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We are now on the record.

This is the video
recorded deposition
of Joseph Pickett.

This is the video
recorded deposition
of Nicholas Prueher.

Would you mind raising
your right hand please?

Do you solemnly swear
that the testimony given in this
matter will be the truth,

the whole truth,
nothing but the truth,
so help you God?

Yes.

Did you develop
a backstory for K-Strass?

-Yes.
-What was that story?

I don't remember
a lot of it, but...

I think we did say he had
won some yo-yo championships.

So it was a lie
that K-Strass
was a yo-yo champion?

I wouldn't
characterize it that way.

It was not true
that K-Strass
was a yo-yo champion?

Yes or no, Mr. Pickett?

Oh, it was not true
that K-Strass
was a yo-yo champion.

K-Strass is a fictional person.

So this entire
press release is false?

Yeah, it's based on fictional
characters who don't exist.

So nothing you'd
say about them could be true.

It just seems like
a question of semantics
because he's not a real person.

But in his fictional world,

yes, he was a yo-yo expert,
do you know what I mean?

-Do you see the second
email from the top, from you?
-Mm-hmm.

-You write, "Also, those
fuckers work from 4AM to 10AM."
-Yep.

Who were you referring
to when you said "fuckers"?

I don't know, but I assume
whoever he'd signed
the press releases to.

-Do you use
the term "fuckers" a lot?
-Yes.

It was one of those things where
like your first reaction is...

"Well, of course, this was
going to happen eventually.

You can't get away
with this stuff forever."

Joe has sort of
always pulled pranks.

I mean, he's been doing it
since he was a child.

That is probably his main
goal in life, are pranks.

As a mom, just was so scared
that they were going
to get in trouble. Hmm.

Nick, I always
say he was our challenge child.

He's a grown up boy.
He's responsible.

Is he?

Nothing surprises us anymore.

I know a lot of stories of, like
when Nick and Joe were young.

It was all like
light-hearted fun.

This is Joe and myself,
and Joe giving me the finger.

This is the picture
Nick took for his yearbook.

Nick does not play the trombone.

Putting the mustard
in the ketchup and the ketchup
in the mustard at the A&W.

We got a police visit for that.

In sixth grade we put together
a humor newspaper.

I use the word humor
very loosely.

No I think it holds up,
as funny as the day we wrote it.

And then we did a prank phone
call tape in high school.

This is Steven Gorgon
from the University
of California, Berkeley.

-Yeah?
-We have reason to believe
that under your house,

is prehistoric dinosaur bones.

-No, no, no.
-No, we have reason
to believe this.

It's just the cruelest thing.

Now that you listen to it, we're
just like waking up old people.

No, again, I think everything
holds up perfectly with that.

Do you know
what time it is mister?

Well, yes, I do.

Are you crazy? We're in bed.

-We actually
made money off that.
-Sold that to teachers...

-Yeah, that was...
-My social studies
teacher loved it.

For years,

he was always the one
just getting friends

to do silly things
and make idiots
of themselves in public.

And I just remember
being at a grocery store

and you daring me to go running
into a thing of cans
and then apologizing.

The board and I would like pass
you a note saying,

-"Three dollars If you do this."
-Yeah.

I always call him
the Puppet Master,

just like pulling the strings.

-I did that with Mark too.
Mark worked for cheap.
-Yeah.

He could lead a cult.

When they were in Eau Claire,
they were doing break
dancing on the campus.

Joe "Ozone" Pickett
and Nick "Turbo."

Nick and Joe had a booth where
you could unregister to vote.

They started
an improvisational rock band,
and it was cacophony.

And I said, "Well, Nick,
what's the name of your band?"

He said, "It's the Beatles."

College, we had
permed our hair as a joke.

Like two weeks later,
it was just kind of ratty.

-Yeah.
-And I just chopped
the shit out of it.

I went down to the DMV
and got my photo taken.

Ever since then, I've always
done a dumb picture for it.

I remember when I moved
to New York, I did this one.

Went down and got a neck brace.

The key is you gotta go
like right around five o'clock,

usually on a Friday,
when everybody wants
to get out of there.

That's what I did with this one,
I dressed goth,

put a safety pin through my lip.

This is my current license.
I got custom grills made.

But the worst part
was having to get cornrows.

It was pretty painful.

Went to a Catholic supply store
and bought a priest's collar,
and nobody even questioned it.

We were doing a show out
in the middle of nowhere,
cop pulls us over.

I handed him my ID and he goes,
"Dude, is this for real?"

And I was like, "Yep."
And he goes, "You're a priest?"
And I said, "Yep."

And then he goes, "So how much
heroin do you have in the car?"

Nick and I have known
each other since we were
in sixth grade,

and I went over to your place,
and I found out that you were

a big fan of Pee Wee Herman
and you were actually part
of the Pee Wee Herman fan club.

-Yeah.
-And I was interested in that.

Yeah, and I remember bonding
over the television show
Small Wonder,

-Oh yeah.
-About the robot little girl.

And we both thought
it was so stupid.

And we both loved
how stupid it was.

You know, 10-year-olds
usually are kind of appreciating
things at face value.

-But...
-We hated things.

-We hated things very early on.
-And we realized we both hated

-very similar,
loved to hate, yeah.
-But loved to hate, yeah.

We started finding VHS tapes.

Found a McDonald's
training video

in the break room of the
McDonald's I was working at.

It was this guy
and it was his first day

on the job in the video,
and he cleaned really hard.

The overly perky crew trainer
said that he could see "McC."

-Well, what's next?
-Garbage.

Which they never defined
what that is.

No, they invented their
whole, their own mythology
for this whole thing.

Don't stop cleaning
until you see McC.

Well, we got obsessed
with that tape, I stole it.

I took it home in my backpack
and we showed it to friends
on a Friday night,

And we developed a running
commentary of jokes
to go along with it.

Make it shine, guy.

Make it shine.

The obsession grew
with McC even further.

Then we started
looking out for other videos.

We started finding
VHS tapes at thrift stores
and garage sales.

Yeah, like the '90s,
that was the golden age of VHS
because it was so cheap.

Anybody with, like an inkling
of an idea could get it
produced.

Sky starts to light up
with stars to the music
from "Smoke on the Water."

Dum-dum-dum, dum-dum, da-dum.

So we started finding
these videos.

You know, nothing to do
in our hometown
on a Friday night.

Go over to somebody's parents'
living room and we'd pop in
whatever video we had found.

A reading
from the letter of Paul
to the Koreans.

Corinthians!

After college, I got a job
at a video duplication house.

Companies would come in

and they'd bring in these
safety videos or industrial
training videos.

I'd always make
an extra copy for myself.

The collection grew
exponentially from there.

I've been to their office.

It's crazy, it's beautiful,
it's wonderful.

It's a museum. It's inspiring.

It's a stunning collection
of videotapes.

It's... one could say too much.

We'll take you around
to the different categories
we have here.

-This is religion.
-These two walls
are all religion.

This one is called
Hey Kids, it's Jesus!

And then it's animals down here.

Whiskers, the Cat
with the Magical Attitude.

Martial arts, self-defense,
then we go into the holidays
and Christmas.

Kenny and Corky
Singing "Nuttin' for Christmas."

So there's a lot of videos about
how to be a better gambler.

You know how there's a lot of
strategy in winning the lotto?

Andy always puts himself
on the cover of these videos.

Well, sex sells.

This Michael's training video
I actually stole
on my wedding day.

Then it segues into sexy stuff
like nude golf, nude yoga,

nude bowling party,
and they're not
good bowlers, either.

There's a sea
of children's videos.

It's basically a video
so parents don't have to have

the sex talk with kids,
and guiding you through this,
Howie Mandel.

And then eventually
we just had enough tapes

that in 2004 we were like,
let's take this thing we do
to entertain friends

out of our living room
and put it
into a theater somewhere.

One time, Austin!

-Hey, welcome to the show.
-Welcome! Thanks for having us.

Welcome to the show.
My name's Nick, this is Joe.

