10/14/06 1 vs. 100

Did anybody else have a raging Friday night? Cool... So you watched the rousing premiere of "1 vs. 100" too. If you missed the show, you can catch clips on their site and even try a lame version of the game online. I have mixed feelings about the show. Here are some preliminary thoughts:

• Bob Saget is the host. Normally you'd think that's pretty lame (ala America's Funniest Home Videos). But Bob Saget has a lot of double-meaning, dirty innuendos in his humor (I've heard his uncensored stand up stuff is just plain wrong). Just watch for them. They're real subtle (sometimes in his body language alone). But they're great if you catch them. And hey, even if you don't catch them, you can make up a bunch throughout the hour.
• The decision making takes about 100^100 times more skill than "Deal or No Deal". The contestant has to answer real questions and make decisions based on actual future unknowns.
• The over drama is just like Millionaire and Deal or No Deal. And it's completely unnecessary. I hate to bring Poker Jason into this lameness, but he and I discussed some of these topics at length... And we both agreed (or at least discussed) that:

1) There's too much pop culture stuff and not enough real trivia knowledge

2) The questions are WAY too easy

3) They'd never have a Jeopardy caliber contestant up there against the mob

4) The $1000 incremental values of each round detract from the the suspense (Rather than a more exponential growth, like on millionaire).

• The mob (the 100) get smarter as you move along. For 2 reasons - The mob members that miss a question are no longer in the game. Only the members with all perfect answers remain as your opponent. AND - The remaining mob members at the end get to move on against the next contestant. So, with each subsequent contestant, the mob gets smarter.
• Any show that features Ken Jennings is just awesome
• Given the fact that this is probably the longest random editorial about the show on the entire internet, I feel like I should be able to get a job doing these shows.

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Random thought of the day - I never really thought that the U.S. government would really ban online gambling. Those bastards. (P.S. - Which sites are still letting you play poker?)

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My dad wants everyone to put this page on their computer and run it when you go through airport security. (Note: He really doesn't want you to do that. In fact, he didn't ask me to post this at all.)

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And the winner of the best public transportation system goes to.... envelope please.... The MTA! Los Angeles, California! Uh, wait. LA has public transportation? It must be really clean, and uh, unused. And clean and stuff.

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Poker Jason proves that there's actually something worth watching on French TV.