Splitsider - Inside Jokes

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: MLB Mascot Mr. Met

by Jeff Rubin | May 21st, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin show, Jeff interviews Matt Golden, who has played Mr. Met for more than 10 years. They talk about how to deal with fans at the stadium, how to talk properly to people when you are wearing a giant head, and what it's like acting as a mascot compared to acting in a Shakespeare play.

"When you had the microphone we had to come up with ways that people couldn't talk too much on the microphone, where you'd sort of ask them a question and then pull the mic away and they would give you the answers, and then you would speak the answers into the mic and avoid people just shouting things." – Matt Golden on what they did to avoid any outbursts when talking to people at the stadium.

"Generally in the baseball mascot world, the epitome of mascots is the Phillie Phanatic. It's a great costume, it's well designed and the performer is fantastic. Different mascots have different parameters, so The Phanatic can be very antagonistic towards other teams, which is good for a laugh, and he is known for smacking the helmets of the other teams. Mr. Met doesn't do that. Mr. Met is supportive of his own team, but not antagonistic towards other teams." – Matt Golden on the difference between mascots. READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: Summer Movie Previews

by Jeff Rubin | May 14th, 2013

"I saw the poster that said "the new movie from the director of District 9" and I was like, don't even show me the trailer, I'm there. Then I saw the trailer anyways and it looked pretty good" – Jeff on Elysium

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff is joined by Patrick Cassels to talk about the upcoming summer movies.

They have five minutes to talk about each movie; here's a list of the movies they bring up: READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: Adult Swim's Dave Willis

by Jeff Rubin | April 30th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff talks to Dave Willis, who has worked on Adult Swim's Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and the new Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell. They talk about how he got started in the business, working on Space Ghost and Aqua Teen and making the transition from cartoon to live-action.

"There's a lot of ways to make cartoons, and I think you can make them without plots. But I don't think you can make them without great characters." – Dave Willis on what makes a great cartoon.

"The basic premise of the show you've seen depicted many many times in the New Yorker, Far Side, TBS had a cartoon show about hell a few years ago, but to do it live action visually I don't think you've really seen that. Visually there is nothing else like it out there, and comedically I just think it is funnier in live action." – Dave Willis on why he decided to make Your Pretty Face live action instead of a cartoon show.

"We had a guy who worked on [Avid editing systems] and came and saw what we did and he said, 'The machine's not meant to do that.'" – Dave Willis on how much work there was to do with the cartoons.

This episode is brought to you by Squarespace: everything you need to create an exceptional website. Sign up at Squarespace.com/JeffRubin with the code "nerd" for a free trial and get 10% off your first purchase! READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: eSports Commentator djWHEAT

by Jeff Rubin | April 23rd, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff talks to eSports commentator djWHEAT. They talk about how eSports became a thing, how he became a commentator for it and what it was like to be a Y2K IT guy.

"The earliest sign of the word e-sports we can find is in 1994 when the domain was registered, but this was also around the time where people were squatting on domain names, so it is hard to say. In 1995-96 is when the PGL started and that is where we found the origin of this word, but really that is not when it started. If you go back before that you have to consider the Street Fighter and Arcade scene, and if you rewind even further there is the Twin Galaxies era." – djWHEAT on the origins of eSports.

"My team had won a NA competition to go compete at an event called Lan War in Paris, and since I could not go, I broadcasted the game, so I remotely covered the game and it was kind of the first time that anyone had done that. What was amazing was that we had the server capacity of 100 people, and within an hour we had filled this 100 people up. Then all of these different universities set up all of these relays and the next thing we knew we had 5000 people just listening old school AM radio style to these Quake matches and getting score updates that way." – djWHEAT on what his breakthrough as a broadcaster was. READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: The Gregory Brothers

by Jeff Rubin | April 16th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff talks to Evan, Andrew, Michael and Sarah who together form The Gregory Brothers. They talk about how they got together as a group, what they were doing before they found success on YouTube, what makes a good unintentional singer and what the process of songifying a video is like. At the end they even give a little concert.

