen i knew it was gonna happen but i'm just so frustrated because it's like i was eyeing these shoes for so long. I finally came in my side.
You're getting permission to wear. I never would have bought them because they're expensive.
I never would have bought them on my own. Yeah, so it's kind of bullshit.
I should actually just write scribble on them, like bought with my own money. You know what you have to do next time? Just like tell Hank that you got a pair of shoes that you didn't.
And just he's going to go out and buy it before you spend a lot of money. And the worst part is Big Cat, he did reach out.
He's like, you're going to love these shoes. And kind of knew.
I have a feeling he's going to be these shoes. If he just didn't do that, he would have worn them in the office before I did because they're so nice.
You know when you have something so nice, you're like, I'm scared to wear this because I'm going to ruin it or whatever. I was waiting for the right moment.
Big Cat would have worn them to the office and got credit for having them. Here's the thing.
The shoes you wore wore On ping pong Oh the shoes that Got your ass beaten Yeah 4-0 Here's the thing I will outwear those I will wear those All the time Yeah I will outwear you That's fine When I wear them I will flex harder When I do wear them Oh really Yeah But everyone will be like Oh those are Big Cat shoes Incorrect Because I wore them first But I'm going to i'm going to wear them so much that people will be like that's anonymous it's not

about but it's on the record it's who says it louder no i'm gonna know it is exactly no the

annals of history will prove me right now now the annals of history annals of history bill you okay

you got something stuck in your tooth you do actually have something stuck in your tooth

it's anal whatever

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it's anal it's anal it's anal it's anal it's anal You got something stuck in your tooth? You do actually have something stuck in your tooth. Is it anals or anals?

It's anals.

Whatever.

It's anals of history.

Yeah.

You going to do an all tonight?

That's why they call it going back through time.

All right, let's get to our interview.

We have Nick Merks on the podcast.

Awesome, awesome interview.

If you don't know who it is, it is probably one of the biggest Twitch streamers out there.

Something a little different.

Not our usual interview, but that's what we're trying to do right now because there's not a lot of sports going on. So we're trying to give you something different.
Yeah, do that. Chug it.
No, I don't even know. There's so many loose bottles around here.
Shout out to TJ, by the way. Shout out to TJ.
TJ's the man. Anytime you take a sip out of a mystery can and it's not dip spit, that is a huge win.
But yeah, shout out TJ. Are you ever going to rid of that bottle over there there's no oh that's a good one there's a top on that's been there for forever man top on that's disgusting notice there's a top that is absolutely bottles with tops allowed and it's not no way it's gonna spin bark city it's not overflowing who would who would do that um all right let's get to nick merks uh before we do that

we're gonna get right back to the show this is an ad for roundup for lawns it kills weeds down

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follow pesticide label directions all right back to part of my take. Okay, here he is, Nick Merx.
Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. Legend of the game, it's Nick Merx.
If you are someone who has watched video games on Twitch, if you even know anything about video games or Twitch, you have heard of him. He's one of the biggest Twitch stars out there.
One of the greatest video game players ever. Stop me when I'm not making any sense anymore.
Okay. Keep going.
Three million YouTube subscribers over a million Twitch subscribers. People watching on Twitch.
Pretty much the biggest thing since sliced bread.

And he's six feet tall.

Six feet tall.

You're goddamn right.

His only fault that I could find is that he roots for the Michigan Wolverines.

But that's it.

That was literally it.

So good to have you on, Nick.

It's been a long time coming.

We're excited to talk to you and actually kind of understand how Twitch works.

For sure.

Happy to be here, man. Awesome.
This is lit. i've never been on a podcast before yeah when you say that how is that possible is there is there is the twitch world and podcast world that's separate no i mean i don't think so it's just we it's like i kind of feel like i'm already on a podcast you know if i'm streaming i got the camera you got the mic you chat you know they're always telling me to yeah they always telling me to jump on a podcast.
I just feel like I'm always on a podcast. It just doesn't happen to be available on Spotify or iTunes, but it's out there.
You can find clips of Nick Merckx talking into a camera if you really want to. You were just telling us before you joined, it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
You said you just woke up. That's the Gamer Life schedule for you? You waking up at high noon? noon yeah you know you just get into a rhythm man you start playing a video game and and uh kind of like you know when i was a little kid you just you just keep playing and playing and playing and then it's then it's one and then it's two and it's four then the birds are chirping and you're just like ah shit dude i fucked up you know but uh that's my life man i play all night and i sleep all day, you know.
So talking about your childhood, at what point were you like, oh, my God, this is going to be it. Like, this is what I want to do because everyone played video games as a kid.
But what point were you like, this is it? Y'all want to get into this part. Yeah.
Oh, man. Well, I mean, I don't know.
At what point did you guys feel like you wanted to run a podcast, you know? Once I got 30. Yeah, when I got fired from literally every other job available.
And I was like, yeah, sure, I'll just keep talking. Oh, dude, same here, man.
Like the failures in life just kind of push you to where we are today. I mean, me, I tried a lot of different things.
But the one thing that was consistent, you know, alongside me trying all these different things was always gaming. I mean, I loved gaming.
I always wanted to do it. But back when I started, nobody really knew that this was going to turn into this.
So we were all just kind of winging it, kind of like we are today, man. I mean, it's pretty crazy what gaming has turned into.
But when I started streaming, there was no real way to make any money. We were just kind of doing it for fun, being able to talk to a chat box and be be interactive with people and like kind of entertain but from your home was super cool but just no money i mean we were doing college we had a part-time job you know i mean i knew i was good i was beating ass every fucking night man i mean no matter what no matter what game halo cod gears of war which is beating ass so i knew i was good but i had no idea what turn into this you know what i mean yeah what game was it like when you were growing up or just starting starting to uh to game competitively that you knew that okay if i can dominate at this game then i'm actually on a world-class basis shit i mean bro i it's gonna be tough for me to hammer this point home because like it is you y'all just don't don't know like i'm a lot of people like like when I came up nobody knew it was going to be tough for me to hammer this point home because you all just don't know.

A lot of people, when I came up, nobody knew it was going to turn into this.

I know I'm kind of saying the same things, but ignorance is bliss.

We were just beating the shit out of each other, having fun, going to play for little tiny tournaments.

But it was never a goal to do it for the rest of our lives because we didn't think we would ever be able to.

And then when JustinTV turned into TwitchTV, gaming just started excelling, man. More and more people got into gaming.
More and more people were curious about gaming. I started seeing the prize pools of these tournaments go from $5,000 to $100,000.
I was like, wait a second. This is getting kind of weird.
But I mean, dude, this big, big boom of success and then then now it is kind of where it is today. But, dude, when I first started, we just had no idea that it would be this.
You know what I'm saying? So it was never a plan. I think that's the part that people can't wrap their head around, myself included.
Like, before coronavirus and Hank being like, hey, you should start getting on Twitch, I had no idea really what was going on.

I'd pop on every now and then watch something, but I never really understood how big of an audience there is.

How many people watch your Twitch on just a regular random night?

What's the average amount of people just to put it into context for people?

We get like 40,000 people, man, in the stream every night.

Crazy.

And then what's the peak that you've had? Dude, I've had like 180,000 viewers at one point. That's nuts.
So that's the part that like people who don't watch this, who are listening right now, and they're like, oh, it's just video games. I thought the same thing three months ago.
Well, you were on stream the other night balling. You had like 100 and hundred and something, didn't you? Playing the NCAA joint.

