The Faces Behind The Viral Sensation 43:14

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Forget the frustration of picking commerce platforms when you switch your business to Shopify, the global commerce platform that supercharges your selling wherever you sell. With Shopify, you'll harness the same intuitive features, trusted apps, and powerful analytics used by the world's leading brands. Sign up today for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash tech, all lowercase. That's shopify.com slash tech.

Hello and welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for giving us a little portion of your time. I think, as always, I really think you're going to enjoy this. Now, I got to tell you up front, this interview that we're going to do today with the Scarlatta twins is different. This is different. Normally, I'm doing like accomplished people who've, you know, done things in the world of journalism or politics or business, right?

And here we got some young people who are out there on social media that have really made a splash. And they've done it with a pretty large conservative audience. Some guys out of New York City, out of New York, the Scarlatta twins, JoJo and Nikki Scarlatta. Now,

I gotta tell you, hadn't really been following them. Then all of a sudden I saw their videos and they go on, they rant, rave and talk about like inflation and what things cost. Now,

For those of you that want to be careful with language out there, and I appreciate that. We try to do that in our family. When you go and you watch their videos, maybe not a G-rated experience, and I just want to forewarn people for that. But I think you're going to be really interested in this because...

This new generation is growing up a whole lot different than I grew up. I can tell you that the form of communication and how we communicate is just fundamentally totally different. And I think you're going to enjoy this because they're going to kind of give us some insight on.

on social media how it's working how these young people think that they can go out and create a a career and an audience and create some entertainment that if they get a right number of views and clicks they can make a pretty decent living at so i think you're gonna enjoy that uh that's gonna come up in just a moment um i recorded it a little bit earlier and uh but i think you're gonna enjoy this conversation so uh

But I want to jump into the news. I want to talk about the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And let's go back. I want to go out with this interview that Maria Bartiromo did with the president of Poland. Now, in the whole context of Russia and.

and what's going on with Israel and the back and forth of Israel and Iran and then you've got Russia and what's going on in Ukraine. I mean, the world is kind of blowing up in lots of different places, never mind China and North Korea and all the problems associated there.

I just want to give you a perspective here. Weakness invites bullies. It's true on the playground. It's true on national politics and international politics.

My take on it right now is that we have a pretty weak and feeble president who tries to play it both ways. I think he wants to win on the domestic policy front. He's worried about his base, which is lurched even further to the left. You got these radical people out there that believe in Hamas, a terrorist organization. They are literally a terrorist organization. And you have people chanting in the United States, saying,

There's support for Hamas. It's unbelievable to me, but it is happening. And Joe Biden knows those are his voters. And so he's trying to appease them. He doesn't want to be mad and upset and say, hey, they're going to stay home. So the consequence in dealing with Russia and dealing with Iran and dealing with Israel, it all kind of plays in together.

Because national defense for NATO allied countries is largely dependent on the United States. Now, Donald Trump did a fabulous, fabulous job of making sure that what people did was

paid at least four percent of their gross domestic product towards their national defense now Poland is one of those countries that does this and Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures has this interview with President Duda and he's talking about this but this is a president who also reaches out and works with President Trump we've got to understand that Poland is one of our greatest allies

And this all ties together, folks, because back in the first year of the Obama-Biden administration, 2009, we were moving forward, thanks to President Bush, with a missile defense system for Poland, when all of a sudden, just unilaterally, out of the blue,

Obama Biden pulled the rug out of that in an appeasement move to placate the concerns of Russia. Now, they didn't negotiate a deal. They didn't go out and say, hey, guess what? We're going to do this and this. And so Russia, you've got to do that. No, no, they just unilaterally pulled it back. One of the systems out there is it's called Aegis Assure.

An Aegis-class ship, I think that's how you say it, an Aegis-class ship, literally from our United States Navy, is taken and they cut the bottom hole of it off and they put the top of the ship on the land. That's why they call it a shore. Now, I saw this up close and personal when I was in Congress. I actually went to Romania and saw the first one that became operational.

