- yesterday
At THR's suite at San Diego Comic-Con, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Matthew Senreich dish on the 20th anniversary of 'Robot Chicken' and talk about how pop culture has changed the most since the beginning of the show. Plus, they talk about how Comic-Con has changed over the years, why old media is getting a new wave and more.
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00:00Meet up with your friends, meet some friends.
00:02It's so welcome.
00:03Everywhere you go and look around,
00:05there's all different types of strains of nerd flu
00:08that you can contract and bring home to your family.
00:11No, we got the vaccine, brother.
00:13Yeah, con shit, dude.
00:13Oh, sure, you're part of big vaccines.
00:15Anyway, wake up, RFK took my Skittles.
00:19Well, I'm very excited for 20 years, guys.
00:22I knew this would go dark places
00:24if I let it go a moment longer,
00:25and I didn't cut Breckett off in time.
00:30So we're talking the 20th anniversary.
00:36We're talking actual physical media,
00:38and we're talking Comic-Con,
00:40because to me, Robot Chicken is kind of the macro
00:42and micro of Comic-Con.
00:44You guys found a zeitgeist of pop culture.
00:46You put it into your own art.
00:47You put it out there in the world.
00:48I want to start with, in the 20 years of Robot Chicken,
00:51what has pop culture changed the most that surprised you,
00:54and what do you feel like the shot you shot landed best?
00:56The thing that's really happened globally
00:59is the concept of pop culture has gone mainstream
01:02in a way that's afforded it a ton of money,
01:06a ton of support, a ton of promotional value,
01:09and far more many fans than we had access to
01:16when we first started the show.
01:18When we first started the show,
01:19Comic-Con was not a cool place to be.
01:21None of these things were very cool to like,
01:23and when people gathered around them,
01:25it was with a little bit of fear of persecution.
01:28And so what Comic-Con always afforded
01:30before it went mainstream
01:31was a hub of safety for anybody who felt that way
01:34and wanted to celebrate all this stuff together
01:35without getting beat up
01:37by their own Fantastic Four metal lunchbox.
01:40You know what I mean?
01:40And so over time,
01:41all that stuff became so popular
01:43from 2007 to Transformers
01:45and then into nine with...
01:47Twilight, that big shift.
01:48You know what I'm saying?
01:49Exactly.
01:50It was the Twilight shift for me.
01:51That was when you see the airplanes
01:53flying a Dexter banner.
01:55And there's a lot in Hall H for the first time
01:57and you're like,
01:57I guess we're popular.
01:58I guess Dexter is Comic-Con?
02:00Sure.
02:01Yeah.
02:01You know what I mean?
02:01So that's really what's changed.
02:03The global acceptance of all of this stuff.
02:04Let's go one step further and say
02:052007, never will forget,
02:07the burn notice took over the side
02:08of the actual convention center.
02:11And I was like,
02:12well, this is a very different convention
02:14we're going to today.
02:15Right now we're here in Abbott Elementary.
02:17Yeah.
02:17It has an entire side of a building.
02:18You're like,
02:18oh, I guess it's just like a promo place.
02:20Yeah, it's Pop Culture Con.
02:21It was when Nathan had three different shows
02:23in giant Nathan Fillion phase
02:24changed by year
02:25that I was like, oh, wait.
02:26That's the best.
02:26Don't you just want that?
02:28Yeah.
02:29I mean, it works for the con.
02:29Didn't Patricia Heaton have a panel here
02:32for the middle?
02:32That was the moment.
02:35Yeah.
02:36That was at Comic-Con.
02:37There was a moment at Comic-Con
02:39where Patricia Heaton had a panel
02:40for the middle.
02:41I think that was based on the graphic novel.
02:43Right, obviously.
02:43The middle, obviously.
02:44Yeah, which is about the samurai
02:46who lost his finger.
02:47Right.
02:48Yeah.
02:48So when you've got something
02:49like Robot Chicken
02:50that is so tuned in to pop culture
02:51in that moment,
02:52how do you keep up
02:53with the metamodernism of the internet
02:54where it's like a self-reflection of itself
02:56and you're making commentary on it?
02:58We never consider ourselves competing
03:00with the currency of anybody else
03:03who's got a joke to tell
03:04and they're going to tell it in real time.
03:05With Robot Chicken,
03:06you can't use that stuff
03:08because it's gone so quick.
03:09So we try to make comments
03:11that always feel like a timeless comment.
03:14We sort of go through the room
03:16and just we are the arbiters.
03:18We're like,
03:19that's not going to last.
03:20It's not funny.
03:21But when somebody comes up
03:21with something,
03:22you're like,
03:22we got to do this as a joke.
03:24Let's push this.
03:25Let's put everything behind it
03:26and make it work.
