Saturday Night Torture...!

Once upon a time (or if you prefer, the late 20th Century), Saturday Night Game Shows were nice, kind, enjoyable Shows, the kind of thing that evoked warmth amongst those that gathered around the talking telly box to bask in the glory of that week’s edition of The Generation Game, the kind of shows that encouraged teamwork, cooperation and good ol’ fun.

Now, however, here in the 21st Century, things are much more different. And like most things nowadays, things are also a lot crueller. Hence why the Beeb is now obsessed with creating Game Shows that encourage cruelty, torture and backstabbing, as opposed to teamwork, cooperation and good ol’ fun. Game Shows that require contestants to humiliate themselves and each other...for big Cash Prizes!!! It’s just a step below self mutilation.

101 Ways to leave a Game Show (BBC1) is one of the latest Torture Shows to make its way onto terrestrial TV, and by gum, whoever commissioned this definitely has a taste for the wicked (as in evil, not as in the long running West End Musical).

Picture it – Eight Test Subjects...er, I mean Contestants, are forced to answer a multiple choice question, each choosing a different potential answer. With their Answer chosen, the poor, unsuspecting lab monkeys, er, contestants are then strapped into various potential death traps, ranging from being thrown off of a high building in a shopping trolley to being flipped over the back of an Armchair into a Swimming Pool. I’m not making this up!! The one who gets the question wrong gets the boot...off the roof or into the pool.

Now normally I’d be raving about a Show like this. But perhaps this Week my sadistic side has been weakened by too much Ice Cream. Because I honestly found 101 Ways to leave a Game Show perhaps a bit too sadistic for my taste. I’m sure some people out there get a kick out of seeing an overweight middle aged woman who suffers badly from vertigo get thrown off the high building into a freezing cold swimming pool, but those people must also surely enjoy going out at night to kick puppies and murder prostitutes!!

It doesn’t help that you’ve got king of the gloating, big headed arseholes (AKA Steve Jones) presenting the Show, making the contestants weep in fear just before he presses the button that sends to the swimming pool 100 feet below (as well as an early grave). Jones has all the personality of a wart on Hitler’s Bum Cheek, and whenever words come out of his ugly mouth, I just find myself sitting there, wishing the big useless lump would trip and tumble off the top of the 101 Building!!

If you’re a serial killer or Jigsaw from the Saw Movie Franchise, then this will be right up you’re alleyway. If you’re a self respecting, normal member of society, then you may have a bit of a laugh whilst watching, but afterwards you will no doubt feel a pang of extreme guilt tearing at you’re guts!!

And that’s exactly what you deserve...!