Welcome to the BumbleKast! I’m your host Ian Flynn, the BumbleKing, and joining me as always is my cohost Kyle "JCRB" Crouse!
The BumbleKast is a podcast run by the KNGI network
, hosted by renowned Sonic the Hedgehog writer Ian Flynn and his longtime friend, Kyle Crouse. Starting as a relatively simple podcast between two friends, it’s since grown a substantial niche as a place where various Sonic fans ask questions for Ian Flynn (mostly) to answer. The types of Episodes are as follows:
- Standard/Priority Question QnA: The two hosts will answer questions submitted from fans, for free (standard question) or for a price (priority question, usually $5 USD*) respectively. The former ones are currently on the back burner due to their struggle to keep up with even paid questions.
- Monthly QnA livestream: (Usually) Done on the last Saturday of month. They will take Standard and Paid questions for around 2 hours that it usually runs.
- Guest Episode: Where a special guest will be on to ask questions and/or discuss with the two cohosts directly. While earlier episodes of the Bumblekast would have on other notable staff from work on Sonic properties, they now are guest-slots sold on their online payment platforms (Current price is $120 USD). The subjects of these episodes will vary at the guest’s preference.
- BumbleKast Mini: Starting in August 2022, extra-curious askers can submit 10 note questions for a smaller episode of the BumbleKast (Current price $35 USD). Much like guest episodes, the focus of these is up to the person buying it.
Important Notes :
- While Ian Flynn has long been a prominent writer for the franchise who is now getting writing roles for the official games, he is ultimately just one person whose work is subject to the whims of Sega. His word is not the be-all and end-all of what’s canon in the Sonic franchise.
- Still, since he does get questions about series lore regularly, please include a citation and date for any quotations he’s made about current franchise canon.
YouTube page here
. A full list of their answered questions may be found here.Tropes that appear or are discussed in Episodes of the BumbleKast:
- April Fools' Day: They’ve made a habit of doing this over the years. These include:
- Mod Ry subbing in for Kyle.
- A surprise quiz show.
- Character Blog:
- Combined with Hostile Show Takeover, the February 22, 2022 Episode features a Q&A session with Dr. Starline from the Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) comics, taking questions from the viewers, with Ian Flynn acting as Starline. It later got a sequel.
- Later ones have been done with Big and Orbot.
- Combined with Hostile Show Takeover, the February 22, 2022 Episode
- Crossover: Far too many to list. However, he does turn down some questions for franchises he knows nothing to little about.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- A precursor to the BumbleKast called "Ask Ian" can be found on Ian’s personal YouTube page starting here. These are much shorter and only feature Ian himself answering questions.
- The earliest episodes of the BumbleKast were much more traditional podcasts of the two hosts discussing whatever was on their mind with only a few questions answered at the end. On the plus side, these episodes do include interviews/discussions with other prominent Sonic staff, something that hasn’t happened since Evan Stanley’s appearance in #116 in April 2020.
- A precursor to the BumbleKast called "Ask Ian" can be found on Ian’s personal YouTube page starting here
- Flanderization: With most answers leaning into comedic, this happens a lot with the characters talked about. Particularly with Tangle, where he will occasionally lampshade this tendency to try and avoid overdoing it.
- God Does Not Own This World: Discussed and Lampshaded frequently, partly for comedy and partly to remind people about how limited his power over the franchise is.
- Hilarious Outtakes: Usually included at the end of the episode after they finish answering questions.
- Hostile Show Takeover: One viewer thought it'd be funny if Dr. Starline came onto the show to answer questions, to which Flynn joked if someone could pay for the guest spot, then it would happen. Someone did call his bluff and actually paid for the spot, which led to Flynn stepping out of the February 22, 2022 Episode in order to "bring" Starline on-board to answer questions.
- Rule of Funny: Many of their answers deliberately run on this, which they will occasionally lampshade.
- Running Gag:
- Expect to see your fair share of Sonic memes, such as that Knuckles doesn’t chuckle.
- Kyle yanking Ian’s chain and vice versa.
- Boom plots: Scenarios involving the characters of the Sonic Boom universe. Also comes up sometimes with scenarios not involving Boom but take on a similar wacky tone.
- Starline Isekais: Scenarios where Starline is thrown into various wacky scenarios across different media.
- Starline's death is a pretty frequent source of Black Comedy
- "Nermies", a term originating from background text in Shadow's game, which was coined by one asker as an alternative term to "Mobians" since the word "Mobius" is banned from modern Sonic media.
- Shipping questions, especially ones that count as Crack Ships, tend to get a big reaction from Ian, Kyle, or both.
- Jokes about how Ian (supposedly) “hates Sally” are common.
- What Could Have Been: Discussed occasionally with works he’s pitched that didn’t get off the ground, such as the Super Mario Bros. comic that was pitched to Nintendo.
Be good to yourselves, be good to each other, and we will see you next time on the BumbleKast.
