Hilarious Gameshow Clips
2:17 is a good answer. 3:56 is plain moronic. The dude is such a dick at 6:36. 8:05 is great. 11:00 is worthwhile as well.
Fake Reality TV That Tries To Be Real
Fake reality TV like The Kardashians, The Hills, Jersey Shore, or The Bachelor are the epitome of “reality” TV. Essentially the episodes get scripted by creative writers and the actors act out the scenes. 2013 has come a long way since TV that was closer to reality like Real World (1992) & Survivor (2000),The Osbornes (2002) were pioneering reality TV. Those shows felt like there was minimal persuasion from directors. Today the audience has bought into the idea that reality is better (which I agree with) but it’s gotten so out of hand that reality has now transferred back to scripted television. I don’t really have a problem with it as long as everyone realizes that what they are watching isn’t reality. Here are a few examples of shows that actually try to act like it’s real life compared to shows on E! and the networks.
Hardcore Pawn
There is really no need to watch the clip but essentially the microphone pack comes out of the guest and it makes sense that a reality TV show wouldn’t mic guests walking into the store. What I really like about the video (you still don’t have to watch it) is that the person who made it keeps saying how much he enjoys it. For me once the effect of a show being produced and created is dawned on me, I stop liking it. After watching about 3 Hardcore Pawns you come to this realization but it just makes you wonder what the hell is the point of the bartering? I think coming up with ideas and crazy people acting would get difficult.
World’s Worst Tenants
I actually find this show pretty funny. The tenants go nuts and are pretty good actors. The end credits say the show is inspired by real events with names/places changed. They are all actors. It is not real. The last few episodes I saw were hilarious though. One dude drove an RV through a gate, another pointed a gun at the bros, and people were having sex on the balcony which were actually dolls! It’s on FX which probably gets overlooked often.
Storage Wars
I was pretty big on Storage Wars and it’s STILL the main source of traffic for my site. I wrote articles on why I thought it was fake back in 2011 and it still continues today. This entry still gets major traffic. I completely stopped watching it around this time. Dave Hester even came out saying it was fake and I was browsing an episode recently and it seems like he’s off the show. Why on Earth would people continue watching it if they know it’s fake? The items are planted, the bidding is staged, and the whole premise is pointless…
I guess at this point I’m not bringing anything groundbreaking to the scene because it’s fairly obviously. I dug up this quote from an actor on some show I don’t watch. The situations are “all false,” Hart says, yet, “the real reality comes from us playing ourselves. We’re making fun of ourselves.” But ultimately a semi-scripted, semi-improvised show like Real Husbands is not that much different from celebrity-driven reality shows that feature stars reacting to manufactured situations.” I think that is a pretty good description of what is happening. I wonder how many people understand that though. Once cops goes fake, we know we are in trouble. Let’s all admit Pawn Stars has jumped the sharked as well.
TV Interaction = Loose Butthole
I’ve grown to be a pretty big fan of Workaholics. Netflix only has the first season so I’ve been re-watching all of those episodes. The first season isn’t bad but the show has improved since then with Adam, Blake, and Ders really coming into their own. So I used a line, loose butthole in the title, which appears way more often in the beginning compared to now. For the uninformed, you don’t want a loose butthole, you want a tight butthole. So anything can be called loose or tight butthole. If you are wearing a stupid hat, the hat is loose butthole. Watch the clip above for a better understanding. This post will have a real point, that I haven’t made yet, but I just needed to clarify the title which won’t really come into play throughout this post. To lay it out plain and simple, interactive TV is loose butthole.
Howard Stern was interviewing Mark Cuban and the Cubes made a comment that years ago people watched TV with a beer in a recliner. Nowadays, people are up against the screen with their computers out and tweeting anytime something happens. He referred to this as interactive television using social media. He also made a point how the success of Shark Tank was aided by him “tweeting” during one of the episodes and that helped create a bigger following. That in mind, it’s easy to see why Cuban believes interactive TV is the future of television and I’d agree Mark Cuban is generally ahead of the curve. I don’t disagree with this, I just don’t like it.
