(mouse clicks)
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
♪ (children's music) ♪
- (gasps) YAY!!!
- This is "Shoes"! Yes!
- "Shoes." (gasps emotionally)
- Oh my gosh. - Oh my god.
(both chuckle) - I remember this. This is a classic.
- (father, monotonously) Happy birthday, twins.
- (boy) A computer! And a car!
- Liam Kyle Sullivan, one of the original YouTube heroes.
- What IS Liam doing these days?
- (father) ...open your presents. - (chuckles)
- (father) Go ahead and open your presents.
♪ (children's song continues in background) ♪
- It's a big dinosaur! I knew that.
- (girl) What the hell?
- I feel like I'm supposed to know who this is.
- (mother) What'd you expect? "Con-dams"?
- (laughs abruptly)
- (mother) What'd you expect?
"Con-dams"? - "Con-dams."
- (laughs) - (boy) Nice present, Kelly.
- (reciting along) "I'm gonna bitch-slap you, you shit bag."
- (cracks up) - (mother) Stop fighting.
You two are twins. - This is my comedy inspiration.
- (father) Kelly, where are you going? - Oh, Kelly.
- (Kelly) Out.
- (mother) Whore.
- (father) Kelly, what are you gonna do
with your life? - "With your life."
- (Kelly) I'm going to get what I want. - Get it, girl.
- Here it comes. Oh!
- (Kelly) ♪ Shoes ♪ - There you go.
- (Kelly) ♪ Shoes ♪
♪ (repetitive pop beat) ♪ ♪ Shoes ♪
- (singing along) ♪ Oh my god ♪ - (Kelly) ♪ Shoes ♪
♪ Let's get some shoes ♪
- Oh my god, this is-- this is YouTube.
- This video was like my anthem for all of 2007.
- This is straight-up O.G. You know, like O.G. YouTuber.
- (Kelly) ♪ Let's get some shoes ♪ ♪ (dramatic echo) ♪
♪ Shoes ♪ - (snickers)
That's from "Simply Irresistible," Robert Palmer.
- (Kelly) ♪ These shoes rule ♪
- (singing along) ♪ These shoes suck ♪
- (Kelly) ♪ These shoes rule ♪ - My favorite part.
- (Kelly) ♪ These shoes suck! ♪ ♪ (harsh chord) ♪
- (singing along) ♪ These shoes rule ♪
♪ These shoes suck, blblblblblbl ♪
- (Kelly) ♪ Oh my god ♪ - I don't think I have seen Liam since--
we did a Weezer video together in 2008.
- (Kelly) ♪ These shoes suck ♪
- Tell us about the next shoes. - (Kelly) ♪ These shoes suck ♪
♪ These shoes suck! ♪ ♪ (harsh chord) ♪
- Heh. - (Kelly) ♪ These shoes are $300 ♪
♪ These shoes are 300 [bleep] dollars ♪ - (chuckles)
- (singing along) ♪ Let's get 'em ♪
♪ (mellow trance music) ♪
- And that robot costume belonged to Margaret Cho's husband.
- (woman) ♪ This style runs small ♪
♪ I don't think you're gonna fit ♪
- Ooh, hoo-hoo. - (woman) ♪ I mean your feet are ♪
♪ Kinda big ♪ - Rachel nailed that.
- (Kelly) ♪ Oh ♪
- And here's when she loses it. - (Kelly) ♪ Oh ♪
♪ Oh, by the way, betch ♪
♪ [BLEEP] YOU ♪
- (singing along) ♪ [BLEEP] YOU ♪
- (Kelly) ♪ [BLEEP] YOU ♪ - So random.
- (Kelly) ♪ [BLEEP] YOU ♪
- I don't remember this part!
- Why are there marshmallows on hula hoops?
- (sighs) That scene was-- it was so fun to shoot.
- I love the flame, but nothing is connected in this video.
♪ (screech) ♪
- (clapping)
- I feel so happy. Heh.
- Whatch'y'all know about that?
Y'all don't know nothing about some shoes.
- What happened to that guy? I don't even know.
