MXC: Most Extreme Elimination Challenge: Season 1

-As Americans we like to think that we have the best of everything, that we do everything better than anyone else in the world. There is one genre of television where we lag woefully behind. Actually, not just any type of game show but the kind where the goal seems to be the complete humiliation, degradation and dehumanizing of the contestants. While we do have shows like ‘Fear Factor’ in Japan this series would not be fit for their children’s programming. The Japanese have perfect the type of show where people will eat the grosses things, subject themselves to painful stunts and generally debase themselves for a prize of some sort. One such popular Japanese series is ‘Takeshi's Castle’. It involves about one hundred contestants that have to run a gauntlet of humiliation to win. Instead of ripping off the format and Americanizing the series some serious deranged and funny people at Spike TV did the best possible thing here. They removed the original Japanese sound track and replaced it with their own words. They must have just seen Woody Allen’s "What’s Up Tiger Lily" because what made that film a classic works oh so well in this endeavor. This is the wacky world of ‘Most Extreme Elimination Challenge’.

A group of comedians who created this project included Victor Wilson, Christopher Darga, John Cervenka and Mary Scheer. Together they script the comments that replace the voices of the original Japanese hosts and contestants. Each of these talented people has multiple voices to play. Victor and Christopher also voice the shows host, renamed here Vic Romano and Kenny Blankenship. John plays not only the field reporter Guy LeDouche and the on field host, Captain Tenneal but also is the ‘humble announcer’. Mary Sheer, best know for her wacky characters on MAD TV voice all of the female contestants. The names of the contestants are almost as funny as the stunts they perform. There are contestants with names like Lance Boil, Morty Shorts or Rob Tussin with such jobs as turkey jerker or meat handler. The writers seem to enjoy using very non Japanese names for their contestants including the almost always present ‘Babaganosh’. The Japanese contestants typically wear outrageous costumes for their television appearance. What they come up with puts anyone on ‘Price is Right’ to shame.

There is a rotated set of events used in the various episodes. For example there is ‘Sinkers and Floaters’. In this event the contestants have to run across a series of floating rocks to keep from falling in a waste filled pool of water. Mostly the contestants make it part of the way before slipping and slamming their heads against a rock. In another common stunt called Log Roll the contestants try to make it from one rolling cylinder to another without falling. The real run is when one contestant gets caught between one cylinder and the next trying in vain to get a foot hold and move on. While the details of the events may change from one episode to another the concept is the same. They make the contestants fling themselves, dodge objects or balance on almost impossible objects. As if watching these degrading events isn’t enough they often have an impact reply to go over the failures in slow motion. There is also a montage at the end of each episode of most painful eliminations of the day.

Part of the fun is the made up teams that participate in the events. Sure, the original Japanese series had one hundred individual players but here in the States we go for team work. In the first episode we have the Meat Packers versus Cartoon Voice Actors. Guy LeDouche interviews some before the contests and asks who is a packer, who cuts the meat and are there any boners out there. This is fundamentally the grade level of the humor presented here, hovering around third grade. The jokes are founded on scatological references, puerile sexual comments and other typical playground faire. Now this is not a negative at all, in fact it is the opposite. With all the tensions of the world surrounding us on twenty four hour news channels we need to let our inner child gross us out every so often. Naturally, I first saw this series on Spike TV, television for men. As much as I hate to admit it, my gender will find this funnier than those that prefer Lifetime for example. This was the type of show that I never really knew when it would be on but if I was channel surfing and saw it was coming on I would stop my electronic travels and watch. I always had a good laugh and was very glad that the first season was now being released on DVD.

The people doing the voice over work are incredible. They are all talented comics with resumes that include television and film. Victor Wilson, Christopher Darga, John Cervenka and Mary Scheer not only performed the voices but they also write and produce the series. It may not be obvious at first but there is apparently a lot of back work that is required to reformat the episode. The comments are so well timed and perfectly matched to the actions on screen that it almost seems seamless. Listening to the commentary tracks the creators go into just how many hours of watching and improvising are required to get one episode done. The team tosses around ideas, make many bad starts and hone what makes it to the episodes with comic precision.

Magnolia has done a great job bringing this little gem to DVD. As always they pay attention to what the fans want and provide it. The full screen video is generally clean and defect free. The colors are bright and realistic. The Dolby 2.0 audio is centered almost exclusively in the middle speaker but the overall effect is clarity. The extras are better than normal here. Several episodes have commentary tracks by the comedians that made this series happen. There is also a complete episode of the original ‘Takeshi’s Castle’ so you can judge for yourself how funny and natural this premise is. Last is the original sales presentation for the series and the most painful eliminations of the series. Just shut off the higher functions of the brain, call over some friends when a game isn’t on and grab some beer and pizza. This is silly and often ridiculous but it will make you laugh.

Posted 10/7/06