if you've consumed any media in the last
70 years there's a good chance you've
heard this voice
sound man being eaten by alligator was
recorded for Distant Drums in 1951 for a
scene where a guy randomly drowns all by
himself
this recording then became part of the
library of sound effects people at Super
warnio Brothers used another screen from
that recording then appeared in 1953's
the charge at Feather River where a
certain private Wilhelm gets shot by an
arrow
[Music]
they also use it like two more times in
the same movie
sound designer Ben Burt noticed this
reuse and started reusing it himself in
student films because he thought it was
funny as a silly little joke he hid it
in the background of a B-movie he was
hired to work on
oops looks like culture has been changed
forever
[Music]
had accidentally started a career
long-running joke
in his big cameo in Jedi he does an
impression of the scream when he gets
killed by an OSHA violating guard rail
foreign other people started using it
too and now it's everywhere
[Music]
getting in on someone else's in-joke
kind of risks ruining it but I wouldn't
know anything about that
and there's a bunch of other iconic
screams like this
oh Jesus Christ like with Wilhelm the
source of these sounds are usually well
documented that scream comes from a
popular sound effects library and while
we're ruining things those sheep slash
goats screaming like a human videos you
love so much
yeah they're all fake that's just a
sound that comes free with Apple
software
you're welcome but for over a decade one
sound's original Source was unknown this
one
this is all over internet video nowadays
but where's it from most people under a
certain age are yelling Roblox at the
screen right now Roblox is a free online
game slash platform people can make
additional content and games for and
they can even monetize what they make
for a pittance according to YouTube
journalists people make games Roblox
developers receive less than 25 of the
money from sales of content they make
this has led to the ROBLOX Corporation
attaining a net worth of roughly seven
quad billion dollars and one of if not
the most iconic things about this game
is its death sound effect also known as
the Roblox oof videos of just this sound
get millions upon millions of views it
has its own separate existence as a meme
across thousands of videos and one video
claiming to be its origin has 117
million views shockingly close to the
lifetime views of my entire channel oh
this sound effect is a phenomenon but
it's not from Roblox and this child is a
liar
now I haven't played Roblox I play
mature games for grown-ups like fortnite
when I was the age Roblox would have
definitely controlled my life it was
instead being controlled by stop-motion
animation and then later by Gary's mod a
game which did not monetize its content
in increasingly horrifying ways
transforming his community into a
digital Sweatshop but I'm sure the new
way is fine too so no I haven't played
Roblox but I have played Messiah
[Music]
Messiah was released in the year 2000
and developed by shiny entertainment
they made Path of Neo so they're insane
and I love them you play as a cute
little cherub named Bob who gets blasted
down to earth to help out this is the
best opening cut scene ever Bob has no
combat abilities whatsoever instead
though he can possess other people
you know in real life a huge portion of
the Angels who come to earth end up in
the bodies of police officers it's true
Google 40 cops Bob can possess basically
any living thing including rats when the
developers feel like making you save
scum the player is constantly switching
bodies using their different abilities
credentials and weapons the pacing is
Breakneck because doing so doesn't slow
you down I played messiah in the
mid-2000s when I found it in a Christian
charity shop I assume they didn't see
the words sex religion possession death
on the cover and then I threw it away I
bought this copy on eBay to use as a
prop I have to get this out for the rest
of the video now that and a decade
passes and in a random YouTube video I
hear a familiar sound
people tell me it's from Roblox but I
swear I've heard it somewhere else
obviously I immediately forgot about it
and moved on with my life until 2019
when someone else figured it out use a
plasma node on Reddit was watching the
ending cinematic on YouTube for some
reason and noticed a very familiar sound
he posted his discovery on Reddit along
with a clip from the ending someone
stole and reposted his clip on Twitter a
large Roblox YouTuber made a video about
that tweet and then journalists started
picking up on it although the Articles
do credit the wrong person with the
discovery because they're one source is
a video that got it wrong why did the
sound get so popular anyway well if TV
has taught me anything children being
injured is just universally funny let's
not think about what that says about us
here's an interesting fact which I hope
justifies me playing the entire game in
preparation for this video everyone
involved seems to think the sound effect
is specifically in the ending but it's
actually all over the game you can fly
around and flap your little wings to
float and whenever you slam into a wall
Bob makes a noise and that's one of the
noises it's also in the opening cut
scene too
it's kind of funny it was discovered in
the ending the last possible place you
would hear it if you played the game
interestingly enough there was proof in
Roblox the sound was from Messiah all
along and no one thought to check you
see sound files have this thing in them
called metadata it's extra information
that comes with a file you know album
art list of the artists and people who
worked on it and so on you know those
pirated Weird Al Yankovic albums your
friend gave you when you were 14. that's
why the album art was in there it was in
the metadata I think that anecdote might
be a bit too specific the oof sound in
roblox's game files ER dot wav has
metadata in it saying it was made in
1999 while Messiah was being made with
the engineer listed as Joey kurus Joey
chorus is an extremely prolific video
game sound designer he's worked on Tony
Hawk's Pro Skater Spider-Man Gears of
War and even fortnite that clip I showed
earlier that wasn't just me showing off
my six skills that was a clever setup
for this bit no it wasn't actually I
wrote a fortnight joke and then it
turned out he'd worked on fortnite still
and here's Joey on page xxxvi of
messiah's manual as one of the sound
effects guys
see look see I don't have a camera
person this time so I'll have to cut to
a close-up that I shot later uh Rachel
stopped responding when she found out
what the video was about so there we go
we know where the sound effect was from
we even have a good idea who might have
made it mystery solved we can all go
home to our families just kidding
there's more that's only the beginning
of the story you were
I can't say that we haven't even talked
about who owns the sound effect yet it
doesn't belong to Joey it belongs to the
company he was working for when it was
made Tommy talarico Studios along with
its owner Tommy I don't need to say his
name is he named a studio after himself
are you ready
yeah
Tommy talarico is a veritable video game
industry icon according to the first
line of his biography on his website I
wouldn't personally go that far but he
was a fairly well-known musician and
composer for video games in the 90s and
2000s his most notable soundtracks
include Earthworm Jim MDK and Advent
Rising his company was involved with the
sound effects on lots of other games
from this period too that's why if
you're my age or older this is burned
into your brain
Tommy Talerico Studios he was also on TV
on the show's Electric Playground and
Judgment Day some of the earliest shows
about video games reviewing new releases
and interviewing developers if you were
around for a certain era of game history
you'll remember Tommy from TV or played
something his company worked on he also
co-founded Video Games Live which
produced Symphony performances of
popular video game soundtracks vgl is
universally recognized among Gamers as a
thing they think they remember hearing
about that seems nice through royalties
from his company's work over the years
Tommy's doing pretty well for himself
and he spent his money on living in a
very interesting house it has themed
rooms a Spider-Man room full of all the
original Comics probably have about
fifty thousand dollars in your hands
right there giant statues of Lara Croft
and The Fifth Element lady an ancient
Egypt themed dining room the list goes
on the first thing I I built in my house
when I bought this was a seven foot
waterfall but it kind of sucks because
at night sometimes I have to go to the
bathroom and Tommy is proud of his
insane mansion that's why I've got so
much footage of it he's given numerous
tours of the place over the years and it
was even on MTV's cribs he's so proud of
that he re-uploaded it to his own
YouTube channel years later he's very
happy about the fact he was specifically
on MTV's cribs he says it a lot in
interviews and that's what he calls the
video he uploaded onto his own channel
and there's no way he would tell an
obvious lie like that would he
foreshadowing is a literary device in
which he also re-uploaded an old UK show
where the presenter clearly hates his
house this is absolutely hideous you've
got to sort yourself out Tommy you've
got too much money this is silly it's
not right no but it is there's children
starving and if you're the sort of
person who's impressed by Guinness World
Records Tommy has a huge stack of them
leaning up against a cabinet in the
corner of his Awards slash Indiana Jones
Nook the big one is person who has
worked on the most video games in their
lifetime I actually have the Guinness
World Record for the person who's worked
on the most video games in their
lifetime he's such a big deal he was
hand-picked by Shigeru Miyamoto to work
on Metroid Prime Metroid Prime with
Shigeru Miyamoto I worked with him for
uh many years and he was also the first
American to work on the Sonic the
Hedgehog franchise I was the first
American ever hired uh to work on the
Sonic franchise can you believe that
can you believe that
do you really believe that Tommy's been
kind of resting on his Laurels doing
Video Games Live for a while now he
hasn't done much new music for games
since the late 2000s one of the last
things he did was donate music to Super
tofu boy a game made by Peter it's a
really bad Super Meat Boy clone
interspersed with quite good music and
interesting meat facts listen Peter I've
eaten a lot of tofu but meat doesn't
scream either if it did people would
probably stop eating it Tommy is a vocal
Peter supporter doing an interview for
them in the Egyptian wing of his house
about cruelty to animals and put out a
statement on Facebook responding to
criticism of his involvement with tofu
boy it's the only press release I've
ever read that has emoticons in it
we can't really talk about Tommy without
talking about what he was doing while
the oof was being discovered Tommy is
most well known nowadays for what has
become known as the amiko disaster in
2018 Tommy acquired the rights to
intellivision a game company from the
70s and 80s and announced he was making
a brand new console the intellivision
amiko amiko aimed to be a truly
family-friendly games console with low
age ratings on its games and the bonus
selling point of uh not having online
play apparently to get people playing in
the same room together together again oh
some people would tell you online play
is one of the best features of modern
gaming and a nice option for people who
can't easily be physically next to each
other and to that Tommy's reply was no
when I was growing up in the 70s 80s and
even when I was working in the game
Industries in the 90s you know we didn't
have the internet right with this pitch
in hand how did the Amico do it didn't
it was delayed supposedly due to the
global pandemic but then it was delayed
many more times and it still isn't out
two years after the intended launch it
seems less like unfortunate supply chain
issues and more like management
underestimated how hard it is to make a
new game console from scratch as CEO
Tommy made the decision to open two
company offices in Irvine California and
Salt Lake City Utah two really expensive
places to open offices in the middle of
the pandemic in his video tours the
large expensive spaces are mostly empty
and unused with the money guy in the
back looking like he's working overtime
trying to keep this operation afloat
without a finished product this is where
the magic is if Tommy wants money this
is this is in this box is where it all
at as the money started to run out they
turned to crowdfunding investment
website fig Tommy produced a video in
his Spider-Man room with other company
leadership in his Egypt room and Tomb
Raider themed movie theater room
claiming the console just needs a bit
more money to get going and releases
just around the corner the rocket ship
has been built we are on the launch pad
and we just need the fuel to take off so
strap yourself in because it's going to
be one hell of a ride they raised seven
million more dollars and the Amico steel
didn't come out so they tried again
turning to Second crowdfunding
investment website Republic they even
used the same pitch video come on guys
the rocket ship just needs a couple more
million dollars strap yourself in they
raised over 11 and a half million more
dollars so they could continue to not
release a console they tried a third
time on a weird Shady investor website
that pretends to be a live stream but is
clearly pre-recorded the rocket ship is
built folks we are on the launch pad we
just need a little more fuel and then
they turned to yet another crowdfunding
website for more and canceled it part
way through when it became clear there's
no one left to invest when internal
documents leaked revealing the console's
internal Hardware was cheap old and
rubbish Tommy threatened people who
reported on it with legal action and
when another journalist asked what the
reporters had done wrong reporting
publicly available info Nation he
deleted all the tweets the amico's
difficult non-launch gleeful tossing of
investor money into two large holes
there's not too many people here in the
office yet and its CEOs increasingly
aggressive behavior towards people
trying to report what was happening
netted the company and Tommy some
criticisms Tommy did the responsible
thing and started messaging people to
call them names he defended the Amico on
internet forums calling detractors
morons idiots mentally unstable
narcissists and cowards comparing
