04 How a Star Wars Parody Show Changed YouTube Forever | Blame Society (Aaron Yonda & Matt Sloan)

Explicit content warning

06/05/24 • 74 min

The early days of YouTube were for home movies, cat videos, and short vlogs. But in the summer of 2006, something emerged from Wisconsin that would change our perception of what Internet video was capable of. “Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager” tells the classic story of Darth Vader’s younger brother, who commands a middle-management job at the local grocery store, rather than a Death Star.

But “Chad” was more than just a hilarious Star Wars parody. It had the production values of a fully-fledged sitcom: Multiple actors and plot lines, costumes, sets, a musical score, sharp writing, and legit cinematography. The Internet — and YouTube corporate — took notice.

Before “Like & Subscribe” was a thing, YouTube featured Chad Vader on its homepage, which reached millions of eyeballs and generated serious heat around the series. Fans began demanding new episodes, and YouTube realized the new potential of its platform. It was starting to shift from a novelty site, to a loyalty destination.

Chad is the brainchild of Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan, improv comedians from Madison, Wisconsin, who had been making sketch comedy videos for public access TV and film festivals. After Chad Vader was canceled by Channel 101 and ignored by the Los Angeles establishment, they decided to check out this whole “YouTube thing.” The success of the series (and other emerging creators) prompted YouTube to roll out its advertising partner program. Yonda and Sloan’s channel, Blame Society Films, became one of the first ever to monetize. Chad’s popularity lead to brand partnerships, contract work, and collaborations. But despite its huge success and even an award from George Lucas himself, Hollywood never figured out how to translate a Star Wars parody sitcom to traditional TV.

This week on INFLUENCE, Aaron and Matt chat with the Other Matt about their origin story, the evolution of their audience, the “lunacy” of Internet comments, why YouTube sketch comedy is dying out, voicing the REAL Darth Vader for TV and video games, and the long-running series their fans love and support today.

Subscribe to Blame Society Films: https://www.youtube.com/@blamesocietyfilms

Beer and Board Games: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL49WgzlbhrT0kCIoZQukx-xbwFjSQhYFQ

Game Society Pimps: https://www.youtube.com/@GameSocietyPimps

Junkyard Joust: https://www.youtube.com/@JunkyardJoust

Welcome to the Basement: http://welcometothebasementshow.com/

This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod

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Subscribe to Blame Society Films: https://www.youtube.com/@blamesocietyfilms

Beer and Board Games: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL49WgzlbhrT0kCIoZQukx-xbwFjSQhYFQ

Game Society Pimps: https://www.youtube.com/@GameSocietyPimps

Junkyard Joust: https://www.youtube.com/@JunkyardJoust

Welcome to the Basement: http://welcometothebasementshow.com/

This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod

Join our Discord community! https://discord.gg/influencepod

Call the show and leave a message: (347)-871-6548

Email me with guest & trivia suggestions! [email protected] (NOICE)

Follow me:

🐤https://twitter.com/Matt_Silverman

📸 https://www.instagram.com/matt_silverman

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

03 Why This Brilliant Visual FX Artist Would Rather Work on TikTok Than in Hollywood | Chelsea VFX

Chelsea Laufer went to a prestigious film school. She got a job in TV production, and then in animation. But it wasn't until she uploaded her *own* creations to the Internet that her life turned magical.

Chelsea VFX makes inspired, short-form digital magic tricks where she disappears into hula hoops, takes a dip in her own cup of coffee, and changes the color of her sweater with a snap. Her visual effects skills rival Hollywood movies, and her flair for short-form surprises racked up millions of followers and (likely) 1 billion views. Her motto is, "If you can think of it, you can make it happen" — at least in the world of digital manipulation. But when her fans tell her she should work for Marvel or Disney, she has one huge reason she prefers to create for the Internet.

This week, Chelsea shares her rules for magical short-form storytelling, why she's the worst person to watch a movie with, and the fascinating tale of her most-viewed video which went INCREDIBLY viral (500 million views!) for all the wrong reasons.

Plus: Trivia is BACK!

Follow Chelsea IMMEDIATELY:

📸 https://www.instagram.com/queenchelseavfx/

🎵 https://www.tiktok.com/@queenchelsea

This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod

Join our Discord community! https://discord.gg/influencepod

Call the show and leave a message: (347)-871-6548

Email me with guest & trivia suggestions! [email protected] (NOICE)

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Next Episode

05 Information Disorder: The Disturbing Rise of Political Misinformation Influencers | Lam Thuy Vo

“Fake news,” conspiracy theories, and click-bait are no stranger to all our Internet feeds. When we spot it, we may block an account or kindly refer a relative to a more reputable source. But what about the misinformation we can’t even see? Specifically, content in other languages, created for online communities we can’t possibly access?

For the relatively small community of Vietnamese-speaking immigrants in the U.S., there are almost no reliable media outlets to serve news in their native language. And strange entities have sprouted up to fill the void, often mixing far-right conspiracies with legitimate news to create “information disorder,” a particularly insidious brand of propaganda.

This week on INFLUENCE, investigative data journalist and journalism professor Lam Thuy Vo joins Matt to discuss the complexities of consuming a balanced news diet in the Vietnamese-American community. She has written numerous pieces for The Markup (a non-profit tech journalism site) about the “Languages of Misinformation,” and a mysterious YouTuber who produces a shocking amount of very dubious Vietnamese-language “news.” Who is she? Who is behind her channel? And what’s the goal?

Lam also profiles a heroic Vietnamese-American grandmother who took it upon herself to translate reputable news sources to combat the misinformation she was seeing in her community’s social media bubbles. These forces paint a picture of a very complicated voting block that – if misinformed by the Internet – can significantly impact local and national elections.

Their wide-ranging discussion goes deep on what it means to be media literate in a world of deepfakes, AI, and algorithms that care very little for languages that are not English.

Read Lam’s extraordinary work here: https://themarkup.org/languages-of-misinformation/2024/05/22/the-inside-story-of-the-youtube-influencer-who-peddles-misinformation-to-vietnamese-communities

https://themarkup.org/people/lam-thuy-vo

And follow her here: https://x.com/lamthuyvo

This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod

Join our Discord community! https://discord.gg/influencepod

Call the show and leave a message: (347)-871-6548

Email me with guest & trivia suggestions! [email protected] (NOICE)

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