"Wolfpack or Tar Heels," and an interview with its creator

After State's loss to the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill two years ago, Rhett (State fan) and his wife (Tar Heel fan) broke the news to their young son, Locke. Knowing Locke was a huge State fan, Rhett decided to film his reaction.

What they ended up with ultimately became an internet hit. Thousands upon thousands of viewers empathized with the heartbreak in Locke's reaction and shared it with their friends. Who then shared it with their friends. Who then shared it with their friends...

Over 200,000 views later, it's still going strong on YouTube.

But the backstory here is that Locke's dad Rhett is not your average serendipitous YouTube success story. Rhett is, in fact, part of an internet comedy duo with childhood friend Link (the aptly named "Rhett and Link") whose Facebook Song has been viewed over 2,000,000 times. They release a regular bevy of videos featuring a variety of themes (one of their most recent collaborations featured guacamole, just in time for the Super Bowl), took a sponsored cross-country road trip on Alka-Seltzer's dime producing food-related videos, and host a live internet show every Thursday night from "an undisclosed location in Lillington, NC."

In short, Rhett and Link make their living as internet celebrities. What you call your diversion from work, they call their office. Not bad for a couple of N.C. State engineering graduates.

Which makes it all the more interesting that Locke, Rhett's son, has become somewhat of an internet celebrity in his own right.

I had a chance to speak with Rhett about the video, his son's internet fame at an early age and what it means to be a State fan:

(Continues)

I guess the first question is about how the video came about in the first place: Did you know Locke would react like that to hearing the news, hence the reason it was filmed, or was it just a spur of the moment thing where you happened to have the camera running at the time?

We knew he was passionate about the subject, but we were surprised at the intensity. So we grabbed the camera and encouraged him to vent. He rolled with it.

Once you filmed it, did you know you had something YouTube-worthy?

Not really, which is kind of funny, considering that Youtube is my business. I thought it would be something funny for friends and family, so I put it on my family youtube channel, which has since become inactive. The video was taken down twice for some reason, so I uploaded it to the RhettandLink channel.

Tell me about the initial reaction folks had to the video. It sounds like, based on the video description, that there was a measure of controversy about it from some of the viewers.

I think that a lot of non-sports fans thought it seemed like child abuse because Locke looked so tortured about the rivalry. But those folks are just ignorant of what it's like to be a State fan in NC.

I think you captured the essence of what it means to be a Wolfpack fan when you said "They're going to be really good...someday." Do you kind of feel a sense of conflicted pride and guilt in raising such a die hard Wolfpack fan?

Being a State fan is character building. It helps you deal with adversity in all sorts of areas of your life. If a kid can grow up as a State fan, he's pretty much ready for anything. So, no, I feel no guilt.

There's a moment where you can see on Locke's face the disappointment he feels when he learns that mommy is a Tar Heel...what did your wife think about the video, Locke's reaction when he found out mommy pulled for the other side, and about her son appearing in some of your other videos (like the Guacamole Song, most recently)?

We're always a little uneasy about putting our kids on the internet, but sometimes the stuff they do is just too good to keep to ourselves. My wife feels the same way.

At over 208,000 views and counting, are you surprised at the number of views its gotten to this point? What about the video do you think resonates with viewers far removed from the State/Carolina rivalry?

Once I thought about it, I wasn't surprised. I think that the majority of the views come from local people, but I do think that everyone who's on one side of a rivalry anywhere can relate.

The Alka Seltzer Great American Road Trip was a hit with internetainment viewers...what's the next great project on tap for Rhett and Link?

We are constantly working on something new. Most of the stuff coming out now is one video here or there. We hope to have a series that rivals the scale of the Road Trip in 2009. Stay tuned to find out.

You can subscribe to Rhett and Link's YouTube channel for the latest from the internet duo here.

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The Greatest Game Never Seen

...except for the 17,000 or so of us lucky folks there to witness it in person.

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Skip Bayless = dumbass

Look, I know I'm no exactly breaking some new ground here. Bayless has amazingly made a career out of firing off poorly thought-out arguments at a high volume. So what you'll see in the clip below isn't remarkable in the sense that Bayless is off the mark. It would be more remarkable if he were. Pay close attention to the tangent he takes with about a minute to go.

(Note: If you don't want to "feed the troll," then don't click the below clip. Somehow I doubt losing a few hits via this blog will result in Bayless' unemployment, but feel free to pass on general principle...I'll have a recap below.)



Here's the gist of what Bayless had to say with respect to BC and the Jeff Jagodzinski situation:

In defense of Gene DeFillipo,

"They (BC) got wrecked two years ago by Tom O'Brien, who was very popular there, and all of sudden--with recruiting hanging in the balance--he bolts for North Carolina State, out of the blue..."

OK. First off--I have no real rooting interest in the Jags V Gene soap opera. I couldn't care less which way things play out, though I do enjoy the drama. So I was wholly prepared to avoid mentioning anything about the situation here because it doesn't have anything to do with State, aside from the stale O'Brien/BC connection.

But good ol' Skip has drawn me in by trying to drag O'Brien's name through the mud in defense of a poor assertion. Good work, Skip--mission accomplished. Let me attack your ridiculous assertion in bullet-point form:

• One: Tom O'Brien did no such thing as "wreck" BC when he left. They actually went to back-to-back ACC title games following his departure. I doubt Bayless knows this.
• Two: Tom O'Brien, at the end of his tenure, was extremely UNPOPULAR with both the fans and administrators at BC, PARTICULARLY Gene DeFillipo who refused to work with Tom O'Brien on a contract renegotiation at the end despite his success. The fans continue to run O'Brien down to no end with insults I wouldn't hurl at the most deserving Carolina fan, player or coach. They are relentless in their hatred of O'Brien to this day.
• Three: He did not, to my knowledge, bolt from BC "out of the blue." GDF knew O'Brien was unhappy (due greatly in part to GDF's treatment of him, IMO). He had expressed interest in other coaching positions prior to leaving BC, and if GDF didn't see it coming, he's not only an idiot, he's oblivious to the world around him.
• Four--and the crux of Bayless' argument: Bayless asserts that TOB up-and-leaving BC "wrecked" BC's recruiting efforts. The year following O'Brien's departure--in Jags' first season recruiting--BC's recruiting efforts were so throughly destroyed by the previous regime that they were only able to manage the country's 22nd-best class. O'Brien's insidious recruiting-killing plan must have been a slow-cooker (hey, revenge is best served cold), because so far BC's recruiting class is ranked 79th by Scout.com. You want to know who's killing BC's recruiting efforts? Hint: It's not O'Brien.
  

Bayless is an idiot. Again, no newsflash here. But the danger of idiots in his position is that--because of the scope of his soapbox--what Bayless spews can be falsely taken as fact. It's not.

If there's one thing that State fans and BC fans can both agree on, it's that Skip Bayless' take in this clip is extremely off-base.

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Motorhead + Ozzy + N.C. State/Miami highlights = Awesome

Just a little something to keep you pumped up about football heading into the Bowl Season:

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N&O Video from the Miami game

An especially sweet video this week...it's fun to watch O'Brien express some restrained joy with Andre Brown, a player who's been vital to the success of the team's transition from Amato to its new head coach.

Edit: Thanks to SlackZac for bringing attention to the unintended duality of the meaning "critical" in the original post. It was poorly worded, for sure.

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For those searching for the DeAndre Morgan hit vid...

Here it is:

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