You Know Those Viral Trick Shot Videos? We Talked to the Guys Behind Many of Them and They're Fascinating

(Image: Dude Perfect via Facebook)

It started off as a group of college students four years ago choosing to shoot hoops instead of study for finals. Now, thanks to social media and video-sharing sites like YouTube, the gentlemen of Dude Perfect and their unbelievable trick shots have landed them in commercials for companies like AT&T and Pizza Hut.

As Tyler Toney said to TheBlaze in a phone interview, that day in college, he told one of his friends if he made a shot -- it was a tricky one -- he would have to buy him lunch. Swish.

"He ended up buying my lunch," Toney said.

With that, Toney and a group of four other guys -- all in their mid-20s -- began filming their trick shots, which became crazier and crazier. The Dude Perfect YouTube channel was born. Among some of the most impressive are the Southwest airplane jet stream shot, the shot taken from an actual flying airplane and the world record-breaking shot from the top of Reliant Stadium.

More recently, filmmaker Devin Graham (you might remember his recent film of the terrifying cross-canyon rope swing) captured Dude Perfect suspending a basketball hoop from three giant helium balloons -- the "floating goal shot."

(Image: Dude Perfect via Facebook)

Check out this amazing footage:

How do they come up with such outlandish ideas? Toney told TheBlaze he dreams up most of them just because he "thinks of cool stuff" all day.

How often do they practice?

"Every shot is different," Toney said. "Some are made on the first try and some take longer than that."

As for the infectiously victorious reactions of the Dude Perfect team when a shot is made, Toney said they're 100 percent authentic and are even more enthusiastic when the shot is made after a small number of tries.

n this photograph taken by AP Images for Allstate, Cody Jones, center, of basketball trick shot group Dude Perfect shows off his half-court shot for fans as part of Allstate's March Mayhem experience at the NCAA Final Four Bracket Town in New Orleans on Saturday, March 31, 2012. (Photo: AJ Mast/AP Images for Allstate)

Dude Perfect has nearly 700,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel, on which all of their videos have a collective more than 107 million views. Two of the members of Dude Perfect have made it their full-time career while the other three have full-time jobs outside of the trick shot channel and its other business ventures.

"It's crazy how far social media has come in just the last four years," Toney said, noting that there were barely any trick shot videos when they first started and now YouTube turns over millions of results for them.

One of Dude Perfect's first professional requests was from the NBA's Sacramento Kings to promote Tyreke Evans in a bid for becoming Rookie of the Year in 2010. Evans won and so did Dude Perfect.

"It was the first time we were treated as anyone of importance," Toney said. "It was also the first time we saw the business side that YouTube and social media could provide."

In addition to commercials they have been enlisted to film since, Toney said they were invited to cover the Olympics in London due to their notoriety. They also have an app that lets people play around with their own trick shots -- see more on that here.

Now we know you're dying to see more from Dude Perfect. We pulled out a few of their trick shot videos, but visit their YouTube channel to see more here.

World record reliant stadium shot:

Flying airplane shot:

Dallas cowboys stadium edition:

George Bush Library Edition (with cameo appearance by Barbara Bush):

10 million point shot (involving several tricks with a Southwest Airlines' plane):

Goodyear blimp edition: