Brian Collins with 'Boom Goes The Dynamite' text overlay

Boom Goes The Dynamite

2005catchphraseclassic

Published August 16, 2026

Boom Goes The Dynamite is a catchphrase from a 2005 college sportscast where Ball State University freshman Brian Collins lost his place in the teleprompter and improvised the line during a Pacers vs. Nets highlight. The clip hit eBaumsworld weeks later and became one of the earliest viral news bloopers of the YouTube era.

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Overview

Boom Goes The Dynamite is a catchphrase pulled from a widely shared clip of an amateur student sportscaster fumbling through his first on-air segment 1. In the video, Ball State University freshman Brian Collins struggles to keep pace with a fast-scrolling teleprompter, then caps a Pacers vs. Nets highlight package with the flat, off-tempo line "and boom goes the dynamite" 2.

The appeal is the delivery. Collins reads with the stiff, deer-in-headlights cadence of someone who has completely lost the script, and the phrase itself arrives out of nowhere as a kind of verbal shrug 3. The clip became shorthand for either a dramatic payoff or, more often, a slow-motion trainwreck that ends anyway 4.

Origin & Background

Platform
College TV broadcast (NewsWatch) / eBaumsworld (viral spread)
Creator
Brian Collins
Date
2005

On March 22, 2005, Brian Collins, a freshman journalism student at Ball State University, filled in as sportscaster for the student-run NewsWatch broadcast when the regular anchor called in sick 3. Only minutes into his debut, the teleprompter began scrolling faster than he could read, and during a play-by-play of an Indiana Pacers vs. New Jersey Nets highlight package, Collins improvised "boom goes the dynamite" to close a segment he had visibly lost track of 2.

How It Spread

In early April 2005, a copy of the clip surfaced on eBaumsworld, reportedly uploaded by someone at the NewsWatch station 3. It spread from there to ESPN SportsCenter, Best Week Ever, and eventually a Family Guy gag that reused the line as a punchline during a Brian and Cleveland scene 4. Collins appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Early Show to talk about the segment 1.

That same April, Bonnie Graney, a sportswear seller from San Diego, filed a trademark application for the phrase with plans to print t-shirts 7. She emailed Collins in May 2005 offering a business partnership but never got a reply, and the trademark application was later abandoned 4. Comedy Central's Tosh.0 later gave Collins a "Web Redemption" segment revisiting the broadcast 6.

Collins graduated from Ball State in May 2008 with a telecommunications degree and, after a brief PetSmart job, was hired as a crime and metro reporter at KXXV, the ABC affiliate in Waco, Texas 1. He was let go around mid-2009 during budget cuts, wrote freelance for outlets including Examiner.com in early 2010, then took a web producer job in Cincinnati before joining KSAX in Alexandria, Minnesota 5.

How to Use This Meme

The phrase is typically dropped as a punchline after something dramatic, satisfying, or over-the-top happens, delivered flat and slightly off-key in imitation of Collins's original monotone read 8. Common usage includes sports moments, big tips at a restaurant, and any sudden payoff, and the line is often paired with a still of Collins mid-broadcast for reaction-image effect 4.

Frequently Asked Questions