The Gong Show (2017) - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from The Gong Show.

[Kromm]

At first I went "Tommy who"? And this is coming from someone who knows a decent amount of Brit celebs who have no US presence.

Then I read carefully and realized that it's actually Mike Myers pretending to be someone else.

Er. Okay.

Also there's this:

That's some weird ass makeup. Is it supposed to look that fake?

 

I do like that Mike's underplaying the voice. That will get around the Austin Powers comparisons (not that this character looks like Austin either).

[SayMyName]

Terrible.

[Wings]

2 hours ago, SayMyName said:

Terrible.

ditto

Mike Meyers.  Ugh.  Why? 

[Mr. Sparkle]

There were some ok moments, but it was mostly pretty bad. The character Mike Meyers was playing was the worst part. 

[mtlchick]

I have to say, I was irked that Married with Bananas won over the jump rope guy, who I thought was awesome, so there's that. And surprisingly I laughed through most of the show, so I didn't hate it overall.

 

However, Mike Myers was really bizarre.  It didn't help that "cheeky monkeys" was a line he used when he played Simon on SNL, so it was if Simon finally got out of the tub, grew up, had bad plastic surgery and was trying to hide in plain sight.

[ketchuplover]

Fooled me.  

[mortonsalt]

3 hours ago, mtlchick said:

I have to say, I was irked that Married with Bananas won over the jump rope guy, who I thought was awesome, so there's that. And surprisingly I laughed through most of the show, so I didn't hate it overall.

 

However, Mike Myers was really bizarre.  It didn't help that "cheeky monkeys" was a line he used when he played Simon on SNL, so it was if Simon finally got out of the tub, grew up, had bad plastic surgery and was trying to hide in plain sight.

Yes, I think jump rope guy deserved to win. Married With Bananas was funny, but they were like a lot of the other novelty acts yesterday in that it was funny to watch them for a few minutes but there's not a lot of talent there especially since they messed up quite a few times. On the other hand, jump rope guy could probably make it to the live rounds of America's Got Talent. 

Also, I didn't hate it like most of the other posters do so far. I don't know if I could watch it every week because I think it depends on the chemistry of the judges and how funny they are, but the combination of Will Arnett, Ken Jeong, and Zach Galifianakis was great. They were hilarious and worked well together. 

I actually didn't mind Mike Myers too much either, but I guess that's because I was already prepared to hate his "new" character, so the bar was set pretty low for me. He seemed to do an okay job and was better than a lot of other game show hosts out there right now. 

[Mr. Sparkle]

26 minutes ago, mortonsalt said:

the combination of Will Arnett, Ken Jeong, and Zach Galifianakis was great. They were hilarious and worked well together. 

I agree with this. They were the best part of the show. Boring judges would absolutely kill this show. 

[MortysCleaningLady]

My favorite part was the warning on the screen to not put spiders in your mouth.    Blech!   (And I didn't realize that was Mike Meyers -- it explains so much.)

[ajsnaves]

I enjoyed this more than others.  In the end, I had fun watching it, which I suppose was the point.  But the next time a spider goes into someone's mouth, they better gong that shit off right away.

[Phishbulb]

Apparently Mary Bleeds (tarantula lady) is a sword swallower as well; maybe that would have gone over better.

[LoneHaranguer]

The editing was a little rough and the hosting was terrible, but it was still way ahead of what America's Got Talent has become. I really liked the Shaving Cream song; it was a fun break in the "competition" like the original would have with Gene Gene or the Unknown Comic. They should throw in another one or two such breaks now that it's an hour-long show.

[marketdoctor]

I liked that he was trying a new thing.  I'm not sure this is it, and I wonder if it's some sort of obscure legal thing (e.g. he can't host as himself), but it didn't completely work as camp, and didn't completely work as "straight", but it's early.  AGT was uneven (still is), but this episode was true to its roots.

I'm disappointed the jump rope guy didn't win; I wonder if they have a few "good"-ish acts that they pay to be on there, win or lose.

