History YMMV / TheGongShow

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The music played whenever Gene Gene the Dancing Machine made it onstage, a highly energetic combination of Count Basie's "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "One O'Clock Jump".

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The music played whenever Gene Gene the Dancing Machine made it onstage, a highly energetic combination of Count Basie's "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "One O'Clock Jump".

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Gene-Gene the Dancing Machine.
* OlderThanTheyThink: The announcement that Creator/MikeMyers will host the ABC version [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/abcs-gong-show-reboot-taps-one-very-interesting-host-998339 as the fictitious British TV host]] "Tommy Maitland" may have shades of Creator/StephenColbert's character from ''Series/TheColbertReport'', but in the game show world, it dates back to 2001, when the computer game ''VideoGame/YouDontKnowJack'' was briefly turned into a primetime game show on ABC; there, Creator/PaulReubens hosted as "Troy Stevens".

* DudeNotFunny[=/=]TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''Extreme Gong'' removed the judges in favor of viewer phone calls (the show aired live with repeats censoring the phone numbers with a message basically saying "Please don't call, this is a repeat."), had a shoddy basement-like set, was generally crass, and took potshots at both alt.tv.game-shows (ATGS, a then-popular game show newsgroup) and the original ''Gong Show''. The potshots were seen as the former by said newsgroup for several reasons:

** After the first potshot (George Gray's regular joke of "And what do the losers get?" had the punchline of "They get to hang out with the other losers on alt.tv.game-shows!") in December 1998, said newsgroup [[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.tv.game-shows/m1t7HA1JW6k/gVTdJcNt13kJ didn't take it well.]] One member emailed Satin:
--->''"He somewhat appologized'' [sic] ''and explained that it was just a joke. Claimed he did it because this group is so negative against EG. He said he didn't mean to offend me. Then I watched the show that night and the second dis'' [sic] ''of this group appeared showing he and GSN couldn't care less."''
** Pretty much the last straw was later that month, where "Minnie the Mailbox" ([[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext a midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping Creator/ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of [[GeekPhysiques fat]], [[NoSenseOfHumor humorless]] [[NerdsAreVirgins virgins]] who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get laid by any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Seidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the series for Website/GameShowGarbage in 2012 (over 14 years after said episode aired), felt offended by those remarks.
** Given all of this, the fact that ''Extreme Gong'' got another ''episode'', let alone another '''season''' (albeit a much-improved one), is surprising. Even more surprising is that George Gray not only managed to shake off that trainwreck by hosting the syndication version of ''Series/TheWeakestLink'', but went on to become the announcer of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight''!

** Given all of this, the fact that ''Extreme Gong'' got another ''episode'', let alone another '''season''' (albeit a much-improved one), is surprising. Even more surprising is that George Gray not only managed to shake off that trainwreck by hosting the syndication version of ''Series/TheWeakestLink'', but managed to become the announcer of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight''!

-->''"He somewhat appologized'' [sic] ''and explained that it was just a joke. Claimed he did it because this group is so negative against EG. He said he didn't mean to offend me. Then I watched the show that night and the second dis'' [sic] ''of this group appeared showing he and GSN couldn't care less."''

* DudeNotFunny / TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''Extreme Gong'' removed the judges in favor of viewer phone calls (the show aired live with repeats censoring the phone numbers with a message basically saying "Please don't call, this is a repeat."), had a shoddy basement-like set, was generally crass, and took potshots at both alt.tv.game-shows (ATGS, a then-popular game show newsgroup) and the original ''Gong Show''. The potshots were seen as the former by said newsgroup for several reasons:

** Pretty much the last straw was later that month, where "Minnie the Mailbox" ([[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext a midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping Creator/ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of [[GeekPhysiques fat]], [[NoSenseOfHumor humorless]] [[NerdsAreVirgins virgins]] who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get laid by any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Seidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the series for Website/GameShowGarbage in 2012 (over 14 years after said episode aired), felt offended by those remarks.

