Wipeout Has To Be the New AFV

When I was still in my teens during summer one of the TV shows I looked forward to on a hot night with a popsicle in hand was America’s Funniest Home Videos. Corny host, corny jokes and just plain funny videos of Americans making asses out of themselves. We got to laugh at ourselves and it didn’t matter how bad of a day I had, that show put me in a good mood. Sometimes laughter is a redeeming value for those critics who spurn such empty-headed entertainment. It’s also the one show you share with someone else–friends, relatives, or in my case, my wife.

AFV is still around and has been reincarnated into many forms–one of my favorites still being with co-host Daisy Fuentes, though I like Bob Saget’s bad jokes and Tom Bergeron has a certain appeal too. I watch it occasionally, but it’s not quite the same experience. I have to say I think I’ve replaced it with Wipeout. Daisy Fuentes is replaced with sexy, smiling Jill Wagner and Bob Saget and Tom Bergeron are replaced by John Anderson and John Henson who tell the same bad jokes.

The show is like a videogame come to life and for a good laugh, which is actually empathetic with the player on screen, there’s nothing better than a brutal wipeout. We all know if it was us up there on the TV we’d be getting our faces bashed and falling off slippery, wiggling mats too. The obstacle courses are insane and unfair on purpose. The producers want that slow-mo shot of someone screaming and their head snapping back into the water below.

This is family fun but is it fair to laugh at the misery of people losing out on 50,000? Yes! They know what they were getting into and you have to have one hell of a sense of humor to be a contestant. They’re all my heroes.