“The first time that we happened to work together was on this tour in '07. We started out as The Gregory Brothers playing Andrew's album and Sarah's album and at the end of the tour we had basically merged into one unit playing eachother's music all the time. It was one year after that, that the videos took off.” – Evan on how they started making music together.

"We got focused on this idea of lets take this technology that already exists out there to modify the sound of a singers voice, and lets see if we can point that at a speakers voice to make it sound like singing. Once we were doing that it was less about creating a remix and more about shaping a real melody. So we were coming at it more from a songwriter's angle rather than from a DJ's remix angle." – The Gregory Brothers on what their idea behind songifying is.

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: R. L. Stine

by Jeff Rubin | April 9th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin show, Jeff talks to R. L. Stine author of the Goosebumps series. Jeff talks to him about how he got started with writing scary stories and how he writes the Goosebumps series. They talk about all the letters that he got sent from kids, and what he thought about the Gersberms meme.

“I never planned to write it, I always just wanted to be funny. But I wrote this scary novel for teenagers Blind Date, and it was number one on the publishers weekly bestseller list. Then a year later I wrote another one and it was a bestseller, and I thought wait a minute, I've stumbled on to something here that kids want to read.” – R. L. Stine on why he decided to write scary stories.
READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: Moira "Mo" Quirk from Nickelodeon's 'Guts'

by Jeff Rubin | March 26th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin, Jeff talks to Moira "Mo" Quirk from the Nickelodeon show Guts. They talk about how she got on the show, what it was like working with Mike O'Malley, her voiceover-work after the show stopped, and if she can give us a piece of the Aggro Crag.

"I was to be the referee and the voice of reason, it sort of turned out [to Mike's insanity]. I had gotten hired for being quite comedic, but I always felt that I was quite school-momish on the show and quite serious. So whenever people tell me that I was funny I am always surprised" – Moira Quirk on what her role was next to Mike O'Malley.

"They will write what your emotions are, what preceded it and why you are responding in such a way, but you read all of your lines wild. It's just you responding to your make-believe people. So when you are doing your session they will stop and say this is why you are responding this way, this is what has happened and this is what might happen. You have to have that explained to you." – Moira Quirk on how she recorded her voice-overwork for the video game Skyrim.

This episode is brought to you by Squarespace: everything you need to create an exceptional website. Sign up at Squarespace.com/JeffRubin with the code "dork" for a free trial and get 10% off your first purchase! READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: Nintendo Hotline Game Counselor Erich Blattner

by Jeff Rubin | March 19th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff talks to Erich Blattner, a former Nintendo Hotline Game Counselor. The Nintendo Hotline existed back in the late 80's/early 90's, for people to call in and get help if they were stuck on a Nintendo game.

They talk about how he got the job, what it was like to work as a game counselor, how well-versed in video games you had to be to do the job properly and at the end they also talk about what it's like to be a video game tester, a job that Erich Blattner had after he stopped being a game counselor.

"It works in the short terms, but causes problems in the long term. If those connectors were not all seated properly, you would get garbage on your screen. By blowing on those connectors you are adding a bit of moisture from your breath, and that is often times helping make that connection, but in the long run it would corode those contacts. " – Eric Blattner on what blowing in cartridges actually did.

"The perception was that it was mostly kids calling, but actually it was people of all ages. I would get calls from senior citizen centers where that was what they did to keep their brain active – they played video games. You would get calls from the parents that were playing the game." – Eric Blattner on who called the Nintendo Hotline.

