1996 vs 2002: When did Taika and Rhys actually meet, or Rhys Darby doesn’t know math
Rhys has ping ponged around the length of time he’s known Taika so much that it’s spilled over into others doing the same. First, there’s time time that Rhys just goes vague:
15-plus years. Handwavy, not necessarily inaccurate but also? Not fully accurate either.
David J kind of ran with this and then started saying 16 years.
Again, wrong. Don’t listen to Rhys, David. He cannot count.
More often than not Rhys says it was Edinburgh Fringe from 2002 except two separate times he says it took place in 2003. Rhys Darby does not know the concept of time.
During this particular recount, the interviewer actually added a note in correcting him:
It’s also interesting to note in the first 2003 but actually 2002 snippet Rhys saying they were “just out of university”. They wouldn’t have been, in 2002. He was 28 by then, and Taika was 26.
Here’s the interview of Rhys knowing it was 2002 (congrats on finally mathing, Rhys!) and giving us a 20 year timeline.
The only photos that exist of them at Fringe: Taika, on his birthday, standing on a chair, and someone grabbing Rhys’s ass. They take place in the same room.
The text here of the above article is also interesting, though, as it mentions them meeting at a “small comedy festival in New Zealand.” Fringe is in Scotland and rather well known. I initially wrote this off (even in my first compilation post) as an error on the part interviewer and accepted this 20 year timeline.
During a podcast audio with Taika and Rhys for OFMD, the interviewer asks if they attribute their onscreen chemistry to the “16-ish years they’ve known one another” (again, probably getting his number from either Rhys or David’s statements). Rhys runs with this question and answers it in about 40 seconds, at which point Taika jumps in to finish the answer and then, even though it’s been like a minute since the asking of the initial question, feels the need to say “Also, by the way, we’ve actually known each other for more like 26 years.”
Interviewer: “26??!! I was WAY off.”
(It’s okay, bro, you were as off as Rhys Darby and he’s one half of the friendship in question.)
All of a sudden, everything begins to make more sense. Why there was mention of a ‘small NZ festival’ meeting, why Rhys placed them closer to being out of Uni, why he keeps flip flopping the year span from 15 to 20.
A 1996 timeline would track. Taika had already met Jemaine and Bret and was doing gigs as So You’re a Man (Rhys only references Humorbeasts which would come later). Rhys was 2 years out of the military and doing small gigs as Rhysently Granted with Grant Lobban. They would’ve run into each other.
For fun, here’s what they looked like in 1996 when they met, according to Taika:
According to Rhys, this would be 2002:
And that’s the tale of two timelines. My money? Is on Taika’s.
ETA: the verbal video confirmation 😍😍