Yeah, it was, I mean, when we started

doing it, it was like, holy shit, there's 40, 50,

the national championship had

126,000. I was like, this is

insane how many people

are part of this. No host, no raid,

nothing, just you.

What are those? Explain those terms.

Well, I have no idea what you just said.

Yeah, alright, so like a host on Twitch TV is if someone has a lot of viewers or whatever and they and they want to host your channel they can send their stream and all their viewers to to your stream essentially and then like a raid is kind of like another thing like that instead of hosting the channel so it brings like that streamer's picture on your picture you can just go on a raid you can send everybody over there and you don't bring up their picture on your picture you know what i mean but hosting the raid is super cool and it's it's a great way to kind of like give back to like a smaller community whatnot i mean shit you hosted me twice and you you have more viewers than me both times big cat it's like a retweet no big deal so wait that's all love baby that is all love so all right that's Explain this to me. This is the part I can't understand with Twitch.

And maybe you have a different experience because you've been doing it for a very long time.

And you also, I was reading up on you.

You give back to your community.

You do a lot of cool things.

How do you get it so that you don't get bullied by all the chat?

Like, I just get bullied.

Yeah, dude.

I mean, bro, I got a lot of friends like Lowe's. Lowe's just gets bullied the whole time too man i mean i it's kind of like an energy man i don't know i get bullied too bro like they don't they think i'm five seven and shit they really think i'm five seven fuck yeah that sucks how tall are you yeah it sucks man people i'm six feet man people come up to me when they meet me a person they're like dude, dude, I thought you were like five, six, man.
I'm like, yo, fuck you, bro. It is kind of nice to hear that sometimes.
Like this dude came up to me on the street the other day. He was like, PFT, you're a lot taller than I thought you'd be.
And I'm like, how tall did you think I was? Like if you think that five, nine and a half, almost three quarters is tall. But how do you stop the like trolling? Do you just not read them? Like, what I have is a lot of times is people will just say, like, oh, your mic is broken.
And it's not, but they'll just keep it. They'll spam it.
And I'm so stupid that I stop everything to check. And, like, I just get to my head.
How do you stop that? I don't think you do. I think you just embrace it.
Like now you're the guy with the broken fucking mic. You know what I mean? Yeah.
I mean shit's working. Broken mic, 120,000 viewers.
Suck my ass. What about a lag switch? They claim that I have a lag switch that I change the settings.
I hit the lag switch and then when the game's lagged out, I change everything, cheat, and then come back. What's that? They're just messing with you, man.
They know you're not like a gamer gamer. Right.
I've never felt so old. I've never felt so old than I do on a Twitch chat.
Does anyone ever accuse you of pre-recording your stuff? Oh, a couple times. But everything's, for me, I'm a really interactive streamer.
You know, I'm always talking shit to the chat and having fun and reading stuff, so it's kind of hard to do that. But then they'll accuse you of pre-recording that to make it seem like that's a perfect way that it would seem like it's not pre-recorded.
I flipped it on the chat. Now I think the chat's pre-recorded.
Oh, there you go. I think they're doing it.
We think you're pre-recorded. Yeah, right.
It works It works. Speaking of pre-recorded, is this kind of different vibe? See, we're not live right now.
Right, yeah. It's a little different, right? You can say anything you want.
Chop it all up. Yeah.
Bleep out whatever you need. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, I used to do vlogging on YouTube.
I did a few of them, and I never liked it. It was always weird to me that I was like talking to the camera like, hey, what's

up guys? How you doing?

I just, there wasn't anybody, I'm talking

to myself, man. You know what I mean? At least I'm

talking to you guys right now, which makes it a little bit

more comfortable. But imagine

just talking to yourself, just vlogging.

Isn't that kind of weird? It is. You're like talking

to a future audience that you hope

will show up and watch it at some point.

I never liked it. Are your

thumbs insured? My dad

was trying to get me to get this hands insurance

Thank you. I probably should, man.
It's getting to that point now where I should probably get my... Well, my uncle has his hands insurance.
He's a doctor. Oh, I thought you were going to say he's like a watch model or something.
No, no. I mean, he's an orthopedic surgeon.
He's pretty important hands, man. He works on a lot of athletes and shit, you know.
But I said, we're all at the family dinner, you know, having a good time. And my dad made a joke about getting the hands in the shirt.
And my uncle was like, no, you really should. You know, I guess people do that.
So I don't know. It's a lot of money, though, man.
Yeah. So I read as well that your your dad was initially like fuck this my son's not a video game player how was it trying to convince him and what was the moment where he was like you know what this actually is a great living and you're having fun yeah well i mean or do you guys come from like sport families and i i would imagine you do man like you know your pauses into sports brothers and sisters and stuff right I mean like you know my my house growing up we like my brothers and sisters we all played sports my dad played college sports my uncle played college sports my grandpa played college sports um my dad coached college football who have been for eight years that's why we're go blue fans over here but uh I mean you know the list goes on and on and I got a really really crazy family when it comes to sports.
So sports was the norm. This gaming shit was like, nah.
My dad was the one dad and never – I mean all my friends were cool playing video games. My dad was never about it, man.
I mean it was get the fuck outside, go get dirty, go do shit. I mean just typical standard stuff.
It really was like that at my house. You know what I mean? Don't get up from the table until your plate is clean.
Go outside, play basketball for 10 hours in the backyard and then go have a fight. I mean, it was that's all we fucking did.
But, you know, I had a friend that was it was just him. He had no brothers or sisters.
He was, you know, he was by himself. And he used to get all the systems, the halos, the Gears of Wars, the Call of Duties, everything right when it came out, man.
I would go sneak over to his house and play all the time. But I was better than all my friends that played over there, man.
I mean, I was way better at him, you know? So it was, it just, it was a long process, man. My dad just had to learn that like there was actual, there was actual cash to be made, man.
You know what I mean? Right. Long time though, man.
A lot of fights. Me and my dad did not get along.
High school teachers used to, you used to call, uh, people on them and shit for the things he'd say in front of other people and do in front of other people. Me and my dad used to get in fights all the time.
I mean, it was not okay. Yeah, yeah.
It turned out great. Now my dad's my superhero.
Listen, man, I'm good at perspective type stuff. You know, if I was a college football coach type father and my son was just not doing the sport thing and he was being real combative.
And I was also an as a kid man i was a really tough kid to raise suit like a lot of attitude problems but then again bro i had no fucking sleep i go to school all day and i play games all night you're tired all the time imagine you being on no sleep you're not gonna be a very happy fucking thing so you know what i mean it's just a lot of problems man you know what i mean what's the longest you've ever slept oh my god dude i used to like hibernate i just i used to like do over the weekend i pull like a 13 hour shift man la la land i wake up mouth glued together can't even open my eyes you know it's like damn well on the other side what's the longest stream that you've ever had or not even stream what's the longest even before the streaming days that you've ever sat at a console and played oh man well before the stream because the streaming you know you like kind of how we're doing it we're you know we're entertaining we're talking we're high energy and stuff so that's a different type of vibe but when back when i was a kid when you weren't doing all that you just play them out i brought down for like 40 hours and shit playing halo 2 shut up 40 hours yeah yeah we just eat pizza rolls and ranch and fucking play Halo, man. What's the fuel? Was it Mountain Dew keeping you up, or did you dip in a jolt? Red Bull? Red Bull Zero? Oh, my God.
You remember? Yeah, of course. We did the Coca-Cola, the vanilla one.
Oh, man. We used to dominate that shit.
The vanilla Coke? Oh, yeah. No, not orange.
It's just vanilla man incredible what um are you are you a controller player or a computer player hell yes controllers the answer so what's the what is that explain that divide explain what uh the difference is between the two to people who probably don't really understand like playing video games on a computer how does that make sense? Well, you got this. Controller.
And you got this. You got a mouse.
Okay. And I mean, you know, a keyboard, of course.
But I mean, the difference is there. The thing is, is over the past couple years, man, controller players have been teeing up against keyboard and mouse players, which usually doesn't happen.
Because when we were growing up, computer games were computer games, and console games were console games. But now you're getting this blend, like we're being put in the same area.
We're beating the shit out of each other. So you know what comes with that, right? It's the shit talking and the battles.
Totally, man. It's across the board, man.
At the highest level, at the lowest level, in the middle, and everybody's just teed up against each other. Is one easier than the other? No.
I mean, I think that growing up, most people started on a controller. So it's what we did.
We all started on a controller. And then if you had a lot of money and you were doing well, then you could maybe afford a whole PC and a keyboard and a mouse.
You know, so they like to call it like, you know, that stuff. But the fact of the matter is that most of us...
I'm saying, they don't really get to buy a computer and a mouse, man. You know what I mean? So a lot of these motherfuckers that went to keyboard...
You don't blurt this one out. A lot of these keyboard and mouse players started on console and controller and they forgot where they came from.
So are you like a hero in the controller world? No, man. I'm just stubborn.
Okay, yes. Yes.
You're a hero in the controller world. That kind of answers that.
What about aimbots? Hank likes to accuse everybody that's better than him for using an aimbot. Yeah, that's the way, right? If they're any better, they're obviously cheating.
If they're worse, you're better than them. They're cheating..
Has there ever been a big aimbot scandal in professional esports?

