Million Dollar Extreme (MDE) is an American

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

troupe. The group consists of

Sam Hyde Samuel Whitcomb Hyde (born April 16, 1985) is an American comedian. He co-created the sketch comedy group Million Dollar Extreme (MDE) with Charls Carroll and Nick Rochefort. Hyde is known for his involvement in several public pranks and in ...

, Nick Rochefort, and Charls Carroll. The group remains largely inactive since the cancellation of their show ''World Peace'' in 2016. They are known for their online videos,

anti-comedy Anti-humor is a type of indirect and alternative humor that involves the joke-teller's delivering something that is intentionally not funny, or lacking in intrinsic meaning. The practice relies on the expectation on the part of the audience of so ...

, and public pranks mainly uploaded on their several related

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channels. They are also controversial for their support from

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

and

white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...

fans, and Sam Hyde's connections to the alt-right. The group's first YouTube channel was permanently banned in 2018 for violating the website's community guidelines.

YouTube channel

Million Dollar Extreme started out making sketch comedy videos on their

channel, which

David Weigel David Weigel (born September 26, 1981) is an American journalist. He works for ''Semafor''. Weigel previously covered politics for ''The Washington Post,'' ''Slate,'' and ''Bloomberg Politics'' and is a contributing editor for ''Reason'' magaz ...

described as "absurdist" and "transgressive", often centering around themes mocking

political correctness ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

's monologues, recorded on his iPhone, were also a staple for video content on the channel. Hyde also performed numerous public pranks that he uploaded to the MDE YouTube channel. Most notably in 2013, Hyde delivered a fake

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

talk titled "2070 Paradigm Shift" at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

. The troupe has run into various issues with online terms of service violations due to their content and fanbase. On May 4, 2018, the MDE channel was permanently removed from YouTube for a violation of the site's community guidelines. On September 10, 2018, the group's subreddit on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

was permanently removed for violations of their policy regarding violent content.

''World Peace''

On May 7, 2015, it was announced that MDE were slated to have their own live action 15-minute sketch show on the cable network

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

. It was to be set in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world that satirizes the current political climate. Titled '' Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace'', the series premiered on August 5, 2016. Three weeks later, after ''World Peace'' was subject to internal controversy at Adult Swim due to Sam Hyde's connections to the

, it was announced that the show would not be renewed for a second season.

Critical reception

Christian Williams of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' describes them: "Some videos borrow ''

Wonder Showzen ''Wonder Showzen'' is an American adult sketch comedy television series that aired between 2005 and 2006 on MTV2. It was created by Vernon Chatman and John Lee of PFFR. Described as a children's television series for adults, the show's format ...

''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! ''Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'' is an American sketch comedy series created by and starring Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, which premiered February 11, 2007 on Adult Swim and ran until May 2010. The show features surreal and often sat ...

'' aesthetic, and some are surprisingly slick, with excellent, eardrum-shredding music courtesy of talented mystery-men like Orangy and Vaervaf." In the view of ''

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

''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 MDEs comedy, it feels like more of rationalization than a reason for the shock itself."

References

{{authority control American performance artists American sketch comedians American stand-up comedians Black comedy Internet trolling Internet hoaxes People from Massachusetts American comedy troupes