Episode 12: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

to wait, Look, I'm real hyped. You know how stuff works. West, we finally got muscle milks in the fridge. Anna super producer. Anna was trying to say, who wanted this? Who wanted a calorie twenty Grandma proches. We're going to think that we're getting paid for this, and I really hope that we are. We're not make that work. We're not muscle milk. Look, if we're gonna get protein, spatship, I want optimum nutrition

or isopure hit us up? I will do it. You know, speaking of nutrition, I was thinking about this other day. We gotta have a nerd strong on so we can talk about like nerdy fitness. Oh I would love to. Yeah, yeah, you know. That kind of doubles over with our cosplay episode. We were talking about some professional cause players that like they're just in the gym for like twelve hours getting ripped because that's part of their life, is that they

get hired to actually represent those super buff anime characters. Yeah, yeah, and I know it's it's it's crazy. Also, I used to see Julian all the time real life trunks because I used to go to the Golds down the street, the one downtown that's five minutes from five minutes from my house, finally upgraded, got new Olympic squat wracks. I'm there now, which man, there's nothing like having a good gym five minutes away. Oh that's my gym. Yeah, And

I know where um Winston Duke and Baku himself. He lives by me, and I know what Jim he works out at. And I'm not going to tell anyone, be okay, but let me know I can go there, like I'm gonna show you the real man ate right now. I thought it was so funny too that I'm like, oh man, I thought he would be at like a really private Jim,

So he's not bothered. He's not like I. The weekend Black Panther came out, I watched him jump from like six thousand to like It was interesting watching because I remember I checked one day to follow him, and then when I came back the next day, I was like, man, that's how much you grow when you get in a movie,

Like what are we doing messing around? Everyone was like, oh, you'd be working on your social media and it was like, no, he had like two thousand followers book that role, and now he's at like a hundred or probably almost a million. Well even like Daily's eight guys, when I go in there, I get like at least anywhere from like twenty to fifty, which I'm like, why aren't you already following me? I've been on Daily se guys many times, y'all ain't already

following the kid? Okay, cool, I'll come back on it many times. I need to do. I need to cat chup to you and Jamie because oh yeah, I was just on there and and Jack introduced me as being and he was like, I think this is like her sixth time or tenth time on this is my third Yeah, yeah, no, that's me, Me, Jamie and Edgar doing big numbers. Um. I remember after Edgar's I think second or third appearance,

I email Dana. I was like, you gotta get me back on to I can't have Edgar putting more numbers up. I would like three, two to three times a month if possible. This has been great promo for the house Stuff Works brand and Muscle Milk and um I so pure oddly enough, it all has to do with this talk. No, it doesn't. Well, you know, because I feel like the

teenage mutant ninja turtles. They are swoll like you know, the toys they were swull and if they have the worst diet plan so now, but they're mutants so they can eat as much piece as they want and still have that six pack that they're rocking they do. I think that's their shell though. Well no, because the soft bottom nets off. Have you ever rubbed the bottom of a turtle? It's hard. That's part of their show. I

mean it is. It's it's like it's like it's not as hard as the top, but it is pretty hard. But that's how that's how slow they are that it rips through that part too. But Ninja Turtles. Is it's tight? How when did you get into Nina? Oh my gosh, I'm gonna upload this on our social media and it's going to be a picture of my I think both my brothers and I were all turtles. But I do remember my mom. She was super into making our costumes. Um, okay, we were very poor basically, and so she had turned

these green salad bowls. Um, you guys can't see, but if you just spit out his muscle milk, she turned these salad bowls and she like strapped him on our back. I love my mom. Um. That was actually one of the first real costumes I remembered having. Wasn't Ninja turtle costume. Because my dad his thing. He was also super cheap and and he would have me be an African prince every year. And all that was was I would just wear my traditional Nigerian clothes, like no crown. He wouldn't

even buy the plastic clown. I would just wear my Nigerian clothes. He was like, you have an African prince now. I was like, oh, this is so whack. I mean, he's not wrong, but yeah, man, Ninja Turtles was huge in my house. We had the bedsheets, we had the toys, definitely for Halloween, I think multiple times. So the show my my lane. Like I loved Ninja Turtles, but my big lane was Street Sharks, Baby Joson. You know, pizza burgers is what we like, real line from that show Sharks. Yeah,

but I loved them both equally. I loved all my sons equally Street Sharks. And they had the dinosaurs who they their whole big thing was they were trying to start global warming because they were cold blooded. You know, lots of fun stuff. All right, I think we dilly dallied long enough. Let's just do the deep dive. How did the teenage ming Ninja Turtles start? Danny? They actually so.

They first appeared in a comic book published by Mirage Studios in nineteen four in Dover, New Hampshire, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, which Mirage Studios was actually a joke. They didn't have a studio, it was just Laird's living room. Um. They were two struggling artists living in Northampton, Massachusetts when they came up with the Turtles

in November of nineteen eighty three. So basically as a joke Eastman like they were brainstorming together one night, and Eastman drew a turtle standing on its hind legs wearing a mask with nunchucks strapped to its arms, and he wrote Ninja turtle on the top of it, and Laird laughed and then drew a more refined version of that, and not to be outdone, Eastman then drew four turtles, each arm with a ninja's style weapon and then layered like outline in the group shot and ink, which we're

going to include in our notes. I'll probably tweet this out. It's like the actual first ever image that they made of them. And they added teenage Mutant to the top,

and they made the teenage Mutant Ninja turtles. Yeah. And then they used the money for me Eastman's five dollar tax refund together with a hundred dollar loan from his uncle and two hundred dollars from Layard's empty bank account, and they both self published a single issue comic intended to parody four of the most popular comics in the early eighties, which were Daredevil, New Mutants, Cerebus, and Frank Miller's ron In He Hasn't that interesting? So, like the Turtles,

and Daredevil actually have a lot of similarities. They have the same origin story. Um yeah, I don't know if you know. So in Daredevil number one, so Matt Murdoch sees a truck it's about to hit an old man knocks He like goes to knock this guy out of the way. The truck swerves and like a barrel like filled with a radioactive substance falls on him, blind him, and then give some superhuman senses. That's a very common I feel like having some chemical fall on you, Alex

mac mac uh. And then the turtles have the same scenario, except the barrel it's a boy's head. The canister hits a boy's head and then smashes into like a bowl of baby turtles, who then fall with this canister into an open man hole splinter. They're adopted rat father and sense A uh finds them and they are all turned into human sized heroes. Yeah, okay, yeah, that I don't. I almost want to imagine they're in the same universe. I love that, and that those two events are what

