Running since early 2011, Good Mythical Morning has become a familiar fixture on YouTube. For the uninitiated, it’s basically a morning talk show in miniature form. From behind a wooden desk in a set filled with bric-a-brac (much of it Lionel Richie-themed), amiable Southern-born hosts Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, the masterminds behind the Chuck Testa meme, eat weird foods, answer viewers’ questions, exchange arcane trivia, and generally bust each other’s chops. Occasionally, celebrities like Kevin Smith and Daniel Radcliffe stop by to chat. For their April 1, 2016 episode, however, McLaughlin and Neal decided to attempt something a little bit more avant garde. Titled “11 Minutes Of Silence,” it evokes composer John Cage’s ultra-minimalist “4’33.” For the entire running time, the hosts simply sit and stare, interacting neither with the audience nor each other. For these two confirmed motormouths, the episode represents an incredible display of discipline. The only words spoken by either of them are a handful of standard catchphrases, including “Let’s talk about that!” and “You know what that means!”
And the “fun” doesn’t stop there. McLaughlin and Neal have an after-show spin-off called Good Mythical More. Today’s episode of that is called “9 Minutes & 27 Seconds Of Silence,” and it stubbornly continues the joke. Technically, none of this qualifies as a prank, since there is no deception or duplicity involved. The episode titles are extremely straightforward, and the episodes themselves live up to them. But that doesn’t mean these videos are devoid of comedy or entertainment value. To fully appreciate them, the viewer must utilize YouTube’s sometimes neglected closed captioning feature. Someone on the Good Mythical Morning/More staff obviously took the time to caption both of these videos in fairly great detail, denoting even the tiniest of noises. Most of the commentary amounts to flat descriptions like “Nothing,” “More nothing,” and “Silence.” But there are a few oddball observations, too, like “Rhett enlightened (not audible).”