criticism of his business decisions to
racism eventually settling on calling
his detractors gaming racists the
funniest term I've ever heard but these
elitists they're racists they're
literally gaming racists he did this
while following a bunch of actual
racists white supremacists and far-right
personalities on Twitter this caused
people to check for his other hot takes
and discover his opinion on people who
kneel for the national anthem apparently
racism is bad but protesting it is for
douchebags somebody just said sound like
a social justice Warrior you couldn't be
farther from the truth and I'm the most
unpolitically correct person on the
planet don't call me an sjw you have no
idea how racist I am people are saying I
got triggered no I'm just having fun and
being passionate the folks in there that
are that are that are peeing their pants
right now things just got worse from
there it hit the point where Tommy the
CEO of a family-friendly games console
company in desperate need of investment
would only give interviews with an Ever
dwindling group of Die Hard fans who
completely agreed with this Behavior the
kind of normal person who wear a serial
killer mask while they interview you my
wife told me to cancel my amigo and I
still did not this is one of the last
people Tommy was willing to speak to and
then if you want to hear me
um uh Pawn some noobs and um and and
punch back at some haters
follow me on Twitter Tommy talarico and
uh you know I don't mind punching back
to some of these losers he has since
stepped down as CEO with his replacement
announcing the company is entering a
quiet period which is a hell of a sub
tweet if I've ever seen one the Amico
still isn't out and a lot of people want
their money back
[Music]
in the middle of all this right before
the first big delay before things got
super bad back when Tommy had a
reputation to burn the oof Discovery was
made due to his contract with shiny
entertainment Tommy talarico Studios
owns all the sound effects he and his
employees made for the game shiny could
use them in Messiah but they belong to
Tommy and he can use them again or sell
them if he wishes and when Tommy found
out a sound effect he owned was being
used in Roblox oh boy did the butter
begin to churn Tommy stepped up to the
plate and did a stream on YouTube called
talking about the Roblox oof sound and
controversy it's hard going back to this
stream because he spends a good chunk of
it pitching a soon to be released game
console that still doesn't exist we're
actually coming out with a brand new
video game machine it's called the
intellivision amiko we actually don't
allow online play it's weirdly
anxiety-inducing watching a man in
January 2020 right before a global
pandemic pitching a console whose
Central feature is trash wrapping people
in a room together everybody can kind of
come together and play in the same room
together
but when he wasn't pitching his scam
adjacent business venture Tommy was
demanding Roblox give him 100 million
dollars
[Music]
okay for legal reasons I'd like to
specify that was a joke he didn't ask
for that much
probably he didn't say how much he
wanted
almost like he was embarrassed to Tommy
made it clear he didn't want Roblox to
remove the sound he wanted them to keep
using it but to pay him for it and if
they didn't things were going to court
they may think that um you know I'm
trying to get the sound taken out of the
game I'm not they may think that I'm
currently suing Roblox I'm not currently
but it's also not fair to me that I
don't get compensated for for this this
situation is legally speaking very funny
allow me to pretend I understand it for
a few minutes a key Point here is at
least as far as I can tell so probably
wrong Tommy isn't owed any compensation
according to Roblox the oof came on a CD
of sound effects the original creators
purchased when they were making the game
in the mid-2000s if this is true they
used the sound with the reasonable
belief they had the right to do so at
the time whoever took the sound out of
Messiah and sold it on a CD could be in
trouble but the two guys who started
Roblox in two thousand 6 didn't do
anything wrong
apart from create Roblox okay I've
spoken to a couple of lawyers after
filming this bit should have done
beforehand really and they clarified
something I think I should add here
about them not doing anything wrong they
did still technically do copyright
infringement if you use a sound effect
you bought from someone and it turns out
they stole it and lied to you you're
still guilty of copyright infringement
however if this actually went to court
there is something called the innocent
infringer defense if an infringer can
demonstrate they had no reason to
believe they had committed copyright
infringement and it looks like Roblox
might be able to do that the court can
reduce the statutory damages to as low
as 200 per infringement there are other
types of Damages like actual damages the
losses suffered by the owner as a result
of the infringement but that's something
that could only be answered in a
courtroom as you're about to see however
Roblox directly told Tommy they don't
think they owe him anything so it sounds
like they think they have a good defense
if things go to court in these tweets a
few days before the stream Tommy seems a
bit annoyed that no one owes him money
although in his version Roblox feel like
they don't owe him anything
which is a strange way of describing a
large corporation I think what Tommy
means is roblox's lawyers know what the
law is but he still would like to have
some money all Roblox are required to do
in this situation is remove the sound
and Tommy could send a cease and desist
and Trigger that happening whenever he
wanted I could have sent a letter very
easy cease and desist stop using the
sound it's mine you don't have
permission to use it take it out of your
game but Tommy isn't doing that because
he doesn't want it taken out Tommy wants
money if he can get them to keep it in
and pay him a license fee to use it or
just buy the sound off him outright he
could make a lot of money I'd rather
them just uh pay me and them own the
sound forever so that it stays in the
game Tommy cannot stress enough how much
he doesn't want Roblox to remove the
sound because that's how he makes money
from this uh I never asked Roblox to
remove the sound I don't want it to be
removed I I haven't told them to take
the sound out of the game I want to keep
the sound in the game so and Roblox
probably wants to keep the immensely
popular sound in their game however they
are a business their ultimate goal is to
keep as much of their money as possible
a majority of roblox's income comes from
underpaying the people who actually make
the game's content how much do you think
they're willing to pay for 0.3 seconds
of a child saying ow especially when
they could replace it for free your
Roblox could remove the sound tomorrow
if they wanted to so when Tommy
approached them asking for money Roblox
offered him less we approached Roblox we
said hey there's a situation and we're
gonna ask for this much Roblox said
we think you should get this much so so
you know this much is what we think just
to put it in plain English the purpose
of this stream is for Tommy to complain
that Roblox will not offer him enough
money to buy a sound effect fact they
don't need I think they're they're nuts
and disrespectful
to me this is an all-time classic
talarico moment right here complaining
about respect while calling someone nuts
and asking them for more money it's just
incredible I'm hoping that we can come
together I don't know maybe somewhere in
the middle uh to make everyone happy one
question really starts to stand out in
this 90-minute stream how much money
does he want he's very careful to never
say how much he thinks the sound effect
is worth how much he asked for or how
much they offered him and I ca I can't
people are going to say well how much
did you ask for her look you have to
understand that is that it is not
professional of me to go around stating
how much money I'm asking and how much
they are offering just to be clear
unless there's some kind of
non-disclosure agreement which he
probably would have said if there was
there isn't anything actually stopping
Tommy from saying how much he wants for
the sound effect the amiko Saga has
proven irrefutably that Tommy doesn't
not caring the slightest about appearing
professional that excuse doesn't work
he's choosing not to say it and getting
increasingly defensive as viewers keep
asking and he runs out of explanations
to be honest none of your day in
business no no how much did you say for
them to pay for the oof sound okay well
I've already I've already gone over that
that I I can't talk about that to an
outside Observer and the chat whose
questions he was dodging it started to
feel like Tommy just wanted a
embarrassingly large amount of money for
a single sound effect and knew that it
would make him look really greedy if he
said it people are never gonna know you
know what it is and and there doesn't
need to be uh that knowledge he's in the
fascinatingly awkward position of not
being able to say how much he wants even
though that's what the stream is about
it would be unprofessional to talk about
that
um but I think I did describe that it's
um a lot more than what you know they
were offering which was
barely anything at all I think it's
worth asking how much barely anything is
to a millionaire with a dedicated
Spider-Man room and an indoor waterfall
in his Mansion everyone should have a
seven foot waterfall I think installed
in your room but the thing that's kind
of bad about it is that at night I
always have to go to the bathroom wait a
minute didn't he already make that joke
later in the Stream he started taking
questions and someone asked him to give
the ratio how different the counter
offer was Tommy percentage-wise how far
is Roblox offer compared to what you ask
for at least a hundred times
less so that you know if they offered me
one dollar
I'm asking for a hundred dollars so you
know if they offered me a thousand
dollars
that means I'm asking for a hundred
thousand dollars right so that's how far
it is off I find it very curious that he
will say how much he asked for but only
in the form of a riddle even more
curiously he uses very small amounts of
money as examples he chooses not to say
for example if they offered me 50 Grand
that means I asked for 5 million dollars
or if they offered me a hundred grand
okay I can see why he didn't and I hope
they come to their senses and I know
they're they're probably watching I
don't know maybe they're not it's
Saturday morning so that was the
situation in January 2020. Roblox were
offering to buy the sound Tommy wanted
100 times more money than they were
offering and if things didn't go his way
he was threatening to take things to
court you know I have attorneys uh that
I have I have teams of attorneys I
easily have about 20 different lawyers
it's just a difference of opinion on
whether or not I helped to bring
millions of people to their game uh or
not and what that is worth that last
thing is I think why Tommy thinks he can
ask for whatever massive amount of money
he won't say in his mind this one sound
effect single-handedly launched the
Roblox franchise but the idea is is that
this is a sound
that helped to create the franchise
right some may say even that the reason
Roblox is as popular as it is now maybe
because
of the fact that so many people share
this oof sound so some may say Tommy you
don't need to launder your arguments
like that you are the one saying that
right now this is something that helped
to create the franchise itself it's made
the game Roblox go supersonic it was
part of the reason how many millions of
people found out about the game Roblox
because of a meme that have that use
because of the sound right we think
we're asking for something extremely
Fair considering what it is done for the
franchise these claims are hilarious
exaggerated but most of all wrong take
the sound effects from Minecraft that
are really popular and people use a lot
in videos too they have a huge presence
online as well but they didn't make
Minecraft popular they're popular
because they're in a game millions of
children have played the Roblox oof took
off in mid-2017 when Roblox was already
a pretty mainstream thing the cause and
effect is completely backwards here
while it might not be entirely
impossible for a single sound effect to
make a game very popular I would like to
remind everyone that this sound effect
was already in a game and that game was
such a massive critical and Commercial
failure that no one noticed the sound
effect had been stolen for 20 [ __ ]
years come on bud Roblox didn't become a
multi-billion dollar company because of
a sound effect they got there by being
evil speaking of evil Roblox eventually
worked with Tommy to turn all of this
into a whole new way of monetizing their
empire of nightmares instead of paying
Tommy for the sound they're making the
players pay for it in November 2020
Roblox announced the oof sound was going
to be removed but they were updating
their developer Marketplace so players
could purchase sounds to use in their
games and once this update date was
complete the oof sound could be
purchased and used through there I
assume Tommy would get a cut from this
simultaneously Tommy announced he had
produced a sound effects pack for
creators to use in their Roblox games
including the oof I have done a brand
new sound design Library just for Roblox
creators could buy a range of sound
effects packs costing from 10 to 250 and
use these in the games they make Roblox
and Tommy agreed to keep the sound in
the game as is for a while so the sound
Marketplace had time to get up and
running and no one had to go oofless in
the meantime but this functionality
still hasn't been added a year and a
half later eventually in July this year
Roblox citing a licensing issue removed
the sound and replaced it with this one
which is rubbish frankly but it might be
bad on purpose to incentivize paying to
replace it once they get the marketplace
up so clever move I guess you bags of
scum Tommy also got to make some
official oof merch so that was nice for
him I suppose I've created an oof
t-shirt it doesn't look like he got the
massive payday he wanted especially
since the audio Marketplace hasn't
manifested yet but at least he got
something out of it so there we go
wasn't that an interesting story that's
the end of the video essay don't look at
the run time don't worry about it don't
worry about it if you came here to find
the origins of a sound effect you can go
subscribe on the way out if you'd like
but take care go play Roblox or
