Lantern7

I don't know if that happened, but it would've been during Inferno II. Once again, this was the season where Julie pissed on Coral's bed. I miss Timmy. I remember the mission where the teams were selling stuff, and Timmy was shouting, "Buy a bucket before you kick it!" Cut to confused-looking old people. Good times.

I used to recap the show for a reality-based website. BOTS2 was my final season, because of a number of reasons . . . one of them being my increasingly negative recaps. In my defense, I had to deal with one of the worst seasons in Challenge history, as well as Eric Fucking Nies. You deal with that every week and not be negative. Unlike the original BOTS, BOTS2 was more team-based, where three captains were selected before missions. If a team won, the captains would vote off one of the other players, and the reverse happened with a loss. And unlike BOTS, the results of BOTS2 were more lopsided, with the men winning all but three missions. . . one of those "losses" being thrown for reasons I'll get into later. The women didn't come up well. Sure, the eliminations of Abram and Mike were shockers, but none resonated as soundly as when the female captains kept scrub Angela (fresh off being a pest on Road Rules: X-Treme) and eliminated the likeable Cynthia (RW: Miami). The most painful boot came when Coral and Tina more or less bullied fellow captain Sophia into voting off Ruthie. Sophia had several breakdowns on Elimination Hill, but none as painful as that one. It sucked . . . you want nice lesbians like Ruthie and Sophia, you get hatchetfaced harpies like Rachel and (later on) Evelyn. The guys weren't above skullduggery, such as their voting off of Challenge rookie Brad. But then came the penultimate mission, which they threw to force co-captain Arissa in the game for the finale. After their tongue-in-cheek/"aren't we so wacky?" performance, Mark stepped aside to let his buddy Eric join Theo and Dan on the final team. Eric had been insufferable throughout the season . . . gone was the oddly likeable guy from BOTS1. Instead, we had a jackass who kept pimping his special jump rope. During one Elimination Hill ceremony, he raged about somebody stealing it. That provided a few laughs, but not enough. In the end, the men handily defeated the women (Arissa, Coral and Sophia), and each guy got a then-record $60,000. Even with a likeable dude like Dan Setzler winning, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. There's a lot I'm missing, like Steven slapping Shane and getting thrown off, the episode where Sophia's mini-fro went straight, and Ayanna screaming, "I SLEPT IN MY UNIFORM BECAUSE I WANTED TO WIN TODAY!!!" Oh, and drunken rookie Derrick following a frog around and singing to it. What mental scars do you guys take away from BOTS2?

I hated that, because I had to relate to Veronica as a human being. Also, Julie made crybaby motions after she argued with Veronica that she wasn't in any danger. Also: JULIE PISSED ON CORAL'S BED. Even if you don't think much of Coral, that's still a mountain of insane from Julie.

Yeah, Dino isn't for everyone. Some of his work on Moral Orel can feel like a punch to the neck and genitals at the same time.

I think the best route would be through either Joe Kelly or Posehn/Duggan. Kelly's run is collected in a series of $29.95 trade paperbacks titled Deadpool Classic. The Posehn/Duggan run starts with "Dead Presidents," where a rogue mage resurrects all of America's deceased commanders-in-chief. Hilarity and carnage ensues, as SHIELD tabs Deadpool to put the presidents back to six feet under.

Viewers barely had time to breathe in 2004, as The Inferno picked up where The Gauntlet left off. The rules for elimination rounds had changed: each team nominated two of their own for the Inferno, and the other team made a choice for that endgame. Both players then had a chance to get out of the Inferno by performing the best out of their team in a given mission. The other option was if the best player chose to go into the Inferno for himself. If it sounds convoluted . . . it was. I also have to mention that the Infernos were beyond stupid. They included enduring loud noises for a long period of time, moving blocks for a longer period of time, riding a treadmill for . .. you get the idea. For the most part, these were endurance challenges, and not very good ones at that. The quickest game was Bug Helmet, where Ace and Jeremy had to shove their heads into a box full of insects, and Ace wound up "bugging out" after six seconds. That was so quick, even Coral gave him grief over it. Yes, that's the same Coral who gotten taken out by a spider in The Gauntlet. The Inferno represents an important time in Challenge history, and not merely because this was the last time the flagging Road Rules franchise had alumni facing off against The Real World. A lot of drama stemmed from Road Rules' disgust with their weakest player, Katie. Katie was like Sarah in the season before, only more vocal in how badly her teammates were willing to fuck her over. One of the lowest points was MENSA reject Abram flagrantly throwing a mission with zero dignity, while Katie could do nothing but fume on the sideline. Katie did provide the season's epic highlight, when she cursed and screamed at Veronica, also taking out the "Verantula" with her bare hands. In her defense, Veronica had it coming for her continual shysty behavior. What else? There was the high wire mission, where Julie kept tugging on Veronica's safety harness, to the horror of everybody present. There was the awesome Wreck 'n' Roll mission, where Yellowcard played while the contestants wrecked rooms. There was Challenge rookie CT defeating Shane in the Inferno while taunting him, followed by his throwing a mission to send ex-castmate Leah into the Inferno. Oh, you had showmances between Mike (you couldn't keep him away) & Kendall and Leah & Darrell. This was also the season Darrell coined the term "Infuorno." In the end, Road Rules triumphed in what would be their final mission as a team, though the victory wasn't as epic as The Gauntlet. Anybody else want to share memories over the likes of Coral, Timmy, and the few seconds of Piggy that I never got around to catching?

Given how much Marvel is putting into Deadpool #27, which is coming out on Wednesday, I thought that I'd start a topic on the company's "Merc With A Mouth." In case you haven't heard, Deadpool is getting married, and Marvel will be putting out an issue featuring every writer synonymous with the character. That includes Fabian Niciez (who co-created Deadpool with Rob Liefeld), Mark Waid, Joe Kelly, Christopher Priest, Jimmy Palmiotti, Frank Tieri, Gail Simone, Daniel Way and Victor Gischeler, along with present scribes Brian Posehn (yes, the comedian) and Gerry Dugan. Even at a $9.99 price tag, I'll be in. Who's your favorite writer? I wound up getting all the "Deadpool Classic" books by Joe Kelly, even though I already had the issues. His work fleshed out Deadpool, and elevated himself into a higher tier. I think Priest's run was very disappointing, because I don't think Marvel's editorial department knew which way to take the character. I also like Posehn & Dugan's present run, though I still remain biased towards Kelly.

I'm guessing you had to be a boy from the Eighties to really get into it. That's a pity, since I thought the homages were near perfect. But I have to admit that I don't normally watch Community, so I might not be the right person to talk to about it.

On occasion, she does. Unfiltered, she can be quite dirty.

I don't know about horses. For the most part, the show has focused on litters. That said, a baby horse might be fun to see. Or a baby donkey. My mother is a sucker for those.

No, that would be Challenge 2000. Amaya was more well-behaved in BOTS1, back when she and Melissa were BFFs.

In the vein of the thread's title: who are your favorite comics? In my case, I'll defer to the last comic I've seen live: Maria Bamford. The woman is ten pounds of quirk in a five-pound bag. Like Gabriel, she's got impressive vocal range, and she makes it work.

I think it was Ruthie who said that Emily would've been "demon enough" to disassemble the puzzle. Then again, I vaguely remember Mark saying that his team beat the women by a half-hour, at least. More memories of this Challenge for me involves Melissa openly questioning the missions. I loved her so much, and I fretted over her each week, even though she wasn't in any real danger of getting voted off. And I liked her recaps, which weren't as self-indulgent as Colin's. Also, I was somewhat disturbed that James didn't say "dude" until near the end of his run. ETA for PumpkinSpice . . . I recapped this season, so I know what you mean about recording the stuff on VHS. I used to play, take notes, rewind, play, take notes, rewind, etc. Good times . . . this was back when I regarded Rachel, Veronica and Eric Friggin' Nies as human beings.

Out of curiosity, are there any other people like me who don't watch this show, yet watched G.I. Joe when they were kids? I think writer Dino Stamatopoulos (who I know is a weird puppy) did a great job capturing the essence of the cartoon and toy commercials, while mixing in the poignacy of a man turning 40 and trying to deny his age. Also, you had fun stuff like Destro getting killed, Abed/Fourth Wall breaking down reality, and Snake Eyes seemingly shocked speechless . . . which is one mean feat, since he never said anything in the series to begin with. Long story. Bonus points for making John Oliver play the Tomax and Xamot expies. ETA: How many of the original voice actors came back to play? I could've sworn that was the case for Duke and Flint.

After Battle of the Seasons and Battle of the Sexes, Bunim-Murray Productions decided to switch up the format for elimination. Instead of contestants being voted out for good (mostly due to low scores), they would have one chance to prove themselves by winning a do-or-die game. Winner stays, loser goes home. This would be a major turning point for BMP, and it would make a heroine out of Sarah Greyson. Sarah was a scrub . . . or at least she was on Road Rules: Campus Crawl. After underachieving in several missions, she was taken off by her castmates, most of whom were dicks about it (looking at you, Shane). Right off the bat, Darrell and Rachel immediately schemed to get her off the Road Rules team. Soon, they would be joined by the likes of Veronica and Adam . . . the latter being the ADD-addled jackass from RR: The Quest whose attitude sucked most of the time. Sarah would be voted into the Gauntlet five times, and she won all five times. She wound out taking out her best friend in one Gauntlet (Rachel the overgrown pixie from RW: Back to New York), she had major leg pain from hanging upside down in three Gauntlets, but she survived to join the final Road Rules team in their win over Real World. Speaking of Real World, the focus usually shined on Coral, who had found success on the Challenge circuit in BOTSeasons. She wasn't quite as good in this round, to the point where even her bestie Mike wound up voting her into the Gauntlet, whereupon she had a crying fit over it. Coral would take out her discount clone Tina in the Gauntlet, and she'd make the final RW team . . . but before the final mission, she got bit by a spider, and she suffered a severe allergic reaction, costing her team in the end. Some say it was exhaustion, but I buy the spider bite story. It's more tragic that way. I hated how Mike and Nathan threw hissy fits over it . . . though it was excusable in Nathan's case, since he probably knew he was never going to come back. There's a lot of other stuff to talk about here . . . like Rachel and Veronica lowering themselves to having a threesome with psycho Abram, Trishelle getting injured biking and going to "the medical place," Mike and Trishelle having a showmance (Mike's second for the show) much to Coral's chagrin, and Darrell killing the English language. Also, I'm still bitter than Trishelle upset Steve in the Gauntlet, and BMP didn't even give us footage of him leaving. But mostly, I'll remember Sarah hanging in there and winning. When BMP gave us a montage of her highlights in the finale, I almost broke down. No lie.

