The Big Burp Theory: Inside ‘Pete’s Basement’
They burp.
They fart.
They hurl more F-bombs than Sgt. Fury did grenades in World War II.
The Pete’s Basement crew consists of the most unlikely of YouTube stars. They are not smooth-skinned, wide-eyed young girls staring dreamlike into the camera. They sweat profusely underneath the lights in their T-shirts, and don’t be surprised if they whip out hard liquor on the air. Those who believe that the otherwise swell Big Bang Theory is a truly accurate reflection of comic-book fans will be in for a culture shock; the real deal is rough around the edges, a bit twisted, and definitely NSFW. But that’s what makes Pete’s Basement must-see TV.
The setup is simple: A group of comics geeks sitting together and unleashing their brutally frank opinions on their latest purchases. Imagine a cross between The Breakfast Club and the late Siskel & Ebert but jacked up on whiskey and Twinkies. There is a blue-collar vibe to Pete’s Basement that is unmistakable; these are regular guys and gals, free from art-school pretensions. The stacks of comics on their tables are not corporate freebies; it’s what their daily jobs enable them to afford so when they’re terrible, they will bark like rabid dogs.
Since its debut in 2008, Pete’s Basement has skyrocketed in popularity; as of their 300th episode, it receives more than two million downloads a month. The group’s potty humor and irreverent attitudes towards sacred cows (critically acclaimed Scottish author Grant Morrison is a regular target; his outré take on Batman often leaves host Pete DeLuca in a white-hot and hysterically funny rage) keeps viewers returning. Even when Ramon is not burping, the show is a gas.
FLIPGEEKS: When did all of you start reading comic books? What got you into them, and what were you collecting initially?
PETE DELUCA: I started reading comics when I was in fifth grade, so I guess about 11-years-old. I was always a huge horror movie fan when I was a little kid – more on that later. Tales from the Crypt had just come out on HBO, and I recall a conversation with my Grandma Bobby (because I couldn’t pronounce Barbara as a kid) about how she used to read Tales from the Crypt and other horror comics as a kid, and her brother, my Uncle Paul, would read all the superhero books like Batman and Superman. It was my grandmother who bought me my very first comic book, a reprint of Vault of Horror #27, the cover of which depicted a guy getting eaten by this big pink blob-looking thing. Horror genre aside, I was a huge ’80s cartoon fan and was pretty depressed when all my old shows left the airwaves. Even when kids were “growing up” and it wasn’t cool to watch cartoons anymore, I’d still pop in one of my old tapes labeled “Saturday Morning Cartoons” and be happy as a pig in shit.
One of my absolute favorites was He-Man, but it was G.I. Joe that got me started down the road to comic collecting. I remember being in a random bodega in the neighborhood and they had one of those spin racks with comics in it, and I saw G.I. Joe # 105, so I bought it. I loved seeing my favorite characters in living color every week. Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and The Incredible Hulk were two of my very favorite cartoons, so when I discovered the Spider-Man comic strip in the New York Daily News, I started reading that, and it wasn’t long until I picked up my first issue of Spidey, Amazing Spider-Man #342. The rest, as they say, is history.
Amusing side note – not knowing who the hell Mary Jane was at first, I thought Peter Parker married Angelica Jones – Firestar! Since the way MJ was drawn in the funny pages looked just like Angelica from the cartoon.
RAMON: I don’t remember the year but it was really early on. Before high school! X-Men and Thor.
STEPH: There were always comic books around the house thanks to my dad, but the first book I bought on my own was Uncanny X-Men #281 from a flea market. I was about 10-years-old and was getting into the X-Men cartoon on Fox. It was a random issue to pick up considering it was the end of a big story arc where the Hellions died. I was lost as hell, but it didn’t stop me from getting more X-Men.
CHEESEBURGER: I actually got into comic books through my mother’s chiropractor. True story, his name is Dr. Walter Saviuk, brother of Web of Spider-Man artist Alex Saviuk, who still attends some of the smaller comic cons in NYC. Dr. Saviuk had drawers full of comic books in some of his exam rooms, for kids like myself to read while they waited for parents’ treatments to finish up. He started me on my collection, giving me issues of Web of Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Avengers and Avengers West Coast, Marvel Team-Up and What If? issues. I was collecting Spider-Man and X-Men exclusively after that.
