You Greedy Bastard!

I'm not ashamed to admit it. When I was younger, learned alot of useful (and not so useful) information watching game shows. I counted watching Jeopardy as doing my homework in 9th grade, I learned more from Alex Trebeck than my history teacher Ms. Leader. Watching Wheel of Fortune gave me a slight edge on word tests in the 2nd grade. Family Feud helped shape my opinions about the intelligence of people around me. Price Is Right kept me staying within my budget at the grocery store. Hollywood Squares taught me not to look at celebrities as role models, because most of them are dumb as fidduck!

Now that I'm grown, I see that game shows still teach me. No I take that back, game shows convince me...that people are greedy and retarded.

I was flipping channels earlier tonight and came across a new (well, new to me) game show called 1 vs. 100. The object of the show is confusing at first, but when you watch it for a minute, it becomes clear. Yet and still, I still don't quite know how to describe it to you. But, all you need to know is that you answer questions against 100 other people, and as they get answers wrong, they get eliminated and you earn money in the process. The goal is to earn $1 Million. At any point in the game, you can choose to stop and keep the money you have won so far. But, if you keep going, and you get answer wrong, whatever money you've earned goes to the people remaining from that 100 and they split it amongst themselves. If you're not sure about the answer, you can have the 100 answer it for you. The catch is that they ask you some crazy ass multiple choice, double-entendre type questions like:

If you wrote a Dear John letter to a John Deere, what would you be doing?
A.) Quitting your Computer
B.) Breaking Up With Your Tractor
C.) Cancelling Your Sneakers
[the answer is B]

So, I come across the show and see some dude, breathing hard, pondering, thinking. He looks to have earned $263,000. Instead of taking the money, he decides to go for more. If he gets the answer wrong, he loses all of the money to the remaining 15 people who walk home with $44k each. Once you decide to see the next question, there is no turning back. See what happens HERE.


Yes, that is a 100%, top of the line, no bones about it....DUMBASS! What's the difference between $263k and $1Million when you probably have $15 and a Chic-Fil-A coupon to your name? Not a got damn thing.

Seeing that made me realize that damn near ever game show/reality game show on television is centered around greed. There used to be a time when you'd actually be happy for a person when they won, or sad for a person when they lost, not anymore. Everybody is greedy as hell. I've seen people on Deal or No Deal lose upwards of $300k because "I came for it all, Howie!" What's worst is that they'll have their dumbass relatives on the sideline encouraging them to risk money, as if they got $300k sitting at the crib for them to borrow just in case. Out of all these new game shows, it seems like the only one that has sensible people on it is that show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. For the most part, the people on that show know when is when, and they usually walk out happy and richer.

Did all of this start with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The show where people could earn $450k, but have good ol' Regis dangle that $1Million in front of them like a carrot. The show where people would want money so bad that they'd risk what they already earned by calling people half-way across the country to get what they hope is the right answer? Yeah, probably so.

Damn shame, what happened to just being happy that you won something and knowing that you was walking out with more than what you came with?