I think so.

I'm not really in the drama side of things, man, which is kind of crazy because I know y'all heard about that other bullshit.

But I mean, I'm not a real big drama guy.

I'm never really in it.

I'm never in the fucking loop.

You know what I mean?

I'm never in the loop.

I don't know shit about nothing until it's brought up to me.

So as far as drama type stuff, I know it happens. I don't know where, though.
What about your drama with 100 Thieves? Yeah, yeah. That was drama.
Yeah, a little bit of drama. That's the only time I've ever been in drama.
But I actually liked reading up about it. I liked how you handled it.
You're just like, this wasn't what I was promised, and I'm out. Well, fuck, you know.
So how does it work? Straight up. How do video game teams work? Like, explain that to me.
Like a gaming team? Yeah, like you were on a team. Now you're on a different team.
Like how does it – what are the benefits? What does it mean? I mean exposure. You know, you're linked up with other big guys.
You know, you might get a salary. You might not.
They take care of you. You know, there's all kinds of benefits on being a part of a gaming organization.
You know what I'm saying? FaZe is, dude, they've been taking care of me like crazy, man. They gave me the hookup.
They let me do my own thing but support everything that I do, which is a rare thing, by the way. But they're awesome.
The 100 Thieves is also a great gaming organization, too. I think it kind of got lost in the sauce when all that shit transpired you know i never meant to like drag hundred thieves because i got a lot of friends on that organization like it's kind of like uh i don't know uh two two two two nfl teams right and you got a bunch of coaches you got a bunch of players just because you have one you know dispute with a guy doesn't mean the whole fucking teams, you know, right? And you got a bunch of coaches, you got a bunch of players, just because you have one, you know, dispute with a guy doesn't mean the whole fucking teams, you know, right? Yeah.
How does that work with, with coaches? Is it basically like a player run organization, or do you actually have somebody that supervises and is like watching everybody and like giving them advice and being like, no, this guy's not as good. We need to replace him.
Yeah. Dude, you know, I really don't know.
I mean, I, when I was coming up in the esports scene as a as a player we didn't really have coaches but now it's like full-blown coaches and routines and they have like they have like a dietician they got them they got them doing exercises i'm serious it's like full-blown you know what i mean what kind of exercises do you do me i just work out man i got a little home gym over here now i love it bro i i did two or three months no gym i lost like 20 pounds i was getting a little bit frail starting to be a little worried about this smitty beef that he might be able to take me in the uh in the uh in the head on head but now that i'm back in the gym and shit i'm working out again i think i'll be all right you know what you took some time off from streaming what uh did it did you notice when you came back that it was like, oh, shit, I'm way out of practice? Is it similar to sports in that respect? That if a baseball player doesn't pick up a bat for a month, their timing is all off? Was it like that for you? It totally can be. But it can also not be.
Sometimes people get burnt out, man, and they do need a break. Breaks are good.
And I think even at the highest level of sports, you know, like maybe NBA players, NFL players, a lot of those guys, I bet you that they would say the same thing, that taking a break every now and then is really good for their body and their mind, you know, just to keep everything sharp. And I think the same thing can be said for gaming, you know.
You burn out if you don't take breaks. And you'll come back after a week and not playing sometimes and just fry everybody.
But then again, you can come back sometimes and be washed up you gotta work on your game again you know how what are you ranked overall in call of duty right now like can you just beat everyone no no i'm not that good man i mean i'm i'm good i think the thing about me if i had to like grade myself i don't really like talking about me and grading me i let other people do that shit for me but if you're gonna make me do it i think that if if i had to if i had to carve it up for anybody i'd say that no matter what game no matter when i always find a way to make some real fucking noise and not a lot of people can say that you know what i mean i can go from from fortnite to call of duty to gears of war to halo and i will always make some guarantee that. Just give me some time.
Let me work on my game, and I'm fucking in there. So are you saying noise in the game, or are you saying noise in terms of entertaining Twitch? I'm going to rock some heads.
I'm going to entertain some people on Twitch, and I'm going to do my thing. Yeah, yeah.
No, for sure. Do you ever go back and watch film of yourself and be like, hey, here's where I can improve? Bro, I used to, man.
But i'm just not a a hundred percent comp player but i think that if you are and you're not doing the twitch streaming thing you're not trying to entertain or make content i think it's really important to go back and watch your stuff just so you can see the mistakes you make and the even the things you do well and just study study study study i mean that's all it is right just in your mind i've got i got a really dumb question question i probably should have asked this earlier but uh what does merc mean it's like a hired assassin oh okay i've heard it as a noun like a mercenary i've also heard it like i just merc this dude like a verb you guys ever play a splinter cell or no no you play a game oh my god man it was uh it was like spies versus mercs it was 2v2 and the spies could go up behind the merc And grab his neck And crack it real quick It was a wild game bro That was when my attitude Was the worst I was playing that What do you mean Your attitude was the worst You just yelling at people Oh dude When I was like 12 or 13 I grabbed that neck And said get fucked Motherfuck You know You know what I mean My mom would come And be like What are you talking Like that for Dude my mom My mom heard me cussing one time on the Xbox, and she got so mad at me that she put my Xbox in a trash bag. You want to fucking cuss? And she puts it in the trash bag and runs out to the front yard.
I'm like, what are you doing? I'm following her. What are you doing? What are you doing? And she smashes the Xbox on the ground like 10 times.
The whole time, like screaming, you want to cuss? You want to fucking cuss? I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, my God.
That was the worst. It was nuts, bro.
When I was first trying to learn how to play Halo back in college, I was just getting killed every two seconds by an 11-year-old. And then that 11-year-old was just masturbating.
That was you. That was me.
You probably killed me, like, 50 times. Wiped the floor.
Beat you up, man. Yeah, you made me quit video games.
Yeah. I was such a nerd, man.
Like, if I'm, oh, my God. If I can go back.
What's the reaction? I would say it's probably better now than it was five years ago. But what's the reaction when you are talking to a girl at a bar or meeting up, going on a date, and you're like, I'm a video game player? Oh, boy.
Well, I got a wife, you know. You know what I mean? So you did that.
I had did that i had to do that shit no more thank god yeah yeah right congrats way to go nick marks gg baby we win um dude it was tough man i mean dude even like no no matter how you cut it if you're talking to somebody anybody that doesn't know shit about gaming and you tell them you're a gamer do you oh Man, it's just not a good vibe, bro. You say gamer, they think you're talking to somebody, anybody that doesn't know shit about gaming, and you tell them you're a gamer, oh, man, it's just not a good vibe, bro.
Yeah. You say gamer, they think you're a fucking little nerd loser, right? Or you could say that you're a live streamer, and then they think you're doing, like, fucking porn or something.
Yeah, yeah. You're a little cam boy or something, right? Yeah.
Like, no matter what you do, or you talk to an older guy, you say, you know know i i'm a streamer on twitter wait wait wait so people just like watch you play games yeah oh fuck off man here we go and he's like well i gotta start gaming i go yeah maybe you should and it's just fucking that we we deal with the same thing when there's no cool way to say i'm a podcaster like when you say it it, people are just like, oh, everyone's got a podcast now.

