MXC - Most eXtreme elimination Challenge

So, perhaps the acronym doesn't work, but this show was absolutely amazing. I hope that you've already familiarized yourselves with the unparalleled joy that is watching the cramp-inducing hilarity that was MXC. For better or for worse, the show is now off the air, but from for five glorious years, from 2003 - 2007, viewers were able to watch contestants who were an intriguing combination of brave and stupid perform ridiculously nonsensical stunts, all set to the biting commentary of Kenny Blankenship and Vic Romano.

But let me back up for a moment... It all originally began as a Japanese game show called Takeshi's Castle, a weekly serial whose premise was that Count Takeshi, the owner of a besieged castle, and his assistant would create challenges and obstacles in order to fend off waves of attacking soldiers. These obstacles would include, say, rolling giant cardboard rocks down narrow, walled-in slopes, while daring contestants (attacking soldiers) to find a way past the rocks and to the castle walls.

Simple enough.

Now, first things first: MXC is simply the episodes of Takeshi's Castle dubbed in English and transformed into slapstick comedy. The premise of MXC was that two men, Vic Romano and Kenny Blankenship, host a game show where contestants attempt to successfully pass obstacles while being mercilessly mocked. Vic Romano is the name given to man who plays Count Takeshi in the Japanese original, and Kenny Blankenship is the man who plays the count's assistant. Mind you: all of the footage is the same. All that has changed is the commentary, and that, apparently, makes all the difference.

Along with Vic and Kenny are Captain Tenneal, a field marshal of sorts who guides the contestants through each challenge. He begins each episode by conversing with the contestants as they're grouped en masse before releasing them into the field by shouting, "Let's go!" Guy LeDouche is the field reporter for the show. He goes around and interviews the contestants before and after attempting the obstacles, and consistently makes inappropriate comments of a sexual nature to contestants both male and female.

In short, each episode is twenty minutes of non-stop laughter interspersed with sympathetic flinches when contestants injure themselves (as they often do). ABC created an obvious and horrible ripoff of the show called Wipeout. I urge you to never, ever watch it. Watching garbage like this only encourages TV executives to continue torturing us with similar outrages.

Go to youtube and watch a clip or two. Then go and buy the complete series - it's totally worth it.