Grimothy

This next story is a decoration that I don't think you're going to be able to put together on your own. This is quite a story. Joining me now live, FOX 13's Michael Driver, one of the best storytellers in the business. He is working on his series, True Northwest. Michael, thanks for taking some time to join us today. Of course, man. How you doing, AJ? Looking fresh as ever. I'm trying to match your vibe, trying to kind of be on your energy. I've got the tie on because I'm on the desk. This story that you worked on is maybe one of my favorites that you've gotten a chance to do. You've got to tell me about this latest True Northwest you did. Yeah, so I'm in my car right now. I just finished up, like you said, my latest True Northwest story. And this one brought me out to Bainbridge Island. You know, Halloween's a few days away, so I was looking for a Halloween-themed top story. And I found a really good one out here at Bainbridge. You know, Halloween, you think you're going to see the ghosts, the ghouls, the goblins, right? But when's the last time you saw a Grimothy? Probably haven't seen one, but you have the chance to see one now. This is the brainchild from two brothers, Bryce and Matt Inman, who try to get creative every year. And they want to come up with something big that brings people out. And they drew inspiration from the raccoon that has stole the hearts of so many, Jimothy. And you're about to see what they created. And what they've created has exploded on social media. And now it's bringing people not from just Pacific Northwest, but from all across the country out to check out what they created. So let's take a look at what they did. And we'll talk about it on the back end. You know, we've had a lot of people who now come by daily just to see us every single day. kiddos who are getting out of school they now like divert their path to come through here to play with everything oh yeah so every year we try to have one big centerpiece project oh god this is a whole bunny he was an addition last year that's made out of a toilet seat i thought this would be the one that like people come out to see like oh it's a pickleball clown but nobody came out to see pickles so he's just out here in the rain coming to see Grimothy We decided to make Grimothy, the Jim Reaper, who we described as the dark father of Jimothy. This is one of the best things I've seen this year. Besides Jimothy I don't know what kind of song Jimothy would like, but that felt right to me. Where'd the tail go? The tail's still there, don't worry. His body is made of rebar, chicken wire, and cheap fur I found on the internet. Horrifying, disgusting. my first time building anything with any animatronics his arm flew into the bushes at one point tripped a breaker this morning there we go all right i got one eye working it's probably the only time you're ever going to be inside a halloween decoration so enjoy it if he works flawlessly that's not how a deformed raccoon works the thing is a series of mistakes so it feels very on par for who he should be i appreciate that he's like kind of a little creepy and a little friendly i think he's a little misunderstood maybe within minutes of putting videos of this online it had millions of views i mean the thing went absolutely nuts i think people just love the humor of it i think it's hilarious i love it i love things like this i love how creative for me halloween is like make stuff month where you can be creative and weird you get to do it for like a whole month my mom said this thing to me when i was a kid where she said it's okay to color outside the lines as long as it looks awesome i did this like i said with duct tape and chicken wire and it's a mess but it totally works and it feels amazing and people love it so with halloween that's why it's such a fun hobby to craft around because you don't have to be precise you don't have to be skilled you can just go with it everything everything about it the size i don't know if we're ever going to live up to this again i'm thinking this might be the top i'm just looking at it like this is the jimothy wave and we're at the crest right now we're never going to reach this crest again and i'm okay with that next year we'll just do a we'll do a goblin i i don't we'll do a witch you know that that way we can sleep and not have to live inside of a wreck driver i ruined it i thought that nap break was the end i i went to you oh man he uh yeah no the emotional end wait can i pull it back up hold on where are we at it's just it's just more of the awesome song that comes from the hamster dance music from back in the day i remember that that kind of like it was like a sleeper agent that came alive as soon as i heard that pick back up yeah no um what i'm curious about is if we're going to get a uh jimothy or grimothy exploding kittens uh as those guys the oatmeal um yeah yeah well and it's and it's funny because when i went out to do the story and i said you know hey you know And just like we do on camera, hey, tell me your name, spell it for me, tell me a little bit about yourself. And I was Matt Inman, and, you know, I made this Jimothy, but I'm also the creator of the card game Exploding Kittens. Yeah. And I'd never played it, so I just kind of went, cool. But then I started going, talking to my kiddos and other people. I'm like, oh, I talked to a guy that did a card game called Exploding Kittens. They're like, bro, we got that game downstairs. that's like the biggest game ever and then like i told you about it and i told you about it and you're like like you're a big fan oh yeah i remember what would it be like nearly 10 years ago my brothers introducing it to like a holiday at home and that's all we did was play that game so much so that i immediately driving back i was living in north carolina at the time came up with my own concept for a card game based on how theirs worked i because i draw my own comic I'm like, I can do that. And that is because of Exploding Kittens. So full circle. