T minus 20
The year is 2005... Anakin turns to the dark side, YouTube makes its debut and we’re all couch-jumping for Maria, McDreamy and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo… T minus 20, rewind to this week in history 20 years ago with Joe and Mel.
Episodes
Rewind to 29 Jan 2006 to 4 Feb 2006
🇺🇸 State of the Union goes full time capsule
George W. Bush lays out a world obsessed with terrorism, addicted to oil, anxious about immigration and still debating same-sex marriage as a “values” issue. Katrina barely gets airtime, healthcare is a shopping experience and the war on terror is framed as the defining mission. 2006 politics hits very differently in 2026.
🔥 Cartoon...
Rewind to 22 Jan 2006 to 28 Jan 2006
🎤 High school musical rewires your personality
Disney drops a made-for-TV movie and accidentally creates a global tween religion. Zac Efron becomes your entire emotional support system, Sharpay steals every scene and ‘We’re All In This Together’ is suddenly being belted at school assemblies by kids who previously refused to raise their hand in class.
🕵️ Fake rock, real spies
🧻 Wikitorial wipeout. The LA Times tried letting the public edit their editorials. What they got instead? Porn, profanity and chaos in 36 hours. A short-lived democracy, quickly replaced by Ctrl+Alt+Nope.
🦇 Batman begins again. Christopher Nolan ditches the bat-nipples and gives us trauma, ninjas and a Batmobile that could eat your SUV. Christian Bale growls, Katie Holmes dodges bats and superhero movies grow the hel...
🐶 Who’s a cloned boy? Snuppy the Afghan hound becomes the world’s first cloned dog, born after 1,000 embryos, 123 surrogates and more ethical debates than a philosophy major on Red Bull.
🎤 Mariah's not-so-comeback. The Emancipation of Mimi drops and Mariah Carey reminds us she never left — she just needed a minute, some stiletto cardio and 14 guest producers. We Belong Together = world domination.
🚋 Tram Boy’s j...
🧃 Belle Gibson enters Mel’s comments section
In one of the most unexpectedly cursed timeline moments of the year, Mel gets fact-checked by Belle Gibson — yes, that Belle Gibson — after she jumps into Mel’s Instagram comments to correct something she said. A wellness grifter policing accuracy is peak internet irony and a reminder that sometimes the comments section really is the wild west. No green juice was harmed but...
📹 A dating fail that created YouTube
Before it hosted cat videos, K-pop fancams and the entire cultural output of Gen Z, YouTube began as… a dating site. In 2005 its founders uploaded a “hot or not but for love” concept that failed spectacularly, pivoted to “upload anything you like” and accidentally built the biggest video platform on Earth. From grainy webcams to billion-dollar buyouts, we revisit the wild birth of ...
🌴 Summer mode, nostalgia maxed out
We’re hitting pause on the weekly time machine to bring you a sun-soaked sampler platter of the most unhinged, delightful and ‘I can’t believe that actually happened’ moments from this year’s T Minus 20 episodes. Grab a Frosty Fruit, slip-slop-slap and settle in — because this is the year in rewind, but make it chaotic, sparkly and aggressively early-2000s.
🎸 Ryan Cabrera and the rea...
Rewind to 11 December 2005 to 17 December 2005
🏖️ Cronulla hits boiling point
This week in 2005, Australia watches in shock as long-simmering tensions in Cronulla erupt into one of the country’s most confronting racial flashpoints. Years of beachside friction, talkback radio fury and mass-forwarded SMS hype collide on a scorching December Sunday as thousands gather at North Cronulla. What begins as a “community protest...
Rewind to 4 December 2005 to 10 December 2005
🧪 Two Aussies, one Nobel and a beaker of bacteria
On a snowy Stockholm night, Dr Robin Warren and Professor Barry Marshall rewrite medical history — and humiliate decades of gastro dogma — by winning the Nobel Prize for proving stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, not stress or spicy food. Marshall seals the legend by drinking Helicobacter pylori like it’s a schooner at t...
Rewind to 27 November 2005 to 3 December 2005
🧬 A new face, a new future
In France, surgeons pull off the world’s first partial face transplant on Isabelle Dinoire — a 15-hour medical marathon involving nerves, muscles, arteries and a whole lot of “please don’t sneeze right now” precision. The media goes full Face/Off panic, ethics boards light up like Christmas trees and suddenly everyone has a PhD in bioethics.
