5 Seriously Cursed Collaborations
The entertainment industry is full of failsons who only seem to get richer even though you could find Carmen Sandiego faster than someone who genuinely appreciates their work. That’s weird enough, but when two such people combine forces, it can feel like a portent of some kind, at least of our eyes rolling. Like…
M. Night Shyamalan and Nicholas Sparks
You know who exists? Fans of both suffocatingly sappy romances and cheap thrillers. Despite the irony of that statement, it was announced in 2025 that M. Night Shyamalan and Nicholas Sparks will be collaborating on a mysterious project that Shyamalan will film as a movie while Sparks writes the accompanying novel. To complete the trifecta of hated dudes, the movie will star Jake Gyllenhaal.
MrBeast and James Patterson
As the Gen Z equivalent of the billionaires in Rat Race, MrBeast is one of the most hated people on social media, while James Patterson is barely a person at all so much as a collective of “co-authors” that pump out paperbacks for bored moms. It makes sense, then, that the latter would tap the former to join the Patterson army, since it’s little more than a publicity machine anyway. The resulting book, which obviously has “shades of Squid Games,” has reportedly become the subject of an “eight-figure bidding war” because publishing is broken.
Limp Bizkit and Corey Feldman
Fred Durst is historically a fan of several questionable things — the Yankees, Vladimir Putin, goatees, etc. Now, that list includes Corey Feldman, the former child actor most famous for embarrassing himself on the Today show with his “band” of “angels.” Durst invited Feldman to open for Limp Bizkit on tour in 2024, and they even wrote a few songs together, with Durst explaining that he hoped “people who might not know who he is get to discover him,” under the apparent belief that that would be a good thing. They did name the tour “Loserville,” so it’s not like they don’t know.
Diplo and Crocs
Diplo is a relic from the wub-wub era with multiple sexual abuse allegations against him, meaning he’s only slightly less reviled than Crocs. Maybe that’s why they partnered with him in 2021 to release a truly hideous line of clogs that look like what they would wear in Alice in Wonderland as reimagined by the worst guy at the party. After all, Crocs was handing out celeb collabs like candy-shaped charms at the time. On the other hand, Diplo was already racking up the #MeToos, so even worse look than usual, Crocs.
Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock
We don’t know whose idea it was for the Queen of Mom Rock and the King of Fake Trailer Trash to record a song together, but the worst part about it was that it was successful. It was nominated for a CMA despite neither singer being a country artist. If you were forming memories in 2003, it haunted you, and still does. We’re not even going to say its name, lest we precipitate some kind of Beetlejuice situation. No one has destroyed so much goodwill built up in 1993 outside of the Jurassic Park dinosaurs.