ADAM: 10-years-old. My old man brought home DC Comics’ Who’s Who. Thought it was the coolest thing ever.
FG: How did the Pete’s Basement gang meet one another?
PETE: I met Roger freshmen year of high school, when he randomly chimed in to a conversation I was having with this really hot girl. She turned out to be nuts but he and I have been friends ever since. I met Steve a year later at Roger’s birthday party, where I learned of his uncanny ability to remember everyone’s birthday in the history of ever. Go on. Ask him someone’s birthday. And not your dear aunt Mildred – someone cool, like Lou Costello! Nothing against your Aunt Milly or anything, but let’s see her multiply 7 and 13 and get 28! Ramon and Adam worked with Roger, and I met them the first day of the show.
RAMON: I met Roger at work. He came up with the idea and introduced me to Steve and Pete. Adam also worked with us.
STEPH: We actually all went to the same high school, but I was in a different class. I remember seeing the guys around through mutual friends, but nothing formal. It wasn’t until my friend and Basement buddy, Danny, introduced me to Ramon that I made my way over to the Basement.
FG: Who developed the idea of a YouTube show and when did it debut?
PETE: It was all Roger’s idea – so blame him! He made us do it, I tell ya! He threatened to pour dish soap in my eyes! And I knew that shit would be painful – I’d watched him do it to himself years ago for a comedy sketch we were filming! Long story. Heh, those were the days, but I digress. No it really was Roger’s idea. I may be the face of the show, and it may be my actual basement it gets filmed in, but this is Roger’s brainchild. I still remember the exact conversation. He called me about a week before Christmas in ’07 and said, “Pete, you wanna’ do a podcast about comic books?”
I said, “Hell yeah! What’s a podcast?”
So yeah, had no idea, but I heard comic books, and I was in. He explained that it was basically an Internet TV show where me and a few other guys, Steve included, would talk about and rate comics. It sounded like a blast, and really, being out of school for years and not having too many geek friends at my job, it was tough to really talk shop with anyone. I’d only see Steve once a month or so, and obviously we’d have a lot to talk about. Hey did you see when Spidey did this or holy shit man they’re all gonna’ fight so-and-so. Here was a regular gathering to get it all out of my system once a week? As if it’s possible to really get it all out of your system, but still, it would be akin to Old Faithful. A regularly scheduled geek explosion. Definitely in.
We had a few conference call meetings. The name came about purely by accident, and we all met that Saturday the 5th to film, and the very first episode of Pete’s Basement premiered on January 8th, 2008.
FG: Pete’s Basement stands out in its frankly vulgar and in-your-face approach to comics reviewing. Was this a reaction to usually tame comic-book podcasts or merely a reflection of your no-bullshit New York backgrounds?
PETE: I’d never watched a comic podcast before we started the PB show. Frankly, this is just how I talk. I curse worse than a sailor driving a Mack truck in traffic, effectively combining two old idioms of ‘cuss like a sailor’ and ‘curse like a trucker’ – and honestly I think if you don’t say the word ‘fuck’ at least once in a traffic jam, then you have anger issues. Some people say cursing is not natural; it’s barbaric. Well, for those people, come here so I can punch you in the face, asshole. Don’t make me chase you; you’ll just make it worse. Some people say it makes you sound stupid. Well, I got a pretty damn high IQ, and I’ll whoop your ass at chess any day.
It’s a natural reaction to a stimuli of either aggravation or utter excitement. You’re not gonna say “holy shoot” unless the CEO of your company, your teacher, or your grandma is around and you can’t say otherwise. But beyond that, just fuckin’ talk how you wanna’ talk. What comes natural. Lewis Black said it best: “I’m a New Yorker. Fuck isn’t a word; it’s a comma.” But it really don’t matter where you’re from. Just be you. Be real. Don’t be fake. And don’t take shit too seriously. That’s why we’re good at this. You’re seeing the real us every time you tune in. We love the characters we talk about, but in the end, we know they’re comics and they’re supposed to be fun. Even a sucky story can be fun to joke about, or fuck it, they’ll put it back and then we can have fun again. And we never take ourselves too seriously.
RAMON: It’s just us.
CHEESEBURGER: Definitely a reflection of our attitudes. We are raw, we are honest, we pull no punches, and we don’t feel a need to sugarcoat a thing just to make people happy. I can’t speak for everyone, but I would much rather people hear the truth. Unfortunately for some, the truth is more offensive than anything else.