something
and uh Tommy I know you're watching I've
seen you arguing with people in the
comments of videos with a hundred views
you can go as well go do whatever it is
you do in your fun house I'm just
chilling out
see ya
[Music]
okay I think they're gone
this video is being filmed in an
undisclosed location to avoid being
traced also mum went on holiday and she
locked the garage so I can't get to my
set and no I have no idea why the back
wall of this room is also green the last
guy who lived here had terrible taste
anyway I think he's gone
okay we need to talk about Tommy this is
where the video was supposed to finish
so I was writing up the script and doing
a bit more research and then I
re-watched Tommy's E3 2021 pitch for the
amiko and I realized something he takes
credit for creating the oof in a very
particular way I'm even the guy who did
the oof sound for Roblox he made the
sound for Roblox I thought I misheard
him or maybe he misspoke but no that's
how he says it the thing that you might
know me the most from is the guy who
created the Beloved oof sound for Roblox
that's right the sound wasn't made for
Roblox it was made for another game and
reused by mistake that's what this whole
thing was about Tommy he said that one
in the commercial for his sound design
kits he's selling to put it back in the
game why is he saying it like that well
obviously the idea he made it for Roblox
this massive important Corporation is
slightly more prestigious less than the
truth isn't it so he's slightly altering
the story to give himself a bit more
credit and that's fine like whatever who
cares but then I thought you know for a
sound with another guy's name on it he
seems pretty happy to say he personally
made it four Roblox from an outsider's
perspective it looks a bit like Tommy is
taking credit for something someone who
worked for him did decades later and
yeah sure my script was almost done but
I couldn't let that possibility sit
unexplored so I tried to figure out who
actually made the sound and what I
discovered was
interesting and then a bunch more other
[ __ ] happened and now the video is this
long I'm so sorry
yes Joey's name is on the file but that
doesn't necessarily mean he created it
if he did the final exporting of the
sounds Talerico Studios made for messiah
his audio program would put his name on
them regardless of who recorded edited
or mastered them instead let's look at
how Tommy talks about who made it let's
rewind the clock a little back in 2019
Tommy quote tweeted that one video that
was a repost of the thing plasma node
put on Reddit he indicates that his
company created and owns the sounds used
for messiah and that the sound effects
was created by my lead sound designer
Joey kuros notice that he specifically
doesn't say that he made it he says his
company created and owns it and then
specifically credits Joey implying
little to no direct personal involvement
I believe this version of Tommy's story
is true however soon after writing this
to put it bluntly it looks like Tommy
realized how popular the sound was he
said in many places including the live
stream that he didn't really know that
much about Roblox until he found out one
of his sounds was in it so on a timeline
it looks like he wrote that tweet and
then started looking at the sound's
presence online in his next tweet he
says he's surprised to discover the
sound has tens of millions of views
online and then all of a sudden it's a
sound we created and then and he adds
this in parenthesis like he's trying to
sneak it into the story at the last
minute and I myself recorded this is a
bit of a change isn't it it's also just
a weird way of talking about something
you created like if you found out
something you had made you was in a huge
game you would go hey I made that you
wouldn't go as you can see my company
created and owns that it was made by
someone who worked for me decades ago oh
wait this sounds really popular I mean
we made it and I myself recorded it and
to his credit I think Tommy noticed how
this sounds too because 30 minutes later
he tried again he started a second
thread where this time it's a sound he
created Joey edited and he owns note
that he specifically used the word
created again so he got his story
straight in the end at least good for
him but that does mean this first tweet
is a bit embarrassing isn't it now you
tell me what one thing would make Tommy
look more like he was trying to rewrite
the history after the fact here
deleting the Tweet right
from my perspective that would be a very
stupid thing to do but I must be missing
something because he did delete it it's
gone I am not accusing famous industry
veteran Tommy Talerico of lying about
who made a sound here I don't know for
sure who did what on this sound
but Tommy should
and if he's telling the truth why did
the truth change when he was surprised
by how popular the sound was in a very
short span of time Tommy's version of
History went from Joey created it to we
created it to I created it and then
later an attempt to delete the fact he
said Joey created it I know how it
sounds it would be weird to assume
someone just wants to brag about making
this one sound effect this badly
but he does brag about it he put it in
his Twitter handle it's part of his
pitch for the amiko it seems very
important to Tommy that he doesn't just
own the sound that he personally created
it to most people younger than me that
sound effect could be the most
well-known thing on his resume which is
a bit depressing really and when he
tries to describe the process of
creating the sound
things get even weirder in the oof live
stream Tommy's happy to say he made the
sound but then he tries to go into
detail about how it was made I thought
what first I would do is talk about how
the oof sound was created when he talks
about the work that went into making the
sound he doesn't say he did anything he
says we then what we did is we went
through you know all the different lines
we did a whole bunch of other stuff to
it as well so after we pitch shifted it
down and sometimes he accidentally says
I and then corrects himself I want to
let folks know uh how I created the
sound how we created the sound myself
and my sound designer uh Joey curis it
just keeps going like this we start to
tweak the sound each individual sound so
again an oof we might have spent you
know a half hour trying to figure out
exactly which way we should have pitched
it down and what thing we would have
taken and this and that
this is a strange way to describe
something you did far from being a sound
he created and Joey merely edited
whenever he has to describe any
specifics all of a sudden it was done by
committee Tommy isn't lying about who
did what here quite the opposite really
he's specifically avoiding Lying by
being as vague as possible about
something it would be easy to talk about
if he actually made the sound himself so
I I I took this little girl's uh we took
the clip right and
um and then what we did is we edited it
and we we we kept the length of the
sound he struggles to come up with
anything he actually did like his
knowledge helped and um will say uh
um I want to say this right I mean it it
took a lot of uh my knowledge of audio
to create this sound and make it sound
uh unique now that people know about me
they know about how I created the Roblox
sound after seeing a guy specifically
avoid saying I and say we dozens of
times and then finish the story by
saying so that's how I made the sound it
just comes off really disingenuous one
quick indicator of what he could mean by
we is at one point he uses it to
describe the act of exporting the sound
out of the program you know compressing
it and making it all eq'ing and doing
all these crazy things to it uh before
we ended up saving it out so when he
says we here he just means Joey it only
takes one person to hit save on a file
and that's the one thing we know for
sure Joey did like with the money
situation it's hard not to read into why
Tommy's is talking strangely it starts
to sound like Joey did most of the work
but then that would mean someone else
deserves the credit for creating the
sound so all of a sudden this .3 second
sound effect becomes a team effort
that's Tommy's version of how the sound
was made he says we but sometimes when
he says we he just means Joey so what's
Joey's version Joey's been pretty quiet
about all this and good for him his
career is still going strong unlike some
peoples and I'm sure he has better
things to do than litigate who made an
ancient sound effect unlike me who
apparently has plenty of time for that
[ __ ] however chorus does have a website
where he maintains credits for every
game he's worked on since 1993 and he's
still updating it today next to Messiah
Joey puts design of all sound effects
after witnessing someone claim Joey did
it change their mind delete the story
and then talk in very vague terms about
who did what um seeing someone just say
I designed all the sound effects is like
a breath of fresh air this is another
reason why I find Tom his first version
of the story more believable not only is
it untainted by his later Discovery how
popular the sound was it's also what the
other person who worked on the game said
but this really makes it look like
Tommy's stealing credit from someone
else who worked for him now it was just
a hunch before but now I don't know and
he is when the fun easy video about the
Roblox oof I was trying to make ended
and the horror of my new life began
because while I was on Joey's page I
noticed something else design of all
sound effects for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
this was very confusing to read because
Tommy spent the last several decades
saying he worked on Pro Skater Tony Hawk
Pro Skater Tony Hawk Pro Skater Tony
Hawk Pro Skater I was on the original
Tony Hawk Pro Skater uh Team I was on
the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater team
I'm not saying Tommy didn't work on it
it's just some places seem to disagree
with him places like the credits of Tony
Hawk's Pro Skater
according to them someone else did the
in-game sound effects I'll give you
three guesses it was it was Joey it was
Joey although the company he was at is
credited as well it's like they're
saying sound effects done by this guy
from this company but Tommy's acting
like he personally did it again I'm
starting to feel a bit bad for Joey just
to kind of add to the mystery he talks
about how small the development team was
at the time to kind of add to the
exclusivity of it I guess you know being
a part of the original uh Tony Hawk Pro
Skater team you know there's only about
maybe 10 or 12 of us this means very few
people exist who could possibly
contradict him how convenient it does
make it even weirder though for such a
small team to leave his name out of the
credits I guess Tommy could say his name
is in there but only because his company
is named Tommy talarico Studios so who
is responsible for the Sounds in Pro
Skater the guy credited for it or his
boss who says he did it now in an older
interview slash house tour Tommy got a
bit more specific he said he'd buy
skateboards oh sorry I mean weed by
skateboards we buy skateboards and then
Tommy would help this mysterious other
person record The Sounds he says one of
the pain sound effects ironically also a
kind of oof is his actual voice the
actual sound in Tony Hawk that you hear
when the guy falls off the skateboard
and cracks his head open
the falling off cracking my head
[Music]
so Tommy might have helped with some of
the sounds or at least at some point
Joey recorded him falling off a
skateboard strangely though while he
says he was on the pro skater team
nowadays at the time things were very
different you see as I mentioned earlier
Tommy was on a TV show about games while
Pro Skater was being made a thing about
journalism is it's usually frowned upon
to cover or review a product you helped
create without disclosing you worked on
it and to his credit Tommy's very good
at this when he and co-host Victor cover
games he was involved with they make
sure to say it take Advent Rising a game
he composed a ton of music for Advent
rise I'm not gonna I'm not gonna comment
on any of the music in the game because
I am completely biased this is and I
mean this unironically ethical gaming
journalism also you might have noticed
but Tommy kind of likes to brag about
games he's worked on one time they
reviewed an aladdin game and they
brought up that Tommy worked on a
different Aladdin Games music eight
years before it was a great throwback to
the 16-bit platformer days and I know
you worked on the original Aladdin game
so you must have felt like you were
coming Deja Vu yeah Tommy not only
understands disclosure he loves doing it
if Tommy worked on a game or a game
similar to the one being reviewed you
hear about it on this show so what does
it mean when Tommy doesn't say he worked
on a game while Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
was being made it was featured on the
show Tommy interviewed one of the
developers later when it came out Tommy
and Victor reviewed it and both gave it
a 9.5 out of 10. if Tommy worked on this
game's sound effects he would have said
so wouldn't he well he doesn't at no
point whatsoever in the coverage does
Tommy disclose he worked on the game
Tommy behaves like a TV guy interviewing
a game developer which would be a bit
weird if he was also on that development
team right I can only think of a few
reasons why Tommy wouldn't mention he
worked on the game when he goes out of
his way to do so normally one is he
randomly decided not to take credit for
something which seems out of character
and pretty dishonest considering how
hard he promoted the game and he seems
to know better than that the alternative
is while he had helped Joey out a little
Tommy at the time didn't consider
whatever input he gave big enough to
justify telling people he was involved
which is fascinating to me there is
potentially a past version of Tommy who
if he honestly thought about it would
choose not to say he worked on Pro
Skater which is cool of him however then
Pro Skater went on to be a really famous
franchise and it became very cool to say
you worked on it I was on the original
Tony Hawk Pro Skater team and over the
years Tommy's story has grown a bit from
helping with some of the sounds to uh
doing all of them I was on the original
Tony Hawk Pro Skater team so I did all
those sounds audio director on that uh
wait now he's saying he was the audio
director he's is not even in the credit
let's quickly look at who did what on
games telerico Studios worked on on the
vast majority Tommy is often credited
for music but he doesn't do sound
