"The World's Toughest Competition in Town!"This American gag dub version of the wacky Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle is now called simply MXC. It changes the premise of the show, in that contestants are now trying to score points for their team, instead of competing as individuals.The opposing "teams" (after which the episodes are named) are taken from industries or societal subdivisions, such as "Unemployed vs. Environmentalists" or "Fast Food Workers vs. Aerospace Industry". Whatever groups are involved, rest assured the hosts will have plenty of fun at the teams' expense.There are typically four challenges but can be as many as six on occasion, and about a dozen people attempt each challenge. Any contestant who successfully navigates the challenge scores one point for his or her team. At the end of the show, maybe five points have been scored. This should give you an idea where most of the show's humor comes from. The rest of the humor comes from the massive avalanche of jokes the wisecracking hosts make.
Brick Joke: Any contestant previously seen in one game that is seen again in another game.
Calvinball: Some examples include the Educators being behind 3 to 1 with the final round being worth 3 points (Even though the score is all tied up 2 to 2), the scoring for the first round in the "Romance Industry vs. Firearm Industry" episode has every person who succeeds in Great Holes of Glory recieves a point for respective teams, and the scoring for Buck off in "The White House Vs. The World" where shooting down the bat is worth 1 point and managing to go the distance, but not bringing down said bat down without getting Bucked off is worth 0.5 points (and getting sprayed by Herbie).
Catch Phrase: Captain Tenneal's "Well, you're WRONG!" and "LET'S GO!"; the end-of-episode "DON'T! GET! ELIMINATED!"; Guy LeDouche calling the captain "Skipper", and saying "Gee like" whenever he's aroused, which is all the time; Vic Romano's "Right you are, Ken" whenever Kenny Blankenship has made an insightful observation, and "Indeed".
"KENNY!" (Naturally this often follows with Vic slapping Kenny with his paper fan)
How about every time someone falls over, Vic shouts "OH!" and then usually makes a comment
Captain Tenneal's "Get it on!" as a challenge gets underway.
"Ooh, Gee like!"
Clumsy Copyright Censorship: Due to some of the costumes used, the "Real Monsters vs. Commercial Mascots" episode was subject to this for the Season Two DVD release — more than half of the episode was dropped and graphics covered other segments (Which is also part of the reason why the episode is not available for download on iTunes). This didn't apply to reruns on Spike TV, though.
The Cynic: Captain Tenneal during his questions to the contestants. A very chipper one at that. Case in point:
Captain Tenneal: How many of you think high quality health care should be made available to everybody, regardless of income and ability to pay? Show of hands.
Everyone:(Raises hands) Yeah!
Captain Tenneal: You're all wrong. Rich people stay healthy. Poor people get sick and die. That's natural selection.
Dark and Troubled Past: Naturally, played for humor: Vic Romano is a recovering alcoholic; he used to be a network news anchor until his drinking problem derailed his career. He also has three ex-wives, and in "The Amusement Park Industry vs. the World's Oldest Profession", it's revealed he was once a gigolo.
Eagleland: In the Former Olympians episode, the United States is pitted against the rest of the world. The voice over and commentator constantly played up the USA's superiority over the competition; it was billed as "the classic battle between the best versus the rest!".
Embedded Precursor: The DVDs include a few original, unedited episodes of Takeshi's Castle with forced proper English subtitles.
Epic Fail: The "Squeeze Out the Vote" episode ended with all zeroes. Vic noted this with "Just like in politics, nobody wins."
Fast-Forward Gag: Used many an episode for editing purposes only.
Fictional Political Party: The afromentioned season 3 episode had the majority of the "third party" names made-up, including the Brown Party, the S&M Party, the Wiccan Party, and GILF (all of which failed to score points on the board).
Fun with Acronyms: A season 5 episode has a Brass Balls Contestant who is the President of STEPA which (According to Vic) stands for Sexy Teens for the Ethenical Punishment of Animals.
Gag Dub - Even though the dub retains the on screen Japanese text and hides the fact that almost all of the competitors are Asian.
Grimy Water: A rare non-video game example. The bodies of brown water that the contestants often fall into are always given disgusting sources, such as runoff from the Tijuana Zoo. Additionally, the water is always referred to as "safety sludge", "septic sludge", "safety fluid", or even "the pool of stools" .
Kenny:[on a female contestant wearing elbow pads] Not only that Vic, she's weaing elbow pads; you know what they say about a girl in elbow pads...
Vic: I think you're thinking of knee pads, Kenny.
Kenny: Oh that'd be sick.
Name's the Same: There have been two versions of the "Slippery Slope of Slanted Death".
Naughty by Night: Parodied by Kenny who would use the word "Super".
Kenny: Captain Armenia: By day, he's a cab driver; by night, He's a super cab driver.
Once an Episode: There's always one contestant with a Middle Eastern background named "(something) Babaganoush".
Panty Shot: Expect an extreme close-up whenever one occurs.
And always initiated by Kenny. Sometimes subverted though, in that when Vic thinks Kenny is going for a panty shot, he actually focusing on something else.
Vic: Ken, you can't use the Impact Replay to look at underwear!
Parody Names: All over the place, and often combined with the Punny Name; most notably contestants from teams drawn from Popular Culture.
Product Placement: Occasionally, the MXC Impact Replay segments would have brand names attached to them (this was not applied to the DVD releases).
During the "Almost Live" special, which wasn't released on DVD, all of the participants' helmets were marked with the McDonald's logo.
Rapid-Fire Comedy: The commentators almost never let up. Between the on-screen action and the running commentary, you're bound to miss half the jokes the first time you see an episode, which makes for good repeat viewing.
Sickening Crunch: Played for laughs, normally to sell what the announcers tell the audience about the obstacles. For instance, someone being run down by an obviously-styrofoam rock will be accompanied with bone-crunching sound effects and screams.
Strawman Political: Captain Tenneal, whose opening conversation with the players often delves into conservative parody. Unusually for this trope, he's still portrayed as very likable.
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