No, wait, I don't "wonder", and I think it's a good move. As others have noted, the key is the judge chemistry.

[Dobian]

I had no idea Mike Myers was playing the host.  The moment I saw him when channel surfing, I immediately caught on that it was a fake prosthetic face, I mean his face was huge!  It reminded me of Andy Kaufman when he played Tony Clifton.  It was so weird.  And I knew the person playing the host looked familiar but I was having a brain freeze so I googled it.  After I saw it was Meyers, I could tell right away by looking at his eyes, should have picked up on that.  The little I watched of the show, it seemed like every act was a gong act.  Even one of the ones that wasn't gonged (freaky guy playing the ukulele) should have been.  The old gong show at least mixed it up with good and horribly bad acts.  I'll have to watch the parts I missed.

[Wandering Snark]

I was entertained... didn't know it was Myers but it all makes some kind of sense now... there's a lot of Robin Williams homage in there too I think.

I just want a show where they fire questions at Uncle Clutch and the fast-talk lady and listen to the responses.

And yes, an A effort by the judging panel as well.

[backformore]

I don't get it.  

The couple spitting bananas -  that was the act I would have gonged immediately.   The judges were funny, but they seemed to be laughing too hysterically at all the acts, and at everything the host said or did. 

  I guess I'm not the audience for this show.

  Or maybe I wasn't quite drunk enough. 

[Johnny Dollar]

I found it unwatchable and boring. The judges must have been watching different acts because none of them were as funny as to justify the over their fake laughter. Or maybe Will Arnett was paying them by the laugh. Or they edited the same laugh scenes after each act.

At least the original version would throw in a legitimate act or two. The jump rope guy was the best but even he wasn't as good as any group of girls doing double Dutch in any school playground in America. 

[UncleChuck]

Quote

However, Mike Myers was really bizarre

Funny thing is...for those of us that remember the original "Gong Show"...Chuck Barris was equally as bizarre--perhaps even more so!

Forget the "talent" or the competition for winning.  This show is not about anything except the pursuit of foolishness.

Edited July 3, 2017 by UncleChuck

[LadyNebula]

As a severe arachnophobe, the tarantula lady scarred me for life. I was near tears screaming,"Why won't they gong her?  WHY???"

[Former Nun]

My family likes this show.   Of course, we liked the original, so this is nostalgic fun.  Actually, we appreciate its silliness MORE than most of the recent retreads of TV history.  UncleChuck gets it!

On 6/27/2017 at 6:42 AM, LadyNebula said:

As a severe arachnophobe, the tarantula lady scarred me for life. I was near tears screaming,"Why won't they gong her?  WHY???"

...and then there are those of us who appreciate spiders, insects and reptiles and were fascinated.  What I wondered is WHY the little hairs on the tarantula's legs didn't bother the inside of her mouth.

On 6/24/2017 at 8:42 PM, backformore said:

The couple spitting bananas -  that was the act I would have gonged immediately. 

They were and are hilarious...and stunned that they won!

[Phishbulb]

Noticed something interesting about the production order of the episodes. The first episode that aired (the Will Arnett/Ken Jeong/Zach Galifianakis one) was not the first episode produced.  It is listed as episode 102. Episode 101 apparently had Will with Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston as the other two judges. Wonder why they wouldn't have led off with that one first. 

[mtlchick]

Very happy with tonight's winner as he made me wince in outright pain and as soon as he was done I was like "Cirque De Soleil need to hire him immediately."

[mortonsalt]

4 hours ago, mtlchick said:

Very happy with tonight's winner as he made me wince in outright pain and as soon as he was done I was like "Cirque De Soleil need to hire him immediately."

 

I was pleasantly surprised that the first performer of the night actually went on to win (unless it was taped in a different order). I don't know if I would have went with Uprooted, but I think it was a good choice. I probably would have went with the Hollywood Bug Guys just because I thought they were hilarious even though Carvey was right that their violin playing was a lot better than their singing. I'm just glad the Little Skippers didn't win since Jump Rope Madness was much better than they were, and he didn't win his episode. 

