I could learn stuff and this could be really fun,

just, how does Disney make a show,

you know what I mean?

Like what kind of checks and balances

and nets of mediocrity are we gonna be working with here?

I'm Justin Roiland.

And this is the timeline of my career!

[whimsical music]

[alarm beeping]

♪ There's something out in space that could use ♪

♪ Just a little investigation ♪

All right, Most Extraordinary Space Investigations,

that was a Channel 101 show that me, Dan Harmon

and Sevan Najarian put together for fun one night.

We wrote it, or we didn't even write it,

we just kind of outlined it, and then we shot it

in one night, and then Dan took the footage.

And we kind of forgot about it.

And then at the panel meeting, we were watching tapes

and Dan produced it, and he's like, "I've got a tape."

And he put it in, and he had edited it

and made it into this ridiculous show

and it was really funny

and it got screened, it got voted back

and we just kept making episodes.

Sarah Silverman joined us, I think on the second

or third episode, as like a regular cast member

of the space investigators.

[laughing] It's so dumb.

We would shoot it in my old apartment in Sherman Oaks

and just like, it was the most lo-fi,

like there was zero production value.

But people liked it.

Anyways, whatever.

It was a lot of fun to make that show

because we weren't allowed to write anything

until we got together the night we were gonna shoot it.

So we would get together,

having no idea what the story was gonna be,

and then we would all sit around

and just kind of smoke weed and, [laughing]

and you know, then we'd just come up with the story

and then just start shooting it all night long.

We'd usually wrap shooting around like four in the morning.

In my apartment.

[laughs] It was like everything was in my apartment

or around my apartment.

It was so funny.

- Here goes nothing.

- I just wanna let you know, that I don't trust you.

[upbeat music]

- Mharti, Mharti we have a problem.

- So "The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti"

was, I wanted to just do those voices

and kinda screw around, but I also wanted to make something

really shocking and disgusting on purpose.

I had done it before with a thing

called "Unbelievable Tales".

I got a huge rush off of being in the audience

and hearing the audience like just scream

and cover their eyes and, I don't know,

there was something really cool about having

that kind of effect on, you know, 400 people in a theater.

It was like, it was just insane

to elicit reactions like that.

And so that was kind of the primary motivation.

And then as I was making it, I kind of found,

I really liked the characters and the voices a lot

and I liked, I just liked, you know,

the talking to myself as those voices

and there was a lot about it that I liked

so I kind of accidentally stumbled upon that

throughout the course of making it.

But the audience definitely freaked the [beep] out,

which was amazing.

- But I don't understand how that would work, Doc,

I don't, I don't, I'm confused, I don't--

- Mharti, trust me, I built this car with my

own two hands. - You just need

to adjust.

I can help you have fun.

I'm a friend you can trust.

- Hmm.

- [screaming] - Leave him alone!

- No rhyming.

- Acceptable TV, that was a show on VH1 for a minute.

The show was kind of a little microcosm of Channel 101.

So we basically banked a bunch of sketches and animations

and then when the show was live,

the audience would vote on their favorite two shows

through this website that was designed, on Ruby on Rails.

And I remember that being a huge problem

because the website sucked and it was easy to hack

and all this shit.

So the show would air and there would be

five little mini TV shows that were like sketches.

And then people would vote on their favorite two.

We would find out Sunday which shows came back

and then we would get to work and basically start writing

the second episode of whatever shows they'd voted on

and start producing them.

We did a thing called Mr. Sprinkles

for the first episode, it got voted back,

and I had an animation department that I was running

where we were having to animate the second episode

in basically three and 1/2 days.

It was [beep]ing insane 'cause it was on light boards,

you know, classic animation,

painted backgrounds and After Effects.

And then the show kept, the animation kept getting

voted back eight weeks in a row,

and we were [beep]ing dead, the animation department

was just on fumes, 'cause we weren't sleeping.

I remember eight weeks, I was just like,

"I can't [beep]ing do this."

And I was also bummed because all these cartoons

we had banked are never gonna air.

Like we had animated I think four different

cool, fun little cartoon TV show ideas

and it was just Mr. Sprinkles the whole time.

The audience really likes this Mr. Sprinkles stuff.

It was good, I like Mr. Sprinkles, it's fun.

Whatever.

