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Series / Sponk!

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Sponk! is a Panel Game show that premiered in September 2001 on Noggin. It can be basically summed up as a kid-friendly take on Whose Line Is It Anyway?. It was produced by Sesame Workshop, which co-owned the Noggin channel at the time.

Hosted by Johnathan McClain, the show pit a group of teenagers into a red and blue team, who would perform improvisational sketches against a 1-minute time limit. The ideas for the sketches would be submitted by the home audience through Noggin's website, which would be randomly picked by the show's mascot and announcer, SID (voiced by Karen Fowler). The Studio Audience participated as judges for the sketches, voting for a specific team using a side of their "Spaddle"; they could also yell "SPONK!" to disqualify a contestant. The winner would receive the Sponk Trophy, a golden rubber turkey.

The show's cast includes Julia Kay, Tim Dorsch, Scott Irby-Rainnar, Lori Wells, Miles Thompson, Allie Berdebes, Vanessa Lengies, and Louie Torrellas.

Sadly, the show has been basically buried from existence, without any recent acknowledgements from Sesame or Viacom. From 2002 to 2004, the show was only rerun during nighttime hours on Noggin's teen block, The N. As such, for the longest time, trying to find episodes of the show was about as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. It wouldn't be until 2018, nearly 15 years since the show's last airing, that at least five to six episodes would resurface online; you can see them here.


Game Show Tropes in use:

  • Personnel:
    • The Announcer: Karen Fowler as SID, the show's mascot who'd randomly select submitted sketches.
    • Game Show Host: Johnathan McClain.
    • Studio Audience: A unique aspect was that the audience chose which team would win the round.

Sponk! features the following tropes:

  • Official Fan-Submitted Contentinvoked: The sketches and/or ideas the actors would have to perform were created and submitted online through Noggin's website. Winning sketches would net submitters prizes such as a CD player.


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