It's like, well, it's actually our job.

Me and Larry talk about shit all day in the barn, man.

This shit would be a huge.

Yeah, right.

So how do you explain it?

Let's say you're at a wedding and you get sat at a table with some older people,

but people that you want to get along well with.

You want to make a good impression on them.

They ask you what you do.

What's your line?

No, no, no.

No, no, no.

See, you're bugging.

See you about it. I just want to lay in bed with my dog and my cat and my girl.
I want to stay outside by the pool. I want to play my games.
I want everybody to leave me the fuck alone. That's where I'm at.
I've had so many of those conversations, bro, that I've realized it's a waste of energy. You're not going to get anywhere.
So when did you hit that? When did you hit that point? Two years ago, man. Well, you know what? Spent a little time in L.A., man.
L.A. is kind of energy.
You're not going to get anywhere. When did you hit that? When did you hit that point? Two years ago, man.
Spent a little time in LA, man. LA is kind of rough.
You moved out to LA. It's a lot of people acting like they give a shit, but really they're just trying to work an angle.
I don't know about LA, man. A little fast-paced for me, bro.
You know what I mean? Somebody is always looking for a handout handout like someone's looking if you can't do anything to advance their career then they're like okay I'm gonna move on and talk to somebody else so I had a lot of those conversations because I'm this new guy and so I'm trying to you know I'm just I'm talking to neighbors I'm talking you know just normal conversations I do I used to enjoy talking to people a lot more than I do now I mean seriously but it always gets to always gets to, like, the old Nick Merckx thing, you know? And then it just turns into, like, oh, shit, like, man, I got this company, bro. Like, oh, shit.
Dude, we put, like, reverse osmosis filters and, like, we could maybe, like, maybe you could put one on your stream. And I'm like, I don't know if you know how that shit works, man.
But, yeah, let's sell a reverse osmosis filter to the fucking kid in college. Like, what? No.
That's just crazy, bro. Have you had a moment where you thought, like, what's the – how long can you game for? Because this is fascinating to me because gamers right now, you're first generation kind of gamers in terms of you just talked Justin TV to Twitch.
You guys are the guinea pigs in a lot of ways of the first generation making a real true living. And at what point will you have to hang up the sticks? And like, have you talked about that at all? Not to be depressing, but it's just interesting.
No, no, yeah. No, I don't, you know, I haven't thought about it too much.
I guess maybe like if I was more like a Tim a Tim to Tapman or like a Dr. Disrespect or some shit, and I was getting on Twitch every day and just getting my ass kicked, then maybe it'd be time for me to hang it up or something, you know? But that hasn't happened.
You're still working. No, I'm beating ass, bro.
As long as I'm beating ass, I'm fine. But if I start getting on every day and I'm getting throttled, I'm going to take a look in the mirror, man.
I'm going to say, hey, maybe we start doing some business or something, you know, because it's a little crazy. You know what I mean? Yeah.
How dumb does the NCAA feel not getting ahead of this and, like, not establishing college esports before people realize that they could make a shitload of money doing it on their own? Well, the NCAA is a tricky conversation. There's a lot going on there.
You know what I mean? I mean, we're getting to this weird point in time where college athletes are, there's talks about

them getting paid and all this.

It's just weird, man. NCAA

has always been hard to do anything with, I've

come to understand. You know?

Anything. Yeah.
Like, bring

out a new game. No, like

anything. It's wildly hard

in NCAA.

Like, you know, the NFL is real

different with that, right? It's just the NCAA

just no matter, I think we've tried to do a few things with those guys, man. It's just, nah.
Well, they got to always make sure they're getting their cut. That's rule number one for the NCAA.
That's why they exist. Yeah, of course.
We're going to get back to Nick Merckx in a second. We're going to get right back to the show.
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All right, back to part of my take. How quickly, if I just gave you a game, a video game that you've never played before, how quickly could you beat our ass in it? Oh, dude, that's what I'm good at.
That's's the only thing i'm good at in this world so if i gave you like do you play madden at all or no well i used to i went to the madden challenge in chicago when i was like 15 actually so yeah i made it yes top top eight i made it to the top no was top eight or top 16 well the final like four went on that bus you guys remember that they put them on the bus yes you sure you remember that yes i remember the bus i kind of felt like a yes like no it was on that bus. You guys remember that? They put him on the bus? Yes.
You sure you remember that?

Yes, I remember the bus.

I kind of felt like a yes.

No, it was on ESPN2 or something. I remember it.

It was a big deal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was a mad bus.

I almost fucking made it on when I was 15.

I stayed in a hostel in Chicago just to wake up the next day and almost make it.

Almost made it.

And your dad was actually proud of you that moment.

I'm shocked.

He was mad that I wasn't home throwing football. He was like, yeah, it's football adjacent.
Is there a game that you've picked up that you've just been like, I suck at this one. I'm never playing this one again.
Like any game that's not a shooter, I'm just not into them, bro. If it's got a gun in it, I'm, oh man, I'm there.
Are you good at shooting in real life? Yeah. Great.
I went to the Navy. I got what is kind of like, bro, everybody that's in the military that like has been in the military for a while, they're all going to fucking laugh at this.
But I got my expert pin in a, in a, in a pew pew. Really? Hey bro.
I was one, like, like eight kids in my 200 person class that got an expert pin. And then when we started shooting big guns, man, I'm pretty straight shot, bro.
Damn. All right, so I guess that actually makes me feel better.
It's just a natural thing. That's the part of video games that I think people can't really understand is there is natural talent, just like sports, where I could play video games for 1,000 hours, the next straight 1,000 hours, if I could figure out a potion and not sleep, and I still would get my ass kicked by you because you naturally are just better.
You know what I mean? People think video games just like whoever plays the most. Yeah, well, you know, it's a blend, right? It's a blend.
Right, but that's kind of like sports. Yeah, that's sports.
Right, you get some of these freakly genetic, you know, LeBron James dudes. They're just wild.
It's like, holy shit. You know, but then when that meets preparation and time and everything you put into it, it's like, holy shit, dude.
Right. Right? Same thing with gaming.
Yes. Where do you fall on the big rivalry between Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe? King of Kongs.
Fistful of quarters. I don't even know what you're talking about right now, bro.
Billy Mitchell? The GOAT? The GOAT gamer of all time? First person to get a million points in Donkey Kong? Yeah, we're looking like losers. Damn.
Damn. It's Donkey Kong, though, bro.
You know what I mean? Yeah, we just lost him. I'm more like a golden eye.

