fighting for my life to make this show

work.

>> I don't want to do this.

>> And I got in trouble for sleeping at the

office.

>> I kind of get like emotional looking at

this. I'm not going to lie.

>> We have fun. We're having fun. Hi, I'm

Zach Evans.

>> And I'm Ryan Bgara.

>> And we are going to be watching our most

viral videos.

>> Oh, and there's so many.

>> I feel like you're going to have more

views than me, but who's counting?

>> Me.

>> Who's counting? You're counting. The

world's counting.

>> I'm counting.

>> You're counting.

>> Should have got into ghosts.

>> Oh my god. Oh. Oh, hey. Can you not when

you're sweaty?

>> Thank you,

>> Brent.

>> H I love Brent.

>> I love Brent so much.

>> I still have that blanket.

>> That's sad.

>> I know.

>> I love you so much.

>> I'd do this series if it was just us

watching Brent videos. I would do it all

day.

>> Oh my.

>> Oh,

>> I remember that hat.

>> I unfortunately do too.

>> I don't even remember this. I have no

>> your black mamba shirt. Like, dude, so

on brand.

>> Yeah, dude. I I've got a full Laker gear

on. I have no recommend.

>> Probably why I put on a King shirt.

>> 2014. Wow. I had three other roommates

at this time. I was like, we need to

just

>> Did they see this video? And did they

kind of like have like a

>> I had to kick them out to shoot it. You

know, I was like, "Hey guys, I need the

apartment.

>> If you guys get out of the apartment, I

have to all over you on the

internet."

>> Brent and I were the interns on the

weird couples videos. That's what this

came from.

>> Shout out Kevin McShane. Shout out Kevin

McShane. And honestly, I learned so much

from Kevin on those shoots because he

ran those sets like a pro. Behind the

scenes right now, we have a slate.

>> Zack Ryan React.

I did not know that.

>> One scene one, whatever.

>> Can that be the cold open? He was the

first person had the slate. He had the

color chart to make sure

>> I remember that

>> we can do that. And like Brent and I

were the two interns that wanted

overtime and so we would do those

shoots. So that's where this came from.

We're like, "Why don't we just do our

own version of this as roommates?"

>> I actually now starting to remember this

shoot because I remember walking in with

my little gel kit.

>> Yeah.

>> You remember? I used to walk around with

my little gel kit because I fancied

myself as a cinematographer.

>> He was the camera guy.

>> I was the camera guy.

>> I I just have to give so much credit to

to Kevin McShane. And yeah, he put me in

a few of those videos and it it helped,

you know, it helped.

>> In this video, too, I'm pretty sure you

were like, I forgot there was another

person in this. Ryan, can you just step

in?

>> Can you do this? And I was like, "Take

off my like light meter."

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

>> I would be so stoked when I would be

running sound because I knew all I was

going to do is just sit in a chair, put

headphones on, and just kind of like

>> just monitor that toggle. Like, please

don't get

>> Honestly, not even really like,

>> but you never wanted to mess that up.

>> How do you mess it up? You press the

button.

>> People messed it up.

>> It didn't matter to me if like

>> the sound was a little spotty in that

video. I'm just going to say,

>> okay,

little spotty. Is it just me or does

that guy look like Ian from Smos?

>> Talking about Brent.

>> Dude, Brent loves Smosh, too.

>> I'm in this.

>> Yes.

>> Okay. I don't remember this at all.

>> There's definitely a hair in the salad.

>> It's probably his gorgeous hair.

>> I ate school lunch every day pretty

much.

>> I'm wearing the same hat, by the way.

>> Yeah, school lunch was kind of like a

>> quint thing for me.

>> Pizza.

>> It's like that separation.

>> That looks like Desjouro. That doesn't

look like a school pizza flavor.

>> They all have that taste to them. Are

they made differently?

>> Yeah. I mean, if I was a kid, I'd

probably eat this.

>> That's some pretty That's the insight.

You something.

>> That's when we knew that he was a star.

Like,

>> when you want that that that real deep

insight, that's when you call the old

Burguza and he'll tell you, I'd eat that

>> in a taste test.

