Blast from the past: it’s finally revealed that TDR will get its own shirt!
It’s John Iadarola’s 11th anniversary at TYT! And yes, on Old School they repeatedly brought up the fact that it’s weird to celebrate an 11th anniversary (but John claims it wasn’t his idea! Which I believe but it still made for good fun.)
One silly anecdote I’m actually a little proud of related to John is that I was the one who broke the news to John that there would finally be TDR gear! Well, sort of at least.
When John got his own show, The Damage Report, I was very excited and even signed up for YouTube TV to watch it back when that was the only way to catch it. TDR was (and is) the perfect platform for John to do what he does best — present and analyze the news, with passion, good humor, and just a hint of snark (okay, sometimes a lot of snark, but never too much).
It’s hard to believe, especially considering how many shirts and other merch there are for The Damage Report and Dragon Squad now, but for well over a year there was nothing for TDR and John Iadarola fans to purchase to show their support of the show.
The fact that the immensely popular Damage Report needed to have an official T-shirt had become a frequent refrain from members of the audience, and John half-jokingly, half-seriously complaining on air about there not being a shirt yet despite TDR’s popularity had become an on-going theme.
But that all changed one day, when Shop TYT replied to me on Twitter, confirming that they were working on a shirt for TDR:
John read my reply to their reply to my tweet on air, and he was unaware that there had been any public confirmation about the fact that ShopTYT was in fact in the process of making Damage Report merch. Brett Erlich, who was on that day, also didn’t know about it and asked where the information was coming from.
After searching high and low, because I apparently have nothing better to do, I was finally able to find the show — from Sept. 25, 2020. Here’s a clip of John earlier in the show complaining about there still not being TDR shirts, and then that historic moment where John and Brett discuss my revelation that ShopTYT had confirmed that there would in fact finally be Damage Report merch.
With dozens of shirts of all kinds for TDR and Dragon Squad now, it’s hard to believe it took a while to get the first one. Now fans of TDR and John have plenty to choose from — and as I mentioned, another one dropped earlier this week. (Here it is! There’s also a sweatshirt version of it). My favorite Dragon Squad shirt is the rainbow dragon shirt, which I proudly own, although I do like the recent “grump dragon” shirts as well (not sure how my wife would think about me getting a 5th TYT-related shirt though!)
It’s hard to imagine The Young Turks without John, definitely TDR but also the main show. John deserves all the love and praise he’s been getting for his 11th anniversary, whether an 11th anniversary is a thing or not. What will TDR and this world be like at John’s 15 year mark? 20 years? Even 50 years at TYT?! (OK, maybe that’s too long — I bet John is hoping he’ll be in retirement long before then, lol.) I’m excited to find out!
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