kind of spawned them both. There's actually more connection to Daredevil, which we'll get into, but yeah, it was kind of just this fun there's always been a lot of humor in at least some humor in the Ninja Turtle comics, and that that has like changed over time, but yeah,

but it's always been like a parody of their Marvel properties. Yeah. So, with their combined money, Eastman and Layered printed three thousand copies of the Teenager Ninja Turtles and bought a single ad in the Comics Buyer's Guide magazine, and because of that app they sold all three thousand copies within a few weeks and had thousands more orders coming in, and then by January they completed issue number two and had orders for fifteen thousand copies and distributors wanted thirty thousand

copies of issue number one. So it was definitely one of those smash hit moments where it's like, oh, this fun idea, which I now call the Beastie Boys effect, because you know, the BC Boys did a rap album as a joke and then that became who they were they originally a punk band. Yeah, isn't that funny. It's it's kind of crazy that they like made this fake studio essentially out of his living room. And then because their second issue did so well, people went back and

ordered thousands more copies of their first issue. So they ended up staying Undermarrage Studios from ninety eighty four to that's seventy five issues, and they also had a lot of mini series and one shots too. Then they moved

to Image Comics in nineteen six for thirteen issues. And this is kind of where things get a little dicey, or I would say, fans would say, like, not really, cannon Um, this was their's what you're saying, this is their Dragon Ball GT era because like a Splinter became a back downa Tello became a cyborg, Leonardo lost a hand, and Rafael became the new shrad How does that work? I don't know, but I like that because Rafael was always the hothead, so that seems like they could go

in there. Yeah, I'd say try that out in the newer runs. But basically Layered and everyone else didn't consider those years Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And then they came back to Mirage and two thousand and one and ran all the way until two thousand ten. Yeah, and then inleven I d W, which is a comic book publisher, they started running a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comic with our work from Eastman, but not who was the original co creator, but not with with his co creator laired involved.

So you know, I guess before we jump into my favorite part, which were the movies, I think we uh in the animated series, which is very interesting. Something I want to point out here is that the version, the first version of that we're talking about now, it was very adult like. It was an adult it was super violent. It was it was actually super cool. And the reason I point this out is because I discovered them obviously in the nineties with the movies and when they were

way more kid friendly with the animated series. In the movie. But when I was at a comic shop, my mom got me the Ninja Turtle comics thinking it was about the same, and it was. It was it was pushing it. Yeah. I never even told her. I would just read them and I was like, oh, this is they're saying. Damn. Yeah, they would like slice people. Casey who will get into

as well, Casey Jones, like was pretty violent. They had language that there's no way they would say on Nickelodeon now, um, and that was I mean, that was written by two young guys like you know who read like, that's how it is. That's how comics are, like Daredevil comics and other things like that. The Marvel comics are like that

as well. Also was the nineties, which was an extremely hyper violent time in comics, like just super dark and gritty and super a whole bunch of belts with pockets and belts and no, no one has arms, but they're super buff, puffed up chest, ready to rock and roll. It was very dark and gritty. Yeah, and so um

this was that's the comics version. So the version that we ended up no that most of us know, Like you said, the animated series definitely had to be dialed down a ton and I also the creators didn't really appreciate or agree with it, which we'll get into, but before we do, we should talk about the turtles. Yeah, so the turtles are all named after Renaissance painters, and they just figured that it's just quirky enough to work

with the idea of teenage mutant ninja turtles. So first everyone has their favorite, but we're just gonna go down this in no particular order. Leonardo a k A. Leo is the tactical, courageous leader devoted student of his Since Leonaro wears the blue mask and wields to katana, you

know you would think he like most. I feel like standard favorite because he had two katanas, and as the most conscientious of the four, he often bears the burden of responsibility for his brother, which commonly leads to conflict with Raphael. Leonardo was named after the we don't need to talk about Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo the most stereotypical teenager of the team. He's very free spirited, relax he's goofy. He's a jokester known for his love of pizza, as

they all are, but he might be the most. He wears an orange mask, which will actually get into their mask because they changed um. He wields a pair of nun chucks. I feel like you're right. I feel like a lot of people were Leo just because of his two katanas. I remember, I specifically didn't like Michaelangelo because

the nut checks. I was like, I don't want to use the nut because when when we were at that age, we picked the people who we would pretend to be, and you either wanted to be Donna, Tello, Raphael or Leonardo because they had the most. I knew a few Michelangelo heads, but definitely most people were Leonardo because he had the two swords. Not to mention when you had to play them at the Chuck E Cheese four player arcade. All right, and then up next is Donna Tello, the scientist, inventor, engineer,

and technological genius aka the Nerd. Donna Tello wears a purple mask and wheels a bowstaff. Donna Tello, who is perhaps the least violent turtle, preferring to use his knowledge

to solve conflicts, but never hesitates to defend his brothers. Yeah, I'm trying to think of like, what, Well, here's the king that I feel like most people everyone has a different you know, like, but I feel a lot of people gravitate towards Raphael the Jon bad boy yep Vegeta wears a red mask, wields a pair of sigh it's an aggressive in nature. I mean, yeah, but he's just cocky, seldom hesitates to throw the first punch, and he's often

depicted with a very pronounced New York accent. Where As opposed to him, everyone thinks that they're like surfer dudes. But I would say the surfer is mainly Michelangelo. Yeah, but they kind of all got that, you know, in other iterations of them, and especially in the movie. It's I think in the movie actually they're kind of all surfer dudes, but I'd have to read at least the one that I'm thinking of. Yeah, and then their master

is Splinter. It's the turtle since and adoptive father Splinters, Japanese mutan rat that learned the way of ninjitsu from the owner and master Hamato Yoshi. In the TV series Archie Comics series and the two thousand twelve TV series, Splinter was Hamato Yoshi mutated into a humanoid rat. But I like the movie version where the rat was watching him and was copying this tiny red It was so cute.

I need to rewatch. We should well, um, yeah, And so to go back to the connection with Daredevil, so Splinter is like a parody er based on Matt Murdock since I stick, Oh yeah, and you get it, Splinter, get the stick, get it? Okay. And then we have my girl April O'Neil. So she was a former lab assistant to the mad scientist Baxter Stockman and she is now a companion of the turtles. There's been a couple

of different iterations of her. Yeah, she she was a television news reporter in the two thousand seven c g I film. Wasn't she a reporter in the original one in the series. Yeah, No, she's always kind of been a reporter, and she definitely was a reporter in the movie. Yeah. So April first met the turtles when they saved her from Baxter's mouse or robots, and then she embarks on many turtle adventures with them, and she does work in

the public that the turtles cannot people. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, unless those few times when that happens in like the cartoons and comics where they wear trench coat and hat, Like you wouldn't notice. First off, if you were a trench coat and a hat, everyone's gonna be looking at you. I'm look at your face, like, yo, does that man's have a turtle face? Like what's going on? Oh? Man? Well, you know what's so funny is I feel like now the world that we live in, it would be totally fine.

