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Here's a new podcast you'll love called The

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Big Flop. Now, I want you to picture

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Steve Jobs tinkering with a computer

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in his garage. Walt Disney drawing cartoons

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for his high school newspaper. Every

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big moment starts with a big dream, but

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what happens when that dream turns out to be an even

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bigger failure? Each week on Wondery's

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new podcast, The Big Flop, host

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Misha Brown is joined by different comedians

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to chronicle some of the biggest failures and

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blunders in pop culture history. Each

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episode will have you thinking, why in the world

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did this get made? From box office

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flops like Cats the movie, to Action

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Park, New Jersey's infamous theme park

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that had countless injuries, many lawsuits,

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and rides so wild it became known as

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Class Action Park, or Quibi, that

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short-form video platform with an even

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shorter lifespan. It was a recipe for

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disaster from the start, and its creator,

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Jeffrey Katzenberg, even got the idea

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from The Da Vinci Code. It's a story

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of a spectacular failure with lots of surprises

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along the way. You're about to hear a clip from

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The Big Flop. Enjoy The Big Flop

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on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free

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on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in

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the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts today.

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It's

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October 2020, and actor Thomas Lennon is sitting butt-naked in a wheelchair. Naked

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on a bucket. He's filming a scene

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for his new movie, Reno 911,

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It's a Wonderful Heist. Here's

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Lennon on AV Club. I had

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my pants completely down, and I was

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pretending to poop in a bucket. Do

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you all remember Reno 911? It was that

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instant classic when it premiered on Comedy

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Central in 2003. And now, 17

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years later, they're shooting the revival for

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a brand new streaming platform

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called Quibi. And

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Quibi claims it's a brand new way to watch TV

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and movies, Hollywood-quality content

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in 10 minutes or less. Only

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available on your phone. The idea-

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came from some of the biggest names in Hollywood

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and Silicon Valley. The app seemed

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to have everything going for it.

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But right in the middle of a take, Thomas

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Lennon starts to notice whispers among

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the crew. Everyone's suddenly...

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uncomfortable.

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And it doesn't

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seem to have anything to do with his

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butt. When we finally cut, everybody's

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like, hey, Quiddies doesn't exist anymore.

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And I was like, oh, that was weird. The

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other thing, the pooping on the bucket

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was definitely this was for Quibi. So

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if you think that's undignified, then just wait until

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you hear about the rise and fall of Quibi,

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which lasted less than a year before

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it kicked the proverbial poop bucket.

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The short form streaming service Quibi,

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the startup is shutting down after

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just six months in operation.

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This was the hot new thing in Hollywood.

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A short form, but now stunningly

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short lived streaming service. Still,

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how is it that with so much star power,

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Quibi, the billion dollar promise could

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possibly flop? From Wondery

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and At Will Media, this is The

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Big Flop, where we chronicle the

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greatest flubs, fails, and blunders

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of all time. I'm your host, Misha

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Brown, social media superstar

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and your wife's gay best friend, at

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Don't

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Cross a Gay Man. And today we're

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talking about the short life of the short

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form platform, Quibi.

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And here to help me tell the tale of this ill-begotten

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union of Hollywood and tech is

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Connor Ratliff, comedian

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and host of the podcast, Dead Eyes,

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and Matt Bellassai, comedian and

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host of the new Wondery podcast, Dis

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and Tell. Welcome to the show, guys. Thank

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you for having us. Thank you. And Connor,

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what is your personal experience

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with Quibi? Well, I... I

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knew a couple of people who had either

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auditioned for or been cast. A

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friend of mine, Zach Cherry, was

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in a Quibi that I don't remember

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if it ever got released or not. And

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I

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don't believe I had any experience with

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Quibi while it existed. And

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then post Quibi, I watched a few

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things on the Roku channel that were Quibi.

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Matt, we asked you earlier about your connection

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with Quibi offline and you said you

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felt like you're the only comedian who

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didn't have a Quibi show and that you absolutely

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did not watch a single second of it. No disrespect

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to all of the wonderful people involved.

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Well, I have gone far enough into the

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black hole that is Quibi. So

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for a lot of people in 2020, there

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was basically no daylight between

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finding out that Quibi existed and

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finding out that it had gone up in flames.

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But the Quibi story actually begins

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much, much earlier. And

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to understand Quibi, we first have to talk

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about the Da Vinci Code, Dan

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Brown's best selling novel. OK,

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obviously, right? Yeah. So

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it's around 2011 and Hollywood

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super producer Jeffrey Katzenberg

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picks up the mystery thriller like so

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many other people. And as he blasts

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through it, he has an epiphany. He

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realizes that the best thing about

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the Da Vinci Code is apparently

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how short the chapters are. I

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had no idea we were going to start there. All

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the way back. Listen,

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he's got a point. Well, fast

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forward to 2018 and

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Katzenberg, because of this, wants to create

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a subscription based smartphone

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only streaming platform for shows

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that are only six to nine minutes long.

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Here he is talking at Axios' Smarter

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Faster Revolution conference. Listen,

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I don't think people have as many 30s

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and 40 minutes today. I

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think that. them the convenience.

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If they got 10 minutes, they can read a chapter

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or two. If they've got an hour, they can keep going.

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By the way, I would say there's not a single thing

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lesser about the Da Vinci code other

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than the length of the chapters. We're

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going to disagree on that, but that's okay.