Pimp My Ride

"Pimp my Ride" shows the best of the worst of today's awful cars. Rapper Xzibit will take someone's terrible rundown car to the incredible "West Coast Customs" shop and 'pimp' the car up with the most up-to-date electronics, interiors, rims, and paint jobs.

The transformation of these cars is jaw-dropping. At the beginning, the car are literally held together with duct tape and bungie cords. In the end, the car looks brand new with sound systems so loud they make dogs howl in a 5 mile radius.

Normally, I don't for MTV shows but this is an awesome surprise. This show is highly recommended.

10/10

In the name of spreading peace, tolerance and gangsta-style rollin' rapper Xzibit visits the unfortunate majority of us who have clapped out cars and selects those worthy enough for help. The cars he selects he takes to West Coast Customs to get them "pimped" – by which I mean they get fixed up, jazzed up and made to be eye-catching and stylish beyond practical use.

Having spent some time in America last year, I was able to see quite a few programmes in this series before seeing it on MTV in the UK. The concept of the show will be nothing new to those of us lucky enough to live in the UK and have been bombarded by reality makeover shows on rooms, gardens, homes, diets, bodies etc, the only thing that is strange is why it took them so long to turn to vehicles as the subject of the show. Of course this is not a make over show in the traditional sense because it goes to silly extremes, making it a process with less value perhaps but making it quite engaging viewing. Each show I see I am amazed at the junk they manage to put into these cars and can't help wonder if it will last ten minutes parked outside the homes of some of the subjects – my car has been broken into several times and I don't even have a PS2 and flat TV screens in there! For some of them I think that once one of their new, fat tyres need replacing then they are going to have to sell a kidney to afford it.

Nonetheless I watch it; maybe it is the fact that I myself "roll" in an 18 year old Nissan but it is fun to watch them trashing the cars and rebuilding them. Of course the actual design of the cars themselves is the least enjoyable bit because the process is silly – mostly all that remains of the original car is an element of the body and it may have been easier to buy them a new one. Also, the guys in the shop are so OTT and take themselves so seriously that it is a bit off putting and I wished they would mock themselves more given just how silly their work is. A major downside to the show (on top of the silliness) is that it does encourage dissatisfaction and materialism by making fun of those with basic cars and promoting the idea that you're nobody with a flashy/big/noisy ride – as an introvert and an environmentalist, this is not a view I support, nor would I like to think that some people will go deeper into dept just to "pimp" their ride.

Of course this is reading too much into the show and I never really worried about this too much while watching thanks to one massive factor in the show being fun – Xzibit. As well as being a solid, if unoriginal voice in hip-hop, he is a natural presenter and never takes it seriously at any point. He is great at laughing at the old cars and delivers some hilarious lines, for example (my favourite) when a guy exclaims he has never had rims before, X grabs the camera and shouts "hey – he's a first time rimmer" – I'm pretty sure he meant it in "that" way and I was rolling on the floor! He is a breath of fresh air in a world full of rapper/actors who puff themselves up and talk a lot of fighting – he is simply a really natural guy and he makes for a great host.

Overall this is just a trashy reality makeover show no matter how you dress it up but the excesses, silliness and novelty value make it entertaining nevertheless. The promotion of the materialistic dream of money, cars, brand names etc is a bit of a put off but thankfully this is put out of the mind by great presentation from Xzibit, who is as funny and charismatic as he is OTT!

Pimp My Ride comes from the now overused concept of reality TV that started with The Real World and Big Brother. However, there are 3 things that make it a great family show: the host Xzibit, the West Coast Customs crew, and the extremes they go to when fixing up cars (the "pimpification" process).

Xzibit plays a very important part as the host, thanks to his spontaneous, natural style and his peculiar, unique sense of humor; he made me laugh in the floor more than once. The other greatest player is the West Coast Customs crew. Unlike the crew from their counterparts in Overhaulin', who give a much more professional and serious image, in Pimp My Ride you can see they have a lot of fun while doing the job, giving a lot more informal, energetic, juvenile image to the show. The pimpification process is the third part that makes this show a great one. Even though some modifications are even unpractical like having three PSP's, a DVD monitor next to the dogs' dishes or a washing machine in the car, exaggeration is what counts: not everyone has one of these things on their cars, and that's what makes them so special.

