How Tubby Nugget grew from a doodle into a beloved internet brand

Josh and Janine, welcome to our Mashable Studios

Thank you for having us. This is the best little studio we've been... Oh my gosh, thank you so much

Well, I'm so excited to talk to you and... Thank you. Little Tubby Nugget

Hello, hello, thank you for having us. Oh, she had the voice

So I was... In my research, I saw that you recently had an event

like 400 people showed up. We did, oh my gosh. The chocolate chip cookie song

We did. And I know you said it made you pretty emotional. Why did it pitch you so hard

it's spread so far and so wide is something that's really... Yeah, we haven't performed that song live in front of our audience

and to hear all the kids singing it, gosh, it was just amazing

It's nice to see that something that made me happy is now making so many other families and kids happy

Yeah, I mean, that optimism is so important. I think the way that we talk about the Internet these days

is there's a lot of negativity. There's a lot of negative things happening online

And it's nice to have a character like Tubby and these positive communal experiences

And you guys get to really contribute to that. So I feel like it's probably important to you to spread that positivity

It is. I mean, I think there's so many other wonderful content creators that we've met who are also trying to, like, just make the Internet a little bit brighter

I think there's we're consuming so much more content nowadays, like stuff that we couldn't even imagine, like at the rate that we could not even imagine when we were younger

So if we can add a little bit of good to that space, that's already going to spark waves

And we've seen it with all of the kids that are at this con. And so it's really fun to see

So when you come to, you know, conventions like VidCon, you've been coming for a few years now

And also the different IRL events that you guys are hosting. Does it kind of like change the way you think about Tubby Nugget

Like Tubby Nugget is this character, right, that lives. Well, when you created it, it lived in one place

and now it can live outside of the screen, right? It's a physical plushie that you can hold

So how does it make you change the way you see the character? I mean, I feel like the character kind of belongs to everyone

Everyone can adopt their own plushie, their own nugget and everything. And so we just want to give the audience many different ways

to feel Tubby wholesomeness on screen or off screen I mean I think when we started we just wanted it to be as accessible as possible because I think we really grew during the pandemic when everybody was online and so now

that we're offline and in the real world it's changed how we see everyone now like in person

like to I guess to see like real faces behind like the screen is yeah kind of changed how we

like we're like oh we are still doing this for like these people it's yeah it's always nice

getting lots of likes and comments but just having that face-to-face interaction

and someone really like you seeing the the positive effect tubbies optimism has

is that's just the best one I feel like you said something that really like stuck

with me and not like followers are really abstract like you have no idea

what like 500 is versus yeah thousand versus a hundred thousand and so like do

Do you feel like maybe creators these days are a little bit too obsessed with the numbers

And like how did you make that switch? Did it ever like, was there a switch in your brain that you had to make

I think honestly, if anything, I would say that we get desensitized from like how many people are supporting us and are a part of our communities

Because as the numbers grow, they seem smaller and smaller and smaller, which is ironic

But I think that we want to encourage other creators to meet their fans in person

and see the faces that they're really encouraging. Because it does really change your perspective when you see a room of 400 people is crazy

And so we were pretty overwhelmed. And I was like, can you imagine if all 14 million of our followers showed up in person

Yeah. Like if we get 400 likes on a post that seems very small, like 400 people in person is just like, uh-oh

It's crazy. Yeah. I think it also makes us more and more grateful for what we do

How does it affect the way that you guys make decisions, too? Are you thinking about the algorithm when you're making content decisions

Or is it like, what's the balance there? It's hard not to sometimes

I don't think we really, I'm not going to lie. We don't really think about the algorithm that much