Because the systems work so well, because the missile defense works so well, somebody made a really smart decision there at the Pentagon and then said, hey, rather than trying to redesign this whole thing, let's take that ship that we know that works. We'll cut off the bottom and we'll put it on top. And literally when you go there, sailors in the middle of a country, no water to be seen, are

are there they literally have ropes on the on the the stairs just like you would on a normal ship well this missile defense that's in it's in romania was going to go into poland and other places as well but obama and biden decided no we're not going to do that and now it's a concern why is this relevant and important well if you look at what's going on in

in Israel, thank goodness we had missile defense, right? Because the way they were able to push back on what was going on in the offense that Iran was doing had to do with that. And the other thing that I want to highlight here is

You've got to remember that Obama and Biden, because I kind of think that Biden is an extension of the third term of Obama, is that they have tried to play the appeasement card. They've helped enrich Russia. They have helped enrich Russia.

Iran and consequently they can go on a war footing and be on offense. Primarily they do that through the energy sector. When they get rich selling their oil, they have billions of dollars. You combine that with Biden giving and Obama billions upon billions of dollars to Iran in an appeasement move. Guess what? They go out and play offense and they do it through their proxies as well.

They do it through Hamas there in Gaza. They do it with Hezbollah up to the north of Israel. They do it with the Houthis down in Yemen, south of Saudi Arabia. And consequently, you've got a world that is on fire. And we have a United States that just tries to say, well, let's be nice about it all. Instead of saying, you know what?

We are going to fully implement sanctions. We aren't going to allow you to participate in the financial systems of this world. We are going to. Every time you hear about an attack, every time you hear about something going forward, what do you hear the administration say? You hear them say, oh, well, what we're going to do is implement sanctions. How many times have we got to hear that? Doesn't work. All right. Time to move on to stupid because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.

All right. I live out west. I live in Utah. Red Rock Country, beautiful mountains, the Intermountain West. It's amazing. Well, you got these two yahoos on this podcast.

I mean, idiots, absolute idiots. As reported in the New York Post, the headline is two men toppled boulders at Nevada National Park as young girl watches in fear. Daddy, don't fall. These guys are destroying the landscape. This happened at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. I hope by the time this podcast is out and rolling that they found these people, they've arrested these people, and that they charge them. You

You can't be doing this to our national landscapes, particularly at a national recreation area. That's not recreation, folks. Destroying the landscape, toppling over rocks, potentially killing people and yourself. That's just idiots. Absolutely idiots. All right. Time to bring on the Scarlatta Twins. I think you're going to enjoy this conversation and how they do it. So please welcome. We're going to bring on the Scarlatta Twins.

Hey, thanks so much for joining us. I got Jojo and Nikki on the line, right? Yeah, two for the price of one today, Jason. What's up, pal? Yeah, you come as a package. You always have since day one. And I'm amazed by what you guys have accomplished. I mean, are you just kind of pinching yourself saying, hey, how'd we get here? How did this happen?

Yeah, I mean, definitely it feels very, very surreal and we're still trying to ground ourselves and be grateful in the moment. That's for sure. Definitely feels surreal. Yeah, it's amazing. Nothing sort of amazing, Jason. Great time, man. It's been so, so, so amazing to see. All right. I met you briefly on the set of Varney when you came on. Then I started following you and

Tell people, first of all, where they can find you because you got these videos, you got this, you're omnipresent on social media. I want to make sure everybody knows where to find you. And then tell us like where you're going, what you're doing, why is this thing working so well for you?

Yeah. Well, first and foremost, the ads of the channels is at Jojo Scarlatta, at Nikki Scarlatta, at Scarlatta Twins, and most importantly, at Joe Scarlatta Sr., our father. The one and only, the one and only. All right. Okay. So you've got like more followers than most. So how many people are following you at this point?

I would say combined, if we take every platform into account, probably almost close to like 1.3, 1.4 million. Yeah. And it's amazing to see how rapidly, you know, it's grown. And now that we're all doing it as a family together, you know, the success we're seeing. So it's over a million, almost a million and a half right now. Okay. So, but why? Like, come on, you guys...

