HBO MAX IS BACK

0:00hopefully i mean if you're lucky i know i need to get a haircut this week i've got some weddings is coming up. Oh, wedding season. Yeah, it is wedding season. How many you got this summer, Kev? Not that many. I've got three in the next four weeks. Three in the next four weeks? And then one in October, and that's it. Wow, three in four weeks. That's a stretch. Yeah, three in the next... The third week is a bachelor party. I'm going for one day to Atlantic City. Why are you only going one day? I wasn't technically invited. I'm like an auxiliary friend um i know the guy okay auxiliary friend we've hung out i'm you going the first day or the second i'm going the last night yeah okay we're going to the club okay in the length city yeah uh listen i don't want to shit on any place or uh sort of it's gonna be great community i was uh in atlantic city within the last year or so and that place is uh not great yeah it'll be fine i'm sure it'll be i'm taking the i'm gonna take the greyhound down oh baby so So that should be an all-time ride.

1:04Either way should be pretty good. And then, yeah. I've been to a bachelor party in a minute. Talk about sort of not being on top of your game. That's all right. Listen, I get it. My friends are all married. Friends already did that. They did do it. It's over. I'm prepared to talk about... I'm prepared to talk about... What are you prepared to talk about, Kevin? I was going to say something about how I've been on a legendary run this year. Of sports gambling? No, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. I actually haven't really been doing that. I put it down. Just, you know, doing stuff. Being out of town.

1:41Way to go, Kevin. I got... Way to go. What a run. You know, including the next four weeks. 24 weekends this year. There have been 24 weekends so far this year? No, we're at like... We're at 20 right now. Okay. I was going to say, it feels like... And then I have like next four slated. So like... Okay. So out of those 24 weekends, I've only been not doing shit six of them. Wow. Yeah. And then three of them were due to injury. You're sounding very Gary V right now. You're like, I got to maximize. You're actually sounding more like Rob Dyrdek to me right now. Do you have a spreadsheet here with all of your - I've got a no tap.

2:20Whoa, whoa, a no tap. You're plotting these weekends. Well, no. I feel like the last three years I've been like, because I ski. I'm busy at the top of the year. You know, once we get to like the summer, I'm like, holy shit, I've been doing stuff like every week. I've like hardly ever been home. Dude, doing stuff. Yeah. That's Kevin. I'm doing stuff. Out here.

2:46Three, two, one. Kevin. That was such a weak clap. I can't clap, man. My wrist. Oh, yeah, true. Yeah, I thought about it and I was like, that's going to hurt a lot. Yeah. You want to let the people know what happened? I took a tumble. We took a tumble. At Xanadu in Bushwick. Was it a brewski tumble? No, I had to have the brewski after the tumble because I was like, I was skating around. I was on roller skates for the first time in 15 years probably. And, you know, it came back. It was like I run a bike and then I got a little cocky and then I hit the ground. And, you know, the thing about being really tall.

3:22Yeah. Big trees fall hard. That's right. Exactly. And those skates, you know, I'm like, you know, six, six up there. And so I hit the ground, put all the weight of my body on my wrist, and it hurts a lot. So at what point are we seeking medical attention? Are you just going to let it ride? I would say three or four more days. If it's still throbbing and hurting in three or four more days, then I might have to go to emergent care. Yeah. I'd say go check it out. You don't want to wait too long on those things. Probably should ice it more than I'm icing it. It's my left. so I'm okay. Yeah, you're fine.

3:57Listen, I'm a warrior. Me, Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson. Warriors. Warriors. That picture of Josh Hart when he's got the blood coming from his eyes. Nuts. We don't want to make this whole podcast about the New York Knicks, but I will. Go New York, go New York, go. It is a very relevant topic to New York. Knicks in six, baby. Eastern Conference Finals. First time in 25 years. Raise the banner. Knicks fever. Don't write, no. No banners sweeping the CD. No, no banners yet. No sweeps. Chalamet, Stiller, Rizler, Center. Yeah. That's the crew. Kevin, here's the major problem that I'm having right now. I am starting to believe that the New York Knicks You should.

4:42have a legitimate chance to win the NBA championship. You should. You should absolutely believe that. I'm having visions of grandeur. Why not us? I mean, you guys are a fourth quarter team. Why not us? You guys really step up in the fourth quarter and if you're going to be any type of team, you want to be a fourth quarter team. We're gritty. We grind it out. We play hard. And I believe we can do it. So could you even imagine, though, like the city? No, it'd be crazy. What will happen here? Yeah, I'm rooting for it because it would be awesome to go on a three-day bender and have an excuse not to show up to work.

5:16Parade? Yeah, the parade. Parade? Could you fucking even imagine? That'd be crazy. I mean, we'd have to shut the studio down. Oh, my God. Of course we'd have to. We couldn't work on parade day. Come on. We got to hit the streets. Yeah, of course. Yeah. No, I honestly, like, I'm starting to believe we got eight games to win. You know what someone said online? They were like, Knicks just need to go eight and six over the next 14 games. Seems reasonable. Seems reasonable to me. I also want to go on the record and say to all the people who say that the Knicks fan shouldn't celebrate after a win like this, shut the fuck up.

5:49Just, just, just, we shouldn't act like that because we have absolutely not been there. Yeah. It's been 25 years. Is this directed at me? No, this isn't you. No, because it's not directed at me. I was celebrating hard when we moved on to the conference finals in football, and I hadn't seen that in my life. And, you know, you guys should go off. Yeah. It's directed to that guy that eats sandwiches on Instagram. I know there's like 8 million of those guys, but there's one Brunch Boys or something. He put out some video, and he was like, we should act like we've been here before. We shouldn't be celebrating.

6:16You guys haven't been here before. I was like, wrong. It's a terrible take. And let the boys celebrate. I think post-series, absolutely go off. Post-game, go off, but a little less. Yeah, game one. You don't need to be climbing poles after game one. No, I agree with that. But when you clinch a series and you go to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years since the 90s, yeah, you can fucking celebrate. And that one guy that climbed that billboard. Pretty good. Pretty legendary. Yeah, pretty legendary. Are you going to climb a billboard if they win? I don't think so. Not with this wrist.

6:50Yeah. All right. But, you know, the Rizzlers out here. And I think that's really what's putting us over the top. Right. Yeah. Everyone knows that the Rizzler, you know, when you get Rizzler approved, good things happen. Talking about legendary runs. He's been on a heater over the past couple of weeks. You see, he won a Webby. Like, he just literally just every time he takes a picture, I just I am enthralled. He's he's the fucking best. And we thought his run was maybe coming to an end. He's fading into the sunset. No, he just started school. He just had to do elementary school, you know? Could you imagine trying to teach the Rizzler?

7:23Like, what do you even try? You're like, I got nothing. This kid is, he's got it all figured out. Hitting you with the Rizz face all day? Yeah, you know, my favorite thing that happened to the Rizzler this week is he made his way into high fashion. Oh, yeah, finally. Yeah, finally. You love to see it. This was a campaign for Supreme? I don't know if it was campaign. I think he was modeling. He just modeled fits for like the. The caption was the Rizzler and Yori, Rick Owens and Supreme got photographed by David Spector for what? Just the Internet or just culture at large. I'm not really sure what the context or where these are going to live.

8:04I did see they're living on my phone. I did see. I don't know. It was a tweet yesterday. I don't know. It looked like it was from an official account. I didn't do that much digging. They said the photo of him wrapped in bubble wrap. That was the album art for West Side Gun's new album. Yeah. That would be awesome. I hope it is. Who knows what this is for? It doesn't fucking matter. It's so good. It's incredible. Yeah. Seeing the Rizzler and Rick Owens and just like, it's just, this kid is, he's just, he's electric. Nothing he does doesn't make me happy. Yeah, like he met Julia Louis-Dreyfus dressed as one of the characters from the movie premiere he was at.