On Sunday I was watching the Walking Dead and decided to open up a laptop and follow along with their “story sync”. If I hadn’t of done this, this post would never have been made because I would have no real experience with this type of television. Since I did, I can comment on how it’s more of a distraction than entertainment. I found myself watching the laptop with their stupid polls and screenshots than the show itself. I was more concerned with how many “walkers” Darrell was killing or whether Carol or Axel were an item (that never came to fruition when a bullet hit Axel in the head), than actually watching the show. They also have a comment section with hundreds if not thousands of people posting throughout the show. This was also created commotion because it’s constantly updating and paying attention to the comments leaves you missing the episode. I will add though that some people are hilarious with their comments towards characters and story lines. Andrea is an asshole was a good one.
This is why Workaholics is tight butthole. I can just sit there and watch the show. No interaction, just sit and laugh. I don’t have to worry about story lines, tweeting, updates, or anything that requires me to do something. I hope the future of our television doesn’t continue to move towards interaction like Cuban suggests because now that I’m getting old, I don’t want to interact. Once you get old you don’t want to adapt to what the newfangled kids are doing. Revolt against change! Just kidding, but I still hope interactive TV dies a slow death along with social media.
Happy 56th Vanna!
Brookes made me aware of this clip of Vanna White on the Price is Right in 1980. What a beauty at 23. Perfect sun blonde hair, beautiful tan complexion, killer body, it’s no wonder she moved on to better and bigger things. The Get Serious shirt is also fitting. Bob Barker also makes a comment towards the end about her checking herself too often on the monitor. He looks way different 30 years ago as well. I actually watched all 7 minutes of this clip just because and the bidding is absolutely atrocious round after round. She’s one of the worst if you can believe that! Nobody ever bids 1 dollar and they don’t even consider the range of numbers they are getting. Aside from that I’d say she’s suited to turn over letters on Wheel of Fortune. She is noted in the Guinness Book Of World Records as Televisions Most Frequent Clapper. She’s not sky high in my list of hotties but she certainly made a name for herself and has been relevant in the industry for decades.
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- Vanna White Milk Mustache
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- Vanna in Bikini and Truckers Hat
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- See Through Vanna
Her premiere on Wheel of Fortune
Breaking Tubes Off a Trampoline – World Record Attempt
Start by watching the video and then you can understand where this criticism comes from. I have multiple questions. How is this being authorized by the Guinness Book of World Records as a world record? How is this woman the competitor? How does she shatter (pun) the record by 5 tubes? How does the organization allow this to be shown on television without realizing that it makes a complete mockery of their world records?
I remember being in elementary school and being fascinated by the Guinness Book of World Records. Tallest and shortest, skinniest and fattest, slowest and fastest were all substantiated records. Even whacky things like longest fingernails, most tattooed woman, and biggest bagel at least have an understandable target. The above clip is stupid. The record makes absolutely no sense. Who is jumping off trampolines and breaking bulbs? How about highest jump off a trampoline for the record? WHY ON EARTH IS THIS WOMAN THE COMPETITOR? Who was the non-athletic loser before her who set the record at 15? You’d really think that Guinness would be asking themselves these questions before they let this air.
Unless I’m missing their goal which may be to make more common people think they can break their records, I would think this would dumb down the brand Guinness and it makes me think like any twerp can set a record. I believe it’s important to maintain a high degree of integrity when you are establishing so called “world records”. This does not hold true for the breaking tubes off of a trampoline. Can anyone else tell me how lousy that jump was? Classic scream at the end.
Top 10 Best TV Shows. Ever.
