The new sports challenge

I love a competitive game of sports, but the best sporting event on TV today has nothing to do with balls, unless you count bouncing off of them into a pool of mud.  Wipeout is a cross between a Japanese game show and Nickelodeon’s Double Dare and will tickle your funny bones while almost breaking a few of the competitors’.  Last night was a new version of the game, Wipeout Blind Date.  After all, the only thing better than one idiot trying to jump over hurdles and through hoops in a course 20 feet above a pool of water is two idiots doing it together.  There are so many great obstacles in the show that twist competitor’s bodies into pretzels, tumbling them into frigid water, spinning them until they’re just about to puke, and providing a “Sucker Punch” to the nuts and berries region.  Obstacle names include “Foamy Killer Surf,” Big Balls”, “Tumble Tubes,” “Barrel Run,” Sweeper Sack”, “Love Handles,” “Dizzy Dummy”, and the “Dreadmill Door Jam” and the final wipeout obstacle course usually starts with either a slick ride in a innertube or catapulting the contestant into the water. 

 So you might be wondering, who in the world would subject themselves to these kinds of crazy stunts?  Funny, one of the contestants in the pilot episode I knew years ago.  Imagine when I saw her (“she’s a go-go dancer from Connecticut”; really???) on one of the first episodes.  She taught us all an important lesson- French manicures don’t hold up well to the wrath of a wipeout.  So I’m guessing the real motivating factor is the winner’s booty- a sweet $50,000.  Finally… something to replace American Gladiators (aw, the Eliminator round…).  Reruns of Nitro and Gemini (with their 80’s romance novel hair) and Lace and Diamond (outfitted in jazzercise gear) were looking too dated to laugh at anymore.