Author: Ryan Lichten

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Episode 36: TATU

This week we go behind the iron curtain to discuss the Russian pseudo-lesbian powerpop group TATU. TATU took the world by storm with their school girl outfits and french kisses but there was so much more to the story than two girls in love navigating their emotions through song. It was all a hoax, there was no way one of the most anti-LGBT countries in the world would allow a real lesbian couple to become super stars. Ryan is joined once again by Audra Isadora who lends a unique perspective on this early 2000’s phenomenon. 

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Episode 35: Mac Tonight

In the late 1980s, McDonalds introduced a mascot into their family, Mac Tonight. The campaign was aimed at attracting more people to eat McDonalds for dinner. Mac Tonight was a fashionably dressed, crescent moon faced man. His name is a pun based on the classic song “Mack the Knife.” A bizarre juxtaposition of classic swing and playful 80s set design, The Mac Tonight ad campaign was an advertising risk that paid off well.

However, the Mac Tonight story has taken a truly bizarre and menacing turn in recent years. The image of Mac became the visual basis for a series of extremely racist jokes in the last ten years. Dubbed the “Moon Man,” the image quickly transitioned from edgelord joke culture to become a coded symbol for white supremacy. Culture Dumps tries to make sense of it all.

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Special Guest: Annie from Depths of Wikipedia

It is no secret that the internet harbors some weird stuff. Wikipedia may be the world’s number one source for quick information about just about anything, but sometimes the anything can be downright bizarre. Depths of Wikipedia is an instagram page dedicated to archiving the strangest articles posted to Wikipedia. Ryan sits down with the creator of the page to discuss her favorite posts other projects such as Depths of Amazon and Depths of Craigslist.

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Episode 34: Pick Up Artists

M’lady. The gentlemen at Culture Dumps dive into the secretive world of Pick Up Artists (PUA). An underground phenomenon during the 80s and 90s, PUAs are groups of men who obsessively try to get dates with women. Involved is statistics, bizarre vocabulary and a controversial amount of psychological manipulation. In 2005 Neil Strauss released his best selling book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. The Game brought the pick up artists a new level of mainstream recognition. PUA found a home in the burgeoning world of Youtube vlogs, and many used hidden camera style videos to showcase their apparent abilities. In true dump fashion, this flirtation with mainstream culture would not last long. On the surface, pick up artists claim to be a way to gain self confidence and improve social skills. However, there is a constant undercurrent of toxic mentality that manifested itself in some truly horrifying ways. This episode contains mentions of murder, sexual assault and just plain bizarre nonsense.

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Episode 33: Soap Shoes

In the mid 1990’s extreme sports were peaking in popularity. Whether it was inline skating, skateboarding, or BMX, kids around the world were more than willing to jump off shit. Enter Soaps. An extreme sport shoe complete with a grind plate that would allow “soapers” to use any environment as their playground. Not all was as it seemed with Soaps, as with most dumps. We also interview Thomas Mottier, one of the innovators of “freestyle walking.” 

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Episode 32: 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall

This is our first political Dump, though one can aruge all politics is a crock of shit! To honor the upcoming Gub-Recall of 2021, the Culture Dumps team looks back to the media circus surrounding the 2003 recall. This whole mess started when a bunch of assholes at Enron tried to line their pockets with an energy crisis and ended with Arnold Schwarzeneggar as the actual, for real, not joking governor of California. Along the way you had porn stars, Gary Coleman and some random guy named Michael Jackson (not the celebrity) all jumping on the political bandwagon. With the influence of Hollywood’s “all press is good press” mentality , this perfect political dump could have only happened in California.

Ryan is joined by guest Adam Papagan, who is putting his name in the hat of 2021 California Gubernatorial candidates. Let’s face it, we all love to say “Gubernatorial.” Vote Papagan!

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Special Interview: David Yontef

This week we have a bonus episode! Ryan sits down with David Yontef, the host of Behind the Velvet Rope Podcast and all around pop culture guru . They discuss everything from the roots of reality tv, the differences between all of the Real Housewives, the original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and Caitlyn Jenner running for governor. This episode is juicy and fully loaded.

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Episode 31: What What in the Butt (Featuring co-creator Mike Stasny)

Samwell’s music video “What What (In the Butt)” was one of Youtube’s first viral video sensations. The original 2007 post currently has over 72 millions views. The video appeared on Tosh. O and was parodied by South Park. The hilarious homoerotic hit helped usher in a new style of pop culture driven primarily by internet fandom.

Mike Stasny is an artist living in Atlanta who co-wrote and helped produce “What What (In the Butt).” Culture Dumps host Parks Miller interviews Stasny about the unexpected path he took to viral success. We discuss the glory days of Youtube and how the evolution of going viral. This dump got way deep!

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Episode 30: Chris Gaines

This week on Culture Dumps we examine the most bizarre passion project in the history of music. In 1999 Garth Brooks could not have been more famous. As the most successful country singer seemingly of all time, when he debuted his dark, tortured alter-ego Chris Gaines it is more than fair to say people were confused. What started as the most elaborate publicity stunt for a film ever soon became the biggest joke in country music. 

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Episode 29: 2 Live Crew

2 Live Crew is one of the notorious rap groups in Hip Hop history. They added a new level of hypersexual lyrics that was as offensive as it was popular. Their platinum selling album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, led to a series of court cases that saw the party friendly band as champions of the 1st Amendment. These trials also coincided with the infamous PRMC clashes of the early 90s, leading to the now infamous Parental Advisory Explicit Content sticker. 2 Live Crew was also criticized for having heavily misogynistic lyrics and violent attitudes towards women. Mastermind Luther Campbell (Uncle Luke) is a figure still referenced in hip hop today. Let’s get Freaky!

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