10. Game of Thrones – I can’t think of one TV series that made me read 5 books that span about 5,000 pages because I wanted to. After watching the first season I remember feeling so intrigued that I went to the HBO website and began learning about all the characters and what families they belonged to because I was so fascinated with who was who and why they were treating each other why they were. Some of the plots are far better than others but the feeling that no one is safe always leaves great suspense. Peter Dinklage as Tyrion is a personal favorite. Jamie and Tywin also are up there. Even though HBO is only about to start season 3, this series will continue to shine because the story is that compelling. Reading the novels ahead of time in no way ruins the series.
9. Twin Peaks – An odd choice considering it only aired for 2 years and began in 1990 but there was something strangely appealing about the mystery behind Laura Palmer. Cooper was my favorite character but Ben Horne was equally great. I developed a nice crush on Audrey throughout. The music was absolutely fantastic. I’ll agree with most that the first season was better than the 2nd because some of the story lines in the 2nd were just sort of wacky. James with the woman and Cooper with Annie were kind of dumb so I think it ended before it really started to go downhill. Nevertheless, this was a very smart show.
8. Curb Your Enthusiasm – This show could go places where Seinfeld couldn’t. It was on HBO so no topic was off limits. Larry could be more animated and the profanity laced tirades were always welcomed. I believe this could be described as situational comedy with many sub plots joining together at the conclusion. Aside from Larry, I’m not a huge fan of any of the characters (Leon! Funk!), but it didn’t really matter, Larry made the show. An adult version of Seinfeld.
7. Seinfeld – I don’t need to waste my time with a write up about Seinfeld. Any show that started in 1989, was syndicated, and is still being shown in 2012 has already gone down in history. It always amazed me at how hot the girls were that Jerry pulled in the show. I’ll also say that I never really got Kramer. When Elaine describes him as “…a tall, lanky dufus with a bird face and hair like the bride of Frankenstein” that sort of sums him up in my mind. I also thought that later seasons weren’t as good as the story lines started getting a bit wilder and lost touch with reality.
6. Family Guy – I know people who don’t like Family Guy. I understand why they don’t like it and it’s because it’s so far over their head. They don’t get the jokes because the jokes are far too intelligent for them to pick up on. Most people think Family Guy and immediately think of dumb humor. It’s not. I know some parts of unbelievably stupid and maybe aren’t that funny but I can’t think of a show that I laugh harder at on a consistent basis. It’s not Seinfeld funny. It’s an off beat, let yourself laugh, take in the humor kind of show. Forget plot and story. You watch to catch the inside jokes and their hilarious references to things you probably have never heard of but if you do, you know they’re funny. Brian and Stewie sub-plots are the elite characters on the show with Peter a close second. Everyone else is secondary (besides Quagmire).
5. Dexter – I think this is one that may be a bit too high for this list. Mainly because I don’t think the show is as good as it has been in the past. I think it peaked with the Trinity Killer which was season 4. Season 1 & 2 with the Ice Truck Killer and the Bay Harbor Butcher were seasons that were so original that it just made Dexter an instant hit. The 3rd season with the Skinner (they just pulled him out of a hat) wasn’t all that great but then season 4 with the Trinity Killer topped the chart. RITA!!! Lumen and Jordan Chase were pretty crappy and then season 6 with Travis Marshall was decent but still lacking that punch. This season with La Guerta tracking Dexter and the odd love interest of Hannah Mckay is not bad but not as good as this show has been. Plus reality has been thrown out the window (why the hell did Estrada jump in the water and not call out to the police!). I think the strength of this show was found in the beginning seasons and then Dexter started getting to get, for lack of a better word, redundant.
4. Arrested Development – If you weren’t aware, Arrested Development will be coming out with 12-15 more episodes available through Netflix. An absolute brilliant move by Netflix to get diehard fans of the show to subscribe. Seriously brilliant. The reason this show takes the cake in terms of comedy is because it combines the story of Seinfeld and the humor of Family Guy. It’s just a wonderful combination of unconventional humor and hilarious story lines. Buster is my favorite character which I’ve noted before but Gob, Tobias, and even Lucille crack me up. This show even got me to start liking Jason Bateman which is saying a lot. Plus after watching it once through you can pick up any episode and feel like you know what’s going on. At 22 minutes long, it’s the perfect show to just watch in a jiffy.
