Girls Gone Wild Files For Bankruptcy, End Of An Era
12 years ago

It was truly a sad day for softcore porn fans, ’90s kids, Snoop Dogg and late-night infomercials on Wednesday, as Girls Gone Wild filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Los Angeles (Plays “Only God Knows Why” by Kid Rock). The company is $16 million in debt with just $50,000 in assets. A majority of the $16 million is a debt owed to Wynn Casinos and its owner Steve Wynn.

To be honest, I haven’t seen a Girls Gone Wild infomercial on TV in at least five years, which is probably why GGW head honcho, Joe Francis, didn’t have any amateur smut money left over to pay his reported fifty creditors. Whatever for Francis, I’m sure he’ll land on his feet. That creep has money to the gills, as GGW was just one of his many ventures. After all, I’m pretty certain Francis is partly responsible for the widespread sexual renaissance in American youth in the mid-2000s. The “booty music” genre exploded right around the height of GGW’s popularity, amplifying the careers of fine artists like Petey Pablo, Lil Jon, Ying Yang Twins and J-Kwon, amongst others.

More importantly, this signals the end of an era for an institution that all of us grew up on. I recall a time in which two of my fraternity brothers stole a couple of GGW videos from the fraternity next door’s mailbox. The following night, a gigantic brawl erupted over $15 dollars worth of low-quality, softcore porn that this idiot could‘ve found on any porno site on the internet. Boys will be boys.

I can remember staying up into the wee hours as a young teen, trying to sneak a peak of the latest GGW infomercial on Comedy Central, VH1 or E! Once those steel drums started playing that all-too-familiar melody, that wonderful tingly feeling overcame my body and then college girls were all over my tube TV — stripping down, making out with each other and pouring daiquiris down one another’s throats. That was my first real introduction to sluts and I haven’t stopped loving them since.

As for Joe Francis, I raise my glass to you. Not to you as a person, because you are a certified idiot creep with a stupid face, but to you as an entrepreneur and visionary. You grabbed the late-20th century by the balls, threw it over your back and carried it into the 21st century with honor, grace and glorious 18 to 24-year-old boobies. You were a major part of my sexual enlightenment as a teenager, and for that, I salute you.

[via CNN Money]

***