Twenty years ago, William Hung of "She Bangs" American Idol fame became one of the earliest people to straddle traditional media and the internet to become an overnight sensation. A notorious "bad audition" on one of the world's most famous shows, William built a whole career on a mix of positivity and negative attention, remaining firmly himself every step of the way. Warning: this episode contains severe 2004, from Angelfire fan sites to successful prime time TV to early-aughts xenophobia. Buckle in, we're going deep, from William's college days to his TED talks and everywhere in between.

This week, Jamie recounts William's story and speaks to the man himself. In part two, we take a closer look at what William's fame meant to Asian Americans, and what it said about the state of reality TV.

Follow William here: https://williamhung.net/

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Of course the graverobbing episode couldn’t be one part! In part two of the Tmblr bone witch story, Jamie speaks with the leading voice in American human remains law, a New Orleans cemetery preservationist and of course, a real-life witch.

Follow Tanya Marsh here: https://x.com/tmar22

Follow JV Hampton-Van Sant’s work and socials here: https://linktr.ee/RedBlaqueGolden

Learn more about Save Our Cemeteries here: https://www.saveourcemeteries.org/

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN, MOTHERFUCKERS! This week, we’re diving deep into the Tumblr bone witch saga, the epic 2015 tale of internet-age graverobbing that all but exploded the internet.

In late 2015, a witch named Ender Darling posted that they’d found some human bones in a New Orleans graveyard, and offered to mail them to other witches in a Facebook group called the Queer Witch Collective. What followed was bedlam – a debate on the ethics of private safe spaces, on bone thievery in New Orleans, and a story that led all the way to court. Spoiler alert: grave robbing isn’t as illegal as you think! Tune in, dear listeners, to the scariest episode of Sixteenth Minute of all time.

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She's, with apologies to the Hawk Tuah lobby, the queen of the internet in 2024 -- baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng.

Her fifteenth minute is far from over, but this week Jamie dives into the world of the viral zoo animal. She's far from the first, joining a legacy of viral animals whose life is flattened to a static image, without wondering why we're looking at them in the first place. We go into the ordeal that is becoming famous while captive, and Jamie speaks with zoologist Oliver, aka Dr. Wildlife, about the ethics of zoos and how we can better protect the animals that become a part of our digital language.

Follow Dr. Wildlife here: https://linktr.ee/drwildlife

See Jamie in LA on November 1st & 20th: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-tiny-man-is-trying-to-kill-me-tickets-1039733048537

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FIELD TRIP! Jamie heads to Las Vegas to see the closing moments of the Kobi-Chestnut sixteenth minute -- and watches them face off live on Netflix after fifteen years without competing in a broadcast called Unfinished Beef. We talk more with documentarian Nicole Lucas-Haimes, and take a look at what the greatest hot dog and sports rivalry of all time looks like at the highest level.

Watch 30 for 30: The Good, The Bad, The Hungry on Netflix here: https://www.netflix.com/title/81752194

Watch Unfinished Beef: https://www.netflix.com/title/81743617

Read Jodi Walker's terrific coverage of the event on The Ringer: https://www.theringer.com/tv/2024/9/19/24248057/joey-chestnut-takeru-kobayashi-netflix-unfinished-beef-hot-dog-eating

Buy Jamie's book Raw Dog here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250847768/rawdog

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Once a year, Joey Chestnut becomes the main character of the internet -- but it wasn't always that way. This week, we're talking about the greatest hot dog rivalry of all time, and the media ringmaster that made it possible.

Before Joey's annual stint as a main character, the hot dog eating champion of the world was one Takeru Kobayashi, a Japanese eater who turned a novelty event in the U.S. into a full-blown sensation in the early 2000s. Then, contractual issues and a huge wave of xenophobia pushed Kobi out of the professional scene in America, until Labor Day 2024 when he faced off with Chestnut for the first time in 15 years. A lot has changed since their last meeting... more than anything, the way stories are told using the internet.

Jamie speaks with documentarian Nicole Lucas-Haimes, director of the 30 for 30 about the Kobi and Chestnut rivalry: The Good, The Bad, The Hungry. She's also the executive producer of the Netflix rematch, Unfinished Beef.

This Thursday, Jamie ventures to Las Vegas to see the Kobi-Chestnut Netflix rematch in person.

Watch The Good, The Bad, The Hungry: https://www.netflix.com/title/81752194
Watch Unfinished Beef: https://www.netflix.com/title/81743617
Buy Raw Dog (now in paperback): https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250847768/rawdog
Now

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Ken Bone reflects on the eight-year anniversary of his overnight viral success, how becoming a main character changed his life, and how his moment moved his politics forward.

Donate to St. Patrick's Center here: https://www.stpatrickcenter.org/donate

Los Angeles area heads, see Jamie live this November at the Lyric Hyperion! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-tiny-man-is-trying-to-kill-me-tickets-1039733048537?aff=oddtdtcreator

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In 2016, one man in a red sweater became the nation's sweetheart... until he didn't. Ken Bone became a celebrity overnight after a star turn at the height of an October 2016 political nightmare. Just two days after the infamous Access Hollywood tape made many think Trump's first run for president was a lost cause, after a year of "her emails" and what felt like an infinity war of an election cycle, the world took comfort in a normal midwestern man who worked at a power plant and loved anime.

What made Ken so appealing, and -- apologies for taking us back to such a cursed period -- what shitstorm was he caught in the middle of? In part one, Jamie examines the media environment that made Ken a star, and the milkshake duck cycle and a Reddit scandal that made him one of the seminal internet main characters to this day.

Next week... we talk to Ken.

Donate to Ken's nonprofit of choice, the St. Patrick Center of St. Louis here: https://www.stpatrickcenter.org/donate

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