3. The Sopranos – I feel like this show just gets nominated as a great show and that’s that. I just watched all the seasons (100+ episodes) in the last year and it really lived up to expectations in my mind. The Pauly and Christopher episode where they are in the freezing cold chasing after a Russian mob member was my absolute favorite. I couldn’t stop laughing when they were eating mustard packets. Anyway, the reason this show if so good is because it feels real. It’s like getting an up close look at how the mob operates. I’ll be honest though, I didn’t really like many of the characters outside of the members of Tony’s gang. Meadow, Aj, and Carmela were serious buzz kills every episode. Even with their boring story lines, this show lives up to the hype.
2. Breaking Bad – Walter White is terrific. His supporting cast is outstanding. Hank, Jesse, Mike and Saul are the best supporting cast ever assembled. Skyler is a huge bitch… Gus was such an intelligent bad guy that you almost had to like him. Walter’s development was also exhilarating to watch from season 1 to season 5. He went from learning how to sell drugs to becoming the kingpin. This series was intense throughout and every episode was worth watching. Rarely a feeling that the show was coming together slowly. AMC is starting to shine with their productions. See Walking Dead below.
1. The Wire – I watched all 5 seasons in a row about 5 years ago. I honestly haven’t seen an episode since and nothing ever strikes me as being as good as I remember this show. This show felt like real life. You actually felt like you were getting a look at the streets of Baltimore and how the cops tried to catch drug dealers. McNulty, Bunk, Herc, Daniels…. Omar, Stringer, Avon, Bodie, Marlow, Snoop, Chris…. and that’s only touching the tip of the characters. From the streets, to the docks, the campaign, the school and the newspaper and everything in between, this show had it all. I remember that I started ordering Jameson at bars just to be like McNulty. Just awesome.
Honorable Mention:
Freak and Geeks – Tons of stars (Seth Rogen, Jason Segal, James Franco, Busy Philipps, Martin Starr, Linda Cardellini) as young adults. This was just a beautifully scripted show with great story lines that appealed to high school life.
Californication – A personal favorite with David Duchovny as Hank Moody. Runkle is unrivaled as a sidekick. A fun show with great fun involving a dysfunctional family, drugs, sex, partying, and writing novels.
6 Feet Under – I still have 20 episodes to finish but a show that brings death to the surface.
Entourage – Who says this isn’t a good show? It doesn’t have depth of course but that’s not why you watch it. It’s just interesting to get a view into a life that will never be yours.
Walking Dead – Just watching it as I type and I find this show pretty addicting. It’s hard to say it’s the greatest with all the walking zombies, but it’s certainly entertaining.
Storage Wars Fake
Taken straight from Barstool.
MSN – “Storage Wars” star David Hester says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was fired after complaining that the reality show is staged. In his lawsuit, Hester contends that the producers of the hit A&E series routinely plant valuable items in the storage lockers seen on the show. Competitors place bids on the lockers without knowing what is inside them, hoping to come across forgotten treasures. The lawsuit pulls no punches, alleging that “nearly every aspect of the series is faked, even down to the plastic surgery that one of the female castmembers underwent in order to create more ‘sex appeal’ for the show …” The lawsuit says the surgery was paid for by the show’s production company, Original Productions. Hester also contends in the suit that Original Productions manipulates the outcome of auctions by placing bids on behalf of “the weaker castmembers who lack … both the skill and financial wherewithal to place winning bids.”