New Yorkers, right? I'm from out west, the Rocky Mountains, born out in California. But why do you think you are just rocking it and people are watching what you're doing? Honestly, I think it's because we're so relatable. And also, as we touched on briefly on Varney, is people outside of New York find New Yorkers really, really funny. And we are really so unique. And we tend to bring so many different aspects to the table when it comes to content. Yeah.

Yeah, it's amazing, Jason. We have such a unique dynamic as well with us as individuals, us as twins, and then us as a family as a whole. You know, and Nikki and myself, humbly we say, you know, good-looking, well-spoken, humorous. I mean, what else do the people want? You know, we can hopefully check it off. Yeah, but you keep it real.

Look, I got to give a little warning. We got a lot of, you know, G-rated listeners here on this show. But, you know, when you watch the videos, there's some four-letter words in there. But that's just, I take it as just you keeping it real, not trying to, you know, morph yourself into something that you're not.

That's so true. Yeah, we're really not trying to sugarcoat anything, you know, and it just kind of naturally, the F-bombs and stuff, they'll slip out when we're talking and we get a little passionate or a little carried away in the moment. It's something that we were accustomed to at an early age growing up on Staten Island. So it also was like anything else. But as we get older, we realize it happens.

It might not be like that all over the world. Well, but that's actually part of the attraction of what you guys are doing. What have been some of the most popular posts that you put out there? I'll tell you why. I mean, the bits we were doing on the inflation videos were hitting home like no other that we did pretty recently within the year. Also, as well as New York Giants football content, as well as New York Yankees baseball content, just everything.

skits, like basically reenacting our uncle or our father. Even my father's cooking videos. There's just so many angles we do when it comes to the content. We always try to switch it up so it's never getting stale and people don't get sick or feel like it's getting played out. We like to always switch everything up to keep the viewers engaged. Well, you guys certainly do eat well. I mean, at some point, I'm coming out your way and you're going to take me to get some of that food because I don't get that kind of food out in Utah, I can tell you that.

Hey, listen, we got an extra seat at our house waiting for you. Just let us know. Oh, you guys eat well, no doubt about it. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with the Scarlatta twins right after this.

This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required.

All right. I want to go a little deeper into this, but let's go back to I was born in and like your earliest memories, what your family is like, what it was like growing up. But don't skip the details and start like, OK, I was born in. And I don't know if you have other brothers or sisters, but I know you got like a family. So tell us about them.

Sure. So we're born and raised in Staten Island, New York. We just turned 25 years old about a month and a half ago. You know, we've been here our whole lives. Our family, our two parents, my father's born in Staten Island. My mom was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn. And we really come from, you know, a humble working class, you know, middle class family who have been, you know, definitely working for X amount of years. Our father's been in the union and they really shaped us into who we are today. We have a lot of family in the food business, you know,

Yeah. And on top of that, so we do come from Staten Island, New York. It's like I think it's its own unique individual place. Our parents instilled in us in an early age, you know, to work hard and chase whatever you want to chase. You just got to work hard at it. So we got our first jobs at like 11 years old, sweeping up at the barbershop all throughout high school. Our entire lives, we were working two, three, even four jobs at one point. And we've just been hustling our whole lives in terms of our family.

Just always being on the other side of the entertainment as well. You know, we were always entertainers in class and school, that's for sure. We did Vine back in the day, 2000 circa, 2013, 2012. We were only 13 years old. And fast forward eight, nine years later, we started making TikTok. So we've always been involved on the entertainment side. And I think our environment has a gigantic part in that. It's a very unique place we come from. Yeah, that's for sure. So when you were young, did you have other brothers, sisters?

No, it's just us two. We actually, our family's pretty small. We only have like one or two first cousins. Then we have a lot of like second cousins. But for the most part, our family's pretty small. It's my brother and I, my mother, my father. And then on Staten Island, we also have my uncle Tony, my aunt Annie, and my grandmother, who actually is 101 years old. God bless. She's the best. Oh, wow. That's impressive. Yeah. 101. That's impressive.

God bless them. That's awesome. Okay, so, but when you're growing up, you're a little kid, are you playing sports? I mean, you obviously love baseball, I can tell by watching some of the videos, but what were you doing? Yeah, that's a great question.