ADAM: Go fuck yourself.
FG: After watching an episode of Pete’s Basement, I was so convinced that Darkseid left a floating pile of crap to Mary Marvel that I stopped purchasing Countdown to Final Crisis and nearly sent e-mail to Dan DiDio to complain about it. What other comics that you despise so much to create such a violent reaction?
PETE: The Clone Saga. Superman Red/Superman Blue. “Heroes Reborn.” “Batman R.I.P.” “Brand New Day.” I resist change, on a near molecular level. And when you tell a story in such a way that you either reset or completely disregard the fabled history of characters that are older than you, well, have some fucking respect! Jerk. How are you gonna say Batman’s dad is alive and trying to kill him? How are you gonna say that the Spider-Man I grew up with, that I’ve known all my life since I was a little kid watching Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends on Saturday mornings, is a fake? Is not the real Spidey because of some random two issue nothing-story that happened 25 years ago (at the time)? That is the kind of shit that pisses me off. It ain’t hard to write a good story. I’ve done it time and again. Do not change the basis of the character. The history of the character. That is just plain wrong. Dan Slott’s Octo-Spidey pisses me off, not because it’s a bad story, but because it’s the only story. It’s meant to be canon. Some little kid can’t grab a Spidey book for the first time and just read a good story because he has no clue that Spidey is really Doc Ock now. You just stopped that little kid from enjoying his comic book!
RAMON: I rarely hate comics. I usually hate things like time travel and weak female characters.
STEPH: I try not to let things get to me. I want to read ongoing series, but I always fall off, so I stick to minis and one-shots. Not too much to complain about there! But if there is anything over the years that has annoyed the hell out of me, it’s Catwoman. Specifically, her ongoing series. I’m convinced that no one knows what to do with her, or how to write her well. Every series starts off strong but ultimately ends up driving her right into the ground. I always say I want to write the damned book.
CHEESEBURGER: “Brand New Day.” This was right around the time I had to stop collecting most of my books ‘cuz rent in NY state ain’t fuckin’ cheap. I still want to bash Joe Quesada over the head repeatedly with my Spider-Man bobblehead doll for hitting us with that embarrassment of a retcon. DC hardcore fans still have it worse with Dan Didio, though. I really feel bad for the shit they’ve had to suffer through.
ADAM: Pretty much everything DC puts out in the New 52, except Earth 2.
FG: It’s a secret among comic-book fans that Dr. Fredric Wertham was right: Comics did corrupt us as minors. What comic books made you sick and twisted as youths?
PETE: Heh. I was renting horror movies by the time I was 5-years old. Loved them. My folks would take me to the video store and I’d get one cartoon and one horror movie, or one Nintendo game and one horror movie. But always a horror flick. And ’80s horror was the best! Tits and blood! Who could ask for more? That being said, it is tough to recall a comic book that disturbed me all that much.
RAMON: Those damn swimsuit editions during the ’90s didn’t help this horndog!
STEPH: I just read X-Men titles, and my dad’s books in my youth. It wasn’t until high school when I started getting into a variety of evil stuff. So I can’t say that comics corrupted me. In fact, I feel they’ve made me more creative. If anything warped my fragile mind as a kid, it’s the fact that I’ve been watching horror movies since I was 3-years-old!
CHEESEBURGER: I never really read anything that was that twisted and/or sick early on. A few Hellraiser books here and there, nothing too crazy, though. After getting on the show I got turned onto Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and I’m still blown away by how funny and fucked up it is.
ADAM: Badger. Nexus. Scout. Airboy. DNAgents. Justice Machine. Judge Dredd. Heavy Metal.
FG: Pete, your all-time favorite super-hero is Spider-Man. Were you named after Peter Parker? Am I the only who has noticed you have a slight resemblance to him?
PETE: I am not. I’m actually named after my Grandfather Vito, who everyone called Peter. What can I tell you? Italians and their nicknames. My parents were actually never into comics. I got them reading a few things here and there, like my father on Dynamite’s The Lone Ranger and Stephen King’s Dark Tower series when Marvel was doing that. My mother reads a lot of Dynamite too, like The Shadow, The Spider, and The Bionic Man when it was being printed. Anyway, I have been told I look like Parker, but most especially when I bust out my digital SLR to take pictures, that name flies around a lot. More so I get that I “act” like Spider-Man because I’m usually the guy cracking the jokes. I would have preferred to be Batman, but I guess I’m not stoic enough.
