Most Extreme Elimination Challenge

On a channel full of gross-out South Park rip-offs, Star Trek and Beer bellies, the show MXC has to be the gold that comes up from the cheap tin foil. The show is a spoof of the old gameshow called "Takeshi no Taji", featuring comical dubbing and strange as I'll get competitions.

MXC is probably one of the better shows on these days. And very interesting to those who want to know how strange Asian gameshows can get.

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.

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.

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!

My wife and I found it impossible to be depressed while watching this show. Seriously. This show has helped us cope through some pretty rough times including deaths in the family, financial hardships, and even medical setbacks. It's just so silly and constantly funny that you don't have a chance to think about anything other than what's happening on the screen in front of you. The speedy dialog of quick quips and the steady stream of cartoon-like violence with the contestants created one of those things that comes but once in a lifetime. MXC is a true television treasure! If this show doesn't make you laugh, something may be seriously wrong with you.