Weekend chats with Aaron Watke of Moon County

WEEKEND If Moon County were a movie with an ensemble cast, what movie would it be?

Moon County Probably “Cannonball Run 2.” I cannot further extrapolate on this answer for fear of indictment.

W Do you consider Moon County to be a brand of comedy?

MC I wouldn’t call Moon County a brand so much as it is the definition of comedy.  Can you patent a banana? Only if it is adequately genetically modified, and even then we’re in a legal gray area.

W Do you pay attention to online memes at all? Do you make videos that you think have a good chance to go viral?

MC It’s certainly true that the Internet has its own entertainment aesthetic, and for the most part it sucks.  If television is the downfall of civilization by appealing to our mammalian brain’s desires for sex, food and violence, then the Internet stimulates something deeper and more frighteningly primeval like the lizard brain, where Internet users are attracted to bright flashing lights, quick and loud things, swear words and videos of cats falling down or jumping into boxes.  
This is why we’ve primarily tried to ignore it and just do what we want and think is funny, even though we’ve occasionally done holiday-themed videos (is 4-20 a holiday?) because that’s a way to kind of cheat the system and still get views without catering to the people who want to see sped-up videos of a 15- year-old pretending to be a six-year-old and rambling about his day.

W And finally, is that dude from Tosh.0 a douche or unhearlded genius?

MC I’ve yet to catch the show, so I can’t say for sure.  But I do know that Kato Kaelin e-mailed me recently at work (yes, that Kato Kaelin) showing off a video he did with Tosh where he was the “new and improved Keyboard Cat” wearing cat ears. So, you be the judge.