I was surprised that the judges, well at least Anthony Anderson, were so tough though. Like I wasn't a huge fan of Vincent Progress, but I could actually see him doing really well on America's Got Talent because the judges go crazy for those kind of computerized acts. Plus, I did think that it took "talent" to play over recorded drums even if Anderson didn't. I also thought Mushuga Beach Party deserved much higher scores since they were one of the few acts of the night that actually had real talent.

I also thought he was too quick to gong some acts. Maybe it's because I'm a cat person, but like Dana Carvey, I found Nana the Cat Lady's song to be very catchy. I also thought that Chops was cute. I mean yes once the novelty of someone using a puppet to beat a small drum sets wears off, I could sort of see why it was gong worthy. However, I certainly was more entertained by Chops than by Razors the Clown and Bearlesque. 

[Phishbulb]

Yeah, going by the way the first two episodes went, I figured that the Hollywood Bug Guys would win because the first two winners were "novelty" acts like that that were audience pleasing and silly- Married with Bananas and the zombie ballerinas. I probably would have voted for the bug guys to win too. The guy that did win was talented but his act wasn't as funny. 

Edited July 7, 2017 by Phishbulb

[Tammee]

Blah.  The guitar guys were the shit!

[Robert Lynch]

Is Anderson ill? He looks terrible here. Looks like he lost more weight. Or it must be the camera...

[Browncoat]

Okay, I've watched about 2.5 episodes, and I think I'm done.  It seems like it's trying too hard to be wacky and zany like the original.  And yes, the original was wacky and zany, but it seemed more naturally so.  Mike Meyers appears to be channeling Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire with a bit of Benny Hill thrown in the mix.  Granted, Chuck was likely completely wasted for every episode, but he at least had a bit of variety to his shtick.  Mike Meyers is a bit of a one-trick-pony.

The acts themselves are pretty typical Gong Show, but just as we didn't have Gene Gene or the Unknown Comic on every single episode, we don't need the Shaving Cream song every episode, especially since they leave out my favorite verse!  (The baby fell out of the window.  We thought that his head would be split.  But good luck was with us that morning, he fell in a barrel of shaving cream...)

I did love the Zombie Ballet, and I really liked the bagpipe playing, unicycle riding gorilla.  I liked the bug guys, too -- I guess I haven't gotten to the eventual winner yet.

ETA: It would be about 1000% better if they could keep the cameras on the acts more and less on Mike and the judges (and the audience for that matter).  I'd much rather see the acts than all of their facial expressions.

Edited July 13, 2017 by Browncoat

[LoneHaranguer]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

The acts themselves are pretty typical Gong Show, but just as we didn't have Gene Gene or the Unknown Comic on every single episode, we don't need the Shaving Cream song every episode, especially since they leave out my favorite verse!  (The baby fell out of the window.  We thought that his head would be split.  But good luck was with us that morning, he fell in a barrel of shaving cream...)

That's my favorite verse too, although I know it aa "her " in place of "his" and "us" and "she" rather than "he"; there are multiple versions Just adding together the verses from the original, Benny Bell's followup, and those of Dr. Demento would let them do something different every week. If they're trying to save money on rights, I'm sure they could come up with some original lyrics in the same style.

[Phishbulb]

This was the first time I wildly disagreed with their choice of winner. I mean, the people who won were OK, but the Scottish guys were much more entertaining, and there were many other acts that would have even been better choices (the butts with faces, the yo-yo guy, the basketball unicycle guys, even the girl who limboed under fire). In fact this was probably the most talented actual group of performers in any episode so far, so no idea why they picked such a boring act as the winner.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Phishbulb

[ganesh]

On 6/26/2017 at 10:26 PM, UncleChuck said:

Funny thing is...for those of us that remember the original "Gong Show"...Chuck Barris was equally as bizarre--perhaps even more so!

Forget the "talent" or the competition for winning.  This show is not about anything except the pursuit of foolishness.