>> Everyone should revolt against

>> It's kind of fun that Quint's in a

school lunch video.

>> Yeah, that is fun.

>> You would expect the gravy to droop off

of it.

>> This is fancy. The gravy looks like nut.

I'm going to be honest. This food looks

like I'm really glad I'm not eating this

right now cuz being on this white table

with the white psych behind us, it makes

me feel like we're about to eat

something gross.

>> Are we about to eat something?

>> I hope not. Those taste test days are

over, baby. I'm not eating. No more bull

testicles for me.

>> You weren't in that video, by the way.

You just did it.

>> I could smell it. This has 17 million

views.

>> 17 million. I'll tell you what, if I

uploaded this exact same video with the

same title, adults try public school

lunches, it would get 1,000 views.

>> It was just a different time. I remember

when we did Americans try McDonald's for

the first time. And that was like

>> I remember that when I I started that

series where Chinese people try Panda

Express for the first time.

>> Oh yeah.

>> And then Mexican people try. That was

me.

>> You learn a lot from doing a different

type of video than like what you're

normally used for. I I kind of liked

that about BuzzFeed.

>> It was a crash course. Honestly,

Buzzfeed was like college. It was like

grad school for the internet.

>> 100%.

>> People felt like we were still on a

college campus.

>> I feel like we went to college together.

Like that's how I feel.

>> I literally am like, "Oh yeah, that was

my boy and my frat."

>> Yeah. Cuz after we would clock out, it's

like, "All right, it's time to go to the

bars in Hollywood."

>> Yep. It was fun. Dave Wayne, shout out.

Free promo.

>> That's right.

>> You're welcome. It's cool again, by the

way.

>> Wow.

>> I remember that Justin.

>> There's a gift from this, right? Yeah.

That Justin jacket.

>> That jacket. You know why I remember

that jacket? Because you put it on and

did the Justin impression walking around

the office where you slouched your

>> Yeah. And his young and reckless hat.

>> Hey Liz and Da.

>> Wow. This is the crew.

>> Speaking of DEA, going to catch a stray

here. Anytime you were in a DEA taste

test video or any kind of video, she was

going to do you dirty. She was going to

make

>> Especially you though.

>> She would take the most embarrassing

clip or bite that you said and like make

it like the centerpiece of the video.

She took a sick pleasure in it.

>> Curly. Curly. Claudia. Wow. This is

literally like scrolling through

Facebook and seeing all the people from

college.

>> I could see myself cutting open one of

these biscuits, putting it in there.

>> Great. Great tact.

>> That's why they had us both here

together.

>> Yeah. Yeah. They're like, we got to

>> between the two of us, we'll make one

sentence.

>> Yeah.

>> Has Curly ever had a bad fit in his

life?

>> No. He's been from the jump.

>> It's just immaculate.

>> Oh, this is the gift. Us doing the

>> What would happen if

>> Wow. Snap your fingers.

>> Fluffy taffy.

>> Yeah.

>> Oh, it's a moon pop.

>> Those suck. Sorry if that offends my

>> The whole South is like screw you.

>> I don't like it.

>> War is on steroids.

>> I'm housing this thing. I like it.

>> Look it.

>> Cuz we would get free lunch certain

days, but the day that you wouldn't have

free lunch, that's when you try to

>> You get into that taste test, like a

pizza taste test. I'm in. I'm going to

have my lunch on camera. I don't even

care. You don't have to cut me out of

the video. A hack that we used to do,

really, this was the Justin Tan special,

is you get like $300 to produce your

video and Justin would be like, "What's

the cheapest we can make this video?"

And then we can go to lunch. I remember

>> and he'd always we'd always go to lunch.

>> We used to go to Ke and we did have a

lot of meals.

>> I don't remember the videos I'm in, but

I remember the ones that I produced that

got a lot of views because we were

really gunning for views to keep our

job. Literally, I remember the hits cuz

it wasn't like, "Oh, this feels good."

It was like, "I get to work here still."

Yeah.

>> Thank God. Like we had to do a taste

test for everybody and I remember being

like I don't want to do this. I I did

the people eat dog food in almost out of

defiance pitching it as a joke and

they're like yeah you go for it and we

did have a deal with Pyina and they were

mad about it. I hope I didn't mess it up

cuz I love the what were they puppyhood?