** ATGS had, since about the show's debut, been criticizing it for being inferior in pretty much every aspect to the original 1976-80 series and 1988-89 revival, hence the latter half of this header. It didn't help that producer Scott Satin had called the show "excellent" and "superior" on ATGS. (In fairness, the show ''did'' once go out of its way to show the computer which tallied the phone-call votes after someone on ATGS claimed the show was pre-taped and/or didn't consider the telephone votes at all. )
** After the first potshot (George Gray's regular joke of "And what do the losers get?" had the punchline of "They get to hang out with the other losers on alt.tv.game-shows!"), said newsgroup [[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.tv.game-shows/m1t7HA1JW6k/gVTdJcNt13kJ didn't take it well.]] One member emailed Satin:

** Pretty much the last straw was a 1998 episode (possibly the aforementioned "second diss") where [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] (and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping Creator/ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of [[GeekPhysiques fat]], [[NoSenseOfHumor humorless]] [[NerdsAreVirgins virgins]] who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Seidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the series for Website/GameShowGarbage in 2012 (over 14 years after said episode aired), felt offended by those remarks.

** ATGS had, since about the show's debut, been criticizing it for being inferior in pretty much every aspect to the original 1976-80 series and 1988-89 revival, hence the latter half of this header. It didn't help that producer Scott Satin had called the show "excellent" and "superior" on ATGS. (In fairness, the show ''did'' once go out of its way to show the computer which tallied the phone-call votes after someone on ATGS wondered if the results were rigged.)
** After the first potshot (referring to the consolation prize as "hanging out with the other losers on alt.tv.game-shows"), said newsgroup [[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.tv.game-shows/m1t7HA1JW6k/y7grjqdHrDkJ didn't take it well.]] One member emailed Satin:

** Given all of this, the fact that ''Extreme Gong'' got another ''episode'', let alone another '''season''' (albeit a much-improved one), is surprising.

** After the first potshot (referring to the consolation prize as "hanging out with the other losers on alt.tv.game-shows"), said newsgroup [[https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!topic/alt.tv.game-shows/m1t7HA1JW6k didn't take it well.]] One member emailed Satin:

** Pretty much the last straw was a 1998 episode (possibly the aforementioned "second diss") where [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] (and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping Creator/ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of [[GeekPhysiques fat]], [[NoSenseOfHumor humorless]] [[NerdsAreVirgins virgins]] who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Sidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the series for his website Game Show Garbage in 2012 (over 14 years after said episode aired), felt offended by those remarks.

* DudeNotFunny / TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''Extreme Gong''. They removed the judges in favor of viewer phone calls (the show aired live with repeats censoring the phone numbers with a message basically saying "Please don't call, this is a repeat."), had a shoddy basement-like set, was generally crass, and took potshots at both alt.tv.game-shows (ATGS, a then-popular game show newsgroup) and the original ''Gong Show''. The potshots were seen as the former by said newsgroup for several reasons:

-->''"He somewhat appologized'' [sic] ''and explained that it was just a joke. Claimed he did it because this group is so negative against EG. He said he didn't mean to offend me. Then I watched the show that night and the second dis of this group appeared showing he and GSN couldn't care less."''
** Pretty much the last straw was a 1998 episode (possibly the one mentioned above) where [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] (and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping Creator/ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of [[GeekPhysiques fat]], [[NoSenseOfHumor humorless]] [[NerdsAreVirgins virgins]] who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Sidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the series for his website Game Show Garbage in 2012 (over 14 years after said episode aired), felt offended by those remarks.

* DudeNotFunny[=/=]TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''Extreme Gong''. They removed the judges in favor of viewer phone calls (the show aired live with repeats censoring the phone numbers with a message basically saying "Please don't call, this is a repeat."), had a shoddy basement-like set, was generally crass, and took potshots at both alt.tv.game-shows (ATGS, a then-popular game show newsgroup) and the original ''Gong Show''. The potshots were seen as the former by said newsgroup for several reasons:
** ATGS had, since about the show's debut, been criticizing it for being inferior in pretty much every aspect to the original 1976-80 series and 1988-89 revival (hence the latter half of this header). It didn't help that producer Scott Satin had called the show "excellent" and "superior" on ATGS. (In fairness, the show ''did'' once go out of its way to show the computer which tallied the phone-call votes after someone on ATGS wondered if the results were rigged.)