- This is like one of the very first videos I ever watched,
and it changed me as a person.
- It's classic YouTube right there.
That-- that is what built this platform.
- (Finebros) When was the last time you watched that
all the way through?
- All the way through... (exhales) years.
It's been years. (laughs)
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
- (Finebros) Okay, so have you ever seen this video before?
- Oh, have I.
- Oh yeah, YouTube classic.
- Probably one of the first people
to have a really big viral video
that had everybody quoting it all the time.
- Liam Kyle Sullivan, he was a huge inspiration to me
and still is to this day. I mean, he was one of the first--
He was one of the first comedians to use YouTube
as the platform in which to build an audience off of.
- That is the first video on YouTube I think I ever watched.
It was exactly what I wanted to do.
When I was in high school, I'd put on dresses and wigs
and play characters, and I thought it was so weird
and nobody would like it.
And then I saw that, and it went viral. And he was my hero.
- (Finebros) Can you share with us the story
of how you came up with Kelly? - Well, Kelly, uh...
Back in the day, as they say, I was doing sketch comedy,
and then so I had a bunch of characters.
Kelly was-- she just came out of me kind of talking to myself.
I imagined having braces and what it would be like
to talk with braces on.
And I just (as Kelly) was pulling my face back like this,
and that's how the voice-- "Shut up!"-- just came from that.
- (Finebros) So this was made by a YouTuber
named Liam Kyle Sullivan. - Liam. Where are you, Liam?
- (Finebros) Since its release over 10 years ago...
- Ugh! "Shoes" is almost a preteen.
- (Finebros) It has over 58 million views. - Oh my god. (giggles)
- (Finebros) Why do you think this was so popular
back 10 years ago? - It's just super random.
It's stupid and expressive all at the same time.
- There wasn't really stuff like it, I feel, back then.
- It's just very Internet
before Internet realized what that meant.
- The early days of YouTube is when
that sort of absurd, disconnected random kind of humor
was coming out, and "Shoes" was just the nucleus of that.
- (Finebros) So what was it like when this video become
one of the biggest things on the Internet at the time?
- It was bizarre. It freaked me out,
because I didn't know what YouTube was. I really-- I had no clue.
"Shoes" was all over. "Muffins" was all over too.
And it was like, "Oh, okay. There it all is."
Like, it was a different, totally-- it was different.
- (Finebros) This video was named of the best videos of all time
by Time magazine. - It was?? When?
- (Finebros) It was part of their top 50 in 2010.
- (chortles)
- (Finebros) Liam won a People's Choice Award even way back then
for the best web video of the year. - I know, because I was
nominated for that People's Choice Award,
and that's why I'm still just a nominee.
- (Finebros) How big of a deal is it that someone
crossed over a little bit that many years ago?
- That's a huge deal.
- Oh, that's big. - He was probably one of the first
to do that. And people are still trying to do that today.
- He really pioneered the whole concept
of becoming a viral star in a way.
- To see somebody do something online and then be on TV,
that was like the dream.
- He was one of the first people
to kind of show that it was possible,
that someone could create something online and still have
the potential to create some dope shit off of YouTube too.
- I feel like our space has had these waves
of traditional being kind of intrigued
then be like, nah, nah, nah.
They've transitioned in, I think, the right way
of supporting the actual creator a little bit more in ways.
And now I think it's a little more undeniable.
- (Finebros) In today's world, it's not as uncommon
for online crossovers to happen.
But how do you think people viewed internet stars in 2007,
when they still sometimes don't view them perfectly now?
- I almost feel like they were viewed a little bit better.
They were like, "Oh, YouTube, that site where you watch people
be funny and make a little skit."
- I feel like back then if you were popular on the internet,
you were just popular on the internet.
Now if you're a YouTuber and go into a mall, it's kinda like...
"Wait, you did that weird video."
- Traditional media is still trying to treat online stars
as like, "Oh, you're welcome that we put you in our feature."
- There's real actual comedy that exists on YouTube.
And people like Liam at the time,
I think, were challenging traditional comedians.
- In 2007, the Internet still got no respect.
