For the past 20 years, Mega64 has been a part of the San Diego Comic-Con community. They’ve always had a booth at the Comic Mecca, always in the same spot every year. The YouTube group with over 650,000 subscribers has in its own way, cemented itself in pop culture. Whether it be their podcast, short films, video game skits, and most importantly, their original Mega64 show, the effect these 4 friends have had on the internet, good or bad, has been monumental.
It’s no surprise that this year they managed to secure room 6DE for their panel and almost filled the entire space. Mega64 fans are part of a niche group that knows very well the chaos about to unfold. With the crowd’s eerie silence and palpable anticipation, it was no surprise when cheers erupted the moment the giant screens displayed the Mega64 logo, which quickly shifted into a short video.
It was the commercial for the Apple Vision Pro but it quickly devolved into showing some of the dumbest videos on the internet. The “Hey dude can I have some change” video, Michael Meyers break dancing, and then quickly changed to some of the famous “bodily harm” videos from the 2,000s. The winced look of the audience quickly shifted to one of laughter as one of Mega64’s older videos, ASL awareness, began playing on the screen. For context it was Mega64 throwing ice water on themselves over and over with DJ Snake’s “Turn Down for What” blaring alongside air horns.
The audience felt right at home.
At that point the video ended, music started blaring and the whole crew began to run out the audience practically jumped out of their chairs. Rocco Botte, Shawn Chatfield, Derrick Acosta, and Garett Hunter made their loud return to Comic-con.
Shawn ran with a bit that he was going to the US Olympics decked out in Olympian gear. Rocco was wearing a Apple Vision Pro in a KFC track suit (I don’t know how I can make this up), Derrick and Shawn were also, for once, not the strangest ones in the room.
They premiered their new “Cosplayerz: Absolute Disgrace” video, which was a collection of shots from SDCC’23 and their own cosplay which quickly morphed into a shot of a sandwich in the trash shot that lasted 29 seconds. This then morphed into the name of the downtown restaurant Karl Strauss who sponsored their show.
Of course in Mega64 fashion, it wasn’t enough. They needed to make sure that everyone knew about this, so they made a video celebrating their sponsor which led to chatfield “perishing” in the streets of downtown San Diego as he got separated from the group, in the concrete jungle.
The next words that appeared on the screens were enough to make any fan of their show understand that the next 30 minutes were going to be something they wouldn’t be able to forget. Deadpool vs Wolverine part II flashed across the screen. For their final bit they were willing to go a step further than any of their shows before.
Acosta made the idea clear: “We have some footage here for an exclusive sneak peek at a video we are making and we want to involve all of you in this video”.
The crowd cheered, although those cheers would soon turn into boo’s, because for this video, Rocco would be showing off their new footage as if it was akin to a Kevin Feige showcase of the next big event at Marvel. With dad cap and bomber jacket at the ready, Rocco transformed into the mainstream director and all the audience had to do is hate everything that was shown to them.
The next 20 minutes of the show was genuinely a hate fest. Boo’s erupted from the crowd, Rocco would pretend to be a director fighting for his life in front of a group of angry fans. The occasional “you suck!’ Or “I waited for this?!’ Erupted alongside some not so savory langauge. The worst of it being “Madame web is better than this!”
Acosta and Chatfield would then come out in their Wolverine and Deadpool costumes enthusiastic at first but confidence immediately shattered as they got literally boo’d off the stage. Johnny Weiss, their lead video editor and cameraman’s giant smile never wavered.
Finally the panel had approached its QnA segment and this was a memorable one. Most of the time these segments tend to be more satire than anything else. Yet for once in a long time, they all were asked some questions that they gave some genuine answers too. When asked to say something nice about their full-time guy Kevin Rocco was the first to step up.
“Okay, so my favorite thing about Kevin is he is a real no stone unturned kind of guy” said Rocco. “when it comes to anything he will make sure from beginning to end that it is seen through and even the things you forget about, you know, in the middle of the night you’ll get a message saying don’t forget the 100 sharpies or, or a plastic fork or something, you know, he will think of everything and make sure it’s not forgotten. We wouldn’t be here without him”.
Or even when being asked what new show they would do a “in five minutes” video. Which they all unanimously agreed would be Frazier.
One fans question stood out the most, when asked “You have been in this game for the last 20 years, having seen empires rise and fall, not to mention the changes that have happened in that time. Not just the things you’ve been privy too but how it impacts you with the weight of it all, how does it feel that after all of that you’re still here?”
Chatfield took control of the mike for this one, “I feel eternally grateful honestly, and its due to everyone of you all. You watch and come to our booth, you have all given us a gift. This is a job where we get to see our best friends everyday, we get to hang up and do whatever we want or even get booed at a con if we want”. The audience laughed alongside him, “I just can’t thank you all enough”.
Acosta continued off of Chatfield honesty: “Yeah I think after doing this for 20 years, the coolest part that you may not know, is that if you haven’t been in our shoes is that you get to see us grow up on camera and we get to see you guys grow up as a well. …Because we have built up so much goodwill with the fan base we have a lot of opportunities coming along now. A lot of you are becoming successful in your own careers and haven’t forgotten about us in all that time”.
Acosta ended it the best, “I feel like the best is yet to come”.
Miss any of our earlier SDCC ’24 coverage? Find it all here!
