Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO SelfCloak. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Farm-Fresh balanceYMMVTransmit blueRadarWikEd fancyquotesQuotes • (Emoticon happyFunnyHeartHeartwarmingSilk award star gold 3Awesome) • RefridgeratorFridgeGroupCharactersScript editFanfic RecsSkull0Nightmare FuelRsz 1rsz 2rsz 1shout-out iconShout OutMagnifierPlotGota iconoTear JerkerBug-silkHeadscratchersHelpTriviaWMGFilmRoll-smallRecapRainbowHo YayPhoto linkImage LinksNyan-Cat-OriginalMemesHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconicLibrary science symbol SourceSetting

The year is 2009. Nickelodeon, the innocent cable channel behind |Double Dare, the codifier of the modern Children's Game Show, hasn't had a good new game show since 2000 (and no, Scaredy Camp and My Parents' GUTS are Better than Your Parents' GUTS are debatable). But in September 2009, they made a breakthrough, imported the Japanese show "Brain Survivor", and came up with BrainSurge.

The game primarily tested the memory and comprehension skills of the contestants, starting with six contestants trying to quickly figure out the numbers conveyed visual puzzles, entered on keypads. Then, sans the two lowest scoring contestants (who have to go down ... the Brain Drain!), the remaining four in turn play Level 2, where they answered questions from a story (from the "Big Book of Truth"), locking in by sitting on a chair covered in Whoopee Cushions. The first to answer incorrectly is greeted by farts, and gets pulled backwards through the (paper) teeth of a giant mouth made to look like Jeff's face. This then continued until someone else answered incorrectly, who also faced the same fate.

For the final round, Level 3, the two contestants play a matching game with eight pairs of pictures from the story. If a player fails to match, the other player can automatically win if they make a match on their next pick, who then got to play the Bonus Round. And the loser, along with the eliminated from round two, also got to go down the Brain Drain (which for the record, is a slide, made to look like a human ear, complete with "wax" foam. Wouldn't be a Nickelodeon show without unnecessary messiness).

Season 3 brought some major changes, along with being moved to Nick at Nite (before being moved back to Nickelodeon in October 2011), it is now Family BrainSurge, and is now played with five teams of two. Other adjustments include only playing 4 puzzles in Level 1, and the addition of a lifeline in Level 2.

The following Game Show tropes appear in Brain Surge:
  • Bonus Level: Three floors, with 4x4, 5x5, and 6x6 grids. The winner has to memorize a pattern on the first grid, and then correctly step through the correct sequence. If done correctly, the same is done through the 5x5 and 6x6 grids. However, this all has to be done in 90 seconds (the clock does stop between floors), and making a mistake anywhere sends you back to the start. Each stage has a prize attached, and once you earn a prize, it's yours to keep, even if you do run out of time and have to go down the Brain Drain for "losing" the bonus round! Winners get a grand prize (usually a trip) and the time-honored You Can't Do That on Television green slime treatment.
  • Celebrity Edition: Yes, indeed, with Nickelodeon actors playing for a chance to win a prize for an audience member (in Family Brain Surge, a non-celebrity studio audience member who is on their team) in the Bonus Round, instead of competing for charity. In celebrity editions of Family Brainsurge, the players consist of two Nickelodeon stars, while two members of the studio audience not related to the celebrity contestants appearing on stage serve to help the contestants in the second round if they are stumped on a question (see "Lifelines" below).
    • Family Brain Surge also included celebrity editions in which non-Nickelodeon celebrities compete with their family members for charity, but also get a chance to win prizes for a member of their family that are on their team in the Bonus Round.
  • Covered in Gunge: Contestants eliminated in the first two rounds and contestants who do make it to the Bonus Round but fail to complete all three puzzles within 90 seconds will invariably get this going down the Brain Drain. Bonus round winners get the more traditional and famous Nickelodeon green slime.
  • Lifelines: In Family BrainSurge, each team is allowed one "Brain Fart" in Level 2, allowing the team to get help from other family members in the audience. However, what they say is automatically locked in as the team's guess.
  • Personnel:
Other tropes include: