For ‘sadistic’ viewers mostly
“WIPEOUT.” One far-out challenge after another.
Many game shows on TV make it easy for contestants to win prizes in cash or kind, but a sadistic few pride themselves on their fiendish ability to put their “victims” through the wringer before they can win anything!
Some of these shows started telecasting in Japan, where they love to humiliate foreign contestants by subjecting them to one ludicrous challenge after another.
In fact, the specialized format has become so popular that it’s engendered an American version of its own, succinctly titled, “I Survived a Japanese Game Show”!
Other examples of “get the contestants” shows include “Killer Karaoke,” in which contestants are forced to continue singing even as all sorts of indignities and cruelties are heaped upon them, and “Wipeout,” which as its title suggests, aims to do nothing less than obliterate its whining but willing victims!
As if these sadistic game shows weren’t punishment enough, we were recently able to catch a new program, “101 Ways to Leave a Game Show,” telecast Wednesdays on the AXN Channel, that seeks to have the last word on the subject:
Contestants are sequentially quizzed on the correct answers to provocative questions, and the losers are bumped off in a number of “interesting” ways. By “interesting,” the production means unusual, stressful, scarifying, discombobulating and horrendous— take your pick!
Contender
For instance, one losing contender was zapped to kingdom- come by being rocketed off into the firmament, while others were dropped from high places, dunked in a huge pool, etc.
Why do they agree to be treated so shabbily? Because they want to win the $50,000 top prize! Is it worth all the attendant stress and humiliation? —People desperately strapped for cash certainly think so!
Truth to tell, however, “Killer Karaoke” still hits the spot and tops them all when it comes to the “creativity” of its tests and punishments. Imagine trying to sing while trying to crawl through a cactus patch, or a pool filled with water snakes? What about hitting that high note while fending off a swarm of scorpions?
The most painful challenge we’ve seen on the sadistic show subjected a hapless male singer to a “depilatory technician” who was fully bent on forcing him to part with all of his body hair! —Ouch!
It looks like “101 Ways to Leave a Game Show” will have to reach into a bigger and deeper bag of tricks and torments to top that !
(PS: “Killer Karaoke” is making a comeback to local screens on TV5.)