I could go to a major agency in L.A. in 2007 and say,
"Hey look, I have big numbers on the Internet."
And they'd go, "Well, where are your TV credits?"
- I think then, it was like, "What is it?"
But now people are like, "Oh no, here's a pile of cash."
(chuckles) "Please." (chuckles) "Make stuff for us."
- (Finebros) So despite the success of "Shoes," a few years ago,
Liam stopped posting content to YouTube.
What do you think about that? - Oh, he can do what he wants.
If it doesn't bring him joy anymore, why do it?
- Maybe it's like a Harper Lee thing, you know what I mean?
You're so popular, and then you don't want to fail,
so you just stop.
- I think he probably wanted to keep making that kind of stuff,
and YouTube wasn't taking that kind of stuff anymore.
- Maybe the success that we see
wasn't actually bringing in enough for him to be sustainable.
Who knows? Or maybe he just lost passion.
- It's just changed so much.
It lost its excitement of new and fresh
and contributing something that hadn't been done.
- It was wrong for him to stop, because I think he is so talented
he could've just evolved it into something else.
Kelly could come back and be a Miranda Sings.
And everybody would collab with Kelly, 'cause we all love Kelly.
(imploring) Kelly, come back!
- I almost feel like interviewing him or just talking.
Hopefully you have him reacting to this.
- When I was looking at all the stuff that YouTube provides,
like you can look at who's watching and when they stop watching.
And with that in my head,
I became like, um...
like an executive, thinking business rather than creative.
I could never really get back to that kind of like,
"All right, guys. We're gonna make a video! Isn't this cool?"
It was all-- it became much more of a business.
- (Finebros) With some people, there's like a mystique
around what you've been doing since you've stopped posting.
- Oh really?
Well, I have a family.
I have a daughter. She's three. She just turned three.
I worked on MyMusic. I work for Defy Media.
I'm doing some acting. I'm doing some stand-up.
Just to keep something going creative in myself.
- (Finebros) So do you think that Liam
should come back to YouTube?
- Everybody should come back to YouTube.
- I know a lot of people miss him, and I know that the Internet
is waiting with open arms for his return.
- Yes! Can we start a petition? Liam, come back to YouTube.
- Why not come back to where you came from, bro,
and help us create more good content?
- This is my official plea to you. Please come back to YouTube.
Play with characters. Inspire me.
- Liam, if you're watching this, please come back.
(getting excited) Oh my god. Oh my god.
Me and Kelly, and we could do some kind of video together.
And then, oh my god, me and Kelly could make out.
♪ (love ballad music) ♪ And then, oh my god, me and Kelly
could make sweet love.
- (Finebros) So last question about "Shoes."
In terms of the history of web video,
what do you think the legacy of "Shoes" is?
- I mean, it's one of the biggest YouTube videos
I could remember from that time.
- If I go up to anyone around my age and go, "Shoes,"
they'll go, "Yeah."
- I think of Liam and that video as an era,
as a good representative of that era.
- I think "Shoes" is gonna be forever
in the time capsule of YouTube.
- He was doing high-brow stupidity.
And now people eat baby food out of diapers.
Liam, the Internet needs you.
- I don't think he is capable of being aware
of how much of an impact he has made,
because that video has inspired me, my friends.
I know it's inspired a lot of other YouTubers.
- (Finebros) So the YouTubers in this episode
talked about this video as being
one of the most important in YouTube history.
And some specifically even mentioned how you inspired them
to do what they do on YouTube. - I mean, that's incredible.
Ah, wow.
That's amazing. That's... that's incredible.
I remember meeting Bruce McCulloch from Kids in the Hall.
It was guys like that that inspired me.
To think that, I don't know, people might think that about me
is very... um...
It's nice. It's really nice. Heh-heh.
- Thanks for watching this episode of YouTubers React, betch.
- Let us know in the comments below
what other YouTube viral video we should react to next.
- Subscribe to this betch and this betch
and this betch over here.
- (both blow kisses) ♪ Goodbyyyye! ♪
♪ (end music) ♪