This is the Found Footage
Festival and what we do,

if you haven't seen
the show before,
we travel around the country,

we look for old VHS tapes,
exercise videos,
and other people's home movies

and you know, stuff that wasn't
meant to be shown in public.

And then we show it in public.
Been doing it 15 years.

And we have no backup plan.

-This is our career.
-This is all we're doing
with our lives, this is it.

Monkeys are very affectionate
animals when they want to be.

I'm looking for somebody
I can feel special about.

I'm looking for the goddess.

Life is a playground,
and I want somebody
to play with.

Hi, Mom.

The Found Footage
Festival's always hilarious.

Everybody comes into it

not knowing
what the hell is going on
and then still not knowing

what the hell is going on,
even while they are watching.

Don't be surprised
if you're surprised.

Just prepare for chaos.

Hi, I'm Ben Dover
from Computers Northwest.

Just let it out. Aaah!

This video, when your mom
and dad break up...

Follow instructions carefully.

Excellent health,
full of energy.

What's involved
in having a litter?

The bitch is into heavy labor.
Comforting the bitch.

You want to reassure your bitch.

Milk the bitch.
Calm the bitch down.

Everybody is screaming laughing.

It's like
a circus-like atmosphere.

There's a niche interest
with broad appeal.

I drink my urine every morning.

I think Jesus was an incredible
person, but I also feel
that he did urine therapy.

Finding the Found Footage
Festival was like being

a Star-bellied Sneetch
and I found the other Sneetches.

It's like, oh you guys
watch the same crap?

They curate all these moments
from the garbage heap
of pop culture.

Check this out.

In 19 years
of representing our roster,
plus seeing what everyone else

in the market is doing,
there's nothing
like Nick and Joe.

It's not like they're just
a successful band and

and they're good at their music.

They made up this genre
and they're the world champions.

We just did Edinburgh
for a show at night for a month.

You know, we do shows
that are like 600, 700 people.

We do shows that are 50 people.

We've done shows
for zero people, didn't we?

For one.

We don't have a traditional job.

Our job is, I mean,
we see each other
every single day.

We do the show
for an hour and a half.

The rest of the time is spent
traveling from a city
to the other city,

or hanging out in thrift stores
looking for VHS material.

This is one we find a lot,
but I always like the title.
Come on, Geese!

Here's one
about how to play the mandolin.

-I think we have it.
-Do we?

-Yeah, we do.
-We have this one?

It's a decent haul.

Yeah, it's not bad,
it's a decent haul.

We're on the road
for 130 days a year,

And we're like
five feet away
from each other at all times.

On long drives, like if we're
on a sevené\-hour drive,

we won't say a word
the entire time.

As far as our relationship goes,
I'd say it's moreOdd Couple
than anything.

Like, I will fart in front of
you, but you won't fart
in front of me or anybody.

You were
with a girl for eight years?

-Eleven. Yes.
-Eleven years?

-You never
farted around her once?
-Nope. Didn't happen.

It takes me like a week.

We get to a hotel.

I'll try to get to sleep early
because I know Joe snores.

-I do.
-So I go by the radiator,

or the air conditioner,
and I get the bed
closest to that.

-And it's just an unspoken.
-We have this whole routine.

You'll watch an infomercial

-and give me a half-hour head
start so I can fall asleep.
-Yep.

We do like close
to 120 shows a year.

Send out press releases to
local news stations and stuff.

We'd go on the local news
and talk about our show.

Savage beauty.
Look at that powerful body.

Most people cleaning
out their storage units,
their closets,

they toss away
those old VHS tapes.

Well, that's like
throwing away gold

to the creators of the Found
Footage Festival, Nick Prueher
and Joe Pickett.

-You specifically don't
like doing the morning shows?
-I hate doing the morning shows.

Well, they are early.

It's like still dark out
when we would have to wake up
for these things, it sucked.

It's nice to have you guys
back in town, welcome.

-Thanks for having us back.
-Good to be here.

-We were in Missouri
or somewhere like that.
-It was Kansas City.

-Kansas City.
-Yeah.

And we had a morning
show interview and you didn't
want to drive to the station.

So our UK tour manager, Michael,
who has a thick
northern English accent,

he came on as you
and he tried to do
an American accent.

When did you start
doing all of this?

-Joe?
-Yeah, we went
to high school together.

We've been best friends
for, you know,
since back in the day.

He didn't do
a very good job either.

So that was the main challenge.

-It was a disaster.
-I was just happy I didn't have
to do the morning news show.

I'm looking at some of
these morning news shows,

and I mean, they just make it
so easy, like look at it,
Monica Quintero.

That's such an anchor
name, too, isn't it?

And they tell you
what their hobbies are.
It's way too much information.

And feel free to contact her
at hdavis@kxxv.com.

Shit, their emails
are right there.

We hated doing these
because we got the impression
that the news people

were not listening
and doing their homework

because the chyrons would have
our names wrong below us.

They'd always call it
the Found Film Festival.

Right. There's no films here.

So as an experiment,
we sent out a press release

for someone other than us.

Me and my buddy Mark, we
invented a character and pitched
him to morning news shows.

Well you probably owned a yo-yo
a kid, but our next guest
has turned it into an art form.

And this fake person
got booked on more shows
than we did.

Yeah, we wrote up
a press release

saying that we've represented a
guy named Kenny Strasser

who was a yo-yo expert

who traveled around the country
to schools, teaching kids about
the environment with his yo-yo.

They totally bought it
and we got him booked

on seven morning news shows
and our buddy Mark
played the yo-yo expert.

I am just a 35-year-old kid at
heart, you know, twice divorced.

I have no kids.

I don't have a girlfriend,
don't want one.

And Mark has no idea
how to yo-yo at all.

See, you have the up and down.

-Okay.
-Okay, pretty basic.

-And then...
-Oh!

-Oh! You all right?
-Yeah.

What I say is, you know, life
has a lot of ups and downs

and...

Oops, lost one.

Then into a Huey.

And we get going.

Oops.

What should I do?

I mean that yo-yo guy.
Oh, my God, what a train wreck.

-Let it drop.
-All right.

What am I doing?

Just seeing
super, self-serious people

face to face with this

hilarious thing
that they don't know
is hilarious,

it like shines a light right
through the whole
news industry I think.

They have to be happy
and excited, even though
something is failing.

There is my yo-yo trick,
right there.

-Well, kind of.
-We'll be right back.

The pressure is on,
you've done it once
and then people want more

and you want more because
it's the excitement of doing it.

People who are
compelled to do this over
and over and over again,

it's just horrific.

It's got to be some kind of
like, serious adrenaline thing.

I mean to think of a prank
and execute it,

it's just, it's the biggest
rush in the world.

There is something addicting

and you need
to go bigger and bigger.

We had fun doing that.

And we're like, man,
let's see if we can do
something else stupid.

So we wrote up a press release
saying that Nick
was a celebrity chef

who had just written a book
on what to do with your
Thanksgiving leftovers.

Chef Keith Guerke is here,

author of Leftovers Right:
Making A Winner
of Last Night's Dinner.

Pretty good title, right?

-That's a great book title!
-Thank you very much.

I just checked
my email before and I might
have to cancel

the signing because
the books have not arrived.

Okay, well never mind then.

First of all, mashed potatoes.
Boring, right?

-Right.
-How about a mashed
potato ice cream cone?

-What do you think about that?
-That's fun.

The fun part
comes with the toppings.

These are your sprinkles.
I think of this as like
a sundae bar.

-Like corn sprinkles?
-Yeah, so put on some...

I love it when pranks
are very, very silly.

I think that that helps people
loosen up the idea
of their everyday reality.

Of course, don't forget
your cranberry cherry on top.

Because then you got your
mashed potatoes
and it's all in one.

First of all, getting on
a morning show and pranking,

I mean, it takes balls,
it's not easy.

You have to walk a tight line
of being funny, pathetic,

and believable enough
to sustain that

and for them not to suss out
that you're fucking with them.

It's quite a talent.

There's a Judas Priest
song called "Turbo Lover."