Great question. We were always on the athletic side, too, growing up, me and Nicky. And so baseball from a very early age, I would say that's the first sport we loved, took seriously, and we're actually really good at. We stopped playing baseball around 11 years old. My uncle, Mike, he passed away. He was my dad's brother. He was like a huge reason why we did play baseball. So we were young at the time, but we didn't stop.

Stopped there. Then we dabbled in football, basketball. In high school, we wrestled. Nikki played football in high school. And then now, actively, we've been training martial arts, jiu-jitsu in particular, for like the last three and a half, four years pretty consistently. So still active to this day. It's amazing. Yeah.

So you were talking about, you know, growing up, you obviously aren't bashful. So what was school like? Like how many kids were in your school? Like, did you have big classrooms? Were you the class clowns? Did you just, you know, hey, I'm not bashful. I'll speak up. I got to imagine that's the case.

Yeah, for the most part, definitely. So our elementary school we went to was called PS5. It was like two minutes from my house. And it was a very, very small school. There was only probably two classes per grade. And the two classes were like 20 kids each. So there was only like 50 kids per grade. Then we went to IS7, which was a intermediate school that was a little bit bigger, about like a thousand people. And...

By then, by IA7 and a little bit towards the end of elementary school is when we started to probably get more vocal and take a little bit of that class clown route. Yeah, I would say, I'll tell you what, in sixth and seventh grade, me and Nikki weren't in the same classes. And then eighth grade we were, right? Yeah. Eight, 11. So sixth and seventh grade, we had separate classes. We weren't with each other. I didn't really know anybody. So that's when I really, I could definitely confidently say sixth and seventh grade, I started becoming a class clown and the funny person.

And so that's for sure. So I do remember Vine. I mean, I don't know. And they were acquired, I think, by Facebook. And then they just kind of buried them in the ground. I don't know why they did that. But what made you think, hey, you know what? Let's take this camera over here and let's start filming this because, you know, this might be fun. What was going through your mind? What happened then?

With Vine, I mean, we were just hanging out with a bunch of our friends in like seventh, eighth grade. And the app came out. At that time, we just got, I don't even think we had iPhones at that time. No, we had the iPod. We had the iPod Touch, yeah. And we would like, you know, we would see what was trending and all these like, I guess you could have called them influencers at the time. They were just people on Vine. They were Vine famous. Yeah. And we would get like little ideas and stuff that was trending and little stuff we would do around the block and we would just put it in videos and just have a good time. Yeah, and that's the best part is,

Vine was only the clips were only six seconds long. So you had to grab someone's attention and, you know, six seconds to entertain somebody. You know, some people could do it. Some people couldn't. We just started screwing around. We were fans of like a lot of people like Rudy Mancuso, Nicholas McGallis at the time. Those were popular Vine creators. So we took inspiration, even Will Sasso. And we started messing around on our own and we found a little success with it at the time.

And definitely Staten Island success. At like 13, 14 years old, we would go to the mall. People would rush us at the mall, ask to sign phone cases, go to the movies. We would be taking pictures. And it was amazing because I was over 10 years ago. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, so you guys are like teenagers and people are like, hey, I know you. I mean, that's got to be kind of fun, right? Be a little vine famous at that point.

Yeah, it was awesome. It was really, but then you had to make a transition, right? I mean, because was it because Vine died or because Facebook killed it? Or was it Hey, here's some other? Was it Instagram? Was it TikTok? What what happened that you said, Oh, that's even better.

Yeah, I'll tell you what. So it was actually a very unique time. So Nikki and I, we were going into high school. And so at the end of eighth grade, we were still making the Vines, but we were very self-conscious. I'm like, well, people would think we were going, we were in public school our whole life. We're going to 4,000 person high school. So we really stopped making the Vine videos out of kind of fear of what people would say and think.

And then we didn't dabble in any type of comedy or entertainment videos for years after that until really the pandemic again, when just randomly one day I gave it a shot and it started working. So we actually put it down for a long time before picking it up again. That was just like the first experience with it. And did you go, which format did you use?

