Dec10 |
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The Funniest Game Show On Earth
What’s always been great about Family Feud is how pointless the entire show is. Basically: Whoever wins the last round wins the game. The point values triple in the final round, and even if one team is so far ahead (the other night, a team was up something like 207-28) the best they can hope for if they lose the final round is a sudden death multiple choice tiebreaker. Okay, so: Most of the questions, pointless. That’s a good thing, because the questions are absolutely nonsensical. Sometime last month, an actual question was: “Tell me something about Sanjaya.” Number five answer was something like, “He’s goofy.” Uhm, I guess that former American Idol contestant is goofy, but you probably could have given me a thousand guesses and I’d never realize that 2 people in their survey of 100 thought the most notable thing about Sanjaya was that he was goofy. (As you might have already guessed, the number one answer was “He was on American Idol.” Also, one of the answers no one was able to get was, “He’s a bad singer.” I hope you’re already setting your DVRs.) Last night, a round was, Match Game bonus round-style, “Name something that begins with solar.” Two separate answers were “solar power” and “solar energy.” The next round was, “Name the most important issue to voters in the 2008 election.” We got some borderline stupid answers like “Community,” and for some reason “home foreclosures” counted as “economy” but “foreign policy” didn’t count as “War/Iraq.” Whatever. What was best was the answer nobody got, number 4: “Who will be president.” I don’t remember how many people said it, but “Immigration” was lower with only 2 people, so let’s assume it was something like 10. In a way, it’s absolutely pointless, since that’s what the question was de facto about, i.e. what people will care about when voting for president in the 2008 election. But in another way: How wasn’t it number one?? I mean, it’s correct. The most important issue voters cared about in the 2008 election was who would be president. And this is why Family Feud is the best game show of our time. (I watch Jeopardy! more religiously, but that’s because it’s actually good — and better recently, actually — and I enjoy its fact-based questioning.) |
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While I’m on the subject of great television (see previous post), I must write about what I saw on a recent episode of Family Feud. For some reason we don’t get Game Show Network here in Center City (my parents, who also have Comcast but live in the Far Northeast, do get it), so I’m forced to watch Channel 69’s hourlong block of it at 9 p.m. if I want my fix of the Feud. (It’s the new version, hosted by John O’Hurley, but it’ll do.)