Oh yeah, no, people will be like, oh, it's just a furry it's yeah exactly. Oh, they're just going to like comic Conner. Yeah, don't don't worry about them. The next guy up is going to be Casey Jones, and vigilante who wears a hockey master to protect his identity. Casey Jones has become one of the Turtle's closest allies as well as love interest to April. Casey first encountered the Turtles after having a fight with Rafael. He fights crime with an assortment of sporting goods he carries in

a golf bag, such as baseball bats, call clubs, and hockey. God. See that's what they mean about it being originally like kind of violent. Yeah yeah, oh yeah, no they he was going hard with those weapons. And I feel like he became a fan favorite too, Like when he appeared, a lot of people latched on to him. I mean, you throw a hockey mask on somebody. And then we got the main man, shredder Um. He's a villainous master Urukusaki,

He's a villain. He's the leader of the Foot Clan again going back to Daredevil, which is a play on the Ninja Clan and Daredevil the hand. Now they named it the Foot Clan. It is. It really is all things that I never knew when I was little. Um and uh yeah, he's the arch enemy of Splinter and the Turtles and he prefers to use his armor instead of weapons in in some versions of him. Oh yeah, uh, and there's other famous villains. But you know, we're running

on time. We're gonna have a guest on the next half, so why don't we just jump ahead. We we can talk about villains, but we know what you're here for. You want to hear about this talk about TV show, the movie, how it became kind of a kiddy show, and how they felt about it. And we will get into that right after these messages and we are back and we're here to talk about everything past just who

they are. We're going to talk about their legacy. But you know, oftentimes, when you know, things like the Ninja Turtles are talked about, they're often mentioned that the show made to sell toys. But you know, it's like who came first, Chicken or the egg? Yeah, do you feel like people say that about Oh yeah, I've I've heard people say that about that Transformers, like all those like g I. Joe's, like these are just shows to sell toys. Well, if you are exactly correct, I'm not kidding. The show.

I'm sorry to burst this bubble. Their TV show, the first the animated series that you grew up with and loved, was only made because they were trying to sell toys or like, I'm not kidding. So so a licensing agent, Mark Freeman, he sought out Eastman and Laird, the two co creators, and he proposed to them a wider merchandise opportunity. So basically, the toys came first. They wanted to have the toys they wanted and it's smart, like look at them, you know, having a set of turtles like they have

nne Chucks. They come with different accessories. So in nineteen eighty six, Dark Horse Miniatures produced a set of fifteen millimeter so literally like half an inch lead figurines. Yes they were lad yep. And then in January seven, Eastman and Laird visited the offices of Playmates Toys, which is a small California toy company that wanted to expand into

the action figure market. So this is what happened. Development started between a creative team of companies and individuals including Jerry Sachs who is the advertising agent of Sax Finley Agency and They brought together animators from Mura Comie Wolf Swenson, which was headed by Fred Wolf, and the team combined

concepts and ideas with the Playmates marketing crew. They brought on writer John Schulte, who helped them make a simple backstory that would live on the toy packaging for the entire run of the product and show wow, I mean it's funny. So so they basically it seems like they're like, all right, we want your turtles, but we're gonna redo everything. Because for them to be writing a new backstory when you know the comics already had a pretty solid one

well Playmate Toys. Playmates Toys, their demographic that they wanted for this was ages four to eight, so there's no way they're PG. Thirteen thing with with the turtle slicing people and saying damn and stuff like that did not fit their target audience. So the this is Crazy plays the toy Company and their team essentially served as associate producers and contributing writers to the miniseries that was first

launched to sell the action figures. So so phrases like heroes and a half shell, which is very popular, and some of their comical catch phrases like turtle power that actually came from their creative team. It's just such like a it's something that you and I know, and I think that we've all kind of been exposed to now. But when you're like, oh no, they literally made the show to sell toys. I mean, it's a great show and we all love it, but it's just like you're

just pulling back the veil, pulling it back. I mean, and if you think this is just a product of the like eighties, that it's still going on, like that's why what was it? Was it Young Justice or one of the recent Justice League shows that had like a great diverse cast, great characters. They canceled it because it

wasn't selling enough toys. Oh man, there's so many things if we at some of the channels that you and I host that I'll get hit up about branded off and it's like, hey, so and so wants to sell this. Do you have a show you can pitch to sell this? I'm not, oh man, I mean you know that's that. That's how it works, That's how it used to work. That's why the perfect combination is being able to combine

the two and still produce a good one. It's really funny because there's so many things people don't know that was just made to sell something, and you'll you would never know because the same thing they bring on a creative team or they have animators or whatever. Uh, and you have no idea that the whole pitch was like, hey, we need to sell this product. Yeah, well, let's get

into the show itself. So on December seven, the Teenage mut Ninja Turtles first cartoon series Begain, starting as a five part mini series and becoming a regular Saturday morning syndicated series on October one. Your Boy was born then I was zero years old. Uh and it and it had thirteen more episodes in that see. Uh so here's something. In the comics they all wore red masks, but for the anime series they gave them different colors, which I'm

sure toys toys, you know, you can't. You can't sell one toy with the same when they all look the same. Oh man, So with this show, Mirage Studios again, which was now a legit studio, no longer just in the living room. They didn't own the rights to the cartoon series. So Eastman and Laird they did actually have the final say on their creations, and they went along with it, but neither were happy about it. So they're They're Pg. Thirteen. Comic was now turned into something that five year olds

could essentially watch um. The show placed a much stronger emphasis on humor than the comics do. Here we have our ninja turtles that are now like for wise cracking, like pizza obsessed superheroes um as opposed to the dark like ninjas. They were they were they were basically it was. It was very similar to Daredevil in the sense that they were urban ninjas and they were out there slicing

people up to save the day. No longer. So. In March two thousand twelve, Layered said that in his blog, among other things, there would have likely been no moronic Hinchman like Bebop and rock Steady, which is funny. Well that's what's funny when it's your your baby, Like I feel like you get distanced and out of touch of like what's working, and even like if you don't like it, you don't care that it's popular, like like he probably still thinks it's done. But Bebop and rock Steady I

do agree they are a hit. The Shredder would have been seriously malevolent. April would not have been a reporter and constantly need to be rescued by the Turtles. That's the one day. And the Turtles would not have been so ridiculously obsessed with pizza, and the Shredder would not have had as one of his businesses a restaurant called pizza another valid complaint. And the show would not have had a joke or gag every five seconds. It wouldn't