TikTok. Yeah. So my first resurgence, if you want to call it that, was on TikTok. A video of my father and my neighbor, Frank. He's actually called the Food Boss. Very popular as well on TikTok. They did a video with garlic bread and it went crazy. Did like eight, nine million views. And then we did a part two to that.

a month later and then I started incorporating my own skits because how many garlic videos were we going to do at that point so I started doing skits of my uncle of my father reactions like situations as kids and those started catching on and then eventually Nikki and myself started doing some twin skits and you know from there experiment trial and error and it all led to now so why do you think it's I mean it has been amazing you got so many viewers out there how like

What is it that you think is attractive to what you're saying and doing? Because a lot of people, let me put it this way. A lot of people want to do what you're doing, right? They think they can just go be a social media star and make lots of money and, you know, to have a bunch of. But the reality is very few people kind of pierce the bubble and get to the point where you're at. So why are you guys successful at it? And a lot of people, it's just not as cool.

That's a good question. I would say it's a mixture of things. It's the dedication we have, the consistency, the creativity that we're able to play off one another. We're in a unique spot where we're twins. So a lot of the times we could think of an idea and he'll kind of know what I'm trying to say or vice versa. And we don't really put pen to paper. We'll just do the video. And in reality, it might not be content created. It might not be for every single person out there. That's just...

And we weren't, you know, necessarily saying like we were born to do it. We just, you know, develop skills in life, gave it a shot and consistently worked at it to the point where, you know, we're in the position we are now and anybody can really do it. You got to just be willing to put yourself out there, you know, not really care what people are going to say, willing to grind with no reward for X amount of time before you see the results, you know, and if you really truly love it, you know, enough, I think, you know, you could get what you want out of it for sure. Yeah. That's it's,

Go ahead. Perfectly said.

and be okay in the rest of their day. You know what I mean? A lot of people, you have to have thick skin. You have to be willing to hear the nose, willing to know, hey, maybe it's not my time right now, but as long as I keep on working, you know, we're going to get somewhere. And I think that's something Nikki and I have in ourselves that a lot of people don't really have, especially to this day, this generation. You know, we're very hard workers. We're natural born, naturally bred hustlers. And, you know, not everybody, you can't really teach that. I feel like that's either in you or it's not.

There's an authenticity to it that is just, it's fun because you're exuberant, full of energy, but you're also calling balls and strikes the way you see it. When you guys start talking about the price of, I don't know, whatever it is, it's just, it's hilarious. It's because everybody's feeling that same pain too.

For sure. For sure. Everyone is feeling that same thing. And like, we've been just hardworking our whole lives. Like we got our first job when we were 11 sweeping hair at the barbershop, like, you know, four or five dollars an hour. And our parents, you know, luckily enough, installed or instilled whatever the word is, that work ethic, you know, at a young age to show us, you know, how to make our own money and the value of a dollar where, you know, we took a lot of, you know, L's on the chin and failures in life before we even got to this point, you know.

It took a lot of bumps in the road to get to where we are now. So it's like, you know, if you want to pursue anything in life, it's going to come with ups and downs. You know what I mean? Yeah. You have to be willing to, uh, to, you know, to really eat it and keep moving forward. Like the amount of, the amount of different things Nikki and I have tried and failed at and tried and failed at in our lives are, it's insane. But yeah,

We would never be here if we stopped trying and failing, because that's eventually how you win. No matter who you are, you got to keep trying and failing and being OK with that. You got to roll with the punches in life. You're listening to Jason in the house. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Realistically, how many followers does somebody need on a consistent basis to actually start generating some income that can justify your spending even any time doing this?

That's a great question. I mean, it's all how I would say how you leverage your followers, because there's certain people who have only like 20 or 30,000 followers, but know how to leverage them on TikTok or in a certain way for like a TikTok shop or an Instagram live where they can make a substantial amount of money. And if they're pushing products. And I also know people who have a few hundred thousand followers and they don't really know what they're doing. You know, they just know how to put out good video. So it's all kind of how you leverage followers.

the people, 'cause it's very tricky. Different apps, like Instagram and TikTok, you're not really getting paid to go viral like you would on YouTube.

you know what i mean yeah that's a very uh misconception i feel like a lot with tick tock and instagram we have millions and hundreds of millions of views we haven't been paid from i don't think any of those on instagram and tick tock uh we make our money primarily uh through brand deals uh through possible lives through uh appearances through um products merchandise services we're actually uh dropping our merch and got the inflation hoodies coming out we got the cutlets it's gonna be crazy like

All right. By the time this podcast comes out, this stuff will be out. So you're going full merchandise here, huh? I'm going to have to tap into that and see what that's like. We might need to get you an inflation hoodie. I think you're going to like that one. Yeah, that'll go well with that. That'll be all the rage out here. I think that would do well for somebody who used to serve in Congress. I think that'll be great. That'll be great. Yeah.

