Wipeout

This show is TOO funny. first, if you haven't watched it, you got to, you will be hooked like a fish. i don't crack up a many shows, but this show right here, yes. I was rolling. I'm talking about my cheeks and abs were hurting like 15 minutes into the show. My wife was rolling too, and my son almost hit a back flip because of the ridiculousness these people go through. The two commentators are a good addition to the show. The female is just a pretty face with smart remarks, but she's a kind of funny.This show is like that Japanese show MXC, but in my opinion, smarter. In some of the courses, the obstacles are manually activated, and so, when the contestants approach still obstacles, little do they know, they're in for a face full of 'Boom'. Or, slammed into something and flinging into the water. This show is awesome!

Used to be SUCH a great show. Then they went on an extended hiatus, then they changed times, days, channels. This is when America loses interest. Hollywood: Take note, this is why all those great shows in the 90s fail. Friends was a top hit for 10 years. Why? It remained in the same channel, same days, same time. Going to flop again, hard. Replacing a great cast with boring, unfunny "names" is not going to help. Too bad Hollywood can't put their own egos aside to listen to the American people for what they want.

Some people will never appreciate the 3 Stooges. I mean, this show is a live action America's Funniest Home Videos, if you honestly compare the themes repeated on that show, the clips that end up in the final 3 videos and I find it a refreshing reality show without the incessant undermining and cutting down fellow contestants that is the formula for current 'reality' shows. It may be due to the writers, but the quips that all 3 hosts add throughout the show are often more fun than the images of bodies tumbling off the big red balls. What I also like is, these people are going for their money and they earn it. Given the world's current obesity epidemic, anything that promotes physical efforts to the limit of one's capabilities is not to be dissed and aside from muddy water, the contestants aren't humiliating themselves by intentionally laying in boxes of scorpions or eating 6" long cockroaches. The people looking down their noses at this show likely enjoy watching the opening weeks of American Idol and feeling superior to those folks.

The contestants are having fun, the three hosts are having fun, the entire film crew is surely having fun -- so one can't help but laugh along with them.

Take a break from the daily grinds of life and watch some good sports being 'wiped out' by an ever-changing series of obstacles and challenges.

I was recently at a family gathering -- ages 8 to 72 -- and all were enjoying an episode of this show. I quickly laughed along.

'Wipeout' is often in re-runs. Watch it if you can. What the heck!

The American version of the Japanese monster hit "Takeshi's Castle" pits a group of 12 Americans battling it out on a giant (funny) obstacle course where they get hit, splashed, punched, toppled, muddied and a lot more in their quest to win $50,000. Though the pilot had a few bugs (we don't know anything about the contestants and it tends to be one unknown person after the other getting soaked or hit in the groin--granted, that worked for "AFV") it also had some bonuses the Japanese show did not have. Namely, the comedy of former "Talk Soup" host John Henson (ABC is a funnier place with him on the network) and hotty Jill Wagner doing sideline reporting. Jill is not only a BABE, but pretty good at what she does, too.

I'm sure they will make adjustments along the way, but after seeing the first show, there's enough promise to give it a try this summer. Check it out!