be like Deadpool. Yeah, well, you know it's funny because he's like, if I had my way with the show, it would have just been the animated comic and it was like cool, but it would not have been a smash of a hit. It would have but not. Then I think it just comes to something I often find that, like, as cringeing as it sometimes, maybe the family friendly route

just has more staying power. It just really does having Like if the animated series would have been like the comics, there is a chance that it would have been a short lived series that has looked back upon, like something like Ocative, which is amazing in a artistic sense. But if you look at something like the Ninja Turtles, which is just a cash cow, which they get to keep getting that piece of pie. But that's the thing. Where are when you're making really good art, you really don't

care about the money? Yeah, yeah, you know what. To me, it's like, well, I wonder if he was comparing himself to other comic book writers and artists that got to have actual like you know, I mean it was originally though a parody of Daredevil, but Daredevil is so much more violent and uh wait, there's like actual weight to it when maybe he's comparing it to that, even though

the Turtles were a parody of you know, actual comics. Also, if you want to have mentioned like there is an argument there that the current state of the Turtles are following the true spirit of what they were born out of, which was a joke. The terms start off being serious. It was just this joke of like look at this, look at this, and then we got money and you're like,

oh now let's make our thing. But I do like the fact that he said April wouldn't be constantly need to be rescued by the Turtles, which makes me think, like I wonder if she could have had her own definitely, you know, she could have been electra Um. So that series ran until Yeah. And then the second animated series

ran from two thousand three to two thousand nine. It was produced by four Kids, same company h and co produced by the Mirage Comics, which means it was a little closer to the comics and the other show Darker and Edge Year like the seven Scar two series lasted until two thousand nine, ending with a feature length television movie titled Turtles Forever. I remember I remember this run because this is about when I was in high school when it ended, and I remember Turtles Forever being like

a big event for a lot of turtle heads. Yeah. And then the third animated show ran from this is the most recent one to seventeen. It was bought by Nickelodeon, and then that featured the new c g I Turtles, which I felt like, We're pretty well received this one. This one was very liked. This was a people really enjoyed this series. And then Nickelodeon announced the fourth animated series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is gonna

air in September, and I've seen some early stuff. It looks pretty pretty dope, and it role Neil is Black in this one. That's dope. And our friend Ben Schwartz is one of the voices and should be noted Rob Paulson, who was in the original animated show, he voiced Rafael. He got to come back for the third animated series and this time they switched to Donna Tello. Y you know who did Rafael? Was it Sean Aston? Yeah? That was Remember how I said Rob Paulson did talking tunes?

Huh uh the improv that was the episode. I was there when he had Sean Aston man if he met him. I met him at Rijan, which is a very fancy grocery store here, and um, he was friends with my ex, my ex boyfriend, and I was very kind and polite and also made a joke about how I could do better. So that is funny. So the films, Oh my gosh, so this is where my same kicks in. Baby. What's funny about the films is that none of them did

well critically zero, but they did. It was surprising to me because all of these were like Oscar Worthy when I was killed. Now going back, I'm like, oh, but funny enough, all these films made money. There was not a single flop, even though they were all critically put paned which I think goes back to once Again the audience. If these movies were targeted towards adults, I think being

critically panned would make it fail. But that's the cool thing with once Again family friendly movies is when your options are like a quiet place. You know, saw thirty two and like, you know all the stuff, and you're like, what kid movies out, You're gonna go see it no matter what, You're not gonna look at how it was rated. Yeah, you know, it's really funny if he is. I had no idea that people didn't like Batman and Robin until I grew up, No, until I moved here, and like,

I was so great, dude. His outfit it was very much. It was just was over the top. This set designed, the costumes were over the top. I loved it as a kid, loved it. Had the little glass the glasses that you could get like from Burger King or whatever. I loved Poison Ivy. I loved everything back girl like Burger King used to be the plug for movie March.

I remember I had the sunglasses they gave out for a Wild Wild West, and I was real geeked because my mom got it for me on the way to Disneyland, and I was like, hell yeah, and I was rocking them all day. And then I went on Space Mountain put it in my pocket and fell out and fell out of my pocket, So I was no longer a dope boy. Um. But yeah, let's talk about the first

teenager ninja turtle that came out. In it started Judith Hoague as April O'Neil, Elias Coatis as a hockey mask wearing vigilante Casey Jones, with the vocal talents of Corey Feldman as Donna Tello, Brian Tocy as Leonardo, Robbie Wrist as Michelangelo, and Josh Pie as Raphael. The various creatures were created by Jim Henson's creature show. Yeah. And while the film was panned by critics at the time of

the released, fans dug the movie. It was a lot of fun, uh and it was turned it turned into uh the highest grossing independent film of all time at the time. And uh So the budget was thirteen point five million and they made two hundred and two million at the box office, which is a nice come up. So then the next year they released Teenage Turtles to the Secret of Ooze, and that was one year after

the events of the first film, Piece of Delivery. Boy named Keino inadvertently encounters burglars on his root and tries to stop them. Um so this is the one where Shredder turns in the super Shredder at the end, and then he gets knocked into a trash can and Keino, this guy who we just talked about freaking goes oops and hits the trash compactor and kills this dude and murders Shredder and blood like in a cute way like oves. I mean, yeah, but people die in kid films. Oh, man,

I don't I know that was No. No, I think it was teenage mutant ninja turtle on. No, I think you were right. The Shredder suit, by the way, in the nineties was madically. Yes, he goes in the trash machine yep, and he's like in it yep, And Casey Jones goes, he whistles, and he murders him cold blood and you see his helmet gets smushed. Yeah, no, he

straight murdered it. You know that was pretty dark. It was, but there's so many I mean, think of every Disney film ever, those are all dark because the fairy tales they were based off of were extremely dope. That's true that Little Mermaid did not have a happy ending. Yeah, yeah, no, that's true. I don't think snow White did either. But my bad for the Keno stands who just were up in arms for a second. Man, is Keno is cool? Okay? So then that led to teenage muting Ninja Turtles three,

which they were just knocking these outs. Yeah, because the first one was in the nine. Two three was in nine. This was like the height. Yeah. So the second movie brought in seventy eight million, which isn't as much as the first one, but was still a come up. And then then the third one they went the back to the Future three route and went back in the past. There was something about the nineties and the threes being a time travel movie and went back in the time

to feudal Japan. All three of these were critically critically panned. Uh. I want to read the reviews from this. That's that's why. That's what I was looking at. Have one one snippet from James Burrardinelli, who gave it one out of four stars and said any adults accompanying their kids will have to invent new and interesting ways to stay awake. Not only is this movie aimed at young children, the script

could been written by them mad burn wow. But also yes, like it was aimed at young children, and to me it was successful if we still remember it. And once again this was another success with this time the wait and I read TV Guide gave it two out of four stars and said in their review, if the time travel gimmick has to be employed twice in a row, then it's probably best to banish these characters to retirement. Sewer.