effects much sound effects or sound
design as it was later called is usually
done by Joey a game talarico studios
worked on almost always has music by
Tommy sound effects by Joey in the
credits basically when Tommy and Joey
work on games together it's pretty clear
who did what in fact in the early 2000s
talarico Studios put out a sound effects
Library you could buy and use in your
own projects with over nineteen and a
half thousand sound effects in it
Tommy's the executive producer so I'm
sure he was involved in some capacity
but three other recorders and editors
are credited along with the sound
designer I wonder who it could be it's
Joey it's always Joey Joey credits
himself as the lead sound designer at
talarico Studios for 13 years the thing
he did was sound effects even on
Electric Playground Tommy's show Joey is
credited for additional sound effects so
maybe Tommy didn't say he did the sound
effects on Pro Skater because he knew
Joey would see it given Tommy's tendency
to take games his sound effects guy is
credited for and say he did all the
sounds what does that sort of thing mean
for his later claims about Messiah and
making the oof well wouldn't it be funny
if Tommy also reviewed Messiah on TV and
when he did he again did not mention he
worked on the game wouldn't that be very
very funny
yeah it is funny that is what happened
even funnier on that same episode they
also reviewed the Dreamcast version of
Pro Skater giving Tom a yet another
opportunity to say he worked on it which
he didn't there's starting to be a
precedent for Joey doing things being
the one credited for it Tommy reviewing
it and not mentioning he worked on it
and then years later deciding he did
coming back to how he talks on the
stream we could mean we both worked on
this sound but to be cynical it can also
mean Joey did it while working for me
Messiah is one of the two or so games I
could find that talarico Studios made
where they are both credited for the
sound effects at once so potentially
Tommy might have been more involved with
the sound effects on this than normal so
our candidates are a guy who mostly did
music and not sound effects reviewed the
game on television and chose not to say
he worked on it and when he later
decided he did and he made this sound
carefully avoided taking credit for
anything specific or the guy credited
for Sam sound effects on almost every
other game who says he did it Who Tommy
said did it before he changed his mind
the first time and whose name is on the
file
in conclusion who knows
could have been either of them maybe it
was both art is really a collaborative
process okay that was written as a joke
about how heavily the deck is stacked
here but let's be serious I haven't
found any definitive proof here I think
it's interesting just how much Joey is
credited for sound effects everywhere
else and I think it's weird that Tommy
didn't really have any specifics to say
about what he did on the sound and I
think if he did work on the game that
closely he should have said so when he
reviewed the game on television but none
of that is specific proof of who
recorded or mastered a specific sound
effect however given all of this
additional context and information I can
say at least for myself that I have some
trouble believing Tommy when he says he
made the sound but when you decide
something a well-known industry figure
like him has said is suspect you start
to ask well
what else has he said this guy's been
around for decades and he's said a lot
of things I started investigating some
of his other claims I did it mostly to
prove to myself I was just being silly
so I could believe him when he said that
he made the sound I wanted to be able to
put this to bed and move on with my life
I just couldn't accept that the first
American to ever work on Sonic would lie
like that
hey wait a second
yes Tommy has repeatedly said he's the
first American to ever work on Sonic in
fact I was the very first American to
ever be hired by the Sonic Team back in
the day are you serious very first yeah
very first American to be to be hired
one of the first Americans to ever
uh be hired uh by Sega of Japan for the
Sonic Team thought I was the first
American to ever be hired to work on the
Sonic or the Hedgehog series but if you
don't take Tommy's word for it and do
your own research by which I mean
basically Google Sonic for two seconds
you start to see red flags Sonic was
being developed in America as early as
1992 when Sonic 2 was being made in
California Americans are all over
Sonic's game development since almost
the beginning which game did Tommy work
on anyway Sonic uh some of this uh or
one of the Sonic games Black Knight I
might have been in the 2000s so Tommy
was about 20 years late to the party of
Americans working on Sonic okay let's be
charitable maybe he means first American
to do music for the series but if he
thinks that Tommy's been crushing too
many 40s that was terrible I promise to
live and learn from the oh [ __ ] but this
first American stuff gets even deeper
there are layers to this [ __ ] one
particular American Musician Michael
Jackson was rumored for decades to have
worked on Sonic 3. this was seemingly
confirmed By Yuji Naka earlier this year
actually this would make Jackson the
first American to do a Sonic soundtrack
maybe there are some Americans who
worked on one earlier I'm not sure I'm
not deep into Sonic law I'm no heret and
splimby now you could say well sure
maybe that means Tommy is wrong about
being the first American but there's no
way he could have known that we only
found out for sure recently and yeah to
be fair that would be true
were it not for the fact Tommy has also
been bragging about knowing back in the
90s that Jackson worked on Sonic so I
was really close with the uh the Sega
folks back in the early 90s I don't know
if it was ever confirmed or not but I
but I can tell you that he did do the
music for Sonic 3. this was at a con in
2014 before he started saying he was the
first American so either he knew he was
lying when he started saying that or he
made this [ __ ] up too which one is the
LIE
at this point why not both I don't trust
this story about knowing about Jackson
either frankly I think he just made up a
story to seem involved with another
important piece of history that seems to
be his Mo at this point this is just one
example of what we could charitably call
exaggeration but realistically we call
lies the more I tried to check things
Tommy said to prove to myself that any
of it was true the more it all came
apart okay so what about the Metroid
Prime thing he said in a bunch of places
including the oofstream that he worked
on Metroid Prime Metroid Prime with
Shigeru Miyamoto uh worked on that for
uh for a couple of years and I worked
with him on Metroid Prime the first one
and we worked together for about gosh I
want to say four or five years Metroid
Prime I worked with that with Shigeru
Miyamoto for five years I worked with
Shigeru Miyamoto the creator of Mario
and Zelda worked with him for five years
on Metroid Prime he doesn't just say he
worked on it actually he says Shigeru
Miyamoto was a personal huge fan of his
work and always wanted to work on a game
with him we always talked about working
together we're like oh man I really love
all your Mario stuff and he'd say oh man
I love all your your stuff that you do
like oh we gotta work together sometime
you know I don't know if that part of
the story is true but talarico Studios
was contracted to work on Prime not
music by the way Prime already had a
composer they just did sound effects
that might turn out to be important
later but early in development retro
canceled all their other projects to
focus on Prime and suddenly didn't need
outside help to get the audio done and
his contract wasn't renewed Tommy will
confirm this part of the story himself
my contract was coming to an end was
around the same time that that Retros
projects were all getting canceled
except for Metroid and they had an
internal audio department so we did work
on it briefly but again with the
exaggeration for him to be dropped so
easily implies Miyamoto wasn't as
invested in working with Tommy as he
says Tommy doesn't just say he worked on
Prime sound effects for a bit and
Miyamoto was huge fan though his story
gets way more exotic he tells people
Miyamoto didn't give him any direction
or visuals or animations to make sound
effects to he told him to just make what
he thought was cool and the development
team designed the weapons and animations
around his sounds give us a bunch of
Epic weapon sounds and then what we're
gonna do is I'm gonna give those to my
artists and then they are going to be
inspired by the sounds that you make and
we're gonna Inspire the art and the
thing
wow so cool this is an unprecedented
amount of control for an external audio
contractor to have over a project plus
it just doesn't mix very well with the
fact he left really early in development
did Miyamoto change his mind why didn't
he make retro keep him on board if he
had such an important job it also
doesn't mix with other stories from
Retro Studios actual audio department he
did an interview for shine sparkers
where he told this story about Miyamoto
letting him design the weapon sounds
first however shinespark has then went
on to interview Clark when Prime's audio
lead who came on board after the other
games were canceled and Tommy was gone
when is well respected in the game audio
industry he's worked on a bunch of stuff
including Tony Hawk games interestingly
enough according to him they did sound
effects the normal way basing their work
off the art and animations there's
something amazing about reading an
interview with Tommy where Miyamoto
blessed the project with a radical new
technique where the sound designer had
massive creative control over the game
and then going to the interview with Wen
where they say we interviewed Tommy and
he said you did this and he goes that
sounds cool but no when says one or two
weapon sound effects were done when he
got there and he left them mostly
untouched so a few of the Sounds in the
game are done by tellurico Studios and
they might have been done the way Tommy
said but his overall involvement with
the game was very small how small he
left so early in development they forgot
he had worked on it by the time the game
was done and forgot to put his name in
the credits a bunch of other audio
contractors made it in though they must
have kept Contracting people after he
left and not got him back weird I wonder
why after seeing Tommy repeatedly take
credit for the work of people under him
it's kind of cathartic seeing a bunch of
other people get credited and for him to
be forgotten however he's not the only
one someone's missing from Tommy's
version of the story again can you guess
Inna now deleted Paige on his website
accessible via the internet archive
Tommy wrote about leaving early in
development although he still claims he
did a lot of the main sound design
somehow funnily enough he doesn't say I
too much he says we I wonder who the
other put it's Joey it's always Joey he
shared a recent email from Retro's new
audio manager to prove he worked on it
and he compliments the work tellerico
Studios did but he says it like this my
hat is off to You Tommy and Joey it's
always Joey what makes the story even
funnier is how you know Tommy was on a
TV show that reviewed games when Prime
came out Tommy didn't mention he worked
on it which makes sense he was barely
involved but one fascinating thing that
hasn't come up yet is Tommy just has
terrible taste JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
the characters are incredibly stupid he
complained about Prime's backtracking
and scanning system stuff people love
about the game and absolutely refuse to
let Victor get a word in edgewise I had
to scan every little there's a great
story in there as well and that's a
problem for me but I enjoyed all of that
the worst problem about this game yes is
that he gave it a 7.5 which according to
Metacritic would be the absolute lowest
score any remotely professional critic
gave it at the time even less than the
eight the guy who wrote the text reviews
for EP gave it Tommy was not the biggest
fan of this game but now it's
universally recognized as a masterpiece
he can't wait to tell you he was a huge
part of it it's kind of fascinating how
these two supposed industry
professionals each talk about their work
Joey doesn't mention Prime at all on his
site presumably he doesn't consider his
work a large enough part of the finished
game to go on a resume meanwhile Tommy
Talks like he worked hand in hand with
Shigeru Miyamoto for five years on
Metroid Prime oh come on H1 be
reasonable he doesn't say it like that
no he says it like that I worked hand in
hand with Shigeru Miyamoto for five
years on Metroid Prime but he said on
his own website he left early he left so
early they forgot to put him in the
credits he knows he's not telling the
truth when he says this okay look maybe
I'm just a gaming racist but is it okay
at this point to call this an obvious
lie it must be very difficult to work
hand in hand with someone on a game they
famously did not work on very much Retro
Studios is based in Texas Miyamoto was a
distant producer who occasionally gave
notes several former retro employees
have even suggested he gave Metroid to a
new company in America that hadn't made
any games yet because he didn't like
Metroid that much some insinuating he
didn't really get metroid's type of
gameplay Miyamoto pawned off IPS like
this repeatedly actually he visited rare
one day and made them turn the game they
were making into a Star Fox game because
he had no idea what else to do with Star
Fox and we all know how that turned out
it's actually pretty good people are
just mean Prime is great but it happened
because Miyamoto outsourced an IP he
didn't like to a bunch of Americans so
he didn't have to think about it which
gives very different implications to
Miyamoto asking Tommy to do the sound
effects so now almost every game he's
bragged about working on has turned out
to be a gross exaggeration the only
other games he talks about are earthworm
gym and Aladdin I guess there's one more
of Guitar Hero Guitar Hero guitar hero
uh franchise I did some work on those
some of the the first three Guitar Hero
games you know like some of the games
I've worked on Disney's Aladdin
earthworm gym Guitar Hero any of his
songs on the soundtrack uh no did he do
sound effects it doesn't look like it is
he credited on any of the games on one
of them yeah according to a joystick
interview rest in peace comrade he
helped them get an Aerosmith song on too
because his cousin is Steven Tyler of
Aerosmith he's in the credits of Guitar