Those videos those videos are so

>> yeah I think pion's doing fine. Your dog

food video is not going to be the

missile that takes down the towers. So I

think you'll be fine.

>> That is

>> we took a DNA. I remember when you guys

were doing this, the 23 and me.

>> So, I'm half Japanese, 38 Mexican, and

1/8 Filipino.

>> I am half Japanese, half Italian.

>> I remember when this Yeah, I remember

when this was a thing. Like trying Oh,

yeah. Macy,

>> the test friends were

>> like, "We need more try. Come on."

>> We were like the Bizarro Island of

Misfit Toys try.

>> Back in the day, they would separate you

into kind of little pods, I would call

them, right?

>> I think they were called pods for

>> Yeah. You were in like a scripted pod. I

was on the unscripted pod. And it get we

had different focuses that we shifted

through throughout the years. Like one

year it was BuzzFeed IRL which was more

kind of like a docu series pod. So we

did a show called Real Mature. And I was

really I remember I was really going

hard on that. That was a time and then

we also did Test Friends which was as

Zach said they were like we need more

Try Guys and they turned to us.

>> Give me Try Guys.

>> Yeah. And we were like we'll try. We got

the test friends. So we did that and we

tried health and fitness trends. But

Buzzfeed Unsolved came out of the docu

series pod. I was supposed to be doing

docu series and then I got that inkling

to do unsolved and so I had to do the

docu series stuff in the daytime and

then unsolved stuff after hours. I think

the third Unsolved episode, the Alisa

Lamb video went crazy. I remember seeing

when you were doing Unsolved, especially

when you did those early ones with Brent

and thinking, "Oh, Ryan Bgara is like in

his lane right now." because it's like

you did do a bunch of different things

and like seeing you be able to operate

where you could be funny and super into

something

>> and showing your personality.

>> I thought the same thing about seeing

you guys doing all your trailers and

everything. Buzzfeed was nice cuz it let

you bounce around till you found

something that really, you know, could

showcase what you could do. Test Friends

was so much fun because it was five

people. It was me, Shane, which is funny

cuz it's Shane and I there. Um, and then

Jen, Macy, and Dea. The thing that was

fun about the team was because there was

four producers as on camera people. Macy

was the only person who was like a

non-producer. She was a social media

coordinator, so she didn't know how to

make videos, but all four of us did. So,

what we did was we would just rotate

between whose responsibility it was to

produce that test video. The work life

balance was probably the best it's ever

been for me, just because it was so

dispersed in terms of workload. And we

all got along great. There's never any

kind of beef or strife among any of the

people I work with across my time at

BuzzFeed. So,

>> no, I feel like these are like top

people. Macy is the best. Jen's the

best. Shane's the best. A's the best.

You're You know, they needed another

guy.

>> Yeah, they did. And I I answered the

call. I came there to be like, "Hey,

we're shooting a video." That's

>> I remember when Shane came onto the

scene. He was like the internal and I

fre I'm trying to remember his first

couple videos, but I remember seeing him

being like, "Ooh, this is a guy that's

got a distinct style and he's weird in

the best way." So funny and like

uniquely him.

>> Yeah. This is where Shane and I started

working with each other because Shane

and I sat next to each other for the

entirety of our time at BuzzFeed for the

for the most part.

>> Were you guys like fellows at the same

time?

>> We were fellows. We were interns. We

were mortal enemies as interns. Everyone

was. It was doggy doggy. You knew there

was like an intern pool. I don't

remember how many people became fellows.

And then after the fellows, three would

make it.

>> That's why I'm tight with my crew.

>> You guys were always one stage ahead of

me. I was the intern that hung out with

you guys cuz I was always helping you

guys with your videos and shooting them.

>> And once again, you were the camera guy,

so like we got to get him on our videos.

>> And I was just stoked because like you

said earlier, Justin would have great

lunch.

>> And did you guys go to the same high

school, but

>> we went to Arcadia High.

>> You guys have always had like a brother

dynamic.

>> Yeah. Yeah. I love Justin.