You know whoever wrote that thought they were being clever? Yeah, now back then that probably was that smoke okay uh. And then teenage Ming Nina two four, which was I mean not four, but it was the reboot in two thousand fourteen that also was critically pained. But this one I remember a few people being hyped about. I wasn't. I didn't like the design of the turtles. I think

a lot of people thought they were weird. But in the end, with their budget of one brought in four hundred nine, it's because they had some heavy hitters with it too. I remember Megan Fox was April. I remember when they brought in Will Arnett. Yeah, also Whoopi Goldberg Yeah, and it um Johnny Knoxville. Yeah. There were a bunch of people that were in it and it Yeah, I remember, that's going to be another one that you know. I

feel like kids really enjoyed it. I think the fans who went back for nostalgia's sake, yea did not like it, and I just didn't watch it. I've skipped so many reboots that you haven't seen the first Transformers because I did not like the design of it. Did not like the design. That's not, in my opinion, the best Transformers movie is the first one. Anything after that, especially the

latest ones. I won't say because I have a good rapport with the Universal, but did not know, did not at all like the design of it, and skipped that as well. So, I mean that was when she buff everybody really loved him. I've after learning that's skipping Dragonball Evolution was the best decision of my life. Not having any images of that movie burned into my head, I was like, I'm just gonna skip movies that need to

be skipped. All right, Well, I have some little known facts before we bring on our guests, So one of them is that Eastman and Laird. They were actually sued for five million by Buffalo Bob Smith, he was the host of The Howdy Duty Show, because he claimed they stole cowabunga from his program. So that that word was first used as a catch phrase greeting of a Native American character named Chief thunder thud God. However, it had been adopted by surfers in the nineteen sixties. It was

very popular. I don't know if he came up with it, but whatever, And after a few months of going back and forth, they actually did end up giving him fifty dollars, so you can sue it. And didn't we talk about this before? You can see anyone for anything? Yeah. Basically. In addition to the American series, the Japanese Lucive two episode anime original video animation a k a o v A was made in nineteen nineties six titled Mutant Turtles

Jean Din Set suhan Uh. The ov A is similar in tone to the TV series and uses the same voices from TV Tokyo's Japanese dub of the TV series. The first episode was made to advertise the teenage NAT Super Mutant toys, once again made for toys and featured the Turtles as superheroes. Yeah, it's all for toys, all for toys, and yeah, I think those those are some fun facts and we'll get into some more fun stuff

when we come back. And we talked to our guests, So why don't you stick around and listen to what these fine folks have to say on this brain And we are back and we are joined by comedian actor writer Eric Barnes. Thanks, so you wrote a m You wrote a really funny Rancor article that was why I hit you up to be on this and it was the sixteen worst teenage mutant Ninja Turtle villains that nobody

cared about. How did you come up with this? I came up with it a combination of pitching and just I'm just a big Ninja Turtles nerd and I knew that, especially the eighties cartoon. It's so cheesy that there was a lot of terrible villains out there that were um that many fans they're deep polls. Yeah, we were talking about that because funny enough, the Fighting show. The new choreographer I have he actually is Kevin Eastman's a trainer.

He's the one who wanted him to do. And so I was talking about how we did this podcast, how we were talking about Ninja Turtles and how they weren't working together. Well just they their visions were different there, and he was saying that, Yeah, Eastman was saying that he like learned a lot about business from that deal because just the licensing, the deal just couldn't be better. It's they still you know, made a good amount of money,

but it could have definitely been better. God, I feel like that's most people's stories when they make it or whatever is they're finding out, like, oh, I'm going to give this over and now my superheroes super into pizza. And that's the thing that I don't look. The cool thing about, at least Ninja Turtles as a property is that Eastman was able to like redirect his own version, version and vision of what the thing he created could be.

And then you know, Playmates had their own thing for the toys, and now Nickelodeon has their own version and oh yeah, I think arguably it would not have been as big as it did without that bad deal, like the bad because I think if the TV show would have been like this dark, pretty like the direction they

were going, and it would not have went anywhere. But the way that it was built was built in this model that we're learning like two decades in that can be rints repeated almost for so you get more longevity out of it versus just going with like your truest vision. And then now so many people know about Ninja Turtles that you can do a new comic run that is that original dark, gritty boot and still have the licensing checks coming in for the kids versions that are Nina Turtles.

For anybody, whether you're thirty or a teenager or like five years old, it's it's fantastic. I would like if they did in the style of Batman, the animated series, but within Ninja Turtles that that was good. Why wouldn't that be good? Then you need to see the two

thousand three series on Fox. Yeah, because it was a good hybrid of a lot of the original Eastman storylines along with it being a little bit kid friendly, like um like Shredder gets beheaded in that one h Granted it's just a shadow and Shredder turns out to be an ultron, which is just a version of craying inside of stomach, so it was a robot head. But still Oh yeah, that's that's not your typical Saturday morning flair. Is that the one that introduced Venus. No, that was

like a live action sort of Saban. That's when they were teamed up with Saban for like a Power Rangers type the type show. The Venus came in on one of the newer reboots of the cartoons. That's when he came in. Yes, she was a female turtle. That she was the female turtle. And they're like, we're all named after like they've got Hella super Meta and they were like,

we're all named after you know, these great artists. We had to think of something Venus de Milo Venus, which still logically doesn't make y yeah, but the creation of the artists. Yeah, I remember I remember her from the brief like live action show with Saban, but I guess, yeah, I guess she ended Yeah, she did end up in

the show Man. There's just so many versions. It's like when the female Eminem came out for a second that my brain was a little sluggish and I thought there was a female rapper Eminem and I was like, wait, it took yeah, it took me a second. Oh yeah, no, No, she was hot. They really for some reason, they really wanted us to really sexually confused. Yeah, I want to eat her and eater anyways. Okay, wait, so who are

your top favorite villains then? Obviously the Shredder. I would say Shredder, Baxter, Stockman, Kran, and the rat King in that particular order, but there are many, but there are many others. Shredder just because he's the o G. He was there in the original like comic book series. They didn't think too far ahead because they killed him pretty much in the first story arc, but they brought him back, and you know, he's just just this cool kind of character.

