"Ask ERB" Pete & Lloyd - Part 1

Who are the people who you'd like to collaborate with most?

Pete: I don’t really think about guests that way. It’s more like the characters who neither me nor Lloyd can look like, and then casting them with great talented people from there.

Lloyd: That said, we’d love to work with Jack Black. 

What ever happened to the Shay Carl rap battle teased for season 2?

Pete: The song for it wasn’t very good. I shelved it because I didn’t think it was good enough to stand up with the rest of our content. When we got all the data when we got the series back, I found some old edits of it on a hard drive, and I think some day I’ll release it on Patreon, so you can also see, that it’s not very good.

How likely are we to see more Flash in The Pan raps? 

Pete: I think very very likely that during any break from ERB production, we’ll do more flash in the pans. Maybe someday we can get the production machine moving smoother and more automatically, and be able to do them during ERB production, but we aren’t there yet.

Lloyd: Almost 100% sure.

Would you ever consider redoing Betty White vs Bettie Page? 

Pete: Hmmmm.. I don’t know, I never gave that one a fair enough chance I don’t think. Lloyd was working on that when I was just completely swamped, I think I couldn’t understand anything on the demo and said “nah this won’t work” But now seeing that question, makes me want to go back and look again 

Lloyd: It was pretty dirty and Betty Page is pretty obscure. But, it was a really fun song. Maybe we will release it in some form one day.

Have you guys ever thought about having the fans do more for the battles other than help write? 

Pete: I hadn’t thought about that until now. But that’s an awesome idea. Bringing more editing fans into the operation is on my short list of wishes. Javi was an ERB fan before he ever edited with us, and his creative contributions have been huge since coming on board. I know there are amazing editors out there, and I hope we can find a way to find them and make some cool videos together. Thanks for that question, it is inspiring.

Who are the next musicians you would love to see?

Pete: I think you mean in a rap battle? And to be honest, right now on this day, I’m not in any hurry to do any more musicians. If I had to choose one, Bach. 

Lloyd: I personally think doing the whole 27 club would be pretty cool. David Bowie vs Prince is pretty great as well

What was, objectively, the most difficult battle to produce in the history of the show? Be it frustrating or just plain uninteresting.

Pete: Trump vs Scrooge almost shattered my spirit. That one was so much endless work, in writing, in recording, in scheduling, and then in editing when a lot of our crew was leaving town for Christmas. I remember me and Andrew Sherman both taking turns sleeping in the office while things rendered, only to find an error and have to redo it. We were using Red footage and not doing it right, so everything took longer than it should have. I wanted to give up on that battle, and I really tried to. Lloyd wouldn’t let us, and I’m glad he stood strong, it ended up being one of my favorites. I just like what it did. We set out a challenge, to tell the Christmas Carol through a rap battle, and we found a way to pull it off. I’m proud of that one.

Lloyd: This is a better question for Atul, but from where I'm sitting the TMNT vs Artists was tough cos of the amount of people and costumes. Also Houdini vs Copperfield was tough too. Ghostbusters vs Mythbusters was a lot of people as well, and we had to fly them in so it was hard too.

Which characters did you originally have no interest in that you'd now like to use, as well as characters you once wanted to use but now have no interest in?

Pete: Anime directors never particularly interested me in the past, but they’ve been suggested so much that I’d like to learn more and look into it. I don’t think there’s any characters I once wanted to do but now have no interest in. I know I wanted to do Dr Strange vs Hippocrates, and was very excited about it, but now that doesn’t feel like a good move. It’s not that I’m not interested, it just doesn’t feel like right battle to make.

Lloyd: Ronald McDonalds and Burger was always sort of a joke to us. But once we did it for the Flash in the Pan we saw that it would be great. Bernie Sanders was really hot for a while but I think he’s cooled a lot since last election.

What characters did you do the most research for? 

Pete: Bill Gates vs Steve Jobs was by far the most I’ve ever researched for anything.

Lloyd; The Philosophers.

What do you prioritize when in the writing phase - humor, historical facts, etc.?

Pete: All of the above. I try to remember three guiding principles. Fun - Educational - Badass. If a lyric hits two of them, it’s good. If it hits all 3, it’s great. If it doesn’t hit any or only hits one, re-writes.

Lloyd: All of the above but I’d say flow is most important to me. It starts with the info. then moves to what are fun words to rhyme with, then moves to punchlines, then ultimately wiggling it all into an actual song. 

Whose dick do I have to blow to get Achilles Vs Mulan in Season 6? 

Lloyd: Ed Monk's

--------

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. Part 2 of this Q/A is coming soon. And we will try to do more of these Q/A type posts throughout the year. [Look out for a post on Patreon and in the #ask-erb channel on Discord asking for questions]