Well, I call this Turbo Gravy.
It's a spoof on that.

And it's basically taking gravy
to the next level.

-You can really make it
out of any leftover.
-Right.

So put like some
of your ham in here.

-Put all of it in.
-Perfect.

Just put a bunch of like
green beans and turkey

and mashed potatoes and always
skim milk in the blender.

Fried chicken, put it all in
there and then add more gravy.

-Gravy to gravy.
-Of course, we need more gravy
to make the gravy.

-There we go!
-Yes.

I'll just let you try this.
And this is so fun.

My daughters Spirit and Curtis
Anne love these smoothies.

Maybe not as blended as we like,
but just try a little
bit of that.

Most of the anchors
actually ate it.

Like gulped down a smoothie
with chicken in it.

They don't think about it.
They don't want the show
to keep moving.

-You're gonna have
whipped cream left over, right?
-Whoops.

I am so sorry.

-It's okay.
-Oh, God. Live TV.

We're going to
throw things out to Mark
for a check of our weather.

Putting them on the defensive
and having to watch them

make a decision
about whether or not
they're going to eat shit,

it calls into question
everything about the legitimacy

of that whole endeavor
of the morning news source.

So you can watch that
and think, "This is crazy."

But then you might,
the next thing that's on,

you also have to question.

This is the Halliburton
SurvivaBall.

In the event of extreme
catastrophe, there might be
a scarcity of resources.

These kinds of interventions,
this kind of mischief,

is something that

plays a really important
role in changing the world.

I'm waffling back and forth.

The fans have come
to expect a new prank,

and they want to know
how you can top yourselves.

And we're like,
"I don't know. Any ideas?"

Hey, do you wanna get in
here to coach me a little bit
on the shaving?

It will look stupider
if you go further up.

I know, because then
you'll see my second chin.

-Yeah, yeah.
-Yeah, okay.

-I think that's the...
-See, I'm glad you're here.

Oh, I know.
What about male
pattern baldness?

Shaving male pattern baldness.

-Should I?
-I mean, what does it add to it?

It just makes it,
makes you look stupider?

Yeah. The laughs would increase,
I think like 72%.

-Yeah, well, I say go for it.
-Yeah.

Do you have a message?

No. What happened?

Well, no, well I had a question
for you about the, about shaving

because I know that facial hair
was the big concern.

Yeah?

What about like if I shaved
male pattern baldness?

-Because I feel like it would,
-No.

it would step up
the comedy like 82%.

No.

Not right before the holidays,
not when there's like
shit to do.

And we have people to see.

You're not doing that.

My only requisite for the
characters is like I have
to live with the person.

I remember,
he did this prank where he had
like a tiny mustache.

It was a Hitler mustache, but
it was not a Hitler mustache,

but it looked like a Hitler
mustache and no sideburns.

So he really looked
like Sling Blade.

And I had to, like, go out
with him looking like that.

All right,
I'm not going to do it.

I'll look normal
when I come home.

No, you're not.
You're gonna look like an idiot.

So this year we're a
strongman duo and we called
ourselves Chop and Steele.

12 or 11 news stations
all wanted us on that same day.

Within 24 hours we got
12 responses back,
all interested.

Hello Wisconsin!
This is WEAU 13 News.

A plane with dozens
of people on board,

including a soccer team,
has crashed in Colombia.

Also, if your breakfast
needs a side of muscle,

this morning, the strongman duo
Chop and Steele.

Chop and Steele!
Been waiting
for this all show long.

I know, I'm excited.

I was a rich guy
from the suburbs.

He was a skinny little boy
from small town Wisconsin.

We made it work.
This turned out to be
a slam dunk.

One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight...

It was already preposterous.

I mean, if they took one
look at us, they would know
we were not strong men.

And then we also claimed that
we were on America's Got Talent,

and they clearly
didn't even do a Google search.

Now you were
on America's Got Talent
and you showed your stuff.

So tell us a little bit
about what you do.

We work in a pretty rough
roadhouse in Missouri

called the Double Deuce.

Our buddy Dalton
got us a job there.

And it was great.
We're good bouncers.

There was a local business guy,

he started throwing his weight
around at one point.

You have to be
in character the whole time,
so it's a little nerve wracking.

It's like doing a play,
but your co-actors
aren't in on the play.

-Ready?
-Yep.

One, two...

What's really beautiful is when

you listen to what
the news hosts are saying.

"All right." "Amazing."

"Oh, we've been waiting
all morning for this."

It's like, "Have you? Have you?"

I'm enjoying this too much
to comment on it.

Now is this North Dakota
or South Dakota, because
that makes a big difference.

-One!
-All right, perfect.

Two!

Three!

It's a little big.

Feel it in your, whatever
the back muscle is.

Yeah, this is just basic
turbo gravy that you
would have in your house.

Especially with Chop and Steele,
you're like...

Come on, that's obviously fake.

One, two, three.

When I watch those two guys,

I know that same energy
where you're going,

"Well, I guess
we're doing this."

"Yeah, we're really doing this."

"OK, they haven't caught on yet.
We'll just keep doing this."

There's only
been one that we showed up,

and the guy looked at us
and he's like, "You guys don't
really look like strongmen."

And then we were like,
"Well, we are. And we're here
to perform for you."

And he's like, "Hold on, let me,
I'll be back in a second."

He goes to the back room
like ten minutes and then
comes back and he's like,

"No, I'm not gonna have you on."

I've done a lot of things
over the years

like smash up Arsenio Hall
and done all this crap.

We'll be right back!

When I do it, there's
always a buddy with me,

just so I know
I get out of the building.

I feel like I'm robbing a bank
whenever I do these things.

It's all in the name of laughs.

I just remember thinking
like, I don't know how you have

the balls to do this
because it's so cringe-inducing

and also like,
how do you not feel bad?

In a weird way,
you're doing them a favor.

I mean, no one gives a shit
about channel...

Bing Bong in North Dakota,
like no offense to North Dakota,

but I'm saying not
a lot of people might watch
the 5AM show.

Now those people that do
that show every single morning
are known on the internet.

I don't think that's
necessarily a bad thing.

I mean, I don't know.

It's not mean, it's just funny.

And we'll take, we'll have more
Good Day Dakota on the way.

Oh, I was gonna also say,

-I'm so sorry about this.
-No, it's okay.
Don't worry about it.

No sweat at all. No problem.

Thank you so much
for joining us.

-And we have weather
with Amber coming up.
-Oh, sorry.

One of the news stations
didn't find it funny.

Actually, the news station
that we did it,
they found it funny.

But their parent company,
didn't find it funny.

Yeah, so four months after we
were on, we found out
in the New York Post

that they were suing us
in federal court for fraud,

-Copyright infringement.
-copyright infringement,
fraud and conspiracy.

Conspiracy to commit fraud.

Most of our friends were very...
just angry for him

because they thought
it was bogus and stupid,
and some friends,

it's not like they didn't
support what he did,

they were just sort of saying,
"Well, that's the consequence
you pay for...

you know, fucking around."

I may have
this in common with them.

I think I'm one of the few
guests on a television show

that had charges because
I got convicted of arson

when I set
The Tonight Showon fire.

Well it is sweeps,
and I love Jay very much.

And I thought, "Well,
what if I, I don't know,

-what if I set
his furniture on fire?"
-What are you doing?

Don't set that on fire.

There's always that window
of time when you do something

and charges are brought up
where you're like going,

"This isn't
really funny anymore,

because you're like, I could
actually go to jail."

When I became aware
that they were getting sued,

I actually donated
to their GoFundMe.

I feel a kindred spirit.

Hey, I'm Joe. This is Nick.

We do a show called
the Found Footage Festival.

Last March, we were slapped
with a frivolous lawsuit

after appearing on a news
station as a strongman duo
called Chop and Steele.

That's right, a giant media
company decided to sue us
because they were embarrassed.

That's why we're seeking $80,000
to cover all of our expenses.

It's a lot of money, we know,
but it's actually more money

than I think we've ever made
doing the Found Footage
Festival.

