I'm Youtube animator psychicpebbles, co-creator of Hellbenders, member of SleepyCabin, and guy who screams. AMA!

• EDIT: I thought this bad joke would be downvoted and he'd see it last minute and ignore it, OOPS..
• EDIT 2: I said 'Hello my dearest friend Zach, where could I possibly find Toby Turner's AMA'? Thanks

toby turners AMA is that way

Why are you such a faygit?

-Jason

LISTEN HERE MOTHER FUCKER

How on earth can you scream for so long and frequently as you've done with things like 'Let It Go' and not lose your voice?

OH i do lose my voice. there have been times where i've been in genuine pain after a recording. i usually drink honey by itself to ease my throat. luckily, there aren't many times where it's been that bad.

Has anyone ever recognized you by hearing your voice? I know you usually don't like to show your face.

my voice is definitely unique, but i think my audience is small enough that i don't think it's ever happened. at least, no one has ever contacted me and said they saw me. usually the way i'm recognized is that a mutual friend at a party or something will introduce me or say what i've made, and it's always fun to see the persons face change depending on their view of me or my work, haha.

Zach, is youtube animation permanently dead, and do you think there is a way to revive it/reverse the current trend of decline?

before i answer, let me recap for those who are confused about what you're asking. for the first chunk of youtube's life, getting good views is what mattered. you could upload one video every 1-3 months (the average length to create an animated video by yourself) but if you pulled in good numbers it didn't really matter and you could make a consistent income.

now, some may remember around 2013 or so there was a phenomenon known as "reply girls", who were women who would push their tits into the camera and ramble about a video without even watching it. they would spam these videos to the point where it consumed the side bar and suggested videos on youtube. these girls were getting loaded, and the entire community was furious and demanded youtube fix it.

so, like youtube does, they cut the entire arm off to fix the cut on its finger. they changed their algorithm in a variety of different ways, the most substantial aspect being they didn't reward views, but instead, minutes watched. this means that under the new system if you upload a minecraft lets play every day and get only several thousand views per video, you get paid more than someone who uploads less frequently but gets a million or more views per video. thus, the animation community on youtube was beheaded. it is literally impossible to outpace or even match the content production level of a letsplayer or vlogger if you're an animator.

shit, that was a lot longer than expected. to answer your question, i don't think the youtube "goldrush" of 2007-2013 will ever come back. i do however have confidence that something will take it's place. when or how, i have no idea.

What was your favorite joke that was cut out of an animation that maybe didn't make the cut or was just offensive?

it wasn't the funniest joke, but the original narration line in "hellbenders christmas" was something about chris and zach celebrating christmas because they were part of the superior aryan race. tomar (the narrator) delivered it dead straight and it was really funny, but we ended up cutting it for time and convenience. to top it off i learned afterwards that tomar was jewish. the man is a god damn champ.

I've asked a few animators including Chris and Arin about this, but it's always interesting to hear; is there a particular quote from any of your cartoons that you just wish people would stop using? A quote that is so overused that you wish that you could just erase it from history?

For example: Arin's said that "I mean Venesaur!" from his Pokemon cartoon really got on his nerves with people using it out of context, and Oney's said that a lot of the more quotable moments on "Dragonzball Pee" seemed to show up in every Youtube comments section imaginable.

Also, good luck to you with Hellbenders, and I really enjoy your streams.

first of all, thanks for the kind words!

i can't think of any quotes that legitimately bother me. slightly related, but i always find it really funny to see a really vile youtube comment on white genocide or something to that effect with a dumb hellbenders icon. it's even funnier when it's a really well articulated point in a serious political debate.

Why is Nikki such a buh-buh-bitch?

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus. Many members of other rodent genera and families are also referred to as rats, and share many characteristics with true rats.

Rats are typically distinguished from mice by their size. Generally, when someone discovers a large muroid rodent, its common name includes the term rat, while if it is smaller, the name includes the term mouse. The muroid family is broad and complex, and the common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. Scientifically, the terms are not confined to members of the Rattus and Mus genera, for example, the pack rat and cotton mouse.

Do you think you will move to LA eventually with Oney?

i'll definitely move to LA at some point out of necessity. it's just a matter of when.

What would your job be if you didn't animate?

listen, you don't need to beat around the bush. slaying mad pussy and hitting the waves would be my part time job regardless if i animated or not. also my real answer is maybe something to do with biology or history, but my brain ain't work no good so maybe i'd be digging ditches or something.

Diggin ditches, fuckin bitches.

i do it the other way around

You seem incredibly interested in politics, so what party or group would you say you align with the most? (Btw you are a god and your screams serenade me to sleep)

i am interested in politics! i consider myself left leaning for the most part, and (no controversial opinion here) think both sides have it wrong on some issues. just my personal opinion. also thank you, i'm glad my banshee screeches can come to good use besides making women spray.

What's the status on an actual hellbenders show? Is that still something we can hope to see?

without going too much into it, yes! you can absolutely look forward to seeing it. it's been a crazy four years since the last episode (which sends sharp pains in my tits to say) but i'm really happy with where it's at, and i think you will all be too, even with all of the hype.

