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The Hardest Quiz Show In The World

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The trend in modern quiz shows is to build tension by making the contestant wait for an extended pause after answering, before the correct answer is revealed.

In The Hardest Quiz Show In The World, there is only one question, it's extremely difficult, it's worth 10 million dollars, it's asked at the beginning of the show, and the game's atmosphere is so tense with anticipation that the whole show consists of nothing but waiting for the correct answer to be revealed. During this time there is a faint, pulsing drumroll, eery music plays, the stage lights turn different ghostly colors, the camera pans above the audience's heads, the host sighs ponderingly, and finally, after the most dramatic 45-minute wait any TV watcher has ever experienced, the host announces that we will find out if the contestant's answer is correct . . . after these messages.

phundug, Apr 17 2007

The best team ever on Uni Challenge http://www.bbc.co.u...ery/340/scumbag.jpg
[po, Apr 17 2007]

5:30 Man vs The Mindspool http://www.tvgohome.com/
[zen_tom, Apr 17 2007]

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       //The trend in modern quiz shows is to build tension by making the contestant wait for an extended pause after answering// - which is why "University Challenge" is still the best quiz show.
hippo, Apr 17 2007
  

       The question should be asked at the beginning of the series, with each subsequent episode showing nothing but facial close-ups of different contestants sweating (while playing a tension-building drum-roll type effect). At the end of the series, one of them is made to leap about screaming, is given a prize and told they're great.
zen_tom, Apr 17 2007
  

       //At the end of the series, one of them is made to leap about screaming, is given a prize and told they're great.//
Is this independent of the question answering? I'd like that, if, after six weeks of being locked in a dark tv studio with Chris Tarrant and one hundred or so increasingly piss-soaked competitior/spectators, hunger and the persistent drum-rolling discomfort gnawing at the collective sense of social responsibility, one of the attendees - perhaps someone who hadn't even been asked the question - is, as zen has written, made to jump about (possibly at gun point), is given a prize (a speedboat?) and is told that they are great. After that, Tarrant disappears down a trapdoor and the half-crazed competitors are left alone to drift off, bewildered, blinking into the sunlight. Art prank quiz show.
calum, Apr 17 2007
  

       //speedboat//   

       Come and have a look at what you could've won...
Jinbish, Apr 17 2007
  

       The quizmaster could be Tarrant (or Bowen) but in a balaclava.   

       And every now and then, the lights pointed in different directions, and dramatic music played, to keep the contestants thinking that they are just about to be asked the answer.   

       If anyone speaks, tries to sit down, or walk away, they are roundly pistol whipped and forced to adopt an uncomfortable interrogation-style stress position.
zen_tom, Apr 17 2007
  

       When the ad breaks come, kill all the lights and, for the duration of the break, play at ear-throbbingly loud volumes blasts of white or near-white noise, with the screams of children over the top. On the back wall, behind Tarrant's head, his eyes shining white and manic, framed in wooly black, flash queasily-colourwashed footage of chickens being slaughtered, as the host sings softly yet audibly "Is it raining, is it snowing..."
calum, Apr 17 2007
  

       By the way, if you think it's expensive to buy commercial space during the Super Bowl, try advertising during that last-five-minute break. There will be enough funding for the game show to pay the prize, the host, and the producers a healthy profit.
phundug, Apr 17 2007
  

       Paxman's forte is tutting and deep sighing as though each wrong answer is completely ridiculous.
po, Apr 17 2007
  

       This is just a minor variation on those radio shows where they ask some question until someone answers it (usually "name that tune").
DrCurry, Apr 17 2007
  

       I guess the limit of this is a show where the prize is infinitely large but you have to sit there for your entire life before you hear the correct answer.
phundug, Apr 17 2007
  

       This should actually be a series.
bungston, Apr 17 2007
  

       phundug: isn't that called Catholicism?
DrCurry, Apr 17 2007
  

       //Paxman's forte is tutting and deep sighing// That, plus mis-pronouncing any scientific word more complex than "atom". The man is quite disappointing, and I'm sure he'd sneer at anyone who mis- pronounced the name of a Greek poet.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 17 2007
  

       //after the most dramatic 45-minute wait any TV watcher has ever experienced// ['undug] - would you honestly just sit there and watch? Would you not just go and do something else for 44 of those minutes?
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 17 2007
  

       [MaxBuch] that's part of the fun. There'd be lights, dramatic pans, close ups, close downs, audience candor and other attractions. Perhaps live ...... Or maybe dead monkies are released sporadically.   

       If you need more convincing, read [calum]'s post.
Night, Apr 17 2007
  

       Actually, even better: you never know when the answer will be announced. It could be after 41 minutes, 42, sometimes 39 -- and the drumrolls would get louder a bit just to tease you... believe me, you will be glued to your seat.
phundug, Apr 17 2007
  

       This idea is awesome. First class satire.
Texticle, Apr 17 2007
  

       //There'd be lights, dramatic pans, close ups, close downs, audience candor and other attractions// Yes, but would there be something to keep you watching while all this was going on?
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 17 2007
  

       //First class satire// or is it parody?
xaviergisz, Apr 17 2007
  

       [xaviergisz], keep watching - because we'll be revealing the answer to that question, very soon now...
imaginality, Apr 18 2007
  

       Does Tarrant just sit there? Or does he have to stretch out the moment? As in, 45 minutes of   

       "So you're sure? This is 10 million, that's 10 mmmmmmmilllllllll -ioooooooooonnnnnnn pounds. Do you want to change your mind? Well, shall I tell you the real answer? Are you sure?..."   

       What if in order to win the prize the contestant not only has to answer correctly but get him to reveal the answer in the correct minute? They have to um and ah and sweat convincingly until the right time...
TheLightsAreOnBut, Apr 18 2007
  

       [bigsleep] how long have you been asleep? I'm guessing the reference is more from WWTBAM.
zen_tom, Apr 18 2007
  

       Mice: "Can you tell us the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything?"

Deep Thought: "Tricky!"

Mice: "But can you do it?"

Deep Thought: "Yes. But it may take some time."
DrBob, Apr 18 2007
  


 

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