I discovered Maddox when his I am better than your kids post originally went viral. Not only was the post hilarious, but damn near everything else on his website was too. I spent the whole night reading through his archives and laughing my ass off. I dreamed of being able to have that effect on a reader, having experimented with comedy writing myself. A few years later, I settled on a shameless Maddox ripoff website to call my own. Long story short, Maddox was my hero.
I stayed a Maddox fan through thick and thin. Years of infrequent updates, an uninspired second book, changes in comedic style, and breaking up my all-time favorite podcast couldn’t turn me against him. The world changes, people change, and success is hard to replicate. I get that as well as anyone.
Then he shot himself in the foot with a rocket launcher. In a hit piece “explaining” why he broke up the podcast, Maddox accused Dick Masterson, his former cohost, of being a rape apologist. It was a sleazy attempt to ruin Dick’s comedy career. Ironically, it ruined Maddox’s. Most of his fan base called him out on his bullshit and abandoned him.
Despite having lost a lot of respect for Maddox, I continued listening to his new podcast for several months. While it wasn’t good, it wasn’t quite bad either, and it was ingrained in my weekly routine. I didn’t feel like dropping it—until Maddox’s behind-the-scenes sleaziness was exposed on The Dick Show. Maddox had been continuing an online and real-life harassment campaign against Dick, people who appeared on his show, and people who associated with him in real life. It was disgusting.
The final straw came when Maddox had his chief attack dog as a guest on his podcast. One of his podcast’s saving graces was that it had several interesting and accomplished guests. That week, however, he could only schedule a scumbag whose claim to fame was doxing. I didn’t want to hear his voice. Dropped.
I’ll always be a fan of Maddox’s website from 1998-2005, book from 2006, and podcast from 2014-2016, but I can’t call myself a fan of who he is and what he does now.
Maddox has a new book coming out this month. I won’t be reading it.
Personally, I didn’t really like Dick Masterson, he seemed like misogynistic and was pro-Trump. I’m not a podcast guy so I didn’t listen to many of their podcasts but they few I listened to were interesting.
However, this shit from Maddox isn’t cool. Dick’s story seems too detailed to be a lie, and Maddox not offering his side of things implies that he can’t say too much without looking bad.
The girlfriend thing was probably the kicker but I bet what really pissed Maddox off was Dick becoming more popular than him. If Maddox remained popular or Dick didn’t then he probably wouldn’t have done anything.
Funnily enough, I think that Dick probably “won” this popularity contest because he was the “bigger asshole”. I prefer Maddox’s more liberal views but Dick persona is more in line people who liked the old Maddox.
I wasn’t into Dick in the first 10 or so episodes of TBPITU, when he was too much of a sidekick and kept saying “effing”. After that I grew to like him a lot, but even by the end, I was still listening more for Maddox than Dick.
It was The Dick Show episode with Asterios that threw me firmly into Dick’s camp. Asterios was way more in line with Maddox on TBPITU. The fact that he came out squarely on Dick’s side said a lot.
Even if Maddox had ended the podcast only because he felt like he was losing control and popularity to Dick, I could stomach that. Partnerships end all the time due to personal feuds. It’s the continued sleaze behind the scenes that really lost me.
Baka-raptor was also a Trump supporter and I am still following him. We both are. That’s a good reason to not check out Dick. Not falling into the trap of liking him.
That’s libel. I’ll sue you.
That is an unfortunate series of events. I never really look at much of Maddox’s stuff. My only view of him was through the links you posted. Funnily enough, the process you described getting into Maddox was similar to how I discovered and got into your posts. I found you back in 2010 or 2011. I was randomly looking up information about Denpa Teki na Kanojo because I wanted to learn more about it. I was then treated to a crappy MS paint drawing about the little goblin thing from Monster offering a Denpa Teki as an apology after being punted away for suggesting Kure-nai (another title that I had watched recently, but had no clue they were related). I found the post hilarious, and after stumbling onto your site again by accident late 2011 I did an archive binge. Here’s hoping you don’t write a lackluster second book and slander your co-host.
Ah, the de-shittifying portal. That brings back memories.
And it’s not loading. Great, more shit’s broken on my site. Guess who won’t be updating for a while.
I was really wondering if you’d end up commenting on this. You were a huge part of getting me into Maddox, you introduced me to Biggest Problem, and at this point The Dick Show is my favorite thing in existence. It’s depressing to see how Maddox went so irreparably off the deep end, to the point that even his biggest fans find him utterly intolerable now. But hey, at least there’s the coping mechanism of spite.
Ah, but what will happen when someone younger and cooler starts making similar anime youtube videos to you and ends up stealing all your fans?
More drinking perhaps? :p
I had to write about it eventually. The End Day just presented an ideal opportunity. “The Best Debate in the Universe” may have been my only drop in the past year.
I’m an avid The Dick Show listener at the $5 patreon level. Except for the goss, I don’t enjoy it as much as The Biggest Problem, but it’s still something I look forward to every week. Dick is an excellent storyteller, an episodes run as long as he wants them to run. Sean is getting better at de facto cohosting over time. Guest quality and bit quality still vary a lot.