Anyone who even casually follows the continuing adventures of what has been loosely termed the Alt-Right knows at this point that 26-time North American Spree-Shooter-Grand-Champion and absolute madman par excellence Sam Hyde’s groundbreaking experimental sketch-comedy show Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace has, as of December 5 (a day which will live in shitlord infamy), officially been cancelled by Adult Swim. However, I think this ultimately amounts to little more than a slightly overgrown bump in the road for Mr. Hyde and company. The cat’s out of the bag RE: Million Dollar Extreme’s popularity and I believe that just like there are no brakes on the Trump Train, a similar lack of a stopping mechanism is extant on the Hyde Ride. In this effortpost, I’ll speculate upon the underlying causes of Adult Swim’s decision to prematurely axe World Peace, then detail why it won’t affect the Million Dollar Extreme crew too adversely in the long run.

“But first, a little backstory…”

We’ll begin with some casual investigation into the possible causes of World Peace’s less-than-timely demise. Rumors are currently circulating on various online forums of ill repute that Tim Heidecker, self-professed cuckold and former star of once-relevant Adult Swim program Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! was complicit in—if not outright responsible for—our beloved World Peace’s cancellation. Allegedly, he and fellow Adult Swim “creative type” Brett Gelman had been lobbying the network extensively in the months leading up to the show’s cancellation. These are, of course, merely rumors swirling on some board out in cyberspace and as such currently stand unverified, but what we do know for sure is that Gelman cut ties with Adult Swim in November due in no small part to the network’s refusal to put World Peace to the sword. Shortly after informing the world of this #brave decision via Twitter, Gelman received a sympathetic tweet from Heidecker telling him that he “supports his decision fully” and “as a creator/writer” will “continue to challenge Trumpism”.

This selfless, daring feat of social media activism wasn’t Tim’s only move suggestive of a role in World Peace’s cancellation: many readers will be well-acquainted with the mini-feud that took place between Heidecker and a loosely organized roving street gang of the God Emperor’s shitposting meme-warriors. This particular exchange of autism, which took place over the course of the 2016 election, started with this tweet, featured some great bantz overall, and culminated with this song, now an internet classic, penned and performed by the Grand High Cucklord himself. I think most have assumed this little spat was water under the bridge up until the present, but the recent shock-decision by Adult Swim to cancel World Peace would obviously compel us to take a second look.

I suspect that the intimate details as to exactly who at Adult Swim applied how much pressure to which specific points is information we’ll only be able to accurately glean as time goes on, but I will say this: taking the time out of your busy schedule as a “creator/writer” to compose, write lyrics for, perform, and distribute an “ironic” song about how you’re a cuck (but, like, you’re really not or whatever) all while arguing until blue in the face (IRONICALLY, mind you) with those idiot Drumpf supporters is not the behavior of a non-butthurt individual.

What do I mean by this? Well, it’s fairly simple: Tim Heidecker was seriously and increasingly agitated throughout this election, a fact that becomes obvious when one takes even a mildly discerning look at his general behavior. In the faceless hordes of Alt-Right Twitter trolls, Heidecker finally found an enemy that he couldn’t dispel with his usual carefully-crafted shield of detached irony and was becoming increasingly frustrated as a result. Therefore, given what we know about his outspoken sympathies for the hysterical Brett Gelman combined with his well-known general disdain for the Alt-Right, then factor this in with his high level access to the Adult Swim leadership, we must name our first suspect in our game of CLUE: Who Killed “World Peace” Edition: Mr. Heidecker, in the Cuckshed, with the Dragon Dildo.

Exhibit A: this song was not written by a non-butthurt individual

The Continuing Paradigm Shift

Now that I have my requisite wild-eyed speculation regarding World Peace’s untimely dismissal out of the way, it’s time to look at the silver lining and possible upsides of MDE’s divorce from Adult Swim. First of all, as I mentioned before, the cat is essentially out of the bag with regards to MDE’s popularity in general. World Peace, a show made by industry outsiders with essentially nonexistent mainstream advertising or hype, a show that aired at 12:15 in the morning, managed to average a cool 896,000 viewers during its first season. It regularly outperformed such classic Adult Swim staples as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, and King of the Hill, only narrowly trailing its establishment-anointed, heavily-promoted, mocha-skinned counterpart The Eric Andre Show throughout its underdog run. The implicit takeaway here is that when one accounts for the amount of people tuning in to watch along with the general rightward shift in the Overton window catalyzed by Trump’s candidacy and solidified by his election, one can only conclude that MDE’s future is so bright they gotta wear the proverbial shades, while Adult Swim will unfortunately continue to mongle a dumptruck full of post-ironic vibrant cock.

My prediction for the future of Million Dollar Extreme is that they will thrive independent of any big cable network in the decentralized New Media environment. MDE and those like them will keep winning for the same reasons that Trump will keep winning, namely, that the Donald, taking point with his masterful use of platforms like Twitter (and assisted, of course, by his legions of shitposting info-warriors), has finally enabled the little people to bypass the (((traditional gatekeepers))) of Big Media by forming our own decentralized, crowdsourced de facto media apparatus—one truly of, by, and for the people. Consequently, as the big, lumbering, state-sponsored behemoths like CNN and the New York Times double down on their campaign of using their now-obsolete Alinsky-ite playbook to try and isolate and destroy each Deplorable individually, the more their efforts will continue to backfire on them, discrediting them and ripping more influence and power from their hands (we’ve already seen this quite a bit throughout 2016). This can only mean good things for people like Big Sam, as more and more young normies, increasingly #woke, will seek out alternate forms of entertainment removed from the culturally enriched sphere of Eric Andre and his kin—and MDE will be among those who deliver. The group’s creative engine continues to fire on all cylinders: their book is out now (a perfect Christmas gift for Grandma, reserve your copy today!) and they’re producing all kinds of their signature high-energy Bugwave content, notably the HydeWars Youtube series.

Finally, not only will Hyde’s popularity outstrip his network competitors in the immediate sense, it will overshadow them in the long run, as well. Sam Hyde will laugh last because his take on absurdist comedy is imbued with a deeper meaning than his predecessors’ work, and has already stricken a more profound chord in viewers’ hearts than anything Tim Heidecker ever made could hope to. I’ll be the first to admit that I, along with many others on the Alt-Right, was a big fan of Awesome Show during its run as the king of avant-garde comedy. Heidecker is undeniably talented, and Tim and Eric at their best is some of the funniest content Adult Swim ever put out. But Heidecker will, in the end, be overshadowed by Hyde because of the former’s fundamental lack of a belief in anything other than his own smug, ironic sense of detachment. That same safe, comfortable lack of deeper convictions may have insulated Tim from the unpleasant realities faced by many in post-America America, but will seriously hamstring him in the long run. Awesome Show, Great Job! will be remembered as a source of ironic laughter and a voice (as if they needed another one) for the Williamsburg Hipsterati elite. World Peace will be revered as a source of un-ironic inspiration and a defiant voice for the Deplorable, forgotten man. In other words, as the hashtag so emphatically states, MDE never dies.

-Postman