I actually have an animation cell of the original series of the Shredder at my home. But yeah, you can't do the Turtles without the Shredder because it's equal parts menacing while being goofy, which is kind of what the whole Ninja Turtles law is. Krang because he's the second o G in a way, because he's just a weird hybrid of like there's this race of like brains that try to take over the world, and sometimes they're evil, sometimes they're not. Sometimes they end up being the Shredder

in a robot suit. Uh, it's just a little bit.

It's so weird and messy but super cool. Baxter Stockman goes from in the comics in the original comic being this African American man scientist to this doc brown like Weasley looking mad scientists in the eighties show to a muteant fly to back to being an African American scientist who who ends up bodyless and has like all kinds of like cybernetic robot enhancements, to now in the current I d W run, he's back to being like an African American genius and he has a horde of like

robotic not just the Mouser's which have always been a constant with him, but going back to his fly roots and has like seberman attic fly mutants that are at his command. So it's nuts. The Rat King the connection with Splinter from the eighties cartoon just being able to

control rats is weird. But in the current I d W series, I love the I d W series because you know, I'm I'm old, I'm old, and it's a little and it's a little bit more mature, and now the Rat King is now part of this weird godlike pantheon of endless immortal beings that just try to you know, kind of like low key in a way in the Marvel universe, and he's trying to just screw with humanity and it's super fun and weird and he's like the

pipe Piper of Hamlin. I was gonna say, did you see this Baxter Stockman um Funko Pop and his fly form? Oh yeah, it's funny. It's funny the things that you latch onto when you're a black nerd. But that was the one thing I remember was Baxter was black, and so I was like, oh man, they got this black scientist. Dude. He's a bad guy, but it's cool because he's like

he a brother. But I do remember the fly version and I think he was still black in this version too of the Teenage Meeting Ninja Turtle video game, because you see that he's the first boss you go up against, and I was like, oh, this is so cool. Also, I like play that nonstopic because my stepbrother had that for the Genesis and so we just would keep playing that one in Turtles in Time. So good, so good, by the way, Bebop and rock Steady is my favorite,

like bumbling idiot duo. They just look cool too. Yeah, they look cool too, you know. Yeah, I'm one of those fans that ship them soup fun like they were my favorite. But we can find some of that on tumbling. Oh yeah, I'm sure there's many a dev and art page dedicated. So talk to us about some of these lesser known villains. What would be like your talk? The vast majority of these, Yeah, the vast majority of these are from the eighties two areas which you know, they're like, Okay,

it's for kids, so we don't have to think too hard. Um, And they really didn't. It just seemed to work. And a lot of them are kind of rip offs of other things in pop culture. One such thing is Mr Og, who is essentially Mr mixel Plick but you can't use the term Mr mixel Plick and just changes and alters reality and just messes with the Ninja Turtles and has

goofy puns because that's how that cartoon series rolls. The Gribbics, Uh, they just one of the writers or a whole team of them just saw Gremlin's or the Trouble with Triples and decided to merge it together and create this cute little thing that you know, transforms into this like little bear like monster with antenna. It looks like it looks like Bozzy Bear and like a pork or something. Yeah. Yeah, and the and the original form is kind of like

a Teddy Bear and mixed with a snork. Yeah that's exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's much more spot on and it's um And then then they got there's a Frip the Polarisoid. Okay, kids, back in the day before digital photos were a thing, they had polaroid cameras which you would take a picture and then all of a sudden, it would develop right in front of you and you have to shake it,

like the song says, in order to see it. And this alien The whole premise of this episode is Frip the Polarissoid goes on vacation and he just takes pictures of Earth with his camera, and his camera just absorbs and takes in whatever he takes a picture of and places it into an alternate dimension that he could just look at and and that sounds kind of scary, but it's kind of hard when he looks and dresses like

a tourist, but he talks with a voice. Little popular the canned Weird like almost kind of Jewish racist, Like, oh, no, photo there's a character like that, because I like the actor that does it. But in um Lelo and Stitch, that alien the one. Oh oh Kevin McDonald, Yes, yes, he does. Um that sounds like No, there's a couple of ones that sound like that. Yeah, It's just like

in Looney Tunes and all that. They just take like these old timey voices, stock voices from old Hollywood people, and they just do their bad impression of them, and all of a sudden, it's a new voice for a character. So I was like, I'm looking up on IMDb. Did Kevin McDonald do the voice of this polarizoid? Oh god, no, I'm just kidding. Oh he wasn't Angry Beavers? Oh and cow and Chicken learning so much. He has a nice high pitched tone that Kevin McDonald. But yeah, there's just

so many in the old series. Um at one point, you know, every everyone knows that Shredder or Crying or some version or duo of them are kind of the main big bads. It's a series. But but in the original they took a backseat in the later years in favor of Lord Dregg who was actually kind of scary looking for a kid and had this you know, deep powerful voice and is a weird bug like alien and it just kind of things took a darker turn in

the original series. Well, you were talking about how you're old yank at which iteration of the Ninja Turtles were you introduced in? Because it's fun, because I feel like this is very similar to Power Rangers, where there's depending on when you were born, you were introd into a different version of this, right. I was introduced to the cartoon uh series back in the day. Yeah, it was like three years old or something like that, three or

four years old, and just absorbed it then. And then growing up, I subscribed to the Archie comics version because that was the kid friendly, safe version. It was the first comic book I ever subscribed to, because, um, back in the day you were able to do comic books and by a subscription and get them in the mail. And then, uh yeah, I've just kind of been married to the franchise ever since. Watched all the movies, read all the older books as I got older, and uh yeah,

the more mature stuff. And then the two thousand three series came out back when I was in like high school, I think high school or college, and then yeah, I just kept following it because, uh, I don't know. The good thing is is that a lot of these newer versions of the Turtles lawer and franchise are written by fans and they were making well what would I do with this? And thus it makes it appealing to me because it's being written by my peers and people that

