We are the team behind Thug Notes, yo' main hookup for classic literature summary and analysis. AUA!

Just a funding idea for you guys, you should make audiobooks of Sparky Sweets reading books. Cause holy shit would I pay for you reading 50 shades of grey in the same way you talk on the show

Greg: call me and I'll read you a story. 281-330-8004

281-330-8004

MIIKE JOOONES

"WHO?!!"

Seriously, what is your background Sparky Sweets? I love your show and what you do; please tell me you have a degree in English or Literature of some kind. Where did you go to school?

Also where did you get the idea?

Joe happens to have a degree in English, but in academic circles, that's far from making you an authority. One of the points of the show is to call in to question: "What does it mean to be an authority?"

[deleted]

No, there's nothing we're not willing to review in the long term. It's just a question of time and right now we're prioritizing the popular high school books.

In the future we'd love to do HP Lovecraft, Watchmen, Calvin & Hobbes..

As a film studies teacher I have to ask, now that you've managed to establish your channel with the literature deconstructions would you ever consider doing film criticism? There's a lot of cross over between literature and film criticism and it'd be interesting to get your take on the medium.

Also thank you personally, your videos are part of my weekly English Lit. class. and my class love them.

Jared: A film studies channel would be a DREAM. But someone who works at YouTube has advised against doing that based on over saturation. But I find that most existing Youtube channels about film are pretty weak. They think that because they can list plot holes they are being "analytical."

Hey Jared, guy that works at YouTube checking in - a film studies channel would be a great addition to your lineup, either on your existing channel or on a new channel. (I would also personally really like to watch it!)

Jared: Hmm. Joe and I were thinking of writing a special episode on Breaking Bad but haven't gotten around to it yet..

I hate those 'everything wrong with this movies in blah seconds' bs.

Jared: Me too.

Is this your only source of income, or do you all have other jobs?

Between the 4 of us, there are 7 jobs.

Pimpin' ain't easy

But it sho' is fun.

Is the Thug Notes / Reading Rainbow collaboration still in the works? That would make my whole year.

Still waiting to hear back from LeVar. Help a brother out and spam his twitter.

Greg has stated publicly most of his inspiration in life comes from his hero, Justin Harrison. What is that is so awesome about him?

Greg: Fuck you, Justin.

Do you all read the books? Do any of you have a phd?

The "character" of Sparky Sweets has a PhD in classics. None of us have a PhD IRL, but Joe has a masters in classics. Joe reads every book cover to cover.

Sparky got his phd Pimping Hard Daily

Jacob: Sup Mikey?!

Do you guys have anything big planned for the future? DVD release? Other educational material? What are all y'all's educational background?

I'm a big fan of y'all. Thug Notes is easily my favorite YouTube channel.

EDIT: And have you guys thought about branching out into other fields? I'd pay with my own limbs to see a series on world history or chemistry.

We are currently writing a Thug Notes book.

Will you then do a Thug Notes on the Thug Notes book? That would be the best.

Yes. if my brain doesn't explode first.

I love Thug Notes so much! How long, on average, does it take you guys to write each episode?

Jared: Joe and I are often surprised how sometimes the shortest books take the most time to turn in to an episode. For example, Heart of Darkness completely kicked our asses. Plays, especially, are hard to condense. It takes about a week and a half of intense work to pump out four scripts- which is the number of episodes we film in a single day.

Heart of Darkness kicks my ass every time I read it. That is one DENSE book.

Jared: That's the only script in which I had to completely start over THREE TIMES!

To be honest, I often wondered how you crank these out at this pace. Thank you, though. I SO enjoy your work (and I even learned something about myself with the Frankenstein episode.)

Joe: Thanks. And that's one of my favorite things about literature. You can learn so much about both yourself and other people.

What are your "day jobs"? Greg, are you recognized on the street often?

Greg: a barback at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and stand-up comedian by night. Yeah, people come up to me saying "Yeah. Excuse me, sorry to ask- are you Dr. Sweets?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ-Y8-9b--w

Mr. Edwards' standup is fucking hilarious

Greg: Thank you, Sheba. Let's hang out. Hit me up!

Hi guys, I'm a huge fan of Thug Notes, thanks for doing this!

Where on earth did the idea come from?