To give an idea
of what we're working with,

Joe once found
a block of cheese on the ground
and brought it home.

-And you ate it.
-And I ate it actually,
like that day.

-Thanks in advance, everybody.
-Thank you.

They were the defendants
I was born to defend.

I think Chop and Steele
are performance artists.

I think what they're doing
is absolutely social commentary.

And the fact
that it is hilarious
and perhaps a bit silly

does not take away
from the underlying point
that they're making.

When you get sued,

there are a bunch of things
that are scary about it.

For one thing, you realize that
during the discovery process,

they may ask to read
any of your emails ever.

And you think, "Oh God, like,
who's gonna see that?

And what are they
going to ask for?

You start thinking
about everything
that you've ever done.

I could see it being
a thing that would really
make you shit yourself.

This lawsuit
was incredibly disruptive.

They are working comedians.

They are on the road
while all of this was happening,
and in the back of their minds,

they have to be thinking,
"Well, this could be the end
of Found Footage Festival."

We sold one, right?

Here's the thing.
We're broke right now.

Even if we win the lawsuit
or we settle or whatever,

we're still going
to have all these fees.

And if we get sued again,
we're done.

All right so yeah,
it's 20 bucks.

You have to vacate the
room within three minutes
of going in.

So here's where you can
microwave your chimichanga

and then If you need to, you can
pick up an American Defender.

Well, if it wasn't out of order,
you could pick up
the American Defender.

Look at that,
believe, dream, imagine.

Believe, dream, imagine
a better hotel room.

I know it's something
I struggle with for myself.

I wish I was more successful,
and I want to be successful
and I want to be a star.

But you just kind of need
a perfect storm.

You need several perfect storms
to hit in a row.

And you see that, like
that actor Mark Proksch,

who was sort of
catapulted into success

after the Kenny Strasser
videos went viral.

-Uh-huh?
-And you're like this, you know?

-And that was Kenny Strasser.
-Yeah.

That was
the first experiment, right?

It went big, and so, like,
Hollywood came calling
and Mark got on The Office.

And then he got
on Better Call Saul.

And now he's on What We do
in the Shadows.

And we're here selling Frisbees.
Yeah, a trunk full of Frisbees.

-That's fine.
-Yeah, we're not bitter at all.

I'll turn on the TV, and every
so often Mark
will pop up in a show.

Like he was on Portlandia.

And he was making out with
Carrie Brownstein in a scene.
It was like, "Oh there's Mark!"

-I had fun last night.
-Yeah, me too.

-Yeah.
-It was a good time.

Yeah, and Mark's doing that,
and it's all based
on the yo-yo thing.

And the writers at The Office,
they flew Joe and Mark
to go there, you know?

So hey, if you want
to submit writers' packets,
Joe wasn't interested.

I didn't necessarily want that.

I didn't really like that show.

It was never a dream of mine
to write on that show.

I don't like having a boss.

-Dondeare you from?
-Scranton.

-Ybefore that, La Philadelphia.
-You speak English?

Yes. I'm really good at English.

Okay. Good, me too.
Get in the car.

Mark was interested in acting,
so they basically wrote a part

based on the yo-yo expert
for Mark on The Office.

But I wouldn't want to be,
I mean, I had
the opportunity to do that.

I liked what I was doing.
I like Found Footage.

You're just
with somebody for a long time

and in Nick's case,
I've been with him
since we were in sixth grade.

So it's going to be hard to say
like I'm going to move
across the country.

and potentially
do something else.

What's admirable
is that they listened

to the voice inside them,
that little voice that says,

"No, I don't want to do this,"
and they stuck to their guns.

I doubt they're
mega millionaires
by doing the Found Footage.

I'm not driven by money,
luckily.

Maybe I should be
a little bit more.

Best of all, they wanted
20 dollars for each VHS tape.

So this is the most
we've ever spent
on a collection of tapes.

So you better fucking enjoy it!

In a way, I do wish
that we didn't have to work
so hard to make money.

I would've jumped
at the opportunity
to write for The Office.

But Joe wasn't interested
in doing that.

We were talking last night
and like, what was my dad
doing at my age?

He had three kids.

He was like the principal
of a juvenile delinquent home.

And my grandpa,

in Okinawa in World War 2,
his friend was shot in a field,

so he ran to save him
and drag him back.

And then he got shot
and was left to bleed out.

And then somebody, a medic
found him and rescued him,

and he was nursed
gradually back to health.

Was awarded a Purple Heart
and a Bronze Star for valor
in the line of duty.

And I'm gluing pom-poms
on the positive and negative
parts of the car battery.

-Here's the glitter.
-Okay, thanks, buddy.

He got a Bronze Star?

Yes, for valor.
From the President.

We are now on the record

in the matter of Gray
Television Group Inc.

v. Found Footage Festival LLC.

Nick and Joe were both
deposed individually.

Found Footage
Festival was deposed
and Nick served as the deponent,

which meant that Nick was there
for something like 12 hours.

-Found Footage does
derive revenue from these?
-Yes.

And selling merchandise?

-Yes.
-And the merchandise
is Frisbees?

-Mm-hmm.
-What do the Frisbees
have on them?

They are a reference
to a clip from an adult film
we found called Frisbee Fuckers.

Nick and I clearly
are not strongmen,
we don't look strong.

What's a strongman?

Uh, a strong man.

It's an awful experience
being sued.

It really is like
a shocking, sobering slap
in the face.

You know, ice water
thrown on you like,
"Hey, you think you're funny?

How's this, funny man?"

You're walking around thinking
I'm going to go bankrupt.

How am I gonna feed my family?

What am I going to do?
This is crazy.

I'll never work again.

The emotional roller coaster
you're on is insane.

How you guys doing?
Good.

Are we on hugging terms,
or we just shaking?

I don't know what you guys
are comfortable with.

Okay, all right. Yeah.

You know, I already talked
to Nick about this a little bit,

but I wanted
to mention it to you.

I can read it, but I think that
we shouldn't do that with
the cameras here.

You know, we should do it
in a more informal setting.

I have here the apology
that Gray Television initially

wanted Nick and Joe to read.

"Journalists
like the Morning Crew at WEAU

and other Gray
television stations have
a difficult and important job.

We now appreciate
that in not telling
WEAU journalists

Chop and Steele
were fake performers,

that we undermined
the hard work
of these journalists.

That certainly was
not our intention."

They asked that that statement

be the only thing that you say
from here on out about the case.

My impression
is that that's a no-go.

-Yes, for sure.
-Yeah, no way.

That's so, no. That's so dumb.

It's like
something we would read,
like I said this earlier, but

it's like something we'd read
if there was a gun to our head

right off camera.

It does not sound like us,
and everybody would sniff
right through it.

It's like, so preposterous.

We've been willing to settle
for reasonable terms,

but there hasn't really been
anything reasonable
put out there for us.

There's a part of me that
really wants it to go to trial,
have Chop and Steele up on the,

Yeah, I'd love to have
a formal bandana.

-Up on the witness stand.
-A Zubaz tuxedo.

Yes, you guys
make this decision.

I was talking about this
to my partner, Eric, last night.

He said, "I hope
this fucking goes to trial."

I said before, I'll say it
again, he's the greatest lawyer
of all time.

We have a lawyer now,
we're emboldened.

And then the next day,
somebody sent us
a clip from the show The Talk,

-that daytime talk show.
-All of a sudden, we were

part of like
this national conversation
about the First Amendment.

If they had done
their due diligence,

that I feel like
is the responsibility
of a news organization,

they would have known
this was a goof.

As activists,
when you get sued by somebody
more powerful than you,

they give you a platform,
it's like they're giving you
some of their power.

After Chop and Steele
duped Hello Wisconsin,

the station's parent company
got mad and sued them

for posing as fitness experts.

They have a YouTube channel

with all of their
shenanigans on there, right?

And they look
like an SNLsketch.
I mean, it's so funny.

So the suing, I actually think,
is beneficial to them
creatively,

because it makes their act
seem larger than it was.

