Since its launch in 2005, creators and trends have risen and fallen on YouTube. The platform is far from the days of cat videos and kids saying funny things, now focusing on flashy thumbnails and challenges giving people the chance to earn thousands of dollars. However, one duo has remained strong through almost the entire history of the platform; Rhett and Link.
As the story goes, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal met on the first day of first grade in 1984 and have been best friends ever since. While in college, they began creating comedy videos and songs, planting the foundation for their future. Fast forward to the late 2000s, when videos such as “Facebook Song” and “Fast Food Folk Song” garnered their channel internet fame.
After moving to California from North Carolina for their show “Commercial Kings,” the duo launched their now primary show Good Mythical Morning in 2012. Since then, GMM and their secondary channel Good Mythical More have gained over 11 billion views and over 23 million subscribers.
Since then, the duo has formed a parent company of Mythical Entertainment, expanding beyond GMM and allowing them to produce six podcasts, a spinoff channel devoted to cooking and a website that reviews grocery store foods.
Although they are known for their taste tests and their “Will it?” series on GMM, they are much more than two friends sitting at a desk. From the beginning, McLaughlin and Neal have used their platform as a means of creative expression through song, video and other digital formats, inspiring others to follow in their paths. All of this while being independent of any bigger corporations’ influences.
After a wave of creators retiring from YouTube earlier this year, they put out a video on their original channel titled "We’re Done,” playing into the titles many creators had used for these retirement videos. However, they were not retiring. Rather, they told of how they were moving away from trying to appeal to Hollywood executives.
Although not obvious on the surface, Mythical Entertainment had pitched multiple projects in more traditional media formats, only to be rejected. In that video, they announced their most ambitious project to date, Wonderhole, a six-episode series entirely independently funded.
That series pushed the boundaries of what a scripted show could be. Premiering in August, each episode stood alone from the others, exploring different creative visions, from a sci-fi story of the duo 200 years in the future to an experiment of trying to drink a cloud.
Although not every creative person has a 100-plus-person crew, millions of subscribers and more than two decades of content creation, there is something to be learned from Mythical Entertainment. Especially in the film and video industry, they show that going away from the Hollywood bureaucracy is the best way to express creative freedom.
Along with all the properties Mythical Entertainment produces, McLaughlin also has a separate country music career under the name James and the Shame. His first album explores his process of deconstructing his faith, something both he and Neal described in depth on their podcast “Ear Biscuits.”
They also show one does not have to be confined to a single medium of expression, whether it be video or music. Having multiple creative outlets can influence each other and allow expressions one can’t achieve in certain ways.
Ethan Herx is a sophomore studying photojournalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to share your thoughts? Let Ethan know by emailing or tweeting them at eh481422@ohio.edu or @ethanherx.