💼 To...
🇩🇪 Merkel makes history
Angela Merkel is sworn in as Germany’s first female chancellor and first from the former East. A grand coalition deal ends the election deadlock. Quiet power beats loud politics.
🎈 Candy meets physics
A giant M&M’s balloon whacks a light pole at the Macy’s Parade, injuring two spectators. NYC tightens wind rules and retires the balloon. Thanksgiving TV gets an unforgettable bloope...
🧬 The man who (maybe) cured HIV
Before ‘manifesting’ was a TikTok buzzword, Andrew Stimpson from London apparently manifested the impossible — curing himself of HIV. After testing positive in 2002, he shocked doctors three years later with a clean bill of health. No miracle drug, no experimental treatment — just vitamins, good vibes, and confusion. The world collectively said, “Wait, what?” while scientists scra...
Rewind to 6 November 2005 to 12 November 2005
🌠 Fireballs or flying saucers
Europe looks up, panics, phones the cops. Slow, glowing Taurids put on a show that screams UFO vibes then science says “comet crumbs, babes.”
✈️ Long-haul flex
Boeing’s 777-200LR Worldliner goes Hong Kong → London non-stop in 22h42m. Record set, jet lag sponsored by GE90 engines.
🩸 Outback nightmare fuel
Wolf Creek claws to #1 in...
🎧 Rewind to 30 October – 5 November 2005
🎃 The great pumpkin arms race
New England’s finest farmers flexed their green thumbs at the Topsfield Fair, where a 1,314-lb orange beast stole the show. People clapped. Kids squealed. Somewhere, a guy whispered “that’s a big-ass pumpkin.” Simpler times — when the heaviest thing online was a JPEG of your harvest.
🐎 Makybe Diva’s mic-drop moment
Flemington lost its mi...
Rewind to 23–30 October 2005 🎸
💀 The King still reigns
Elvis may have left the building, but he sure didn’t leave the bank. Forbes crowned him the top-earning dead celebrity — again — raking in a cool US$45 million thanks to Graceland tours, reissues and endless blue suede merch. Even in the afterlife, Elvis was out-grossing the living.
🚭 Britain stubs it out
Tony Blair’s government finally declared war on ...
Rewind to 16 October 2005 to 22 October 2005
🕋 Million Man March 2.0
Louis Farrakhan’s Millions More rally hits D.C., calling for unity and self-reliance after Katrina. His fire-and-brimstone speech slams Bush but sparks fresh controversy. Big turnout, smaller legacy — more sequel than revolution.
⚖️ Saddam takes the stand
Iraq puts Saddam Hussein on trial for crimes against humanity. He mocks the court, yell...
Rewind to 9 October 2005 to 15 October 2005
🚀 China goes full space cowboy
China’s Shenzhou 6 mission blasts off, sending two taikonauts into orbit for nearly five days — a major flex in the global space race. It’s their first two-man crew, the first time anyone’s used the orbital module as living space and a huge leap toward their future space station plans.
🎭 Harold Pinter gets the Nobel nod
Britain’s mas...
🧑⚖️ Supreme Court Soap
Harriet Miers is tapped to replace Sandra Day O’Connor and America collectively Googles “Who?” A loyal Bush insider with zero judicial experience tries to sell a “practicing lawyer’s perspective.” Conservatives grumble she’s not conservative enough, liberals cry cronyism and the vibes are awkward. A case study in how not to roll out a lifetime gig.
🌍 Quake Lines Snap
A 7.6 earthquake...
Rewind to 25 September to 1 October 2005 — when emo kids were discovering top hats, Fergie was making “lady lumps” a phrase and Bali gets hit by bombings again.
🪖 Abu Ghraib’s dark shadow
Lynndie England was found guilty in a military court for her role in the prisoner abuse scandal. The photos had already shocked the world, but her conviction cemented her as the face of the U.S. military’s biggest disgrace of th...
Rewind to 18–24 September 2005
🌪️ Rita raises hell
Just three weeks after Katrina, Hurricane Rita stormed in as a Category 5 beast before slamming Texas and Louisiana as a Category 3. The real nightmare? The evacuation. Millions jammed Houston’s highways for up to 24 hours, gas ran out, buses caught fire, and tragically more than 100 people died — most not from the storm itself, but from the chaos of trying to es...
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