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Rhett McLaughlin

Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Mythical Entertainment · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderentertainerhostexecutiveauthor@rhettmc ↗mythical.com ↗

Alongside lifelong creative partner Link Neal, he co-founded digital media company Mythical Entertainment and co-hosts the daily YouTube variety series Good Mythical Morning and the podcast Ear Biscuits. He has co-authored books including The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek and releases solo music under the moniker James and the Shame.

16statements → 8claims → 2claims resolved → 3.69/5average certainty → 1.38/5average debate potential → 2said about them ↓

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 6 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 1 opinion · 2 insights · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Rhett argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Rhett and Link publicly stepped away from Christianity in 2020
“20 20 was the first year where we kind of told our, is our coming out stories, like, hey, we're not Christians anymore”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 1:06:35 Mythical: Rhett and Link

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Rhett McLaughlin on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Rhett McLaughlin said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Christian comedy has lower standards than traditional comedy clubs
“We had this safety net when you do things in that Christian comedy and Christian conferences... And the standards are so much lower. You don't have to be as good.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 1:07:44 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Supported
Rhett and Link publicly stepped away from Christianity in 2020
“20 20 was the first year where we kind of told our, is our coming out stories, like, hey, we're not Christians anymore”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 1:06:35 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Insight
Making decisions merely sets up future decisions, not expected outcomes
“Our philosophy has always been pick a direction and go. Make the best decision that you can, but just know that all you're really doing is setting yourself up for another decision to be made in the future, and the outcome isn't going to be what you envisioned.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 1:16:19 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Insight
Keeping college comedy secular enabled Rhett and Link's YouTube career
“Well, and that calculation, which was kind of accidental, is honestly the reason that we're sitting here talking to you today, because it was the fact that we were making comedy that could be divorced from that Christian setting. And just some of those sketche…”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 14:12 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rhett and Link joined YouTube after fans reuploaded their videos
“We only did it because people started taking our videos from our website and uploading them to YouTube, and they were getting thousands of views versus hundreds of views, and we were like, oh, we should do this on purpose.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 23:57 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Disclosure
Rhett and Link's 2007 YouTube sponsorship charged $2,000 upfront and $20 CPM
“With the help of my dad, I, like, put together a little contract where it was, hey, you give us 2000 dollars up front to make this music video, and then we have a 20 dollar CPM.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 33:37 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Disclosure
Rhett and Link made $25,000 from a 2007 sponsored cornhole video
“We probably ended up making, like, 25 grand off that video.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 34:23 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Disclosure
Rhett and Link charged Alka-Seltzer $42,000 for a 2008 video sponsorship
“When we came back with 42,000 dollars, because it was 2000 per video, because we were like, we don't want to tell them too much, like, they're asking for 21 videos, but like, we gotta keep this affordable”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 41:14 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mr. Safety advised Rhett and Link to charge $10,000 per sponsorship
“And I remember him telling us, Never accept less than 10,000 dollars for a sponsored video, and we were like, oh man, I think people might say no, but we started saying that and started getting yeses”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 49:39 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Orabrush paid $300 to sponsor Good Mythical Morning's first episode
“They pay 300 dollars to be the sponsor of that first episode.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 57:33 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Not checkable as stated
YouTube funded 12 episodes of The Mythical Show for $100,000
“We were like, 30 minutes of content times 12. We have to hire a team to help us do this. And we, like, worked the numbers, and it came to, like, 92,000 dollars. And then we just, like, well, I guess we should just round up to a 100,000 dollars. We just didn't …”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 59:22 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Good Mythical Morning eclipsed all prior Rhett and Link content by 2016
“In that 2014, 20 15, 20 16, though, that three year period, Saw Good Mythical Morning eclipse everything that we had ever created.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 1:01:16 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Supported
Mythical Entertainment scaled its staff from five to roughly 100 employees
“And so, you know, I actually, I don't know exactly what the graph is in terms of how the team grew, but it certainly feels like it grew from that five to around a hundred or so Pretty geometrically.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 1:09:11 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Disclosure
Rhett and Link initially avoided YouTube because they had a website
“And people were asking us at the time, in, in 2005, early 2006, people would say, why don't you guys have a YouTube? And we'd be like, because we have a website. You know, YouTube is for people who can't make their own server.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 21:03 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Disclosure
Rhett and Link earned $8,000 per episode on The CW
“I actually think that, if I recall correctly, we each got paid 8000 dollars per episode. So by doing eight episodes, we each increased our annual salary by 50% from what we were getting.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 26:45 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rhett and Link made around $200,000 when IFC contacted them
“These are wild guesses just based on some of those numbers, but I think that we had a little bit more than doubled probably individually of what we were making, so we're probably working at around like 200,000 revenue coming in.”
Rhett McLaughlin Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 50:42 Mythical: Rhett and Link

The other half of the tape: Rhett McLaughlin's own voice is left out of every number here. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Statements about Rhett McLaughlin, by other people (2)

Insight
Good Mythical Morning's retention came from authentic friendship, not stunts
“And I think that we started to realize that what kept people coming back was that we were, they, we were letting them in on, ah, our friendship.”
Link Neal Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 1:02:59 Mythical: Rhett and Link
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Link Neal Carried a High School Blood Pact for 18 Months
“It seemed more legally binding, which is why I carried it around in my wallet for a year and a half before I lost the entire wallet.”
Link Neal Apr 8, 2024 ▶ 6:09 Mythical: Rhett and Link

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Mythical: Rhett and Link Apr 8, 2024 28m
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