Yeah.

Did you used to play the last Call of Duty of World War II?

Yeah, for like a week, and then I was depressed.

I got fucking depressed.

You know that?

Yeah.

I just ran around with a shotgun and got killed like 40 times, but I got like 15 kills.

Did you like the game?

Yeah, I liked the game.

I like history.

Yeah. No? I game.
I like history. Yeah.

No?

I felt like I was there.

Yeah, I mean, there's some intense moments.

When you're playing World War II Call of Duty and you're playing it for like 8, 9, 10 hours a day, like a lot of these kids were, right?

And you're literally in a fucking trench with the old grenade yelling shit for 10 hours a day. When you you're done it's not like your mind just walks out of the trench yes it's i think the part that always kind of not creep me out but like fucked me up a little when i was playing that game was when you'd hear like a german a nazi yell and then a dog attack you and you'd be like whoa this, this is a little too spot on.
That's what I'm saying.

Well, I mean, I don't know.

I wasn't there.

But let me tell you, man, I was depressed playing that fucking game.

And then I go over to Fortnite and it's green and there's a butterfly in a mountain with a cabin, you know, and I'm fucking happy again, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So when you first started getting into Fortnite, you obviously like made some noise and made a name name for yourself but would you have considered yourself one of the best fortnite players in the world in the very beginning yeah so what people do on battle royale games you guys is they they go for kill records so they see they say okay so duo playlist or it's a trio playlist me me and my two buddies and trios are going to try to get the most kills that excuse me any, any trios has ever gotten in the game, right? And those videos usually do really well on YouTube. It brings a lot of, like, you know, awareness to whoever gets it, and, you know, there's a lot of eyeballs on that.
So what we did is we got the duo kill record and the squad's kill record in Fortnite really, really early. So, yeah, think about it.
All the people in the world playing the game, and I have the duos and the squad's kill records. Mm-hmm.
I mean, it's got to say something. It can't just be luck at that point.
Yes. That's definitely something.
Who's the guy? Well, I'm just saying. Who's the guy that you can't beat? Like a – Or who's the guy that you know when you're playing against him, and you're like, he is on my level.
Oh, well, me and this guy, Aiden. You guys know Aiden? Hank knows him.
Hank knows him. Smitty.
He's coming to the office. The guy under me knows? Okay, well, me and Aiden have been at it like a shit ton, bro.
And that kid can play anything, man. You know, he's really good at Call of Duty.
He's really good at Fortnite. And every time we link up and play against each other, it's a fucking mission.
It's a mission. That must be exciting.
Would you rather be... It's I'm U of M and he's Ohio State.
Like that's... Well, so then you lose every time.
Well, okay, as of recently. You know, but there was a time where I was beating ass, you know? Oh yeah, like when Brady Hoke was around.
When you're playing on Atari, right? Brady Hoke. Yeah.
Right, yeah. By the way, we way, we actually are friends with Coach Harbaugh, so we have his back, but are

you, as a Michigan guy, do you have him on the hot seat, or are you calling?

I mean, I'm not a friend with Coach Harbaugh.

Okay, but we are.

But I don't want to shit on your friends.

Right.

But you don't shit away.

We'll just defend him.

Yeah, go ahead.

Here's what you're going to experience right now.

No, no, no.

Listen, I, you know. Who can you do better? You can't do any better.
I have perspective. I have perspective.
My dad was a college football coach in that locker room. For who? Lloyd Carr? Bo Schemblecker and Gary.
Okay. Listen, man.
Listen. A lot of these are his opinions, but I've listened and I've watched and I've applied what he said to me when I'm watching and when I'm there.
I've been there. I've met some of these players, Chase and all these guys.
Dude, the energy is just not there. It's not the same.
It's a different energy. You got coaches from that locker room leaving there and going to coach at Ohio State.
I know. Back in the day, that never fucking happened.

It's like – it's like – it's the worst thing.

It's like betrayal.

So that obviously tells me –

It's like going from phase to 100 Thieves.

Oh, come on.

Ever, man, it's a rivalry.

A hundred-year rivalry, man.

It's just – like, you know, there's so much that went into that, right?

Do you remember back in the...

I'm sorry to cut you off, but they used to say they'd rather lose every fucking game

and then they'd win in November and they'd be happy with that.

I think that's out the fucking window.

They don't care about that shit no more.

Were you one of those guys that back in, what was it, 2017,

when they had that spot in the big game where you were dissecting it by camera angle to see if he got the first down or not? I mean, I thought he got a first down. I think a lot of people did.
Yeah. I would actually put myself in that camp as well.
I mean, I'm not the guy that's like, oh, dude, we should be beating them, but the refs are – no, I'm not that guy. I mean, we are getting beat.
We're getting beat. We're getting beat because, dude, they have better players, they have better

coaches, and they have a fucking attitude

that you cannot

compare with right now.

Dude, they beat our ass.

Remember the Titans?

When the coach

disrespected the other coach? That's what this

is. That's what it is.
It's the same

vibe. They're like, yo, fuck you, bro.

Yeah? Yeah.

It's got to be some of that. We need some of that again.

What happened to that? I heard you care a lot about

I'm saying like if a gorilla, if you have... No, you say it's grizzly bear.
And I would agree with it. Unless the gorilla is in an environment where he can learn to make weapons.

Bro, what?

I'm saying like if a gorilla, if you have a gorilla and a grizzly bear going head to head and the gorilla's got like some weapon that he can pick up.

I heard what you said.

Yeah.

I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head.

You're telling me the gorilla's going to be in an environment where he can make a weapon.

You want to show me a video on the fucking internet that's not from King Kong or Planet of the Apes

where a gorilla's making a fucking weapon? I mean, you could pick up a shovel. Yeah.
Or eat a banana and leave it on the ground. The grizzly bear slips.
Pick up a gun. Who would figure out how to shoot a gun first, a gorilla or a grizzly bear? A gorilla.
Right. Where's he going to fucking aim it? I'm going to leave the gun next to him right before the fight.
This is crazy. One in the chamber.
See, you guys are the guys in the chat. This is the team.
Well, how about this? This is the gorilla guys. Who would win in Call of Duty? A gorilla or a grizzly bear? I think a gorilla would beat the grizzly bear's ass.
Easily. Opposable thumb.
Boom. Probably play on controller, too.
Yeah. Billy, do you go ahead.
Billy, our intern who's an idiot is going to talk real quick. Well, I researched this very intensely, and a gorilla can only get up to like 300 or 400 pounds, whereas a grizzly bear can get up to 1,500 pounds depending on the subspecies.
Not true. It's not true.
It's not true, Bill. He just said you're factually incorrect.
Which one? About the gorilla? I like where you're going. I like where you're going.
I hate to interrupt you because you sounded fiery right there. You sound like you were coming in with a crazy fact.
But just so you know, the biggest gorillas can get like 500, 600 pounds. I said 500, 600.
Well, I'm talking average because the biggest grizzly bears can get 2,000 pounds. Yeah, but we're not going to fucking bring me to the fight to represent all humans.
We're going to get in John Jones. What the fuck? Get the big boy.
So get the big gorilla and get the big fucking bear and put him in there. Big gorilla's 500.
And the Kodiak bear can get up to 2,000 pounds. 500 versus 2,000.
Okay, so four fucking times its size. Go ahead.
The only way the gorilla can win is using its opposable thumbs, which are very important if it's not in an enclosed area with no weapons, and its mind.

