Flushed Away From Memory
This week Ryan is joined by Eric D of Methsyndicate to discuss the immensely unfortunate early 2000’s video series “Bumfights.” What began as a shitty skateboard video quickly turned into a global monster. Worse than what was captured on camera for the videos are the many copycats that followed. File this under, really sad and fucked up shit.
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It is our 80th episode (proper) so we decided to kick it off with a bang! A “SHE BANG” that is! Ryan sits down with the legendary William Hung to discuss his rise to fame, his adjustment to normal life, and his love of gambling. Truly inspirational.
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To celebrate Ryan and Parks’s reunion they chose the 2005 classic buddy film, Brokeback Mountain. A movie about two cowboys just doing cowboy stuff, the real dump was the huge cultural reaction to the movie. The term “Brokeback” became a meme within itself. Yee haw.
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The yellow silicone bracelet. Worn by many to signify they cared enough to stand up against cancer. The real dump (and reason why you don’t see them anymore) is because their creator, Lance Armstrong. The 7 time champion of the Tour De France, Armstrong had all of his titles stripped in a huge scandal involving performance enhancing drugs. Also a medical procedure called Blood Doping. Metal AF
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Tila Tequila was one of the first internet celebrities and could very well be credited with being the first “influencer.” She is also one of the most controversial reality TV stars. MySpace changed the way we interacted with strangers, especially famous people. This was never more true than with the case of Tila Tequila. Her success landed her her own tv show and kept her in the spotlight just long enough for her to suffer a tragic fall from grace. Dinah Rankin, herself no stranger to the celebrity lifestyle, returns to the show to give us a much welcomed sprinkling of panache.
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Parks takes the reigns with his special guest and friend Max. We dive deep into the XFL, a professional football league with huge ambition and a colossal ratings failure on national TV. The lovechild of WWE executive Vince McMahon and NBC sports titan Dick Ebersol, the XFL had serious potential to rival the NFL. But it appear that when you want to broadcast a professional football league on network TV, you need a plan!
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The 2003 television special “Living With Michael Jackson” promised to deliver an inside look at the life of the world’s most famous person. Not only was the special completely bonkers but it also led to the second child abuse scandal for the singer and unveiled some of the star’s darkest secrets. Warning! This episode contains some greasy stuff. YOO HOO!
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Competitive eating is one of the most bizarre and challenging sports in the world. The sheer amount of food consumed professional competitive eaters is mind boggling, but one man made it look like an afternoon snack. Takeru Kobayashi is the Michael Jordan of competitive eating and in the early 2000’s he captured the imagination of millions of people around the world. Unfortunately, as with many professional athletes, he fell victim to an unfair contract that ultimately led to his retirement from Major League Eating. This is a real HOT DOG of an episode!
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We have arrived at the scandalous and shocking conclusion of our Dumps of Love series. In part 2, we tackle the Rock of Love branch of this reality tv sensation. Basically a rock n roll (aka whiter) version of Flavor of Love, this show took rocker clichés to unprecedented absurdity. Leather, leopard print and stripper poles helped introduce Bret Michaels (of Poison infamy) as a bonafide reality tv star . However, as these spin offs continued to rule VH1’s programming, a dark turn would bring this dump to an abrupt halt. The spin off Megan wants a Millionaire ended in the death of a contestant and permanently ended the production of these shows. We did not expect for true crime to enter the picture, but that is exactly why we love Culture Dumps.
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We have reached 50 episodes! For our one year anniversary special we are bringing you a juicy two part dump. The “Of Love” series of reality shows on VH1 shaped the landscape of reality television the early 2000s. These shows were inspired by the success of the “Bachelor” franchise, but took the drama to unprecedented heights. Add in excessive alcohol consumption and you have the perfect train wreck. Some felt this was the best entertainment TV had to offer; while critics saw it as an morally bankrupt sign of society’s demise. There are so many shows to cover so we have broken them down into two branches. This week we cover the show that started it all: Flavor of Love
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