I thought maybe we could have threads devoted to old seasons of The Challenge. I figured we could start with the original Battle Of The Sexes. We wound up with a mixed bag. Sure, we had fun and drama and Ruthie showing that she was more than a dangerous alcoholic. But then they was shit like Puck trying to run the show, up to and including having an episode dedicated to his wedding. He also took delight in picking fights with Ellen, whose skin was way too thin for the show. James and Emily's relationship took priority a few times, including when Emily left her team in the lurch when James was voted off. Finally, you had the final men's team (Mark Long, Jamie and Colin) cheat by working off the girls' (Ruthie, Ellen, Lori) puzzle in order to win. Hell, the first episode had so much to offer. You had Puck spitting in David Edwards' face, leading to his ejection from the game, which led to a cast revolt . . . which had to be staged, because grown men acting like that was too brutal to bear. You also had the feud between NOLA cast members Julie and Melissa, which ended prematurely when Melissa and Amaya won the first event (Sargent Says, anyone?), and Melissa proceeded to get the Inner Circle to vote Julie out. This was epic, because Julie was a huge Mormon pain in the ass, while Melissa was awesome . . . at least for me. Does anybody else want to share some BOTS1 memories? Antoine's Belgian awesomeness, the aborted David/Ayanna showmance, Emily using her "bloody axe" to chop down Rachel and Veronica . . . mostly good times.

I vote for "Small Talk: The Gauntlet." Just to honor the first do-or-die games, the real gamechangers in the show's history.

I just found out one of Spencer's idols is Mitt Romney. Suddenly, I'm rethinking my seat on his bandwagon. Whammo .. . swearing on his badge doesn't mean jack to Tony. He sees Survivor as a moral vacuum. He's like Russell Hantz, only not nearly as Chaotic Evil.

This thread is all about one of the wilder, more memorable RW seasons. At the very least, when Jamie Chung does something, we can post it here. It's not like we expect RWers to become legit actors, but I never saw her as an up-and-coming starlet. What do you take away from this season? Well, we had Brad and Randy's rampaging bromance. There was the time Brad and Robin got hammered and went to jail on their own. Then there was poor miscast Frankie, who was lured out of BMP's Starting Over, even though she was a better fit there. She agitated people, showed a fear of boats, and acted like the most "alt" chick ever. Sure, she was a pain in the ass, but her death from cystic fibrosis remains pretty tragic. Oh, and there was also Jacquese, a cool guy with way too much common sense for the show, and Cameran and her nut-shots. Oh, and Charlie, but nobody remembers him. What do you guys think of the original San Diego season? At least nobody sucked as hard as Frank and Zach from the subsequent San Diego-based season.

Thanks for the love, guys . . . but the seasons have blurred into a huge mess for me. I draw blanks a lot more often. In fact, when I saw Erika on the list I linked above, I could not remember her at all. Any idea for what to call this thread? I'm leaning towards "TRUE STOR-REH!," a la Jon from RW2

EC Amber . . . good point. That's why cast members of The Real World get all the Subway they can eat. Damn, I'm still mad at Kass. I guess that the idea of a Brains rebound into F3 was too good to be true. Spencer and/or Tash can shove Kass into a fire, and I wouldn't be too broken up about it.

Anybody else hate Kass as much as I do? I know that Sarah's probably a huge pill (not as big as Trish, though), but I feel that Kass has joined the bully faction of the game (and Woo). Stupid Kass. Not much else to add. When I see challenges, I wonder what would happen if J'Tia was still in the game. This week: she would've fell into the water before Probst officially started the game.

Well, I liked the season opener, and I think Amy is more than a "foul-mouthed Cathy." Granted, the Anna Kournikova-esque sketch shouldn't have made it on the show, but I thought the rest of it was pretty good.

I'm pretty sure we're not going to see Arielle and Ashley after the season ends. They're too normal for any Challenges. Meanwhile, the rest of the cast is a hot, unattractive mess. I'd say anything would be an improvement, but BMP are experts at finding the bottom of the barrel.

This is a thread for discussion of The Boondocks comic strip, the biggest casualty of the TV series. You can reminisce about Jolly Jenkins, Huey and Caesar looking for a mate for Condolezza Rice, Robert and Tom watching Brokeback Mountain in horror, and other stuff that will never make the show. Oh, and remember when Riley smacked Jazmine and Cindy upside the head with a toy lightsaber, and he was pissed that it didn't actually cut? That, too. Good times.