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it just kind of showcases to why you see the creativity. I mean, these guys are creative minds. So like for them to come up with a concept like this, you kind of get it. You know, after having, you know, doing the card game and stuff like that. I did want to say, obviously, out of respect, I don't want to give his address. But if you want to go out and see Grimothy, the best way to do it is to punch in your GPS the Wing Point Golf Course. Wing Point Golf Course in Bainbridge Island. And Grimothy is across the street. So he said, you know, yeah. So right across the street from Wing Point Golf Course, we'll bring you to Grimothy. And, yeah, I mean, I think, like I said, this thing is awesome. He posted it online. like he said millions of views and now he's got people from all states Texas, Arkansas, New York like people were just driving out because they saw this thing online and they want to check it out in person and um it's just awesome and like he kind of said was like man i didn't spend a lot of money i didn't go out to you know all these places and spend a lot like you know Halloween spirit and all this stuff he's like i just took stuff that i had and made a makeshift awesome thing so i think it just kind of shows that like you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to make something like that 14 foot of awesomeness yeah we got to kind of take a look inside of it he was explaining the process and just like i think you see something that looks so perfect but you were talking to him and it stopped working and so if you are out there and you're trying to create something fun don't get discouraged because even the experts who are doing this stuff year after year it's not about perfection it's about just getting it done and we just talked uh michael to um the folks at Goodwill and so that might i i opened it up saying you might not be able to make a decoration as as extravagant as this Grimmothy but maybe you can and if you do yeah send it to us send it to driver he'll come up and do a story i'll come up and do it yeah and i didn't want to say they i did want to say too but you know there's a chance that like you know Halloween's a few days away if you can't make it out to Bainbridge to see this awesome thing um they plan on keeping Grimmothy out through Christmas so you got you know until after Christmas to come check this thing out um they said it might look a little bit different they're planning on putting maybe a beard on him a Santa hat um but keeping the same vibe is kind of the evil the evil Jimothy that's turned into Grimmothy um yeah and you see that kid right there man like i was just like the beat had him going he's got his fingers snapping he's dancing along so this creepy looking thing they made is like actually it's bringing joy it's bringing like people happiness and like don't we need more of that right now i mean like with all the bad stuff we have to cover every day like how about just a little bit of something good you know this is horrifying i love that picture so i just zoomed in on it i don't think i can yes but look at this look at that and then um i have to kind of go back and forth between us but this is like cinematic right here the way you have this shot with the the low angle and this kid this looks like a horror film if i were to you do a little bit of a color tone on that some dark hues some blues and greens and just call like grimothy that could be yeah the next horror movie um michael i know that you talk about this every week and with matt but tell me a little bit more about True Northwest so first off this story has it already aired or are we gonna see this later no so this is the first this is the first kind to premiere here on the live desk with you but thank you um if you want to watch it it will air uh the first time in uh seattle news tonight so snt 4 p.m first time it air and then uh after that you can catch it on all the other newscasts we have um and then it'll go up on our website um and if you ever if you want to watch this story and other ones i do if you click on our website and you go to the true northwest tab uh you'll have a whole rundown of all the stories that i do And I'm fortunate because True Northwest, I kind of go around, you know, our region, highlighting kind of unique, inspiring, uplifting things that are going on in our community. So, you know, if you've got something cool, something unique, something you've seen somebody doing something, you know, pretty awesome in your neighborhood, shoot me an email at michael.driver at fox.com, and I'll come out and do a story, you know. It's just, it's fun, you know, and it's, you know, I go all across the region, So don't feel like, oh, well, I'm way out here. I'm hours away. You can't come out. I'll come out. I like to drive. My last name's Driver. I like to get off in the car and go. You're in a car right now. So let's do it. I'm in a car right now. Like, if you'd mention me right now, maybe I'd just throw it and drive and we'll go. No, I think that's what's so cool, right? Because so often the big news, the headlines, the stories do come out of the communities that have just larger populations of Seattle's, Everett, Tacoma, Olympia. It's where the big news comes out of. And those areas get a lot of attention because a lot of people are connected to those cities and those communities. But these are stories that you will