Most Extreme Elimination Challenge

Running from 2003-2007 on American network SpikeTV, "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" (better known simply as "MXC") was a warped, sometimes twisted but always consistently amusing experimental program that supplied endless laughs and even an occasional pained groan from viewers. The premise is simple: take a classic extreme Japanese game- show known as "Takashi's Castle" and re-edit the footage, overdubbing the original dialog with a small group of talented voice-over artists in order to give it a new, creative spin for the sake of comedy. And my god, does it work!

The series follows two "teams" in every episode who are forced to go through frankly demented physical challenges in order to earn points. The teams are often amusing contradictions of one another ("Cops VS Cons", "Donors VS Addicts", etc.) or just nonsensical groupings created for the sake of random comedy. ("Meat Handlers VS Cartoon Voice Actors" being one that pops into mind) All the while, our two hilarious announcers Kenny Blankenship (voiced by Chris Darga) and Vic Romano (voiced by Victor Wilson) provide us with amusing banter and play- by-plays to often laugh-out-loud effect.

The highlight of the series is definitely the insanity of some of the physical challenges players are forced into and how it is contrasted with the great overdubbed humor. You'll see people being thrown about, having their bodies slammed into walls, falling into pools of water, and just generally being brutalized in a series of events each episode. My personal favorite has always been "Log Drop"- a challenge where contestants must run over a series of rollers that will inevitably begin spinning the second one foot is placed on them. It makes for some of the most insane spills and bails I've ever seen.

Our two leads are just a blast and a half. Blankenship is portrayed as a High School dropout with an unprofessional work ethic but a bubbly attitude that only got the job because his "uncle owns the network." He is balanced by "straight man" Romano, who takes his job perhaps a bit too seriously, causing him to often become angry with his co-host. Supporting characters on the show also include the creepy Guy LeDouche (voiced by John Cervenka)- a pith-helmet wearing weirdo with a French accent and a questionable sexuality, and Captain Tenneal (also voiced by Cervenka)- a gruff field-captain who often introduces each episode's teams and stands by during the challenges.

It is without question that the series is definitely going for the low-brow end of humor, but I think that it works well and compliments the original footage that is being subverted by the new editing and narration. This is not the type of series you watch for complex satirical analysis of modern social/political issues. This is good, old junkfood TV. The type of show you pop on when you get home after work and just wanna relax and have a few silly belly- laughs. I also will comment however, that there's plenty of really subtle recurring gags that do make it worthwhile should you decide to watch throughout the entire series. You may notice recurring characters, family names and even one or two very minor sub-plots here and there that reward long-time viewers.

As it stands, even nearly ten years after production ended, I still find myself loading up old episodes of MXC to watch. It's just good fun and I honestly think its a shame that it ended when it did. It could have kept going forever as far as I am concerned. Silly, fun and broad humor like this never goes out of fashion. I give it a very strong 9 out of 10.

This is one of those shows that I only watch when I happen to turn on the TV when it is on (or more often, when I come home and my roommates are watching it, since I almost never watch TV), but every single time I see it I am rolling on the floor laughing. It's easy to call something like this stupid, mindless fun, but the idea of it is great and, if nothing else, the voiceovers are brilliant. The hosts say the most random things imaginable but are unbelievably hilarious. I just saw an episode a few minutes ago which featured some military guys against some beauty pageant people (that's about the extent of my knowledge, I couldn't hear much more than that over my own laughter) and one of hosts says, "I just tried to talk to the beauty pageant winner but she totally blew me off," to which the other host understandingly replied, "Yeah, they win one beauty pageant and it goes right to their life-like heads."

Such a simple line, but I almost fell out of my chair laughing at it. The jokes are not really jokes, they hide their punch-lines in normal sounding conversation which makes it even funnier because, as Gallagher has taught us, "Comedy is a surprise, you see. If I just did what you expected all the time it wouldn't be damn funny!" Needless to say, the jokes in this show are so outlandish and so random that it's impossible not to laugh, even if only at the obscurity of it all. The summary line above, for example, was exclaimed by a woman as she jumped up to take her best shot at becoming one of the ten most painful eliminations of the day.

This has been brought up on the message boards for this movie, but if they ever come out with a DVD collection of this show I will be the first guy in line to add it to my tiny collection of TV show DVDs, along with my Simpsons collections and Sledge Hammer collection. This show makes me laugh harder and more consistently than The Simpsons, which is by far my favorite TV show of all time. Every episode of MXC that I see brings it closer to the top of my list, and although it will never pass the Simpsons, this is not a show to be missed. Bring on the DVDs!

If your sense of humor runs along the lines of ridiculous, unbelievably silly, and downright immature (like mine!) then you will absolutely LOVE this show! The Japanese "sports" challenges themselves are very goofy and quite creative. My favorite challenges involve jumping off a trampoline and trying to stick to a Velcro wall and running across huge spinning foam logs above a muddy water pit. Just watching the show on mute could make me erupt in helpless giggles, but what really sends me over the edge is the outrageous comments made by the voice-overs. The combination of the two is unmatched in television, as far as I'm concerned.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, you can only see it on TV, since it hasn't released to DVD yet. I am fervently hoping it comes out on DVD soon.

On a channel full of gross-out South Park rip-offs, Star Trek and Beer bellies, the show MXC has to be the gold that comes up from the cheap tin foil. The show is a spoof of the old gameshow called "Takeshi no Taji", featuring comical dubbing and strange as I'll get competitions.

MXC is probably one of the better shows on these days. And very interesting to those who want to know how strange Asian gameshows can get.

As one of the exec producers and creators of MXC, I would like to thank all the loyal fans of the show who have remained loyal throughout its irregular scheduling on Spike. As anybody in television knows, after we license the show to a network, scheduling matters are pretty much out of our hands. Fortunately, one thing that is finally under our control is the release of MXC on DVDs. After two and a half years of trying to secure all the various rights and licenses from all the many parties who have a finger in the MXC pie, we are pleased to announce that we will very soon close a deal with a distributor so MXC will be out on DVD sometime this fall. We originally hoped to have closed a deal so DVDs would be available this summer, but as you probably know, the whole digital content business is going through a revolutionary (i.e., very scary for the financial boys) phase and the already prolonged process was extended even further. The release date will not be be finally determined for a few weeks, but it will most likely be sometime from late September through early October. If anybody wants to be placed on a mailing list to receive official notification of a release date and other information, please write me at mostextreme2003@yahoo.com. Thanks for letting us not get eliminated!