Founded to inject some humor into the sometimes deadly-serious world of porn, Popporn is “part news, part comedy, and part just plain old pictures of people getting banged,” said Brian Bangs, the adult site’s Editor-in-Command. YNOT.com sat down with Bangs recently to ask him more about his project and the value of humor in adult entertainment.
YNOT: What was the inspiration for the site?
Brian Bangs: We wanted to try and bridge the gap between mainstream entertainment and porn.
We always felt that there wasn’t really a great site out there where porn could be presented as something fun and lighthearted that could be appreciated by people outside the actual industry. We wanted something that you could enjoy reading even if you weren’t knee-deep in the actual porn industry.
YNOT: What kind of content do you offer?
Brian Bangs: The lion’s share of our content is written essays and news pieces by the Popporn staff, along with the occasional high-profile guest columnists. Bobbi Starr, Faye Reagan and Stoya have all been Popporn contributors over the years and we’ve just begun featuring regular content from Kleio Valentine.
We’ve also got quite the vault of video webisodes, dating back from our humble beginnings in 2008 up to the present. Pornstar interviews, topless porn reviews, original comedy pieces and a lot of stuff like that.
YNOT: What have been your most striking stories to date?
Brian Bangs: In my humble opinion – and remember, this is just MY opinion – our absolute best piece was a 2010 video starring Belladonna and Aiden Riley. Our host, Spock Buckton arrived at their hotel room to conduct a simple interview and things got pretty out of hand pretty quickly.
I don’t want to say too much about it, but it’s definitely worth a watch. [watch it here]
YNOT: Is there a need to add humor to porn coverage?
Brian Bangs: Oh my god, yes! So many people in this business take themselves and the business so freaking seriously that it’s difficult to deal with.
Naturally, people work hard and they put their blood, sweat and other bodily fluids into a business that’s so often unjustifiably vilified, so it’s natural to be stone-cold serious about it. But really, fuck all that. Popporn’s role is to entertain more than anything else.
There are of plenty sites where you can masturbate to porn. There are plenty of sites where you can read serious porn coverage. We’d prefer that people had fun reading our site. Or were viciously offended. Or maybe both.
Not that you shouldn’t be masturbating to Popporn. No one’s saying that.
YNOT: What are your future plans?
Brian Bangs: Keep making bad jokes and keep trying to come up with good jokes, I guess.
Specifically, we’re getting ready to re-invigorate our once-booming video content. Our leading man, Spock Buckton, has recently returned from years abroad and has been busy shooting new content for the site.
We’ve also been toying with the idea of purchasing one of the big adult retailers. Why not?
YNOT: What kind of response has the site had over the years?
Brian Bangs: Overall, we’ve had a pretty great response. There’s definitely been a handful of people who either take themselves too seriously or can’t take a joke or are just legitimately offended by the admittedly poor-taste jokes.
But that’s been the exception, not the rule. It’s been a pretty positive response from the get-go.
Because you have to laugh. Or else you might as well just die, right?
