Boom Goes the Dynamite - From Ball State to Oscars Glory Feb 23, 20093:10 PST

If you watched the Oscars last night, you may have noticed Will Smith flub his lines from the teleprompter. Before snapping out of it, he made fun of the moment with a reference to Boom Goes the Dynamite. Some of the audience noticed it, but many others just laughed with the herd or missed the reference altogether. In case you missed the biggest Oscars moment of Will’s career, check it out:

This may seem like a throwaway line. But sports fans and the tech savvy recognized this line immediately thanks to the painful telecast of Brian Collins–an undergraduate at Ball State at the time. If you missed this piece of internet gold somehow in the past 3 or 4 years, prepare to cringe:

Smith’s reference is not the first adaptation of the line. It’s just the most recent and definitely the highest profile to date. Since Brian became internet-famous, the first adopters were the anchors on ESPN’s Sportscenter, where Scott Van Pelt uses the phrase all the time while giving highlights. It’s become so trivial that you can hear it on any given morning.

But sports can be a culture unto itself. Brian went viral online, and sports fans picked it up years ago (especially college students). It would be another step altogether before Boom hit the mainstream. Enter Family Guy:

Since Family Guy, it’s been on Veronica Mars:

After Veronica Mars it was on How I Met Your Mother (Season 4 Ep. 3 - “I Heart NJ”):

Finally, Stephen Colbert caught the fever last October during his “Sport Report” on The Colbert Report:

So now you know what everyone was laughing at. But what about poor Brian? Turns out he has the last laugh. After graduating from Ball State with a degree in Telecommunications, Brian Collins went on to become a reporter for KXXV in Waco, TX. Expect to see Brian and his catchphrase as he rises the ranks of the media, either giving basketball highlights or covering terrorist attacks.