8:47Legendary. Doing eight-year-old shit, just showing up in a Halloween costume pretty much. Hitting the Riz face with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. What a legend. Every photo makes me so happy just to see him. Him and Questlove at the Webbys. Yeah, I mean, he's a legend. The high fashion. I hope he becomes a male model. I think that's really what's on the trajectory for him. Yeah. Like, why? He can do it all. He can rap. He can model. Yeah. Yeah. Why not? Why not? And I hope he's at every home. He can do comedy. For the rest of it. Dude, they need him. They need him courtside. Courtside. Yeah. No. Get him out of the box.

9:22Get him on the floor. Yeah. Get him next to Timothy. Yeah. I like how Action Bronson was underneath the hoop. The celebrities at the Knicks games are as much as a last strike. Oh, I mean, you guys got a lot of, like, real good fans. Yeah. Like, celebrity fans who are actually real fans, which there are, you know, a good amount in the nba in general but like no those guys those are you guys are you guys got some loyal motherfuckers no ben stiller has seen some shitty basketball you know fucking spike lee oh my god dude he was fucking landry fields jerseys at times you know what i mean he's he's he's been he's he's been through thick and thin now that's why i think that's why you guys are uh yeah why we why it's a likable team exactly it's not fuck new york it's uh damn this team is scrappy they're And they've been absolutely horrible for so long.

10:08So shout out to y 'all. I'm pulling for you. I may get myself a jersey. Whoa. I may get myself a Deuce McBride jersey. I was going to say, who are you going to get? Deuce McBride. Yeah, I got to get my boy. Can I tell you? Cincinnati's finest. Cincinnati's finest. Deuce McBride. Playing really well. Yeah. Like actually contributing. Definitely. And hitting shots. Big block. Yeah. Blocked by McBride. Yeah. What a moment. I know. I might have to get the jersey. And you know Tibbs does not play people that do not deserve to be playing. Oh, yeah. And he's, oh, my God, at the end of that game six, I know this is a design podcast.

10:41For all our new listeners and anyone who tuned in asking or are thinking that we were going to be talking about graphic design and branding and things like that, sorry. The Knicks are a brand. The Rizzlers are a brand. Yeah, no, exactly. We're stretching the cultural aspect of this podcast. Yeah, did you see the guys that the Knicks put in when they were up by 40 in the last 40? I didn't. I was listening on the radio. Oh, my God. It is a collection of guys that literally don't even look like they should be on a basketball court. Like, P.J. Tucker looked legitimately, you're like, he was wearing a T-shirt under the jersey.

11:13He looked like he came straight from a cookout. P.J. Tucker? Yeah, dude. We got some guys on the Knicks team. You're like, I didn't even know these guys were on the team. We got to move on, Kevin, because we got bigger news to talk about than the New York Knicks. And that is Mr. Beast had a glove.

11:30Wow. We got to switch to a hardcore design topic. Mr. Beast. How do you feel about Mr. Beast? I mean, totally different now. He turned his swag on. He did. God forbid a white boy turn his swag on, Alex. He got money now. He's flexing on the PJ. Yeah. He went full Zuckerberg. He's got the chain. He's got the goatee. Yeah. I guess the thing, when I saw the picture, I was like, this is great. This is great for the brand. This is great for Mr. Beast. This is going to become instantly meme culture. I liked it because it was like, you know, Zuck did that in like, you know, all sincerity. And I don't know.

12:09I feel like, you know, Beast was out there. Beast? We're calling him Beast now? You know, Mr. Beast is out there. Put some respect on his name, Kevin. It's Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast was out there with, you know, I think there was a nice wink and a nod. And it was, you know, there was a layer of irony there, which I, you know, love to see. Yeah. Yeah. No, he said like something. It was a meme he was recreating. Do you know what meme he was recreating with this look? I don't know. He was on the PJ with money on his lap. He looked great. He looks great. Honestly, I know it's a joke. I agree with you. I think it's in jest.