03:26Was there ever a joke
03:28that you feel like
03:28by the time it airs
03:30it actually landed better?
03:31Oh, it landed better.
03:33You know,
03:33the one thing someone pointed out to me,
03:35we just had our
03:36Robot Chicken self-discovery special
03:38just came out
03:39and they're like,
03:40how did you know
03:40that Smurfs movie
03:41would come out
03:42and not succeed?
03:44And I was like,
03:45first of all,
03:46I was like,
03:47I wasn't even thinking
03:48about a Smurfs movie
03:49when we have Guy Fieri
03:50eating Smurfs.
03:50That joke is not.
03:51That wasn't supposed to be,
03:53yeah, this kind of thing.
03:54It just happened to land at that.
03:55It's not a Smurfs joke.
03:56And it just landed at the exact time
03:58and just people were pointing it out
03:59saying we were being relevant.
04:01We are.
04:01We're so prescient.
04:03I was like, sure.
04:03Yeah, we're just saying
04:04we are like on the phone
04:06with Mike Scully all the time.
04:07Mike, what's going to happen
04:07in the future?
04:08And speaking of pop culture
04:09and the relevance in there,
04:11Clueless just hit 30 years, man.
04:13And Breckin,
04:13that is my fiance's
04:14favorite movie of all time.
04:15Oh, you should marry her.
04:16I saw that on her Blu-ray shelf
04:19and I was like,
04:19this is the reason.
04:20You know what?
04:20She sounds like a keeper.
04:21She's a smart lady.
04:23What do you think it is
04:24about Clueless?
04:24The 30 years,
04:25it actually feels more and more
04:27of a pop culture sensation.
04:28There was like a 10-year window
04:29where it drifted out
04:30and now the fashion's back
04:32and everything's in.
04:33Yeah, I don't know.
04:34Other than the fact that it is,
04:36you know,
04:37obviously pop culture cyclical
04:38in that way,
04:38but I think it's really just
04:40a super positive movie
04:42that is,
04:43and the characters,
04:44even if it's from the late,
04:45or the 90s,
04:47there's still these archetypes
04:48that are so relatable
04:50in that way.
04:51Even if it's just,
04:52everyone's got,
04:52whether he's a stoner now
04:53or he's on meth now,
04:54everyone's got that stoner friend
04:55who skateboards,
04:57and whether it's,
04:58you know,
04:58Stacey Dash is your best friend
05:00back then
05:00or Stacey Dash now,
05:03it's different.
05:04And so I think
05:05it's just evolving
05:06and you're aware of it,
05:07but I think genuinely
05:09it is just a sweet movie.
05:10Amy wanted to make a movie
05:11about a hyper-positive girl
05:13and then found Emma
05:15in the Jane Austen book,
05:16but she wanted to make a movie
05:17about someone
05:18who really did look
05:19the bright side of everything.
05:20And I took my 14-year-old
05:22to it recently.
05:23She hadn't seen it.
05:24And it was,
05:24I think that's what she related to.
05:26She was like,
05:26this is just such a fun movie.
05:27Yeah.
05:28It's like,
05:28I think,
05:29yeah,
05:29so that would be why.
05:30I think that's what Superman
05:31would be doing right now.
05:32Yeah,
05:33I think right now Superman
05:34is like a beautiful moment
05:35of like pure hope and joy.
05:37If you guys were making
05:38Robot Chicken
05:38about this insane zeitgeist
05:40between Fantastic Four
05:41and Superman,
05:41this July feels so
05:43like a moment in time.
05:44It feels like,
05:45oh wait,
05:45with Dark Knight and Iron Man to me.
05:46Would there be any commentary
05:47you wanted to touch on?
05:48That's so interesting.
05:49No,
05:49we'd probably reflect
05:50on them individually
05:51rather than talk about
05:53the cultural.
05:54Yeah,
05:54the cultural.
05:55I'm saying and,
05:56not versus.
05:56Like I like.
05:57Not taken,
05:57but even like the Barbenheimer
05:59of it,
05:59that's sort of what culture needed
06:01was not to pit those two
06:02against each other,
06:02but rather to give them
06:04some sort of unholy union
06:05to remind us
06:06that it was,
06:07that it was,
06:08well,
06:08that it was cool.
06:09It's cool to go to the movies.
06:10Right,
06:10guys?
06:11We've all been locked up
06:11for several years.
06:12We were all like terrified
06:13to be in a room
06:14with each other.
06:15We were terrified
06:15to even be on the phone
06:16with each other.
06:17Let's go watch a nuke go off.
06:18Let's go watch some movies.
06:19Let's go watch two filmmakers
06:21that really care
06:22about making an entertaining movie.
06:25Well,
06:25we would have fun
06:25with Superman.
06:27Yeah.
