Drunken Peasants

Drunken Peasants (DP) is an American social, popular culture, and political commentary podcast that started in January, 2014. The podcast was originally hosted by the mononymous Ben (aka. Benpai), TJ Kirk, and Scotty Kirk. Paul Parkey, Jr. (aka. PaulsEgo) became the fourth host in 2016. As of February 2018, the podcast is hosted by Ben and William Berry (aka. Billy the Fridge), along with a rotating lineup of guest hosts. The podcast predominantly features the hosts commenting on video clips from the Internet, with YouTube videos from other YouTubers often being featured.

The Drunken Peasants
Presentation
Hosted by	Ben (aka. Benpai), William Berry (aka. Billy the Fridge)
Genre	Comedy popular culture social commentary political commentary
Format	Audio, video
Created by	Ben, TJ Kirk
Language	English
Length	2–4 hours
Production
No. of episodes	1245
Publication
Original release	January 5, 2014
Related
YouTube information
Channel	Drunken Peasants
Years active	2014–present
Subscribers	108 thousand^[1]
Total views	72.4 million^[1]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2015
Last updated: April 2, 2024

In a 2016 episode of the podcast, right-wing political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos appeared to defend sexual relationships between men and 13-year-old boys, criticized the age of consent and made light of molestation by Catholic priests, according to The Daily Beast.^[2] Following publication of a video clip of the episode online, Yiannopoulos was dis-invited from speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), whose organizers accused Yiannopoulos of condoning pedophilia.^[3][4]

History

Drunken Peasants originally aired in 2014 as the No Bullshit Podcast. The show was co-created by Ben and TJ Kirk (known on YouTube as "The Amazing Atheist"). For the first +20 episodes the show did not have video but instead included only the voices of the hosts as they did the show. The podcast also used guest hosts, with TJ Kirk's production support staffer and younger brother Scotty Kirk eventually becoming a full-time host. YouTuber Paul Parkey (known as PaulsEgo) became the fourth member of the podcast's permanent staff in 2016. In 2017 Billy the Fridge became the fifth regular host.^{[citation needed]} As of January 2023, the podcast had produced 1132 episodes.^{[5][non-primary source needed]}

TJ Kirk announced the end of the Drunken Peasants on December 29, 2017 via his own YouTube channel and Twitter.^[6] On January 31, 2018, TJ Kirk announced that the show would continue with hosts Ben and Billy The Fridge.^{[7][non-primary source needed]}

Milo Yiannopoulos episode

In January 2016, far-right political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was a guest of the show. During the 3-hour long episode, Yiannopoulos discussed his sexual abuse as a teenager^[3] and said that sexual relationships between 13-year-old boys and adult men and women can "happen perfectly consensually".^{[8][9][10][2]} According to The Daily Beast, Yiannopoulos also criticized the age of consent and made light of molestation by Catholic priests.^[2] In February 2017, the conservative blog The Reagan Battalion posted a segment of the Drunken Peasants episode on Twitter.^[4][11] Following widespread criticism of Yiannopoulos's comments, he dis-invited to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), whose organizers accused Yiannopoulos of condoning pedophilia.^[3][4][2] In an interview with TJ Kirk on The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan remarked to TJ Kirk that "Your podcast was the big podcast that kind of sunk Milo", to which Kirk commented that he had known what he had gotten himself into by inviting Yiannopoulos on the podcast, while also stating that the podcasts's impact on Yiannopoulos had been unintentional.^[12]

Format

Generally, Drunken Peasants episodes are anywhere from two to three hours in length. In December 2017, the podcast announced that future episodes would air on Mondays and Thursdays.^[13] In June 2018, the podcast instead announced that going forward their shows would be on Tuesdays and Saturdays.^[14]

References

1. "About Drunken Peasants". YouTube.
2. Kucinich, Jackie; Suebsaeng, Asawin (February 20, 2017). "CPAC Disinvites Milo Yiannopoulos, Despite His Attempt at Contrition". The Daily Beast. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
3. "Milo Yiannopoulos Resigns From Breitbart Amid Pedophilia Video Controversy". The Hollywood Reporter. February 20, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
4. Hartmann, Margaret (February 20, 2017). "CPAC Blasted for Milo Yiannopoulos Invite After Pedophilia Remarks Resurface". Intelligencer. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
5. "Drunken Peasants". Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via YouTube.
6. Kirk, TJ (December 29, 2017). "The End Of The Drunken Peasants" (video). Archived from the original on December 30, 2017 – via YouTube.
7. @DrunkenPeasants (January 31, 2018). "Recently, TJ and I had our mediation. It has been determined that the show will continue with myself and Billy The Fridge as the primary hosts. We are currently looking to create a group of rotating co-hosts to join us for each episode. Suggestions are welcome" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 1, 2018 – via Twitter.
8. Eleftheriou-Smith, Loulla-Mae (February 20, 2017). "Milo Yiannopoulos: Video of right-wing journalist 'defending paedophilia' surfaces online". The Independent. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
9. Rudnick, Justin J. (2018). "Kevin Spacey's Coming Out and the Politics of Gay Victimhood". QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. 5 (2): 66–71. doi:10.14321/qed.5.2.0066. ISSN 2327-1574. JSTOR /10.14321/qed.5.2.0066.
10. Molloy, Tim (February 20, 2017). "Milo Yiannopoulos Denies Defending Pedophilia After Shocking Comments Emerge (Video)". TheWrap. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
11. Hensley, Nicole (February 20, 2017). "Video shared ahead of CPAC shows Milo Yiannopoulos appearing to speak fondly of relationships between men and 'young boys'". Daily News. New York. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
12. Taylor, Jeff (March 17, 2017). "Joe Rogan, TJ Kirk discuss how their podcasts led to Milo Yiannopoulos' downfall". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
13. "New Beginnings for DP - HIGHpotTHESIS - Stupid Ads - and More! DPP #410" (video). Drunken Peasants. November 27, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2017 – via YouTube.
14. "DP #452 | Trump Wants to Legalize? - Trudeau's History Lesson - Most Cringe Rap? - Billy's Review" (video). Drunken Peasants. June 8, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2023 – via YouTube.

External links

• Drunken Peasants on Twitter