I'm on episode 1, but I agree. It's not nearly as WTF as the original. I watched as a kid, but I've caught some episodes on you tube and I'm in tears most of the time. The original had some talented acts, but the acts themselves were so bizarre, and I think that's what they're missing. 

I think the judges are too mainstream actually. And they're not there to actually *judge*. The camera cut to them way too much. 

I was really, really hoping the banana married people were going to do the homage to the banana act on TOS. 

I wonder if the show is better at a half hour. 

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, ganesh said:

I wonder if the show is better at a half hour. 

I think so.  An hour is just too long -- and I'm DVRing it and skipping commercials.

 

On 7/14/2017 at 10:52 AM, Phishbulb said:

In fact this was probably the most talented actual group of performers in any episode so far, so no idea why they picked such a boring act as the winner.

In a word (or two words), Dueling Banjos.  After your post, I was compelled to watch the most recent one, and I agree on the Scottish guys -- they were great.  Tommy Smothers was a better yo-yo guy, though, and the fire skater really just had the one thing.  The butt singers were a nice gimmick, but I didn't think they were nearly as good as the cloggers.  I do wish they'd been able to gong the hot dogs and applesauce guy, though.

[Phishbulb]

This seemed to be the least number of people gonged in an episode so far. Unless I'm forgetting somebody, they only gonged two acts? One of which they shouldn't have (the live-action Street Fighter guys, who were good). Guess these judges were just a nicer group, especially compared to Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross who were really tough on everybody.

[mortonsalt]

2 hours ago, Phishbulb said:

This seemed to be the least number of people gonged in an episode so far. Unless I'm forgetting somebody, they only gonged two acts? One of which they shouldn't have (the live-action Street Fighter guys, who were good). Guess these judges were just a nicer group, especially compared to Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross who were really tough on everybody.

Yes, I wouldn't have gonged the Street Fighter guys, but I would have definitely gonged more than two acts especially the campy comedian with the knock-knock jokes. 

I thought it was pretty neat though that they got a guy that won the original show three times to come back. I felt a little bit bad that he didn't win this time, but I would have went with Zeidwig too. 

[LoneHaranguer]

On 7/15/2017 at 8:38 PM, Browncoat said:

In a word (or two words), Dueling Banjos.

There was also the 16 yo girl. Having a cute kid in the act helps on other talent shows too.

[MortysCleaningLady]

I don't know why I keep watching.   I fastforwarded through the nausea inducing woman speed eating cottage cheese (trying not to gag just thinking about it) and she won?  Apparently talent is not needed -- at all.....

[ganesh]

No, it's not. That was the point of the original show. There were only a few acts that were actually good. It's supposed to be bizarre. 

[Thrifty]

I like this show.  It's just so silly.  I can't get enough.  And I'm only 36 so I don't make comparisons to the original version.

[mtlchick]

4 way tie for 30?  Eh.  At least I was happy with the winners.  The girl was giving me nausea with her spinning but that drawing was pretty impressive.

[Machiabelly]

I did not like Chesley Handler as a judge. And I hated the snake man act. He would have been gonged early if it was me in charge.

[LoneHaranguer]

I didn't think the woman who switched between Miley and yodeling was bad enough to be gonged, especially on an episode with such generous scoring. Not that she had any chance of winning; she was only a mediocre singer and didn't meld the two well. Maybe she should have just yodeled Miley's song.

[Phishbulb]

On 7/5/2017 at 4:58 PM, Phishbulb said:

Noticed something interesting about the production order of the episodes. The first episode that aired (the Will Arnett/Ken Jeong/Zach Galifianakis one) was not the first episode produced.  It is listed as episode 102. Episode 101 apparently had Will with Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston as the other two judges. Wonder why they wouldn't have led off with that one first. 

There's no episode scheduled this week (because of a Princess Di special running on ABC on Thursday), but the good news is that next week it looks like this mysterious episode 101 will be airing on Monday night (with another episode scheduled on Thursday night as usual). So we get two episodes next week.

[LoneHaranguer]

On 7/5/2017 at 4:58 PM, Phishbulb said:

Episode 101 apparently had Will with Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston as the other two judges. Wonder why they wouldn't have led off with that one first. 