06:27We would have fun with.
06:28Absolutely.
06:28Just trying to find
06:29those moments.
06:30It's like the right before
06:31or right after
06:31a specific moment
06:32in the scene.
06:33It's turning things
06:3490 degrees on its side
06:35and seeing like
06:36what's the humanized moment
06:38that you haven't seen
06:39on camera.
06:40That's the kind of stuff
06:40we really like.
06:41And then with Robot,
06:42it's also,
06:43especially in 2000,
06:45what is it?
06:4525?
06:45It was on 25.
06:47Now it's also,
06:48well,
06:48someone's going to say
06:49the first nine things
06:51we're going to think of.
06:52They're going to say those
06:53within a year
06:53and we have a year
06:54until our show's on the air.
06:55Get it all out.
06:56And it's like,
06:56it's going to be,
06:57you know,
06:57the first nine jokes
06:58or whatever,
07:00Lex losing his hair,
07:01he had an air
07:01instead of shampoo
07:02is going to be
07:03the first two days
07:04after the movie comes out.
07:06So there's also like,
07:07what's a different name?
07:08Yeah,
07:08but it's like,
07:08it's like 16 year old Lex
07:11on a,
07:12or 13 year old Lex
07:13on a like gaming platform
07:15and just getting destroyed
07:17by somebody called like
07:18Kansas 321.
07:20One day I'm going to kill this guy.
07:22Cut to.
07:23You know what I'm saying?
07:24Never even,
07:24yeah.
07:25And what,
07:25and what happens?
07:26You got to get off those video games,
07:28son.
07:28And what happens
07:28when crypto hump
07:29someone's leg?
07:30I like this episode.
07:33We're writing right now.
07:33This is already,
07:34by the time this hits you,
07:35someone will have produced this.
07:37It's already out there.
07:39Were you guys hitting that moment
07:40in making it,
07:41like as the show was wrapping out,
07:43were you chasing the YouTube
07:44like,
07:44oh good God,
07:44it's already happening
07:45with someone on their cell phone?
07:46It's always entertaining
07:47when one of the writers
07:48is like,
07:48I already saw it.
07:49Oh yeah.
07:49Let's see.
07:52They're breaking down.
07:55You guys want,
07:56you guys want an exclusive pitch?
07:57No.
07:58No.
07:58Yes.
07:58I love that we're hitting
08:02this zeitgeist of
08:03like the legacy sequels
08:04of our age
08:05are kind of the things
08:06right now.
08:06Like we got the,
08:07I know you did last summer
08:08like legacy sequel.
08:09We got like Star Trek
08:11is getting another reboot.
08:12Like everything's kind
08:12of hitting the next wave.
08:13We're rebooting our movies now.
08:15It's because they're doing
08:15like.
08:16Oh right.
08:16There's like a.
08:17Without a paddle?
08:18Are we going to get another?
08:19Dude.
08:19We don't.
08:20I mean,
08:20I just hear about it.
08:21That's one of the first things
08:22you and I talked about
08:23because I was like
08:23the loudest wing commander
08:24and without a paddle fan.
08:25I like forever.
08:27I want that.
08:27That's my era.
08:28I've got to track down
08:30both Freddie and Lillard's
08:32action figures.
08:32Yes.
08:33Those are gold right now.
08:35Those are the gold
08:36you went on the internet for.
08:37But wing commander too
08:38inevitably went.
08:39But either way
08:40with that,
08:40is that why you guys
08:41wanted this on physical media?
08:42Do you feel like.
08:43Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter.
08:44Are they shit about
08:45Matt Lillard's action figure?
08:47God damn it.
08:48Matt,
08:48if you've got a copy,
08:49we want that action figure.
08:50This is not why
08:51I subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter.
08:52I want journalism.
08:53Not Matt Lillard's action figure.
08:54God damn it.
08:55You can be box office.
08:56Sure.
08:56Well, speaking on the subject
08:58of physical media.
08:59Physical media and relevance.
08:59It needs for a massive
09:01full collection.
09:02It's because
09:03a lot of the DVD distribution
09:05originally was so limited.
09:07Like people's access to it
09:09and it was also limited numbers.
09:10So it's not continuously on sale.
09:12Like you can't find
09:13old copies of stuff.
09:15And especially with all of these
09:16massive super corps
09:18literally dumping
09:19and deleting
09:20their entire historic libraries.
09:22it's all the more important
09:24for people to be able
09:25to collect their media
09:26in whatever form
09:27they see fit.
09:28And so we're putting out
09:29this massive box set
09:30that's everything.
09:32On Amazon now.
09:33August?
09:34Sure.
09:35What is it?
09:35August?
09:36October?
09:36Is what I mean?
09:37October.
09:37Okay, I saw a fall.