Hero 2 in the industry thanks section
his involvement seems I don't know kind
of small it's mostly people who
championed the first Guitar Hero when it
came out you know game journalists and
celebrities and Will Wheaton
interestingly alongside Brad Shoemaker
Ryan Davis and of course Jeff gershman
also in these credits is Patrick klepick
who 15 years later would go on to make
him delete a legal Threat by asking him
a basic question this is the total
extent I can find of Tommy's involvement
with the Guitar Hero games but I must be
missing something the way he brings it
up you'd think he was massively involved
I worked on the Guitar Hero Games the
first
three
um the third one was Guitar Hero
Aerosmith
um now you know why I want to assume
Tommy was joking there but at this point
I don't know the more you look at
Tommy's weird exaggerations
overstatements of credit his use of we
to mean Joey the more you see it it
starts to take over your mind you start
to ask yourself even the stuff he
couldn't possibly be lying about is a
lie like oh
those Guinness World Records real I
assumed even if everything else was fake
they would be real at least there's no
way anyone could get away with such an
obvious lie it would be too easy to
check but it turns out if something is
easy to check no one actually does
foreign
[Music]
let's start with the big one the person
who has worked on the most video games
in their lifetime
that's what he calls it at least that's
I hold the Guinness World Record for the
person who's worked on the most video
games in their life my my mother's very
proud the person who's worked on the
most video games in their lifetime my
mother is very proud for the person
who's worked on the most video games in
a lifetime so that was pretty cool my
mother is very proud for the person
who's worked on the most video games in
their lifetime which is kind of kind of
crazy kind of a cool honor my mother is
very proud the person has worked on most
video games in their life
yeah my uh
my mother is very proud there's several
problems with this one let's start with
how the number of games he's worked on
keeps expanding and not in the sexy way
by the time of his first Guinness world
record in 2008 he'd worked on the
production of 272 games around this time
he stopped doing music for games and
started focusing on Video Games Live
Video Games Live takes up such a huge
part of your yeah your time in your
career so have you ever considered going
back to like full-time video games no
there was this period in the early 2010s
where the last game he'd officially
worked on outside of super tofu boy was
Sonic and the Black Knight the last game
I composed for was actually a Sonic game
and that was a couple years ago but yeah
but somehow two years later he had a
record with over 300 games on it in
October 2017 he said he'd worked on over
300 games in fact I have a Guinness
World Record for the person who's worked
on the most video games in their
lifetime over 300 games but by the time
of the oof stream in January 2020 just
over two years later it was over 350 and
I've worked on over 350 video games he
had a busy couple of years there I read
today uh 300 video games you've had your
hands in that can't be a real number
yeah that's actually 350 yeah it's up to
350 now that I know a lot of people in
the industry I've worked on 200 350
games in my career okay Tommy seems a
little confused himself how many he's
done so you know just for his sake we
should probably double check how many so
uh is there a list somewhere his
Wikipedia page lists far less games than
he says he's worked on fewer God damn it
I used Wikipedia for that visual earlier
showing the games he'd worked on in the
early 2010s let's show everything else
he did afterwards nothing he cameo'd in
Retro City Rampage and that's it
according to Wikipedia his IMDb splits
his credits into a dozen different
categories but not Games television and
movies because it's a horrible website
and the composer and sound Department
credits have a bunch of games repeated
in both
wow he's credited for some of them three
times even messiah's in there twice
Earthworm Jim 2's in there four times
but even adding literally all the video
game credits together including all the
duplicates you get less than half the
number he said he'd done 15 years ago
what the [ __ ] is happening is Moby games
page lists about a hundred uh it's 6 13
am right now and my eyes went a bit
blurry while I was counting it could be
like 98 either way it's a lot less than
350 and I'm not recounting this [ __ ] and
that's counting a bunch he's just in the
thanks for like Guitar Hero 2. it
doesn't list Pro Skater because he's not
in the credits for that even though Moby
games appear to have copy pasted the
official biography from his website
which claims he did they somehow managed
to get Pro Skater to link to the correct
game page but not to get the spelling
right okay none of these websites can be
trusted thankfully Tommy has taken it
upon himself to make his own list of
games on his website this list is larger
and I mean a lot larger than the others
and since Tommy wrote it there's some
dubious names on here Pro Skater and
Guitar Hero are on there and so is
Metroid Prime obviously he personally
held hands with development team while
they made it but so is Prime 2 a game
I've never seen any mention of him
touching anyone's hands on did they
reuse some sounds him slash Joey made so
that counts as working on both and I
guess I can now add Roblox to that list
of games if Tommy thinks he can put
Roblox on the list of games he has
worked on
imagine what justifications other games
are on this list for one of Tommy's
actually interesting contributions to
game history is early PlayStation 1
models came with a demo disc to show
what the console could do and some of
his music is in the menus and titles the
first sounds ever made by some early
PlayStations would be music made by
Tommy this is kind of neat and cool and
it's also weird seeing PlayStation demo
disc in a list of games composed for in
general this list has quite a bit of
what we call padding tellurico Studios
did additional music for the first Blood
rain so that's one game worked on right
well it's on Tommy's list five times as
each console version along with PC and
Mac I'm not sure why you'd want to give
blood rain such a strong presence on
your resume but each to their own he
also did the music for earthworm gym 1
and 2. an earthworm gym game is on his
list 18 times super tofu boy a free
flash game Peter made he donated music
to is on here twice you can run flash
games on the Mac too wow that's as an
extra game worked on [ __ ] you Tommy but
even counting all of this all the games
he wasn't credited for but still puts on
his list the multiple times the same
game is counted across many different
consoles or computers or demo discs as
specific games worked on it's still a
lot less than the number he says if you
decide to be a bit mean and remove all
the repeat games you get around 175
almost 100 less than his first Guinness
World Record said 15 years ago so either
he stopped updating his website and IMDb
Moby games Wikipedia and everywhere else
also stopped tracking the games he
worked on or Bob forgive me the first
American to ever work on Sonic is
exaggerating again in an interview in
2010 he said he worked on 280 video
games which is a Guinness World Record
actually inside the Guinness book as the
person who worked on the most video
games in their life
this sentence almost made me cut my
[ __ ] head off Tommy isn't actually
inside the Guinness Book of World
Records he's talking about here trust me
I checked he is however inside that
Year's Guinness Book of World Records
Gamer's Edition the gamer's Edition is
full of more game-centric records notice
that it's also much smaller and the
print quality is much worse and
generally it's a lot less prestigious
than being in the actual book my
producer Kat left a comment on that line
in the script saying it's a bit like
saying you gave a TED talk when really
you just gave a tedx talk not realizing
how [ __ ] funny she was being because
Tommy has done a tedx talk my mother is
very proud when his biography on his
website calls it a TED Talk he is
exactly that guy she is so cool I love
her Tommy is at least featured in the
gamer's Edition it's a two-page
interview about his career and Video
Games Live at the beginning of the
interview the author claims Tommy has
worked on more game soundtracks than
anyone else they don't say how they
verified this or provide the list list
of games it seems a bit like Tommy just
told the interviewer this in the
interview and they repeated it as a
factoid assuming it was true because why
would someone tell such an obvious lie
whatever evidence he has backing up his
claim is becoming difficult to find
luckily this wasn't too expensive on
eBay supplies are quite low but the
demand it's just me basically I
mentioned how surprisingly cheap these
were to Mandalore gaming and he started
bulk buying them to leave an airbnbz he
stays in like a sort of gamer Dion Bible
so if they seem more expensive now it's
because he's artificially inflated the
price speaking of artificial inflation
even if the amount of games Tommy says
he's worked on was completely true there
are still people who've worked on way
more games the record is just wrong even
Guinness at some point recognized this
they actually changed the wording of the
record at some point after he first got
it it's not person who has worked on the
most games in a lifetime anymore it's
most prolific composer of game
soundtracks the Guinness website says
that now and the updated versions of
Tommy's plaque say that too so Guinness
have done their best to correct this
mistake Tommy however has continued
using the original name anyway for over
a decade in fact I own the Guinness
World Record for the person who's worked
on the most video games in their
lifetime my mother's very proud another
one of those Sweet Little Lies we've
become accustomed to Tommy using
although I can kind of understand this
one because the new name is even more
obviously a lie I know for a fact Tommy
has not made 280 video game soundtracks
we need to acknowledge just how Bonkers
this clip is he's saying most video
games in a lifetime while showing
footage of the new record with a
different name bonus points for the fact
the record says more than 300 games but
then it cuts to a list he wrote with
less than 300 games on it and just in
case it needs to be said no Guinness are
not a real record-keeping organization
they're a novelty Book Company it's
already a pretty common joke that most
of their records are just silly stuff
someone made up so they can have a wreck
board like most baseball bats broken in
one minute that silly one I just made up
now just kidding it's real I don't
really mind if Guinness track a bunch of
silly records it's just a bit of fun
really but they are an utterly
for-profit organization not just in
terms of sales of books but also sales
of Records Guinness has an entire
subsection on their website dedicated to
Business Marketing Solutions promising
they can help with PR and marketing
campaigns complete with a case studies
section showing over a dozen pages of
companies they got attention for by
helping them come up with a new record
to break like Canon with its longest
digitally printed photograph if you have
the money you can pay them to help you
break a record I have my suspicions a
lot of the silly record holders are
independently wealthy people you know
some people just want a record to call
their own to give their empty lives a
sense of meaning Guinness aren't
purposefully keeping track of who's
broken the most bats or wasted the most
money on a Pokemon card having a
Guinness adjudicator on site to verify
and give out the award on the day is
super expensive at minimum ten thousand
dollars plus transport and hotel costs
this stuff gets expensive fast they
aren't a neutral party tracking human
achievements they are a paid service and
many of their record holders are
basically just customers you'll notice
that when it became clear someone else
should have the record for most games
made in a lifetime they didn't give
someone else the record they changed it
to one Tommy was more likely to have I'm
curious how much they charge for this
service Guinness's record search
function claims Tommy is involved with
two more these are for Video Games Live
what great marketing these must have
been they are most video game concerts
performed and largest audience for a
live video game music concert let's
quickly appreciate how sneaky these
records are vgl haven't come close to
performing the most concerts but most
video game concerts now that's a record
and it's highly specific so no one can
challenge it in fact you literally can't
challenge it the Guinness website says
these records are not accepting active
submissions this is a special record
only Tommy can get and wouldn't you
believe it at his 357th concert one of
those prohibitively expensive
adjudicators turned up to hand him the
latest version of these two records but
let's look closer at largest audience
for a live video game music concert for
a second uh the biggest Symphony show
ever seen live over 752
000 people watching us live in Beijing
China this would be pretty impressive
would you be shocked if I told you
Tommy's story is inaccurate not all of
those 752 000 people were watching in
person in Beijing some of them are
watching it digitally on a live stream
on a Chinese video website biggest
Symphony show ever seen live 752
000 people watching me live on stage
that was in Beijing it's a bit deceptive
to say they were watching you live on
stage when they were nowhere near the
stage how many people were actually
there uh the the famous
bird's nest National Olympic Stadium we
played there 130 000 people inside 600
000 people outside I love that he says
outside when he means we're watching a
live stream like is he trying to imply
hundreds of thousands of people stood
outside just to hear his show but 100K
people attending a concert is still a
lot
still alive though you know I couldn't
help but overhear what venue he said
this took place at bird's nest National
Olympic Stadium the bird's nest is a
beautiful stadium and it must be amazing
to play in front of 130 000 people there
in case you're not familiar with the
bird's nest allow me to read you the
beginning of its Wikipedia page you're
an hour deep into a video about the
Roblox oof you don't have anything
better to do the National Stadium also
known as the bird's nest is an 80 000
capacity stadium in Beijing
I think I might have noticed a very
small discrepancy during the 2008