We did at one point. I feel like we always, we see what works well

and if it aligns with the heart of Tuffy Nuggets, then yeah, we'll make it

But I think any time in the past, any time we chased likes or views it like It feels less authentic to us And I think our audience feels that too Like our audience is a lot smarter than like I think digital meter might give them credit for but I feel like we make the best content when we are the most comfortable and the

most ourselves. So I hope, I mean, it seems like our audience still resonates with us. So I'm very

happy to hear that. But you said it, you know, you did get kind of maybe fixated on those like

algorithms and breaking through trends and stuff in the beginning. Yeah. So like for emerging creators

who are just getting started. Is that something that you would advise doing

Or is it more like stay true to yourself, stay true to your... Honestly, the way we grew early on is Janine would reply to every single comment

And she... I was replying as tuppy. Yeah, and she really built that sense of community early on

Community building, yeah. Like now, it's a little harder to do that. But I think for especially new creators, early on, it's just like

all right, you got my... Enjoy it. You have five comments, reply to all five of them because that's the way you're going to build a community

I know, enjoy your community, enjoy the space that you have to speak with them and to engage with them

I think that at the beginning we thought we needed to change because we're like, oh, we're growing so rapidly, maybe not everyone is going to keep loving our content

But we felt less ourselves, I think our audience felt like we were more shy

but when we make stuff that's just tubby, I think that's when we succeed the most. Yeah

So I would definitely recommend that, I think for creators, don't stop doing what works

which is what worked at the start. You guys have a filmmaking. You're both kind of filmmaking. You have that background

I know there's been talks about like, well, do we do a Tubby TV show

Would that be for YouTube? And there's a lot of conversation at VidCon and in Hollywood right now about like, you know

why go through traditional studios and media methods when you can just like do indie animation online on YouTube

Do you guys have thoughts about the indie like animation industry happening on YouTube right now

I mean, it's really incredible what's going on right now of all the indie pilots that are just taking off

We're in the process of building a team, you know, trying to figure out the right next move

I think we don't want to, like, dive into it right away. We still have a lot of music videos that are coming up

So I think that's our next small step before we jump into, like, doing a full-on TV show

But we are doing longer media this year which is going to be very exciting It almost like test episodes But we have so much love for the indie animation community because we so much of a do type animation already DIY yeah We made so

many friends in this space too, especially coming from more formal film careers. I think seeing the

way that creators are getting creative about this industry and how to make a living in it

I'm excited to make a long-form show, whether it be on traditional streamers or on YouTube

Yeah, the path is so new. This is such a new development. It's a state of animation

I just think it's going to get bigger and bigger and we just hope to be part of that wave

And you know, we know Hollywood's paying attention because success of creator-led

films right now in Hollywood. Backrooms, Obsession. This is not on Brad, but we love Obsession. This is not on Brad with Tubby Nugget

It's like my favorite movie of the year. Okay, there's something to unpack here

Thank you, thank you. Oh, and then Hasbun Hotel is getting so much love, and it's just so exciting to see all

of our favorite animators. I pitched her a Tubby obsession in the crossover

That would have been so funny. Where Tubby breaks One Wish Willow for Tubby to love them, but he's like, I love you anyway

I know. We're like, it's wholesome, but at the same time. I think we could do it

I'm just going to put that out there. No one's saying no to us except ourselves. Okay, so Josh, if you add a One Wish Willow, what are you doing with it

One Wishrillo that Janine would love me for ever more than anyone

That's what the ring is for. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I already got that wish

Yeah, you already got your wish. I wish for something else. And I guess I would love to know, like, Chubby, like we said, is the brand

He's the face. How do you guys decide how you want to put his image out there, whether it's through games

or books? How do you decide on what you want to do with it? Oh, that's a beautiful question

We've been asking our audience. Yeah, audience will stay. We just put out a poll, did a huge Google form, and got all the feedback

But honestly, our favorite part of doing, like getting feedback from the audience is just

you know, we added a question where they just tell us about themselves. Yeah. And that is the best way to that informs our station, because we know what we like

and what we want, you know, this tubby nugget doesn't just belong to us, belongs to everyone

And so hearing, getting to meet fans at VidCon or through online, through the form

It's just the best and it really gets us in vibe with our community and we love it

So yeah. Love it