- I'm fine all day when the sun is out,

but when it rains I scream and shout.

- But this isn't about screaming and shouting,

is it Mr. Sprinkles?

♪ Oh I found a perfect roomie ♪

♪ Who could be a perfect buddy ♪

♪ Together we'll make a lovely pair ♪

- I took a meeting with Mike Moon at Disney.

Alex Hirsch was there, that was the first time I met Alex.

And then they pitched me this Fish Hooks thing.

And Alex was looking for someone to help him develop it.

It was very different, I was like,

oh, I haven't done this before.

I could learn stuff and this could be really fun,

just how does Disney make a show, you know what I mean?

Like what kind of checks and balances

and nets of mediocrity are we gonna be working with here?

So, and how can I rise to that challenge

and try to help make something that's really good

or as good as it can be?

- Okay Bea, then it's a date!

See you tomorrow!

I mean, not a date date, because you know,

why would I want that?

[laughing nervously]

- This castle is in

unacceptable condition!

Unacceptable!

- Ah, Adventure Time.

Ah, the French wine. [laughing]

Adventure Time was fun, that was Pen Ward.

He was a fan of my podcast, called Grandma's Virginity,

check it out, all the episodes are still online.

And, actually don't check it out, don't even, who cares.

But he came on an episode and then I think,

I feel like on the episode, I was like,

"Come on Pen, put me in this show."

I might have been doing that.

And then he ended up like actually offering me a part

and I didn't know what it was gonna be.

And I went and recorded, I went there

and I just started, I just was like, "How about this?"

And I screamed.

I just did the screamy voice.

And he was like, "That'll do."

It was really cool and I did the first episode

and then by the third episode, it was,

there was so much of Lemongrab,

there were a bunch of clones of him

and I was doing all of them and they all screamed.

And I was in the booth for about three hours.

- Unacceptable!

- Hm, acceptable.

- What!?

- And after that I went back

to the Rick and Morty writers room

and I remember that we were talking about something

and I tried to do Morty's voice and I couldn't do his voice,

it just wouldn't happen.

And then Tom Kenny told me,

I think I was recording him for an episode, and he was like,

"You need to go to this doctor."

I went to see this doctor and he,

he was like, "Okay, yeah.

"You don't have any vocal nodules

"but your vocal cords are super, super swollen.

"You need to not talk for like two weeks.

"And here's a cortisone shot."

Boom!

Cortisone.

That stuff.

No, it doesn't, it just hurts, I don't know.

I couldn't talk and so I had to download this app,

this text-to-speech app called, like, Talkbot.

It sounds really depressed.

Like everything you type and,

if you type out what you want or what you need to say

and you hit play, and the voice sounds really sad.

And so people thought I was sad the whole time and I wasn't.

We ended up using that voice for the butter robot.

That's literally how I was talking.

If you listen to the butter robot

in that Rick and Morty episode,

that one famous Rick and Morty episode

with the butter robot, you know the one I'm talking about.

- What is my purpose?

- Pass the butter.

Thank you!

- That's literally what I sounded like for two weeks.

All because of Lemongrab.

- [screaming]

- There's only one way out of here.

- Through me!

[dramatic music]

Oh, ugh, sorry.

Come on.

Through me!

- Gravity Falls.

I knew Alex.

He was around when we were working on Fish Hooks,

he was literally like down the hall.

And he always had his door closed

and he was developing Gravity Falls in that room.

When they got going with the first season,

he had me come in and do a few different characters.

He knew he wanted me in there somewhere

and so it was just like, coming in and doing a voice

and then it wouldn't stick.

And then I'd come in and I think I did maybe two,

I can't remember what characters.

And then I came in and did Blendin and that one clicked.

It was like, okay, this one feels right.

That was fun.

It was fun to be that character because I knew,

there was a lot of stuff that that character

was involved in, a lot of Easter eggs,

like throughout the course of the season.

So that was really cool to be that character.

- Blendin Blenjamin Blandin!

How could you not know my name after you ruin my life?

- No you can't.

Jessica doesn't even know I exist.

But, but, but, but forget about that because

you can't blow up the planet--

- I get what you're trying to say, Morty.

Listen, I'm not, you don't, you don't gotta worry about me

trying to fool around with Jessica

or mess around with Jessica or anything--

- So Rick and Morty.

That was, the genesis of that obviously