And it's amazing, Jason, too, like just the fact that like us making videos on an app, just being goofballs from where we're from, like led to us even sitting down on a podcast with someone of like your caliber yourself. So it's just amazing where this digital world of videos and and if you're funny, likable, charismatic, humble, it could take you into a lot a lot of avenues, you know? Yeah.

Yeah, where do you see social media going? I mean, you guys have, you're riding the wave. It's not like social media is going away, it just gets more and more popular. But what do you think the medium or what do you think is going to be successful down the road? And it's hard to predict 10, 15 years down the road, but over the next couple of years, where's social media going and how are people going to use it as a tool?

It's a good question. I think a lot of people are going to find a way to leverage social media to get out of the traditional nine to five, you know, job stance or, you know, where you got to work the 40, 50 years to get your, you know, your retirement plan and your pension. Uh,

'Cause what social media does is it gives you such a short window sometimes where you can make a substantial amount of money and you gotta figure out, and every content creator has to figure out how they can make it last in different ways. 'Cause there's certain people who could make money off of social media for two years, run through it and they're done. And then there's people who could leverage it and build other businesses through it. So I feel like a lot of people are gonna use social media in the coming future to definitely get out of the traditional, you know, I gotta work five, six days a week on my nine to five

And then maybe I'll do this as a hobby. I feel like there's going to be a lot of people working for themselves. Yeah, social media, I primarily think is changing it all. Like it's changing how everybody views just how everybody's really going to approach life too in the future. Like these kids, you ask these little kids, like I forgot where I seen it. It was like a poll. You ask these little kids in elementary school, what do you want to be when you get older? And they're like,

Oh, I want to be a YouTuber. You know what I mean? Like people are seeing this, the youth is seeing this, they're being influenced. And then like, this is a gigantic career possibility for me. And it's amazing to see like the fact and the influence and it has on, on the future and on the culture. Yeah.

It's insane. There's a negative side to this stuff too, right? I mean, there's an addictive nature. I just fear that people are just staring at their phones all day. They're not going out and having real life experiences. I mean, part of what makes you guys successful is you were working in the barbershop. You were doing, you know, you know, playing ball out back and, you know, and, but so many of these kids these days, like,

you know, you know, they're 12 years old, they're stuck on this social media, and they're not actually going out and having life experiences that they can then go make fun of or laugh about or even draw on in a more serious nature. So what do you see are the negative sides of social media? And how do we find the right balance in life?

Great question, because I was literally going to bring that up. There needs to be a balance. Otherwise, these kids, because today a lot of these young kids are growing up very socially awkward, massive amounts of anxiety and depression at 15, 16 years old, which used to never be the case. And I can't even really remember the last time I seen a group of kids outside, like on their bikes or just hanging out. So there definitely needs to be, you know, I guess maybe a point where the parents are like, you got to go outside and be a kid. You know, this social media, this phone and stuff is not always real life.

You know, and a lot of these kids grow up. That's all they know. And then it changes them as people. And that's why a lot of these young kids in high school and all the teachers today, all these teachers are getting disrespected by these 15, 16 year old kids. It feels like there's no respect anymore with these young kids. So it definitely has a negative aspect in that area for sure. I could definitely see that. Oh, yes. It's unreal.

