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AJ FILLARI SENIOR CAPSTONE

1 SOUND: INTRO TO MBMBAM "...WHAT’S UP YOU COOL BABY?" 2 MUSIC: ABBA "TAKE A CHANCE ON ME" 3 AJ The McElroy brothers. If you listen to you’ve probably heard one of the many shows that they host or produce. Podcasts like , Interrobang, Trends Like These, or, most likely, their original venture My Brother, My Brother, and Me

4 SOUND: BROTHER INTRODUCTIONS "... GRIFFIN MCELROY" These three brother’s changed what many people thought about podcasts. What started out as a way for siblings to stay in touch turned into what can only be described as an empire. This project will provide a timeline of how one comedy spawned a whole family of podcasts and digital entertainment in just a few years. 5 MUSIC: GIRL TALK "PLAY YOUR PART (PT. 2)" Self-proclaimed "advice show for the modern era" My Brother, My Brother, and Me, referred to most often as "MBMBaM", features the brothers, Justin, Travis, and Griffin, listener questions, and questions from the website Yahoo! Answers. The show began in mid-2010, after Griffin, the youngest of the three, moved to Austin, Texas, leaving the house he shared with his older brother Travis in Cincinnati while Justin was living in their hometown of Huntington, . Their idea was a simple one: start a podcast so that they could talk to each other at least once a week for an hour and have some fun doing it.

6 MUSIC:JOHN RODRICK AND THE LONG WINTERS’ (IT’S A) DEPARTURE 7 AJ (cont’d) After just under 10 months of doing My Brother My Brother and Me, the brothers got picked up by podcast provider , then home to only three or four other podcasts. From there, the brothers’ popularity only grew with help from a YouTube page where they put some of their best bits and their new found partnership with MaxFun. 2.

8 MUSIC: SOMETHING 9 AJ (cont’d) Over the next year Justin and Griffin were working on and co-founding a new wing of Vox Media; a video game news site called . This process was chronicled on Polygon’s YouTube page in a series called "Press Reset: The Story of Polygon".

10 SOUND: CLIP FROM PRESS RESET EPISODE 6 11 AJ (cont’d) After Polygon went live in April of 2012, Justin and Griffin began editing stories and reviewing games, respectively. Now they both produce podcasts and several video series’ for the company including Quality Control, and Monster Factory, a video series where the brothers use the character creators in various games to create... well I’ll let them tell you what they are. 12 SOUND: CLIPS OF MONSTER FACTORY. "PRETTY BABY". MASS EFFECT. BOY MAYOR, BART, DS3, SHREK

13 SOUND: COOL GAMES INC. INTRO? 14 AJ (cont’d) Cool Games Inc. is another show from Polygon that involves Griffin and his co-host, Polygon video producer Nick Robinson, creating various types of video games based on listener submitted ideas. 15 SOUND: CGI CLIP 16 AJ (cont’d) In just three short years the brothers McElroy have produced and helped spawn shows like Sawbones, 17 SOUND: "A MARITAL TOUR OF MISGUIDED MEDICINE" 18 AJ (cont’d) Hosted by Justin and his wife, Sydnee. Still Buffering,

19 SOUND: "A SISTERS GUIDE TO TEENS THROUGH THE AGES" 20 AJ (cont’d) a show hosted by Sydnee and her two sisters. And Shmanners,

21 SOUND: SHMANNERS INTRO DESCRIPTION 3.

22 AJ (cont’d) Hosted by Travis and his wife, Teresa. All of these shows are drastically different from each other in their content; ranging from a medical history to ediquette lessons. 23 MUSIC: ADVENTURE ZONE THEME But perhaps one of the most interesting, and popular, "spin-offs" (in air quotes) of My Brother My Brother and Me is 24 SOUND: "!" 25 AJ (cont’d) The Adventure Zone was started at the end of 2015 and is now one of the most popular Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing podcasts there is, if not one of the most popular podcasts period. The show consists of Travis and Justin along with their dad, Clint, playing through a D&D campaign that Griffin has created for them. The episodes are released biweekly and run about an hour long on average. They are currently in the middle of the sixth chapter of their campaign and each one has seemingly higher stakes than the last, all centered around retrieving seven powerful relics. 26 SOUND: THE DIRECTOR SAYING OBJECTS OF POWER EP. 8 9:00

27 AJ (cont’d) Since the show began in 2015 it has spawned an entire community devoted to it’s characters. Fan art is created daily around old and new characters. Theories are constantly posted on the reddit page. And people are tweeting Griffin every time there’s a new plot twist. 28 MUSIC: END OF ADVENTURE ZONE THEME? 29 MUSIC: (IT’S A) DEPARTURE

30 AJ (cont’d) Through all of these podcasts and video series the brothers have met and married women they love, moved across the country, and fathered children. The work that these brothers put in day in and day out is truly inspiring. In 2014 Travis left his job at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and moved to Los Angeles to become a full-time podcast host and producer where he made connections with other content creators to continue growing the McElroy brand and hone his craft. And all of this growth seemed to come to a head in 2016. 31 MUSIC: SOMETHING GOOD 4.

32 AJ (cont’d) In a series of tweets released on June 4th, 2016, NBC affiliate Seeso, and online streaming site for comedy content, announced that there would be a My Brother, My Brother, and Me show coming in 2017. It’s not completely clear what exactly the show will consist of, but it is known that the main idea of the MBMBaM podcast, giving advice, will also be the central idea of the MBMBaM Seeso show. It’s set to be released to stream on February 2nd, 2017.

33 MUSIC: 34 AJ (cont’d) The episode count for My Brother, my Brother and Me is currently in the mid-300s and growing. The McElroy brothers did something in the past 6 years that many people today, even with the growing popularity in podcasts, would not have thought was possible and it’s not hard to think that they’ll be breaking even more new ground in the next six years. 35 MUSIC: (IT’S A) DEPARTURE

36 AJ (cont’d) Before I close this out there are a few people I would like to thank for helping me with this project. First of all thank you so much for listening, it means a lot. I would also like to thank my friends and family for always believing in what I do. Thank you to Kelsie for proofreading the script, a few times, and always pushing me to do my best. And last, but certainly not least, I want to thank all the professors at William Paterson, especially Dr. Rob Quicke for being a wonderful teacher, advisor, and manager, and for giving me an extension on this project; I hope you enjoy it. Now, as Justin would say at the end of every episode of MBMBaM: Kiss your dad square on the lips.