>> Yeah. I love seeing this.

>> I just saw Dea, too. Dea was at my

Halloween party, too.

>> I'm sorry I couldn't make it.

>> You know, I'm not That's fine.

>> Your 150th wife.

>> Deja and I always had like a sibling

relationship.

>> That was our lunch crew.

>> This was such a happy time in our lives.

Like I have no bad memories really.

>> Especially as I get further removed from

it and get older and and you know have

more responsibilities and stuff. I'm

like, "Wow, this was the best job.

You'll never work with this many

amazing, talented, creative people." all

these like young people were at the same

place at the same time and we were just

kind of given free reign to be creative

and like I'm always going to be thankful

for that. It's so much fun.

>> So much fun. I talk about BuzzFeed all

the time like in my current job so much

about how the internet works today. We

were discovering at that time with this

being an iteration of the Try Guys.

>> It was kind of like a badge of honor.

Like if you made a frame and then if you

saw someone else take that frame and do

a different version of it, it was like,

"Oh, that must have worked." And then

all of a sudden now there's like 10 of

those videos. It was like a sped up

version of like the Hollywood studio

system where like they're like oh this

superhero movie worked really well let's

make nine other superhero movies and the

instant feedback

>> people are always like don't read the

comments and I was like that was kind of

a huge part of Buzzfeed. You remember

looking through like share statements on

Facebook and like seeing like this is so

mean and you're like I did it I need

something relatable. That is what

virality means. People are sharing it

with each other. I know that feels

probably so like obvious now. Welcome to

our master class. Yeah, I know. This

turned into nuts and bolts really quick.

>> Oh. Oh my gosh. This is 10 years ago and

I'm still with my wife and we just had

our first baby. It's such a cool like

time capsule. This is like the first

time I brought Morgan into a video

>> and she's super funny by the way. You

don't know his wife is very funny.

>> We just wrote a book together. A crazy

and insane thing because I don't think

we've ever really worked well together.

Kind of like we're trying to do the same

thing, whatever. And and then I don't

know, maybe it's just marriage, maybe

it's maturity. She's now like my best

collaborator. It's so It's so crazy.

>> I love the stuff you guys make, too.

>> It's so cool. It's cool getting older,

guys.

>> This is also such a fun frame. Couples

imitate each other.

>> It's I get quoted this video.

>> I got dollars. I got bills.

>> Look, I was in my Drake bag back then.

Not anymore. Hey, Drake. Uh,

but

the fighting part, like that was kind of

like an awkward talk afterwards.

>> Oh. Oh, to sn face. Oh, to stank face.

He goes,

>> "Did you forgot?"

>> Long. I think imitating your partner is

a dangerous game to play cuz it's a lot

like tickling somebody. There's a period

where it's very funny, but if you go too

far,

>> it's immediately call on the cops.

>> I don't think anyone likes seeing

themselves imitated. Even though we're

just joking how I used to imitate Justin

like

>> But he's hilarious to imitate.

>> He's hilarious to imitate. I don't think

he loved it.

>> And I always felt bad or I'd be like,

"Hey, dude. Are we good?" so weird like

being in the next stage of life and like

still making each other laugh and still

doing the same thing. I was imitating

her with the baby like pretending I was

her and like

>> how do you feel about your kid being

able to dial up YouTube.com and pull up

any of your exploits?

>> It's one of those things you don't think

about until all of a sudden you're in

the delivery room and you're like hold

on

>> you're like I've made like 200 videos on

YouTube.

>> I know I've made some embarrassing ones

too.

>> Knowing kids they're probably like I

don't care. It might be more so like

maybe their friends one day might find

this video.

>> That's fine. That's my job to embarrass

my kid.

>> Yeah. More so they're going to be like

YouTube on SWAT.

>> Which is true. We both were on SWAT.

Roll the clip.

>> Was oblong and defied physics as we know

it. It's what made us start our YouTube

channel.

>> He got shot on SWAT.

>> I did.

>> That's so cool.

>> I got to die on screen.

>> Um maybe I can help you out. I don't

really carry cash on me or anything.

>> That's amazing.