Jared: I was standing in line to see Barry Lyndon (My fav. Stanley Kubrick movie) at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and I started joking with my friend how Barry was the REAL OG- squandering away fine family fortunes, swindling his way in to the upper class, getting rich and blowing money quick, etc. A woman behind me got very offended that I was comparing such a "elegant, sophisticated" film to things I had heard in rap lyrics...

I realized that there was technically nothing inaccurate in what I was saying- it was just different perspective. It made me think about other things that are stuck in this stuffy, overly-pedantic "ivory tower." I knew I wanted to create a Youtube Channel, and literature was something that I both enjoyed, and thought particularly suitable for the medium.

I'm a huge fan of the show. The analysis in each episode is on point!

My question has to do with the accessibility of your videos. Your ability to break down classic literature into a form that the general population can understand is uncanny, and particularly to populations of color and the black community. Are you at all afraid of some viewers seeing Thug Notes as a minstrel show, rather than a vehicle to generate discussion of literature they would otherwise shun?

misinterpretation concerns us, but it doesn't scare us. Are we using a racial stereotype? Yes. Racial exploitation is present in everything- TV, sports, news, etc. We are turning this stereotype on its head and in doing so, trivializing it, as to make the point "Don't judge a book by it's cover."

Our hope is that people take a look at these stereotypes being used in other instances, think critically about HOW they're being used, and opt to formulate thoughts of their own. Just because race is an element of the show doesn't mean it's racist.

My art teacher in high school is Jacob's mom :-) (Hey hey Ms. G!)

Would you do any college campus tours and be a guest speaker one day?

Jacob: What up? My mom being a teacher is a huge inspiration for wanting to teach online. My mother taught me everything I know about art appreciation. That's why I fell in love with design and so I'm applying every skill I have to this show.

Did you expect Thug Notes to explode like it did?

First of all, if it weren't for Reddit, the show would not have gone on as long as it has. Thanks to the community, we had our first big surge about 5 months ago that still drives new subscribers.

Did we expect it? We've always been confident in what we were putting out, but there's no formula for finding an audience on the internet. so we're just grateful that somebody found it and people have been sharing it.

How was Greg cast? What was the audition like? I'd love to hear some 'behind the scenes' stuff of how the show came together.

Jared: I was a coordinating producer on the pilot for the show "Totally Biased w/ W. Kamau Bell" which was on FX for a short stint. I became friendly with Kevin Avery, the head writer of the show. When I came up with the idea for Thug Notes, I asked Kevin if he knew any comedians who might be interested in a project like this. He and Greg came up together in the San Francisco comedy scene so he put me in touch with him. As soon as I saw Greg's Vampire teeth, I knew he was the one.

Hey, firstly, just wanted to say that I really like your videos and anticipate Tuesdays every week.

Now for the question: Why do you feel your delivery is better than "traditional" learning when it comes to literature?

Jared: Jacob and I are filmmakers first and foremost. We think that the dynamic between entertainer and audience is not that different from teacher and classroom. A class will not volunteer their attention. The teacher has to seize it using whatever means they can.

What are some of Greg's favorite books in real life?

Greg: Great Expectations, Huck Finn, The Autobiography of Malcom X, The Count of Monte Cristo, and any book written by yo mama.

Hey, just wanted to say I love the show-for real, I love it so much! My mom is a high school teacher, and the English department at her school has started showing Thug Notes in class. So, making an impact. Keep it up!

Glad to hear it. We're in the middle of a research study w/ english teachers. hit us up if you want to join. http://goo.gl/v9zN7I

I just wanted to say that the illustrations are fantastic. Keep up the good work!

Thanks. These days we're getting help from a wonderfully talented illustrator in Ohio named Trish Phelps.

Have you ever received feedback from people in the literary community? How has the show been received by academia and ivy tower hoods in general?

All the time. We get lots of informal feedback via email from teachers, professors, students, literary enthusiasts, etc. They're all really supportive and flattering.

The National Association of Scholars seems to like us. Rampart http://www.nas.org/articles/celebrating_2013_in_education

What's a way I can directly support the show besides sharing videos or buying t-shirts? I'm a huge fan and have used the videos in my classroom countless times.

Truth is the more people that see it, the more episodes we can make.

First of all, THANK YOU for inspiring younger people to read classics, think of them deeper than just words and characters, and analyze what they read. I wish you were around when I was in high school!