Of course Storage Wars is fake. Duh. Anybody with a brain knew that. There is just no way Darrell Sheets can always know what everything is that he finds in a storage locker the instant he sees it. Dude is the biggest idiot on the planet yet somehow he knows what everything is. Oh that’s a 18th century record player. Oh that’s the type of steel that is used to make titanium rods for peoples legs. Oh that’s the inside of a movie projector from the 60’s. Shut up Darrell. There is no way you can know all that shit unless somebody told you beforehand and there is no way you have a friend who specializes in that shit either. Fake as can be. Don’t get me wrong I still watch it from time to time, but I just suspend belief. Now Antiques Roadshow that’s a different story. That’s my joint. And if that ends up being fake I’ll probably just kill myself Royal nurse style.
Hitman is Jurg?
Here is the actor from Hitman.
Here is Jurg from Dexter. Resemblance?
Blind Date 2012?
I suggest watching that brilliant 90 seconds so we can try to figure out whatever happened to this show. This was a brilliant, reality TV show that aired from 1999-2005. The Real World was the start of reality TV in 1992 (Survivor for real in 1997) but Blind Date was still a part of reality TV when it wasn’t over saturated. The concept of setting up two random people and filming them on a date wound up being hilariously entertaining. The thought bubbles throughout provided even further amusement by getting insight from the producers after they have analyzed the people. So my question is that why after only 6 years, did Blind Date die?
The concept of filming dates that go wrong should be so simple it shouldn’t die. However, people get tired of the same old thing and this show never really innovated from the simplicity. They needed to start creating mismatches and sending them on dates that they knew were going to be disastrous. Pair up a virgin and a pornstar and send them on a date to a drive-thru and watch hilarious conversation ensue. The bigger answer to the why’d it die question is that once Blind Date got popular, people started acting differently. This show allowed them to be TV stars and that ruined the integrity of the show. Knowing that your on TV creates people acting differently than themselves. So the combination of 6 years of the same show and the show’s loss of reality took it down.
I feel though that someone should bring it back. It’s been away for a while now and people are ready to give it another shot. Problem would still be that the people would know they are on TV but with some better producing, I think this could still be a high rated show. Why I created this post though is a bit of a mystery. I was watching some TV and Roger Lodge popped up and it reminded me of this show. Then I remembered that I actually liked the show. Then I thought the above analysis wasn’t horrible for why the show ended and I decided to write about it. That can happen.
The Future
“What’s the greatest gift one human being can give to another? The future.” – Ben Horne
Ben Horne is a character in the brilliant TV series Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks first aired in 1990 and I just finished watching the series 22 years later. Even after so much time it still held its own which should prove how good it was / is. It is a murder mystery (for the first season) and then moves into some paranormal themes. The series contains twisted plot lines, cliffhanging misdirection, deceptive character development, and awesome music to boot. That quote above was a line from Ben Horne who happened to become one of my favorite characters. I believe this quote to hold true especially coming from this character who is developed as one of the most thoughtful on the show.
The idea of giving the future to someone else is obviously greater than any material possession. I like how the quote says “one human being can give to another,” because it doesn’t single anyone out. The easiest idea would be a husband and wife or providing for your family but giving the future to other people can be just as powerful. When you are trying to help someone out, just think back to this quote.
I personalize this quote because I want to be able to give someone a future when I’m ready. I want to be able to make their life better because they are with me. If I don’t feel like I’m prepared for the future myself, how can I feel good about passing it on with someone? My outlook is that people don’t think about the future and their answer is usually “I’ll figure something out.” Or the time is moving on I have to make something happen. I want it to be so when I find the girl of my choice, someone I really care about, I will be able to offer a family, sincere love, a better way of life… the future. It can’t be “I love you so much lets get married,” because 2 years later when the future turns out to be a shitstorm, next stop divorce station. If you aren’t thinking about the future, you aren’t thinking. I’m sure there is merit to living in the presence, but Ben Horne hits the nail on the head with this quote. If you can give some one future joy, you are doing it right.
The eccentric, diabolical, clever, profound, Ben Horne
