Kylie Rancor
Hype is a double-headed beast. Sure, it can get people really psyched for an upcoming video game or the new release of some dope new kicks, but if the product doesn’t live up to the hype generated, the only result is going to be that everything crashes and burns.
It’s a bummer for the people behind these things, or those genuinely excited for them, but it’s also a fascinating aspect of modern culture, that we can all look back on these buzzy launches and collectively wonder “what the hell happened there?”
To celebrate the fails of the past, Redditors are sharing the things they believe were particularly hyped up only to turn out to be total trash. It’s Reddit’s forte — a nostalgia fest and a scathing round of criticism all in one.
1. New Year’s Eve
Every year.
badlawywr
2. 3D televisions
I had a 3-D TV. I think I used that feature once.
brokendowndryer
3. Google+
I met my husband on google+, which is pretty embarrassing to explain to people.
Sunshine_Window
4. 2020
Remember that meme showing how all the holidays were on weekends?
AwesomeDawson_
5. Raiding Area 51
It was all just stupid to begin with. “Hurr de hurr they can’t stop all of us!” Yes. Yes they can.
Casteway
6. The Lion King remake
It’s almost like they should stop remaking animations into live actions.
KatetCadet
7. “Hoverboards”
I feel like “hoverboards” were seriously misnamed. I expected Back To The Future not Back To The Hospital with bone fractures.
Stormaen
8. Kony 2012
The only thing I remember about Kony 2012 was that the guy who started the movement had a mental breakdown and stripped down naked in public.
JOSimpson
9. Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul
I remember there was one part where it looked like mayweather knocked Paul out, but he held him up to keep going.
waveslikemoses
10. Adulthood
Adulthood would be fine if they would let you re-spend the points you had to allocate to your starting attributes and skills before you got to finish the tutorial.
popejubal
11. Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s safe
I remember watching that. I remember the look of total defeat and humiliation when he just mumbled “There nothing here. I’m sorry,” walked off screen, and reportedly went straight to a bar and got blackout drunk.
One-Inch-Punch
12. Game of Thrones season 8
So much bullshit in that show meant nothing in the end. Like the writers were just writing episode to episode as they were shooting them. Just an example, Sam stealing his fathers sword for absolutely no goddamn reason.
shmehh123
13. Fyre Festival
Shoutout to the one time there was a dude who went on record to say he was the only dude who enjoyed Fyre Festival, because he won the ability to go in a giveaway and seeing a bunch of rich snobs in misery was incredibly funny to him.
Camwood7
14. The 2012 “apocalypse”
The entire 2012 apocalypse was just bad logic to me. It was the “end” of the Mayan calendar…What’s more likely, they predicted the end of the world or they looked at each other and said “hey we’re a thousand years ahead, should we call it a day and get some drinks?”
ThomasVetRecruiter
15. Olestra
Olestra was a fat substitute that had no calories. Chips would have no fat content and less calories! It was a craze until they realized it gave everyone the shits. Like for some people a few handful were enough for explosive zero warning uncontainable shits.
chuck_of_death
16. Quibi
They were really out of touch and tried to create a solution to a problem no one had. They marketed short bites of videos to the younger generation who “can’t focus too long on one thing”, forgetting that this is also the same generation that will binge watch 4 seasons of a show at a time.
MrFluffyThing
17. Google Glass
Back when Google Glass had beta testers, I met a guy at a conference that was a tester. It seemed kind of cool at first but I found myself being weirded out with every conversation we had. Imagine knowing someone who is always holding their phone up as if they’re constantly recording everything you do.
TaskMaster4
18. Ted
Back in the early 2000s billboards went up all over Denver saying “Ted is coming” “Are you ready for Ted”.. and a whole bunch of other cryptic Ted stuff, nobody knew who or what Ted was. It escalated to the point everyone was talking about Ted. Turns out Ted was an airline. It lasted like a month. and failed.
CastleOfBravo
19. Hands Across America
My mom was a teacher in LA when this happened. She said the school she worked at organized buses to skid row in downtown LA, I guess to show solidarity with the homeless? She said after the long chain of hand holding and it was over, a man experiencing homelessness asked “ am I supposed to feel different now?”
HoneyOpal22