So those are its only assets against the bear's claws and teeth.

Okay.

Okay.

Opposable thumbs.

Confuse it with a riddle or something?

I'll give you that one.

Well, exactly.

Plus one.

I mean, it could switch the bear.

Why is the mind an asset?

Why is the mind an asset, Billy?

The mind's an asset because, you know, hypothetical.

Are you implying that they're smarter than bears?

Let's say it's the Coliseum. Let's say we're sick like the Romans, and we're like, okay, let's actually do this.
Let's get a giant bear. Let's get a gorilla.
Coliseum. Sand.
Walls. That's all it's got.
Gorilla, throw the sand in its face, jump on the wall, grab a weapon, and then kill the bear. Wow.
The gorilla has serious... I can't hear him.
This is not how they fight Can you hear me This is not how they fight We don't let him listen We let him talk He's talking me into the gorilla more and more now What's the top predator on planet earth Not Not a gorilla. Human.
Human being.

So guess who's closer to a human?

Gorilla.

Oh, come on, man.

That's true.

Very compelling.

Yes.

All right.

Nick, I had a couple last questions.

What does F's in the chat mean?

Oh, to pay respect.

What?

Dude, I'm not the computer guy.

I'm not the, like, the, you know. So explain some of these other lingos.
Like, what are some other things they're saying? Oh, shit. I got to come on, man.
I'm the worst person for this. This is my one chance.
This is like a Tim and Tatman question. No, this is my one chance.
F is to pay respect. So when you make a horrible play or you die or you say something stupid, they all say F.
And they're like, oh, my God. Pay respect for this dead man.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Anything else?

Because, like I said, I never felt so old.

Dude, we don't do this in my chat.

Like, they do it, but I don't even pay attention.

So you just don't listen to those people who say that?

Well, we don't really do it as much.

Like, some chats are really meme-y, man.

No, just don't really meme-y. I'm kind of like an old dad, too.
I'm with you. You and me are the same.
Okay. Now, do you have specific haters that you call out, like guys that you recognize, and you're like, you just know a little bit of respect? No, no.
No, we just ban and block them. Don't even look at them.
Okay, because I got this guy named Poopy Stinks that just won't leave me alone. Yeah, just ban just ban him and block him.
Gone. But I kind of like, you know, I want him to...
We'll have some fun with it. Yeah, fuck him up.
Okay. All right, I'm going to fuck him up.
The problem is my haters don't have a face. They have the anime profile with the pink hair and the cartoon titties, you know? Yeah.
Yeah. All right, we got to ban him block.
So you do ban him block. That's not a shame.
a shame well how am i gonna waste time with a fucking cartoon titty i know but it's it seems there's a shame in blocking on twitter like oh they got you i got them triggered you're saying that doesn't exist in twitch not for me okay hell yes i block everybody on twitter okay nice what's nice what's the uh easiest surefire way to get a quick block from you on Twitch? On Twitch? Yeah. You shouldn't answer this.
Oh, dude. Yeah, I probably shouldn't.
What's the magic word? What really makes you mad, Nick Merckx? Yeah, what gets a rise out of you? Dude, to be honest, the majority of the time that we ban people, we ban them for maybe self-advertisement or being scum, just saying words they shouldn't be saying. You know the words.
Right. All right.
So, Nick, we're going to announce this during the championship game tonight, during the national championship game. So, I'm playing Tennessee versus Miami at 9.17 p.m.
Okay. We're going to announce that you're on.
We've also, by the way, shout out you because we tried to get ninja on for a while and he didn't come on so we're down to kick his ass like you kicked his ass i got him no i didn't get him i didn't get him but you said you were gonna kick his ass i tried you took the video game to real life that's kind of badass well dude i was i was you know i was like the i was boxing at the time you know so was fucking feisty. But I was like the kid from the suburbs that goes to the ghetto.
He thinks he's cool and shit. You know what I mean? I had like 10 amateur boxing fights against all kids that were white and from the suburbs.
I thought I was so fucking good. I had my $100 headgear and shit.
But I was really ready at that point, and he was talking shit to me. By the way, we're friends now.
Yeah, yeah. I think he's a nutcase.
He probably thinks I'm a nutcase too, but we're friends. Man, he was running his mouth this one night, just saying everything, yelling at me.
And I kept telling him, I said, dude, I'm going to see you in a month, and there's no way you're going to have this same energy. And he fucking, he didn't.
He turtled up a little bit? Love it. A lot of it.
Yeah. I had one last question.
We always take a question from the user so this isn't us asking we just are people ask this how much money did you make after taxes? Not enough. That's a good answer.
So like a million, two million, what's a lot? A little? How many cars? How many? What type of car do you drive? Shelby Raptor. Okay, that narrows it down a little.
That's like a hundred Virgils. Yeah, that narrows it down.
That's a lot of pennies. Yeah.
You're not driving a Honda Civic. Bro, we're doing well.
We're doing well. But you know what, man? I don't have to get all sappy and weird on you guys, man.
But it's only because of just all these lunatics that fucking support me. I fucking turn on my stream.
I get 100 donations a night. I get 2,000 people to sub to me tonight.
And I never asked for it. I never even told them to do it.
They just do it. So, you know, shout out to all of them, you know, and everybody that supports me, bro.
It's crazy. And like I said, you do give back.
You do some great stuff with your community, which I love that aspect because I think that's the fun part about Twitch, at least I've found in the two months that I've done it, that it's fun to go back and forth. It's fun to talk shit, but at the end of the day, it's like this is all for fun.
And there's that little underlying understanding between the chat and the person that this is for fun, we're having fun, that I really enjoy that. No, I like what you said.
I like that. The fun thing is important, but to kind piggyback off that, it's like, what the fuck are we here for, right? Right.
You're going to have fun. I don't want to get too deep, man, but, you know, the older you get, the more you realize that, you know, here today, gone tomorrow, you know, it's quick.
And, you know, like you said, you want to make it all about fun and, you know, you want to do the best you can with the time that you have. That's all I'm trying to do, man.
I'm in a great spot to take take care of my whole family but also a lot of people that have taken care of me yeah you know so i'm gonna keep doing that you probably will live forever because you don't leave your house you fucking sit in a dark low key yeah so you're good wait do you have like you know how healthy it is to stay up all night i'm gonna die when i'm 50 bro do you like uh drinks and shit. You rock a heart rate monitor or something to see how much cardio you're getting in while you play video games? Nah, nah.
I've seen people do that before, though. Do you guys ever do one on the podcast? No, we should.
I mean, we've talked about it. You should do it for like 20 podcasts straight and see who gets you guys going.
Yeah. That's a good idea.
Yeah. I like that.
Well, it it's an idea i don't know if it's a good one no it's not bad i mean i anything you're gonna piss off 19 people but then like the 20th person you're like oh dude you really got us going you know yeah i'm always wondering like is there uh is there somebody that's coming up in video games that's gonna turn it into something not fun like somebody that breaks it it down too much and almost gets into the sabermetric side of the equation

where they're overanalyzing everything too much,

kind of how they do sometimes with baseball

and to a certain extent football?

Totally.

I mean, it's like anything great.

There's always some fucking asshole that wants to come over

and just pull it away from everything that it is, right?

So I would imagine, yes.

But you know what?

