Anchorhead said:
The prequels are prominent in pop culture specifically for being so poorly done.
Well, yeah, but in defense of Easterhay's point, there is no such thing as bad publicity. The Rocky Horror Picture Show was culturally relevant for a very long time for being awful, but the awfulness doesn't equate to cultural irrelevance. Showgirls eventually tried to embrace the same tactic, with less success.
I think the prequels are more akin to Showgirls than the Rocky Horror Picture Show in this analogy. Instead of David Schmader's color commentary, we've got Backstroke of the West, same thing essentially. But like Showgirls, I think the prequels are ultimately too boring to survive long in the cultural imagination.