Olympics it hit its record attendance of
89 000 people Tommy is claiming he got
better attendance than the Olympics and
confold space but because it's Tommy
there are layers of mistruth Happening
Here you see Tommy has the name of the
venue wrong Guinness has an article
about this record and they say it was
set at the Beijing exhibition Theater
which is a different place at first I
thought this was just a one-off mistake
vgl have played both venues but the
thing is though he always says it's the
bird's nest uh there was the bird's nest
in China Beijing National Olympic
Stadium 750 000 people now maybe he just
has the names really mixed up in his
head they are both in Beijing after all
although it is a bit weird to forget
where you set your Guinness World Record
but whatever but is there maybe a reason
he says the name of this theater while
claiming he played to hundreds of
thousands of people well there's one it
would be even more impossible to play to
130 000 people at a theater with only 2
700 seats the Guinness article also
happens to mention the actual number of
people physically at the concert
2086 people so even when Guinness has
the numbers he still makes [ __ ] up Tommy
anyone can check this what are you doing
I don't trust that many people were
watching the live stream either there's
no easily obtainable record of the live
viewership from the Chinese streaming
platform this appeared on so we and
apparently also Guinness just have to
take Tommy's word for it that almost
exactly 750 000 people watched this live
and considering we just caught him lying
about this exact thing I have my doubts
even though he has a record with a
specific number written on it the number
keeps changing in an interview in the
2017 Guinness Book of World Records The
Gamers edition of course he directly
claims over a million people saw that
show live
I cannot stress this enough
he is literally lying to Guinness about
a record Guinness just gave him
you can't [ __ ] believe it
I can't [ __ ] believe it that's all
three of the records Guinness appears to
have on file for Tommy talarico Tommy
seems to know better though his list of
awards on his website says he has four
the fourth one being most video gay
concerts in a year a record I cannot
find anywhere other than his list of
awards and other interviews with Tommy
so I don't know maybe he has four well
his biography says he currently holds
five so I don't know the numbers just
keep going up can he at least get the
record straight on the number of Records
okay to be fair he has recently updated
it lately he started saying he has
seven
um I have seven seven giving this
world's records for for different things
so what are all the others you know for
a guy who let's be frank [ __ ] loves
bragging about all the [ __ ] he's done
I've worked with everybody I was the
first American Tommy is
uncharacteristically modest about saying
what these other four records are in a
Reddit AMA a few years back he said he
has seven but just to avoid wasting
people's time he only listed three of
them would you like to guess which three
when someone directly asks him to list
the records he she sheepishly adds most
game concerts in a year but that's it
the others are like ghosts Tommy how
many games World Records do you have
um that's so I have seven
um one of the ones I have is the most
Symphony shows in a single year but I
would say the three there's three big
ones the three big ones are most shows
biggest live show ever seen and then the
the
um the most video games so I have a
total of seven but there's three big
ones he doesn't even have a riddle
prepared for this one he just refuses to
tell people he's so shy all of a sudden
luckily for us in Tommy's investor
videos for the Amico we can see at least
five of them so let's just take a look
and find out for ourselves in the center
we have most prolific composer of
soundtracks okay can't verify he's done
that many games but we at least know
that one the two either side say most
video game concerts and largest audience
those are the three we know he has now
for the mystery ones to the right we
have the record for the most video game
concerts
this is the same record this is the
previous version this one's from 2014
with 293 shows what about the one on the
left the longest video game cons Video
Games Live which has performed 260.
these are the same three records it's
starting to look like there's a good
reason the other four records don't get
mentioned much in one house tour he gave
in 2017 he has them all laid out on the
floor where they appear to have sat for
five years now look at that Dust Bunny
and Tommy calls them seven different
Guinness World Records there's seven of
them
uh seven different Guinness World
Records so I'm not sure how these can be
seven different records if when you
pause the video and look several of them
are the same and I think when people get
too up close and personal with his
records they start to notice this too in
this clip he talks about two of them
ones we know and then this weird cut
happens that was the first that was the
first yep and then uh and then the for
the shows and then where is he gonna be
jealous I didn't edit that in I swear
I'd love to know what happened between
these two clips here's yet another fun
fact Guinness charges separately for the
award certificate and the plaque it
comes in they have a unique design they
don't change very often and they're
pretty expensive when Tommy got these
two in 2014 it looks like he just bought
two picture frames from a store I guess
when you have so many versions of the
same record already you get sick of
paying full price for them I'm not just
bringing this up to make fun of him
although I am but it's actually really
useful data you know how I mentioned
Guinness renamed his most games record
in this one tour with the super awkward
edit another funny thing happens Tommy
reads out that record right this is a
Guinness World Record for the person
who's worked on the most video games in
a lifetime wow but because he got a
shitty frame for this one we can check
and see the record he's reading from
says something else for the person who's
worked on the most video games in a
lifetime wow Tommy refuses to
acknowledge the new title and pretends
it has the old wrong name because it's a
bit more prestigious he's lying about
the text of a record he is literally
holding in his hands and pretending to
read from this guy's a [ __ ] genius
how has he never been caught I feel like
I'm going crazy you know how the concert
records say video game concerts if
you've been paying attention you'll
notice Tommy always says it's for
symphony concerts or symphonic concerts
biggest Symphony show ever seen live the
most Symphony shows ever done uh the
biggest Symphony show ever seen live
Tommy knows his video game concert
record is extremely stupid and out of
embarrassment he calls it something else
oh maybe it's not deliberate maybe he
just got the name wrong no I can prove
it here's a time he does that while
pointing at it and pretending to read it
here's one largest audience largest
audience ever to see a symphonic concert
live 752
000 people we can see what the record
says in the previous shot Tommy okay
let's wrap this up how many records does
Tommy have through a list of games that
cannot be found but keeps exploding and
by making up new definitions of concert
it looks like Tommy has about three but
he owns seven plaques of them so he
tells people he has seven different
Guinness World Records and maybe he does
have a most video game concerts in a
year one and it's just never visible in
shots of his records Guinness only has
three records in their search though
well had
um I was gonna move on from Guinness at
this point but then there was a new
development in the search for Tommy's
list of games after looking everywhere
for the list of 350 plus games Tommy
supposedly worked on or I guess composed
for now we realized there was one place
that would definitely have one Guinness
themselves so we emailed them and by we
I mean cat did it for me she did all the
work that's what people mean when they
say we they mean someone else did it for
me we worked on the oof sound yeah right
I know this trick Tommy We cat asked
them what evidence was provided for the
record and how it was verified Guinness
were really polite and got back to us
very quickly here was their response the
record title in question is one of our
consultant records which are not open to
standard applications they are confirmed
by specialist Consultants that we
approve
our expert external Consultants that we
use for records of this kind often have
professional links to the field in
question I.E video games these titles
are research based rather than
evidence-based thanks first off this
email provides me the incredible quote
that the record is not evidence-based
which is just fantastic thank you very
much for that this is one of the
situations where if you did the research
you would have the evidence this doesn't
require specialist consultation it's a
list of games on top of that this
implies Guinness have never seen a list
either the record was verified by a
consultant so someone somewhere says
Tommy has worked on this many games and
Guinness believes them but then
something even stranger happened
previously when you typed Tommy's name
into Guinness's record search that
record came up one of the other vgl
records came up because he's mentioned
by name on that record the other one
doesn't so those are the ones that came
up this is a screenshot I took in early
September anyway after we emailed them
asking how they verified it I realized I
needed to take another screenshot
because I'd scribbled all over one of
them so I went back
and the record didn't come up just the
other one did
right after we emailed them asking them
where their evidence was and they said
they didn't have it the record
disappeared did we
did we just get one of Tommy's records
deleted
oh no
I didn't mean to do this I just wanted
to see a list of games Tommy if you're
watching this it wasn't me it was cat
please don't
foreign
so now the brakes have come off and this
video is spiraling out of my control
I've lost all hope of figuring out what
Tommy is doing or why doing the early
research before this all happened it got
kind of nostalgic going back and
re-watching ancient episodes of Electric
Playground and reviews on the Run and
watching Tommy do his wacky boobery and
yell at Victor when he says normal
things like Metroid Prime is fun I was
trying to remember if I ever found Tommy
funny or if I was always just laughing
at him you know you know what I gotta
say to you I don't care what you think
even doing that level of research I fell
back into an ancient drama I saw unfold
as a kid and completely forgot about
Tommy's awful opinions used to be a
running joke on forums discussing his
Show's reviews people would bring up he
gave Smash Brothers Melee one of the
most beloved games in human history a
2.5 out of 10. it was a huge running
joke I learned about this because I was
a pretty big Mega 64 fan as a teenager
and they shot some videos at his house
and even did an episode of their podcast
there I remember watching this on my
iPod Nano on the bus now we're in
another strange room this was shot just
as Smash Brothers Brawl had come out and
the Gang made fun of his old review as
well Smash Brothers is now released
that's right uh Tom uh Tommy has gone on
record saying favorite game series of
all time there's this awful rumor on the
internet as there always is that I gave
Smash Brothers like a 2.5 or something
and so the reality is that we've we
never actually reviewed Smash Brothers
ever on G4 so people on the internet who
say that I gave Smash Brothers a low
score yeah
bite him Tommy is pointing to the giant
model dinosaur he has in his garden
anyway it's clear this rumor really gets
to him in an IGN Thread about his Mario
Galaxy review this comes up and Tommy T
shows up to defend himself because he
Googles his name and has nothing better
to do he claims it's not true but
refuses to say what the real score was
because he thinks it's fun watching
people spout nonsense so Tommy never
gave melee a 2.5 that's just a rumor
leave him alone here's Tommy's review of
Smash Brothers Melee what do you think
about Super Smash Brothers Melee for the
Nintendo GameCube well you know I gotta
tell you it's another game Cube letdown
another GameCube
people saw him the footage exists this
isn't speculation when Tommy does
something people criticize him for even
something dumb that doesn't need
defending like a video game opinion he
just lies and says he never did it like
why would you lie about something so
stupid and easy to check I'm reaching
the point where if Tommy says something
it's easier to assume he made it up his
website used to have a page of famous
people seen wearing Talerico Studios
t-shirts which is a weird thing to
document in the first place but the
thing is though every single picture on
it is photoshopped like what was his
goal here what is he even trying to do
Tommy's stratospheric levels of clout
chasing have hit a point where I
literally can't tell if he's joking he
has a gallery page with pictures of him
performing and in magazines and so on
and there's a celebrity section showing
off all the cool people he's stood next
to wow he's really proud of some of them
because he keeps reposting them this
Jamie Lee Curtis picture pops up on his
Twitter when she's in the news or it's
her birthday she's a wonderful kind and
talented human being and a fan of my
video games live show but one of the
pictures on here is really strange this
one is of The Dalai Lama apparently
before the Amico situation deteriorated
to the point he stepped down he used to
post on the Atari age forums and people
were discussing the amico's karma gaming
engine a feature Tommy later admitted he
made up by the way during the
conversation about Karma someone
referenced to the Dalai Lama so of
course he reposted that picture and said
he met him in London and he liked his
music the issue here is this later
turned out to be a wax statue of The
Dalai Lama from The Madame two swords in
London this is an example of what I've
decided to call the talarico Event
Horizon Tommy has lied so much about so
many things I can't even tell if this is
meant to be a joke is he doing a bit is
Tommy Talerico a CIA experiment to see
how far you can get in the liberal games
industry by just making [ __ ] up is Tommy
talarico just a shadow on the wall of a
cave I I started making this video
because I thought a sound effect was
funny I can't tell if he's joking or if
he genuinely wants to convince people he
met the Dalai Lama like I said this was