RAMON: This question is too easy to answer.
ADAM: Parker is from Queens. QUEENS.
FG: Ramon burps in nearly every episode. This seems to be a running gag; can he do this on command?
PETE: Surprisingly, he cannot. All of his gaseous emissions are au naturel.
RAMON: It’s a nervous thing. I don’t do that outside of the basement.
ADAM: Ramon is 32% gas. If he doesn’t release it periodically, we risk a meltdown.
FG: I once performed oral sex on a woman while reading her an issue of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing wherein he has sex with Abby Holland after she eats hallucinogenic fruit growing from his body. What’s the craziest thing you ever did while reading a comic book?
PETE: No crazy stories here. I’ve said on the show that I read slow, and really, I don’t like to have distractions, so I even keep the TV off when I’m reading. It has to be quiet! Anyway, yeah – sorry to disappoint. Nothin’ crazy whilst readin’ my funny books.
RAMON: That’s awesome! I think I’ve gotten some head.
STEPH: Comic time is me time. Ain’t nuttin’ crazy happening around my books. Also, I am square.
CHEESEBURGER: Is your tongue double-jointed? You should talk to like a sex expert or something about that, you could get a book written! Sorry, what was the question?
FG: Swamp Thing spoke with ellipses, which made erotic multitasking possible.
ADAM: Received oral sex in a Catholic rectory. From a girl. Or a priest with a clown wig. Memory (and my therapist) aren’t as reliable as they used to me.
FG: Confession – I once went to a comic-book convention wherein an artistic legend of my youth was scheduled to appear and sign autographs. Alas, at the last minute I realized I could not locate any of his stuff in my messy bedroom except for one. Unfortunately, it was one that, at the dawn of my puberty, became a go-to in my quest for manually operated solo conquest because of its scantily clad female star. While no traces of decades old fossil stains appeared on its entirety (a DNA test would have proven me guilty, nevertheless), I could not muster the courage to have him sign it. (And it would’ve been more awkward when I shook his hand.) In my mind, I kept thinking, “What would Pete and Ramon have done?” Would you have gone through it?
PETE: Not only would I have gotten it signed, I’d have CGC’ed it. Just to laugh quietly to myself as everyone handled the book. Queue evil laugh.
RAMON: Hell, yeah, I would have!
STEPH: Geekery is shameless! If you get the chance again, you get that book signed. That book was apparently full of good times and memories and deserves a signature. You walk up to him and get it signed like a boss.
CHEESEBURGER: My only response to this is to ask, did you not have napkins by the bed? Seriously?
ADAM: “SIGN IT! SIGN THE FUCKING THING! I HAVE A GUN!”
FG: 300 episodes. What are your thoughts on the longevity of the show? How many downloads do you receive a monthly basis?
PETE: We just crowned two and a half MILLION FUCKIN’ DOWNLOADS a month! Holy Hell! That is so amazing. I really am flabbergasted. So much so that I had to use the word flabbergasted! I will absolutely keep doing the show as long as people keep watching. I love interacting with people. I love talking shop. Yapping about the characters we love. But also, people have come to me asking advice on schooling, where they should go if they visit NYC, and even moving to NY! It’s a real honor to be thought of as someone who anyone can turn to answer such really life-influencing questions. That’s something you ask a friend. And if people watching the show think of us as just that, then we’ve done what we set out to do, and we’ll keep doin’ it as long as we can.
RAMON: I’m surprised. I don’t know why, though. I know we are good; I just never think of it as a show. It’s just friends getting together. Who counts the amount of times friends hang out?
STEPH: As long as the show stays fun, and everyone is enjoying it, I’ll be down.
CHEESEBURGER: I’m amazed and proud of these guys for keeping the show going as long as they have. And I’m equally honored to be a part of it, even if I can’t be there as often as I would like.
ADAM: Man, as long as we keep making all that gravy from the money train that is podcasting.
Website: http://www.petesbasement.com
(Mikey Sutton is a three-time award-winning journalist who has written for the All-Music Guide, Trouser Press, Rolling Stone, Amazing Heroes, and Cinefantastique.)
