Wiseau had rented theaters and billboards around LA because he not only misunderstood filmmaking, he misunderstood distribution as well. I know the billboard at least was there for years. Eventually it gained momentum from that and got the DVD release and such.

The majority of this list seems to fall under "this was on cable a lot in the late '90s and early 2000s."

The venn diagram of people who had only seen the Bill Nye episode of Nightly Show and people that commented on that Reddit thread was a circle.

I cannot believe nobody has mentioned the Pippi Longstocking episode yet. Everything with the horse and the kids thinking they're accessories to murder is great stuff.