I've seen many detractors wielding the argument that says these cars would get stolen immediately. Well, think about that: these pimped cars are usually worth $30-40'000 dollars of accessories, audio and rimz 'n tirez; a Mercedes-Benz, a BMW or a Lincoln car are worth the same value or more, and some are even more prone to stealing than fixed cars because of their retail value, so the likelihood that a pimped car gets stolen, at least in theory, is about the same as the one a luxury car has. Sure, they look very impressive, but think this too: a Navigator or a Cadillac also look almost this impressive.

This is what makes Pimp My Ride a wonderful TV show.

You know it by heart: Xzibit goes to view one of the worst wreck of a car ever, and makes jokes about it. Xzibit drives the disaster to the West Coast Customs, to have even more jokes bout it. A brainstorming session with suggestions to make a bling bling of a ride out of that wreck. Then the car transforms from rags to riches, the car's owner goes bananas, and takes his "ride" to his, or her, friends to go bananas too!

It never changes; being like The A-Team of the 2000s, whereas "formulaic" is the only fate. Some points assure that it isn't a coincidence; like how the cars' owners are always a 20 something girl or boy. But why would I complain?

Actually, the formulism of the show is compensated by some elements. Firstly, the forever golden one: the idea of changing to better, or advancement, which we all desire to see. Not for our cars alone, but for selves and lives. Doing this, every episode, for free, in no time, diligently and richly, has to affect you directly and yet deeply, to feel good, about something ruined gone fixed, or feel that every finished thing can get another, very lucky, chance; which is the ultimate feel good of all!

Secondly, the clever hosting. Xzibit is the perfect host for such a show. Despite his swearing, which I hate, he has lovely presence and forever fresh jokes. Let alone Mad Mike; who sometimes "performs" himself as a character, which works highly.

Thirdly, the "pimping" of the car. The creative ideas of the show's team do impress. Maybe so excessive at times, but all along different. It's just the matter of many screens in the car's truck which I have never loved or understood!

So, "formulaic" isn't wholly bad, if only filled with the right elements. This show will live long, as much as it doesn't apply to "seen one episode, you've seen them all"!

Hands down the dullest show MTV has ever pimped up out of its pimpy sleeves. Take a shoddy car, stuff a few superfluous accessories in it - such as advanced DVDs whose features you won't use at home let alone in a damn car - and then watch the vehicle's owner (always a moron) throw a hysterical fit of jubilation once he sees how over-the-top silly his car has become. You are now the proud owner of a car that is good enough for any gay-pride parade! Throw in a dumb rapper with an appropriately idiotic name, and a bunch of criminal-looking (hence "cool") pseudo-mechanics, and you've got yourself the ultimate television sleeping pill. I sometimes think the only way for me to wake up during an episode of PMR is if the car in question actually left the screen and smashed right into my face.

The only thing Xzibit exhibits is his profound talent for memorizing several lines at a time, a feat for which they probably had to cast dozens of braindead, barely successful rappers. His pitiful jokes do MTV justice, i.e. are on par with the expectations of the gooey substances that make up the brains of most MTV viewers. Maybe they should pimp Xzibit's teeth next time: there simply isn't enough gold and silver glittering in that damn mouth of his.

The cars that are picked for dem-da-pimpin' are supposedly all owned by poor students and the like. So how is it a favour to those people to give them a car that will need ultra-security to prevent it from being stolen within the first two days? My advice to future PMC customers: sell the car IMMEDIATELY to some desperate nerdy fan of the show, and then buy a REAL car.

As for using the word "pimp" as a verb and all that, well what's to say that is new? MTV loves to contribute its lion's share in the dumbing-down of the 21st-century populace. If that means glorifying rent-a-whore "businessmen" or raping the English language, even better.

German MTV has managed to go one "better", however. "Pimp Mein Fahrrad" is about doing dull things to bicycles. What's next? Pimp My Girlfriend? (Actually, that would be interesting!) Pimp My Toilet Paper?