Since 2016, The Bunt Worldwide has been delivering quality skate interview, analysis, and opinions via your favorite podcast platform. Each interview is concluded with a series of standardized rapid fire questions where guests are encouraged to get real and not hold back.
Then they do the Post Office part of the podcast.
Let’s get it.
DATA & METHODOLOGY
Number of Seasons (logged for this analysis): 19
Total Number of Guests: 223
Number of questions asked (currently): 26
Not every guest was asked every Rapid Fire question, some questions weren't added to the arsenal until later seasons, some guests refused to name names when asked, and some answers were incomprehensible gibberish and thus weren't tallied. When a guest gave more than one response to a question, all answers were logged.
If you want to really get lost in the who named who of The Bunt's Rapid Fire, get lost in 4PLY's fully interactive network data exploration by Harrison Lisewski. It's a trip.
Shout out to our boy Dumb Data who shared his initial dataset without hesitation.
RAPID FIRE w/ THE GHOST
FAVORITE SKATER
A straight up corral of GOATs on this list. Once the chips gets stacked, Mike Carroll is officially the most favorite skater of the most favorite skaters with 14 mentions. Shout out Gonz (13) and Ishod (11) as well.
FAVORITE VIDEO
Is your favorite video listed here?
The correct answer is "yes".
The Bunt's guests keep their screens lit with classics from Girl, Alien, the original Plan B, Baker, and Rocco's disfunctional family. Let's also tip the cap to Transworld, the only non-deck-or-shoe-affilated producer on this list.
FAVORITE VIDEO PART
Guy Mariano dominates the podcast when it comes to favorite video parts. Not only did his 1996 ender from Mouse get double the mentions of any other part, but he also got acknowledged for 2007's Fully Flared (4) and 1991's Video Days (1).
Also lighting it up for multiple parts were Arto Saari (Sorry: 6, Menikmati: 2, Mind Field: 1), Heath Kirchart (Sight Unseen: 6, Mind Field: 2), The Boss (The End: 4, Stay Gold: 3, Baker 3: 1), Gino Iannucci (Trilogy: 4, Yeah Right: 1, Snuff: 1), and Mike Carroll (Questionable: 2, Yeah Right: 1, Mouse: 1, Modus Operandi: 1) among others.
Let's also acknowledge that Dylan Rieder is the only person on the chart for a stand-alone part that wasn't part of a full length.
BEST STYLE
Let's all celebrate with a GIF of Gino pushing.
BIGGEST INFLUENCE
Everybody wants to be the Boss.
MOST TALENTED
For anybody to consider you to be the most talented skateboarder they've ever witnessed makes you a skate legend. For 37 people to consider you the most talented makes you Ishod.
FAVORITE TRICK
Just one mention placed the tre (27) above the kickflip (26). Back tail is the most popular ledge/rail trick (15), and a couple of airs (frontside, backside, and japan) got single votes. Bombing hills got mentioned twice.
HARDEST TRICK
By far, most Bunt guests considered the frontside varial kickflip, also called the Hardflip, as their hardest trick. With 29 occurances, consider the name appropriate.
It's kinda an ego boost to see the normal-stanced kickflip in the top 5.
MOST ILLEGAL TRICK
The only thing surprising about this list is that Benihanas didn't get the top spot.
WORST TREND PARTICIPATED IN
From corn rows to crypto, body varials to binge drinking, the answers to this inquiry are a virtual rogues gallery of true confessions. We thought it might be insightful to break it out into categories of regrets, and then subcategories until we get the to soul of the matter: pants.
GNARLIEST TRICK WITNESSED
This question was posed 51 times, and each answer is unqiue. But certain skaters did pop-up more than once. Not surprisingly, Jamie Foy's name came up the most often.
BIGGEST BUNT
Similar to the Gnariest Trick Witnessed question, the responses to Biggest Bunt (a trick claimed that never got even close to happening) are individual anecdotes, so they aren't lent easily to grouping and charting, even when stacked by skater.
The exceptions to this is the mentioning of some random homie we've never heard of, the ever so humble "myself" copout answer, and the biggest bunt of all time: Ryan Sheckler's El Toro backside flip.
LAST NEW TRICK
This Rapid Fire question, added to the repertoire in Season 15, netted 46 unique trick answers with no repeats at all.
Everybody answered with a specific skate trick except Jason Dill, whose last new trick was "acceptance".
DREAM JOB AFTER SKATEBOARDING
We grouped similar answers together to see just how big the pro skaters of today dare to dream. It is interesting to note that one pro was clear to answer "Not Team Manager".
Also, shout out to the skaters who are somehow livin their dream job after skating while still skating.
SPONSOR REGRET
Remember those Power Balance Bracelets that were supposed to magically enhance your strength and flexibility? Well, a couple of pro skaters wish you wouldn't remember.
Aside from that obvious snake oil, when Sponsor Regrets were grouped together by product category, the leader was Trucks (10).
FAVORITE TEAMMATE
Good vibes.
WORST TEAMMATE
Bad roommates. Bad odors. Bad attitudes. Bad teammates.
WORST COMPANY
Shots fired at recent monied skate shoe interlopers Cariuma, edgy-cartoon cat clothing company Rip N Dip, pro purgatory Element, grindable surface obstruction manufacturers Skate Stoppers, and vintage fuckwithable gimmick trucks Z-Rollers. A handful of folks took aim at the whole "energy drink" category of companies without getting specific.
When grouping similar companies, we see many guest express their disdain for deck and shoe brands. Some people took the opportunity to attack larger corporation that might or might not be involved in skateboarding at all (Walmart, Monsanto, United Airlines). A couple decided to answer the Worst Company question with general statements of bad things like fossil fuels, the IRS, and "opportunists".
WORST CURRENT TREND
For this chart, we again did some trend grouping to get the general zeitgeist of the past 8 years (the Bunt started in 2016). Most guests gave answers related ot Pants (46) or Tricks (33).
"Social Media" (21) includes answers like "Instagram" and "TikTok" or the general lamenting of skate footage going direct to social platforms.
We also noted that while 4 people said "Not Trying" as the worst trend, there was also 1 response of "Trying Hard". So, like skinny and baggy pants holding equal disdain in this survey, you can't win when it comes to following trends in skateboarding.
WORST STYLE
A Youtube triple flipper, a couple of olympians, a handful of obscure 90s pros, Andy Mac, Jim Greco, "Skinny Jeans", and the Birdman himself.
LAST PERSON YOU WANT ON THE SESSION
Beat it, ya kooks!
While serial entreprenuer Jamie Thomas, pirate troll Richie Jackson, bragadocious rapper J Casanova, Saw Con crybaby Berra, and allegation dodging party champion Nyjah Huston are all unwelcome, it should come as now surprise that the last person we want to see at the session is the fucking pigs.
The Bunt continues to deliver new seasons and episodes regularly, so this data is already out of date. That being said, the picture painted here of pants trends, hard tricks, sponsorship debacles, and Ishod's greatness will ring true for eternity.
Make sure to also check out the full Bunt network exploration and then argue with us on the 4PLY Instagram or hit us up and let us know what other numbers are in need of crushing.