I grew up with the franchise. So it's still kid friendly a lot of at least all the television shows are,

but there's still a little bit of sophistication. Like Danny, you were talking about Batman, the animated series, A lot of it has a lot of great plot and you know, there's a little bit of silliness and story and story in both the two thousand three and flash forward and in the Nickelodeon runs, but it's not as cheesy and just uh as much as I love the original series, a lot of episodes you don't need to see, there's a lot more. There's a lot more plot and character

development in the newer stuff. Well, yeah, it's it's funny that you were saying for fans, you know, by fans because That's something we touched on on the Fan Films episode where Yeah, and I feel like that is a constant that goes through and I feel I think we talked about this in the m c U two. When you have a connection to the source material, then you're

gonna want to produce the best version of it. Like I have a friend who does who works on BN tent and she was saying how much she liked the design of the monsters on there, so of course she her big fun challenge for herself is how cool she can make these new monsters and the new reboot of Bent tenants. I feel like that's where you get things like,

you know, Batman and Robin and Batman. When you remember Tim Burton said he's never read a Batman comic, and I feel like he was saying that almost bragging, but you could tell when you watch it was like, no, yeah, we we know you didn't. That's why you have a catwoman looking like a B D. S M. You know, look dot, it's it's like And oddly enough, she continued

to look like a dot after that. Yeah, but you know, you when you have an attachment to it, you almost want to honor the work that you're doing versus and we as creators, you know, as creators, we want to create what we want to create, and unless we have an attachment to what we're creating when we're working from a source, then we're gonna want to do our thing with it. But if you're a fan of it, you're

gonna want to honor what you're doing. You're not gonna be worried about what you think should go, and you're gonna worry about what's gonna be the coolest thing, what's gonna be the best. And I find that that's what makes you know, the I d W series people have been hailing it for since it came back good. I

think that's the reason right there. Yeah, And and the cool thing is is that there's also room for what you were saying about people wanting to put their own mark on it, like this upcoming teenagement in Ninja Turl

series is couldn't be more different. April Neil is a person of color, Raphael is now the oldest Ninja Turtle and has Tanfa's instead of his side, and just the dynamics are different, and it's just kind of it's cool because we now live in a world in which if you like the old corny like show, it's still there. You can still watch it. If you like the kind of a hybrid of stuff, the two thousand three series

is there. If you want something CG and new, the series there if you want something more contemporary and sophisticated. An adult IDW comic book series is there. And now there's this brand new thing that is still a love letter to the original sources, but is twisted and made at its own thing for a modern era and a new generation of fans. Oh yeah, I mean you're a rational person, And of course that is not the way

fans think of it. No matter how Undercats, ThunderCats, Ghostbusters, the New Power Rangers movies, anything that taps into their source, people acclaim ownership. If that's because they destroyed all the original uh materials again, right, that sounds like that's why

people are mad, correct. I really didn't know that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had that issue, But are you saying that they also have that issue along with Star Wars and every other for handship Well, I don't even want to give these opinions because I like to think of these opinions as French opinions even if they're not uh. Mostly because the internet is so niche, you can find anything for anyone. That's why it's funny when people tell

me that they think read it's a horrible place. I was like, oh no, you craft you read it, create an account and read it will be beautiful. But there still are fringe things and the crappiness, I'd like to call it the darkness. The negativity will creep into your fandoms too, because you'll have this like loud minority that wants to shout about things. Here's the thing with nerd culture. For a long time, it was a thing that you did and only you cared about, and not many people

cared about it. Some people were made fun of liking the things that they've liked, and it was just a fringe thing. And you've grown to be okay with that. You've grown to be okay with being one of a very few people, especially like before the era of the Internet, when you can connect with the thousands of people who actually like the thing the other Yeah, but like in your community, you usually were a fringe offset person it and that became your personality, that became who you were

because you know, no one else liked it. Sometimes you were teased about it. So then fast forward to times like now when nerd culture is booming. The Internet has allowed us to find out that actually a lot of people like it. But I think people are not looking at it from that kind of big picture look. They're looking at it as like, oh, I've already known this is cool, and you're just figuring out now, which is why you get the gross things like people quizzing other people,

especially women gatekeeper. The gatekeeping thing is absurd to me because I don't think you're an actual fan if you gate keep anyone. A real fan would be excited about someone new being interested in their fandom, Like you would want to share that love of this thing that you grew up with with someone else. It would excite you to have someone come in and oh, they don't know this, Like you know, I grew up on d C comics.

I didn't really grow up on Marvel comics. And so I had a friend of mine that was like, oh, you can borrow mine if you want to, Like, here's a great place to start. Like that is someone who loves their fandoms so much, that's like, you can borrow my stuff because I know you'll love it if you read this like that to me is a real fan.

Someone that gate keeps is not a real fan. Well, it's just like with me growing up, I know the topics of the Ninja Turtles, but Batman, I was introduced to the character through like Justice League cartoons and all that, and then some older fans hip to me about the nineteen sixties TV show and just showed me a different layer of fandom. And then someone else showed me a

different layer of fandom. So it's what's cool about Ninja Turtles is that, like you know, I have a bunch of you know, niece's nephews and all that they're going to grow up with this newer stuff and I'm gonna

ask them questions about that. It's the cool thing about modern fandom is that it's going passed through different generations and that now I could share them with them if they're interested in the nineteen eighties TV show or the late two thousands or the mid two thousands TV show that they haven't seen because they weren't even born yet. Oh yeah, it's funny. I feel like this is just like a situation that happened to me. So I was getting my haircut by my barber and one of my

friends saw me there. I was, oh, man, you've been coming Here's like, oh, you've been coming here, and like I jokingly was like, yeah, no, I've been trying to keep it a secret, and my barber got so mad.

But I think about that a lot. How that's a lot about fandoms where it's like you're over here trying to keep it a secret, this thing that you like, and trying to keep it for yourself, when really the creators would love for more people to because that's how they get the money and the support to create more things. So being a gatekeeper, I think it is true you're not a real fan because you're not supporting the person who's making this thing you like so much when you

want it to be just you with it. Yeah, it's like a really selfish way to look at someone else's art. Like that's the truth of it is that a lot of fans think and and you know, I'm talking as a fan, like I am obsessive over certain fandoms that I grew up with, but I don't want to keep anyone out. And if someone's a casual fan, that that doesn't affect me in any way, nor does it bother

me in any way. It's so I never feel the need to comment on a post or put someone in their place about it, like it's just frustrating to me.

It's like it's I don't know. Here's another thing too, is that I feel like, I don't know if we talked about this on the Marvel episode, but for people who are so obsessed with superhero culture, people who are so obsessed with all these superhero Marvel d C shows, when given the opportunity to be a hero, you're not like when given an opportunity to actually act like the heroes you are so obsessed with none of the JEDDI are going to write racist things to Kelly Marie Trand,

like you don't follow your own fandoms. You know, you don't follow your own heroes and the characters you look up to they would be embarrassed of you. Well, it's it's it's funny because that's why in this this is where we'll take a interesting tangent out of just almost philosophy.

But I think that's what comes with justice. I think when people think they're doing a justice, the thing might seem bad, but because they're doing it for the right reason, it absolves them for being a real duty head instead of another word I might use, but but you know, And that's where things get messy, because it's like, no, if you're doing something wrong, you're doing something wrong. It doesn't matter if you think you're doing it for the

right reasons. Maybe you should, you know, reevaluate the way you're doing it. And if you really do, if you really something makes you so mad, If you really do think that this new Star Wars ruined Star Wars, then guess what, just don't watch it. And I'm not even saying that, and they're like, then don't watch it. I'm saying, like, if you really think so, then speak with your dollars and maybe maybe that'll give you the change that you want.