If and when that day comes, your boy over here is going to be on his own little island not worried about shit. You feel me? I'm not dealing with that motherfucker.
I'm not speaking to him. I don't give a shit.
Don't care. Out of sight.
Out of mind. I'm going to do my thing.
Would you rather have twice as many viewers on your Twitch stream as somebody or have them be twice as good as you? Oh, fuck. Now, probably twice as many viewers.
But before, like when I was a little kid and I was hungry and shit, probably just twice as good. Yeah.
Perspective. All right.
Well, this has been awesome. Perspective, baby.
Yeah, perspective. This has been a ton of fun.
I didn't know how this was going to go, but it went great for me. I'm super comfortable.
I've never done a podcast before. I know.
You were weirdly nervous. We were always.
I wasn't nervous. It's just there's a lot going on right now, man.
I don't know what the fuck we're talking about today, you know? And there's all kinds of these motherfuckers in the gaming scene that just have everything to say about shit they don't know nothing about, man. You know what I mean? It's just relentless.
Like, shut the fuck up, man. So I didn't know if I was going to come on this podcast.
And I didn't know what the hell we were going to be talking about today, you know? But if it's just us three and we're shooting the shit, I'm always down to come on the podcast, you guys. Love it.
We got you back. We're Nick Merck stands right now.
Would you have like a name for your fan base? The community is called MFAM. So Merck's just the M and then fam.
I didn't know what to make. It was like eight years ago.
Yeah, yeah. I like the whole, like, Michigan thing, and you guys never win any big game.
But that's fine. What's up with you? I went to Wisconsin, and I just think you got – Wisconsin and Michigan are the same school now in terms of football, and you guys won't admit it.
I mean, not really. Yeah.
Well, actually, you're right. We've been to Indianapolis.
You never have. Yeah, because you don't fucking play anybody over there.
It's an easier ride, and you know it. Okay, okay.
I'm just saying. Wait, why is your logo Spartan if you're a Michigan, if you're a university? I get that one all the time, I know.
Well, see, I'm a direct descendant of the king from Sparta, you know? Actually? I'm Greek. Yeah.
Unitas is like my great, great, great grandfather. Hmm.
Wait, that's way too Are you serious great great great Wait like 10 10 grandpas ago 10 grandpas okay Trying to remember the 300 Did he get did he die in the 300 He fucking died man They got his ass but we got him back though Yeah but Okay. And he's a legend, you know? Fuck.
Who gives a shit if you die? You're a legend now. Legend for life.
Legend for life. Yeah, this has been awesome, man.
You are a recurring guest, so you have to come back on whenever we ask. I hope you know that.
Dude, I'm so down. Alright.
So down. Perfect.
And, yeah, we'll be announcing it during the national championship tonight You're on the stream tonight?

Yeah, we'll say that you're on

Do you push it on everything?

Twitter?

Yeah, we'll push it on everything

But we'll tell everyone that you're the guest tomorrow

It's perfect, lined up perfectly

Because the national championship stream

Especially if I'm losing, will be over 100,000

Do you have any words of advice for him going into this game?

What can he do to make sure that he's in a good mindset

Ahead of the biggest game of his life? He crumbled under pressure last game. Like, absolutely.
What do you do in the big moments to focus? What do you do in the big moments to focus? The people got to me. I'm watching tonight.
Okay. I'm watching.
All right. The people got to me, though.
That's the problem. I'm clearing my schedule, and I'm going to watch.
9-17 p.m. I feel like my energy with your energy.
I think we're – I think I – I don't know. I think today's a good day.
Okay. It's energy, man.
Just get it fucking done. Alright, let's go.
By the way, guys, congrats on everything, man. Thank you.
Making a podcast and getting out from that jungle of a competition. Man, it's got to be so hard, man.
Same to you. Appreciate it, Nick.
We'll talk soon, man. Take care, guys.
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Okay, let's finish up our show.

We have our documentary review.

Next week, by the way, we have Rob Lowe coming on Monday, huge interview, great recurring guest. Um, and then just a reminder, the following week, we're going to be doing a little, uh, best of slash, uh, huge D and D on the Wednesday before July 4th.
And then July 6th will be the Takeys. So get ready for that.
Okay. Documentary review.
Three identical strangers. Hoo boy.
Was this one a good one. I loved the first hour of this documentary.
Oh, it gets sad. And then it gets really...
The first hour was... I just thought it was going to be an hour and a half of just three bros meeting each other and having horseplay.
It's so just the fact from the beginning, the idea that this guy, Bobby Schaefer, goes to college and everyone thinks that he's another person is such a fucking mind fuck. And of course, this probably wouldn't happen today's day because of like social media and stuff but could you imagine walking into a room and having everyone tell you you're a different person i would go insane you'd go insane you'd lose your mind it's a great prank to play on somebody it's a great prank to play and it also makes me think these guys all live in long island in the surrounding area i think one of them lived in Westchester, maybe.
But there was a chance, if he doesn't go to this college, this specific college, both of them don't go to this specific college, that they just never would have met. And that's fucking crazy.
You would think that the adoption agency would have taken that into account and be like, hey, maybe we should adopt these babies to different states. Right.
Or give them like spread them out. They need to keep the study.
So, so we'll spend an extra $50 on gas each month. So yeah, the, the, the start of it's fun.
They find each other. They find the third, like that, the scenes where they're basically like, yeah, we all live together and we just fucking go out and fuck.
Like that was pretty cool. They were living the dream in.
In New York City in the 80s at Studio 54. Minor celebrities.
You don't even... Studio 54 sounds like the greatest place of all time.
Oh, my God. I'm sure if you ever went there, it wouldn't be that fun.
We should write that down. We need to interview someone who was there during the heyday.
Uh-huh. Yes.
Why don't we just open a bar called Studio 54? That works, too. But we need to interview someone who was like, I partied at Studio 54 on the reg during the heyday.
That's such a classic 30-year-old bro move to just team up with your best friends and be like, we're going to open our own bar because we like to party so much. Right.
So why don't we just reinvest that and do it ourselves. And they were like so famous.
It worked out for them because they had the ultimate gimmick going, which is we're triplets that like to get after it and fuck. Right.
And then what do you got, Billy? Speak. Do you think they're in a four-way? Absolutely.
Yes. 100%.
Yeah. They might have had a four-way the first.
That might have been the first thing that they did. Did you see when they got interviewed right afterwards? Actually, no.
The first thing they did, they get in the same room and they just immediately start wrestling. Yes.
Which is awesome. That's probably what I would do too.
But then they went out that night and they definitely looked at each other with like a knowing glance and a giggle and they're like, yeah, we're going to have a foursome. Yeah.
It's going to happen. So you're right, PFD.
The beginning of the documentary was like, oh, this is fun. This is cool.
These guys find each other and then it gets so fucking dark because they find out the details of the adoption, the fact that they were basically a human study. They weren't basically they were a human study.
Weird shit with the fact that one of them gets adopted by a poor middle class and wealthy family and what happens with them. and then finding out that their biological mother has all kinds of, uh, mental issues that have been obviously passed down to them.
It's fucking crazy, man. This whole story is crazy.
The lady that was the assistant at the doctor's office, she was delightful. Yes, yes, yes.
But the, the, uh, it's one of those things where I like, I don't know if you guys watch the americans but like the the 60s and like the early like the powerhouses before technology like these big rich yeah like social things in new york city are just like the craziest things in the world what part of the americans are you talking about well even just like how like the the when they 69 each other sideways no like al pacino in al pacino's character in character in The Americans. You're talking about Hunters.
Hunters. Okay, got it.
I'm talking about Hunters. I'm with you now.
You know the lady in Hunters, the adoption lady? That's who I was thinking of when they explained the adoption. Right.
This Jewish adoption agency. Yeah, it was fucked up.
I can't imagine what it would do to your brain if you had two identical brothers.