Please welcome Joe Pickett
and Nick Prueher.

Nick and Joe,
how did this start?

I was in high school
working at a McDonald's
in my hometown in Wisconsin,

-and I found a...
-All right.

McDonald's fans?

Suddenly you have a David and
Goliath story that you can talk
about, and then it becomes fun.

It becomes another form
of being Chop and Steele.

Pranking the media
is nothing new.

What makes Nick
and Joe's case unique

is that this is the first
example we could find

of retaliatory legal action
being taken by a media company.

I think what it was is they're
like, "We need to make
an example of these people."

We reached out to Gray
Media and were put in touch
with their lawyer.

After trying many times to
arrange an on-camera interview,
something unexpected happened.

I think because the people
at America's Got Talentsaw the
video just out of the blue.

America's Got Talent
emailed us and were like,

"You guys need
to be on the show."

I wasn't that excited about it.
And then my wife also was not
very excited about it.

She's like,
"Those shows are beneath you."

You guys have
achieved something.

I don't think she's right
about that.
I don't think we've...

Well, I've never seen the show.
But 20 million people see it.

And that's not how many people
come to our shows.

-No, it's true.
-It opens it up
to a new audience.

You gonna do AGT?

Yeah, so what
do you think about that?

When we first pitched this idea
in the press releases,

we said that, you know,
Chop and Steele had won

America's Got Talent.

And now we're thinking
"It's all coming back,
full circle."

Now we actually play.

They do, they absolutely do.

Yeah, the producers do.

Right.

Yeah.

You're narrating
the sticks part.

So I have intro,
you narrate sticks.

-Yep.
-Count out loud.

Then we do this,
we count out loud.

They've already done it.

What value is there in, no,
there's no, there's no value

if everybody, if the producers
know it's a prank.

Should we do a bow
after each exercise?

Like that, or like...

I was vehemently against it
because I think
it's a shitty show.

And I work for NBC, so sorry,
but it's a shitty show.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

-You say strong, I say strength.
-Okay.

The fact that they reached
out to Joe and Nick already
has me feeling weird about it.

You're making fun
of the establishment,

and then the establishment says,

"Come on,
will you give us more of that?"

And you're like,
"No, that's not how this works."

That happened to me, like I set
the Tonight Showon fire.

I got more bookings after that.

Here he is,
Bobcat Bob Goldthwait.

You know, I'm on Regis
and Kathie Lee and they go,

"Oh, we're going to give you
a fire extinguisher.

Wouldn't that be funny?"
And I go, "Sure."

Hey! Hey!

Bobcat! No, Bob.

Basically the establishment

that you're making fun of says,
"Hey, come on, do that to us."

We're giving you
the middle finger
and you're saying,

"Yeah, can you do it more?

That's the type of thing that
would have gone through their
heads as like,

"How can we do
something subversive
on America's Got Talent?"

There's one idea we had.

Should I talk about the ideas
or should I keep them a secret?

-Yeah, I just, I have to go.
-Okay.

But so to make it more
interesting, I was like,

we've got to bring
something back with us.

They might blur it.

They might pixelate it,
I guess they would pixelate it.

But I'm gonna do it
at the beginning of the segment.

It'll be a Rockytraining
montage on that.

It's kind of hard when you're
in debt to risk another lawsuit.

It's really scary.

Getting sued wasn't that bad.

We got so much press out of it,
it's like...

It's tough to go back out
and risk that again.

I guess I'm not that concerned.

The show has a lot of viewers.

I think that they can do
something really awesome,

you know, it's like it's their
Andy Kaufman moment.

The audacity to do
it is so cool because
you have to commit to it

once you're there,
you can't back out.
That's your one shot.

Are you kidding?
They should only do it
if they do the double prank.

My fear is that they're going
to go on this show
and do something.

Producer is going to be like,
"Well, that was embarrassing.

Let's cut it out
and just make them look like

two idiots who are coming on
and make fools of themselves."

I don't know, I just don't,
I don't trust Howie Mandel.

We are here in California.

Hard to believe,
but America's Got Talent

called us up a day ago,

and said, "We want you
on this Thursday."

-Hello.
-About time.

Party time.

Oh, I'm fucking exhausted.

Yeah, my mom texted me.

I was terrified of the lawsuit.

I was hoping that that would be
the end of pranking.

Then he told me
what they were going to do
and then I went full on mother.

My mom said,
"It's too gross for grown men."

Don't you dare do that, Joe.

And then
five exclamation points.

And then she said, "Good luck."

And I think I'll chime in
and you say...

And we'll do it
under ten seconds.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, okay.

-Yeah, yeah.
-But we had to do that
on the news stations,

just show up and leave
still in character.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, super excited.

This is the holding room
at America's Got Talent.

We only have about eight hours
before we go on,
so they'll get B-roll.

We'll probably have to make
asses of ourselves.

Like the Wizard of Ozcast.

It's going to be a long day.

One, two, three, go!

One, two, three, go!

One, two, three, go!
One, two, three, go!

All right,
let's go for it. So let's do
an introduction first.

"I'm Chop and I'm Steele.

-We're from New York,"
is that right?
-Wisconsin.

And then let's just do one
with your ages, too.

So I'm Chop, I'm 41.

Just tell me,
so strength became
an obsession for you guys.

Tell me, sort of about that.
We've been working,

we've been training,
you know, all that stuff.

Like all this since we were
six years old, you know that.

Talk about what a huge
opportunity this is.

There's nothing
like us in Las Vegas.

Give me that.
There's Celine Dion.

There's this, you know,
Blue Man Group, whatever.

You know,
there's nothing like
what we do in Las Vegas.

We are so ready,
or we couldn't be more ready,
that kind of thing.

We're...

We are so ready
to get out there
and show the world,

-show the judges what we can do.
-Let me at 'em.

Amazing.

Here we are backstage.
You hear the audience

Tyra Banks
just introduced herself.

-It's horrifying.
-Yeah.

-And we're about to go out,
-About to go out,

-for real this time.
-we're feeling it.

We're really feeling it.

And you are?

Chop and Steele.
We are a professional
strongman duo.

-Yeah!
-Tonight we're
gonna be performing

amazing feats of strength
that you have never seen.

We've known each other
since we were little,
since second grade.

We watched
the Incredible Hulktogether,

and that was our bonding thing.

And we're like, one day we're
going to be the Hulk,
and here we are.

-Did you want us to start?
-Yes, please.

All right.
We're doing a little act
we call Buddy Lifts.

And all you need
for this one is a sledgehammer

-and your best friend
in the world.
-Your best friend in the world.

And this is why we stress,
do not do this one at home.

Unless you're really strong.

If you're strong,
give it a shot.

Watch how the pros do it first.

All right, you ready? All right.

Now while Chop does this,
it's actually
gonna be working...

All right, that was something.

But now it's time
to break a world record.

One! Two! Three!

This will happen.

Did you get
nervous during that...

-That's the problem.
-There's something
on your trousers.

You're gonna see
what we do in Round 2.

This is so uncomfortable.

It happens.

Oh my God.

Joe told me that they
drank lots and lots of water
and held their...

But they peed their pants,
though,
I don't think they...

What's the difference?

Well, they didn't open
their zipper
and pee on the floor.

I just want to make it clear
he just peed his pants

-There really is no difference.
-and it ran onto the floor.

-There's a huge difference.
-Might as well pee on the floor.

-Well, he didn't expose himself.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He didn't expose himself,
but, gee, I wonder why
they didn't make the top ten.

Have to leave a tip
for the maid, for sure.

Yeah. You know,
that was the one thing
that I didn't anticipate

with everything was the fact
that somebody had to clean up
our piss at the end.

I didn't even think about that,
you know?

It was like, I kind of wish I
would have had
a towel standing by

so that I could go out there
and clean it
so somebody else didn't.

I feel bad about that.

They wouldn't have allowed you
to do it anyway.

No, but it would have been
at least a gesture.

I kind of wish
they hadn't told us, but...

I just want to crawl in a hole.