go throughout western Washington. This one was on Bainbridge, right? Yeah, Bainbridge Island. So you're taking ferries, you're going on long drives, you're going to neighborhoods that without the work that you do might not get that attention. It might only be known to the community. And so you've done this work for years and years and years where you're highlighting individuals, people's stories who would not normally be told, you know, at your four and five o'clock news. Yeah. And, you know, it's cool, too, because it allows me to meet interested people, travel to places that I maybe haven't been to before. And the great thing, too, is like once you do the story and people see what's going on, maybe it's a business that people hadn't heard about or just a nonprofit or something like that. People see it, and it gives them a reason to go visit that place now. Maybe somebody's like, oh, Bainbridge is cool, but it's not on my list to go out there, even though it should be. But now you have a reason to go. You can pack up the family. Here's free entertainment, right? You drive out. You hop on the ferry. That's enjoyable. You get to Bainbridge. You get to spend however long you want, look at all the decorations they have. You get to hang out with Grimothy. And then you can go to the restaurants. Go to the, you know, places you can shop and things in Bainbridge and just do an experience with your family that you haven't done before. And, you know, like I said, it doesn't cost you anything. You're just, you know, it's just, you know, you're having fun, free stuff. So do it. Yeah. And this one's neat, too, because whereas this is a story that is in someone's neighborhood and kind of that real local Pacific Northwest stories that you focus on, it's now having bigger impacts because these guys are known across the world for the work that they do with the oatmeal and their card game and all the other games so you're kind of giving people a teaser if they hadn't seen the the instagram post now people have a reason to kind of cruise out there and check this out and not just for the next couple days but you said they'll keep it out for uh a little while through christmas through christmas and yeah and i'm going to probably later on today go in and try my hand at exploding kittens because i haven't tried the game yet it's so easy so fun it's easy it's easy okay i like easy and fun yeah you know what it's like you ever play minesweeper as a kid like on the computer it's kind of like that yeah you're okay it's go fish meets minesweeper you draw from the deck and if you pull one of the cards you get exploded and you're out didn't they also didn't matt also co-create something that has to do with burritos or something yeah throwing burritos like a burrito caveman games i mean i got them all i love yes so i'm i'm a little bit uh i wish that i got a chance to go out i would have been like i love your game guys you're so cool and you're like getting him out of here yeah and like you totally forget that your story's over grimathy and you're just like oh wait a minute we should probably start filming something like let's do a story over there but like i just want to talk about your card game bro when you're on deadline that was me last week talking to jay howell the character designer for bob's burgers and the creator bro sanjay and craig i'm like this is so cool and he's like okay thanks i gotta go i'm just kidding he was great he was fantastic uh gosh i want to i want to leave everybody with this image driver i was able to pause oh man isn't that beautiful yeah it's kind of yeah that could be that could be a mask they could sell that at a halloween shop like people could wear that i'd buy that i'm surprised that we haven't seen jimothy costumes branded here's my question you don't have to have an answer but that fur sitting out as we get into our fall weather rainy months has me a little bit concerned so i'm sure they have a plan in place well and that's the amazing thing i asked him and i was like hey do you have a plan in place for this he's like nope he's like he's like it is what it is he's like it adds to it he's like it's jimothy is you know he's got issues right and it's like if he was perfect or he looked perfect like it wouldn't make sense so like we live in the pacific northwest it rains all the time just let it be he's not out there throwing tarps on it i mean the only thing i'm having to do is i have to keep monitoring because you gotta imagine i didn't show the the broad scope of inside but it's like just makeshift like wires everywhere like you don't know which one connects they all kind of cross and you know you get a little moisture in there can you have like a breaker going he's like oh what's the problem and he'd go and open it up, and it's, like, just full of water. So he'd just shake it out, dry it, and it's working again, you know? So it's like you just got to roll the punches. And like I said, he's having fun with it, and if it breaks, he didn't spend much money on it. So what's the big deal? And, you know, I asked him, I was like, what are you going to do next year to one-up this? And he's like, I don't know if we can one-up this. You know, it'd probably be whatever happens next year that's going viral, they'll try to cling to and make it into something. So I'm looking forward to that, too. I'm going to have to go back out. You can go with me. You can go with me this time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Love's in the museum. Michael Driver, True Northwest. You just saw it first here. It'll be on later at Seattle News Today. And, of course, all of his other stories are on Fox13Seattle.com. Driver, appreciate you, brother. Appreciate you, brother.