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Announcing the Winners of the The 2017 Peely Awards for the Worst in Pop Culture

wolfmanjew

Oh, do these days come and go so swiftly. After two weeks of nominations, votes, repeated suggestions, and irritating reminders, the 2017 Peely’s have come to an end. From book to film to game to song, now shall the worst of this year’s pop culture rise from the ocean of detritus to bask in the light of mockery.

Compared to the treasure trove of 2016, this year was lighter, at least on the film front. We got bonkers films so tonally wonky the New York Times could erroneously call it a Republican policy expert, failed blockbusters up the wazoo, and a 9/11 movie that put all its dramatic weight on Charlie Sheen, but we didn’t have the wall to wall silliness of last year’s Peely’s. Fortunately, the expanded range of media – thank Merve on that one – led to other fields picking up some of the slack. A fantastic year for video games was rivaled by some truly embarrassing works, while Steven Seagal and Convicted Felon Dinesh D’Souza competed for making the most asinine rightwing crank of a book. Shows that were morally, intellectually, or artistically offensive like The Good Doctor, Candy Crush, or Wisdom of the Crowd stunk up our televisions – or, at least our ad space. And just in general, as always there was some incredible ways of dumbness going on.

But look; as much as this is about bad stuff, and making fun of bad stuff, this is also about us as a community. From the AV Club to The Dissolve, from The Tolerability Index to The Avocado, celebrating and enjoying the worst of the worst can be more than just nastily throwing rotten fruit from afar. It can be brilliant, compelling, well considered, and endearing. I am unbelievably thankful for the hundreds of comments and votes; the participation of the community gives me succor and gratitude.

Now, having said all that, here are the winners in bold, along with the top five (or so) rival nominees for each category. I’ve hidden them in spoiler tags for ease of reading; initially I was going to separate tags, but that was…too difficult. Also, for image related categories, only the winning image will be uploaded; the others, however, will get links. In addition, some nominations were accidentally of things that were released or happened last year; those are not counted.

[spoiler title=WINNERS]

1. Best Worst Knockoff of a Pre-Existing Property or Work (Wolfman Jew)

2. The Louis C.K. on Parks And Recreation Memorial Award For Ruining Something In Retrospect (Robert Maitland, Architect)

3. Worst Character Name (Lovely Bones)

4. Most Egregious Male Gaze (gwahir)

5. Most Tone-Deaf Depiction of a Minority (Shit-Master Slūtface)

6. Worst Poster (Lysiuj)

7. Worst Trailer (Lysiuj)

8. Worst Political Message in a Piece of Media (Merve)

9. Most Shameless Form of Product Placement, Content Marketing, Branding, or Other Kind of Corporate Synergy (Wolfman Jew)

10. Least Believable Academic / Scientist (Shit-Master Slūtface)

11. Most On Its Face Corrupt Action Done in the Entertainment Industry (Wolfman Jew)

12. Biggest Waste of Talent (Coolhand Fluke)

13. Worst Single Image of a Work in 2017 (Lovely Bones)

14. Worst Protagonist of 2017 (Wolfman Jew)

15. Worst Antagonist of 2017 (Wolfman Jew)

16. Worst Casting (kajigger desu)

17. The “Just Why?” Award (SilentSpy)

18. Worst Fan Behavior (Lysiuj)

19. Poorest Exploitation of Nostalgia (Wolfman Jew)

20. Worst Line of Dialogue in a Terrible Work (Wolfman Jew)

21. Worst Line of Dialogue in an Otherwise Good Work (Wolfman Jew)

22. Worst Song Cover (Welcome to Tiny Train World)

23. Worst Monologue or Soliloquy (Shit-Master Slūtface)

24. Most Infuriating Level, Boss Fight, Sequence, or Moment in a Video Game (Wolfman Jew)

25. The Heroes Memorial Award for Series that Cratered the Hardest (Wes Lawson)

26. Worst Career Decision (Wolfman Jew)

27. Most Hilariously Wrongheaded Attempt at Gravitas (Wolfman Jew)

28. Most Unnecessary Sequel (PRIVILEGED)

29. Most Bone-Headed Plot Twist (Wolfman Jew)

30. Worst Thing the Avocado Watched in Rabbit in Full This Year (Wolfman Jew)

31. Worst Design for an Original Sonic the Hedgehog Character (DO NOT STEAL) Created This Year (Merve)

32. Hottest Pop Cultural Take (QHarp! The Herald Angels Sing) DOUBLE WINNER!

33. Most Embarrassing Career Repositioning/Rebranding Attempt (Zero)

34. Worst Hair Styling Choice (Shit-Master Slūtface)

35. Worst Title for an Eric Roberts Movie Released in 2017 (Wolfman Jew)

36. Worst Album of 2017

37. Worst Book of 2017

38. Worst Video Game of 2017

39. Worst Television Series of 2017

40. Worst Film of 2017

 

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