Watching people fall down and go boom on Fox's new Americanized Japanese game show Hole in the Wall and the summer hit Wipeout got us thinking: Are we in a new golden age of not thinking? Whatever the reason, viewers looking for escapism during worrisome times? Networks hoping that simple-minded concepts will attract a greater audience? Nostradamus predicting 2008 as the Year of the Bonehead? Not since the glory days of Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionare? and Jackass has there been so much stupidity proudly paraded on TV. How dumb is it? We compiled a list of the worst horrors and My Fair Brady isn't even on it! So kill a few brain cells as we rank the Idiot Box's most idiotic of this year:
1. Hole in the Wall
Playing human Tetris on Fox, contestants contort themselves to fit through cutouts in a foam wall... over and over again, while shrill hosts bray "hole" double entendres that rarely make sense. Oh, people also fall in the water. Yeah, that's it.
2. Hurl!
Chugging chilli for cash? If only it stopped there. No, G4's Hurlers are then forcibly manhandled into spewing it back up; last one to heave wins $1,000. The only think that makes sense are the hazmat suits.
3. Wipeout
Proof that dumb doesn't always mean bad. Watching mud-caked office drones bounce face-first off giant kickballs on ABC strikes the part of the funny bone where dry wit can't reach.
4. I Love Money
We fully endorse dumping witless Flavor of Love, I Love New York, and Rock of Love VH1 castoffs on foreign soil, but with 2 fixes. 1) Find the most egregious ones (where's the girl who pooped herself?) and 2) Leave them there.
5. The Hills
We can't fathom why these people are famous. We don't understand why none of them can't string out two cogent thoughts together. And we really don't know why we can't flip off MTV when they're on.
6. Under One Roof
Flavor Flav was the least engaging yet most ridiculous thing on his own reality programs. So it stands to reason that MyNetworkTV's giving him a scripted series (especially a hacky Fresh Prince of Bel-air rip-off) is unwise on its face, especially with these scripts (and that face).
7. America's Funniest Home Videos
ABC's formula (groin + object = funny) is hardly advanced physics but the unavoidable truth is there isn't a comedian alive who wouldn't kill to make people laugh that hard.
8. Pam: Girl on the Loose
Never mind that a 41 year old still refers to herself as a girl. The lamest thing about Pam's E! reality show is that for all her talk of revealing the "real" her, all we learn is that she really likes sex. Don't we already know that?
9. Secret Talents of the Stars
If the stars were any good at their secret talents, they wouldn't be secret. Thankfully it took CBS only one episode to figure it out.
10. The Moment of Truth
The game show in which people sit in Fox's hot seat, submit themselves to humiliating questions in front of loved ones, then lose cash by getting their own answers wrong. Dumbest thing ever? Only if you're dumb enough to go on it.
1. Hole in the Wall
Playing human Tetris on Fox, contestants contort themselves to fit through cutouts in a foam wall... over and over again, while shrill hosts bray "hole" double entendres that rarely make sense. Oh, people also fall in the water. Yeah, that's it.
2. Hurl!
Chugging chilli for cash? If only it stopped there. No, G4's Hurlers are then forcibly manhandled into spewing it back up; last one to heave wins $1,000. The only think that makes sense are the hazmat suits.
3. Wipeout
Proof that dumb doesn't always mean bad. Watching mud-caked office drones bounce face-first off giant kickballs on ABC strikes the part of the funny bone where dry wit can't reach.
4. I Love Money
We fully endorse dumping witless Flavor of Love, I Love New York, and Rock of Love VH1 castoffs on foreign soil, but with 2 fixes. 1) Find the most egregious ones (where's the girl who pooped herself?) and 2) Leave them there.
5. The Hills
We can't fathom why these people are famous. We don't understand why none of them can't string out two cogent thoughts together. And we really don't know why we can't flip off MTV when they're on.
6. Under One Roof
Flavor Flav was the least engaging yet most ridiculous thing on his own reality programs. So it stands to reason that MyNetworkTV's giving him a scripted series (especially a hacky Fresh Prince of Bel-air rip-off) is unwise on its face, especially with these scripts (and that face).
7. America's Funniest Home Videos
ABC's formula (groin + object = funny) is hardly advanced physics but the unavoidable truth is there isn't a comedian alive who wouldn't kill to make people laugh that hard.
8. Pam: Girl on the Loose
Never mind that a 41 year old still refers to herself as a girl. The lamest thing about Pam's E! reality show is that for all her talk of revealing the "real" her, all we learn is that she really likes sex. Don't we already know that?
9. Secret Talents of the Stars
If the stars were any good at their secret talents, they wouldn't be secret. Thankfully it took CBS only one episode to figure it out.
10. The Moment of Truth
The game show in which people sit in Fox's hot seat, submit themselves to humiliating questions in front of loved ones, then lose cash by getting their own answers wrong. Dumbest thing ever? Only if you're dumb enough to go on it.
