10 Wild Facts About the 2000s

In May 2004, Saturday Night Live cast member Rachel Dratch debuted her “Debbie Downer” character during an episode hosted by Lindsay Lohan. The sketch involves a happy family whose Disney World vacation is ruined by the outrageously morbid Debbie, constantly killing the vibe by bringing up things like mad cow disease and train explosions.

You might have assumed that Debbie Downer was a preexisting expression, like Nervous Nellie or Plain Jane. But it wasn’t: Dratch coined it for the character, and it eventually caught on in wider usage. That’s right, one of SNL’s silliest sketches, which led to most actors breaking character from laughing, led to a common colloquialism.  For what it’s worth, there are newspaper references to real people named Debbie Downer from long before 2004.

At this point, we’re far enough removed from the 2000s to look at its fads and trends and say, “What were we thinking?” But we’re also far enough removed to forget some of its strangest and most surprising pop culture moments. In the latest episode of The List Show, Mental Floss editor-in-chief Erin McCarthy covers all our favorite WTF facts from the aughts, from Myspace’s coding conundrum to the NSYNC–Star Wars crossover that sort of happened.

Watch the full episode above, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for new episodes every week.

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