12:43Yeah. He's never looked cooler. No, I like seeing people joke. Yeah. I like it. No, he looks kind of cool. He's still not cool. Yeah, 100%. No matter how much money or anything, that man cannot do it. Remember when he put on the Buccaneers uniform? Not to body shame him, but I'm going to go ahead and body shame him. He had a weird body. He had a YouTuber body. But that was part of the glow up, I think, is that he's been hitting the gym. Oh, up in the gym working on his fitness? Yeah, same with Zuckerberg. But no, I mean, he can never be Zuck. We're talking about different brackets. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

13:24I hate advocating for billionaires, but Zuck does have some like – he is he's kind of racking up some cool points with the things that he's doing really what's he been doing i haven't i don't know he's just like you know hanging out with mma guys and you know on theo von's podcast talking about having a you know really human cup of coffee or whatever the fuck he said that was my favorite moment i didn't see or listen to the whole podcast but when he asks him about coffee and he said he had it once on vacation wow i mean shout out wow Wow. Wow. He legitimately does not know how to be like a, just a regular human being.

13:58He just cannot. He's learning. Yeah, no, he's, he's trying. Mr. Beast also trying, but I read something that Mr. Beast like doesn't even have that much money. He's just like, is putting all the money into the videos and I'm sure it's going to work out for him, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's working out for him. Is it? Yeah. I mean, he's like the biggest YouTube creator and he knows how to get, you know, I haven't seen any videos in a minute. I haven't seen, what's he been on? I know he had an Amazon TV show that did well. I couldn't tell you. I'm not a beast head. I just see what I see on the internet.

14:28But you're an outdoor boys guy. Huge outdoor boys boy. Okay. And this weekend, the outdoor boys community was rocked by Luke making a final. Well, not the final, but he was saying goodbye. And basically what he's saying is in the past 18 months, he's gained 12 million subscribers. and that's from like honestly i think it's probably from people reposting stuff on tiktok and there's been a lot of like buzz around that and like getting driving people to the youtube platform so it's like he's just exploded over the past like year and a half can i ask a quick question yeah what does he do okay sorry so the outdoor boys uh youtube channel is basically it started off as him and his family like it was like kind of like travel vlogging but more like rugged outdoor stuff okay um i was watching hiking climbing i was watching one last night where they went to hawaii and it was more like a family vacation vibe okay a condo and like you know he was really sweet to his wife he brought her like a bunch of lays and like he was making breakfast for his family and they were checking out the beach but he was also like spearfishing and like doing rad shit okay so he's an outdoor boy oh he's a big outdoor boy and like basically like some of his best videos are when he's out like in the alaska wilderness like making his own snow shelters or like he's made a i've seen him make a log cabin you know just like he and he just like films it all on his gopro and like it's just great content can i ask another question yeah how old is this man i think this dude he's probably like mid 40s i would say mid 40s okay um but basically what he was saying is uh you know there he's got he got too big and uh he's got to kind of try to stop it now so he can try to live a normal life for the rest of his life um and he People have just been swarming on him.

16:15I mean, he's pretty popping. He's got 18 million subscribers on YouTube. That's crazy. Oh, that's a big deal. But basically he said, my wife and I, we both have real concerns about what this will do to our family if I keep growing my YouTube channel at this pace. So he's stepping away. He said, I watched the video last night. It was a very nice video. He's a good video maker. probably you know i i i said best to ever do it best to ever best to ever do it yeah if you're ever looking for like a you know nighttime youtube wind down session this is this is the video for you he's he's just such a genuinely good guy um and he does doing interesting shit but basically he um you know he went on a little spiel talking about how you know he's doing it for his family and he said it before like you know he started the youtube channel to like bond with his kids and his family and whatnot.

