Have you ever watched a movie or TV show that was so bad you wondered who would ever green-light such a project? The media we consume isn’t always the highest quality, and sitting through a bad TV series or movie is a huge time waste. These disasters are some of the worst media pieces released in the 2010s.
1. Mel Gibson’s Racial Rant
Mel Gibson hasn’t always had the cleanest record, but things got even more complicated for the Oscar-winning director and actor when he launched into a rant about the Jewish community and women, throwing in slurs about the African-American and gay communities as well. How he still has a career today is astounding, considering the tirade was recorded.
2. Social Media Challenges
Challenging one another to try and perform weird stunts is all a part of growing up. But for some reason, when the challenge originates on social media, it just gets downright nasty and dangerous. The 2010s saw some of the worst social media challenges, from the Tide Pod challenge, which saw people attempt to eat Tide Pods, to the salt-and-ice challenge that left many with burn marks from the drastic drop in temperature.
3. Big Mouth
Big Mouth centers around preteens and teenagers going through puberty and drifting through adolescence via an animated landscape. The animation style can be very off-putting, with the character’s giant heads perched atop weird, tiny bodies. Somehow, despite a lot of the criticism it receives, Big Mouth made it to six seasons and even spawned a spin-off.
4. Political Netflix
Do you believe that comedians should keep politics out of their content? While comedy often veers into the political, it seems to have taken over the decade, especially as part of the fallout of the 2016 election. Whether you love him or hate him, there’s no denying that the comedic landscape leaned heavily into Trump-related jokes.
5. Marvel Cinematic Universe
You must wonder if moviegoers are starting to see fatigue from the constant barrage of Marvel content. Ever since Avengers: Endgame, fewer and fewer people are watching Marvel’s releases. Superhero fatigue is getting real and writers are finding it difficult to keep up with the content being churned out at warp speed.
6. Rick and Morty
Rick and Morty cynics claim the show lacks depth and opts for potty humor and alien plots, neither of which make for good programming. After the whole McDonald’s Szechuan sauce debacle, the fans earned a lot of hate from the viewing public.
7. “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)”
In 2013, Ylvis, a Norwegian comedy duo, released a song determined to capture the elusive noise that a fox makes. The onomatopoetic tune charted well globally and was awarded both World Music Awards and Radio Disney awards.
Due to the song’s popularity on the charts, it swiveled into a Glee episode through a gas leak hallucination and saw a series of parodies, one featured on Saturday Night Live. It’s safe to say that that plot line sums up the listening experience.
8. The Bachelorette
The Bachelorette reached audiences a year after its counterpart, The Bachelor, aired on prime-time television. The oh-so-progressive show features a selected female who dwindles her list of proposed suitors. The manufactured drama earned its criticism, as is true of most reality TV shows, but there was something very artificial with The Bachelorette that made it quite difficult to watch.
9. The Emoji Movie
What could go wrong with a movie about emoticons? A lot. The 2017 film scored a whopping six percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics say The Emoji Movie stole plots and animation tactics from successful cartoons like Shrek, Wreck-It Ralph, and The Lego Movie, and the premise came across as too heavy-handed in the commercial aspect. Plus, the jokes do not land.
10. Hamilton
Lin-Manuel Miranda may have created an infamous musical empire, but his most famous musical may wind up being one of his most controversial. Personal opinions of the musical itself aside, concerns over its historical accuracy arose shortly after it garnered immense popularity. It became such a hot topic that historians collaborated on a book of 15 essays from scholars discussing the impact the musical could have.
11. Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live originated in 1975 as an edgy sketch-comedy show. Still, many viewers believe the show doesn’t offer the same humor as it once did.
12. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead star alongside a brilliant ensemble cast in the 2010 adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name. The film has been criticized for its shallow portrayals of women and femininity while exploiting harmful stereotypes.
13. Rap-Rock
After the nu-metal craze during the late ’90s and early 2000s, rap-rock gave rise to bands people weren’t fans of, such as Imagine Dragons and Twenty-One Pilots.
14. The Late Late Show with James Corden
The Late Late Show with James Corden aired its final episode in April 2023, and millions rejoiced. Along with talk about his poor treatment of his employees, Corden earned plenty of ridicule when he was banned from a New York City restaurant. Reports of the incident state the restaurant’s owner described Corden as a “tiny Cretin of a man.”