But if you're constantly you can't believe, you can't sit there and convince yourself that all these people who are enjoying it, who are supporting it, are crazy. That's that's insane to think that you're the only one who has the right opinion about a piece of art. Artists objective.

Sometimes it's not for you, and it may not be for you, so go back and watch the original trilogy and let the people who are really enjoying this new trilogy enjoy that, because you know what, there are people who are die hard fans about the prequel trilogy and as as across the board pand exciting, but they're exciting to encounter because they're like, I can't believe that you found something so exciting from those that it's cool when

someone's yuck is someone's yum. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. I also just I want to preface this in general with everything that we talk about on this podcast, is that the world is such a scary, dark, tragic, painful, horrific place that if someone finds joy in a cartoon or someone finds joy in a film, for the love of God, let them enjoy it. Like, seriously, it is. It's such

a scary world. It has been a scary world. But if someone these were the fandoms that a lot of us escape to, you know, like, let people will enjoy something. If you got to enjoy something when you were little, maybe it's time that that baton has passed on two younger generations. I'm sorry that ThunderCats is no longer just marketed towards you maybe before you even see an episode. Right, cartoons,

it doesn't exist anymore, Right, that's gone. Well, what's been funny is I saw some one point out because people like it needs to be serious, and that existed, they thunder Cat Cats cartoon and it didn't do well enough to keep going. And it was good, it was artistically great,

but it's sad. It's sadly got yeah people, but yeah, well, and something that this guy in this like And normally I don't like the ranti takedowns of nerdy things by other nerds, but he did a real good job of point out that ThunderCats was a show created to sell toys, so as he Man's and as we learned earlier in this episode Ninja Turtles. And when you do that, the plot isn't all there's just enough to enthrall kids, and then that much so there isn't that much lore within

you know. Of course there were comics and spinoffs that might have built that lower up in the meantime, but guess what, that's your medium. That's what you need to zero in on, because they're making this new uh Thundercat's Roar for an audience that's not you. Because as much as people rag on Teen Titans Go because they like the original Teen Titans, that show is doing well, that show has no kind of double down on something if and and mind you, I'm a nerd. I love all

these things that we're talking about heavily. Just follow me on Twitter and all that will get to plugs later. But the alt the if your life is so good that your biggest beef is a children's cartoon, isn't the way you would have done it. How blessed are you? How blessed are you? But you actually just reminded me of something, uh to where I was problems man, Yeah, but you know how I was saying, how it became

people's identity. I think that's where it becomes such a touchy thing for some people, because people have built their whole identity around a living art and art that's constantly evolving that when it changes to them, it feels like it's changing them. Like it's like, I'm not this person, this is not the person I wanted to be. I wanted to be the version of the person. And it's like,

that's why you don't make your fandom your life. That's why you don't make your whole person personlinality around a piece of art or nerd them because if it's not your art, you don't have control over it. So at any moment it could change, well your role as a fan if you closely identify with it, because it could be hard because you know, I was, you know, growing up, I was the wrestling guy and all that. So people talk to me about that, and you know, there's some

newer stuff that I'm not a fan of. But people can come to me and I can know them, Hey, this is do you like this now? And all that? I got something to show you. And that's the thing is that you nurture the new fans in order to appreciate the older stuff. And guess what, you end up appreciating what they appreciate because you're looking at it from instead of looking at from your older glasses or whatever you want to put it. I keep saying old. I'm in my I'm in my thirties. I'm not that old anyway.

People Grandpa, grandpa here anyway. Um, but they can they can revitalize your fandom because you're either revisiting the stuff that you loved in the past or you're looking at this newer stuff with a different perspective and having a better appreciation for it and not feeling assault and not feeling that you're attacked. But you're welcomed by this new thing I know. And if you like that old stuff, boy, do I have some news for you. W w e

uh more new your pan world. But anyway, before we close out, Eric, who is your what is your Who's your favorite ninja? Oh? Boy? Um uh Rafaeliardo? No? I I grew up loving Leonardo, but as I got older, I had a bigger appreciation for Rafael, because that's how my personality shifted over time. No, I appreciate it. If you forgot who who is your who would you say currently? Who are you feeling like today? Oh? Man, today I would say, you know Leonardo? You know he got he

has the he has the two two blades. Yeah, everyone likes it. But I've always been like a Rath type of guy. There you go, you know that bad boy. So you're a vegeta and you're just yeah, that's the one step, that's the one step I'll take the shell kicker of the group. Yeah, yeah, No, I feel you. Um today I feel like splinters. Who I want to

be like? Eric? Where can everyone catch you? Everyone can just follow me on Twitter at Eric W. Barnes R I k W b A R and S for just jokes where I'm gonna do shows and just general commentary on nerdy stuff. Awesome. Um, I'm at MS Danny Fernandez. It's M S D A n I F E R n A N d e Z. Don't forget to follow us on all the social media's at Nerdificent. That's on Instagram,

on Twitter. You can also catch us on Facebook. We do reply to our messages and we try to reply to all of our tweets there we go, Uh don't. I don't think you can slide in there. Um, although we did have actually when Infinity War came out, we wanted to talk to everyone without posting spoilers, and so we did make a private group and there were several people in there and that was pretty fun for all of us to kind of talk about Infinity War in there.

So maybe we'll do that with another movie coming up hopefully soon. Uh yeah, And you can catch me at if you D I F Y and W A D I do E on Twitter and Instagram, if D S on Twitch. A lot of the nerd fans coming through draw been uh you know, Fatal Baptist, drop that sub. I'm gonna shout you out again and you drop stubs.

Let shout you out on the cast. What I did want to say is if you and I will both be at Anime Expo, and we will also be we'll be doing some stuff with our friends at Funimation at Lucky Strike, and then we will also both be on a panel together at Comic Con. So that'll be Friday. I think we're in the library, the auditorium Library will probably we'll probably mention, but I believe our show, our

panels at four pm. It's going to be about um geek podcasting and we have some of the people, some of our friends over at hyper RPG are also gonna be on that at as well. So if you are at San Diego Comic Con, if you don't know what San Diego Comic Con is or what comic cons are in general, please or you just want more info about it, listen to our Comic Con episode. It was Dope and Killer, and we also talked about what goes on at the

after parties. Um. But yeah, we will be. We will be on a panel together and we'll also be announcing our own con appearances there we go. That starts really gross. I hate saying that we'll be announcing where we'll at the corn uh so you can catch us there, And as we always say, staying already friends