It is a sad sad day...

Travis · February 11, 2003

'Dell Dude' Arrested on Drug Charge

1 hour, 36 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Dude, yer gettin' busted!

AP Photo

The actor who gained fame and a cult following as the slacker "Steven" in commercials for Dell computers was arrested buying (news - external web site) a small bag of marijuana, police said.

Benjamin Curtis, a 22-year-old New York University drama student, was arraigned Monday on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The charge assumes a suspect is not carrying more than a "use amount" — enough to roll several marijuana cigarettes.

Police said he was arrested Sunday night on the Lower East Side after officers on a drug detail spotted him buying a small bag of marijuana from Omar Mendez, 19. Mendez faces drug sale and possession charges.

Curtis' portrayal of a surfer type who proclaims, "Dude, yer gettin' a Dell!" drove up computer sales and spawned T-shirts, caps, and backpacks, along with Web sites and online fan clubs.

At the arraignment, Criminal Court Judge Ellen Coin advised Curtis that his case will be dismissed, and his record expunged, if he avoids arrest during the next year.

Asked if he understood, Curtis said, "Yes, ma'am."

Outside court, Curtis' lawyer, James Moschella, said: "We are confident that at the appropriate time, the charges will be dismissed."

EagleChick03 · February 11, 2003

Travis that is very sad news

UNTFan23 · February 11, 2003

Dude, he was my roll model...

CMJ · February 11, 2003

Comedy gold.

MeanGreenNation · February 11, 2003

I just read that myself!! There goes his career! But DUDE he shoudn't get off the hook just for going a week without arrest. It seems he's getting the celeberty treatment.

UNT96 · February 11, 2003

Dude, you're getting a misdemaeanor..but it will be erased in a year. In the meantime, toke away. What is the point?

keith · February 11, 2003

Judge to Benjamin Curtis: "Dude, yer gettin' a cell!"

Keith

IronMan4 · February 11, 2003

I hope his career is over, his commercials were very annoying.

His "cult" following was actually the gay community and the reason one of the recent commercials had him with a girlfriend to disspell the rumors. If you notice, Jared from Subway has had his wife in a few commercials lately because he had a large gay following as well.

EagleChick03 · February 11, 2003

IronMan...what?! Are you making that up?? Where do you hear this stuff...and we really don't want to upset the gay mean green faithful so careful what you say!

IronMan4 · February 11, 2003

I didn't say a single bad word about gay people or being gay, and it seems like I read those in articles from eonline or something like that. The headline about the Dell boy having a large gay following was definitely a must read. And no, the best comedy is the stuff you can't make up.

FirefightnRick · February 11, 2003

This makes sense now because the new commercials have not had him in them for a while and I wondered why?

Rick

Eagle9297 · February 11, 2003

I am not sure you would cancel an ad campaign because it had a gay following. (they were annoying though).

Still I don't see the big deal.

Cerebus · February 11, 2003

The ads where fazed out, starting about 6 months ago, because 1) People thought they where annoying and 2) tech people hated the dell guy... hated. With a passion.

<_>

CaraBear · February 11, 2003

I also read somewhere that the Dell guy had a gay following. He was annoying anyway. They were smart to take him out of the commercials.

JayDub · February 11, 2003

Ummm.....does it matter if he had a gay following or not? He was phased out because he wore out his usefulness....pure and simple.

CaraBear · February 11, 2003

Ummm.....does it matter if he had a gay following or not? He was phased out because he wore out his usefulness....pure and simple.

Well since this is a DISCUSSION, I was just mentioning what I heard about this topic. Thats what most people do when they talk about something, they can bring up anything related to the topic. You obviously think it doesnt matter, but if every thread of this board had to MATTER to everyone, then alot more threads would be getting locked. Since we are all grown ups, I dont see the harm in participating in a discussion and offering my opinion and what I have heard about the topic. So Ummmm......

Cerebus · February 11, 2003

Speaking of locked....

<_>

Urge to lock...RISING

SilverEagle · February 11, 2003

I just thought that it was interesting that Dell's sales really picked up after they started their compaign with this guy. To a certain segment of the general public he's always been annoying. And yet Dell's sales went up when they featured him. I suppose that the sales leveled off and that's why they took him out of the commercials, and not for any other reason.

Personally, anyone that punctuates their sentences with "Dude", "Yo" or "like" are (like) extremely annoying to me.

DeepGreen · February 11, 2003

Dude! Dudes! and Dudettes! There is no telling how many computers Dell sold because of that ad campaign. Time to dream up another one. That's what they make ad agencies for.

EagleChick03 · February 12, 2003

DeepGreen, Well now they have the "Dell Interns." Apparently people are responding better to those ads but I liked the Dude ones better.......

UNTFan23 · February 12, 2003

"Dude, what's mine say?"

"Dude. What's mine say?"

"Sweet. What's mine say?"

...

I could go on, but what's the point?

CMJ · February 12, 2003

People may be responding better right now, but soon they won't. Usually new marketing campaigns work at first - then they get tired and old. Hell the "Dell Dude" campaign worked at first too.

Saying all the the Dell Interns suck.