It's so cringeworthy.

That's really impressive,
that they peed on camera.

Congratulations boys.

I didn't see that coming.

That is a level of commitment
that is pretty sick.

By the way, no one on our crew
wants to clean that up.

Have you noticed that?

No, it's not real.
There's no way.

Right when we came off the
stage, the producer
came up to us.

Her first question was,

"Is that real pee
or is that water?"

And told her the truth.

It was like, it's real pee,
but we had an accident.

So I tried to play it up like,
"Oh, I'm sorry."

And she said,
"You guys can't do that."

She goes, "You have to
run that stuff by me."

-Yeah.
-But see, here's the thing.

Our pee was so clear
because it was all water.

That was barely even pee.

Like you used that defense
with the producer.

"It's mostly water,"
Like it doesn't matter,
it's piss.

I haven't texted Albertina yet.

Like she,
and she hasn't texted me.

I think that she kind of, I
think she buried her head in the
sand a little bit with this one.

I don't think that she,
I don't know.

I text her right now.
I'll see what she says.

"We peed on AGT."

Good news, honey!

I think they're probably
not going to sue.

Watch, five years from now,

I'm like living in a box
because they sued.

But like I'm just worried
that's going to be,

like I'm going to be the lady
who's married to the guy

who just peed
his pants for comedy.

Yeah. She goes, remember
it's a family show.

Public urination isn't funny.

I actually
have to pee right now.

Now I feel
emboldened by all this.

Oh yeah, let's just keep
doing what we're doing.

So...

I have no idea what the next
five years looks like
for Found Footage Festival,

for me personally,
I don't think that far ahead.

Neither does Joe.

This card
that came in the tape says

"This is developed by the USDA."

That's who you want
in charge of your rap music.

For the first time in my life,
I have no savings.

I am in debt.

There's no business plan.

There is no long-term strategy.

There's no conversation about
whether it's going okay or not.

Joe and I,
we've been doing it 15 years.

We've never had a conversation
about delineating
responsibilities at all.

Growing up
it was like this, too.

Joe's got subversive,
hare-brained schemes

and sometimes I was like,
"Okay, fine, whatever."

The annoying part is now
for the first time,

we went all the way to L.A.

and did the prank and
you know, Joe thought, "How
can you take this over the top?"

[crew[ There's no way.

That was weird.
We're not going near that.

I do wish that Chop and Steele
could be on TV.

I'm really proud of it. But...

There's no way.

It'll be a challenge.

It's two hours long.
It's such a long show.

I really doubt that they're
going to include the peeing.

I doubt it too.

See, that's why I'm not
really looking forward
to seeing it,

because I feel like they're
going to make us look dumb.

Well, we'll see. I don't know.

I think there's gonna
be a lot of fast forwarding

because I'm not going
to watch the whole 2 hours.

Fast forward is disabled
for the duration of this
content.

-Oh no!
-Fuck.

Ugh, this show is
just a cringe-fest.

The only comfort is
that he might have been

playing in a puddle
of our piss at this time.

Oh, this is
like the bullshit guys.

Yep, yep, yep.
This is where we're going to be.

I don't get it.

-Oh, there was us! There's us.
-We were there for a second.

-You got me confused.
-That's how she wakes up.

Who's next?

We just stomped on a bag.

-That was it.
-For one second.

-So it is...
-Rewind it.

I don't get it.

Is this comedy?

"Is this comedy?"

So we were used to illustrate
the point that Mel didn't get
a lot of comedy.

-Fourteen million people
saw that.
-We finally made it.

-Oh, that's it.
-That's it.

That's it.
Half a fucking second.

Yeah, well, it's something
that we can put on our resumes,

-that we were on
America's Got Talent.
-I'm not gonna.

I didn't like
anything about the show.

There was zero
that I liked about the show.

The whole day
was just torturous.

It was the most
stressful day of my life.

We had to be holding in our pee
all day long, and it was just
constantly doing interviews.

And it was just a long,
tiring day, and I was like, I
don't know if this is worth it.

And I was like,
"Do you still want
to do these pranks?"

Because they're
always stressful.

What if we didn't pee our pants

and they played
our entire segment?

Wouldn't have made
a single difference.

I think if
you were to sell it
to college students,

maybe, you know,
you could use that.

And what, we get, like six more
college shows a year?

-Yeah.
-Who gives a shit?

Hello. Hi, Hi.

Come on. Come on.

Hi, buddy, I know.

I wasn't gone that long.

When I adopted Marty, I was like
filling out the paperwork

and they're like, "Oh, by the
way, he has a little thing
with his penis,

you just have to apply some
some lubricant on it, you know,

keep it protected
from the elements."

And I was like, "Oh, okay.

Seems like a kind of a big deal
to mention late in the game."

But I do this because
his penis is basically
like one of those sticky hands.

It just picks up all the dust.

And so I take lube,
I apply it on there.

And he just kind of sits there
and has a knowing look.

And then I take some wet wipes
and kind of get it back

into the sheath
and hope it stays
and it never does.

What I get is,
"Oh, he's adorable,"
and then, "Whoa!"

Or I also get, "Boy he's happy
to see me," I'm like,
"Don't flatter yourself.

It's just, it's a condition."

-So this is
our dedicated dog menu.
-Great!

I highly recommend the ribeye.
Marty looks hungry.

He always is, yeah.

-Well enjoy, all right?
-Okay. Thanks, man.

I like doing the shows
and being in front of an
audience and performing.

But the other parts,
the travel, everything else
really has taken its toll.

And like, I mean, I've been
engaged to be married twice.

Those have ended.
I've been, I can't...

It's hard to maintain
a relationship when you're
on the road all the time.

That's why I'm trying
to transition
to be on the road less

and that might mean
getting a regular job
at the end of this tour

and be home to do
penis maintenance on my dog.

That's my priority.

I know that Albertina
has been living in Los Angeles.

I think it would throw
a wrench in things
if Joe moved to L.A.

In the back of my head,
I knew it might
be a possibility,

but I don't
think Joe wants to move there.

He doesn't like L.A. much.

Hello and welcome to my home.

This is the soulless Airbnb.

It's very generic.
It feels like a movie set.

Our refrigerator
has absolutely nothing in it.

Nothing.

Albertina got a job last March.

We're bouncing back and forth.
She's visiting me in New York.

I'm visiting her here.

I don't know.
Maybe I'm due for a change.

That's going to be a good one.

-I mean...
-I've been, yeah.

You've been saving blackheads?

-Yeah.
-I think that maybe
your body filth

should not be front and center

at all times.

But you're saying that
I shouldn't talk about it
anymore or I shouldn't...

No, I think that, stop
showing people your body filth.

-Oh, okay.
-Maybe.

Yeah, sometimes I feel
like I have to choose
between Nick or my wife.

But the answer's easy
that I'm always going
to go with my wife.

I think both of us tend to avoid
heavy conversations like that.

Ah! Ah! Anything?

-Yeah. Oh boy.
-Oh boy.

-Oh.
-Oh, Jeez.

-It's like a forest.
-That is a rain forest.

What should we do with this?

-I mean, you throw it away.
-No.

This is Gilbert.

Is this a good
holding technique here?

Okay, it's kind of It's kind of
the ventriloquist's dummy.

I mean, do you think Nick
feels like abandoned in any way

-or like...
-I don't know, that's
what I kind of worry about.

-Like, yeah,
-I mean, you're allowed to.

-your life is allowed to evolve.
-I know.

It's one of those things
where I think every little
like small thing that he does

-irritates me.
-Slightly diverging paths.

Yes, well, I think that
that personality difference
is good for the show.

If we were both, like
gross picking our nose,

then it would just
be a gross show.

-Yes.
-But if we were both like Nick,

then I think
it'd be a boring show.

There's real consequences
to what they're doing,
and they are really

putting themselves on the line
in a pretty courageous
but a dangerous way.

And it could be
that maybe one of them
doesn't want to risk it all.

And that would be kind of
heartbreaking, because I think
of Joe and Nick, Nick and Joe.