Yeah, see, I think one of the things you should be able to do is I like the idea that you have the right to be forgotten, that you enter into these contracts to actually follow somebody or go on a platform. But you know what? If you get tired of it, like any other contract, you should be able to terminate that contract. But I worry that with facial recognition and all the

all the chains that they're putting on people, following them in perpetuity. At some point, you're gonna say or do something stupid that you wish you didn't do. I mean, you guys are out there on purpose, you're doing it together. I think that's a whole different realm than your average kid who's maybe got 200 followers

but likes following 1,500 people because that's where they're getting their entertainment. They're getting their news. They're getting their entertainment. They're getting their friends and interactions. And somehow we got to figure that out. And I don't know where those guardrails should be, but your perspective on that I think is really important.

Yeah, Jason, like we I like to say we were like part of I want to say not the last generation, but one of them that we had a childhood without the phones and social media. Like we got introduced to the iPhone when we were like teenagers, like early preteens, early teenage years. So we had the luxury of growing up without that all that stuff still. Like I can't even tell you, I don't even know what it would be like for these kids today, nine, eight, seven years old.

with the technology at their fingertips, not to mention the pandemic and how much the pandemic influenced this culture to begin with, you know? Yeah. What are your thoughts about phones in schools? There's kind of a debate out there. Should teachers just take away the phone and say, hey, man, put your phone down. We're going to talk about math right now for the next little while. Yeah. You for that? Against that? What do you think we should do public policy wise?

I'm with that. Yeah, I mean, if you're in class, you're in class to learn. You don't want to be on your phone, right? In a sense. There definitely should be a respect for the teacher where kids can't just pull out their phone and just be on social media or texting people in front of their teacher in class. You know what I mean? That shouldn't be the case, I don't think. Yeah, when we were in high school, that's as much as I can relate it to. We graduated about seven years ago now. When we were there, we had iPhones, but it wasn't to the level that they were today. There really weren't no influencers per se. Right, right.

But on top of that, like I came to realize a lot of people at my old high school say now they all have laptops instead of like notepads and stuff, too. So they're all on technology anyway. So it's like, I don't agree with that. Go back to the old fashioned Marvel notebook. Exactly. All right. Let me switch gears here for a little bit. Explain to people how big of a New York Mets fans you guys really are.

Oh, my God. Yankees. Yankees. Yankees. Yankees. Yankees. I just Yankeed your chain. I'm trying to get you a little fired up here because you are no doubt Yankees. Why Yankees over Mets? Explain that to me. I mean, our whole life, my Uncle Michael, who was the reason we really got into baseball, and my father, my Uncle Tony, we were just all Yankee fans in the family. Yeah.

You know, we just gravitated towards it. That was the first game we ever went to. You know, the Yankees have been like a symbolic name in our household. They were staples. We were born in 99. So as literal kids, like as toddlers, they were coming off that three-peat from, I think, 98, 99, 2000. And my Uncle Michael was the most diehard Yankee fan ever.

Got us into it right away. And we were coming up in a great age of Yankees baseball. Suppose Mets baseball was great at the time, but it wasn't Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez baseball. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah.

No, that is so fun. You know, America's pastime to get out and go out and enjoy a game and follow a team. What I worry about is we just don't follow, you know, the players. They bounce around from so many teams. But a guy like Derek Jeter, you know, he was just so ingrained with the Yankees. I mean, he just is a Yankee. And I wish we'd get back to that and people get out and enjoy a game, but also be able to follow the players and play.

Oh, yeah.

they have never seen you before. They don't know who you are. That's why I'm glad you came on, because I think a lot of people will start to follow you. So again, just type in Scarlatta. You'll find them. There's Jojo, there's Nikki, okay? But Scarlatta, you got to be able to spell that out, Scarlatta, and you'll go out and find these guys on social media. But you just tee off on inflation. And

But you're talking real numbers about roast beef and things like that. What's ticking you guys off right now? What's happening right now? What bothers you more than anything else?

I would say the gas prices shot up again out of nowhere. Now, as I'm paying almost 360, 370 a gallon, they were just at three dollars again. Well, when did they when did that happen? Just say, yeah, we're doing great. Here you go. Here's the curveball. I would say the worst thing just for us people, our age, people who want their own family when they their own spot to live. The housing market is it's atrocious. It's an actual joke when you look at the numbers compared to 2020 compared to now.

It's actually like unreal. We might be living home for the next 20 years. And the other one that I saw recently that you guys did that I just loved, you probably did it a while ago, but it was talking about insurance. Insurance, like, wait, why did that go up?

