I feel like society as a whole has gotten pretty jaded when it comes to products and media that’s super hyped – almost like the more companies try to push things on us, the less we’re willing to get super excited about them.
That said, we’re not immune to the mass marketing machine, and there are certain products or shows or movies that, against our own will, we’ve gotten super excited to try.
These 15 things fall into that category, but sadly, almost everyone would agree they were, in reality, huge, embarrassing failures.
15. It started off ok.
2020.
It was doing okay after February but going into March? Not fun.
I remember how Halloween last year was some once in a lifetime thing.
14. Destined to fail.
I feel like “hoverboards” were seriously misnamed. I expected Back To The Future not Back To The Hospital with bone fractures.
The “hoverboards” they sold were made so poorly that they were destined to fail. Everything was cheap plastic and the electronics were crudely soldered and covered in hot glue to hold it all together.
I made a decent bit of money repairing them, but stopped after folks kept complaining after they broke them again expecting me to cover it.
13. I’m not so sure about that.
Raiding area 51
Nobody thought that was gonna be real, right?
Nobody was actually stupid enough to go through with it (and get themselves arrested/killed), people had fun and we got some funny memes out of it.
All things considered, it went as well as we could have hoped.
12. It seemed cool at first.
Google Glass got a lot of hype, but then it was gone.
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. Are you gonna feel comfortable talking to that person or are you gonna be wondering if and why they’re recording everything and what they’re gonna do with those videos?
That’s the feeling that Google glass gave me from the other end and I feel like Google really didn’t understand how weird it was to be on the outside looking in
11. I didn’t think it was that bad.
Harry Potter and the cursed child. Awful and I don’t actually believe it’s part of HP.
I wanted to purchase this at a local bookstore. The owner invited me to read a few pages before I buy it because I might have different expectations.
It was her way to tell me that it sucks and to save the money.
10. I’m still howling.
Spongebob sweet victory music but got switched to Travis Scott “sicko mode” in the Super Bowl.
I’m a HUGE Stars fan and the first time I saw them throw sweet victory (edited to make everyone appear to be wearing green) on the jumbotron I lost it. I take the train into Dallas along with a lot of other fans and you can always hear someone singing that on the train home after a win.
Also, their entire media/jumbotron team are some of the best in any major sport.
9. A show of solidarity.
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?” I was like 8 when this happened.
8. Not an actual joke.
Floyd Mayweather vs Logan Paul. Glad I didn’t pay for it.
I didn’t even know this had hype. I thought it was an April fools joke and then just a weird publicity stunt.
7. So say we all.
Adulthood. I’d like a refund.
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.
6. No one is talking about Ted.
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.
5. I’d almost forgotten.
Gabbo.
Well kids, this is where you would watch Itchy and Scratchy, except they’re on the Gabbo show now.
So, here’s Eastern Europe’s favorite cat and mouse team, Worker and Parasite.
4. Vacation transport only.
Segways.
Not necessarily terrible, but incredible, over-the-top hype.
Interestingly though Segways paved the way for a host of other personal electric vehicles. Especially self balancing ones.
3. Can’t argue with this.
Game of Thrones Season 8
I missed the series finale because I was out of town and could only get a flight back after the episode aired.
After each episode before that, I would usually have a few texts between friends about what happened, things we liked, and where we thought the show was headed; the usual fan chat. I got off the airplane and – nothing. No texts at all. No “Oh shit!” Or “Holy crap, did you see that?!” Just a weird, unnerving silence.
I eventually texted a friend asking how it was and all I got was, “Yep it ended.” Nothing else. It was just a bleak, emotionless, dismissive answer covering a mountain of contempt at what she just saw.
The next day I knew exactly what she meant.
2. At least one person had a good time.
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.
1. Ouch.
Every seasons for the NY Mets past the early 90s
IT’S ABOUT THE METS BABY
It’s so frustrating when this happens, right? Wasted potential is no fun!
What’s something you were hyped to see or try that totally flopped? Share your experience with us in the comments!