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: Fantasy Kingdoms with DC Pierson

by Jeff Rubin | March 12th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff talks to comedian/author/actor DC Pierson, whose new book Crap Kingdom is now for sale. They talk about being in commercials, The fantasy series The Red Wall, and then they each say the three fantasy worlds they would least like to live in, and the three fantasy worlds that they would most like to live in.
READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: Author Cole Stryker

by Jeff Rubin | February 26th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff talks to Cole Stryker who wrote the books Epic Win For Anonymous about the hacktivist group Anonymous, and Hacking The Future about the value of anonymity on the internet and why we should fight to keep it.

They talk about what 4chan actually is and how the group Anonymous is associated with it, how the mainstream media often portrays them in a much darker light than what the reality is and what the group is able to do.

"I describe Anonymous as being a few geniuses surrounded by a legion of cheerleaders, or a few geniuses surrounded by a legion of idiots. Basically you have a couple of people who really know what they are doing who can pull of some serious hacks, and you have thousands of people speaking very loudly about the issues, showing up to protests and causing a stir, so you have this megaphone-effect." – Cole Stryker on the group Anonymous. READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: NYU Video Game Professor in Game Design Eric Zimmerman

by Jeff Rubin | February 19th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin show, Jeff talks to Eric Zimmerman, who is an NYU professor at the NYU Gamecenter teaching game design.

Eric tells the story of how he got the job, how you teach game design, and how much of the homework that the students get is just playing video games. They also talk about the state of gaming, which of the recently released games that have really good game design and if Microsoft Flight Simulator can be categorized as a game or only as a simulation.

“There really weren't books about designing video games, altough there were interesting books anthropology, folklore and philosophy, where people had looked at games as something interesting to investigate culturally. There was no field of game design, no discipline of game design that you could be for or against or find your way around.” — Eric Zimmerman on the lack of theories that had been published about game design when he first started teaching it 20 years ago READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: WWE Writer Matt McCarthy

by Jeff Rubin | February 12th, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff talks to comedian Matt McCarthy about his job of working for the WWE as a creative writer. They talk about how he got the job, the demands of putting together a live wrestling show, and what it's like to work with Vince McMahon.

“It's SNL in a different city every week, no re-runs and no off-season. The monday show is three hours live, and then there is another hour for the audience, and then on tuesday they do four hours.” – Matt McCarthy on the demands of writing for WWE.

“This year is WrestleMania 29, and I heard that Vince already knows what he wants to do for WrestleMania 30. I'm sure Vince knows what he wants to do for WrestleMania 50, whether he is around to see it or not.” – Matt McCarthy on how much they plan ahead and how much Vince is in control. READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: Videogame Debate Club LIVE from New York Podfest

by Jeff Rubin | January 29th, 2013

This week's episode of The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show is a LIVE edition from the NY Podfest. Jeff is joined by Adam Conover and Jared Logan to play Metagame (as previously heard on JRJRS), a game where all three contestants are asked the same question, and choose which of 5 different game titles they think is the best answer to that question. The one who gives the most convincing answer gets one point.

To decide who makes the most compelling argument special guests are welcomed on stage to judge a round each. The guest judges are Scott Weiner, an Applause-O-Meter in the form of Scott Weiner, Patrick Cassels, Jackie Kashian AND two of the creators of Metagame John Sharp and Eric Zimmerman. The winner after the last round gets $100 to donate to a charity of their choice. READ MORE

Podcasts

The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show: Marvel Comics Historian Sean Howe

by Jeff Rubin | January 22nd, 2013

This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin show, Jeff is joined by Sean Howe, author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.

They talk about how Sean Howe managed to research his book, the influence of Stan Lee vs. Jack Kirby, how Marvel Comics became so popular in the 60's and how they are now doing the same with their cinematic universe.

"Maybe the biggest controversy in the history of Marvel is the discussion of whether Stan Lee was the genius or Jack Kirby was the genius, or said in another way: did Stan Lee totally swipe all of Jack Kirby's ideas? I think that is an overstatement, but I think it is important to have that conversation in the book." — Sean Howe on the history of Marvel. READ MORE

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