Bang Bus

THE REALITY RUNNING BEHIND BANG BROS NETWORK

For every generation of porn fan, there are those movies and performers that define their era. In the ’70s, it was Kay Parker, Marilyn Chambers and Debbie Does Dallas. For the ’80s, its John Holmes, Vanessa Del Rio and Traci I Love You, while Jenna Jameson, Asia Carrera and Janine shaped the ’90s. For those who came of age during the explosion of the internet in the 00s, there is one site that stands above all others: BangBrosNetwork. And the site built it’s storied history and legendary content involving, of all things, a van.

The story of BangBus is interesting. While it isn’t the first porn site by any means, there is a clear line dividing internet porn before BangBus and internet porn after it. Looking at it now, it doesn’t look particularly original or groundbreaking, but that’s because almost every element of their scenes have been copied and imitated by many sites to this day. It is THE reality porn site, the standard by which we compare all others, whether we realize it or not.

Launched in the fall of 2001, BangBus follows the adventures of three guys in their 20s (a cameraman, a driver and a friend) driving around the city of Miami in a van looking to entice a woman or two inside to discuss a documentary film they’re making about the area.  Once a woman enters the van, they interview and flirt with her before offering her cash to remove an article of clothing. One thing leads to another and the friend ends up having sex with the woman as the van drives through the city, citizens on the sidewalk blissfully unaware due to the tinted windows that there’s hardcore sucking and fucking mere feet from where they stand. After the big finish, the scenes end with the guys coaxing the woman out of the van and then driving off without her.

There are many keys to the site’s overwhelming success, but the most pivotal was the feeling of reality. It felt real.  The crew hit upon a formula that compelled porn fans at the time to wonder about its legitimacy. Are these people actually fucking random strangers they meet? Interestingly enough, a similar question now gets asked about BackroomCastingCouch, the popular and influential casting site that has taken some of its cues from BangBus.

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The internet was still new in 2001-2002 and there were many more households that didn’t have access than did.  As such, the site became a rumor of sorts, a story passed between friends about this site that has videos of guys picking up random women off the street and fucking them. Peer-2-Peer file sharing was also in its infancy and many people who came across scenes out of context from the site felt they were watching some stolen videotape of a bunch of horny frat guys getting into some XXX fun.

The scenes employed the gonzo technique popularized by SeymoreButts in the ’90s with his line of films. This means long, uninterrupted shots with a sometimes-shaky video camera with almost no cuts. Practically everything, from casual chit-chat to angry reactions from female passengers to the friend’s initial inability to get an erection,  was left in as scenes would typically last 40 minutes to an hour each. Early scenes would also show sometimes as much as 10 to 15 minutes of several failed attempts to get women in the van to really drive home the presentation that they’re trying hard to find some pussy.

Another element to its success was the camaraderie between the guys. Dudes driving around, making fun of each other and trying to get laid is a scenario most men from the ages of 16 and over can relate to and Bang Bus capitalized on this.  They would occasionally look into the camera when a woman would take off her top, or during the sex itself, as if to say “can you fucking believe this?” or  “this is fucking AWESOME.” They had in-jokes amongst themselves that viewers would cue in on after seeing several scenes. The viewer becomes a part of the group and over time learn the names and quirks of many of the BangBus riders, such as Ugly the driver or Dirty Sanchez, the smart-ass with all of the questions and the open-finger handshake. There was also Preston, the sly talker with the preppy voice who would drive or film, and Ramon, the laid back Latino with the super long cock.

RabbitsReviews - Sanchez Handshake
The Sanchez Handshake

The overwhelming popularity of the site and questions of its legality brought with it media attention. And though it was “confirmed” in 2004 by news reports that, like professional wrestling, everything you were seeing was staged and not as real as it’s presented, it didn’t slow down the Bus one bit. By that point,  it didn’t matter. Pornography is fantasy. It felt real and for fappers that’s all that mattered.

From there, the empire expanded. Many of their next Bang Bros sites focused on curvaceous women, such as BoobSquad, AssParade, BigTitsRoundAsses and MomsAnalAdventure. They scheduled their updates for each site on specific days of the week, so there was always a new trailer to view Monday through Friday. To house all of these sites under one roof, the Bang Bros Network was created.

The themes of the sites typically focus on a broad, singular niche, be it Latinas, MILFs or handjobs, and feature performers who typify or excel in that niche. It’s a simple formula that has worked very well. Many of the performers who would become some of the bigger names of the past two decades, including Maria Moore, Daphne Rosen, Kiki O’Daire, Laura Lion, Saskia, Monique Fuentes, Avy Scott, and bonafide legends such as Samantha 38G received some of their biggest exposure at the time appearing on their sites. And while many of these sites, including BigMouthfuls and TugJobs, established their own distinct fan base and helped strengthen the Bang Bros Network as a whole, none of them approach the influence or cultural cache of Bang Bus.

One only needs to look around the internet porn landscape to see Bang Bus and the Bang Bros Network imprint everywhere. By blurring the line between reality and fantasy, they created a feeling of plausibility that hooked millions of fans and countless imitators. Cars, taxis, actual buses… you pick the mode of transportation and there has probably been a site dedicated to fucking women inside it. CaptainStabbin, from the RealityKings network, would fuck his latest female conquest on his boat and then throw them into the ocean along with a lifesaver. The network that would become known as RealityKings launched not long after BangBus with their own cast of idiosyncratic porn characters including the aforementioned Captain Stabbin and the immortal MILFHunter and helped turn Miami into the porn capital of the east coast. But that’s another story for another time.

What recollections do you have about those early Bang Bus years? What do you think of the Bang Bros network now? Share your thoughts below or visit our reviews and leave a comment.

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Originally posted on November 19th, 2014