Now that they've run it, I think the answer is clear. Ouch. Even Albert (Shaving Cream guy) had an off night.

[Phishbulb]

1 hour ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Now that they've run it, I think the answer is clear. Ouch. Even Albert (Shaving Cream guy) had an off night.

I didn't think it was that bad of an episode, Jack Black was a little gong-happy but most of the acts were fun. Though it was weird that the winner of this episode was a speed painter and so was the woman who won in the last episode. If they had shown them in the correct order this wouldn't have happened.

Really, the only way you could tell this was the first episode recorded was that Myers gave Albert a little more of an intro than he usually does.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Phishbulb

[iMonrey]

I also noticed the date on the big novelty check was February.

Jack Black was way too gong-happy. I thought the piano duet were actually pretty good - a little cheesy for sure but totally musical-theater geeks with good voices. They did not deserve to get gonged. It's clear who's there just to get gonged. I mean if they were going to gong everyone they should have gonged that stupid dinosaur/stripper person. They don't gong him/her but they gong the nice kids who made up a nice song about going on the Gong Show? Ef you, Jack Black. 

The contortionist was way creepy.

[Mr. Sparkle]

On 8/16/2017 at 7:37 PM, iMonrey said:

I also noticed the date on the big novelty check was February.

I'm just watching it now, for some reason. The date on the check was February 30, 2017. Now I wonder if the rest of the checks have that date. 

[Cowgirl]

I don't know why I have put so much thought into this over the weekend, but Will Arnett really pissed me off every time he was a judge.  He's too gong-happy too. I feel the same about Jack Black, who I usually love.  I also hated Chelsea Handler.  She sneered her way through the whole show and just brought down the fun-factor, big-time.

I just watched the last two episodes on my DVR.  I can't believe they adored cupcake lady and gonged the double whistling girl.  They didn't even take time to listen and learn that she was double-whistling, which takes talent.  

I also agree that they cut to the judges way too much during the acts.  I do like Tommy's little visual gags during the acts though.  I also agree this should be a half-hour show, instead of an hour.

"Tommy" looked uncomfortable when Joel McHale asked him if he was well-known in Europe.

I loved learning about the additional verse to the shaving cream song, from the posters above.  Thanks for that!

ETA:  I loved the contortionist girl!  Yep, she was creepy, but that was a perfect way to style a contortionist act.  She reminded me a bit of the wall-creeping ghost from a horror movie (The Ring?). She was awesome! And more talented than Will Arnett. 

Edited August 21, 2017 by Cowgirl

[LoneHaranguer]

2 hours ago, Cowgirl said:

 I loved the contortionist girl!  Yep, she was creepy, but that was a perfect way to style a contortionist act.  She reminded me a bit of the wall-creeping ghost from a horror movie (The Ring?).

I've never seen The Ring, but there's a similar character in The Grudge also. I think she has the right idea going creepy. Outside of horror movies, I'm not sure there's anything but magic acts as a job for a contortionist.

[iMonrey]

It's like feast or famine with these judges - one week they gong almost everyone and the next week they hardly gong anyone. It's just so damn random it kind of annoys me, because there are some acts that are clearly put on stage just to be gonged, like the guy in the owl mask or the tiny head guy. Some of the acts are legitimately interesting if a bit weird, like the puppet show skater, but they gong that one then let the guy playing "Crazy" on his ukulele finish. Go figure. I really liked that dancing stick figure and the kids playing Trump and Pence were cute. I thought the weird Mike band should have been gonged too. 

The Shaving Cream sing-a-long is stupid too. But . . . some of the acts on this show are actually kind of fun to watch.

[Cowgirl]

I would have gonged the weird Mike band too! I agree too that the judging gongs seem to be feast or famine. @LoneHaranguer, I bet you're right and it was The Grudge, not the Ring.  I'm behind on all my horror-movie watching since I started living alone. I love 'em but can't watch 'em alone, or go home alone!