>> Like bucket list. And in that moment, I

bet you you did a better job than Marian

Kotiard in The Dark Knight Rises, which

is still the funniest on-creen death

I've ever seen.

>> Roll the clip.

>> Oh man,

>> 30 million.

>> That's crazy.

>> So, today we're driving to the Stay on

Main Hotel or as it was formerly known,

the Cecil Hotel as Hotel Cecil. This is

still a case

>> that is so bizarre.

>> Brent in his Prius.

>> Yeah, Brent. Brent just couldn't be

bothered to be there. I love that.

>> You look at his face.

>> That's the funniest thing about these

early episodes of Unsolved is that Brent

only agreed to do it because we were

friends and he was just trying to make

me happy.

>> Yeah. He didn't want to do it.

>> He did not. I've never met a person who

did not want to be on camera more than

Brent.

>> And then who worked at BuzzFeed the

longest.

>> Yeah. He stopped doing the show because

the show got too successful. He straight

up told me to my face like, "I'm really

sorry. I have to stop doing this because

frankly I didn't I didn't think it was

going to do this well and now that it it

is I I I can't do it anymore." And

>> what's the name of the drummer who like

left the Beatles right before Ringo

joined and they got big?

>> That's Brent.

>> It's Brent.

>> Yeah,

>> it's Brent.

>> But Brent like was like, "No, he likes

that decision." Yeah.

>> Yeah. No, it was the right decision for

him. I didn't even like fault him for

it. I was like, "You know what? I'm glad

you told me this early."

>> Brent's a renegade, man.

>> This video went nuts. I want to say it

was like 7 million views in a couple

days. This was the moment where it was

like, "You're not little brother

anymore." It's like, "Oh like he's

actually really good." I was like, "Oh,

now we all work for him."

>> But no, yeah, this video changed a lot.

It allowed me creative freedom the rest

of the time I was at BuzzFeed to make

Unsolved into, you know, what it is and

I'm really proud of it. So, this is

really really cool to look back on. It's

one of those cool things like seeing

like this, you know, try guys, any

anybody who's had success and being able

to remember the moment that it happened,

like seeing it like form and shape and

knowing like this wasn't called

Unsolved. I remember being at lunch and

you saying like, "Oh yeah, it's going to

be called Buzzfeed Unsolved and all

that." Like

>> there's something about and this is like

the same thing as like going back to

high school or seeing people from

college. When you're around that those

people in that environment, you

instantly fall back into the roles that

you were in. Like I was never the dude

who was in front of the camera and I

wasn't like sitting there being like I

have my time but it was more just like

this is really cool they're doing cool

>> You found things that each other people

did that you're like ooh I want to take

an element of that an element of that

element of that and then myself and make

a stew of it and

>> everybody had a style and I was just

kind of walking around in a just be

happy to be a part of it.

>> Do you remember that wave when we all of

a sudden had interns who were fans of

BuzzFeed? That was so weird.

>> Yeah. I did not know what BuzzFeed was

until I literally opened the

application.

>> Yeah. Okay. Same.

>> Because Shantel told me, "This is a

place that they have a good internship.

Maybe you could make a C cuz my thought

was, I'll do this internship for a month

and then I'll move on to lighting sets

and stuff like that. This is just

something to help me make this month a

rent."

>> I had someone was the other day that was

just like, "I loved you in middle

school." And I'm like, "Shut up.

Don't want to hear it." This was iconic,

though. The words on the screen.

>> Yeah, the words.

>> Where did that come from? Our banter was

so stupid that I knew it would be

funnier if it was in print.

>> Yeah,

>> print is reserved for very profound

statements that have like insight behind

them, but if we're making like dick and

ball jokes, that doesn't deserve that

kind of treatment. So that's why it's

funny to me. And also, it made it so

that people could screenshot it and inst

you could see the whole bit play out.

>> It was iconic. Like I remember seeing

that and going like, "Oh, wow." Even

when we did our version of Unsolved, the

sports version, I remember when I had

mine, I was like, "Let's go." So yeah, I

am the third host of Unsolved.

>> Right arm goes bang.

>> He doesn't take his left arm here.