17:12But it became too big. It became too big. He blew up and, you know, he's calling it quits. I have a prediction. But he said he has a couple more videos. He has filmed he's still working on. And he said if he ever does any more videos, he'll just dump them all at the end of the year. Okay. I have a prediction. He'll be back. Oh, I'm sorry. But also, I've never heard of this guy, not a single day in my life, which is pretty amazing that there's a guy out there too big for YouTube that I just have never even once even considered or heard his name was. Well, he's... I guess I'm not an outdoor boy.

17:43I'm an indoor boy. You should check him out. I mean, he teaches a lot of, you know, not only lessons about the outdoors but about life in general. Wow. It sounds beautiful. It really does. It really is beautiful. And, you know, after his little spiel, he walks, you know, he walks away. Oh, he walks off camera? He walks off camera into the wilderness? Into the nature and then like a montage plays of like him doing cool shit with his kids and it was so sweet. I was welling up a little bit to be honest with you. Well, Well, listen, sometimes you just got to call quits, even when you're ahead in life and, you know, let this be a lesson to us all, you know, sort of go out on top.

18:18Yeah. Shout out to Luke. Shout out to Luke and all the other. And his family. Yeah. And his family. We wish you nothing but the best. I will say this reminds me of one of my favorite tick tocks stick nation where people do reviews of sticks. Have you seen this yet? Yeah, I've seen stick nation. Pretty sick. Have you seen the one where the guy's kicking the rock every day until it turns into a sphere? No, So that's a good one. Stick Nation is a community that I'm not a part of yet, but I'm thinking about joining. Stick Nation. You just got to get out there and find some good sticks. The Stick Nation to Outdoor Boy Pipeline is real.

18:50I was going to say, yeah, it seems like there's probably a lot of overlap. I imagine a lot of these Outdoor Boys will become Stick Nation fans. Maybe. But who knows? The Outdoor Boys are a little bit more core than Stick Nation. Also, one of the sweetest parts about his little sign-off was like, Luke said, if I've helped you in any way, outside of just outdoor knowledge, he said, if I've helped you in any way, pass it along, go help somebody else. Wow, that's really beautiful. Yeah, no, it sounds amazing. And I'm not surprised I haven't heard about it because he didn't kill his wife. because that's when I would find out about it because I only watch documentaries about vloggers and outdoorsmen or their wife kills them.

19:34One of the two ways. That's typically how. Yeah, that would never happen to Luke. No, never would happen to Luke. He's a good guy, totally normal, just loves the earth and YouTube, and he would never kill his wife. He's too pure. He's too pure. Too pure. Kevin, speaking of pure, the big story of the week, we got to talk about it. Dup hope? Nope, Max. You want to talk about the Pope? Oh, no, no, no. I mean, we got a new Pope. We got a new Pope. He's American. Did you see how fast it took them to find the footage of him at the 2005 World Series? No, I did not see that. Immediate. What? Well, because he's from Chicago?

20:10Yeah, he's from Chicago. And then there was a big debate on is he a Cubs fan or is he a White Sox fan? Cubs claimed him. White Sox claimed him. And then somebody posted a photo of, like, he was in the background of somebody's photo at one of the 2005 World Series games. and then like moments later they like footage from the game was circulating of him like yeah kind of in like good seats good seats for a pious man so coolest pope ever shout out to him yeah america's back on top we got we got the pope we got uh you know who else we got allegedly uh he's had he's had consensual sexual relationship really relations with um well fuck yeah way to go pope Yeah, when he was 19.

20:52Leo. Yeah, shout out to him. What is XIV? That's 14. Pope Leo XIV. Yeah, good for him. Yeah. Way to go. Represent America. Let's go. We're back. Hey, good for you, too. He's from Villanova. And probably supports the Nova Knicks. Listen, I did hear this theory that it was ordained, the New York Knicks and the Villanova Knicks championship. Yeah, no. The Pope is back. and we got to, I mean, that is a big story to a lot of people. So I imagine the Pope, an American Pope, a new Pope. The Pope's kind of a brand. Huge brand. Huge brand moment. I mean, the cloud of smoke. Yeah. That's a great brand moment.