in a conversation about an Amico feature
it turned out he made up we have
something that's called our Karma gaming
engine and what that means is that
everybody no matter what your skill
level can feel like you have a chance
and that you're in the game I'm
interested in the fact that you're using
the karma gaming engine uh where where
did that come from okay so the karma
gaming engine is just some [ __ ] we made
up
like he literally made it up to get
people to invest and admitted it later
everywhere you look Tommy is trying to
build more prestige in ways that make no
sense once Tommy had fled the Atari age
forums after calling everyone a gaming
racist and stepping down people started
posting about how weird he was being and
the guy told a story there about how he
ran a display at the Houston Arcade Expo
in 2018 showing off old in television
stuff right when the Amico had just been
announced so he asked Tommy if he wanted
him to put out some business cards
advertising the Amico which he did his
display won an award at the show and
when he mentioned this to Tommy he
allegedly asked him to mail him the
award if this story is true Tommy just
assumed that this award belonged to him
this is just an allegation normally I
wouldn't bother putting this in the
video but the problem is it tracks so
well with a lifetime of taking credit
for things he didn't do and making up
Awards I find this story too believable
not to mention still this doesn't mean
Tommy hasn't done good work in the
industry or had any legitimate
achievements to properly recognize the
good work he's done we ought to talk
about gang the game audio Network Guild
is a group of Industry professionals
dedicated to improving the craft helping
people Network and recognizing people's
achievements with Awards Tommy has won a
lot of awards from The Guild over the
years at least 16 by my account and he's
clearly very proud of them because he
puts them all up next to his Guinness
World Records
Tommy talarico is also the founder of
gang recently I founded a non-profit
organization called the game audio
Network Guild or gang it's really funny
seeing Tommy give tours of his house in
his gang t-shirt and of his office with
his gang desktop background and then
going to his website and seeing 16
awards from the group he founded and was
on the board of directors of at the time
Tommy talarico composer and sound
designer for video games also the
president of the game audio Network
Guild also known as gang gang even gave
an award for best sound library to that
sound pack he made with Joey's help
they've only given out that award four
times in their 20-year existence by the
way and again these are award-winning
sound effects at least we know the
Sounds in the Roblox kit really are
award-winning like at this point
research for a video that was supposed
to be about the Roblox oof has gone so
far off course that I needed like
something that was Baseline obviously
true to hang on to so I could return to
sanity so I asked myself what I thought
would be the most obvious question
was Tommy even on cribs on YouTube like
I said there's a lot there's videos of
your of your house MTV Cribs it's
awesome right you did it FTV cribs
yeah yeah you were in my house didn't
you have an episode of MTV Cribs back in
the day yeah like he tells people it was
cribs he uploaded a video to his YouTube
channel saying it was cribs
so was it
no cribs is you know a TV show it has
lists of episodes you can just check it
was obviously a lie the entire time I
don't know how no one called him on it
the gamers just not know what cribs is
cribs went to the home of massively
successful musicians like Snoop Dogg and
Maroon 5 or other really big celebrities
like Tony [ __ ] Hawk they did not go
to the home of the guy who might have
made some of the skateboard sounds for
his game absolutely no normal person
watching MTV in the mid-2000s is gonna
know who Thomas the talarico engine even
is he did the soundtrack to Earthworm
Jim he's not a celebrity nobody gives a
[ __ ] about his [ __ ] Fountain the
waterfall here
which makes me want to pee at night
oddly enough my mother's very proud
cribs had very specific Motion Graphics
and they always showed the same factoids
at the beginning every time using the
same visual this video just has a wall
of text MTV had a very specific Vibe
with its backing tracks this thing uses
easily identifiable stock music so
identifiable YouTube flagged it but if
it wasn't cribs then what was it someone
in the comments says they saw this on a
disk that came with a Gaming magazine
back in the day but I think they're
thinking of the other times he did that
because Tommy's a massive narcissist his
website has a video section with a
meticulous collection of his appearances
and links to them on YouTube Some of
which he uploaded himself he links this
one and calls It MTV Cribs here too
along with two of his PlayStation
magazine appearances but here's the
thing Tommy's website is ancient and has
several much older versions preserved on
the internet archive on the version from
2004 before YouTube was a thing he would
just put the videos on his own site many
of the videos on the old site ended up
as links to YouTube videos on the new
one the PlayStation magazine house tour
and interviews are here along with this
Around the World in 80 games thing there
doesn't seem to be a cribs video on the
old version of the site which is a bit
of a red flag additionally there's one
house tour that didn't seem to make it
to the new one done by gamer TV the
video itself on Tommy's site wasn't
archived but gamer.tv was a show from
the UK about gaming hosted by Sam
Delaney one episode had a feature on
ways to make money in the game industry
professional Gamers voice actors and of
course a certain composer hey I'm Tommy
talarico composer and sound designer for
video games hey wait a second hey I'm
Tommy talarico composer and sound
designer for video games so this episode
is using a cut down version of the
footage we saw in tommy's video so now
we know who really shot this footage
gamer.tv used to have a website gamer.tv
oh that's clever it's down now but in
archives it's clear the site used to
have a video section with extra stuff
one of the extra videos appears to be
about a gamer with a Ferrari and a
luxury home I think gamer.tv met Tommy
and toured his house used clips from
this in their show and uploaded the
entire house tour as a bonus feature to
their website the video linked here is
sadly not archived either at least not
directly it was preserved if say Tommy
downloaded it and put it on his own
website and then later moved his video
archive to YouTube this is a kind of
cool Act of video preservation except
for the part where it somehow ended up
being called MTV Cribs how did that
happen I mean the file on his website
was named correctly this would be a
difficult thing to get wrong unless he
did it on purpose
it's awesome right is Tommy just like a
pathological liar does he have to lie to
sound more interesting no matter what
like how he went from saying he did some
sounds for Prime to saying he worked on
it with Miyamoto for five years or how
he went from being one of the voices in
Pro Skater to the audio director or how
he went from doing three songs for Sonic
and the Black Knight in 2009 to being
the first American to ever get to kiss
Sonic on his little mouth every time
something comes up again the LIE has to
get bigger in that newer house tour I
showed the guy asks Tommy about if it
was featured on cribs and he says it was
on there more than once Tommy talarica
has invited me to his MTV crib hasn't
been on the MTV Cribs right a couple
times yeah yeah why is he like this
why are you like this I know you're
still watching Tommy explain
what are you doing
you do [ __ ] do it
[Music]
so
yeah
maybe every single thing Tommy has ever
said Is A Lie maybe some of it is true
but bear in mind that even if Tommy has
lied that isn't like a crime you can
just lie to people what I am a trained
helicopter pilot see you can just say
things no one can stop you however there
are times when lying does become a crime
and Tommy would know this intimately
because it cost him a hundred thousand
dollars in 2009 after putting on a video
games live event in Brazil Tommy
returned to America with over one
hundred thousand dollars in cash on his
person when you enter America with more
than ten thousand dollars you have to
declare it for money laundering and
trafficking reasons Tommy knew he had to
do this but for some reason he didn't
his business associate who was also his
brother filed a customs declaration on
their common behalf denying they were
bringing that much money into the
country Tommy knew this was false when
he was caught at a TSA checkpoint with a
bag with a hundred grand in it there was
some serious questions he quickly made
up a story to explain himself he told
them he didn't need to declare the money
because he had distributed it among his
band members during the flight in
amounts less than ten thousand dollars
and then took the money back once they
were through customs so no one needed to
declare anything Tommy thought he was
being clever but he had just
accidentally confessed to the crime of
structuring where you deliberately avoid
regulations by pulling stunts like this
structuring is a federal felony with
huge fines and up to five years in
prison attached to it later he came
clean and told investigators he lied and
made up that story and actually he just
took the money over the Border himself
so when I call Tommy a liar that's not
just my opinion there is also a legal
document signed by him admitting to it
looking deeper into United States V
talarico that's its name Tommy pled
guilty was placed on probation for a
year forfeited the 102 thousand dollars
seized by customs and had to pay a one
thousand dollar fine plus a 25
assessment fee America there's a really
interesting lesson here in the game
industry you can just lie about what
games you worked on what sounds you made
and where whether you worked on cribs
and the only real repercussion is people
finding you unpleasant but if you try
that with the TSA while carrying a large
unexplained bag of money there can be
consequences there are other ways lying
can be a crime too for example if you
lie to potential investors to get their
money during one of Tommy's many
attempts to find investors for the amiko
he told the exact kind of tommy-esque
Tall Tales you would expect from him but
in a situation where doing so can get
you in serious trouble in February 2021
he recorded this video for potential
investors and lists the team of
so-called Avengers working at
intellivision one of whom was Cara akka
a former marketing manager at Mattel on
Disney Princesses and especially Frozen
which would be a great find for the
company and thinking she was on board
might well have helped convince
investors to part with their money if we
scroll slightly higher on her LinkedIn
though we can see she actually left in
television
in 2020 but here's Tommy telling people
in 2021 after she was gone he has her on
board so you should definitely invest
our VP of Global Marketing used to work
at Mattel as one of the global brand
managers over there right and she was in
charge of the Disney brand within Mattel
so that's a double bonus there
um is there a word for lying to people
for money if this convinced people to
invest they have grounds to say they
were lied to about the status of the
company you can't just pretend people
still work for you on their Republic
crowdfunding Campaign which raised 11.5
million dollars a pitch video for these
investors featured akker heavily in
Tommy's disgusting Egypt room as VP of
Global Marketing she was front and
center as one of the intended drawers to
investors she was basically the
company's Pharaoh she's also still shown
on the list of team members including
ironically a link to her LinkedIn which
will tell you she's actually gone this
crowdfunding campaign ended in 2021
there was a period of four months
minimum where people were investing
based on a video and information which
was not accurate at the time and never
corrected the intellivision website
listed akka as VP of Global Marketing as
late as July 2021 according to the
internet archive did the guy who ran the
website quit too investors using this
website as a source of information would
have a hard time confirming who was
actually at the company people don't
give investors don't give you millions
of dollars unless you have hard no I
certainly hope that some facts I missed
here people gave this company millions
of dollars like seriously I hope for in
television's sake I could just put the
wrong date on her LinkedIn or there's
going to be some questions in fact if
you click the invest button on the
intellivision website it takes you to
the same video with akka still in it you
know the Avengers right Marvel Avengers
you know the super team of superheroes
ready to save the world also on Tommy's
list of Avengers was Jay Allard the
co-founder of the Xbox and Xbox Live
this would make the company look like it
was on the right light track and had
some really good mines attached to it
however Allard decided he wasn't a good
fit and left the company in 2020 here's
another one how about the guy who
co-founded and co-created the Xbox right
when Tommy was saying Allard was on the
team in this footage to get people's
money Allard was already gone he was
gone to such an extent he didn't just
change his LinkedIn to say he wasn't at
the company anymore he removed it from
his page completely Allard unworked at
intellivision and after this happened
Tommy was shooting a new video telling
people he was in the Amico Avengers I
mean this guy doesn't even need to work
anymore but he loves our idea and
concept so much that he joined the team
and has been making huge huge
contributions this particular comment is
incredible because on another investment
platform remember fig Tommy had
previously bragged about alad's
involvement in that investor video too
he was actually at the company when this
one was made at least and in in
television's share offering documents on
fig also claimed Allard was involved and
that he was the global managing director
a while after Allen had left the SEC
noticed in television's fig was still
advertising he was there investors were
technically being deceived also a major
member of Staff like the global managing
director leaving could be causing
problems with making the product they
were promising to investors you know so
they asked fig what was going on orally
someone at a government agency
physically asked someone at fig what the
hell was happening at intellivision fig
asked in television to clarify in
television panicked and said they would