That's a swim through move. It's a

classic fundamental post move.

>> I think we had to take a break cuz that

was the last one I think we did and

we're like, "Oh, this is so fun." And

then it was like, "Hey, like I actually

like

>> this like affected my life." Scott Pard

caught a stray in there. Scott Pard was

so nice to me when I was a kid.

>> Zack, thanks for letting us stay here.

>> Big Lots.

>> Big Lot set. a building that was called

Big Lots because it used to be a Big

Lots.

>> Yeah. And we converted it into a studio.

>> People things would go down in that Big

Lot studio.

>> Yeah.

>> In that in that bed.

>> Just wake me up.

>> All right.

>> Wow.

>> Okay, cool.

>> I kind of get like emotional looking at

this. I'm not going to lie. Like it this

was truly the most fun.

>> I shot this one.

>> You did? This is the most fun I've ever

had in my life probably. like being able

to just go like I can't believe this is

my job that I get to make scripted

internet comedy with these two people

who became like best friends in that

moment and like we were such a unit. It

was just it was the best and I was just

happy to be there to shoot it cuz I was

like I idolize scripted content. I love

movies and TV so to be able to like do

that at BuzzFeed in between all the

other stuff was so much fun. Whenever

you guys called me or not called me,

whenever you requested me, there was an

intern request form

>> and we would always be like, "Ryan Bgar,

we need him."

>> But I remember lighting this because I

had my blue gels to make it look

>> It looks nice. It looks good. It holds

up.

>> Friendship. I know you want to be more

than just friends with me.

>> This is such a good video, too.

>> I saw you eyeballing me the other day at

lunch. You were checking out my jeans.

It kept giving me the updown and I was

like, "Dang, girl, right here, right

now."

>> Him, Justin, and Clinton says, they were

the only videos that I watched at the

company. And when they came out, I got

just as excited to watch their videos as

I would like a TV show or anything on

YouTube. They shot one at my my parents

house.

>> Yeah.

>> At one point, too.

>> That's one of my favorite ones. Dude,

you were just the best.

>> Well, I also was just like these guys

like I'm catching them in a moment and

they're going to be doing something way

bigger, you know, and uh it's I was just

happy to be there.

>> Yeah, I loved being in a trio. I always

wanted to be like in a band or in a like

on a team, like a winning team. And so

it was just really cool and like the

three of us are all so different and

then having like our inside jokes with

each other. Like Justin and I did these

movie trailers that it was like the

who's your bro movie trailers that first

off actually no no let's go the original

trailers we did wedding season is coming

and that one did crazy on Facebook. That

was our first button together button.

>> You would get a button if you got a

certain amount of views in a week and

they had a button ceremony at the end of

every week where people they would hand

out the buttons. I had people from high

school reaching out or sharing it and

going like, "Oh, wow." Like, "I love you

guys." And then when people started

calling us the trio and then don't tag

me. I just remember we did gay wedding

season is coming cuz it was like gay

marriage was legalized so we did it

again. I just randomly remember that. I

was like, I should probably rewatch that

one.

>> See if it's still good.

>> See if it holds up. And then that sort

of spawned into Justin and I doing the

the Who's Your Bro movie trailers that

Steven Caner did and we worked on those

with Ryan and Garrett Warner. And we're

all such movie fans and like grew up

wanting to make movies. So being able to

find a genre and make fun of it and go

into the tropes and just try to shoot as

much as you possibly can in one day and

just be as silly as you can. I've always

loved

>> you guys were the only people making

scripted content.

>> Yeah. Well, I remember there was like a

scripted division like we had like an

office sitcom cuz we had a whole office

set. That's when I took it personally.

The three of us were always trying to be

like we want to make the best stuff. And

I'm I'm so proud of like what we did. I

think so many of these sketches hold up.

