Everything That Just Turned 20 and Will Make You Question Your Mortality

For the second year in a row, The Bad Broadcast host Madi Murphy is back to dig up the old time capsule, also known as “things that are now 20 years old that still feel like they happened yesterday.” Prepare to take a trip down memory lane and feel the weight of time crushing you as we revisit 2005, a simpler era when phones still flipped and social media meant MySpace. Feel old yet?

Books that are old enough to vote

It was a big year for bestsellers, with several book juggernauts that can now drink legally:

• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
• Freakonomics
• The Year of Magical Thinking
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“People lined up at midnight for it. Oh, you guys know I miss the days of a midnight movie or a midnight book premiere,” says Madi.

Reminiscing about the days before J.K. Rowling became deeply problematic, Madi recalls finding ”an assignment that I had submitted to one of my college creative writing classes and I had literally written about how much I wanted to hang out with J. K. Rowling. Now? Couldn’t pay me to hang out with her.” Times really are a-changin’!

Movies we can’t believe are that old

Remember when comedies used to do well at the box office? Hitch and Wedding Crashers both came out in 2005, along with: 

• Batman Begins
• Brokeback Mountain
• Revenge of the Sith

“I really love Star Wars. I don’t know how they got us all on board with all of the weird things that happened in the prequels. This is, of course, where we learn that Anakin is officially making his dramatic turn into Darth Vader,” says Madi.

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“This one is my least favorite Harry Potter movie. I think, well, first of all, I think it’s most different from the book. Am I wrong in saying that? Some people might disagree, but I think that that’s the most different.”

(As a fellow millennial, I can’t help but chime in that I saw both of these movies in the same weekend!)

TV shows from 2005 that refused to end

Something was in the water in Hollywood in 2005, because a lot of the series that kicked off that year stayed on TV for an insanely long time.

• The Office
• Criminal Minds
• Supernatural
• How I Met Your Mother
• Prison Break
• Bones
• House MD
• Grey’s Anatomy

Can you believe the blueprint for medical soaps is still going strong? “I stopped watching Grey’s Anatomy after about seven seasons, but season three of Grey’s Anatomy is perfect,” says Madi. “I don’t know what turn it took in season four, but one through three are pretty flawless. I love them,” says Madi.

In other 2005 TV news, Carrie Underwood’s win on American Idol did numbers for the hair tools industry. “Her hair is crimped to the gods, literally the crunchiest, crispiest, three barrel crimp you’ve ever seen in your life. And I’m sure I saw that and was utterly obsessed and tried to recreate it as best I could,” Madi recalls.

Songs we still unfortunately know all the words to

The soundtrack of 2005 was honestly iconic. Get a couple Jägerbombs in you and we bet you can recite most of these lyrics:

• “Hollaback Girl” – Gwen Stefani
• “Since U Been Gone” – Kelly Clarkson

“Another celebrity who I love and who has very much maintained a great reputation,” says Madi.  “Very seemingly normal and very successful and she deserves that. Kelly just seems nice.”

• “We Belong Together” – Mariah Carey 
• “Gold Digger” – Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx

“Honestly, good song. Won’t ever listen to it again because I hate you, Kanye West,” says Madi.

• “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” – Green Day

“That song to me is like seventh grade. It’s just, that’s what it reminds me of. The radio. Driving to seventh grade, we had it on preset number three, 107.9,” says Madi.

How has culture changed since 2005?

Honestly, 2005 seems like a totally different world, but Madi puts it perfectly. “In 2005, Brokeback Mountain really shocked everybody because it was like a gay couple on screen. And now in 2025, I mean, the way to shock us is to get Mike White on the case and make brothers kiss.” 

Any White Lotus fans feeling like they wish they could go back 20 years before the incest storyline made their skin crawl? Is this progress? Regression? Who knows! See you in the next 20 years.

For more hot takes and walks down memory lane, listen to The Bad Broadcast.