Ear Biscuits is a podcast created and hosted by Rhett and Link. The podcast is "Two life-long friends talking about life for a long time" It was originally audio only but from the start of Season 3, video was released on the This Is Mythical channel before it moved to the Good Mythical Morning channel, and finally, to its own channel. The purpose of the podcast is to “have an interesting conversation with someone interesting from the interesting internet.”
The podcast was launched in September of 2013. It stands in the top twenty podcasts in the comedy section on iTunes in the United States, has over 600,000 followers on SoundCloud, and has a reputation among those in the online industry as being “intense”, “personal”, “therapeutic” and ultimately, a lot of fun.
The podcast is produced in collaboration with Cadence13 under the Ramble podcast network.
Origin[]
In Ear Biscuits 32, Link says that originally his plan for Ear Biscuits was to record marriage counseling sessions between him and Rhett. This idea, obviously, didn’t pan out although it was most likely a joke. Instead, the duo decided to use a podcast in an attempt to capture the phenomena that is the rise of online entertainment at its peak of growth. They have stated that they enjoy talking to people and having long probing conversations. They have a tendency to ambush people at parties and events, so it sparked the idea of doing it with up and coming personalities in the internet sphere.
Format[]
For season 1 and 2, they decided to “go old school” and make it an audio-only podcast for so that their fans could listen without the need to sit down and watch a video, to support the podcast mediums, to be productive while they tune in, and also so that those being interviewed wouldn’t feel pressured into slipping into their on-camera personalities.
For season 3, they announced in Ear Biscuits 87 that they are filming video versions of the podcast as well; they will release the audio-only version of the podcast on Monday mornings and the full video versions on YouTube 6 days later (Sunday of the following week), with short, easily shareable highlight clips possibly released over the course of the week. They eventually only released the full episode and stopped uploading the clips.
Overview[]
Ear Biscuits is uploaded every Monday morning on iTunes. The video version of the podcast is uploaded on the Good Mythical Morning channel six days later every Sunday. It used to be uploaded to the This Is Mythical channel.
It typically begins with an introduction, done post-interview so that Rhett and Link can discuss the conversation, outline briefly what was mentioned, and highlight some areas. They also plug in their sponsor at this time, if there is one available.
In the earlier Ear Biscuits,(1-24) Rhett and Link would talk for five to ten minutes about things going on in their own lives that they were reminded of by the interview, but unfortunately, due to criticism on the length of these, the duo stopped.
The subject of the podcast varies on who is the guest, but typically, Rhett and Link dive into the birth, young years and road to internet fame in these talks. They often seem to make the guest comfortable enough to have said guest say more than they had planned, and the questions that are asked by Rhett and Link often lead to deeper, introspective directions in the conversation.
Rhett and Link are also infamous for doing an insane, and sometimes frightening amount of research on each guest so that they can ask hard, thought-provoking questions.
Each podcast is about 60 to 90 minutes long, ends with the guest signing the famous, “Round Table of Dim Lighting” and an outro of Rhett and Link elaborating on their favorite, or most intriguing points in the conversation, also done post-interview.
Reception[]
Ear Biscuits is a very successful podcast, debuting at number 12 on the iTunes charts, and remaining in the 100 top podcasts in the US since it's inception. [1]
Ear Biscuits is also an international success, charting in multiple countries: United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Australia, and Brazil.
Since the podcast is “a weekly candid conversation with other creators who are making their mark in new media,” Rhett and Link don’t avoid talking about controversial issues as they do in their other content, whether it be abuse, sexuality, sexism, racism or drugs, the duo dig deeper into whatever the topic is. This sometimes causes concern, as most of Rhett and Link’s content is very family-friendly. A note is posted in the summary of every podcast warning those with sensitivities about certain issues, although they do censor harder curse words.