- We collect special interest stuff.
You know, there's always that special interest section?
That's what we want.
- I want you to look at all of those wiggles.
- We have one video called 'Rent-A-Friend'
It's a guy who will be your friend
for 45 insane minutes.
He'll ask you a question,
he'll leave a space for you to answer,
and then he has a conversation with you.
- I want to be your friend.
How's that sound?
Great!
- I'm Joe, this is Nick.
This is our collection here of VHS tapes.
- Yeah, we've been collecting for 26 years.
These are all videos that weren't meant
to be shown in public.
So, there are things like exercise videos,
that's a whole category.
But with within that, we've got a section called 'ercise'
Which are all videos that had the word ercise in it.
So it would be like Protect-ercise
with self-defense exercise videos.
- We have a whole section over there
of scarf-tying videos. - Right.
- There's a whole row of all videos on how to tie a scarf.
- We have a category called 'Unusually Specific'
And that's all stuff like, we have one called
'How to Identify Machine-Made Marbles'
And it's like, what three people in the world
was that VHS tape made for?
- We have one 'How to Spot Counterfeit Beanie Babies'
- [Nick] Yeah.
- [Joe] I guess that was a problem.
- [Nick] In the early 90s that was just rampant.
- [Joe] It's a needle in a haystack
to find something that's good in the right way.
We have some rules, like it has to be unintentionally funny,
we have to find it physically in hand.
I mean, we put too many restrictions on ourselves.
But, when you find something that's gold?
- You can't wait to show it off to people.
- [Joe] VHS officially died in 2007.
The last plant that made VHS tape--
- [Nick] On a mass scale, yeah.
- Yeah, they're gone now,
so everything is at thrift stores now.
- [Joe] How's that?
- Yeah.
There's a lot of movies, but I think if you dig deep enough
there's some other stuff here.
You've just got to look through every single thing.
- Ooh, a white tape.
- [Nick] Wow.
- You only see that
with Barneys usually. - Yeah
- How many 'Land Before Time' movies
do you think there were?
- Uhh...
- Including straight to video.
- Oh.
Four?
- 14. - 14?
- 14. Yup.
I don't know why I was looking that up.
In 1991 I was working at a McDonald's in my hometown
and my friend was training to become a manager there,
and had to watch 30 different videos
on how to do everything at McDonald's.
And he told me to come into the break room one day
because there was a video called
'Inside and Outside Custodial Duties'
And, I watched it with him that day
and I could not believe how profoundly stupid it was.
And my thought was this can't stay in the break room,
like, Joe needs to see this.
- [Man] Finesse that wall.
That's the way!
Make it shine, guy, make it shine!
- That became a regular video we would screen
on a Friday night, and we had
this running commentary of jokes.
And that just got us thinking there has to be more videos
like this right under our noses in out-of-the-way places.
Oh yeah, I think we got a winner here:
Calvin Klein Men Fall 1997
- Yeah, there you go.
That's it.
- So, some kind of fashion show, and this is vintage 1997.
So, this one is I'm most excited about so far.
- Got another one.
Got another one.
'Balloonacy' - Oh?
- Two! (laughs)
- The sequels are never as good, but--
- Oh, look at the guy.
Oh, we have other videos of this guy.
- Cool.
- We have not even come close
to watching every single tape here.
I think we've probably watched, what, 35%?
- Yeah, a third, maybe?
Because it was a unique moment in time
for a technology, it reached market saturation.
Everybody had a VCR at one point,
and it was so cheap to produce VHS,
and that's why you got all these weird
esoteric things ending up on tape.
- [Joe] How much are VHS?
- [Cashier] $2 each.
See? Good price.
Good price. - Yeah.
- We've been doing the touring show for 14 years now.
It's Nick and I giving a guided tour
of our latest, greatest finds.
- [Nick] Which, we used to do it in my parents' living room
or our college dorm room, apartments,
and now we're able to do that all over the world.
- [Joe] I think about three years into it, for me,
I think that my parents were confused
like, how I made money.
Now they're just like Oh, okay, he has this weird job.
And I think it's harder to explain to like, aunts and uncles
who are just like, 'So what are you doing?'
It's like, sit down. - Yeah.
- [Joe] It's hard to explain.
- I think my grandparents went to their graves
not understanding what I did.
(Joe laughs)
- [Joe] I think 10-year-old me, if he came into this room
and saw everything, he'd be like,
You made it.
- [Nick] It all paid off.
- You did it. - Yeah.
- I tip my hat to you, older Joe.
- [Nick] We just don't know how to do anything else.
- We really don't (laughs).
- That's the honest answer.
This is our skill set.
- We're in way too deep. - Yeah.