09:38But pre-order.
09:39You can do the pre-order.
09:40You can pre-order in October.
09:41I checked.
09:41It's pre-orderable now.
09:42You can do it right now.
09:43Oh, pre-order is pre-order now.
09:44Click the link.
09:45Click that link.
09:46It's definitely not
09:47installing malware
09:49into your phone.
09:50I love that
09:51the Robot Chicken experience
09:52is about celebrating pop culture.
09:54I love that Comic Con
09:54is about celebrating pop culture.
09:56It is the broadest of questions.
09:58But pre-Twilight to now.
10:00Like that zeitgeist shift.
10:01What is your favorite thing
10:02about this new era of Comic Con?
10:03Because I feel like
10:04everybody's so negative
10:04about post-Twilight.
10:06I think it's special.
10:07Access, guys.
10:08It's access.
10:09It's the fact that
10:10this place has become
10:11the international hub for it.
10:13Like I go to cons
10:14all around the world
10:14and nothing is like San Diego.
10:16We used to joke, right?
10:17It's the Mecca.
10:18The Mecca of pop culture.
10:19This is the place we make our
10:20our summer pilgrimages too.
10:22Every year it's like summer camp.
10:23You're climbing the stairs.
10:24You got to take the picture
10:25of the stairs.
10:26Yeah, I know.
10:26So that is the thing
10:27and that still exists.
10:29That experience still exists.
10:30Beaconing to anybody
10:31that loves this stuff
10:32and wants to come share it
10:33with other people.
10:34That still exists
10:35even though there's
10:36all these other things
10:37you can complain about.
10:37I love that.
10:38Go where the wind takes you.
10:39You don't have to have
10:40a plan to be here.
10:41There's something for everyone
10:42in every different direction
10:44whether it's inside
10:44the convention center,
10:46outside the convention center,
10:47the adult swim things
10:48right behind the convention center.
10:49You could just walk
10:50in down 5th Street.
10:51It's like...
10:52Meet up with your friends.
10:53Meet some friends.
10:54It's so welcome.
10:55Everywhere you go
10:56and look around
10:57there's all different types
10:58of strains of nerd flu
11:00that you can contract.
11:01Concrete.
11:02And bring home
11:02to your family.
11:03No, we got the vaccine, brother.
11:05Yeah, Concrete vaccine.
11:05I got the inoculation.
11:07Oh, sure.
11:07You're part of big vaccine.
11:09Anyway, wake up a...
11:11Hall H.
11:12The line for Hall H
11:12is actually just vaccination.
11:14It's down there available now.
11:15I'm walking around with shots.
11:15I'll give them out for free.
11:16Einstein didn't kill himself.
11:18You might know I'm having it.
11:19Why not?
11:19There's nothing in here.
11:20You want some air?
11:21Oh, I feel so much better.
11:22One minute.
11:23Vitamin B12?
11:24RFK took my Skittles.
11:26Well, I'm very excited
11:27for 20 years, guys.
11:29I knew this would go dark places
11:31if I let it go a moment longer
11:32and I didn't cut Breckett off in time.
11:3420 years.
11:35Congratulations.
11:36I'm so excited for you.
11:37I know, right?
11:37Dude, I mean,
11:38you and my...
11:39Actually, one of my favorite memories
11:40is I was dressed as the Joker
11:41in 2008
11:42and I was...
11:43Literally, you and I met
11:44and I was cosplaying at a party
11:46that wasn't cosplayed.
11:47It was like I went to...
11:48I went to Zach's old Nerd HQ.
11:50Oh, my God.
11:50Wait, was it still under...
11:51Yeah.
11:52In the Peckle Park?
11:53And I don't know...
11:53No, no, Peckle Park.
11:54Yeah, yeah.
11:54No, no, it was underground
11:55one of the brick stairway.
11:57The very first time, yes.
11:58I'm going to end like the jinx
11:59where it's like,
12:00and then I killed her.
12:00Are we recording?
12:02You and I met when I was the Joker
12:03and I was so like,
12:04oh, well, we don't cosplay at parties
12:05and I remember...
12:06At basement party,
12:07what did I say?
12:07It was so welcoming.
12:08Did I say something on that?
12:08No, no, everyone was so welcoming.
12:09Was I like,
12:10you idiot.
12:11This nerd.
12:11But that's what I think
12:12Comic-Con's about post-Wylet.
12:14It's welcoming the weirdos
12:15at the lunch table
12:15that don't have a lunch table.
12:16Yeah, yeah.
12:17And that means a lot to me.
12:19So congratulations on a show
12:20that feels like that.
12:21Congratulations on 20 years
12:22and this was fun, guys.
12:23I appreciate it.
12:24Thanks so much.
12:25Yeah.