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I’m honestly surprised that so many Dopers are /b/tards too.
I won’t dispute its popularity (it had to have been at least somewhat popular, to make to US networks) or the appeal (that being a matter of opinion). I was just asking about the budget.
I’ll hazard a guess that most Doper/b/tards are somewhat like me - I go there looking for humorous images to add to my slideshow screen-saver. I avoid the gore threads and racist shit, and only post once in a great while - usually when I’m drunk. I leave the REAL /b/tardation to the 12-year-olds.
Turnover on /b is so fast - by the time you start a thread, it’s almost off the first page already - that, despite the high volume of completely worthless posts, there’s always something new.
Joe
It’s a Metal Gear Solid reference. See here.
That’s where I remember it from, meaning the failure to do the action could not be any worse, and the worst possible scenario was about to result. Sort of like trying to chop at a critter with your axe, and taking off your leg instead, with bleeding to death being the result, and the creature eats your party members? (So, a failure of epic proportions.)
I don’t remember that ever being called an “epic fail,” though; it was just a “critical failure.” Of course, my D&D days were many years ago.
RR
As were mine. 
Late eighties/early ninties being my fondest remembered. I can recall gamer friends using the term “epic fail” or “Now that’s a failure of Epic Proportions!” and “No one Fails like < name > does!” to tease a person who’d just rolled a critical fail. It wasn’t in the books, it was a gamer slang term.
Epic fail.