One of my favorite videos we did was

this Airbud video where we did a

scripted sketch about the kid who is

benched for Airbud and Justin played my

stepdad and it came back and I was like

a dog took my spot and we played it very

serious. We shot it like Friday Night

Lights and it was my Magnum Opus. I was

like this I'm going to get on SNL like

this is the this is the thing Justin and

I are going to show we're pitching our

show like this is the video. The

trade-off in order to do that you need

to make four other additional videos

quick. And so Justin and I blocked and

one day we had no ideas and Justin came

up to me. He's like, "What's up with

brunch? I've never been to brunch. Let's

just do a video about brunch." Didn't

script anything. We found stupid

costumes in our costume department. Shot

it in 20 minutes. And it was our biggest

video ever. And the AirPod video bombed

and everyone was like, "You guys are the

brunch guys." And we became the brunch

guys. And it was something that we

really were just riffing with each

other. It's also part of the Buzzfeed

experience trying working really hard in

something and tanking and then the thing

you made in like an afternoon goes crazy

>> and like that's the thing like people

like yell quotes at if anyone's like

compliments it. I just feel so good cuz

it was a it was a labor of love. I

almost didn't make it to video producer.

I remember at our holiday party when I

was a fellow the person who I won't name

their name but they were running the

fellow department at the time came up to

me having a few and was like Zack not

going to lie you're on the bubble. I

don't think you're going to make it. Do

you remember that feeling of like being

a fellow and you're like I either am

going to get the greatest job of all

time especially for like being in your

like early to mid20s or you're out

looking for it and I just remember being

like what do I have to do to get this

job and then immediately getting the job

and then getting paired with Justin and

Quinta. Justin is so smart when it comes

to comedy. Remember he worked on The

Office and New Girl and we were all like

what's that like? And then Quinta had

like cool Disney kid energy. You really

you met her and you're like you feel

like you've been famous your entire

life. She's still probably one of my

favorite people to make laugh.

>> Yeah, making Quinta laugh did feel very

good.

>> She wouldn't laugh for everything. I'll

tell you that. You got to earn You got

to earn a laugh with QB.

>> Jesus Christ.

>> Oh my gosh. 39 million. It's like Zach.

This one hit 1 million.

>> Dude, that's insane. This was a video

where we were just fighting for our life

to be honest. Uh we didn't know if we

were going to continue making BuzzFeed

Unsolved. The company was at like a

different place where they were actually

considering maybe even sell selling the

unsolved property. They made me make it

an hour long because it was going to go

on a Verizon platform called Go9.

>> Go 90. We all had a Go90 project.

>> And uh and then it ended up not going

through the deal. So then they were

like, "Okay, just still make the video."

But I had been basically told if this

video doesn't do well, we're nixing the

series. And so I really was fighting for

my life here to make this this show

work. And this is the first ghost hunt

we've ever done with Shane and I out on

location. and it just worked. It was a

crazy shoot. It's It's still one of my

favorite things that Shane and I have

made together. And I remember editing

this one very very

>> Oh, yeah. This was This was long. Wasn't

this the longest Buzzfeed video we've

done at that time?

>> I barely slept for months.

>> I remember watching this going, "Oh,

we're making TV now." Like, this is TV.

>> We had a great staff that was helping me

fill in the edits and stuff like Steven

Castro, Mike Fox. This is when BuzzFeed

actually gave me resources to like help

make the show knowing that this is the

last harrah. Maybe I remember uploading

this because the day or two before I was

sleeping at the office and that's when I

got in trouble for sleeping at the

office because I needed to finish the

video and I remember this uploading and

it just kept having errors cuz it was so

big.

>> Yeah,

>> I remember at that point I was just so

tired that I was like whatever. When it

went out I think I just went to sleep

and then it did really well and the rest

was history. Thank god.

>> I don't want to like puff you up too

much. This feels like YouTube history to

me the way that it's a 46-inute video.

Like I'm not kidding. When you first

probably started, the sweet spot was

like a music video length video. It was

like a 2 to 5 minute and then YouTube's

like, "We need to make more money. Watch

time is the way to go." And like this

setup, everything on YouTube looks like

this now.

>> The whole purpose of this video was to

make a long video. They told me, "Make

this. We'll give you some money, but it

has to be this long."

>> How much money do we think this video

made, though?

>> I have no idea, but I can tell you how

much it cost. Not a lot because we were

really gunning it. We shot like two

different states and Mexico I think in 5

days.

>> Wow.