That's like a team.

I kind of had
this thing where it's like,
"Look, we tried this experiment.

We've done it for two years.

It's not working.
We've got to come up
with something else."

I think if I didn't work
in comedy, I would go into
the board game industry.

I love it.
I'm a huge board game fan.

We don't scream at each
other unless it's a board game.

He called me an idiot
a couple weeks ago.

Pointed at the rule book.
He's like,
"It's right here you idiot!"

That's a line we don't cross.

We don't call each other names.

What about being
a cheesy rock and roll guy
playing like an air guitar?

Just kind of like
being an idiot? Yeah.

We're in Austin, Texas,
at the Alamo Drafthouse
headquarters

and we're shooting hunky guys

for a board game I'm working on
called Dream Crush,

which I think can go either way.

It could be
your dreams are being crushed
or this is my dream crush.

We have to have our outside
things, to you know,

keep ourselves interested,
and so I've been
kind of workshopping

this game and pitching it around
and playing it with friends.

So I am excited for,
like this project and to kind of
have my own thing.

Certainly Leonardo.

I mean, I'd hate
to see them break up.

You know, selfishly,
I love great collaborators,
and I've really enjoyed

working with Nick on this game
and, you know,
we've talked about other ideas.

I just want to do
cool shit and make cool things.

And so I see there's a path here
for Nick to do that
if he wants to.

I wouldn't want to do that
if it ended up being the force
that broke apart

the Found Footage Festival
because that's also
important to me.

I don't know what it would mean
if I ended up moving to Austin

because, like Joe
and I don't discuss anything.

We haven't talked about any
moving or what's going to happen
after this tour wraps up.

I've expressed the fact
that I need to take a break
after that.

For me, I'm kind of just trying
to get out of debt right now.

We haven't been
making much money
at the Found Footage Festival

and I just realistically,
I need to get a job.

Movie theater screens
went dark when businesses
deemed nonessential closed

in response to the
coronavirus pandemic.

It happened so fast.

Over the course of about a week,
it became clear
that it's not safe.

We have to shut down.
So we furloughed

I think 5,000
people in one day,
which was a really bad day.

I always thought our show
was recession-proof

because people will always
want to be entertained.

It's not contagion-proof,

is what I'm learning
through this whole thing.

It's kind of weird.
I'm kind of going
a little crazy.

I've been talking
with my cats a lot.

We've been having
full-on conversations.

Tiny, I think she's
getting tired of me.

It is day 16
of self-isolation, quarantine.

Just me and Marty
here in the apartment.

And Marty
is loving this actually.

I'm worried about
the fact that we had to cancel
40 dates on our tour.

We are supposed to be doing
a show like right now.

Instead, I am eating my...

eh, I don't know if it's,
it's good, it's fine.

I think if there's anything
that's good about
this whole thing

is that I'm learning to cook
for myself a little bit more

because you can't
go out to restaurants.

So yeah, I'm grilling.

I grilled up some food.

This is like the end
of the Twilight Zoneepisode
where the guy who loves to read

breaks his glasses
because I'm stuck
in an apartment

with 500 board games
that I want to play.

If this goes on for a full year,
things are going to
get very weird.

I mean, it's only a week
and a half that I've been here,
and it's already weird.

Got the Murder She Wrotegame.

Mr. T, the Urkel game,
the Chippendales game.

Tiny Tim made a game.

We got the Alf game of course.
Ziggy put out a game.

I'm still here. I'm in Brooklyn.

It's been three months.

I miss Albertina.

I never thought I'd say this,
but I actually miss Nick.

This break
was kind of refreshing.

But now I'm like,
"I wanna play games
with the dude."

You know?

I woke up this morning kind of,

I don't know,
maybe a little bit panicked.

Just about everything's
just setting in.

Just wondering

what the future will hold.

Anyway, I gotta feed the cats
because they're bugging me.

I haven't seen Nick in
person in like two months

-probably that I've seen him.
-Yeah, since mid-March.

And humans in general.
We're in a parking lot

right now, getting ready to meet
perhaps the biggest guest

we've ever tracked down
from one of our VHS tapes.

The janitor, Chris,
from McC, this video

that started us thinking
that VHS tapes might be funny.

We figured out
that he actually is
the president

of the Joyva Candy Company,
which is right nearby here.

He's been in our backyard
this entire time.

It's honestly,
a 15-minute drive
from our office to meet McC.

It's a mystery
that has plagued us
for going on 30 years.

And I'm sure
he's thought a lot about it.

He's got the answer.

But that's another thing about
this movie, how influential
it was on our career.

I call it a movie.

You call it a career.

There he is.

That's him. How you doing?

I'm all right, how are you?
I got Nick and Joe, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm Nick here.

Are we allowed to elbow or not?

-We can elbow!
-All right, why not?

I want to hug you.

I know.
We've got to hug and kiss.

I mean, this is
just unbelievable.

Wow. Is this the first time
anybody's ever approached you
about the training video?

Of course! Are you
out of your fucking mind?

No, I get calls a lot
about that industrial film

-I did in Gurnee Illinois.
-Oh man!

You started
the Found Footage Festival.

-Right?
-Yes.

And you are partially
responsible for that.

This is the video
that started it all for us.

I just can't believe
I'm talking about this.

We've always wondered
what McC is,

because at one point she says,
"Did you see me see McC?

I'm sure he's
around here somewhere."

So like, did you have an
understanding of who McC
or what McC was?

Ugh, no.

We've been waiting
30 years for this answer.

I think that McC
was this spiritual,

looking-over being,
God-like thing

to make sure that everyone
did their job right

and there's someone watching.

-Yes.
-And it wasn't exclusive
to janitorial custodian videos.

I think McC was in all of us.

Make it shine, guy.

Make it shine.

I'm tearing up at this.

I mean, you don't have
to put it on, but if we
could just hold it up.

-That's...
-Oh man!

-That is like...
-I think I see McC, guys.

I definitely see McC.

Worst thing about these
is you can't see me
beaming and smiling.

I know, now it's just like,
it's not even veiled.

The fact that these guys
found this tape,

the fact that they've made a
creative career out
of these kinds of films

and commenting on
and having an audience,
to me is unbelievable.

God bless Nick and Joe
for what they did.

Make it shine, guys.
Make it shine.

Hi.

Can I just say something?
I think that you guys are funny.

Let me talk.

I think that they're funny.

-No!
-I think, yes.

Whoever shot it,
they weren't supposed
to be shooting.

Already I like it because
you know, you're not supposed,

if you come to a taping
of America's Got Talent,

you're not supposed to tape.

This is a great comedy act.
It's really funny.

My favorite moment in the whole
act, was you asking me,

is this comedy?

I think a lot of people
in the audience laughed.

I would imagine a lot of people
at home were laughing.

Thank you.

Wanna know what?
I'm going to say yes,
it's funny.

If you do watch the tape,
I was laughing.

And honestly, my favorite thing
in the world is pranks.

I hired a company
to put an addition on
to the library in high school.

So I'm sitting in math
and watching these people
out there measuring

and the principal going out
and saying,
"What are you doing?"

And I get called to the office
and the principal said,

"Did you authorize
an addition onto the library?"

And I said, "Well, I'm
getting three estimates."

But the point was,
I never acted
like it was funny.

And they called my parents,
and even in front of my parents

and throughout my life,
people have said,
"Who is this for?

Where's the joke? Where is it?"

And it was just about me.

So when I see these two guys,
I mean I love
what they're doing.

I wish everybody had
a sense of humor,
you know,

at the darkest, humor
always just by nature,
only comes out of misfortune.

I think it was hysterical.

Did the show? No.

That to me
is funnier than anything.

I'm not
an emotional guy, but I did,

there was something that kind of
just hit me a little bit.

-I was just like,
"Oh, this is..."
-Yeah, I'm speechless.

It was amazing.

He had a good perspective on it,
and that totally re-energized me
for Found Footage Festival.

You know, we can't perform.
That's where we get a lot of
our energy to keep doing this.