** Pretty much the last straw was [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ATkgP6u3r0 this 1998 episode]] (possibly the one mentioned above) where [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] (and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping Creator/ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of [[GeekPhysiques fat]], [[NoSenseOfHumor humorless]] [[NerdsAreVirgins virgins]] who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Sidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the show for his website Game Show Garbage in 2012, felt offended by those remarks.

** Pretty much the last straw was [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ATkgP6u3r0 this 1998 episode]] (possibly the one mentioned above) where [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] (and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping Creator/ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of fat humorless virgins who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Sidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the show for his website Game Show Garbage in 2012, felt offended by those remarks.

* DudeNotFunny / TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''Extreme Gong''. They removed the judges in favor of viewer phone calls (the show aired live with repeats censoring the phone numbers with a message basically saying "Please don't call, this is a repeat."), had a shoddy basement-like set, was generally crass, and took potshots at both alt.tv.game-shows (ATGS, a then-popular game show newsgroup) and the original ''Gong Show''. The potshots were seen as the former by said newsgroup for several reasons:

** Pretty much the last straw was [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ATkgP6u3r0 this 1998 episode]] (possibly the one mentioned above) where [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] (and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of fat humorless virgins who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Sidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the show for his website Game Show Garbage in 2012, felt offended by those remarks.

** Pretty much the last straw was an episode (possibly the one mentioned above) where [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] (and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast was too tall (name-dropping ChuckBarris, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jamie Farr)...which in turn somehow made '''the whole show''' bad. Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of fat humorless virgins who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get any good-looking women. Cue '''massive''' InternetBackdraft. Even Robert Q. Sidelman, who [[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html inducted]] the show for his website Game Show Garbage in 2012, felt offended by those remarks.

* DudeNotFunny / TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''[[http://www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind130_extremegong.html Extreme Gong]]''. They removed the judges in favor of viewer phone calls (the show aired live with repeats censoring the phone numbers with a message basically saying "Please don't call, this is a repeat."), had a shoddy basement-like set, was generally crass, and took potshots at both alt.tv.game-shows (ATGS, a then-popular game show newsgroup) and the original ''Gong Show''. The potshots were seen as the former by said newsgroup for several reasons:
** ATGS had, since about the show's debut, been criticizing it for being inferior in pretty much every aspect to the original 1976-80 series and 1988-89 revival (hence the latter half of this header). It didn't help that producer Scott Satin had called the show "excellent" and "superior" on ATGS.
** After the first potshot (referring to the consolation prize as "hanging out with the other losers on alt.tv.game-shows"), said newsgroup [[https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!topic/alt.tv.game-shows/m1t7HA1JW6k didn't take it well.]] One member in that topic emailed Satin:

** ...But pretty much the last straw was on an episode (possibly the one mentioned above) where [[ItMakesSenseInContext the midget dressed as a mailbox who read viewer mail]] (and got angry, making pretty much every "short" joke ever) said "Screw the old ''Gong Show''!" because the principal cast of the 1976-80 original was too tall (name-dropping Barris, Morgan, and Farr). Later, as host George Gray talked to the day's eye candy, the two name-dropped ATGS and near-outright called them a bunch of fat humorless virgins who did nothing but sit at their computers all day and were never going to get any good-looking women.
** Given all of this, the fact that ''Extreme Gong'' got another episode, let alone another ''season'' (albeit a much-improved one), is surprising.

* DudeNotFunny: The many potshots at alt.tv.game-shows were seen as this by said newsgroup.

* DudeNotFunny: On one episode of ''Extreme Gong'', George Gray said that the losers "get to hang out with the other losers at alt.tv.game-shows", a then-popular game show-themed newsgroup. Said newsgroup did not take it well.

* MomentOfAwesome: Any act that got a perfect score obviously qualifies here.
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* DethroningMomentOfSuck: On one episode of ''Extreme Gong'', Gray said that the losers "get to hang out with the other losers at alt.tv.game-shows", a then-popular game show-themed newsgroup. Said newsgroup [[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.tv.game-shows/browse_thread/thread/9b5b7b1c0d495ba9/e0d2d36d0050ee1d?hl=en&q=%22extreme+gong%22+group:alt.tv.game-shows# did not take it well.]]