change the documents and product
development was unaffected by his
leaving because to quote fig quoting in
television he has not played a material
role in product development considering
his contributions he joined the teen and
has been making huge huge contributions
uh this is footage of a CEO right before
his company tells a major government
agency Allard is gone and hadn't made
meaningful contribute abusions telling
people he's on the team and has been
making huge huge contributions to get
their money I'm not a lawyer I'm just a
helicopter pilot but I don't think it
gets worse than this you know this is
the kind of thing that's like really I
mean talk about a slam dunk the people
working at the company are the main
pitch for the Amico invest in me I don't
lose I have the best team I've been a
winner in this industry my whole career
I don't lose and what I've done is
packed our team with other people who
are winners several of his key team
members weren't working there anymore
when he recorded this one of them had
even scrubbed it from his LinkedIn I
don't think this is giving potential
investors an accurate impression of what
they're buying into this is the exact
kind of thing Tommy normally does but in
this context it's really bad and this
brings us to the real question at the
center of all this the big thing we've
been avoiding for the last hour while we
Circle the Drain but we can't avoid it
anymore did Tommy make the funny baby
sound effect remember when that was the
point of the video when we look at the
sum Collective of all of his claims the
talarico totality if you will and we put
it in context with uh reality when Tommy
says he created the oof this might just
be me but I don't believe him although
at this point if Tommy confessed to a
murder I would assume he was just trying
to be cool I'm sure if I was a more
reasonable person I could say the
evidence is all inconclusive and Tommy
could have worked on the sound maybe but
right now all I know is Tommy is a huge
liar and I hate him and he made me
forget what this video is about
I promise you when I started making this
video my goal was to make something
short for once take a break from my
longer projects to make a quick video
quickly so people knew I was alive I did
not expect while I was doing research
for a rabbit hole to open beneath my
feet and to fall Wiley Coyote style into
an abyss of lies and Madness and
seemingly getting one of his Guinness
World Records sent to the [ __ ] Shadow
realm I didn't choose this this happened
to me and I'm not happy about it I
wanted this to be a story about how in
our Modern Age we don't take ownership
of artists work seriously enough through
the lens of a sound effect that had been
reused without credit for over a decade
but the people not being credited in
this story are the hard-working folks
under Tommy who he has taken credit from
over the years and the original voice
actor none of whom will see any of the
money Tommy makes from selling their
sound today it is incredibly easy for
hard work to be exploited by
corporations and one of those
corporations happens to be called Tommy
talarico Studios Incorporated but that's
really a structural problem and we
already all know capitalism is bad
statistically your most formative
memories are of a global financial
crisis you don't need that lecture from
me I think the unique lesson of this
story is about well records in multiple
senses of the word what's really at
stake here is history how these events
and people will be remembered Tommy has
cultivated such a reputation that when I
asked about the origins of a famous
punch sound effect on Twitter someone
independently brought him up and said
they assume he must have done it he
seems to have done everything at least
he says he has the man has successfully
inserted himself into conversations
about sound effects he didn't even make
while the people who did the work
attributed to him evaporate into
namelessness no one knows who Joey kuros
is and he made the sound effects people
think Tommy did he worked on [ __ ]
fortnite I've heard his sound effects as
they blast My Silver Surfer into dust
it's not right for him and people like
him to be forgotten games have always
had problems crediting authors correctly
early games were seen as products first
and creative Works second so credit
wasn't taken seriously creators used to
not be allowed to put their name on the
game and had to hide them in Easter eggs
Mark Cerny ironically another good
candidate for first American to work on
Sonic wasn't allowed to keep any of his
work or design documents when he was
working at Atari and his games were
considered Atari Creations not his his
source code notes and documentation were
only preserved because someone got them
out of a dumpster when Atari closed the
office and threw it all out this problem
has especially contributed to the
perception of women working in games
Yoko shimamura one of the most
well-known video game music composers
today a veritable industry icon one
might say composed all but three of the
tracks on the original arcade version of
Street Fighter 2 but due to capcom's
crediting policy at the time she was
credited via a pseudonym for her music's
appearance on Console releases and
updated versions of the game she was not
credited for her compositions at all all
credit was given to the people who
translated them to the new formats her
contributions to game music history are
only recognized properly decades
afterwards because her early career was
rendered invisible music she wrote often
being credited to someone else this was
widespread at the company the Capcom
sound team throughout the 80s and early
90s was almost entirely women just think
about that for a second an extremely
influential group of female early game
composers all credited through
pseudonyms or sometimes not at all and
with the ports of Music they composed
credited to someone else maybe one of
the reasons game development is
perceived as a male-dominated industry
is because all the women who've always
been here keep getting left out of the
history they wrote if you're interested
in the topic I recommend the street
fighter lady and female credit by Andy
lemon and hiligonda rietveld I've linked
them in the description and plagiarized
them heavily in this section of the
video but even when people are credited
the recognition can easily be minimized
Joey did some of the music for The
Terminator Sega CD game but as you can
imagine this information has been
rendered obscure thanks to a much larger
musician making sure his name is
remembered first the official CD release
of the soundtrack has Tommy V talarico
stamped on the front its booklet says
composed produced and performed by Tommy
talarico and calls Tommy a veritable
video game industry icon of course the
half a dozen people who collaborated
with him and wrote the other half of the
songs only appear on the back of the
case at the bottom as footnotes with
stars corresponding to which songs they
actually made so their names don't get
noticed quite as much Joey's song was so
good Tommy saw fit to put it on another
album with his name and face on it Tommy
talarico virgin games Greatest Hits
Joey's name is even smaller on the back
of this one it's not difficult to see
why Joey's contributions to game history
are being forgotten re-uploads of the
full Terminator CD soundtrack onto
YouTube Just say composed by Tommy
there's a re-upload of specifically
Joey's song Too the uploader who
understandably missed the tiny note on
the back of the CD case credits it to
Tommy the top comment is a guy called
Joey kurus explaining that he actually
made it but also thanking people for
their kind words we're at the point the
actual composers have to explain they
made the song in the the comments of
re-uploads of their work misattributed
to their old boss this extends back into
the regular music industry as a whole of
course but also into material we covered
here Michael Jackson's long-rumored Now
semi-confirmed work on Sonic 3 isn't all
it's cracked up to be either like a
certain other composer Michael had
people who worked for him according to
Brad boxer an American keyboardist and
composer who did a lot of work with
Jackson and actually is credited on
Sonic 3. Jackson basically made him do
most of it once you're well enough
established it only gets easier to
exploit the talents of people working
for you and build up your own status on
the back of something you made someone
else do the industry is still
constructed in a way that treats
individual creators usually the biggest
names on the project as the true authors
attributing A Game's success to them and
not the many people who did the work
things are so bad even the recipients of
this praise have called it out to quote
one of the worst articles ever written
there's a tendency among the press to
attribute the creation of a game to a
single person says Warren specter
creator of thief and Deus Ex the
journalistic attitude to Credit in
gaming used to be so awful it's not even
clear who wrote this the article is
credited to IGN's staff basically all
success and appreciation paused directly
into selected industry figureheads even
when they're actively trying to stop it
from happening and a lot of them aren't
because even if it's a problem it's a
problem that benefits them you can tell
a lot about an industry by how it treats
the people who actually do the work in
terms of the scope of time the average
game developer is [ __ ] the hundreds
and sometimes thousands of people who
work on games now throw away years of
their lives and so many of them go
completely unappreciated meanwhile the
most assholish men in the industry
continue to promote themselves off the
back of the efforts of the people
working for them imagine making great
sound effects for years and years only
for your boss to tell some guy in a
Halloween mask on a live stream with a
hundred views that he did it we don't
recognize the work and achievements of
people who make games we recognize is
the people who exploited that work the
best it's so easy for history and credit
to get wiped away case in point we could
have never learned that the oof was from
Messiah and assumed Roblox made it
forever but it's not even the Roblox oof
in my household we call it the Messiah
oof there are thousands of people whose
good work on games will never be
properly credited who we might have
already forgotten about gaming is still
a young medium but already the Sands of
our history are spilling through our
Monster Energy sodden fingers entire
games are at risk of being forgotten
never mind the human beings who created
them the most valuable contribution
Tommy has made to the story is
mentioning that the voice actress was
the daughter of someone who worked at
shiny entertainment at the time her
father
worked at shiny entertainment the girl
whose voice was the oof would be close
to 30 now she might even have heard it
and not even known it was her she might
not even remember recording it the
people who know who this was and the
parent who worked on the game those
people aren't going to be around forever
we have a limited time to learn who this
was the thing about history is it
happens and then it's gone if we don't
work to preserve it eventually it
becomes impossible to quote a famous
Nintendo quit screen everything not
saved will be lost and just as a kicker
how hard it is to remember things
accurately the popularized version of
the quote is wrong it's actually
anything not saved I'm not trying to be
a pedant for once it's kind of poignant
how easy it is for things to shift like
that if we don't set a precedent of
taking people's work and the accuracy of
records of who did what seriously we
leave it to the liars and opportunists
of the world to make up that history to
the spin-off of a beer company to tell
us who did what and it honestly on a
spiritual level fills me with immense
grief thinking about the people who made
the things I care about dying
unrecognized for what they did and being
forgotten gaming is just old enough that
we're losing that first generation Tommy
got the rights to in television because
he bought them from the state of its
last president when he passed away the
name The Branding it's his now the
original in television YouTube channel
with some of the final appearances of
its former president one of the world's
first ever game designers along with the
original and television website with its
beautiful web 1.0 history of the company
are now relegated to obscurity under
another name while Tommy continues to
use that name to advertise a product
that doesn't even exist the damage to a
history people are at real risk of
forgetting whose main characters are
dying might already have been done what
history will look like 20 30 100 years
in the future is being decided now now
is the time to decide if Tommy talarico
made the oof for Roblox or if Joey kuros
made it for messiah and Tommy has
already put his finger on the scale
decided how he wants all this to be
remembered if you buy his new sound pack
the metadata in the Roblox oof has been
changed to say Tommy talarico those who
fail to learn from history are doomed to
repeat it that's a quote commonly
attributed to Winston Churchill but he
was actually probably paraphrasing
George santiana that was me being a
pedant old habits die hard but he is a
corollary I came up with all by myself
those who let hucksters write the
history they're trying to learn from are
doomed in some other horrible way and
for one I don't think history gets to be
written by a guy who wasn't even on
Cribs it wasn't even cribs
okay
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
oh hello there thank you for watching
this 30 minute video and accompanying
feature length meltdown the boom mic is
slowly uh peeking into frame
anyway thank you all so much for
watching all of this and I hope you had
a good time and I hope to see you again
soon
for once
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
when I bought this uh Gamers Edition on
eBay you know when I was flipping
through it a bookmark fell out
this is a bookmark for Alexander well
done for all your hard work in year two
this year from Miss Dunn goodbye so
Alexander uh I have no idea who you are
or where you are now or if you're ever
watch this video
um I hope you made Miss Dunn proud I
have no idea how old you are now this
book came out in like 2008 I'm not going
to do the maths on that
um but if you want your bookmark back
email me
and I'll happily send it to you please
do email me in fact because I can't
throw this out
like that would be wrong
so this is just going to be in my life
forever until someone claims it so
please take this back