21:34That's a great brand experience, a brand activation, I guess. That's a brand launch, actually. Yeah. That's what it is. New launch. Yeah, launch is a new rebrand. Yeah. You know what? That's the hardest launch of the year. Yeah, it is the hardest. Fronty watch for. Yeah, Brand launch of the year. Brand launch of the year, Pope. Well, I guess only slightly outdoing HBO Max going back to HBO Max. Max is back. For the fifth time in three years, HBO Max has rebranded back to HBO Max. It's the fifth time in three years? Oh, my God. Yeah, it is. Fifth time in three years because it was started at HBO Max.

22:09I mean, listen, even before this, it was HBO and it was Max. And then it was HBO Go, HBO Now. Yeah. Right? And then they went to HBO Max, this joining forces. I guess the Max is for Cinemax, right? Is that where the Max comes from? I think HBO Max is more like the streaming platform. I don't know if they bought Cinemax. I don't know if there's any correlation. I could be wrong about that, but I thought it was. I think it's more like an overarching, it's not all HBO content. From what I know, there's a separation between the HBO content and the Max content. So like White Lotus is HBO. Well, they've joined forces.

22:49But yes, there was a bit of an HBO. There's still an HBO segment inside of the app. Yeah. Since 2022, right? Where some shows, White Lotus or Succession, those are HBO shows. Other great shows like Paul American are still labeled Max. Good. And that's how you know that those shows are not HBO quality. That's how you know they're subpar. Exactly. But then they got rid of HBO and just went to Max, which was a travesty because HBO is honestly the only brand here that anyone cares about. I think we were on the correct side of history saying, why would you get rid of that brand equity? A hundred percent.

23:25I mean, HBO is the brand. It's the intro. It's the sound. It's the history. It's the emotion. It's must-see TV. Yeah, it's must-see TV. It's not TV. It's HBO. But they got rid of it completely, and then they were purple. And then they went to Max in blue where the A in Max was a circle to sort of nod to the HBO inside of it. Then literally like three weeks ago, they decided to rebrand to black because I guess the blue was not working and felt too much like every other app. I don't know. Google probably or sorry. Amazon Prime is very blue. They haven't figured this shit out. So they went to Black, which was Max, and then it kind of felt a little bit more like HBO-ish.

24:09And then as of last week, HBO's back. It's HBO Max. Yeah. Who's driving the ship here? I don't know, man. What a fucking mess. I mean, I kind of like it. Me too. You know, it's giving us something to talk about. And, you know, they're staying up in the news, in the branding world, by us, I guess. Personally, I hope they keep changing it. Like, I think they should change it, like, every six weeks. Yeah, 100%. I think we should just keep going around and around, keep the people on their feet, and you don't know where HBO is going to go next. Yeah. No more new apps, though. Just let me... I don't want to download another app.

24:40Yeah. Are you watching 100 Foot Wave? Do you watch that show? Oh, my God. That's incredible. I think... I don't know if that's HBO or not, but no, it's still got the quality TV shows. And we got David Zaslav. He's the president and CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery, two other brands that apparently are involved in HBO. And this is a great quote from him. The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our program. Yep. Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality media, to further accelerate the growth in years ahead.

25:14Literally, it's been HBO the whole goddamn time. Everyone on planet Earth knows that if you want to watch HBO shows, it's on this app. putting the HBO in the brand name doesn't change a fucking thing. You're just fools out here. Yeah, I don't really understand the decision making at any point in the brand journey here. But I guess keep, go off. Keep changing. Keep changing. I don't know anything. You know what the right move should be? What? We need to get HBO away from Max. We need to let HBO cook. We need to get HBO on its own platform. We need to go back to HBO HBO Go. That's – HBO on the go.