It really made me excited
to get back on the road
whenever we can do that again.

This is our first show back.

Do we still got it?

-Did we lose it?
-Did we never have it?

It's the wildest show on wheels!

It's good to be back!

-This is our first show back
in a long time.
-Our first show!

-Thanks for coming.
-Thank you!

Yes, you're just the best.

Last time we were in the area,

we were in the middle
of a federal lawsuit.

It would not have
taken long for anyone
at that television station

to have verified
that these two guys
were pulling a prank.

They're not in very good shape!

-Darlene!
-What the hell? Come on Darlene.

Oh, boy.

Happy ending to the story.

So we ended up settling
out of court, and we won.

We didn't give them
anything they wanted.

-We didn't give them anything.
-We won!

So and at the end
of this whole ordeal,

we were filling out
paperwork with our lawyer,

and there is a box
you could check.

He's like,
"Did you want the footage
from your depositions?"

And that gave us an idea.

Who do you refer to as a fucker?

Uh, my niece and nephew.

Joe's parents. I'm sorry, what?

These are all real.
We paid $700 for these.

He's not seriously suggesting
we could come up with a way
to have this reporter

with his pants around his ankles
holding a big lollipop.

Nick and I clearly
are not strongmen.

We don't look strong.

What's a strongman?

Uh, a strong man.

Nailed it!

-All right, we gotta go.
Good night.
-Take it easy!

Come say hi to us
over at the merch table.

Hi guys, how ya doing?

We've been
following them for years now,
probably over a decade.

It is fun, though, to see
it live because their energy
is like really strong.

They're historians, they're
comedians, they're presenters.

Just the most sincere,

ludicrous, real, look at people.

I hope that they keep finding
ways to make people laugh,

because that's really the stuff
that brings us together

and that's sort of
what we need right now.

When Nick and Joe need
bail money, I would definitely
contribute to that GoFundMe.

[Nick[ Well great, it was fun,
it was good.

It felt good
because we could do no wrong.

Yeah, like people are just happy
to be out of the house.

So they're very charitable.

Go home tonight.
We drive back three hours
and right back in it.

Yes, I think we have like,

six or seven shows
left in this fall.

-Yeah.
-And no, I'm excited.
It's gonna be fun.

I think after
a year and a half,
we have a different

perspective on the pranks,
and we can say, like frame it

and put a nice
little button on that.

I'm not really surprised
to learn that Joe and Nick

don't want to do any more pranks
because it's stressful

and there's a lot of occasions
for personal conflict.

I think it's okay
to not do this.

I think Joe and Nick
are going to have
a very hard time quitting.

They will feel a great sense of
relief for stopping for a while,

but they'll still
have that itch.

They'll need to scratch it.

They'll go back to it.

I think you have to keep upping
the stakes for yourself.

It makes sense they wouldn't
want to do the same thing again.

How do you top urinating
on the biggest show in America?

I don't know. Good luck.

We rented a place in L.A.
This is the place.

And there is a hummingbird
in the grapefruit tree.

There's a grapefruit tree, what
have I been doing my whole life?

I always think about what the
Coen brothers said about having
their corner of the sandbox.

-Oh yeah, yeah.
-I think he has
his corner of the sandbox.

And that's like,
there's a freedom in that.

I actually have made residence

-in his apartment.
-Who believes in residence?

If you walk into here,
It's not really that
kind of Zen feeling

that you would get.

It makes me happy.
I feel very calm here.

Kids like it.

Why would they want to stop?

As somebody who has sat
on that stage for 17 years,

you see all these people
come out swallowing fire
and hanging upside down.

But when a human being comes out

and just bares their urine,

I think that's a gift.

Laughter is the best medicine.

And now more than ever
it is needed on this planet,

and that's why I said yes
to doing this documentary.

I want to see where
they're going next.

I'd love to work with them.
They're brilliant.

And it's my cup of tea.

Thank you.

We have a pretty great job.
We don't have a boss,

we don't have
any of that stuff,
and it took being

away from it for so long
to really appreciate it.

I wouldn't trade
this job for anything.

I'm happy with life.

Yeah.

Stop it Marty.

-Hey.
-Okay.

I got this, it's a choker.

Oh, great.

It's such a blue.
I've been doing it too much.

There it is.

Hi, how are you?

So there's a bank statement
with proof of address.

Passport and social here.

No one questioned my nose tubes,
my long flowing locks,
my tan or my pouty lips.

So in that sense, great.

It's just like you're
an ageing rocker
who has health problems.

Kind of like Criss Angel
who has emphysema,
maybe something like that.

I was happy.
I kind of did psycho eyes,
kind of bugged out eyes.

-I'm pretty happy.
-Pouty lips too?

Pouty lips.

-TSA is going
to hate you so bad.
-Oh yeah. "This isn't you."

-Uh, Donkey Training.
-California Big Hunks.

It's Eroticise.

You play a lot of
more erotic videos.

Yeah, I'm into eroticism.

-You're a sexual man,
aren't you?
-Yeah, completely.

And I like
people to think of me that way.

Barbershop quartet,
we got the outfits
and the straw hats,

but it's only the two of us.

A couple guys who specialize
in life hacks,

but they all involve
toilet paper.

Parenting experts who don't
have any kids, and it's clear
they're afraid of children.

Male belly dancers
we talked about.

Yeah, a toy expert could have
a baseball attached with a rope

to a basketball
and be like,
"This is the hot new toy."

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I am a male crafter.

All my friends
are having children

and I can't afford to buy them
all a fucking present.

So I started making
stuffed animals.

I make these fur sharks,
I buy fake fur

and make animals that don't have
fur out of anyway.

That's the part that keeps
my wife and I together.

I still look cool.

We've both been
to therapy before.

But not together.

And so this is
going to be a first.

Well, I really,
really want to be helpful.

I was going to ask,
have you seen
the Metallica documentary?

No.

They went to seek therapy
because they've been
on the road constantly.

And I don't remember
how the movie ends.

Did they, were they healed
at the end?

-They fired the therapist.
-Oh, they fired the therapist?

Okay, all right.

Yeah, I liked Irina.
I think she tried her hardest.

-But...
-Yeah, we're never going to see
her again.

Yeah.

And by the way,
we have enough VHS tapes
about therapy.

-We didn't need this.
-Yeah, we could have just
popped in one of those.

So this one, okay, so we're
lifelong zoologists,

we're touring a show
called the Zoo Disco.

We promise to bring on
a variety of animals and
dance with them, live on air.

But then we show up,
we forgot the keys to the zoo

on our way here,
and we weren't able
to grab the animals.

-And then we can launch...
-Pretend I'm a raccoon.

All right, now I'm on my hind,
on my back paws,
and we're going to walk.

Okay? All right.

I'm a little worried
that Metallica is going
to sue us, though,

because we took their idea
of getting a therapist, but...

-And they're litigious.
-Yeah.

Hey everybody,
we're Chop and Steele.

This is what we do for our job,
and we play to a lot of
audiences.

But not one
quite this big, and I have
to be honest with you.

I normally, I get a little
nervous when it comes to
bigger crowds like this one.

Well, I'm usually cool
as a cucumber.

It's not a problem for me,
but first, first thing
we're gonna do

we're gonna...
it's all over my foot.

-It feels so hot.
-It really is,
my shoe is just full.

I don't like
anything about this.

The whole conversation
for months was,

"I think that was real piss."

"That was real piss."

"That guy pissed himself."

Nothing, like nothing else
happened that day

but some guy
pissed himself on our stage.

Was it real piss?

You know.

I feel like, let's just
close the book on it
and just chalk it up as a win.

I mean, it's the perfect
ending to the story.

We got sued,
and then we won the lawsuit.

Yeah.

So, but there's
still a part of me

that we have this idea
ready to go.

It would be so easy to get on,
and we came up with this
pretty cool idea.

Thanks for staying
with us, everybody.

I'm joined now
with Geoff Byrd and Nick.

How are y'all doing
this morning?

Good, yeah, real good.

Thanks for having us on.