Cameo is a bit of an oddity in the celebrity landscape. I mean, where else can you pay Brian Cox $689 to call your cousin an asshole on their birthday?
So of course folks took notice recently when Twitter user @DaveMcNamee3000 (yep, still calling it Twitter) pointed out that Daniel and Luis Moncada — best known as the Salamanca hitmen in Breaking Bad — had wildly different rates on Cameo. Luis Moncada offers custom video messages for an affordable $99, while his brother Daniel asks a lofty $500. That’s a pretty hefty difference for actors who share a practically identical footprint on the Breaking Bad landscape.
Based off the Moncada brothers’ rating numbers on Cameo, Daniel’s highballing of customers had earned him an estimated $15,000. Meanwhile his much more affordable brother raked in a hefty $45,320. As Twitter @meanunclejack who pointed this out commented, “Just goes to show the hard grinder with low prices can make more than the man who doesn’t know his worth.”
That’s quite a lovely moral to the story. But as we’ve learned from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the best stories are a bit more complicated.
Twitter user @TVsGeorgePrax managed to untangle the plot, writing, “See I think they’re in on this together. Daniel sets his price high so people buy Luis’s thinking it’s a deal. They do half the cameos each since no one would be able to tell the difference and split the money. The perfect scam.”
While this may seem like an overly convoluted plot, Daniel Moncada responded to the conversation on Twitter with a gif of Breaking Bad pro- and antagonist Walter White holding his hands up and ironically exclaiming “You got me.”
And there you have it. It’s the caper of the century. Hat tip to Twitter user @jerseyphysicist for compiling this whole exchange and sharing it with the rest of the class. And for the rest of you out there, don’t forget: ABS. Always be scamming. Have a great day.
