Regretting recommending American Gladiators
I apologize to anyone who took my recommendation of that abysmal show “American Gladiators” seriously and actually started watching it. It seems like everyone at my work (including me) reached the unanimous conclusion that that show was lame and not worth further watching within a couple of episodes of me writing that post. One can only handle so much Hulk Hogan in one lifetime, after all.
So, mea culpa. To whoever recommended that I watch Fear Factor a couple years back: now we’re even.
July 2nd, 2008 at 09:47
You can’t just say “My bad”, like the rest of the English-speaking world?
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:21
Maybe this can make it better…
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:48
Don’t be ashamed of enjoying bad television simply for its novelty. Where would Ninja Warrior and MxC be without that?
Will: why can’t you say mea culpa like a proper Roman?
July 2nd, 2008 at 14:14
drinian: I’m not ashamed of enjoying bad television for its novelty. It’s just that that aspect of American Gladiators wore off very quickly, leaving me to quickly realize that the series is completely not worth watching.
Speaking of novelty television, have you seen the new ABC game show series? Wipeout is a straight-out American rip-off of MXC (which, granted, was itself a rip-off of a not-nearly-as-perverted Japanese game show). Wipeout has all of the same kinds of humor right down to picking people with odd professions and then relentlessly ripping on them through the use of puns and put-downs, except that unlike MXC, these are the actual professions of the participants and not just wholly inaccurate voice-overs. Airing right after Wipeout is “I Survived A Japanese Game Show”, in which the actual gameplay is completely stupid and uninspiring. But so far I’ve found the show enjoyable because it shows a lot of Japanese culture (along with how the typical ignorant American reacts to it). Also, it’s hysterical that the Japanese game show audience is clearly laughing at the gaijin participants, not with them. Instead of the show being about “look at those silly foreigners!”, it’s about “look at those foreigners laughing at us being silly!” It’s a refreshing change of perspective.
July 2nd, 2008 at 14:42
ABC’s MXC ripoff isn’t even a good one. The thing that makes MXC good is that its commentary is rather dirty and up to its armpits in puns. ABC’s version is extremely clean in comparison, and it’s obviously dumbed down for the general American audience, which makes it about three to five times less humorous.
During the one episode I watched, the funniest thing they did was to say some large dude was something like 9′ 13″ tall. I don’t know why but I LOL’d for a bit when I heard it.
This is the only mea culpa you need to concern yourself with. :]
July 2nd, 2008 at 15:25
T2A`: Yeah, I will admit to LOLing at that (and nearly ROFLing as well). His height kept on getting inflated as the events progressed, which itself was funny, then they said he was something feet and 13 inches, which really took me over the top.
And I agree that this show would be better if it was aimed at MXC’s demographic.