Most Extreme Elimination Challenge

This is one of those shows that I only watch when I happen to turn on the TV when it is on (or more often, when I come home and my roommates are watching it, since I almost never watch TV), but every single time I see it I am rolling on the floor laughing. It's easy to call something like this stupid, mindless fun, but the idea of it is great and, if nothing else, the voiceovers are brilliant. The hosts say the most random things imaginable but are unbelievably hilarious. I just saw an episode a few minutes ago which featured some military guys against some beauty pageant people (that's about the extent of my knowledge, I couldn't hear much more than that over my own laughter) and one of hosts says, "I just tried to talk to the beauty pageant winner but she totally blew me off," to which the other host understandingly replied, "Yeah, they win one beauty pageant and it goes right to their life-like heads."

Such a simple line, but I almost fell out of my chair laughing at it. The jokes are not really jokes, they hide their punch-lines in normal sounding conversation which makes it even funnier because, as Gallagher has taught us, "Comedy is a surprise, you see. If I just did what you expected all the time it wouldn't be damn funny!" Needless to say, the jokes in this show are so outlandish and so random that it's impossible not to laugh, even if only at the obscurity of it all. The summary line above, for example, was exclaimed by a woman as she jumped up to take her best shot at becoming one of the ten most painful eliminations of the day.

This has been brought up on the message boards for this movie, but if they ever come out with a DVD collection of this show I will be the first guy in line to add it to my tiny collection of TV show DVDs, along with my Simpsons collections and Sledge Hammer collection. This show makes me laugh harder and more consistently than The Simpsons, which is by far my favorite TV show of all time. Every episode of MXC that I see brings it closer to the top of my list, and although it will never pass the Simpsons, this is not a show to be missed. Bring on the DVDs!

As one of the exec producers and creators of MXC, I would like to thank all the loyal fans of the show who have remained loyal throughout its irregular scheduling on Spike. As anybody in television knows, after we license the show to a network, scheduling matters are pretty much out of our hands. Fortunately, one thing that is finally under our control is the release of MXC on DVDs. After two and a half years of trying to secure all the various rights and licenses from all the many parties who have a finger in the MXC pie, we are pleased to announce that we will very soon close a deal with a distributor so MXC will be out on DVD sometime this fall. We originally hoped to have closed a deal so DVDs would be available this summer, but as you probably know, the whole digital content business is going through a revolutionary (i.e., very scary for the financial boys) phase and the already prolonged process was extended even further. The release date will not be be finally determined for a few weeks, but it will most likely be sometime from late September through early October. If anybody wants to be placed on a mailing list to receive official notification of a release date and other information, please write me at mostextreme2003@yahoo.com. Thanks for letting us not get eliminated!

Probably like a lot of people, I discovered this show while idly channel-flipping. At first the games themselves fascinated me. I'd heard about Japanese game shows for years, but only seen brief snippets of them. I started laughing hysterically as a succession of hapless schmucks got slammed by huge fake boulders rolling down a narrow channel. But it took a while for the bizarre and clever dubbed-in voiceovers to register. Once they did, I realized that I'd found a new favorite. This show combines elements of "Fear Factor" with "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and "What's Up Tiger Lilly?" The completely made-up spoof of Japanese game shows called "Banzai" that was briefly popular a few months ago was somewhat amusing, but this show just delivers HUGE and consistent belly laughs, and that's as healthy as a tub of granola and tofu, and lots easier to take.

An earlier poster listed the fake names given to some of the games in this show, but I just heard my favorite tonight. In this game, a contestant clings to a huge spinning mushroom that is propelled over a pool of muddy water, trying to land on a small platform at the other end of the pool. The name of the game was "Eat Shitaki." I almost ruptured myself.

If your sense of humor runs along the lines of ridiculous, unbelievably silly, and downright immature (like mine!) then you will absolutely LOVE this show! The Japanese "sports" challenges themselves are very goofy and quite creative. My favorite challenges involve jumping off a trampoline and trying to stick to a Velcro wall and running across huge spinning foam logs above a muddy water pit. Just watching the show on mute could make me erupt in helpless giggles, but what really sends me over the edge is the outrageous comments made by the voice-overs. The combination of the two is unmatched in television, as far as I'm concerned.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, you can only see it on TV, since it hasn't released to DVD yet. I am fervently hoping it comes out on DVD soon.

MXC can be described with 4 words: "Iron Chef" meets "Jackass".

Kenny Blakenship and Vic Ramano host a hillarious game show that looks like the outtakes from a film. Through out the show, contestants participate in a variety of activities such as "Rotating Surfboard of Death", "Brass Balls", "Boulder Dash", and "Pole Vault". The instant replays of the contestants getting hurt are sinfully funny. At the end of the episode, Kenny and Vic countdown the "Most Painful Eliminations of the Day".

What can I say? If you like lame voice dubbing, weird names, and people getting hurt, MXC is for you.

Grade: A- (Indeed, Ken)