My questions are, what is your favorite book of all time? What is your favorite children's book? If you could meet any author living or dead, who would it be? (I'm not expecting you to answer all of these. Maybe one each?)

Bonus question for Greg Edwards: How has the growing attention of Thug Notes affected your stand up comedy crowd? Are you noticing more people attending, or has it not changed?

Thanks for doing this AMA!! Wishing you all great success!

Greg: I'm a huge Mark Twain fan, so anything by him. My stand-up presence has definitely changed. Thug Notes fans are coming to shows and it's great! I'd love to meet James Baldwin or have a couple shots with Mark Twain. That guy got some stories.

Joe and Jared: Both of us agree that The Brothers Karamazov is the best book ever. We're both angsty Dostoevsky existentialists at heart.

Jacob: children's books- The Giving Tree FOR SURE. Lolita is up there. The Corrections by Franzen. And I've read Murakami too many times.

How the hell did that guy get a spear in Harlem?

Scholars have been debating that for decades...

Not a question, I just want to thank you for helping me pass my Animal Farm test.

Did your teacher actually test you on the Soviet allegory?

Don't really have anything insightful to ask, but this has been bugging me - Does it feel good to be a gangsta?

"And everythings cool in the mind of a gangsta cuz gangsta-ass n****s think deep"

a lot of the time you skip some things in your reviews and i understand that its in the interest of time but have you considered making the videos a bit longer because sometimes you skipping around does not do justice to the book.

That's something we're exploring in doing the Thug Notes book. It pains us every time we have to skip over something important, but we're doing our best to meet different attention spans- especially considering it's a Youtube show. And if your Youtube video is over 5 minutes, people tune out.

What does Greg enjoy doing with his time when he isnt reprising his role as Sparky?

I love the show by the way guys! I tell all my friends about it, keep up the great work!

Greg: painting abstract art (Keith Harring Basquiat kind of shit), writing jokes, hang out with the old lady, you know.

WOOOOOOT Jared HTOWN REPRESENT

Jared: Haell yeah. City of SYRUP!!!

How do you decide which books to do? Do you just pick out random classical literature or do you just choose your favorites?

There are a lot of factors.

First, we try to cover books that are widely assigned on high school reading lists. Depending on the time crunch we find ourselves in, we might do a favorite book of ours that we're more familiar with so we don't have to spend a lot of time researching. Third- requests are really important to us.

Who do you think the most gangster writer of all time was? Bukowski? Hemingway?

Nietzsche don't give a FUCK

What's the usual process like for creating an episode, from start to finish?

It starts with the decision of what book to cover (obviously)

Then Joe starts reading the book. During this time, Jared familiarizes himself with the story and writes a first draft of the summary. After Joe finished the book and conducts some research, he sends Jared a document with key passages from the book as well as information pertaining to the analysis. Often times this will include a rough outline of the analysis section. Then Jared will compose a full draft of the summary and analysis and Joe and Jared finish it together over Skype. And yes, that Skype session is just a ridiculous as you might think.

We shoot once a month. We cover 4 episodes every shooting day. We cycle between two locations: one is jared's ex-girlfriend's best friend's house, and the other is our accountant's office. The day before the shoot, Jared and Greg will go over the scripts and rehearse.

Also, shout out to our awesome crew- Richie Yau, Kate Steinhebel, Noah Trevino, Arik Cohen, and Kevin Chang.

Jacob usually does all illustrations and Youtube Title art. Jared edits it. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

What kind of tea do you like to drink?

Greg: The only tea I like is T and A.

What book do you wish you could do a thug notes on, but cannot for whatever reason?

Ulysses is a phenomenal work, but one of the things we always try to provide viewers is a short, concise presentation. And even though we can shorten them considerably, some would just require too much time: War & Peace, Infinite Jest, etc.

What's the researcher role exactly? What kind of information do you need to research for each episode?

The researcher role for me is three-fold: a. my interaction with the primary source, which includes reading it and analyzing it b. the second part consists of going through various secondary sources to determine what's likely to be helpful or interesting to someone in the audience 3. some (but not all of the time) structuring the flow of the analysis

I don't have a question but after watching the Oedipus The King video all I wanted to say is...his momma...HIS MOMMA! That killed me.

