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Million Dollar Extreme

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Million Dollar Extreme
MediumInternet and television
NationalityAmerican
Years active2009–2016, 2025–present
GenresPost irony
Sketch comedy
Surreal humor
Notable works and rolesMillion Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace
Members
Websitemde.tv

Million Dollar Extreme (MDE) is an American sketch comedy troupe, founded by comedians Sam Hyde, Nick Rochefort, and Charls Carroll in 2009.

The group had an eleven-minute sketch show on the Adult Swim network named Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace, which was cancelled after one season following controversy surrounding Hyde's connections to the alt-right. The group's YouTube channel was permanently banned in 2018 for violating the website's community guidelines. A ban on the group's subreddit on Reddit followed a few months later, as the subreddit was a major outlet for users sharing white supremacist and white nationalist content.[1]

YouTube channel

Million Dollar Extreme started out making sketch comedy videos on their YouTube channel, which David Weigel described as "absurdist" and "transgressive", often centering around themes mocking political correctness.[2] Sam Hyde's monologues, recorded on his iPhone, were also a staple for video content on the channel.[3]

Hyde also performed numerous public pranks that he uploaded to the MDE YouTube channel. In 2013, Hyde delivered a fake TEDx talk titled "2070 Paradigm Shift" at Drexel University.[4]

The troupe had various issues with online terms of service violations due to their content and fanbase. Their first ban from YouTube was in 2013, although the group continued to post online videos on several related YouTube channels after the initial ban.[5] On May 4, 2018, their channel was permanently removed from YouTube for a violation of the site's community guidelines.[6] On September 10, 2018, the group's subreddit on Reddit was permanently removed for violations of their policy regarding violent content.[7]

World Peace

Main article: Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace

In 2015, MDE were slated to have their own live action 15-minute sketch show on the cable network Adult Swim.[8] It was to be set in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world that satirizes the current political climate.[9] Titled Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace, the series premiered on August 5, 2016.[10]

The series consisted of six eleven-minute episodes that contained a series of anti-sketches, deliberately cheap performances, amateur acting and video segments including pranks. Sketches were deliberately provocative, with characters suffering violent abuses such as crashing through walls, and tables, and subjected to misogynistic and racists discourse. Hyde emphasized the show's ironic nihilism, but journalists such as Buzzfeed's Joseph Bernstein drew attention to the show's popularity with the alt-right, and raised concerns that the ironic nihilism could be, and was being interpreted as racist, sexist and antisemitic.[11]

World Peace was subject to internal controversy at Adult Swim due to concerns about dogwhistling in the show and accusations of harassment by Sam Hyde and his fans.[12] Hyde's connection to the alt-right was reported in numerous outlets.[13][14] In December 2016, it was announced that the show would not be renewed for a second season.[15][16]

On May 15, 2025, MDE announced the spiritual continuation of the series, titled Million Dollar Extreme Presents: Extreme Peace, comprising six 30-minute episodes.[17]

Critical reception

Christian Williams of The A.V. Club described them: "Some videos borrow Wonder Showzen's toolkit, wielding subliminal blips and eye-straining text in service of subversive ends. Some make use of the Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! aesthetic, and some are surprisingly slick, with excellent, eardrum-shredding music courtesy of talented mystery-men like Orangy and Vaervaf."[5] In the view of Philadelphia's Andrew Thompson: "The mission of Million Dollar Extreme has always seemed a spin on afflicting the comfortable, except its targets usually aren't the comfortably powerful. To the extent that satire exists in MDE's comedy, it feels like more of rationalization than a reason for the shock itself."[18]

References

  1. ^ Daro, Ishmael N. (September 11, 2018). "Reddit Banned A Page That Trafficked In White Supremacist Content, But The Problem Is Much Bigger". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  2. ^ Weigel, David (December 23, 2016). "The story behind the sudden cancellation of Adult Swim's Trump-loving comedy show". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  3. ^ "Take in the work of the comedy provocateurs in Million Dollar Extreme". April 23, 2013. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  4. ^ "Comedian Gives Ridiculous Prank TED Talk". Business Insider. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  5. ^ a b Williams, Christian (April 23, 2013). "Take in the work of the comedy provocateurs in Million Dollar Extreme". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on August 13, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  6. ^ Stephen, Bijan (September 12, 2018). "Reddit has banned QAnon". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  7. ^ Daro, Ishmael (September 11, 2018). "Reddit Banned A Page That Trafficked In White Supremacist Content, But The Problem Is Much Bigger". Buzzfeed News. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  8. ^ Stanhope, Kate (May 7, 2015). "Adult Swim Upfront Slate Includes 12 Pilots, Two From 'Robot Chicken's' Seth Green". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 11, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  9. ^ Lincoln, Ross (March 3, 2016). "Adult Swim Comedy From Sketch Troupe Million Dollar Extreme Gets Series Order, Official Title". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 11, 2016. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  10. ^ "Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace". Archived from the original on November 19, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
  11. ^ Sienkiewicz & Marx 2021, pp. 101–102.
  12. ^ Bernstein, Joseph (November 17, 2016). "Adult Swim Talent Want The Network To Cancel Its Alt-Right Comedy Show". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  13. ^ Bernstein, Joseph (September 14, 2016). "The Underground Neo-Nazi Promo Campaign Behind Adult Swim's Alt-Right Comedy Show". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on September 22, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  14. ^ Sims, David (November 17, 2016). "The Battle Raging Over Adult Swim's Alt-Right TV Show". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  15. ^ Blistine, Joe (December 5, 2016). "Adult Swim Cancels Controversial Show 'Million Dollar Extreme'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  16. ^ Abramovitch, Seth (December 8, 2016). "Sam Hyde Speaks: Meet the Man Behind Adult Swim's Canceled "Alt-Right" Comedy Show (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  17. ^ "Million Dollar Extreme Presents: Extreme Peace - Official Trailer [World Peace 2]". MDE.tv. Retrieved May 16, 2025.
  18. ^ Thompson, Andrew (October 6, 2013). "WATCH: TEDx Drexel Got Pranked This Weekend". Philly Mag. Archived from the original on August 29, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2016.

Bibliography

  • Aspray, Benjamin (2019). "On Trolling as Comedic Method". Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. 58 (3): 154–160. ISSN 2578-4900. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
  • Boatright, Robert G.; Shaffer, Timothy J.; Sobieraj, Sarah; Young, Dannagal Goldthwaite (February 18, 2019). A Crisis of Civility?: Political Discourse and Its Discontents. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-05196-5.
  • Donovan, Joan; Dreyfuss, Emily; Friedberg, Brian (September 20, 2022). Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-63557-864-5.
  • Foreman, Gene; Biddle, Daniel R.; Lounsberry, Emilie; Jones, Richard G. (June 21, 2022). The Ethical Journalist: Making Responsible Decisions in the Digital Age. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-77747-2.
  • Marantz, Andrew (February 20, 2020). Antisocial: How Online Extremists Broke America. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-5098-8250-2.
  • Sienkiewicz, Matt; Marx, Nick (March 26, 2024). That's Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them. Univ of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-40296-6.
  • Sienkiewicz, Matt; Marx, Nick (2021). "Appropriating Irony: Conservative Comedy, Trump-Era Satire, and the Politics of Television Humor". JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. 60 (4): 85–108. ISSN 2578-4919. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
  • Webber, Julie A. (December 11, 2018). The Joke Is on Us: Political Comedy in (Late) Neoliberal Times. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4985-6985-9.
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