It makes zero sense, Jason. Like, literally, like, I kid you not. I didn't miss a payment on my Allstate coverage for the last two and a half years. And all it did was increase over two and a half years. And then there was that old magical saying when you turn 25, oh, you turn 25, now your insurance is going to go down. Mine just almost doubled. So I don't know where that myth is. Yeah. How did it go down? If you've been making all your payments, you haven't missed a payment. Not one payment. Credit score hasn't been affected. It just makes zero sense.

But it's just like anything. My question becomes is like, how much money do we have to make in this day and age to live comfortably, especially in New York? Like I can't I don't think I can raise my family here in the next 10, 15 years. Like it's too expensive, you know? Yeah, no, it is is crazy expensive. And, you know, people just want they want to be able to have money in their wallets and the taxes that you all pay out in New York. It's just unbelievable what's going on out there. It's unbelievable. Really is.

Guys, I wish you nothing but the greatest success. Explain to people again where they can find you, how they can find you, because I want to make sure that they get out. Now, again, I'm just forewarning everybody, not a G-rated experience, but a very real live experience. But tell people where they can find you. Sure.

So our ads are at Nikki Scarlotta, at Jojo Scarlotta, at Scarlotta Twins, and at Joe Scarlotta Senior. And you spell Scarlotta S-C-A-R-L-O-T-T-A. And like Jason said, if you just want sugar-coated things and T-rated content, we're not for you. But if you want to see people who call it for what it is, I think we might be your guys. Well, if you want to laugh, if you want to just laugh. Yeah, we're here to. If you want to smile, we're good looking, too.

One other thing that just kind of dawned on me. How's your dad? How are your parents? Do they embrace this? They laugh at it? Are they just amazed that you guys are doing this? What's their attitude towards this?

It's like a combination, I would say. Yeah, because obviously they're so happy for us, but at the same time, they're like, oh my God, so much is happening at once. It's almost surreal. You know what's so funny too, Jason? Me and Nicky and I, we don't really watch the news. I always bust my dad's chops. I'm like, what do you do? You always watch the news. It's depressing. It's this and that. And I'm like, Dad, we got a caller going Fox 5. He's like, oh, you're always talking crap about Fox 5, and now you're getting on it? He was so happy to see us going on there. Yeah.

And it's just surreal. It's amazing. It really is everything that's going on. They're so supportive. And it was so cool to be able to go and go to the news and meet everybody, like Varney and all the people. I met you. I met you. Everybody was so nice, and it was just amazing to meet everybody. No, no. Guys, keep it up. Keep it real. I think authenticity wins the day. I come from a world in part marketing, part politics.

But authenticity, people can see right through it. They can tell whether you're faking it or whether or not it's actually real. They can sniff that stuff out. And I think that's a huge part of your success is that you're just authentically these guys. You figured out how to...

make the videos, cut the videos, market the videos and the new merchandise that's out now. But it comes from, because that's just who you are. And that's why I think you're so successful. It's really well said. We appreciate that. Thank you. We're not trying to change nothing. This is where we're born, Staten Island, New York. We give it how we see it here.

All right. I'm coming to eat with you guys at some point. You're going to take me to the best food and we're going to figure that out. But thanks for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Do appreciate it. Thank you so much for having us, Jason. Thank you. We got meatballs with your name on it. No worries. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks, Jason.

All right, I told you these guys, I'm telling you, having met them in person and interacted with them, really fun guys. Love their energy. It's contagious. Their enthusiasm, it's contagious. And you want to see good people go out and win. I'm not here to give a character assessment. I'm just telling you, when you meet them, they're respectful, they're nice, they're enthusiastic about life.

And I wish him nothing but the greatest, greatest of success. I really, really do. Hoping you can like this podcast. That would really help us. We would appreciate it. You can subscribe to this. We're going to have another great, exciting guest coming up next week, as we always do. Subscribe to it. But thanks so much for listening to the Jason in the House podcast. I want to remind people that you can listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.

And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. Again, I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House. Thanks for joining us. This is Jimmy Fallon inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com.