Thank you all for doing what you do.

You got it, man.

Do you write your own analyses or look for what others have written about the books?

Joe: Both!

Whats the other chair for in the studio? Ever considered having a guest on the show? If so, who?

Waiting for LeVar.

When can we expect the Thug Notes tour? I would pay money to see Greg come to our Town Hall and give us an analysis of a new Pulitzer Prize, other literary prize winner....that do book tours.

Greg: Gregcomedy.com rampart hit me up!

How much influence do your fans have in your book selection?

Considerable. We try to cover the most requested books, except in cases like Twilight, 50 Shades, and other bullshit...

Why have you remained anonymous up to this point, Greg? Please keep up the videos, I have read all books you have covered. Nothing has inspired me to read as well as you have.

Jared: It's important for us to maintain the suspension of disbelief. We want the focus to be on the content, not on us. Plus, one of my biggest inspirations is Die Antwoord. I love how you don't really know where the line is between reality and performance.

What college or university did you attend to?

Jacob and Jared graduated undergrad from University of Texas at Austin

Joe graduated undergrad from Texas A&M and recieved his Masters in Classics from Texas Tech.

Greg graduated from Thomas Nelson Community College.

What books can we expect for upcoming videos?

50 Shades, Twilight, RL Stine... no, just kidding.

We've got Slaughterhouse 5, Catch-22, The Stranger, Grendel, Things Fall Apart, and The Brothers Karamazov coming up.

Hey Thug notes! Would it be possible for Greg to record a voicemail for me? :> I am called by my initials, TK

Greg: What's the phone number? I'll call you right now!

Sparky! I don't really have a question but thanks for keepin' it real and literary up in here. You're definitely my favorite youtube channel of 2013 and beyond. I'm always looking forward to your videos. Thanks for the laughs (and the educating).

Thanks for da love!

Oh man, I was hooked ever since the first episode of Thug Notes and was extremely jealous you guys weren't around when I was in high school!

Out of all the books you've analyzed for the show, if you could pick one character from any book to spend an afternoon with, who would you pick?

Not Humbert Humbert.

Any reason you guys only ever put an ad for another site (I think it was audible?) in one of your videos and quickly dropped it, never to do it again since?

Greg: Cuz you motherfuckers complained!!

I think that most people did not appreciate the ads because they were in the middle of the video. I have seen the minutephysics channel do quite well with ads that are put at the end of the video for websites that pertain to the subject manner (mainly education, reading, science, etc.) and they don't receive complaints as far as I know. I think Thug Notes could successfully put ads in the videos as long as they are somewhat relevant and at the end of the video. I personally am all for you guys making more money so you can make more bomb-ass lit reviews, just a thought from a good fan

I think you're right. We need to focus on Audible and things like that.

You get a lot of positive feedback from people out there, but there's got to be some playa haters as well right? What kind of blowback have you gotten from all those uptight bitches in the world?

Also for Greg -- are you gonna be doing stand-up at Brew-Ha-Ha anytime soon? Caught you there a few months ago and you were hilarious.

Thanks for all the knowledge, gangstas!

Jared: When we went in to this project, Greg and I KNEW there were going to be haters, but I'm quite happy that people in general are "getting" the satire. Sure, there's the occasional "you're going straight to hell." But haters gonna hate.

Do you have a limit as to how many episolds you plan to cover?

There's virtually no limit to the amount of episodes Sparky can cover. As far as how long will the show go on? We're gonna stay on our grind and keep it going for as long as we can

Is how you talk in your video actually how you talk?

Greg: It's an exaggerated version of my real voice.

Ever plan to have a female co-host for a he said/she said take on books where cross-banter might add extra context or comedy to the analysis?

Jared: Nope. Haven't thought of that..

Greg: Stop trying to take my gig! But I love da ladies!

Which characters do you find more appealing? Benedick and Beatrice, or Claudio and Hero?

MacBeth

Hey Greg and Team Thug Notes, big fan from day one!

I heard you are doing something with school, what's the plan there?

JACOB: We are conducting a research study with over 200 teachers and 5,000 students around the world to test the efficacy of Thug Notes as an educational tool in the classroom. If you don't mind assigning Thug Notes as homework or using it in your classroom, you should consider signing up for the study. http://goo.gl/v9zN7I