You ever smoke a big bowl of weed?

i listen to BUFFALO SOLDIER and smoke BIG MARIJUANA CIGARETTES to DEFY THE LAW

With the success of Justin Roiland's Rick and Morty and upcoming show (which he's leaked information and pictures of), do you think that you'll ever collaborate with him on projects if given the opportunity? I've seen that you guys are very familiar with one another. If not, do you see yourself writing or animating for any mainstream television animations? Here's to hoping he's a future guest on SC. Thanks, Zach!

justin is legitimately one of the nicest and hardest working people i know. i won't say too much, but i will say that yes, if given the opportunity i would absolutely collaborate with him. ^vAgUe

Who would you consider some of your bigger comedic influences or just influences in general?

great question! to name a few: matt stone / trey parker, larry david, louis ck, george carlin, norm macdonald and all of the fellas who work on it's always sunny in philadelphia. i'm sure there are a few that i'm missing, but those are the big ones.

How long do you think SleepyCabin will last, Zach?

the honest answer is whenever we don't want to do it anymore. sleepycabin was a giant learning experience, probably the most significant for all of our careers. but don't worry! when sleepycabin does eventually croak, all of the members will still be friends and will still collaborate just like we did before sleepycabin.

I feel like television is a dying medium (as of now), but at the same time, YouTube doesn't seem very sustainable. What's your goal for 10 years from now? As an animator myself, I can't really see what the future holds for animation, but it's not like animation is gonna be nonexistent in the next few years.

youtube has been dead for a few years. i really don't think TV is dying, i think it's merging. it's too big of an industry to fade out of existence in my opinion. all of the schmucks up top with the big fun bucks aren't going to go broke, they're going to figure out how to adapt, whether that means netflix or hulu or amazon or whatever.

i made a conscious effort to move towards "traditional" stuff because it's more stable and it allows you to actually create things. i could make a three minute cartoon once every 1-3 months for below minimum wage or i could have the potential to make a full season of 22 minute cartoons in one year with actual income. that, to me, is much more appealing just from a storytelling perspective.

despite having full creative freedom from making online content for myself, it's ironically more restrictive than having to answer to someone but being able to tell several 22 minute stories. there are pros and cons to both, that's just my view.

Hey Zach, you've been doing Hellbenders for quite awhile.

Why have you stuck with that show for so long? What keeps you coming back to Hellbenders?

there is a general confusion out there for where the show has been and what the hell is happening with it, and a lot of that (if not all of it) is my fault. i've been intentionally vague about it to keep some surprise and fun with it without any disappointment or building hype. i just want to drop it when it's done.

the biggest thing i'd point out is that i haven't been making hellbenders for the last few years. a large chunk of time was dedicated to making a good deal happen for the show, for us, and for the people on the other end. that's where maybe 95% of the time went.

Hey Zach! Long time fan. Have you or will you ever do anything for television?

teehee, i dunno...

Great to see you doing an AMA!

What's your process for writing comedy? How can you tell what's funny or not?

FULL DISCLAIMER: i'm a dumb dumb who does stuff weird and i'm sure there are a million books out there explaining how to do it better.

my process generally goes like this: try to think of an idea or concept that is inherently funny that can fit in one sentence or less, unless it's a several minute cartoon, in which case it can be a few sentences. i think this is a crucial part because it's when you lay out the turning points in a characters choice which is where a LOT of comedy can come from.

a character is facing a problem. it can be mundane or big. how does your character resolve that? that alone can be funny, and gives you a lot to build on and tells you a lot about the character. the important thing about this part is that the audience and the character believe what they're doing. it's always sunny in philadelphia does this a lot, as does seinfeld, curb your enthusiasm, you name it. it can be a lot of fun to play with!

from there i'll write the script and try to pepper it with as many jokes as possible. i'll go back and read the script over and over and pull out jokes that don't work and put new ones in. i try to make every joke laugh-out-loud (to myself) if possible. the important thing is are you laughing. no? rewrite it!

the next steps are audio timing and visual comedy which again, can be layered on top of the script. you can have a great idea with a great script that can be totally fucked up in the audio and animation process. fun little visual gags are fun too.

i really try to make every layer funny for maximum effect. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. when it doesn't, it's usually because i fucked up on one of the layers and didn't have the time or willpower to fix it.

Hi Zach! Would you say animation for you is more about the comedy than the art form itself? I am an animator as well, but I've slowly been realizing animation has been more of a medium for me to release comedy, instead of releasing full blown art or whatever you'd call it. I was wondering how you felt about that as well. Thanks for doing an AMA.

i definitely feel like a lot of animators are storytellers first who found animation second. sometimes it's the other way around, but a lot of animators also want to do live action which can't really be said for people who do live action. if you took an animators ability to draw away, they'd still have the drive to tell a joke or a story or whatever.

Are you happy? You seem very cynical.

fuck off cunt

Why the small faces???????

it makes me xD

Is Nikki your girlfriend? She is super cute!

much like ted cruz, i do in fact copulate with rats.

Would you consider doing a fundraiser to get a Hellbenders series going? Or is there a plan in action already? For god sake I just want more Hellbenders!

ORIGINALLY when we were doing the web series, i envisioned a 15 episode series that had a beginning and an end. at that point we definitely considered doing something like kickstarter to fund the series, but it's since taken a different course. i think doing a fundraiser after not releasing any hellbenders for four years at this point would be inappropriate, so it's out of the question this late in the game.

Can you please stop wasting time with podcasts that no one gives a shit about and "lets plays" and crap like that and actually do some work on hellbenders?

And yes I know there is a 'twtich tv' thing where you show yourself drawing lines 'n shit but I mean come on. We've been waiting nearly 4 years for a new HB video, and then all we get are update videos, podcasts that no one cares about, and posts about an upcoming update video that still hasn't arrived.

Hellbenders is hilarious. And thank you for making it, but please for the love of christ, get off your asses, stop moving around the country, stop doing lets plays and podcasts and shit and get things done.

the wall just got 10 feet higher