The Ringer Examines How Rob Dyrdek Ruined MTV

Once upon a time, MTV was the home of culturally relevant news and cutting edge music videos. It’s pretty much responsible for the ascension of rap music into the mainstream. And it can also be blamed for the birth of the reality show, and the downward spiral of content that resulted from that revolution. We admittedly haven’t checked in with this staple of our youth in over a decade. Apparently, it now broadcasts Rob Dyrdek’s Ridiculousness on a continuous loop, which is actually quite fitting considering the dystopian world that we’re currently living in. The Ringer published an extensive article on this phenomena yesterday.

Turn on MTV—on any day, at any time—and you’re likely to find an episode of Ridiculousness, a home-videos-ripped-from-the-internet-style show hosted by skateboarder Rob Dyrdek. Actually, is he still a skateboarder? Is that how he identifies these days? He’s 46 now and Ridiculousness is his third show for MTV, following Rob & Big (RIP, Big Black; do work for eternity, son) and Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. It has been a very long time since Dyrdek was just a skateboarder, and he has made oodles of money since then as a reality show star. Rob, if you’re reading this, I want you to know that I know that you contain multitudes and that it’s no easy thing to account for how you arrived at this unexpected and highly lucrative moment in your long career.

The irony here is that after years of complaining that MTV reality shows were ruining skateboarding, a skateboarder ended up ruining the network, itself. Read the full article here.