Boom Goes the Dynamite

On March 22, 2005, a Ball State freshman named Brian Collins sat down to deliver sports highlights on the campus TV station. The regular anchor was sick. Brian was nervous. What happened next would haunt and elevate him in equal measure.

"Later he gets the rebound," he stammered, eyes darting between monitor and teleprompter. "Passes to the man. He shoots." A pause. A desperate reach for something—anything—to fill the void. "And boom goes the dynamite."

It was objectively terrible television. It was also, somehow, perfect. Within weeks, an eBaumsworld upload had launched the clip into the viral stratosphere. ESPN referenced it. Family Guy parodied it. David Letterman invited Collins on as a guest. The phrase that escaped in panic became a genuine catchphrase.

This was before YouTube's dominance, before "going viral" was a career goal. The internet of 2005 ran on eBaums and forum embeds and forwarded links with "LOL you gotta see this." Boom Goes the Dynamite was one of the first "fail" videos—accidental authenticity that felt more real than polished media.

Brian Collins went on to work in actual broadcasting, but he'll never escape that moment. The dynamite boom faded as newer fails emerged, but it remains a monument to the era when a college kid's on-air meltdown could become national news.

And boom went his dignity. But also his legend.