You become their best friend after not knowing them for, what, 19, 20 years? And then one of them slowly goes crazy and kills himself. You're definitely thinking in your head, whatever was in his brain is in my brain too.
Am I a ticking time bomb at this point? It also, it wasn't it it is kind of slightly amusing that i feel like most stories that take a turn start with the sentence and then we open the bar together it's like and then we open the bar together and everything in our life like as friends as brothers went downhill i mean if you if you want to hate your best friend, open a bar with him. If you want to hate your brother,

open a bar with them.

Yeah, Billy?

I think the thing,

the reason they didn't open up

to studying everything

is that I think they realized

that by tearing triplets and twins apart

actually made them crazy

because remember when they said

they had separation anxiety?

Yes.

I think that's what they found out

and they're like,

oh, like the only thing we found out

is that no,

there's not nature and nurture. Like you tear apart two twins, they get fucked up from it.
I think that's what they found out and they're like oh like the only thing we found out is that no there's not nature nurture like you tear apart two twins they get fucked up from it i think that's what they discovered right yeah it was yeah it was so sad experiment was actually a very sad thing to approve can you imagine like sitting down and having this conversation amongst i would imagine that they're all like fellow scientists and being like hey so we've got these three babies it would. It would be a real crime against science to not split them up.
Right. And then having everybody vote yes for it.
Right. Like that's so fucked up.
It's so fucked up. And I think, I mean, I would assume you've got- And they haven't published the results? Yeah, they haven't published the results.
Yeah, you know what the result of the study is? People that run this type of studies are assholes. Yes, yes.
They're playing with human lives. they they that was the hypothesis going into it and they confirmed it yeah but they have the money and power to cover it up and the um the you guys probably all had the same feeling watching this where you're like and they say it at the end like what if you just bump into your twin like what what's stopping anyone from having a twin that they don't know about well if you if i was adopted, I would think it a lot more.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Absolutely. Of course.
I would just know it if I was adopted. Adopted.
But even still, this is kind of like when you watch the Truman Show back in the day. Which kind of bothered me.
Yeah. Well, no.
It wasn't that they didn't get pregnant at high school. Yeah.
Yeah. And he's just gone.
Your dad's your dad still. Yeah.
It was weird they didn't mention it. They're like, yeah, you know, they got knocked up at prom type of thing.
Yeah. But the dad still exists.
Right. They blame the mom for a lot of stuff.
But they didn't talk about the dad who was entirely non-existent. It was also really creepy when they started doing the walking hand in hand and crossing their legs together.
That's just yeah and the murder thing yeah like oh so one of you have been uh accused of murder he's like well i'll take this yeah no that's big of you to admit that no it wasn't me and then his brother's like yeah yeah by the way what a perfect crime to get away with if you're if you have two identical brothers you could always claim that it wasn't you. Yes, absolutely.
And they couldn't be like, well, if it's not you, then it's you. The appendix thing, they did that with the appendix.
That was funny. Yeah.
Wait, really quick, was the murder suspect guy the same one who killed himself? No, I don't think so. I don't.
I get them all confused. At what point in the documentary did you guys realize that the triplet, the third guy that's no longer there not going to be alive yeah that was a tough one to be like wait why isn't this other guy talking about 12 to 15 minutes into the documentary i was like once they showed his wife before they showed him yeah you're like oh this is not going in the right direction i would love to put those three twins or triplets through the combine when they met each other and just see like how just how similar are you your three-cone drill like? I'm going to be honest.
I watched it, and I was trying to figure it out. The heavier set one and the one that looked a little more wider shoulders was from the blue-collar family.
You think that has something to do with it? I don't know. Maybe he was just work-tarter.
Beating potatoes? I think he was just work-tarter. It's perfect that that was your takeaway.
Did you see how much the poor one could bench? The skinny one was the doctor. Look at this guy's traps.
Yeah, the rich one was probably vegan. What a puss.
Yeah, just string bean muscles. I do want to give a lot of respect to their hands.
That was an all-time hands family. Those big meaty paws that they had.
Huge paws. They all looked like they got caught stucking their hands into a beehive to pull out honeycombs.
It just got stung. Huge, huge paws.
It was a great documentary, though. We're back on track.
That was a great watch. If you haven't watched it, watch it.
Three Identical Strangers. It's one of those documentaries that you come away from being like, whoa.
Belichick would have a field day if he had triplets on his team.

Yeah.

Just all kinds of.

He's got the McCordies.

That's what I'm saying.

If he had triplets on his team, imagine the least.

Endless possibilities.

Ernie Adams just nutted somewhere.

So what are we doing next?

Ooh, next documentary?

Billy pick.

Billy pick.

Oh, no.

Wait, wait, wait.

We'll think about it.

Real sucks.

Bill, you pick five and come to me, and then we will decide on Monday. And Hank will whittle it down to three, and then you tell us.
Okay, there's this really cool documentary. We're not watching Loose Change.
No, let's hear it. Let's hear it.
It's about if dragons were real. I think it's called either Dragonology.
Game of Thrones. No, it's called Dragonology or Dragon Quest.
Quest. It's actually really cool.

Dracarys.

It's science.

It melted the throne at the end as it stayed in symbolism.

There's this other documentary.

Icarus, I think we should really watch, but that's another, like Lance.

Oh, why don't we watch a bodybuilding documentary?

Yeah, we should do that. Ronnie Coleman.

We did that, Billy.

Remember when you listened to the show all the time?

Yeah.

And then there's another one we could watch.

The Yeti documentary.

The Coolers?

No, no.

Yeti with Jeff Corwin.

It was on Animal Planet.

I'm trying to think of other documentaries.

Billy, make a list of five.

Come to me.

We'll whittle it down to three.

I love the documentaries Billy has seen.

Are bodybuilding and fucking giant animals, animals that don't exist. Yeah, just the biggest humans and the biggest animals.
Size matters to Billy. He won't watch any fucking documentary with puny-ass bitches.
Is there, like, a 30 for 30 that's really good that maybe we all missed? I never saw the Bo Jackson one. Was that one any good? It was pretty good.
The Bruce Lee one was good. Oh, we never watched him.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, we'll figure it out. We'll tell everyone on Monday what we're going to watch.
Again, we have Rob Lowe coming up on Monday. So get excited for that.
It's going to be great. And everyone have a great weekend.
Oh, no. I actually know exactly.
The-5. It's like about the East New York.
Okay. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

I've seen that one too, yeah.

It's good.

What?

Why are you giving me that look?

Because I mentioned that a few weeks ago.

The 7-5?

Oh, wait.

Maybe I haven't.

There's another one.

We should watch that one.

Yeah, we'll watch that one.

Billy, why don't you make a documentary?

I would love to make a documentary.

You should make a documentary, Billy.

The 7-5?

Yeah, I think so.

We're still recording.

The 7-5.

That was...

Monch and Glenny

recommended that to me, too.

It's sick.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah, we'll watch the 7-5.

Yeah.

All right.

Let's watch the 7-5.

Boom.

Still love you guys.

All right.

Love you.

Love you guys.

Love you more.

Love you guys.

Whoa.

Love you the most.

It's not true.

Whoa.

Are we going to love you off? Thank you. Take me out.
Take me out. I'll break you.

Take me out.

Take me out.

Take me out.

Take me out.

Take me out.