While the We Lost Our Gold hunt is being pursued in forums that are usually used for alternate reality games, We Lost Our Gold is really more like a true hunt for treasure: Just like pirates left a sequences of steps to follow to get to their hoard, so do the puppet pirates lay out a series of clues to be followed to figure out where their treasure is (hopefully!). And since the treasure is actually buried somewhere, the question of how to dig it up discreetly is identical to those of other hunters of treasure. You wouldn't want to have someone sneak up on you and grab your gold, would you?
These issues are covered in a book about a guy named Richard Knight who actually went in search of the treasure of Captain Kidd. Richard Knight's Treasure!: The True Story of His Extraordinary Quest for Captain Kidd's Cache relates how he looked at a treasure map that many others had looked at, and, after lots of research, figured out where the island pictured in the map actually was; how he managed to get to the island by himself; how he used a metal detector to find things long buried under the ground; what he actually found; and the other challenges he faced, being deep in enemy territory. It's a pretty amazing book. If you want the sense of what actual treasure hunting might be like, you might want to check this book out.
Dude #1: I'm telling you that statue has something to do with it.
Dude #2: Why am I even here? I can't believe I'm following you on a quest to find a buried treasure because bunch of puppets told you to.
TV Tropes hit it on the nose when it cited this quote from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre:
Howard: Aah, gold's a devilish sort of thing, anyway. You start out, you tell yourself you'll be satisfied with 25,000 handsome smackers worth of it. "So help me, Lord, and cross my heart." Fine resolution. After months of sweatin' yourself dizzy, and growin' short on provisions, and findin' nothin', you finally come down to 15,000, then ten. Finally, you say, "Lord, let me just find $5,000 worth and I'll never ask for anythin' more the rest of my life." Flophouse Bum: $5,000 is a lot of money. Howard: Yeah, here in this joint it seems like a lot. But I tell you, if you was to make a real strike, you couldn't be dragged away. Not even the threat of miserable death would keep you from trying to add 10,000 more. Ten, you'd want to get twenty-five; twenty-five you'd want to get fifty; fifty, a hundred. Like roulette. One more turn, you know. Always one more.
The moral of the story:
Enjoy the hunt, but don't get so caught up in it that you start doing crazy things!
And as the Captain would say: "Hold fast!"
IN A SURVIVAL AT SEA SITUATION, SOMETIMES YOU MUST RATION YOUR WATER. DO NOT DRINK SEA WATER. DO NOT DRINK URINE. DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL. DO NOT SMOKE TOBACCO. DO NOT SMOKE ANYTHING. UNLESS IT'S BACON.
— The Ticker
If you explore their friends, you will find other puppet characters, like that Sonny guy.
Mario, Fafa, and Gorilla apparently performed with their friend Audrey Easley and learned to play the flute:
One day, when Audrey was in Brooklyn, New York, she met her biggest fan – Fafa – a small groundhog. She also met his friends, Mario, Flink and Gorilla. They liked the flute and each other so much that the five of them decided that it was high time to make a video about how to play the flute, and the video should be called Flute Rock.
Check out some photos. I'd really like to find that video... And who the heck is Flink? The plot thickens... Or maybe that's just an extra layer of frosting. Yum...
If you haven't already watched the Glove and Boots videos (and if you did a detailed exploration of Episode 3 of We Lost Our Gold, then you probably already have), you really ought to, as they are terrific. The one on their home page (clearly labelled as not containing clues) is called "Pirates stole our monies!!!":
They've got a bunch of other videos from their early work on their YouTube channel. They may not help you find out where the gold is, but they are a great way to take a break between brainstorming sessions.
In Episode 3, Mario says "You remember that movie preview teaser thing they did? There's a picture of me with those guys in it. You can see it in that bunch of quick clips where it goes DUMM dumm dum dum DUM duhdum duhdum! Look frame by frame and you will see me!"
The trailer video he refers to is this one: And indeed, if you comb through the trailer video very carefully (it's hard to do on YouTube — try downloading the video first), you will find this picture of Mario and Mulligan:
Mario is looking kind of scruffy. I'll bet Fafa took the photo. The others were too busy taking the gold. Mulligan tweeted: "@diszaster Fafa be the nicest groundhogs ever. He lemme listen ta' Mario's twister sister tape while me crew was robbin' him. #welostourgold"
So the pirates did steal the money from Glove and Boots. Which we already knew...
These issues are covered in a book about a guy named Richard Knight who actually went in search of the treasure of Captain Kidd. Richard Knight's Treasure!: The True Story of His Extraordinary Quest for Captain Kidd's Cache
relates how he looked at a treasure map that many others had looked at, and, after lots of research, figured out where the island pictured in the map actually was; how he managed to get to the island by himself; how he used a metal detector to find things long buried under the ground; what he actually found; and the other challenges he faced, being deep in enemy territory. It's a pretty amazing book. If you want the sense of what actual treasure hunting might be like, you might want to check this book out.