>> This was the last prove it moment and

the coolest thing about this was that it

gave us the ability to build a team. I

remember Unsolved as a very just

collaborative experience between not

just Shane and myself but TJ Marchbank

behind the camera, Devon Drawman who was

the producer of the show, all the

editors on our on our squad too. Steven

Castro, Mike Fox, Anthony Frederick,

>> all the research

>> all the researcher. Elena Rook, uh

Carrie Copel.

>> Yeah.

>> Uh Lauren Wolf. They sat behind me and I

remember being like, "What's Unsolved

doing next?"

>> They said, "You have a season of

Unsolved. You can make a like six

episode season, but we didn't have a lot

of budget, but I was like, "We need to

have some sort of rap party for this." I

felt bad, so I just went to like the

liquor store that was by the Chipotle.

And I bought like a handle and I made

everybody hats, BuzzFeed Unsolved hats,

to like be like, "This is our rap

party." And I remember we took a picture

in one of those conference rooms.

>> You know, that Chipotle is not there.

They changed the Chipotle.

>> Really?

>> Chipotle is where Starbucks is.

>> Those sons of

>> I know. One last thing I will say about

this. I remember at the time when they

pretty overtly told me if this doesn't

do well, we're going to can the series.

I remember thinking like why would they

tell me that? That's so much pressure.

And now like looking back, I really

appreciate that transparency because it

did give me that fight or die moment

here.

>> I think that was kind of a Buzzfeed

thing. Like I said, where I almost

didn't make it as a video producer. They

told me

>> there's a lot of value in knowing you're

expendable.

>> Yeah. Now you run a company. So now

you're just like, actually the people in

charge were right.

>> It looks great. It still holds

>> Tristan Hill behind the camera there who

also got the scared out of him at

the Island of the Dolls.

>> I'm so happy I didn't do I am not like a

get scared guy. Like

>> I would not have done this.

>> Shout out everybody who worked on

Unsolved. Thanks for helping make this

what it is.

>> Are you weirdly emotional? Like I'm kind

of like this is like weird. This is so

weird and cool. It feels cool to just,

like I said, the thing I remember about

these shoots isn't the stress or the

late nights. I just remember all the

laughs and the good times and I would

really try and make those as fun as I

could for everybody that was there cuz

they're grueling shoots, but you know, I

always take a lot of pride in that we

all actually got along with each other

and, you know, we never really fought or

anything like that.

>> Wait till the Shane episode. We'll see.

>> Yeah, he's going to be a mess. He'll be

a blubbering mess.

>> This has been so fun. Every time I think

about BuzzFeed, I really do look back on

it as an era in my life that I'm just so

grateful to have. I genuinely root for

every single person that even people I

didn't really even interact with more

when you see them go on and do other

things, it's just so cool because it's

such a a family. And I know sometimes

that could feel toxic or whatever when

you're a work environment like this is a

family, but it really felt like that.

And so I am so honored to be a part of

this and just thank you for having me.

Thank you for watching videos and yeah,

thanks.

>> This was such a fun time in my life. It

was such an amazing opportunity. Forever

going to be grateful for it and it's

been fun to look back at it. And like

you were saying, I root for everybody

that's from BuzzFeed. Like when I saw

Quinta win, I think I cried.

>> I cried. I legit cried

>> cuz I was like, "Hell yeah, it's that

she deserves that."

>> Not to give her too much of her flowers

cuz she'll be annoyed by this, but like

seeing her and go like she did it cuz we

all had a dream of we want to be the

internet people. We want to make it to

the TV. And when you see someone where

you're like, I remember you when you

lived with like four girls in an

apartment and you have been consistently

like this person and you did it. It just

felt like a huge moment.

>> Even like me like forang into acting

now, like there was a part that I went

out for where somebody from BuzzFeed got

it and I found out they got it and I was

so stoked when I found out that they got

it because like a lot of times you

audition for things, you don't know who

gets it. And when I found out it was

somebody from BuzzFeed, I was so stoked

for them cuz I was like, "Oh, amazing.

I know he's great.

You're always going to be linked. So

>> yeah, we're part of millennial culture.

Sorry, Buzzfeed.

That's the sign.