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"You didn't get two out of three right... WE'RE GONNA TRASH YOUR TV!!!"
—Chris Hardwick
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Short-lived MTV Game Show in which contestants gambled their "prized possessions" for the chance to win better ones. Losers got to see theirs gloriously destroyed.
Questions were asked in skit format in a manner similar to Remote Control. A team had to answer two out of three to save their possession from (or put the other team's possession into) the hands of "Mark the Trasher", who would destroy it violently. During the final round, each team had to sacrifice one of its own members for potential "trashing"; losing the game meant public humiliation for the contestant in question.
Game Show Tropes in use:[]
- Bonus Round: One player had to identify artists in music videos being described by the other partner. Each player had to describe three videos; the time limit was 30 seconds, plus 5 for each possession saved, so potentially 60 seconds.
- Confetti Drop: Bonus Round winners were showered with confetti (and later trash) from a leaf blower.
- Consolation Prize: Losers received somewhat of a Zonk, and in an inversion were required to sign up for 10 hours community service.
- Double the Dollars
- Golden Snitch: The questions in the first two rounds were worth 50 and 100 points each. Perfectly played, the most a team could lead was 900-0; however the questions in the final Speed Round were 150 points each and rapid-fire. The 39 seconds were more than enough time to eclipse even this score. There was a distinct advantage to winning the first two rounds, though — the more possessions you saved, the more time you got in the Bonus Round.
- Personnel:
- The Announcer
- Game Show Host: Chris Hardwick, who would later host Singled Out opposite Jenny McCarthy and later Carmen Electra.
- Lovely Assistant: Andrea Wagner.
- Studio Audience
- Promotional Consideration
- Rules Spiel: Parodied; the announcer would read the rules to the Bonus Round at an incomprehensibly fast speed while the complete legal version scrolled up the screen at an even faster rate.
- Speed Round: The Survival Round; 150 points per question for 39 seconds. No, that's not a typo.
This show contains examples of:[]
- Catch Phrase: "Loser." "Safety first." "You didn't lose a damn thing!"
- Covered in Gunge: Some of the losers got covered in Gatorade, "tobacco spit", beer (some of it regurgitated), etc.
- Don't Try This At Home
- Forced to Watch: Main premise of the show.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: A good number of the skits.
- Gross-Out Show: Some of the skits, and some of the "contestant trashings" at the end.
- Grunge: Everything about the show — the theme music, the wardrobes, the set, you name it. This was 1994, after all.
- ~Hey, It's That Guy!~: Chris Hardwick, who would host Singled Out shortly thereafter.
- Jerkass: Mark the Trasher for certain, and Hardwick to an extent.
- Shout-Out: One trashing involved putting a contestant's clothing on Beavis and Butthead dolls before destroying it.
- Stuff Blowing Up: And Anvil on Head, and many other methods of gratuitous vandalism.
- Traumatic Haircut: The end result of one contestant putting his long blonde hair on the line for trashing.