Episode 1 - January 18
Imagine Ken Jennings on,
say, his hypothetical 76th game. As he buzzes in, he gets
hit in the back of the head with a chair. He answers
correctly, and his opponent gets hit in the back with a
bottle. My friends, welcome to Distraction. Jimmy Carr,
who also presides over the UK version, hosts this game
show. After a tit joke in the monologue, we meet our
victims, er, players, but not in a normal way. Jimmy asks
a question to one person or the entire group with a fact
about that person.
First was Katie, who fell out of her bathing suit while
swimming once. However, she is a cultured girl. She plays
the double bass. Next is Rob. Despite Rob being as bald as
a penny, he had a perm from 6th grade until graduation.
Jimmy says that too much male hormone leads to baldness,
so he should stop swallowing. Our third contestant is
Christine who was a bit of a showoff as a child. In her
3rd grade show-and-tell day, she stuffed her grandmother's
bra and put it on. Finally, we have Matt who resembles
Orlando Jones a little. Before the show, he worked for
Bohemian Rides, although that changed recently he says.
One of his loves, and I quote, is crappy pop music like
the song "Milkshake".
Round one is a basic game show foil: buzz in when you know
the answer and give Jimmy the answer. If you're right, you
get one point. However, the buzzers are attached to your
opponent's asses, so you must spank the person to your
side in order to lock in. Another common game show foil:
lowest score is out of the game. All the questions this
round have the word "butt" or "but" in them as a clue and
gag. Matt quickly buzzes in to the first question,
responding that Beavis's partner is Butthead. Christine
spanks away, while giggling, that Amy Fisher dated Joey
Buttafuoco. Rob scored two points very quickly when he
know the candy bar that Bart Simpson endorses,
Butterfinger, and the 70s Clint Eastwood movie "Every
Which Way But Loose".
For fun, Jimmy switches the contestant order around so
that Katie and Christine stand near each other for some
"girl-on-girl action and guy-on-guy love". The next
question was the first wrong answer in US Distraction
history, as Matt said that the buttfish was the large
northern flatfish, which is halibut. Luckily, he made up
for it by getting the popular turkey brand Butterball. Rob
also clocked in a right answer with Sir Mix-A-Lot's song
"I Like Big Butts". Round one comes to a close now with
Rob getting 3 points, Matt having 2, Christine having 1,
and Katie having nothing. Despite all the spanking fun,
Katie must go.
Round two is more of a challenge distraction than the last
one. The host will be reading questions, which contestants
must fill in the last part of a duo. They just have to
buzz in to answer, and the buzzer is on their podium this
time. However, for 5 bonus points, they can put as many
clothespins as they can on their face. The most at the end
of the round gets the points. Matt locks in an early two
knowing Starsky & Hutch along with Mork & Mindy. Rob
answers back with knowing Tweedle Dee & Dum and also the
comedy duo Cheech & Chong. Christine finally rings in
despite whimpering for pain with Ren & Stimpy. Rob locks
in with Sonny & Cher. Christine locks in a second time,
despite stalling from putting the pins on her facial
cheeks, getting Will & Grace. Rob gets three more points
with questions such as Turner & Hooch and Sodom &
Gomorrah. Matt, however, picks up four with Itchy &
Scratchy, Batman & Robin, Sanford & Son, and Anthony &
Cleopatra. The pain stops for the contestants, though, as
time expires. Christine got 2 points and 24 clothespins,
Matt had 7 points and 37 clothespins, but Rob won with 12
points, including 5 bonus for getting 38 pins in.
Christine's time has come as she has been eliminated.
The final round was more of a dare to buzz in than
anything. It only took 5 correct answers to win a brand
new Ford Mustang (I'm not kidding). This time, they must
know their action movies and action film stars. However,
when you buzz in, you get hit in the back or head with
some blunt object. If you are right, your opponent also
gets hit. If you are wrong, you get hit in the head with
something as well. It kicks off with Rob knowing I'll be
Back came from The Terminator. After acknowledging the
pain, Matt clocks in three answers with knowing who plays
Peter Parker in Spiderman, Toby McGuire; who played
Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford; and the three actresses in
the current Charley's Angels, which are Barrymore, Liu,
and Diaz. Jimmy calls for the stunt people to bring out
the chairs to hit Rob and Matt with him. Rob gets another
one with knowing Top Gun starring Tom Cruise and another
knowing The Rock's real name, Dwayne Johnson. However,
Matt gets his 4th with Angelina Jolie starring in "Tomb
Raider". Rob ties it up knowing the Keanu Reeves trilogy
"The Matrix". However, the game came to a close when Matt
knew Vin Diesel starred in the movie XXX. Matt just won a
brand new Ford Mustang, sort of, and Rob goes home.
The bonus round shows off Matt's new Mustang. However,
it's not all his yet. As he stands on the staircase with
Jimmy, the eliminated players come out with implements of
car torture. Jimmy has four questions. Each one right
keeps a part of the car safe; each wrong damages a part of
the car. Matt has the choice of two topics: lunchmeat or
science. Despite Jimmy's efforts, he chose science. The
questions have something science involved, but are just
general knowledge. The first question, which was to save
the headlights, was answered correctly by Matt knowing
what car company makes the Neon, which is Dodge. Next is
to save the roof. Matt, who appears to be nearly in tears
at the sight, misses the question, not knowing what Gene
played in the band KISS, which is Simmons. Katie and
Christine dump paint all over the roof of the car. The
third question, which could break the windshield, was
answered incorrectly, with Matt not knowing who sang the
song "She Blinded Me With Science". The correct answer is
Thomas Dolby. Rob, very gleefully, kicks the crap out of
the windshield with the business end of a sledgehammer,
leaving it through the glass as a souvenir. The final
question, to keep the doors on the car, was answered
correctly, though, by Matt knowing Schulz made the comic
strip Peanuts. So, by the end of the game, Matt wins a
brand new Ford Mustang
.. with yellow and pink paint on
the top, a smashed windshield, and a pretty nice repair
bill along with taxes for the car!
Opinion of game- All in all, it's a very nice little game
show. If you are a game show purist, you will probably not
like it, but if you evolve with the game show of today, it
should strike you as fun. Despite the distractions, this
game is a straight up quizzer, although a bit too easy.
The difficulty switch between the questions on Win Ben
Stein's Money and Distraction is astounding. The
distractions do what they are meant to do also, especially
evident in round 2 and three. Christine almost missed her
questions because she couldn't get over the pain. You also
saw contestants Rob and Matt not wanting to buzz in on
occasion so the stunt people wouldn't hit them with the
chairs. One of the big selling to this game, though, is
Jimmy. He knows exactly when to be a host and when to be a
comedian. When it's time to cheer the contestant on and
read questions, he gets to it seamlessly. He also is an
excellent comedian knowing exactly the right times when to
come in. The set is decent enough, with a living room
looking set. This is one of the few newer game shows that
does not use too much evident dynamic veri-light
technology. One of the more annoying parts of the game was
the forced enthusiasm by the contestants at points, which
was clearly evident at the beginning. The expression of
Matt winning the new car was expected, but it got
overboard in the opening. This is one of the better shows
to come out this year, definitely as good or better than
80% of what GSN has showed so far, which isn't saying
much. Hopefully this show will have a nice long run and
receive a renewal. |